Guest Voices

Top Ten Tips for Beginner Writers

Guest Voices — Wed, 05 Jul 2017 06:35:22 +0000

by Rachel Summers

Whether you are writing a novel or other forms of creative writing, when it is your first time it can be a bit overwhelming knowing where to start. This guide is here to provide you with ten of our top tips when it comes to writing when you are a beginner.

For those who are completely brand new to writing and have no idea, then alongside this guide the site Helping Writers Become Authors has many tools and resources available for you to use to help you structure, plan out and write the best you can.

We hope that you find this guide useful and that it helps you in your writing journey.

Be Passionate

Make sure that whatever it is that you are writing, you love doing it. If you are not enjoying the writing process of spending hours at the computer, then do not start because if you aren’t enjoying the process then you simply aren’t going to be producing the best work you can. You need to be willing to spend hours and hours of your time sitting at the computer writing and re-writing your material.

Edit Harsh

There is no point in editing as if you love every single bit that you wrote and clinging on to every sentence. When reading it back, if a part adds nothing to what you are writing or trying to say then delete it, regardless of how much you like that one bit. When it comes to editing, step back from the computer screen for a while and then come back with a fresh pair of eyes to read it through as if you are reading it for the first time. Trust your first instincts.

However, if you every need an extra hand when it comes to editing or writing, there are many services that can help you. Best British Essays is one of the services that can provide some excellent content.

People Watch

Believe it or not, there are hundreds upon hundreds of stories right now waiting to be told, you just need to find them. One of the best ways to find a story to tell is being inspired by other people. Watch people go about living their ordinary, daily lives and take a notebook with you wherever you go. If you hear or see something interesting, then jot it down, even if it is just a single quote. You will be surprised at what ideas will spark off from just a single overheard conversation or line.

Write for Yourself

Make sure that whenever you write that you are writing it for yourself and no one else. Forget about the audience who will eventually read it and focus on your feelings towards what you are writing. Make it authentic by not giving in to what you think other people may want to read.

Emotions

You should aim to make your readers feel something when they are reading your words. Whether they are crying, laughing or feeling rage, they should be feeling something. If they are, then you know that you have done your job.

Write What You Know

One of the biggest tips you will ever be given is to write what you know. You should write whatever you already have knowledge or experience in, it’s no good writing about something that is completely foreign to you.

Write What You Like

No, I don’t mean literally write whatever you like, write what you would like to read as a reader yourself. If you don’t like what you are writing, then stop and change it.

Read, Read, Read

You should always read similar work to what it is that you are creating. Not to copy, but to get inspired by and make sure that you are writing something from a different angle.

Routine

When you start writing you may have to force yourself to write, but as you continue you will naturally fall into it. But at first you may have to get yourself a routine, if you prefer writing in the morning or evening then go for it but keep to it.

Writer’s Block

If you ever come to a point when you are drying up and clueless for what to say next, then stop what you are doing and walk away from it. Whether it is for just a few minutes or even a few weeks, you never want to write something that is being forced out as it will read that way and no one will enjoy what you have created, even you. You need to enjoy what you have written and be proud of it and the best way to ensure that is to write naturally.

If you ever become completely stuck, then services like New Novelist have various techniques and methods available to help you finish writing and produce something great.

Rachel Summers is a writer, local newspaper reporter, British journalist, and a freelance creative writer and editor.

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Lee Strobel Interview

Guest Voices — Sun, 09 Oct 2016 22:26:05 +0000

Lee Strobel, former legal editor of the Chicago Tribune, recounted his spiritual journey from atheism to faith in a New York Times bestseller which has become a Christian classic: The Case for Christ: A Journalist’s Personal Investigation of the Evidence for Jesus (Zondervan).

A revised and updated paperback edition is now available. A film based on the book is in production and will release in theaters nationwide in March 2017. ConversantLife interviewed Stobel by phone from his home in Houston, where he serves as Professor of Christian thought at Houston Baptist University.

You wrote The Case for Christ in 1998. How has your approach to Christianity and your own experience with Christ changed since then?

I was a skeptic—really I was an atheist—when I began my investigation into the beliefs of Christianity. I was driven by the apologetic of my wife, Leslie, who had become a Christian and whose changed life convinced me to check this out. It was a combination of being angry with her for cheating on me with Jesus and being curious about why she was a changed person. Now as I look back on my life, I can see what happened in my faith journey. Here’s an illustration that may help.

Let’s say you are a manager in a company, and you want to see your boss on a particular day. There are several signs that point to his being in the office and available. Your boss has accepted your calendar invite; when you arrive at work, his car is in the usual space; when you pass his office, his secretary tells you the appointment is confirmed. All the evidence points to your boss being in his office and available to see you. But it’s not until he opens the door, and you see his face, and he invites you to come in that you know for sure that the meeting you hoped for is going to happen.

That’s the way it was with my faith journey. The evidence for my faith got me to the point when I was able to trust Jesus, but it wasn’t until I actually encountered him personally that Jesus became absolutely real to me.

You took a very rational approach to questions about faith and belief when you wrote The Case for Christ. Do rational arguments carry as much weight with people today?

For a while we got away from presenting reasonable arguments for why the Christian faith is true. I think this was the case because people who had questions about their faith weren’t finding a place where they could wrestle with them. The church wasn’t responding to people’s doubts and concerns about God. So rather than stick around to ask them, people left.

