A vision for liberal reform of Islam

Every now and again one runs across a writing by a Muslim who is really, sincerely wants to see a liberal, progressive Islam. I don't think that such a project will ever succeed on a large scale and over time. I don't think that such a 'reform' would be even remotely close to the ethos the founder of Islam.

But still, when one sees such a thinker it is interesting to point it out.

So here is a tidbit from Dr. Habib Fayad at the Lebanese University:

Renewing Islam means cleansing it from prejudices, falls, myths and changes that have affected it throughout the course of history, and apply it in a manner consistent with the spirit of the time and era. It also means going back to reading the religious texts with the reason, morality and spirituality of the Prophet, and not merely literally.

Read it all HERE.

The time when Muhammad received a Christian delegation

I am really impressed by this recent article by Fred Farrokh over at Themelios. By all means read the whole article, but here is Farrokh's summary of the time when a Christian delegation came from Najran (in southern KSA today) to establish an agreement with Muhammad.

The encounter in Medina of the Najrani Christians with Muhammad provides a clear picture of Muhammad’s interaction with, and policy toward, Christians. As Muhammad and the Muslims gained political hegemony over Arabia, various tribes came to seek terms of peace with the Prophet of Islam. The town of Najran sent a Christian delegation to seek such a peace agreement. The Najranis, who were accompanied by their bishop, spent three days in theological discourse with Muhammad in Medina. This episode is referred to in Sura 3 (al-Imran). Gordon Nickel provides a thorough recap of the encounter and its treatment by Qur’anic commentators.19 

The Najrani Christians offered to pledge their political allegiance to Muhammad if he would embrace their belief in the divinity of Jesus. This Sura recounts their testimony to the Annunciation (3:42–46), the Virgin Birth (3:47), Jesus’s miracles (3:49, including some apocryphal miracles). 

The Qur’anic narrative then markedly pivots to an antibiblical Christology in which Jesus denies his own Lordship (3:51). Jesus’s disciples then shockingly declare: “We have believed in Allah and testify we are Muslims” (3:52). Sura 3:57 establishes salvation by works, and also states that “Allah does not love those who do wrong,” another drastic departure from biblical theology. The Najrani episode concludes with Muhammad declaring that Jesus was no more the Son of God than was Adam, who also was created without a human father (3:59). 

Because of this theological impasse, Muhammad insisted on a mutual cursing ceremony with these Najrani Christians. Though the Najranis declined to curse Muhammad, Muhammad gathered his daughter Fatima, his son-in-law Ali, and his two grandsons under his cloak, and cursed the Najranis. The incident is known in Islamic history as “The Cursing” (al-Mubahala) with Muhammad’s indictment stated in Sura 3:61: “May God’s curse be upon those who lie!” The Qur’anic narrative ends here with: “This is the true account. There is no god but Allah. . . . If they turn back, God has full knowledge of those who do mischief.” (3:62–63). 

For those keeping track of the verse numbers, the next verse in this passage is 3:64. This is the “common word” verse in which Christians are called to repent of associating partners with Allah (i.e., worshipping Jesus) and to return to Tawhid. Thus, Muhammad’s single notable encounter with a Christian community ended with him cursing that community because of their biblical beliefs regarding the Lord Jesus Christ.

Read it all here.

Positive Infinity interviews Abu Daoud on Sharing Jesus with Muslims in America

What a pleasure to be interviewed again for one of my favorite blogs, Positive Infinity. Here is one question with the answer:

7. How should Christians accommodate the cultures Muslims come out of to aid them in sharing the gospel?

Ultimately we’re working towards evangelizing and sanctifying entire cultures. What does it look like for Yemeni culture to know Christ? What does it look like for Libyan culture to be baptized and sanctified? The challenge is that these cultures are so inextricably intertwined with Islam that it is hard to know where Islam ends and a given culture begins. All of this to say, it is a lengthy, hard work, and we should not expect to be able to answer the question in the lifespan of a single generation of believers. Use Scripture, draw on your own denominational tradition, and be patient as new believers stumble along by the grace of God figuring out how to construct a new convert identity in Christ and his Church.

Check out the rest of the interview HERE.

Also, there were two previous interviews from 2012 (Part 1 and Part 2)

David Virtue interview Abu Daoud on Sharing Jesus with Muslims in America

I was very pleased to be interviewed by David Virtue earlier today on my recent book Sharing Jesus with Muslims in America. Read it all HERE.

Also, please do share it, and leave your comments on David's page rather than here.

Here is a taste of the interview:

VOL: Can moderate Islamists co-exist with Christians? 

DAOUD: The Muslim world is trying to figure out what moderate Islam is. I don't really know what that means. Does it mean Islam without shari'a? Then it's not Islam anymore. Does it mean a-political Islam? Islam is and always has been an empire and legal system as well a religion. Like the Ayatollah said, "Islam is politics, or it's not Islam." 

But we certainly can form relations with Muslims in America. You may be worried about cultural queues and what is appropriate or not. Well, get the book because we cover all that. In the end, if you are acting out of love and charity then any missteps will be forgiven. 

