Deconstruction often embraces Jesus and Buddha while quietly ignoring Muhammad. This piece explores why that silence reveals the Western conditioning we think we’ve escaped — and how Sufi wisdom exposes the blind spots we carry without noticing.
"This is why much deconstruction reveals itself not as spiritual liberation but as the Western ego reasserting itself." And this is what I don't want for myself. You're right. There seems to be a fear of Muhammad in the West, and you have given me a lot to think about.
I came to a similar conclusion about Islam after reading The Ringstones of Wisdom (Ibn 'Arabi). Initially, I couldn't put my finger on why I never read it, even though I had heard of the book. After I sat with it for a while, it slowly dawned on me that there was some type of bias lurking and it caught me off guard.
It also sent me down a path of wanting to know more about Sufism because the school of thought associated with his philosophy (Wahdat al-Wujud, the Unity of Being) had some surprising similarities to aspects of Christian Mysticism. Thank you so much for this post. I will take a look at Living Presence as well.
You named the real shift. Ibn Arabi has a way of exposing the bias we didn’t know we inherited. Once you see the unity threads between Sufism and Christian mysticism, the whole landscape opens. I think Living Presence will meet you in that same place.
This is uncharted territory for me - typical Westerner who has not been exposed to Muhammad in any way, shape or form beyond what you wrote & definitely Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Judaism, etc. seem to be held in a “safe” light while Islam has been given the suspicious treatment. I had no idea why, didn’t understand, & didn’t take the time to investigate. You did & I touched the tip of an iceberg I’ve wondered about my whole life. The spiritual paths I’ve walked on the most are Alcoholics Anonymous & the Pachakuti Mesa Tradition from indigenous Peru before the Spanish & Catholicism took over. Both in their own way off the beaten path of traditional religions but minus hostility in my experience at least except for the occasional dismissive “huh? What’s that?”
As i’m exploring the Sufi path (Living Presence), I’ve been introduced to more depth than before, definitely in my traditional Christian upbringing. And am totally baffled by the truthful history you shared re: Islam & specifically Muhammad.
I need to read it again. And maybe again and again. Very grateful for the enlightenment, truth & wisdom you share. It expands the scope of my life in this body on this planet. 💖
Thank you for this beautiful and very necessary addition to the global spiritual conversation. My good friend and practicing Sufi, Leena el-Ali @notruthwithoutbeatuy has written a wonderful and very well received book entitled: No Truth Without Beauty: God, the Qur’an, and Women's Rights. (The Kindle edition is free.) Leena's work helps to redeem our view of Islam, which is so disproportionately informed by radical ideology. Her scholarly book taught me about the true essence of the Qur’an with regard to women. Leena's loving treatment and respect for it shines a much-needed light on the misconceptions we have absorbed from patriarchal and radical interpretations.
"This is why much deconstruction reveals itself not as spiritual liberation but as the Western ego reasserting itself. People leave evangelicalism but keep the empire-shaped imagination. They reject doctrines but preserve the myth of Western cultural superiority. They abandon the language of sin but retain deeply embedded Islamophobia, even if they would never name it as such. "
An important point. As people engage in the deconstruction of their previous faith, maybe that's a good time to ask oneself, "What subtle beliefs am I hiding from the deconstruction process because I don't want to let them go?"
I’ve found that the same blind spots exist around Hinduism, starting at the most fundamental level. Westerners sort of automatically catalog Hinduism as polytheistic, when it’s actually polymorphic — many faces for the same God. And when you consider the wider history of civilization in the IndusValley (which was doing Roman stuff a thousand years or more before the Romans) and further along, the Indian Subcontinent more broadly it isn’t difficult to understand how God took on so many different personas. Combine the Islam of the Mughals and the Europeans (most notably the British Anglicans, and the Portuguese Catholics) and the Buddhists (who were already there) and all of the different “dialects” of Hinduism that were melted together over the millennia you can’t help but get an eclectic brand of spirituality.
