SURVEY OF RELIGIONS & CULTS
LECTURES 3 & 4
ISLAM
The smaller (10 font) sections are from Pastor Warner’s own private research from a myriad of sources.
The remainder in normal 10.5 font is from “Encyclopedia of World Religions, Cults and the Occult”.
Choose your favorite ‘subtitle’ for these lectures:
‘Islam smells and sounds a lot like Salami’; ‘Islam is Lame’; ‘Slam Islam’; ‘Islam is a Sham’.
Never forget!...
The September 11, 2001 attacks (9/11) consisted of a series of coordinated suicide attacks by “al-Qaeda” upon the United States of America. On that morning, 19 Islamic terrorists hijacked four commercial passenger jet airliners and intentionally crashed 2 of the planes into the ‘twin towers’ of the WorldTradeCenter buildings, the third plane into the Pentagon, and the 4th plane crashed in a field in rural Pennsylvania. Each jet had the approximate jet fuel capacity of about 24,000 gallons each! It is estimated that 2,974 people died as an immediate result of the attacks. At least 200 people jumped to their deaths from the levels above the impact zone. The NYC Fire Department lost 394 firefighters.
9/11 was the single most deadly attack ever upon Americans on US soil…even deadlier than Pearl Harbor (2400 died).
It was found that the hijackers used box-cutter knives and Leatherman’s to threaten (and probably kill) the crew members of the airplanes.
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Introduction
Islam means submission and peace. Islam stands for complete surrender and obedience to Allah (Allah is the Arabic name for God).
The religion of Muslims was revealed through Muhammad, the Prophet of Allah.
Islam is the fastest growing world religion with over 1.2 billion adherents.
Islam is one of the three great monotheistic faiths (also, Judaism, Christianity).
Islam claims to be a unique religion. The message of Islam is even more important than the person
of Muhammad. Muslims are not “Muhammadans” and should never be called by that name.
Islam is more than a religion, it is a complete way of life.
Statistics
Islam is the fastest growing religion in America, and the world. Since 1900, Muslim population has increased dramatically: (1900) Christian 27%, Muslim 12%; (1980) Christian 30%, Muslim 16%; (2000) Christian 30%, Muslim 19%; and (2025 projected) Christian 25%, Muslim 30%. It is estimated that as of 2007 there are 1.2 to 1.5 billion Muslims in the world (that is 20%). It is the second largest religion in the world; second to (generic) Christianity (of which 2/3 is said to be Catholic!)
Approximately 18% of Muslims live in the Arab world. Indonesia is the world’s largest Muslim community. Pakistan, then India, and then Bangladesh have the three next largest populations of Muslims. Many parts of Asia and most of Africa are Muslim.
Significant minorities of Muslims live in Russia, China, North and South America, and Europe.
Asia has 550 million Muslims, the Middle East has 305 million, Africa has 150 million, Europe 20 million, and North America over 5 million.
Islam is already the first or second largest religion of almost every European state (24 million total).
The Muslim population of the United States grew sixfold between 1972 and 1990.
The native population of the following fourteen countries is over 95% Muslim. They are the world’s most
Muslim nations: Bahrain; Comoros; Kuwait; Maldives; Mauritania; Mayotte; Morocco; Oman; Qatar; Somalia; Saudi Arabia; Tunisia; United Arab Emirates; Western Sahara; Yemen.
Allah
Muslims believe that there is only one God, called Allah.He has no partner, and no equal. God brought creation into being by his word “Be.” He is everywhere, but lives in nothing. He is just and merciful. He is also a personal God, close to each believer, answering their prayers, and showing them “the straight path.” God is “nearer to man than his jugular vein” (chapter 50:16).
Muhammad
Muslims believe that: He is a true prophet of God; His teachings are absolutely perfect, and error free; He is God’s last prophet. Muslims believe in a chain of prophets starting with Adam and including Noah, Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Job, Moses, Aaron, David, Solomon, Elias, Jonah, John the Baptist, and Jesus. God’s most important and final revelations came through the Prophet Muhammad, the last of Allah’s prophets.
Muhammad was born in Mecca, in Saudi Arabia, in AD 570, and later in life became very wealthy.
Muhammad, a spiritual man, often meditated on MountHira. In AD 610, when he was forty years old, he went there to pray and meditate. When he was asleep in a cave, he had a vision of the angel Gabriel, who gave him a message
from God, and urged him to read the words on a piece of material, which he was unable to do as he could not read or write.When Muhammad woke, he heard a voice from heaven saying, “You are the Messenger of God.” This marked the beginning of his life as a messenger, or Prophet, of God. Many listened to Muhammad and became his followers.
But Muhammad’s popularity was viewed as a threat by the rulers in Mecca and Muhammad and his followers were persecuted. In June 622 A.D, Muhammad encouraged his followers to leave Mecca and travel in small groups to Medina, 260 miles to the north. Altogether, about seventy people made this journey, which became known as the “emigration” or Hijrah. It is at this point that Islamic history begins: the Islamic era begins on June 16, 622, the day when the Hijrah began.
