DRAFT OF A CHAPTER

                                                                                     

ISLAM AND ITS RELATIONS WITH CHRISTIANITY

Charles P. Poole, Jr.

January 12, 2004; revised October 31, 2005, June 23, 2006

 

CONTENTS

 

                                       1.  Introduction

                                       2.  Muhammad

                                       3.  Qur’an or Koran

                                       4.  Traditions or Hadith

                                       5.  Five Pillars of Islam

                                       6.  Jihad

                                       7.  Zoroastrians             

                                       8.  Sunis and Shi’ites

                                       8.  Rule of First Three Caliphs

                                     10. Rule of Umayyid and Abbasid Dynasties

                                     11. Ottoman Empire

                                     12. The Five Patriarchates

                                     13. Crusades

                                     14. Spanish Reconquista

                                     15. Present Day Perspective

                                     16. Unbelievers

                                     17. Concluding Remarks

                                     Table 1. List of Traditional Christian Cities   

                                     Appendix  I Quotations from the Qur’an Concerning Jihad

                                     Appendix II  Miscellaneous  Quotations from the Qur’an   

 

1.  INTRODUCTION

 

          Ever since the Hegira or Emigration of the prophet Muhammad from Mecca to Medina in the year 622, which officially marks the beginning of the Islamic era, Islam has had a stormy relationship with Christianity.  Throughout several centuries of the Middle Ages there was a continual Cold War between Christianity and Islam, a cold war that often became a hot war.  During parts of these centuries the level of culture in Islamic countries was at a higher level than that in Christian countries.  In the 13th century Thomas Aquinas was able to assimilate the works of Aristotle and write his Summa Theologiae because he had available the works of Aristotle which had been preserved by Islamic sources and arrived back in Europe.  In later centuries Islamic culture went into decline while Western culture thrived.  However, despite this decline in culture the religion of Islam continued to hold the allegiance of its adherents.  Islam is now undergoing a resurgence involving an aggressive missionary effort which is having an impact in various parts of the world.  Extensive Muslim emigration into European countries and the high birth rate of those arriving is changing the cultural climate there.  It is important for Christians to understand the nature of this resurgence of Islam, and to devise ways to counteract it. 

 

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2.  MUHAMMAD

 

          Muhammad was born in 570 AD. In his late thirties he experienced a mystical conversion, and began to proclaim a new faith by writing and preaching.  He spent ten years in Mecca where he gathered together a small devoted band of followers.  While in Mecca he encountered stiff opposition, and in the year 622 he secretly left Mecca and traveled 280 miles north to Medina where he set up his new base.  In Medina he gathered together a much stronger community of adherents, and spent much of his time educating and disciplining them in his new faith. Then he made war on Mecca, and in 630 entered the city in triumph.  It became the center of the new religion of Islam.  Two years later, in 632, Muhammad died, and he is alleged to have ascended into heaven from the dome of the rock in Jerusalem, led upward by the angel Gabriel.  Both Mecca and Medina are in present day Saudi Arabia.  Muhammad’s flight from Mecca to Medina in 622 AD is called the Hegira, and it marked the official beginning of the Muslim era.  They number their years followed by the letters A.H., after the Hegira, as we put AD, anno Domini, after our years.  Thus to a Muslim the year 2006 AD is 1384 A.H.  

 

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3.  QUR’AN OR KORAN

 

          The Qur’an (a word formerly transliterated from Arabic as Koran) is the holy book of the Muslims; they claim that it is the literal word of the one God Allah dictated to Muhammad by the angel Gabriel.  It is written in Arabic and must be read in that language by every good Muslim.  Translations are officially forbidden, but they do exist.  In the year 1381 A.H. I read the semi-official explanatory translation into English entitled “The Meaning of the Glorious Koran” by Mohammed Marmaduke Pickthall which appeared in print in 1930. 

