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CUL:The growth of Islam in the United Kingdom (fido echo message)
The following commentary was taken from the Christian Net echo (an
international Fidonet bulletin board echo)
SUBJECT: GROWTH OF ISLAM IN UK
Greetings Kevin. I wanted to contribute a response to your inquiry
concerning the growth of Islam in Britain.
I am an American, currently resident in the UK, with professional
research experience in matters involving the Middle East. Statistics
clearly infer that over the past 20 years Islam has been the fastest
growing religion in Britain.
The largest mosque in Western Europe is situated in London's Regent
Park, and there is an Islamic university alongside. In 1945 there was
one mosque in England, in 1950 there were 25, in 1960 there were 80, in
1976 there were 200, etc. Muslims here in Oxford were finally given
permission to establish a mosque a few years ago, and it is located
near where I live.
Within the past couple of years in one part of Birmingham one has
been able to hear above the urban din the electrically amplified calls
to prayer of a Muslim muezzin, just like in cities in N. Africa and the
Middle East.
In one sense these facts are terribly disconcerting. When one
passes through the English countryside it is the spires of the parish
churches which are most prominent above all the villages, yet in recent
years the abandonment of church buildings because of disuse has been a
topic of much concern. One thinks of England, and one thinks of a
*Christian* nation. The imprint of Christianity is everywhere. Last
Saturday I attended a memorial service in the University Church for a
don who died last summer, and the particular congregation was
predominantly agnostic or atheistic, but the service itself was
Christian through and through...a tradition.
England is an Islamic target. During an international Islamic
conference in Longon in the late 1970s the keynote speaker said, 'If we
can win London for Islam, it won't be hard to win the whole Western
world.' But all this evidence is only part of the picture. Muslims are
not noticed proselytising here...but, then, Muslims do not generally
proselytise the way evangelical Christians do. *Jihad* means
'struggle' rather more than 'war', and *influence* can be part of it.
If Muslims are able to induce ecumenical attitudes in Western
Christians, it can prove advantageous for them. You may be sure you
will not encounter any reciprocal fair-mindedness in Saudi Arabia, much
less in Iran. The influence of the oil and markets of Muslim countries
has been awesome. This has however shifted with developments in
international affairs. Oil lost its sway. Terrorism went too far.
Britain and the rest of the West shifted their perspectives
considerably. It must also be said that the growth of Islam in Britain
has mainly been due to large numbers of Muslims moving here, rather
than through many converts...though there have been, unhappily,
conversions (Cat Stevens, the singer and composer, is a devout Muslim
now).
Finally, if you are in Washington, DC, you should take note of the
160 ft. high minaret above the mosque of the Islamic Center on
Massachusetts Ave. And consider also the alarming growth of the Black
Muslims in our country, the USA, and their links to the most radical
Islamic nations.
Read the Koran. 'Allah' is demonic, and has NOTHING to do with God.
But Muslims in our midst are not to be feared or hated. We must
prayerfully, confidently, show them the Love of Christ, and speak the
Truth to them without compromise.
David Canfil Trinity 3 (Reading), UK
SUBJECT: Re: GROWTH OF ISLAM IN UK
Greetings, David. I appreciated your words of encouragement and
faith.
Islam is a formidable seducing spirit and a murderous one in the
world today...and no evidence is lacking in support of these
conclusions. I empathize with some of the testimonials of others which
preceded my words about the threat of Islam to the UK; I would agree
with them that encounters with unbelievers (i.e. people who have no
faith in any religion) often seem more common and problematic than
confrontations with Muslim proselytising, etc. But whatever Muslims
may seem to have in common with us is attributable to the fact that
Muhammed selectively borrowed his values from Judeo-Christian
revelation.
This infers what it is that makes Islam one of history's most evil
systems: most of the other so-called 'great religions' are not known to
have originated amongst peoples who 'exchanged the truth of God for a
lie'; there's no evidence that Buddha or Confucius, for instance, ever
knew the truth of God; primitive tribes around the planet have
variously created and developed all manner of unusual and imaginative
religious systems; but Muhammed KNEW Christians and Jews, he was also
exposed to the Old and New Testaments, and the religion satan spawned
through him was, in other words, a Judeo-Christian heresy from its
inception.
