"There is no way that Islam can reform itself and remain Islam, no way it can ever be made compatible with pluralism, free speech, critical thought and democracy. Anyone convinced they already possess the truth have no need for such things. Although Muslims resident in non-Muslim countries clamour for every kind of indulgence for their own beliefs and customs, there can be no doubt that given any kind of power they would impose their own beliefs and eliminate all difference."(Ibn-al-Rawandi, Review of "Why I Am Not a Muslim,"
http://www.freethought.org/library/modern/ibn_al-rawandi/review.html)
"I am convinced that the greatest obstacles are the trends in our own world: trends that render churches impotent; that view the aliens in the country as a threat more than an opportunity; and loss of sheer evangelistic and mission zeal. Christian stereotypes of Muslims can only damage relations and discourage evangelism. Muslims were 'camel jockeys' in the 1960's; 'oil sheiks' in the 1970's and 'terrorists' in the 1980's."(Evertt W. Huffard, TRENDS IN ISLAM,
http://bible.acu.edu/missions/articles/islamtrn.htm)
Bible: [Mat 6:7] And in praying use not vain repetitions, as the Gentiles do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking.
Bible: [2Cor 9:7] Each one must do as he has made up his mind, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.
"Islam" means to "surrender." "Muslim" means "those who submit."Hadith. A custom of the teachings or practice of the Prophet: one of the main sources of Islamic law.
Sharia. Islamic law consisting of the teachings of the Quran, the sunna of the prophet which is incorporated in the recognized traditions; the general agreement of the scholars of the orthodox community; the method of reasoning by equivalence.
Sunna. Properly, a custom or practice, and later narrowed down to the routine of the Prophet or a tradition stating the same.
Bible: Mindless submission is discouraged, instead the Bible encourages obeying God, in love and gratitude, as a response to His love and grace.[Mat 22:37] The Greatest Commandment is: "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind."
[2Cor. 5:14-15] "For Christ's love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again."
A. There is only one true God who name is Allah.
Bible: God does not cause evil to happen because in Him there is no sin.[Jas 1:17] Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom can be no variation, neither shadow that is cast by turning.
[1John 3:5-6] You know that he appeared to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. No one who abides in him sins; no one who sins has either seen him or known him.
Bible: [Acts 17:31] ...Because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed, and of this he has given assurance to all men by raising him from the dead.
B. Angels are supernatural beings who are inferior to God, but superior to man.
C. There are four inspired books of Scripture which God has revealed to man.
Whenever the first three disagree with the Koran, the Moslem believes they have been corrupted.
The Koran supercedes all other revelations and is Allah's final word to mankind.
D. Allah has spoken to man through many prophets.
E. There will be a resurrection of the dead and a judgement day at the end of the world.
Through their contacts with Jews and Christians, the Meccans acquired a certain awareness of monotheism and developed vague notions of a Supreme Being. They believed, however, that they could gain access to the Supreme Being only through intercessors--gods and goddesses in the form of idols. So they installed 360 such idols in the Ka'bah, which remained there until the Prophet Muhammad destroyed them and reconsecrated the Ka'bah, which subsequently became the holiest shrine of the Islamic religion. (Diller, Daniel C.; The Middle East, Congressional Quartely Inc: Washington, D.C.; 1994, p. 173)
Visions of Muhammed
"Another important achievement of Ibn Warraq is that he explodes the myth of Islamic tolerance, a myth largely invented by Jews and Western freethinkers as a stick with which to beat the Catholic Church. Islam was never a religion of tolerance and it is not tolerant by nature. Despite the way the apologists would like to depict it, Islam was spread by the sword and has been maintained by the sword throughout its history, not to mention the scourge and the cross. In truth it was the Arab empire that was spread by the sword and it is as an Arab empire that Islam is maintained to this day in the form of a religion largely invented to hold that empire together and subdue native populations. An unmitigated cultural disaster parading as God's will. Religious minorities were always second-class citizens in this empire and were only tolerated on sufferance and in abject deference to their Arab/Muslim masters; for polytheists and unbelievers there was no tolerance at all, it was conversion or death."(Ibn-al-Rawandi, Review of "Why I Am Not a Muslim,"
http://www.freethought.org/library/modern/ibn_al-rawandi/review.html)
Issue of Continuity:
"Whenever someone tells them: 'Believe in what God has sent down;' they say: 'We believe [only] in what has been sent down to us,' while they disbelieve in what has come after that, even though it is the Truth confirming what they already have." (Qur'an 2:87 )
Who is Allah?
The word Allah was derived from al-ilah which had become a generic title for whatever god was considered the highest god. Each Arab tribe used Allah to refer to its own particular high god. This is why Hubal, the Moon god, was the central focus of prayer at the Kabah and people prayed to Hubal using the name Allah. (Dr. Robert Morey; http://www.cultbusters.com/allah.htm)
"Islam also owes the term "Allah" to the heathen Arabs. We have evidence that it entered into numerous personal names in Northern Arabia and among the Nabatians. It occurred among the Arabs of later times, in theophorous names and on its own."
