Getting to the root of the matter

A plea for clarity one year on from the Westminster attack.

This week members of both Lords and Commons began their day by remembering the terror attack on Westminster Bridge and on the Houses of Parliament. It has been just one year since pedestrians walking across the bridge were mown down by a speeding driver who crashed near the gates of Parliament and ran into the courtyard, fatally stabbing PC Keith Palmer.

People ran from the scene, but one man ran towards the incident: Tobias Ellwood MP, who had both military and medical experience, ran to the dying police officer, trying to save his life while the attack was still underway. One year on, Members of Parliament stood for a minute’s silence in each House and also attended a short commemorative service in Westminster Hall led by the Rev Rose Hudson-Wilkin, the Speaker’s Chaplain.

In an emotional interview, Mr Ellwood recalled the day and how, on arriving home, he had to explain to his son what had happened to PC Palmer. He paid tribute to the police for their work in protecting Parliament and the public in a day when things seem “to be getting more dangerous and more volatile”.

He said “These attacks will continue unless we step forward and actually participate, become more proactive in dealing with what is a very changing and dark chapter that we are enduring.”

An Islamic Response

On the same day as the MPs were remembering what happened last year I received two leaflets through the post from a friend in Derby. The leaflets had been put through his front door. One is entitled: ‘ISLAM’S RESPONSE TO EXTREMISM’. Its six pages are devoted to presenting a very different picture of Islam – claiming it to be a religion of peace!

The leaflet says:

The horrific actions of extremists, who conduct their brutality in the name of Islam, have led many to question whether Islam advocates terrorism and violence. The truth, however, is that Islam and terrorism are poles apart as there is no justification in Islam for any form of extremism.

MP Tobias Ellwood, who ran towards the scene of the attack, has described this period of British history as dangerous, volatile and dark.

The leaflet says, “furthermore the Holy Qur’an champions the sanctity of life” and then quotes “whosoever killed a person…It shall be as if he had killed all mankind; and whoso gave life to one, it shall be as if he had given life to all mankind.” (Qur’an 5:33). The bits missed out of this quote are, however, vitally important: they show that it was addressed to the Israelites – to the Jews – not to Muslims!

Moreover, the quoted verse is actually 5:32, not 5:33. 5:33 is quite different – it says “Those that make war against Allah and his apostle [Mohammed] shall be slain or crucified or have their hands and feet cut off on alternate sides, or be banished from the land”.

The leaflet neglects to mention the many verses in the Qur’an that specifically instruct Muslims to kill Christians and Jews and polytheists – in fact, anyone who does not accept the religion of Islam. It not only says “fight against those who do not believe in Allah…until they are utterly subdued” (Qur’an 9:29), but it also provides a religious justification for the terrorists who do the killing: “You did not kill them but Allah killed them, and when you smote them, it was not you but Allah who smote them so that he might richly reward the faithful. Allah is the one who hears all and knows all” (Qur’an 8:17).

The leaflet also devotes a whole page to denying that Islam practices forceful conversion. It has the headline: ‘IS IT ACCEPTABLE TO FORCEFULLY CONVERT OTHERS TO ISLAM?’ Their answer:

No. The Holy Quran is very clear that mankind has a free choice in the matter of religion. Muslims are encouraged to spread the message of Islam peacefully with respect and love. The Holy Quran is very clear that each person is free to follow or change the faith of his or her choice.

This is the exact opposite of the truth! Mohammed’s practice was to slaughter all the non-Muslim men and take the women and children into slavery, using the girls for sex slavery. This is exactly the practice that has been followed in recent years by the Islamic State fighters in Syria and Iraq. And the same attitude to non-Muslim girls is repeatedly rearing its head in Britain too, from Rochdale and Rotherham to, now, Telford.

The Ahmadiyya Sect

It is important to note that both the leaflets referred to above were produced and circulated by the Ahmadiyya sect of Islam, which mainstream Sunni and Shia Muslims regard as heretical.

The Ahmadiyya are committed to spreading Islam peacefully. Their tagline is “Love for all, hatred for none”. It was an Ahmadi Muslim shopkeeper in Glasgow who took to social media in 2016 to wish his Christian customers a ‘Happy Easter’ – and was later murdered by another Muslim who travelled all the way from Yorkshire to stab him for this act of kindness.

The Ahmadiyya are committed to spreading Islam peacefully – but they are regarded as heretical by mainstream Sunni and Shia Muslims.

