Will The Islamic
Religion Supplant Christianity?
by The Orlando
Truth
Islam glories in the
simplicity of its doctrine and demands. The faith of the Muslim can be
understood by the least educated person, and the religion offers a promise of
eternal happiness in a paradise appealing to the senses. Muslims criticize
Christianity for a number of reasons, but chief among them is that Christianity
is too complex to be true.
"Islam." To
some, the word itself is frightening; to others, mysterious. Whether Islam
evokes fear or intrigue, the Western world cannot afford to ignore this
enigmatic religion. The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the current
war in Iraq, and the ongoing crisis between Palestinians and Jews plaguing the
Holy Land have put Islam in the news now more than ever. Nevertheless, most
Catholics know little about this formidable faith - an ignorance that could
have profound consequences for the future.
Islam is one of the
fastest growing religions in the world, numbering more than a billion people on
earth. It is the dominant faith in over 50 countries stretching from Africa
through Europe and the Middle East to Indonesia. Huge numbers of recent
immigrants have given Islam the foothold in Europe that its Muslim warriors
from the Middle East could never gain for it over the centuries. In England,
France, Germany, and the Netherlands, Muslims are becoming a political and
religious force that cannot be ignored. Worldwide trends indicate that by 2050,
Muslims will comprise 30% of the world's population, with Christians making up
only 25%. The main reason for this is liberal immigration laws and population
growth. Muslims are simply having more children than both Christian and
non-Christian Westerners, foremost because they do not abort their children.
The Origin of Islam
Muslims contend that God's revelation to man
has proceeded through four great stages from Judaism to Christianity to its ultimate fulfillment in the religion of Islam:
1.
Through Abraham, God
first revealed the truth of monotheism (that there is only one God) to the
Jewish people.
2.
Then through Moses, God
revealed the Ten Commandments.
3.
Then through Jesus
Christ, God revealed the Golden Rule, namely that we are to love our neighbors
as ourselves.
4. Finally
through Muhammad, God revealed the answer to the sole remaining question: "How
should we love our neighbor?" Muslims believe that Abraham, Moses, and
Jesus were authentic prophets. Each nailed down specific planks in the platform
of the God-directed life. Yet a final prophet was required to answer that key
question and he was Muhammad. Because God answered that most important question
through him by embodying the beautiful sentiments of Jesus into definite laws,
Muslims insist that Muhammad is the most revered of all prophets and truly
deserves the title, "Seal of the Prophets."
Muhammad was a merchant
with a caravan trade, who was born 570 A.D. at the city of Mecca in what is now
Saudi Arabia. His father died before he was born and he was orphaned at the age
of six when his mother died. He had little, if any, education. At age 25, he
married a wealthy widow, some 15 years older, who bore him 7 children, but all
his 3 sons died in infancy. After the death of his first wife, he had at least
10 more wives, and 2 concubines, but his dream of having a son was never
fulfilled.
At age 40, Muhammad claimed that the Angel
Gabriel appeared to him while he slept. From that moment, the "Night of
Destiny", Muhammad claimed that he had regular revelations, which were later to
be assembled in the Koran, the Muslims' Holy Book. Because of the hostility of
Meccans to his teaching, at age 52 he fled from Mecca to Medina, where his
preaching was so successful that Medina became known as the "City of the
Prophet." Muhammad was a political and military leader as well as a preacher of
the word; he led 32 raids and fought 3 major wars, eventually returning
victoriously to Mecca. Muhammad died at age 62 in 632 A.D.
Islam is Best
Understood as a Heresy of Christianity
In the early 600's A.D., as Muhammad arrived
on the scene, Catholicism had actively spread throughout the European
landscape. Italy, Spain, and the lands that would become France had been
substantially Christianized. It was just at this moment, a moment of apparently
expanding and permanent Catholicism, that there fell an unexpected blow of
overwhelming magnitude and force. Islam arose quite suddenly. It came out of
the desert of the Middle East and overwhelmed half the European civilization.
Within a hundred years, a main part of the Roman world had fallen under the
power of this new and strange force from the desert. It has kept up the battle
against Christendom actively for over a thousand years, and the story is by no
means over. The power of Islam may at any moment re-arise.
