‘Types’ of Christian responses to Islam

Two conferences

In the big top at a large Christian conference in the noughties, the speaker is receiving a standing ovation. His talk has covered not just the basics of Islam but also the glories of the British Empire and the dangers of Islamism (political Islam). Christians need to be aware that there is a Muslim conspiracy in the UK to subvert the political system. ‘They’ are taking over. A vicar from a multiethnic neighbourhood comes to the microphone to ask a question. ‘Isn’t the speaker in danger of causing hatred and stirring racial tension?’. Members of the middle-class Christian audience of over a thousand start booing and telling the questioner to sit down. This is an extraordinary scene for a Christian audience. This is a deep-rooted, visceral response. Fear is out of the bag. ‘The Muslims are coming to get us. We have to mobilize and prepare to fight back.’ That sentiment clearly still exists in the populism of today.

At another Christian conference, shortly after the terrible bombings of the London transport system on 7th July 2005 (7/7), a Christian teacher tells her story. She knew one of the terrorists who took part in the second wave of bombings on 21st July, which was mercifully unsuccessful. She recalled how he had come to her school as a young, traumatised boy of 11 fleeing the war in Somalia, speaking no English and knowing nobody. According to her story, no-one befriended him, and he was lonely and miserable – until as a teenager he was drawn into a group of radical Muslims. She did not believe he knew anything much about Islam but ended up as a suicide bomber because he had finally found acceptance and a cause. How different it might have been, she pondered, if some Christian young people had befriended him.

These two stories illustrate two very different responses to Muslims arriving in our country. Are they a threat, the enemy to be repelled? Or are they people with needs to be welcomed, loved and cared? The answer is inevitably complicated and not susceptible of a simple answer, but these responses do illustrate the spectrum of Christian responses to Islam.

Typologies

Various descriptions have been proposed for the different responses Christians have towards Islam and Muslims.[1] These include:

Confrontational v Conciliatory[2]

Islam-antagonistic v Islam-friendly[3]

Crusader v Missionary[4]

Closed v Open[5]

Christians described by the left-hand label of these pairs (or ‘dyads’) tend to engage in polemic debate, refrain from befriending Muslims and see Islam as monolithic. Christians at the opposite end of the spectrum often favour dialogue with Muslims, engage in peacemaking and see Islam and Muslims as being very diverse.

The world is not black and white, and these poles are simplistic positions which are obviously moderated by other considerations. For example, some Christians (from either pole) focus almost exclusively on an evangelistic approach. They see it as imperative that Muslims become Christians (either through debate or dialogue) whether or not people live together peacefully. Others focus solely on co-existence and community cohesion. They feel it is essential that everyone seeks the common good and might see conversion as unhelpfully upsetting the equilibrium. Again, some people (from either pole) are more driven by ideology: ‘This is what our/their text says’; ‘We are a Christian nation’; ‘Religion is peace’. Others are more pragmatic: ‘The texts may state an ideal but we live in the real world’; ‘Our country has never been truly Christian’; ‘Religion does not always lead to peace’; ‘We live in a messy plurality.’

Sociologists call these sorts of categories ‘typologies’. We recognise a certain ‘type’ of person or a response that is ‘typical’. That does not give us license to ‘stereotype’ and label people, without allowing for change and variation. But typologies are a useful shorthand that helps us in our thinking and discussion.

Underlying causes

While typologies and models are useful descriptive labels, what is more important is to consider why these positions have developed and how the attitudes have formed among different Christians. The various spectra above reflect ideas and opinions not only about Islam and Muslims but also other important factors such as geography, social context, politics, experience, traditions (see Blogs #4&#5) and theology (see Blog #6). We will touch on these different factors briefly here, but more details and examples can be found in Ch.2 of my book.

Geography

It goes without saying that Christian-Muslim relations in regions, countries and cities around the world vary depending on the history, current events and the balance of power in those locations. For instance, some of the CMCS Houston online students are living in northern Nigeria, where Boko Haram often kills Christians as well as other Muslims. This is not the same as the experiences of Christians living peacefully alongside Muslims in Ghana, where two of our Summer School alumni at our sister centre, The Sanneh Institute, have initiated residential ‘Scripture Sharing’ sessions. Or again, the Taliban’s harsh application of the Shari‘a creates a very different climate for Christians (especially converts) in Afghanistan, from that in Indonesia where Nahdlatul Ulama, reputedly the largest Muslim organization in the world, is developing its own version of what it calls ‘humanitarian Islam’.[6]

These geographical variations also differ over time. The historical harmony between Christians and Muslims in places such as Syria and Ethiopia has given way more recently to suspicion, segregation and even open conflict.[7] The ancient Christian community in Iraq, having lived alongside Muslims for centuries, was decimated by war, economic upheaval and communal reprisals following the Second Gulf War and subsequent brutal persecution under ISIS. Today it stands at maybe just 10% of its size at the turn of the millennium.[8]

