A friend I met in Minneapolis this past summer, Mr. Tamim Saidi, recently sent me a link to his article, My God or Your Lord: Whom Should We Worship? where he offers his experience and perspective as a Muslim speaking on this important question that many ask regarding Islam and Christianity, “Is Allah the same as God?” If you’ve read A Deadly Misunderstanding, you are familiar with how I answer this question. Though I once believed wholeheartedly that Allah was a false god, through my experience and research I have found “Allah” simply the name for God in Arabic, used by both Christians and Muslims through the Arab world and moreover, Jesus our Lord used the nearly identical “Alaha” in his Aramaic language.  I thought you would be interested in hearing a similar perspective from a Muslim point of view. He begins:

“I still vividly remember one of my very first Islam 101 presentations shortly after the tragic events of September 11, 2001. It was in a school auditorium in one of the northern Twin Cities suburbs.

Immediately after the teacher introduced me and before I had finished my first sentence, I noticed a hand raised high from a young man who asked, “Why is your God better than my God?”

I was rather surprised by this question so early in the presentation, as I had planned to talk about the Islamic understanding of God around the middle of my presentation.  I tried to explain that Muslims believe in the One and the only God, the Creator of the universe–the same God that Jews and Christians believe in.  I further explained that Muslims believe in the same God that the Prophet Abraham, peace be upon him (p) believed in.  We worship the same God that spoke to Moses (p) and we pray and prostrate to the very same God that Jesus (p) prayed to and prostrated to; the same God that created Adam and Eve and the same God that saved Noah (p) from the flood.

So my God is your God and your Creator is my Creator, even though we might explain God in different terms.  Understanding this could have saved thousands of lives, and could have helped people of different faiths grow closer together.”

Tamim goes on to offer several examples from language, culture and religion that help to demystify the questions that cause many to ask if Allah and God are one and the same.  If you have lingering questions on this topic, you will find his perspective helpful.

Because of so much misunderstanding, I often find myself pointing out through various means that Muslims and Christians worship the same God. Can there be more than one Creator of the Universe? The misunderstanding of who we believe the other to worship often sets us up from the beginning with feelings of discomfort and mistrust which derail friendships before they begin! In all our striving to understand, we may miss the first thing God teaches us: to love our neighbor, to treat others as ourselves. Tamim finishes with a story reminding of the value of embracing humility when attempting to understand the infinite King of Kings:

“There is an ancient and very interesting Muslim understanding, perhaps another analogy or another parallel about understanding God. It is said that, when visiting a King, a peasant will have to ride his ass or horse (or, in our times, his Avalanche or his Honda) to the door of the castle, then leave his ass behind (or park his Avalanche), and meet the King on his own.  Even though our super-smart brains are designed to get us pretty far in understanding our Lord; at a certain point, it cannot get us any closer to understanding the King of kings. So we have to check our brains at the door of the castle. At that point, our heart and our intuition might get us a bit closer, if allowed by the King.

Thus God is beyond our imagination, and better than the best of the best that our super-smart brains can envision.”

Once again the country recoils from the violence that occurred last week at Ft. Hood.  I am deeply saddened to see this violence once again being linked to Islam, raising concerns against Muslims living in the US and in the military.  As always, I hear from my Christian friends, “Why don’t we hear condemnation from the Muslims for such horrific acts?” There are many Muslims who denounce the violence every time it occurs, as demonstrated by Muslim leaders in a press conference on November 5. On the other hand, some Muslims feel others must know they are people of peace and lament how the minority of extremists are causing the name of Muslims to be tarnished as a whole.  Some of them spoke out in the Indianapolis Star this week:

“There is no room in Islam for this kind of behavior. These people keep doing it, and it is unfortunate,” Siddiqui said. “We can only do our part and live our lives and live what we believe is true.”