James, totally. The West does to Hinduism what it does to Islam. It shrinks a whole universe into a category that feels manageable. Hinduism isn’t “many gods.” It’s many expressions of the One. The history is deep, layered, and shaped by centuries of contact with Buddhists, Mughals, and Europeans. Once you drop the Western filter, the whole thing opens up in a way that won’t fit back into the old boxes.
I think it's more prevalent in the West, but the real filter is perhaps that of the incurious mind. Which isn't uniquely bound to any geography.
My "study" if you want to call it that, of Indian culture, religions, history and so forth started in about as American a place as you can imagine: The discount DVD bin at Walmart. and one movie starts the avalanche. It's kind of a long story, but one movie led to another which reminded me that I worked with no fewer than four people from India, who were more than happy to assist me in my "quest for knowledge". In my experience, that usually the case. But you have to ask the questions.
I studied World Religions in College and Seminary and brushed up against Sufism. It was never presented fully, however and always – I realize now – with a touch of disregard, even as a fading religion. I wish I could say that your post reminded me of my prejudices, but it in fact has introduced me to them. Still, I'm grateful. I just ordered Living Presence. Reading that book should help.
A thought after reading your thoughts. There are aspects to different Christian faiths that require deep surrender to the divine. Unfortunately there are also loud aspects that want performative action not surrender unless it is surrender to a human being not God. This is on display everywhere here now. Profess but do not follow God but follow man.
I think there maybe a "fear" of Islam for the cultural differences built in and for fear of the super radical extreams of it. But maybe the deeper unsaid fear is that of the surrender to God and the direct uncharted (by people) relationship required by the faith.
You’re naming something real here. A lot of the noise in Christianity right now is about surrendering to a brand or a personality, not to the Divine itself. That makes any tradition built on direct surrender to God feel threatening.
And you’re right about the fear around Islam. The cultural differences are the surface layer. Underneath it is the discomfort of a faith that asks you to meet God without the performance, without the middlemen, and without the scaffolding of certainty. That kind of surrender can feel like stepping into open air.
Thank you for bringing that forward. It’s the kind of honesty that actually clears space for real encounter.
On a slightly wider theme, it is far from surprising that Islam is shunned by the majority of Christians, empires need you to hate their opponents and will say almost anything to trick or coerce you into doing their bidding. Targeting Islam was the Western Roman Empire's (not so historical we are still in it!) way of distracting people from the evils of their empire. Their propaganda was pernicious and long lasting but I hope that one of the benefits of the Internet is that we can discover the truth about how Christianity and Islam are like siblings; certainly the Muslims that I met in the course of my profession believed this, not so strange though that most Christians do not seem to believe it.
Just a little 'for example'. I once worked in a Church of England school ( 4 to 11 year old children) where I gave permission for children, in an after school club, to be taught, by a Muslim parent, about Islam. The club was primarily for children whose parents hadn't been active Muslims but who felt they their children should have some grounding in it but it was open to everyone and quite a few non Muslims went out of curiosity. I personally approved any material they were using so I could be sure it wasn't 'radicalising' anyone. Blimey, the Church authorities came down on me like a ton of bricks, apparently I couldn't see the ' obvious problems'. I held my ground but the Muslim parents got to hear of the hostility and quietly stopped the club and went and taught the children in one of their homes which meant that non Muslim children lost access to the club.
Steve, what you describe is the oldest trick in the imperial handbook. Keep the siblings fighting so no one notices who’s raiding the pantry. Christianity and Islam were born in the same neighborhood, drinking from the same well, arguing over the same prophets. Empire needed a villain, so it picked the nearest cousin.
Your story from the school is exactly how fear protects itself. Not from danger, but from honesty. The moment Christians meet actual Muslims instead of the caricature, the propaganda fractures. So the gatekeepers slam the doors.
