True Freedom Makes the World Panic!

All Islamic countries (especially the radical ones), all communist countries and all leftists in western countries become nervous when someone desires to live in real freedom. This real freedom can only be found through looking deeply into life and at differences among beliefs, in order to embrace the best. It is amazing and mind blowing that billions of dollars are spent, thousands of people’s blood is shed and many are made homeless each year around the world in order to block the way for people to have freedom.

It is like a deadly poison to the leaders of Islamic countries, even to the most moderate ones, if you go to their countries and take an opportunity to talk about your non-Islamic belief. If they are moderate and decide to be a bit nice to you, they just deport you. Otherwise, they can keep you in prison for years and accuse you of spying in order to make their inhumane initiatives look remotely legitimate to civilized nations. They can kill you with monstrous hatred too. Pastor Hike Hovsepian in Iran was mysteriously stabbed 26 times, whereas he could have been killed with just one stab. They then left his body in the street to show that Christians’ freedom is a serious threat to their dictatorship. Freedom makes them panic more than anything else.

When it comes to Muslims freely taking advantage of the freedom available to them in non-Islamic countries, they seize it 100%. Otherwise they will be offended and adopt the pose of being victims of discrimination. Not only do they want full freedom for themselves abroad, but a ‘criticism-free’ freedom too. They don’t care that criticism and even self-criticism are inherent components of western freedom. That is why we see that Islamists in non-Islamic countries have continually been trying to silence their critics in order to spread their dictatorial Islam. For example, Saudi Arabia distributes millions of Qurans in non-Islamic countries each year, but a non-Muslim is not allowed to take his personal Bible to that country. The rulers of Saudi Arabia and other Islamic countries are terrified that a Bible may fall into the hands of a Muslim, teach him true freedom and reveal the unjust constraints of a dictatorial leadership style. They know that when freedom comes, dictatorship must go. That’s why the word “freedom” terrifies them.

The central motive of all Islamic terrorist groups in the world is that there are some people in the world who love freedom and may become a challenge to the spread of Islam’s tyrannical leadership in the future. According to the Quran, freedom lovers must be terrified since there is no option given to any man or woman to express their opinion concerning Allah’s and his prophet’s decisions in the Quran. (Sura (Chapter) 33:36; also read Sura (Chapter) 8)

It is interesting to note similarities under Communist regimes.  Communist theory regards the West’s cherished idea of the freedom for individuals to have a right to individual expression, ownership and wealth as anathema. Individual autonomy does not make sense in communist theory since the force of nature runs life randomly. A creative freedom, therefore, is nothing but a blocking enemy or a thesis that necessitates revolution through an anti-thesis. The real reason behind the establishment of the Berlin wall was to stop the flow of western freedom to the East which was in close proximity. Communism had to be protected from freedom. The destruction of freedom is the initiating step of Communism. The advanced Communist community must therefore be perpetually protected against freedom. That’s why everybody in a Communist country is under pressure to spy on others and to report if there is any hint of desire for freedom. If you know but do not report, then you are in trouble.

This is exactly what happens in most Islamic countries, in particular the radical ones like Iran, Saudi Arabia and Sudan.

We also see hostility towards freedom and criticism in the midst of western societies by those who hate to be challenged. They get very nervous especially when you convey to them the words of Jesus Christ who says that it is the knowledge of the truth which sets people free. (John 8:32) They hate the knowledge of the truth since it threatens the underlying, but false, personal securities they have gained from investing in untruth. That’s why they hate freedom and even become vicious when someone speaks about it.

In most cases, the enemies of freedom have demonstrated that it was the threat to their own personal fortune, power or status that was the real cause of their panic and hatred towards freedom and freedom lovers, rather than their beliefs or ideologies.

During the thirteen year period when Muhammad, the prophet of Islam was not famous but a middle class Meccan money earner, he was peaceful. He even attended a church with his wife, just as some of our presidents and prime ministers do before elections. He referred to the Bible, in the hands of his contemporary Christians and Jews, as the light for people. The pinnacle point of his message at that time was “no compulsion in religion.

But that scenario changed after Muhammad moved from Mecca to Medina, became a statesman and made a fortune. It was then that he forbade criticism (Quran 33:36) and outlawed the existence of any other religion and furthermore sanctioned that a pious Muslim had to be known to everyone as a terrorizing person (Quran 9:123). He even replaced some old verses of the Quran, which were barriers to his newly adopted anti-freedom ethics, and replaced them with new ones in order to legitimize his harsh attitudes and thereby safeguard his dictatorial fortune, power and status. So, practically, his beliefs became of secondary importance to him after gaining his fortune.
The history of Islam is full of this kind of shocking and capricious leadership style when leaders changed even the most sacred beliefs of Islam to protect their fortunes or their power. One example is the changing of the prayer direction from Jerusalem to Petra in Jordan by Muhammad, and then after his death the shift from Petra to the present Mecca in Saudi Arabia. It is still the same among Muslim leaders. The Quran in verses 21 and 22 of its chapter 5 says that Israel belongs to Jews forever. In verse 104 of chapter 17 it also says that even scattered Jews will be brought to their promised land. But Muslim leaders do not care about their Quran’s sanction of the rights of Jews over Israel. This is because hostility towards Jews has created fortunes for them and will do the same for their children and grandchildren.

