Islam is a "Religion of Peace."
Islam's long history of forced conversions
Read Andrew Bostom at Front Page mag today, please:
http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles...e.asp?ID=24104
Forced conversions in Islamic history are not exceptional—they have been the norm, across three continents—Asia, Africa, and Europe—for over 13 centuries. Orders for conversion were decreed under all the early Islamic dynasties—Umayyads, Abbasids, Fatimids, and Mamluks. Additional extensive examples of forced conversion were recorded under both Seljuk and Ottoman Turkish rule (the latter until its collapse in the 20th century), the Shi’ite Safavid and Qajar dynasties of Persia/Iran, and during the jihad ravages on the Indian subcontinent, beginning with the early 11th century campaigns of Mahmud of Ghazni, and recurring under the Delhi Sultanate, and Moghul dynasty until the collapse of Muslim suzerainty in the 18th century following the British conquest of India.
Moreover, during jihad—even the jihad campaigns of the 20th century [i.e., the jihad genocide of the Armenians during World War I, the Moplah jihad in Southern India [1921], the jihad against the Assyrians of Iraq [early 1930s], the jihads against the Chinese of Indonesia and the Christian Ibo of southern Nigeria in the 1960s, and the jihad against the Christians and Animists of the southern Sudan from 1983 to 2001], the (dubious) concept of “no compulsion” (Koran 2:256; which was cited with tragic irony during the Fox reporters “confessional”!), has always been meaningless. A consistent practice was to enslave populations taken from outside the boundaries of the “Dar al Islam”, where Islamic rule (and Law) prevailed. Inevitably fresh non-Muslim slaves, including children, were Islamized within a generation, their ethnic and linguistic origins erased. Two enduring and important mechanisms for this conversion were concubinage and the slave militias—practices still evident in the contemporary jihad waged by the Arab Muslim Khartoum government against the southern Sudanese Christians and Animists. And Julia Duin reported in early 2002 that murderous jihad terror campaigns—including, prominently, forced conversions to Islam—continued to be waged against the Christians of Indonesia’s Moluccan Islands.
Given this enduring (and ignoble) historical legacy, it remains to be seen whether contemporary Muslim religious authorities—particularly those within Palestinian society, and affiliated with Hamas or Fatah—will condemn publicly the forced conversions of the kidnapped Fox reporters. Moreover, will they be joined by a chorus of authoritative voices representing the entire Muslim clerical hierarchy—Sunni and Shi’ite alike—from Mecca and Cairo, Qom and Najaf, to the Muslim advocacy groups in the West (such as CAIR in the United States, and the Muslim Council of Britain in England)—unanimous in their condemnation of this hideous practice, and formalized by a fatwa stating as much? Will such Muslim authorities at least recognize the acute predicament of Centanni and Wiig by issuing a fatwa stating that their “conversion”, being under duress, was not bona fide, condemning in advance any Muslim who might now attack these journalists for “apostasy” from Islam?
But remember: "There is no compulsion" in the Koran and Islam is a "Religion of Peace."
Re: Islam is a "Religion of Peace."
Gunpoint Conversions and Martyrdom
Note: Please don’t go off on a tangent about “judging” the men, people. The question is: “Christians, what would you do if some maniac held a gun to your head and asked you to deny Christ or die?”
Let’s keep the discussion on topic.
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By now I’m sure you’ve heard about the release of two FOX News journalists captured a couple of weeks ago by group of idiot thugs. According to one of the journalists, Steve Centanni, he and his fellow captive Olaf Wiig were forced to convert to Islam at gunpoint.
A few short months ago, a former Muslim was facing death in Afghanistan because he’d become a Christian. The blogosphere rallied in support, and I blogged about it here, recounting the story of the first Christian martyr, Stephen. (Read the biblical account beginning with Acts 6.)
Abdul Rahman did not deny Christ. He was willing to die for his beliefs, but God said, “Not yet.”
There’s no indication in the FOX story or any I’ve read that Centanni or Wiig were Christians. If they were, they probably would’ve said so. All Centanni said was: “We were forced to convert to Islam at gunpoint,” Centanni told FOX News. “Don’t get me wrong here. I have the highest respect for Islam, and I learned a lot of good things about it, but it was something we felt we had to do because they had the guns, and we didn’t know what the hell was going on.”
