Christian at interfaith college told by Muslims ... "you deserve to die"

Andrew Bieszad writes on his experiences as a graduate student in Islamic studies at Hartford Seminary, to prepare himself to become a missionary:

Hartford Seminary prides itself on its large number of Muslim students, both domestic and foreign-exchange. Among my first experiences with the Muslim students there was in a class on interfaith dialogue. I had done interfaith dialogue before, so this was not a new experience for me. We were separated into groups for the dialogue, and when I was permitted to speak, I said, "I am Catholic, and I do not believe in Islam." Following me, one of the Muslim students spoke. She said that she was Muslim, and then she addressed me directly. In a soft, Arabic accented voice, she told me, "You are an infidel because you do not accept Islam" and that "according to Islam you do not deserve to live." A second Muslim student heartily agreed, and after repeating the first student's comments, she added that "in Islam, the Koran and the tradition of the prophet are very clear about this" and that "you deserve to die."

This was one of several publicly-made threatening statements and insults that I would receive from Muslim seminary classmates for my open disagreement with Islam. In another incident, I was in a class on modern Islamic thought and an American male convert to Islam informed me in front of my classmates and the professor, "You deserve to die on account of your disagreement with Islam." Another student, an American Muslim woman of Egyptian heritage, informed me that I was "dirty" on account of being a Christian. When I tried to address these and other incidents with the HS administration, I was told directly that I was "intolerant" of Muslims and needed to show a better "understanding of Islam" as a solution. No action was ever taken by the seminary.

Watch this video of Bieszad and you'll quickly see why he would provoke such statements: because he is intelligent, articulate, understands Islam, speaks fluent Arabic, and he calls on moderate Muslims to reject Islam because its orthodox doctrine is inhuman and unreformable.


File under: finally some realistic theology-based interfaith dialogue.