Evangelical Propaganda
and Islam.
F. Qureshi
1. Always keep in mind that most of these
Evangelical Christians are not your enemy. If a person questions Islam, do not
automatically assume that their range of questioning is actually an attempt to belittle
or mock Islam. Give them a chance. Be kind to them. Remember that we have to be
consistent in our methodology. If we don’t want to be labeled and stereotyped
by Christians, then don’t stereotype Christians according to the actions of
some hostile, inconsiderate Christians.
Yes there are those Evangelicals who ‘bash’ our
religion. They talk nothing but trash, and they’re abusive and so on (on the
flip side there are Muslims who are abusive and hostile as well). With these
kinds of people, it is automatically and Islamically
inappropriate to sit in their company and debate them in the first place
(4:140). If the image of Islam is being mocked at and the general public feels
the need to respond to the allegations, then one can and should respond in an
open forum, and publish the arguments without directly engaging the opponent.
In this type of situation for us, there is no dialogue, there is no
conversation, there’s only answering objections and foul rhetoric. Remember
that we cannot give into our emotions and our nafs in
these types of situations. We have to do exactly what the Quran commands to us
do and that is not entertain their low mentality
(4:140). Sabr – patience has to be implemented.
2. If coming across an
Evangelical Christian who has studied Islam and is trained to debate and
dialogue issues pertaining to Islam, expect the following and do not fall into
their traps.
There is absolutely no way of convincing a
Muslim that Jesus is God and that God literally died on a cross as a symbolic
gesture to save a multitude of people except by somehow convincing the Muslim
that the Bible is authentic, that the Quran itself acknowledges the Bible, and
that it tells Muslims to believe in it as truth. The trap that the Christian is
looking for is for the Muslim to either say “we believe in the Bible” or that
“we believe in parts of the Bible, but the Bible has been changed”. Any time a
Muslim says any one of these two statements, he has already been set up in the
Evangelical trap.
Islamically, and correctly, we are
to say exactly what the Quran tells us to say and nothing more, that we believe
in whatever revelation God has revealed. Tell the Christian that we
believe God had revealed to Moses, Abraham, and Jesus. Tell them that these
revelations are known to us as being the Torah and the Gospel. The Christian
will then hope that you mean the Bible, and therefore will try to affirm by
asking if you therefore believe in the Old and New Testaments of the Bible. At
that point you should blatantly say no. Tell them you do not believe in
the Bible nor are you allowed to assume that any part of it is true, because as
Muslims our faith and beliefs are not based upon assumptions.
Regardless of
authenticity.
What a lot of Muslims like to do is debate the authenticity of the Bible, show
contradictions within it, or perhaps argue that the New Testament was
canonized, that no original manuscripts exist, and of the manuscripts that do
exist there are variants, etc. While this is absolutely a fine route to take the
point here is why waste your time over the issue of authenticity of
manuscripts? Why not tackle the issue directly and exclaim that Bible scripture
itself, when it was initially written by the author, it was absolutely the
perception, the hearsay, the conjecture, the opinion, the beliefs, and the
interpretations of and “according to” the authors themselves. All of the New
Testament and even a lot of what’s there in the OT is narrative ‘according to’
– and it is not for us to put faith in the conjecture of any man.
The Christian simply can not argue that the New
Testament of the Bible is not conjecture, perception, narration, and hearsay
according to ‘xyz’ – the only option they have is to say the writers were
filled with the Holy Ghost – yet the Bible also teaches that normal people are
filled with the Ghost, but by no means can an individual who has received the
Ghost sit down, write a piece of work, and then say it’s the word of God. Such
is absurdity. Nevertheless, the authors being filled by the Holy Ghost is a
belief of theirs, not ours. If I were a Christian I’d believe they were filled
by some Ghost, but then again, I’d believe in the Bible too, so this tactic of
theirs can not work with us.
Unfortunately what a lot Muslims try to do is
impress the Christian by saying “we believe in the Bible”. They think that this
will somehow intrigue the Christian. First of all, we must always be honest,
and the honest to God truth is that Muslims do not in any context believe in
the Bible. How so? Because belief entails faith and trust in something – and
Muslims do not and can not put trust and faith in the Bible or assume parts of
it are true only because those parts agree with the Quran. On the contrary, we
believe that God revealed, in the past, revelations of which He, God, has by
name mentioned in His Glorious Quran. These revelations mind you are not the OT
and NT of the Bible.
