Author Archives: Ijaz Ahmad

Cardinal says Church is ‘200 years behind’ the Times.

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Bismillahir Rahmanir Raheem
بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ ,

Well, so much for stating the obvious. Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini, had some very special last words. Before his death, which took place only a few days after laying the smack down on the Catholic Church, Cardinal Maria Martini had some scorching remarks to make. So rapidly is Christianity dying, that he describes the ‘prayer rooms’ as empty:

Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera has published his last interview, recorded in August, in which he said: “The Church is tired… our prayer rooms are empty.”

He repeats his point that the Church is no longer what it used to be. Do you enjoy watching those pictures of the old European Churches, large, majestic, powerful? Those Churches of wonder and beauty? So do I, but as it turns out, those things are empty and have been so for quite some time. No one is willing to attend services in them:

Catholics lacked confidence in the Church, he said in the interview. “Our culture has grown old, our churches are big and empty and the church bureaucracy rises up, our religious rites and the vestments we wear are pompous.”

If the Cardinal were still alive, I’d let him know, that as a Muslim who spent several years in a Catholic institution, I can agree with his sentiments, better yet, as a Muslim, I’ve always lacked confidence in the Catholic Church. Violent, oppressive and pseudo religious, it is no longer relevant to the modern world. What’s worse is that the only mention of the Church these days is to highlight the rampant sexual abuse problems it is facing, something the Cardinal also touched upon:

“The child sex scandals oblige us to undertake a journey of transformation,” Cardinal Martini says, referring to the child sex abuse that has rocked the Catholic Church in the past few years.

You can read the entire article here. As Muslims, we’ve always recognized the self destructive nature of the Catholic Church, it offers no sense of religious guidance, its laws are founded on irrational bases and its practitioners usually apostate or just convert to other faiths. I attended a Catholic school for several years, the prayer leader of the school, a former Headboy and preacher, is now atheist/ agnostic. The Catholics at the school itself forced themselves to attend ‘mass’ and the rest of the so called ‘Christians’ in the school, opposed the archaic Church. It definitely seems that the writing is on the wall for this religion.

wa Allaahu Alam,
and God knows best.

Priest says ‘Children are Seducers’

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Bismillahir Rahmanir Raheem
بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ ,

Believe it or not, 78 year old Father Benedict Groeschel (pictured above) in an interview with the National Catholic Register made the following statements, when asked about his experience in working with Priests who were involved in abuse of children:

“People have this picture in their minds of a person planning to — a psychopath. But that’s not the case,” Groeschel explained. “Suppose you have a man having a nervous breakdown, and a youngster comes after him. A lot of the cases, the youngster — 14, 16, 18 — is the seducer.”

“Well, it’s not so hard to see — a kid looking for a father and didn’t have his own — and they won’t be planning to get into heavy-duty sex, but almost romantic, embracing, kissing, perhaps sleeping but not having intercourse or anything like that,” he continued.

Groeschel called the abuse “an understandable thing,” and pointed to Penn State football coach Jerry Sandusky, who he called a “poor guy.”

I wish I could be making this up, but it gets worse:

Groeschel pointed out that “sexual difficulties” were rarely prosecuted 10 or 15 years ago, and now if “any responsible person in society would become involved in a single sexual act — not necessarily intercourse — they’re done.”

“And I’m inclined to think, on their first offense, they should not go to jail because their intention was not committing a crime,” he added.

You can read the full story here. His comments have invited staunch criticism from both Church and non-Catholic groups, the interview in question has already been pulled from the National Catholic Register’s website, but can still be read via Google Cache. Interestingly enough, David Wood of the Answering Muslims blog (see: Thursday 30th, August, 2012, 6:28 PM), asked for Muslims to condemn when persons of their own religious group commit crimes of this nature, but so far David (as expected) has been silent on the issue of Church abuse and more specifically, the horrendous statements of this Church Father.

For such a senior member of the Catholic Church, whose life has revolved around social work to defend such acts, seriously brings into question the acceptance of Church abuse by these elderly, ‘faithful’ Church Fathers. How far does it have to go, until someone says stop?

Further Reading:

wa Allaahu Alam,
and God knows best.

Paul, Jesus, Disciples – Mentally Ill says Church of England

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Bismillahir Rahmanir Raheem
بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ ,

This is not a joke. News reports are indicating that the Church of England intends to embark on a new “Mental Health” campaign and trust me when I say they’ve gone all out, suggesting that Paul, Jesus and the disciples were all to some extent, mentally ill persons. This isn’t a Muslim saying this, or an Atheist, but the Church of England, and the best news is that they’ve even included Biblical justification:

A SUGGESTED sermon produced by the Church of England for clerics attempting to tackle the stigma of mental health pulls no punches.

