Evangelizing Iraq

National Review ^ | May 23, 2003, 9:40 a.m. | David Klinghoffer

[LiteKeeper]

I guess when the Gospel says that Jesus died for all people, it really only means "all but the Muslims"...too bad!

[Theo]

Muslims, Christians, and Jews disagree about details of theology, but the basic point is beyond dispute: We are called to share our God

Hm? What's that mean? It's not about "us sharing our God"; it's about God being glorified through (among other things) His people. The emphasis shouldn't be the humanistic "We"....

Anyway, that country does need the Lord. The people there are desperate to hear about a Savior. And like all of us who have been transformed by Him, they must humble themselves and acknowledge they have been wrong.

[VOA]

Islamic law makes conversion from Islam a capital offense

Looks like all of Saddam's appeals to Allah fell on deaf ears.
Or maybe this "Allah" does not even EXIST.

I don't mean to bum out all the Iraqis...but Islamic Law melted away from an onslaught
of planes, tanks, Bradley's and M-16s controlled by a bunch of Americans meaning
to rid the planet of a nasty tribe of pukes from Takrit.

[VOA]

Muslims, Christians, and Jews disagree about details of theology, but the basic point
is beyond dispute: We are called to share our God.

Yo Klinghoffer!
1. Ask Muslims about the return of Christ as described in the Hadith.

2. Ask Muslims, especially "Moderate Muslims" like Ibrahim Hooper, a prominent spokesperson
for Muslims in America...if they'd like Shari'a Law to be the law of the USA.


Mr. Klinghoffer, don't be suprised at the long pause and then the "hmmms and haahs"
you get for answers. Or all the Bravo Sierra equivocations.
Just like I (VOA) heard from Mr. Ibrahim Hooper on The Michael Medved Show on radio
in response to the second question.

[undergroundwarrior]

Problem is Saddam's brutality repressed Islamic fundamentalism. Now, Iraq is in real trouble. Their Ayatollah returned, from exile in Iran, and he is preaching unification of all the Muslims.

Let Franklin Graham spread the Gospel. It is their (and ours, in the long run) only hope.

[sheltonmac]

*ping*

[VOA]

Problem is Saddam's brutality repressed Islamic fundamentalism.

You are absolutely correct.
At the same time...at least following Gulf War I, some investigative reporters say that
Saddam started to at least make some protestations about Allah, even if just
to try to bring devout Iraqi Muslims to his side.

Some even said this might have been part of a joining of Saddam to radical Islamic
groups like Al-Quida.

Myself, I say ship TONS of aid and distribute it...just get the Iraqis into good physical shape
With written declaration of where the aid comes from in Arabic (or whatever) on the boxes.

We can plant the seed now without starting civil insurrections.

[UnChained]

Myself, I say ship TONS of aid and distribute it...just get the Iraqis into good physical shape With written declaration of where the aid comes from in Arabic (or whatever) on the boxes.

Has welfare in the US created patriots who love the people who take care of them?

No, it's created an attitude of entitlement and resentment that they aren't getting more than they are. Saddam's Iraq seemed to be a vast welfare state woith a lot of people on the dole. I see the resentment and sense that "the government owes me a living mentality" is already well developed in Iraq.

I say let the religious organizations in and attach all the strings they want to the aid. Maybe even with matching funds from the US.

[ishmac]

Let Franklin Graham spread the Gospel. It is their (and ours, in the long run) only hope.

I agree, it's our only hope in the long run. Unfortunately, converting Muslims is notoriously difficult. Fr. James Schall, quoting Hillaire Belloc, noted that,

Islam would not look at any Christian missionary effort. The so-called Christian governments, in contact with it, it spiritually despised. The ardent and sincere Christian missionaries were received usually with courtesy, sometimes with fierce attack, but were never allowed to affect Islam. I think it true to say that Islam is the only spiritual force on earth which Catholicism [or any other denomination or religioun] has found an impregnable fortress.

Its votaries are the one religious body conversions from which are insignificant. Belloc recognized that Islam flourished because it did have some basic truth about God, however that be interpreted. “Mohammedanism struck permanent roots, developing a life of its own, and became at last something like a new religion...,” Belloc wrote in The Great Heresies. “Like all heresies, Mohammedanism lived by the Catholic truths which it had retained. Its insistence on personal immortality, on the Unity and Infinite Majesty of God, on His Justice and Mercy, its insistence on the equality of human souls in the sight of their Creator – these were its strength” (128). Belloc saw the strength of Islam in its virtues. It is for this reason alone, the impregnability of Islam to Catholicism, however, that the Church needs to take more cognizance of what is this growing force in the world. It is not enough to condemn violence in the abstract. “Go forth and teach all nations” is not possible if the nations will not allow themselves to be preached to. The western theories of freedom of religion, whether secular or religious, have made no headway in Islam, and only rarely are they criticized for this lack. Those few who are Christians or members of other religions, in most Muslim lands, in practice must be content to remain second-class citizens and are constantly subject to the pressure to convert to Islam.

Fr. Schall's whole article can be read here.

[undergroundwarrior]

Very scary. And G.W.B. calls Islam the "Religion of Peace".

[Sonny M]

Or maybe this "Allah" does not even EXIST.

He exists, he's in both the old and new testament, but you know him by his other name.

Lucifer.

[Incorrigible]

Related thread:

Plans Under Way for Christianizing the Enemy

[aiquile]

NOT funny.
Or wise, if the long-term goal is converting the Iraqi people.
If we're going to make any headway, we first have to see things from their point of view. I don't think they'd appreciate anyone calling their god the devil.

[Ahban]

That is right. Why can't Christians do what they want with their own property? "No strings attached" should not be done because others claim we have some obligation to do it that way, but because we choose it from the heart.

I say just preach the Gospel and don't offer them any aid other than that. Its all the aid they need (long term).

[Sonny M]

Actually, I really wasn't joking. I honestly believe that Mohammad was lead astray by the devil, Mohammad himself at one point claims that the devil lied to him and gave him false teachings, but then Allah showed him that he had been decieved.

These passages are reffered to as the "Satanic Verse's" of which Salmon Rushdie used the name for his book.

Many people believe that Mohammad was mearly mentally ill, since he does show all the signs of mental illness, I happen to believe that he was decieved, not once, as he believed, but the whole time.

I understand that we have to see things from there point of view, but how do you open the eyes of somone who has been, effectivley brainwashed and lied to there entire lives?

[ContentiousObjector]

If the Iraqi's treat Christian fundamentalists the same way the treat Islamic fundamentalists they can look forward to being martyred by firing squad

Religious fundamentalists (of any flavor) are not welcome in Iraq,

[aiquile]

That's why this is going to be so difficult...

[ContentiousObjector]

Islamic law makes conversion from Islam a capital offense

Ahh, more quality research from the National Review... Iraq doesn't now and never did have Islamic law and short of unprecedented incompetence and neglect on the part of the occupation force never will have Islamic law

[PresbyRev]

Jesus linked the open table, a free hospitality and sometimes physical healing with his message. To proclaim the Gospel in word only and not by deed would be to preach only half the good news. Physical aid - food, health care, social reform, education - all go hand in hand with the Christian proclamation. The nations are not only to be preached at but to be discipled. Lord willing, Iraq will be freed from Islamic darkness. The Kurds have had a growing Christian movement over the last decade - perhaps such is in store for the larger nation.

Blessings.