Jae Jerkins on Martin Luther

“The deceit of Muhammad was a fundamental concern for Luther as he feared that a false prophet might tempt Protestant Christians to falter—much as the practice of indulgences had done for Catholics. For a modern man like Luther, the antidote for such deceit was knowledge. The Protestant Reformation was founded on the principle that any Christian could pick up a Bible in the vernacular and make sense of it for him or herself. In like manner, Luther promoted the study of the Qur’an so that Christians would be prepared should they ever have a direct encounter with Islam. Three works illustrate this hermeneutic: his foreword to the Tract on the Religion and Customs of the Turk (1530); his introduction to the German translation of Ricoldo’s Confutatio al-Koran' (1542); and the preface to the Swiss publication of the Qur’an (1543).”

“Luther’s early writings concerning the threat of Islamdom focused more on the Ottoman Turks as a military threat to Europe rather than as ideological opponents.11In the late 1520s, Luther wrote two works specifically addressing the Ottoman Turks: On War against the Turk (1528) and Sermon against the Turk (1529). In both of these works, Luther implored the Emperor, the German princes, and the German people to defend the principalities against Suleiman, the Ottoman Sultan. In his 1528 On War against the Turk, Luther promotes a live–and–let–live policy. “Let the Turk believe and live as he will, just as one lets the papacy and other false Christians live”. In fact, Luther sounds outright amiable toward the Turks when he states, “It is said that the Turks are among themselves faithful and friendly, and careful to tell the truth. I believe and I think that they probably have more fine virtues than that”. In the following year, however, with the siege of Vienna and march on Hungary, Luther changed his tune.”

“With the new geographic threat, Luther, in his subsequent War against the Turks (1529), declares that the Turk is the clear “enemy of Christ”, a man who “despises women and marriage”, and is “nothing but a murderer or highwayman”. In the face of an impending military threat, Luther felt no compunction in leveling his quill at the people he had a mere year before called ‘virtuous’. Broadly speaking, Luther wanted no part of statecraft or politics and considered the Ottoman incursion of Europe to be a matter best solved by politicians, not the Church. In fact, Luther directly states that he opposes “religious war”.”