Newswatch Magazine February 2010
A magazine making clear today’s news in the light of Bible Prophecy. This magazine, a Publication of the Church of God Evangelistic Assn., features articles giving the meaning of world news in the light of Bible prophecy, Christian living material, and current issues in today’s world, that will enrich the spiritual life of those who seek to know more about God.
Reconciling U.S. - Muslim Relations?
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By David J. Smith, Editor
Is there any hope for reconciling Radical Islam, which teaches fighting or jihad against infidels - nonbelievers, and Christianity, which teaches love for God and love for our fellow man?
In the World & Nation section of The Blade: Toledo, Ohio, Wednesday, February 18, 2009, the headline read: U.S. -Muslim relations a priority, Clinton says. The article was taken from the Washington Post: Dateline, Tokyo - “Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said that the Obama Administration will make ‘a conserted effort’ to restore the image of the United States in the Islamic world and will seek to ‘enlist the help of Muslims around the world against the extremists.’
“Mrs. Clinton, who is to travel to Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim country, told students at the University of Tokyo that ‘this is one of the central security challenges we face -as to how better communicate in a way that gets through the rhetoric and Mrs. Clinton through the demagogy and is heard by people who can make judgments about what we stand for and who we truly are.’ “She made her remarks in response to a question about terrorism causing Americans to have anti-Muslim ‘prejudice,’ a term she rejected.
“‘I am a Christian,’ she said. ‘Through the centuries we have had many people who have done terrible things in the name of Christianity. They have perverted the religion.’
“Mrs. Clinton’s visit to Indonesia appears to be part of the administration’s effort to reach out to Muslims during this weeklong trip to Asia. President Obama spent part of his childhood in Jakarta, Indonesia’s capital, and expectations are high in Indonesia that he will visit this year (2009). ...” (The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has been working overtime to cover up what many have called a Jihad (holy war) attack upon America once again. There was the 1993 World Trade Center attack, followed by the September 11, 2001 World Trade Center attack that killed over three thousand people.
The news media is having a hard time calling the Fort Hood murders, Jihad. They simply say Hasan was a disturbed man.
What is being largely ignored is that Hasan was a devout Muslim. He posted internet statements earlier in 2009 that said suicide bombers were saving their comrades. A former colleague, Col. Terry Lee, recalls Hasan arguing that “Muslims have the right to rise up against the U.S. military.”
Hasan passed out Korans the morning of the attack and “donated his furniture to anyone who would take it.” This certainly appears to be the actions of someone preparing for martyrdom.
Perhaps Hasan had emotional problems, but there appears to be an abundance of evidence that he was ideologically predisposed to do what he did. Survivors of the attack said Hasan shouted “Allahu Akbar” before opening fire. This event could have been avoided if our Federal Government had not foisted a “politically correct” agenda upon the American people, especially the military. That agenda is that Americans cannot protect themselves against Jihadists living right in our midst! We dare not hurt anyone’s feelings by calling a spade a spade!!!
Nidal Malik Hasan was born in Virginia. He didn’t think of himself as an “American,” but a “Palestinian.” At the Muslim Community Center in Silver Springs, Maryland, he gave his nationality, not as “American,” rather as “Palestinian.” A mosque official found that curious, saying, “I don’t know why he listed Palestinian. He was not born in Palestine.”
He is a graduate of Virginia Tech and has a doctorate in psychiatry from the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences. While there, NPA reports, Hasan was “put on probation early in his postgraduate work” and was “disciplined for proselytizing about his Muslim faith with patients and colleagues.”
Hasan was a staff psychiatrist at Walter Reed Medical Center for six years before transferring to Fort Hood early in 2009. While at Walter Reed, he was a “very devout” member of and daily visitor to the Muslim Community Center in Silver Springs.
Hasan identified himself as Palestinian and was a devout Muslim- so what? These things have no significance if one assumes that Islam is a Religion of Peace. When a devout Muslim reads the Koran’s militant injunctions to wage war against unbelievers, he may just be influenced enough to wage Jihad (holy war) against what he considers the infidel - America!!!
Fox News contributor Lt. Col. Ralph Peters (retired), in two interviews, asserted that this was an act of Islamist terrorism, and listed just some of the telltale signs to back up his position. For instance:
*Nidal Hasan opposed the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and would argue with the patients, vets returning from combat, against the justification for the wars.