I think the pendulum is swinging the other way. After a few years in which people were more concerned about felt needs, they are now asking questions that are intellectual in nature. In fact, 3 of the top 6 reasons young people are leaving the church are apologetic: Is Jesus the Son of God? Can I trust the Bible? Why is there suffering and evil in a world made good by God? These are the questions people are asking. For that reason, apologetics is making a comeback, and many churches are leading the way by providing a place for people to wrestle with their doubts about God and the Bible.

So doubt can be a doorway to belief?

Absolutely. And it doesn’t have to be the doubts that you have personally. You may have a neighbor or a friend who is asking questions about God and Christianity, so you go to your pastor for help. In this way, the demand for Christian apologetics is bubbling up from the pews. I see pastors and churches beginning to do more training than teaching. We have to stop teaching people about the Bible. We need to train them to give answers to honest questions, and this involves interaction.

Doubt can purify and strengthen faith. If you don’t deal with doubt, it can cripple you. But if you talk with others about it and do your own investigation, doubt loses its power over you. You realize that others have doubt, and you realize there are reasonable answers to your questions.

Shortly after I became a Christian, a young woman—I think she was a senior in high school—asked me to come to her house and talk with her and her father. When I got there, I saw stacks of academic books on the coffee table. Clearly the father had been doing some research. At dinner, he pummeled me with questions that raised doubts about the validity of the Christian story. I felt like I was in the middle of a kind of spiritual vertigo. My mind was spinning with doubt. What if I was wrong about this whole faith in God thing?

I told the young woman and her father that I didn’t have the answers to their questions, but I would do some investigating and get back to them. Through that process, I found there were satisfying answers to the toughest questions, and I was more equipped and encouraged as a result.

How important is the study of theology in the life of a Christian?

The study of theology has not been emphasized as much as it should be. When the cold wind of doubt blows, you are easily capsized if you aren’t tethered to strong theology. It’s like a boat in a harbor. If that boat is anchored, it won’t drift when the wind blows. But if you cut that line, the boat will eventually start drifting. We have a line called theology. When that line is cut—when people stop learning about their faith and what it’s all about—there is drift.

The Case for Christ has sold more than 5 millions copies. There must be some great stories about how that book has helped people.

It’s overwhelming. In fact, just last week, I was being interviewed on a radio show, and someone called in to tell a story about the book. The caller had always wanted to read The Case for Christ but never got around to it. Then he was diagnosed with diabetes, and he began to go blind. He decided he wanted to read the book, so he asked his girlfriend to read it to him. When she got to the end of the book, where I offer the reader the opportunity to enter into an ongoing relationship with Jesus Christ, she prayed to receive Christ.

Nabeel Qureshi Part 2

Guest Voices — Thu, 06 Oct 2016 04:36:55 +0000

Do Christians and Muslims worship the same God?

Christians worship Yahweh, the Trinity, whereas Muslims worship Allah, a monad. This is not an incidental difference; Islam makes every effort to condemn the Trinity as blasphemy (4.171). The Quran rejects the relational aspects of God, saying that He is not a father (5.18) and He is not a son (112.3). It establishes its own doctrine of God, Tawhid, in diametric opposition to the Trinity, and that doctrine becomes the central doctrine of Islamic theology.

Most people who say Christians and Muslims worship the same God are aware of this difference, but they treat it as relatively inconsequential. This is not a trivial difference, though; it has major implications. Since mankind is made in the image of the Triune God, love is woven into our very nature. The Trinity gives us the most consistent, most powerful basis for being self-sacrificial and altruistic.

This is an important point to unpack. Of course, many people are very altruistic, regardless of their worldviews. A person does not need to believe in God to genuinely care for others, as secular humanists demonstrate. There are even people who don’t believe in any kind of morality yet still desire to care for people. Ultimately, though, such ungrounded altruism is a sentiment, something a person just wants to do. Unless one believes in a transcendent basis for altruism, one’s desire to care for people is unanchored and ephemeral, little more than a whim. According to this amoral worldview, nothing behooves a person to be kind. Even though someone might wish to be altruistic, in the next moment it would be entirely consistent with their worldview if they chose to be selfish.

The question of whether Muslims and Christians worship the same God is complex, and there is much more that could be said. Ultimately, when we understand the Trinity, we realize that the doctrine is not just a theological curiosity. It has far-reaching implications for how we ought to live and how we see the world, and it makes the Christian God categorically different from the Muslim God. It is what makes God relational, what makes His love eternal. It is how God can be in us, through the Holy Spirit, while being over us, as the Father, and suffering for us, in the Son.

And it is the Son that most distinguishes the Christian God from the Muslim God. We need to learn about Him not only in light of the Trinity but also in light of His life on earth.

As you have studied Islam and Christianity, how has objectivity affected your research?

I want to share something that took me years to really grasp: It is virtually impossible to study these matters objectively. Not only do we all have a vested interest in defending the faiths we and our social circles have believed for years, but our beliefs also color the way we receive information. The same data will be interpreted differently by people from disparate worldviews. When we investigate Islam and Christianity as devout believers in one or the other faith, our Christian or Muslim presuppositions affect the way we interpret the evidence, and we often see what we want to see.

When I started investigating the data, I came to the table with the presupposition that Islam was true, and I interpreted the data accordingly. No matter what facts provided, I either made them fit my Islamic paradigm or I found some way to dismiss them. It is not difficult to defend what you already believe, and anyone who sets their mind to it will be able to do so, whether Muslim or Christian.

