Introduction:
Islam is on a pace to become the dominant religion in the world in our lifetime. The Islamic world represents an economic, political, and ideological threat to the West, but ultimately  a religious one. The Scriptures warn…

If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him God speed: For he that biddeth him God speed is partaker of his evil deeds. 2 John 10-11

We have welcomed into our nation, into our national home, those who are bringing another gospel. And we are becoming partakers of their evil deeds, and suffering the consequences. 

The Prophet:
Islam cannot be understood apart from its founder. Mohammed was a camel driver traveling with caravans.  This exposed him to other cultures than that of the central Arabian tribes. There he heard stories about other religions—Judaism and Christianity. This caused him to rebel against the idolatry and polytheism of Arabia. He became a champion of mono-theism and a more spiritual religion. He became convicted of one, true, sovereign, creator god.  

Mohammed married a rich widow and became established in life. Then at some point he began having visions. He doubted the veracity of these visions, but his wife convinced him they were from God. This led him to start propagating his revelations and launched his career as a prophet. He got nowhere promoting his beliefs except for a small band of loyal followers. Persecuted in Mecca for challenging the established religious order he fled to Medina. There with the support from some Jewish clans who sympathized with his mono-theism, he became established. Once in power he used it to ruthlessly suppress his opponents, frequently calling his followers to assassinate a particular critic. He then proceeded to establish his new faith by the sword and became wildly successful. This success led to more blood and violence and transformed him from a mystic and prophet to a bloody warlord and set the tone for Islam ever since.  

His lifestyle as a warlord established many precedents for Islam. He had his opponents murdered.  He called for the subjugation and slaughter of infidels and unbelievers who resisted the new faith. And he led a very sensuous personal lifestyle. These characteristics of the prophet of Islam have become part of the warp and woof of this new religion affecting its theology and its history as the new faith was put into practice. 

Islam and Slavery:
Under Islam slavery permitted and almost required for unbelievers. War with infidels is a duty and encompasses killing them, enslaving them, or their ruthless subjugation and exploitation as second class citizens in a kind of serfdom. Slavery includes sexual privileges with female slaves, even if they are married. Slaves have no rights. This kind of harsh and barbaric slavery is still practiced in some Islamic societies such as the Sudan & Mauritania and even Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. In the Sudan, Islamic militias raid Christian villages in the South. They kill the men, and rape and enslave the women and children. In the slave markets of the North-west frontier between Pakistan and Afghanistan young girls captured in intertribal conflicts are auctioned off for as little as $10.00 US. 

This kind of slavery is totally different from that slavery which was regulated under Moses and was more like the indentured servitude  practiced by our forbearers in this land. It is far worse than the Southern Slavery and the slave trade that Robert Lewis Dabney and other Southern theologians condemned and sought to reform.  

Islam and Women:
The status of women under Islamic Law (Sharia) is so deplorable that it has to be studied to be believed. Under Islam women do not have the security and blessing of the institution of marriage as Biblically defined and practiced by Christians and other faiths. This is because of Islam’s doctrines  with respect to polygamy and divorce. The Koran approves of polygamy and allows each Islamic male to have up to four wives. Claiming a divine revelation Mohammed exempted himself from this limitation and married many wives, including a nine year old girl and the beautiful wife of one of his close friends (He went to visit his friend and the door was answered by the wife in his absence. Mohammed was visibly struck by her sensuous beauty as she appeared in diaphanous clothing. When she reported his reaction to her husband he feared for his life and immediately divorced her and offered her to the prophet. He pretended to demur, then claiming another revelation from Allah that commanded him to take her as Allah did not ant to deny anything to his faithful prophet, he took her into his harem.). A married women in an Islamic society is never secure in her position as wife and life-long partner of her husband. Her husband can come home with wife number two, or three or four for that matter, at any time, and displace her position in the home. At any time she can be relegated to the status of a neglected concubine while her husband takes up with another woman, right under her nose, in their own home.

And if this is not enough she is even more insecure because of  the Koran’s teaching regarding divorce. All her husband needs to do to rid himself of any one of his wives is decree three times, “I divorce thee.” Upon the third pronouncement the decree is final. She can be sent away with no more than whatever parting gift he chooses to grant her, or with whatever he has promised in a pre-nuptial agreement the gift will be (The Koran requires some gift without specifying any amount. Technically a thin dime would probably do). There is no security for the wife in Islamic marriage and her situation is continuously precarious and totally dependent on her husband’s favor, indeed his whims.

Islam’s doctrine of easy divorce makes a mockery not only of marriage, but of the Koran’s injunction limiting polygamy to four wives. This becomes merely four wives at any one time. By practicing serial polygamy (i.e. discarding old wives and marrying new ones) an Islamic male can have as many wives as he wants. Osma Bin Laden’s father is reputed to have had eleven.

