Americans for Islam. Another speaker cited
successes in Egypt and Indonesia [both
nominally Christian before Islam took
over]. "If it takes 500 or 1,000
years, that's OK. We're here for the long
haul," the one speaker said.
There are already
about 1,500 mosques and 200 Islamic
schools here in the USA, 80% of which have
been built in the last 12 years.
Christianity
Today, April
3, 2000, in an article entitled Islam, U.S.A. noted:
·
A hospital in Detroit offers
Muslim patients copies of the Koran;
·
Denver International Airport
includes a chapel for Muslim prayers;
·
the U.S. Senate has invited
a Muslim cleric to open its session in
prayer;
·
the military has hired four
Muslim chaplains;
·
the White House sends
greetings (like its Christmas cards) to
commemorate the feast that ends Ramadan;
·
the Saudi Arabian Embassy in
Washington D.C. sends 100 Korans a month
to prisons while spiritual leaders send
volunteers to teach Arabic.
Islam is
gaining most of its US converts in prisons
and on university campuses. The majority
of American converts to Islam -- 85 to 90%
-- are black. In fact, presently "one
out of every 15 blacks identifies him or
herself as a Muslim."
I want to now give you a brief overview of Islam
1.
First, let’s take a look at
Allah:
Muslims believe Allah is God; the one true God.
Let me now
present to you an important question. Is
the God of the Bible and Allah of the
Koran one and the same? Many folks in the
media and even many in religious circles
would say yes. I would have to say no. For
instance, how can one reconcile the Bible
and the Koran when the Islamic sacred
scriptures state:
"Far be it from Him [Allah]
that He should have a son." The God
of the Bible had a Son. We call Him,
Jesus. John 5:22-23 (New Century
Version) notes, “In fact, the
Father judges no one, but he has given the
Son power to do all the judging so that
all people will honor the Son as much as
they honor the Father. Anyone who does not
honor the Son does not honor the Father
who sent him.”
I do want to
point out that many Muslims are equally
adamant in affirming that the Allah of
Islam is NOT the Jehovah God of the Bible.
2.
Now to Muhammad. Muhammad,
according to Islam, was the last and
greatest of the prophets, even surpassing
Jesus in rank and importance. He was born
in A.D. 570 in Mecca (in what is today
Saudi Arabia). Muslims believe they are
the true heirs, through Ishmael, to the
promises God made to Abraham.
Muhammad married
12 women. Oh, by the way, according to the
laws and doctrines of Islam, Muhammad
lived a sinless life. He died
in A.D. 632.
3.
The Koran -- the Islamic holy book
According to the legend, the
angel Gabriel came to visit Muhammad and
began to reveal the words of God to him.
Not being able to read or write, Muhammad
supposedly memorized the words, dictated
them to his companions, who eventually had
them written down by scribes.
Koran is Arabic for
"recitation."
The Koran to the Muslim is
not what the Bible is to the Christian.
Rather, the Koran is to the Muslim what
Jesus is to the Christian. Jesus is the
Word made flesh and the Koran, for the
Muslim, is the Word made text.
Perhaps some of you remember
the name Salman Rushdie and his book
published in 1988, The Satanic Verses. His
publication aroused the wrath of many
Muslims and caused Iran's Ayatollah
Khomeini to offer a multimillion-dollar
reward for the author's assassination.
Rushdie was forced to go into hiding. The contract is irrevocable and therefore is still in
force today. The Muslims believe that
Rushdie blasphemed the Koran.
In addition to the Koran,
Islam also follows the Tradition: the
collected sayings, thoughts, and deeds of
Muhammad. This collection is meant
to answer the pressing question,
“WWMD? (What
would Muhammad do?)
For example, an
eleventh-century Muslim legal scholar
wrote: “Know that the key of happiness
is…imitating God's Apostle in all his
goings out and comings in, in his
movements and times of quiescence, even in
the manner of his eating, his deportment,
his sleep and his speech…. So you must
sit while putting on trousers and stand
while putting on a turban: You must begin
with the right foot when putting on your
sandals, and eat with your right hand:
When cutting your nails you must begin
with the forefinger of the right hand and
finish with the thumb: in the foot you
must begin with the little toe of the
right foot and finish with the little toe
of the left.”
