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Love your Muslim neighbour

Understanding Islam in today's world

Great service

LOVE YOUR MUSLIM NEIGHBOUR
Understanding Islam in today’s world
By Edward Challen
Day One. 272 pages. £10.00
ISBN 1 84625 009 9

The author has done the ordinary evangelical a great service by this readable, eirenic book.

Challen served Christ ‘in a south Asian country, living among Muslims’, and is well-equipped to present a work that is essentially a practical guide to comprehending the fastest-reproducing religion in the world (I do not say ‘fastest-growing’; most Muslim growth is through the birth-rate) and the UK’s largest non-Christian minority. Some popular books by evangelicals on Islam tend to be Islamophobic and/or inaccurate, so it is a relief to encounter a book that warns against ‘intolerance and resentment against Muslims among Christians in this country’ (p.11). Undoubtedly, Challen’s experience in the Muslim world has led him to see how unbiblical and counter-productive such an attitude is.

The book presents an overview of Muslim beliefs and practices, a history of the UK Muslim scene, the role of women in Islam, and the application of the gospel in interaction with Muslims. Challen has a gift in presenting the facts in an accessible way. The few criticisms I would make of the book mainly relate to its treatment of jihad. In chapter five, Challen gives an overview of jihad, but does not refer to its two military dimensions, defensive and offensive. It is impossible to understand the difference between the Ottoman siege of Vienna in 1683 and the current phenomenon, as illustrated by HAMAS, Hezbollah and Al-Qaida unless we are aware of this important distinction in Islamic jurisprudence. Secondly, a few — albeit very few — of the sources he quotes for this section are too polemical for any confidence to be given them. Nonetheless, if pastors want to give their congregations with a limited comprehension of Islam a book that serves as an excellent primer enabling understanding of their Muslim neighbours, they could do far worse than offer this work.

Dr. Anthony McRoy