 

          The Qur’an  has 114 chapters called suras which are arranged approximately in the order of length, the longest sura 2 having 286 verses, and the final ones having between 3 and 6 short verses.  The first sura called “The Opening” is a short prayer with only seven verses.  The earlier suras were revealed at Mecca,  the later ones at Medina, and in the Marmaduke translation each sura is labeled with “Revealed at Mecca” or at Medina. According to Renard five themes appear most often in the somewhat poetic earlier suras: 1.The creative power, providence and guidance of Allah (God) who exists from eternity to eternity, 2. At the Last Judgment each person we will be held accountable for his or her behaviour, 3. Our response to Allah should be gratitude and worship, 4. The need for generosity in giving alms (2½ % of income), and 5. Muhammad’s growing awareness of his mission as a  prophet.  Many later suras, written in prose, discuss regulating the daily lives of the Muslim communities, and problems arising from contacts with Christians and Jews that were not always pleasant.  Angels are considered as God’s messengers and devils are rebellious angels.  There is an emphasis on the observance of ritual prayers, although the five set times for daily prayer and their accompanying ceremonies are not precisely delineated in the Qur’an.   There is also the obligation of jihad to struggle or fight in the way of God, and this will be discussed below.  Appendix I  lists some quotations from the Qur'an concerning Jihad, and Appendix II provides the texts of verses from several surahs on a number of miscellaneous topics.    

 

          The Qur’an makes repeated reference to characters of our Old and New Testaments, and some of the suras are named for these personages: Sura X Jonah, XII Joseph, XIV Abraham, XIX Mary, XX, XXVIII The Story (of Moses),  LXXI Noah. Sura VI verses 84 to 86 mention, in succession:  Isaac, Jacob, Noah, David, Job, Joseph, Moses, Aaron, Zachariah, John, Jesus, Elias, Ishmael, Elisha, Jonah, and Lot.  The Qur’an identifies 28 prophets, eighteen of them being Old Testament figures such as Adam, Abraham, Solomon, and other individuals mentioned in sura VI, and the three prophets from the New Testament are Zechariah, John the Baptist, and Jesus.  The Muslims do not accept Jesus as being God or the Son of God, and they are very much scandalized by the idea of a trinity of three persons in God.  Muhammad is considered as the last and the greatest of all the prophets. 

 

          The name of the Virgin Mary is mentioned more often in the Qur’an than it is in the New Testament.  Muslims consider Mary as one of the four most beautiful women, the others being the martyred wife Asiya of the Pharaoh who dealt with Moses, the first wife of Muhammad named Khadija, and her daughter Fatima. The Virgin Birth and the Immaculate Conception are mentioned

 

          Overall the Qur’an has very little resemblance to the Christian scriptures.  It is true that each sura begins with the words “In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful”, but in the text the concept of mercy for wrong doers is not very prevalent.  The Qur’an is very lacking in the Christian emphasis on loving our neighbors and our enemies, and in a number of places it has quite harsh words to say about how enemies should be treated (see Appendix I).  For example, in verse 73 of sura IX we find the admonition: “O Prophet!  Strive against the disbelievers and the hypocrites! Be harsh with them.  Their ultimate abode is hell, a pathless journey’s end.” 

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4.  TRADITIONS OR HADITH

 

          There is agreement on the primacy of the Qur’an as the repository of truth revealed by God.  There are also writings called the Sunna, the Hadith, or the Tradition which contain a record of the acts and the sayings of Muhammad to various companions.  During the first century after the death of Muhammad a considerable effort was made to gather together and authenticate information about his life, actions and revelations, and there are several collections of these hadith writings.  The hadiths contain authentic teachings, but have a lower level of binding power than the verses of the Qur’an. The Hadith considers Mary and Jesus as the only two humans who were born without the touch of Satan that causes newborn babies to cry.   

         

5.  FIVE PILLARS OF ISLAM

 

          The Five Pillars represent the minimum obligations of a Muslim in practicing his faith.  They are in turn: 1.The profession of belief “There is no deity but Allah, and Muhammad is his messenger (prophet).”  2. The daily ritual prayers are said at daybreak, noon, mid afternoon, after sunset, and early in the night.  Associated with each is a set of bowings, prostrations, saying “Allah is most great,” recitation of sura I and other passage(s), vocalizing ritual salutations, etc. While praying one faces Mecca, where the ancient shrine called the Ka’ba is located.  3.  Almsgiving, mentioned above, is the third Pillar.  4.  Fasting from sunrise to sunset during the ninth lunar month of Ramadam.  5.  Making a pilgrimage to Mecca at least once during a person’s lifetime.  Some add jihad as a sixth Pillar, and we will discuss this next. 

