UPDATE: I’m informed by several reliable sources that this young woman’s name is Jordan Denari, and that she works with Nathan Lean at the anti-“Islamophobia” Bridge Initiative at Georgetown University’s Saudi-funded Alwaleed bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding. The thuggish Lean has several times tweeted out what he thinks is my home address and places I frequent (erroneously), in an obvious attempt either to intimidate me into silence or alert his jihadi friends to my whereabouts. Such are the ethics and standards of this wonderful attempt at “understanding” and “bridge-building.”

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This photo was apparently taken at a recent demonstration in Washington, DC:

And there is so much in it for a Christian to love:

Jesus is not the Son of God: “O People of the Scripture! Do not exaggerate in your religion nor utter aught concerning Allah save the truth. The Messiah, Jesus son of Mary, was only a messenger of Allah, and His word which He conveyed unto Mary, and a spirit from Him. So believe in Allah and His messengers, and say not “Three” – Cease! (it is) better for you! – Allah is only One Allah. Far is it removed from His Transcendent Majesty that He should have a son. His is all that is in the heavens and all that is in the earth. And Allah is sufficient as Defender.” — Qur’an 4:171

And: “It is not befitting to (the majesty of) Allah that He should beget a son. Glory be to Him! when He determines a matter, He only says to it, ‘Be,’ and it is.” — Qur’an 19:35

Jesus was not crucified: “And because of their saying: We slew the Messiah, Jesus son of Mary, Allah’s messenger – they slew him not nor crucified him, but it appeared so unto them; and lo! those who disagree concerning it are in doubt thereof; they have no knowledge thereof save pursuit of a conjecture; they slew him not for certain.” — Qur’an 4:157

Those who believe in the divinity of Christ are unbelievers: “They have certainly disbelieved who say that Allah is Christ, the son of Mary.” — Qur’an 5:17

Belief in the Trinity is “excess”: “O People of the Scripture, do not commit excess in your religion or say about Allah except the truth. The Messiah, Jesus, the son of Mary, was but a messenger of Allah and His word which He directed to Mary and a soul from Him. So believe in Allah and His messengers. And do not say, ‘Three’; desist – it is better for you. Indeed, Allah is but one God. Exalted is He above having a son. To Him belongs whatever is in the heavens and whatever is on the earth. And sufficient is Allah as Disposer of affairs.” — Qur’an 4:171

Christians have forgotten part of the divine revelations they received: “From those, too, who call themselves Christians, We did take a covenant, but they forgot a good part of the message that was sent them: so we estranged them, with enmity and hatred between the one and the other, to the day of judgment. And soon will Allah show them what it is they have done.” — Qur’an 5:14

Those who believe that Jesus is God’s Son are accursed: “The Jews call ‘Uzair a son of Allah, and the Christians call Christ the son of Allah. That is a saying from their mouth; (in this) they but imitate what the unbelievers of old used to say. Allah’s curse be on them: how they are deluded away from the Truth! ” — Qur’an 9:30

Christians who do not accepted Muhammad and the Qur’an are the most vile of created beings: “Nor did those who were given the Scripture become divided until after there had come to them clear evidence. And they were not commanded except to worship Allah, sincere to Him in religion, inclining to truth, and to establish prayer and to give zakah. And that is the correct religion. Indeed, they who disbelieved among the People of the Scripture and the polytheists will be in the fire of Hell, abiding eternally therein. Those are the most vile of created beings.” — Qur’an 98:6

Muslims must fight against and subjugate Christians: “Fight those who believe not in Allah nor the Last Day, nor hold that forbidden which hath been forbidden by Allah and His Messenger, nor acknowledge the religion of Truth, (even if they are) of the People of the Book, until they pay the Jizya with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued.” — Qur’an 9:29

“I’m a Christian and I LOVE Muslims”? Absolutely. Love for Muslims is one thing, however, and love for the Qur’an is another. It is strange for someone who professes to be a Christian, who presumably believes that Jesus is the Son of God, the Second Person of the Trinity, who was crucified and rose from the dead for the salvation of the human race, to profess love for a book that denies all that and says that those who believe it are accursed, vile beings who should be waged war against until they submit to the hegemony of a group that believes differently.

What’s more, although very few Christians would dare say so publicly nowadays, to be a Christian at all assumes a denial that Muhammad is a prophet and the Qur’an a holy book, for they both affirm as matters of faith beliefs that Christians do not hold, and, as we have seen, deny many that Christians do hold.

It may be that the carrier of this sign considers herself a Christian in the spirit of this passage: “Indeed, those who believed and those who were Jews or Christians or Sabeans — those who believed in Allah and the Last Day and did righteousness — will have their reward with their Lord, and no fear will there be concerning them, nor will they grieve.” — Qur’an 2:62

This appears at first glance to be a marvelously forward-thinking example of ecumenism: Qur’an commentator Muhammad Asad exults: “With a breadth of vision unparalleled in any other religious faith, the idea of ‘salvation’ is here made conditional upon three elements only: belief in God, belief in the Day of Judgment, and righteous action in life.” But he contradicts himself by adding “in this divine writ” after the words “those who have attained to faith” in his translation of verse 62 — that is, to be saved, one must believe in the Qur’an as well as the earlier revelations.

And indeed, Muslim commentators are not actually inclined to see this as an indication of divine pluralism, but only an affirmation that those Christians who become Muslims will be saved. The translators Abdullah Yusuf Ali and Mohammed Marmaduke Pickthall, as well as Asad, all feel it necessary to add parenthetical glosses that make the passage mean that Jews and Christians (as well as Sabians, whose identity is disputed) will enter Paradise only if they become Muslims. Qur’an.com adds “before Prophet Muhammad” in brackets after “Jews or Christians or Sabeans,” making it clear that those three could only be saved as such before the advent of Islam, but now they must convert to Islam to get to Paradise.

And according to Ibn Abbas, this verse was abrogated by Qur’an 3:85: “And whoever desires other than Islam as religion – never will it be accepted from him, and he, in the Hereafter, will be among the losers.” Sayyid Qutb opines that 2:62 applied only before Muhammad brought Islam to the world, a view supported by a saying of Muhammad recorded by Tabari, in which the Prophet of Islam says that Christians who died before his coming will be saved, but those who have heard of him and yet rejected his prophetic claim will not be.

It is unlikely, of course, that the person holding this sign has thought any of this through. She is just trying to be nice. And she is unlikely ever to stop and ponder the implications of the fact that no Muslim has been carrying around a sign saying, “I’m Muslim and I LOVE the Bible.”