*Hasan said the “war on terror” was in fact a war against Islam.
*There is evidence that Hasan believed “infidels” deserve beheading.
*Internet postings in Hasan’s name, months earlier, compared suicide bombers as heroic soldiers who throw themselves on a grenade to save the lives of their comrades.
Lt. Col. Peters went on to blame the culture of political correctness for the failure of the Army to take any action against Hasan, in spite of an awareness that Hasan held these views. Hasan believed Muslims had the right to rise up against their “oppressors” – the United States.
A fellow student at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences complained about a presentation Hasan gave that “justified suicide bombings and spewed anti-American propaganda.”
Here’s the disturbing question that needs to be answered: Could this act of terrorism, leaving thirteen dead and many wounded, have been prevented had there not been such a politically correct reluctance to act on what was known about Hasan?
Imagine if the Army had acted. It’s easy to envision the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) indignantly blasting the Army with statements alleging “discrimination.”
Yet, if the Army or law enforcement authorities had stepped in, taken action months ago, and brushed aside the typical and predictable rants from groups like CAIR, is it possible that twelve soldiers and one dead police officer would still be alive today?
Why are so many in government and the military afraid of “offending” a RADICAL group like CAIR, which deserves to be investigated for its many questionable activities AND ties to terrorists, NOT ACCOMMODATED?
In the aftermath of this terrorist act, too few in the media or government have been willing to call it TERRORISM!!! There has been a desperate search for another motive, the more common one focusing on his mental state.
Edina Lekovic, communications Edina Lekovicdirector for the Muslim Public Affairs Council appeared on Fox News. Lekovic was unequivocal in her remarks, claiming Hasan was “clearly disturbed” and compared him to the killers at Virginia Tech and Columbine High School.
Remarkedly, only a minute or so after making this unsubstantiated claim of being disturbed, as if it were fact, when asked about any possible connection to Islam, she warned that we must NOT “rush to judgment.” But isn’t that precisely what Lekovic did when she asserted Hasan was “clearly disturbed?” Is she a psychiatrist? Did she examine him? Of course not!!! What qualifies Lekovic to assert Hasan waslike the Columbine killers? NOTHING!!! She did exactly what she is warning others not to do. She “rushed to judgment.” WHY? Was she trying to cover up the truth that Islam is trying to conquer the world and all infidels must be killed??? When anyone who is contending that this massacre has all the earmarks of a terrorist attack is challenged, no one on the Fox News program challenged Lekovic’s unverifiable statements as being false. She presented Hasan’s mental condition as a fact, when it was not.
Why not challenge her statements? POLITICAL CORRECTNESS!!! We don’t want to hurt their feelings as they bomb our buildings and kill our soldiers and cry death to the GREAT SATAN, the United States!!!
More political correctness! Prior to killing thirteen people on Thursday, November 5, 2009, Hasan gave away his furniture and Korans, a telltale sign of a jihadist preparing for martyrdom. How did the Washington Post characterize Hasan’s giving furniture away? “An act of kindness.”
The tide has been turning. Facts are stubborn to reveal themselves when you have news media and a government with an agenda. There are just too many signs that Hasan was in fact a radical Muslim bent on Jihad (holy war). There were too many signs that could not be ignored. ABC News ran a headline asking if the Army missed signs that Hasan was an Islamic extremist.
On Fox News Sunday, Bill Kristol referred to an AP story that quoted colleagues of Hasan at Walter Reed Hospital. They admitted they did not report his suspicious activities due to fear of appearing to be discriminatory toward Muslims.
Brit Hume stated on Fox News Sunday, even if Hasan had emotional or psychological issues, the facts clearly point to the conclusion that Hasan was a RADICAL Islamist, who acted on his beliefs.
Fort Hood Jihadist: “I’m Muslim First, American Second”
Apparently, Hasan turned more than one medical lecture into a Koran presentation. “‘I’m Muslim First, American Second’ -Former Classmate of Suspected Ft. Hood Shooter Recalls Red Flags,” reported FoxNews, November 10, 2009. Part of the interview went like this: VAN SUSTEREN: All right, we already (inaudible). Sir, tell me, how did you know the suspect? When did you first meet him?UNIDENTIFIED MALE FORMER CLASSMATE: I met him as part of a master’s of public health program at the Uniformed Services University (inaudible) health sciences at Bethesda, Maryland, in 2007 and 2008.
