Monday, April 7, 2008

The Apology - The letter from Christians to Muslims - Part 3

The article "Common ground?" by Stephen Adams in the March 2008 issue of Citizen magazine quotes the Yale Divinity School's response to the Muslim's letter to Christians as saying, "Before we 'shake your hand' in responding to your letter, we ask forgiveness of the All-Merciful One and of the Muslim community around the world."

Dr. Albert Mohler, president of Southern Seminary (Southern Baptist), referring to the defeat of a Muslim invasion of Europe in 732 AD, preserving Christianity as the continent's chief religion, asks, "Are these people suggesting that they wish the military conflict with Islam had ended differently--that Islam had conquered Europe?"

A ministry leader in Muslim East Africa said that since the Yale apology, (which, according to the article, "has been widely publicized in the Islamic world"), "Stones have now been thrown into our churches, with them calling us 'Crusaders.'"

Dr. Mark Durie, an Australian expert on Islam, said, "By taking responsibility as Christians for an event as distant in time as the Crusades, they send the message to the global Muslim community that Christians in the world...could be held to account by Muslims for ancient grievances... Why legitimize this deadly and false libel by confessing guilt on behalf of the worldwide Christian community?"

The article states, "[Dr.] Mohler finds the Yale letter's apology for America's war on Islamic terror networks equally perplexing. 'For whom are we apologizing and for what are we apologizing?'" he asked.

More next time...

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