bestcurrentnews Ramadan Prayer

Ramadan 2013 – Day 5 – Jihad, the Strong Arm of Political Islam

2013 Ramadan Prayer

Yesterday we reviewed how Islam is primarily a political system seeking to control kafirs (non-Muslims) rather than actually a religion. Let’s now look at jihad, the technique Islam uses for accomplishing its goal.

Jihad can mean, “an individual’s striving for spiritual self-perfection or a Muslim holy war or spiritual struggle against infidels.” In the United States, there is currently a battle over the meaning of the word “jihad.” The Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) has launched a campaign called “My Jihad” which presents jihad as an individual spiritual struggle. CAIR claims Muslim extremists, Islamophobes and a sensationalized media have misrepresented the word “jihad,” and says jihad is “a positive, peaceful, and constructive practice in the lives of everyday Muslims.” However, the trilogy of Islamic texts (Qur’an, Sira and Hadith) contradicts this assertion.

Islam recognizes two types of jihad – the lesser and greater jihads. The greater jihad is the soul’s struggle with evil – basically striving to become a better person. The lesser jihad is about holy war. Interestingly only about 3% of the Bukhari Hadith is about the greater jihad, the remaining 97% is about the lesser jihad or holy war. Bat Ye’or, author of Eurabia: The Euro-Arab Axis, said, “[the jihad] is the normal and permanent state of war between the Muslims and the [infidels], a war that can only end with the final domination over unbelievers and the absolute supremacy of Islam throughout the world.”

The Qur’an and other texts teach that Islam is the perfect political system and is destined to rule the entire world. All other governments and systems must submit to Islam. If they do not submit then jihad can be used.  Since Muslims consider refusing to submit to Islam an offense against Allah, all jihad is defensive, allowing Islam to portray itself as a victim.

Although many westerners may think of terror attacks when they think of jihad, jihad actually takes various and less identifiable forms such as jihad through the pen, jihad through the mouth, jihad through charity, jihad through marriage, jihad through immigration and even jihad through interfaith meetings. Jihad uses every aspect of civilization as a war machine. Military force and terror are actually are the smallest components in jihad.

Violent jihad has brought about the deaths of roughly 270 million of people in Islam’s 1400-year history. It is estimated that through Jihad – Islam has killed 120 million Africans, 60 million Christians, 80 million Hindus, and 10 million Buddhists.

Prayer Points:

Pray that western Christians will insist their governments demand an end to the current rampant Christian persecution around the world by radical Islamists.

Pray for the leaders of your nation (government, church, education, media, etc.) – that they will have a more clear and truthful understanding of Islamic jihad and have God’s wisdom to recognize it in their midst, and take a godly stand for truth.

Pray that Muslims will begin to question why their religion must use jihad in order to advance, and pray God will soften their hearts and give opportunity to hear the message of the gospel of Christ.

bestcurrentnews Ramadan Prayer

Ramadan 2013 – Day 4 – Mixing Religion and Politics

2013 Ramadan PrayerReligion is defined as “belief in, worship of, or obedience to a supernatural power or powers considered to be divine.” Politics however can be defined as “the use of strategy or intrigue in obtaining power, control or status.” Religion is between a follower and their god. Politics is between men.

Once Muhammad migrated from Mecca to Medina, his message evolved from primarily a religious one to a political and militaristic one. In the first 13 years of Islam (the Mecca period) Islam averaged 11 to 12 converts per year, however in the Medina period Islam averaged around 10,000 new Muslims per year. Dr. Bill Warner from PoliticalIslam.com estimates based on the number of followers during the Mecca period as opposed to the Medina period of Muhammad’s life Islam’s success as a religion during Muhammad’s lifetime was about 0.3%, but its success as a political system was 99.7%. If Islam had remained only a religion, it would not exist today.

To illustrate the difference between religious Islam and political Islam, think of one of the multiple events where westerners have “outraged” the Muslim world. One of the more famous events would be the Muhammad cartoons published in the Danish newspaper, Jyllands-Posten in 2005. Four months after the cartoons were published, protests and riots broke out around the world eventually resulting in at least 200 deaths. The religious side of Islam teaches that a Muslim must respect Muhammad by not drawing a likeness of him. However, when Muslims pressure, threaten and hurt non-Muslims for not respecting Muhammad it is political Islam.