Just start praying every morning, "Lord, give me a Muslim friend." Not the most eloquent prayer, I know, but just do it. Let God surprise you!

Read the rest of it HERE.

Islam, Migration and Donald Trump's 2016 Win

Well, I sure was surprised. I was confident that all the demographics were favoring Hillary, whom I do not like. As I do not like Mr. Trump.

This blog is about Islam and Christianity, so why include commentary on a  political election? Because what happens in the USA does not stay in the USA, as I think everyone knows. Also, because Mr. Trump has had some pretty explicit things to say about Muslims immigrating to the USA. He and the people around him appear to fear that Islam always involves a latent tendency towards terrorism.

Duh.

The sad thing is that there are people who don't understand this, or who think to recognize this clear, objective, obvious truth makes someone a hater of Muslims.

I love Muslims. I have many Muslim friends. I just published a book which is all about sharing the love of Christ with Muslims (in America! Buy it!) But I'm not naive about Islam either. It is not simply a religion. It is much more. It is an imperial, global plan that has transcendental and religious elements grafted into it.

And so I must say that in spite of Mr. Trump's big fat mouth and inflammatory speech, I am not sad that he was elected. A win for HRC would have meant unrestrained immigration of Muslims into the USA. Perhaps none of the first generation would have been terrorists, but we know from experience that at least some of their kids would be. The liberal press loves to talk about how so many of the terrorists are native born to France, Belgium, and the USA. But they are all second generation. The danger is in that second generation.

Furthermore, Muslims must be committed, if they are real Muslims, to Allah's will for the world, which is called the shari'a. And guess what? The shari'a and the American constitution are simply irreconcilable on several issues. Not all Muslims will battle to transform American law into shari'a law. But some will. And none will resist this. And when the political, legal strategy is denounced, we will be told, as President Obama has so many times, that we must respect people of all religions. But that is the crux. It's not just a religion. It's so much more.

There is a certain poetic justice to what just happened. It was largely white Christian men who made the USA into a nation into which everyone in the world want to immigrate. But the Democratic Party then turned around and told everyone that they were valuable and special and important, except white Christian men. White Christian men, one would think from listening to the jejune rhetoric of the Democratic establishment, are an offense to justice by their very existence. And so, those people turned. They were angry because they had been told again and again how nasty and racist and xenophobic they were.

Meanwhile, the "bright" folks, ensconced in their artificial, plastic, fundamentalist-left universities, were not willing to even make an attempt to understand them. They had PhDs and MAs and knew that it was all about racism. It was that simple. What a bunch of idiots (with PhDs, to be sure).

So now the future of secular government in the West rests on the shoulders of this vulgar but brilliant man. If he can enunciate a vision of Islam as an anti-constitutional political program, and not as a religion, then we might just see a glimpse of light in the future of the West. Maybe my previous predictions about the demise of the West and its complete Islamization and incorporation into Islamdom (note the blog name) were a bit premature, after all.

Praise for 'Sharing Jesus with Muslims in America'

What a pleasure to read the recent review of Sharing Jesus with Muslims in America over at the blog Fresh Start Stories by Beverly Nault.

Here is a portion of the review:

Abu Daoud has written a stunningly well organized, well researched and cited book that walks a Christian through how to befriend and answer their Muslim friend’s questions about Jesus. It comes from experience, which is important because the Qu’ran teaches about Jesus so before we go off spouting what may be either silly or offensive, knowing how a Muslim thinks about Him will help immensely. 

And this book lays it all out there. 

I read it in a couple of days, and feel like I have a good foundation, and yet I also was inspired to learn more.

Thank you Beverly for your great review!

Read the whole review HERE and consider buying the book!

Europe's Islamist Destiny

Good article here by Daniel Pipes titled "Islamist Violence will Steer Europe's Future".

Here is a portion:

These two drives – expiating guilt and replacing nonexistent children – then combine to encourage a massive influx of non-Western peoples, what the French writer Renaud Camus calls “the great replacement.” South Asians in the United Kingdom, North Africans in France, and Turks in Germany, plus Somalis, Palestinians, Kurds, and Afghans all over, can claim innocence of Europe’s historic sins even as they offer the prospect of staffing the economy. As the American writer Mark Steyn puts it, “Islam is now the principal supplier of new Europeans.”

My new book: Sharing Jesus with Muslims in America

Dear Friends,

I am very happy to share with you this new book which is available both in print and Kindle editions through Amazon.

The Muslim population in the United States is growing quickly, and there are no signs of this growth slowing down. So how should Christians respond? With fear? With tolerance? By ignoring Muslims?  Or with boldness, hope, and the Good News of Jesus Christ, clearly the biblical answer. For centuries the church did not go to Muslims with the gospel because Christians thought it was too dangerous or too difficult. Now God is bringing Muslims to America where Christians can lead them to Christ. But when I share this opportunity with churches around the country, I'm asked, “But how? How do I meet Muslims? How can my church make the connections?” This book seeks to answer those questions and more. If you are a Christian, I hope you will open your heart to God’s plan for Muslims in your community.  You can start by reading this book.

