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"Take
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Cecil Andrews, 29 Edengrove Park, Ballynahinch, BT24 8AZ, Northern Ireland Telephone/Fax 028 9756 5511. E-MAIL - takeheed@aol.com WEBSITE - http://www.takeheed.net Quick Links - Home - Assorted Articles - Audio/Video - Ministry Newsletters - Words of Wisdom |
The intrinsic nature of Islam by
former Muslim, Magdi Allam.
On
Perhaps she based her judgment on
a view that I both hold and express to this effect – ‘Any religion that
sanctions and uses violence to promote and spread its power and influence
should be severely curtailed by legislation’. Leaving aside this lady’s
obvious lack of Biblical knowledge and understanding as evidenced by her
occupying a role [‘ruling elder’] that God’s Word makes abundantly clear is
reserved for suitable men only she obviously has a similar lack of knowledge
and understanding on the ‘intrinsic’ [According to ‘The Handy
Dictionary’ this means ‘inherent, essential, real, genuine’] nature of
the religion of Islam. This ‘intrinsic nature’ has been clearly revealed and
expressed by a former Muslim-born journalist called Magdi Allam.
I first became aware of Magdi
Allam around Easter of this year when it was reported by the Roman Catholic
ZENIT news agency [Sunday 23rd March 2008] that on
Saturday 22nd March 2008 he had been baptised into the Roman
Catholic church by no less a person than Pope Benedict XVI himself. That report
included details of a letter that Magdi Allam had written to the Director of an
Italian newspaper called Corriere della
Sera of which Magdi Allam was a deputy director.
Herewith are some revealing and informative extracts from that letter –
Dear Director,
That which I am about to relate to you
concerns my choice of religious faith and personal life…Yesterday evening I
converted to the Christian Catholic religion, renouncing my previous Islamic
faith…I am especially grateful to his holiness Pope Benedict XVI, who imparted
the sacraments of Christian initiation to me, baptism, confirmation and
Eucharist, in the Basilica of St. Peter’s during the course of the solemn
celebration of the Easter Vigil. And I took the simplest and most explicit
Christian name: “Cristiano.” Since yesterday evening therefore my name is Magdi
Crisitano Allam…At almost 56 […], it is a historical, exceptional and
unforgettable event, which marks a radical and definitive turn with respect to
the past…My conversion to Catholicism is the touching down of a gradual and
profound interior meditation from which I could not pull myself away, given
that for five years I have been confined to a life
under guard, with permanent surveillance at home and a police escort for my every
movement, because of death threats and death sentences from Islamic extremists
and terrorists, both those in and outside of Italy. I
had to ask myself about the attitude of those who publicly declared fatwas,
Islamic juridical verdicts, against me…I asked myself how
it was possible that those who, like me, sincerely and boldly called for a
“moderate Islam…ended up being sentenced to death in the name of Islam on the
basis of the Quran. I was forced to
see that…the root of evil is inherent in an Islam that is physiologically
violent and historically conflictive…Mine was a journey
that began when at four years old, my mother Safeya -- a believing and
practicing Muslim…entrusted me to the loving care of Sister Lavinia of the
Comboni Missionary Sisters…The long years at school allowed me to know
Catholicism well…and I was especially fascinated by the human and divine figure
of Jesus…on my arrival in Italy at the beginning of the 1970s…I went through a
period of atheism…conversion to Christianity will certainly procure for me yet
another, and much more grave, death sentence for apostasy…but I face my destiny
with my head held high…I say that it is time to put an end to the abuse and the
violence of Muslims who do not respect the freedom of religious choice. In
Magdi Allam
The Asia Times carried
a report of these events in their issue of
‘A self-described revolution in world
affairs has begun in the heart of one man. He is the Italian journalist and
author Magdi Cristiano Allam, whom Pope Benedict XVI baptized during the Easter
Vigil at St Peter's. Allam's renunciation of Islam as a religion of violence
and his embrace of Christianity denotes the point at which the so-called global
"war on terror" becomes a divergence of two irreconcilable modes of
life: the Western way of faith supported by reason, against the Muslim world of
fatalism and submission… Magdi Allam tells us that he
has found the true God and forsaken an Islam that he regards as inherently
violent… For years he was the exemplar of "moderate Islam" in
It would be interesting to know if
the female ‘ruling elder’ who criticised me of suffering from and promoting
Islamophobia would level the same accusations against Magdi Allam. It is
authoritatively revealing to read this assessment from one who was an insider
as far as Islam is concerned and who has experienced at first hand the
repercussions of what he describes as ‘the root of evil (that) is
inherent in Islam’.
