I recently conducted an email interview with Abdulah Mohamed, a young man from Indonesia. Although I didn’t get the chance to speak with him in person, all of our email exchanges were very pleasant. In fact, emailing him felt as though I were emailing an old friend (perhaps because he was an old friend of my good friend Bianca). Mr. Mohamed was more than willing to share his story and his beliefs. He was able to teach me many things about Islam and his answers to my questions intrigued me greatly.
The first question I asked Mr. Mohamed was how he viewed Jesus. Mohamed started off by saying, “Muslims respect and revere Jesus… They consider him one of the greatest of God’s messengers to mankind.” Mr. Mohamed went on to say that the Quran confirms that Jesus was indeed born to Mary, a virgin, and he performed many miracles during his life. They do not, however, believe in Jesus’ crucifixion. They believe people planned to crucify Jesus but that God saved Jesus and another man that looked like Jesus was killed instead.
Then I asked Mr. Mohamed about sin and how it is dealt with. He responded by saying that in the Islamic faith if someone asks God to forgive them then He will.
From there I asked about the five pillars of Islam and asked whether all Muslims follow them. Turns out, they do (as long as they are physically able to). Mr. Mohamed also listed them out for me. I compared his list to the one in my textbook and found them to be exactly the same in every way. While not exactly seen as necessary, Christianity also has “pillars” of sorts when one thinks about it. Essentially the five pillars of Islam are a list of things that are important to the Islamic faith. Prayer, giving, reading the Bible, being baptized, and (of course) belief in God are all seen as important in the Christian faith. However, in Christianity these things are not seen as necessary for going to heaven. The Bible is clear when it says that faith is all that is required of one in the Christian faith.
I also asked about how many Muslims there was where he lives compared to the number of people of other religions. Based on my knowledge of the family-centered culture in Asia and what I read in I Dared To Call Him Father, I figured it was likely that there is a heavy percentage of Muslims in Indonesia. Mr. Mohamed’s response showed me I was correct on that assumption. His response was the following: “I would have to say that Islam is 90% and Christian is maybe 5% and Hindu is 3% and the other 2% is other.”
The question I most wanted to ask was this: do Muslims feel persecuted for the Islamic extremists that dominate the news? As a Christian, whenever I see extremist Christians on TV I get very upset because it often feels like the news exploits the extremists. Even though we are of different religions I thought the same feelings may very well run through his mind too when he sees news reports about Islamic extremist groups. Mr. Mohamed responded by saying “what the media does show is not the true Islam”. Islam is not accurately portrayed in the media much like all other religions.
Another thing I was eager to know was why Mr. Mohamed converted. He grew up as a self-labeled “moderate Christian” and converted to Islam as a young adult. Before his conversion he had been going through a hard time and a friend told him about “a better way to get through life”. Mr. Mohamed learned about Islam and decided to convert.
I also asked Mr. Mohamed about the Islamic holidays. He listed three holidays to be the most important ones - Eid al-Fitr, Ramadan, and Eid al-Adha. The birthday of Muhammad and New Year are also mentioned in the list of holidays in the Hopfe textbook but not by Mr. Mohamed as an important celebration. Ramadan is a month of fasting and reflection. Eid al-Fitr is a celebration after Ramadan has ended. It is a time of feasting and spending time with family. Edia al-Adha is a time when Muslims remember how Abraham was faithful and ready to sacrifice his son to God. While no holidays are the same, there are some similarities between Islamic holidays and Christian holidays. The time of Ramadan has similarities to Lent in that it is a time of fasting (or giving something up) and reflection (although admittedly for different reasons).
My experience communicating back and forth with Mr. Mohamed was a wonderful one. He taught me about the Islamic religion through what he said but also by how he said it. He was also very encouraging and wished me good luck. The Islamic religion is often portrayed as a very violent one (and surely there are very violent Muslims) but I believe a majority of its followers are very kind and peaceful people like Mr. Abdulah Mohamed.
No comments:
Post a Comment