Truths vs. political correctness about Islam

The last thing we need is more watered-down, naïve, or deceptively incorrect descriptions of Islam as if it is merely just another religion to be respected and defended.  We need truth about that belief system.  Truth about Islam has been in short supply in the media, academia, in most churches, and in our government. 

Churches, especially, have been complicit in their own demise as a result of their silence about what Islam is all about.  Instead of pretending that Islam is just another religion that Christians can partner with or “respect”, teach the truth.  Teach the truth that Islamic doctrine does not promote brotherhood with other belief systems, but insists on dominance and conquest.  There may be a season of conciliatory talk, but that is part of their taqiyya.

Raymond Ibrahim (see his biography at the end of this blog) is one of the few nationally known experts on Islam who experienced the truth, studied the truth, learned the truth and tells the truth about Islam.

Below are two versions of a presentation titled “Muslim Persecution of Christian Martyrs: Past and Present” he made in August to a church in Texas.  The first video is an excerpted version of about 5 minutes in length.  The second is his full presentation of a bit more than an hour.

His presentations are particularly noteworthy and timely because he focuses on these ignored truths about Islam:

• The Barnes and Noble “Karen Armstrong” treatment of Islam is all the media knows – the “nice”, watered-down, fully abrogated (replaced) version of Islam.
• ISIS is today what Islam has been from the days of Muhammad.
• It is a perversion of Islam to believe that Islam is a “moderate” religion that is capable of coexistence with Western or Judeo-Christian values and forms of governance.
• Those Muslims referred to as “radicals” are NOT practicing a perverted or hijacked version of Islam.  They are practicing Islam as Islam has been promoted through the past 1,400 years.
• The persecution of Christians by Muslims in Islamic nations around the world today is no different than the manner and scope of persecution of Christians by Muhammad and the centuries following.
• The term “persecution” does not merely mean expression of dislike of Christian doctrine or Christians, but the burning of Christian Churches and beheading of Christians who do not submit to Islam.
• Anyone who calls himself “Muslim” is devoted to a belief system that is fully at odds with our freedoms (except to use against us to promote Islam), our form of government, our Constitution, and virtually any non-Islamic belief system.
• The overwhelming majority of Muslims will manifest their belief system through either economic jihad (funding terrorism), political jihad (advocating for sharia), social jihad (migration/reproduction),  violent jihad (terror/killing) or a combination.  It is difficult to know in advance which of these means will be utilized by any particular Muslim because they are all sanctioned by Islam.

Churches across our nation would be wise to devote a few programs to this video and this topic and remind their congregations on a continual basis of the truths and travesties of Islam.

 

Raymond Ibrahim from North American Lutheran Church on Vimeo.

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About

RAYMOND IBRAHIM is a widely published author, public speaker, and Middle East and Islam specialist.  His books include Crucified Again: Exposing Islam’s New War on Christians (2013) and The Al Qaeda Reader (2007). His writings, translations, and observations have appeared in a variety of publications, including the New York Times, CNN, LA Times, Fox News, Financial Times, Jerusalem Post, New York Times Syndicate, United Press International, USA Today, Washington Post, Washington Times, and Weekly Standard; scholarly journals, including the Almanac of Islamism, Chronicle of Higher Education, Jane’s Islamic Affairs Analyst, Middle East Quarterly, and Middle East Review of International Affairs; and popular websites, such as American Thinker, the Blaze, Bloomberg, Breitbart, Christian Post, FrontPage Magazine, Gatestone Institute, the Inquisitr, Jihad Watch, NewsMax, National Review Online, PJ Media, the UK’s Commentator, and World Magazine. He has contributed chapters to several anthologies and been translated into dozens of languages.

Ibrahim guest lectures at universities, including the National Defense Intelligence College, briefs governmental agencies, such as U.S. Strategic Command and the Defense Intelligence Agency, provides expert testimony for Islam-related lawsuits, and has testified before Congress regarding the conceptual failures that dominate American discourse concerning Islam and the worsening plight of Egypt’s Christian Copts. Among other media, he has appeared on MSNBC, Fox News, C-SPAN, PBS, Reuters, Al-Jazeera, Blaze TV, CBN, and NPR; he has done hundreds of radio interviews.

Ibrahim’s dual-background—born and raised in the U.S. by Coptic Egyptian parents born and raised in the Middle East—has provided him with unique advantages, from equal fluency in English and Arabic, to an equal understanding of the Western and Middle Eastern mindsets, positioning him to explain the latter to the former. His interest in Islamic civilization was first piqued when he began visiting the Middle East as a child in the 1970s. Interacting and conversing with the locals throughout the decades has provided him with an intimate appreciation for that part of the world, complementing his academic training.

Raymond received his B.A. and M.A. (both in History, focusing on the ancient and medieval Near East, with dual-minors in Philosophy and Literature) from California State University. There he studied closely with noted military-historian Victor Davis Hanson. He also took graduate courses at Georgetown University’s Center for Contemporary Arab Studies—including classes on the history, politics, and economics of the Arab world—and studied Medieval Islam and Semitic languages at Catholic University of America. His M.A. thesis examined an early military encounter between Islam and Byzantium based on arcane Arabic and Greek texts.

Ibrahim’s resume includes serving as Associate Director of the Middle East Forum and working as a Reference Assistant at the Near East Section of the Library of Congress, where he was often contacted by, and provided information to, defense and intelligence personnel involved in the fields of counterterrorism and area studies, as well as the Congressional Research Service.

He resigned from both positions in order to focus exclusively on researching and writing and is currently, among other things, a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center, a Judith Friedman Rosen Writing Fellow, Middle East Forum, and a Hoover Institution Media Fellow (2013).