The spiritual bondage of Islam is tremendously sinister and strong.
Islam is no less devoted to world conquest than Communism. And Islam
is very, very cruel. As the historian Toynbee once put it, while
believers in Jesus and Buddha have sometimes waged murderous, unjust
wars in the names of their religions, when they did it they were not
following the examples of the founders of their respective faiths; but,
he said, when Muslims do it they follow the example of Muhammed
himself...he wiped out whole communities of peoples who resisted him,
allowing debased sensuality, pillage and slave-taking as enticements to
his followers.
All unbelievers are equally dead in their sins while they remain
unbelievers, but Islam BEGAN as a heresy. Muslims are consistently the
most difficult of peoples to convert to Christ, and this explains why.
David Canfil
THE MUSLIMS WAY TO ALLAH
# # ------------------------------------------------------#### #
[GOOD DEEDS] [ 5 PILLARS ] [PROHIBITIONS] #
# ------------------------------------------------------#
# X X X X X #
# X X X X X # G # X X X X X # M O # X X X X X # A D # X X X X X # N
# X X X X X #
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# X X X X X #
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###################################################
5 4 3 2 1 (1) Belief [Shahada]
(2) Alms [Zakat]
(3) Fast [Ramadan]
(4) Pilgrimage [Mecca]
(5) Prayer [5 x a day]
The ritual prohibitions together with the 5 pillars and as many good
deeds as is possible do not guarentee that paradise will be attained.
The Koran has no assurance of a 'heaven'. It relies on man's doing
and all the failures associated with it.
How like the nominal christian who believes in a creed(1), gives to
charity(2), goes to church, birth, marriage and death , with the odd
christmas and easter thrown in(4), and prayer, well yes if pushed or
maybe every now and then at bedtime(5).
Jesus says "I AM THE WAY" "I GO TO PREPARE A PLACE FOR YOU"
"TODAY YOU SHALL BE WITH ME IN PARADISE"
"NO MAN COMETH UNTO THE FATHER BUT BY ME"
Christianity does not rely on MAN, God sent HIS SON an atoining
sacrifice for our sins (1 John 4:10)
The GULF has been crossed by Jesus himself at Calvary and we can
have eternal life here and now, recieve it and be sure of it, no one
can take it away Jesus promise "none shall pluck them from my hand"
The KEYS may look the same but only JESUS fits, only JESUS is the
sinless, spotless SON OF GOD. THE GOD-MAN, God incarnate in human
flesh, JESUS is the only way.
I pray this Lord Jesus is your Saviour and your Lord now.
David Rance
ISLAM
"It is commonplace today to speak of the battle of the eighties to
be between Islam, Marxism and Third World Christianity.
Western Christianity is on the whole too flabby to do anything about
it. One of the clearest symptoms of this is the sad decline in true
spirituality amongst the majority of Western Christians.
We have neglected our prayer life; we have stopped listening to God;
we have been caught by the covetous spirit of our affluent society, and
worshipped the false god of materialism. We have exchanged our
knowledge of *Theos* (God) for heady disputes about theological words,
or for religious or social activism. We have forgotten how to be still
before God, how to meditate, trapped as we are in the vortex of modern
life. We have lost our sense of direction; and, confused and
bewildered, we know little of the exhuberant joy of celebration enjoyed
by God's people down the centuries, even in tough and depressing
situations.
There is little to attract the unbeliever in the traditional,
organized Church. The tragedy is that most people outside the Church
today are hungry and thirsty for God or for some form of spiritual
reality, but the Church as an institution has little to offer in terms
of living bread or the wine of the Spirit.
It is hardly surprising, therefore, that a growing number are
turning to the cults, to eastern mysticism, or to occult practices in
pursuit of a basic spirituality that the Western Church no longer seems
to provoke.
From David Watson's foreword to 'Celebration of Discipline', by R.
Foster
David Canfil
Dear Anton - Just a note here: Muslims most emphatically do not
believe the same things as Christians, though they share some of the
same moral values...along with many other religions.