The difference between the religion of Islam and the politics of Islam is found in its treatment of the “kafirs.” Kafir is translated from the Arabic as “unbeliever,” however the translation does not accurately confer the meaning. Kafir refers to “people who reject Allah or deny or hide the truth revealed by Him. One who knowing what is true, decides to forget the evidence decides to sidetrack, deceive himself.”  Kafir refers to all non-Muslims – Christians, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists, pagans, atheists, etc., and political Islam seeks to control non-Muslims.

There are some positive verses in the Qur’an about the kafirs such as Sura 109:6 “you to your religion and me to my religion,” but the overwhelming majority of verses (around 97%) about kafirs are quite negative. According to Islam kafirs are ignorant (Sura 6:111), disgraced (Sura 37:18), cursed (Sura 33:60-61), can be killed (Sura 4:91), raped (Ishaq 759), stolen from (Bukhari 5, 59, 537), crucified (Sura 5:33), made war on (Sura 9:29) and annihilated (Sura 6:45).

64% of the Qur’an, 81% of the Sira, and 32% of the Hadith is about the kafir. Overall 60% of the Islamic texts deal with the kafir, which means the majority of Islam is political rather than religious.

In March of 2007, a group called the Secular Islam Summit released The St. Petersburg Declaration. The Declaration states in part, “…We enjoin academics and thinkers everywhere to embark on a fearless examination of the origins and sources of Islam…We say to Muslim believers: there is a noble future for Islam as a personal faith, not a political doctrine;”

Prayer Points:

Pray more Muslims will begin to encourage an examination of their sacred texts.

Pray that western Christians will wake up to the realization that they are not infringing upon a Muslim’s religious rights when they question the aggression of the politics of Islam in western society.

Pray that Christians will learn to effectively communicate that they are not against the people of Islam, but they are against a political system that violates Christian ideas, laws and western constitutions.

bestcurrentnews Ramadan Prayer

Ramadan 2013 – Day 2 – Imitating Muhammad

2013 Ramadan PrayerFew western Christians grasp a basic understanding of Islam. Many presume the Qur’an is the “bible” of Islam, however if all a Muslim possessed was a Qur’an, he could not practice his religion. The Qur’an is considered the actual words of Allah as dictated to Muhammad. It contains 114 suras or chapters, which are not in chronological order but roughly arranged from the longest to the shortest. It is actually the “Sunna” that governs a Muslim’s life more than the Qur’an. Sunna is defined as “the body of Islamic custom and practice based on Muhammad’s words or deeds.” The Sunna is made up of the Sira (Muhammad’s biography) and the Hadith, a collection of stories and traditions of Muhammad’s life.

It is the trilogy of texts, the Qur’an, the Hadith and the Sira that make up the “bible” of Islam. PoliticalIslam.com reveals that based on the size of the texts in the Islamic trilogy, the Qur’an makes up 14% of Islam, the Sira 26% and the Hadith 60% which means Islam is actually 14% about Allah (in the Qur’an) and 86% about Muhammad. The Qur’an says around 90 times that Muhammad is the perfect Muslim so in order to properly practice Islam, a Muslim worships Allah as Muhammad worshipped Allah. For those truly seeking an understanding of Islam, one needs to only look to Muhammad as the perfect example.

For example, examine the Hijra of Muhammad – the migration of Muhammad from Mecca to Medina in 622 AD. Muhammad arrived in Medina with approximately 150 followers, but by the end of Muhammad’s life the number of Islamic followers had increased to nearly 100,000. Once Muhammad had moved to Medina, the nature of his revelations changed dramatically. The early Qur’an written in Mecca is considered peaceful. “There’s no compulsion in religion” (Sura 2:256) and “Unto you your religion, and unto me my religion” (Sura 109:6). But when Muhammad migrated to Medina the message became much more militant. “I will throw fear into the hearts of those who disbelieve. Then smite their necks and smite of them each finger. That is because they opposed Allah and His messenger” (Sura 8:12-13).

In Islam there is a doctrine of abrogation. This means that the later passages that Muhammad received in Medina take precedence over the Mecca passages. In a way the later revelation supersedes the previous one, however that does not mean the earlier verse is incorrect. Because the Qur’an is considered the actual words of Allah and Allah cannot be wrong, the early Mecca revelations cannot be wrong. So when a Muslim states that Islam is a religion of peace, he can also fully believe that it is okay to “smite” the necks of disbelievers.

PRAYER POINTS:
Pray that Muslims will be quickened to realize that the vast majority of their teachings do not come from the Qur’an itself – and pray they will explore the life of Muhammad and his words and deeds.

Ask God to give them a “holy dissatisfaction” with what they are reading and long for their own revelation of the true Word of God.