It was regarded as an insult to Mohammed because the Qur’an instructs Muslims not to make friends with Jews and Christians, which is why Britain now has so many cities like Blackburn and Leicester where there are whole areas that are solidly Muslim, and people don’t even speak English. The Qur’an says to Muslims: “Take neither the Jews nor the Christians for your friends. They are friends with one another. Whoever of you seeks their friendship shall become one of their number. Allah does not guide the wrongdoers” (Qur’an 5:51).

There is a clear cultural clash here which undermines our Government’s policy of integration. There will never be integration until the mainstream Muslim and Ahmadi scholars sort out their differences and initiate a public debate of the Qur’an; and their scholars give rulings on which of its content they consider to be relevant for today and which should only be regarded as having been given for the Mediaeval period when Islam was first formed.

A Test from the Lord

Such a modernisation could release all Muslims from the obligations of jihad and would be a tremendous boon to Muslim integration in the West – but is it possible? We must, of course, see the rise of Islam in a proper spiritual context, “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms” (Eph 6:12).

Islam, despite its manifold sects and interpretations, remains a spiritual power set up to rival (and counterfeit and invert) the glorious truths revealed in the Bible about the One True God. Beneath Islam’s complicated exterior are demonic spirits – not least of violence and tyranny – which accounts for its total conflation of religion and state.

Its growing influence in the West – gradually through immigration and demographic growth, and more immediately through terrorisation – is being allowed to happen by our Sovereign God. Why? To test us, to know what is in the hearts of this ‘post-Christian’ generation.

Islam, despite its manifold sects and interpretations, remains a spiritual power set up to rival the glorious truths revealed in the Bible.

Will our politicians and leaders wake up and realise that the ascent of Islam represents a direct assault on what has been the bedrock of our Judeo-Christian culture for centuries – a faith and a set of biblical values which have no equal on this earth – and never will?

Will the public (including the Church!) recognise that our great Christian heritage is worth defending and celebrating, not ignoring and compromising?

And will believing Christians take the great opportunity to witness to the truth of the Gospel which has now, like the Ahmadiyya leaflets, arrived on our very doorstep?

Clifford Hill responds to the recent attacks in Brussels.

The latest atrocities in Brussels have shocked the Western world. It is time that world leaders, both East and West, face the fact that their policies in the Middle East have been disastrous.

Russia, the United States, Europe, Turkey, Iran and Saudi Arabia all have different interests and objectives. It is time to face the truth that unless they can find some common ground, the seething discontent and political instability in the region could spill over into a world conflict.

Slaughter and Self-Delusion

Islam is fighting an all-out war for survival, with the militant extremists of the Islamic State (who claim to be the only true Muslims) patterning their violent behaviour on their Mediaeval founder Muhammad. His policy was that people either accepted his revelations as truth or they were slaughtered. His militant Muslim followers today follow the same policy. The latest round of atrocities in Brussels underlines both their determination and their ability to disrupt Western society. They will not go away quietly - neither will they be defeated by military action.

For too long Western politicians have run away from the truth, hiding behind lies and deception, saying that the violence is nothing to do with Islam which is a religion of peace! Until this self-delusion is broken our cities will go on being targeted by deluded religious fanatics and our citizens killed and maimed without warning as they go about their daily lives.

For too long Western politicians have run away from the truth, hiding behind deception and saying that Islam is a religion of peace.

Western VulnerabilityGareth Fuller/PA Wire/Press Association Images

There is not a city in the Western world that is safe. The security forces in Belgium have been on high alert for the past six months, ever since the Paris bombings; they knew that an attack was imminent after the arrest of Salam Abdesalam four days earlier. But they were unable to prevent terrorist attacks on soft targets.

More than 1 million Muslims have entered Europe in the past year from the conflict zones of the Middle East and they continue to pour in despite every effort being made by the European Union to protect its borders. The Islamic State claims that some 5,000 of the migrants are Muslim fighters and the Brussels attacks demonstrate the vulnerability and danger that we all face every time we travel into a crowded city.

Disillusioned Young Men

The broadcaster and philosopher Ahmed Abbadi, who is chairman of the Council of the Islamic scholars in Morocco, says that there is a generation of angry young men across the Arab world who "are jobless, wife-less and hopeless".¹ They know that there is plenty of wealth in Europe, which makes them increasingly angry and vulnerable to Islamic State recruiters who promise them jobs, beautiful wives and high social status if they will come and join them in their ideal Caliphate.

There is a generation of angry, disillusioned young men across the Arab world who are vulnerable to radicalisation.