And even more emphatically, the Koran does NOT contain ANY of the
same books as the Bible.
Some of the historical figures from Scripture are mentioned in the
Koran, but their characters and significances are radically altered,
particularly the Person of Jesus Christ.
Islam is an anti-Christ system, plainly and simply. Jesus is the
Son of God. Islam explicitly denies the fact, and many others which
are absolutely essential. The question here is not what you or I or
anyone think about Jesus or about Muhammed or about anything. It has
to do with what God has revealed. There is no way that one can be a
Christian and admit the relative merit of a seductive, satanic
deception... which is precisely what Islam is. If there are any doubts,
read the Koran.
I too know many Muslims personally, from a wide variety of
backgrounds. Many are warm, hospital folks on personal terms.
But don't be deceived by that which has deceived generations of
their people. Stand firm under the Banner of Christ. Jesus died on the
Cross for YOU! Muhammed didn't.
The simplest way to deal with this, for anyone who feels confused,
is to personally submit the matter to God, the God of the Bible, in
prayer. He is Lord! He will clarify these points very satisfactorily,
and in a personal, loving, and utterly convincing way, I assure you.
In Him, David Canfil
From: David Canfil To: All Msg #301, 25-Nov-87 03:59pm Subject: THE
KORAN V.S. THE BIBLE
Some quotes from the KORAN concerning Jesus and Christianity:
"Those who say: 'The Lord of Mercy has begotten a son, ' preach a
monstrous falsehood, at which the very heavens might crack, the earth
break asunder, and the mountains crumble to dust. That they should
ascribe a son to the Merciful, when it does not become Him to beget
one!" 19:88.
"...of Jesus, who said to the Israelites: 'I am sent forth to you
by Allah to confirm the Torah already revealed and to give news of an
apostle that will come after me whose name is Ahmed'" 61:6 (Note:
"Ahmed" is another name of Muhammed's, meaning "The Praised One").
"The Jews say Ezra is the son of Allah, while the Christians say the
Messiah is the son of Allah. Such are their assertions, by which they
imitate the infidels of old. Allah confound them! How perverse they
are! They worship their rabbis and their monks, and the Messiah the
son of Mary, as gods besides Allah; though they were ordered to serve
one God only. There is no god but Him" 9:30 (Note: The charge that
Jews say Ezra is the son of Allah has no known basis in Jewish
religious tradition).
"To Moses We gave the Scriptures and after him We sent other
apostles. We gave Jesus the son of Mary veritable signs and
strengthened him with the Holy Spirit. Will you then scorn each
apostle whose message does not suit your fancies, charging some with
imposture and slaying others? They say: 'Our hearts are sealed.' But
Allah has cursed them for their unbelief. They have but little faith.
And now that a Book confirming their own has come to them from Allah,
they deny it, although they know it to be the truth and have long
prayed for help against the unbelievers. May Allah's curse be upon the
infidels!" 2:86.
"With those who said they were Christians We made a covenant also,
but they too have forgotten much of what they were enjoined...People
of the Book! Our apostle has come to reveal to you much of what you
have hidden of the Scriptures, and to forgive you much. A light has
come to you from Allah and a glorious Book...Unbelivers are those who
declare: 'Allah is the Messiah, the son of Mary'" 5:14-17
"Believers, take neither Jews nor 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"
5:51.
"Unbelievers are those who say: 'Allah is the Messiah, the son of
Mary.' For the Messiah himself said: 'Children of Israel, serve Allah,
my Lord and your Lord.' He that worships other gods besides Allah shall
be forbidden Paradise and shall be cast into the fire of Hell. None
shall help the evildoers. Unbelievers are those that say: 'Allah is one
of three.' There is but one God. If they do not desist from so saying,
those of them that disbelieve shall be sternly punished. Will they not
turn to Allah in repentance and seek forgiveness of Him? He is
forgiving and merciful. The Messiah, the son of Mary, was no more than
an apostle..." 5:72-75.
* Origin: Trinity 2 - Faringdon, Oxfordshire (511/113)