How do you feel the election of Barack Obama will impact Islam in America?

Barack Obama attended an Islamic school growing up in Indonesia and his father was a Muslim.

Obama’s experience within Islam as a boy should give him a unique perspective into Islam unlike any other U.S. President.

How do you feel the election of Barack Obama will impact Islam in America?

Take the latest Truth For Muslims poll.

Jihad Prevention Act, anti-sharia legislation proposed by Congressman Tancredo

I just learned about this. Check out Jihad Watch for more info.

Truth For Muslims 2008 Voter Leadership Guide

NOT YOUR TRADITIONAL VOTER’S GUIDE

Unlike voter guides you may have seen in the past, this one does not focus on a specific race, nor does it promote one candidate over another. Its purpose is to educate YOU about one of the most crucial issues facing America: the rising influence of Islam.

It’s called a “voter leadership guide” because it will help you to discern which leaders, now or in the future,
are speaking wisely about how Americans should respond to Islam. Several of the examples we’ve chosen are high-profile political leaders, but the “Ten Questions” you’ll find on the back of the guide can be used to analyze any leader—whether on a county council, school committee, talk show…even a church missions board.

YOUR ROLE

Truth For Muslims intends this guide to be a powerful TOOL for you as you
seek to be a good citizen. Please use it to encourage your leaders—local, state,
and national—to understand and then speak the truth about Islam in America. And
if you see one who’s already doing a good job—congratulate him.

Together, we can change the face of leadership in America.

Click here to get your voter guide:

Saudi Money Financing Presidential Libraries: Bush & Clinton

According to a Washington Post article on December 15, 2007, Saudi Arabia has contributed millions of dollars to finance the presidential libraries of George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton.

The royal family of Saudi Arabia gave the Clinton facility in Little Rock about $10 million, roughly the same amount it gave toward the presidential library of George H.W. Bush, according to people directly familiar with the contributions.

Why? Think about it.

Gas Prices and Islam

Although the price of gas is a major issue for all of us right now and affects each of us significantly, it is a minor point. Islam is a much more important issue to deal with long-term. In other words, we need to solve both short term problems (gas prices – even if “short term” for this issue means 5 or 10 years) and long term problems, such as Islam, which will confront future generations of Americans for the next 100 years or more.

Muslims, especially the Saudis, have used the wealth from oil to set up mosques and propagate Islam to the entire world. If America figures out a better way to provide energy (either finding oil outside the house of Islam or discovering / inventing a different energy source), then the world will stop putting wealth into the hands of the Islamic leaders, thus drying up their wealth over time, thus hindering the advance of Islam.

The Islamic Saudi Academy Should Renounce the Law of Apostasy in Islam

The Islamic Saudi Academy in Fairfax, VA has been using text books which teach 12th graders that it’s permissible for Muslims to kill those who convert out of Islam. The Academy is funded by the Government of Saudi Arabia and the Saudi Ambassador sits on its board. The Academy’s website states that their “Islamic Studies Program is unique and comprehensive” and leads of by stating that the students study Arabic (but I’m not sure what is so unique about Arabic language studies when it comes to Islamic studies).

This report from the Washington Post about the June 9, 2008 arrest of the Academy Director also mentions the textbook situation.

Indeed, the law of apostasy in Islam is clear regarding how Muslims should treat former Muslims who have left Islam. The teachings and actions of Muslims demonstrate this reality. For example:

Afghan scholar Dr. Niaz Faizi Kabuli writes on pages 106 and 107 in his book, Democracy According to Islam, “We must point out, however, that Islam is strict as regard apostasy. . . . punishment is death for a person who, after having adhered to these dogmas, reject them.” Here “a person who. . . . adhered to these dogmas” means a former Muslim.

(By the way, Dr. John Esposito at Georgetown University’s Prince Alwaleed Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding has written an endorsement of Dr. Kabuli’s book. “Niaz Faizi Kabuli’s Democracy According to Islam, “ Esposito writes, “provides an early and important analysis of the scriptural and conceptual resources of Islam that are relevant to contemporary discussion of the compatibility of Islam and democracy.” Therefore the Saudi’s should not be too quick to denounce Kabuli’s book as a fringe work.)

On September 10, 2001 (a day of tolerance toward the Islamic law of apostasy) Hadi Elmi of the Islamic Education Center in Houston, TX was protesting and chanting “death to Rushdie” in front of the theater where the writer was invited to speak. According to The Houston Chronicle Elmi said, ”those who commit evil must be punished”.

The textbooks also teach that Muslims are justified in taking the property and lives of those they call “polytheists”. Note to Hindus: the Muslims put you in this category.

According to the June 17, 2008 Washington Post article,

The school issued a statement saying the textbooks had been mistranslated and misinterpreted and that some of the textbooks studied by the commission are no longer in use. But the statement offered no detailed explanation of the specific passages cited by the commission, and school officials have not returned calls seeking comment.

Generally, the school has said in the past that some of the textbooks it uses come from Saudi Arabia and contain harsh language inappropriate for use in the United States. The school has said it revises the textbooks as needed.”

