Chapter 7: The Errors in The Attitudes of Some Christians Toward Muslims
A fundamentalist is someone who appears to live by the requirements of a faith, but who actually lives by superstitions that have been added to it later, or even makes up superstitions for himself. There may be fundamentalists in all faiths. The most distinguishing feature of a fundamentalist is that he not only refuses to abide by the rules of the faith to which he claims to belong, but adopts his own concept of religion and attempts to impose that on society as a whole. Practices that are not actually part of a faith can easily be made part of it in the fundamentalist's eyes. Matters external to that faith can shamelessly be applied, and even murder can be committed in the name of religion, societies can be swamped in ignorance, people can be pressured and the true faiths that insist on love can be misrepresented as religions of hate. That is what makes fundamentalists so dangerous.
As we have just seen, fundamentalists can emerge from all religions. In the same way that there are Christian fundamentalists who totally misrepresent Christianity and portray that religion of love as one of hatred, so there are fundamentalists who also seek to misrepresent Islam. The mindset that is equated with anger, ignorance, hatred, suicide killings and slaughter under the name of Islam, that opposes science, art and all fine things, that takes no pleasure from blessings and that assumes an attitude that loathes Christians and Jews, is the mindset of fundamentalists, not of true Muslims. Many people criticize this strange image that they wrongly equate with Islam and therefore oppose Islam itself. But what they should really be opposing is not Islam, but fundamentalism and the radical mindset.
Radicalism is the Name of a Loveless System Diametrically Opposed to the Koran
The dark and bloodthirsty system that some people ascribe to Islam is actually fundamentalism, not Islam at all. This means espousing radicalism under the guise of religion. A fundamentalist - a radical in other words - is loveless, dark of soul, bigoted and lacking in understanding. He is opposed to all forms of beauty, aesthetics, art and science. He is opposed to life, and absolutely opposed to joy and happiness.
Someone with a fundamentalist mindset will regard all objects of beauty with hatred. He will hate flowers, and children, cats and dogs and rabbits. His soul is empty; there is nothing about love in their souls. They do not value other people, nor any other living thing. The concepts of consideration, love and compassion are entirely foreign to them.
As a result of all this, a fundamentalist will also hate women. The hatred of women that some people seek to ascribe to Islam is in fact a characteristic of fundamentalist radicals, not of Islam, which actually attaches the greatest value to women, and which praises and exalts them. (This will later be discussed in greater detail.)
In the same way that someone with a fundamentalist mindset loves nobody, nobody loves him, either. Everyone is made uncomfortable by the presence, lifestyle and ideas of a fundamentalist. Fundamentalists even detest other fundamentalists. They are never at once in friendship and ease; this, of course, stems from their living at a great distance from the Koran.
It needs to be reiterated as a matter of great importance that a fundamentalist - a radical in other words - can be found in every faith or section of society. People who seek to turn people away from the essence of their faiths and to replace the joy and fervor resulting from faith in God with a dark and bloodthirsty spirit can be found in Christian and Jewish communities, as well as Muslim ones. However, the subject under discussion here is those fundamentalists who seek to insinuate themselves among Muslims.
No matter what section of society or faith he comes from, a fundamentalist always stands for the same polluted and sinister ideas. As a result of this terrifying state of his soul, someone with a fundamentalist mindset will always seek bloodshed. He will seek bloodshed everywhere. Only bloodshed and wickedness will satisfy him. He can only express the hatred inside him through bloodshed and wickedness. People who appear in the name of Islam and encourage hatred and enmity toward Christians and Jews, and even Muslims, are not true Muslims as described in the Koran, but fundamentalists under the influence of the system of the antichrist.
Therefore, it is very important for our Christian brothers to distinguish very carefully between fundamentalists and true Muslims, and between the fundamentalist mindset and true Islam. Only then will they be able to see that what they are against is not Islam, but radicalism.
But why is Islam misrepresented by fundamentalists, and why is this being allowed?
