IN THEIR OWN WORDS

THE PROPAGANDA MACHINE

Some of the material published by Muslims for the sake of evangelizing and tearing down the Christian faith clearly shows how little most of them know about the Bible.
Among the popular tracts distributed to mosques from the Institute of Islamic Information & Education in Chicago there was one entitled Who invented the Trinity, in which apostle Paul is credited as being the true founder of Christianity. The "Great Commission" of Matthew 28:19, a common verse cited in favor of the Trinity, is claimed to be an addition to the original text. It is suggested that the Unitarian rejection of the Trinity is a more proper view of God, yet fails to mention that the Unitarians also believe in reincarnation which the Muslims abhor. Rejecting this text is also a clear indication of the doctrine of baptism which Islam rejects.
Another entitled Is Jesus Really God? quotes many Bible versions showing the humanity of Christ while rejecting the ones that portray His Deity. Like with the Jehovah’s Witnesses, Jesus is claimed to be merely a created being. The crucifixion is rejected with a verse from the Qur’an, "And for their unbelief, and their uttering against Mary a mighty calumny, and for their saying, ‘We slew the Messiah, Jesus son of Mary, the Messenger of God’...yet they did not slay him, neither crucified him, only a likeness of that was shown to them. Those who are at variance concerning him surely are in doubt regarding him, they have no knowledge of him, except the following of surmise; and they did not slay him of certainty...no indeed; God raised him up to Him; God is Almighty, All-Wise. There is not one of the people of the Book but will assuredly believe in him before his death, and on the Resurrection Day he will be a witness against them (Qur’an 4:156-159).
The tract entitled Mary and her son Jesus is quite revealing. Many good things are said of Mary (Al-Imran and Marium in Arabic), her virginity is acknowledged, but when Jesus is born we see a rather strange happening in Sura 19:29-33. Jesus, a mere infant, carries on a conversation with the people as though he is simply another adult. There is no mention of Joseph, the husband of Mary in the Qur’an.
A Muslim ministry based out of Annandale, Virginia which distributes a glossy publication by Transcom International called Discover Islam claims, "Rights and responsibilities of both sexes are equitable and balanced in their totality." It claims that anything to the contrary is due to cultural practices in countries that are not authentic to Islamic teaching. The same publication states that the Qur’an does not blame women for violating the "forbidden tree," an obvious shot at the Garden of Eden story in the Bible. One must remember that Adam partook of the tree as well and both were equally driven from the garden. Though apostle Paul does refer to the woman as the weaker vessel, both are in need of redemption.

