The October 7 terrorist attacks in Israel have prompted pro-Hamas protests and generated discussion about Islam.
Let me make it clear that anyone who threatens, harasses, intimidates, or physically harms a Muslim should be punished to the full extent of the law. I know Muslim people and families who are fine people and upstanding citizens. Muslims hold to social/moral standards that in many ways mirrors conservatives. Judge by content of character, not anything else. Five Western misconceptions about Islam are addressed below to bring clarity to the discussion.
#1. It has gone around for some time that the word “Islam” in Arabic means, “religion of peace.” It does not. It means “submitting.” The confusion flows from a related word word, “salaam” that means “peace.”
#2. Westerners make the serious error of projecting their own cultural filters onto their view of Islam. In the West, Christianity is viewed as a crutch for people to lean on at Sunday church services, but it should not step outside the Sunday boundary. However, in Islam there is no concept of “The government shall make no law prohibiting the free exercise of
religion” (distorted by leftists as the “separation of church and state”). Islam is not anemic like Western Christianity. Islam is more than a religion. It is also a comprehensive political and judicial system. It permeates all aspects of life and is the dominant guiding force of the whole culture where the population is a Muslim majority.
#3. Two foundations of Western culture are freedom of thought and freedom of choice. Westerners believe their ideas about freedom are so innate that every one else in the world thinks the same way. However, Christianity is at the root of freedom. Christianity teaches following the ways of Jesus is a free choice of conscience and cannot be coerced if it is to be authentic. Christianity has the goal of spreading the message to the whole world to give people a choice. Such freedom is an alien concept to Islam. The value in Islam is submitting to religion—whether by birth, choice, or force. In the 600 and 700s A.D. Islam spread across the Middle East, Africa, Asia, and Europe by the sword. The whole world is also the goal of Islam, but not to give others a choice, but to be the only religion. The political-religious Islamic state is known as a caliphate.
#4. In the West, tolerance gained in popularity when advocated by the philosopher John Locke in the late 1600s. Tolerance replaced truth to became the chief virtue only within the last 30 years. Tolerance is not a value of Islam. For example, under Muslim governments, those of other religions are required to pay Jizya—an extra tax levied on all non-Muslims. More consequential, questioning the Qu’ran is considered to be blasphemy and is punishable by prison or death.
#5. The theology of Christianity is everything taught in the Bible fits together into a unified framework with no contradictions. The common Islamic principle of interpretation for the Qu’ran is “nasikh”—new revelations override prior revelations. So, recognize when Islam maintains it respects the people of the book (Jews and Christians), that is teaching from Muhammad’s time in Mecca at the inception of the religion. Later direction about non-Muslims in Surah 8:59-60 is to,”…strike terror into the enemies…,” and in Surah 9:5 “Fight and slay the Pagans…lay in wait for them in every stratagem.”
The method of interpreting these verses is the religious support for Hamas committing their October 7 atrocities against Israeli non-combatants.
In 1294, significant Muslim philosopher Ibn Taymiyah established grounds for Muslims in the minority to lie to protect themselves. This is why radical Islamist organizations have no religious scruples about knowingly lying to manipulate ignorant people in the West to protest Israel’s current military defense of itself.
https://hwpi.harvard.edu/files/pluralism/files/islam_means_being_22muslim22_1.pdf
Islam and Terrorism. Mark A. Gabriel. Charisma House.
I really like all of your points, especially Point #3 where you can explain how our 1st amendment is rooted in Christianity. Once Islam increases in numbers and is able to vote itself in, it will then look to impose itself in our law as and culture and are freedoms will be stripped away. freedom of choice is Christian, not Islamic.
What I've heard is that Islam considers everyone as falling into one of 2 "houses". The House of Islam, and the House of War. American society is not under Islam, so it is in the House of War. The goal is for Islam to establish a worldwide caliphate. That's what I've heard. I intend to research the koran myself someday soon to get my own 1st hand knowledge.