There are a number of points I want to make about the general assumption of Americans and others who see people being oppressed by the Muslims:
1. The Qur'an is usually overinterpreted by both terrorists and opponents to Muslims. If you read it carefully, in chronological order, it is the book of an OT prophet, affirming the oneness of God who was attacked by his enemies and later by those he felt to be his friends. The attacking he promotes is only opposed to polytheists only. The book goes out of its way a number of times speaking of the brotherhood between Muslims and "the people of the book", namely Jews and Christians. Muhummad ended up being rejected by the Jews, but still wanted to give them their spiritual place as brothers to Muslims. Yes, they enslaved whole peoples (which the Bible is strictly opposed to-- see the first couple chapters of Amos), and they destroyed other peoples, but they mostly saw these peoples as polytheists. The Christians in the lands they conquered they did not forcably convert, but allowed to live in their lands, as Christians.
2. The worst sin in the Muslim idea is that of "shirk"-- or giving any place to any created being beside God. This is why they are so opposed to Sonship language for Jesus, although they see him as one of the greatest prophets, the son of virgin Mary and most have a tradition of Jesus returning to rule the earth. They feel that their task as a people is to eradicate any form of polytheism and idolatry. To have a picture of God or of Muhammad, God's "greatest prophet" is a great sin because of the fear to worship the image instead of God alone.
3. There is too much power being given to fringe Muslim groups by their enemies. Bin Laden isn't just a Muslim fundamentalist, he is also a Marxist. Most Muslims are opposed to his ideals, especially that of considering any Muslim who works with the West a promoter of Satanic ideals, as well as his decades-old call to violent revolution. This is not to say that Muslims are peaceful-- they will make war when they need to defend themselves-- but they don't think that killing Muslims or initiating violence is the right way. Unfortunately, in seeing Muslims or the Qur'an as the great enemy of the Christian faith, we alienate those whom we should be giving the gospel to, and give credence to the revolutionary Muslims ideas.
4. Again, Muslims need to know the truth about Jesus. That is most important. What most Muslims and Christians do not know, though, is how much truth about Jesus that is in the Qu'ran itself. Beyond what I said above about Jesus in the Qur'an, the Qur'an also says that Jesus is the Word of God, the Messiah and that he died and rose again (in the original Arabic). This information is being used to evangelize Muslims throughout the world. One of the greatest church plant efforts in the Muslim world has been started on this premise, and thousands of Muslims are coming to Jesus-- not just in a revival meeting, but in connecting with other Muslims who now pray, "Allah is God and Jesus is his Messiah" five times a day. When we focus on the wrong issues-- painting all of Islam like a fringe group, labeling Muhammad or the Qu'ran as "evil", labeling Allah as a "moon god", highlighting the violence of some Muslims rather than the gracious hospitality and brotherhood of most Muslims-- then we lose the opportunity to truly give Muslims the truth of Jesus.
6 comments:
Steve, I appreciate your effort to moderate the attitude that many have towards Muslims.
You said: "in seeing Muslims or the Qur'an as the great enemy of the Christian faith, we alienate those whom we should be giving the gospel to, and give credence to the revolutionary Muslims ideas."
I agree that we should treat Muslims and even Atheists or anybody as friends and be ready to share the Good News of Jesus with them and work for their salvation from these false religions of Atheism, Islam, etc. It is very sad to hear Christians or Jews building a case for violence against Muslim countries. Mike Medved, the famous Jewish talk show host who is heard on Christian radio stations does that; and I've heard many friends of Israel programs on Christian radio who are advocates of military agression against the Arabs and Muslims, painting a horrible picture of them. They fail to mention that the Jews and the State of Israel has used terrorism to establish itself in the Mideast. Many Jews are horrified by this and are actively working for peace and an end to violence between Jews and Arabs. I applaud their efforts.
You said: "The Qur'an is usually overinterpreted... it is the book of an OT prophet, affirming the oneness of God..."
I've never read the Qur'an but I had heard that Muhummad was the author of the Qur'an. Am I misinformed or did you make a mistake in the above statement?
You said:
"The Christians in the lands they conquered they did not forcably convert, but allowed to live in their lands, as Christians."
I understand this is true, but also what I've heard is that Christians are second class citizens in Muslim countries. They are subject to heavy taxation the Muslims are not required to pay. Also they are not allowed to practice Christianity fully since if they share the faith with anybody and try to help them understand the Gospel and the way of salvation; I think the penalty for that is death; but I'm not certain about the severity of the penalty, maybe it varies from one Muslim country to another. I'd like to know if you have any specifics on that.
As for Osama Bin Laden, I think that if you check it out you will find that what the news media portrays about him is propaganda to instill fear into the American people. They use this fear to promote wars. That's how they got the American people to approve the current wars against Iraq and Afganistan. In this way Bin Ladin is actually helping out his business associates like the Bush family and other Western billionares. They are all making an incredible amount of money from these wars with a little help from Osama Bin Laden. The mass media is controlled by agencies like the Council on Foreign Relations whose purpose is to misinform Americans and control what we think. The super rich billionares who control international banks control the CFR and use it to set up their New World Order that was announced by G. Bush Sr. during the Gulf War the first war against Iraq back in around 1991.
