Let me clear up a few things-
‘Allah’ is merely the Arabic word for God. In Bibles written in Arabic, God is written as Allah. Claiming Allah is some different, heathen god is exactly the same as claiming the Jews worship YHWH, not God. It is true that Christians believe in different attributes of God than Muslims, but the same is true for Christians and Jews. In fact, there is virtually no disagreement about God between Muslims and Jews.
Well…yes and no. “Allah” certainly is Arabic for “God”, but what exactly that means varies according to which Arabic-speaking faith community you are talking about. We have had several very interesting threads on this subject that have been graced with the knowledge of our native Arabic-speakers of both the Christian and Muslim communities, and the consensus (to the extent that we could reach one) seems to be the Allah is NOT simply the word for God in Arabic among Muslims. It is more like a proper name like “Joe”, “Maria”, or “Armen”. While this may or may not seem important to you, apparently it is of some theological importance to at least some Muslims, as the conversation got a bit heated between myself and some Muslim posters regarding this point. I don’t get it, but there you go.
There is a special place in Islam for Christians and Jews who are called “people of the book,” Yes, some Muslims would still want to convert us, and some would want to kill us if we didn’t convert… but a reasonable interpretation of the Qur’an shows the Islam does not wish harm to come of Christians or Jews.
We do not call ourselves “People of the Book”, though. This is
their term for us, and it reflects the projection of inherently flawed Islamic epistemology on us. I don’t accept it, and I don’t think any other Christian should. We are people of
Christ, who is not a book. Better to be “Masihiyeen” than one of the “Ahl al-kitab”, no?
Also, I must object to your “reasonable interpretation”. I would certainly say that is unreasonable to suggest that there is nothing but harm and enmity towards Christians in the Qur’an, but I certainly would not therefore make the leap that you are apparently making and say that “Islam does not wish harm to come [to?] Christians and Jews”. This is quite false. They want us to pay the jizyah and feel ourselves thusly subdued (I guess you might be right in this regard…why kill the goose that lays the golden egg), but should we refuse…well, then it is a different story. Any “oppression” of Islam means all that nice stuff goes out the window, and we do not get to decide what constitutes “oppression” of Islam. They decide that, and it can be as simple as preaching the Gospel, refusing to submit to second class status under Islamic rule, agitating for the freedom of your people, etc.
The problem is that many of the bad things about Islam are also bad about the Old Testament (“you’re religion allows you to stone women who enter the temple while menstruating?! Who wear mixed fabrics?!”) On deeper analysis, we don’t think these things are bad (for a number of reasons). But none of us are able to give this deep of analysis to the things we claim are wrong with Islam.
I think this is looking at things from an overly charitable position. The question ought not to be “aren’t there similar things SOMEWHERE in the Bible” (because most Muslims are terrible at exegesis, since it’s not their book), but rather “how do the respective communities interpret and practice their religion in light of those verses?” So, in a way, you’re right: We are unable, as Christians, to analyze the problematic verses of the Qur’an in any way that would be meaningful to Muslims (because, like the flawed exegesis of the Bible on the part of the Muslims, it is not our book), but the important thing to recognize is that much of maintstream Islam is itself unwilling to perform this analysis, even for its own benefit. Read this forum a bit and you’ll see that nine times out of ten when something horrific happens in the name of Islam, the responses from Muslims are “that is not true Islam”, and then silence. Or sometimes just silence. No deep analysis, no refutation of the actual practice based on any traditional reading or understanding of the Qur’an (or Sunnah, or Hadith). Just “that is not true Islam”, and then they move on to complaining about things they think are similar about the Bible, or about how we’re all so anti-Muslim, etc. Believe me, I WISH this weren’t the case, but it is.
That is why the only thing about Islam that matters is that it is not of Christ. If Christ had said that Islam is the best religion, we would follow it despite everything its critics say. But Christ said follow His religion, so anything that is not His religion is false–that is, and should be, our basis for opposing Islam.
It is the true that the only thing that matters about Islam (or about ANYTHING) is whether it is with or against Christ, but I think that framing things in these terms doesn’t help anyone. It doesn’t help the victims of Islamic terror across the world, be they Christian or otherwise, and it surely will not help bring Muslims to an accurate understanding of Christ and Christianity (neither of which they get from the Qur’an or anything else related to Islam). Keep in mind that Muslims already believe that they are the ones who are really following Christ, and that we are the ones who are in error. They get that from their false Qur’an, so handling it with kid gloves while they savage our scriptures at every turn looking for evidence of Muhammad or their religion is really doing CHRIST a disservice.
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Another FFI site I can’t open up. 