 

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6. JIHAD

 

          The word jihad is a very controversial one at the present time.  The 2nd edition of the Random House Unabridged Dictionary says that it is derived from the Arabic word for struggle or strife, and the 15th edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica says that it is derived from the Arabic word for fight or battle.  One can distinguish a greater jihad which is the spiritual struggle of an individual, and a lesser jihad which is the struggle against enemies of the faith.  The duty of jihad can be fulfilled by the heart, as in doing battle with the devil in one’s personal spiritual life, by the tongue and by the hand, such as supporting just causes and opposing what is wrong, and by the sword as in waging a holy war against unbelievers and enemies of the true faith.  People of the book, that is Christians, Jews and Zoroastrians who believe in earlier recognized divine revelations, have the option of embracing Islam, submitting to Islamic rule and payment of poll and land taxes, or being subjected to a jihad.  During the last couple of centuries Islam has only sanctioned warfare in defense of its countries, and when its faith was endangered.  Since 9/11the use of terror against alleged enemies of the faith has found extensive support in some Islamic countries.  This is being justified by jihad based, for example, on the words of Qur’an sura II, verses 190-193 “Fight in the way of Allah against those who fight against you, but begin not the hostilities.  Lo! Allah does not love aggressors.  Slay them wherever you find them and drive them out of the places where they drove you out, for persecution is worse than slaughter ... Fight them until persecution is no more.”   Appendix I quotes some additional verses from surahs on the subject of jihad. 

 

          This militant Holy War jihad advocated by extremists within Islam is a real problem in the world today.  A major factor that motivates terrorists is the plight of the Palestinian people. This results, on the one hand, from the extensive Jewish settlements on Palestinian land, Israel’s periodic military incursions into Palestinian territory, and recently the building of the wall.  It also results, on the other hand, from the repeated killings of Jews by suicide bombers, and the refusal of Palestinian authorities to suppress terrorist organizations. Neither side seems inclined to face up to this issue.   However, of greater interest to us is jihad pursued by the tongue and by the hand, namely the missionary fervor within the worldwide Islamic community to aggressively spread their faith throughout the world.  Before following up on this we will present some of the history of Islam, and its rather stormy relationship with Christianity down through the centuries. 

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7. ZOROASTRIANS

 

            We mentioned the believers in Zoroastrianism as People of the Book, so perhaps a word should be said about them.  The Zoroastrian Cosmology claims that world history consists of four 3000 year periods, and that Zoroaster arrived on earth at the beginning of the present fourth period.  A new savior Saoshyans will arrive after the end of this period to preside over a New World.  Zoroaster himself was born near present day Teheran c. 638 BC and died c. 551 BC.  He was probably a priest, and he claimed to have revelations from the god Ahura Mazda, later called Ohrmazd, the only god worthy of worship, the judge of mankind. During his lifetime he converted King Vishtaspa and some associates, and remained in his court.  The religion that he founded is based on early hymns called Gathas composed in part by him, and a scripture called the Avesta which achieved its final compilation many centuries later.  This religion is monotheistic like Judaism, Christianity and Islam, although it also has an aspect of dualism. In 224 AD Zoroastrianism became the official religion in Persia.  Most Zoroastrians converted to Islam in the seventh century.  Between the 8th and the 10th centuries pressure to convert led most of those remaining in Persia to migrate to India where they are called Parsees.

 

        Members of the Baha'i faith believe that Baha'u'llah (1817-1892), also from Persia, is the most recent messenger to bring a revelation from God to mankind.  He proclaimed the coming unification of humanity in a world civilization.    

 

8. SUNNIS AND SHI’ITES

 

          There are two main sects in Islam, the Sunnis and the Shi’ites.  The Sunnis constitute the great majority (perhaps 90%), and they consider themselves the traditional, mainstream branch of Islam.  They accept the first three caliphs as the legitimate successors of Muhammad.  They recognize many customs and practices that evolved historically in the community, and they accept the six so-called authentic books of the Hadith which claim to report things that were said by Muhammad.  The minority sect called the Shi’ites claims that the first three caliphs were illegitimate, and that the first one should have been Ali, the son-in-law of Muhammad.  The prophet had left only one surviving child, his daughter Fatima who was married to Ali.  Finally in 656 Ali  became the 4th caliph and reigned until 661 when he was assassinated, and the Sunnis reclaimed the rule.  After this the Shi’ites developed into a minority religious movement within Islam, which is more militantly fundamentalist than the Sunnis.  The Shi’ites constitute a majority of the population in Iran (93%) and Iraq (60%), and they also have many adherents in East Africa,  parts of India, Lebanon, Pakistan, Syria and Yemen.  . 

