On Oslo’s central square Youngstorget and parade street Karl Johans gate, we often see a tent with a sign reading ‘Jesus was a Muslim’. This is a way of getting Norwegians to stop, accept a small Qur’an completely free of charge and be invited to talk further. This is nothing new. In 2013, Usman Rana also wrote an article in Aftenposten entitled ‘The Muslim Jesus’. (Published: 08.12.2013)

And long before this, in the seventh century, when Muhammad began preaching his religion, many Christians and Jews lived on the Arabian Peninsula. It may have been a good strategy for him not to come into direct conflict with the other monotheistic religions, at least during a period when he needed time to become strong enough. He preached that Islam accepted other religions that had a holy book, particularly Jews and Christians, and others who believed in one God.

Today, in countries where Muslims are a minority, attempts are often made to make Islam more palatable and easier for the majority population to accept. But I believe that the claim that ‘Jesus was a Muslim’, without further explanation, is historically and academically misleading.

The first thing that occurs to me is this:

If this really is true, and Muslims believe that Jesus was a Muslim, why can it then be so serious to convert from Islam to Christianity? Why do Muslim women, according to traditional Islamic jurisprudence, face restrictions when it comes to marrying Christian men? Why is it difficult or forbidden to build churches in several Muslim countries?

And why was the Christian woman Asia Bibi in Pakistan, who drew water from a well, subjected to such a serious religious conflict that she was ultimately sentenced to death? Why have Christians been subjected to violence and driven out of certain Muslim countries? Or is it the case that Islam and Muslims themselves decide who is a Muslim, and when?

When a religion that emerged in the seventh century calls people who lived hundreds or thousands of years earlier ‘Muslims’, is that history? Or is it theology writing its own prehistory?

‘Jesus was a Muslim’ may be correct as an Islamic theological claim. But it is misleading as a historical description. Jesus lived around six hundred years before Islam emerged as a historical religion. The Qur’an, however, uses the term ‘Muslim’ about Jesus and earlier prophets because Islam sees itself as a continuation of the same submission to one Allah.

The Qur’an, which was written down in its final form after Muhammad’s time, projects the term ‘Muslim’ backwards onto earlier prophets and their followers. In Qur’an 3:52, Jesus’ disciples say that they are ‘Muslims’, that is, people who submit themselves to God. The Qur’an also says of Abraham that he was a ‘Muslim’ (3:67), even though Abraham lived long before Muhammad.

But this is a theological claim. It is not the same as a historical claim.

Jesus, or Isa in Arabic, is mentioned 25 times in the Qur’an. But that does not mean that he was historically a Muslim. Jesus was a Jew and lived in the first century. He was not a member of a religion historically called Islam, as that religion developed after Muhammad. It is precisely this distinction that is important: ‘Jesus was a Muslim’ may be an Islamic theological claim, but it becomes misleading if presented as a historical description without explanation.

There are also aspects of Jesus as a person and of his teachings that differ greatly from the image of what it means to be a Muslim in the historical religious tradition that developed after Muhammad.

• Jesus lived as a Jew in the first century, long before Islam emerged historically.
• He is not known from the Christian Gospels to have led wars or killed people.
• Jesus’ teachings place great emphasis on forgiveness, not revenge. Among other things, he says: ‘Turn the other cheek.’
• He was not polygamous, and the Gospels do not say that he was married. Nor did he ever marry a child or recommend marriage to children.
• Mary Magdalene was a disciple and follower of Jesus, but she was not one of the twelve apostles. She nevertheless occupied an important place among Jesus’ followers.
• When we look at Jesus’ encounters with women in the Gospels, we find many powerful examples of him treating women with respect and in ways that broke with several of the social expectations of his time. One well-known example is the story of the woman accused of adultery. Jesus says: ‘Let him who is without sin cast the first stone.’

For me, this is a powerful expression of Jesus’ view of guilt, punishment and forgiveness.

I therefore believe that we must be careful when we take a religious designation from the seventh century and apply it retrospectively to people who lived many hundreds of years earlier. Jesus never defined himself as a Muslim, and nowhere in the Bible are we told that he called himself a Muslim.

For me, the distinction is important: history must not be confused with theology. And when a sign on Karl Johan simply says: ‘JESUS WAS A MUSLIM’ without any explanation, I believe that it presents a misleading historical picture. For Jesus was a Jew. Islam emerged several centuries later.

That does not mean that Islam cannot regard Jesus as an important prophet. It can. But it cannot impose upon Jesus or upon us the claim that he was a Muslim. Calling Jesus a Muslim is an Islamic theological interpretation of Jesus, not a historical description of who he was.