As Ramadan begins, let it be a reminder that Muslims everywhere will not only be celebrating the life of the Prophet Muhammad, but they will also be celebrating the life of Issa, better known as Jesus.
The fight between a proper perception and the role of Jesus has created a divide between Islam and Christianity. Whether you argue that Jesus was a prophet or the son of God, there is much passion behind both positions, but Muslims are the most respectful to Jesus.
Most Christians I meet are unaware of Jesus’ relevance to Islam and do not consider the importance he holds to Muslims. Most can identify Prophet Muhammad with Islam but are unaware of Jesus’ position in the Quran. In Islam, Jesus is considered to be one of the five great prophets and insulting him in many Muslim countries remains to be a crime.
Jesus was most likely a Middle Eastern, darker-skinned man. The whitewashing of his image occurred when Europeans attempted to reinvent the image of Jesus to appear as a common white man who looked just like them.
The light-skinned, blue-eyed depiction seen in the majority of representations of Jesus is far from the reality of what he probably looked like. Still, it can be argued that this aided in justifying European colonialism.
These eurocentric features were meant to embody perceived beauty standards within Europe. Why would they oppress darker-skinned individuals while perpetuating a religion led by a man who looked more like the oppressed?
It’s important to mention that reconceptualized images of Jesus appeared in Ethiopian and Indian communities, which points to a general need to assimilate the savior with the aesthetic of one’s surroundings.
Muslims, on the other hand, are forbidden from depicting human figures and find it blasphemous to depict the prophets of God. While Christians parade Jesus through art and media, Muslims do not even consider the attempt of recreating the true image of Jesus and find it deeply offensive when it does happen.
I was always curious as to why Christians felt the need to replicate his image, choosing actors stained with sin and human fragility to fill the role of Jesus himself. How could someone so revered be conceptualized by people who view him as the son of God? God, being the creator, leaves no room for the attempt at recreating his image.
The reverence given to Jesus in Islam exceeds most prophets mentioned in the Quran. In fact, the most revered prophet in the Quran, Muhammad, is mentioned less than Jesus in the Quran. The number of times Jesus is mentioned directly or indirectly varies by source; a baseline number on which everyone agrees is 25. That is five times the number of times that Prophet Muhammad is mentioned. To illustrate, Maryam (Mary) is mentioned 34 times and is the title of the 19th chapter in the Quran.
In addition to these differences, oftentimes you’ll hear someone use “Jesus” as an exclamatory word to signify something that happened. This is frowned upon in Islam. When uttering the name of Jesus in Islam, it is customary to say, ”Peace be upon him.”
The place Jesus holds in Islam is sacred, along with his mother, Mary. Christians often distance themselves from Muslims without recognizing that Islam views Christianity as a religion sent from God. While western freedoms have allowed the insulting of religious embodiments, Arab countries and Muslims alike have maintained their stance against the disrespect and depiction of such figures.
Mohammad Tantawi is a 24-year-old mass communication senior from Smyrna, Tenn.