4. Now to Islam's Five
Pillars Of Faith
Islam
is a very complex system of belief.
However it’s main tenets are captured in
these so-called “pillars of faith.”
·
BELIEF
‑ Moslems declare acceptance of God
and Muhammad as his prophet; they count
the Koran as God's word and angels,
instruments of his will.
·
PRAYER – At dawn, noon, late afternoon, sunset, and after nightfall Moslems
involve themselves in ritual prayer.
Before they pray:
o
Body, clothes and place of prayer must be clean.
o
Perform ritual cleansing if needed.
o
Women are required to cover their hair.
o
Face Mecca.
o
Stand erect, head down, hands at sides, feet
evenly spaced.
o
Recite
the private call to prayer
·
ALMSGIVING ‑ An annual payment of 2.5% of a Muslim’s wealth is to be
distributed among the needy. Giving to the
poor, voluntarily or as a tithe, purifies
one’s remaining wealth.
·
FASTING ‑ As you have no doubt
heard on the news, the Muslims enter into
the holy month of Ramadan on November 16.
Ramadan, they believe, is the month during
which the Koran was revealed to Muhammad.
Muslims fast during the whole month of
Ramadan.
The daily period of fasting starts at dawn
and ends at the setting
of the sun. In between -- that is, during the daylight hours --
Muslims
totally abstain from food, drink, smoking,
and sex. The usual practice is to
have a pre-fast meal before dawn and a
post-fast meal after sunset.
·
(HAJJ) PILGRIMAGE
– Everyone who is physically and
financially able is required to make one
pilgrimage to (Makkah) Mecca during his or
her lifetime. As you can see from the
slide, many obey.
To put this in another perspective,
this would be somewhat akin to
saying that every Christian would
have to make a trip to the Holy Land
or Jerusalem during their life.
Let me now point
out two key areas where Islam and
Christianity part company. (I could site
many, but due to time restrains, I will
limit myself to these two.)
1.
The Muslims believe that people are
born free of sin. Christianity, on the
other hand, teaches that all have sinned
and come short of God’s glory. We hold
to the fact that the sin of Adam in the
Garden of Eden has been passed on to all
generations. It was due to man’s sin,
that Jesus died on the cross.
2.
Next, Islam teaches that
“salvation lies in submission to the
commands of Allah and doing righteous
deeds…each human being is born free of
sin and is individually accountable for
the sins he or she commits. Therefore
there was no need for anyone (including
Christ) to die on the cross as
atonement." (Imam Sa’dullah Khan)
The Scriptures,
on the other hand, are clear that
salvation is from God alone. Romans
10:9-10 promises, “That if you
confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is
Lord,’ and believe in your heart that
God raised him from the dead, you will be
saved. For it is with your heart that you
believe and are justified, and it is with
your mouth that you confess and are
saved.”
Ephesians 2:8-9 adds, “For it is by grace
you have been saved, through faith--and
this not from yourselves, it is the gift
of God--not by works, so that no one can
boast.”
In short, if I could sum up Islam in one word, that word would be
“submission.” In fact, the term
“Islam” actually means submission
therefore, Muslims call themselves
submitters ---
submitters to Muhammad as well as
to all of the will
of Allah.
I
want to now focus in on the various types
of Muslims
Are you aware of the
fact that there are dozens of different
kinds of Muslims? The two major branches
are the Shiites and the Sunni’s. (Think
of the many different denominations within
the Protestant ranks – all Protestant,
but nonetheless, different.) Then too,
within Islam there are two additional
branches of belief and practice: the
peaceable and the war-like.
I have known or met a number of Muslims. In all fairness, I have found
the majority of them to be wonderful,
loving, hospitable people. They make good
friends and excellent neighbors. They are
not in any sense of the word terrorists,
rather they are as repulsed by the
September 11 acts of terror as any of us
are. They merit our love and our respect.
On the other hand, there is another group within Islam that yields
themselves to a spirit of jihad. Jihad has
a number of different meanings, however
the term is being used today as a
declaration of “holy war.”