Written by the Rev Eva McIntyre on behalf of the Church’s Archbishops’ Council and the Time to Change mental health campaign, it suggests John the Baptist, St Paul, St Francis and other figures from the Bible may all have been mentally ill.It even asks followers to consider accusations made in the New Testament that Jesus “had lost his mind”.

It reads: “Many of the people we read about in Bible stories might today be considered as having mental health issues.

“For example, ‘Would Jesus’ family maybe on occasion have said, ‘Cousin John is a bit odd, bless him!’ when John the Baptist took to his eccentric style of life?

“It has long been thought that King Saul, in the books of Samuel, was displaying mood swings that suggest he had bi-polar disorder and some think that St Paul’s Damascus Road experience was the result of some sort of breakdown or psychotic episode.

“Even Jesus was not immune to accusations about his mental health: there is a story in the gospel that tells of his mother and siblings attempting to take him home because they are afraid that he has lost his mind.”Many of the stories of the Saints, too, have led people to discuss their mental health. “For example was St Francis suffering from a mental health title?”

Acknowledging how shocking these ideas might be, Ms McIntyre, a member of the General Synod, adds: “Some may find these suggestions disturbing or offensive even.

“Perhaps we need to ask why it would be so terrible to think that some of our most inspirational forebears might have experienced mental health illness. – Source.

I’ve always hinted/ strongly implied, that St. Paul was infact, mentally ill, and the Jesus that the Bible portrays also seems to indicate a mentally unstable character. You can read my articles here and here on this issue. I can understand if a non-Christian held these views, but the very fact that Christians are beginning to point out, what Muslims, Atheists and Jews have been saying for centuries, make this a stark and bold revelation, indicating the extent to which learned Christians are realising the falsehood of their own faith.
wa Allaahu Alam,
and God knows best.

Pastor Spreads HIV Amongst Congregation

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Bismillahir Rahmanir Raheem
بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ ,

Shocking news really! A married Pastor of a Full Gospel Baptist Church, Pastor Craig Lamar Davis whose previous girlfriend indicated that she had HIV, then went on to sleep with multiple women. Ending in ‘romps’ at his family home, thus spreading the disease to other female members of his congregation.

Pastor Craig Lamar Davis (pictured) of Atlanta’s Full Gospel Baptist Church was arrested on July 22 for reckless conduct, when police investigators discovered that he has HIV and had allegedly been indulging in unprotected sex with several of his congregation members, reports WVIG.  Now one of his congregation victims have come forward with her story.

hus far, two women have pressed charges against the married preacher. One of the victims,Ronita McAfee, told police officials that she met the pastor on Facebook and began communicating with him.  The online relationship soon progressed into sexual romps at the pastor’s home.  McAfee says a few months in to the affair, Davis revealed that one of his former girlfriends had tested positive for HIV. The seemingly concerned preacher allegedly advised McAfee that the virus would not kill her if she tested positive and even went as far as to suggest some drugs that she could take to avoid infection.

Say what?

Source: http://newsone.com/2033009/craig-lamar-davis-full-gospel-baptist-church/

wa Allaahu Alam,
and God knows best.

Response to James White’s Dividing Line Program 28-08-2012

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Bismillahir Rahmanir Raheem
بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ ,

Once again, I’ve rattled the hornet’s nest of Evangelical extremism. This isn’t something I’m unfamiliar with, but this week’s Dividing Line program had me in stitches, allow me to explain why. James White found my article located here, to be ‘condescending‘, ‘insulting‘ and alluded to my writing as being ‘extremist‘. The problem therein is that James White has no problem with the language, the insults, the wild accusations that his friends over at Answering Islam or ABN Tv use (see here and here). In fact, it’s quite well known that James is a friend and ally, even a student and sometimes a teacher of one, a Mr. Sam Shamoun. Those who are familiar with Sam know that he is far removed from any level of dignity. Therefore, it is in that light that I am calling James White out on his hypocrisy. If he does not condemn Sam for the language he and his co-missionaries use, on what grounds of intellectual responsibility does he stand? Nay, on what grounds as a Christian (as he claims himself to be), can he be silent on the acts of his own brothers in faith, but attack Muslims when they use the same form of argumentation? It should also be noted, that I found James to be fond of using the term, ‘double standard’, yet in his rant, he was often more than inconsistent, falling prey to his own double standards.

