What is Islam?

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Allah in Arabic
Allah in Arabic (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
What is Islam? Is it one of the three great worldwide monotheistic religions, or is it a pretender to Christ’s throne, a scourge of the Devil? Is it an interesting historical and cultural phenomenon to be examined with the care and aloofness of an academician, or a heresy to be denounced and hooted off the stage?

Making the question more difficult is the reality that somewhere out there is probably some kind of Muslim publication addressing the issue of the Christian faith. Would I want them to treat Christianity with respect? Would I want them treating the faith once delivered unto the saints as some kind of joke? And mustn’t I do unto others, even if they are outside the church?

Here’s a particular issue. The Qur’an capitalizes all references to deity. We quote the Qur’an. We believe Allah to be a false god, and capitalize all references to the true God. What should we do?

We decided to follow their style, not because we believe for a second that Allah is anything other than an idol, but for the sake of quoting their sources accurately. We want to be heard for our arguments, not written off for our ignorance.

We have tried to treat Islam with respect, but want to affirm with vigor that Allah is not God, and Mohammed is not His prophet, that Islam is a fundamentally false religion, and that all those who practice it, if they do not repent and embrace the risen Son of God, will perish forever.

And there is perhaps the greatest strength of Islam: It is a faith with vigor, despite being false. Credit Muslims, even those few waging literal physical war against Christ’s church, with at least having the sense to know we can’t both be right, and that the issues are eternal. They who are lost in error at least have a zeal for truth.




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