I’ve started/stopped/deleted several attempts at my comment. Not out of fear for saying something wrong but out of a desire to give this incredible writing a deserving response. Personally, Islam is woven into my deconstructing experience, but it’s largely pointed inward. That felt right to do because beyond my Christian upbringing, which taught me that all world religions outside of our denominational framework was a sin and their followers were going to hell, my passive phase of deconstructing had begun when Islamophobia was intensifying surrounding global and national events. But my lived experience doesn’t minimize the critical importance of your message. Never sharing this element of my deconstructing is a massive miss for others holding onto beliefs and prejudices in theirs. And it could easily mean I have more work to do and am accepting with gratitude the mirror you are offering here
Thank you for such a thoughtful and beautifully written response. Your honesty landed.
Your note about Islam being woven into your deconstruction really resonated. It reminded me how strange and personal these shifts can be. Back in the late 90s I was openly practicing Gelug Buddhism and my Lutheran family barely reacted. But when I stepped into Eastern Orthodoxy around 2000, they completely lost it. You’d think they would have been relieved I returned to Christianity. Instead it terrified them to see a tradition that predated theirs, had prayer rules, prostrations, a different understanding of salvation, and didn’t center blood atonement.
And I can only imagine what they would have said if they knew Islam reveres Jesus as of divine origin and teaches that everyone is ultimately saved. Yes, there’s Hell, but more like a hospital you go to for painful treatment until you’re well. I can still hear my mom from the grave saying, “You don’t believe in sin.”
The Baha’i path is interesting here because it honors the line of prophets without trying to erase the distinctions between them. In that sense, it sits alongside the Abrahamic family but doesn’t stand inside the same theological structure that makes Muhammad the “seal” of the line.
Where Islam says the revelation culminates, Baha’i says the revelation continues. That creates a very different relationship to the tradition I’m talking about in the piece, which is specifically the way Islam understands itself as the final clarifier of the lineage.
Your relatives are part of a beautiful tradition. It just answers the question of “what comes after” in a different way than Islam does. Blessed be the ones who follow sincerity even when their branch of the family tree grew in a new direction.
I agree that Jesus & Muhammad are complementary teachers; & the Qur’an is another transmission, not a threat. Muhammad is not merely a shadow of Jesus — just as Mary Magdalene is not merely a shadow, as you have taught, Brother V. Please teach us more about Islam & Muhammad!✨🌙
"This is why much deconstruction reveals itself not as spiritual liberation but as the Western ego reasserting itself." And this is what I don't want for myself. You're right. There seems to be a fear of Muhammad in the West, and you have given me a lot to think about.
I came to a similar conclusion about Islam after reading The Ringstones of Wisdom (Ibn 'Arabi). Initially, I couldn't put my finger on why I never read it, even though I had heard of the book. After I sat with it for a while, it slowly dawned on me that there was some type of bias lurking and it caught me off guard.
It also sent me down a path of wanting to know more about Sufism because the school of thought associated with his philosophy (Wahdat al-Wujud, the Unity of Being) had some surprising similarities to aspects of Christian Mysticism. Thank you so much for this post. I will take a look at Living Presence as well.
You named the real shift. Ibn Arabi has a way of exposing the bias we didn’t know we inherited. Once you see the unity threads between Sufism and Christian mysticism, the whole landscape opens. I think Living Presence will meet you in that same place.
This is uncharted territory for me - typical Westerner who has not been exposed to Muhammad in any way, shape or form beyond what you wrote & definitely Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Judaism, etc. seem to be held in a “safe” light while Islam has been given the suspicious treatment. I had no idea why, didn’t understand, & didn’t take the time to investigate. You did & I touched the tip of an iceberg I’ve wondered about my whole life. The spiritual paths I’ve walked on the most are Alcoholics Anonymous & the Pachakuti Mesa Tradition from indigenous Peru before the Spanish & Catholicism took over. Both in their own way off the beaten path of traditional religions but minus hostility in my experience at least except for the occasional dismissive “huh? What’s that?”
As i’m exploring the Sufi path (Living Presence), I’ve been introduced to more depth than before, definitely in my traditional Christian upbringing. And am totally baffled by the truthful history you shared re: Islam & specifically Muhammad.
