Atheist Defends Christianity against Islam Religion

Christianity compared to Islam

Kudos … to Newsweek

by Tim Wildmon

President, American Family Association

Ayaan Hirsi Ali

If there ever was a contrast in worldviews, it is with Christianity and Islam.

Yes. Kudos to Newsweek magazine for giving a cover story to a subject mostly under-reported by the mainstream media: the worldwide persecution of those who practice the Christian faith.

The cover for the February 13 issue reads: "The War on Christians." Inside, the article by Ayaan Hirsi Ali is headlined this way: "The rise of Christophobia: from one end of the Muslim world to the other, Christians are being murdered for their faith."

Ali goes into great detail with one horror story after another from around the world. Despite the promotion of political correctness in the United States, it is becoming clear to most Americans - at least those who are paying attention - that Islam in not a religion of peace.

It is, in fact, a religion of war, violence, intolerance and physical persecution of non-Muslims. These atrocities are being committed against Christians because they are considered infidels, and therefore it is a Muslim's duty to defeat the infidel - in any way necessary.

"We hear so often about Muslims as victims of abuse in the West and combatants in the Arab Spring's fight against tyranny," writes Ali. "But, in fact, a wholly different kind of war is under way - an unrecognized battle costing thousands of lives. Christians are being killed in the Islamic world because of their religion. It is a rising genocide that ought to provoke global alarm."

It is interesting to note that Ali is a professed atheist and international spokesperson for women's rights.

If there ever was a contrast in worldviews, it is with Christianity and Islam. One of the most striking differences is that Christianity teaches, practices and encourages charity. Islam does not. It is Christians from the U.S. who are doing the majority of the private charity and humanitarian work around the world. Just these past couple of weeks alone, I was reminded of several examples of this.

The first example is two young ladies from Saltillo, Mississippi - twin sisters Haleigh and Heather Moore - who are currently running across the country from Louisiana to California to raise money to dig water wells in Third World countries through World Vision. They are motivated by their belief that God wants them to care about other people in need.

The second example is my colleague Buddy Smith, who along with wife Carol, just returned from a week-long trip to Ecuador where they participated with Operation Christmas Child in distributing thousands of shoe boxes of supplies to children who have little or nothing and who are dependent on Christian missions organizations.

Since 1993, Samaritan's Purse (headed by Franklin Graham) has distributed in excess of 94 million shoe box gifts around the world … all in the name of Jesus Christ.

As an aside, you may remember that Franklin Graham, having seen firsthand the persecution of Christians by Muslims in the countries where he works, called Islam "evil" and "wicked."

A third example came to mind while I was at the National Religious Broadcasters convention in Nashville in February, when the president of Gospel for Asia came up to me to thank me for the $153,314 that our radio network, American Family Radio, helped raise for them last fall—monies that were applied to buy all kinds of basic human needs for the "untouchables" in India.

American Family Association/American Family Radio has been participating in this project with Gospel for Asia for several years. Why do we care about the outcast people of India? Because in the Bible, Jesus instructs us to do so.

As far as I know, there is no such comparable work being done around the world by Islamic groups or organizations.

Religion, more than anything else, affects the values and morals of a culture, a society, a country.

Ten Commandments, Murder, and Sharia Law

Dinner Topics for Monday

Ten Commandments, Murder, and Sharia Law

A Tale of Two Laws

Charles Dickens’ Tale of Two Cities was about London and Paris, and the impact of their two differing forms of government. Continuing in our “Tale of Two” series, today we are seeing a tale of two laws: the Ten Commandments of the Judeo-Christian culture, and Sharia law of Islamic culture or political system.

I am all for freedom of religion. European history is fraught with religious wars and the slaughter of the Jewish people. We think how wrong it is to massacre so many innocent people.

When it legalized abortion, our own government failed in its Constitutional mandate to protect innocent life. Not only has the Supreme Court abused its power 50 years ago to establish the religion of atheism as the state religion, but it also has sanctioned the murder of countless millions of innocent born and unborn.

I am a Christian. My church, The Church of Jesus Christ, could only be restored in these latter days, in this great country of the United States, where there was freedom to do so. Even so, we know what it is like for Christians to be reviled, even in this free country, because great were the persecutions of the members of our Christian faith in the 19^th century, resulting in our prophet, Joseph Smith, and his brother being murdered in cold blood. Christians of many denominations are still persecuted and reviled all over the world today.

