Series 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and other links
BreakPoint with Charles Colson
Commentary #011015 - 10/15/2001
A View from the Afghan Border: Islam Series 1
After the September 11 terrorist attacks, I dismissed those responsible as simply anarchists. Serious
Muslims, I argued, don't frequent strip joints and bars.
I was wrong. My eyes were opened in a conversation at the Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary board meeting
with fellow board member Christie Wilson, III. Christie grew up in Afghanistan where his parents
were missionaries and he continues to be active in ministry to Muslims.
On September 11, Christie was on the Afghanistan/Pakistan border. He heard about the
attacks in the home of a Muslim friend who was watching the television coverage. Christie saw and
heard the reactions of Afghans and Pakistanis firsthand. Some were deeply sympathetic. Others
danced for joy in the streets. We are seeing, said Christie, a major power struggle
within Islam with serious implications for the entire world. There are, he said, two main sects within
Islam -- the Sunnis (the 90 percent majority), and the Shi'ites. After the death of Muhammad in A.D.
632, four rulers, or caliphs, divided the leadership of Muhammad's religious state. Sunnis believe that
all four were legitimate. Shi'ites believe that only one, Ali, was the legitimate successor. The result is
a deep schism within the Muslim world over Islamic law and spiritual authority.
Radical Sunnis -- including bin Laden, the Taliban, and the terrorist network -- are
now stirring up unrest in the Arab world and beyond. Bin Laden is not engaged in terror for
terror's sake, but is cultivating his role as the leader of the radical Sunnis. Bin Laden's plan is to arouse anti-Western passions
and bring radical elements to leadership throughout the Muslim world. In an October 7 broadcast, bin
Laden said, "I tell them that these events have divided the world into two camps, the camp of the
faithful and the camp of infidels. . . . Every Muslim
must rise to defend his religion." The moderate Sunnis in places like Saudi Arabia,
Egypt, Jordan, and Kuwait could be deposed by an uprising of radical groups who buy into bin
Laden's utopian vision of a single, unified Islamic state. If bin Laden can stir up firebrands in those countries,
he can topple them. He will then consolidate power among radical Sunnis which will be the next step to
an all-out Muslim jihad against the West. The Islamic worldview denies the sinfulness of man,
which gives rise to utopian visions: If man is corrupted by society, then those who come to power
can create the perfect society by strictly enforcing Islamic law. I hasten to add this is not a view most
Muslims hold, but make no mistake, bin Laden is seeking to change that. If bin Laden succeeds, the
consequences for the world would be catastrophic.
This is, as President Bush said, a war with very high stakes. And this is why the president has built a
coalition of support for the U.S., including moderate Muslims. The stage is being set by bin Laden,
however, for a major confrontation between the West and Islam. He must not be allowed to succeed.
Christians need to understand these issues, which is
why I'll be talking about them over the next several days. And we need to pray that our sovereign God will
protect the cause of liberty and freedom, that we will triumph over these new tyrants just as freedom
and liberty triumphed over Hitler, Stalin, and the other tyrants of the twentieth century.
Copyright (c) 2001 Prison Fellowship Ministries
===================
BreakPoint with Charles Colson
Commentary #011016 - 10/16/2001
Understanding Islam's Ideology and Worldview: Islam
Series 2
Americans are confused about how Islam -- a religion
that we've been told is known for peace and morality
-- can spawn the vicious murder of innocents in the
name of God. The key to understanding those who
committed the atrocities in New York and Washington,
and those who supported them, has to do with the
Islamic worldview.
For most Muslims in America, Islam is simply a
religion. Muslims believe in the six articles of
Islam and practice the required "Acts of Worship"
which include prayer five times a day, fasting
through the month of Ramadan, and, if possible, a
pilgrimage to Mecca, where Muhammad founded the
religion in A.D. 622.
There is, however, another aspect of Islam that many
seem reluctant to acknowledge. Islam is more than a
religion: It is an ideology with a clear
sociopolitical agenda.
