This week, we are trying something different, with a paper about an issue of great concern to all Christians. The author, currently retired, taught at Stanford University and San Francisco State, was a visiting Professor at Princeton University and is a personal friend. The paper represents the personal opinion of the author.

Introductory Comments

This writer's birth in Islam has three branches: one branch is genealogical; another is educational; and a third branch is experiential. Taken together, the three branches comprise the theological tree which has created my identity and view of life.

The genealogical branch is represented by family records indicating traces to the Republic of Malagasy, an Islamic island country near the Union of South Africa. Awareness of this genealogical linkage has provided a foundation which has made me perhaps more receptive to the religion of Islam than the average American.

The educational branch is represented by several factors, largely because most of my life has involved educational activities - both as a teacher and student. One of my experiences as a student took the form of the training I received as a Peace Corps Volunteer soon after my graduation from Trenton State College. The training was for teaching in Nigeria, a predominantly Islamic nation on the West Coast of Africa. Nigeria was recently ranked first among all of the world's countries in a poll of general happiness in life among citizens. (While the poll made no reference to the degree of happiness being related to the country's Islamic religion, this factor is worth keeping in mind as we examine relations between Muslims and Christians in other countries).

The educational branch of my personal history is also represented by my study of Arabic, the language in which The Holy Quoran is written, and also by my experiences as a faculty member of Ijebu Muslim College in Nigeria [as a Peace Corps Volunteer], and my experiences as an informal advisor to several Middle Eastern students attending the various American colleges and universities with which I have been associated as a faculty member. The educational branch is further represented by my experiences as Director of Muhammad's University of Islam, No. 26 in San Francisco, California, as well as by my experiences as Chairman of the Black Studies Departments in California (San Francisco State) and New York (SUNY at New Paltz).

The third branch (experiential) logically includes those educational experiences referred to above, as well as other activities such as teaching in State Prison facilities (in California and New Jersey), and travel to several Islamic countries in the Middle East. Perhaps most importantly, the experiential branch includes that inner journey to the self known theologically by the term "revelation".

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