Subversive Mobilization: What’s the View from the Pew?

You’re smart, right? I’d like to hear what you think about a couple of things: What are Paul and Patty Pewsitter thinking about Muslims? What are their honest concerns? What’s behind their anger, if that’s present? How do you see them connecting or are they largely apathetic? And secondly, what will help shift them to more intentional engagement?

If you guessed that I’m asking as an effort to do some crowd-sourcing for Muslim Connect, you’re right. In case you missed our previous promotion of this new effort, it’s a 300-word drip feed to help us think about Muslims the way God does and to love them like Jesus. I’d love for you to subscribe and share it in your circle of influence. Together we can shift the foundation of thought and action toward Muslims.

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2 thoughts on “Subversive Mobilization: What’s the View from the Pew?”

  1. Somebody brought up “Muslims” in a home group meeting I attended recently. We were doing a study on evangelism. “The one culture I can’t see sharing with are Muslims,” he said, citing experience in Afghanistan (army?) making it impossible to trust “them.” Bottom line, he said, is that their book says they are supposed to kill Christians. I wanted to point out that what the Qu’ran says (among the things it says) is not necessarily the same as what Muslims you may meet actually believe, much less something they are likely to do, but it’s tough to directly contradict someone… I didn’t, at least not right away. For a while I just sat there biting my tongue with my blood pressure rising and my husband gently giving me a “calm down, now” touch… a good reminder that striking out aggressively at Muslim-haters is tempting but not a helpful response, even when they’re spreading misinformation.

  2. I have plenty of conversations with church members and others regarding Muslims. Most of them are gut-level reactions borne out of ignorance of who Muslims are and how diverse that community is.

    However, I have had two notable conversations with friends who are not speaking from a place of ignorance. One friend grew up in Albania, the son of an Orthodox father and Muslim mother. He is very wary, not of individual Muslims, but of an increasing population of Muslims “wedging” their way in to an area. His concern is that once they can build a mosque or community center, they can point to a historical moment where they gained a “foothold” and say, “See? We’ve been here for a while.” From there, his concern is that they will “take over” in several ways.

    The other friend is in the military and has deployed seven times to Muslim countries. He is an intelligent, compassionate friend who nevertheless challenged me to be very careful in the way I speak about the refugee situation and the realities of the dangers of extremist Muslims entering.

    It’s easy to ignore the voice of the ignorant. The voices of intelligent, dedicated servants in the church make me stop and listen closer.

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