As Dr. Samuel Schlorff, an expert on Islam with Arab
World Ministries puts it, "The truth is that there is
another side to Islam, a side that embraces violence
'in the way of Allah.' . . . It holds that all men
are created to live in submission to Allah, as
prescribed by Islamic law. Muslims believe that
Islam's destiny is to extend its control until the
whole Dar al-Harb [which means "House of War" -- that
is, the whole non-Muslim world] is subject to Islamic
law in an Islamic state, and this includes the use of
force."
Islam, we've been told, is related to the Arabic word
meaning "peace." This is correct, except that the
word means a particular kind of peace. A better
translation is "surrender" or "submission." It
describes the peace when a vanquished soldier lays
down his arms in submission. And so the very name,
Islam, has militaristic connotations, and in this
lies the root of radical Islam. That root then grows
in the soil of the Islamic worldview.
Muslims view God, Allah, as absolutely transcendent.
While Christians understand that the Lord God reveals
himself through the Scriptures and preeminently in
the Incarnation, Muslims insist that Allah never
reveals himself in that way. He primarily reveals his
will.
Muslims also believe in the inherent goodness of
people as over against the Christian doctrine of
original sin. Christians understand that we are
incapable of following God's law and are thus in need
of salvation, a fundamental difference. Muslims
believe that we don't need salvation. What we need is
guidance and that guidance is the Islamic law, an all
encompassing system that controls every aspect of
everyday life. (It is administered, by the way, by
religious leaders.)
As Dr. Schlorff puts it, "The model requires a Muslim
government to provide the legal and social framework
necessary to facilitate submission to the law. There
is no separation between the sacred and the secular,
between church and state. This community is one,
universal, and cohesive, representing for Muslims the
kingdom of God on earth." And all people of earth are
called to submit, for based on this worldview, any
who do not submit are living sub-human lives and are
impeding Islam's utopian vision for the world.
Christians certainly talk about submitting to God,
but we do not mean what Muslims mean. Now all
Christians should respect law-abiding Muslims in this
country. But we also should understand our
differences. It is all in the worldview, and our
differences are very great.
For further reading:
Dr Samuel Schlorff, "Can you explain for me the
Mindset of the Islamic Terrorist?" Arab World
Ministries, 2001.
<http://www.gospelcom.net/awm/new/tragedy/mindset.htm>
Dr Samuel Schlorff, "Muslim Ideology and Christian
Apologetics," Missiology, Vol. 21, No. 2 (April 1993).
<http://answering-
islam.org/Christians/schlorff2.html>
Copyright (c) 2001 Prison Fellowship Ministries
____________________________________________________
BreakPoint with Charles Colson
Commentary #011017 - 10/17/2001
Understanding Islam's Religion and Doctrine: Islam
Series 3
Our BreakPoint editor, Jim Tonkowich, met with a
Muslim friend just after Ramadan, the month in which
Muslims are obliged to fast daily from sunrise to
sunset. Jim asked, "Do you feel closer to God after
the fast?" His friend laughed. "That's not a Muslim
question," he replied, "That's a question Christians
ask. God is to be obeyed because he is God."
This interchange highlights critical differences
between what Christians believe and what Muslims
believe.
The first difference has to do with God. Christians
understand their relationship with God as between a
loving Father and his children. The Church is called
the bride of Christ who Christ loves and for whom he
died. The picture expressed in the Bible and in
Christian hymnody and spiritual writings is one of
intimacy, warmth -- even passion -- between a loving
God and his redeemed people. And our God reveals
himself as one God in three Persons -- Father, Son,
and Holy Spirit. There is love and intimacy within
the Godhead before he created anything.
Allah, the Arabic word meaning "the God," is never
understood in this way. Allah is removed, aloof, and
distant. He is a god of justice, not a god of love.
His revelation is primarily a revelation of his will.
While Islam lists the Old and New Testaments among
the scriptures, from its point of view, Christians
believe in three gods because we believe that God is
Trinity.
