** *
A German’s View on Islam –
A man, whose family was German aristocracy prior to World War II, owned a number
of large industries and estates. When asked how many German people were true Nazis, the answer he gave can guide our
attitude toward fanaticism.
‘Very few people were true Nazis,’ he said, ‘but many
enjoyed the return of German pride, and many more were too busy to
care. I was one of those who just thought the
Nazis were a bunch of fools. So, the majority just sat
back and let it all happen. Then, before we knew it,
they owned us, and we had lost control, and the end of the world
had come. My family lost everything. I ended up in a
concentration camp and the Allies destroyed my
factories.’ We are told again and again by
‘experts’ and ‘talking heads’ that Islam is the religion of peace
and that the vast majority of Muslims just want to live in
peace. Although this unqualified assertion may be true,
it is entirely irrelevant. It is meaningless fluff,
meant to make us feel better, and meant to somehow diminish the
spectre of fanatics rampaging across the globe in the name of
Islam. The fact is that the fanatics rule
Islam at this moment in history. It is the fanatics who
march. It is the fanatics who wage any one of 50
shooting wars worldwide. It is the fanatics who
systematically slaughter Christian or tribal groups throughout
Africa and are gradually taking over the entire continent in an
Islamic wave. It is the fanatics who bomb, behead,
murder, or honour-kill. It is the fanatics who take
over mosque after mosque. It is the fanatics who
zealously spread the stoning and hanging of rape victims and
homosexuals. It is the fanatics who teach their young
to kill and to become suicide bombers. The
hard, quantifiable fact is that the peaceful majority, the ‘silent
majority,’ is cowed and extraneous. Communist
Russia was comprised of Russians who just wanted to live in peace,
yet the Russian Communists were responsible for the murder of about
40 million people. The peaceful majority were
irrelevant. China’s huge population was peaceful as
well, but Chinese Communists managed to kill a staggering 70
million people. The average Japanese
individual prior to World War II was not a warmongering
sadist. Yet, Japan murdered and slaughtered its way
across South East Asia in an orgy of killing that included the
systematic murder of 12 million Chinese civilians; most killed by
sword, shovel, and bayonet. And who can forget
Rwanda , which collapsed into butchery. Could it not be
said that the majority of Rwandans were ‘peace loving’?
History lessons are often incredibly simple and blunt,
yet for all our powers of reason, we often miss the most basic and
uncomplicated of points:

• Peace-loving Muslims have been made
  irrelevant by their silence.
• Peace-loving Muslims will become our
  enemy if they don’t speak up, because like my friend from Germany ,
  they will awaken one day and find that the fanatics own them, and
  the end of their world will have begun.
• Peace-loving Germans, Japanese, Chinese,
  Russians, Rwandans, Serbs, Afghans, Iraqis, Palestinians, Somalis,
  Nigerians, Algerians, and many others have died because the
  peaceful majority did not speak up until it was too late. As for us
  who watch it all unfold, we must pay attention to the only group
  that counts–the fanatics who threaten our way of
  life.

*
*
*

A Dire Warning
This is a dire warning, more to those Muslims that see their Allah as a loving god, and Islam as a peaceful way of life. Often referenced is the Quranic verse sura 2:256 stating there is “no compulsion in religion.” I have discussed this in prior blogs  and one, on Abrogation, noting that this verse as such was abrogated, changed, in later verses (which by the Quran itself erase the earlier). [UI – Part 68 – Abrogation, Nov. 15, 2010] Even if not the case, if this were the truth, that in fact in the Muslim world there was no aversion to other faiths, a total respect for other religions existed, then WHY is the preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ criminalized; WHY is the owning of a Bible, especially a New Testament, a criminal offense;
WHY are Christians deported from Muslim countries for gifting a Bible to a Muslim, even discussing Christianity with a
Muslim? In most cases even questioning the prophet Muhammad or Allah would be ‘blasphemous’ in most of the Islamic world.

And if a Muslim were to change his religion, thinking even that Islam may not be the final religion, there are consequences;
in Saudi Arabia they could face the death penalty; in other areas persecution of some form would result.

Please forgive me, especially all Muslims, for having doubts. A few areas have been quite problematic for me as to a just
reason for accepting Islam as a religion. As an Ideology I can understand it as a framework for living under a totalitarian
rule; the lack of ‘freedom’, the lack of an opportunity for ‘independent thinking’, causes me to object to Islam as a
way of life for anyone. As rulers I can see their selfish desire for control – which is not godlike. It is
not humane.

Having mentioned the concept of “Abrogation” prior, let me comment on my thinking. God is
universal, our creator, how, or why, in the course of 23 years (the period in which Muhammad was given revelations so claimed by Allah)
would God change his mind. Man might change his mind, but God? No, God is never-changing.

When I compare the God of the Bible and Allah of the Quran, I am much more comfortable with the freedom, the love, the acceptance, the all-embracing nature of God, and of course, the saving grace provided through the sacrifice for all mankind that enabled the unrighteous, which is
the case for everyone, to be provided a way to Salvation.

Thanks be to God. Blessings to all in this New Year 2011. May there be peace in the world.

May the oppressed speak out, their voices heard, and let others know they want to be free. May the Spirit find
the hearts of those willing to resist and suffer, if necessary, for the cause of a peaceful and free world, for men and
women.

 
Grace and Peace