MUSLIM FAITH HARMS

A selection of quotations from MUSLIM: What You Need to Know About the World’s Fastest Growing Religion Kindle Edition (Hanegraaff, Hank).

The foreword shows that Islam looks simple and clear unlike Christianity but argues that "Islamic doctrine does dissolve into chaos upon a closer inspection."  On that note, a religion trying to be simple is meant for assimilation by people who are not academics.  It's appearance of simplicity is a selling point.  It makes conversion easy and missionary work easy.  That is our answer to Christian and Muslim theologians who come up with far fetched and strained attempts to reinterpret Islam as a religion of peace for that is not the impression you get when you read its scriptures.

Interestingly we read in the book how arch-hypocrite Tony Blair said it was disgraceful to call Osama bin Laden Islamic. Blair read the Koran he says and concluded, "Islam is a peaceful and tolerant religion and the acts of these people are wholly contrary to the teachings of the Koran."  Qur'an 9:29 commands Muslims to force other religions to submit and pay tax to the religion.  Did he read that?

QUOTE on how Muhammad had a repentant adulteress stoned to death for adultery after she had her child: Sahih Muslim, a pregnant woman from Ghamid was brought to Muhammad. After she had confessed adultery, she begged the prophet for purification. Instead, after she had given birth to her child, he had her stoned. “She was put in a ditch up to her chest and he [Muhammad] commanded people and they stoned her.” This passage from Sahih Muslim is completely consistent with the central message of Muhammad. Speaking from the plain of Arafa during his final pilgrimage to Mecca, he said to devotees: “The adulterer must be stoned.”  Umar soon after said, "Verily Allah sent Muhammad (may peace be upon him) with truth and He sent down the Book upon him, and the verse of stoning was included in what was sent down to him."

COMMENT: No mention of how the Bible is to blame for this stoning of adulteresses to death!  Jesus went as far as to declare such rules from God.  It is no harm to suspect that Muhammad knew of how Jesus said killing adulteresses by stoning is an honour but only for the worthy in John 8.

QUOTE ON WIFEBEATING: he asks her to come to bed and she refuses),” the first recourse is to warn the wife. “The warning could be to tell her, ‘Fear Allah concerning the rights you owe to me,’ or it could be to explain that rebelliousness nullifies his obligation to support her and give her a turn amongst other wives, or it could be to inform her, ‘Your obeying me is religiously obligatory.’If all such measures fail to bring the rebellious woman back to bed, sharia, in concert with the practice of Muhammad and the will of Allah, prescribes a beating—but only within limits. The husband “may not bruise her, break bones, wound her, or cause blood to flow.”In all, sharia mandates three basic steps—and if all else fails, a fourth: (1) Admonition, (2) Not sleeping in bed with her, and (3) If keeping from her is ineffectual, it is permissible for him to hit her. And if this fails to root out the rebellion, the fourth and final step may involve divorce.  It should be emphasized that in order to appease Western sensibilities some English versions of the Qur’an gratuitously insert the adverb lightly to modify the verb beat. In point of fact, the adverb lightly simply does not appear in the original Arabic text.

COMMENT: Good!

QUOTE:  In 2004, a fourteen-year-old would-be Palestinian suicide bomber told the Israeli troops who disarmed him: “Blowing myself up is the only chance I’ve got to have sex with seventy-two virgins in the Garden of Eden.” Another fourteen-year-old explained how a jihadist recruiter enticed him to join the jihad in Iraq: “He told me about paradise, about virgins, about Islam.”

COMMENT: Scary.  The religion seems to teach arbitrary judgement with regard to sin.  Allah can forgive randomly.  Terrorists may reason that if they can kill the victims the victims are not innocents for Allah has probably not forgiven them but holds their sin against them.  Fate is an important idea in Islam.  Predestination implies that if you can easily blow yourself up to kill many then it is Allah's will.  The opportunity proves it.

QUOTE: Christian apologist Abdu Murray (a former Muslim) adds that emerging evidence shows “the Qur’an we have today does not match the earliest copies we have, including the manuscripts uncovered at the mosque in Sana, Yemen. Those manuscripts are among the earliest we have and contain variants from today’s Qur’an in terms of vowelization and diacritical marks. Also, the manuscripts contain palimpsests showing that an original writing was washed off and corrected. Additionally, the manuscripts Muslims have traditionally relied on to say that the Qur’an is perfectly preserved reveal exactly the opposite.

COMMENT: Good!  A religion that has palpably manmade scriptures that command violence cannot be called a religion of peace.

