Jesus Hates Islamophobia

Last updated on: January 11, 2016 at 9:33 am by Mark Van Steenwyk

Jesus Hates Islamophobia 2016-01-11T09:33:49-05:00 Mark Van Steenwyk

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Every time a Muslim refugee or Muslim citizen commit a violent crime in this country, it gets fed through the right wing media machine. Then hundreds of people, most of them professing Christians, leave hateful comments filled with revenge fantasies and violent rhetoric. Read the comments section of any major mediaÂ article that even mentions Islam and you’ll see what I mean.

I have three things to say about this phenomenon.

1) This is called confirmation bias. One tends to find what one looks for. One pays attention to those things that support one’s beliefs and tends to ignore those that do not. We all do it. It becomes a problem when a bunch of people do it all at once and allow this collective confirmation bias to drive them towards fear and violence.

If I thought elderly white people were inherently violent, I would tend to notice all the stories about elderly white aggressors and would tweet and post such stories. Everyone else with my same bias would do likewise until there is a torrent of articles about the violence of elderly white folks. It doesn’t matter whether or not statistical data confirms my suspicion, just like the data showing that Muslim refugees aren’t more violent than other groups of people doesn’t matter to bigoted folks.

I get that this comparison is simplistic. But not any more simplistic than attributing all of the violence happening in a region to your superficial understanding of their religion.

2) If you follow Jesus, you have absolutely no justification for revenge. You have no justification for desiring violence against your enemies. Not only does Jesus tell us to love our enemies and lay aside our weapons, we are explicitly told revenge is forbidden.

When you use your Christian faith or evoke Jesus to support violence against your enemies, Jesus (sitting in heaven, I assume) feels phantom pain in his palms, side, and feet.

3) If you are concerned about the rise of anti-Western sentiments in the Middle East, about the rise of violent groups in the Middle East, or about the way in which Islam has been interpreted by those groups with violent intent, then stop scapegoating your Muslim neighbors. Instead of giving into fear, do some proactive research. Learn about the history of colonialism and conflict in the Middle East. Research the way in which global powers (like the US, Russia, China and the EU) use nations and factions in the Middle East and elsewhere like pawns, supporting one group yesterday and then condemning them as terrorists today. Ask yourself “why would we do that?” Look at a map of US military bases around the world, and at a list of drone strikes committed by the US in the past decade and ask, “where does anti-American sentiment come from?”

Previous Post

January 2, 2016

5 Wonderfully Subversive Books I've Read to My Son

Next Post

January 11, 2016 American Jesus

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Anarchism Bible Blog Commentary Empire formation Hospitality Jesus Money nonviolence podcast Politics Prayer Protest Sexuality spirituality theology Worship

Select a Month September 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 November 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 May 2016 April 2016 January 2016 December 2015 July 2014 February 2014 December 2013 August 2013 July 2013 January 2013 December 2012 October 2012

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Who said, "I am the Alpha and the Omega"?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Paul Jesus John Moses