Robinson Mosques and Miracles

Revealing Islam and God's Grace
1. Auflage 2019
ISBN: 978-0-6480116-4-4
Verlag: CHI-Books
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: Adobe DRM (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, 438 Seiten

The Islamic challenge to the church, if not western society, is no longer something in the far distance that can be ignored. It is in all our cities and neighbourhoods - now. Islam and Christianity are on a pathway of confrontation. In Mosques and Miracles Robinson exhorts the church to wake up before it is too late. Vast stirring movements are underway that could change the face of the world during the next 50 years. The purpose of this book is to alert leadership, to inform the Church and others, and to inspire God's people to action. It relates what Islam is doing, why this is so, and how God is responding. It shows how God's people may successfully face this challenge with confidence. The author, Stuart Robinson, was formerly the Senior Pastor of Crossway in Melbourne. Before that he worked for 14 years in South Asia where he pioneered church planting among Muslims.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Robinson, Stuart

Leseproben

CHAPTER 1
WHAT’S HAPPENING Back in the 1960s a musical called Jesus Christ Superstar was staged in many Western countries. Regardless of what is thought of the music and lyrics of Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Weber and their interpretation of the life of Jesus Christ, their storyline was a mere caricature of the man for whom the musical was named. Christians did react, often picketing theatres where the show was staged but with little effect. Had anything even remotely similar been done in a Muslim country or in just about any country, referring to the Prophet Muhammad in such distorted terms, there would have been violence in the streets with those responsible for such ‘insult’ required to forfeit their lives. This is but one of the many differences between Muslim and nominal ‘Christian’ societies. In Superstar, one of the refrains which pounded out repetitiously was the line ‘What’s the buzz? Tell me what’s a-happening?’ While the musical, unlike its namesake, may not even rate a footnote in history, the question remains valid. An analysis of change within Islam in the twentieth century shows that the worldwide community of believers has been increasing in religious cohesion. The term used for the whole community of Muslim believers is ummah. The background to the term is instructive to understand the mindset of the movement. Refugees from Mecca who fled from there to Medina with the Prophet Muhammad in the seventh century of the Common Era, formed the original Islamic community. They were known as the muhajirun. To these were added ansars (helpers) from Medina. These two groups severed their previous relationships with their families, friends and tribes and became united in the original brotherhood of Islam. Such social realignment was quite unprecedented in Arabian tribal history and had world changing ramifications. Membership within the community took precedence over all other relationships or activities and became irrevocable. On the surface ummah simply means the totality of all Muslim communities. But there is a second, more dynamic meaning within the term. In the etymology of the term ummah we find the verb amma which means ‘to proceed towards a given objective’. Thus unity and interdependence are the continuous dynamic objectives of the brotherhood of Islam…Furthermore the ummah is continuously proceeding towards the state of Islam. The Muslim communities are therefore united in their final goal as well as in the paths that should be followed to attain this goal.1 Although the desire to be a single people of the world, united in piety, politics and culture has never been realised, it remains a longed-for objective. Consciousness of the longed-for ideal without the momentum provided by essentially core states remains a frustration for Islamic peoples. In Pakistan the Interior ministry reports that there are nearly 3 million students studying in the country’s many thousands of madrassas. That country’s Human Rights commission says that a third of these religious schools provide military training. Abu Huraira believes that in the clash of civilisation religious war will continue until Islam becomes the dominant religion and that the ummah will usher in an Islamic world without frontiers.2 In south east Asia the Jemaah Islamiah network strives to see an Islamic republic which includes Malaysia, Indonesia, southern Thailand and the southern Philippines to which others add Singapore or even the possibility of northern Australia.3 The call for unity and coordinated action has been expressed in a succession of major international conferences throughout the twentieth century: •the Islamic Caliphate Congress of Cairo in 1926; •the Muslim Congress of Mecca in 1926; •the Aqsa Islamic Conference of Jerusalem in 1931; •the Islamic Conference of Jerusalem