Is there a historical link between the relationship of American Christians and Islam in the early colonies and today’s “War on Terror?” Dr. Thomas Kidd of Baylor University asks just this question.
It is interesting to analyze a current issue with a historical perspective. As a generation, we are growing up with the only images of Islam manifested in September 11th and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. We often hear on the news stories of how Islam is a religion of hate. In our universities, we are taught that the relationship of Islam and the West as what fills the gap left by the collapsed binary of the US and the USSR, as is espoused by the late Samuel Huntington. Nevertheless, we never hear of the relationships Christians had with Muslims prior to the modern day and if the relationship was different.
However, Dr. Kidd believes the approaches of today that intentionally “other” Muslims or frame the issues in an eschatological framework are by no means new. By linking the American view of Islam as beginning with the Barbary Pirates, Kidd shows the evolution and many manifestations of a fearful and often ignorant view of Islam. He claims there is a need for all Christians to be sensitive and knowledgeable of Islam to keep a dialogue open, but this does not mean they need to sacrifice their principles. By spewing soundbites like “a demon-possessed pedophile” as Jerry Vines does, Christians are only shutting off a dialogue and not acting in a way that promotes a more peaceful existence. He does not deny that Islam inspires terrorist events like September 11th and the London subway attacks. However, he notes that in a religion of one billion people, many millions of Muslims are in opposition to the idea of jihad. In a world of pluralism, everyone must be willing to understand differences and remain civil, no matter what party they believe to be correct.
Then, we finished our seminar on a very different note, Patrick Henry and Anti-federalism. We talked about Henry’s refusal to attend the Constitutional Convention because he smelled “a rat”. Henry foresaw the possibility of the Presidency becoming a monarchy and that a federal government could slip into a large state from which the colonists had fought so valiantly to be free. In other words, the very government established to uphold “holy cause of liberty” would extinguish it.