Tuesday, October 03, 2006

From Voice of the Martyrs: For Prayer and Reflection

INDONESIA: Muslim Mob Reduces Church to Ashes

VOM sources www.persecution.com.


Infuriated by reports that Christians were scheduling revival meetings at the Indonesia Evangelical Mission Church in Aceh province, a militant Islamic mob set the worship center ablaze on September 1st. Local Muslims from the town of Siompi, which was the first in Indonesia to implement Shariah law, reduced the building to ashes in an attempt to wipe out those in their province not bowing down to Allah.. Church members have moved their worship services to a local house, as they refuse to buckle under Muslim attacks. Give thanks to God for these Christians who are remaining faithful to Jesus. Psalm 33:20-22

2 comments:

Craig Fletcher said...

Dr. G has reccomended this book before, but for those that may have missed it I'd like to reccomend it so that you can have a better understanding of why Muslims act this way.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0884198847/ref=pd_kar_gw_1/002-7668100-1585604?ie=UTF8

One interesting quote in the book goes something like this: "The Muslim terrorists are not the criminals, they are victims of Islam. Islam is the true criminal".

Other insights from the book:

You will understand what the Qu'ran teaches about "Infidels" or "People of the Book" (Jews and Christians) and how Muslims are to deal with them. It's scary, and sad.

The author got his Ph.D in Islamic history at the most respected Islamic university in the world, and had the entire Qu'ran memorized by age 12, so he knows the teachings well. He began to see the contradictions and violence in the Qu'ran and could not escape them intellectually. He tried to be a Muslim and teach messages of peace through the Qu'ran but in his heart he knew this was not the case (not what is taught in the Qu'ran) so he could no longer stand teaching lies and contradictions. He became very distraught at this and one day a pharmacist asked him "is everything OK?" He told her about his plight and she secretly handed him a Bible. He opened it to the gospel of Mark (I think) and from there read the scriptures straight through until the next morning, at which time he gave himself to Christ. This was the God of mercy that he had been seeking.

The Qu'ran on the other hand, speaks for itself, as you will see in this book. YOu don't have to criticize it, just read it and let it do it's own talking. This book points out MANY examples of the fact that it is indeed a religion of the sword. For this reason it is frustrating that the response to such a critique is violence or death. It is not significant that people "say" Islam is intrinsically violent, but the Qu'ran itself.

It is no accident that Islamic terrorists do what they do. They are being faithful to their religion and prophet. The author describes Islamic extremists as the ones who are "truly living a Muslim life and following the teachings". Thank God that most of them don't.

The author (who renamed himself to "Mark Gabriel" after his conversion) renounced Islam in the 90's and was actually shot at by his own father for his conversion to Christianity. He has been on the run ever since. Make no mistake, to be a Muslim in an Islamic nation and leave Islam to convert to Christianity means that you will have the "sword of Islam about your neck" for the rest of your life.

No free thinking, no freedom to choice, and no freedom of speech. It's "be a Muslim or die". The goal of Islam (per the Qu'ran) is to convert the entire world to the Islam system of living - both religiously and politically.

Douglas Groothuis, Ph.D. said...

Fletcher recounts some main points of the book well. Gabriel's book makes for arresting and informative reading on a subject about which so many are so besotted.