Why the West is losing the War against Militant Islam

by Adam Borowski

1. No Culture - the West has no culture anymore. And while it would be great to live in a perfect world of harmony, there are predatory cultures on Earth that have rigid rules and those cultures have one aim and one aim only – world domination. The West is weak – and everyone on the planet sees it.

2. Western Values – discoveries. Education. Freedom of epression. Emphasis on an individual. Cherishing – revering even – intellectual feats. And many, many more. But that was in the past. In the era of peripatetic philosophers who devisedall the political systems we know today. Here are the new Western values: rampant greed. Careerism. Celebrity culture. Nihilism. Cheap Machiavellianism. Intellectual devolution. Censorship. Surveillance. Naive Tolerance--the symbol of which ought to be a refugee beating a woman who offred him water.

Read it all here.

Muhammad, anxious about his own eternal fate

Recently ran across this interesting hadith, which shows just how worried Muhammad was about his own eternal fate:

Narrated Masruq:

‘Aisha said that a Jewess came to her and mentioned the punishment in the grave, saying to her, "May Allah protect you from the punishment of the grave."

‘Aisha then asked Allah’s Apostle about the punishment of the grave. He said, "Yes, (there is) punishment in the grave."

‘Aisha added, "After that I never saw Allah’s Apostle but seeking refuge with Allah from the punishment in the grave in every prayer he prayed." 

Sahih al-Bukhari, Volume 2, Book 23, Number 454

The Prophet: Victorious through Terror?

Sahih al Bukhari :: Book 4 :: Volume 52 :: Hadith 220

Narrated Abu Huraira:

Allah's Apostle said, "I have been sent with the shortest expressions bearing the widest meanings, and I have been made victorious with terror (cast in the hearts of the enemy), and while I was sleeping, the keys of the treasures of the world were brought to me and put in my hand." 

Abu Huraira added: Allah's Apostle has left the world and now you, people, are bringing out those treasures (i.e. the Prophet did not benefit by them).

Sweden's Rape Epidemic (Gatestone Institute)

Sweden continues to destroy itself...

Christian refugees in Germany being persecuted by Muslim refugees

Such sad news. And so sad to see how Germany is slowly but surely destroying itself:

"Despite increased reports about this problem by the media, charities, human rights organizations, church leaders and Christian organizations, German authorities and politicians have hardly ever launched an investigation. Instead, we believe that incidents are deliberately downplayed and even covered up. ... Even in police stations, religiously motivated attacks on Christian refugees are not documented as such."

Read it all HERE.

Justin Long on Religion Trends for 2016

Great information from Justin Long:

• Religionists, 1.31%. The world is becoming more religious, not less.
• Christians, 1.3% vs. Muslims, 1.8%. Both Christians and Muslims are gaining ground in the world, but Muslims are gaining ground faster. This is largely a function of faster net demographic growth rates in countries that have large Muslim populations; this in turn is caused partially by declines in mortality.
• Hindus, 1.26%. The Hindu population is making gains worldwide, but not as fast as Christians or Muslims.
• All of the remaining groups (except the very small Sikh population) are declining vs. global population.
• Non-religionists, 0.3% – agnostics are growing at .36%, and atheists at 0.05%. Despite headline-grabbing trends in certain parts of the world (the West, mostly), the world as a whole is becoming progressively and massively less non-religious (and atheists in particular are in sharp decline).

Read more HERE.

Why the Morocco Declaration on Christianity is not as good as it sounds

The folks at Christianity Today are falling all over themselves explaining how great the recent Morocco Declaration on Christian rights is. This should give you an idea:

In particular, the declaration references the charter’s “principles of constitutional contractual citizenship” and “freedom of movement, property ownership, mutual solidarity and defense, as well as principles of justice and equality before the law,” in regards to Muslims and non-Muslims.

I'm just not convinced. The declaration needs to explicitly claim that Christians who at one time in the past were Muslims are also included and should be afforded the same legal rights as folks born in Christian families.

And plus, Morocco doesn't even have an indigenous Christian population, aside from a couple hundred converts from Islam, and those have mostly been hounded and persecuted until they left the country.

I hope I'm worn to be so cynical about this, but we saw this back in the time of the Ottoman Empire with the hat-i humayun. At that time (1850's) Protestant missionaries were overjoyed because they thought these lofty statements about rights meant that Muslims could legally convert to Christianity. But nope. 

So...very nice words. But in the end, dust in the wind. The proof of the pudding is in the eating. Again, I hope I'm wrong, but I don't see that this is much more than a pretty piece of PR fluff which will enable the sheeple of Europe and North America to keep repeating to themselves 'religion of peace, religion of peace...' while their neighbors continue to be killed and their daughters raped.

In the UK: Permitting rape preferred over being charged with Islamophobia

Update from the UK:

• At least 1,400 children were sexually exploited between 1997 and 2013 in the town of Rotherham, mostly by Muslim gangs, but police and municipal officials failed to tackle the problem because they feared being branded "racist" or "Islamophobic."
  
  
  Read more at Gatestone Inst. HERE.