The System of the Antichrist that Incites Opposition to Islam and Its Links to Radicalism
Spreading opposition to Islam is one major aim of the system of the antichrist because Islam is the final true faith and the Koran has remained unchanged for 1,400 years. The verses of the Koran are under the protection of God and are sufficient for people to live by the true faith in an unsullied manner. The true Islam that comes from living by the Koran leads to a sound and powerful faith.
This powerful faith, people becoming increasingly devout, and solidarity between the three Divine faiths represent a major peril and threat to the antichrist. The material and spiritual strength that stems from unity and solidarity, which represent an important part of Islamic moral values, is powerful enough to eliminate all the satanic systems and ideologies developed by the antichrist over the years. The antichrist is very well aware that when Muslims are completely united and when they establish an alliance with Christians and Jews, this will result in a major force, and that this major force will inflict a huge intellectual defeat on his own philosophy.
Leading members of the system of the antichrist have for a long time been aware of the presence of this spiritual force standing in opposition to the satanic system they have constructed. That awareness explains the plans they have made for a bloody Armageddon through calculated policies and strategies. As a part of that plan, various people who are actually Darwinists and atheists have been raised as terrorists under the guise of being "Muslims" and sent off to wreak slaughter, supposedly in the name of Islam. These very same circles have depicted concepts totally opposed to the spirit of Islam, such as killing and murdering innocent people and suicide bombings, as if these were part of Islam. They have so widely disseminated ideas that stand in complete opposition to Islam that even some people who portray themselves as Islamic scholars have openly come to advocate this plan for a bloody war that will take place between the faiths and result in the deaths of millions. They have managed to influence hundreds of thousands of people into thinking that killing and murder are legitimate. In addition, they have convinced themselves and others that they are doing this in the name of God.
Like the expectations of Armageddon discussed earlier, the scenarios of war and slaughter that are being ascribed to Islam are part of the same mindset, that of the antichrist. The antichrist aims to use this technique in order to create division between the faiths, to set them against one another, to weaken believers and thus to produce the means and climate through which to implement his own perverse plans.
We must always remember this; the antichrist has always used the name of God in his dealings with believers. He never shows his true face, and always uses religion and people who appear to be devout in order to lead believers astray from the true path. That is how the antichrist has managed to influence many devout people and easily been able to spread all kinds of superstitious and perverse ideas that can support and strengthen his own devilish systems.
The perverse claims that some people are seeking to attribute to Islam – including the idea that Muslims want to slaughter Christians and Jews, that they deny the right to life of non-Muslims and that they are devoid of love and affection - are complete fabrications.
People who are unaware of the true essence of Islam, a religion of peace and love, and of the brotherhood, justice, peace, compassion and love in the verses of the Koran, may fail to see the perverse aspects of these false claims. In order to see that this image that the forces of the antichrist are trying to ascribe to Islam is wrong and perverse, there needs to be people who judge by the Koran, know the spirit of the Koran and conceive of - and live by - the Koran in the same way as our Prophet (pbuh) did. If someone is a "fundamentalist," in other words, if he interprets Islam in the light of perverse superstitions, if he makes up rules and regulations that contravene all logic and reason – as well as conflicting with the Koran – if he portrays Islam, a religion of ease, as difficult, inaccessible, aggressive and loveless (Islam is surely beyond all that), then he can never understand the reality, unless God decides otherwise, of course. The important point is that fundamentalism is a major threat, not just to Islam, but also to Christianity and Judaism. Therefore, in order to be able to see the origins of the perverse ideas that are being ascribed to Islam, people need to realize how far removed fundamentalism is from the Koran and from all the true faiths in general.
Fundamentalists Neither Apply the Koran Nor do They Allow Others to do So
Fundamentalism, or radicalism, is the antichrist's greatest supporter against Islam. Our Prophet (pbuh) reveals this in a hadith:
Seventy thousand turbaned scholars from my Community will follow the antichrist. (Ahmad ibn Hanbal, Musnad, p. 796)
In describing the people who will follow the antichrist, our Prophet makes special reference to people who will emerge from the Muslim community and portray themselves as "scholars." He also says in a hadith that the group who will work on the side of the antichrist against all the friends of God and who will inflict the worst harm on the Islamic faith are fundamentalists who depict themselves as Muslims.