Muhammad gained strength in Medina and was eventually able to amass an army of 10,000 men. He died in June of 632. Before Muhammad died, aged 63, most of Arabia had embraced the Muslim faith. Within one hundred
years of Muhammad’s death it had spread far and wide, to Spain in the west and to China in the east.
The objective of Islam is to conquer the world for Allah. By the time of his death, Muhammad had united most of Arabia under his religion and control, and his followers have gone much farther in achieving that goal. Today, there are 44 Islamic states.
Muhammad’s grave lies in Medina, the second most revered place of worship for Muslims. While pilgrimage to Medina is not mandatory, it is very popular.
Muhammadworshipped “Allah”, the moon god, which was the chief god of the 360 gods (1 per each day of the lunar cycle) that the Quraysh tribe of Mecca, Muhammad's tribe, worshipped at the Kabah during the 7th century in the country of Persia, which is now Saudi Arabia.
The ancient moon-god symbol of the crescent moon was easily adopted by Islam as their religious symbol. The stars on the Islamic flag are pagan symbols for the daughters of Allah: al-Lat, al-Uzzah, and Manat. The Qur’an at one time told Muslims to worship these daughters (Surah 53:19,20), but have since been removed and are now known as “The Satanic Verses”.
Muhammad, during his adulthood married an additional fourteen wives, although in the Qur'an, he specified that muslim men could have a total of only four wives, and before marrying a 5th that man must divorce one of the other four. In Islam, a divorce requires only that a husband say "I divorce thee," three times in front of witnesses. Muhammad claimed that because he was God's prophet he was personally exempt from the Qur'anic limit of four wives, and instead, he was to be allowed as many wives as he wished.
The Hadith reveals that Muhammad had to ask forgiveness for sin more than seventy times a day. (Bukhari vol. I). Since Muslims believe that prophets must be sinless, this proves that Muhammad was not qualified to be a Muslim prophet.
He believed in magic, the evil eye, amulets, omens, spells, etc. He was superstitious about many things and made up weird rules about bathroom duties. The Hadith (oral traditions of ancient Muslims) tells us that Muhammad was at times under magical spells, bewitched, told lies and did things while under those spells (Bukhari vol. IV).
Here are some of the many ridiculously insane things that Muhammad taught:
He stated that Adam was 60 cubits tall! (Bukhari vol. IV, no. 543).
He was a dog hater. He thought that angels could not enter a house if a dog was there and that black dogs were devils. Thus he ordered dogs to be killed and forbid the selling of dogs. (Bukhari vol- IV, nos. 539, 540)
Satan lives in the nose over night. He can be flushed out if you snort water up and then out the nose; or, typically, you can just blow your nose 3 times to get him out (Bukhari vol. IV, no. 516)
Yawning is from the devil.
Muhammad forbade the game of chess! (Muslim vol. IV, no. 5612)
People can turn into rats, pigs and monkeys. (Bukhari vol. IV, nos. 524, 627)
Muslims have one intestine while non-Muslims have seven! (Muslim vol. 111, no. 5113-5115)
If you lift up your eyes towards heaven while praying, your eyes will be snatched out! (Muslim vol. III, nos. 862-863)
We should drink camel urine as a medicine. (Bukhari vol. I, no. 234)
Qur’an
The Qur’an (aka Koran) is Allah’s last and complete book. It is the true word of God, as revealed to Muhammad.
The Qur’an’s basic message is that there is only one God, the creator of everything, who alone must be served by correct worship and behavior.
The complete contents of the Qur’an were revealed to Muhammad by the angel Gabriel over twenty-three years, between 610 and 632. As he could neither read nor write he memorized these revelations and repeated them to his followers who memorized some of them and wrote others down in Arabic word for word exactly as Muhammad had dictated them.
In daily prayers, passages are recited from memory, preeminently chapter 1, which is repeated over and over during the five periods of daily prayer. Many Muslims know the whole Qur’an by heart, though it is almost as long as the New Testament.
It has 114 chapters (surahs). The chapters are divided in verses, of which there are 6,000 altogether.The chapters are not arranged in the order in which they were revealed, nor according to theme, but as a general rule according to length, the longest at the beginning (the most notable exception being chapter 1, which is short).
The Qur’an exists only in the Arabic in which it was revealed.
The Qur’an teaches:
1. All people are basically good; men and women are born free of sin. Every person is endowed by Allah with the
spiritual potential and intellectual inclination that can make him a good Muslim.
2. Salvation is by sincerity and works. Salvation is earned through a life of good deeds.
3. The devil, Satan, is not a fallen angel, but a fallen Jinn. ‘Jinn’ are supernatural, invisible beings, below angels, who, like humans, are given the power to choose between right and wrong.
4. Muslims do not deny the existence of Jesus. Rather they believe that he was an important prophet. They respect and revere him. The Qur’an recounts his virgin birth. But, Jesus was merely a messenger of Allah. They say Jesus is not God. Those who believe Jesus is God are infidels or disbelievers. They state ‘It is impossible for anyone who believes in Jesus’ death on the cross and his resurrection to gain salvation. Jesus can play no part in a Muslim’s salvation.’
