The War with Islam as a Faith

For Christian Zionists, the conflict between Israel and its Arab and Muslim neighbors is even more than a clash of civilizations. It is a contest between God and Allah. Several of the most prominent American evangelicals have denounced not just Islamic radicals but Islam itself and the prophet Mohammed. Many born-again leaders stress brutality as a defining quality of Islam. They consider the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians to be a struggle over whether the word of God is true. Many Christian Zionists believe that the devil created anti-Semitism in order to frustrate God’s plan to save the world through the Jews. They declare that Muslims have become Satan’s army in this ancient struggle. By 2006, Ahmadinejad had become a central villain to Christian Zionists, who repeatedly pointed out the messianic underpinnings of his actions. The charge that mainstream Islam is inherently violent is a distortion, note prominent scholars of religion and other observers. Some conservative Christians are not hostile to Muslims, but rather engage in dialogue with Muslim leaders and recognize the perspectives that they share. Some evangelicals argue that to bless Israel can mean rejecting the idea of a Greater Israel that includes the occupied territories.