Guillaume Smit and the “Culture” of Islam?

Amanda says:

Rev. Guillaume Smit:

Yet I decided to share my friend’s piece, as it helped me gain new insight in a very important festival for the Muslim community (of which I know nothing about).

How is it that a preacher can claim ignorance about other religions? The Bible teaches that there is only one God and that idolaters will not enter Heaven. Start right there. If that is not enough, then go ahead and find out the basic facts from Islam 101.

Sharia Law

Unlike many religions, Islam includes a mandatory and highly specific legal and political plan for society called Sharia (pronounced “sha-r’e-uh”), which translates approximately as “way” or “path.” The precepts of Sharia are derived from the commandments of the Quran and the Sunnah (the teachings and precedents of Muhammad as found in the reliable hadiths and the Sira). Together, the Quran and the Sunnah establish the dictates of Sharia, which is the blueprint for the good Islamic society. Because Sharia originates with the Quran and the Sunnah, it is not optional. Sharia is the legal code ordained by Allah for all mankind. To violate Sharia or not to accept its authority is to commit rebellion against Allah, which Allah’s faithful are required to combat.

There is no separation between the religious and the political in Islam; rather Islam and Sharia constitute a comprehensive means of ordering society at every level. While it is in theory possible for an Islamic society to have different outward forms — an elective system of government, a hereditary monarchy, etc. — whatever the outward structure of the government, Sharia is the prescribed content. It is this fact that puts Sharia into conflict with forms of government based on anything other than the Quran and the Sunnah.

As one may see, there are few aspects of life that Sharia does not specifically govern. Everything from washing one’s hands to child-rearing to taxation to military policy fall under its dictates. Because Sharia is derivate of the Quran and the Sunnah, it affords some room for interpretation. But upon examination of the Islamic sources (see above), it is apparent that any meaningful application of Sharia is going to look very different from anything resembling a free or open society in the Western sense. The stoning of adulterers, execution of apostates and blasphemers, repression of other religions, and a mandatory hostility toward non-Islamic nations punctuated by regular warfare will be the norm. It seems fair then to classify Islam and its Sharia code as a form of totalitarianism.

What does “jihad” mean?

Jihad literally translates as “struggle.” Strictly speaking, jihad does not mean “holy war” as Muslim apologists often point out. However, the question remains as to what sort of “struggle” is meant: an inner, spiritual struggle against the passions, or an outward, physical struggle.

As in any case of trying to determine Islamic teaching on a particular matter, one must look to the Quran and the Sunnah. From those sources (see above) it is evident that a Muslim is required to struggle against a variety of things: laziness in prayer, neglecting to give zakat (alms), etc. But is it also plain that a Muslim is commanded to struggle in physical combat against the infidel as well. Muhammad’s impressive military career attests to the central role that military action plays in Islam.

Go ahead. Read it all.

Perhaps we, as Christians, by gaining this knowledge, can try to be a bit more understanding towards this very fundamentalistic religion.

Speak for yourself. And understand this: Christians that are saved out of Islam face a mandatory death sentence.

And, perhaps, through this, we can show more respect to people who are Muslim believers as our testimony about the love of Christ, even if we differ fundamentally from them.

And perhaps not. They do not need our respect. They need our compassion and our proclamation of the fear of the One true God, His coming judgement on all idolaters and the Good News:

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.
(John 3:16-18)

Where in the Bible does it say that we should show respect to idolaters? Proclaim the Word of God!

“Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.
(Luke 24:46-47)

Amanda says:

DTW

Dutch Reformed ministers DO NOT resign.

They emerge, see?

Watch and learn, kiddo. Watch and learn.

Amanda says:

Cecilia, great testimony. May the Lord bless and keep them.

