Islam. Religion of peace? Or religion of war?
On one hand, we’ve all seen the wave of terror sweeping Israel and the world – hatred and murder done in the name of Mohammed or in the name of Allah of Islam.
On the other hand, defenders of Islam quote verses from the Quran about reconciliation and peace from the Quran, claiming that terrorist attacks are from a small minority of extremists and are completely out of the ordinary, and should be ignored.
So. Islam – a religion that promotes peace and love? Or one that fosters fear, hostility, hatred and war? It all depends who you ask. But the truth is, it also depends on which page you open the Quran.
What is in the Quran?
As people who live in the heart of the Middle East there seems to be a certain opinion or concept about Islam – maybe we understand the foundational concepts, or know the history, but how many of us have really taken the Quran in our hands opened and read it?
Whoever does this will be surprised to discover (or maybe not) that in the Quran there are more than 100 verses that call Muslims to wage war against non-Muslims and to bring judgement to the world. Some of the descriptions are extremely graphic and command beheadings, burning people, and taking out organs.
And what about moderate Muslims? Those who choose not to participate in the active jihad against infidels who reject Islam? The Quran calls them sanctimonious and hypocritical, and warns them of their bitter end – in the lowest place in hell.
And what will happen to us? We who are sure that the ideology of Islam is the work of Satan? Or any other infidel who refuses to accept Islam?
Let’s go directly to the source – to the Quran – so that you can judge for yourselves whether it really encourages love and reconciliation.
Sura 2:93 – “And fight with them until there is no persecution, and religion should be only for Allah”.
Sura 9:5 – “Slay the idolaters wherever you find them, and take them captives and besiege them and lie in wait for them in every ambush”.
Sura 3:56 – “As to those who disbelieve, I will chastise them with severe chastisement in this world and the hereafter, and they shall have no helpers”.
Sura 4:56 – (As for) those who disbelieve in Our communications, We shall make them enter fire; so often as their skins are thoroughly burned, We will change them for other skins, that they may taste the 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 Messenger have prohibited, nor follow the religion of truth”.
Sura 4:74 – “Whoever fights in the way of Allah, then be he slain or be he victorious, We shall grant him a mighty reward”.
Sura 5:33 – “The punishment of those who wage war against Allah and His messenger… should be murdered or crucified or their hands and their feet should be cut off on opposite sides”.
So yes. Whoever sits and reads the Quran systematically will notice that you can find verses here and there that from a distance seem to encourage peace and tolerance but in context, or in closer reading, you can see more of their real meaning.
So what does all this mean? Mohammed started off peacefully and pleasantly enough with amicable, nice and positive words. The Quran opens with these words: “In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful. All praise is due to Allah, the Lord of the Worlds. The Beneficent, the Merciful” …written in the hope that Jews and Christians as one would receive his message.
Mohammed – at the start – talked about mercy, peace and love.
But when Mohammed saw that Jews and Christians rejected his message outright, his face began to change and soon his nice words changed to words rather less pleasant to the ear.
For example, at the beginning of the Quran, in Sura 2, it says:
“Surely those who believe, and those who are Jews, and the Christians, and the Sabians, whoever believes in Allah and the Last day and does good, they shall have their reward from their Lord, and there is no fear for them, nor shall they grieve.” Sura 2:62
and at the end of the chapter he states:
“There is no compulsion in religion”. Sura 2:256
Sounds tolerant and loving, right?
But it didn’t last long…
Later, when he realized that neither the Christians nor the Jews accepted him as a prophet Mohammed changed his opinion, and said,
“Whoever desires a religion other than Islam, it shall not be accepted from him, and in the hereafter he shall be one of the losers” Sura 3:85.
So the “peace” talked about in the Quran is only peace between Muslims themselves and those unwilling to convert, the “infidels” they will meet their death by sword, by stoning, burning and hanging and after they die, they will go to hell. The ultimate “peace” from the Quran’s perspective is the final product of jihad after all the non-believers have been destroyed that weren’t willing to convert to Islam leaving a world full of just Muslims.
