By now, attempting to enumerate the number of outlandish things Donald Trump has said on the campaign trail, is like trying to count the number of white rappers in Minneapolis — we have a rough estimate, but they are so numerous, it would be impossible to come up with an exact figure.
In the past few months, presidential candidate Donald Trump has said many, many things to shock our collective conscience. He’s berated Mexicans, women, the differently-abled, the smart, the not-so-smart, and some lighting and AV guys who just want to do their jobs.
But, in recent weeks, Trump set his sights on bigger targets, moving from individuals and groups, to institutions, philosophies and religions.
In fact, Trump declared war with all of Islam, the American Right’s favorite target, when he said, “Islam hates us.” The entire religion, it’s godhead, and it’s people hate us.
Now, let’s put aside the fact that Islam is as diverse as the 1.6 billion people who subscribe to the religion from every country in the world, and it would be impossible to say all of them hate any one thing in particular.
And let’s also put aside the reality that while using harsh and untrue rhetoric in this fashion may score points with a portion of the electorate eager to hate everything different from them, it is irresponsible and dangerous.
The inconvenient truth — and it is an inconvenient truth for Trump and for those like him — is that Islam does not hate us, assuming the “us” is mostly American and mostly white.
In the wake of the of the most recent terror attacks in Brussels, there are fresh reports, analysis and commentary about Islam.
And some of the commentary even seeks to defend Islam, saying that the terrorist attacks are carried out by small group of extremists, and that the Muslim world is generally peaceful.
This apologist defense is fine, but it only offers short-term solutions to a larger issue of how we see Islam. And as long as we are saying that attacks are inherent within some portion of Islam, we will always look at Muslims with incredulousness and suspicion.
What deserves some attention are the remarkable and striking similarities between Christianity and Islam. Above both religions being monotheistic and arising in the same general region, the Holy Quran, the sacred text of Islam, is only scripture besides the gospels of Jesus of Nazareth reaffirm the righteousness and virginity of Mary at Jesus’s birth.
What is more, Jesus is one of the most-referenced prophets in the Quran. In fact, he is mentioned by name about 25 times as a revered prophet.
In fact, like Christianity, Islam and the Quran predicts that Christ will return to address the waywardness and injustices during the final epoch of human history.
Further, we also know that Abraham is the patriarch to both Islam and Christianity. In the First or Old Testament of the Bible, God blesses Abraham’s sons Ishmael and Isaac, and tells them he will make them a great nation.
This is not an apology for Islam or Christianity, to be sure. But, as we seek answers for the terrorist attacks all over this world, and as those like Trump continue to characterize the entire religion of Islam as one of hate, it is important to note the similarities between the two religions.
There’s nothing inherent in Islam that hates us.