Now, if Rev. Guillaume Smit wants to be an apologist for Muslims, he can. Let’s just see if he, as a researcher and theologian, will read the Quran and examine what the Muslim scholars teach and not what the friendly and peaceful Muslim down the road says. He has set himself a lofty goal. Let’s see how he does.

cecilia says:

Amanda, I almost feel sorry for him. His next task (in “trying to understand” his Muslim friend(s)), is to go to Mecca (it follows the Ramadan). there he’ll get the chance to “honor” the black stone and even throw some stones at it, as if it is satan himself. that’s if he can make it alive through the crowd! I wonder if he has learned (according to scripture) to fast whenever the Holy Spirit compels him, or is he going to fast once a year (on ramadan)? just asking…. but surely this is a finger pointing to those who call themselves the “true followers” of Jesus Christ. are we fasting and praying when prompted by Holy Spirit? are we giving and caring? NOT because we learn it from the heathen in keeping their feasts and holy book ordinances, BUT by reading the Bible and adhere to whatever it teaches us, to do it, and to do it correctly (also set out in scriptures).
I’ve read that after this ramadan the congregations of the individuals (whether pastor or not) who took part in the ramadan feast/fast, are going to be taught the ways of these people of other faiths (same as is happening in our schools). maybe I must invite a few of them to come here for 1 year and start attending all the Hindu feasts!? man, yeah, now it gets to me! They are discriminating if they don’t do that! let me go for now…
cecilia

Amanda says:

It seems that Rev. Guillaume Smit is right, after all.Brian McLaren:

I have gained new respect for the hundreds of millions of Muslim men and women and even children who observe Ramadan year after year. Many of my Christian friends see everything in other religions as efforts to “earn one’s way to heaven” (a misguided venture, we know), without realizing that this kind of earning isn’t everyone else’s preoccupation. For many people, this observance is an expression of love … a tangible way to express love for God and for one’s faith community. And it’s also a time-tested spiritual practice, which I’ll return to in a minute.

I’m sure that anyone who has trained for a marathon gains new respect for the millions of other people who have been through that experience. When they see a marathon on TV or when they meet someone who is a marathon runner, they have a greater respect than the rest of us for the sacrifice and dedication behind every step of every runner because they’ve run many miles in those same shoes (metaphorically speaking). In my own very small way, that’s what I feel now – much more than I expected. For the rest of my life, every time I meet a Muslim who has observed the fast even once, I will have a new and sincere respect.

But what is this?

Morocco: Dissident receives 100 death threats in a week for defying daytime eating ban for Ramadan

“There is no compulsion in religion,” (Qur’an 2:256) except when there is. And that time comes when the implementation of Sharia is strong enough to impose criminal punishments for the neglect of religious observances: i.e., when the time for the soft sell is over.

People are being forced to ‘run a marathon’?
And here is a lady who gained firsthand knowledge of the culture of the religious ideology called Islam and still she lacks respect. How can that be?

More than anything else, I became highly skilled in the subtle arts of duplicity and manipulation during my sojourn in Morocco. And, likewise, I was the subject of much Machiavellian scheming and machination. I won people over initially by professing my profound hatred for George Bush. This never fails to win friends and influence people in Muslim Arab countries. And, it just so happens to be true. Not only did I gain protection, I also gained information. I was there to study the culture, the language, the state religion, the government, the laws, and, especially, Moroccan women’s place in society. So, I withheld verbal judgment, and I tried, as best I could, to refrain from exhibiting facial judgments. I was very open and honest about my goals. I wanted to learn as much as I could about Morocco in the short time that I had. Likewise, they were more than happy to participate in my study, because they hoped that I would take them back to the States with me. This completely misguided yet ubiquitous misconception existed that I was free as an American to simply bring back whomever I might choose. If I attempted to insist otherwise, I was met by obstinate refutations. “No, no, you can,” they would counter. So I dropped the subject. Also, I met the same obdurate resistance when I tried to suggest that not everyone living in the United States is leading a charmed life of luxury.