So where are the Torah and Gospel? Please read
the necessary arguments that I have elaborated upon here, in these links:
http://defendingislam.com/domuslims.htm
- Do Muslims Believe in the Bible
http://defendingislam.com/quranmiracle.htm
- Difference between Revelation and Scripture.
3. The second tactic to be wary of is the
Evangelical Christian questioning the morals of Islam, the Quran, and the
character of Prophet Muhammad (sa)
– via particular Sunni Ahadith. They think that by
showing Islam as an unfair and intolerant religion, they can somehow sway you
over to Christianity. They will therefore question the character and morality
of Prophet Muhammad (sa). This
tactic is usually done after they realize that they cannot theologically and
rationally convince you of Christianity, or they realize that they can
not theologically or rationally disprove Islam. Make sure you take notice of
this tactic. Some Christians feel that they cannot convince you on theological
issues so they may start ‘bashing’ Islam right away. If this occurs,
acknowledge what is happening in the conversation, and make the distinction so
that the other person realizes what they are doing.
Though both issues are absolutely and equally
relevant, the difference should be acknowledged, and once it is, ask the
Christian if they have a theological and Biblical basis for the ethics they are
arguing.
Anyhow, I want to bring up a common phenomenon
I’ve personally witnessed while engaging in the field of apologetics. It seems
as though that many Muslims who convert to Christianity feel that Islam was
either false or too extreme of a religion and therefore, automatically if Islam
is false, it must mean that Christianity is the truth. This scenario is more
common among Muslims who convert to Christianity than any other scenario. For
the sake of pursuing the truth, if Islam is false, that does not mean
Christianity is true. Nor does it mean that if Christianity is false, that
Islam must be true. We have to be more open minded to our reality than to give
in to convenience.
4. Debating Bible verses and trying to prove
that Prophet Muhammad (sa)
is mentioned in their Bible. This is quite an old-school tactic. Honestly, it’s
going to be your interpretation versus their interpretation, and usually these
debates are endless and pointless. However, if you’re going to quote the Bible,
do it with the agenda to question Christian doctrine - do not make it seem as
if you are taking the Bible as authoritative. Simply ask questions about the
Bible and let the Christians explain themselves. As they explain, continue to
question. Never say God says in the Bible. It changes both your and their
mentality. You also don’t want to say that Jesus said or did this, rather say
Jesus is narrated as having said or done “xyz” according to your Bible. It will
help them understand your view that no one really knows if what the Bible is
saying is true or not, even if it sounds right. This to the human psyche makes
sense because the thought is, if any one part of the Bible is corrupt, than
naturally everything else is in question – though not necessarily wrong, we
just don’t know, and again, as believers, we are not allowed to base our faith
and beliefs on assumptions.
So if we’re not going to use the Bible to
refute Christianity or use it to prove Islam what should we use? Use Qur’anic argumentation. This is what the Muslim Ummah has miserably failed to do. We never find the Prophet
(sa) ever arguing or quoting
from the Bible. EVER! There are many arguments that are presented in the Qur’an
itself. Use them! Allah (swt) is telling you in the
Qur’an to pose certain questions and objections to the Jews and Christians.
Click Here for Qur’an Argumentation. Also compare Islamic concepts to Christian
concepts. Tawheed versus the Trinity – the very concept. Islam,
as a universal principle and way of life and way of being for everything in
creation versus Christianity, nothing more than a dogmatic exclusivist
religion. Jesus as a creation of God, being considered the equivalent of
a graven image if worshiped, impossible for him to be the biological offspring
of God; salvation by accepting a death that occurred within the spectrum of
time as irrational, the Miracles of the Quran as proof, and there are tons of
other issues and topics one can bring up as well. Just make sure you know
what you’re talking about.
Now obviously, there is nothing wrong with
debating Bible verses, or debating the authenticity of Bible manuscripts. We
have the luxury to take this route as well, but personally, I prefer to stay
away from it.
5. Now everyone has an inmost desire to defend
their religion, to invite people to their religion, to stand up against
allegations and misconceptions about their religion, and unfortunately what
happens with a lot of people is, though their intentions are good, they simply
do not have the knowledge needed to debate the issues. And this is when individuals
and people end up defaming their religion. There are a lot of people who think
they know a thing or two because they’ve read a couple of arguments from a
website or a book. This is not the knowledge you need to defend Islam. Think
before you step up to the plate, and if you can’t do it yourself, then get someone that can. Always remember the etiquettes of
dawah.