One popular book published and distributed free by the Al-Haramain Foundation in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia is A Brief Illustrated Guide to Understanding Islam. It is a glossy full color book with a cover showing an open Qur’an flying in orbit around the earth and landing like a meteor at Mecca. It takes vague references from the Quran, and some out of context verses from the Bible, and builds a "scientific" case for the Qur’an’s reliability. It reminds me of the method the Christian Science cult uses to bolster their religion, or the way the Mormons twist both history and archaeology to "prove" their book. This book from the Al-Haramain Foundation, unlike most other Muslim promo pieces, even boasts of miracles performed by Mohammed, yet with no references from the Qur’an. It makes a spin on history and downplays their violent past. It makes claims that no one can prove or disprove, and others that are bold face lies. One such claim is that Jesus used the word Allah for God. Any good concordance of the Bible will show that the Hebrew/Aramaic language at the time of Christ used several words for God, none of which were Allah. Elohim is the most common, next is Yaweh (Jehovah). El is another, which can be seen tacked on the end of many Jewish words such as Israel, Gabriel, Michael, etc. We obtained a copy in Washington D.C. at an event in October of 2002 called the first annual Muslim American Heritage Day. It was held at Freedom Plaza near the White House on the same Sunday that firefighters from all over the nation had gathered a block away on Pennsylvania Avenue to mourn and raise funds for their fallen comrades. Amidst this tense scene the Muslims had set up a stage and numerous booths, book tables and ethnic displays. Numerous Arabs were wearing their tradition red and white checkered head covering (shumagh) held on with a double black cord (agal) that rests on top. It was warm so many wore the traditional thobe, a white ankle-length garment with long sleeves. Others from Morocco wore the traditional red Fez cap which became a replacement to the turban in Turkey in 1826 by Ottoman leader Mahmad II. The Fez was was originally a symbol of an Islamic school in the city of Fez. A hat with a brim has been often considered anti-Muslim because of it being an obstacle to prostration in prayer. The Fez was banned in Turkey by Ataturk in 1925. American Nobles of the Masonic Mystic Shrine wear fezzes in parades and special events showing the link to Islam in their religious beliefs. These Masons are known at times to place a Qur’an on their altar as well as a Bible, not willing to acknowledge the contradiction.
Muslims are not only learning to use public transportation such as airplanes to target non-Muslim interests but they are also learning to use the American media and government funds as part of their propaganda machine. Printed material has its limitations. The problem with printed literature is that those who are literate might also have the intellectual ability to see through the smoke screen in order to sort through the deception. Where it would take a reader many hours of deep concentration to wade through a critical history of Islam and its theology, the television screen can seduce the masses in a few short hours while they sit in their livingroom in the comfort of their easy chair. With visual media one can portray history is such beautiful glowing scenes that the critical thinking of the naive non-Muslim viewer is neutralized. A few months after the Muslim American Heritage event the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) ran a two-hour documentary on prime time TV entitled "Muhammed: Legacy of a Prophet." Produced by the Unity Productions Foundation, a nonprofit 501(c)(3) company whose "mission is balanced, fair and accurate journalistic material" in the spirit of tolerance. It consisted of a positive spin on Mohammed’s life partially funded by the Sabadia Family Foundation, El-Hibri Foundation, The Qureishi Family Trust, Arabian Bulk Trading, Ltd., and more than 4,000 individual donors. A little surfing on the Internet revealed some very interesting facts. The program was connected to The Islam Project, an interfaith multicultural organization made up of many Muslim ministries and other ecumenically pluralistic groups. Michael Wolfe, co-producer, is a well-known Muslim. He and Alexander Kronemer founded the Unity Productions Foundation.
Daniel Pipes, university lecturer and writer for the New York Post, came under intense criticism by the Muslims when he pointed out the deceptive evangelistic nature of the program which was also partially funded by the American taxpayers.
In the program emotional ploys were used such as an interview with a Muslim firefighter from New York who claimed that true Muslims would never do something such as those who flew the commercial airliners into the Twin Towers. Others praised the prophet, next to Moses, as the perfect example of humanity. There were few critical words spoken against the prophet or the history of the religion. It was not so much what the documentary did show, as what it did not show, that was the problem. Getting the opinion of American Muslims on what Islam teaches is like asking a Unitarian about what their fellow Christians believe. You get nothing but a politically correct relativistic spin.

A video entitled Islam: A Closer Look is now found in many public libraries in America thanks to the slick evangelistic efforts of Taibah International. It is distributed by a Muslim media outreach based out of Falls Church, Virginia. It is a usual Muslim spin on world history, science and religion geared for a naïve unread person who believes anything that shows up on a television screen.
Saudi Arabia finds itself in a precarious situation in its new interest to bring in tourist dollars. In year 2001 the Saudi Aramco World magazine published a number of articles dealing with the dilemma. The only tourism that feeds the economy of the "forbidden cities" of Mecca and Medina are Muslims. In effort to reap some fruit from the pockets of non-Muslim world travelers the Saudi’s formed an organization from scratch in year 2000 called the Supreme Commission for Tourism. In the past the French have been the largest market because of the large number of Muslims there. To attract non-Muslims they have promoted specialized markets for mountain-bikers and those who dive among the coral reefs in the Red Sea. It will be interesting to see how the rigid religious crowd take to having non-believers trampling the country-side.
The Jesus of the Qur’an is quite obviously a different character than the Jesus of the Bible. Of the many Muslims that I have interviewed and corresponded with through e-mail there is one common scenario. When they find that I am a Christian they are nearly always quick to tell me they believe in Jesus and want to talk about everything we have in common. As long as I do not cite the Bible or define our terms things go rather smoothly. As soon as one quotes from the Bible or makes reference to the deity of Christ, the Son of God, our relationship quickly spirals into the abyss. "We believe Jesus is a prophet, nothing more," they usually respond. If one believes in Jesus as only a prophet should he not be willing to follow His teaching. The answer is categorically no. Those who are defenders of Islam are not willing to follow the teaching of Jesus the prophet, nor Jesus the Son of God. The main reason is that they would have to look into the biblical record of His life and existence which immediately flies in the face of Mohammed and his Qur’an.
The Bible warns us that false Christs, false prophets and false gospels were coming. We have an abundance to choose from, from the Arabian Desert to the American West. If there were no other reason to believe in the Bible, the mere fact that all other religions go to such extremes to discredit it without coming to the same conclusions should say something. One would think that if all the criticism is correct, the critics should be able to rally around the standard of their criticism. They should all end up with one common religion. That of course is not the case. The spirit of Islam can be summed up in the words of Jesus when he was describing the nature of the religious crowd of his day, "You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature; for he is a liar, and the father of lies."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nbT-1inFxZY