When an Arabic speaking Muslim friend saw Mel Gibson’s movie Passion of the Christ with most of the dialogue in Aramaic, he was very surprised that he did not need most of the subtitles in English to understand the movie!

This connection is a critical bridge builder: sister languages, Arabic, and Aramaic, the written language which was once the global language, stretching from the Near East to Malabar in India and East China.

Dr. Sidney Griffith, a Catholic priest and noted Syriac scholar, states that, “neither Qur’anic nor Aramaic scholars have seen fit to make the linguistic connection and it is about time that connection was made.”

Western academia has been primarily concentrated on Biblical Greek. What we need to now consider is the Aramaic/Syriac New Testament, written in the language Jesus actually spoke, as an additional tool for comparative analysis. I have found this an invaluable tool working with the Islamic world in seeking bridges to the common ground.

Muslims respect the similarity of words, meanings, and relate to the Eastern traditions and idiomatic nuances of the Aramaic. They are very similar to the Arabic of the Qur’an and the Hebrew of the Torah; and can help unlock useful mysteries within the Eastern Holy Books.

The Prophet Muhammad and Aramaic

Some Islamic historians tell us that trusted Assyrian and Syriac speaking believers in Jesus interacted with the Prophet Muhammad and likely read to him from the Aramaic Eastern Text. The very word Qur’an, which means “The Recital,” is derived from an Aramaic/Syriac word qiriana.

Original Revelation of the Holy Books: Why the Aramaic has special meaning for Muslims

The most compelling logic for use of the Aramaic New Testament in building bridges to the Common Ground deals with the Muslim view of “original revelation.”

Islam holds that God, through the angel Gabriel, spoke the revelation to the Prophet Mohammed in Arabic and is considered the official language of “The Recital.” Thus, the only accepted written version is Arabic.

Since Jesus spoke Aramaic, Muslims believe (consistent with Islamic logic) the “Holy” written version of the Gospel would be in Aramaic.

It is helpful to note that Aramaic was the first written Semitic script of the three, followed by Hebrew and finally, Arabic. The ever widening “gulf” separating us is unfortunate, but it is my hope that studying the related Semitic languages of the East will serve as a key foundation, providing evidence that our faiths have more in common than we have believed in the past.

Christian & Islamic Views of God: Our differences don’t change who God is

One student, in a last effort to refute the presentation, conceded “Islam may be referring to the same God as the Jews and Christians linguistically, but Islam sees God very differently than Christianity.”  In a similar vein, I received through a friend a recent email from Ravi Zacharias’ ministry. The email from Ravi’s staff confirmed that we don’t disagree on the name of God, but rather His character. I agree that this is true; yet in my work I have found that those differences are much narrower than we might first suppose.

There are indeed differences in perception of the character of God, just as there are many views people may have of you!  Some view you as a friend, others as an enemy. Some may look at you as someone who is fair, others as a scoundrel. My wife views me as a partner, lover, etc, much differently than my children; they in turn see me differently than my siblings. Moreover, each of them has their individual understanding of me; my character, nature and directives. But I am the same person, viewed differently by different people.

Christians demand that Muslims view God in the context of their particular doctrine alone as evidence of following the “true” God. One needs to be careful, as this premise negates Jews of the Torah from believing in the same God. After all, Jews do not accept Jesus as Messiah, let alone see Him as God’s Word, Spirit and supernaturally conceived like the Muslims do. Perhaps enforcing our respective dogma on others is why Christians are themselves so divided into what Bill Hybels has counted as 36,000 sects and denominations. Do any of the 147 varieties of Baptists view God exactly the same? What about Pentecostals, Catholics, Methodists, or Quakers, let alone Mormons, Jehovah Witnesses, etc.?

From another standpoint, one cannot assume that current struggles with extremism within Islam represent the whole of its history or its future.  Who did the Christian church claim as God while engaged for centuries in the Crusades; enforcing the Inquisition; or rising up in violence, Protestant against Catholic? Those behaviors were unconscionable, but do Christians say that those being misled at that time did not pray to the same God as they do now?  Clearly, the performance of the human family does not define who God is.

However unlikely it seems, a careful review of the Muslim Holy Book reveals Christians share much more with Muslims in their concept of who God is than any of our respective religious dogmas might dictate.  After reading the Qur’an, most would agree we are both referring to the one God: magnificent and omnipresent, omnipotent creator of heaven and earth, the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Ishmael. He is the God of the prophets, such as Abraham, Moses, Daniel, Noah and John the Baptist.

He is the same God who in both the Gospels and Qur’an sent the angel Gabriel to the Virgin Mary, who birthed a sinless Messiah named Jesus through the Holy Spirit. The same Jesus, who could heal the sick, raise the dead, was taken up to God and is coming back on Judgment Day. There is of course much more to discuss, but what other God could all this be referring to?

In the end, the seminary students were nearly unanimous, agreeing that the three major faiths do pray and refer to a monotheistic god, and that linguistically they are the same “God.” While many left changed in attitude, most confessed discomfort using Allah in place of “God.” Western bias against it is difficult to break.

I must confess that after extensive Western/Christian training myself, it has taken time for me to feel comfortable using the Arabic term, Allah, for God in conversations. My mentor Rev. John Booko, who has been a pastor for 50 years, helps me break my dogmatically negative feeling about Allah when he prays in the name of Alaha in his Aramaic language.

Do we not all fancy ourselves on a path seeking revelation of the “true” God? None of us has to scratch very deeply to find out that our concept of God is different from another’s concept of God.  My concept of God is not the same as when I first believed.  Some days it is not even the same as it was the day before. God does not change, but I do! God is revealing himself from day to day through dialogue, reading of the Scriptures and through experiences. Because some have not arrived at what each of us might believe is His true nature, let us not condemn another, and cut ourselves off from others in the process of their search.

