Fleurette,

You picked the wrong guy to explain your naive understanding of Islam.

If you are referring to me as not understanding the cultural context of the Islamic holy books you are mistaken – I know their culture very well and have read their holy books and studied them in Arabic and other languages.

Islam is a false religion. Their god Allah is not the same God of the Bible. Full Stop.

They may be sincere in their beliefs in the one god theory - but the resemblance of Allah is uncharacteristic of the real Jehovah God, and the Trinity.

The Qur'an denies the Sonship of Jesus and the existence of the Holy Spirit. The very essence of God Himself living IN His followers..

A true "god" cannot turn on Himself and ask His new followers to deny what He is or was... and what he had said and done… and more so ask the new followers to destroy His first followers. This is what Jehadists (true struggling Muslems) use to fight non-believers (all of us non-muslems). It is Allah’s decree repeated over and over throughout their books.

The fact is these verses are in the Qur'an and cannot be removed. Muslems around the world recite them daily.

Believers according to the Qur'an are believers in Allah - who his followers truly believe is the God of the universe. That is the tragedy my friend. Muslems are all perishing into eternal hell because they sincerely believed a counterfeit god that has been forced upon them.

There is no love expressed or implied in islam - only judgement and eternal damnation.

Mohammad did not guaranty salvation (not even for himself).

Only the true One God of the Bible expressed His love by dying on the cross – offering free salvation to those who accept His gift of Grace.

Allah on the other hand denies the very historical fact of the cross.

So who can you believe? Historical factual provable facts or made-up concoctions and nomadic stories?

Coach,
I have listened to well educated scholars give evidence of the existence of God. These Christians are quite extreme in their views yet even they never describe a “Christian God” but rather a Transcendent Being that has no definition and cannot be named nor understood as easily as you claim.

You have shown no substantiated proof to back up your claims at all.

“There is no love expressed or implied in islam”

I disagree entirely with this statement. Are we reading the same Qur’an here??

What about the Islamic poets and the mystical Sufis who express such a deep love for God in their beautifully written poems? Look up the Persian poet al Rumi. He describes his love for God as being an exaltation of drunkenness. He is drunk on love for God!

If the best point you can make is that they don’t believe in the cross or the trinity than my question to you is – where is the proof that The Christian Way is the right way? Because telling me that they don’t believe in fundamental Christian beliefs say nothing but a state of the obvious. Islam’s difference to Christianity is what makes it unique. Yet at the same time the similarities are overwhelming and I prefer to focus on them.

You are concentrating on simplistic concepts like “how can he turn his back on his followers”. As if God is the guy next door and you’re upset about how he never comes over anymore because he keeps visiting that other dude across the street Mohammed.

You need to look at it instead as though perhaps the followers of Islam are seeing and experiencing God as we know it, in a different way, just as the Christians experienced God differently to the Jews. Why should it matter which way is the right way, so long as we all believe or at least try to be better people?

Philo when you start quoting the Daily Telegraph I cringe.
I cringe for a reason.

fleurette,

You raise important questions. The answers to which should convince and convict you either way. That is if you believe in absolutes. i.e. if two ideas are different only one can be true – and not both.

1. >>God… as a Transcendent Being that has no definition and cannot be named nor understood as easily as you claim.<<

My answer to that is “Jesus” – God revealing Himself by becoming human. Jesus is totally God and totally human flesh in everything. To know the real Jesus is to know God.

My reference: The bible.

2. “There is no love expressed or implied in islam”

I am talking about the unique expression of God’s love (Agape) for humanity (not a poetic human adoration of a supreme being or to each other).

God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, to die for us as a substitute for our eternal damnation. That unique love is only embodied in the Christian God.

Allah does not reveal himself in this way – he has 99 attributes – none for “love”. (why?)

3. >>…where is the proof that The Christian Way is the right way?<<

The resurrection of Jesus after He was crucified and was dead in a tomb. He rose again as it was predicted by Himself and the prophets centuries before He was born.