One of the quickest way to find information on the CFR and the NWO is to put CFR onto the search box on YOUtube. Also check out Alex Jones. He has been exposeing the CFR and the NWO for years on the radio, TV, and internet, and I believe he has been arrested and thrown in jail here in free America just for telling the truth. Check it out; I'll be willing to go to jail too as every patriotic American should be in order to defend our nation from lies. We should not be willing to go kill in some phony war, but we should all be willing to go to jail for the truth as was the Apostle Paul, and many others.
You said: "What most Muslims and Christians do not know, though, is
how much truth about Jesus that is in the Qu'ran itself. Beyond what I said above about Jesus in the Qur'an, the Qur'an also says that Jesus is the Word of God, the Messiah and that he died and rose again (in the original Arabic). This information is being used to evangelize Muslims throughout the world."
Can you give us some more specifics about the many Muslims who are coming to Jesus Christ and how they are discovering the truth? Thanks.
Steve, it would be helpful if you would put in the references the Qur'an has about Jesus. I have heard that the religion of Islam proclaims that God has no son; and that Jesus did not die on the cross but was rather rescued from the cross and was carried to heaven by Michael the Angel. Is this true? I need to know the references, but that's what I have been told. I'll need to check further into this.
I agree that we should not paint Muslims as bad because many of them are sick of the oppressive Muslim governments they are under and want a way out. I do think that Muhammad the Prohet and the
Qu'ran are evil in the sense that they pretend to be giving the word of God; Muhammad was not a prophet of God and the Qu'ran is not His word, is it? So it is leading people away from the truth or at least making it very difficult for them to find the truth of the Good News of Jesus Christ. I have heard that the one god of Mohamed was actually the "moon god", which was the god of his tribe, and that there is a stone idol in the Caba, (a Muslin shine) which is worshipped by the Muslims; perhaps the Muslims never see this idol but it is in there and they bow to it, I understand, at least that's what I have heard, so if I'm wrong on that let me know. But even if Islam is an evil religion we don't have to go around saying that to the world necessarily. You are right, "Muslims need to know the truth about Jesus. That is most
important." So if we do the best we can to be friends with them, as I try to do, and tell them of the Good News in Jesus, that's the best thing we can do. I agree with that.
Thanks Steve.
Radical Thinker
Hey Tom, good to hear from you.
You posted a lot of comments here, and I'd like to comment on all of your comments, but I'll do that in a few posts, rather than all at once.
First of all, of course, I agree that the proposal to attack Muslims with violence is wrong. But more than that, I think that positioning one who doesn't believe in one's faith as "the enemy of the faith" is the cause of such violence on both sides. What we first need to realize is that Muslims and Christians have different beliefs, but also similar ones. If we are going to have communication rather than adversity, enmity, hatred or violence, we need to recognize what we and they believe the same and what differently. We also need to recognize each other's area of non-compromise. There will be some areas that we cannot give to each other and still retain ourselves as a seperate religion. But we will never get another to listen to our side-- that Jesus is the Way-- unless we speak to them without enmity, even while recognizing our differences.
When I say that the Qur'an was by an OT prophet, I meant that although it was by Muhammad, he is speaking as an OT prophet spoke, with many of the same issues-- idolatry, helping the poor, purity before God.
The Qur'an is said to have been spoken, not written, by Muhammad, under the inspiration of the angel Gabriel.
It is true that Christians have been "second class citizens" in Muslim countries. Just as Muslims are second class citizens in Israel.
Remember, the Muslim countries are not democracies, nor do they try to be that. When Jesus returns, we will not have a democracy either, but a benevolent dictatorship, by one who understands the needs of all of his citizens.
So there isn't freedom of religion. Neither is there freedom of religion in the ten commandments. It is just a different system, not a better or worse one.
Also, in most Muslim countries, it is illegal to convert a Muslim to any other religion. That makes sense as well. If there were such a thing as a "Christian" nation, then it would be illegal the other way around as well. This doesn't make their systems bad-- it just means that they believe what they believe consistantly.
Would that we did the same.
I will eventually leave the specific Quranic verses about Jesus, but I will need to find them again. I've lost my notes on this and will have to do the research again.
There are many misunderstandings about the Qur'an and Muhammad. The "moon god" theory is one of them. There is no solid evidence of the proposal, and all it does is stir up false anger about Muslims and stir up real anger by Muslims against Christians because the Christians are slandering the Muslims and their prophet Muhammad.
Muslims say that Allah is omniscient, that He is Merciful, that He is Creator, that He is the Most High God, that He is Eternal, etc. This is not the description of some "moon god" but God Almighty.
If "allah" was ever the name of a moon god (even as the Greek word for "god" in the NT was rooted on "Zeus"), then it is in the root of the word, not in its current use.
But the fact is, a better etymology of "allah" is "eloyah", another semetic word that is used for God in the OT.
But, again, even if the "moon god" theory was true, what use is it to repeat it except to anger Muslims, insult them and make sure that they never listen to what important things we have to say about Jesus?
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