Facing radical Islam

Well, I think I need to start taking the advice of my husband, who a while back said to me, basically, you can be a perfectionist, or you can put more out there. Sigh. I'm a perfectionist haha, at least when it comes to things I care about. I'm also a mom, and I work, and I'm a student, and so I have limited time. I'm coming around to the realization that I think Geoff is right though, if I wait for things I write to be just right, I'm going to be trying to figure out how to get into my blog, like today, more often than posting.

My other realization in debating Muslims online, which I have done for years at this point, is that for every time I answer a question or a point in debating, that there is a whackload of other Muslims out there who think the same thing, or have the same question. There's one of me, and literally thousands, in fact, hundreds of thousands of people debating on online sites. I've taken to making my own page, called New Reformation Apologetics Ministries on Facebook, to put out some of my responses to their questions.

This morning I came home from work and read a response in an online discussion from a new Muslim friend, and, though I won't post her response or name out of respect for her privacy, it basically answers what I have found to be common is discussions with Muslims. Muslims seem to have a general inability for self criticism. I don't think this is a coincidence. I've seen it too often, and I think the reason for that is because what radicals are doing, very much ties in with the early history and larger mentality of the religion, to control and to dominate other cultures and peoples. I think there is a reason for that, in that Islam is a product of the Arab conquests, and being foundational to Islamic societies, as their origins, it's shaped the thinking of the larger culture.

Muslims, in continuing to believe in the initial justification of the ideology, as well as ongoing efforts to continue what Islamic writings promoted at that time, but are also a product of that time, becomes a circular pattern of thinking and responding. Modern Muslims, in justifying their early history, which is foundational to Islam, need to see such efforts as justified. Which is why Islam and the actions of Muslims are rarely criticized, but the actions of their political opponents, are severely criticized. These writings are setting Muslims up for continued conflict throughout the world, but Islamic writings are rarely questioned, because Muslims continue to assume that these writings are from God.

With that introduction in mind, here is my response to one Muslim, when she stated that ISIS was not Islamic:

Sigh, dear Emira, let me say first off, like I said last night, I'm not saying that world politics and big business are innocent. My faith is not in the Western world. I don't follow the news at length, but I'm married to someone who does, and from articles he shows me, I think the whole world system is corrupt. Just as there is corruption in the Muslim world, there is corruption in the West. I really don't trust the powers that be, I really don't. The West is not Christian, well, let me rephrase that, it is and it isn't. There's a Christian influence in one sense, and in another sense, the West has abandoned Christianity for materialism, naturalism, consumerism, and so forth. I say that because my sense is that Muslims think of the West as Christian, and assume that all these things are coming from a Christian influence, and that simply is not true. There has been a secular influence on the West especially in the last number of decades, but for centuries really, the West has been attacking it's historically Judeo-Christian foundations.

Someone like Hitler, for example, wanted to replace Christianity with a bizarre system of occult beliefs and practices. He may have been baptized a Catholic. He may have used religion, or appealed to the church in early speeches, etc., but he was not someone who was motivated to love and serve their enemies, as Jesus taught. In the same way, I personally question much of what is deemed Christian, like colonialism for instance. How much of that was Christianity, and how much of that was the influence of Darwinism, or larger political and economic interests? I would suggest that there is a bias, in that many of these issues historically have been blamed on Christianity, but when you look beneath the surface, it's not nearly that simple. Even the Crusades were a late response, a very late response in fact, to 400 years of Arab/ Islamic aggression. Am I justifying everything the church has done, no I'm not. We're sinners Sabira, that is the condition of the human heart, that's why the world needs Christ.

What I find when I talk with Muslims though, like you just said, even a group like ISIS, which is clearly a movement to get back to the roots of the Islamic faith, and bring in a new caliphate, Muslims will deny is Islamic. Dear Emira, there is no denying that ISIS or Saudi Arabia being another example that Muslims commonly distance themselves from -is Islamic. There's no denying it. There may be other political factors, and the West may be involved in supporting them -like I said -my faith is not in the West, but they are nonetheless motivated by Islamic sources.

Which is why I'm surprised when Muslims like yourself say that they couldn't possibly be getting this from Islamic sources. Why not? Islam came out of the Arab conquests, Emira. That's what I've been saying, or trying to say, all along, and what I say to Muslims ad nauseum. Do you know why I do that Emira? I don't do that to blame Muslims. I do that because my hope is, that when we begin to understand Islam as a product of geo-political conditions, Muslims will themselves be free to question Islam.

It is not the fault of Muslims that they have been living under a 1400 year old military dictatorship. How much choice have Muslims had in all of this? Very little, for a very long time. I want to give Muslims the freedom, without constantly being afraid, to begin asking questions, for themselves.

It's time to face radical Islam head on, while understanding that these sources came out of a time and place. God had nothing to do with the Arab conquests. Islamic writings are a product of the early Arab state; they're not from God. I'm sorry. Sadly, Muslims have been manipulated by their religious and political leaders for a very long time. The good news is, Muslims have the ability to begin to ask questions. The greater good news, is that the worldview that was forced out of the Muslim world, through censorship and political oppression, has never changed, and offers great hope to a broken world.

Take care Emira, God bless.

John 3:16 New International Version (NIV)
16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.