Not content with relegating all wives to the status of temporary concubines, Mohammed continues with his attack on the status of women. He taught that women are not only inferior in status, but in being as well. He considered them intellectually and spiritually inferior to men. In short he thought of them as stupid and unspiritual, incapable of intelligent thought or of comprehending and practicing true religion. He stated that the vast majority of the inhabitants of hell were women. And by contrast the Koran is totally silent about women in paradise.

Rounding out Islam’s doctrine of women the Koran teaches that female prisoners-of-war can be used for sexual purposes. Similarly female slaves, even if married, can be used for sex. This is nothing less than institutionalized rape. Having denied that women have any intellectual or moral worth, and having relegated them to the status of the harem, he logically assumes they are only good for sex and legislates accordingly.

In all this Mohammed had a practical purpose. Early Islam was a militant faith, sweeping across Arabia and then the entire Eastern Mediterranean world. Armies of Islamic warriors were on the march and Mohammed was concerned about their sexual needs. As they conquered, made prisoners, and enslaved, he wanted to make sure that they were rewarded by having their sexual needs abundantly met. Perhaps he understood what an incentive loot and women could provide for the warriors of Islam. To that end he even went further. He instituted temporary marriage, mainly to accommodate soldiers in the field. This allowed a man to marry a woman, consummate the marriage, and then divorce her and send her away with a prearranged gift. This was only a thinly disguised veil for prostitution. Originally Mohammed legislated that it had to be for at least three days. This allowed the men in the army, when the army was encamped and at rest, to take up with a harlot and have sex for a few days, with one of the female camp-followers. The requirement of three days has long since disappeared in Islamic law. Currently, in the holy city of Quom, in Iran, known for its many Islamic seminaries, temporary marriage is legal for as little as one hour, to provide for the sexual needs of the seminary students. Such are Islamic ideas of holiness.

Contrast all this with the doctrines of Christianity. A Christianity that upholds marriage as a life-long commitment between one man and one woman, and allows divorce only for adultery and long term desertion. A Christianity that teaches that the women is intrinsically the equal of the man, and that only in her office of wife is she subject to her husband. A Christianity that condemns polygamy and criminalizes adultery and rape. And speaking of rape it is a serious problem in Islamic societies. Under Islamic law the testimony of a woman is worth half the testimony of a man (the testimony of an unbeliever is considered worthless and is not allowed.). If a women complains of rape and seeks to file charges her testimony is never sufficient to counter the testimony of the accused. To prevail she would have to have the additional testimony of at least one man or of two other women. Legally, a woman’s daughter can be raped in her presence with impunity as far as Islamic law is concerned.  And it only gets worse from there. Women, under Islamic law, having unsuccessfully filed charges of rape have been accused of adultery, convicted and punished. The perverted reasoning of the Islamic courts has been that the woman, being married, has admitted to having engaged in sexual relations with a man other than their husband, and if it wasn’t rape it must be adultery. Women are therefore silenced from even making a futile attempt to seek legal redress after being raped. Such outrages currently take place in Islamic societies. One marvels that American Feminists, while waxing eloquent in their hatred of and rejection of Biblical Christianity, accept the politically correct position that Islam is an acceptable and peaceful religion and limit their protests to so called Islamic extremists such as the Taliban.  

Islam & Religious Liberty:
Islam is a totalitarian system. It has no concept of freedom of religion. It has no concept of the institutional separation of church and state (This should not be confused with the current atheistic drive to separate religion (i.e. Christianity) from the state and construct a secular state.) which was one of the great contributions of the Protestant Reformation, and a logical development of Christ’s famous saying, “Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and unto God the things that are God’s.”  Historically the Islamic world was led by the Caliphate. The Caliph was everything that the Pope of Rome has always, but ineffectually, claimed to be. The Popes claimed to be the Vicar of Christ on earth and to require the allegiance and submission of the kings of the nations. In the Islamic world this Papal dream was realized and the Caliphs united in their person the sum total of both civil and spiritual authority. This was the ideal totalitarian system led by a total despot. And it is the dream of current Islamists to restore the Caliphate. A restored Caliphate, not a democratic republic, is the dream of true Moslems.

Islam has no concepts of freedom of speech or of the press, etc. For Moslems, Islam is the true religion and all others must be ruthlessly suppressed. All statements against the Koran and its teachings, and against Muhammad their prophet are blasphemous and must be punished by death. Apostasy from Islam is punishable by death under Islamic law and this is currently enforced in Moslem countries. I remember an account of Pastor David, a native Pakistani minister who recounted what happened to a young girl who converted to Christianity and moved into a Christian village. (Note: In Islamic societies such as Pakistan village life is very religious and it is nigh impossible for a Christian to live in a Moslem village.) The mullahs convinced her parents that she was an apostate and had to killed under Islamic law. They convinced them that it was their duty to carry out the sentence of the Koran. They dutifully obeyed and came to the Christian village to visit their daughter and killed her.

