Muslims and Christians around the campfire?

Do Christianity and Islam both revere Jesus, so it’s easy for Christians and Muslims to sit around the campfire singing “Kumbaya”? Andrew Harrod who holds a Ph.D. from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, says in a full-of-links article last week that we need to look more deeply.

Harrod starts with a USA Today editorial page column by Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) national communications director Ibrahim Hooper that, regarding Christian and Muslim understandings of Jesus, “We have more in common than we think.” But, as Hooper’s citation of Quran 2:136 indicates, Islam sees Jesus merely as a prophet among other biblical figures, all of whom were Muslims. (We don’t know this, Muslims say, because the subsequent corruption of Judaism and Christianity hid that supposed truth.)

Harrod points out that anyone who believes in the Trinity has “certainly disbelieved” according to Quran 5:72-73, and will receive “painful punishment.” Quran 4:157-59 denies that Jesus ever suffered crucifixion—and thus He never atoned for our sins. Salvation depends upon our own good deeds, as one Muslim website explains. Harrod cites an article about jihadist atonement for rule-breaking that WORLD published a month after 9/11.

Harrod also notes that a host of Quran verses praise warfare against non-Muslims (e.g., 2:190-93, 8:12, 8:39, 8:60, 9:5, 9:29, 9:123, and 47:4). And there’s more in his article, which I’d summarize by saying that, if Islam becomes dominant, Christians should anticipate not a campfire but a fiery furnace.