Social context

One might think that a multicultural, inner-city context would produce a lot more tension between Christians and Muslims than a monocultural rural village. However, in my experience, I have encountered some of the most deep-seated, xenophobic, fearful views of Muslims in small rural churches where the congregation never meets Muslims at all. That is not to say that there are no tensions between, for instance, South Asian and white working-class communities in the inner cities of northern England. However, very often Christians in those places have met Muslims and know that not all Muslims are like the stereotypes promoted amongst nationalists. Lack of exposure can breed mistrust and fear. As can lack of education. Those who have engaged highly-educated Muslims in western academic contexts, for instance, may have a very different view of Islam to those who have only encountered Muslims living in isolated, traditional, monoethnic communities where education is limited.

Experience

This question of encounter and experience is very important in Christian responses to Islam. To state the obvious, those who have had bad experiences of Muslims in the past tend to have negative responses to Muslims more generally and often see Islam as a monolith. Those who have had good interactions with Muslims in the past tend to be more open to Muslims and see the diversity in Islam. These experiences might range from a scary, negative encounter with an angry Muslim crowd to delightful Muslim neighbours who brought gifts of food at the time of Eid. (The same, of course, is inevitably true of Muslim experiences of Christians.) Negative experiences might be particularly acute for those who are converts to Christianity from a Muslim background. Those who report suffering at the hands of their former co-religionists tend to a more negative response. In fact, in the American context, Thomas Kidd reports that it is often converts who provide “the inflammatory characterizations of Islam”.[9] Those who have not had such negative experiences, such as John Azumah, a Ghanaian convert from Islam and one of the speakers on the online course, are often more irenic (peaceful) in their approach to Muslims, although they might still critique Islam.

Politics

Finally in this blog, the political views of Christians clearly have a significant impact on their responses to Islam and Muslims. The political domain is a classic example of a polarised spectrum of opinions extending from ‘right’ to ‘left’:

The right is associated with conservative values, maintaining traditions and preserving institutions. The left meanwhile favours liberal values, progressive reform and breaking down hierarchies. While Muslim politicians may be found on both sides, of course, and individual Christians of either persuasion may be more or less open in their views of Muslims, there tends to be more angst about Islam among those on the right than among those on the left, especially for those with strong nationalist or patriotic feelings.[10]

This polarisation has more recently been heightened by the rise in populism around the world. Some Christians on the right, especially in the USA and even in Britain, have begun to advocate for Christian nationalism, which favours a privileged place for Christianity in public life, influencing law-making and political decisions. It is particularly critical of Islam and Muslim communities, seeing them as ‘the enemy within’. In its more extreme forms this sort of nationalism can easily morph into far-right direct action and violence.[11] In response, the left-wing, including Christians of that disposition, may edge more towards an uncritical approval of Islam and a disavowal of a role for Christian principles in public life.

As with all polarisation, extreme positions are unhelpful. Most Christians will display a mixture of motivations and causes. So, it is important not to ‘pigeonhole’ or stereotype. Still, types are a useful tool for understanding social interactions and later blogs in this series will highlight and further unpack these tendencies, starting with the Roman Catholic and Orthodox traditions in the next blog.

[1] See McCallum, R. 2024. Evangelical Christian Responses to Islam: A Contemporary Overview, London, Bloomsbury, p33-4.

[2] Bennett, C. 2008. Understanding Christian-Muslim Relations: past and present, London, Continuum.

[3] Accad, M. 2011. Mission at the Intersection of Religion and Empire. International Journal of Frontier Missiology, 28, 179-189.

[4] Smith, G. 2018. Evangelicals and the Encounter with Islam: changing Christian identity in multi-faith Britain. Entangled Religions, 5, 154–209.

[5] Runnymede Trust. 1997. Islamophobia: a challenge for us all. London: Commission on British Muslims and Islamophobia.

[6] Gerakan Pemuda Ansor 2017. ‘Declaration on Humanitarian Islam: Towards the Recontextualization of Islamic Teachings, for the Sake of World Peace and Harmony Between Civilizations’. Gerakan Pemuda Ansor.

[7] Jeffrey, J. 2019. Why are Ethiopia’s churches under attack? [Online]. New African. Available: https://newafricanmagazine.com/20840/ [Accessed 29 November 2022].

[8] ‘Christians in Iraq: From 1.5 million in 2003 to 150,000 today’, European Centre for Law & Justice, 2024.

[9] Kidd, T. 2009. American Christians and Islam: evangelical culture and Muslims from the colonial period to the age of terrorism, Princeton, NJ, Princeton University Press, 147.

[10] McCallum, R. 2024. Evangelical Christian Responses to Islam: A Contemporary Overview, London, Bloomsbury, 38.

[11] See for examples Paynter, H. & Power, M. (eds.) 2024. The Church, The Far Right, and The Claim to Christianity: SCM Press.