In Islamic societies non-Muslims have no rights. Non-Muslims cannot testify in any court proceedings. According to Mohammed’s teachings non-Muslims, if they are not killed or enslaved, are to be heavily taxed and only allowed to exist so they can be economically exploited. He taught that Muslims have a basic right to the property of unbelievers.

Original statements in the Koran gave some deference to Jews as “the people of the Book.” This was early in Muhammad’s career in Medina when he was struggling for existence and received some support from Jewish clans there because of his monotheism. When later they rejected his new religion he turned against them slaughtered them, and denounced them in later portions of the Koran. Apologists for Islam like to quote some of those earlier statements. The history of Islam is that they act according his example and his later statements.

The Muslim Paradise:
The Muslim paradise is akin to other pagan paradises’ such as Valhalla. That is it is a sensual place—a place where pagan warriors can revel in the pleasures of the flesh. In fact the paradise that Mohammed conjured up in his writings resembles an Arab chieftain’s version of the Playboy Mansion. In it a man can have many human wives as he pleases. To ensure the maximum of sexual delight every Muslim male in paradise will also receive as wives, 72 houris. These are super- human beings described as dark-eyed, full breasted virgins. In addition to that every Muslim male in paradise will receive a contingent of beautiful handsome young boys of about 10-12, dressed in fine silks, etc. It is debated whether these are solely to be used as personal servants or for sexual purposes as well. (Pederasty is a prevalent vice in Islamic societies and Mohammed may have possibly provided for such perverted pleasures in his paradise. I have had business associates who visited Islamic countries tell me that it is not unusual to have a hotel owner offer to procure a prostitute or a young boy for them.) In this pagan paradise men will lie around on couches and revel in the pleasures of the flesh, with carnal delights and food and drink in abundance. It is the typical paradise as imagined by the desert nomads of Arabia. Needless to say, in such a paradise Mohammed mentions nothing of women, except as the inmates of the harems of the holy warriors of Islam.

Contrast this with the Apostle’s Paul statement, “For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. For he that in these things serveth Christ is acceptable to God.” (Romans 14:17-18)  Islam is a very carnal religion. It promises its adherents the pleasures of the flesh in this life and in the life to come. It offers loot (the property of unbelievers) and women to men in this life, and a  very sensual life-style in the after life.  

Conclusions:
Islam is a world and life view that encompasses economics, politics, and religion.  It is comprehensive, and it is totalitarian. Christianity is also a comprehensive world and life view. But Christianity is not totalitarian. As Christ put it, “Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and unto God the things that are God.” This limits Caesar and institutionally separates the church and the state.

Christians seek a Christian world—that is a world of real Christians, not masses of nominal believers who have been dragooned into the faith by the sword. Christianity seeks a society of saints—redeemed by the blood and sanctified by the Spirit. Moslems seek a world under Islamic rule.

Islam is thus akin to National Socialism and Communism as a comprehensive totalitarian faith prepared to establish itself by the sword and rule by force. In that light it is interesting to note that the Ottoman Empire was autocratic. And that during and before the II World War the Arab nations were pro-Nazi and during the Cold War they sided with the Soviet Union. Islamic societies definitely seem to have an affinity for totalitarian systems.  

We are told that Islam means peace…Literally it means submission. Submission to Allah…Submission to Muhammad, his prophet…Submission to the Koran. Thus the peace of Islam is the same as the peace of the communists. It is the absence of resistance to Islam. For them there is only the House of Islam, where Islamic law is enforced, and the House of War, where subjugation to Islam is an ongoing process. And until we have been integrated into the former and are under the heel of Islamic law, we will be in the latter.

If we want true peace, peace with God…we will have to battle against the peace of Islam. A good place to start is by singing that great imprecatory psalm, Psalm 83, raised up against Israel’s enemies while thinking of the Christians as the true Israel of God.  If we cannot bring ourselves to do that we will likely suffer the logical consequences.

If the West continues to reject Christianity and the God of the Scriptures, and in the name of a politically correct multi-culturalism tolerate Islam it is not hard to figure who will ultimately prevail in a conflict that is fundamentally religious in nature. In the long run ideology will trump technology, and the West is ideologically disarmed. While the hordes of Islam are prepared to live and die by the corrupt teachings of the Koran, the West continues to culturally suppress Christianity, barring the Scriptures from public institutions and Christian concepts from all public debate. Communism lasted seventy years because in spite of how horrible it was, the West appeased it for decades. If we continue to appease Islam we will have, at best, a similar future as the one from which we just emerged after a long and bitter cold war. May God grant us mercy to and bring to our national consciousness the words of Christ, “And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.” AMEN!!!