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As someone who teaches, speaks, and trains the church to share Christ with Muslims, I often encounter two vital questions: “Can we be concerned about Islamic ideology without fearing Muslims?” And the follow-up: “How should Gospel-centered Christians respond?”
These fair and necessary questions sit at the crossroads of theology, culture, and compassion. The short answer to the first is yes, but when it comes to the “how” question, walking that line requires wisdom, humility, and courage. In a time when fear, anger, and misinformation dominate conversations about Islam, followers of Jesus have an opportunity to model something different.
We can be people of conviction and compassion, guided by truth but grounded in love. This balance is not easy, but it is both possible and powerful when our confidence is rooted in Christ.
The first and most important truth in this conversation is this: Islam and Muslims are not the same thing. Islam is a system; Muslims are people trapped in that system.
Islam is the ideology; Muslims are the image-bearers. To confuse the two is to fight the wrong battle. When we treat people as the problem, we can fall into hatred. When we treat false ideas as harmless, we fall into compromise. The Gospel calls us to clarity about both.
Islam promises submission but not salvation. It offers law without grace, devotion without the assurance of pardon. It binds the conscience under commands but cannot cleanse the heart from guilt. Those who live within its shadow are not villains to be feared but souls to be pitied, prayed for, and pursued in love.
This is why Christians must see Islam for what it is: a spiritual system that enslaves, not a community of people to despise. The sharper we recognize the chains, the more we must remember the Captive. Every Muslim is someone loved by God, held captive by an ideology that blinds them to the Son who died for them. They do not need our suspicion; they need our witness. They do not need our retreat—they need our courage.
To fear Muslims is to forget who the real enemy is. Scripture tells us that our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the spiritual powers that hold humanity in darkness (Ephesians 6:12). Islam is one of those powers, namely a fortress of ideas exalting itself against the knowledge of Christ. Yet the Gospel is stronger. It alone can demolish strongholds and set captives free.
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