Book Review: The Crescent Through the Eyes of the Cross

Many Christians would like to interact with better love and understanding toward Muslims.  But Islam and Christianity have had a contentious history, and North Americans today have little training in the Muslim faith.  Most of what we know is a reaction against terrorism.   Unfortunately, this painful history, our fear, and our ignorance makes our attempts to share the gospel largely ineffective, especially against the strong decrees about apostasy that are part of Islam.

Nabeel Jabbour’s book The Crescent Through the Eyes of the Cross is a short, readable book that seeks to narrow this breach and improve our relationships with Muslims.  Jabbour is an Arab Christian who has lived and worked for many years with Muslims, and he has a doctorate in Muslim fundamentalism.  In this book, he presents the Muslim worldview towards Christians, from the point of view of a fictional Egyptian student visiting America.  “Ahmad” and his “family” represent a composite of many of the Muslims that Jabbour has interacted with over the years.  This literary device allows Jabbour to present a series of 15 problems that Muslims have with Christianity and Christians, which he can then discuss in turn.

The 15 points are:  

 

1. The Arab Bible and Christians who speak Arabic use a vocabulary that doesn’t match the Muslim vocabulary
2. Western Christians see the gospel through the lens of guilt and righteousness. But the Muslim worldview is based on shame vs. honor, unclean vs. clean, power vs. fear. 
3. Christians don’t understand the Qur’an or Muhammad, and falsely assume that the Qur’an is to Muslims as the Bible is to Christians, or that Muhammad is equivalent to Jesus.
4. Why should Muslims give up the Qur’an, which was dictated by God, for the Bible which was written by men?
5. The Christian history of crusade has been exacerbated by current American Middle East policies, which is fueling fanaticism rather than reducing it.
6. The West has a history of colonizing Muslim countries, and current occupations feed fears of neocolonialism.
7. American support of Israel and other policies hurt and offend all Muslims, not just the Muslims directly affected by the policies.
8. America wants moderate Muslims more than fundamentalist Muslims, but do not see how the unwavering American support of Israel over Palestine drives Muslims toward fundamentalism.
9. Since 9/11, the main American strategy against terrorism is to blow it up. This does not promote moderation either.
10.   Muslims feel their theology is closer to Christianity, since they accept Jesus as a prophet. They do not understand why we don’t feel theologically more sympathetic to them compared to Jews.
11. Christians should not see all Muslims as fanatics.
12. Christians seem to package Jesus with American politics, economics and culture.  American culture of immorality and sex is highly offensive to Muslims.
13. A Muslim who converts to Christianity shames his entire family
14. A Muslim who converts to Christianity loses his entire support system: jobs, literature, family, culture.
15. Many Muslims are told to change their name to a Western name when they convert, which is interpreted as treason.

This is my first book on Islam, so I am not in a position to judge whether these are really the 15 problems that most represent the Muslim problem with Christianity.  I also have no objective comparison to the responses that Jabbour gives. 

But what I like about this book is that it is humble in spirit. I respect authors who admit wrongs and suggest love and a listening heart as good solutions.  It helps, of course, that I already think the US has missed several opportunities to improve relations with Muslims by choosing invasion over nonviolent support (Three Cups of Tea, anyone?).  But I was especially intrigued by the ideas of using the stories of fear/power and dirty/clean to better describe the Gospel. Jabbour also describes the difference between converting a young student and thus forever isolating him from his old life, versus reaching out to the family of the young student and earning the right to discuss Jesus through honoring the Muslim parents.

My least favorite part of the book is the “construct” of Ahmad.  Jabbour made it very clear that Ahmad and his family were fictional composites, but I found this device to be distracting.  It seems like a simple listing of these 15 problems and examples of Muslim responses would have worked just as well. 

Jabbour also does not make an effort to defend some of these “problems.”  In the first problem of the Arab Bible using a different name for Jesus than the Qur’an, I was curious and looked this up for myself.  The explanation I found was that Mohammed’s description of Issa is not related to either the Hebrew/Aramaic or Greek names of Jesus, and is associated with a theology that denies Jesus’ divinity. So Arab Christians use the more Arabic equivalent of Jesus’ name, Yasou,’ to avoid both the incorrect nomenclature and associated incorrect theology.

There is no way, of course, that Jabbour could fit all of the complexities of Christianity and Islam into one small book.  And this book does fulfill its goal – I do have a more sympathetic understanding of Islam, and I do feel like I could love and listen and share in a way that would better reach the Muslim mind.  Jabbour encourages additional research, and provides more to interested readers if they ask by email.

This book is recommended to those who are willing to separate Jesus from American culture, and approach interactions with those who are different with a humble spirit.  An excellent start to improving interactions with Muslims.