B.A.S.I.C. NEWSLETTER #58
B.A.S.I.C. NEWSLETTER #58
September 15, 2005
I Cor. 16:9 For a wide door for effective work has opened to me, and there are many adversaries.
In the book “The Decline of Eastern Christianity under Islam”
From Jihad to Dhimmitude” by Bat Ye’or or The two regions of the world the true Muslim considers are the ‘dar al-Islam’ or domain of Islam or submission to Allah or the ‘dar al-harb’ the domain of war where the Muslim will try to bring in all others to submission. This view of the world by the Muslim should be understood by us.
Does Muslim theology teach that we all worship the same God?
(Taken from ‘The Voice of the Martyrs’ May 2002)
(Note: “Sura” means a chapter in the Koran.)
In the great public relations campaign among religions in America, some leaders tell us that we all worship the same God. Christians may be fooled, but Muslims are not. They do not believe that both of our paths reach the same God. It is important to know the meaning of two Arabic words frequently used in the Koran. The first one is “Kaffara,’ which is the root verb of the word “Koffar” (i.e., the infidels or those “who do not believe in Islam”), although the Arabic text uses the word “Kuffar,” and the translator mentions it as “unbelievers.” This is a misleading translation. The translator does not want Westerners to understand that the Koran describes them as infidels, simply because they are not Muslims.
The second word is “Mushrekeen,” meaning those who do not worship Allah or those who worship more than one god. This includes Christians and pagans. The Koran is written in Arabic. the English translation for Westerners has been diluted, changing many of the Koran’s meanings to fit with the Western mentality. The Koran uses these words listed above to describe Christians and non-Christians, anyone other than Muslims.
Islam teaches the following:
l. “The religion before God is Islam” (Sura 3:19).
2. The infidels and rejecters of faith are those who do not obey God (Allah) and his messenger Mohammed. “Say: obey God and His Apostle ‘Mohammed”; but if they turn back, God loveth not those (‘Koffar’) who reject Faith” (Sura 3:32) meaning Christians do not obey Allah or his messenger Mohammed.
3. The believers (only those who are Muslims, because the only religion before God is Islam, as stated in point 1) cannot have unbelievers (Christians and Jews) as friends or helpers. “Let not the believers take for friends or helpers (‘Koffar’) unbelievers rather than believers; if any do that, in nothing will there be help from Allah…” (Sura 3:28). Other translations state that unbelievers (non-Muslims) do not belong to God.
4. Allah ordered Mohammed and his followers to fight with the (“Koffar”) unbelievers of Islam. “Fight those (‘Koffar’) who believe not in Allah nor the Last Day…nor acknowledge the religion of truth (Islam), (even if they are) of the people of the book (Christians and Jews)…” (Sura 9:29).
5. The non-Muslims are non-clean. They are not allowed to come near Mecca and the Sacred Mosque: “O ye who believe! Truly the Pagans ‘Mushrekeen’ (non-Muslims) are unclean; so let them not, after this year of theirs, approach the Sacred Mosque…” (Sura 9:28). Today no Christian can visit Mecca. Saudi Arabia made a highway detour around Mecca for Christians if they have to pass by Mecca to go to other destinations. Osama Bin Laden started his war against America, because unbelievers (Christians) went to Saudi Arabia, thus defiling the holy land of the prophet Mohammed.
6. The Koran stated very clearly that “Koffar” are those who say that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and those who believe in the Trinity. In Sura 5:72, we read: “They do blaspheme (‘Kaffara’) who say: ‘Allah is Christ the son of Mary’…Whoever joins other gods with Allah–Allah will forbid him the garden, and the fire will be his abode. There will for the wrong doers be no one to help.”
7. We read also in Sura 5:73 ‘They do blaspheme (‘Kaffara’) who say: Allah is one of three in the Trinity: for there is no god except One God. If they desist not from their word (of blasphemy), verily a grievous penalty will befall the blasphemers ‘Koffar’ among them.”
The Koran regards Christians as people who disbelieve and who worship more than one god (“Kaffara” and “Mushrekeen”) although in other suras, Mohammed tried to say nice things about Christians to woo them to his side by calling them the ‘people of the book.” He even told them “Our Allah and your Allah is one” (Sura 29:46).
When Mohammed was not able to form his own brand of religion, he rejected the people of the book. When he moved from Mecca to Medina, his attitude changed. This extreme contradiction presents a Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde-type contrast in these two sections of the Koran.
As unbelievers, Christians were targets by Mohammed and his followers. That is why in Sura 8:39, Mohammed asked his followers to kill and attack them wherever they find them.
In the end Mohammed himself rode in more than 20 campaigns to kill non-Muslims, as Islam conquered by the sword and by the physical enslavement of non-Muslims throughout North Africa and much of Europe.
Pastor Koenig