The word symbolizes a very vengeful,
hateful, demonic, spirit of death. The
Muslims that are causing problems in the
world today see themselves as being
involved in a jihad.
We call these Muslims, extremists, or Islamic Fundamentalists. Osama bin Laden is a part of such a
group. Even the Arabs recognize the fact
that the dude is a renegade.
I want to make an important observation here and now. I am a
Christian. As such, it is with a certain
amount of shame that I have to admit to
you that we in the Christian ranks also
have our fanatics; our renegades.
Need I remind
you of the KKK, the Arian Nation, or other
white supremist groups? Many of these hate
mobs call themselves Christian. Let me
point out one particular group to you.
They call themselves the World
Church of the Creator.
Notice
with me their banner. As you can see, it
is composed of several images on a white
background. From top to bottom, they are:
a
halo, which symbolizes that
race is "unique and sacred above
all others."
a
red and black crown which
indicates that their group form the elite,
a
large black letter W which
stands for the white race,
The
blood-red color of the cross
symbolizes their "struggle for the
survival,
expansion and advancement of the
White Race."
Their slogans
include: A Whiter and Brighter World
and “RAHOWA" which simply means
“Racial Holy
War”.
These so-called Christians hate the Jews first and foremost, then the
blacks, browns and anyone else that
doesn’t fit their criteria of white.
Folks, as is true of the Islamic
fundamentalists, these people are not
playing with a full deck!
Along this line, do you realize that there is a pro-life group out there
somewhere in America today that has been
sending abortion clinics envelopes
partially filled with white powder? (They
want the people to think the power is
anthrax.) I hate abortion, but I also
would hate to be identified with such
sickos! Terrorism is wrong, wrong, wrong!
I don’t care who does it; so-called
Christians or Muslims! The end does not
justify the meanness!
Now, back to the ISLAMIC FUNDAMENTALISTS
On Friday, Osama bin Laden broadcast a statement appealing to the
world's Muslims to join him in a religious
war against the 'infidel' Christians and
Jews. “This war is primarily a religious
war,” bin Laden said.
On
February 23, 1998, this evil fellow made
this appeal: "To kill Americans and
their allies, civilians, and military is
an individual duty for every Muslim who
can do it in any country in which it is
possible to do it." He
bases his appeals on the Koran. Listen to
this passage: “The punishment of those who wage war against Allah and His apostle and
strive to make mischief in the land is
only this, that they should be murdered or
crucified or their hands and their feet
should be cut off on opposite sides or
they should be imprisoned; this shall be
as a disgrace for them in this world, and
in the hereafter they shall have a
grievous chastisement." (Sura 5:33)
Again, “When the sacred months are passed, kill
those who join other gods wherever you
find them, and seize them, beleaguer them
and lie in wait for them with every kind
of ambush. But if they convert and observe
prayer and pay the obligatory alms, then
let them go their way.” (Sura 9:5)
Senator John McCain,
recently told Fox News that the Koran
"is a book that teaches many of the
same principles as Christianity." I
would dare say that the gentleman from
Arizona needs to do a little more research
before he opens his mouth. Agree?
Listen
to this passage from the Koran: "O ye
who believe (Muslims), take not the Jews
or the Christians for your friends and
protectors. They are but friends and
protectors to each other. And he among you
who turns to them (for friendship) is of
them." (Surat Al-Maidah 5:51)
Cal Thomas is a well-known conservative newspaper
columnist. In last week’s column he
wrote of the visit to Washington DC, of
the Right
Reverend Bullen Dolli, an Episcopal Bishop
from the Sudan. The priest
was in Washington in an effort to
warn Congress and anyone else who would
listen of the dangers to his country and
the United States posed by Islam,
especially in its militant form. He simply
calls Islam, "a militant
religion."
The
Koran insists that no matter how mighty a
nation is, it must be fought "until
they embrace Islam.”
The
London Daily Telegraph
reported last week that a poll of British
Muslims showed that 98% would refuse to
fight for Great Britain against Osama bin
Laden, but that 48% would, instead, fight
for the terrorist and his cause.
Have
you ever asked yourself, what would the
world look like if it were in fact ruled
by the
Islamic fundamentalists?
I
want to now give you a peek.