By the way, it’s important to understand in contrast to the commands in the Old Testament that were given to a specific people group within a defined geographical area and within a specific timeframe, the verses in the Quran are ongoing commands – that is, not limited to a specific historical context or region, nor just a one off action.
In contrast with the prophecies in the Bible and New Testament that say at the end of time, God is the one who will judge all humanity hundreds of verses in the Quran and in Sharia Law require each Muslim to take administer that judgement himself – to constantly punish and kill.
The truth is that Islam commands Muslims to conquer the world in two main ways:
The first, as we know too well, is offensive jihad by the sword, “Dar el Harb”.
To put it simply, counties that are not Muslim must be conquered and brought under the rule of the Muslim Sharia Law. Non Muslims must be subjugated until they agree to convert and those who refuse must be done away with.
Sura 9:14 – “Fight them, Allah will punish them by your hands and bring them to disgrace”.
Sura 2:216 “Fighting is enjoined on you, and h is an object of dislike to you”
It’s no coincidence that the word Islam means submission.
But the second way, most people don’t know about. Many call it the “Silent Jihad”.
In the silent jihad, there is no attacking or fighting but gradual infiltration in a culture institutions within the economy, education, media and politics. From those positions they can exert control and influence under the radar without anyone really noticing, with the expectation that one day they can bring about the revolution and replace silent jihad with Sharia Law.
Is there a prophecy about Mohammed in the Bible?
In order to establish Mohammad’s status as a prophet. The Quran claims that the Bible prophesies about his coming:
Sura 7:157 – “Those who follow the Messenger-Prophet, the Ummi, whom they find written down with them in the Taurat”
In our Torah?!
In a desperate attempt to find Mohammad in the Bible Muslim preachers point to a single word in Song of Songs:
“His mouth is most sweet; yea, he is altogether lovely. This is my beloved, and this is my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem.”(Song of Songs 5:15)
How is that connected? And where is Mohammed hiding in that, you might be wondering?
According to Muslim preachers, the words “altogether lovely” apparently indicate that the author of the Song of Songs in the Bible actually planted a prophecy about Mohammed in there. The sad part of this whole thing is not even the distortion of the biblical text or the removal of the verse from its context, but that they have managed to deceive millions all over the world.
So here is the refutation of this claim. First, the meaning of the word Mohammed in Arabic is ‘praised, glorious or excellent’. However, the expression in the Hebrew Bible, according to the Biblical Hebrew dictionary, ‘a cherished and nice thing, a lovely thing’. The root of the word “Machmadim” is חמד from which we get the word “nice”. That is to say, despite the semantic similarity between “Machmadim” and Mohammed, we’re talking about two different concepts.
But what about the context? What is that part of the Bible talking about?
Is Song of Songs 5 talking about an Islamic prophet that will come and start a new religion? In reading the chapter and the book as a whole, it’s clear that “My Beloved” pertains to the God of Israel, and that the bride is about the people of Israel.
But you know what, we did find Mohammed mentioned in the Bible!
“But the prophet, that shall speak a word presumptuously in My name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or that shall speak in the name of other gods, that same prophet shall die.” Deuteronomy 18:20
By the way, on one hand Muslims claim that the Bible is untrustworthy because according to them, ‘the Jews corrupted it’, but on the other hand, they rely on a verse in the Jewish Bible to justify their faith.
Yeshua loves Muslims and died for them too
It’s important to clarify that we don’t want to incite hatred towards Muslims. It’s important to distinguish between Muslims as human beings, and Islam, the ideology. God created every human being, and he loves every human being, including those who have been deceived. We need to love them and help them and bring them back home.
And now, now that we’ve done our first video on Islam, maybe we don’t have much time left – so do us a favor, and in our memory, share this video! We are also leaving you dozens more videos that you can see on our website and on our Facebook page.
In contrast to Mohammed who commanded people to take lives, Yeshua didn’t intimidate or force himself on people with threats. Yeshua came to give, to serve, and to love so much so that he agreed to give up his own life, and sacrificed himself so that we could have forgiveness of sins and receive eternal life.