 

9. RULE OF FIRST THREE CALIPHS

 

          Muhammad built up his community in Medina from the year of the Hegira 622 until he returned to Mecca in triumph in 630, and then he died in 632.  During the last two years of his life, many tribes on the Arabian peninsula voluntarily submitted to him.  He was succeeded by the first three caliphs: Abu Bakr (632-634), Umar I (634-644) and Uthman (644-656) who ruled from Medina.  During Muhammad’s lifetime, the nearby powerful and wealthy Persian and Byzantine empires had engaged in a bitter prolonged struggle for hegemony, and they were both exhausted and weakened at his death.  Fired by religious zeal, Muslim armies entered the territories of these empires, subjugated the people, and seized their wealth.  They had achieved overwhelming victories against Byzantine and Persian armies, and there were mass conversions of Zoroastrians in Persia,  and of Christians in Syria and Arabia, to Islam.  In the generation after Muhammad the Muslims captured the important cities of Damascus, Jerusalem, the Persian capital of Ctesiphon, Alexandria in Egypt, and the island of Cyprus. Their empire extended from the borders of India to the middle of north Africa, south of Italy, lands that are still part of Islam.  Most of the formerly Christian cities listed in Table 1, that are now Muslim cities, were taken over by Islam during the first three caliphates.  Then for several years the expansion was arrested while Ali, the son in law of Muhammad, and the Umayyads, a leading family of Mecca, struggled for power, with the Umayyads finally defeating the forces of Ali in battle.   

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10. RULE OF UMAYYAD AND ABBASID DYNASTIES

 

          The Umayyads caliphs took control in 661, moved the capital from Medina to Damascus, and ruled Islam until 750.  They made several attempts to capture Constantinople, such as in the 670's, and 717-718, but fortunately they were repeatedly repulsed.  As long as Constantinople held out, the Muslims were unable to advance into Western Europe.  The Umayyads did, however, extent their control in the east to the Indus river in present day Pakistan.  In the west they conquered all of North Africa, crossed the Straits of Gibraltar, and made Spain a Muslim province.  Then they moved into southern Gaul, but were repulsed by Christian warriors led by Charles Martel near Tours, in France, in 732, the 100th anniversary year of the Prophet Muhammad’s death.   The empire of Islam was now established, and most of the conquered lands have remained predominately Muslim  in religion to the present day. 

 

          In the year 750, the Umayyads were overthrown by the Arabian Abbasids who moved the capital to Baghdad.  Political interests now shifted eastward:  a Chinese army was defeated in central Asia 751, further penetrations were made into India, and in the 13th century inroads were made into Indonesia.  The main achievement of the Abbasid dynasty, however, was the development of a great civilization, one that for many, many  decades was far more advanced than its counterpart in Christendom. The civilization reached its peak under the caliph Harun-al-Rashid who ruled 786-809.  The traditions of Greece, Rome, Persia, and India were assimilated and literature, architecture, mathematics, astronomy, medicine, and other arts and sciences flourished.  It was mentioned in the introduction how Thomas Aquinas was able to formulate his grand synthesis of Greek Philosophy and Christian doctrine,  because he had available works of Aristotle that had been preserved by Islamic sources.  The reign of the Abbasids witnessed the breakaway of various provinces such as Spain, Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, and eastern Persia (present day Iran) to become states that were politically independent, but they continued to acknowledge the religious authority of the caliphs. Córdova in Spain was still ruled by Umayyads, and developed into the cultural center of Europe, the Bagdad of the west. The Abbasid caliphs ruled Islam until 1258 when the Moguls captured Baghdad and slaughtered its inhabitants.   In later centuries Islamic culture went into decline while Western culture began flourishing under the influences of the Renaissance and the Scientific Revolution.