QUOTE: The Islamic belief in God is considered to be unitarian and Islam is counted among the world’s monotheistic religions along with Judaism and Christianity. Yet, according to the Islamic concept (and Islam is counted among the world’s monotheistic religions along with Judaism and Christianity. Yet, according to the Islamic concept (Tawḥī), Christianity is classified as polytheism and Judaism is considered a subtle form of idolatry” (Abu), Christianity is classified as polytheism and Judaism is considered a subtle form of idolatry” (Abu), Christianity is classified as polytheism and Judaism is considered a subtle form of idolatry” (Abu Ameenahilal Philips, The Fundamentals of Bilal Philips, The Fundamentals of Tawḥeed Islamic Monotheism) (Riyadh: International Islamic Publishing House, 2005), 11,(Islamic Monotheism) (Riyadh: International Islamic Publishing House, 2005), 11,

 www.kalamullah.co/Books/Fundamentals%20Of%20Tawheed.pdf)./Books/Fundamentals%20Of%20Tawheed.pdf)./Books/Fundamentals%20Of%20Tawheed.pdf).

COMMENT: One cannot expect or ask non-Christians or ex-Christians to accept Christians as monotheists.  It is only faith that says that Christians really do adore one God but those who do not share that faith cannot be expected to agree.  To say otherwise is to be an unprofessional sociologist or historian or philosopher and allow Christian doctrine to creep in.  It is up to Christians to make Christian assumptions and nobody else.  Islam should not stand for being lumped together with Christians as monotheists.

QUOTE: Craig goes on to show that, “according to the Qur’an, God’s love is reserved for the God-fearing and the good-doers [see Q 19:96; see also 2:277, 281]; but he has no love for sinners and unbelievers [see Q 2:98, 276; 3:32, 57; 4:36; 5:87; 6:141; 8:58]. Thus, in the Islamic conception of God, God is not all-loving. His love is partial and has to be earned.

COMMENT: That can motivate some suicide bombers.  If love the sinner and hate the sin is indeed passive aggressive nonsense as many realise then any attempt to love sinners is doomed to failure and sinners will suffer.

The book mentions how Qur'an 30 has Allah allegedly predicting that the Roman Empire will be defeated but will rise again.  But it is so vague it can hardly count as a prophecy.

 

Qur'an 4:34 tells us how Allah wants some men to beat their wives with branches.  The book draws our attention to that.

And also to Qur'an 20:120-121.  There Allah says that Satan invited Adam to the tree of eternity or eternal life and Adam and Eve ate of the tree and became sinners.  They evidently did not live forever.  Allah set up the tree so was Allah a liar?

The women the faithful Muslim man will enjoy in Paradise, the houris, are claimed in Islam to be especially created for his enjoyment.

A quote from Muhammad saying that Jesus will return to break the cross and perish all religions but Islam is given.  Jesus will live on the earth 40 years and die.

Some sources according to the book say that Muhammad saw Allah.  Others including Aisha his wife say that no vision can grasp Allah.  The Qur'an 42:51 says that it is not fitting for a human person that Allah should speak to him at all except by inspiration or from behind a veil.  This denies the core New Testament doctrine that nobody can see God but Jesus is the exception.  Calling Jesus God is blasphemy to Islam.

Muhammad said that when any man is born Satan touches him but as for Jesus he only touched the placenta.  But surely that means that Satan interfered with Jesus in an indirect way?  It is like he wants the evil to be implanted differently and with more subtlety than with anybody else.

The book says the Qur'an destroys Jesus' command to love God with all your thinking and your heart by giving you a God who writes the Qur'an and makes loads of mistakes.  I would add that Allah's failure to be clear at times and to change texts when he feels like it is another example.  Allah gives no command in the Qur'an to love your neighbour as yourself.  Qur'an 47:4 commands beheading of the unbelievers.  The book says the Qur'an by denying the resurrection story is insulting the witnesses who suffered and died over their devotion to Jesus as risen.  Decades ago, Salman Rushdie's novel, The Satanic Verses, was met with mayhem, bombings and book burning an extreme reaction!  So much for the love!

APPENDIX: From note 96,

Christian apologist Abdu Murray (a former Muslim) adds that the emerging evidence shows "the Qur'an we have today does not match the earliest copies we have, including the manuscripts uncovered at the mosque in Sana, Yemen.  Those manuscripts are among the earliest we have and contain variants from today's Qur'an in terms of vowelization and diacritical marks.  Also, the manuscripts contain palimpsests showing that an original writing was washed off and corrected.  Additionally, the manuscripts Muslims have traditionally relied on to say that the Qur'an is perfectly preserved reveal exactly the opposite."

APPENDIX, MY NOTE

Pew Research in 2013 found that the more pious Muslims who prayed more were correspondingly more likely to want sharia law take over the country they were in.  The same study found that worldwide 45% of Muslims wanted sharia imposed on non-Muslims.