Certainly as Christians we are not to live a life of fear, but a life that is sound of mind, flowing with love and endowed with power (2 TIM. 1:7), and we are to have a deep and abiding fear of the LORD if we ever hope to express wisdom in our lives (PSALM 111:10).
We are not to fear persecution or tribulation (2 TIM. 3:12; REV. 2:10) from hostile forces be they from people or situations, but embrace them as ordained of God, for His holy purposes and part of His sovereign plan in our lives (ROM. 5:3; 2 THESS. 1:4).
So why then do we want to even address this subject?
As these days proceed, those of us that are paying attention can see coming, up ahead, a time when potentially severe persecution will strike hard and heavy on American soil. We need to understand that what we are being spoon-fed by the media are lies, blatant lies that will blind side anyone that believes them.
From The POLITICAL OUTCAST we have the following:
“In what can only be described as academic double-speak, [the Arizona State University] academics have determined that even though the Koran encourages and commends its followers to global jihad in submission to Allah (after all, Islam means “submit”), “radical” and “extremist” sects of Islam (as they are called by the media) do not refer to or interpret their holy writings in this way.
“In fact, the researchers were 'surprised' by the lack of references in al Qaeda and al Shabaab writings to the 'Verse of Swords,' or Sura 9:5, which reads: “When the sacred months have passed away, then slay the idolaters wherever you find them, and take them captives and besiege them and lie in wait for them in every ambush, then if they repent and keep up prayer and pay the poor-rate, leave their way free to them; surely Allah is Forgiving, Merciful.”
“Notice that the study does not try to hide the fact that the Koran does indeed teach jihad; its primary point of discussion is that radical groups that appear to take the Koran seriously don’t bother quoting the violent verses in their own writings. And this proves what exactly? Christians who take the Bible seriously don’t quote JOHN 3:16 in all of their writings either. Does this mean that they don’t believe it, live by it, and hold it very near and dear? Of course not. If this is what passes for academic research in 2012, I’m going to apply for a grant.”
We have heard ever since the days of 9/11 (and even before then) that “Islam is peace” that it actually means “peace” when in fact it does not; the Arabic word for peace is Salam. “Islam” itself, as pointed out in the above quote, means “submission” and when all the world is submitted to Islam then - and ONLY then - will there be peace in the world. But this sort of peace will only benefit Muslims born to the faith, Gentile converts will still be treated like 3rd or 4th class almost-citizens.
History has proven this out repeatedly in how Muslims have treated Jewish citizens in their Islamic nations. To examine this, consider the following reports based on Joan Peter's book, From Time Immemorial from The RED PILL Consortium:
REVISITING FROM TIME IMMEMORIAL:
“During the times of war and the outbreak of hostilities between Arabs and Jews, there were many refugees that fled their homes and sought refuge elsewhere; what few appreciate is that this didn't entail Arabs only, (which our mass media has focused on) but also Jews (who fled various Islamic states, and sought to relocate in Israel. In 1948 more than 850,000 Jews lived in the Arab world. Today (this book was published in 1984) there are less than 29,000.
“It was during these times of war when Jews were treated most miserably, however even in times of 'peace' living conditions were hardly any better!
“It was during these chapters in FROM TIME IMMEMORIAL that reading was most difficult for me, learning of the atrocities perpetrated on the Jews; and we know virtually nothing of these times because the history of these events were conveniently omitted by the powers that be who reveal their anti-Semitic attitudes.
From chapter 3 of FROM TIME IMMEMORIAL - The Arab Jew:
"Contrary to the myth that Jews lived in harmony with the Arabs before the Zionist state, innumerable authoritative works document decisively the subjugation, oppression, and spasmodic anti-Jewish eruptions of violence that darkened the existence of the Jews in Muslim Arab countries.
“In the Charter of Omar (Mohammad's immediate successor) laws for dhimmi (non-Muslims) were developed and any dhimmi that violated any of these laws were slain. Jews were forbidden to touch the Koran, forced to wear a distinctive habit (blue or black) with a sash and compelled to wear a yellow piece of clothing as a badge (long before Hitler enforced the yellow 6-pointed star on Jews relegated to ghettos), and required to bury their dead without letting their grief be heard by the Muslims.
“Such a 'privileged life' at the benevolence of the Muslims was to be repaid by the 'grateful Jews' in the forms of personal head and property taxes; such was justified through the writings of the Koran:
"Fight against those [Jews and Christians] who believe not in Allah...until they pay the tribute (Jaziyah) readily, being brought low." Surah IX: 29
“The head tax was enforced in some form until 1908 in Egypt, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and Turkey; until 1925 in Iran; and still enforceable in Yemen today.