What I have hoped to outline here is evidence that the Abrahamic faith traditions share the same linguistic name for God and describe God similarly. While we feel there are profound differences in our view of His character, our journey of discovery has revealed many of these “differences” that seem daunting are minimized with careful reading of the Holy Books in Hebrew, Aramaic and Arabic. When people open a door to explore common ground we should not slam it in their faces.

I have run out of space, but allow me to share one last thought.  In interfaith relations, the nature, person and mission of Jesus of Nazareth is often seen as the crux of the problem, when ironically, he is in fact the extraordinary solution.

For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then we will see face to face. 1 Cor. 13:12

The conversation surrounding A Deadly Misunderstanding and the Muslim-Christian divide has been picking up the last few weeks, and we thought it would be great to highlight several bloggers that recently made ADM a focus on their blogs.  Seth McBee is fostering an ongoing conversation over at Contend Earnestly regarding Islam and Christianity and made Mark one of his resources for that conversation, starting with his review of A Deadly Misunderstanding and continuing by featuring several of Mark’s YouTube videos.

“This book will stretch anyone who reads it. There is so much “good” in this book and so much that the reader will realize about their own journey towards truth (if they are honestly trying to learn), that it is well worth the read. If you like where you are currently in your understanding of the world and are enjoying what is portrayed in American media, don’t read this book. But, if you want to see what is actually happening elsewhere, what Muslims actually believe, what the Bible actually says in certain points and desire to be stretched, you need to read this book.”

Seth is also involved with supporting an upcoming Muslim-Christian dialogue event at Harambee Church in Renton, WA on March 27.

Richard Dahlstrom is raincitypastor in Seattle, WA.  He wrote Digesting the “Deadly Misunderstanding” at his blog Fibonnaci Faith:

“The book is a blend of narrative (Mark’s own expanding web of relationships with Islamic leaders, teachers, and scholars), and theology (Mark’s ever expanding discoveries of common beliefs between Christians and Muslims). I won’t reveal those points of common interest because I think you should take the time to read the book. After all, nearly every nation in which our military is involved in conflict has a sizable Muslim presence. Conventional wisdom, even, would tell us that we should know our enemy. Jesus would tell us that we should love our enemy. Mark will tell us that when we begin to study our enemy, we realize that he might not even BE our enemy, that we perhaps share more in common, than we differ.”

Dan Martin of California recommended A Deadly Misunderstanding as a must-read on his blog Nailing it to the Door…:

“I want to be clear: this is no milquetoast universalist pablum. Siljander is NOT claiming some notion of all roads leading to God. What he’s doing is far more careful and well-thought than that. He is demonstrating the frequency with which fundamental–often violent–differences between the Abrahamic faiths are based on ignorance: not only ignorance of the “other’s” faith, but all too often ignorance of the actual text and context of our own faith and its creeds. In this, he’s coming to a conclusion a Muslim roommate and I (with far less scholarship) came to more than 20 years ago: if both of us and our brothers merely were careful to follow what OUR OWN SCRIPTURES actually said, we’d find a lot of common ground, and at the very least, we couldn’t fight each other.”

All of these reviews kicked off a flurry of comments at their respective blog pages.  We really appreciate the level of dialogue and critique that these bloggers are nurturing.  These issues run deep and as Seth mentioned, can be difficult to articulate without being misunderstood, “The written word can be misleading and very difficult to convey at times, especially on such touchy subjects as this.” Mark found that this was especially true when attempting to write a book appropriately encouraging and challenging for both a Muslim and Christian audience.  We’re happy to have bloggers who are seeing the “heart” of the issue and willing to discuss and dialogue on this new approach for bridge building.  This only helps all of us to grow.  Thank you.

And from the other side of the world, we are excited to see that Salim Al-Hasso has created a page on his website dedicated to sharing about the work Mark is doing.  Salim saw Mark on Al Jazeera at home in Iraq and was moved to make information on his work more widely available.  He has gathered an impressive resource page by linking to one Al Jazeera video and various reviews of A Deadly Misunderstanding.

Check out the trailer for this documentary, which highlights the very important work done in an extensive Gallup poll of the world’s Muslim populations.  Mark often refers to this poll in his writing and lectures. Extensive reporting can be found at the Gallup Center for Muslim Studies website.  It is now in the running for a Telly Award, you can give it a thumb’s up when viewing the video on YouTube. The People’s Telly Awards is the premier award honoring outstanding local, regional, and cable TV commercials and programs, as well as the finest video and film.

Inside Islam: What a Billion Muslims Really Think

Every day I open my email inbox and find messages alerting me to the concerns and fears people have towards Muslims and Islam. Such a reality only underscores that we need ways to talk about the fears continually generated and fostered in today’s political, economic and cultural climate.

I, along with others, have begun trying to resource this conversation, such as with the Good News Memo I sent out this fall to nearly 100,000 Christian leaders. The Good News Memo explores a strategy of engaging Muslims that releases hope rather than fear. Several other books, websites and events occurring around the country are helping us move beyond fear and consider what it really means to love our neighbor as Jesus taught. As I encouraged a Muslim audience in Chicago recently, there is a cost to seeking the path of peace, but what a reward to see people, cultures and countries built up, rather than torn down!

My friend Carl Medearis is hosting an online web event, Why Do You Fear Me? in conjunction with the release of his new book co-authored by Ted Dekker. I was able to read and endorse an advance copy of Tea with Hezbollah, and they are doing very dynamic work. Their Jan. 28 web event is a new way to become part of this ongoing conversation and come away changed by what you learn.

Join Carl, Ted, and Gov. David Beasley for a conversation on America, the Middle East and Jesus.

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.”

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.