What is difficult is pursuing the truth about your faith and assessing it honestly. This feat requires one to be introspective and self-critical at frequent intervals. Although we can never completely overcome our biases, the most important step we can take is to pursue fair-mindedness with intentionality. While considering the data, we need to repeatedly ask ourselves the question: “Would an objective observer find the arguments compelling?”

What is it that truly ails mankind, and is there a cure?

From my perspective, the gospel resonates with reality: People are broken in their hearts and souls, and no matter how educated or self-reflective we become, it does not appear that following rules will be enough to address the problem. The problem lies deeper than what we do; it is embedded in who we are. Having spent some time working with the dejected and downtrodden, such as those whose lives have been ravaged by various addictions, I do not think ignorance is their problem. It is brokenness. Having seen families be torn apart by abuse or anger, the answer does not appear to lie in knowledge or following rules, but in transformed hearts.

This leads me to a second observation: Mankind seems incapable of saving itself. In our natural selves, we perpetuate cycles of destruction. Our hearts are broken, so we break other hearts. We were abused, so we abuse in return. Our families were fractured, so we leave fractured families in our wake. When loved ones are killed, we kill in revenge. This is the way of humanity, and we need an otherworldly solution—something radical to break these cycles. We need God to save us.

Q&A With Nabeel Qureshi

Guest Voices — Sun, 11 Sep 2016 04:27:17 +0000

Nabeel Qureshi is the New York Times bestselling author of Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus. He holds a D.Phil from Oxford University and has been featured in countless media outlets, including Fox News, Christianity Today, and USA Today. Qureshi has studied with some of the foremost scholars in religion in the halls of Oxford and Duke University. He saw the need for an accessible yet intelligent book comparing the world's two largest religions--Islam and Christianity--and now he has developed a resource to meet that need. His newest book is No God but One: Allah or Jesus? (Zondervan) examines the fundamental similarities and critical differences between these two world religions. This is Part One of a two-part interview.

Why did you write No God but One: Allah or Jesus?

Every year, millions are faced with this dilemma: to follow Islam or Christianity, to worship Allah or Jesus. Unless the seeker lives in a nominal or secular environment, the stakes are high: It can cost a seeker his or her family, friends, job, and potentially his or her life. For such seekers, it’s not simply a matter of believing whatever seems right. They need to be sure, and they need to be sure it’s worth the sacrifice.

For me, it’s been a decade since I made the decision to leave Islam, and the fallout of my decision haunts me every day. I knew it would, well before I ever converted, but I also knew that I was sure. I was sure that Islam and Christianity are not just two paths that lead to the same God, but two very different paths that lead very different ways. I was sure that I had excellent historical reasons to believe the gospel. I was sure that, though I loved Islam, I couldn’t ignore the problems that plagued its foundations.

But most of all, I was sure that following the one true God would be worth all trials and all suffering. I had to follow the evidence and the truth, no matter the cost.

I left my religion of twenty-two years and became a follower of Jesus in 2005. In 2009, after graduating from medical school, I decided to leave medicine in order to share what I had learned about the gospel, the message of Christianity. I sincerely believe that this message has the power to transform hearts and change the world. The God it proclaims is unlike any other, and it is an unfathomable honor that we get to be a part of His story and introduce people to Him.

As I speak around the world, I often come across two kinds of people: Christians who enjoy criticizing Islam, and Muslims who want to argue but do not want to learn. I am not writing this book for either of them. I am writing for people who—like I did—need the answers to three main questions: 1) What are the differences between Islam and Christianity? 2) Can we be confident that Christianity or Islam is true? 3) Is it worth sacrificing everything for the truth? It took me four years to answer these questions, and they remain so important to me that I’ve studied them for another decade beyond.

Are Christianity and Islam basically the same religion?

When I hear people say that Islam and Christianity are basically the same, I have to try to restrain my incredulous response. Are Islam and Christianity the same? My parents certainly don’t think so, nor do any of the dozens of friends I lost when I renounced Islam and became a Christian. This cliché is a slap in the face to the hundreds of thousands of converts who have left Islam for Christianity and vice versa.

Not only are these religions different, but the differences have far greater ramifications than I realized when I converted. I knew that the historical doctrines of the two religions were different, but doctrines do not exist in a vacuum. They work together to impact the way we see the world, which in turn changes who we are.

How do the differences between Allah and Jesus color one’s worldview?

Both Muslims and Christians believe that there is no God but one, but is He Allah or is He Jesus? I can tell you from personal experience and in all sincerity: How we answer this question has the power to change who we are.

What we think God is like has a tremendous impact on how we see the world He created. Why did God create humans: to share intimacy with them or to test them? What does He think about people: are they His servants or His children? How does He want us to live: focusing on love or focusing on law? What does He tell us about the afterlife: to anxiously anticipate unknown judgment or to have joyful faith in His grace? The Islamic view of God and the Christian view lend themselves to different answers, and how we answer these questions changes how we see ourselves, other people, and the world around us.

Are there some similarities between Islam and Christianity?

There’s really no question that Islam and Christianity are close to one another on the broader religious spectrum. They are both monotheistic, the largest two faith communities in the world, and they share many similarities. Each teaches the doctrine of an eternal, all-powerful, all-knowing God who is sovereign over the universe. It is God who created mankind out of one man and one woman, yet mankind turns away from Him. Each teaches that one day there will be a resurrection and final judgment. Before then, it is of paramount importance for us to seek God and follow Him.