 

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11. OTTOMAN EMPIRE

 

          Another Islamic dominion called the Ottoman Empire originated in a relatively small region of present day Turkey around the year 1300, and gradually expanded through armed conquest until 1683, when it had occupied much of the former Abbasid lands from the border of Iran on the east, stretching across north Africa, to Spanish Morocco on the west.    Their domains also encompassed southeastern Arabia, including the cities of Mecca and Medina, and in Europe Greece, the Balkans and Hungary. The Christian fleet celebrated a major naval victory against the Turks at Lepanto in 1571 which blunted their naval supremacy in the Mediterranean.  The empire gradually decreased in size during the period from 1807 to 1923, and it ended with the establishment of modern Turkey in 1924.   The religions of the people in the empire did not change much during the centuries of Ottoman occupations; North Africa and the Middle East remained Muslim while Greece, the Balkans and Hungary remained Christian. 

 

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12. THE FIVE PATRIARCHATES

 

          During the first few centuries of its existence, Christianity was organized around five centers of religious jurisdiction and practice called patriarchates, each ruled by a patriarch:  Alexandria in Egypt, Antioch in present day Turkey, Constantinople also in present day Turkey, Jerusalem, and Rome.  The pope, in addition to his overall authority,  is the patriarch of the Roman patriarchate, as well as being the bishop of the diocese of Rome.  All the patriarchates had their own local customs and their individualized liturgies in their own languages.  Had it not been for the Muslim conquests, the Catholic Church would have remained much more diversified throughout history.  Unfortunately, the first caliphs seized control of three of the patriarchates, namely: Alexandria, Antioch and Jerusalem.  Four hundred years later strained relations between Pope Leo IX and  Patriarch Michael Cerularius of Constantinople led to a schism, and in 1054 the Orthodox Church separated jurisdictionally from Rome, a schism which has never been healed.  The Eastern Rites which remained with Rome were too small in numbers of adherents to have much influence on the future development of Catholicism.  Two hundred years later, in 1453, the Ottoman Turks captured Constantinople, bringing to an end the Byzantine empire, and subjugating the local Christian and Jewish populations to Muslim rule.  Islam now controlled four of the five patriarchal cities of early Christendom.  Only Rome remained Christian!  

 

13. CRUSADES

 

          The Fatimid Caliphate which ruled from Cairo in Egypt from 969 to 1171 controlled Palestine and permitted Christian pilgrims to visit the holy places there.  Pilgrims usually made the long journey from Europe through the Balkans, the Byzentine empire, and Asia Minor to Palestine.  After the Seljuk Turks defeated the Byzantines in 1071 they occupied much of the land along the pilgrim trails.  As devout Muslims they did not want Christians wandering about their lands, so they began harassing and sometimes killing the pilgrims on their journey.  This aroused great antagonism in Christian Europe, and in 1095 at the Council of Claremont Pope Urban II called for a crusade.  Bands of  poorly armed and disorganized simple people, called the People’s Crusade, journeyed to the Holy Land in advance of the First Crusade, and almost all of them lost their lives by starvation, thirst, or were killed by Turks.  The First Crusade set out in 1096, captured Antioch on the way, conquered the Holy Land, and in 1099 they entered Jerusalem.  To their great discredit they plundered the city and slaughtered many of the Muslim inhabitants.  They organized the conquered lands into four Crusader (Latin) states: Edessa, Antioch, Tripolis, and the kingdom of Jerusalem.  They consolidated their holdings by building elaborate castles, and ruins of these castles survive to the present day as tourist attractions.  For almost 200 years there was perennial fighting with the Muslims, with cities being captured and recaptured several times. 

 

           There were eight official crusades in all, the last one in 1270.  Finally in 1291 the Christian presence in the region ended with the fall of Acre in Galilee to the Muslims.  There was another unfortunate event which occurred during this period.  In 1204 the Fourth Crusade besieged and captured the Orthodox Christian city of Constantinople, and subjected it to three days of pillage and massacre. The crusaders set up the Latin Empire of Constantinople which lasted from 1204 to 1261, and during their stay they forced Latin Rite liturgies and customs on the Byzantine population.  These events help to explain why Orthodox Christians are so wary of responding to recent ecumenical overtures from Rome. 