What then was its nature
and the essential cause of its sudden and, as it were, miraculous success over
so many thousands of miles of territory and so many millions of human beings?
As the distinguished English Catholic historian, Hilaire Belloc, has
perceptively observed in his book (The Great Heresies), Islam is
best understood as a heresy of Christianity. It began as a heresy, not
as a new religion. Its springboard, Muhammad, was not a man of Catholic birth
and doctrine. He sprang from pagans. However, that which he taught was in the
main Catholic doctrine oversimplified. He preached a whole group of ideas which
were based on the teachings of the Catholic Church and distinguished his ideas
from earlier paganism, including:
·
The
unity and omnipotence of God
·
The
world of good angels and evil spirits, with a chief evil spirit, Satan
·
The
immortality of the soul, and its responsibility for actions in this life
·
Doctrine
of judgment after death with its punishment or reward
·
The
Mother of Jesus, Mary, was ever for him the first of womankind
But the central point
where this new heresy struck home with a mortal blow against Catholic tradition
was a complete denial of the Incarnation. Muslims believe that Jesus
was not divine and not God. Nor do they believe that He was
crucified; some even believing that Judas was crucified in His place. Yet in
Islam, Jesus is considered a great prophet, born of a virgin through the power
of Allah. However, He remains a solely human one. Nevertheless Jesus is so
revered that it is He, not Muhammad, Who is expected to return to the earth on
Judgment Day at the end of the world.
·
In
addition, the Holy Trinity was eliminated altogether: No Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit; no three persons in one God; God was sheer unity. As a result:
·
Jesus,
not being divine, did not establish a Church.
·
Since
there was no Church, no special priesthood was required.
·
The
entire sacramental structure was eliminated, also negating the need for priests
to administer any Sacraments.
·
The
Mass and the Eucharist, with its Real Presence, were eliminated.
·
The
Sacrament of Marriage disappeared, making divorce as easy as possible.
Catholic doctrine was true, Muhammad seemed to say, but it
had become encumbered by false accretions. He thought that it had become
complicated by needless man-made additions, including the idea that its founder
was divine, and the growth of a needless caste of priests who battened on a
late, imagined system of Sacraments which they alone could administer. In other
words, Muhammad founded his heresy on simplification. He never developed a
detailed theology. He was content to accept all that appealed to him in the
Catholic faith and to reject all that seemed too complicated or mysterious to
be true. However, since all heresies draw their strength from some true
doctrine, Islam drew its strength from the Catholic doctrines it retained: the
equality of all men before God, resulting in its paramount claims of social and
economic justice.
The Five Pillars of
Islam
If a Muslim were asked to summarize the way
his religion counsels man to live, he might answer: Islam teaches man to walk
in the "straight path." The phrase comes from the opening chapter of the Koran
itself, which is recited by every Muslim five times each day. What is the
straight path? The straight path is one that is direct and explicit. Compared
with other religions, Islam spells out the way of life it proposes; it
pinpoints it, nailing it down through specific injunctions. The consequence is
a definiteness about this religion that gives it a flavor all its own. A Muslim
knows where he stands. He knows who he is and who God is. He knows what his
obligations are and if he transgresses these he knows what to do about it.
Islam has clarity, an order, a precision, which is in sharp contrast to the
shifting, relative, uncertain quality of much of modern life. Muslims
explicitly claim this precision as one of Islam's strengths.
What then is the content
of this straight path that spells out man's duties? In Islam there are five
pillars or principles that regulate the life of Muslims in their relationship
with God. If the Islamic faith is seen in terms of a great building, then these
rules are the pillars, which hold it up. Every Muslim knows he must observe his
obligations to God or risk the pillars crumbling, undermining the foundations
of the religion.
- The first pillar
"SHAHADAH" is Islam's creed or confession of faith. The
creed of Islam wastes no words. Unlike the Catholic's comprehensive and
complex Nicene Creed, it is brief, simple, and explicit. It consists of a
single sentence: "There is no God but Allah, and Muhammad is His
Prophet." The Islamic God is gender free, neither male nor female,
unlike the Christian God Who is addressed in male terms of Father and Son,
and is solely one unlike the three persons of the Christian Holy Trinity.
Moreover, this confession of faith toppled the innumerable idols that
pagans had worshipped since the dawn of history.