I need to read it again. And maybe again and again. Very grateful for the enlightenment, truth & wisdom you share. It expands the scope of my life in this body on this planet. 💖
Thank you for this beautiful and very necessary addition to the global spiritual conversation. My good friend and practicing Sufi, Leena el-Ali @notruthwithoutbeatuy has written a wonderful and very well received book entitled: No Truth Without Beauty: God, the Qur’an, and Women's Rights. (The Kindle edition is free.) Leena's work helps to redeem our view of Islam, which is so disproportionately informed by radical ideology. Her scholarly book taught me about the true essence of the Qur’an with regard to women. Leena's loving treatment and respect for it shines a much-needed light on the misconceptions we have absorbed from patriarchal and radical interpretations.
"This is why much deconstruction reveals itself not as spiritual liberation but as the Western ego reasserting itself. People leave evangelicalism but keep the empire-shaped imagination. They reject doctrines but preserve the myth of Western cultural superiority. They abandon the language of sin but retain deeply embedded Islamophobia, even if they would never name it as such. "
An important point. As people engage in the deconstruction of their previous faith, maybe that's a good time to ask oneself, "What subtle beliefs am I hiding from the deconstruction process because I don't want to let them go?"
I’ve found that the same blind spots exist around Hinduism, starting at the most fundamental level. Westerners sort of automatically catalog Hinduism as polytheistic, when it’s actually polymorphic — many faces for the same God. And when you consider the wider history of civilization in the IndusValley (which was doing Roman stuff a thousand years or more before the Romans) and further along, the Indian Subcontinent more broadly it isn’t difficult to understand how God took on so many different personas. Combine the Islam of the Mughals and the Europeans (most notably the British Anglicans, and the Portuguese Catholics) and the Buddhists (who were already there) and all of the different “dialects” of Hinduism that were melted together over the millennia you can’t help but get an eclectic brand of spirituality.
James, totally. The West does to Hinduism what it does to Islam. It shrinks a whole universe into a category that feels manageable. Hinduism isn’t “many gods.” It’s many expressions of the One. The history is deep, layered, and shaped by centuries of contact with Buddhists, Mughals, and Europeans. Once you drop the Western filter, the whole thing opens up in a way that won’t fit back into the old boxes.
I think it's more prevalent in the West, but the real filter is perhaps that of the incurious mind. Which isn't uniquely bound to any geography.
My "study" if you want to call it that, of Indian culture, religions, history and so forth started in about as American a place as you can imagine: The discount DVD bin at Walmart. and one movie starts the avalanche. It's kind of a long story, but one movie led to another which reminded me that I worked with no fewer than four people from India, who were more than happy to assist me in my "quest for knowledge". In my experience, that usually the case. But you have to ask the questions.
I studied World Religions in College and Seminary and brushed up against Sufism. It was never presented fully, however and always – I realize now – with a touch of disregard, even as a fading religion. I wish I could say that your post reminded me of my prejudices, but it in fact has introduced me to them. Still, I'm grateful. I just ordered Living Presence. Reading that book should help.
FYI - I sent you an unrelated DM.
Just starting to read Living Pressence.
A thought after reading your thoughts. There are aspects to different Christian faiths that require deep surrender to the divine. Unfortunately there are also loud aspects that want performative action not surrender unless it is surrender to a human being not God. This is on display everywhere here now. Profess but do not follow God but follow man.
I think there maybe a "fear" of Islam for the cultural differences built in and for fear of the super radical extreams of it. But maybe the deeper unsaid fear is that of the surrender to God and the direct uncharted (by people) relationship required by the faith.
You’re naming something real here. A lot of the noise in Christianity right now is about surrendering to a brand or a personality, not to the Divine itself. That makes any tradition built on direct surrender to God feel threatening.
And you’re right about the fear around Islam. The cultural differences are the surface layer. Underneath it is the discomfort of a faith that asks you to meet God without the performance, without the middlemen, and without the scaffolding of certainty. That kind of surrender can feel like stepping into open air.
Thank you for bringing that forward. It’s the kind of honesty that actually clears space for real encounter.
