But, even in the early days of Christianity, it was common for the monks to tell a people or a tribe who had never heard of Jesus, that they could retain their old customs and just add Christianity. Then slowly over time, the old customs would fade away and Christianity would supplant them. Their Gods and rites would turn into Christian Saints and customs. The former fertility Goddess Ester, becomes the holiday Easter. Fertility celebrations becomes hiding eggs and rabbits on the day of the cruxifiction. And on and on.
BTW, there are a lot of Arab Christians, but I have never heard the term Muslim Christian before. And the teacher is correct. Mohammed was very, very, very much anti-Jewish and anti-Christian. The Koran clearly states that Christians and Jews must be converted, killed, or subjugated. This is no interpretation, it is stated clearly word for word in the Koran.
A Muslim practicing Christianity without conversion and commitment, would be defacing/disrespecting both religions. You have to be one or the other. You cannot be two opposite things at the same time.
In this case the kid is definitely a practicing muslim and not a Christian by any stretch of the imagination. He does not beleive in Jesus Christ. I actually commend the teacher for pointing this out by questioning him about his beleifs after the student had raised the issue. I am sure at this point, the muslim student did not understand Christianity, and therefore got caught up in the questioning as a result.
Many of the other students had this all figured out before the teacher even did his questioning, but without the teacher’s questioning, some of the other students might have actually bought into the muslim student’s ruse, so I commend the teacher for making it clear to all the students that you can not be both a muslim and a Christian, and fully explaining why.