I am a Christian. This to me means that I follow Christ. I know that there are some violent and somewhat crazy Christians out there. They, too, are misguided. Upon reflection, I have had times of being misguided, mostly when I "went with my gut" and did not consult God on the matter. Feelings are real but lousy gods. We are all sinners and we all, even Muslims, have resident in us the Image of God.
To me, following Christ means to listen to him and do as he says. Jesus had an incredible respect for others: in their wrongness or rightness. Nothing in my relationship of follower tells me that the Gospel will be served by blowing up abortion clinics, exterminating Jews, ignoring the poor, hating gays, or burning the holy text of others. If their salvation is truly at stake, I want to engage them as people for whom God chose to die. My care should be more for the subject of my concern than the project. God completes projects. Giving into my own zeal to do harm will and, in fact, take me farther from Him who I love.
Reach out to a Jew or Muslim or Hindu or an atheist today. You need not co-opt your religion. Just show the same respect that Jesus showed. You don't even need to talk religion. Listen. Jesus can and will speak through them. In your respect, Christ will speak to them.
I tried to reach out when I was in AFG a few years ago. It was a good experience. My interfaces were with our 'terps (usually AFG born AMCITS) & English speaking local nationals. We didn't discuss 'us vs. them' but focused on 'us' as the community of God. There is a still larger majority of Muslims that aren't nuts like the extremist crazies. That communal strong image of God binds us, they know that, I do too. I pray peace & reason prevail. We have got to simply stop hating everything that isn't our mirror image.
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