“Any Jew's word was considered invalid in a court of law, but any charge against a Jew by a Muslim was held fast even if evidence were produced to prove the contrary. A Muslim who killed a fellow Muslim would himself die, yet if that same Muslim were to kill a Jew, no prosecution would be sought by a court of law.
"Demeaning of the Jews as represented by the Charter has carried down through the centuries, its implementation inflicted with varying degrees of cruelty or inflexibility, depending upon the character of the particular Muslim ruler. When that rule was tyrannical, life was abject slavery, as in Yemen, where one of the Jews' tasks was to clean the city latrines and another was to clear the streets of animal carcasses-without pay, and often on the Sabbath."
“Over the centuries, as recorded by various travelers, Jews were forced to live in ghettos, called hara, mellahor simply Jewish Quarter. In 14th century Egypt one traveler recorded their observations of Jews living in a ghetto and some five hundred years later, another traveler reported that the Jews were still in residence there.
“Throughout this difficult chapter, I read of the terrible plight of Jews who lived in Islamic nations such as Yemen, Aden, Iraq, Egypt, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Syria, Lebanon, and Libya; in each case, the stories though different, carried the same elements of prejudice, injustice, oppression, abuse, hatred and violence. Some details were simply too grisly to describe here in this article.”
There are many Muslims and supporters of Islam that protest the use of such citations of the Quran, saying that there are many verses that speak of amicable relations between Muslims and Christians and even Jews ('After all' they say, 'we are all Semitic!') but what many non-Muslims fail to recognize is the imposition of what's known as the 'Law of Abrogation', that is to say, the latter Surah's recorded in the Quran (generally speaking) supersede the former ones.
An examination of the Quran shows that the earlier chapters of the Quran, when Mohammad was more conciliatory and desirous of winning over the Jews (and Christians) and himself be recognized as a prophet by both, spoke high praise of their faiths and books (even going so far as to instructing his followers to face Jerusalem – not Mecca – during their times of prayer). Later verses however reveal an emphasized and ardent command to vilify and persecute – even kill Jews (first) and Christians (second)!
From the web site www.thereligionofpeace.com we have the following:
“The context of violent passages is more ambiguous than might be expected of a perfect book from a loving God, however this can work both ways. Most of today's Muslims exercise a personal choice to interpret their holy book's call to arms according to their own moral preconceptions about justifiable violence. Apologists cater to their preferences with tenuous arguments that gloss over historical fact and generally do not stand up to scrutiny. Still, it is important to note that the problem is not bad people, but bad ideology.
“Unfortunately, there are very few verses of tolerance and peace to abrogate or even balance out the many that call for nonbelievers to be fought and subdued until they either accept humiliation, convert to Islam, or are killed. Muhammad's own martial legacy - and that of his companions - along with the remarkable stress on violence found in the Quran have produced a trail of blood and tears across world history.”
On this page we find over two dozen admonitions from the Quran to commit violence against 'infidels' and even more of such from subsequent hadiths (Quranic interpretations of the Islamic text).
Surah 2:191-193; 2:244; 2:216; 3:56; 3:151; 4:74; 4:76; 4:89; 4:95; 4:104; 5:33; 8:12; 8:15; 8:39; 8:57; 8:67; 8:59-60; 8:65; 9:5; 9:14; 9:20; 9:29; 9:30; 9:38-39; 9:41-42; 9:73; 9:88; 9:111; 9:123; 17:16; 18:65-81; 21:44; 25:52; 33:60-62; 47:3-4; 47:35; 48:17; 48:29 (related verses - 65:10; 40:46; 50:26); 61:4, 9; 61:10-12; 66:9.
Other verses calling Muslims to Jihad can be found here at AnsweringIslam.org
The multiple conquests of Mohammad throughout the Middle East as recorded in history are well documented, revealing the militaristic protocols of this religion.
To encourage the idea that fear of Muslim violence is merely 'Islamophobic' school text books portray the conquests of Islam as benign and peaceful enterprises where people converted willingly and not at all under duress:
“Ironically, these exceptions are now portrayed as the rule in America's classrooms: many textbooks suggest or at least imply that most people who converted to Islam did so under no duress, but rather through peaceful contacts with merchants and traders; that they eagerly opted to convert to Islam for the religion's intrinsic appeal, without noting the many debilitation’s conquered non-Muslims avoided—extra taxes, second-rate social status, enforced humiliation, etc.—by converting to Islam. In fact, in the first century, and due to these debilitations, many conquered peoples sought to convert to Islam only to be rebuffed by the caliphate, which preferred to keep them as subdued—and heavily taxed—subjects, not as Muslim equals.
“Meanwhile, as U.S. textbooks equivocate about the Muslim conquests, in the schoolrooms of the Muslim world, the conquests are not only taught as a matter of course, but are glorified: their rapidity and decisiveness are regularly portrayed as evidence that Allah was in fact on the side of the Muslims (and will be again, so long as Muslims uphold their communal duty of waging jihad).” ~ taken from the above article on The Middle East Forum.
