By John Alden Williams:

So far as war for the propagation of faith is concerned, such a thing is not mentioned even once in the Qur’an. This fact should be a revelation for those who think that Islam requires its followers to fight for the spread of their religion.

The Qur’an, or Recitation of the Angel Gabriel to the Prophet Muhammad, the holy book of Islam, always refers to Jesus as “the Messiah.” Christos or Christ is only a Greek translation of the Aramaic and Hebrew word, “messiah.” The Qur’an also refers to Jesus as the word of God and spirit from Him, born of the sinless virgin Mary, “purified above all women,” and it gives more space to Mary than the New Testament does. I know a number of Muslims who ask “our Lady Mary” for her intercession every day. There are several shrines in the Middle East where Christians and Muslims honor Mary side by side and ask her to pray for them. I have never heard, and never expect to hear, any Muslim insult the name of Jesus. It would be a rejection of what Islam has taught them, that he was the promised messiah, that he ascended to heaven, and that he will come again before the world ends.

I have been given the theme “The Message of History” today. A message is delivered to a place and time. Our Creator has delivered us to this day, through centuries of history, to begin the year 2004 of the Common Era. We, our successes and our failures, are a message people need to take to heart. I must be brief, and I want to talk about the most serious religious crisis of our time. It is the rift that certain fundamentalists–Christians, Jews and Muslims–are trying to open between Christianity and Islam, the two largest religions on the planet. Sadly, some people are seeking to foster hatred and religious war on both sides. The sort of misinformation that is being disseminated among Christians and Jews is quite alarming and distressing. Some of it is outright falsehood.

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