Mill Hill Churches' Justice and Peace Group

On July 27th (as advertised in the July/August Newsletter), Ms. Hayet Bahri spoke to us on "Islam: The Questions That Upset Us (Both Sides)".

It was a great meeting. 24 people were present (twice the number we get at our bimonthly meetings), representing all our Mill Hill Churches.

It was good to hear from a Muslim woman what upsets Muslims: criticism of their religion, lumping all Muslims together with the extremists, demonizing them, regarding Islam as a religion of violence, criticizing them for polygamy and for veiling their women, neither of which is practised everywhere in Islam, and so on.

We were interested to learn that although Mohammed had several wives, he wanted to protect women and children and he did much to improve the position of women. Christians are upset by Islam's refusal to believe that Jesus died on the cross and rose from the grave, and that he is only regarded in Islam as a prophet; that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are regarded as Christian nations invading Islam, and therefore a justification for acts of terrorism; that Islam claims to have come to correct Judaism and Christianity, which leads some Muslims to a sense of superiority.