Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20 Page 21 Page 22 Page 23 Page 24 Page 25 Page 26 Page 27 Page 28 Page 29 Page 30 Page 31 Page 32 Page 33 Page 34 Page 35 Page 36 Page 37 Page 38 Page 39 Page 40 Page 41 Page 42 Page 43 Page 44 Page 45 Page 46 Page 47 Page 48 Page 49 Page 50 Page 51 Page 52 Page 53 Page 54 Page 55 Page 56 Page 57 Page 58 Page 59 Page 60 Page 61 Page 62 Page 63 Page 64 Page 65 Page 66 Page 67 Page 68 Page 69 Page 70 Page 71 Page 72 Page 73 Page 74 Page 75 Page 76 Page 77 Page 78 Page 79 Page 80 Page 81 Page 82 Page 83 Page 8410 Plough Quarterly • Spring 2016 Just in these few lines of a hastily written email, two parts stand out that are charac- teristic of Father Jacques. The first one is the sentence beginning: “The threat from ISIS, this cult of terrorists who present a ghastly image of Islam . . . ” The second one concerns the Christian world: “We mean nothing to them.” He defended the other faith community while criticizing his own. Just as a group claiming to represent Islam and to be applying the requirements of the Quran was physically threatening him and his community directly, and just a few days before his abduction, Father Jacques still insisted that these terrorists were distorting the true face of Islam. Now, I would disagree with any Muslim whose only response to the Islamic State is the worn-out protest that violence has nothing to do with Islam. But here was a Christian – and a priest at that – who when faced with the possi- bility of being expelled, humiliated, abducted, or killed by followers of another faith still insisted on justifying that same faith. Such a servant of God displays an inner greatness that I have only encountered in the lives of the saints. Someone like me cannot, and may not, defend Islam in this way. Love of one’s own – one’s own culture, one’s own country, and equally one’s own person – proves itself in self-criticism. The love of the other – of another person, another culture, and even another religion – can be far more effusive and unreserved. It is true that the prerequisite for love of the other is love of oneself. But one can only be in love with something, as Father Paolo and Father Jacques are in love with Islam, if it is the other. Self-love, on the other hand, if it is to avoid falling prey to narcissism, self-praise, or self-satisfaction, must be a struggling, doubting, and ever-questioning love. How true that is of Islam today! Any Muslim who does not struggle with it, doubt it, and question it critically does not love Islam. It’s not only the horrific news and the even more horrific pictures from Syria and Iraq, where the Quran is held aloft during every atrocity and Allahu akbar is called out at every beheading. In so many other countries in Mosaic roof in the Nabi Habeel Mosque, Syria Photograph by Tengku Mohd Yusof / Alamy