Muslims believe that Allah's will has been revealed
through prophets. Their list of prophets includes
Moses and Jesus, but they believe that the greatest
prophet was Muhammad.
Muhammad had visions in which he claimed the angel
Gabriel appeared to him and revealed Allah's will.
The record of these visions is the Qur'an that can be
seen as the constitution of Islam. The Shari'a or
Islamic law, applies the Qur'an to every aspect of
life and gives Islam its sociopolitical and
geopolitical agenda.
All of Islam is upheld by the "Five Pillars of Islam"
to which every Muslim is to submit. These are: the
belief that there is no god except the one god,
Allah, and Muhammad is his prophet; prayer five times
each day; giving to the poor; the yearly fast of
Ramadan; and, if possible, a pilgrimage to Mecca, the
Arabian city were Muhammad first established Islam in
A.D. 622.
Four of the pillars revolve around the Islamic
doctrine of man. Muslims believe that children are
born sinless and Muslim and are subsequently led
astray. Guidance in the form of the Islamic law is
necessary to live a life pleasing to Allah who, after
death, will judge each person by weighing the good
done against sins. Salvation is not necessary since
all people have in themselves the ability to obey.
Entry into heaven is a matter of submission and
personal effort -- no assurance, by the way. This is
easiest, of course, in an Islamic state that enforces
Islamic law.
To judge by some of what I've heard in the past few
weeks, you'd think Islam was little more than a
variation of Christianity and Judaism. Not so.
Islam's ideas about God, humanity, and salvation are
vastly different from the biblical doctrines. And
ideas -- I'll never get tired of saying -- have
consequences.
==========
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Plus, don't miss some timely new books on the problem of evil and the
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==========
Copyright (c) 2001 Prison Fellowship Ministries
BreakPoint with Charles Colson
Commentary #011018 - 10/18/2001
Understanding Islam and Tolerance: Islam Series 4
In nearly every discussion about Islam we're told
that Islam is, among other things, a "tolerant"
religion.
Is Islam really a tolerant faith? According to some
historians, the historical record is far from clear
on this score.
One example of Islam's tolerance that is often cited
is the treatment of Jews and Christians living in
Islamic societies. We are told that Jews and
Christians were freer to practice their faith in
places like medieval Baghdad and Southern Spain than
Jews were in Christian Europe.
Now there's no denying Christians weren't as tolerant
as they should have been. But this characterization
of Islam's treatment of Jews and Christians, is,
according to historian Bat Ye'or, "a radical
distortion of what happened." In her book "The Decline
of Eastern Christianity Under Islam," the Egyptian-
born Ye'or says that Islam's regard for its Christian
subjects could best be described as one of contempt.
How could be it otherwise? As she reminds us, Islam's
spread was the product of a "military conquest," not
peaceable conversions. The degree of massacre,
enslavement, and other brutality exceeded any thing
being done in Christian Europe.
For those Christians who survived the initial
conquest, life wasn't that much better. There were
pockets of relatively good treatment. But on the
whole, "tolerance" is hardly the word to describe the
treatment. Hundreds of thousands of Christians and
Jews were traded as slaves; they were required to
wear distinctive clothing; and they were denied the
protection of Islamic law.
And the closer we get to our time, the worse things
seem to get. In 1916, 1.5 million Christian Armenians
died at the hands of their Turkish Muslim rulers.
Many more went into exile in Western Europe and
America.
No less lethal is the treatment Sudanese Christians
have received from the Islamic government since that
government tried to impose Islamic law, or Shari'a,
on them. At least 2 million have died, and thousands
have been sold into slavery.
Another place where Muslims are trying to impose
their faith on their Christian neighbors is Northern
Nigeria. There, three northern states, all of whom
have a sizable Christian population, have followed
Sudan's example and adopted Shari'a, the Muslim law.
If you're looking for a place where Christians are
doing the same thing to Muslims, you won't find one.