Ibn Warraq, Why I Am Not A Muslim,
(Prometheus, Amherst, 1995) p. 42.
"The moon god was worshipped by praying toward Mecca several times a day, making an annual pilgrimage to the Kabah which was a temple of the moon god, running around the Kabah seven times, caressing an idol of a black stone set in the wall of the Kabah, running between two hills, making animal sacrifices, gathering on Fridays for prayers, giving alms to the poor, etc. These were pagan rites practiced by the Arabs long before Mohammed was born." (Dr. Robert Morey; http://www.cultbusters.com/aorigin.htm)
"The Forms of Pagan Worship... It will be noticed that the sun and the moon and the five
planets got identified with a living deity, god or goddess, with the qualities of its own.
Moon worship was equally popular in various forms...It may be noted that the moon was a male
divinity in ancient India; it was also a male divinity in ancient Semitic religion, and
the Arabic word for the moon (qamar) is of the masculine gender. On the other hand, the
Arabic word for the sun (shama) is of the feminine gender. The pagan Arabs evidently looked
upon the sun as a goddess and the moon as a god. If Wadd and Suwa represented Man and Woman,
they might well represent the astral worship of the moon and the sun...
The Pagan deities best known in the Ka'ba and round about Mecca were Lat, Uzza and Manat...They
were all female goddesses." (Yusuf Ali: pgs. 1619-1623)
"...the whole of the [pagan] pilgrimage was spiritualized in Islam..." (Yusuf Ali: fn. 223 pg. 80)
"Historians like Vaqqidi have said Allah was actually the chief of the 360 gods being worshipped in Arabia at the time Mohammed rose to prominence. Ibn Al-Kalbi gave 27 names of pre-Islamic deities...Interestingly, not many Muslims want to accept that Allah was already being worshipped at the Ka'bah in Mecca by Arab pagans before Mohammed came. Some Muslims become angry when they are confronted with this fact. But history is not on their side. Pre-Islamic literature has proved this." (G.J.O. Moshay, Who Is This Allah? Dorchester House, Bucks, UK, 1994, pg. 138)
"O ye who believe! Ask not questions about things which if made plain to you, may cause you trouble. Some people before you did ask such questions, and on that account lost their faith." (Surah 5:101-102)
"The Holy Prophet himself forbade people to ask questions--so do not try to probe into such things." (Maududi, The Meaning of the Qur'an, Vol. III, pgs. 76-77)
"The prophet was asked about things which he did not like, and when the questioner insisted, the Prophet got angry." (Vol. 1, no. 92)"The prophet got angry and his cheeks or his face became read." (Vol. 1, no. 91)
"We must ask ourselves, What kind of god is Allah who hates people for asking questions? This is not like the God of the Bible who encourages us to seek, to ask, and to knock! Why is Muhammad pictured as hating those who asked him questions? Why were people warned not to ask any questions? What is Islam trying to hide? Is Islam so weak that merely asking questions threaten to destroy it? Do Muslims assume that blind faith is the way to Islam?" (Dr. Robert Morey; http://www.cultbusters.com/allah.htm)
Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true. (Acts 17:11)
But the unbelievers say, "This is nothing but a lie which he has forged, and other have helped him do it...Tales of the ancients, which he has caused to be written; and they are dictated before him morning and evening." (Surah 25:4-5)
In truth, it is they who have put forward an iniquity and a falsehood. (Surah 25:4)
Say: "The Qur'an was sent down by Him who knows the mystery that is in the heavens." (Surah 25:6)
In his commentary, Yusuf Ali states: [3058] In their misguided arrogance they say, "We have heard such things before: they are pretty tales which have come down from ancient times: they are good for amusement, but who takes them seriously?"
[3059] The answer is that the Qur'an teaches spiritual knowledge of what is ordinarily hidden from men's sight, and such knowledge can only come from God to Whom alone is known the Mystery of the whole Creation.
"Apparently this is a weighty argument. For there can be no greater proof of the "fraud" of Prophethood than to specify its source. But it looks strange that no argument has been put forward to refute this charge except a mere denial, as if to say, 'Your charge is an impudent lie: you are cruel and unjust to bring such a false charge against Our Messenger; for the Qur'an is the Word of Allah Who knows all the secrets in the heavens and the earth.'" (The Meaning of the Qur'an, Maududi, vol. III, pgs. 178-179)
BIBLE - The two important characteristics about Jesus were:
"I" (Greek: egw): Word Origin: a primary pronoun of the first person "I"
(only expressed when emphatic)
Am (Greek: eimi): to be, to exist, to happen, to be present
The same words are used in the following passages:
[Rev 1:8] "I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty."[Exod 3:14.8] God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM." And he said, "Say this to the people of Israel, 'I AM has sent me to you."
