Andrew Hagen

To describe the nature of the Global War on Terrorism, we must begin with religion.

Judaism is not generally accepting of Christianity as a faith that either takes the place of Judaism or legitimately worships the same God as Judaism. Yet, nowhere in the core teachings of Judaism is the Trinity rejected. The Trinity is the Christian description of God. Christians say God is unitary but has three distinct aspects: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Furthermore, since Judaism is worship in accordance with the Word of God, and the Gospel of John states that Jesus is the Word, a Christian case can be made that righteous Jews honor the Word. Most Christians accept that righteous Jews are worshipping the same God as them. Many Christians believe that Judaism is a righteous religion and that the Covenant between God and Abraham endures, even though they do not demand that Jews recognize Christianity as the legitimate religion of God.

On the other hand, the core Islamic teaching—the Koran—makes specific and unmistakable the Islamic rejection of the Trinity. That is, Muslims reject the divinity of Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit both. Donald Sensing finds that there are several other important differences between Islam and Christianity. (*) Notably, while Christianity fosters a personal relationship between the believer and God, Islam does not foster such a thing. Ultimately, due to the Muslim rejection of the Trinity, Islam and Christianity can never be reconciled.

The irreconcilability of Christianity and Islam originates at even deeper levels, though. The prophet of Islam, Mohammed, made little in the way of what Christians recognize as prophecies, from God or otherwise. Neither was Mohammed accompanied by signs, portents or miracles, and so there is no verification of Mohammed’s commission as an apostle as there was for Jesus Christ, the disciples, and Paul. In fact, Islam teaches that the Bible is very corrupt, and can only be properly interpreted from the perspective of the Koran. To Christians, Mohammed appears as a false prophet who rejects the Bible and attempts to substitute his own teachings. Due to these doctrinal differences, the Christian and Islamic faiths can never come together. One or neither is right, not both.

Judaism and Islam are different. Jews and Muslims lived together in peace for hundreds of years, so long as the Jews lived as subservient citizens, or dhimmis. Muslim doctrine requires the acceptance of subdued or conquered Jews (and subdued or conquered Christians, for that matter). In the past, this was a relatively good deal for Jews because Jews at that time were often unfortunately not welcomed in Christian communities. Since the rebirth of the State of Israel, however, the Muslim concept of the ummah has been invoked. Israel is said to be on “Muslim land.” To force Jews to once again bend the knee to Muslims as dhimmis, radical Muslims have undertaken jihad or holy war. This is why radical Muslims are engaged in what we in the West call Jew-hatred, and indeed in general a systematic campaign of murdering Jews, young and old alike. Their goal is to destroy the State of Israel and force Jews to become their slaves, or dhimmis. Therefore, so long as the State of Israel exists and Jews have freedom, Judaism and Islam cannot be reconciled, either.

According to Judaism, neither Christianity nor Islam is equal in righteousness to it.

According to Christianity, Judaism may be equally as righteous as Christianity, but Islam is not at all a righteous religion. (Some Christians disagree that Judaism is righteous.)

According to Islam, neither Judaism nor Christianity is as righteous as Islam, but both have a minimal degree of righteousness. Muslim doctrine considers Jews and Christians as worthy of respect only if they completely submit themselves to Muslims as conquered people.

Within all faiths are syncretists who attempt to blend all religion into one. These people willfully ignore major doctrinal differences in order to reach their conclusions.

A deep split haunts Islam today. Radical Muslims want to wage holy war against the non-Muslim world and at the same time come to dominate the Muslim world. Modern Muslims want to practice their faith without being forced to engage in holy war as dictated by the radical Muslims, or to live under the iron fist of either dictators or radicals. Westerners ought never forget that most Muslims want freedom, not a campaign of global jihad.

So where does this leave us politically? First, Christian and Jew must band together and stand firm against the onslaught of radical Islam. Secondly, Christian and Jew must put aside religious doctrinal differences and band together with the modern Muslim (sometimes called the moderate or liberal or secular Muslim.) Even as this is done, both Christian and Jew must be wary of any Muslim attempts at either taqiyah, dissembling (lying) to advance Islam, or non-reciprocal proselytization opportunities. The (Arabic) word for the proselytization of Islam is dawa. The trouble arises in that while Muslims freely proselytize in Christian countries, when Christians attempt to proselytize in predominantly Muslim countries, or in divided countries like Nigeria or the Sudan, Christians are often butchered. Whenever Christians do not bend the knee to Muslims and behave as conquered servants to Muslims, like the Christian Hannah Ashrawi does for the Arab Palestinian terrorists, radical Muslims call for jihad to force the Christians into dhimmitude. Both Christians and Jews need to understand that the radical Muslim tolerance of their existence is predicated on their eventual surrender to oppression. As for atheists, agnostics, Buddhists, Hindus and pagans, they ought to know that radical Muslims would kill them on the spot, regardless of their willingness to surrender.