Indeed, the commission found evidence that individual passages were removed from individual textbooks, sometimes covered up with correction fluid.

It sounds like the Saudi Academy is saying that they are trying save the harshest teachings of Islam for their students for the semesters they spend in Saudi Arabia since the Americans are too sensitive about things like Muslims killing Hindus and former Muslims.

It’s time for the Islamic Saudi Academy to forget what is “inappropriate for use in the United States” and instead come out clearly and teach that Islam tolerates, allows, and embraces freedom of religion to the extent that Muslims are free to leave Islam.

On September 17, 2001 I wrote that it’s time for moderate Muslims in America to renounce the law of apostasy in Islam. That time is past due.

Let the renouncing of the law of apostasy be printed in their Arabic language text books. You never know what might happen next. Maybe the Islamic Saudi Academy can be a conduit of tolerance back into Saudi Arabia to forever transform Islam into a religion of peace and love and tolerance where Christians can worship freely in Mecca and even buy up a few local mosques to change them into churches.

Guantanamo Bay & Islamic Terrorism – Time to Pray

The United State Supreme Court decided today that the Islamic terrorism suspects being held in Guantannamo Bay, Cube have the right to challenge their detention in U.S. civilian courts.

See this Associated Press article in the International Herald Tribune for more details about the Supreme Court decision.

Also see these articles to learn more about Islamic ideology:

The Role of the Mosque in Society

The House of War

Types of Muslims

Is Osama bin Laden Jewish?

This June 3, 2008 article from the Pakistan Daily on  tries to make the case that Osama bin Laden is Jewish.

Islam & Education

Traditional Islamic schooling gives the teachings of Mohammed utmost preeminence, even at the expense of a well-rounded education. Thomas Patrick Hughes, writing the “Encyclopedia of Islam” a hundred years ago, says this:

The chief aim and object of education in Islam is, therefore, to obtain a knowledge of the religion of Muhammed, and anything beyond this is considered superfluous, and even dangerous.

Today, many “modern” Muslims receive a Western education – but they are often strongly criticized by fundamentalist Muslims for the Western (and often secular) views they adopt.

Listen to what the Muslim theologian Maududi said in 1936 to Muslims in India:

It is… high time for the Muslims to get rid of the old and stale system of education as well as the modern system of secular orientation and work out a separate system of education of their own… making best use of modern science and techniques but with undiluted Islamic orientation. This plan should be executed and implemented through those who are not only well versed in Islam but are also armed with firm faith and conviction and full of missionary zeal.

Maududi’s words are revered by today’s fundamentalist Muslims. In fact, he’s one of the intellectual heroes of the modern-day jihadist!

True Islam is concerned about education only in regards to how it will advance Islam. But it’s happy to use the current system for its own ends. That’s why moderate and fundamentalist Muslims are working together to co-opt our educational system for the purpose of permanently ingraining the Islamic world-view in America.

Muslims live in virtually every section of the country and there is no reason why every Muslim community cannot be reached with the gospel

Muslims live in virtually every section of the country and there is no reason why every Muslim community cannot be reached with the gospel.

This is one of my 18 Truths About Reaching Muslims in America With the Gospel.

The idea seems to be catching on and there’s an important opportunity to get the gospel to Muslims you know in their own language right now.

The 16-lanugage DVD, The Life of Jesus Christ is becoming available for mass distribution among Muslims in America. This is the same JESUS film that has been used by missionaries around the world for the last two decades. It’s based entirely on the Gospel According to Luke and it’s unquestionably the most-translated and most-watched film in history.

There are several great things about this DVD version of the film.

First, it’s one DVD packaged in a simple, but colorful cardboard sleeve. So it’s easy to keep a copy or two with you to be ready to give it out anytime you run into a Muslim.

Second, when the DVD is inserted, you get a choice of 16 languages to watch the movie – all this on one DVD! And the dubbing of each language is excellent. You don’t feel like you’re watching an old Japanese karate movie when you see it!

Third, it’s cost-effective. DVDs are cheap to produce and distribute. There are a number of inexpensive options:

• If you volunteer to help out on a distribution team, you will be given the DVDs.
• If you want to get a few copies for yourself or your church, the cost can be very low.
• If you or your chuch will personally distribute 200 or more DVDs to Muslims in the U.S., and give a report on the distribution, you can get them for free.

There is a group called Christ for All Peoples which is making this possible. This is what they say on their website:

Millions of foreign-born persons from all walks of life have entered the United States in the last several years–many from hard-to-reach nations.  Nearly 600,000 of them are international students studying here this year.  The majority of these immigrants have never heard nor had access to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  Our goal at Christ for All Peoples is to bridge the cultural divide and encourage and assist the church to share the Good News of Jesus with these ethnic groups here in the USA–many from countries in the 10/40 Window–and to do so quickly.  Your help is welcomed and needed!

Please leave a comment here and share your story about using the Jesus DVD in cross-cultural outreach.