"The originator of heavens and earth! How can He have a child, when there is for Him no consort (spouse)" Qur'an 6:102"He has not fathered anyone nor was he fathered, and there is nothing comparable to Him" Qur'an 112:intro
"The name Allah, as the Qur'an itself is witness, was well known in pre-Islamic Arabia. Indeed, both it and its feminine form, Allat, are found not infrequently among the theophorous names in inscriptions from North Africa." (Arthur Jeffrey, ed., Islam: Muhammad and His Religion, New York: The Liberal Arts Press, 1958, p. 85.)
(The Qur'an uses the phrase "son of Mary" majority of the time)
The Bible only uses the phrase "Son of Mary" once in the New Testament. The statement "Son of Mary" was made by the Jews who did not believe in Jesus.
[Mark 6:3.7] Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon, and are not his sisters here with us?" And they took offense at him.The Catholic view of Mary, as the "Mother of God," has caused confusion for the Muslims regarding the phrase "Son of God."
Counter-Examples from Qur'an:
"Assuredly they have disbelieved who say that God is the Messiah, son of Mary." Qur'an 5:17
"They only believe a little because of their disbelief and their talking such terrible slander about Mary and (also) for their saying: 'We killed God's messenger Christ Jesus, the son of Mary!' They neither killed nor crucified him, even though it seemed so to them. Those who disagree about it are in doubt concerning it; they have no [real] knowledge about it except by following conjecture. No one is certain they killed him!" Qur'an 4:154-158
Jesus and His crucifixion are mentioned by the Roman historians Cornelius Tacitus, Pliny the Younger, and Seutonious, by non-roman historians Thallus and Phlegon, by the satirist Lucian of Samosata, by the Jewish Talmud, and by the Jewish historian Flavius Josephus.
Here is an extract from Tacitus (The Annuals, book 40, para. 44, line 5):
"Therefore, to scoth the rumor, Nero substituted as culprits, and punished with the utmost refinements of cruelty, a class of men, loathed for their vices, whom the crowd styled Christians. Christus, the founder of the name, had undergone the death penalty in the reign of Tiberius, by sentence of the procurator Pontius Pilatus, and the pernicious superstition was checked for a moment, only to break out once more, not merely in Judaea, the home of the disease, but in the capital itself, where all things horrible or shameful in the world collect and find a vogue. First, then, the confessed members of the sect were arrested; next, on their disclosures, vast numbers were convicted, not so much on the count of arson as for hatred of the human race. And derision accompanied their end: they were covered with wild beasts skins and torn to death by dogs; or they were fastened on crosses, and, when day light failed were burned to serve as lamps by night. Nero had offered his Gardens for the spectacle, and gave an exhibition in his Circus, mixing the crowd in the habit of a charioteer, or mounted on his car. Hence, in spite of a guilt which had earned the most exemplary punishment, there arose a sentiment of pity, due to the impression that they were being sacrificed not for the welfare of the state but to the ferocity of a single man."
Flavius Josephus (Antiquities of the Jews, book 43, chap. 3, para. 3) writes:
"Now about this time lived Jesus, a wise man, if indeed it be lawful to call him a man. For he was a doer of wonderful works, a teacher of men who receive the truth with pleasure; and drew over to him many of the Jews, and many of the Gentiles. He was the Christ. And when Pilate, at the information of the leading men among us, had condemned him to the cross, those who had loved him at first did not cease to do so. For he appeared to them alive again the third day, as the divine prophets had foretold this and ten thousand other wonderful things concerning him. And the tribe of Christians, so named from him, are not extinct at this day."
Fallacy of Equivocation
"Believe in God [alone] and His messengers, and do not say: 'Three!' Stopping [it] will be better for you. God is only One God; glory be to Him, beyond His having any son!" Qur'an 4:171"They disbelieve who say that God is one of three." Qur'an 5:73
The Hebrew word "Elokim" in this sentence is a plural name for God, implying the Triune nature of God.
[Isaiah 42:5] Thus says God [Kel], the Lord, Who created the heavens and stretched them out, Who spread forth the earth....
[Deut 6:4.9] "Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD.
[1Tim 2:5.4] For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, through whom are all things and through whom we exist.
[Mal 2:15.4] Has not the one God made and sustained for us the spirit of life? And what does he desire? Godly offspring. So take heed to yourselves, and let none be faithless to the wife of his youth.
[Eph 6:12.7] For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world-rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual [hosts] of wickedness in the heavenly [places].
[John 10:27.2] Jesus said, "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me."
The Bible clarifies by stating that faith is based on evidence, rather than blind belief which has no foundation.
[Hebrews 11:1] Faith is the assurance of things not seen and the evidence of things hoped for.
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