Apologetics
MURDER IN THE NAME OF ALLAH
Harold A. and James P. Gram
Those who believe in a God of Love and mercy are often horrified by the primitive blood-thirsty behavior of Islamic terrorists who use God’s name to justify their merciless killings. Their announcements and behavior repulse civilized people especially when the terrorists boast of their murders, laugh at the suffering of innocent people, and call upon Allah to reward them with paradise. Who is this Allah which Muslims adore and terrorists assign credit for their successes? Who is this merciless god who expounds a Shariah law? Allah is praised as they slit the throats of Christian people, murder other Muslims or drive an airplane into the ground?
Are they deranged individuals who are really psychopaths and sadistic killers? Are they believers in a godless religion which rewards murder? Are they a small minority of criminals and deviants which appear in every race, religion and culture? Is their behavior so aberrant that we ought not to associate them with Islam as a whole? If so, then how do we explain the unremitting barrage of terrorist attacks between Islamic sects, the systematic subjugation of Kurds, the attacks on western aid workers and the rampage in Darfur? It is clear from both individual acts and from the assistance given terrorists from Islamic countries that the common denominator is the Islamic religion.
Islam is a monotheistic religion which states that there is one God and His name is, in Arabic, Allah. The idea of the Christian Trinity is rejected by Islam. Initially a religion for tribes of nomad Arabs, it quickly spread throughout the Middle East to Asia, Europe and Africa. Basically, Muhammad the prophet, in the seventh century, wrote down the supposed revelations of Allah in a book called the Koran (Qur’an in Arabic). Muhammad said that he was the last and greatest prophet in a long list of prophets such as Abraham, Noah, Jesus and others. As the last he was also the greatest.
Islam was quickly adopted as a religion which has the characteristics of primitive tribes and their leaders. In primitive tribes, only those initiated into the “mysteries” would know the real name of the god or gods. This special knowledge gives the priest or shaman the ability to tap into a divine power to cast spells, conduct healings or initiate tribal members into special roles. The priests or shamans (the Mullahs and Ayatollahs) amplify and clarify the written documents, the Koran, with declarations of intent, new rulings, and control over practices and behavior. Only these people fully know and understand Allah. The tribe thrives by its enemies who are heretics and unbelievers. The competitive struggle for religious survival provides impetus and strength to the tribe.
Within Islam is an ongoing conflict about which group of Ayatollahs and Mullahs should be followed to reveal the real Allah. The splits between the Sunnis and Shiites are precisely about the authority and power of a leadership group based upon the spiritual and physical descendants of Mohammed. There are, as a result, at least two major views about God, and further divisions based upon families, and clans. There are universals which unite these divisions into membership in Islam, but sufficient hatred among them that Iran and Iraq fought a war against each other for ten years. Even in Islam there is no agreement upon the characteristics, qualities, and essence of Allah. Historically the Shiites are from the East and the Sunnis are from the West.
Islam combined religion and society without distinction. The glue which held these ideas together is the emphasis on the community, and, of course, adherence to Allah. When Islam embarked on a conquest of Middle Eastern and European states the political area was emphasized. This was the genesis of the argument whether Islam was a religion or a culture. How religious ideas and culture are to be integrated is a current problem. An Islamic state like Turkey (Sunnis) has incorporated many western democratic elements into its laws, social contracts and government. Iran (Shiites) use religion and the Shariah laws to regulate its affairs.
Islam as a religion is supposed to represent the God of creation, and the Lord of the universe expressed in pious phrases: “God the all merciful”; “Allah God’;”God be praised;” “if God wills.” These pious phrases sound compassionate, worshipful, and filled with faith. They have meanings different from expressions of devout faith. On a philosophical level they proclaim that God is exclusive. God is demanding, jealous, domineering and without competitors. He shuts out all other gods just as the first Commandment states and commits the person to a single obedience and worship.