There are also brothers out there who do in
fact have the proper knowledge but are not able to express themselves clearly
due to language barriers, and this too is an issue to be conscious of – not
being able to get the right words you need to make the point you are trying to
make. Always think before stepping up to the plate because when you do, you
have to realize the important role you are taking. If you mess up, people
aren’t going to remember you, they’re going to
remember Islam in the light of your inabilities and shortcomings. The whole
point here is that we need to be careful. You’re sincere prayers can do a lot
more than your arguments at times. Let us strive to be good people. Remember
that your character, behavior, and personality also play an important role in da’wah.
Now of course, we don’t have to be scholars to
defend our deen. I know that there are a lot of
educated brothers out there too. Brothers who have the
knowledge. They’ve read the Bible from Genesis to Revelation. They’ve
memorized ayats of the Quran and several Ahadith of Rasul Allah (sa). They’ve understood the
meanings of everything they’ve read, studied, and memorized. We need you! Your Ummah needs you! If there is anyone out there willing to
help with Dawah anywhere in the world – we need to
unite our efforts and our minds. Feel free to contact me at any point if you
wish to contribute.
We need more multimedia, documentaries,
recordings, experiences, orators, speakers, apologists, anything you can do to
bring back the glorious image of Islam, send it and do it!
6. Muslim Apologetics: In the past decade a number of
individuals have arose as apologists defending and arguing for Islam. It is
very critical for us to study the argumentation of these individuals and
categorize their abilities. First off an apologist is never necessarily a
scholar, or at least how a Muslim would understand the concept of scholarship.
Scholarship in Islam has been
recognized generally as a deep understanding of Islam via sources that Muslims
regard sacred. The Quran and the Sunnah
being the primary sources. The opinions of the early Muslims, dubbed the
‘salafus salaheen’ or pious
predecessors, and how they understood the teachings of the Quran and Sunnah makeup the jurisprudence or ‘fiqh’
that orthodox Muslims follow today. In those sources we never happen to find
argumentation against opposing theologies rather the sources only expound on
Islamic teachings and philosophies.
The study of opposing theologies
and perspectives falls outside of the massive curriculum for a Muslim scholar
who focuses on Islamic jurisprudence, theology and practice. Therefore, the
likes of Shaykh Ahmed Deedat
and Dr. Zakir Naik who have
examined Christian theology for example, derive their argumentation through
their personal studies of the Bible. Muslim scholars in their curriculum or in
their studying Islam never are taught the Bible. Therefore Deedat,
Naik, or any other Muslim who may attempt to dive
into and study the Bible have done so without the help of the early Muslims
whose focus was on Islamic literature, jurisprudence, theology, and practice.
Likewise anyone who may aspire scholarship in Islam
would naturally focus on Islamic teachings and philosophies derived from the
Qur’an and Sunnah and pertaining to Islamic practice
and jurisprudence before ever conceiving comparative religious studies.
Therefore the studies of Ahmed Deedat and Dr. Naik although
intriguing and full of accurate perspective are subjective to their own
personal studies. Their argumentation is not derived from early Muslim sources
whose focus was elsewhere in the first place. Therefore there are no ‘official
arguments’ on behalf of Islam when it comes to the dissecting or exposing
Christian theology. As I’ve mentioned before, never do we find the
Prophet (sa) ever quoting or
arguing from the Bible or against it even. Rather he (sa) simply taught the Qur’an and focused on the depth
of spiritual truth that was revealed to him (sa).
Because Ahmed Deedat
and Dr. Zakir Naik had
studied the Bible from a Muslim upbringing, one could easily say that their
argumentation could equal up to any biased Christian apologist who may be
reading the Qur’an or Sunnah to “expose” it. I could
never possibly downplay the knowledge and perspectives and use of captivating
arguments by the two individuals, where in many cases they’ve done
exceptionally well, however personally I find some of the angles they have
taken against Christianity to be erroneous in the sense that they could ever
possibly seem to take the Bible authoritatively and definitively attempt to
imply that our Prophet (sa) is mentioned in specific
passages of an uncertain canonized book of conjecture. If their intentions are
to explore the Bible to fascinate thought and possibility or to question
Christian theology alone then more power to them.
I personally advocate the
argumentation of Gary Miller who understands Christian theology from a
traditional Christian standpoint and counters it using their
own understanding of the Bible and Christian theology. I have not
found any Muslim apologist or Muslim enthusiast of comparative religion, with
the exception of Gary Miller, who takes this route in dealing with
Christianity. I’ve also enjoyed listening to lectures by Jerald F. Dirks, and
am a member and proponent of the Muslim Debate Initiative.