‘Family Security Matters’ Launches an ‘Islam 101’ Series
A real interesting read… If only our politicians knew the truth…
Exclusive: Islam 101: An Introduction
Family Security Matters
Ron Marlar – May 14, 2008
This article is the first in a series on Islam. Islam is at best barely known in the Western world except by Muslims living among us, those who have lived with or near Muslims in other places and times, and scholars of Islam. Most of what lay people believe they know about Islam is not true. It is rather based on ignorance, wishful thinking or years of Islamic deception and propaganda.
Yet people are paying more attention to Islam, now than formerly, due to the current resurgence of Islam since the mid-1970s, one of several in the history of Islam. Because of this increased attention, our intent is to share our knowledge of Islam with all of our readers. Our knowledge is based on intense study of Islam for over 40 years, meetings with Muslims here and in their homelands, and as taught to us by Muslims there and here. We invite readers to question and to share with us also.
Since its founding by Mohammed in the 7th Century, Islam has been – and remains – a political control system with religious trappings of a theology and worship rituals. That is a theocracy. In most places where Muslims are in control, government is by theocracy. That is the reality of Islam.
Fundamentalist adherent Muslims (those who believe in the pure teachings of The Holy Qur’an) intend to take over the world for Allah and establish a worldwide caliphate – i.e., a theocracy to rule by Shar’ia law which includes converting all infidels to Islam, and if unsuccessful in the conversion, then subjugating and taxing them to live as second-class citizens in Muslim lands, or eventually killing them. Such infidels are defined as anyone not born into Islam as a Muslim, not converted to Islam or someone who has left Islamic faith belief and practices.
These are the aims stated by Mohammed going back to the 7th Century and repeated often since. You can hear them easily and well if you are listening to Muslim spokespersons, not just Osama bin Laden or any in his command.
Following Mohammed’s original intents, a principle of Islam is to seduce [deceive] infidels until they can be taken over. This tenet of Islam guides all that Muslim leaders and their followers do.
Saudi Arabia is where Mohammed founded Islam. He started Islam in Mecca then moved under pressure to Medina with his small band of followers. After gaining enough strength he returned to Mecca taking Mecca by force from pagans and atheists. From those two cities he and his followers spread Islam by military conquest and coercion, not by willing acceptance of Islam. Islam most certainly is not a religion of peace.
Most recently Muslims claim 1.7-1.9 billion followers. The number of Muslims in the U.S. is uncertain, as is the exact number of other groups of legal or illegal immigrants. Our own census-taking laws, based on separation of church and state, preclude us from asking about religious affiliation. As a matter of fact, Muslims believe the U.S. is one of the easiest places for them to spread Islam due to our laws and more current fascination with tolerance of diversity.
A recently-published estimate of the number of Muslims in the U.S is 5-7 million. That estimate is about a decade old. Thus a more probable figure is 7-10 million, given ongoing immigration and birth rates of Muslims, which far outpace the average American’s.
Islam is spread further today than ever before in its history by fundamentalist adherents who pursue its aim of a worldwide caliphate. Presently Muslims live in varying but growing numbers in the Americas, including Canada, but also in Africa, Asia, Europe, the former Soviet Union, and of course the Middle East. The Muslim Educational Trust of the United Kingdom lists 46 majority Muslim countries in the world and 56 minority Muslim countries from Angola-Zambia as of 1986. A more recent source, Islamic World.net, website of the Khalifah Institute, 2008, lists 54 majority Muslim countries. Understandably these numbers will change as the numbers of Muslims in the world increase and political situations shift.
The revelations that Mohammed received from the Angel Gibril – Arabic for the Gabriel of the Bible – are shown to have been most fortuitous for the establishment and spread of Islam. This fact is clear, if not by personal discernment, certainly by reading Robert Spencer’s The Truth about Muhammad: Founder of the World’s Most Intolerant Religion (Washington, DC: Regnery, 2006).
Muslim acquaintances tell me that Islam, founded in Saudi Arabia by the Arab Mohammed, is an Arabic belief system; one cannot really read The Holy Qur’an except in Arabic. Considering that about 80% of Muslims do not speak Arabic, that seems unlikely, so several translations are available.
In English the one preferred by Muslims and handed out free at U.S. mosques to seekers and students of Islam is by Abdullah Yusuf Ali (Istanbul: ASIR MEDIA, 2002). The Ali and other translations are available online by searching on “Qur’an” or “Koran.” The online translations are Boolean-searchable for specific passages.