I’d like to make it clear, that my article was simple:

  • To identify a criteria to determine who God was according to the Old Testament.
  • This criteria had to be unique, solely to YHWH.
  • Demonstrate said quality of YHWH that identifies YHWH solely as God.
  • Compare aforementioned quality to Jesus of the New Testament to see if the same unique quality can be equated.
  • Comment on the findings.

This is all my article did. Based on that, James did not answer my question, in fact he demonstrated his inability to properly respond to basic theological analysis. The premise was simple, if YHWH is God, does He do something only God can declare?  This is exactly what YHWH did, He declared himself to be God in no uncertain terms. The same cannot be said of Jesus, although James did try by referencing Titus 2:13 which reads:

“while we wait for the blessed hope—the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ,”

Which isn’t what I asked for. I asked, where did Jesus declared Himself to be God, as YHWH did in the Old Testament. No one says YHWH is God because Abraham, David or Moses call Him God. We know YHWH is the God of the Old Testament because He says so Himself, because He identifies Himself as God almighty. The same cannot be said of Jesus, because at no point does He ever mimic the behaviour of YHWH as a proud God. For hundreds of years, nay, thousands of years, YHWH continuously declared Himself to be Hashem Adonai, Elohiym, etc. Yet the point remains, that despite thousands of years of doing so, he was unable in the person of Jesus to do so once. If they were the same God, why does Jesus not have the same proud, boastful, magnificent, powerful declarations of YHWH? You can find a more expansive study of that argument, with relevant verses here.

Now James did try to counter my questions by referring to quite pathetic straw men. Today, I’m going to analyse some of his straw men and ask him why it is that he could not present a counter question, relevant to mines. You can find his rabid diatribe here, his rant against my article begins at the 48th minute mark.

Argument 1:

  • Is every single Surah of the Qur’an the same? No.

I don’t see what Chapters (Surahs) have to do with fundamental alterations to God’s persona. I did not question James on what Matthew says, as compared to that of Luke, I asked James why YHWH had one persona for thousands of years, and suddenly in the space of 33, could not continue this persona. This has nothing to do with chapters, verses, books, scripture, it’s a question about His deity. Therefore not only is this question irrelevant, it’s a poor attempt at diverting from the issue at hand. Perhaps it was an emotional argument, but nonetheless, it can only give nothing but credence to his weak scholarship.

Argument 2:

  • If you read the Qur’an, in a contextual and chronological fashion you will see a development, the first portions of the Qur’an barely emphasizing tawheed. That specific term does not appear in the Qur’an. The oneness of Allah against polytheists, at that time Muhammad [saws] is a minority Prophet,  and he’s calling the Quraysh and Meccans to true worship.

I’m not sure if James White was at any point intoxicated during this radio program, or if he intentionally was being deceptive. The very first verse to be revealed (see Ahmed Von Deffer’s, “Ulum al Qur’an” for the Chronology of the verses revealed), refers to Allaah as being Lord (singular, i.e. Tawheed):

Read! In the Name of your Lord, Who has created (all that exists), – Qur’an 96:1.

Not only is Allaah defined as Lord (Rabb), He is also defined as the Creator, and that’s in the very first verse. It gets worse, the second set of verses to be revealed enforce this message once more:

Glorify your Lord – Qur’an 74:3
And persevere in the way of your Lord. – Qur’an  74:7.

Tawheed refers to the oneness of our Lord (Rabb) and I am pretty sure that any functionally literate human sees the singular word, ‘Lord’ and not ‘Lords’. If referring to God as a ‘Lord’, that is: singular, does not emphasize the oneness of God, then James is sacrificing his intellectual integrity for an argument a child would be able to refute. To rub some salt into his intellectual wounds, the next two Surahs which were revealed speak specifically about Tawheed (some say Surah 73 came second and then Surah 74, quoted above):

Lord of the East and Lord of the West – there is no God except Him, therefore make Him your sole Trustee of affairs. –  Qur’an 73:9.

Tawheed is pretty clear, protruding, extant, explicit, in the verse above, even if that does not satisfy him, the very next (forth) revealed Surah mentions it in even more detail:

In the name of Allah, most benevolent, ever-merciful. ALL PRAISE BE to Allah, Lord of all the worlds, Most beneficent, ever-merciful, King of the Day of Judgement. You alone we worship, and to You alone turn for help. Guide us (O Lord) to the path that is straight, The path of those You have blessed, Not of those who have earned Your anger, nor those who have gone astray. – Qur’an 1:1-7.