- The second
pillar "SALAT" is prayer in which the Koran adjures the
faithful to be constant. Utmost importance is given to the frequency of
prayer. It was Muhammad himself who decreed that prayers should be said
five times every day: upon rising, at noon, in mid-afternoon, after
sunset, and upon retiring. This gives every Muslim a guaranteed time of
tranquility to reflect on the faith. When a Muslim bows down facing Mecca
where the famous Kaaba Stone is located, he does so in the knowledge that
millions are doing just the same around the globe and this thought is
supremely comforting. Under normal conditions, the five-time daily prayer
pattern should be maintained, but that schedule is not absolutely binding.
In Islam, although no day of the week is as sharply set apart from others
as is the Sabbath for the Jews or Sunday for the Christians, Friday most
nearly approximates a holy day. On Friday, Muslims come closest to a
formal service of worship when they gather in their mosques for noon
prayers and a collective recital of the Koran. Otherwise, the exact answer
to where Muslims should pray is anywhere. Since every corner of Allah's
universe is equally pure, the faithful are encouraged to spread their
prayer rug, on which they prostrate themselves, wherever they find
themselves at the appointed hour.
- The third pillar
"ZAKAT" is charity or alms giving. Muhammad,
himself an orphan, had a strong desire to help the poor. All Muslims of
middle and upper means are required to give two and one-half percent (i.e.
one fortieth) of their net wealth, not merely income, to the needy.
This compares loosely with the ten percent of income tithes of Jews
and Christians that are only biblically suggested. This is no
charitable whim by the Muslims, but a humanitarian tax. It is intended to
lift the burden of the less fortunate. It is a principle twentieth-century
democracy has reached in its concept of the welfare state. Muhammad
instituted it in the seventh century by prescribing a graduated tax on the
haves to relieve the circumstances of the have-nots. Zakat is not a source
for pride or personal glorification by the donor, because it is mandated
rather than being a noble choice. Since it is understood that those to
whom alms are given are thereby helping the giver to salvation, the
recipients feel no sense of debt to the giver. On the contrary, it is
assumed to be the giver’s duty and responsibility to give and he should
consider himself lucky that he has someone to give to. This almsgiving
provides the poor with sustenance and minimizes jealousy and envy. Muhammad
felt that Zakat contributed greatly toward a just and balanced society.
- The fourth
pillar "SAWM" is a month long daytime fast. This
fast takes place during Ramadan, the ninth month of the Islamic calendar,
which commemorates both Muhammad's initial commission as a prophet and,
twelve years later, his historic journey from Mecca to Medina. To
celebrate these two great occasions, Muslims fast completely from sunup to
sundown each day during this holy month. The fast develops self-control,
devotion to God, and identity with the destitute. It is a timely reminder
that the poor feel these same pangs of hunger every day of the year, not
just during a select few. No food, tobacco, or drink may be consumed
during the daylight hours; no smoking or sexual pleasures may be enjoyed
either. So, many Muslims thus eat two meals a day during Ramadan, one
before sunrise and one shortly after sunset.
- The fifth pillar
"HAJJ" is a pilgrimage to Mecca. This
pilgrimage is a life-long ambition for Muslims who are urged to make it at
least once in their lifetimes. The trip is an essential part in the
Muslims' gaining salvation. It involves a set of ceremonies and rituals,
many of which center around the Shrine known as the Kaaba (Cube), so
called because it is a striking black box of a building. The tradition of
the Muslims is that Adam, expelled from Paradise, came to this site in
Mecca to build the original Kaaba temple in praise of God, which was
eventually destroyed by the floodwaters during the time of Noah. Abraham
later returned here to rebuild the Kaaba on the site of Adam’s original
monument. Muslims consider it to be the House of Allah on earth. It is a
bare room with stone walls, and can accommodate about 50 people. It
contains a sacred stone, which Allah is said to have thrown down from
heaven. This stone is reputed to have been the heavenly symbol of man's
soul and was luminously white. The stone was eventually blackened by man's
sins. This pilgrimage brings together people from various countries
demonstrating that they have in common a loyalty that transcends the
loyalties of the separate kingdoms of the world. Upon reaching Mecca,
pilgrims remove their usual clothes, which tend to carry clear indications
of their social status, and don two simple sheet-like garments. Everyone,
as he nears Islam’s earthly focus, wears the same thing. All distinctions
of rank and hierarchy are removed. Prince and pauper stand before God in
their undivided humanity.