School children are being indoctrinated with this false notion that Islam is an admirable and benign religion that is both intelligent and morally superior.
They are leading children in Islamic prayer, reading the Quran, and even donning Islamic-style clothing. Yet this same American Public School system screams “separation of church and state” if students want to hold an AFTER SCHOOL Bible study??
Muslims and supporters of such would also protest this point, saying that Christianity likewise utilized military conquest in it's own promotion. However, we are talking about the founder of Islam, Mohammad and the formative years of this religion. Jesus Christ is the founder of the Christian faith and as with its own formative years, spread the Gospel by peaceful means and promoted the “love of enemies” command rather than “slay the idolators”. It's only centuries later when the Roman Catholic church gained the upper hand and its pontifical orders in raising armies, sending them off to conquest, that such perverse and unbiblical acts were enforced.
For more on the religion of Islam and its history, beliefs as well as its more current activities and how we are to respond to such, please see the following from TTUF: ENGAGING ISLAM (Part 1 of 3).
We have been regularly assaulted in the mass media of images and videos of hapless victims bound and kneeling in front of hooded and masked ISIS (Islamic State in Iraq and Syria) members, who then proceed in beheading the infidels. We are told that these terrorists are not true to the Islamic faith, that they are 'extremists' and vilified as 'fundamentalists' who hold to a too-strict interpretation of the Quran*. Yet we have noted that such exhortations are found in the Quran (see Quranic citations listed above) and they are still going on with horrifying regularity today http://www.meforum.org/713/beheading-in-the-name-of-islam.
*The vilification of any religion that is “extreme” in their “fundamentalist” interpretations of their holy book is already being witnessed today. The Christian left – as well as our own government's attitude towards biblical Christians who dare to declare that the Bible is the inerrant, infallible and indisputable Word of God or even basic Constitutional rights of freedom reveals this to be the case. These are being viewed as "potential terrorists" while more and more we are witnessing real Islamic terrorist groups being removed from our government's 'watch list'!
Yet even if we look over the last mere 15 years of our world's history, we can readily glean incident after incident of Muslims committing atrocities against Christians (let alone Hindus. Buddhists, etc – and to be fair, vice-versa regarding these other religions in select cases). Are we to believe we have nothing to fear from Islam then? That Islam is not a threat to America?
What about Sharia law? Is this an equitable and fair legal system that will ensure “justice for all”? Or will it dramatically favor Muslims over non-Muslims, or even drag non-Muslims into oppression?
Here are a few examples:
- A Muslim will be forgiven for murder of: 1) an apostate 2) an adulterer 3) a highway robber. Vigilante street justice and honor killing is acceptable.
- A Muslim will not get the death penalty if he kills a non-Muslim, but will get it for killing a Muslim.
- Sharia never abolished slavery, sexual slavery and highly regulates it. A master will not be punished for killing his slave.
- Sharia dictates death by stoning, beheading, amputation of limbs, flogging even for crimes of sin such as adultery.
Just as Muslims are staking out their own territories within nations across Europe just so, there are areas here in America where it is dangerous for non-Muslims to go, because these are dominated by Muslim neighborhoods. Dearborn, Michigan is unofficially known today as 'Little Istanbul'.
Carefully tracking the actions and activities of Muslims who populated England and France, one can see that initially they were conciliatory and cooperative when they were fewer in number, but growing more belligerent and bold as their numbers increased. We can expect such as well here in America, and have seen this already in cities and regions where Muslim population are in the majority.
We've been told repeatedly by the current President of the United States that Islam is peace, and that it was essential in the founding of our nation (a blatant lie, it was not at all essential, merely present during the time of our founding) – and that we are not a Christian nation (we were in fact, founded as a nation predominantly populated by Christians as is readily evident by examining State Constitutions).
Will there be another 9-11 in America's future? Can we expect terrorist acts to strike our shopping malls, or our elementary schools? This remains to be seen, of course – yet if Islam is continued to made to feel welcome in our land, if we make accommodation to Islam and favor it over all other religions, if we capitulate to Sharia and demands made by Muslims, we will be perceived as weaklings and such 'peace-seeking' tactics by ignorant Westerners will only excite Muslims to increase their protocols in penetrating our society.
Australia has some hardline tactics employed against violent and 'extreme' Muslim protests as does Russia, where Putin had some hard core statements to Muslims who demanded Sharia law.
It seems rather certain however, that if 'extreme' Muslims continue to take advantage of America's compliance of their demands, they will find themselves enjoying special status as they have in places like England, France or even Denmark and Holland.
That's not being irrational, that's simply being perceptively observant.
For more on these issues, visit the youtube channel for ACTS17APOLOGETICS.
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