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 Day 21 – Arts & Entertainment: A God Too Small For Criticism

The modern day assault on the arts and entertainment field by Islamists began in 1989 with the issuance of a fatwa against novelist Salman Rushdie, by the Iranian leader Ayatollah Khomeini. A fatwa is a religious decree issued by a recognized religious authority in Islam. In the case of Salman Rushdie, the fatwa called for his death because of his novel, The Satanic Verses, which Khomeini considered an insult to Islam.  Khomeini declared, “I would like to inform all the intrepid Muslims in the world that the author of the book entitled ‘Satanic Verses’…as well as those publishers who were aware of its contents, are hereby sentenced to death. I call on all zealous Moslems to execute them quickly, wherever they find them, so that no one will dare to insult Islamic sanctity. Whoever is killed doing this will be regarded as a martyr and will go directly to heaven.”

Within 72 hours of Khomeini’s declaration, six people were killed and more than 160 were wounded in violent demonstrations in India and Pakistan about the book. Salman Rushdie went into hiding. Four days later he issued an apology to the followers of Islam, but Khomeini stated that even if Rushdie repented, Muslims still needed to kill him. Two bookshops carrying the novel were firebombed, and unexploded devices were found at several others. Rushdie again tried to make amends and issued a statement bearing witness that “there is no God but Allah, and Muhammad is his last prophet” to no avail. Even after Khomeini’s death, Iranian clerics continued to call for Rushdie’s death. The Japanese translator of the novel was stabbed to death in a knife attack, and Italian translator seriously injured in a similar attack. The Norwegian publisher of the novel was shot.

The tactics of the Islamists have not changed in the twenty plus years since the publication of The Satanic Verses. On September 30, 2005, Jyllands-Posten, a Danish newspaper, published an article called “Muhammeds ansight” which means “The face of Muhammad”. Portrayals of Muhammad are not prohibited within the Qur’an, however there are hadiths, which forbid Muslims from creating any visual representations of figures. The article consisted of 12 cartoons depicting the prophet Muhammad. Flemming Rose, the cultural editor of the newspaper said, “The cartoonists treated Islam the same way they treat Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism and other religions. And by treating Muslims in Denmark as equals they made a point. We are integrating you into the Danish tradition of satire because you are part of our society, not strangers. The cartoons are including, rather than excluding, Muslims.” The Islamists however were not interested in the satirical portrayal of Muhammad and responded four months later with violence including the bombing of the Danish embassy in Pakistan, setting fire to the Danish Embassies in Syria, Lebanon, and Iran along with protests resulting in more than 100 deaths.

This type of behavior is not unfamiliar when western society meets Islam. Because of the threat of violence, far too often westerners simply practice self-censorship and refuse to treat Islam the same way they treat other religions. For instance Random House, because of the threat of a violent reaction refused to publish The Jewel of Medina, a novel about Aisha, Muhammad’s six-year-old wife. It is a historical fact that Muhammad married a six-year-old girl and consummated the marriage when she was nine, yet to state that fact could be considered slander if what you say offends a Muslim.

In Islam, it does not matter if what you say is true. Slander is defined as anything that offends a Muslim, and slander in Islam may be punishable by death.

PRAYER FOR ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

  • Rather than giving in to demands of the radical Muslims, pray that Westerners will stop allowing intimidation to cause them to become silent and compliant.
  • Pray that God’s Truth will prevail and continue to be a defense against slander within western nations.
  • Pray that Muslims will start to question why their god is so small that they must defend their religion with violence.
  • Ask God to reveal to all Muslims that there is a better way by showing them the love of God through Jesus Christ.