in 1953; •the Afro Asian Muslim Peoples’ Conference of Jakarta in 1965; •the Arab Summit of Khartoum in 1968; and •the Islamic Summit of Rabat in 1969. Finally in 1972 this resulted in the creation of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference with its own permanent secretariat in Jeddah.4 Since the World Muslim League meeting of Mecca in 1974, Islam has become much more active in Dawah – its missionary enterprise.5 As Islam examines the West which from its perspective is wholly Christian, its evaluation is far from complimentary. A former prime minister of the Sudan summed up the opinion of many of his colleagues when he concluded, ‘Western civilisation riding in its blaze of glory in the Renaissance and its religious corollary, the Reformation, is now collapsing in a spiritual crisis, lost amid corruption and a sea of alcohol.’.6 With this some Western analysts agree. Peter Coleman says, ‘We have adopted a culture of repudiation, a commitment to political correctness, a “down with us” mentality. We no longer believe in truth or even free inquiry. We are all relativists, feminists and multi-culturalists. We reject the old prohibitions on abortions, homosexuality or sex outside of marriage. There is little place if any for God in our lifestyle. If theology is still studied at all in the academies it is a godless variety, and if you reject it you will flunk your course.’ 7 Islam commonly regards Christianity as having failed with the Church in particular having lost its way. The rise of secularism is itself regarded as a symptom of Christianity’s failure. When Islam considers the way in which the Christian West now celebrates its weekly ‘holy day’ ie. Sunday or its most significant religious events Christmas and Easter, it observes that these times are now given over to sport, entertainment and fun. Muslims regard this as a travesty of the truths that these times and events were once purported to proclaim. Even worse they note that the name of Jesus Christ who is also one of their most honoured prophets, is seldom used with reverence but is more commonly used and abused as a mindless expletive, a ‘swear’ word in ordinary conversation and throughout the infotainment and entertainment industries. They are incredulous that no one seems to care, let alone object to such ‘blasphemy’. It is concluded that as the West has sunk under a deluge of ‘drunkenness, sexual licence, political corruption, violence, blasphemy and corrupt lifestyles’8, change is necessary if human civilisation is to be preserved from self-destruction. Jalal Al-e Ahmed called this deluge ‘Occidentosis’. He applied it to such corrupt urban phenomena as Pepsi Cola, McDonald’s and Brigette Bardot films.9 Following through on Iranian Ayatollah Ruhollah Mussavi Khomeini’s desire ‘to purge the “Satan” in the West’, Amien Rais leader of Indonesia’s 28 million member Mohammadiyah movement said, ‘Islamic societies…must end Western toxification.’.10 Ustaz Ashaari Muhammad believes he has the solution: We have something most invaluable and a priceless commodity to offer the West, Islam… What the world needs is a truly new leadership… This can only be found in Islam, a complete way of life that has emerged through the sacred struggle of the Prophet Muhammad and his companions… Only Islam can lead the way.11 Furthermore seldom seen or even understood in the West, Muslim leaders have a worldview and a long-term common commitment to realise their ideals. In television interviews screened in January 1991 just prior to the onset of what became known as the Gulf War, the difference in attitude was most telling when combatants on both sides were interviewed. When an Australian naval person was asked what concerned him about the war he replied, ‘I may get sunburned’. This was classic laconic Aussie humour. When a US marine was asked what he thought of the likely outcome his reply was, ‘Petrol will be put up by $1 per gallon and then we’ll all go home.’ A somewhat shallow, trivial consumer response perhaps? But when an Iraqi high school girl was interviewed she responded from her understanding that historically Kuwait was a part of Iraq until the colonial powers of Britain and France drew their artificial lines on maps. She replied that she saw war as inevitable between pure Islam and the ‘decadent Christian West’. She went on to say, ‘Our hero is not Madonna or Michael Jackson but Saddam Hussein. We follow him. We love death more than they love life.’ The memory of Saddam Hussein is still revered by many in his part of the world while many in the West appear to have found little to live for and even less worth dying for. Taking a longer term view, another Iraqi youth responded on television by saying, ‘Our fate is in God’s hands. Ultimately we must win come what may.’ In other words this battle could be lost but never the ultimate war. Even in so massive an undertaking as the 1991 Gulf War, Islamic leaders were never distracted from their ultimate long-term (religious) objectives. Prior to that war,...