But the similarities between Islam and Christianity run even deeper, beyond the trappings of monotheism: Both lay claim to Abrahamic lineage; both teach that God has sent messengers, human and angelic, to steer people back to Him; both teach that God has inspired divine scriptures to guide man; both teach that Satan is a deceiver that misleads the unwary; and both teach that believers ought to sacrificially care for each other and proclaim the truth to nonbelievers.

Perhaps the most surprising shared feature is reverence for Jesus. Both Islam and Christianity teach that Jesus was born of a virgin, and that He was the most miraculous man who ever lived. Both the Bible and the Quran teach that Jesus cleansed lepers, healed the blind, and even raised the dead. Indeed, both books teach that Jesus is the Messiah, and Muslims await His return, as do Christians.

How Do We Engage Muslims?

Guest Voices — Mon, 14 Mar 2016 00:45:11 +0000

In the final part of a 4-part Q&A on his new book, Answering Jihad, Nabeel Qureshi addresses some of the most fundamental issues of the global concerns concerning Islam: Do Muslims want to take over the West? Should Syrian Muslims be admitted to the U.S.? Do Muslims and Christians worship the same God? And perhaps the most important questions for Christians, How do we engage Muslims so they can know the triune God?

Do you believe that Muslims want to take over the West with sharia?

I would be quick to answer, “No, but…”. “No,” because the question implies a conspiracy among the average Muslim immigrant, as if all Muslims were part of a ploy to take over the West. That is untrue and ludicrous. In my experience, Muslims immigrants are simply trying to live life as best as they know how, as are all of us. For the vast majority, imposing sharia does not even enter their minds. “But…,” because many Muslims do entertain romantic notions of sharia and Islamic dominance. The Golden Age of Islam appeals to many hearts, and in the minds of most Muslims it is nebulously connected to sharia. Yet as Muslims in Egypt loudly declared through the swift ousting of their elected Muslim Brotherhood president, the average Muslim might not know what sharia really looks like.

How do you think we should handle the hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees wanting to find solace in our country?

Muslims are coming to the West, and they are bringing their culture and values with them. My encouragement to those who fear Muslim immigration is that we should engage immigrants with love and friendship, sharing our views and our lives with one another. Part of the reason why Muslims immigrants in the West can become radicalized, as with Sayyid Qutb and more recently Boston Marathon bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev, is that Westerners do not help them to understand our culture and do not provide them with appealing ways of navigating it. Segregating ourselves from those immigrants with whom we disagree only encourages further disagreements and misunderstandings. Instead of fearing Muslim immigrants, we should embrace them and be the element of love and change we wish to see. I suggest friendship rather than fear as a better way forward.

Do Muslims and Christians worship the same God?

The question of whether Muslims and Christians worship the same God is complex, so we should be gracious to those who disagree. The fact is, one can both love Muslims and insist that the God they worship is not the same as the Christian God. Christians worship a Triune God: a Father who loves unconditionally, an incarnate Son who is willing to die for us so that we may be forgiven, and an immanent Holy Spirit who lives in us. This is not who the Muslim God is, and it is not what the Muslim God does. Truly, the Muslim doctrine of God’s oneness and unity, Tawhid, is antithetical to the Trinity, fundamentally incompatible and only similar superficially and semantically. Islam explicitly and emphatically rejects the Christian God, setting up its own rival doctrine, Tawhid. For these reasons, Muslims and Christians do not worship the same God.

What is the relationship between Islamic and Christian views of Jesus, specifically in terms of violence?

Jesus is surprisingly prominent in Islamic eschatology. In common Muslim views of the end-times, he personally wages war on behalf of Muslims, breaking all the crosses and killing all the swine. In this war Muslims will kill Jews and defeat them, and Jesus will destroy the anti-Christ for their sake. By contrast, in Christianity, Jesus shows Christians how to answer persecution with love. Although this suggestion might seem impossible to some and ridiculous to others, Jesus’s teachings were always radical, and they are only possible to follow if the gospel message is true. If we will live eternally with God in bliss, then we can lay down this life to love even our enemies. In the face of jihad, the Christian Jesus teaches his followers to respond with love.

What do you think is the best way we should answer jihad?

By being proactive, not reactive. It means living life with people who might be different from us. It means stepping out of our comfort zone and loving people unconditionally, perhaps even loving our enemies. Fear will not work, as it will only alienate those we might hope to impact. Our fear is also positive reinforcement for terrorist activities, as creating fear is a goal of terrorism. Fighting won’t work either, but will further embolden the radical and convict them that their cause is just. Plus, terrorist groups like ISIS want us to fight back. Their hope is that they can sufficiently anger the world so that we will fight them on the field of Dabiq, ushering in the end of the world, as Muhammad’s tradition foretells. Fear and fighting both fuel the radical fires. We need something that breaks the cycle, and I think that can only be love. Not love as wistfully envisioned by teenagers and songwriters, but love as envisioned by Jesus, a decision to put the needs and concerns of others above our own, even at the cost of our own.

My suggestion is that we engage Muslims proactively with love and friendship while simultaneously acknowledging the truth about Islam. This is not the final step in answering jihad, but it is the correct first step, and it offers a better way forward.

