As we reflect on the anniversary of 9/11, I think it important for us to reflect on the contrast between how the genuine Christian faith is advanced with how the religion of Islam is advanced. Robert Spencer is one of our nation’s most articulate and spot-on critics of Islamic extremism. He is the author of The Truth About Muhammad, The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the Crusades), as well as other books on the relationship between Islam and terrorism. His more recent book, Religion of Peace? Why Christianity Is and Islam Isn’t, includes a short bio that informs readers that “Spencer lives in a secure, undisclosed location.” The reason for his self-imposed seclusion is because he fears for his life. Continue reading —>
This is a timely article from Gary Demar. It never ceases to amaze me that people still swallow the notion that Islam is “religion of peace”. Seriously?
Mark Steyn deftly skewers this kind of thinking in his book America Alone. “Bomb us,” he observes, “and we agonize over the ‘root causes’. Decapitate us, and our politicians rush to the nearest mosque to declare that ‘Islam is a religion of peace’. Issue blood-curdling calls at Friday prayers to kill all the Jews and infidels, and we fret that it may cause a backlash against Muslims. Behead sodomites and mutilate female genitalia, and gay groups and feminist groups can’t wait to march alongside you denouncing Bush and Blair. Murder a schoolful of children, and our scholars explain that to the ‘vast majority’ of Muslims ‘jihad’ is a harmless concept meaning ‘healthy-lifestyle lo-fat granola bar’.”
This is what Steyn calls “the lopsided valse macabre of our times: the more Islamists step on our toes, the more we waltz them gaily around the room.” Bingo.
THE INK SLINGER 
I’m going to have to disagree with this. More people have been killed in the name of a “Christian” God, than for any other reason. We must remember history, not just what has happened over the last few decades. What about the Crusades? The Thirty Year’s War? French Wars of Religion?
Did you read the article? Demar addresses your objections quite well, I think.
I’m sorry, I had not read the article all the way through. I apologize for that. I still don’t like the idea of “calling out” other religions. If we are true Christians then you would think there are better ways to help than this. It also seems very prideful to me, which is a sin. It is also important not to judge anything by just some of its parts. Are all Islamist terrorist? Are all Christians peaceful?
Allow me to chime in with Ink here. You are absolutely right that we should not just judge something by its parts, we should judge the whole. Islam as a religion was born in blood. Its tenets are to kill all who disagree with it. The fact that some Muslims do not follow its tenets does not mean that the religion itself is not a religion of hate and murder. Have you ever been to a Middle-Eastern country, have you ever heard the people on the streets say what they think of Westerners? I have, my Dad grew up in the Middle-East. They laugh at us. “Silly Christians, silly Americans, how can they not see what we are.” They laugh at us, and they hate us, they hate our culture, they hate our religion, and they hate our God, because that is what Islam teaches them to do, to hate and to kill. As Ink quoted, Christianity spread through love, Islam spread through war.
I don’t think it’s pride to point out that a religion’s core tenets are to wage death and destruction on all who disagree. It’s the truth.
Well said, my friend. Well said.
Thank you. I’ll make sure to look into this.
Islam wasn’t born from blood. Media is a business, they will only tell you what makes ratings go up… it even said in the Koran that ”whoever kills an innocent, it is as if he has killed all mankind; and whoever saves a person, it is as if he has saved all mankind.”
And the word Jehad and Saheed, two things that Muslims must seek do not mean dying for a cause, it actually means knowledge and education. No one knows the truth about Islam unless they read the book it self. I know about Christianity long before I met my fiance, Jen, a Roman Catholic who knows me better than any. So I know what to say, while unfortunately you don’t.
If you want to judge a religion please judge it by the book it self… not the media.
Are all Islamists terrorists? Are all Christians peaceful?
No and no, respectively. But here’s the thing: look at the core teachings of Islam and Christianity and you’ll see a world of difference. Even a cursory glance at the Koran will confirm that Islam is not “a religion of peace.” As Demar says in the article,
The same cannot be said of Islam. And for more on that point, I highly recommend you read the entirety of Mark Steyn’s America Alone. It changed the way I look at Islam and its relation to the rest of the world.
Ink, love the quote from Mark Steyn! Right on!
:) Mark Steyn is one of my favorite writers – and that quote is a prime example why. I think you’d really enjoy his books After America and America Alone. He has a fantastic (and at times, very biting) sense of humor. He’s a blast to read, even if the subject matter is not.
I’ve heard a lot of good things about him. If this silly thing called senior year ever gives me time, he’s definitely on my list of must reads. :)
Senior year, huh? I guess we’re in the same boat then. Here’s to the last year of high school… :)
Lol, if we are then I must say you’re doing an awful job of steering. ;) Cheers! :)
Ouch. That wasn’t very nice… ;)
Ah well, perhaps there’s someone else in the boat who we can blame. :)
Yeah… like you, perhaps. ;)
Lol! On second thoughts I think the boat is being steered just fine. ;)
Should’ve seen that one coming.
Ravi Zacharias deals well with the question of whether Christianity has been a cause of violence or if anti-theism and other religions have. He points out that violence inflicted by Christians is a aberration of Jesus teachings where as the violence of Islam is the logical out workings of their religion. Both Islamists and anti-theists have caused much violence over the centuries. The Crusades and the Inquisition together do not equal the sum of violence done on this earth at the hands of anti-theist tyrants and Muslims. Have you read Did Muhammad Exist? I have not but we heard about it on In the Market, and it sounds good.
Excellent thoughts, Christian. I haven’t read the book you mentioned, but I think I may have heard the title before. Like you said, it sounds like a good read.
I just have to add- I was am not sure of the exact number of people killed in the Inquisition- we recently heard the comparison given on the radio between what anti theist tyrants have caused as far as deaths and how many were killed in the religious violence of the Inquisition. If my numbers do not look right do not add my comment.
@Ahamin: I did a bit of research, and here’s the full quotation about “killing innocents” you referred to, from verse 5:32 of the Koran:
That’s the Yusuf Ali translation, and I don’t see the word “innocent” used anywhere. Furthermore, that command applies to “the Children of Israel” and not to Muslims. A bit of comparison and examination shows that this ayat forbids the killing of Muslims by Muslims; it offers no such protection to unbelievers.
You said that “media is a business, they will only tell you what makes ratings go up… That may be true, but where did I ever say I got my info from the media? I only trust the media as far as I can throw them, which isn’t very far. You asked me to judge the religion by the book; and I do exactly that:
Those are just a few of the verses that don’t strike me as particularly “peaceful”. Sounds fairly bloody and violent, if you ask me.
That is all.
@Ahamin
I second what Ink said on the Koran itself. (Which I have read in English, unfortunately my Arabic is nowhere near good enough to read in the original.)
As to my comment of born in blood. I was referring to the history of Islam. Muhammed spread his religion by the sword when he was alive, and whenever a country was conquered by Muslims all Christians etc were either forced at threat of death to convert or treated as less then the dust. In Egypt for example it is almost impossible for Christians to do well by any means, they are the garbage collectors, the lowest of the low.
Finally, I have never judged Islam by the media. As I said my father grew up in the Middle East and I base my beliefs as to Islam on their own writings, and how I have seen them when I visit the Middle East. Also, I find that the media in the West tends to whitewash Islam, not the other way around.
As far as Jihaad, the imams that I have heard tend to give a different explanation of that than you do.