It should be noted that handouts supplementing the Qur’an and explaining Muslim life are almost always pure propaganda. In virtually every instance they address the basics of Islam that adherent Muslims want non-Muslims to believe. Then theypresent propaganda against the view they believe others hold of them, e.g., their attitude towards, and treatment of, women.
Islam sounds good at first blush. The Five Pillars of Islam are: 1. Shahadah – Declaration of Faith – There is no God but Allah. Mohammed is his messenger. 2. Salah – Prayer – Obligatory prayers performed five times a day. 3. Zakah – Almsgiving – Everything belongs to God. Wealth is held in trust by human beings. We must share with others for purification and growth of our possessions as well. 4. Sawm – Fasting – is during Ramadan from dawn to sundown by all able Muslims by abstaining from food, drink and sex with their spouses. 5. Hajj – Pilgrimage – the obligation is only for those who are able physically and financially to make at least one trip to Mecca in one’s lifetime. Certainly few can quarrel with such worthy practices.
Similarly, Muslims proclaim 99 names for Allah – descriptive terms generally relating attributes of Allah. These include All Merciful, Pure One, Source of Peace, Creator, Maker of Order, Shaper of Beauty, Forgiving, All Knowing, All Seeing and All Powerful. In sum, terms easily acceptable to Jews, Christians and other faith beliefs about God.
At the outset of this series, though, you must suspend your faith belief and your beliefs, which are most likely based on propaganda or something else, like willful ignorance of Islam. With all apologies and due respect to people who want to follow the faith of Islam but to do it peacefully, Islam is most definitely not a religion of peace, as established by Mohammed in the 7th Century, and repeated so often, loudly and clearly, since.
In future articles we will examine in more detail these concepts as they are practiced by Muslims. A starter set of references for learning more about Islam is included below for your own study.
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FamilySecurityMatters.org Contributing Editor Ron Marlar is a retired Air Force officer, college professor andseminary graduate, having studied Islam formallyat the post graduate level.Today, he enhances his ongoing learning of Islam by traveling frequently to the Middle Eastto meet with and research both Muslims and non-Muslims living there.
© 2008 Ron Marlar
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Note — The opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions, views, and/or philosophy of The Family Security Foundation, Inc.
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Islam References – A Starter and Ongoing Study Set:
Note: A basic understanding of The Holy Bible will be helpful. Muslims believe the Bible is corrupted with no explanation that I have heard yet as to how that occurred exactly. They believe The Holy Qur’an is pure and without error.
Despite these distinctions (and others to be addressed in future columns) Muslim believers who know the Bible at all and their less knowledgeable followers share some commonality with Christian and Jewish believers in the Bible’s Old Testament.
Muslims also believe Jesus was a prophet like Mohammed, and born to the Virgin Mary, conceived in some mysterious way but not by relations with Allah who would not stoop to such with a mere human.
Muslims reject the Trinity as polytheism, not understanding the theology of the Trinity.
In similar fashion Jewish believers reject Jesus as the Messiah – Anointed One, Son of God. Adherents of Judaism are expecting the Messiah yet to come for the first time.
A few, quick references:
1.The Holy Qur’an – Muslim-preferred translation by Abdullah Yusuf Ali (Istanbul: ASIR MEDIA, 2002). ISBN: 1931-445-21-4; POB 55 Fatih, Istanbul, Turkey. Also available online as are other translations in searchable format for specific passages. An easy and interesting way to get a free Qur’an is to visit your local mosque and request a copy. As a woman in keeping with Muslim protocol be sure to enter the mosque through the women’s entrance; rather than the men’s separate entrance. I believe the women also remove their shoes before entering the mosque although I have never noticed due to their dress and the Muslimprotocol of not paying too much notice to women lest I be offensive to their traditions.
2. For the more dedicated and not such a quick reference, The World of Islam: Resources for Understanding (Colorado Springs: Global Mapping International, 2000). This is a CD of extensive writings primarily by Muslims – more than any person might be able to read and absorb in a lifetime. Available from POB 25399, Colorado Springs, CO 80936-5399, 719-531-3599, info@gmi.org.
3. Why I Am Not a Muslim by Ibn Warraq (Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, 2003). 716-691-0133, ext. 207, http://www.prometheusbooks.com/.
4. Robert Spencer, The Truth about Muhammad: Founder of the World’s Most Intolerant Religion (Washington, DC: Regnery, 2006).
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Doctor Bulldog & Ronin 
14 May, 2008 at 11:46 am
While I applaud the concept for this series, the basic errors and tone of this first article makes it come across as ill-informed propaganda, well-intentioned though it may be. I just hope people following this series (as I intend to) will also do their own research.
