Prejudice is judging an entire group by what a few do. The solution to any prejudice is to make a sincere effort to find the real facts. The brethren in Berea received the message of hope through Jesus the Christ with all readiness of mind (Acts 17:11). Receiving the word did not stop there. It was followed by them searching the scriptures daily to verify that what they had been taught was right. The scriptures at that point in time would have referred to the Old Testament. They used the Old Testament scriptures to daily search and verify that Jesus was the Christ. When one is in possession of facts and honest to admit and use them, prejudice flees the scene.
What most Moslems know about Christians is what they are told by their preachers or what they see via the media (print or visible). The language often used in our country is “Judeo-Christian values”. Those of the Islamic faith then perceive that what is meant is that Jews and Christians are together against all people of the Islamic faith. The war (Jihad) that they wage is, therefore, against all “Jews and Christians”. Prejudice is prejudging the whole group. As followers of Jesus the Christ we are bound by His Word. That Word teaches us that there is just one body (Eph. 4:4).
The first century world saw the beginning of the kingdom of Jesus the Christ starting in Acts 2. It was a gospel preached just to Jews and proselytes of the Jews religion (Acts 2:10). It was a gospel limited to and bound only to Jews and proselytes for several years. Beginning in chapter 8 of Acts that kingdom expanded to include Samaritans. A short time later the kingdom moved to include Gentiles as recorded in Acts 10. It was the beginning of the prophecy of Jesus that their would be one fold and one Shepherd (John 10:16). Paul, in the city of Athens, proclaimed the end of the law of the Gentiles in as much as ignorance would no longer be accepted by God (Acts 17:30). It would take more years before they finally reached its meaning in A.D. 70 with the fall of Jerusalem.
The transition period from Acts 2 until the fall of Jerusalem required the best efforts of all Christians to accept the truth about Jesus the Christ. The message being there is only one body composed of different members (1 Cor. 12:20). When Paul first arrived in Rome under Roman guard he called for the leaders of the Jewish people to come to him. They came and told Paul no one had written to them any bad thing about Paul (Acts 28:21). They were come because this “sect” was everywhere spoken against (Acts 28:22). The idea of “sect” (section, denomination) shows the Jews perceived that the church was just some offshoot of the Jewish religion.
Earlier Paul had an opportunity when in jail in Caesarea to speak with Felix (Acts 24). Felix is described as one who had “…more perfect knowledge of that way “(Acts 24:22). His wife was a Jew and yet somehow Felix saw that this “way” was not the same way as the religion of the Jews. Paul two chapters later before Agrippa would argue this thing (about Jesus) was not done in a corner (Acts 26:26). The availability of knowledge caused Paul by inspiration to say that Agrippa believed the prophets (verse 27). Agrippa knew there was a difference.
Jesus the Christ promised that He would save His body which is the church (Eph. 5:23). The church is the blood bought body also called the kingdom. Here is where the religious world loses its focus and tries to create something that is foreign to scripture. In their efforts to so act, they leave an impression on those of the Islamic faith that is false.