The
Taliban, rulers of Afghanistan, are
Muslims. They are also pawns of and
financed by you know who. They have forced
upon their nation of 26 million people
their strict interpretation of the Koran
and the Sharia, Koranic law.
Let
me give you some examples of life under
the Taliban.
When
the Taliban roared into power, they
immediately took all of the governmental
leaders of the nation out to the public
square in Kabul and hung them. Following
this, they announced a series of decrees
on the radio; decrees that immediately
catapulted all women and girls back into
the Dark Ages. For instance, women had
to be completely covered by the
head-to-foot wrap called a burqa. A burqa
covers the body under thick material and
leaves only a small mesh opening to see
and breathe. A 28- year-old Afghani woman
noted, "It's hot in here. Shrouded in this body bag , I feel
claustrophobic. It's smelly too. The cloth
in front of my mouth is damp from my
breathing. Dust from the filthy street
swirls up under the billowing
burqa and sticks to the moisture from my covered mouth. I feel like I'm
suffocating in stale air. It also feels
like I'm invisible... no one knows whether
I'm smiling or crying."
Why
are the females subjected to such a thing?
Mullah Muhammad Omar, the leader of the
Taliban, simply said, "A woman's face
corrupts men."
Then too, following the take-over by the Taliban:
·
Schools
for girls over the age of nine were
immediately closed.
·
Women
could no longer work.
·
Women were not allowed to
wear high heals because the Taliban
considers them sexual.
·
They were also not allowed
to wear white shoes or socks because that
is the color of the Taliban flag.
·
Today,
speaking of shoes, a woman must not make
any noise with her feet when she is out in
public. The sound of a woman’s feet is
considered too tempting for men to resist.
Again, offenders are beaten, and in some
cases they are beaten to death.
·
Taliban law dictates women
can speak only to men related by blood or
marriage.
·
They
cannot receive medical treatment from a
male doctor.
·
Taxi drivers are not allowed to pick up a woman unless the lady is with a
close male relative. If she does not have
a male relative with her, then she must
travel in the trunk of the vehicle -- as
you can see in the adjoining picture.
Windows
must be painted black to prevent anyone
from seeing a woman inside a house. New
houses can have no windows on the second
floor. In a mind-boggling rationale, the
current president of the country explains
the Taliban's actions by saying,
"Otherwise, they'll be like Princess
Diana."
When
a woman leaves home, again, she must be
accompanied by her husband, brother or a
son. Then, too, she still has to be
shrouded in the hated burqa, plus she must
carry a permit that details her reason for
being outside. One man, when asked about
this law remarked, “Why would a woman
want to leave her pots and children?”
Before the war, there are 30,000 widows in Kabul who are virtually
destitute. When asked how they should
cope, the Taliban replied, "Let them
die." The lady to the left is a
Afghani female beggar.
Women
have been sprayed with acid, beaten with
twisted wires and shot for crimes such as
showing their ankles, letting a hand slip
out from under the burqa while paying for
food, or allowing their children to play
with toys.
For
being outside with anyone who is not a
male relative, the sentence is death by
stoning. The hooligans in power dig a pit
and bury the woman to her shoulders. Then
they form a circle around her and throw
rocks at her head until she is dead.
·
One woman was beaten to
death by an angry mob of Fundamentalists
for accidentally exposing her arm while
she was driving.
·
Another was stoned to death
for trying to leave the country with a man
that was not a relative.
Why don’t the women do something? Soon
after
the takeover, a group of women in the
city
of Herat marched in protest. According to
eyewitnesses, the Taliban surrounded the
women, seized their leader, doused her in
kerosene and burned her alive.
It is therefore no surprise that
mental stress and depression was common
among 97% of the Afghani women. Twenty-one per-cent have admitted to having had suicidal
thoughts. A doctor in Afghanistan told the
Associated Press that women have been
committing suicide "in greatly
increased numbers" and that the most
common method was caustic soda.
"Caustic soda burns away the
throat," he said. "It takes
three days to die. Regrettably, the only
surgeon capable of performing the kind of
intervention needed is in a hospital that
is now closed to women."