The situation facing young people in the Middle East is a straight choice between either trying to get to Europe or joining the Islamic State – it's a straight choice because the Middle East, with its long history of colonialism and dictatorship, has no home-grown tradition of good governance: the whole concept of democracy is foreign and there are no deep foundations of a civil society upon which one can be built. This is the tragedy of Syria where the entire infrastructure has been destroyed and Libya where social order has collapsed.

Islamic Oppression

The starting point for reconstruction is the recognition of the truth that much of the responsibility for the lawlessness and hopelessness in the Islamic world lies with the religion of Islam itself. Violence and coercion are endemic to Islam, which allows dictators such as the Saudi royal family to exercise total control over their subjects, teaching generations of children hatred against their opponents (including Jews, Christians and the Shia minority, who are brutally oppressed).

An undercover film, 'Saudi Arabia Uncovered', was broadcast by ITV on Tuesday 22 March with a number of horrendous scenes such as a woman being held down by four policemen in a public road while another man beheaded her; and another scene of five beheaded men strung between two cranes. Some of these scenes were reproduced on the Mail Online.² There was some doubt as to whether the Government would allow the film to be aired, as the Foreign Office usually go to considerable lengths to protect the Saudi Government in order to maintain both political and economic interests. This is nothing new: Winston Churchill had the same problem with the Foreign Office back in the 1920s.³

A recognition is needed that much of the lawlessness and hopelessness in the Islamic world comes from the religion of Islam itself.

The film, about life in Saudi Arabia, showed a woman being punched and kicked by a man in a supermarket and the religious police controlling every aspect of life. Women are not allowed to drive and they have difficulty visiting a doctor without a male escort. It showed children in school being taught to hate Christians and Jews who, they were told, must all be killed. There appeared to be little difference between life in Saudi Arabia and what is happening in the Islamic state. Both are driven by what they claim to be a pure form of Islam.

This is what Islamic State intend to impose upon Europe. But European leaders who have opened the door to more than 1 million Muslims in the past year have not yet woken up to the extent of the horror to which they are condemning the nations of Europe.

The objectives of the jihadist bombers who have infiltrated Europe with the million migrants will continue to hit soft targets in an effort to achieve their objective – the Islamisation of Europe.

Facing the Truth About Islam

Today the security of all Western nations hangs in the balance. If a little nation like Belgium can be so targeted, how much more vulnerable are the larger nations of the West and Russia! The extent of conflict between Shia and Sunni and other Islamic factions is destabilising the whole of the Arab world and creating uncertainty even in those states not directly involved in conflict such as Iran, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt and Algeria.

European leaders have not yet woken up to the horrors to which they are condemning European nations.

They all have an interest in establishing stable societies. The first step to genuine reconstruction lies in facing the truth about Islam. This is slowly being recognised by a number of Islamic leaders and scholars and this is where Western leaders and Christian scholars could be of assistance. President Sisi of Egypt was the first major leader in the Arab world to call for a "religious revolution" of Islam to purge the religion of extremism and violence.⁴ He made his dramatic announcement in a New Year's statement (2015) and repeated it in August that year.

Christian Contributions

In Egypt it is not only political leaders but Islamic scholars who are also open to discussing reform. In 2006 Dr Rowan Williams, as Archbishop of Canterbury, was invited by the Islamic scholars of the largest mosque in Cairo to present a lecture on Christianity. Christian leaders could be of immense help in examining the holy books of Islam alongside the Bible and taking out the teaching on violent jihad which characterised the Mediaeval period of Islamic development and which has no place in the modern world.

Most Islamic scholars have a healthy respect for Jesus. Although they do not accept his divinity, they do believe him to be a prophet. The teaching of Jesus on love and forgiveness of sins is absent from Islam but could radically transform Muslim teaching. I'm certainly not suggesting some kind of amalgamation of Christianity and Islam! But if Islamic scholars were willing to study the Bible with Christian scholars it might help them to correct the gross errors in the Qur'an.

References

1 Connolly, K. Battle of ideas at heart of fight against Islamic State. BBC News, 17 March 2016.

2 Oborne, P. A woman beheaded in the road. Five headless corpses hanging from cranes. As a documentary exposes the horror of life in Saudi Arabia, why DOES Britain cosy up to this kingdom of savagery? Mail Online, 21/03/16.

3 See chapter on 'Churchill and the Question of Palestine', in Fromkin, D, 2003. A Peace to End All Peace: The Fall of the Ottoman Empire and the Creation of the Modern Middle East. Phoenix, London, p515f.

4 Smith, S. Egypt's President Urges Muslim Clerics to End Violent Islamic Ideology, Lead Peaceful 'Religious Revolution' in Groundbreaking Speech. Christian Post, 13 January 2015.