An Introduction to Christian Responses to Islam
To mark the publication of my book in paperback (August 2025) I am writing a series of blogs on the theme of Christian Responses to Islam which appear on the Centre for Muslim-Christian Studies Oxford website. They are broader than the book in that they include responses from non-evangelical and non-Protestant denominations wherever possible. It is based on three things. Firstly, an online module on ‘Christian Responses to Islam’, which I taught for our sister centre, CMCS Houston, in Spring 2025. Secondly, my book Evangelical Christian Responses to Islam: a contemporary overview published by Bloomsbury in Feb 2024 and now available in paperback! Finally, it is based on current events in Christian-Muslim relations. A lot has happened since I finished writing my book in early 2023, including the murderous Hamas attack on Israel in October 2023 and the catastrophic war that Israel unleashed on Gaza in response.[1] Whilst not in the first instance a Christian-Muslim conflict, Christians’ responses to the violence are very important for their relations with Muslims. There are some Christians who believe that the Hamas violence represents ‘true Islam’, as they see all Muslims as being anti-Jewish and these Christians implicitly or explicitly support Israel’s destruction of Gaza. Meanwhile, Muslims everywhere are appalled by the suffering of innocent Palestinian civilians and are outraged that the global community, including nations that they see as being ‘Christian’, has not condemned Israeli actions and brought the slaughter to a halt. Many Christians, of course, share this sense of outrage. These sorts of polarised views are not new and are not limited to the Israel-Palestine context.
From the Iranian Revolution to 9/11
When I first visited the Arab world as a student in 1984, few in the West were particularly interested in Muslims or concerned about Islam. Certainly, the Iranian Revolution in 1979 and the establishment of Ayatollah Khomeini’s theocratic regime were talking points but Iran, for most, was a long way away. As the Lebanese Civil War raged (1975-90) and a death fatwa was placed on Salman Rushdie in 1989 for his writing of the Satanic Verses, awareness of Islam began to grow, especially in the UK as Muslims burned copies of that book in northern English cities. Then, with the fall of the Berlin Wall, also in 1989, some Christian apocalyptic writing began to associate the financial power of Arab oil with Muslim armies fighting against the newly established state of Israel alongside communist Soviet armies.[2] However, it was the events of 11th September 2001 (9/11) which triggered an avalanche of writing and comment on Islam, including from Christians.
At the time, my family and I were living in Tunis, North Africa. I remember watching the dreadful events unfold and discussing them with Tunisian Muslim colleagues. They were horrified too. Whilst they knew that the perpetrators were Muslims, their instinctive response was that ‘this is nothing to do with Islam’ – or at least not Islam as they understood and practised it. Their sympathy was palpable. ‘We are so sorry. This should never have happened’.
A couple of years later, revisiting the country, their attitudes had changed. ‘The West talks about democracy and human rights but look at Afghanistan and Iraq. Look at Abu Ghraib Prison and Guantanamo. ‘(“Christian”) Western leaders are hypocrites! You had this coming to you’. What had happened?
Polarisation
A particular group of ‘Muslims’ had used extreme violence to further their cause. And a particular group of ‘Christians’ had used extreme violence in their response. The inevitable result was polarisation, fear, animosity and even hatred amongst many Christians, Muslims and, of course, others. There are now those, including many Christians (and some Muslims), who insist that the 9/11 terrorists represented ‘true Muslims’ and ‘real Islam’. And there are those, including many Muslims (and others), who believe that the Western response, comprising war, torture and conquest, represents ‘real Christians’ and ‘true Christianity’.
Could the responses have been different? What would have happened if powerful nations, instead of responding to 9/11 with ‘shock and awe’, had first sought to understand the contexts and causes of the violence and had talked with the majority-Muslim nations which had also experienced such terrorist attacks? What would have happened if, instead of popular sentiment scapegoating Muslim communities in the West and Christian communities in the Middle East, people had talked together and looked for strategies to educate people?
We shall, of course, never know. What is certain is that there will be some shouting at the screen right now, saying ‘Yes we do know’! ‘This is what Islam is really like’ or ‘the Christian West has always sought to colonise and dominate’. Others will be saying, ‘Yes we do know. Our religions are essentially peaceful. We could have avoided the violence.’
Both answers are insufficient. These are hugely complex issues and simple reductionist, or ‘essentialist’, answers are never adequate.
Moving on from 9/11 and 7/7
For the decade following 9/11, this polarisation continued and there was a deluge of publishing, comment and debate centred on Islam, especially in the West. However, as one guest speaker noted on the online course which I taught, whilst the debate around Islam dominated the first decade of the new millennium, the debate moved on during the second decade in response to the increasing power of China, the rise in populism and the election of Donald Trump to his first term in the USA.[3] However, halfway through the third decade and despite the war in Ukraine, with the subsequent strain placed on European identity and defence, Islam is never far from the news cycle. China is brutally suppressing its Muslim Uyghur population; populist politicians put the blame for their country’s woes on migrants, chief amongst whom are Muslims; and Trump himself at times bans Muslims from entry to the USA and at others seeks to suborn Arab states to his own agenda for the Middle East. Against this backdrop, Christian responses to Islam continue to be an important conversation, generating strong feelings and entrenched positions.
Series overview
This series will look at the types of responses within different Christian traditions and their causes, ranging from the political to the geographical. Whilst many of my examples will be drawn from the UK context, I will try to make the blogs globally relevant. They will look at the various Christian reactions to theological, historical and societal issues including contentious questions for Christians such as jihad, apostasy and, of course, Israel-Palestine. It will also discuss the degree to which some Christians want to evangelise Muslims whilst others simply want to dialogue and coexist. Amongst those who engage in evangelism, it explores current tensions between those who advocate eirenic (peaceful) apologetics and those who want to debate Muslims polemically. The series also touches on the vexed issues of ‘contextualisation’, the ‘Insider Movement’ and the accusation of ‘Chrislam’ within the Christian mission community. And all these take place within the ‘Christian public sphere’, the space for communication and discussion which is created by publishing, conferences, social media and the internet.
Each blog will have links to a chapter in my book and to short video summaries on my Youtube channel and my website.[4] (If you want to buy my book use this voucher). There will also be a few footnotes giving references to back up my examples – especially where these are not in my book, since the book focuses exclusively on evangelical Christians whereas these blogs will seek to describe the broader traditions within the worldwide Christian community.
But, first, in next week’s blog we will look at the controversial, hot button issue of how Christians respond to Muhammad, the prophet of Islam. Who do you say Muhammad was?
[1] See the CMCSO Hikmah Guide to Christians, Muslims, Jews and The Land.
[2] See for instance, Walvoord, J. 1990. Armageddon, Oil and the Middle East Crisis: what the Bible says about the future of the Middle East and the end of civilization, Grand Rapids, MI, Zondervan and Lindsey, H. 1999. From Daniel to Doomsday, Nashville, TN, Nelson Books
[3] Dr Peter Riddell, an Australian Christian academic and Professor Emeritus of the London School of Theology
[4] My website, www.christianresponsestoislam.com, has short summaries of each chapter of my book, links to the YouTube videos and a database of (almost) all the books about Islam published by evangelical Christians in the C21st.