I was shocked by how open and honest these young Muslim men were about their misogyny, their racism, their tribalism, and, especially, about their antiSemitism. They were also brutally honest about their interpretations of Quranic tenets and Islamic dogma. They proudly bandied about their cell phone displays, emblazoned with images of the two hijacked planes hitting the Twin Towers, for my amusement. They then sheepishly put them away when they saw the look of utter horror upon my face. Somehow they thought that my disapprobation of the American president would equate with my pleasure in seeing thousands of American innocents slaughtered.

They all espoused a sincere desire to head to Iraq, Afghanistan, or Palestine, to engage in jihad against the infidels. Many of them claimed that only familial responsibilities, such as caring for mothers and sisters, held them back from fulfilling this ultimate Muslim duty of martyrdom. They waxed eloquent about ripping open the hymens of angelic virgins unto perpetuity as a rightful heavenly reward for their efforts. They would, in the same breath, harangue the killing of innocents as unIslamic and then vehemently defend the killing of any and all Israeli or Jewish or European or American or nonMuslim civilians, including men, women, and children, as enemies of Islam.

Whether or not these proclamations were the products, in no small part, of testosterone-infused bombast, they were chilling nonetheless. These were not impoverished, uneducated, unsophisticated, and frustrated inhabitants of some shanty town on the outskirts of Casablanca. These were not young men who had fallen prey to and under the sway of some radical mullah. These were young men who wished to marry western women, move to Western Europe or the United States, and avail themselves of both the freedom and capitalism therein. Yet, these were also young men who laughed at children’s television cartoons that represented American soldiers as hapless and witless buffoons who most often blow themselves up through their own ineptitude. I have to admit that I found myself becoming angry, even incensed. They seemed completely oblivious to any sense of dissonance between their desire to destroy Western culture and their desire to become part of Western culture.

One need only visit a Muslim Arab country to understand the true nature of the much-abused concept of jihad. There is no talk of internal struggle on the streets of Rabat. There is no talk of nonviolent conversion in the cafes of Morocco. There is only talk of blood, lust and martyrdom. Keep in mind that Morocco is a moderate Muslim Arab nation, infused with European culture and populated with cosmopolitan cities, and, arguably, America’s greatest Muslim-Arab ally.

Read it all. She has a lot more to say.

Amanda says:

While we wait for Rev. Guillaume Smit to provoke respect for Muslims in Christians by providing us with information on Islam, we can do some of the work ourselves.

Eid

The Takbir is recited after having confirmation that the moon of Shawwal is sighted on the eve of the last day of Ramadan. It continues until the start of the Eid prayer:

God is the Greatest, God is the Greatest, God is the Greatest,
There is no deity but God
God is the Greatest, God is the Greatest
and to God goes all praise

One variation:

God is the Greatest, God is the Greatest, God is the Greatest,
There is no deity but God
God is the Greatest, God is the Greatest
and to God goes all praise
God is the Greatest, all Praise is due to Him, And Glory to God, eventide and in the morning
There is no god, but God the Unique, He has fulfilled His Promise, and made Victorious His servant, and made Mighty His soldiers and defeated the confederates
There is no deity but God
He alone we worship, with sincere and exclusive devotion, even though the infidels hate it
O God, have Mercy on our Prophet Muhammad, and on the family of our Prophet Muhammad, and on the companions of our Prophet Muhammad, and on the helpers of our Prophet Muhammad, and on the wives of our Prophet Muhammad, and on the offspring of our Prophet Muhammad, and Bestow upon them much peace

Ramadan

Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic calendar. It is the Islamic month of fasting, in which participating Muslims refrain from eating, drinking, smoking, and indulging in anything that is in excess or ill-natured; from dawn until sunset.[1] Fasting is meant to teach the Muslim patience, modesty and spirituality. Ramadan is a time for Muslims to fast for the sake of God and to offer more prayer than usual. During Ramadan, Muslims ask forgiveness for past sins, pray for guidance and help in refraining from everyday evils, and try to purify themselves through self-restraint and good deeds. As compared to the solar calendar, the dates of Ramadan vary, moving forward about ten days each year as it is a moving festival depending on the moon. Ramadan was the month in which the first verses of the Qur’an were revealed to the Islamic prophet Muhammad.[2]

So let us now turn our attention to the Qur’an itself.

