UI – Part 385 – A False Defense – Islamic and Liberal

Fight

“Fight them until there is no more persecution and all the world is for Allah.” (Sura 8.39)

“Fight them until there is no persecution and religion is only for Allah.” (Sura 2.193)

These verses of the Quran compels devout Islamists to discredit anything said about Islam, whether it is truth or not, and thus curb freedom of speech.  What is Islamic truth may not be God’s truth, or even rational, logical, truth. What they call ‘persecution’ may be the truth being told with which they either disagree, object, find problematic or in opposition to the goal of Islam.   Organizations that excel in combating comments they feel detract from the goal include the Muslim Brotherhood, the Council of American-Islamic Relations (C.A.I.R.), the Muslim Student Association (MSA), the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), and many more. There is even an Anti-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (an anti-discrimination Muslim organization – ADC).  They react negatively whenever the word ‘Islam’ is used in a sentence that suggests it is not peaceful, it is violent, it is unfair to women, it is masochistic, it hates Christians, it hates Jews, it is homophobic, and it is not tolerant, among other things.  Sitting at a table with such Muslims and having a conversation can be as frustrating as a political debate.  Questions asked are seldom answered.  They become opportunities of avoidance or to speak of other matters. They lie (takiyya) or deflect (kitman).  Innuendos towards the person  inquiring as to their character towards Muslims, being racist or islamophobic, is often made the issue with little regard for providing an answer.  Answers may put Islam in a bad light, the truth being told, and thus deceit or deflection is justified.

The American liberal tends to side with the approach taken by these factions as if they are minorities who are victims of conservative, or right wing, thinking.  Attitudes discerned as negative when the truth of Islam is challenged become the focus.  The attitude, not the question.  This falls in the bin of political correctness run amok.

In a recent opinion piece in the WSJ (/12/2016 – Bret Stephens: Islam and the Radical West – read it) the author talks of a conversation with homegrown radicalized Muslims noting, “There’s a great deal of literature about how young Muslim men – often born in the West to middle class and not particularly religious households – get turned on to jihad.” He provides several examples of those committing most noteworthy terrorist acts we all can recall.  He goes on to note, “They are sons of the West – educated in the schools of multiculturalism, reared on the works of Noam Chomsky and perhaps Frantz Fanon, consumers of a news diet heavy with reports of perfidy by American or British or Israeli soldiers. If Islamism is their ideological drug of choice, the political orthodoxies of the modern left are their gateway to it.”

Profile

Infidels forge lies against Allah. (Sura 4.50)

Profiling is a cause for the political Islamists to jump up and down.  The Pew Research organization conducted a study on violence in the name of religion.  Its findings have a vast majority believing Islam promotes violence, while other religions do so minimally. 22% felt Islam, specifically, as a religion directly promotes violence, while less than 2% of other religions do so.  The largest figure, 68%, think some violent people use religion to justify their actions. The assumption is these people lean towards Islam as justification.

The liberal left, Obama the representative, takes issue with Republicans claiming “the Republican base has been fed this notion that Islam is inherently violent, that this is who these folks are.”  He ignores the fact such an idea arose from the media reporting, headlines, of Islamic terrorists murdering innocent Christians and even Muslims they consider heretics, including beheading or burning their victims on TV. The Islamists themselves provide the pictures or the video of their barbarism in the name of Islam. Obama also ignores the many of his race and constituency that agree with the conservatives he mocks. They too have concerns and reservations as to the safety and security of Americas.  Obama dismisses as the ‘new normal’ attacks on innocents and wants, as a means of defiance, everyone to go on living their lives as if nothing has changed. He does not feel that way when a black person in America is harmed, for the right reasons or not, with cries of ‘racism’ proclaimed and promoted as a practice that must stop, i.e. not the norm, but the norm of the terrorist is to be ignored.  Life is to go on as if nothing happened.   Are those yelling ‘Allahu Akbar’ not Muslims? Has he forgotten 911, the UK’s 7/7, Spain, Paris, Belgium and San Bernardino already? Why is he so cavalier? I will agree that American Muslims are non-violent, as far as we know.