The Six Articles of the Islamic Faith
The basic theological concepts
of Islam as outlined in the Koran are at most points identical with those of
Judaism and Christianity. However, nothing comes between man and God in Islam.
Although there are imams or religious leaders, who might
somewhat be likened to priests, there is no equivalent to the bishops,
archbishops, or Popes that can be found in the Christian Church. In short,
there is no hierarchy to clutter Islam.
There are six articles of
faith that are mandatory for anyone who calls himself a Muslim:
- Belief in Allah
and His Unity: Allah has
transcendent majesty. He is not united with other deities, and no others
are equal to Him in any way. He has no partners, no wives, and no son.
Allah is immaterial and hence invisible. His nature cannot be comprehended
in any way and He does not reveal it. Muslims believe Judaism, although
given the First Commandment that the Lord thy God is One, departed
tragically from this truth, when they reverted to the worship of golden
calves and household gods; also when the Scribes and Pharisees approached
idolatry in their worship of the Law itself. Similarly, Christians, in
Muslims’ eyes, compromised their monotheism by deifying Christ, although
Islam honors Jesus as a true prophet of God.
- Belief in
Allah's Prophets: The Koran mentions
25 prophets by name, mostly from the Old and New Testaments of the Bible,
including John the Baptist and Jesus. The Koran states that all of these
prophets were given revelations identical to those found in the
Koran. Muslims also claim that Allah has sent prophets for all nations
of the earth, but, unfortunately, the differences we see today between
Judaism, Christianity, and Islam exist because Jews and Christians were
not faithful to Allah’s true message.
- Belief in
Allah's Revelations: Islam assumes
that the Bibles of the Jews and Christians were also authentic revelations
from God, which fact entitles those who hold them sacred to be classed
with Muslims as "People of the Book." Nevertheless, the Old and New
Testaments share two defects from which the Koran is free. Having been
revealed at earlier stages in mankind’s spiritual development when, as a
child, man was incapable of receiving the full truth, Islam believes that
the Old and New Testaments are incomplete. Beyond this, the Jewish and
Christian Bibles have in the process of transmission become partially
corrupted, a fact that explains the discrepancies that occasionally appear
between their accounts and parallel ones in the Koran. Exemption from
these two limitations makes the Koran the final and infallible revelation
of God’s will. Its second chapter states the latter point categorically:
"There is no doubt in this book."
- Belief in
Allah's Angels: Muslims agree
with Christians and Jews that angels, like humans, are creatures of Allah.
No one can win favor in Allah's sight that rejects the angels. In fact,
Muslims emphasize that every word of their Holy Book, the Koran, was
dictated directly to Muhammad in a series of visits over a
23-year period by the angel Gabriel as the messenger from Allah.
- Belief in Fate:
Throughout the Koran, there are repeated statements that everyone's
destiny is in the hands of Allah, and that nothing should ever happen to
people except what Allah has ordained for them. Allah's providential care
is absolute, even for spiritual good and ill. Interestingly, one Hadith
(the Tradition of Muhammad formally interpreting the Koran) relates a
story of Moses chastising Adam for his sin in the Garden of Eden that
forced Adam's expulsion from Paradise. Adam quickly rebuts this charge by
claiming that he should not be blamed for his actions because Allah
controls everything. Therefore his decision was written into his destiny
by fate before his creation. Hadiths, such as this, are second in
authority only to the Koran for most Muslims. Thus no Muslim will deny
that there is in Islam a problem of reconciling man's free will with God's
omnipotence. What he does deny is that this lands the Muslim in complete
fatalism. In the final analysis, Muslims argue that man is still
ultimately responsible for the decisions he makes.
- Belief in
Judgment Day: The Koran is
quite specific in describing the joys awaiting believers and the horrors
in store for unbelievers, depending on how they fare in this life. Heaven
is full of the pleasures of the flesh and abounds in deep rivers of cool,
crystal water, lush fruit and vegetation, and beautiful mansions with
gracious attendants. Hell is portrayed as a horrific torture chamber with
graphic accounts of molten metal, boiling liquids, and eternal fire. Among
the signs of Judgment Day, Islamic tradition holds that the greatest of
all is the second coming of Jesus Christ. It is He, not Muhammad or anyone
else, whom Muslims expect to return to earth in the last days.