Islam, Jihad, and ISIS

Guest Voices — Sun, 06 Mar 2016 03:08:53 +0000

Nabeel Qureshi was raised in a devout and loving Muslim home, but during his college years he began to closely examine Islamic teachings along with the claims of Christianity. As a result, Nabeel committed his life to Jesus Christ, a dramatic and engaging story he told in the New York Times bestselling and award-winning memoir, Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus.

Answering Jihad: A Better Way Forward, is Qureshi’s just-released book, rushed to press in the wake of the growing global concern over the threats and actions of Muslim extremists. This is Part 3 of a 4-part interview with Qureshi, currently studying Judaism and Christianity at Oxford, pursuing his doctorate in New Testament studies.

How would you describe jihad?

The popular definition of jihad as “Islamic holy war” is misleading. The words “holy war” are charged with connotations of the Christian Crusades, but the impetus and theological justification of the Crusades were markedly different from jihad. Though the word “jihad” literally means “struggle,” and the Quran at times uses it in a spiritual context, the primary use of the word has always implied a physical struggle for spiritual purposes. The doctrine of jihad has been developing from the time of the Quran until today, in the classical era being expounded to include a code of conduct with injunctions designed to preserve innocent lives and lessen collateral damage. These rules, however, have not always been enforced. The portrayal of jihad as primarily a spiritual endeavor, often by referring to the tradition of the “greater jihad,” is inconsistent with the Quran, the canonical hadith collections, Islamic history, and classical Islamic hermeneutics. It is an argument that has little grounding in reality. To summarize: Jihad is primarily a physical struggle in the name of Islam, and it came to be codified more specifically during the classical era of Islamic history.

Does the idea of jihad have violent roots in Islam?

Yes. Although the average American Muslim agrees that the Quran and hadith are the ultimate basis of their faith, many have not critically read either and would be surprised to find violent, offensive jihad shot through the foundations of Islam. The Quranic revelations reflect the development in Muhammad’s life as he moved from a peaceful trajectory to a violent one, culminating in surah 9 of the Quran, chronologically the last major chapter of the Quran and its most expansively violent teaching. Surah 9 is a command to disavow all treaties with polytheists and to subjugate Jews and Christians so that Islam may “prevail over every faith.” The scope of violence has no clear limits, so it’s fair to wonder whether any non-Muslims in the world are immune from being attacked, subdued, or assimilated under this command. Muslims must fight, according to this final surah of the Quran, and if they do not, then their faith is called into question and they are counted among the hypocrites. If they do fight, they are promised one of two rewards, either spoils of war or heaven through martyrdom. Allah has made a bargain with the mujahid who obeys: Kill or be killed in battle, and paradise awaits.

What is sharia law?

Islamic jurisprudence is the effort to understand all the teachings of Muhammad systematically, so that Muslims can know how to live. The end product, or the point of discovery, is sharia. Put another way, Allah has given a code of conduct and a set of rules for all Muslims to live by. Following these rules is how one obeys Allah, thus securing his pleasure and living according to his created order. That is sharia. The word sharia literally means “path” or “path to water.” This imagery is strong, especially for a desert people. Following sharia is what preserves the life of the believer as water preserves the life of the thirsty.

Even though surah 9 of the Quran is very clear in what it teaches, and even though it is the final marching orders that Muhammad left for his people, and even though it strongly accords with the hadith on jihad, Muslim leaders in various schools of thought do not teach their followers to act upon its teachings today. Because of the expansive number of Islam’s foundational teachings and because of complicating hermeneutic factors such as abrogation, Muslims do not determine sharia for themselves but receive it from their imams. So they ought not to be faulted for believing Islam is a religion of peace, especially if they have never confronted the violent verses of the Quran and the hadith. Yet the legitimacy of their personal, peaceful practice does not mean Islam itself is a religion of peace. We must remember that we are not defining Islam as the practice of Muslims, but rather as the teachings of Muhammad.

Where did “radical” Islam come from?

If we consider the words of the founders of the movement, radical Islam was born out of a frustration with the political inferiority of modern Muslim nations to Western and Eastern superpowers, especially in light of the Quranic promise that Allah will grant victory to those who strive for him. Radical Muslims believe another Golden Age awaits Muslims who are devoted to following the true teachings of Islam, and they are zealous to bring this about and see the glory of Islam restored. Radical Islam, then, grows out of an understanding that the average expression of Islam today is too far removed from the teachings of Muhammad and the Quran. Adherents often consider moderate Muslims to be apostates because of their lack of zeal for the original teachings of Islam. To summarize: radical Islam is a devout, literal adherence to the foundational texts of Islam, including faith in its promises.

Where has ISIS come from and what are they trying to accomplish? Are they connected with Al-Qaida or Boko Haram?

Al-Qaida, ISIS, and Boko Haram are interconnected, and they all interpret and conduct their politics through the lens of their religious beliefs. There is no denying that each group has political aims, but these aims are grounded in a religious worldview, and their actions are driven by religious principles and motives. Each group sees themselves as champions of true Islam, applying their views on the canvas of global politics for the sake of Muslim societies. Their practice of Islam places relatively greater emphasis on the foundational texts of the faith than does the practice of more moderate Muslims. Their methods are based on the writings of Sayyid Qutb, whose teachings were almost entirely derived from the Quran, and Abd al-Salam Faraj, who focused on the life of Muhammad in addition to the Quran.

When leaders and media members insist that these groups are not Islamic, they are either speaking out of ignorance or intentionally engaging in propaganda. These three groups are dynamic expressions of the modern Islamic reformation, and their interpretations of the Quran and hadith, in terms of being devoid of accreted tradition, are among the most pure in the Islamic world.