Blogging the Qur’an: Introduction

To understand the motives and goals of Islamic jihad terrorists, one good place to start might be to explore what they themselves say about why they’re doing what they’re doing, and what they want. That in turn will lead you to the Qur’an (or Koran), the Islamic holy book. The jihadists quote it frequently and portray themselves as those who are following “pure Islam,” the genuine article as it is taught in the Qur’an and Islamic tradition. So in the course of my work explaining the jihadists’ objectives, I’ve quoted the Qur’an a great deal – and hardly a day goes by without my being accused of “cherry-picking” violent passages, and quoting them “out of context.” Meanwhile, the Council on American Islamic Relations and other Muslim groups say that in order to understand the true, peaceful Islam, we should read the Qur’an.

So over the course of the next few months, I’m going to read it, and discuss it in a series of columns. All of it. Not “cherry-picked” or “out of context.” The whole thing, beginning to end. Some of you may be familiar with David Plotz’s series on Slate, “Blogging the Bible.” This series will be similar to that one, but rather than just write about what I think or feel about a certain passage, I will, unlike Plotz, refer to commentaries – all Muslim ones – on the Qur’an. I’ll try to explain how mainstream Muslims who study the Qur’an will understand any given passage, and what its import might be for non-Muslims.

… The Qur’an is for Muslims the pure Word of Allah. They point to its poetic character as proof that it did not originate with Muhammad, whom they say was illiterate, but with the Almighty, who dictated every word. The average Muslim believes that everything in the book is absolutely true and that its message is applicable in all times and places.

You can find the index here. Please read it all and then tell us if you think that Brain McLaren, Prof. Hennie Stander and Dr. Guillaume Smit is correct, that knowledge of Islam [not feelings, mind you], will lead Christians to respect Muslims more?

May I suggest that the correct response should be compassion?

cecilia says:

McLaren: quoted: “… every time I meet a Muslim who has observed the fast even once, I will have new and sincere respect”. so for McLaren, the 1000’s of Christians, many of them under persecution in Muslim control parts in the world, (these Christians) who fast regularly, praying for protection and guidance, AND living in peace with their Muslim controllers (from their side), for McLaren their fasting has no meaning what so ever (because he makes NO mention that as far as I know of, somewhere, of Christians who fast regularly). and here where I live, whole churches fast (regularly) for everything/anything they are seeking an answer from the Lord for. and going out of the Christian circle, what about the Hindu’s different annual fasts? Oh wait, I forgot that McLaren is pro-Muslim. His focus is on the Muslim .. on Islam … no wonder his focus is a bit blurred when it comes to clear reading of soli scriptura…
cecilia

Amanda says:

Enough of this beating about the bush stuff.

Shane Hipps has already spelled it out for us. He preached that religions are like sails. They may differ in shape, size and effectiveness, but they all catch the same wind, the spirit of god.

You can listen to Chris Rosebrough reviewing two of Shane’s sermons on Fighting for the Faith. The first one declares that all religions lead to the same spirit of god and the second one is about, wouldn’t you know, enlightenment! That is it. That is what the emergent church is all about. Reaching people for Jesus, my foot. Christians who might be tempted to play with this fire should hear Chris’ warnings given throughout his review:

This is just an absolute satanic pack of lies, absolutely false.
Did I mention that Shane Hipps and Rob Bell are really good friends?[Shane preached twice in Rob’s church’.]
This is rank heresy!
I cannot believe what I am hearing!
It is called idolatry. It is called heresy. It is called apostasy.
You are sending yourself and the people listening to you to hell.
That is just rank heresy. This is pantheism This is not Christianity.