The concern is more about those that may immigrate and the current culture in which they live and from which they will transfer, accompanied by a deep seated hatred for the West, who are not moderates or accustomed to American standards.  Such hatred is voiced almost daily by the Iranians shouting “Death to America”, their leader Rouhani leading the charge, even after our President signed a Nuclear Agreement with them giving them much for little in exchange.

There is a concern too over the radicalization of American Muslims whose parents handed them over to Imams, madrassas and mosques, for Islamic teaching in an effort to protect them from the immorality present in American society.  The fear is their children will be tempted and become immoral and thus lose their law abiding and Allah-loving nature.  But these kids become more Islamic, identifying with Islam, and less cultural, that is identifying with the country of their parent’s origin.

Doubt

Sura 5.102 suggests the truth to questions that raise doubts towards the Quran or require explanation of intent may not please Allah and could distort or alter the view of believing Muslims.  This is not to happen and thus the Islamists strive to protect their mantra.

“Do not disbelieve in the Book (the Quran)” (Sura 4.135, 136)

Sura 6.21 suggests it is unjust to interpret the Quran wrongly, but then who decides?

“And who is more unjust than one who invents about Allah a lie or denies His verses? Indeed, the wrongdoers will not succeed.” (Sura 6.21)

Islamophobia

The term ‘Islamophobia’ has been used as a dislike of Muslims themselves.  But that is not a proper definition.  It is a concern or resistance to the ideology that is portrayed by the texts used to create Islam, that is the Quran and selected Hadiths.  What is written is to many offensive, especially to those who are not believers in Allah.  A statement calling for the killing of Christians or Jews is clearly offensive to Christians or Jews.  Making infidels subordinate to Muslims, as a command of the texts, is offensive.  Where is the element of fairness (a favorite term of Obama), tolerance or acceptance of others?  What is there in being superior in nature that would suggest a peaceful religion? ‘Hatred’ is a valid cause for concern and an issue that needs to be addressed.  Islam hates the non-believer and compels its followers to have nothing to do with them, and in fact to go into battle for Allah and Muhammad as warriors to eliminate them.

“Indeed, we are disassociated from you and from whatever you worship other than Allah. We have denied you, and there has appeared between us and you animosity and hatred forever until you believe in Allah alone” (Sura 60.4, Sahih International).

And then the last Sura 9, called The Immunity, insists that all Muslims, Islamists, moderates, anyone who is a Muslim, must go on the offensive and the defensive to achieve a world order that is totally Islamic.  There are to be no Western ideals, or freedom of religion or speech, just Islam according to the texts. What is written in this Sura abrogates, eliminates as a matter of practice or thinking for a Muslim, anything that was written prior if it is not in agreement.  It was the last thing Muhammad wrote that he claimed came to him from Allah. This chapter of the Quran is Allah’s and Muhammad’s ultimatum to all Muslims, to all who choose to believe in Islam.  Some excerpts:

Sura 9.5 “…you may kill the idol worshipers when you encounter them, punish them, and resist every move they make.”   Ramadan is considered a time of peace among all religions, even those not religious. Even then Muhammad attacked Mecca to establish his base and system for living under Allah, his god.  All should become Muslims, even when there is to be peace, those that do not can be killed.  This is  referred to as The Verse of the Sword.

Sura 9:16 “Did you think that you will be left alone without Allah distinguishing those among you who strive, and never ally themselves with Allah‘s enemies, or the enemies of His messenger, or the enemies of the believers? Allah is fully Cognizant of everything you do.” A warning to moderate Muslims who are tolerant.

Sura 9:20  “Those who believe, and emigrate, and strive in the cause of Allah with their money and their lives, are far greater in rank in the sight of Allah. These are the winners.”  Here alone is a concern for those who immigrate.  They are called upon to act against non-believers.

