OPENING UP ISLAM
The demand for this
magazine has risen sharply over the past year and we believe the reason
is because we do not fudge difficult issues. In this edition of PT we
are following that tradition and examining the greatest issue facing the
world today — what to do about Islam.
The first essential is to understand the true nature
of Islam which few people in the West do. The church, in particular, has
been guilty of failing to give any clear guidance on Islam and has often
confused people by saying that there is no difference between Allah and
the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Such foolish statements show
an appalling ignorance of the Koran and the life and teaching of Mohammed.
The events of 11 September 2001 plunged the world into
a potential holocaust of inter ethnic conflict from which we will not be
saved by pretending that there are no differences between Islam and
Christianity. We have to speak the truth in love. It is not sufficient to
say that Muslims feel oppressed by the rich and powerful nations of the
West and that their hatred of America is an outcome of their poverty. We
have to ask why millions of Muslims live in poverty despite the immense
riches of the ruling families in the oil producing states. Why don’t
Muslims help their own poor? Why is it left to Christian aid agencies to
help Muslims in times of famine and natural disaster? Why does Islam
produce such oppressive regimes as the Taliban in Afghanistan? Why are
millions of Muslims trying to emigrate to the West to enjoy the lifestyle
that Islam despises?
The answer to these questions lies in the nature of
Islam itself which is not strictly a religion but more a medieval Arab
socio-political system which has been given divine sanction. As Ron George
shows in the important article on pages 6-9, modern Muslims are ‘trapped
in a world of make believe’ because they are not allowed to question Islam
which is supposed to be the perfect system for all time. The logical
conclusion of such a belief is the Taliban regime in Afghanistan.
In Britain, politicians, community leaders and
churchmen are falling over themselves to say that there is nothing wrong
with Islam and that the small minority of extremists have distorted its
teaching. But is this true? I have recently been talking with residents in
Jos, Nigeria, where thousands have died in inter-religious violence. In
some areas of Northern Nigeria tension is so high that the smallest act of
provocation can set off a chain reaction of communal violence. In Jos the
troubles are said to have begun when a Christian girl walked past a Mosque
with bare arms and shoulders. Some of the crowd spilling out from Friday
prayers recognised her as a recent convert from Islam the punishment for
this is death. She was lynched and literally torn to pieces, then the
crowd went on the rampage through the city killing Christians and burning
churches.
I have also recently been to Indonesia and seen at
first hand some of the suffering of Christians there. Many of these
Christians are converts from Islam which has aroused the fury of the Imams
who urge Muslims to kill them. This is not the action of a handful of
fanatical extremists, it is following the teaching and example of Mohammad
who routinely killed those who disagreed with him, especially Jews. The
Koran is very clear about what has to happen to those who do not believe
in Islam:
‘Fight those who do not believe!’ (Sura 9:29);
‘Fighting is prescribed for you’ (Sura 2:212);
‘If anyone desires a religion other than Islam, it
will not be accepted from him’ (Sura 3:79);
‘When you meet unbelievers, it is (a matter of)
smiting necks. Then, after you have cowed them with much slaughter,
fasten the bonds tight!’ (Sura 47:4).
For Muslims, Mohammed is the ideal model upon which
Islamic law is based. To follow Mohammed’s Umma means that Muslims are
allowed to kill other people. The fact that Jewish tribes in Medina were
killed because they disagreed with him has become a model for killing
others. Young men are taught that they go straight to heaven to enjoy a
life full of women and food if they die in the struggle against the
enemies of Islam. This is why we have seen in the last few years hundreds
of churches burned and thousands of Christians slaughtered in Indonesia
and terrible atrocities against civilians in Israel. But the western world
has taken little or no notice of the suffering of Christians and the
western media always blames Israel and plays down the activities of
Palestinian terrorists. This is why the attacks in New York on 11
September 2001 took the West by surprise. Yet it was simply the next
logical step in Islam’s attempt to blame everyone else for the failure of
its own medieval system to meet the needs of its people in the modem
world.
The hope for the future is that September 11 has forced
millions of Muslims to begin to look at the system of which they are a
part. For those living in western nations it is a time of confusion. Young
Muslims in Britain are resisting being sent back to Pakistan to find wives
or husbands from what to them has become an alien culture. As Muslims
begin to question their culture the opportunity is there to speak about
Jesus.
Unlike Mohammed, Jesus did not tell his followers to
kill others who opposed or ill-treated them, he said we are
to love our enemies. This is a teaching the world urgently needs to hear
and Christians need to practise! It is a teaching that believing Jews need
to teach in Israel if the Messianic community is to make a prophetic
impact in these crucial times when world attention is focusing upon
Jerusalem.
These are days of disillusionment for millions of young
Muslims but equally they are days of disillusionment for young people in
the western nations who hate the the naked greed and materialism of the
West. We shall focus upon these issues in future editions of this magazine
but for the moment we want to declare our conviction that God is giving us
a unique opportunity to reach Muslims with the love of God expressed
through Jesus.
I am well aware that many Bible believing Christians
see these days as directly leading up to the climax to the ages foretold
in Scripture in the Second Coming of our Lord and the judgment of the
nations. I personally do not interpret the signs of the times in quite
that way. I believe there are a number of things that have to happen
before we get to that point, one of which is a worldwide harvest for the
gospel which will include millions of Muslims drawn into the Kingdom
through the liberating power of the gospel and the love of God.
Now is the time for Christians in Britain to stop
worrying about the thousands of Muslims moving across Europe heading for
the UK and change our perspective to seeing every situation in terms of
‘opportunity’ rather than ‘threat’.
Ahead of us lies a period of great turbulence and
suffering, but this is the cost of the immense opportunity of being
labourers in the harvest to which God is calling us in the 21st century
which will sweep millions of Muslims into the Kingdom. It will only happen
if we are prepared to pay the price, to take the risk, to seize every
opportunity of loving our neighbours and those who believe they are our
enemies. But this is the way of the Lord!
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