Here’s a bit of advice James, if you have to lie, atleast make a smart lie, something with some level of ambiguity, something that I may not have knowledge about, but out of all things, do not lie about the Qur’an or early Islam. We have endless access to vast amounts of information that make it almost impossible for you to qualify your deceitful statements.

Argument 3:

  • I mean some Surahs say one thing and another Surah does not contain the exact same thing as another one, that must mean there is some change. Must be a different God.

This is another poorly constructed straw man. My argument was not nor has it ever been differing contents from one chapter to a next, my argument has and will always be, why the change in persona from a boastful, prideful God, to a mute that would not dare declare his deity, as opposed to thousands of years of magnificent declarations?

Argument 4:

  • When jesus comes, there are prophecies, those prophecies identify him as El Gibbor and Father God, Father Eternity. John comes to make straight the way for YHWH. The original followers of Jesus identify him as YHWh and cite texts from the OT and apply them to Jesus.

The problem arises once more, these are not the proud, bold, extant, explicit statements of YHWH, Jesus does not make these statements, nor does he interpret such statements to be about him. The epistles which do so, and the gospels which are written about him, are not the same as his interpretations, or his points of view. Taking post hoc eisegesis by unknown scribes as evidence of a man’s deity is not only lazy scholarship but grasping for straws at the least. It is also  quite abhorrent to identify the original followers of Jesus as being those from whom Tanach prophecies were applied, as we have no proper definition of who a ‘real’ Christians was until 325 AD when a vote decided that. It’s merely wishful thinking to assume that a decision of who a real Christian was, some 290 years after the man’s ministry, somehow transforms him into a God.

Argument 5:

  • So is your argument, really that Jesus should have just popped into existence.

After roughly 10 minutes of ranting, James finally asks an intelligent question. He wants to know what my argument is. See, this makes sense, all the previous questions he has asked are unintelligible and not related to what I asked in my article. I applaud James for conceding that he has faulty argumentation and for not knowing what my argument actually was. My argument is not that Jesus should have just popped into existence, my argument is why does he never say he is God, like YHWH does in the 12 verses I gave (not to mention the vast amounts of others I am willing to provide)?

Argument 6:

  • Is he just supposed to pop out with a big sign and say I am God, worship me? That’s the only way God can do these things. I am God, worship me. Is that the only way God can really do this thing? It is not possible, that the God man can come and actually come to veil his glory.

Again James, your inability to answer my question and to divert by promoting a straw man, leads me to further understand why Paul Williams refuses to share a stage with you. Such a low level of academia should not be entertained. I will quote myself:

 I asked for where Jesus declared Himself to be God, as YHWH did in the Old Testament. No one says YHWH is God because Abraham, David or Moses call Him God. We know YHWH is the God of the Old Testament because He says so Himself, because He identifies Himself as God almighty. The same cannot be said of Jesus, because at no point does He ever mimic the behaviour of YHWH as a proud God. For hundreds of years, nay, thousands of years, YHWH continuously declared Himself to be Hashem Adonai, Elohiym, etc. Yet the point remains, that despite thousands of years of doing so, he was unable in the person of Jesus to do so once. If they were the same God, why does Jesus not have the same proud, boastful, magnificent, powerful declarations of YHWH?

What is worse is that James mentions that God may have wanted to ‘veil‘ His glory. Veil here means to ‘cover‘, so God who is Eternally Majestic, would like to ‘hide’ His majesty? Logically speaking, to be Eternal is a constant, i.e. never ending and to ‘hide’ is to alter this constancy and thus be rendered as non-eternal. Therefore James provides another reason why YHWH is not Jesus, YHWH declares Himself to be eternal:

Abraham planted a tamarisk tree in Beersheba, and there he called on the name of the LORD, the Eternal God. – Genesis 21:33.

While Jesus is not eternal in His attributes, but veiled and hidden, atleast according to James White.

Argument 7:

  • Is it possible, just slightly possible, Ijaz, that God doesn’t want to present his son in this fashion? That maybe the idea of faith, is to be something other than just simply accepting some massively overpowering display.

So James at one point, hit a note of desperation and decided to throw an emotional argument into the mix. Yet the Bible refutes James once more, it says:

Who among the gods is like you, LORD? Who is like you— majestic in holiness, awesome in glory, working wonders? – Exodus 15:11.