 

          From an overall perspective, the Crusades were military campaigns which took control of a relatively small part of Muslim domains after Islam had used military conquest to take control of half of the land belonging to Christianity.  The terrible thing about the Crusades was not their aim and intent, since it was necessary for Christianity to defend itself against repeated aggressions from Islam, but rather the terrible atrocities that accompanied them. 

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14. SPANISH RECONQUISTA

 

          The Muslim armies crossed the Straits of Gibraltar in the year 711 and conquered the Visigoth kingdom that ruled there.   When they continued on to France, they were repulsed at the battle near Tours in 732, so they concentrated their efforts on building up a Moorish civilization in Spain. They developed world famous centers of learning, art, science, and culture that attracted scholars from all over Europe.  Eventually Córdoba became a Caliphate.  The Christians went north to the Pyrenees where they set up the Kingdom of Asturia.   In 1002 they beat the Moors in the battle of Calatanaor, which marks the beginning of the Reconquista or the campaign to retake Spain.  Almost 400 years later, in 1492, Ferdinand and Isabella finally expelled the Moors, and Spain became a Catholic country once again.  Columbus discovered America that year;  Spain went on to become a great power, and missionaries from Spain and Portugal converted most of the people in Central and South America to Catholicism.

 

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15. PRESENT DAY PERSPECTIVE

 

          We have seen how Islam has a 1350 year history of repeated aggressions, of militarily seizing control of Christian and other countries, and retaining control for many centuries.   On the pessimistic side,  the earlier conquests converted extensive Christian regions into predominately Muslim countries that remain so to this day, as Table 1 indicates, and Christians now living in Muslim countries are taxed heavily and treated as second class citizens.   On the optimistic side, during the Ottoman era Spain successfully returned to Christianity, and Greece, Hungary, and much of the Balkans are still Christian. 

 

          From the beginning Muslims have been required to treat Christians in a special way.  According to the Qu’ram, prior to the birth of the final prophet Muhammad, there were prophets sent by God who made revelations to, and provided scriptures for, other communities of believers, namely Christians, Jews, and Zoroastrians, and these groups are called People of the Book.  In addition verse 256 of sura II says: “There is no compulsion in religion,” so conversion cannot be legitimately forced, but it can be strongly urged.  Christians and Jews living permanently in Islamic countries are obliged to pay a poll tax and a land tax that Muslims do not pay.  These Christians and Jews are not allowed to pray or read their sacred books out loud lest a Muslim be listening, and they are not allowed to display a cross or crucifix in their houses or churches since it is a symbol of infidelity.   They are not allowed to build churches in Muslim lands.  They are forbidden to proselytize and to say things offensive to Islam. Some Christians receive harsh treatment from Muslim neighbors.  Non-Muslims such as Buddhists and Hindus who are not people of the book are much worse off.  Temporary visitors in Islamic countries, such as tourists, merchants and students, receive much better treatment, and are not required to pay the poll tax. 

 

          A male Christian (or Jew) cannot marry a Muslim woman, but a male Muslim can marry a Christian woman, and when this occurs the children must be brought up as Muslims.  If the Christian wife of a Christian man converts to Islam she must get a divorce, and she receives custody of the children.  Once a person becomes a Muslim he cannot recant. In many Muslim countries the penalty for apostasy is death.  Such a person is asked to reconsider, is given time to think it over, and if he persists his wife can be forced to divorce him, his property can be confiscated, his children can be taken away, and he can be brought to court and sentenced to death.  If he repents he is spared from death, and can return to his old life. The West came to realize the reality of this Islamic law of apostasy when the death sentence was pronounced on Salman Rushdie who had fled to England to preserve his life.  This penalty is one of the really horrible aspects of the Muslim religion.  It is not unusual for external or internal pressures to induce Muslim countries with close relations to Christian countries to moderate the penalty of the law of apostasy, but officially the law remains in place, and if the apostate remains in an Islamic country he generally endures some degree of persecution.

 

          In recent decades there has been extensive immigration of Muslims into various European countries, and the birth rate of these immigrants is generally higher than that of the native population.  Thus the percentage of Muslims in these countries grows every year.  The long range implications of this are not predictable. 

