wfn.org | New NCC Book Helps Christians Understand Islam

[Carol Fouke <carolf@ncccusa.org>]

National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA
Contact: NCC News, 212-870-2227/2252
E-mail: news@ncccusa.org; Web: www.ncccusa.org
NCC2/7/2002 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Reporters/editors: Get review copies from 212-870-2227; e-mail
dglover@ncccusa.org
High-resolution JPEG of cover www.ncccusa.org/news/godisonehires.html

GOD IS ONE: THE WAY OF ISLAM HELPS CHRISTIANS UNDERSTAND CONTEMPORARY ISLAM'
S ESSENTIALS AND EXTRAORDINARY DIVERSITY
February 7, 2002, NEW YORK CITY - North American Christians wanting to know
what their Muslim neighbors really believe will find clear answers in God is
One: The Way of Islam, now available from the National Council of Churches'
Friendship Press.
This post-September 11 second edition of the Friendship Press bestseller
responds to the surge of interest in Islam that has resulted, ironically,
from acts of terror carried out in the name of Islam.
In 175 pages, God is One meets an important need in today's book market for
accurate information both about the essentials of Muslim belief and practice
and the extraordinary diversity that characterizes the faith claimed by
nearly one-fifth of the world's citizens - all neighbors in today's "global
village."
God is One calls on Christians to confront their prejudices and inform
themselves about Islam.  It aims to foster understanding of Islam -
including both commonalities and differences between Christianity and Islam.
It offers help as Christians and Muslims seek to relate to each other and to
confront together the realities of international events.
The book responds candidly to such questions as: Who was Muhammad and what
inspired him? What is the Qur'an and what does it say? What do Muslims
believe about Christ? How can Christians and Muslims talk today? What about
the "radical" Islamic movements that permeate our news?

Dr. R. Marston Speight's original text won acclaim from both Christians and
Muslims for its accurate portrayal of Islam and helpful introduction to
Christian-Muslim relations. Chapters explore: "Why Is It Important to Know
About Islam?," "The Foundation of Islam," "Islamic Patterns of Life," "Great
Themes of Islamic Life, "When Christians and Muslims Meet" and "Our Common
Situation as Muslims and Christians."

Dr. Speight, a committed Christian and former missionary, spent 23 years
living among Muslims in northern Africa.  A United Methodist and Texas
native (now retired and living in Connecticut), he wrote God is One while he
was director of the NCC's Office of Christian-Muslim Relations (1979-1992).

That office - located at Hartford Seminary, Hartford, Conn., from 1976-1991
and now New York-based - produced the second edition in partnership with the
seminary's Macdonald Center for the Study of Islam and Christian-Muslim
Relations.

The second edition adds nearly 50 pages of new material, including a
six-session study guide and an extensive new resource section listing books,
videos and other resources for further study of Islam. Its substantial
"Afterword" places the material within the context of more recent
developments in the Islamic world and provides up-to-date statistical
information.

The new "Afterword" owes its origins to an on-line course entitled
'Understanding Islam' - offered October 15-November 2, 2001, through
Beliefnet.com and promoted by ABC News-and to the responses of students of
that course.

It includes sections on "Geography and the Number of Muslims," "Muslims in
North America," "Islamic Dress," "Islamic Law," "Islamic Economics,"
"Islamic Mysticism," "Abraham, Prophecy and Religious Leadership," "The
Concepts of 'Jihad' and 'Fatwa,'" "Islam and Modernization," "The Taliban
Movement," "The Muslim World's Relations with the United States" and
"Response to Muslim Voices."

God is One: The Way of Islam is illustrated throughout with Islam's
contributions to science, art, medicine, architecture and literature as well
as its significance as a world religion.

Orders for the second edition (175 pages, paperback, $9.95; ISBN:
0-377-00196-1A) may be placed by phoning Friendship Press at 1-800-889-5733
or 513-948-8733.  Or, you may order by mail from the Friendship Press
Distribution Office, P.O. Box 37844, Cincinnati, HO 45222, or send an e-mail
to nancyj@fuse.net

EXCERPTS From Chapter 1: "Why Is It Important to Know About Islam?"

"In many respects Christians feel obliged to take Islam more seriously than
ever before.  Muslims are telling the world that they, as well as
Christians, are people who cross frontiers, that their faith is intended to
be a blessing for the whole world, that they are called to spread Islam
wherever it is not known.  So this modern encounter between two dynamic,
missionary religions produces disconcerting reactions.

"Christians have usually felt that it was their role to take the initiative
and to go forth into the world, and that those to whom they went would
respond (with more or less receptiveness) to their witness.  But when modern
Christianity meets modern Islam, we find two religions moving out into the
whole world, both of them inspired by a vision of spreading their faith
among all peoples.  How do we Christians respond to this situation?