YHWH is defined as an eternal God, eternally Majestic, Eternal in Glory, yet James’ version of YHWH is timid and veiled, not overpowering, which is different from the powerful and magnificent YHWH:

For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality and accepts no bribes. – Deuteronomy 10:17.

Argument 8:

  • When your quran says your prophet came with no other miracle than the qur’an, now narrations came up with all sorts of stuff that he allegedly did but that was later on. That’s odd isn’t it….Why isn’t there any glowing massive demonstration that Muhammad is the final prophet outside of well, just the Qur’an, which I just read and don’t find all that impressive?

I’m not sure what YHWH being God and Jesus not declaring himself as such, has to do with miracles of the Prophets. Doing miracles does not make one a Prophet, even the Bible attests to this:

They are demonic spirits that perform signs, and they go out to the kings of the whole world, to gather them for the battle on the great day of God Almighty. – Revelation 16:14.

Similarly, your argument that the ahadith came later on, is not only ignorant of the early transmission of the Sunnah, but ignorant of the fact that the argument backfires against you. Another one of your ‘double standards‘, recall that the stories of Jesus’ life were produced decades after his ‘worldly ministry’, since you lay claim to the notion that time affects validity, then your claim to miracles being a criteria can be equally as dismissed through dated record by scribes about your New Testament.

Argument 9:

  • Marcionite was not an actual Christian. We should hold all those little Muslim sects and cults to be Muslims as well. The great double standard.

Marcion was a Christian, the formal declaration of a Christian which you now hold to was only decided at the Council of Nicea. The same Catholic Church which you refer to as apostate and following the devil, is the same Church’s definition you use to define who a true Christian was, before 325 AD. The same Catholic patristics you demonise are the ones who opposed Marcion. Yet Marcion had vast amounts of followers and was the first man to codify as scripture, the New Testament you use today. Clearly if you want to talk about double standards, you must question yourself first.

In closing the question that sparked this article and a radio show, remains unanswered. Why is it that the YHWH of the Tanach is able for thousands of years to declare Himself as an Eternal, Majestic, Mighty, Powerful, Jealous, Vengeful God, with explicit, extant and clear statements, but Jesus, in 33 years, is unable to do so, not even once? James did indicate he may continue his ‘response’ to me on Thursday, if that is the case, is he planning to actually answer the crux of the argument then, or would I have to seep through his straw men to find it?

wa Allaahu Alam,
and God knows best.

Thank You!

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Bismillahir Rahmanir Raheem
بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ ,

It’s been a fantastic full 8 months of operation. This month of August is special to the Calling Christians team. For the month of August we celebrate two new records!

  • We’ve reached 2000+ Likes on Facebook. Click the image above or here, to like our Facebook page. Get daily Islamic news, discussions, our latest posts, interact with the authors, debate with Christians, Jews, Atheists. The Calling Christians ecosystem continues to expand and with that expansion comes a host of new readers, supporters and new Muslims, allhamdulillah.
  • This month we’ve reached our highest visitor count to the website, more than triple that of our first entire month, which was January of 2012. That’s right, in 8 months we’ve tripled our views, we’ve amassed a couple thousand views each month for several months with each month bringing a new increase of visitors, allhamdulillah. Our growth has been exponential, yet smooth. Our content has become more frequent and the average quality of posts has been raised dramatically. Many of our authors have also began to engage in live da’wah (on the streets- Br. Hamza, Br. Alex, Sr. Alice), and some to the TV (Br. Ijaz). We have many more surprises in store before the close of 2012, so stay tuned and thank you for supporting our cause.

We remain committed to defending Islam, answering the lies of the missionaries, guiding misguided Muslims back to Islam and bringing Christians and Jews to Islam. Our mission and our success has only been made possible through the will of Allaah ta ‘ala and He alone deserves our praise and worship. May Allaah ta ‘ala continue to bless our da’wah, make it a source of guidance for many and allow us to preach the haqq of Islam, ameen.

wa Allaahu Alam,
and God knows best.

David Wood’s Hypocrisy

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Bismillahir Rahmanir Raheem
بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ ,

David Wood has gone off into desperation again. Recently he’s been promoting the view that all Muslims should protest and speak out against violent acts done by fellow Muslims, regardless of whether the act was done because the person was motivated by Islam or not. Which is a bit odd, since David Wood himself, remained silent when Muslims were being attacked:

Therefore I must question David’s lowly integrity. On what basis does he demand all Muslims be blamed for the acts of others, when he himself, is silent when Muslims are violently attacked in his own nation? David must remove his blinders and lay low on the alcohol or the communion wine, because as it is, the double standards he uses are growing quite pathetic, which says alot about his personal integrity. What’s worse, is that I personally believe that David has a literacy problem, in a recent post on his blog, he says:

Can’t CAIR, ISNA, and their Muslim and non-Muslim supporters spare a few minutes of their endless complaint-time to inform Muslims in Pakistan (and Egypt, and Iraq, and Sudan, etc.) that Islam is a religion of peace and tolerance?