Social Teachings of Islam
Islamic society is
controlled by the Koran, the Hadiths (formal traditions interpreting the
Koran,) and Sharia Law, which governs communal activity pursuant to the Koran.
Major social practices of Islam include:
- Status of Women: The
treatment of women in Islamic countries is shocking to modern Westerners.
Islam views women as innately subordinate to men, because Allah made them
that way. Thus women are consistently treated as "second class citizens"
in traditional Muslim countries. Husbands, by divine right, have total
authority over their wives. Women are only entitled to one-half the
inheritance due to a man. In court, it takes two women's testimony to be
equal to that of one man, and then their testimony is only permitted in
property transactions. To justify an accusation of rape, a woman must get
four witnesses to testify, all men, each of whom must have witnessed the
sexual act himself. A Muslim man can have up to four wives, provided that
he maintains them equally. Since the admonition of treating all wives impartially
is difficult to follow, there are many monogamous unions in Islamic
society. However, according to the word of the Koran, a man always has the
option to take several wives. Muhammad, in fact, is reputed to have had as
many as 14 wives (one as young as 9 years old), because Allah gave him
special permission to have more wives than the ordinary Muslim. Observant
Muslim women who go outside their houses must be covered in order to show
they are believers, guarding their modesty and displaying their beauty
only to their husbands. If a Muslim man is unhappy with any of his wives,
he is free to divorce them by simply saying, "I divorce you." If a
divorcing couple has children, they ordinarily go to live with their
father.
- Economic
Regulations: The main thrust of Muslim economics
is that the wealth of the people be widely shared. Islam does not oppose
the profit motive or economic competition. It does not discourage a man
from working harder than his neighbor nor object to his being rewarded
with a larger income. It simply insists that acquisitiveness and
competition be balanced by fair play and compassion. The Poor Due, which
provides for the annual distribution of one-fortieth of what one possesses
for the poor, is Islam’s basic device for institutionalizing regard for
others, but it is supplemented by a number of important measures. The
Koran revised the system of primogeniture, which restricted the entire
inheritance being paid solely to the eldest son. It insured a more even
distribution of an estate by dividing it among all children, daughters as
well as sons, though females received a lesser portion. One verse in the
Koran prohibits the taking of interest. This verse came to be interpreted
to mean that interest should not be charged on loans used for relief of
basic human needs but that this restriction did not apply to loans for
business purposes. As business loans were intended to bring profit to the
borrower, it was felt that the Koran could not have intended that the
lender be excluded from this profit. With this interpretation, it is the
prevailing view that there is no incompatibility between Islam and
capitalism. However, in view of the Koran’s vehement denunciations of
usury, it is assumed that Muslims will keep their interest rates on
business loans low.
Jihad
(The Holy War)
The literal meaning of
Jihad is "to struggle, to strive hard, and to fight." Muslims
today, to prove that Jihad refers only to the individual's interior struggle
against sin, often cite only the first two meanings of Jihad. Muslim apologists
like to point out that Jihad does not mean "Holy War." Yet in Islamic history
and theology throughout the ages, Jihad has meant precisely that: Holy War. In
fact, some fundamentalist Islamic sects add Jihad as the sixth pillar of the
faith, emphasizing that Muslims have a duty to fight against
unbelievers.
According to Inside
Islam: A Guide for Catholics, published by Ascension Press, 2003, there are
a great number of truths and half-truths being purveyed about Jihad today, but the
Koran is clear. It contains numerous verses that state in no
uncertain terms that unless a Muslim takes up arms against the infidels, he is
not a true Muslim and has no part in the Paradise promised to Muslims. When
the Muslim declares that Islam is a "religion of peace," he is either ignorant
of the Koran or is extending this "peace" only to those within the Muslim
community, without telling you that that is the way he means it. In Islam,
there is no true concept of peace between the unbeliever and the devout Muslim.
If Muslims take the Koran and Hadith seriously, they will fight until everyone
on earth is Muslim or at least is under Muslim rule.