Under their first commandment, Christians are not allowed to disavow God, and thus neither are they allowed to disavow Christ. Thus, Christians who were sent to the gladiator pits in the days of pagan Rome could not have kept their faith and yet escaped execution by disavowing Christ. They had to choose to live as a pagan or die as a Christian. If under radical jihad a Christian is ordered to either disavow Christ or be murdered, a Christian remains under the commandment to not disavow Christ. Many Christians have recently been martyred in Africa in this very situation.

Muslims are allowed to disavow their religion in the interest of their lives. This often falls under taqiyah, although taqiyah is usually seen as a part only of Shia jurisprudence, and not part of Sunni jurisprudence. Most Muslims are Sunnis. Any Muslim can temporarily disavow his faith to escape persecution. As a result, there is the problem of the “stealth Muslim” or “secret Muslim.” An example of a stealth Muslim who is sometimes identified as a Muslim is the American writer Stephen Schwartz. His Muslim name is Suleyman Ahmad al-Kosovi.

Stealth Muslims are people who pretend to not be Muslim in order to gain some access or trust among non-Muslims, and then abuse that access or trust in some way to benefit Islam. This is something that non-Muslims can address effectively so long as they know that the problem exists. Usually, one can figure out who someone is if you think about it. Unfortunately, most Christians and Jews today have never even heard of the concept of the stealth Muslim.

This has practical impact in the area of loyalty tests. If a radical stealth Muslim were asked to swear loyalty to the Constitution, for example, he could swear to Allah loyalty to the Constitution even while remaining secretly dedicated to fighting the Constitution and all the while remaining a Muslim in good standing. (I’m sure that there is a division within Islamic jurisprudence on this matter, but from the perspective of Christians the division’s practical impact is impossible to discern.) Therefore, the loyalty tests and oaths that have become a fixture within Christendom over the course of millennia are revealed to have a severe limitation in the contemporary context of multiculturalism.

The Global War on Terrorism could easily slip into a war of civilizations, pitting Christian and Jew against Muslim. While this would be a preferable option to letting radical Islam dominate the globe, it is not the option we most prefer.

The optimal situation is for Jews, Christians, and the non-radical, moderate, liberal, or moderate Muslims—in addition to all others from atheists to Buddhists to Hindus—to resist and repel radical Islam and the jihad campaign. We call this the Global War on Terrorism.

A keystone of this campaign is to not respect multiculturalism, because that is nothing more than anarchy, and anarchy breeds war. The first step against multiculturalism is a halt in immigration to the West from Muslim countries, just as Muslim countries do not allow Westerners to emigrate there. This reciprocal halt is needed for social stability in Western countries. The repugnance Muslims have to the sound of bells and the presence of crosses, and the towering, intruding nature of their spires and the penetrating, amplified call of the mosque to prayer five times a day, all remain in deep conflict with cultural Christendom. In order to avoid needless neighborhood disputes that are likely to grow into full-fledged battles, it is better for Muslims to not be welcomed into predominantly Christian countries. A reciprocal choice has already been made by Muslims, who do not allow immigrant Christians into countries they dominate. While large numbers of immigrants leads to social instability, a number of missionaries who travel freely would not cause any social breakdown.

Simultaneously throughout the world, all proselytizing faiths, including Christianity and Islam, must be free to peacefully proselytize everyone, including each other’s believers. This last part becomes exceptionally tricky, but so long as the proselytization is truly peaceful and not backed by intimidation, economic coercion or bribery, or any kind of subterfuge, the situation should be agreeable to all. Ideally, we would all put away our weapons and just try to peacefully convince one another of our views. Unfortunately, radical Muslims are disinterested in any kind of peace deal. For them, it seems to be either victory or death. We free people of the world of all faiths must resolutely face this terrible choice the radical Muslims are making, unite together, and prepare to defend ourselves. We must remain alert and on guard.

Many Christians have called for Christianity to restrain itself against proselytizing Jews. While that may be a very good idea indeed, it should remain a theological determination and not one subject to political or legal arrangements. For otherwise it would conflict with the new rubric of universal peaceful exercise of religion and proselytization that we freedom-loving peoples of the world mean to enforce as our victory condition in this Global War on Terrorism.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 24th, 2004 at 18:51 and is filed under Global War on Terrorism, Religion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.