Well David, the problem is that either you can’t read, or willing choose to insult the intelligence of your viewership. A simple search brings up a CAIR news release on the same issue:

Even ISNA, has released a press statement on this issue:

ISNA Calls for Release of Christian Girl in Pakistan

(Washington, DC – August 24, 2012) The Islamic Society of North America condemns the arrest of Ramsha Masih, a young Christian girl who was accused of burning pages from a book that included verses from the Qur’an. It is believed that the girl suffers from Down syndrome.

According to Islamic law, a person who is both a minor and has an intellectual disability cannot be held accountable for his/her actions. “I ask the Pakistani Muslim community to act with compassion and restraint,” said ISNA President Imam Mohamed Magid. “We call on the government of Pakistan to immediately release Ramsha to her family and ensure their safety.”

ISNA remains deeply concerned about the treatment of religious minorities in Muslim-majority communities and has been engaged in work to address this issue for the past several years. In 2011, following the assassination of Minister of Minorities Shahbaz Bhatti and Punjab Governor Salmaan Taseer, ISNA called on the Pakistani government  to take every measure necessary to secure the rights of religious minorities in Pakistan, as well as their safety and those of their places of worship. Within the past year, we have continued to work on these issues by consulting with Muslim scholars from around the world to create a mechanism for Islamic standards and protocols on the rights of religious minorities in the Muslim-majority communities.

From: ISNA e-Newsletter <bounce@isna.com>

Date: August 25, 2012 1:31:04 AM GMT+01:00
To: alam.faisal@gmail.com
Subject: ISNA Calls for Release of Christian Girl in Pakistan
Reply-To: bounce@isna.com

Therefore, I renew my calls for David Wood to apply the same standards he applies to Muslims and if he dares, we hope he attempts to atleast research something before publishing ignorant comments.

wa Allaahu Alam,
and God knows best.

The Christian God: Non Compos Mentis

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Bismillahir Rahmanir Raheem
بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ ,

Non compos mentis, a most suitable phrase to describe the behaviour of the Judeo Christian God. What truly behoves me has to be the complete change of character from the Old Testament God to that of the New Testament God. Therefore, in my judgement, I have no choice but to deem this God, “out of his mind“.  Before I begin to explain my argument, we must first examine the evidences my rationale is based upon, therefore let’s examine some verses from the Bible:

  • He also said to him, “I am the LORD, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to take possession of it.” – Genesis 15:7.
  • When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to him and said, “I am God Almighty ; walk before me faithfully and be blameless. – Genesis 17:1.
  • That night the LORD appeared to him and said, “I am the God of your father Abraham. Do not be afraid, for I am with you; I will bless you and will increase the number of your descendants for the sake of my servant Abraham.” – Genesis 26:24.
  • There above it stood the LORD, and he said: “I am the LORD, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are lying. – Genesis 28:13.
  • God also said to Moses, “I am the LORD. – Exodus 6:2.
  • “Therefore, say to the Israelites: ‘I am the LORD, and I will bring you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians. I will free you from being slaves to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with mighty acts of judgment. I will take you as my own people, and I will be your God. Then you will know that I am theLORD your God, who brought you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians. And I will bring you to the land I swore with uplifted hand to give to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob. I will give it to you as a possession. I am the LORD.’” – Exodus 6:6-8.
  • he said to him, “I am the LORD. Tell Pharaoh king of Egypt everything I tell you.” – Exodus 6:29.
  • And the Egyptians will know that I am the LORD when I stretch out my hand against Egypt and bring the Israelites out of it.” – Exodus 7:5.
  • This is what the LORD says: By this you will know that I am the LORD: With the staff that is in my hand I will strike the water of the Nile, and it will be changed into blood. – Exodus 7:17.