 

          In recent decades various Muslim countries have been adopting harsh Islamic laws, such as decreeing amputations of arms or legs for certain crimes, and automatic death for unrepented apostates.  Some of these countries have appreciable Christian or Jewish minorities who experience persecution. 

 

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16. UNBELIEVERS

 

          The Old Testament makes repeated mention of God’s displeasure at evil deeds done by the Jewish people, and by others.  Jesus often criticized leaders of the Jewish religion (e.g. Pharisees) and others for not behaving properly, and St. Paul pointed out faults of groups of Christians in his letters.  Absent from these Testaments is much criticism directed against those who have failed to accept an invitation to join the community of true believers.  In contrast to this the Qur’an repeatedly calls down the displeasure or wrath of God on unbelievers, and often urges Muslims to do likewise.  Appendix I provides a list of many relevant quotations from the Qur’an. 

 

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17. CONCLUDING REMARKS

 

          It is hoped that the preceding discussion has clarified the general characteristics of Islam, and the nature of present day threats.  Proclamations and implementations of jihad pursued by the sword are threats to our civilization, and jihad pursued by the tongue and by the hand is a threat to our religion.  It is necessary for coalitions throughout the world to band together to counteract the first variety of jihad, and for coalitions within Christianity to band together to counteract the second variety.  There is evidence that the first type of collaboration is taking place, but there is not much evidence that the second is even under consideration.  As Christians we are in need of reform, a return to our traditional values and practices, and a return to centering our lives on the Gospel.  Our 2000 year heritage is at stake.  

 

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Table 1. Present status List of cities that were important during the early years

of Christianity. Some of the cities on this list no longer exist, or only ruins remain. 

 

          Alexandria             Patr                     Muslim city in present day Egypt

          Antioch                 Patr                     Muslim city in present day Turkey

          Chalcedon             EC                      Muslim city in present day Turkey

          Colossae               LP                       Muslim city in present day Turkey

          Constantinople      EC, Patr              Muslim city in present day Turkey

          Corinth                  LP                       Christian city in present day Greece

          Damascus             Other                   Muslim city in present day Syria, associated

                                                                      with the conversion of  St. Paul

          Ephesus                EC, LP, Rev        Muslim city in present day Turkey

          Galatia                   LP                       Muslim region in present day Turkey

          Hippo                             Other                    Muslim city in north Africa where            

                                                                        St. Augustine was bishop

          Jerusalem              Patr                     Jewish/Muslim city in present day Israel

          Laodicia                LP (lost), Rev      Muslim city in present day Turkey

          Nicaea                   EC                      Muslim city in present day Turkey

          Philadelphia           Rev                     Muslim city in present day Turkey

          Philippi                  LP                       Christian city in present day Greece

          Pergamon              Rev                     Muslim city in present day Turkey

          Rome                    LP, Patr               Christian city in present day Italy

          Sardis                   Rev                     Muslim city in present day Turkey

          Smyrna                 Rev                     Muslim city in present day Turkey

          Thessalonica         LP                       Christian city in present day Greece 

          Thyatira                 Rev                     Muslim city in present day Turkey

 

In this table: EC indicates the site of a an Ecumenical Council, LP denotes received

a letter or letters from St. Paul,  Patr signifies one of the five patriarchates,

Rev specifies one of the seven cities mentioned in Revelation as receiving a letter,

and other corresponds to another reason. 

 

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APPENDIX I

 

QUOTATIONS FROM THE QU’RAN

CONCERNING THE TREATMENT OF DISBELIEVERS

 

          The quotations are from The Meaning of the Glorious Koran by Mohammed Marmaduke Pickhall, published by Abdul Moin for the Islamic Book Service in New Delhi, India, 1996 edition.  The surah and verse numbers are given for each quotation, e. g. #2:190 denotes surah 2, verse 190.  Some additional verses concerning jihad are: #3:90,91; #4:89; #9:73; #10:13; #22:9,19-22,72; #39:71,72; #42:44,45.    

 

          #2:190.  Fight in the way of Allah against those who fight against you, but begin not hostilities.  Lo! Allah loveth not aggressors. 

          #2:191. And slay them wherever ye find them and drive them out of the places whence they drove you out, for persecution is worse than slaughter.  And fight not with them at the inviolable Place of Worship until they attack you there, but if they attack you there then slay them. Such is the reward of disbelievers. 

