“For the love of Christ compels us, because we

judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died.”

Christianity—–               2Corinthians 5:14

“You shall neither mistreat a stranger nor oppress

him, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.”

Judaism———-Exodus 22:21

“Do not hanker for peace with infidels, behead

them when you catch them.”

Islam————-Quran 47:4

To equate the violence of Islam with Christianity is just off the wall apologetics and a denial of the reality on the ground facing us all today. Nowhere, in the world, for the past hundreds of years, has Christianity sought to bring about a global political kingdom. Christianity has and can thrive within any political system and it does not seek to usurp the host cultural/political order in which it finds itself as Islam does and is attempting to do.  Christians do have a right to “compete in the market of ideas” but this is done peacefully and democratically and, to be sure, the influence of these ideas have made the West great and produced a world leader in values related to freedom in the United States of America. This is not to deny that Christianity, some five hundred years ago did not build a kingdom known as Christendom, but this is not the dictate of its biblical revelation and the religion has thrived everywhere without such a goal. Its adherence merely seek to be “salt and light” in every community that they find themselves and the New Testament exhorts believers to submit to the governing authorities and indeed to pray for them; all the while being exemplary citizens. (Romans 13:1-7)(1Timothy 2:1-7) Our kingdom is presently not of this world and our citizenship is in heaven (Philippians 3:20) and so we seek no earthly kingdom other than the one that will arrive with the dramatic and visible return of Jesus to Jerusalem.

Islam by contrast is a religious civilization based on the acquisition of land. It seeks for, believes in and is prepared to wage war (Jihad) and kill for a political kingdom called a Caliphate, which will rule the world according to Islamic law which is called Sharia. This is its stated revelation and teaching in the Quran and the Hadith and it is openly proclaimed on the streets of London, Paris, Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Berlin, Oslo and New York! Where Islam is in the dominant position of power, as in the Middle East, it will not tolerate the free propagation of Christianity and indeed, if a Muslim converts to Christianity, he or she will be beheaded. This is a regular practice in Saudi Arabia. The freedoms that Muslims enjoy in western democracies, which have been predominantly influenced by Christianity, are not afforded to Christians and Jews in the Islamic world.

Israel’s journey to nationhood was in the context of suffering violence, genocide and barbarism the depth of which we know nothing of and do not appreciate. To become a nation she, having been committed to servitude by her Egyptian overlords, had to flee to a harsh wilderness where, once again she was set upon by foreign nations and then she had to enter a land that, by the gift of God, was hers but which was filled with violent warlike tribes. These uncivilized tribes were not simply unceremoniously removed by Israel’s conquest of them. In fact scripture reveals that God waited  400 years for them to repent and change but when they entrenched themselves in the very worst forms of wickedness and violence God sent Israel into the region as His instrument of judgment. (Genesis 15:13-16)(Deuteronomy 9:4) Israel was the hope of the world since without her presence and revelation in the world God would have destroyed everything! This was the message of the great flood and immediately afterwards the book of Genesis introduces us to the call of Abraham.  (Genesis 6:5) God’s divine mission, embedded in Israel, was in fact a blessing for all nations and families of the world but Israel had to get a foothold in the Promised Land for this blessing to be realized. (Genesis 12:1-3) Thereafter the Jews have never been a warlike people and they have never embraced a mandate for global conquest. By contrast their revelation, called the Bible, has civilized the world with its remarkable code of conduct but they have remained a small people wishing only to be left alone! (Numbers 23:9) In fact it is the Jews who have been routinely subjected to genocide by empires, big and small, that have set out to destroy them. No nation on earth has had to fight for its survival as they have had to do and still do. To equate their journey with that of Islam and thereby attempt to prove some sort of equivalence is ridiculous and intellectually dishonest. Much of the conflict over Israel has had to do with unseen demonic powers that are determined to frustrate her role in history as the vehicle of world redemption; they are determined to extinguish her light. Sadly, too many willing idiots are seduced by this sinister agenda.

Israel’s unfolding revelation, preached by Jesus her greatest son, gave voice to the internal nature of the Kingdom of God. He said, “The kingdom of God is not coming with signs to be observed for lo, the kingdom of God will be in you. “ (Luke 17:21) Before Pilate Jesus affirmed that He was in fact no threat to Caesar because His kingdom was not of this world. (John 18:36) Therefore, He said, if it were my followers would fight but it is not! By contrast Mohammed’s followers do fight, are called to fight and will continue to fight until their kingdom on earth is established. They will crush little children, crucify Christians and behead anyone who gets in their way, as we now witness, to establish their Caliphate and with it sharia law. Their founder did these things routinely and thus set forth the example for them to follow. Actually on one day he beheaded 800 people who were deemed infidels! Do we see this picture in Jesus? For Him violence was no way to pursue righteousness and had to be rejected and replaced with love for one’s enemies and forgiveness. Indeed He mirrored these very things for He was unjustly convicted, condemned and crucified and yet said, “Father forgive them, they know not what they do.” (Luke 23:34) Consequently, the Christian Church today nowhere advocates for violence as a means by which to spread its message and those who did centuries ago had no biblical mandate to do so and have not been emulated.

To assert then that Christianity is as dangerous as political Islam is just nonsense and, to use an American word, disingenuous. Those who are making this claim are quite simply engaging in mischief and their position says more about them than anything else.

Islam by contrast advocates for Jihad (holy war) and those who give themselves to it are simply being true to their revelation. True Muslims will do what Mohammed did just as true Christians will do as Jesus did. In actual fact the unfolding revelation of Islam in the Quran is toward violence; as any well educated Muslim will tell you that the “Medina Verses” of the Quran, which were more benign in nature, are subservient (less authoritative) to the “Mecca Verses”, which are more violent and call for the death of Jews and infidels. Even Muslims that fail to pray as they should every day are threatened with death. This is why ISIS, the pure form of Islam, to which Muslims from all over the world are running to join, will destroy moderate Muslims and Muslims who seek to live at peace with their neighbors whoever they might be. They will especially kill Muslims like King Abdullah of Jordan as they consider him a “sell out” to the western democracies. In this regard they have already put him on notice.

Political Islam is gaining strength all over the world and the assertion that it is just a small minority who have hijacked and distorted Islam is just not true. They have now murdered millions of people all over the world including, as they see it, hundreds and thousands of apostate Muslims. In South Sudan alone two million Christians were murdered by political Islam and I could write about Nigeria, Mali, Northern Africa, Yemen, Somalia, Pakistan, Darfur, Afghanistan the USA and of course the Middle East. The carnage will continue until someone has the courage to call this conflict what it is; a war against political Islam! No amount of political correct language is going to solve this problem and if there are so many moderate peace loving Muslims in the world then now is the time for their voices to be heard in mass protests on the streets and Capitals of the world; if not now then when?

Malcolm Hedding.