Embrace Islam or die. That would be a simple choice for me, though not an easy one if I had a gun to my head.
(Isn’t it strange that Centanni, who said he “converted” only because he had a gun to his head, felt the need to be apologetically politically correct by expressing the “highest respect for Islam”? Unbelievable on so many levels.)
Thanks to the blessing of living in a free and civilized country (for the time being), Christians in America likely won’t face deny-Christ-or-die scenarios. Aside from the usual attempts to shunt our beliefs from the public sphere at best, and the possibility of having Bible-based preaching labeled as hate speech at worst, Christians in America have it relatively easy compared to the rest of the world.
However…knowing that people think you’re out of your mind for believing in an omnipotent, omniscient, intelligent being outside time and space who created the world and everything in it, and that this being saw how corrupt his creation was and destroyed it, then promised to never destroy it again by water, constantly forgiving and punishing his people, then condescended to become a man to teach people about his Father’s kingdom (What is the trinity?) and eternal existence beyond this world, and bear the Father’s wrath for the sins of those he came to save — although he was sinless — and promised to return some day to judge the whole world and gather his followers as if separating wheat from chaff…is not easy. But it’s not fatal.
Christians, what would you do if some maniac held a gun to your head and asked you to deny Christ or die? Would you deny the Savior?
I thought about this a couple of years ago when Nick Berg was beheaded. I don’t think Berg was a Christian or given the choice to deny or die. He was doomed just for being an American, and being a Jew certainly didn’t help matters.
If I’m ever captured by Muslim maniacs or non-Muslim maniacs who gave me a choice between denying my Savior and death, I’d want to face death with all the dignity I had left. As a prideful person (for better or for worse), I don’t want to give my would-be murderers the satisfaction of breaking me, especially if they’re going to kill me anyway. And what is my life worth without Christ?
[Clarification: If I gave the impression that I thought I would “lose” my salvation if I denied Christ, I certainly didn’t intend to, though the previous sentence may read that way. The Bible teaches that once Christ forgives us, we’re always forgiven. Once saved, always saved. I don’t have to work to “keep” my salvation. Yes, even if I denied Christ, God forbid it, he’s still my Savior.]
Would I want to live with the shame of not trusting him and denying him for the sake of living in this fallen world?
Judgment against those who’ve murdered people because of their faith in Jesus Christ is mentioned in the Bible specifically. John, the last surviving apostle and banished to the barren island of Patmos by the Roman government because of his faith, received a vision from God about existing Christian churches and future events, including worship in heaven, and God’s terrible and righteous judgment against unbelievers and the king of unbelievers, Satan. Inspired by God, John writes:
Quote:
When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God and the testimony they had maintained. They called out in a loud voice, “How long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood?” Then each of them was given a white robe, and they were told to wait a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants and brothers who were to be killed as they had been was completed. (Revelation 6)
Until Christ returns, his followers will be martyred for the faith. If ever faced with deny-or-die, I’d choose to be among those asking, “How long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood?”
Addendum: A Christian mother says she’d convert (or pretend to) to stay alive for her children. While reflecting on this post before writing it, I thought about Christian mothers, especially those with young children. Would you pretend to convert to stay alive, or would you refuse to deny Christ, knowing your children may end up as orphans? Either way, it’s a matter of trust and faith.
Blog links: A Winter Soldier’s Story, Hot Air, Diggers Realm, The Colossus…
Update (12:03 p.m.): We may be dealing with two separate things here: converting (or pretending to) at gunpoint and denying Christ at gunpoint. For Christians, converting is denying. For unbelievers, I guess there’s a difference. For Christians, there really isn’t.
http://lashawnbarber.com/archives/20...ons-martyrdom/
I would have to disagree - I believe in living to fight another day.
Is a "conversion" real if it is effected at gunpoint ? Did they truly accept Islam in their heart and souls - or just as a device to live another day ?
I also don't share his views on "Once Saved, Always Saved". Does this mean that once I am saved I can commit sins, crimes, ect because I have a "Get out of Hell Free" card ?
