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.