A Visit to an Islamic Center

This past Sunday evening I had the chance to tour an Islamic Center in south city area of St. Louis.

For those who aren’t familiar with St. Louis this might sound unusual, but it isn’t. There are a lot of Bosnians here—about 40,000 have settled here since the 1990s. Many Bosnians are Muslim or at least claim to be. Like Americans, most Bosnians claim that they belong to the Roman Catholic, Serbian Orthodox or Muslim religion, but they’ve never really practiced their faith either today or during the years of Communist rule in Yugoslavia.

Once Yugoslavia disintegrated, Bosnia became the “Killing Fields” of the Balkans. Ancient ethnic rivalries heated up and exploded into what can only be termed a genocidal bloodbath. Many Bosnians were forced to flee their homes at a moment’s notice with nothing but the clothes on their backs. Many witnessed cold-blooded massacres of friends and family members simply because they were “Muslim”. Many witnessed the rape of loved ones at the hands of Serbs, who professed to be “Christian”.

Can you imagine how deeply these tragedies scarred their souls? Can you see the need for the Bosnian people to heal spiritually as well as emotionally and materially?

So, this is where Christian missions to the Bosnian community in St. Louis fit into the picture. One way to better serve this community is to understand its culture and religion, hence our visit to the Islamic Center.

Our tour guide was an Inman’s wife, a most charming lady originally from Egypt. Like any “Pastor’s wife” she showed us around the facilities, explained their customs and traditions and answered our questions. The center’s building used to be a small bank branch. They’ve done some renovations, mostly tearing out walls and installing a neat “washroom” of sorts where congregants can wash their face, hands and feet before prayer time.

Muslims are suppose to pray five times a day at specific times, but the Inman’s wife confessed that many in the Bosnian Muslim community aren’t quite that devout. They show up for services at the center or one of the bigger mosques in the area about once or twice a year. Mostly they like to come to the mosque for Ramadan, the month long holiday of fasting during the day and then feasting at night. (Sound sort of like “Christmas and Easter only” Christians, don’t they?)

Many in the Bosnian community enjoy the festivals and celebrating Muslim holidays, but they aren’t particularly concerned with more regular adherence to their faith and its “Five Pillars”: the declaration of faith, prayer, fasting, Zakah or tithing, and the Hajj or pilgrimage to Mecca. And, interestingly enough, most Muslims would say that “Allah” is the same “God” worshipped by Christians and Jews.

This is where Christians can reach out and most help the Bosnian refugees, I believe. For Allah is not a loving God as Christians with a personal relationship with Jesus Christ know Him. The Apostle John tells us “God is love”, but the same isn’t true for Allah. Allah is a bit more staid and not quite as generous a deity. While the Islamic attributes of prayer and charity are quite admirable, like most religions they are considered requirements in order to make “Brownie points” with the Big Scary Man Upstairs. In other words, if you don’t faithfully practice the Five Pillars of Islam, Allah might not give you a passing grade for this life… And, when you die, if you happen to be on Allah’s bad side, you might not be allowed into paradise or heaven.

This one fact supposedly was behind the 9/11 hijackers’ motivation for their suicide plane crashes. They were taught that they would instantly go to paradise if they rid the world of non-Muslims. So, why wouldn’t they do it? A few of the hijackers reportedly had bad addictions to pornography and other moral failings, so without making some big “Brownie points” how else would these young men have impressed Allah?

This fear of Allah—and what he can do to their eternal souls—may be holding back many Bosnians and others from healing spiritually. It’s easier on the psyche just to say, “God is Allah is God, and we’re in America now and safe, and we don’t need to attend mosque and be reminded that we aren’t perfect enough to get into paradise.” So, they simply don’t take up any spiritual philosophy. They stay rooted in ignorance and fear. They unconsciously reason that no matter what they’d do, they can never make enough “Brownie points” at this junction in the game. And without a passing grade, Allah will judge them harshly, reviving traumatic memories of their people’s recent history.

But we as Christians know that God so loved the world that He sent his only begotten Son to die for us for the remission of our sins so that we may have eternal life in Him. (John 3:16) What a relief to know that we don’t ever have to practice certain rituals five times a day in order to make “Brownie points” with the Man Upstairs! We love God because He first loved us, and He continually demonstrates His love by grace through faith.

Pray that the Holy Spirit will come upon all who are spiritually wounded by unspeakable atrocities such as the Bosnian community witnessed, giving them true, everlasting love and peace through faith in Christ our Lord.