In another hadith our Prophet says:
There will be deviants in the End Times; their minds will not function. They will speak eloquently. They will read the Koran, but their faith will not descend beyond their throats... (Bukhari, Sahih 3611, 5057, 6930, Muslim, 1066, Abu Dawud 4767, Ahmad ibn Hanbal, Musnad 1, 81, 113, 131, 289;
Tayalisi, al-Musnad, no. 1984.)
As the hadith says, these people will use eloquent speech and read the Koran, "... but their faith will not descend beyond their throats." In other words, they will not heed the Koran. They will speak of the Koran, but they will not be devoted to it. They will rule not according to the Koran but according to the superstitions they fabricate in the name of the Koran. They will not regard the Koranic accounts as sufficient and they will act on a faith of their own invention under the name of Islam.
The aim of the fundamentalists is to stop people from applying the Koran. While adding elements that are not in the Koran onto Islam, they also reject the commands and advice in the Koran that does not square with their own superstitious fabrications.
The fact that the Koran recommends love, affection, brotherhood, unity and peace, the fact that all beauty is praised in the Koran and art and science are encouraged cause them to feel an intense rage. The quality of the soul bestowed by living by the moral values of the Koran and the depth of a Muslim model that is rational, esthetic, modern and loving is entirely incompatible with their own fabricated religions. That is why the antichrist, in his own way, uses fundamentalism to try to strike at the real Islam in the Koran, with the foolish idea that he can thus eradicate it. However, it is important to state that a large part of the army of the antichrist is made up of fundamentalists who will emerge from every faith with the aim of harming their own religion and the world as a whole. Christian, Jewish and Muslim fundamentalists come together around the same bloody and violent scenario and are doing whatever they can to incite this war and spread the system of the antichrist across the entire world.
It needs to be made clear here that there may be people who sincerely love Almighty God and who only espouse ideas that are not part of Islam out of ignorance or because they have been misinformed: Such people make up a large part of today's radicals, and affectionate and meaningful educational activity needs to be directed toward such people. Once they are illuminated with the light of the Koran, these people will see and admit the truth. Almighty God shows the true path to His sincere servants.
Fundamentalism is Also a Threat to Christianity
As we have just seen, fundamentalists can emerge from any religion. Indeed, those who, in their own eyes, imagined they could harm Jesus (pbuh) were also fundamentalists of that time who appeared in the name of religion.
Jesus describes the fundamentalists in explicit terms as hypocrites, the blind and snakes in the Gospel:
"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the door of the kingdom of heaven in people's faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to. Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when you have succeeded, you make them twice as much a child of hell as you are. ... Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cumin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former. You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel. Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean. Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean. In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness. You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell? Therefore I am sending you prophets and sages and teachers. Some of them you will kill ...; others you will flog in your synagogues and pursue from town to town. And so upon you will come all the righteous blood that has been shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, son of Berekiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar." (Matthew 23: 13-35)
Christians Must Not Confuse Fundamentalism with True Islam
A model of Islam that has no place in the Koran, that causes war in the name of Islam, that oppresses others, that organizes suicide attacks and that desires killing and bloodshed causes Christians and Jews to develop a false impression of Islam.
As we have already said, those who espouse a bloody and wicked system have absolutely nothing to do with Islam, in other words, the moral values of the Koran. They do this because it is what their superstitious faiths, filled with nonsense of their own making and superstitious beliefs, require. There is absolutely no place in the Koran for such a loveless, ruthless and aggressive mindset.