One of the two Muslims in  Congress, Rep. Andre Carson, expressed concern for those impacted by the violence, but followed up with a further concern:

“[He] finds hypocrisy in the fact that faith has been at the heart of the discussion of the Fort Hood shootings when little has been said about the faith of a man who is accused of killing one person and injuring five at an office in Orlando, Fla., on Friday.”

We are wrestling as a nation; it is so tempting to pigeonhole religious beliefs as a motivator for this violence. In reality, both religion and unnumbered other factors are possible motivators in a person’s decision to inflict such horrible destruction on himself and others.   Do we oversimplify to make quick sense of the unexplainable?

I must repeat that in all my relations to those of the Muslim faith, the few I have encountered who think violence and God go together have twisted the truth.  It is a perversion of Islam, and a pervision in other religions or belief systems as well.  As a Sudanese sheikh once told me, true religion is a state of being.  A state of submission to God.

Yet where does this leave us?  We would do our best to view Muslims just as any others, free to live as any other American.  This is essential and a core of our Constitution.  Does this mean we ignore warning signs of extremism?  No.  But a warning does not indicate you to intern an entire people, but to aggressively fight to undermine the ideologies that influence a human to do evil against another person. In the aftermath of Ft. Hood, my friend Dr. Tawfik Hamid commented on the importance of addressing the ideologies of violence that, in certain cases, infiltrate religious education:

These educational or ideological factors must be addressed in an honest manner to avoid further calamities and to protect young Muslims from the damaging effects of these forms of teaching.

This battle for the heart and mind is a battle only God can truly win. We do well to both leave it to God and actively become his emissaries.  Not emissaries of judgment or ridicule, but emissaries of grace and mercy.  We love because he first loved us.  Do we have the right to any other option?

I would also like to share an excerpt from A DEADLY MISUNDERSTANDING that seems particularly apt and helpful in light of recent events.  You can find it on pages 219-222.

“Over the last few years, I have had the opportunity to spend some time with two former prime ministers of Somalia, a nearly 100 percent Muslim country so torn apart by its warring clans that it hasn’t had a functioning central government since 1991. Their comments echoed the same thoughts: as one lamented, since civil war seized his country the late 1980s, there had been endless division, lawlessness and interminable violence. He was now in the United States, he said, on a mission to find some kind of solution to his people’s seemingly interminable crisis.

I asked him what he thought was at the root of the problems in Somalia. Was it a religious division?

“No,” he replied, “we are all Muslims.”

Did he think it came down to a conflict based on ethnicity?

“No,” he repeated, “we are all essentially the same ethnic background.”

Was it tribal? He shook his head. Cultural? He sighed, and shook his head again. Grasping at straws, I asked if there were differences in language or dialect?

“No,” he said, “we mostly all speak the same language.”

Why would the Somali people stay so alienated for so long, and over what? What would drive the rage, mistrust, and wanton killing of neighbors and friends if they are all essentially the same people? As we talked, the prime minister and I came to the same conclusion: the center of the problem was simply the dark side of human nature.

While this book focuses on bridges between the Muslim East and Christian West, the issue at its core is humanity’s historic compulsion to be at war with itself. Our excuses for war are endless, but the truth is that war and conflict, division and mutual hostility need no more basis than the stubborn human tendency that is forever splitting our world into bitterly opposed camps. Whether Arab against Arab (Iraq), Christian against Christian (Northern Ireland), or Arab, Christian, and Jew against each other (Lebanon), it is at its core the same conflict. Beirut’s Green Line, Korea’s 38th Parallel, Germany’s Berlin Wall, the United States’ Mason-Dixon Line, and all the hundreds of thousands of similar partitions that we have erected throughout history and around the globe-they are all echoes of the same barren line of separation within the human heart, the same deadly misunderstanding.

In ancient Egypt, the heart was considered the seat of thought and emotion, and was the only organ not removed during mummification. The heart is mentioned in the Bible more than any other topic, and is discussed more than 150 times in the Qur’an.

