The scale is different, but the condition the same. While that may be true, we have a responsibility to protect ourselves and loved ones. As we are made in God’s image, we all have value and a sense of justice based on God’s justice. Turning the other cheek for an insult is different than allowing a rapist and murderer in your home. While not an expert on Islam, I know that it doesn’t appear to be the peaceful religion that most would have us tolerate, appreciate, and approve of. Can I love an Arab? Yes. Can I love a Muslim? Yes. Can I see them as friends and trust them? Yes. Are they equally as sinful as I? Yes.  Did Jesus die for them as he did for me? Yes. Does Islam profess the politically correct ideas we hear about? Read the Quran for yourself and see. See here: http://www.thereligionofpeace.com/Quran/023-violence.htm
The Quran contains at least 109 verses that call Muslims to war with nonbelievers.  Some are quite graphic, with commands to chop off heads and fingers and kill infidels wherever they may be hiding.  Muslims who do not join the fight are called ‘hypocrites’ and warned that Allah will send them to Hell if they do not join the slaughter.Unlike nearly all of the Old Testament verses of violence, most of the verses of violence in the Quran are open-ended, meaning that they are not restrained by the historical context of the surrounding text.  They are part of the eternal, unchanging word of Allah, and just as relevant or subjective as anything else in the Quran.  Unfortunately, there are very few verses of tolerance and peace to abrogate or even balance out the many that call for nonbelievers to be fought and subdued until they either accept humiliation, convert to Islam, or are killed.  Muhammad’s own martial legacy and the remarkable stress on violence found in the Quran have resulted in a trail of blood and tears across world history.

Unfortunately, I think this is the same way that many people see Christianity when they look at it from the outside. We also have a checkered history of violence: the Crusades, wiping out of Native people and their culture in the Americas, and the Holocaust just to name a few atrocities that have been done in the name of Christ. These are the large scale things…I could not even begin to list all the times the Biblical texts have been used to justify abuse, racism, sexism, etc. Biblical texts, seen through the eyes of those who have not learned about the entirety of our faith, can look remarkably similar to what you are describing in the Quran. I am not saying that you are wrong…I do not know for certain all of the intricacies of what the Quran teaches…but I do think that we would have to ask a Muslim what their text is teaching rather than trying to understand it on our own, through our own cultural and religious biases.
I have experienced a lack of grace from non-Christians who assume that they know what my faith means better than I do. I would like to err on the side of grace when trying to understand the Muslim faith…knowing that it has many more layers and intricacies than I, as a person not well acquainted with that faith, am able to see and comprehend.
Peace to you.

We indict their ” Holy Book” if the believe all that it teaches they they themselves are indicted. Have you read it ? Apparently not. Have you read the Hadith ? Apparently not. A religion that states that “the End Times shall not come until Muslims kill all the Jews”…Your kumbaya, lets all hug is naive at best. Islam clearly states that Allah has NO SON-therefore they deny Christ is God-they are the spirit of anti-Christ. People may talk about “violence in the Bible. The difference between the Bible (Old Testament) and Koran is this : the Bible is DESCRIPTIVE-it says these are the things that happened in those days, it does NOT say go and do likewise. The Koran is PRESCRIPTIVE-it tells of violence done and says to its followers GO AND DO LIKEWISE

Quran (9:30) - “And the Jews say: Ezra is the son of Allah; and the Christians say: The Messiah is the son of Allah; these are the words of their mouths; they imitate the saying of those who disbelieved before; may Allah destroy them; how they are turned away!”Quran (9:73) - “O Prophet! strive hard against the unbelievers and the hypocrites and be unyielding to them; and their abode is hell, and evil is the destination.”  Dehumanizing those who reject Islam, by reminding Muslims that they are merely firewood for Hell, makes it easier to justify slaughter.  It also explains why today’s devout Muslims have little regard for those outside the faith.
From the Hadith: Bukhari (52:177) - Allah’s Apostle said, “The Hour will not be established until you fight with the Jews, and the stone behind which a Jew will be hiding will say. “O Muslim! There is a Jew hiding behind me, so kill him.”

It’s no surprise that this one elicits strong emotions. 

The mind wants a box.  It wants an inside and an outside — and a clear line dividing the two.  And if a clear line is impossible, it’ll settle for a vague one, so long as either side is described by clear extremes.  If the concept of inside and outside is challenged, the mind rebels.  To say that there is no inside and outside doesn’t compute.  We get defensive, because we must defend the box.  We hold up the extremes and say “See!  You’re wrong. There IS an inside and outside.  Look at these extremes, and let them define everything in between too.”

