By Mike Scruggs
Islam, like Judaism and Christianity, is a revealed religion. In all
three faiths, alleged revelation of spiritual and moral truth is
recorded in a book or books that are considered sacred and unconditional.
Judaism has the books of the Old Testament, and Christianity has added
the books of the New Testament to that foundation. The alleged divine
revelation of truth and moral principles in Islam is the Koran. An
important characteristic of revealed religion is that its teachings have
the status of final divine authority and are therefore not subject to
amendment or reinterpretation by mankind or majority vote.
The Bible was written over many centuries by men who are considered to
have been divinely inspired. The Christian view is that their writings
may reflect various literary styles, personalities, and historical
contexts, but they impart divine truth as the authors were moved by God
in the person of the Holy Spirit. The Jewish view of Scripture is
similar but does not embrace Christian New Testament books or view God
as a Divine Trinity— Father, Son (Jesus), and Holy Spirit.
Islam’s view of the Koran goes far beyond the Judeo-Christian concept
of divine inspiration. Muslins believe that the Koran was written by
Allah (Arabic for God) and already existed in heaven before the Angel
Gabriel gave it piecemeal to their Prophet. Muhammad faithfully revealed
these passages to his followers as they were given to him over a period
of 22 years. Shortly after his death in 632, Muhammad’s followers
compiled these revelations into a perfectly accurate rendering of the
heavenly Koran.
The Koran is a little smaller than the New Testament and contains
considerable repetition. For example, the story of the Exodus is
repeated 27 times. Eliminating the repetitions in the Koran would make
it only about 40 percent as big as the New Testament. Because the
Koran’s verses often neglect to give the full context of its
revelations, other teachings of Muhammad recorded by his followers are
critical to its interpretation. These are called the Hadiths.
The Hadiths which Muslim scholars consider most reliable are regarded
as truth only slightly less sacred and significant than the Koran
itself. These collections are especially important because they help
fill in the context and meaning of Koranic verses. Still, many objective
Western scholars of the Koran consider about 20 percent of its verses
to make little sense. Much Muslim scholarship goes into tracing and
determining the authority and reliability of the Hadiths, but the Koran
itself is not very open to different interpretations. In a society
dominated by Islamic Law (Sharia) the penalty for doubting standard
interpretations of the Koran can be death.
The Koran’s many repetitions are often inaccurate borrowings from the
Old Testament and other Jewish writings. Of the 27 repetitions of the
Exodus story, the Passover—a very important part to Jews and
Christians—is consistently left out. It also contains some confused
Christian history and theology. For example, Isa (apparently Jesus) is
said to be the son of Mary (confused with Miriam), the sister of Mosses
and Aaron. Isa, the Jesus of Islam, is not the Son of God but only a
Prophet and did not die on the cross or save anybody from their sins. He
comes back at the end of time to destroy Christianity and convert
people to Islam. Despite these obvious (and often distorted) borrowings,
Muslims do not consider Islam to be a derivative of Judaism or
Christianity. They consider Islam to be the original faith of Abraham of
which Judaism and Christianity are corruptions.
Although “Allah” is a monotheistic god with many characteristics common
to the Lord God of the Bible—all-powerful, all-knowing, sovereign over
all nature and mankind—their personalities as painted by the Koran and
the Bible respectively are quite different. Muslims insist that Allah
and the Lord God of Judeo-Christianity are the same, but many Christians
disagree. Most Muslims who have converted to Christianity, however,
consider that Allah is God, but that Islam has badly distorted his true
nature and personality.
One of the great concerns about Islam to the West is its violent
nature. For 1400 years its principal way of spreading the Muslim faith
has been the sword. The Koran calls for Holy War to make Islam the
dominant religion of the world in no less than 109 verses. So much that
Jihad must be considered a cardinal pillar of Islam. It seems secondary
in importance only to the proclamation that Allah is the only god and
Muhammad is his prophet.
The call to Jihad is really a derivative of another cardinal principle
of Muslim theology—the Supremacy of Islam. This is seen especially in
Surah (chapter) 9, verse 33:
“He
it is who hath sent his Apostle with the Guidance and a religion of
truth, that He may make it victorious over every other religion, albeit
they who assign partners to God be averse from it.”
It should be noted that “assigning partners to God” is a major sin in
Islam, the Trinitarian God of Christianity—Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit—is blasphemy to Muslims.
I often hear people claiming that with proper teaching or guidance
Islam could be made into a more peaceful religion, more compatible with
the West. This is close to being nonsense. Islam is a revealed religion
not subject to change or pacification by majority vote or the influence
of the West, women, or “moderates.” The problem is in the Koran and the
teachings of Muhammad. You cannot make Islam into a religion of peace
without removing the Koran and Muhammad.
Another concern which the West must take into account when dealing with
Islam is that according to the Koran and Muhammad, civil government and
Islamic law, ideology, and religion should be inseparable. Most Sunni
and Shia religious leaders consider democracy an affront to the Will of
Allah.
Western governments that naively allow open-door immigration,
especially massive increases in Muslim immigration, are inviting
tumultuous troubles.
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