Taliban mistreat women By Donna Bryson Associated Press, August 5,1998
By the way, the Taliban has
imposed the death penalty on any Afghan
Muslim who converts to Christianity or
Judaism. In addition, anyone
caught selling "anti-Islamic
literature" can be sentenced to five
years in jail.
Speaking
of law, murderers are executed by their
victims' families, thieves' hands are
chopped off, adulterers are stoned to
death and homosexuals are killed by having
a tank flatten a wall on them.
Before
I leave this point, I have to show you an
actual political cartoon. I do not know
which paper it appeared in. Anyway, it
shows how Hilary Clinton might look if she
were to visit Afghanistan and look into a
mirror. I felt we might need a
laugh at this point.
Just to be honest, women of Islam suffer outside of Afghanistan as
well
·
In
Bangladesh, a woman can receive 50 lashes
for speaking her mind.
·
In
Saudi Arabia, women are forced to cloak
themselves in black that absorbs the
stifling heat while men walk about in
white robes that deflect it. Also, women
cannot eat alone in restaurants or drive
cars.
·
In
parts of Pakistan, women can’t go
outside without being veiled and
accompanied by a male relative.
In the Koran we read:
·
"Righteous women are
therefore obedient, guarding the secret
for God's guarding. And those you fear may
be rebellious admonish; banish them to
their couches, and beat them" (Surah
4:34).
·
According to Surah 4:11,
Women are to receive half of what men
receive in terms of an inheritance.
·
Men are the
"managers" of women (Surah
4:35), and
·
can divorce their wives by
simply stating "I divorce you"
three times; and may take more than one
wife, should they choose to do so.
Now
I want to share just a few thoughts with
you concerning Muhammad and his wives.
Earlier in this message I pointed out that
the “prophet” had at least twelve
wives. (By-the-way, we have no idea how
many mistresses he had in his harem.)
Let me briefly tell
you about two of his wives. Muhammad had
an adopted son by the name of Zayed. He
was married to the beautiful Zainab,
daughter of Jahsh. Muhammad was not
satisfied with his own overflowing harem
therefore he persuaded his son to divorce
his wife so that he, Muhammad, could have
her. What a great father-in-law. What a
tremendous model for all Islamic
father-in-laws.
His youngest and
favorite wife was Ayesha. She was but 6
years old at the time of their marriage.
It is said that the marriage was
not consummated, though, until the child
turned nine.
Muhammad said that,
"the woman can be married for
religion, her fortune, or her beauty. So
marry one for the religion" (Abu Issa
al-Tarmidi, Sunan al-Tarmidi, Medina n.d.,
p.275, B: 4, H:1092)
To marry for the religion was a simple way
of saying, use the institution of marriage
as a means to convert a woman to Islam.
Now you know why so many Muslim men marry
non-Muslims and convert them to Islam. It
also shows what high regard Islam has for
the sacred institution of marriage. Did
anyone ever teach them about marrying for
love?
In short, a lady’s
virtues, intelligence or personality do
not matter. What does count is her faith,
her money, or her good looks. With that in
mind, one can better understand the
rational behind the terrible mistreatment
of Islamic women. The men are simply
submitting to the lustful and woeful
example of Muhammad.
Think with me here. Who is seemingly
following the true teachings of Islam, the
so-called moderates or the extremists? I
will leave that for you to decide.
The truth is that
Muhammad himself was a terrorist leader
who advocated the mistreatment of women,
had little regard for the sanctity of
marriage, hated Christians and Jews, and
promoted conversion or death by the sword
to his enemies, and ascribed such teaching
to his god, Allah. Jehovah God, on the
other hand, “so loved the world that
he gave his one and only Son, that whoever
believes in him shall not perish but have
eternal life.”
What
a difference is seen between the place of
the woman in Islam and the place afforded
her in Christianity
A
Hindu woman once said to a
missionary, "Surely
your Bible was written by a
woman."
Why?
"Because it says so many kind things
about women. Our books never refer to us
but in reproach."
Jesus
did not teach discrimination against
women. On the other hand, He held them in
great esteem and respect! Christian
teaching is that both man and woman were
created in the image and likeness of God.
Genesis 1:27 states, “So God created
man in His own
image, in the image of God created He him;
male and female created He them.”
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