Islam
Addressing aggressive religion and why Christians are “evangelical”!
As a rule I would advocate approaching people of other faiths and none with sensitivity and kindness. Any individual has come to believe what they do through family, community and society influences. To simply tell them that they are wrong is unlikely to start a postive conversation!
From personal experience I have found that on the whole Buddhists, Sikhs and Hindus are not “evangelical” about their beliefs. Indeed of course Hinduism happily embraces Jesus as a prophet and Buddhists pretty much embrace anything.
ISLAM
However, when it comes to Islam my experience is very different. I have had conversations with Moslems that have been very friendly, respectful and honouring (Christians and Jews being “people of the book” and all that). But, I have also been at the receiving end of some very aggressive interactions with Moslems who have made it very clear that suggesting that Jesus is God is complete blasphemy. They find it disgusting to suggest that God could have been born of a woman and lived in human form, implying that it meant God must have had sex with Mary! Not only have I been sworn at in the most unpleasant and irreligious terms, but I have been threatened with physical violence. Such is the hatred in Islam for followers of Jesus.
“no-one will get to live out eternity in God’s presence by virtue of their personal goodness or deeds”
Islam, like Christianity, asserts itself as The Truth. Indeed of course the two belief systems are completely at odds and cannot sit alongside eachother in any way whatsoever. This is what non-believers cannot grasp. Either salvation only comes through Christ, or only through following Sharia. They can’t both be ways to God. If salvation only comes through Christ then every Christian should be evangelical!
Islam, like Christianity is not an homogenous faith, it has many variants, many denominations. Some are very western influenced and moderate. They will interpret the Quran in ways that moderate the more extreme and violent statements so as to be only “apparently” extreme. Others are very fundamentalist. They will take the Quran at face value, believing every word (as it is in the Arabic, not in translations).
Many people in this country still call themselves Christians even though they have very little understanding of the Bible or the teachings of Jesus. It is why there has been such an outrage in recent years over all the sexual identity/lifestyle issues. Britain is pretty secularised and relatively few go to church or actually follow Jesus. It is my opinion that many Moslems too are only that in name. Living in Western culture has “corrupted” many, especially the younger generation. So they are still part of their community, but what they truly believe individually may be at odds.
The Quran is very similar in many ways to the Old Testament of the Bible in it’s attitude to sin and the sinner. Only in Jesus do we get a very different viewpoint. Moslems will almost invariably point to the teachings of the Old Testament, not to Jesus, for this very reason.
Islam offers ‘salvation by works’. If you are deemed “good enough”, do enough of the right things, you will get “to heaven”.
“If salvation only comes through Christ then every Christian should be evangelical!”
“Christianity” teaches that everyone has eternal life because we are spiritual beings inside these human bodies, BUT no-one will get to live out eternity in God’s presence by virtue of their personal goodness or deeds. Without Christ eternity is not a pleasant prospect. Which is why many Christians are evangelical about their beliefs! Those who aren’t haven’t quite grasped the truth themselves.
An insight into Islam from a Moslem speaker
Here the Sunni speaker asserts that all Moslems believe essentially the same things on the due punishments for adultery and homosexuality. Hearing it from the horses mouth is very sobering.
In Septemebr 2021 as Kabul Airport was being evacuated this piece hit the news. The way in which the term “Islamaphobia” is tossed around is frightening (Islamaphobiaphobia?) Put simply it is completely reasonable to be afraid of a religion that decapitates non-believers, throws homosexuals off rooves and approves of the rape of women. To argue that not all Moslems are like that is a mute point and pleas that Islam is a religion of peace fall on deaf ears. We aren’t stupid! What Lord Pearson is quoted here in full as having siad is totally reasonable. Not Islamaphobic.
Postscript – ask an ex-Moslem woman!
Sadly it comes as no surprise that a woman who has left Islam to follow Jesus will be despised, rejected, abused and ultimately be physically attacked.