Amen, Chris! Here are some quotes from the first sermon. I apologise for any mistake or lack of clarity. I encourage you to listen to Fighting for the Faith yourself. Shane Hipps:

So one of the things this shows us, just so that we are clear, for the Jewish imagination, the Hebrew way of thinking, wisdom was not just, you know, making good decisions or giving good advice. That is kinda how we use the word wisdom. We tend to minimise wisdom. For the Jews wisdom was the very DNA of God, the creative life force that gives birth to all things. That’s what wisdom is. Really, really profound stuff.

However, at the same time that John was writing, there were a whole lot of Greek philosophers in religion and the Greek philosophers wrote extensively about this universal animating life force called the Logos.

John is the ultimate unifier integrator of two religious systems that have nothing in common. The Jews and the Greeks. Nothing in common. Nothing at all in common. Didn’t even use the same language most of the time. So, here John comes along and says hey, to the Jews, you know that thing that you are talking about, that wisdom, that beautiful wisdom that you talk about, yeah that, right, you know that, and to the Greeks he is saying, hey, you know that Logos, that mysterious, beautiful thing with light and fire and life, that, yeah right, that, both of those things, wisdom and logos, they are actually one thing. And they found full and complete expression in the person Jesus.

So here is what is so stunning. At a time when it was unthinkable to try and unify religions, John is basically saying your religion, totally valid, I love it. I am even using your language. And your religion, I love it. It is beautiful. I am even using your language, but I just want you both to know that there is something bigger than what you’ve got.

There is something that transcends what you have. It doesn’t nullify what you have. It doesn’t get rid of what you have. It just moves beyond that. So John does this unbelievably beautiful thin of basically saying I wanna get past the religious divisions among us in our world. I don’t wanna get passed it. Jesus comes to bring us past it.

Jesus is the ultimate unifier of these various, diverse ways of looking at the world and the only way that anybody can ever see that is by looking at the interior not the exterior.

A black man and a white woman look very different on the exterior, do they not? They look very different from the outside. But on the inside, same longings, same needs, same need for love, for significance, for peace, same need for food. Very little separates us on the inside. Now this is really very easy to talk about when you are talking about people, isn’t it? Yes, people look different on the outside, but on the inside, we are all the same. That’s not what John is doing. He is doing it with religions. Mennonites and Muslims, they are basically the same.

‘No, no, no. no, no, no. We’re very different. I beg to differ.’

Right? I mean, when you try and do this with religious systems, you’re playing with very dangerous stuff. Because a religious system, what makes a religion a religion, is the thing that makes it different from other religions. A religious identity is derived from what makes it distinct. A religious identity is derived from our boundaries. We sing music this way. That’s what makes us different.

We belief Jesus did this and so we follow Jesus that way. That is what makes us different. You don’t even believe in Jesus. We’re different from you in that way. Even religions that have come along and said our religions beliefs, there are no distinctions between religions, is in fact a distinction. So these external things, religion is about making these distinctions and guess what, that isn’t a bad thing. Having a distinct religious identity marked by some boundaries, knowing how you differ from other religions, isn’t a problem. John isn’t trying to get off that. He is trying to point beyond it.

Keep it, but move beyond it. To loose your religious identity is like losing a sail at sea. The sail is like religion. The wind is the spirit. You need a sail to catch the wind, to harness the wind. But you have got to realise that that sail isn’t the wind. The sail is actually dependent on the wind. See here is the crazy thing. The spirit, the wind, doesn’t need sails in order for it to move about the world. The sails need the wind. So the spirit, in order for it to move and operate in the world have no need of religion, but we, those of us, made the way we are, for some reason, need sails in order to catch the wind. We need religious structures, external things, that we can touch and se and traditions and lineage that teach us so that we can better catch the wind.

Now some sails are built better than other sails. Some sails are bigger than other sails. Some sails are a different shape than other sails. And those differences matter and sometimes one sail is better than another sail, in the same way that some religions are better equipped to catch the spirit of God. Some religions are not as well equipped to fully capture and be compelled by the spirit. So it matters why that religion, why you chose it. It matters what it looks like. But don’t ever confuse the sail with the spirit, the sail with the wind.