Consider that the military
history of Islam’s expansion and intended conquest of the world for Allah has
been continuous and unrelenting since its founding in the 600's A.D., as noted
below:
- At the time of his death in 632,
Muhammad had consolidated virtually all of the armies of Arabia under his
control. Within the next 100 years, his followers had conquered all of the
surrounding Christian countries, especially expanding through the
Mediterranean Sea to Egypt, North Africa, and the European countries of
Spain and France. Except for their defeat by Charles Martel in the battle
of Tours, France in 732, the entire Western world might now, through
conquest and Islamizaton, be Muslim.
- During the years 1095-1200,
Muslim soldiers invaded Syria and Palestine to prevent Christian
pilgrimages from Europe to Jerusalem and the Holy Lands. They also tried
to establish control over the major Christian Holy Places there, including
the True Cross and the Holy Sepulcher, the site of Christ's Resurrection.
As a result, Pope Urban initiated the Crusades, in which Christian armies
from Europe tried to take back the Holy Places previously conquered by the
Muslims. But the Crusades failed. They never retook Jerusalem and never
reestablished the old Christian kingdom.
- In 1453, Muslim armies conquered
one of the greatest prizes of all: Constantinople (which they renamed Istanbul),
the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire and the second See of Christendom,
the home of what was then the grandest Church in the world - the Cathedral
of Holy Wisdom, or Hagia Sophia.
- Twice the Muslims commenced an
assault on Vienna, the capital of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire. Finally,
the Europeans were able to defeat the Muslims in two historic victories.
Initially in 1571, the naval forces of the Holy Roman Empire won a
decisive victory at the great Battle of Lepanto, off the coast of Greece in
the Mediterranean Sea. Finally the Muslim army besieged Vienna directly,
only to be turned back on a day that marks a high point of Muslim
expansion in Europe: September 11, 1683.
- Osama bin Laden may well have had
the anniversary of this Vienna battle date in mind when he planned the September
11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
Pope Benedict XVI's
Regensburg Speech
On September
12, 2006, Pope Benedict XVI delivered a historic speech at the University of
Regensburg, Germany relating to Islam and its penchant for religious violence,
in which he raised for thoughtful people everywhere the urgent question
about whether any true religion can condone violence. The Pope cited the
dialogue (circa 1391) between a Christian emperor in Ankara, Turkey and an
educated Persian on this question for further reflection by all people of good
will. Discussing the religion of Islam, the Christian emperor comments to the
Persian:
"Show me just
what Muhammad brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil
and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached."
The emperor goes on to
explain in detail why spreading the faith through violence is something
unreasonable. Violence is incompatible with the nature of God and the nature of
the soul:
"God is not pleased by blood, and not
acting reasonably is contrary to God's nature. Faith is born of the soul, not
the body. Whoever would lead someone to faith needs the ability to speak well
and to reason properly, without violence and threats. To convince a reasonable
soul, one does not need a strong arm, or weapons of any kind, or any other
means of threatening a person with death."
The decisive
statement in this argument against violent conversion is this: not to act in
accordance with reason is contrary to God’s nature. For the Christian emperor
and for the Christian of all ages, this statement is self-evident. But for
Muslim teaching, God is not bound by rationality. Thus the dramatic and
continuing confrontation between Christianity and Islam in our time.
Question for our Bishops
Why do you
not teach the authentic Roman Catholic Faith contained in the Catechism of our
Roman Catholic Church to the members of your Diocese with the same truth,
clarity, vigor, enthusiasm and zeal as the Muslims? - especially when Pope John
Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI have called this Catechism "a sure norm for
teaching the Faith." Since most of our bishops do not take seriously their
obligation to educate Catholics in their Faith, there is every reason to be
concerned that the robust religion of Islam will eventually supplant
Christianity.
Editors'
Note:
An excellent reference for those who wish to inform themselves in more detail
about the specific tenets and practices of Islam is: INSIDE ISLAM, A Guide
for Catholics, authored by Daniel Ali and Robert Spencer, published by
Ascension Press, 2003. This book contains 100 Questions and Answers, as well as
a Foreword by Mitch Pacwa, S.J., Moderator of Eternal Word Television Network
(EWTN). To contact the Orlando Truth write P.O. Box 1208, Tavares FL 32778-1208.