O People of the Book! Commit no excesses in your religion: nor say of Allah anything but the truth. Christ Jesus the son of Mary was no more than a Messenger of Allah… Do not say "Trinity": desist: it will be better for you: for Allah is One God: Glory be to Him: far exalted is He above having a son. (Qur’an 4:171)
In blasphemy indeed are those that say that God is Christ the son of Mary.(Qur’an 5:17)
The Hadith, which is secondary to the Qur’an, records what Muhammad said, did, and approved of. In the Hadith, Muhammad’s sayings and deeds are called Sunnah. The Qur’an and the Sunnah are the two main
sources of Islamic law.
The Koran is filled with contradictions to the Bible. It says, for example, that Abraham offered Ishmael rather than Isaac, that Noah had a fourth son who died in the flood, that Mary the mother of Jesus was the sister of Moses and gave birth to Jesus under a palm.
One of the questions which puzzled the ancient Arabs was, "Where did the sun go when night time came?" The Qur'an gave them Allah's answer. “He followed, until he reached the setting of the sun. He found it set in a spring of murky water (Surah XVIII). Most Muslim scholars believe that the ‘he’ mentioned here refers to Alexander the Great.
Five Pillars
Islam is built on Five Pillars. The five pillars of Islam are: Shahada; Salat; Saum; Zakat; Hajj
The first pillar, shahada, is a state of faith and the other four pillars are major exercises of faith which have to be performed on either a daily, weekly, monthly, or annual basis. The last one, hajj, has to be undertaken once in a lifetime.
The Five Pillars of Islam are the five obligations that every Muslim must satisfy in order to live a good and responsible life according to Islam. These Five Pillars provide the framework for the lives of all Muslims, and direct their everyday activities and beliefs.
·Shahadah is the sincere reciting of the Muslim profession of faith.
·Salat is the performing of ritual prayers five times each day.
·Sawm is fasting during the month of Ramadan.
·Zakat is paying a charity tax to the poor. Muslim law today requires
that believers give one-fortieth of their income, which is two and one half
percent, to benefit islamic works
·Hajj is going on pilgrimage to Mecca.
At the Haram mosque in Mecca is the Ka‘ba (“cube” in Arabic). The Ka‘ba is a shrine about 60 feet, by 60
feet, by 60 feet and is the place of worship that [Muslim’s say] God had commanded Abraham and Ishmael to build.
The Ka‘ba became known as the House of Allah and during the Hajj pilgrims circle it seven times. Whenever Muslims pray they turn in the direction of the Ka‘ba.
Muslims believe that Islam is a faith that has always existed. The Muslim creed consists of five articles of faith: belief… in one God; in the revealed books; in angels; in the prophets; in the Day of Judgment.
They have many other beliefs, some of which greatly resemble other religions’. They believe: in praying using a 99 bead rosary (Allah’s names); Mass service for the dead; circumcision; women veiled and wearing the chador; polygamy; no pork; etc.
In Islam, there is no hierarchy of religious leadership. There are no priests, bishops, monks, or popes. The Muslim Imams and scholars cannot forgive sins. They do not receive divine revelations. They are just ordinary Muslims who have devoted themselves to Islamic studies.
The Muslim building for communal worship is called a mosque. Mosques consist of a large room. There is no furniture in the room, nor are there any statues or pictures.
One becomes a Muslim by sincerely saying and believing: “There is no true god (deity) but God (Allah), and Muhammad is the Messenger (Prophet) of God.”
Morality
The dress code for Muslims emphasizes modesty. The material should therefore not be too thin, and the clothes should not be too tight.
Muslims do not eat pork or drink alcohol.
Islam does not approve of intimate mixing of the sexes, and forbids premarital or extramarital sex.
Marriage is encouraged as a shield to such temptations and as a means of having mutual love.
Islam regards abortion as murder and does not permit it except to save the mother’s life.
Islam categorically opposes homosexuality and considers it a sin.
The Koran states that the husband can beat his rebellious wife to keep her in subjection.
Islamic law keeps Muslim families staying Muslim: There is, by law, no allowance of marrying into other religions in most Muslim countries, without incurring the death penalty; thus, all progeny is and must remain Islamic. Marriage is a duty and large families are encouraged.
A Peaceful Religion?...
They call themselves a “House of Peace”! What an oxymoronic statement! I challenge anyone to give even one example of where Islam has everbrought peace. There are none. There are more revolutions, assassinations and terrorism within Muslim countries than in all the rest of the world; and we are just looking at Muslim against Muslim fighting!
Does this sound like a peace-seeking religion?! Ayatollah Khomeini: “To kill and to be killed for Allah is a Muslim’s greatest joy.” Mohammed, the founder of Islam, was quoted as saying, "Invitation first", that is, call them first to embrace Islam. "If they refuse, then war." "The sword", said Mohammed, "is the key of heaven and hell; a drop of blood shed in the cause of Allah, a night spent in arms, is of more avail than two months of fasting or prayer: whosoever falls in battle, his sins are forgiven, and at the day of judgment his limbs shall be supplied by the wings of angels and cherubim.