Islam and Muslims

Guest Voices — Fri, 26 Feb 2016 23:46:53 +0000

This is the second of a four-part interview with Nabeel Qureshi, author of the New York Times bestselling book, Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus. Qureshi's newest book, Answering Jihad: A Better Way Forward, releases March 8.

Are there different kinds of followers of Islam?

Muslims interpret Muhammad’s teachings very differently, often along partisan lines of authoritative interpreters and cultural boundaries. That is why, in very broad strokes, Shia Islam looks different from Sunni Islam, why Bosnian Islam looks different from Saudi Islam, why folk Islam in the outlands of Yemen looks different from scholarly Islam in the halls of Al-Azhar University in Cairo. Although the core of Islam is centered on the person of Muhammad in seventh century Arabia, the expression of Islam reflects local customs.

That is one reason why it is important to remember that Islam is not primarily a religion of Arabs. The country with the most Muslims in the world is Indonesia, followed by Pakistan, India, and then Bangladesh. None of those nations are Arab, and local customs manage to find their way into Islamic expression. In addition, no two Muslims are exactly alike, and that is another reason why the expression of Islam is so varied. My sister and I were raised in the same denomination by the same parents, but her practice and interpretation of Islam looks very different from how mine looked. Her leanings were far more Western and pluralist than were mine. I was more interested in learning about Muhammad and his teachings than she was, while she was more interested in American pop culture than I was.

What’s the difference between Islam and Muslims?

Especially because of the great diversity of Islamic expression, it bears repeating that Islam is not Muslims, and Muslims are not Islam. Though Muslims are adherents of Islam, and Islam is the worldview of Muslims, the two are not the same, as too many uncritically want to believe. On one end of the spectrum, many assume that if the Quran teaches something then all Muslims believe it. That is false. Many Muslims have not heard of a given teaching, some might interpret it differently, and others may frankly do their best to ignore it. For example, even if we were to demonstrate through careful hermeneutics that the Quranic injunction to beat disobedient wives (4:34) is meant to apply to all Muslims today, it would still have zero bearing in my family. My father will not beat my mother. On the other end of the spectrum, criticism of Islam is often taken to be criticism of Muslims. That is equally false. One can criticize the Quranic command to beat disobedient wives without criticizing Muslims. Islam is not Muslims, and one can criticize Islam while affirming and loving Muslims.

What does it means that Islam is a religion of peace?

In our Islamic community, we were taught that the “surrender” of Islam was a submission of one’s will and life to God, which I would argue is noble and does not connote violence. But to contend that the word “Islam” signifies peace in the absence of violence is incorrect. “Islam” signifies a peace after violence, or under the threat of it. According to Islamic tradition, that is how Muhammad himself used the word. His warning to neighboring tribes is famous: Aslim taslam, “Surrender and you will have peace.” It was a play on words, as aslim also connotes becoming Muslim: “Convert, and you will have safety through surrender.” So the word “Islam” refers to the peace that comes from surrender. Peaceful Muslim communities today present that imagery as a spiritual peace with Allah, but records of Muhammad’s life indicate that the notion of submission was also used in military contexts.

Those who study Islamic history and continue to say Islam is a religion of peace mean it in one of two senses: a spiritual sense or an idealized sense. In the spiritual sense it is understood that Islam brings peace to a person through personal discipline, a right relationship with other Muslims, and submission toward the Creator. This sense of the slogan is irrelevant as a response to violent jihad. In the idealized sense, it is generally meant that Islam brings peace to this world. Though battles have been fought, they were fought out of necessity. Ideally, the goal that Islam strives for is peace throughout the world. Neither of these, though, means Islam is a religion devoid of violence.

You believe that the implication that Islam is a religion devoid of violence is simply false?

Yes. The frequent proclamations by leaders and media members of Islam’s peacefulness may be well-intended, but more is needed than good intentions. Instead, we must open our eyes and not allow ourselves to remain blind to evident facts in our attempts to either protect or sway Muslims. Though violence is writ large throughout the pages of Islamic history, including in its foundations, that does not mean our Muslim neighbors are violent. Muslims deserve to be treated with the kindness and respect due to all people. This intrinsic worth means we need not distort the truth about Islam to respect Muslims.

Why would a person move from moderate Islam to radical Islam?

There is a consistent thread running through each and every example of such radicalization. The radicalized Muslims were explicitly introduced to violent traditions of early Islam, they became convinced of their authenticity, and they intentionally chose to follow them. Whether or not this is always the defining factor for radicalization should not cloud the fact that it is a universal factor. There is no need to remain bewildered when mujahideen themselves often tell us their reasons for becoming radicalized. If we would listen carefully to what they have to say, we would find this to be true without exception.

Whatever the additional factors might be, however, the foundations and history of the religion do more than simply enable the use of violence for Islamic dominance; they command it. Nevertheless, most Muslims in the world are not violent people because of the centuries of tradition and layers of interpretation that separate them from their foundational texts. That is why I hope to also explain their perspectives, so we can understand our Muslim neighbors and show them the love and compassion that all people deserve, devoid of unwarranted fear and mistrust.

Love Kindness

Guest Voices — Thu, 25 Feb 2016 00:54:30 +0000

This Op-Ed piece by Dr. Barry Corey, president of Biola University, originally appeared in the Washington Post under the title, 'I'd like to punch him in the face': The incredible shrill of this election season.