Sura 9:23 “O you who believe, do not ally yourselves even with your parents and your siblings, if they prefer disbelieving over believing. Those among you who ally themselves with them are transgressing.” So if a Muslim has a moderate parent, even an American Muslim who has assimilated, they are to opt out to be a warrior for Allah.  I call that radicalization.

Sura 9.27 “Ultimately, Allah redeems whomever He wills.”  – No guarantee of salvation.

Sura 9:29 “You shall fight back against those who do not believe in Allah, nor in the Last Day, nor do they prohibit what Allah and His messenger have prohibited, nor do they abide by the religion of truth among those who received the scripture, until they pay the due tax, willingly or unwillingly.” This is the ongoing battle, the holy War, the Jihad of Islam.  Muslims are compelled to obey this requirement of a commitment to leave behind a world of just Muslims.  Those who do not comply are heretics.

Sura 9:41 “You shall readily mobilize, light or heavy, and strive with your money and your lives in the cause of Allah. This is better for you, if you only knew.”  This may be a warning to the moderate Muslims.

Defense

How are we, if not Muslims, to protect ourselves against the devout Muslim who is compelled to do whatever it takes to achieve a total victory for Allah. How are we to protect ourselves against the thinking of the liberal left who has the habit, as with Ferguson, of downplaying the obvious and leanings towards those who rebel and cry racism or Islamophobia despite evidence to the contrary.  Bret Stephens in his WSJ article refers to that as becoming “lazy in our thinking about Islam….”  The “language of the progressive left”, as he refers to it, has been labeled the “‘Blame America First’ crowd…the left’s view of the West as the perennial sinner and the rest of the world as its perpetual victim.”

We can question the motives, the methods and the teaching of Islam.  We can pray that those who call themselves moderates will think as other non-Muslims that the world has come a long way since Muhammad.  We are not ignorant people. There is room for many ways to think and believe. But we are people influenced by opinion and effective political figures that grab the headlines and paint a rosier picture or skewed view by distorting reality and facts to favor a political agenda.

A Christian accepts they are saved because they believe in Jesus Christ and the sacrifice he made for the sins of mankind, thankful they are justified and made right with God.  For those who do not believe as Christians, they can live according to their own desires, as long as they are not harming others. That is freedom. Yet the Christian should be able to reach out to them and inform them of the opportunity (proselytize) we all have.  Accept the supernatural and believe there is a life after our life on earth, for the assurance, the guarantee of salvation. They must do so with knowledge, facts, gentleness and kindness.  It is a reality that cannot be ignored as history itself supports the Bible.  There is no need to erase that which proves what has taken place; Jesus lived according to the Scripture, died for our sins and was raised from the dead, according to the Scripture.

In Islam they want to erase history.  What would this prove? If they have no history what are they denying but the truth of Christ’s life and death and resurrection.

Liberalism

The leading Democrats want an increase in immigrants from the Middle East, foreign to America.  They are Muslims.  The liberal left calls for lowering the barriers to entry, even of illegals.  The progressives want a pathway to citizenship for illegals residing in America, more sanctuary cities and a police force soft on criminals and aberrant actions, as deemed by the left, taken against thugs that ultimately protect Americans. Best said by Bret Stephens in his article (read here). “It’s whether the West can recognize that the moral nihilism of today’s Jihadi Johns is the logical outgrowth of the moral relativism that is the default religion of today’s West.”

Final Say

Having the last word – life is not meaningless.  You have purpose, as God gave everyone of us.  Accept his plan and find hope and joy in your life. Life is not as it is today, your truth, society’s truth, is not truth.  There are boundaries that cannot be lifted because a society conforms to what is ethically and morally wrong.  There is evil in the world and the force behind this evil wants everyone to succumb, enjoying the pleasures, the opiates, and the divisiveness made possible with hatred generated in the hearts of those in opposition to this truth. Peace is illusive unless we are all aboard the same train, one of tolerance, acceptance, love of neighbor, and a common ground of understanding that people are not all the same, but have all been created in the image and likeness of God. Being more godlike takes critical thinking and faith.

Thanks Be to God.  First comes Grace then comes Peace.

Grace and Peace.