In case you missed the first part of this soon-to-be three part post, let me remind you of the question posed:
I am really interested in learning more about the Mormon, Muslim, and Jehovah's witness cults. I would like to know what exactly is wrong with their beliefs. I have some relatives in these cults.
In part one, I addressed Mormonism. I'll now tackle the Muslim faith - Islam.
Islam cannot properly be called a cult, since it's not really directly derived from Christian doctrine. [At least that's how I define a cult; others would disagree.] Nevertheless, Islam is a competitor to Christianity, and a false religion (as I'd not-so-politely call every non-Christian religion).
In a nutshell, Islam follows the history of the Old Testament up until Abraham and Isaac. Islam maintains that Ishmael, not Isaac, was the true heir of Abraham. They trace their history back to him, not Isaac. They believe the Jews distorted this truth and committed their lies to paper in the form of what we would call the Old Testament. Christians, naturally, followed this same supposedly false family tree and are therefore also condemned - sort of. [Some versions of Islam, and some particular followers, extend some love to Christians as "people of the Book" and look upon us with less derision than Jews.]
Islam actually begins with Muhammad, and can therefore be more or less traced back to ca. AD 700. What Muhammad actually taught is highly debatable, as his earlier "writings" often seem to contradict later ones. I say "writings" (in quotation marks) because Muhammad was almost certainly illiterate himself - his teachings were written down many years later by others claiming various levels of authority.
Read what you like from groups like CAIR - Islam is at its core a violent and hateful religion. [Note: I understand many may disagree; defending this particular point is not my primary intent in this post. If you disagree, feel free to say so and perhaps we can discuss it further.] They were established "by the sword" - they literally stormed through northern Africa in the 8th century and took village after village by force, giving the newly conquered the option of "convert or die". Islam teaches that violence must be done to "infidels" - anyone who is not Islamic.
Religiously, Islam is - like all other religions outside of Biblical Christianity - a works-based faith. You do this, don't do that, and perhaps you'll enter into glory when you die. A well-documented "guaranteed ticket" is given to those that die as martyrs (hence all the suicide bombers).
As with the Mormonism post, feel free to download this brief summary document I wrote about Islam.
Hatushili
Saturday, June 23, 2007
"Ask the Pastor" #2 - part 2
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3 comments:
The fact that Muhammad did not write any info himself is enought to make one skeptical. This is something new to me. Mary
I think lots of people are unaware that Muhammad was illiterate. Your average Muslim either denies this or simply doesn't want to talk about it. As Westerners, we're accustomed to the idea that holy writings are written by the men of the writings - since Paul wrote Paul's letters, Moses wrote the Pentetuech, etc... we naturally expect that Muhammad wrote the Koran.
If you download the pdf document I wrote about Islam, I discuss some of the obvious and plain historical inaccuracies in the Koran, too. It's hard for most of us to think that a book could be "holy" if not written down until much later by people who were not eye-witnesses and that contains obvious errors.
Kind of gives you a new appreciation for the Bible, eh?
Hatushili
update re: Muhammad - I just read that the oldest fragments of the Koran were written more than 2 centuries after the fact, and those are considered very unreliable by conservative Muslim scholars. Compare that to the many, many ancient manuscripts of the New Testament about which there is very controversy.
A fair starting point for criticism of Islam could include the following:
1) It's an inherently violent religion.
2) It's holy writ is highly suspect, containing plain historical errors and founded upon suspect texts and authors.
3) It's predicated upon a false understanding of Jesus (much like cults).
4) It - like every other religion outside of faith in Christ - is just another version of "do good and get god".
There are certainly other criticisms that could be made and points that could be argued (I'm thinking of things like treatment and view of women, for example), but I'd probably start here.
Hatushili
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