“You are the single biggest liar.” “This guy is a petulant child.” “Let’s get the boy in his bubble out of his bubble.” “A lightweight choker.” “A low-energy ‘stiff.’”

Or the latest, from Donald Trump about a protestor: “I’d like to punch him in the face.”

Maybe I’m amnesiac, but does this year’s political season seem more outrageous than ever? By outrageous I mean the outrage, the heat, the shrill. Why have so many candidates put on red or blue ties and then wrapped themselves in razor wire before coming to the podium?

The campaign season is already interminably long; now it is also despicably harsh. Debate stages have become debate cages. Cable news segments and social media replay the most obscene, malicious and vitriolic one-liners. I can’t recall so many asterisks replacing the letters of a politician’s words that for the sake of decency can’t be said by respectable journalists.

Has shock and argument culture won? Is our society doomed to mean-spirited debates and divisions that get only deeper? Does meanness now trump kindness? With every passing headline in this election cycle, I wonder. I lament.

But I also must confess. As president of a Christian university, I am watching with worry how the rising generation perceives incivility from the evangelical tribe. I have been guilty of lobbing my own acerbic one-liners at people who have ideas I don’t like.

I am part of an evangelical culture that has too often opted for boycotts over reconciliation and culture wars over common-good collaborations. We’re often more interested in building revengeful walls than relational bridges. When we could be on the streets serving neighbors, we are on social media rattling sabers. We have used our hands less to serve than to shake our fists. We’ve used our voices far more than we’ve used our ears.

I’m sorry.

I’m sorry for how often Christians have disregarded God’s call for his people “to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God” (Micah 6:8). Sadly we have often been perpetrators of injustice, exemplars of unkindness and citadels of hubris.

I’m sorry that we have often been more concerned with changing an opponent’s mind than with hearing what stirs her heart. When we bypass or devalue a relationship in favor of being right, we cheapen the image of God in our fellow human beings. In a culture in which ideologies are divorced from people and conversation becomes more about winning the argument than inching toward truth, everybody loses.

Someone recently told me we never lead our enemies toward following Christ, only our friends. The same logic applies to any contested idea, whether in politics, religion or philosophy.

People are rarely won over by their enemies. So many of the well-mounted arguments in the world will fall on deaf ears if they are divorced from empathy and couched in arrogance. As has been tweeted of late: “You don’t beat an idea by beating a person. You beat an idea by beating an idea.”

If the caustic course of our culture is to be reversed, the virtue of kindness in the context of relationships must be prioritized. And I am calling on Christians to lead the way. Kindness is espoused in scripture and embodied in Jesus. If the followers of the one who said “love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” (Matt. 5:44) do not take the higher road of countercultural kindness, who will?

I’m calling on Christians to focus less on battling their enemies than on befriending them. If Christians are always thinking that it’s us against them, we won’t get very far. We can’t influence people who are our combatants. If we are unkind to those with whom we disagree, how will they ever see in us the profound, reconciling, unmerited, and sin-forgiving love of Christ? As a dear friend has reminded me, “You don’t have to see eye-to-eye to work shoulder-to-shoulder.”

I recall the words of J.D. Salinger in “The Catcher in the Rye”: “The mark of the immature man is that he wants to die nobly for a cause, while the mark of the mature man is that he wants to live humbly for one.”

Humble kindness doesn’t mean we go spineless or soft on convictions. It just means we are quicker to listen and slower to speak, leading with love rather than legalese. As I say in my new book, Love Kindness, it means living in the tension of “a firm center and soft edges.”

Kindness that bends to accept as valid everyone else’s viewpoint is not kindness. We can be kind and strong in our perspective. Kindness is not built thoughtlessly on the cliche that we should “agree to disagree,” never engaging in conversation. Kindness frees us to hold deep moral convictions, minus the vitriol.

Kindness in a pluralistic society means respecting the deeply held beliefs of others without feeling threatened by them or assuming that contradictory convictions cancel out the possibility of collaboration and friendship.

We need to celebrate examples in culture of people on opposite sides of issues who reason with one another in the context of friendship and mutual respect. I was so encouraged to read Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s moving tribute to her “treasured friend” and colleague on the Supreme Court, the late Antonin Scalia. Though they were ideological opposites in so many ways, they were “best buddies” for more than 30 years.

I was heartened by a “60 Minutes” segment recently that highlighted the unexpected friendship between President Obama and former Republican senator Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), who opposes gay marriage and abortion rights yet was one of the president’s closest friends in Congress.

Here’s what Coburn said of Obama: “I just love him as a man. … You don’t have to be the same to be friends. Matter of fact, the interesting friendships are the ones that are divergent.”

I’m also reminded of Princeton University professor Robert George and Union Theological Seminary professor Cornel West, political opposites yet profound friends who we hosted at Biola University last year as part of a dialogue with megachurch pastor Rick Warren about friendship amid disagreement.

West and George offer a great example of a meaningful friendship — forged through kindness — in which empathetic listening and spirited debate are not mutually exclusive. They ended the night clasping hands in prayer.

We need more of this. Amid the noise of our outrage culture, we need to turn down the volume and come together. We need to recognize that friendship-amid-disagreement is the foundation of a flourishing society, that kindness opens doors and transforms minds more effectively than a bullhorn ever could.