This has clear implications for those who are not worshippers of Allah. “He that is not with me is against me.” Those outside the worship of God as stated in the Koran are non-believers, heretics, enemies, and infidels. Failure to worship God as the Koran states is the most blasphemous and sinful deed imaginable. Not only is the person’s behavior reprehensible, they are also enemies of Islamic culture and society. This belief comprises the jihad, or holy war of Islam. The holy war, or jihad, is a tribal activity to assure the survival of the faith. The jihad fights infidels not only to protect the culture but more importantly to assure the solidarity, health, and survival of the tribe.
Christians, particularly, find it hard to accept that many in Islam would countenance the senseless killing of outsiders. However, infidels rebel against God by their very existence. They desecrate God just by living and such an act is worthy of death. Mullahs would believe they are acting for and on behalf of God when they preach death to the infidels. Those who act to do so can declare “God is great” in the belief they are honoring God. Islam needs holy wars to protect the faith and strengthen the power of the mullahs and ayatollahs.
The devotion to Allah identifies the believers and the tribal members, as well as excludes and identifies the opponents. In Islam this division is supported by the concept of light and darkness. Darkness is an absence of light, and unbelievers are compared to darkness which has no God in it. The purpose of light is to destroy darkness. This draws upon the mediaeval notion that: “You are the light of the world” whose purpose is to destroy the darkness. Support for this comes from a primitive interpretation of the creation story. God created light and dark, sea and land, the heavens and the firmament and so on. God remained in the Light and is the light of the world. Muslims believe that by destroying sin they protect the good and God.
Islam is committed to dispel and remove all darkness by world conquest. Murder is not murder in the Western sense as the taking of a precious life, but acting in obedience to one’s religious convictions. There are serious questions about how Western Civilization can deal with these religious dimensions of Islam under the First Article of the Constitution and the freedom of religion concepts developed in Western law. The defense attorneys of Moussaoui, the highjacker, wanted to use the religious dimensions of the high jacking as a defense.
Islam is a major challenge to Western civilization because of the following essential components:
a) Many Christians believe that the name of God identifies Islam as a religion equal to Christianity and distinguished from idolatrous worship. Many texts on religion identify the great monotheistic religions as Christianity, Judaism and Islam. But Islam is not like other monotheistic religions. Islam is a primitive religion designed to protect a minority of people from cultural pollution. Its main purpose is to prevent assimilation, adoption of other cultures, and participation in any society which has values different from Islam. The division and separation sought by Islam are inroads for total domination of that society. This is illustrated in France where concessions based on Islamic religion are demanded from French society. In typical Islamic tradition, such demands are accompanied by riots, force and murder.
b) Islam perverts the institutions and practices of our legal, constitutional and cultural system for their own purposes. This is not a benign action but a proactive plan to weaken the institutions and the will of non-Muslim societies. Remember that the dominant idea in Islam is that non-believers are an affront to their God Allah. So also are the institutions, practices and cultures of non-believing societies like the United States. Therefore, using our systems to destroy us is taught not only to terrorists but all other immigrants. Islam views its mission as the destruction of Western civilization in the name of a primitive view of a God created to protect and further a tribe. In simple terms Islam is a means to destroy competitors in the name of religion and ultimately establish Islamic political systems and states throughout the world.
c) The tolerance of western societies for different cultures, religions and systems of government is our greatest weakness. We are taught in Western civilization to be tolerant of religion, to permit everyone to worship as he pleases, and to protect religious expression. We do not have the religious and legal systems which permit us to deal with religion as a tribal protector, as a perverter of legal and constitutional systems, and as a belief structure which opposes democracy, freedom, and tolerance. Islam has been able to make inroads in countries where religious freedom and tolerance (Holland, Denmark, France, and Germany for instance) are institutionalized and practiced. Islam will do the same thing to the United States if we are not watchful and vigilant.
We have amplified and reported on this in greater detail in our book The Secret Terrorists. Christians face many enemies: Islam in the name of Allah God; secularists who want to have a society without morals or religion such as the Civil Liberties Union; Marxists in the name of economic determinism, and many others. We want to urge Christians to reject Islam as a religious movement and deal with it as a foreign tool wanting to use constitutional guarantees and religious freedom to destroy American society.
Harold A. Gram and James P Gram, The Secret Terrorists,” Gram Publishing, ISBN 0-9731980-0-1 Available from www.gram-books.com
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