Islam teaches that Muslims must believe in Jesus. It’s important to recognize that the Islamic version of Jesus is not the same as the biblical or true version of Jesus. For example, in Islam Jesus did not die, he was not crucified, he didn’t rise again, he didn’t atone for sins. In the Islamic version of Jesus, he is merely a human being who’s commissioned to be a prophet, just like we would believe Moses was merely a human being who’s commissioned to be a prophet.
Despite that lower Christology, it’s still significant to understand that the Quran actually has a fairly high view of Jesus. For example, the Quran teaches that Jesus was born of the Virgin Mary, that his birth was announced by angels, that he lived a sinless and perfect life. The Quran teaches that he was able to perform miracles like raise the dead and heal the sick. And even according to the Quran, Jesus is the appointed one to return at the end of time to usher in the end of the age, to kill the Antichrist, to break all the crosses and to kill the pigs. That’s pretty significant.
What’s even more interesting is that when you contrast that with what the Quran says about Muhammad, it’s even more fascinating because the Quran does not say Muhammad had any kind of a extraordinary birth, it doesn’t say he was sinless, doesn’t say he performed miracles and according to the Quran, Muhammad has been dead and buried for last 1400 years in Saudi Arabia.
What this tells us is that we as Christians have tremendous freedom to talk to Muslims about Jesus. After all, Jesus is the center of our faith, the center of salvation and that’s what we want to share with Muslims. We can do that because Muslims are required to believe in Jesus. As I said, they don’t believe in the true biblical version of Jesus but nevertheless we have tremendous freedom and there’s no problem with those bringing it up and telling our Muslim friend or neighbor about who Jesus is.