(RNS) — In their years of interfaith work, the Revs. Anna Piela and Michael Woolf have heard an oft-repeated reason for why some Christians don’t want to learn about Islam or are reluctant to challenge their misconceptions about the faith: They fear they might convert.

But in their new book, “Confronting Islamophobia in the Church: Liturgical Tools for Justice,” the authors — who are American Baptist Churches USA ministers and a married couple — argue that learning about Islam, or any other religion, can help Christians better appreciate and practice their own tradition. 

“I think a lot of people sort of treat God as a really jealous lover in some way, that they’re really afraid that God is going to be angry that you’re learning about another religion,” Woolf, who is senior minister of Lake Street Church of Evanston, Illinois, told Religion News Service. “But I think God rejoices in diversity and wants us to learn from each other.”

The book, published by Judson Press last month, also asserts that Christians have a moral responsibility to confront prejudices in their congregations about Muslims.

Piela, a visiting scholar of religious studies and gender at Northwestern University, also in Evanston, and Woolf bring their academic expertise and experiences as ministers to trace the origins of Islamophobia and the role it plays in American society today. They also discuss the Baptist commitment to religious freedom as one framework for challenging anti-Muslim hate. 

The book is meant to serve as a practical guide for Christian faith leaders and laypeople on how to learn about Islamic concepts through worship and group study. The goal, they write, is to help congregations break down stereotypes about Islam and, ultimately, find common ground for building relationships with Muslim communities in the U.S.

The interview has been edited for length and clarity.

You write that anti-Muslim hate is, at its core, a Christian problem. Why? 

Piela: As soon as Islam emerged on the global scene, there were responses from various Christian actors who would write all those polemics against Islam. They considered Islam as a Christian heresy, so basically they just treated it as a weird, illegitimate innovation by virtue. Those tropes were then used to justify conquest, to justify territorial expansion. Christians benefited from Islamophobia because Islamophobia could be turned into this political capital for rulers. Today, we can see that Islamophobia still is lucrative for Republicans, for the conservative politicians who will spout Islamophobic rhetoric, who will commit Islamophobic acts, like for example, burning the Quran.

What is your theological thinking for why Christians should accept the responsibility to challenge Islamophobia? 

Woolf: If you want to be a good Christian, if you want to be a good follower of Jesus, then love of neighbor is pretty much the entire basis for the faith — it’s not how often you go to church. We’re supposed to take other people’s welfare as our own, so Christians ought to do that from a love of neighbor standpoint. 

But also, we make the point in the book that it’s going to make you a better Christian that is better in tune with your faith. So, I think there are a variety of different ways of trying to get people to take this seriously, but I think that’s really the carrot we’re offering here: If you undertake this work, you’re going to have such a deeper and long-lasting faith, and you’re going to be practicing your faith in the absolute best way possible.

Can you share an example of how learning about and confronting Islamophobia in your life has strengthened your own faith and practice? 

Piela: For me, it was not learning about Islamophobia, it was interacting with Muslims. Before I became an ordained minister, I was a scholar and I was a sociologist of Islam. So I would interview lots and lots of people. And one of the most important projects I did was based on interviewing women who wear niqabs, the face veil. And for me, the encounter with their faith, which was very humble but also very eloquent, really opened my eyes to faith. For a second there, everybody said, “Oh, Anna’s gonna convert.” But interacting and seeing those women, how they talked about God, how they talked about what’s sacred for them and how they interact with God, really inspired me. For a lot of people this could be controversial, but this was what put me on the path to ministry.

One response to a survey question you asked American Baptist clergy was, “My congregation is afraid to discuss Islam.” What does that isolationist response reveal about how Islamophobia persists in some churches?

Piela: We hear this from a lot of different congregations. Fear, in some cases, makes you retreat into your own bubble where you’re comfortable, and whatever’s outside of that bubble you just try not to think about. And sometimes, that fear can be artificially created by media, by politicians and their rhetoric. And if people don’t have proper education about what Islam is, and they only learn about it from biased representations and nasty rhetoric, then they get it in their heads that it is something dangerous. And so if it’s dangerous, then you should fear it. And if you fear it, it’s best to have your own safe space in which there are only Christians. 

The book discusses building “anti-Islamophobic churches.” What would that kind of church look like and do? 

Woolf: We want congregations and Christian communities to know more about Islam, so increasing religious literacy and engaging in theological dialogue, but also working on community projects together around shared values. There’s so many things that we can do together, and so many shining examples of faiths that can work together and really change things. 

I think it’s clear to me that churches and mosques can work together on things like ending homelessness or hunger. And when Islamophobic acts happen in your community — which they happen with sort of shocking regularity — being able to show up and be an ally and stand in solidarity, not because it’s the nice thing to do but because that’s built into how we’re supposed to operate as the church.

Why is the book useful in our current political and religious landscape? 

Woolf: We started writing a couple years ago and we couldn’t have imagined we would necessarily live in this moment. But as we see Islamophobia rising, this work seems to be really important right now. It’s a hope-filled book because if congregations are primary sites of learning about other religions, then they can learn poorly, which happens a lot, or they can learn better and really change the game. 

There’s a lot of people concerned about pluralistic democracy, but one of the things that we need to do is to build visions for pluralistic democracy within congregations. And so that’s part of this project, and I think that it has a real relevance now with the rise of white Christian nationalism, and the fact that at the highest levels of decision-makers in this country, there’s a real move towards that sort of ideology.