Q8. Answer
x
With all due respect to the majority of Muslims who are for peace, law & order and respect for other faiths, Islamic extremists or fundamentalists are following commandments in the Koran to overcome people of other faiths, even by violence, if they will not submit to Allah voluntarily (Suras 2:193 and 8:39).
The fundamentalist agenda is to establish only one world faith, namely Islam, and to erase the state of Israel. Israel has made concessions; settlements in Gaza have been bulldozed, and land has been released to the Palestinians; but still terrorism continues; their fight is now in Europe, the UK and the USA. Extremists’ hearts are hardened and implacable hatred is being preached to young Muslims.
Concessions to Muslims in the wake of terrorist atrocities appear only to be seen as weakness, and an encouragement in extremist minds to carry out further attacks in their cause of world domination. This is not to speak against peaceful solutions, but it is to heed the words of Jesus: “Behold I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves. Therefore be wise as serpents and harmless as doves (Matthew 10:16).
Christians need to speak out fearlessly against Islamic extremism. They need to stand and speak the truth in love, without fear, even if it costs their lives. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb [Jesus], and by the word of their testimony, and loving not their lives even unto death (Revelation 12:11). Appeasement in the face of such threats is never the answer.
The battle is a spiritual and ideological one: Love suffers long and is kind…. does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil.. does not rejoice in iniquity but rejoices in the truth… Love never fails (1 Corinthians 13:4-6,8).
Jesus is called The Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6). Consider what Jesus said to one of His followers who drew a sword to defend Him: ‘Put your sword back into its place, for all who draw the sword will die by the sword.’ (Matthew 26:52)
What a contrast with:
Sura 5:33: The punishment of those who wage war against Allah and His apostle and strive to make mischief in the land is only this, that they should be murdered or crucified or their hands and their feet should be cut off on opposite sides or they should be imprisoned; this shall be as a disgrace for them in this world, and in the hereafter they shall have a grievous chastisement.
Sura 9.29: Fight those who do not believe in Allah, nor in the latter day, nor do they prohibit what Allah and His Apostle have prohibited, nor follow the religion of truth, out of those who have been given the Book, until they pay the tax in acknowledgment of superiority and they are in a state of subjection.
Contrast also Sura 2:256 which says that there is no compulsion in religion.
There is no such inconsistency in Jesus’ teachings:
Matthew 5:44: “Love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you.”
Matthew 22:39: “You shall love your neighbour as yourself.”
John 15:12,17: “This is my commandment that you love one another.”
Matthew 28:19-20: “Go therefore and teach the nations… teaching them..”
Luke 14:11: “Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”
Jesus humbled Himself (Philippians 2:8) and died for every man, woman and child on planet earth, including every Muslim, that by believing they might not die in their sins but receive everlasting life (John 5:24).
And consider this most remarkable prophecy in Isaiah 19:23-25:
In that day there shall be a highway out of Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrian will come into Egypt, and the Egyptian into Assyria, and the Egyptians will worship the Lord with the Assyrians. In that day Israel shall be the third with Egypt and with Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth, whom the Lord of hosts has blessed, saying, ‘Blessed be Egypt My people, and Assyria the work of My hands, and Israel My heritage.’
The bottom line is that God is bound by covenant to preserve Israel in their own land and will execute judgments on all those around them who despise them (Ezekiel 28:25-26) bringing peace. His covenant is also with the Church. His covenants never fail; and He will most certainly have His way. The battle is the Lord’s (1 Samuel 17:47, 2 Chronicles 20:15); and the nations are as nothing to Him (Isaiah 40:17).