“If we could just find a way to influence the human heart to love rather than to hate,” said my Somali friend, “then there may be hope for Somalia.”

Indeed, if we can find a way to do this, then there is hope for the rest of the world as well.

The concepts Jesus taught are as radical today as they were two thousand years ago, because they run counter to our divisive human nature-a nature that is perennially finding new Green Lines to create and then shooting across them at each other. It seems clear to me that these concepts represent the only hope of bridging the Muslim-Christian divide and subduing the shrill escalation of rhetoric, resentment and retribution between East and West. We know that most foreign ministries and formal diplomatic bodies (certainly including the U.S. Department of State) will not likely engage a policy of “loving” their enemies. But you and I can do exactly that.

How do we do this? What does this kind of love look like? Again, Paul’s first letter to his little community in Corinth provides a vivid picture of both what this kind of love is not (envious, boastful, proud, focused on its own agenda, readily provoked, always keeping a tally of the other’s wrongs, or relishing trouble and misfortune) and also what it is: patient, kind, truthful, protecting, trusting, hopeful, enduring, and finally, consistent and never-failing. I have witnessed first-hand how friendships based on these aspects of love can yield power beyond imagination, penetrating the hearts of even the most hardened despot.

Can we do this? Of course we can, and we must. The alternative is to do nothing and see our world consumed by an irrational maelstrom of hatred and violence.”

Thousands gathered in Khartoum today in an interfaith effort to see unity between the North and South of Sudan.  Mark Siljander presented a lecture “Spiritual Values that Lead to National Unity” at the event where Muslims and Christians gathered to show their support towards peace.  The public rally concluded with prayers with President Al Bashir for the peace of Sudan. The event then continued on with top scholars presenting papers to an audience of several hundred.

Mark’s lecture opened with these words:

A Salaam alechum. In the name of God who is compassionate and merciful, I want to thank the Ministry of Guidance and Bridges International for their courage in sponsoring this event, particularly in light of the momentous events surrounding this occasion. The Obama Administration has announced a new direction in dealing with Sudan, Darfurian rebels are seriously considering a willingness to engage in meaningful negotiations in Doha and critical aspects of the CPA are poised to be implemented. While this event was not planned around these historic events it is amazingly fortuitous; elhamdulillah!

Serving in politics at three levels (local, state, and federal) and as a diplomat at the United Nations, my new paradigm led to an approach which begins with building a spiritual camaraderie, which can lead to practical resolution of conflict and political challenges. It is called the “Fifth Track of Engagement.”

The “Fifth Track” approach works through facilitating the sharing of a multicultural spiritual paradigm powerful enough to foster trust, and empower influential leaders to replace radicalism with reconciliation and peace.

Fifth Track works to bridge cultures by following a successful and proven peacemaking model based on the teachings of the Holy Books, drawing on the thoughts of Jesus of Nazareth. Why? His teachings regarding reconciliation of offended parties are some of the most powerful in human history.

We hope to share audio and video of the conference soon!

Compassion is a central theme in our world’s religions.  Join those working to change the conversation about religion to focus on compassion: on treating others as you would like to be treated.

CHARTER FOR COMPASSION TRAILER from TED Prize on Vimeo.

I was invited to participate as a delegate to Saudi King Abdullah’s Geneva Interfaith Dialogue last week. We noted that the conference is mainly being covered by media in the Middle East thanks to Nathan Cowan’s request on Facebook for Christian response as well. I am happy to offer my perspective on the event.

It is important to realize that King Abdullah holding an interfaith conference is a huge breakthrough for spiritual reconciliation. Saudi Arabia is the home of Wahhabism, which has created an insulated, isolated and non-communicative atmosphere for Saudi culture for years! Please remember that seventeen of the nineteen 9/11 terrorists were Saudis and Bin Laden himself is Saudi as well.

Considering that history and context, this repeated effort to arrange major interfaith conferences on the international level signifies a huge opening and shows they are engaging on a new level. The king is reaching out to the world to help counteract extremism in his own country.

