The deep divide that exists between Eastern and Western culture is strongest along religious lines. Islam is often associated with violence, and many assume that for the Muslim, all non-believers are targets.

Unfortunately, the terrorist attacks in both the United States and the U.K. have done little to change this view. In the U.S. alone, following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, there was a sharp rise in incidents of hate crimes against Muslims. This fear of Islam has been perpetuated in the Christian community as well, leading to rising tensions between the two religious groups.

With his experience in working with Muslims as well as with their holy scriptures, the Qua’ran, Dr. Gordon Nickel of ACTS Seminaries seeks to bring understanding and to change to the way Islam is viewed by Christians in the West.

His encounters with Muslims began at age 11, when his parents moved to India. After living in India for 6 years, Nickel returned to Canada to attend school. He eventually ended up studying Islam at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, living there with his wife and three children as they prepared to move to Karachi, the thriving business capital of Pakistan. They spent five years in Pakistan, teaching and working among the Balochi people.

Nickel, who speaks and reads eight languages, earned his PhD in Pakistan, specializing in the origins of Islam and the commentaries on Muslim scriptures. During his time studying the Qua’ran, he returned to India where he trained Indian evangelists in witnessing to Muslims.

“I think the things that we in the West do in our relationship with Muslims does have an impact on how they receive the gospel,” said Nickel. “If Muslims perceive that the country attacking them is Christian, then they associate that attack with Christianity. And when missionaries go and say, ‘We’d like to tell you about Christ’, the way has been spoiled because Muslims are starting to think of Christians as those who hate them.”

Nickel believes that an honest discussion between the two religious groups about what we believe should be taking place.

“There is no excuse for treating Muslims badly just because we disagree with something that they believe,” said Nickel.

He admits, however, that there is a Muslim hostility towards the Christian faith: “There is an accusation that Muslims make against Christians, and that is that the Bible is corrupt, and not true as we think it is.”

In order to understand this, Nickel’s studies have looked at scriptures in the Qua’ran to see what they say about the Bible. “In the early years, they saw the validity of the Bible and were very respectful of it,” Nickel said.

For Nickel, another part of the discussion must be about the violent nature from which Islam has its origins.

“We need to ask Muslims, ‘What does the command to fight and kill in the Qua’ran mean to you today?’” said Nickel. “These are questions of interpretation and hermeneutics.”

In his work training Indian missionaries he found that some of the most common problems that Muslims had with the gospel concerned the divinity of Jesus and the idea of redemptive death.

“We worked together to figure out what help scripture gives us,” said Nickel. “It is a tough job to make the case for the divinity [of Jesus] as it is a major issue, but we would look at how scripture explains it.”

In an article he did for the National Post, Nickel discusses these tensions and concludes that the goal of having Muslims and non-believers living peacefully with one another certainly poses a challenge. He believes however, that “it is certainly a challenge worth taking up.”