The common and most frequently repeated statement in the aforementioned verses, clearly indicates that in the Old Testament, YHWH is God. There are no two ways about it, no one can interpret these verses to be understood that YHWH is not God. You open up the Old Testament and from Genesis to Zechariah, you will find, littered throughout the scripture, declarations by YHWH, that He is God, the Eternal, Everlasting Lord. These statements are frequent, explicit, extant, overtly repeated, bold, valiantly declared, boasted, rash and crystal clear. There is no way one can miss these declarations. No one has to find the need to imply that He is God, no one has to interpret an ambiguous verse, no one has to do anything to prove that YHWH is the God of the Old Testament, because as it is, He says so Himself.

Which brings me to my point. What happened to YHWH? According to the Christian version of events, He came to earth and got tired of declaring Himself to be God. There is not a single unequivocal statement in the New Testament where Jesus ever declared Himself God, as YHWH did (in the many verses above). Isn’t that strange? If Jesus the Christ, is the YHWH of the Tanach, shouldn’t He emulate the bold and rash declarative statements of the Judaic God? Yet, in spite of this jealous and glorious God, whose persona is magnificent, unashamed to announce His power, His position, we are left with nothing more than ambiguous, interpolated excuses, more or less, ‘chicken scratch‘, when it comes to the persona of Jesus as a God. Timid, perhaps shy, not even his own mother could have understood that Jesus was trying to indicate his Godly stature:

“Why were you searching for me?” he asked. “Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house?” But they did not understand what he was saying to them. – Luke 2:49-50.

Such an amazing change, the Christian God went from boasting about His stature, to being relegated as incomprehensible by his own “mother“. Can you imagine giving birth to a God and for the entire childhood of the child, not recognizing the child as a God? So timid is Jesus, the alleged God, that even when his own mother whom he created does not realise he is God, he does nothing. Yet when a few men looked upon the Ark of the Lord, i.e. they disrespected him by looking at a sacred object, He killed 50,000 persons in retribution:

And he smote the men of Bethshemesh, because they had looked into the ark of the Lord, even he smote of the people fifty thousand and threescore and ten men: and the people lamented, because the Lord had smitten many of the people with a great slaughter. – 1 Samuel 6:19.

Yet, his own mother, his own creation, is denying his deity, she does not comprehend him to be a God, the worse kind of sin, disbelief in God is being committed and so shackled, so weak, so pathetic, so fragile is this “God”, that he does nothing. Where is the mighty God? The proud Lord of the Heavens and the Earth? Nowhere to be found. I have no choice but to declare this God to be MIA (missing in action), hence my statement that the Christian God has to be seen as ‘non compos mentis‘, that is to be, ‘out of his mind‘. The YHWH we’re accustomed to is missing. When we read the New Testament, we don’t have a clear, extant, explicit statement by Jesus declaring his deity, as opposed to that of the Old Testament.  Perhaps the Christian God suffers from selective mutism, social anxiety, or some other personality disorder. Whatever the case maybe, us Muslims are not alone in noticing this. So striking and clear is the view that these two Gods as represented in the Old and New Testaments are distinct, that even early Christians themselves declared YHWH and Jesus to be two different Gods. This group was called the Marcionites, named after Marcion, whose beliefs are as such:

Marcion’s teachings departed from traditional Christianity in a number of ways. Most dramatically, perhaps, Marcion rejected the idea that the Old Testament God and the New Testament God were the same being. Up until then, the traditional Church had considered the Old Testament to be sacred and assumed that Christianity was a fulfillment or continuation of Judaism. Marcion’s rejection of that idea affected many different doctrines and beliefs. – A Survey of Marcion’s Life and Legacy, by Chris Price.

In ending, I ask one pivotal question, would the real YHWH please stand up, is it the proud God of the Tanach or the selective mute of the New Testament?

wa Allaahu Alam,
and God knows best.

Update: See my response to James White’s attack on this article.

The Greatest Evidence for the Veracity of Christianity: Its Absurdity, By Tertullian

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Bismillahir Rahmanir Raheem
بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ ,

Note: The following quote is not from my own writing, nor my own translation, the source and link is clearly cited below for all to enjoy reading.