Here is what is so confusing about this. John comes along and he says hey, both of you guys, you’ve got great sails. They look awesome. I just want you to know it is the wind that I’m interested in. He says Jesus became the fullness of that wind. So along comes us and we create a sail around that person! We go, now we’ve got it. Whoo-oo! It is just another sail. Just because we claim Jesus as the centre of our religion, does not make us one and the same with the wind of God just because we have another sail. I happen to think it is a more effective sail than other sails.

This logos affects everybody, including Osama bin Laden, as long as he has got breath. In him is a spark of the divine.

My great hope is that this [communion] will propel you beyond these elements into the very presence of God.

The emergent church has moved beyond Christianity. It is no place for Christians.

Amanda says:

Here is the full transcription: The sermon transcribed below, preached October 5, 2008 by Shane Hipps, is called Wind in the Sail.

Mennonites and Muslims, they’re basically the same.

Amanda says:

Dr. Guilaume Smit says:

We are Christians, making us brothers and sisters of Christians in other culture groups.

Careful. Those who leave Islam get an automatic death sentence.

A wise theologian (Malan Nel) once said, to a hungry child in the street a plate of food is the message of Christ. We can preach salvation as hard as we want, but for a person who have no place to sleep, no hope in this world, no future, the message is hollow.

The Bible says:

For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power. For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.” Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”
(1 Corinthians 1:17-31)

Jesus Christ said:

“Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. Do not labor for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal.” Then they said to him, “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?” Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” So they said to him, “Then what sign do you do, that we may see and believe you? What work do you perform? Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.'” Jesus then said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.” Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.” So the Jews grumbled about him, because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” They said, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does he now say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?” Jesus answered them, “Do not grumble among yourselves. No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day. It is written in the Prophets, ‘And they will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me– not that anyone has seen the Father except he who is from God; he has seen the Father. Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.” The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like the bread the fathers ate and died. Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.” Jesus said these things in the synagogue, as he taught at Capernaum. When many of his disciples heard it, they said, “This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?” But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, said to them, “Do you take offense at this? Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. But there are some of you who do not believe.” (For Jesus knew from the beginning who those were who did not believe, and who it was who would betray him.) And he said, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.” After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him.
(John 6:26-66)

In fact, the mission of the church is to proclaim repentance and forgiveness of sins in Jesus Christ’s Name. Luke 24:47

Amanda says:

Dr. Giullaume Smit:

We are Christians, making us brothers and sisters of Christians in other culture groups.

From Jihad Watch:

Somalia: Another church leader killed, after jihadist’s wife caught her with six Bibles

Under Islamic law, non-Muslims are not allowed to propagate their faith, as was established in the Pact of Umar, which was concluded between Christians in Syria and Umar, and one of the four “rightly guided” caliphs of Sunni Islam: “We shall not manifest our [non-Islamic] religion publicly nor convert anyone to it.”

The Pact of Umar also states: “If we in any way violate these undertakings for which we ourselves stand surety, we forfeit our covenant [dhimma], and we become liable to the penalties for contumacy and sedition.”

In short, it’s dangerous to be an uppity dhimmi. And if that constitutes a “misunderstanding” of Islam, as the apologists insist, it’s been going on for an awfully long time, in awfully high places. Islamic Tolerance Alert. “Islamic Extremists in Somalia Kill Another Church Leader,” from Compass Direct News, October 1:

NAIROBI, Kenya, October 1 (CDN) — Islamic militants in Somalia this week killed a woman who led an underground Christian movement in the war-torn country.

Sources told Compass that a leader of Islamic extremist al Shabaab militia in Lower Juba identified only as Sheikh Arbow shot to death 46-year-old Mariam Muhina Hussein at 2 p.m. on Monday (Sept. 28) in Marerey village after discovering she had six Bibles.

Read it all.