A fact so conveniently overlooked by the Qur’anic revelation of Jesus. (why?)

(continued.,)

4. >> Islam’s difference to Christianity is what makes it unique. Yet at the same time the similarities are overwhelming and I prefer to focus on them.<<

Islam is unique indeed. It stands alone as a religious concept. It claims to confirm the previous scriptural revelations – the bible. But in fact it denies the very message of the bible: Jesus. (why?)

The differences between Islamic claims and the biblical ones are so flagrant that it makes it alien to the biblical prophetic chain of revelations. Mohammad does not fit in the Judeo-Christian concept of a prophet. Not one biblical prophet used force to proclaim his message. (why?)

So any comparison is futile.

5. >>You are concentrating on simplistic concepts like “how can he turn his back on his followers”.<<

Simplistic maybe but meaningfully very deep. God sent His Son to die for us. Allah said no such thing as a “son” and no one died on the cross… Which one is lying? And why?

6. >> Why should it matter which way is the right way, so long as we all believe or at least try to be better people?<<

This is a beauty… again the answer should shake you (if you want to know the truth that is).

Are you interested to follow the one true God as revealed in the reliable scriptures – the bible or are you content to put your eternity in the hands of a false god that cannot save you?

Good people are aplenty – but to belong to God’s kingdom in heaven is another matter. It is not a lottery or a wish. Jesus provides certainty of salvation – why gamble your life to anyone else

Isn't the Muslim Religion peaceful? Hopefully, but that is really not the reality. There is no doubt that the predominately Christian population of Germany was peaceful, but under the dictatorial leadership of Hitler (who was supposedly Christian), that made no difference. You either went along with the administration or you were eliminated. There were 5 to 6 million Christians killed by the Nazis for political reasons (including 7,000 Polish priests). (see <http://wwwnazis.testimony.co.uk/7-a.htm>http://www.nazis.testimony.co.uk/7-a.htm)

Thus, almost the same number of Christians were killed by the Nazis, as the six million holocaust Jews who were killed by them, and we seldom heard of anything other than the Jewish atrocities. Although Hitler kept the world focused on the Jews, he had no hesitancy about killing anyone who got in his way of exterminating the Jews or of taking over the world - German, Christian or any others.

Same with the Muslim terrorists. They focus the world on the US, but kill all in the way -- their own people or the Spanish, French or anyone else. The point here is that just like the peaceful Germans were of no protection to anyone from the Nazis, no matter how many peaceful Muslims there may be, they are no protection for us from the terrorist Muslim leaders and what they are fanatically bent on doing -- by their own pronouncements -- killing all of us "infidels." I don't blame the peaceful Muslims. What would you do if the choice was shut up or die.

Philo,

I am yet to hear from a "peaceful muslem" that terrorism is not an Islamic religious obligation. No one has publicly and honestly condemned 9/11. Bin laden is still hailed as a hero (alive or dead) by all good Islamic jehadists.

I wouldn't jump to such conclusions and suggest that Christian Germans shared the same goals as muslems.

As you know Hitler was a mad man - and not a subscriber to Christian values.

In islam it is the opposite – peaceful means coward and un-islamic. The peaceful ones are part of the same army. Somehow their fear comes from the evil religion and not falling victim to the radical soldiers of islam.

The extremists are the heroes – the ones that makes it all happen for the other peaceful ones who cry victim but deep down agree, condone and finance all the carnage in the name of their barbaric god.

Terror is the common language of islam. After all half of them are illiterate and live in utter poverty in some of the world richest countries.

The reality shows when the so-called peaceful Muslem demonstrators hit our streets. They never hold anti Islamic placards – not for fear of their peers but because of their true inner convictions that the west is evil and islam is great.

Maybe it's time you revisit the Qur'an and get in the real spirit of Mohammad's religion.