Part One
Lesson Overview
The Trojan Horse of Interfaith Dialogue, Part 1 with Shahram Hadian
This standalone message is given by Shahram Hadian, a former Muslim who came to Christ in 1999 and now leads the TIL (Truth in Love) Project. His argument is that the modern interfaith movement rests on a claim that does not survive examination of the primary sources, and that its origin is not Christian but Islamic. Use this overview to review the key points after watching the full video.
His Burden
Hadian opens by saying he wishes he were teaching the church how to evangelize Muslims rather than warning it about compromise. His concern is that interfaith and ecumenical movements have become a threat on two levels, one to national sovereignty and one, more importantly to him, to the gospel itself. He notes that if a Christian had told him nineteen years ago that Christianity and Islam were basically the same, he would never have converted.
Comparing the Sources
Before making his case, Hadian lays out the source materials on both sides. For Christianity there is one source, the Bible, written over roughly fifteen centuries through about forty human writers.
For Islam he identifies three. The Quran is primary but not the only source, and it rests on the testimony of a single witness, Muhammad. Because the Quran alone leaves many questions unanswered, Muslims also follow the Sunnah, the practice of Muhammad, preserved in the Hadith and the Sirah. Third is the Sharia, the sacred law. For his citations he uses The Reliance of the Traveller, a classical manual of Islamic law certified by scholars at Al-Azhar University in Cairo, so that his claims can be checked against Islamic sources rather than his own summary.
The Four Claims of the Interfaith Movement
Hadian identifies four claims he intends to answer: that Christianity and Islam share a “common word” and that both books are divine; that Jehovah and Allah are therefore the same God; that Islam is an Abrahamic faith alongside Judaism and Christianity; and that Muslims already believe Jesus is the Messiah. He addresses the first two in this session.
Where “Common Word” Actually Comes From
His central discovery is that the phrase does not originate with Christians. It comes from the Quran, Surah 3:64, which instructs Muslims to say to the people of the book, meaning Jews and Christians, “come to a common word between us and you.”
His argument is that the verse must be read to its end. The rest of the verse specifies the terms: that we worship none but Allah, associate no partners with Him, and take no others as lords. Hadian points out that associating partners with God is shirk, which Islam regards as the gravest sin, and that Christians confess Jesus as Lord. So the invitation to a “common word” is, in its own text, a call to correct the Christian doctrine of the Trinity and the lordship of Christ.
From this he draws a simple logical point: two sources cannot both be divine if one exists to correct the other. He clarifies that Christians do not believe in three Gods but in one God in three persons, and that the Quranic charge of polytheism misrepresents the doctrine.
What Islamic Law Says About Christianity and Judaism
Hadian then reads from The Reliance of the Traveller. Section W4.0 states that Muhammad is the final prophet and that anyone claiming prophethood after him is a fraud. The manual affirms that previously revealed religions were valid in their own eras but have since been abrogated, meaning nullified and superseded by Islam. It further states that it is unbelief to hold that what it calls the remnant cults now bearing the names of Christianity and Judaism are acceptable to God.
His point is that the same legal tradition that supplies the “common word” invitation also classifies the other two faiths as abrogated and their present forms as unacceptable. That, he argues, is not common ground.
The Documents
Hadian traces the modern movement. In 2006, a group of 138 Muslim scholars sent an open letter to Christian leaders titled A Common Word Between Us and You, appealing to a shared love of God and love of neighbor. In 2008, a response was produced through the Yale Center for Faith and Culture affirming that a common word exists and calling for reconciliation. He notes that hundreds of Christian leaders signed, including a number of prominent evangelical names and many associated with the emerging church movement, and he considers this a watershed moment of compromise.
He then reports researching the original Muslim signatories and concluding that a significant portion had ties to the Muslim Brotherhood. He names several signatories and their institutional roles, and he raises the question of why representatives of governments known for severe restrictions on Christian worship would sign a letter about shared love of neighbor. Students should note that these identifications and affiliations are Hadian’s own contested claims about named living individuals and organizations, several of which dispute the characterization.
He also cites the Explanatory Memorandum, a 1991 Muslim Brotherhood document entered into evidence in the Holy Land Foundation prosecution, which describes the group’s work in North America as a “grand jihad in eliminating and destroying Western civilization from within” and “sabotaging its miserable house by their hands.” He reads this as the strategic frame behind the interfaith initiative.
What He Says Is Happening in Churches
Hadian describes churches hosting interfaith Sundays, placing Qurans alongside Bibles, and inviting Islamic scholars rather than former Muslims or missionaries to teach about Islam. His sharpest observation is about reciprocity: he says he searched for a mosque that had opened its Friday prayers to a Christian pastor preaching the gospel, and found none. He adds that he would gladly accept such an invitation if it came.
He also points to church events that train attendees to identify and report Islamophobia, sometimes in partnership with advocacy organizations, and objects that Christians are being recruited to police speech about a religion, including the speech of other Christians.
Along the way he pushes back on the way “love your neighbor” is used, noting that in context it follows the first and greatest commandment to love God, and that Scripture also calls for particular love toward fellow believers.
His Call to the Church
Hadian’s conclusion is that interfaith dialogue functions as a Trojan horse: outwardly an invitation to friendship, inwardly a strategy to gain ground. His remedy is not hostility toward Muslims but clarity. He urges believers to go to their pastors and elders and ask plainly where the church stands, using a written resource his ministry provides, and he closes with the phrase he wants people to carry away: we refuse to be used, to sabotage our nation, the church, or the gospel, which he calls the power of God unto salvation.
Key Terms
Sunnah: the practice and example of Muhammad, preserved in the Hadith and the Sirah.
Sharia: Islamic sacred law, of which The Reliance of the Traveller is a classical manual.
Shirk: in Islam, the sin of associating partners with God, which Hadian says is why the Trinity is targeted.
Abrogation: the principle that a later revelation supersedes and nullifies an earlier one.
A Common Word: the 2006 open letter from Muslim scholars to Christian leaders, drawn from Surah 3:64.
Explanatory Memorandum: the 1991 Muslim Brotherhood document entered into evidence in a federal terror-financing trial.
Passages Referenced
Quran Surah 3:64, the “common word” invitation and its stated terms. The Reliance of the Traveller, section W4.0, on the finality of prophethood and the status of earlier religions.
For comparison, students may study Matthew 22:37-39 on the order of the two great commandments, 2 Corinthians 6:14 on being unequally yoked, and Romans 1:16 on the gospel as the power of God for salvation.
Takeaway
An invitation to find common ground is not the same as actually having it, so before a church enters an interfaith partnership it should read the primary texts on both sides and ask whether the two are describing the same God, the same Christ, and the same gospel.