“…for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.” 2 Tim 1: 7
Islam is anti- Western and anti-Christian, but Muslims may not be. We need to reach out to them with love, but insist on our right to expose the Medieval Islamic values that violate human rights. In addition, we need to educate the Church on the perils of apathy towards the Islamic challenge. We need to speak the truth with love and respect, but insist on the freedom of speech and the right to criticize Islam.
The West is naive and unprepared to face the problem of Islamist extremism, because it misunderstands Islam. Even counter-terrorism experts have bought into a theologically illiterate view that all religions are the same and that Islam’s problems today are just a twisted distortion.
Last Thursday I gave a presentation at a local church. After a few days, I was disinvited from giving the Bible Study, the next Sunday.
The topics discussed were Jihad, Sunni, Shia, and ISIS, NOT Muslims.
There is a difference between Islam and Muslims.
After the presentation, in the Q& A, a guy stood up, and presented himself as a Muslim.
The Muslim guy wanted to confuse the audience, and said: ” I am a Muslim, and Syrian. If you want to meet Muslims, come to the mosque a few miles away” He turned his back and left. he did not give anybody a chance to respond.
1- Maybe 90 % of Muslims are peaceful. He did not let us work it out.
2- By saying he is Syrian,he was confusing the audience again. We were not discussing Syrian refugees. My presentation was not against Syrian refugees. Syrians are victims of ISIS and the Assad regime…This was in the presentation. He took the whole thing as against Syrian refugees..which is a shame. I am with welcoming the stranger among us so that they could hear the Gospel. Please go to my www.SalamChristianfellowship.org and read my Sunday sermon, Nov. 15, sermon on this.
Finally, many Muslims use demagoguery to intimidate any frank talk about Islam.
Strict adherence to Islamic values is incompatible with Western Society. Indeed much of what we value in western society today is opposed by Islam. The Islamic culture has no legacy of democracy. The spread of women’s rights was, and still is, opposed by the Islamic culture. Fair treatment of people irrespective of gender identity or sexual orientation oppose Islamic values.
Islam is anti- Western and anti-Christian, but Muslims may not be. We need to reach out to them, but insist on our right to expose the Medieval Islamic values that violate human rights.
That lecture was given before at that church, and no one complained..I believe the leadership, at the church, is now afraid of Muslims coming and shooting me…happened to me before..at another church in Michigan. The safest place is in God’s will.
Hesham Shehab
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* Tariq Ramadan is the grandson of the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. He is dubbed the Martin Luther of Islam. He was elected by Time magazine in 2004 as one of the 100 most influential people in the world and by Foreign Policy Magazine as one of the top 100 Global Thinkers
Very wise and insightful words from Hicham. The Lord bless his
ministry. Rick Richter