My Muslim Neighbor: Resources

My Muslim Neighbor 

Resources 

Discover Islam will provide a free set of 6 DVDs to members of the ELCA. Each half-hour long program presents a positive, insider's view of Islam. Topics include: Islam: An American Faith, Christians & Islam, and Women in Islam. Request a set through www.discoverislam.com/elca. The page also includes a link to the Study Guides available through www.elca.org. There are many other free resources available through the Discover Islam website. 

Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service and Lutheran Social Service of Minnesota have produced a free 7-part study titled My Neighbor is Muslim: Exploring the Muslim Faith. The authors  include prominent Lutheran theologians and Muslim writers. The study can be downloaded as an ebook at http://lirs.org/myneighborismuslim. Or request a hard copy of the book through the same website.

A decent English translation of the Qur'an with some helpful notes can be downloaded at no charge through Amazon's Kindle store. Search for Quran: A Simple English Translation  from Goodword Books. 

The Study Qur'an: A New Translation and Commentary by Seyyed Hossein Nasr, et al (HarperOne, 2015. $59.99) can be had for substantially less than MSRP. It includes extensive notes interpreting the text of the Qur'an and a collection of useful essays. 

Todd Green of Luther College has written and excellent and highly-readable book titled Fear of Islam: An Introduction to Islamophobia in the West (Fortress Press, 2015. $24.00). In it Prof. Green explores the history of Islamophobia, the modern Islamophobia industry, and solutions to the problem of Islamophobia.

Karen Armstrong's book Islam: A Short History (Modern Library, 2002, $15.95) gives a good overview of Islamic history from the Prophet Muhammad to our day.

The theologically adventurous will want to read Allah: A Christian Response, by Miroslav Volf (HarperOne, 2011. $15.99). Volf gives serious and thought-provoking consideration to the question of whether Christians and Muslims worship the same God and what this means for relationships between the two faiths.

There are further resources available through the ELCA website (http://www.elca.org/en/Faith/Ecumenical-and-Inter-Religious-Relations/Inter-Religious-Relations/Online-Resources and A Center of Christian-Muslim Engagement for Peace and Justice at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago (http://centers.lstc.edu/ccme/)

My Muslim Neighbor: Resolution

My Muslim Neighbor

WHEREAS, our Lord Jesus calls us to love our neighbor (Matthew 22:39); and, 

WHEREAS, in the United States our neighbors include a growing number of Muslims (1); and,

WHEREAS, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) has, from its beginning, committed itself to ecumenical and interfaith dialog; and,

WHEREAS, the ELCA is a founding member of the Shoulder-to-Shoulder Campaign (2), “an interfaith campaign [which] works at the national level and offers strategies and support to local and regional efforts to address Islamophobia;” (3) and,

WHEREAS, our Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton, in an open letter to the Muslim American community, wrote, “…we renew our commitment to find even more effective ways to protect and defend you from words and actions that assault your safety and wellbeing. We believe God calls us to resist what is divisive, discriminatory, xenophobic, racist or violent, and we want you to look to us as allies and friends;” (4) and,

WHEREAS, Islamophobia, defined as “hatred, hostility, and fear of Islam and Muslims, and the discriminatory practices that result” (5) is real and dangerous; and,

WHEREAS, we do not need to believe that Islam is right to understand that Islamophobia is wrong; and,

WHEREAS, the headline-grabbing actions of violent extremists are not representative of mainstream Islam; and

WHEREAS, anti-Islamic rhetoric has become the stock-in-trade of some politicians, religious figures, and prominent atheists; and,

WHEREAS, the latest FBI statistics indicate an increase in incidents of hate crimes against Muslims (6); and,

WHEREAS, prejudice flourishes in the presence of ignorance; and,

WHEREAS, Christians and Muslims share a common Abrahamic tradition; and,

WHEREAS, excellent resources for understanding Islam are available, many free-of-charge;

THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that the Northern Illinois Synod “repudiate the hostility and hatred aimed at Muslims” (7) and commit itself to opposing, preventing, and eliminating Islamophobia; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that members of the Northern Illinois Synod be encouraged to educate themselves about the beliefs and practices of our Muslim neighbors; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the Northern Illinois Synod make available a list of some useful resources for understanding the Islamic faith; and,

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that congregations of the Northern Illinois Synod in communities with an Islamic presence, reach out to engage our Muslim neighbors in friendship, in conversation, and in cooperative effort.

NOTES:

1. http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/04/14/muslims-expected-to-surpass-jews-as-second-largest-u-s-religious-group/

2. http://www.shouldertoshouldercampaign.org/

3. http://www.elca.org/Faith/Ecumenical-and-Inter-Religious-Relations/Inter-Religious-Relations/Muslim-Relations

4. Full text available at www.elca.org

5. Green, Todd, The Fear of Islam: An Introduction to Islamophobia in the West, Fortress Press, 2015, p. 9

6. https://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/2015/november/latest-hate-crime-statistics-available

7. Luther College Statement on Islamophobia (http://www.luther.edu/just-action/islamophobia/)