On a slightly wider theme, it is far from surprising that Islam is shunned by the majority of Christians, empires need you to hate their opponents and will say almost anything to trick or coerce you into doing their bidding. Targeting Islam was the Western Roman Empire's (not so historical we are still in it!) way of distracting people from the evils of their empire. Their propaganda was pernicious and long lasting but I hope that one of the benefits of the Internet is that we can discover the truth about how Christianity and Islam are like siblings; certainly the Muslims that I met in the course of my profession believed this, not so strange though that most Christians do not seem to believe it.
Just a little 'for example'. I once worked in a Church of England school ( 4 to 11 year old children) where I gave permission for children, in an after school club, to be taught, by a Muslim parent, about Islam. The club was primarily for children whose parents hadn't been active Muslims but who felt they their children should have some grounding in it but it was open to everyone and quite a few non Muslims went out of curiosity. I personally approved any material they were using so I could be sure it wasn't 'radicalising' anyone. Blimey, the Church authorities came down on me like a ton of bricks, apparently I couldn't see the ' obvious problems'. I held my ground but the Muslim parents got to hear of the hostility and quietly stopped the club and went and taught the children in one of their homes which meant that non Muslim children lost access to the club.
Steve, what you describe is the oldest trick in the imperial handbook. Keep the siblings fighting so no one notices who’s raiding the pantry. Christianity and Islam were born in the same neighborhood, drinking from the same well, arguing over the same prophets. Empire needed a villain, so it picked the nearest cousin.
Your story from the school is exactly how fear protects itself. Not from danger, but from honesty. The moment Christians meet actual Muslims instead of the caricature, the propaganda fractures. So the gatekeepers slam the doors.
I’ve started/stopped/deleted several attempts at my comment. Not out of fear for saying something wrong but out of a desire to give this incredible writing a deserving response. Personally, Islam is woven into my deconstructing experience, but it’s largely pointed inward. That felt right to do because beyond my Christian upbringing, which taught me that all world religions outside of our denominational framework was a sin and their followers were going to hell, my passive phase of deconstructing had begun when Islamophobia was intensifying surrounding global and national events. But my lived experience doesn’t minimize the critical importance of your message. Never sharing this element of my deconstructing is a massive miss for others holding onto beliefs and prejudices in theirs. And it could easily mean I have more work to do and am accepting with gratitude the mirror you are offering here
Thank you for such a thoughtful and beautifully written response. Your honesty landed.
Your note about Islam being woven into your deconstruction really resonated. It reminded me how strange and personal these shifts can be. Back in the late 90s I was openly practicing Gelug Buddhism and my Lutheran family barely reacted. But when I stepped into Eastern Orthodoxy around 2000, they completely lost it. You’d think they would have been relieved I returned to Christianity. Instead it terrified them to see a tradition that predated theirs, had prayer rules, prostrations, a different understanding of salvation, and didn’t center blood atonement.
And I can only imagine what they would have said if they knew Islam reveres Jesus as of divine origin and teaches that everyone is ultimately saved. Yes, there’s Hell, but more like a hospital you go to for painful treatment until you’re well. I can still hear my mom from the grave saying, “You don’t believe in sin.”
I’m curious about how Bahullah and the Bahai faith interacts with this tradition. I’m not Bahai but I have several close relatives who are.
The Baha’i path is interesting here because it honors the line of prophets without trying to erase the distinctions between them. In that sense, it sits alongside the Abrahamic family but doesn’t stand inside the same theological structure that makes Muhammad the “seal” of the line.
Where Islam says the revelation culminates, Baha’i says the revelation continues. That creates a very different relationship to the tradition I’m talking about in the piece, which is specifically the way Islam understands itself as the final clarifier of the lineage.
Your relatives are part of a beautiful tradition. It just answers the question of “what comes after” in a different way than Islam does. Blessed be the ones who follow sincerity even when their branch of the family tree grew in a new direction.
Thank you.
I agree that Jesus & Muhammad are complementary teachers; & the Qur’an is another transmission, not a threat. Muhammad is not merely a shadow of Jesus — just as Mary Magdalene is not merely a shadow, as you have taught, Brother V. Please teach us more about Islam & Muhammad!✨🌙