VAN SUSTEREN: How much contact did you have with him in 2007 and 2008?
FORMER CLASSMATE: Just about every day for several classes that we had together for about four or five months. VAN SUSTEREN: Did he ever say anything peculiar, red flagish, that drew your attention?
FORMER CLASSMATE: Lots. Lots. The first thing that raised a red flag was one of our first courses together, an environmental health class. We had to do a project or actually a presentation at the end of that class, and we were supposed to do some kind of environmental health project. People were talking about mold. People were talking about water quality. Hasan gave a presentation on whether the war on terror was a WAR ON Islam. I raised my hand immediately. I questioned why that type of topic was being presented because it was so off-base, and it was allowed to continue. His RADICALISM grew throughout the year. He would make frequent comments that HE WAS A MUSLIM FIRST and an American or an officer SECOND, and also that, Islamic law, Sharia law TOOK PRECEDENCE OVER THE CONSTITUTION. We all became concerned because he’s a sworn officer of the United States, and he’s supposed to UPHOLD and DEFEND the Constitution of the United States against ALL enemies, foreign and domestic. Yet his loyalties lay elsewhere.
VAN SUSTEREN: Did you make any complaints - or did anyone else, or did the professor or teacher do anything, if you know?
FORMER CLASSMATE: I made that particular complaint at that point in time. I have a very close colleague who engaged senior leadership at the university, a number of people, regarding this matter, regarding his concerns over these statements that he made. [end of interview]
Just a thought and question! Could the Commander at Ft. Hood have rescinded Hasan’s deployment orders to Afghanistan and prevented the jihad killings, or is there another agenda for allowing the killings? Knowing our government is bent on world government, you never know!
“We’re not attacking Islam but Islam IS attacking us. The God of Islam is not the same God. He’s not the Son of God of the Christian or the Judeo-Christian Faith. It’s a different God, and I believe it is a very evil and wicked religion.”(Franklin Graham, quoted in the Book Winning the War Against Radical ISLAM by Dr. Robert A Morey).
Fervent believers in Islam are forbidden to ask questions about their own belief system because, as they are told, they may lose their faith in Islam. Proof?
“O ye who believe! Ask not questions about things which if made plain to you, may cause you trouble. Some people before you did ask questions, and on that account lost their faith.”(Surah 5: 101-102).
Who is this “Allah” Arabs call God? Did the pagan Arabs worship the sun, moon, and the stars in the past - long before Muhammad was born? Let us allow their own Arabic people to tell us.
“It will be noticed that the sun and the moon and the five planets got identified with a living deity, god or goddess, with the qualities of its own.
“Moon worship was equally popular in various forms...
“It may be noted that the moon was a MALE Divinity in ancient India; it was also a MALE Divinity in ancient Semitic religion, and the Arabic word for the moon (qamar) is of the masculine gender. On the other hand, the Arabic word for the sun (shama) is of the FEMININE gender. The pagan Arabs evidently looked upon the sun as a goddess and the moon as a god.
“If Wadd and Suwa represented Man and Woman, they might well represent the astral worship of the moon and the sun...
“The Pagan deities best known in the Kaa’ba and round about Mecca were Lat, Uzza and Manat. ... They were ALL female goddesses.”(The Forms of Pagan Worship, Yusuf Ali, pgs. 1619-1623).
Yusuf Ali’s explanation of why the Qur’an swears by the moon in Surah 74: 32, “Nay verily by the Moon,” is in his comments: “The moon was worshipped as a deity in times of darkness.”(The Forms of Pagan Worship, Yusuf Ali, footnote, pg. 1644).
Questions concerning the past history of modern Islam that need to be answered to help us understand their religion are:
1. Did the Arabs build temples to the Moon-god?
2. Did different Arab tribes give the Moon-god different names/ titles?
3. What were some of the names/titles? Sin, Hubul, Ilumquh, Al
Newswatch Magazine February 2010 0 ilah.
13. Did the pagans call the Kabah the “house of Allah?”
14. Did the pagans develop religious rites in connection with the worship of their gods?
15. Did the pagans practice the Pilgrimage, the Fast of Ramadan, running around the Kabah seven times, kissing the black stone, shaving the head, animal sacrifices, running up and down two hills, throwing stones at the devil, snorting water in and out of the nose, praying several times a day toward Mecca, giving alms, Friday prayers, etc.?