Answering Jihad Part 1

Guest Voices — Wed, 24 Feb 2016 04:37:18 +0000

Answering Jihad: A Better Way Forward, is Qureshi’s just-released book, rushed to press in the wake of the growing global concern over the threats and actions of Muslim extremists. This is Part 1 of a 4-part interview with Qureshi, currently studying Judaism and Christianity at Oxford, pursuing his doctorate in New Testament studies.

As a child, you grew up in a Muslim home with several family members having served in the U.S. Military. What values did that ingrain in you?

Our allegiance was to God and country; we were Muslim, first and foremost. As with Americans of other religious backgrounds, our faith was in no way exclusive of our devotion to our nation. According to my parents’ teaching, it was Islam that commanded me to love and serve my country. Islam taught me to defend the oppressed, to stand up for the rights of women and children, to shun the desires of the flesh, to seek the pleasure of God, and to enjoin the good and forbid the evil. By my teenage years I enthusiastically proclaimed Islam to all who would listen, and I usually started by informing them of a teaching that was knit into the fiber of my beliefs: Islam is the religion of peace.

How did September 11, 2001 change your thoughts on jihad?

On September 11, I was confronted for the first time with the stark reality of jihad. It was not as if I had never heard of jihad before; I certainly had, but I knew it as a defensive effort buried deep in the pages of Islamic history. That is how our imams alluded to jihad, and we never questioned it. As American Muslims we rarely, if ever, thought about jihad. When the twin towers fell, the eyes of the nation turned to American Muslims for an explanation. I sincerely believe September 11 was a greater shock for American Muslims like my family than for the average American. Not only did we newly perceive our lack of security from jihadists, as did everyone else, we also faced a latent threat of retaliation from would-be vigilantes.

It felt as if we were hemmed in on all sides. In the midst of this, while mourning our fallen compatriots and considering our own security, we had to defend the faith we knew and loved. We had to assure everyone that Islam was a religion of peace, just as we had always known. I remember hearing a slogan at my mosque that I shared with many: “The terrorists who hijacked the planes on September 11 also hijacked Islam.”

This led you to studying the history of Islam, in which you discovered a lot of violence in what you were taught was the “religion of peace.” How did you respond to that?

After years of investigation, I had to face the reality. There is a great deal of violence in Islam, even in the very foundations of the faith, and it is not all defensive. Quite to the contrary, if the traditions about the prophet of Islam are in any way reliable, then Islam glorifies violent jihad arguably more than any other action a Muslim can take. This conclusion led me to a three-pronged fork in the road. Either I could become an apostate and leave Islam, grow apathetic and ignore the prophet, or become “radicalized” and obey him. The alternative of simply disregarding Muhammad’s teachings and continuing as a devout Muslim was not an option in my mind, nor is it for most Muslims, since to be Muslim is to submit to Allah and to follow Muhammad. Apostasy, apathy, or radicalization; those were my choices.

How would you define Islam?

Islam is defined by obedience to Muhammad’s teachings and worship of no other god but the one he proclaimed, Allah. Although there are as many as 1.6 billion expressions of Islam in the world, Muslims are not themselves Islam. In my experience as an American Muslim, there was absolutely no emphasis placed on violence, but a great deal of emphasis placed on morality, legality, community, and spirituality. For me and all the American Muslims I knew, Islam was a religion of peace with God and peace with man. But my experience of Islam is not the only one, and it cannot define Islam. For other Muslims, violence is a part of their expression of Islam, but their experience is no more definitive than mine was.

The Religion of Star Wars

Guest Voices — Fri, 18 Dec 2015 18:09:31 +0000

The following is an excerpt from an excellent article by Peter Jones, executive director of truthXchange, a ministry that exists to recognize and respond to the rising tide of neopaganism. Click here for the full article.

With the opening of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, those who believe in the one true God have an opportunity to engage the culture with the truth about the timeless spiritual struggle that exists in the world.

I believe there are good reasons for viewing this film. We can certainly respect its artistic and entertainment value. Galactic battle scenes and human drama are entertaining. But also, by seeing this movie, Christians can sharpen their understanding of both contemporary culture and their appreciation of the Christian faith, allowing them to see in antithetical clarity both the Christian message and the message of Star Wars in order to present the gospel in a fresh way for our time.

In doing this, we follow what Christians have done throughout the ages. We need to realize that when Obi-Wan Kenobi instructs Luke to follow “the ancient religion,” this is a clear technical reference (for those in the know) to “pre-Christian paganism.” The gauntlet is thrown down in a call to theological confrontation. But this ancient, modernized “religion,” while implicitly claiming to be true, creates immense problems and gives no satisfying answers to the major mysteries of life:

No impersonal force or “it” can meet the deep affective and moral needs of human persons.

No human or impersonal source can give an adequate account of origins, since such an account fails to provide a convincing explanation of either personhood or of intelligence, on which the universe, and this movie, in particular, are based—including the love between Luke and his father and the technological wizardry that makes Star Wars so much fun.

Only a transcendent, personal, triune Creator can do that. Only the truth of such a personal God can meet our deepest needs.

At this relaunch of the seductive Star Wars myth, with its declaration that “all is finally well because all is one,” the world needs to hear not a clever myth. It needs to hear a bold proclamation of an historical fact—the fact that in Christ God defeated the darkness of the evil empire of human sin. He now grants real deliverance to needy human souls and a real promise—not of impersonal “eternal sleep”—but of a future eternal resurrected life and a face-to-face meeting with Him, our Maker and loving Redeemer.