A few weeks after I gave this talk
on Islam in Ballymena I attended a public meeting in
Dr Mamoun Mobayed, the
chairman of the
Right at the outset of his talk,
Dr Mobayed [a psychiatrist] stated that he would not be dealing
with the doctrinal and practical out workings of the religion of Islam but
would rather be seeking to counter what he referred to as the ‘negative image
of Islam’ that according to him had been portrayed in the Western world in
recent years. By way of example he displayed an overhead showing an advertisement
for a series of talks that had been given by Pastor David Legge, the then
pastor of the Iron Hall in
Mr Mobayed then proceeded for an
overly long period of time to cite examples under various headings where the
lives and ways of many in the world have been influenced by discoveries made by
and practices introduced by people who have been adherents of the religion of
Islam. The reality is that whilst many in the world do feel an impact in daily
living in areas such as in the home, in school, in hospital, in science, in art
etc due to past discoveries of people who have been Muslims that does not
equate to saying as the title of the lecture stated ‘No matter who you are Islam
is already in your life’. Such a title was in effect quite disingenuous.
This reality was not lost on a
Hindu gentleman in the audience for in the ‘Question and Answer/Feedback’ time
at the end of the lecture he stated that he could have given a similar lecture
highlighting the contribution to everyday living made in times past by
knowledgeable Hindus but that did not mean ‘No matter who you are Hinduism is already in
your life’. Another professedly Christian lady stated that she was
very disappointed that Mr Mobayed had deliberately avoided addressing any
Islamic doctrinal and practice issues and had in effect been engaged in a
damage-limitation, whitewash exercise.
Near the end of the ‘feedback’
section another member of the Northern Ireland Interfaith Forum council, retired
former Presbyterian [Crossgar] Minister and former Stranmillis
College lecturer, Maurice Ryan, asked this question of Mr Mobayed – ‘When can we expect to see
the Northern Ireland skyline be-graced with a Mosque?’ Mr
Mobayed’s response to the question was that it was not a matter of ‘if’ but
simply a matter of ‘when’ and that of course would depend very much on planning
permissions and economics. Such naďveté and blindness from Mr Ryan and next
day, having tracked down a telephone number for him I rang him and had quite a
lengthy conversation with him. I then wrote to him next day [31st
March] and herewith is the text of that letter –
Dear Mr Ryan,
Following on from our telephone conversation I would just like to make a few additional comments on a couple of points that you made.
You stated that tolerance was a ‘Christian virtue’. I would state, in the light of God’s Word, that Christians should never exercise tolerance, which is at the expense of God’s glory. Our God is never ‘tolerant’ when His glory is at stake.
The first commandment is
‘Thou shalt have no other gods before me’ – literally ‘in my presence or
sight’ – and interfaith activity by professing Christians, whereby they
‘respect’ other faiths and claim that they contain divine truth, violates this
first commandment. God’s ‘truth’ could be summed up by the old saying – ‘Ruined
by the fall and redeemed by the blood’ and that truth is anathema to all the
false religious cults and non-Christian religions that truly are, as the Iron
Hall correctly advertised, ‘Strongholds of Satan’.
The Lord Jesus could say to
His Father in John 17 that He had glorified Him on earth and that included
incidents such as using a whip to drive out the money-changers from the temple
and publicly identifying the false religious leaders of the day as being “of
your father, the devil”. When it came to God’s glory Christ was totally
intolerant and of course asserted that He alone was the way, the truth and the
life and that no one could come to God except by Him. He pronounced that it was
the strait and narrow way that led to life and not some broad interfaith
highway that led to God.
God says in Isaiah “I am
the Lord, that is my name, and my glory will I not give to another”. Professing
Christians who participate in ‘the mutual-respect interfaith movement’ are
giving God’s glory to other ‘gods’. They are affording divine ‘credibility’ to
visible or mental dumb idol ‘gods’ and the Lord passes His verdict on such in
Psalm 115. The only incarnate ‘truth’ was Jesus Christ and the only
inscripturated ‘truth’ is the bible. There is a great gulf fixed between the
‘biblical gospel’ and the ‘Robert Runcie gospel’ that you have favourably
quoted in times past and that I personally rebutted many years ago in the
enclosed little booklet called ‘Syncretism’. Christians are not to ‘cultivate
interfaith’ but to ‘contend earnestly for the faith’.
The second point is your obvious hope that
Islam will establish and expand its presence in
In 2006, in a letter that I had published in
the
In his book "Why I Am Not a Muslim", former Muslim Ibn Warraq wrote "There may be moderate Muslims,
but Islam itself is not moderate. There is no difference between [the
aims of] Islam and Islamic fundamentalism...Islamic fundamentalism has global
aspirations [namely] the submission of the entire world to the
all-embracing Shari’a, Islamic Law...designed to control every single act of
all individuals.'
Honest public expression of this
aspiration was voiced when Omar M. Ahmed,
chairman of the board of CAIR [Council on American-Islamic Relations] said at a
banquet, “I urge Muslims not to shirk their duty of sharing the Islamic faith
with those who are on the wrong side....if you choose to live here [America],
you have a responsibility to deliver the message of Islam. Islam isn’t here to
be equal to any other faith but to become dominant".
