The Dog That Did Not Bark

play into anti-Jewish prejudices? The question is fair given the nearly infinite capacity of human beings to bend any message to suit their own purpose. Certainly, the words of the Bible itself have been ill-used by the ill-intentioned.

There was a time, centuries ago, when the Islamic world was more accommodating to Jews than Christendom. Unfortunately, much of the Islamic world now suffers the affliction of anti-Semitism. What would be the effect of showing The Passion of the Christ in such an environment? Well the first surprisingly positive reports are in as the movie has now opened in Qatar. Some in Qatar were attracted to the movie because of its purported anti-Semitism, but a fascinating thing has happened. Many Muslims walked away from the movie, not with their anti-Semitism inflamed, but moved by the fact that Jesus loved his enemies and forgave those who persecuted him. As a Christian missionary (a somewhat dangerous and tenuous position in the modern Islamic world) has observed, "Muslims are going to see this film because of their hatred and in the end, the message they will hear is love. Is it not like God to do something like that? They mean it for evil and God means it for good." Perhaps those who were most vociferous in their condemnation of the movie as anti-Semitic and who as a consequence attracted Islamic audiences to the film were in their own clumsy and wonderful way working the will of God. Curious.

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