Preaching and Practice
In the Christian world, one may be able to distinguish a 'born again'
convert from a traditional in-name-only Christian. It reflects in his
actions, in his attitude, his behaviour and the outcome of his deeds.
For 'You will know them by their fruits' (Matthew 7:16). As Christians,
they have a choice: either 'Enter by the narrow gate... because narrow
is the gate and difficult is the way, which leads to life..., or enter
the wide gate for broad is the way that leads to destruction...'(Matthew
7:13-14). Christians have the option to decide whether to choose heaven
or not so that they may, all realise where they stand and decide which
road to take. As loving Christians, they are under obligation to spread
the Good News to everyone so that they may decide and make a choice -
not force salvation on them.
Both, Judaism and Christianity are accredited religions. Judeo-Messianic
religions are divine. God communicated direct with the Patriarchs
(Abraham, Isaac and Jacob-Israel) by voice and physical appearance, in
human form, lest they saw the Almighty and died. God is unapproachable
to human beings until the appointed time. No one has seen God and lived,
not even Moses. God spoke direct to Moses for the duration of freeing
His people from bondage. God, also through His son Jesus, offered
redemption to both Jews and gentiles and complemented His law by grace.
God wrote the laws and gave them to Moses. To teach his disciples the
New Testament, Jesus lived the life of the New Testament, in person, as
a human being, until He fulfilled His mission and ascended to Heaven.
The New Testament, by complementing the Old Testament, Judaism and
Christianity were established, not only by divine inspiration, but also
by direct heavenly intervention without mediation. All other religions
are derivatives of Judaism and Christianity, or man-made religions
established on the assumption of divine inspiration, revelation or
apocryphal synthetics (Abdul-Haqq, 1980: pp 57-59).
When emotions run high, some Muslim individuals acting alone or in
groups take the law into their own hands. Being devout Muslims, they
apply the Islamic Code of Conduct of the Shari’ah Law, literally. They
intimidate Christians and Jews, burn and destroy their churches, temples
and holy sites. They kidnap, kill and maim their men, women and
children; take hostages, and in some cases, beat, behead, murder and
mutilate their victims, sadistically. It has now become respectable in
the Muslim world to intimidate and kill a Christian or a Jew and
eliminate their sympathizers. Besides (Jihad) holy war, killing in
pursuit of protecting their religion is obligatory. Since Jihad is
propagation of Islam, the ransom the Islamic militants get for releasing
their non-Muslim hostages is lawful (halal). This method is applied to
supplant Islamic financial support in their jihad struggle against the (Kafir)
infidel non-Muslims from their own resources. Ransom money is another
source of funding for their struggle, to increase their war effort in
widening the Islamic fronts wherever possible (Pryce-Jones, 1989: pp
31-32, 38, 312; Hiro, 1989: pp 80, 94-95). A successful jihad results in
pillage. Jihad without pillage is considered a loss to the mujahideen.
It is estimated that the notorious Abu Sayyaf (headsman) in the southern
Philippines has netted, so far, more than twenty million American
dollars (US$20 million) from kidnapping, hostage taking and extortion of
Christian locals and foreign tourists. Such large sums help him to buy
more weapons, recruit more young Muslim mujahideen, and continue in his
struggle for the spread of Allah's message. Jihad, besides being a
voluntary mission, seems to be exploited as a business venture. Islam
may criticise such hideous acts, but never condemn them. To avoid
criticism, they keep a low profile. When asked by the reporters to
comment, the Islamic governments pretend to be concerned. They caution
the pursuers, scaring them not to confront the mujahideen physically but
rather negotiate to reach a compromise, lest they be forced to execute
the hostages. It is a stealthy way of camouflaging their inherent
approval of Jihad. Some Islamic governments even offer their services to
act as a go-between to resolve the hostage crisis, which in most cases
ends up paying a high ransom. Such actions and offer of mediation are
not haphazard occurrences, or one off. They are inherent in their
culture that grows out of their conviction in spreading their religion
aggressively by the sword. The unsheathed sword on Saudi Arabia's flag
symbolizing the true message of Allah is self-evident.
Killing a Jew in Israel or a Christian in Lebanon, Iraq, Egypt, Sudan,
Algeria, Nigeria or Indonesia and the Philippines has become
commonplace. Blowing up a car, bus, passenger aeroplane, public
building, or train station are targets for the zealot. Through
interpretation of certain passages from the Koran by the Mufti, cleric
or Imam, it becomes lawful to kill a Christian or a Jew in the name of
Allah. It gains the perpetrator absolution and respect in his community.
The two Libyan suspects, Abdel Bassit Ali al-Megrahi, Muhammad Al-Moriah
and Al Amin Khalifa Fhimah, accused of being behind the blowing up of
Pan Am Flight 103 (Jumbo Jet) passenger plane on December 21, 1988 over
Lockerbie, Scotland, are held in high esteem in Libya. In this act of
mass murder, 270 persons were killed. Scores of perpetrators live in
several Islamic states under the protection of their governments.
Indonesia still denies that the six Australian Journalists killed during
the invasion of East Timor in mid-October 1975 were murdered in cold
blood. They describe their death as accidental, insisting they were
caught in crossfire. The killing of an infidel is always justified and
seldom described as murder. Terrorists are staunchly defended, never
condemned for their actions. Government officials connive and condone
rather than condemn. The closest they come, is to describe the carnage
as a whimsical incident, acted upon because of frustration and
desperation. Government representatives explain that by resorting to
violence, defiant individuals and groups express their dissatisfaction
to attract world attention. Since their rulers fail to redress their
grievances they allege, Islamic militants take it against the Christians
and Jews as a show of force in defiance of their Islamic governments.
They lead protest marches and take the matter into their own hands in a
violent manner, which according to their shari’ah is acceptable, and the
perpetrators exonerated by the Islamic regimes (Pryce-Jones, 1989:
205-206, 335). Some Islamic groups, with the approval of religious
leaders, pride themselves on actions like these to the extent that they
parade in military-like fashion, adequately armed; sometimes with
dynamite sticks protruding from their breast pockets or showing belts of
dynamite sticks strapped around their waists.
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