Middle East

The region of Middle East is predominantly Islam. Strong Islamic movements both orthodoxy and fundamentalism is also born in this region. However, if we go look back to history, it is interesting to note that in the first century AD, the Middle East region was a predominantly Christian region. It was from where Christian mission started evangelizing the rest of the world. Many remarkable Christian leaders were born here. Today, we have almost totally lost the region to Islam. Statistic shows that currently 90% of Middle East population is Islam. What happen to the Christians who were the majority at the first 3 centuries? Where are they?

What surprises me is how it is possible for Christianity to loose its stronghold in the Middle East over the years – almost totally. I always wonder, was it the strength of Islam or the weakness of Christianity? Is it the success of Islam mission (dakwah) or the failure of Christian evangelism?

Today, generally there is a growing tension between Christianity and Islam worldwide. In the midst of this animosity, what is our response to the Muslim world? Many a times, the West and many Christians in general stereotype the Muslim as terrorist and rebels. I think this is a very unfair judgment. We always view the Middle Eastern conflict from the Western view and become prejudice against the Muslims. I feel that this is totally unfair. We cannot judge them solely by America’s viewpoint, but instead we should view the situation from Eastern perspective and look back to the historical facts that has led to this animosity.

The only way to end this animosity between the Western world and the Muslim world is by abiding by the scriptural principles. Christians should first and foremost love the Muslim and treat them as our brothers rather then enemy. We should stop labeling them as terrorist, because the more we confess that, the more doors we open for terrorism in this world. We must learn to respect each other as mutual creation of the Almighty God.

This is my reflection from the 2nd day lecture of Dr. Nabeel T. Jabbour.