          #7:4. How many a township we have destroyed!  As a raid by night, or while they slept at noon, our terror came unto them. 

          #8:65. O Prophet!  Exhort the believers to fight. 

          #9:3.  Give tidings (O Muhammad) of a painful doom to those who disbelieve. 

          #9:123. O ye who believe!  Fight those of the disbelievers who are near to you, and let them find harshness in you, and know that Allah is with those who keep their duty (unto him). 

          #25:37. We have prepared a painful doom for evil-doers.   

          #33:61. Accursed, they will be seized wherever found and slain with a (fierce) slaughter.  

          #41:27. But verily we shall cause those who disbelieve to taste an awful doom, and verily we shall requite them the worst of what they used to do. 

          #47:4. Now when ye meet in battle those who disbelieve, then it is uniting of the necks until, when ye have routed them, then making fast of bonds, and afterward either grace or ransom till the war lay down its burdens. 

          #48:29. Muhammad is the messenger of Allah.  And those with him are harsh against the disbelievers and merciful among themselves. 

         These messages from the Qur’an are in sharp contrast to what Jesus taught: "Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you"  (Luke 6:27-28).    

 

APPENDIX II

 

QUOTATIONS FROM THE QU’RAN

ON MORE GENERAL TOPICS

 

          To provide the reader with a more balanced view of what the Qu”ran says overall we add here some miscellaneous quotations from Marmaduke Pickhall’s edition of the work.  The first is the entire text of surah 1 entitled The Opening, which constitutes a prayer  recited at all Muslim worship services.  This is followed by several verses from surah 2 The Cow, and surah 3 The Family of Imran.  We conclude with verses from surah 4 Women, surah 5 The Table Spread,  and surah 23 The Believers.   

 

        #1.  In the name of Allah the Beneficent , the Merciful.  1.Praise be to Allah the Lord of the Worlds. 2. The Beneficent , the Merciful. 3. Owner of the Day of Judgment.  4. Thee alone we worship. Thee alone we ask for help.  5.  Show us the straight path.  6. The path of those whom Thou hast favored.  7. Not the path of those who earn Thine anger, nor of those who go astray.  

        #2:  21  O Mankind!  Worship your Lord who hath created you and those before you so that they may ward off evil.  22. Who hath appointed the earth a resting place for you, and the sky a canopy; and causeth water to pour down from the sky, thereby producing fruits as food for you.  And do not set up rivals to Allah.  when ye know better. 

         #2:47. O Children of Israel!  Remember my favor wherewith I favored you, and how I preferred you to all creatures. 

        #2: 186.  And when thy servants question thee concerning Me, then surely I am nigh.  I answer the prayer of the suppliant when he crieth unto Me.  So let them hear my call and let them trust in Me, in order that they my be led aright.

        #2: 256.  There is no compulsion in religion.  The right direction is henceforth distinct from error.  And he who rejecteth false deities and believeth in Allah has grasped a firm handhold which will never break.  Allah is Hearer, Knower.   

        #2: 271.  If ye publish your alms giving, it is well, but if ye hide it and give it to the poor it will be better for you, and will atone for some of your ill-deeds.  Allah is informed of what ye do.

        #3: 57.  And as for those believe and do good works, He will pay them their wages in full.  Allah loveth not wrongdoers. 

        #3: 85.  And whoso seeketh a religion other than the Surrender to Allah it will not be accepted from him. and he will be a loser in the Hereafter. 

        #3:160.  If Allah is your helper none can overcome you, and if He withdraw his help from you who is there who can help you?  In Allah let believers put their trust. 

        #4: 103.  When ye have performed the act of worship, remember Allah, standing, sitting and reclining.  And when ye are in safety, observe proper worship.  Worship at fixed hours hath been enjoined on the believers.  . 

         #4: 106.  And seek forgiveness of Allah.  Lo!  Allah is ever Forgiving, Merciful. 

        #5: 74.  Will they not rather turn unto Allah and seek forgiveness of Him?  For Allah is Forgiving, Merciful.  

        #23: I   In the name of Allah the Beneficent , the Merciful.  1.  Successful indeed are the believers.  2. Who are humble in their prayers.  3. And who shun vain conversation.  4.  And who guard their modesty. 

    

 

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