Brianrianianann

International – 138 of the world’s most powerful Muslim leaders have signed a letter to the world’s leading Christian authorities (the pope, the archbishop of Canterbury and the heads of the Lutheran, Methodist and Baptist churches). It is signed by the heads of all different sects of Islam and urges peace between Christians and Muslims. “A Common Word Between Us and You,” is the name of the letter, which argues that the basic fundamental tenets of the two religions are the same: love of one (and the same) God, and love of one’s neighbor. The Christian community has received the letter positively so far. Rod Parsley, senior pastor of the World Harvest Church in Ohio, said, “My prayer is that this letter begins a dialogue that results in Muslims and Christians uniting around the love we have for each other as God’s children.” The letter was the brainchild of Jordan’s Royal Aal al-Bayt Institute for Islamic Thought in Amman, but the actual author of the paper has not been revealed in order not to undermine the collaborative nature of the letter. The institute is working on a similar letter to the Jews.

Opinion – I tried to find the letter online to read for myself, but I couldn’t. I’d really like to read it. I have a couple problems with this letter. One is that, of all the countries whose Muslim leaders signed it, Iran and several nations were not among them. The countries in which Islamic extremism is actually a threat aren’t the ones writing this letter. Another problem is the Christian community accepting that Christians and Muslims serve the same God. Perhaps Muslims believe the same basic ideas about their God as we believe about ours. That God is omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient, and One. But to Christians, Christ is God in that he is part of the Trinity, God in three persons. Muslims reject the divinity of Christ, which is fundamental to the Christian conception of who God is. It seems dangerous to me to be accepting generalizations such as this for the sake of agreement between our two religions. I think this is a great gesture of goodwill from the Islamic community that should be accepted, but warily.

International – A Turkish man was arrested in Austria for killing a younger Turkish associate in what is called an “Honor Killing”. The man had suspected his associate of having an affair with his wife for some time, so in order to preserve his family honor, the first man shot his associate with a twelve-gauge shotgun in the street and cut off his “woo-woo” with a kitchen knife. Austria is home to Europe’s third largest Turkish expatriate population just so you know.

Opinion – ouch. But the guy had it coming. Supposedly the killer had warned the guy to keep away from his wife almost a decade earlier. So take some advice: take other people’s advice if you want to keep your fun parts intact.