NEVERBEYOND is about declaring that that box is crap.  We’ve all fallen short of the glory of whatever ideal we hold to be true. The situation isn’t that some of us deserve good and some of us deserve bad, but that we ALL deserve bad when held up against our ideal.  And because of the grace that’s been shown us, despite being unworthy of it, it’s our responsibility to pass it on.

OBL is dead, but the fuel that kept his fire burning is still in high supply.  We MUST be willing to give people a chance to choose a different path, or we only add fuel to the fire.  Whether your hope is in salvation or peace, those that need it the most must be given the chance to find it.

I believe Christ saves, and am living proof that no one is beyond redemption.

hey addison…i appreciate your thoughts but could not disagree more with what you are saying….honestly your argument is simply to validate fear and discrimination of real people…and that is the very thing we want to challenge all of us to rethink…mike.

thanks for sharing jon….m.

I would point out that grace and second chances are not the same thing. Grace is unmerited favor. A second chance can be unmerited but grace doesn’t directly correlate to second chances.

With addictive or extreme behavior, you can’t just go doling out second chances. That’s not safe for you or the person. Freely giving out second chances without a person understanding the consequences of their actions is simply enabling the behavior to continue.

What grace looks like to a terrorist is love. I might hate what Bin Laden and all the other terrorists have done but by the grace of God, I can see them through His eyes. It’s really a supernatural occurrence. One that can’t be accomplished because you wear a cool bracelet or like the “idea” of grace.

You can’t fully understand grace until you fully understand justice. When the offender understands the justice they deserve, then they can rightly receive the grace which they don’t deserve. Part of dispensing grace is (in love) discussing justice. Not in a way that causes fear because of punishment but in hope because of forgiveness.

great thoughts tony…i think youre right in pointing out that their is societal justice for our actions…but that our personal response can be different…

Addison I think that the point of this post goes farther than the question of whether Islam is a religion of peace or not.  Osama bin Laden was responsible for every single death on 9/11.  Is it possible for grace to extend all the way to Osama?  A mass murderer, a leader of death a destruction.  Can the forgiveness that I have accepted from God and proclaim to give to others, go so far as to forgive bin Laden?  Can I withhold grace from my Muslim coworkers(or neighbors) because of bin Laden or if they themselves hold to the hardline beliefs of Islam?

“Instead, ‘If your enemies are hungry, feed them.  If they are thirsty, give them something to drink.  In doing this, you will heap burning coals of shame on their heads.’  Don’t let evil conquer you, but conquer evil by doing good.”  Romans 12:20-21

I believe second chances are never merited.  No one is deserving of forgiveness for the things that they have done.  That’s the power that grace has.  Osama bin Laden doesn’t deserve grace and neither do I.

Totally agree that no one deserves grace. While I do believe that second chances can be given when they are unmerited, sometimes they need to be given with wisdom. Sometimes you say “No” to your children because you love them. 

Love isn’t earned but trust is.

Hey friend, props to stretching us to see that God’d grace isn’t as selective as our own. This one is self admittedly difficult for me I must admit. While I can see Osama bin Ladin as God’s prodigal son, it’s a stretch to love him as my own. But hey, I’m definitely not perfect and am trying to grow in radical grace every day.

The Quran is filled with a call for active hate which is tough to swallow. However, I’m no Islam expert and surely there are beautiful, peace loving Muslims of all sorts. I often wonder if extending this grace is easier for me because I didn’t lose anyone on 911… But as a completed Jew, the hate does still sting. Please keep encouraging us to grow in supernatural, abnormal ways. You rock Foster!! JJ

P’s sorry or any typos, phone’s not letting me go back to edit.

on paper I agree with what you say, but i have a story to share…The Amish community doesn’t believe in violence, and if attacked, they will not respond in kind. Knowing this, a couple of men stopped by an Amish house one day, held the men at gun point and took turns raping the women. They kept coming back because they knew the Amish wouldn’t fight back. Eventually they had to leave their community and start over in a new community. As I said in my comment below, there is a difference between turning the other cheek when someone is offended and they slap us and when someone comes into our home and wants to rape and murder us. Being made in God’s image we have value. Being made in God’s image we have his morals, his sense of justice. Again, I agree with what you said, but let me ask you, after those Amish women were raped the first time, maybe they sit down and decide to give those rapists a second chance. Well, they took it and abused it and were raped again. Mother and daughters raped multiple times in the name of second chance. There is a line there and it should be drawn and not ignored.

None of that is to say I wouldn’t forgive those men and believe they can’t be saved. It takes the work of the Spirit and a fundamental change of their heart. I want badly for those men to be in heaven, to know their Creator, to be whole, to be the beautiful people God had planned for them to be.