"?.I have given a five-fold answer to the question, 'Why is it important to
know about Islam?'  And in the process I have provided a short introduction
to this book's contents.  Now I want to point out the ruling principle in my
approach to Islam: it is founded on the Golden Rule, as expressed by Jesus
in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 7:12).  This precept of ethical behavior
states that we should do to others as we would have others do to us.  In
describing Islam, I shall try to present its ideals and standards, its
history and development, while holding as closely as I can to the way in
which Muslims themselves describe it.

"Of course I cannot do this completely, because I am writing as an outsider,
albeit a sympathetic one, to the religion.  But I can abstain from picking
at faults in Islam, casting it deliberately in a bad light and emphasizing
the human weakness of some of its leaders.  That is the way I would like
Muslims to present the Christian faith when they have occasion to describe
it.  I would be disappointed if they chose to dwell on some of the petty and
unworthy aspects of the church's history."

EXCERPTS From the "Afterword"

"As images of Muslims both in North America and abroad have become
increasingly visible since the terrorist attacks of fall 2001, many people
are trying to understand who these Muslims are, and in which countries they
predominate.  What, exactly, is meant by 'the Muslim world?'  Who are its
'citizens?'  According to A World Religions Reader, edited by Ian Markham ?
Muslims number nearly a billion and a half, estimated at 1,147,494,000, or
19.6% of the world's population ?

"Bridging divisions of race and ethnicity, the religion of Islam is
represented in virtually all the nations of the world.  Contrary to what
many North Americans believe, not all Muslims are Arabs; only about
one-fifth of the Muslim world is of Arab background.  (It is also true that
some Arabs are Christian and have been so since the time of Christ.)

"?With such a large and rapidly growing population, the world of Islam is
not monolithic but represents a great range of cultural variations,
educational and economic levels, theological interpretations and ideological
positions.  Americans often find it difficult to understand that while all
Muslims hold the revelation of the Qur'an to be sacred, and revere the life
and practice of the Prophet Muhammad, there are many things about which they
have very different opinions.  While the world's second largest religion is
not characterized by denominationalism like Christianity, there are many,
many 'varieties' of Islam."

-end-

GOD IS ONE: THE WAY OF ISLAM - INTERVIEW OPPORTUNITIES

AUTHOR: THE REV. DR. R. MARSTON SPEIGHT

The Rev. Dr. R. Marston Speight wrote the first edition of God is One: The
Way of Islam while serving as director of the Office on Christian-Muslim
Relations of the National Council of Churches from 1971-92.  From 1951-79,
he lived in northern Africa, serving churches and Algeria and Tunisia and
later co-directing the Christian Center for North African Studies in Algiers
and a United Methodist research program on Christian-Muslim relations in
Tunis.

A native of Texas, Dr. Speight is a graduate of Baylor University and earned
his Ph.D. in the history of religions from Hartford Seminary, Hartford,
Conn.  He has written many articles and several books on Islam and
Christianity, and has organized and taken part in many Christian-Muslim
dialogues.  A retired minister in the Unit`ed Methodist Church, he lives
with his family in Connecticut.  To request interviews, phone the NCC
Communication Department, 212-870-2252; e-mail: news@ncccusa.org

NCC INTERFAITH RELATIONS DIRECTOR: THE REV. DR. JAY T. ROCK
The Rev. Dr. Jay T. Rock, author of the "Leader's Study Guide" to God is
One, is a Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) pastor who served parishes in
Northern California for seven years. He earned an M.A. in Theological
Studies from San Francisco Theological Seminary and a Ph.D. in the History
and Phenomenology of Religions from the Graduate Theological Union in
Berkeley.  To request interviews, phone the NCC Communication Department,
212-870-2252, e-mail: news@ncccusa.org or Interfaith Relations Office,
212-870-2560, e-mail: jrock@ncccusa.org

"AFTERWORD" AUTHORS AT HARTFORD (CONN.) SEMINARY

Three professors of Islamic studies of the Hartford (Conn.) Seminary and its
Macdonald Center for the Study of Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations wrote
the "Afterword" for the second edition of God is One: The Way of Islam.
Named for one of the nation's early, pre-eminent scholars of Islam, the
Duncan Black Macdonald Center for the Study of Islam and Christian-Muslim
Relations is the country's oldest such center.

Available for interviews are: Dr. Ibrahim Abu-Rabi' and Dr. Jane I. Smith,
Co-Directors, Macdonald Center, and Co-Editors of The Muslim World, and Dr.
Ingrid Mattson.  Drs. Abu-Rabi' and Mattson are Muslims; Dr. Smith, a
Christian (United Church of Christ).

Full biographical information is available at www.hartsem.edu. To request
interviews with Drs. Abu-Rabi', Mattson and/or Smith, contact the Macdonald
Center for the Study of Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations, 860-509-9534.
E-mail: macd-ctr@hartsem.edu