Perceptions of Other Religions
I've been watching Ben Hur tonight while I cooked dinner. (I forgot just how long it was. I was half way through cleaning up when the intemission hit!) It surprised me at just how differently the Arab horse-racer is portrayed -- he's almost black while the Jews are all white as snow! Didn't the director realise that they were all Semites back then? (It's not even as though the Arab was an evil character, just a little uncouth.)
That reminds me of a crazy episode of Wife Swap where a crazy woman who objects to having her children cared for by an atheist. Her husband tries to calm her down by suggesting that maybe her replacement was Jewish. Because at least Jews believe in God; that is to say, they're half way there!
But why then are Muslims so maligned? Aren't they closer to Christianity than Judaism is? They beleive that Jesus was one of the better prophets and that he will return, albeit to pave the way for the Mahdi. Is it perhaps that people fear more those who came after and believe more than themselves? (And, conversely, are relatively comfortable around their predecessors whom they perceive as having less knowledge.) If so, mainstream Christians should be more hostile towards Mormons (well, Bob Larson is).
I guess religion and culture are too entwined for those sorts of judgements to be objective, if ever it is right to care that much about others' beliefs.
posted by Nick @ 9:57 pm
2 comments
2 Comments:
I think you'll find much of the answer for conservative Christians is a question of Scripture. Christianity and Judaism share two thirds or more of their sacred texts. This kind of overlap means there can be a lot of harmony on diverse theological issues.
Islam gives a hat tip to Jesus and to Abraham and to some Jewish purity laws (not eating pork etc), but the texts don't overlap at all (unless Islam recognizes the Torah, but I'm pretty sure it doesn't).
The respect for Jesus as a second-tier prophet and the concept of "people of the Book" (if it isn't considered superceded) provide some points for building bridges if parties are interested in that. This provides common ground between Christianity and Islam that isn't there for the non-monotheistic religions but less than exists between Chrsitianity and Judaism.
I think though you'd find that historically neither Judaism or Islam were particularly priveleged and in fact anti-semitic strains of the Church may have been more aggressive than anti-Muslim ones. However, Judaism has a special place in the hearts fundamentalist American Christians because zionism is part of their apocalyptic theology. Many believe if they can return Jews to Israel and rebuild the temple they can fast track the end times. Most Israelis are secular but are happy to have the political support of the Christian Right.
I'm not sure in exactly what way Islam recognises the Torah but Muslims certainly do more than tip their fezes to Isa and Ibrahim. They recognise all the prophets that Judaism and Christianity do albeit under Arabic names, even Adam gets a look in.
I guess that you could say that Jesus is a second tier prophet but he's second only to one or two (there's some disagreement within Islam over whether Muhummad and the Mahdi are the same person). But he's not just a magician some second rate prophet like Elisha, he's the Mahdi's right hand man. So, you'd have to say their view is less heretical than the positions of some who call themselves Christians e.g. the Arians.
But I think you've hit the nail on the head with your point about Christian Right supporting Zionism becuase of their apocalyptic theology. It doesn't fully answer my question but nothing they believe ever does!
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