About Daniel Shayesteh

Dr Daniel was born into a Muslim family in Northern Iran. He became a radical Muslim leader and teacher of Islam in the militant Free Islamic Revolutionary Movement, closely supporting Ayatollah Khomeini. However, after falling out of favor with Khomeini’s political group, he escaped to Turkey where there began an amazing journey to faith in Jesus Christ.

Daniel's mission is to help others understand and lovingly respond to those who do not know Christ. He is also deeply concerned for the future of Western societies, their loss of confidence in Judeo-Christian values, and their persistent naivete about the implications of the world-wide Islamic revival.

Silence Will Overturn Our Freedom

Some ideologies, beliefs and individuals believe that freedom is evil and the root of every evil. They sanction its destruction in any possible way they can. Communist and some Islamic leaders fight against freedom in their countries via their established laws and even shed the blood of their fellow citizens who cry out for freedom. Islamists and leftists in the western countries fight freedom by putting pressure on governments to issue laws for limiting our freedom and enslaving us to silence.
Silence in the western countries has helped the enemies of freedom and Christianity to make enormous head way, especially in universities and government offices. The terrorist president of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, had a couple of speaking opportunities in American universities while he was visiting UN, and received applause from the audience despite his very obvious initiative in shedding the blood of many in Iran, the Middle-East and the some western countries. Yet these same universities are not open to those who aim to reveal the philosophies of those such as Ahmadinejad.

Many university leaders and professors have declared that the faith in Christ is irrelevant to contemporary life and has nothing to do with science and reason. Not only have they limited Christian activities in the universities, they have also sued some zealous Christians in the pursuit of their agendas, aiming to put an end to Christian activities in public places.

The majority of westerners identify themselves as Christian. Even though the minority leftist and Islamist beliefs are hostile toward us, we, as the majority, do not limit them in teaching their beliefs. In contrast they, as the minority, are not only trying to limit the scope of our influence but are also working to silence us and suppress any resistance to their agendas.

Time and again, these enemies of freedom start their approach by defending democracy and tolerance but do not share the spirit of democracy and openness with us. They, convincingly, present themselves as peaceful and freedom fighters on the one hand, while trying subtly to enslave people to their authoritarianism on the other. You expect them to value Christians’ tolerance and respect, but they don’t. The respect they expect is never returned. This is because they do not believe in mutual respect. 64% of the Quran, 81% of Muhammad’s biography and 32% of the Hadith (Muhammad’s instructions) are devoted to criticism, discrimination, hatred, fighting and killing of non-Muslims. The Quran states that if any one criticizes Islam, his head must be chopped off (Q.33:36; 8:12).

Leftists also have the same philosophy; they attribute blame to Christians and try to impose their beliefs on everyone or organization they can, but they consider no such rights for Christians. Their one-way tolerance philosophy works to increase their rights and success but decrease the rights of Christians and silence them.

Sadly, many politicians and governments in the West have been serving the causes of opportunistic leftists and Muslims in order to limit Christian influence. Under the shadow of this one way tolerance, leftist and Islamic philosophies are given more weight than the philosophy of Christ who gave His life for both friends and foes in order to bring the wall of hostility down among them and unite them in love and respect.

The sad thing is that many of us live as if there is no such war against our faith and freedom! How many of us are aware of this, want to break the silence and respond with the love, justice and courage of Christ? Are we ready to leave a good legacy for our children and future generations so that they can feel proud of us, make our mission their own and stand for freedom? Until a radical change happens in our mindset, we will not be able to speak out and protect our freedom. Such a transformation happens only in a radical encounter with Jesus Christ who did not keep quiet against the injustices of the enemy of humanity, but fought and gave His life for our freedom.

Let us stop compromising the Truth and speak out for the worthy cause of freedom.

No comments:

Post a Comment