Calming Fears About Muslims Aim of Bay Area Pastor

On the heels of the week of terror in Boston, and with the dramatic death of one suspect and capture of his younger brother—two young men identified as Chechen Muslims—fears of Muslims being linked to terrorism are on the rise. But a local Presbyterian pastor says his research shows that link is a myth.

In his newly-released book, The Search for Truth About Islam; A Christian Pastor Separates Fact From Fiction, San Jose Presbyterian pastor Ben Daniel devotes an entire chapter to what he says is the, “mythic narrative that equates Islam with all that is violent, oppressive, repressive, and vile.”

Terrorism is related to political and nationalistic leanings, he told an audience at a book reading in San Mateo earlier this month, and not religious beliefs.

“I want people to not be afraid, because there is nothing to be afraid of," Daniel said. "In fact the opposite is true. There’s a lot of great happiness and joy when we actually get to know each other.”

In the book he writes, “(I)t would be impossible to overstate the extent to which religious violence lies outside the mainstream of Islam.” From his own research, he found that Muslims from all over the world, “insist that unprovoked violence is incompatible with Islam.”

Earlier this month he said that he wrote the book to help those who struggle with Islamophobia, and to assure them that, "there's nothing to be afraid of." Fear, he said begets violence; his hope was that the book would help quell those fears.

That connection between fear and violence was evident in an attack on a Palestinian woman in Boston just two days after the Boston Marathon bombings. The Malden Patch reported that the woman, who was wearing a hijab, was punched in the shoulder by a white male who screamed obsenities at her, saying he hated Muslims because, "'You are all terrorists!'"

The chances of a randomly selected Muslim being a terrorist are “less than shuffling a deck of cards and dealing a straight flush,” Daniel said. While it’s possible, the odds are extremely long.

He said he hopes there will come a day when there is no longer a fear about Muslims. Just a little over a week before the bombings, he read to the audience from the book's conclusion:

“While working on this book, I hoped and prayed that the words contained herein would become unnecessary before the writing of them was completed, that we would overcome out irrational fear and work to solve the real issues that affect us; but these dreams have not come true.”

See Good Neighbor Stories for the original story about his book reading, and the original version of this blog post.