I am old enough to remember the Cold War era, in which Communists purged their entire empire of God, and brutally punished believers.  Even so, it is hard to believe that today we are involved in the greatest religious war of all time. Atheists still cause trouble in our society, but now the greatest threat to our Judeo-Christian culture comes from extreme Islam’s declared war on all faiths other than their own. Islamic extremists even punish and kill Muslim reformers. They also have an abiding hatred for the Jewish people, and have sworn to destroy Israel.

Because I believe in freedom of religion, I was glad my prayers were answered regarding the man in Florida who wanted to burn the Koran books. First of all, it was an unchristian act. We are taught that when we “receive railing and persecution and all manner of afflictions,” we are not to turn and revile again, but to be “humble and penitent before God.” (3 Nephi 6:13) The God of Israel is a God of love, not hate, or He would not have made it possible for all human beings to be saved from death and condemnation.

There is another reason I was relieved. Islamists world-wide were threatening nothing short of World War 3 if those books were burned; many more innocent people would have been killed. (They didn’t need to declare war; they already did that with the terrorist attacks on the Twin Towers.)

Civil Law vs. Religious Law

Christians, Jews, Buddhists, and other religions residing in this land have always dealt with moral issues in their own way. However, a member of any religion who steals, vandalizes, rapes, murders, or violates any other law against the public safety is subject to those laws which protect the public. Someone who kills an abortionist is punished, even though the abortionist himself may be guilty of killing. We may not agree with that killing, but we do not take the law into our own hands.

In my church, which is worldwide, we are also taught to respect and obey the governments of the respective nations in which we reside, even if we don’t agree with them.  We don’t make political demands in the name of our religion. Sharia law (which is political), also, has a “necessity clause”, which allows Muslims to accommodate the laws of their land, such as buying car insurance or postponing prayers that cannot be performed at school or work. So, if their political demands are not met, no harm is done to their religion. (Warner, Bill, Sharia Law for Non-Muslims, p. 42-43. Center for the Study of Political Islam: 2010)

That said, I come to this matter of murder, with which I have issue. All faithful Christians obey the Ten Commandments, which include the commandment not to kill. Our United States government is based on the Ten Commandments. Therefore, it is simply against the law to kill, except in cases of legal punishment for capital crimes and terrorism, as in the execution of Timothy McVeigh, a terrorist and mass murderer.

Obviously, Islamic terrorists do not honor the Ten Commandments (I’m not referring to the religion observed by moderate law-abiding Muslims who reside in our country). Radical Islam is not a religion, but is a tyrannical political system, called terrorism. Political systems are subject to the laws of the land. Like communism, Islamic terrorism seeks to replace existing law (in America, the United States Constitution) with a tyrannical law called Sharia law. Some of the plethora of killings approved by radical Islamists include suicide bombings—often involving children or adolescents as the perpetrators; “honor killings”—an example of this was a man in Arizona who purposely ran over his daughter with his car because she was becoming too Westernized. Sharia law permits some forms of honor killing, but does not seem to punish any of it. Also included is the killing those Muslims who convert to another religion.  (Ibid., p.14)

So, do we really have a dilemma here about freedom of religion and the laws of the land? No, we do not. Our Constitution, which was created by men possessed of an abundance of common sense and responsibility rarely seen today, declares that there shall be no establishment of religion. So the religion of Islam should get no more special treatment than any other religion. We are all subject to the law of the land. Article 6 of the United States Constitution says the Constitution is the highest law of the land and cannot be subjugated to any other legal code.

The purpose of our government is to protect life, liberty, and property. Any person or group who violates the life, liberty, or property of another individual is in violation of the law and deserves to be punished. We have freedom, but not without responsibility. We are free to choose our actions, but we are not free to choose the consequences.

For a beautiful, illustrated collection of Charles Dickens Stories, type Charles Dickens in the search bar when you click here

*Blasphemy, Freedom of Speech, and Sharia Law

C.A. Davidson is author of Epic Stories for Character Education, a collection of scriptural epic stories told in easy, dinner-talk style. Young adult leadership training and daily dinner talk topics on parenting, sociology and culture, world history, heritage, stress management, and family traditions are provided in the “Dinner Talk for Champions” online magazine, and may be found at http://www.epicworld.info

© 2011 by Christine Davidson