In the Koran, our Lord describes such people, no matter what their religion, who espouse fundamentalism, who seek to confuse religion with superstitions and make it impossible to live by and who seek to deceive people using the name of God as follows:
Among them is a group who distort the Book with their tongues so that you think it is from the Book when it is not from the Book. They say, "It is from God," but it is not from God. They tell a lie against God and they know it. (Koran, 3:78)
Being a true Muslim means abiding by the moral values of Islam as revealed by God in the Koran and represented by our blessed Prophet (pbuh). In other words, Muslims have a responsibility
to live according to the Koran and the way of life of our Prophet, not the superstitions and fabrications of fundamentalists. The criteria are the Koran and the way of life of the Prophet, not fabrications. True Islam is the Islam of the Age of Bliss, lived according to the Koran and the life of our Prophet. The loving, affectionate, protective and noble life of our Prophet, who valued art, beauty, cleanliness and kindness, is the perfect model for all Muslims. It is therefore
a major error for non-Muslims to evaluate Islam on the basis of the murky lives of various fundamentalists rather than on the true facts. (For detailed information, see Harun Yahya’s Bigotry: The Dark Danger)
Our Christian brothers should read the following statements with great care:
Section 1: Equating Islam with Violence Stems from Being Unacquainted with the True Islam
Some people, who equate Islam with terrorist attacks, mass slaughter and suicide bombings, make the mistake of assuming that those who spread terror in the name of Islam are actually Muslims. They also imagine that such people are real Muslims who live by the Koran. But the truth is that these people have nothing to do with either Islam or our holy book, the Holy Koran.
Islam Curses Terrorist Attacks, Slaughter, Suicide Bombings and All Forms of Violence
The great majority of the infamous terrorist leaders who have inflicted great evil on their countries are generally intelligence agents specially trained to commit acts of provocation. They are members of well-known intelligence agencies in America and Europe and receive their orders directly from them. These people have all received a Darwinist and materialist education. They never reflect the true moral values of Islam commanded by God in any sphere of their lives, have nothing to do with the loving and affectionate, compassionate, forgiving and just values of our Prophet (pbuh) and have been indoctrinated by Darwinism. According to the terrible error in which these people find themselves, the only way to survive and be strong is through fighting and conflict. This requires violence and cruelty, while virtues such as love, affection and compassion are regarded as weaknesses.
Fulfilling a few religious obligations, being a citizen of an Islamic country or carrying ID documents that describe them as "Muslims" does not change the reality. These people have a completely Darwinist world view. They also look at those around them in terms of that Darwinist-materialist perspective.
According to this major error of theirs, "Human beings are just slightly more advanced animals; they have no souls and identities, they have no responsibilities toward anyone. Like all animals, human beings have to be selfish and think only of themselves in order to survive. The weak members of this community of animals must be eliminated and weeded out." Of course, someone under the influence of this perverse logic will lack the moral values and conscience to prevent them from carrying out mass slaughter.
The terrorist leaders in question have in fact been brought up to be "spoiled and arrogant," far removed from the moral values of Islam, in America and various countries of Europe. They spend all their time in night clubs and possess atheist mindsets that have signed up to all the negative and degenerate aspects of Western culture. It needs to be stated here that one may have any kind of lifestyle before beginning to live by religious moral values, and there is nothing to criticize in that; if a person sincerely repents and turns to belief in God, then it may be hoped that He will forgive their mistakes. But the situation is entirely different with the people in question.
When the time comes for these people to start work, they grow their beards and assume the appearance of Muslims. They receive their instructions from covert sections of various intelligence agencies and unhesitatingly carry them out. They have nothing to do with Islam or being Muslim. Their religion is materialism and Darwinism, not Islam. It is impossible for genuine Muslims who fully abide by the Koran to support and be a part of such a wicked system that contradicts the Koran. Those who perpetrate this wickedness are Darwinists, materialists and admirers of Stalin, Che, Lenin, Mussolini, Hitler and Mao. They are people who, in their own way, seek to apply the perverse ideas of bloody materialists, communists and fascists in the name of Islam, and think in a way totally incompatible with religious moral values. This is how the evil system that some circles wrongly seek to attribute to Islam operates.
Some Muslims might claim that these atrocities committed in the name of Islam do not reflect the facts and might choose to deny them completely.
Yet the right thing to do is not to deny these actions, but to tell people that they are most probably carried out by various intelligence agents opposed to religion in order to supposedly neutralize Islam and prevent it growing any stronger. The right thing is to tell everyone that these things are unlawful actions in the eyes of Islam.