In a recently
produced documentary one section deals with 'The House of War' and
states "Islamic theology divides the world into two spheres locked in
perpetual combat, dar al-Islam, House of Islam - where Islamic law predominates,
and dar al-harb, House of War - the rest of the world. It is incumbent on dar
al-Islam to fight and conquer dar al-harb and permanently assimilate it".
The reality is that
fundamentalist Islam is true Islam and, as regards Christians, the Koran is
quite clear that those who believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God are
‘liars’ [Sura 18:4-5] and that those who believe in The Trinity are not
destined for ‘the garden’ [paradise/heaven] but for ‘the fire’ [hell] [Sura
5:72].
In 1980, the Islamic Council
of
When that happens rest assured that the
‘role-models’ of the likes of Saudi Arabia, Indonesia or Uzbekistan will become
nightmarish realities and ‘the troubles’ that [God willing] we have just passed
through will seem like a ‘teddy-bear’s picnic’ in comparison to what will
happen when Islam seeks to impose Shari’a law – if you don’t believe me just
look at what is happening in Northern Nigeria, in the Darfur region of Sudan,
in Egypt, in Somalia and in countless other places where ‘true’ Islam has grown
in numbers, strength and influence.
Robert Spencer in his book
on Islam wrote correctly that when Islam gains control in an area, the choices
for unbelievers are either [1] Accept Islam or [2] Pay the jizya tax or [3] War
against Islam – he then astutely and again correctly added ‘peaceful
coexistence as equals in a pluralistic society isn’t one of the choices’.
In closing I would refer to our brief discussion on Romanism and it has been responsible, more than any other so-called ‘Christian’ grouping, for failing to inform Muslims of the truth of the glorious Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. I sought to redress that deception by publishing a special leaflet for Muslims and a copy is enclosed herewith for your consideration.
My closing wish is that the
Spirit of truth will touch your heart and mind and understanding for the good
of yourself, those taken captive by Satan in false religions and cults and
supremely for the glory of the One true God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Cecil Andrews
In this letter I made refernce to a ‘documentary’ – it
is a DVD called ‘Islam: What the West Needs to Know’ and I would
encourage as many people as possible to obtain and view this DVD. It can be
purchased via either of these links –
http://www.whatthewestneedstoknow.com/index.asp
http://www.conservativebookclub.com/products/bookpage.asp?prod_cd=c6764
One of the producers of this documentary was Gregory
Davis and in a book that he subsequently wrote called ‘Religion of Peace?
Islam’s War Against The World’ he wrote the following on pages 130-131
‘The West must awaken to the fact that it is facing nothing
less than the resurgence of the greatest war machine in world history; an
ideology that holds the killing of others, the plundering of their wealth, the
conquering of their lands, the enslavement of their people, and the destruction
of their institutions to be amongst the highest virtues and the stepping stones
to salvation…Yet it seems that the secular West today is determined not to hear
the bad news…It is hoping that the myriad acts of violence around the world
done in the name of Allah [remember recent events in Mumbai/Bombay in India!] are somehow not indicative of “real”
Islam…It is hoping that Islam – a religion founded by one of history’s great
warlords; a religion that waged wars of aggression and conquest for a thousand
years, that slaughtered and enslaved untold millions and invented modern
genocide, and that today is the only force in the world that produces
terrorism, suicide bombings, hostage-taking, organised rape and massacres on a
global scale – that this strange, seething, violent mass is somehow “a religion
of peace”. Rejecting this fiction and standing up to be counted will determine
whether or not we [Non-Muslim/Infidels] survive the twenty-first century’.
In the light of the testimony of former Muslim, Magdi Allam, to the intrinsic evil root of Islam, in the light of the many warnings issued by former Muslims in the DVD documentary ‘Islam: What the West Needs to Know’ and in the light of the stark, realistic warning issued by Gregory Davis in his book ‘Religion of Peace? Islam’s War Against The World’ I most certainly reject the accusation of being one who is ‘suffering from and promoting Islamophobia’ and I would encourage God’s people to seek to alert those with influence in our nation to the true nature of Islam and to urge them to take action to ensure the peace and security of the non-Muslim peoples of these lands.
In conclusion I would also say that whilst these honest revelations by Magdi Allam on the intrinsic nature of Islam are most welcome and informative it is nonetheless a matter of the utmost tragedy that having recognised the evil nature of one totalitarian religious ideology, Islam, and having separated himself from it he has now ensnared himself with another equally totalitarian and soul-damning religious system, that of Roman Catholicism. I did send an email to a website linked with Mr Allam, but whether it ever arrived with him, or whether he was able to read it or have it translated into Italian I don’t know but we should pray that God in His grace and mercy might bring Mr Allam to a true saving knowledge of the real Jesus Christ of the Bible.
Cecil Andrews – ‘Take Heed’
Ministries