One of early Christendom’s most significant and prominent leaders, (what we term a Patristic) was Tertullian (Quintus Septimius Florens Tertullianus) who was one of the very first Christian apologists, writing against many people, most notably, “Against Marcion” (Adversus Marcionem) who awkwardly enough was the first man to canonize the Christian Bible and “Against the Jews” (Adversus Judaeos ) who even more strangely enough followed the religion of their God (as they say Jesus was a Jew). What is apparent is that these statements are supposed to be in support of Christianity, being such a major apologetic in his day, it is quite shocking to read some of his statements about the veracity of the Christian faith. As such, please do research more on this issue and enjoy reading:

There are, to be sure, other things also quite as foolish (as the birth of Christ), which have reference to the humiliations and sufferings of God. Or else, let them call a crucified God “wisdom.” But Marcion will apply the knife’ to this doctrine also,, and even with greater reason. For which Is more unworthy of God, which is more likely to raise a blush of shame, that God should be born, or that He should die? that He should bear the flesh, or the cross? be circumcised, or be crucified? be cradled, or be coffined? be laid in a manger, or in a tomb? Talk of “wisdom!” You will show more of fiat if you refuse to believe this also. But, after all, you will not be “wise” unless you become a “fool” to the world, by believing” the foolish things of God.”Have you, then, cut away all sufferings from Christ, on the ground that, as a mere phantom, He was incapable of experiencing them? We have said above that He might possibly have undergone the unreal mockeries of an imaginary birth and infancy.But answer me at once, you that murder truth: Was not God really crucified? And, having been really crucified, did He not really die? And, having indeed really died, did He not really rise again? Falsely did Paul “determine to know nothing amongst us but Jesus and Him crucified;” falsely has he impressed upon us that He was buried; falsely inculcated that He rose again. False, therefore, is our faith also. And all that we hope for from Christ will be a phantom.O thou most infamous of men, who acquittest of all guilt the murderers of God! For nothing did Christ suffer from them, if He really suffered nothing at all. Spare the whole world’s one only hope, thou who art destroying the indispensable dishonour of our faith? Whatsoever is unworthy of God, is of gain to me. I am safe, if I am not ashamed–my Lord.“Whosoever,” says He, “shall be ashamed of me, of him will I also be ashamed.” Other matters for shame find I r none which can prove me to be shameless t in a good sense, and foolish in a happy one, by my own contempt of shame. The Son of God was crucified; I am not ashamed because men must needs be ashamed of it. And the Son of God died; it is by all means to be believed, because it is absurd. And He was buried, and rose again; the fact is certain, because it is impossible.But how will all this be true in Him, if He was not Himself true–if He really had not in Himself that which might be crucified, might die, might be buried, and might rise again?I mean this flesh suffused with blood, built up with bones, interwoven with nerves, entwined with veins, a flesh which knew how to be born, and how to die, human without doubt, as born of a human being. It will therefore be mortal in Christ, because Christ is man and the Son of man. Else why is Christ man and the Son of man, if he has nothing of man, and nothing from man? Unless it be either that man is anything else than flesh, or man’s flesh comes from any other source than man, or Mary is anything else than a human being, or Marcion’s man is as Marcion’s god. Otherwise Christ could not be described as being man without flesh, nor the Son of man without any human parent; just as He is not God without the Spirit of God, nor the Son of God without having God for His father. Thus the nature of the two substances displayed Him as man and God,–in one respect born, in the other unborn; l in one respect fleshly in the other spiritual; in one sense weak in the other exceeding strong; in on sense dying, in the other living.

This excerpt has been taking from, “De carne Christi (On the flesh of Christ), Chapter 5, – Christ Truly Lived and Died in human flesh. Incidents of human life on earth, and refutation of Marcion’s docetic parody of the same.”

Link to online resource of said book: http://www.earlychristianwritings.co…tullian15.html

From this we can deduce that Paul was a liar and a man which altered the true doctrine of Christ, as Tertullian clearly indicates. Following from this, we can also conclude that the greatest proof of Christianity’s theological foundations, is that the religion is so morbidly absurd tha it just has to be true. Recall the famous saying, “that idea is so stupid it just might work“, same reasoning applies here. That’s truly some great logic!

Qur’aan Surah 4, Ayah 156-159:

“That they rejected Faith; That they uttered against Mary A grave false charge; That they said (in boast): ‘We killed Christ Jesus The son of Mary, The Messenger of Allah.’ But they killed him not, Nor crucified him, but so it was made to appear to them, and those who differ therein are full of doubts, with no (certain) knowledge, but only conjecture to follow, for of a surety they killed him not. Nay, Allah raised him up Unto Himself; and Allah Is Exalted in Power, Wise. And there is none of the people of the book (Jews and Christians) But must believe in him (Jesus) Before his death; And on the Day of Judgment He (Jesus) will be a witness Against them.”

wa Allaahu Alam,
and God knows best.

Originally Published: December 2nd, 2011, 14:11 PM.
Edited and Republished: August 19th, 2012, 10:10 AM.

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