16. Did Muhammad command his followers to participate in these pagan ceremonies while the pagans were still in control of Mecca? Yusuf Ali, states that Muhammad and his followers joined the pagans in their rituals at the Kabah (The Forms of Pagan Worship, Yusuf Ali, footnote #214, pg. 78).
17. Did Islam go on to adopt these pagan religious rites?
“The whole of the [pagan] pilgrimage was spiritualized in Islam...”(The Forms of Pagan Worship, Yusuf Ali, footnote #223, pg. 80).
21. Why are they called the “Satanic Verses?”
22. Was the crescent moon an ancient pagan symbol of the Moon-god throughout the ancient world?
31. Is Islam an ancient fertility cult in monotheistic form?
32. Is the “Allah” of the Qur’an the same as the Christian God the Father? NO!
33. Do the Jews say that the Muslim “Allah” is YHWH? NO!
34. Then whose god is Allah? (Winning the War Against Radical ISLAM by Dr. Robert A Morey, pgs. 10-13).
DOCUMENTING THE ANSWERS TO THE
The following documentation will reveal that there is a general consensus among ISLAMIC SCHOLARS that Allah was a pagan deity before Islam ever developed. He was only one god among a pantheon of 360 gods worshipped by the Arabs. Just because he was occasionally viewed as a “high god” does not mean he was the one true God of the Bible.
The word Allah was most likely derived from al-ilah, which had become the generic title for whatever god was considered the highest rank god. Each Arab tribe used Allah to refer to its own particular high god. This is why Hubal, the Moon-god, was the central focus of prayer at the Kabah, and people prayed to Hubal using the name Allah. Different tribes preferred other names such as Sin or Ilmaqah. Allah was NEVER called YHWH or Jesus.
• “In any case it is an extremely important fact that Muhammad did not find it necessary to introduce an altogether novel deity, but contented himself with ridding the heathen Allah of his companions (359 others) subjecting him to a kind of dogmatic purification.”(Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics, I:664).
• “The Arabs before the time of Muhammad, accepted and worshipped, after a fashion, a supreme god called Allah.”(Encyclopedia of Islam, eds. Houtsma, Arnold, Basset, Hartman (Leiden: E.J.Brill, 1913), 1:302).
• “The name Allah goes back before Muhammad.”(The Facts on File: Encyclopedia of World Mythology and Legend, ed. Anthony Mercatante (New York: The Facts on File, 1983), 1:41).
• “The source of this (Allah) goes back to pre-Muslim times. Allah is NOT a common name meaning ‘God’ (or a ‘god’), and the Muslim must use another word or form if he wishes to indicate any other than his own deity.”(Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics, ed. Hastings, 1:326).
• “Allah was already known by name to the Arabs.”(Henry Preserved Smith, The Bible and Islam: Or, The Influence of the Old and New Testament on the Religion of Mohammed, (New York: Charles Scribner’s Son, 1897), p. 102).
• “Before Islam, the religions of the Arabic world involved the worship of many spirits, called jinn. Allah was BUT ONE OF MANY GODS worshipped in Mecca. But then Muhammad taught the worship of Allah as the only God, whom he identified as the same God worshipped by Christians and Jews.”(A Short History of Philosophy, (Oxford University Press), p. 130).
“The relation of this name [Allah], which in Babylonia and Assyria became a generic term simply meaning ‘god,’ to the Arabian Ilah by eliding the vowel ‘i,’ is not clear. Some scholars trace the name to the South Arabian Ilah, a title of the Moon god, but this is a matter of antiquarian interest ... it is clear from Nabataen and other inscriptions that Allah meant ‘the god.’
“The other gods mentioned in the Qur’an are all female deities: Al-Lat, al-Uzza, and Manat, which represented the Sun, the planet Venus, and Fortune, respectively; at Mecca they were regarded as the daughters of Allah ... As Allah meant ‘the god,’ so Al-Lat means ‘the goddess.’”(Alfred Guilaume, Islam (Penguin, 1956), pges. 6-7).
• “As well as worshipping idols and spirits, found in animals, plants, rocks and water, the ancient Arabs believed in several major gods and goddesses over all things. The most famous of these were Al-Lat, Al-Uzza, Manat and Hubal. The first three were thought to be the daughters of Allah and their intercessions on behalf of their worshippers were therefore