In fact, the last time a non-Christian society
volunteered to convert en masse -- Japan after World
War II -- we opted to send Bibles and missionaries to
encourage spiritual rather than cultural conversions.
What accounts for the difference? Historian Richard
Connerney recently wrote that in Islam, "the themes
of religion, politics, and law are inseparable . . ."
According to Connerney, conquest and jihad are woven
into the fiber of the religion. Thus, belligerence
towards people of other faiths and cultures is,
arguably, inherent to Islam.
In contrast, while Christians have mistreated non-
Christians, a fair examination of Christian history
and doctrine shows this conduct is in violation of
Christian beliefs, not in their furtherance.
I'm not saying Christians should regard Islam or
Muslims as their enemy. We should respect and love
Muslims in our midst. But we should insist on an
accurate telling of the story. To do otherwise would
be to fail to learn from history. And, we know what
happens to those who do that.
______________________________________________________________
BreakPoint with Charles Colson
Commentary #011019 - 10/19/2001
Loving Our (Muslim) Neighbors: Islam Series 5 -- The
Christian Response
The conversation in the online chat room was both
vicious and violent. "For every American killed in
the terrorist attacks," one man raged, "we ought to
kill a hundred Muslims."
Emotions have been running high since September 11 --
but even so, there's no excuse for such vitriol. Yes,
we want those responsible to be pursued and punished
-- but we should not confuse the innocent with the
guilty. And among the innocent are over 6 million
Muslims who live in American neighborhoods -- and now
live there in fear.
As Christians, we know that God often brings good out
of evil. And one great good he may bring out of this
unwanted war is a greater openness by Muslims to
Christianity -- but only if we attack hatred with
love.
One man who believes this is Ashton "Tat" Stewart,
director of the Colorado-based Persian Ministries for
World Witness. Stewart has spent a lifetime
ministering to Muslims. As we battle bin Laden,
Stewart says, the entire Muslim world is watching to
see how we treat the Muslims among us. Instead of
joining the Internet animosity and radio ranting, he
says, Christians ought to seize the moment: We have a
tremendous opportunity to model Christian love to
Muslim neighbors.
How do we go about this?
First, Stewart says, we need to reach out in
friendship. In the current climate, this might mean
crossing the street to ask how a Muslim family is
doing or visiting a mosque to express friendship. We
might invite Muslim friends into our home for a meal.
"What many Christians don't realize," Stewart says,
"Is that just being a normal Christian is a radical
witness to many Muslims." Their law is oppressive;
they aren't used to love.
After building a bridge of friendship, the next step
is to expose Muslims to what Stewart calls "kingdom
realities." This might include praying in their
presence, inviting them to a Bible study, or giving
them a New Testament in their own language.
We should also be prepared to explain basic Christian
beliefs, and familiarize ourselves with Islamic
teachings. Moderate peace-loving Muslims are
horrified by bin Laden's horrific attacks. They can
easily be turned against him and perhaps they will
then question how Islamic teaching could condone such
violence. They need to see in us the love of Christ.
According to Stewart, many Muslims lack inner peace,
and do not experience genuine, unconditional love;
they don't understand true spiritual freedom. This
means we might present Christ as the peace-giver who
truly loves them and brings them freedom.
Finally, before we invite a Muslim to follow Christ,
we must understand the cost we are asking him to pay.
Conversion may mean a complete loss of family,
friends, career, and culture.
Stewart is right. As America embarks on what may be a
lengthy war, we must seize the opportunity of the
moment. The faith of many Muslims is crumbling as
they see the horrors some radical elements in Islam
are capable of. If Christians offer unconditional
love to their supposed enemies, Stewart predicts, "In
the next few years we may see mass turnings to
Christ."
But it won't happen if we respond to hatred with even
more hatred. Instead, we overcome evil with good --
as Paul commanded. We must out-shout angry American
threats with quiet Christian compassion. And we must
meet terrorist lies with the transforming love of
Christ.
Copyright (c) 2001 Prison Fellowship Ministries
other links: Answering-islam.org,
light of life