The formal dialogue itself was not revolutionary, but it is a beginning and allows for new relationships to begin forming. We were asking for divine appointments while at the conference and definitely received them! We had remarkable meetings with leaders from Oxford in England, Spain, Lebanon, India, Pakistan, several other Middle East countries and with top Saudi officials as well. We were able to meet Dr. Al-Turki, of the Muslim World League, who expressed interest in Saudi scholars reviewing the ideas and approach shared in A Deadly Misunderstanding. Meetings that allow such organic connections to take place in a global intersection of faith must certainly continue, and not diminish.

For a few other reportings on the conference, please see these sources:

WCC Leaders Stress Importance of Honesty in Interfaith Encounters

Editorial: Interfaith dialogue

If you would like to read what Aljazeera posted for the show,

LINK TO: Mark on Aljazeera.net Min Washington website in Arabic

Along with the recent Al Jazeera coverage in Qatar, Mark was interviewed by Sharmila Devi, who writes for Abu Dhabi English language paper, The National, covering the United Arab Emirates and the world.  Her article focused on the struggles Mark has encountered as a result of his work, but doesn’t fail to highlight what he considers an essential calling, to send a message to all that much of what divides us is a result of being “consumed with cultural traditions.”

Mark will also be an upcoming guest on Al Jazeera Arabic’s current events show, Min (From) Washington, with host Washington D.C. Bureau Chief Abderrahim Foukara. As a former U.N. Correspondent for Al Jazeera, Mr. Foukara interviewed senior U.S. and U.N. officials as well as senior U.S. correspondents, columnists and writers. More details on our itinerary page.

Reviewer David Pendleton of Spectrum Magazine, a publication of the Seventh Day Adventist community, highlighted five books that feed the discussion on the way towards Peace in the Middle East and the understanding of Islam (or lack of) in the West.  One of those five was A Deadly Misunderstanding:

Siljander’s summoning contribution is not so much his linguistic discussion but the clarion call to seeking ways to bridge cultural divides. He points out that the three monotheistic faiths share not only an Abrahamic lineage but a commitment to life and peace.

The conscientious diplomat in Siljander can be heard in his earnest plea: “if we’re going to find any viable common ground between our faiths, cultures, and nations, if we are going to build workable bridges across the Muslim-Christian divide, it has to be personal. … Negotiating with an enemy may be a professional act; loving one’s enemy is personal.” click here for more

Mark will be a guest speaker at the Seventh Day Adventist Muslim Summit in Riverside, CA, September 25, 2009. More information available here.

On Aug 27 the New York Times covered Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen’s recent essay to military personnel.

“‘To put it simply, we need to worry a lot less about how to communicate our actions and much more about what our actions communicate,’ Admiral Mullen wrote in the critique, an essay to be published Friday by Joint Force Quarterly, an official military journal.”

The Times article also emphasized Adm. Mullen’s views on the effectiveness of current efforts: “American messages to counter extremist information campaigns ‘lack credibility, because we haven’t invested enough in building trust and relationships, and we haven’t always delivered on promises,’ he wrote.”  Adm. Mullen’s words go a long way, acknowledging and reminding military and policymakers that the old adage, “Actions speak louder than words” is true.

Ramadan, the special month of fasting and prayer for Muslims begins this Friday August 21.  Our friends at ReadtheSpirit.com published an article introducing Ramadan to non-Muslims and will be publishing various information and stories throughout the month at their Sharing Ramadan website.  The conclusion of writer Raad Alawan’s introduction highlights an important point about the value of prayer and fasting:

“This is a powerful theme that members of other faiths can appreciate. Jesus thought fasting was good for the soul. So do Jews, who fast on Yom Kipper; and Catholics who fast on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. My point? We’re more unified than it may seem sometimes. And isn’t that what we all seek in life?”  Click here to read the article in full.