Dialogue With Muslims

St. John of Damascus

In the West, which is very multicultural, it is not uncommon for a Christian to dialogue with a muslim. It will happen more and more as our society becomes more integrated. We need to study what we believe, what they believe, and know how to argue properly.

The muslim will assert that the Bible has been corrupted and cannot be trusted. This is a bold statement. Whenever a bold statement is made, the person making the statement should bear the burden of proof. I was dialoguing with a muslim once and he told me that the Bible had been changed. I then asked the simple question: When? He went on to say that after Muhammad came on the scene, the Christians got jealous that God’s new prophet was not Christian and the Jews got mad that he wasn’t a jew so they altered their scriptures.

When he said this, I pointed out that we had complete manuscripts of the Bible that went back long before Muhammad was even born. I even brought some up on my iPhone. He was shocked. I took the opportunity to ask him who told him the Bible was corrupted. He said that someone in his home country told him many years ago. I then asked if that person had ever studied the Bible and then he said no.

I pointed out that if you go to bookstores, you can buy books written by non-muslims that attack Islam and the Quran. I asked if he would consider learning from these sources. His response was a firm no. I told him that I agree with him, but that standard should be applied both ways.

I was polite the whole time and he respected that. We left the restaurant and departed ways. For the first time in his life, he went home with a sliver our doubt about the Islamic faith.

What can we learn here? We need to know how to be shift the burden of proof when a muslim makes a bold statement. We need to know the history of our sacred scripture. We need to ask the right questions. Last of all, we need to be charitable. These four tools are extremely important.

I will deal with more Islamic apologetics in the future as it is a very important topic. A topic that I will teach people how to dialogue on is the Trinity. This is brought up just as often as the corruption of scripture. Muslims know about this because the Quran tries to attack the doctrine of the Trinity. From a plain reading of the Quran, it clearly doesn’t understand the doctrine at all.

The most important thing is to remember the four points in dialoguing with muslims.

• Know when to shift the burden of proof.
• Know the history of the Christian faith and the scriptures.
• Know when to ask the right questions.
• Be charitable.

Have you ever had a dialogue with a muslim? Feel free to share your experience below?