More on the Idol of Ecumenism
April 15, 2011
ALAN ROEBUCK writes:
Peter S. desires to counter the demonization of Muslims and Islam. But this demonization is at most a peripheral point. The basic problem with Peter S.’s essay is that he fails to acknowledge that Islam is both a false religion and a comprehensive sociopolitical threat. That being so, he is most concerned that we treat Muslims fairly, even if it means that we lower our guard against their manifest threat.
I repeat the key point: Islam is not just a false religion (such as Jehovah’s Witness-ism or Scientology) that leads men away from trusting in the real Jesus Christ (the one revealed in the Bible) for the forgiveness of their sins. It is that, but it is more. Islam is more akin to Communism in that it not only claims to tell men about ultimate reality but also wants to force the entire world to live under its dictates. And as history shows clearly, Muslims intend to carry out their threat, a threat Peter S. attempts to whitewash.
It is particularly offensive for Peter S. to quote Catholic teaching that appears partially to legitimize Islam. 1 John 4:2,3 reads:
By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ [i.e., the Messiah] has come in the flesh is from God; and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God; this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world. [NASB]
Islam denies that Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah therefore, according to Scripture, it is not from God.
The rest of Peter S.’s invalid evaluation of Islam follows from the twin basic errors of failing to see Islam as opposing Christianity and of failing to acknowledge the Islamic threat to the West.
Pointing to charitable acts by Muslims and to episodes of amity between Muslims and non-Muslims do not invalidate the big picture. Islam is, overall, a threat, and men must take steps to defend themselves from the threat. Trying to be nice to a people in the hope that they will stop being a threat is not a good strategy.
Judging by the books he references Peter S. is quite knowledgeable of the vast literature of Western-Islamic interaction. But a failure to acknowledge a fundamental point can render moot even the most detailed scholarship. Knowing about Islam is one thing, but acknowledging its threat is something else altogether. One need not be a scholar to recognize the threat.