Comments on this article: though deception is taught as acceptable, even good, in Islam, it is not for the purpose of taking over, but for protection (persecution); Mecca was *not* taken by force, though there’s plenty of egregious violence in the history of Islam and time of Muhammad, the winning of Mecca is specifically noted for being bloodless; how can he never have heard of Muslim arguments for how the Bible’s been corrupted — they are all over the place (apologetics books, internet, etc), a simple booklet on it being Ahmed Deedat’s “Is the Bible God’s Word?”
Anyway, hopefully the series will get better, perhaps add verse and Hadith citations, since they don’t take up much space and would certainly add to credibility, then people could look them up in the online USC-MSA Compendium of Islamic Texts. The quick references chosen in the article would not have been the choices I’d have chosen for starters, though the Yusuf Ali translation is fine.
14 May, 2008 at 11:53 am
A decent effort to educate infidels. Better this than the same old “Islam is peaceful” BS that everyone gets bombarded with all the time.
14 May, 2008 at 2:22 pm
Much better than the Islam is Peace stuff. I forgot one important point to clarify from that article–it gives the impression that Islam does not believe Jesus to be the Messiah (when it says “In similar fashion Jewish believers reject Jesus as the Messiah…”)–and just want to clarify not only does the Qur’an specifically say Jesus was the Messiah (in addition to being a Prophet), but Muslims often use their belief as an argument for how Islam can bring together Judaism and Christianity by correcting them both — in that Islam says Jesus existed and was more than a mere human or carpenter *but* that Jesus is less than God, a Prophet and the Messiah (annointed one ) , so if Christians could come down from insisting Jesus is God and Jews could go up to accept he was/is more than just a man then by taking the Islamic Jesus was a Prophet and Messiah position, all can be in peace.
14 May, 2008 at 2:56 pm
ER said:
“so if Christians could come down from insisting Jesus is God and Jews could go up to accept he was/is more than just a man then by taking the Islamic Jesus was a Prophet and Messiah position, all can be in peace.”
Hmmm… What? No compromise on the part of Muslims???
How about the Muslims just accept that Jesus was the son of God, and is part of the Godhead… After all, Christianity and the doctrine of Christ’s divinity was around LOOOONNNNNG before the false prophet Muhammad invented Islam…
Also, THE CORE tenet of Christianity is that Christ died on the Cross for the sins of man, and was resurrected, demonstrating that Christians are no longer under the dominion of death. (See Romans 6:9-11) The Qur’an teaches that it was not Jesus who died on the cross… (See Qur’an Sura 4:157)
Sorry, but Christians WILL NOT acquiesce on that point…
BTW – That still won’t make everything peachy in the world of Islam….
14 May, 2008 at 4:31 pm
The one rarely touched on point of these types of articles is a simple one. No sect of islam doesn’t preach muslim supremacy over all others. A small point but one that has always upset me. There is no such thing as a muslim “golden rule”.
I might not be above anyone but I damn sure am not beneath them.
14 May, 2008 at 9:03 pm
For the record re: doctorbulldog’s comment quoting mine — it’s more like ER said some Muslims say instead of making it sound like I support the Islamic argument, which is laughable precisely for the points you mentioned.
14 May, 2008 at 9:10 pm
ER,
Whew! I’m glad you cleared that up… For a moment, I thought you had been replaced with the evil Captain Kirk….
😯
Cheers
31 July, 2008 at 12:17 am
For many reasons I ended my relationship with familysecuritymatters.org quickly. The intended series on Islam will be continued soon in another publication. Watch for it by googling on my name, say about September or so.
I am interested here and will be so at the other publication in exchanging knowledge and understanding of Islam with any or all correspondents. I expect some will be like ER, prompt to criticize and misinform about Islam without citing specific references while asking that others do what ER does not do.
As to ER’s specific comments: It is my intent to share my understanding of truth only, objectively and clearly about Islam based on 40 years of study including at the graduate level and by meeting frequently with Muslims in my home area and theirs, as taught by Muslims. On that, no Muslim has ever explained to me, as I said, how the Bible is corrupt, became corrupted and the Qur’an is pure. Mecca was most certainly taken by force by Mohammed once he gained sufficient forces and strength in Medina. My list of 19 references was reduced by familysecuritymatter.org to those left with the article. I would like to see ER’s list of preferred references but probably not if they are anything like Ahmed Deedat’s piece that ER does cite. Doctorbulldog refuted ER’s misinformation well on the matter of Muslim views of Jesus. Moreover ER contradicts ER in attempting to write only a few words about Jesus. Read carefully what ER says in ER’s self-contradictory way.