God or Allah?

God’s Name is Not Allah

I can certainly sympathize with the great responsibility political leaders have in our country during this time of tragedy. I understand that they must be careful to do their part in restraining and discouraging any persecution of citizens of Middle Eastern descent. However, we have reached a point of “politically correct” insanity. When our country was founded, “toleration” never meant approval or agreement. Suddenly, many of our political leaders and media spokesmen have become theologians, teaching the country that there is no difference in the major religions and that it somehow “hatred of people” to teach that another religion is false.

The proper response of these leaders should be to say something to the effect of:

“There are many nominal Muslims in this country that reject the dangerous doctrines taught in the Koran and throughout fundamental Islam. They don’t believe they should kill Jews or Christians. They don’t believe they will be rewarded in Paradise for such atrocities. Nevertheless, we know that the world is filled with Muslims who do attempt to follow the Koran in detail. They believe the fundamental tenants of the Islamic religion. These people are dangerous. These people are to blame for the horrific events on September 11. I am not calling people to give up their beliefs. I am not calling you to accept the nominal form of the Islamic religion practiced by many in this country as true. No, in this country you have a right to speak your mind, to debate, and to peaceably make converts. This is one major thing that makes our country different than the dangerous Islamic countries. If everything is true, then nothing is true. However, I am calling people in this country to refrain from criminal acts of hatred or fear against people of Middle Eastern descent. We must protect our country from those who would seek to destroy it from without or within. But we must not start a mad witchhunt against law-abiding Americans simply on the basis of their skin color or style of dress. And as far as religion goes, you can’t assume that every Muslim believes the same way.”

I don’t really expect to get such a statement out of a major political or media leader today. However, I do expect them to quit making theological statements that blaspheme the Christian God and the fundamental tenants of Christianity. These political leaders and media spokesmen have a right to their beliefs. If they want to believe in some form of Religious Syncretism, they have a right to it under the laws of our nation. Yet, if they choose to use their platforms to teach a liberal, unbiblical “Sunday School Class” to the citizens of America, fundamental Christians also have the right and the responsibility before GOD to refute their faulty, Biblical interpretations:

2 Timothy 4:2 …reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine.
3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;
4 And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.

John the Baptist once reproved Herod for his adultery (Mar.6:17,18). We must likewise reprove our noble leaders when they profess Christ and yet make statements or prayers that applaud “Allah” as a true “God”, equal with the one true God of the Christian Bible:

“President Bush ‘s address Thursday to a joint session of Congress… -…We will not forget South Korean children gathering to pray outside our embassy in Seoul, or the prayers of sympathy offered at a mosque in Cairo…The terrorists practice a fringe form of Islamic extremism that has been rejected by Muslim scholars and the vast majority of Muslim clerics; a fringe movement that perverts the peaceful teachings of Islam. The terrorists’ directive commands them to kill Christians and Jews, to kill all Americans and make no distinctions among military and civilians, including women and children…I also want to speak tonight directly to Muslims throughout the world. We respect your faith. It’s practiced freely by many millions of Americans and by millions more in countries that America counts as friends. Its teachings are good and peaceful, and those who commit evil in the name of Allah BLASPHEME THE NAME OF ALLAH. The terrorists are traitors to their own faith, trying, in effect, to hijack Islam itself…In all that lies before us, may God grant us wisdom, and may he watch over the United States of America…” (AP, Sept.20)

“Fleischer: Attacks Were Perversion of Islam – …White House spokesman Ari Fleischer addressed several aspects of the President’s war on terrorism at yesterday’s press briefing… When Fleischer was asked about concerns that this response could degenerate into a West-versus-Islam battle, he remarked: ‘This attack had nothing to do with Islam. This attack was a perversion of Islam.’…” (Agape Press, Sept. 18, 2001/Christian World News Report -9/19/01)

“Bush Visits Mosque, Urges Respect for Muslims -…President Bush visited a mosque on Monday to urge that Muslim Americans be treated with respect after last week’s attacks, saying: ‘The face of terror is not the true faith of Islam.’…Slipping off his shoes to respect Islamic custom, Bush sought to quell a surge in anti-Muslim sentiment… ‘These acts of violence against innocents violate the fundamental tenets of the Islamic faith and it’s important for my fellow Americans to understand that,’ Bush said at the Islamic Center of Washington, a mosque in the U.S. capital…Respecting Muslim custom, Bush, his White House aides and Secret Service agents removed their shoes before stepping on the elaborate carpets in the mosque, which sits in a leafy Washington neighborhood surrounded by embassies. At one point, the president quoted a translated verse from the Koran, saying: ‘In the long run, evil in the extreme will be the end of those who do evil.’..” (Reuters, Sept.17)

The Bible teaches that Jesus Christ (not Allah or Muhammad) is the only way to salvation:

Acts 4:10 ….the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified….
12 Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.

Our government leaders have made false, naive statements concerning Islam. We must not make the mistake of believing that all Muslims believe the same way. Yet it is wrong to claim that peaceful Muslims in America and other countries represent the basic teachings of the Islamic religion. Dave Hunt writes:

“Though people of good will naturally recoil from attaching blame to a major world religion itself, we can no longer afford such sentimentality. No longer dare we allow Islam to escape its undeniable responsibility. Yet former President Bush called Islam a peace-loving religion. he devastating acts of war by Islamic terrorists against the United States were greeted by naive statements from well-intentioned government leaders to the effect that we must distinguish between terrorism perpetrated by extremist groups and Islam itself which is peaceful…Several years ago Steven Emerson produced for PBS an excellent video titled Jihad In America. Its cameras went directly inside cell groups associated with mosques here in America where eager young Muslims were being recruited for jihad against the United States. Muslim leaders are shown giving speeches about bringing America to its knees through terrorism…. terrorists act in direct obedience to Muhammad, the Qur’an, Allah and Islam. While nominal Muslims reject the idea, all Islamic scholars agree that it is the religious duty of every Muslim to use violence whenever possible to spread Islam until it has taken over the world…There is a natural reluctance to accept any statement which seems to be a prejudiced attack upon a world religion. It is the fear of such prejudice which prevents the world from facing the truth.” (Berean Call, Sept.19, 2001)