Jesus vs. Muhammad

As you probably know, the entire Muslim world has been in an uproar over the Danish political cartoons portraying the prophet Muhammad. It’s apparently illegal in Islam to depict Muhammad, in fear that the image will be worshipped as an idol.
But what really makes them angry is that the cartoons portray him in a somewhat negative light.
The cartoons can be seen here on Michelle Malkin’s blog. On her website there is a photo of a man holding up a sign, "Behead those who insult Islam"

The intolerance and hypocrisy here is amazing. The same Muslims who insult and degrade other religions, like Christianity, in terrible, hostile ways, so extreme as to kill people to show disdain of non-Islamic religions, are now angry over a few bloodless cartoons. It’s just drawings on paper, and they want the artist beheaded.

The author below notes this amazing contrast between the two main figures of two different belief systems, Christianity and Islam. Jesus shows love towards those who insult and persecute him; Muhammad shows hate and death towards those who insult and persecute him. It’s a profound difference. The following article was NOT written by me, but by a man named John Piper. It’s reproduced here by permission (see below)

Here it is:

Being Mocked: The Essence of Christ's Work, Not
Muhammad's
February 8, 2006
What we saw this past week in the Islamic
demonstrations over the Danish cartoons of Muhammad was another vivid
depiction of the difference between Muhammad and Christ, and what it means
to follow each. Not all Muslims approve the violence. But a deep lesson remains: The work of Muhammad is based on being honored and the work of Christ is based on being
insulted. This produces two very different reactions to mockery.

If Christ had not been insulted, there would be no salvation. This was his saving work: to
be insulted and die to rescue sinners from the wrath of God. Already in the Psalms the path of mockery was promised: "All who see me mock me; they make mouths at me; they wag their heads" (Psalm 22:7). "He was despised and rejected by men . . . as one from whom men hide their faces . . . and we esteemed him not" (Isaiah 53:3).

When it actually happened it was worse than expected. "They stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him, and twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on his head. . . . And kneeling before him, they mocked him, saying, 'Hail, King of the Jews!' And they spit on him" (Matthew 27:28-30). His response to all this was patient endurance. This was the work he came to do. "Like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth" (Isaiah 53:7).

This was not true of Muhammad. And Muslims do not believe it is true of Jesus. Most
Muslims have been taught that Jesus was not crucified. One Sunni Muslim
writes, "Muslims believe that Allah saved the Messiah from the ignominy of crucifixion." 1 Another adds, "We honor [Jesus] more than you [Christians] do. . . . We refuse to believe that God would permit him to suffer death on the cross." 2 An essential Muslim
impulse is to avoid the "ignominy" of the cross.

That's the most basic difference between Christ and Muhammad and between a Muslim and a follower of Christ. For Christ, enduring the mockery of the cross was the essence of his mission. And for a true follower of Christ enduring suffering patiently
for the glory of Christ is the essence of obedience. "Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account" (Matthew 5:11). During his life on earth Jesus was called a bastard (John 8:41), a drunkard (Matthew 11:19), a blasphemer (Matthew 26:65), a devil (Matthew 10:25); and he promised
his followers the same: "If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of his household" (Matthew 10:25).

The caricature and mockery of Christ has continued to this day. Martin Scorsese
portrayed Jesus in The Last Temptation of Christ as wracked with doubt and beset
with sexual lust. Andres Serrano was funded by the National Endowment for the
Arts to portray Jesus on a cross sunk in a bottle of urine. The Da Vinci Code
portrays Jesus as a mere mortal who married and fathered children.

How should his followers respond? On the one hand, we are grieved and
angered. On the other hand, we identify with Christ, and embrace his
suffering, and rejoice in our afflictions, and say with the apostle Paul that vengeance belongs to the Lord, let us love our enemies and win them with the gospel. If Christ did his
work by being insulted, we must do ours likewise.

When Muhammad was portrayed in twelve cartoons in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten, the uproar across the Muslim world was intense and sometimes violent. Flags were burned, embassies were torched, and at least one Christian church was stoned. The
cartoonists went into hiding in fear for their lives, like Salman Rushdie before
them. What does this mean?

It means that a religion with no insulted Savior
will not endure insults to win the scoffers. It means that this religion is destined to bear the impossible load of upholding the honor of one who did not die and rise again
to make that possible. It means that Jesus Christ is still the only hope of peace with God and peace with man. And it means that his
followers must be willing to "share his sufferings, becoming like him in his
death"
(Philippians 3:10).

Footnotes
1 Badru D. Kateregga and
David W. Shenk, Islam and
Christianity: A Muslim and a Christian in Dialogue
(Nairobi: Usima Press, 1980),
p. 141.
2 Quoted from The Muslim
World in J. Dudley Woodberry, editor,
Muslims and Christians on the Emmaus
Road (Monrovia, CA: MARC, 1989), p. 164.
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