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In addition to Cizik, Goodstein quotes Akbar Ahmed, chairman of the Islamic studies department at American University and author of Islam Under Siege, Charles Kimball, writer of When Religion Becomes Evil, and Robert Edgar of the National Council of Churches.

Goodstein uses Edgar to stress the "interfaith understanding" of liberal and mainline Protestant and Catholic denominations. "These churches acknowledge theological differences … but stress common roots and essential compatibility," Goodstein writes. She contrasts it with the evangelical view.

"The National Association of Evangelicals called on Christian leaders this month to temper their anti-Islam oratory, saying it had been unhelpful to interfaith relations, and dangerous to Christians spreading the gospel to Muslims," the story says. "While some evangelical leaders welcomed the criticism, others bristled and said that it was not the Christians but the Muslims who must stop the hate-speech."

What Goodstein fails to mention is that the NAE guidelines that came out of the meeting comment more on efforts at interfaith understanding than the negative sound bytes by evangelists like Graham and Falwell. The guidelines also point out that in Muslim-Christian dialogue, Christians must "give testimony to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, because it is our duty to do so." More vituperation, it seems.

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May (Web-only) 2003, Vol. 47