Mao Tse-tung, Vladimir Lenin, Joseph Stalin, Fidel Castro and their peers in Communist countries were and are the same. They too didn’t/haven’t cared much about the altruism in their Communism which was initially adopted for their nations to prosper. They all displayed very generous motives and intentions at the beginning declaring how they would invest their lives for their nations. That generosity came to an end when they became powerful.

Initially, people trusted their Communist saviours, joined them and opened the door for them to triumph. After, having experienced Communism, people have realized that it had not worked in the way they anticipated. Some decided to try something else, but were viciously killed despite still calling themselves Communists. History has never forgotten the many Communists, as well as others that were slaughtered by Stalin. If the ideology was a priority, they wouldn’t have wanted to kill their Communist peers for their criticisms. Rather, they would have acted as real Communists, gone to the corporate body of Communism, the working class or proletariat, taken a secret ballot and acted accordingly. They didn’t, because the ideology did not matter for them any more as much as their fortune and status did.

The ideology itself was also impractical to these infamous Communist dictators of history. Had they followed their ideology with integrity, their actions would have served the needs of the people rather than being ruthlessly self-serving. As a result, their regimes were based on egotism and were thus hostile to freedom. Their foreign policies were also centered on hostility to freedom, especially the western style of freedom that values time and life. If anyone from their lands took refuge in a western country, they would do everything to get rid of that person, fearing that s/he would reveal the weaknesses of the regimes in their homelands.

Opposition to freedom in western countries is also nothing more than a channel for safeguarding personal agendas and fortunes. That’s why some socialists have become millionaires in the West despite the inconsistency of that with the principles of socialism. They have learned how to make money and live by the motto:“Look like a socialist, live like a capitalist”. It is risky even if their own socialist peers criticize them. Some leftists have sacked their own leftist friends who challenged them ideologically. “Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed” is a documentary that reveals how vicious some leftists can be even towards their own leftist peers who dare to challenge them. The very principle of socialism “the end justifies the means” is turned back on its own adherents. Interesting!

So the ideology (socialism, atheism, secularism or others) is not a big deal for these enemies of freedom. However, the fortune they have made is! They use the ideology just for mischievously caricaturing their critics or opponents in order to promote uncertainty in their opposition, and allegiance to themselves, so that they can penetrate and dominate. From there they dominate and their domination must continue with recklessness and without any challenge, hence silencing critics and opposition. In other words, the ideology was used to create a market of fortune for them, a fortune that even friends cannot challenge now.

Unfortunately, the West has become a place of fortune for everybody with every kind of belief. The most hostile belief has also made its nest in the West and now has the opportunity to destroy it. Multiculturalism in the West has opened the door for Socialists, Communists, Islamists and other minorities to reject their obligation to uphold freedom of rights (a core value of the West) in order to follow their own aggressive and unfair agendas. Now, more or less every practice of every group is valid, irrespective of how brutal or abusive it may be, since it is legitimate in that particular group’s culture or belief.

Multiculturalism has given sovereignty to almost every practice in the West. But this has been ridding the West of its own Judeo-Christian values which, in a great many cases, lie at the heart of western freedom. This outcome has produced great passivity among rank and file people so that opportunists can take over and be hostile to freedom lovers. This is what we get now. The arrows of the opponents of freedom are in the ‘western air’ even before we say a word in favor of freedom. Freedom lovers are called haters, fascists or Nazis by the children of multiculturalism and have been even attacked physically by them.

Why would an atheist or socialist or Islamist call a sincere Christian a ‘hater’ since hating is a sin in the Gospel of Jesus Christ?  But hate is legitimate in the beliefs of contemporary secular ideologies? History has demonstrated that attributing bad names to others is a sign of invasion or destruction that is about to happen. Late in his life, Muhammad, the prophet of Islam, called Christians and Jews animals and the worst of beasts in order to pave the way to destroy them. That’s what he did and butchered many like animals. Today, in any Islamic country (but especially in a radical one), if a Muslim is labeled ‘Americanized’, ‘westernized’, it means that his or her life is under a serious threat. This is, more or less, true in Communist countries too.

Multiculturalism has allowed all hostile cultures to penetrate and gain a strong foothold in the West. In Iran, Saudi Arabia or Malaysia you have only one enemy to your freedom – Islam. In communist countries the single enemy to your freedom is Communism. Thanks to multiculturalism, the enemies of freedom are from every corner of the world and have been brought to the West to root out freedom. Now the enemies of freedom are everywhere in the West preparing the way for multicultural hostilities. They are in our educational centers too. Even our youth in schools and universities are learning how to hate those who do not think or believe their way. Educational centers were originally built to be the places of higher understanding, tolerance, exchanging ideas, engagements and creative dialogues, but now are reduced to be the places of intolerance and hatred towards freedom of speech.

How do we handle these invasions and hostilities?

There are two ways for us to deal with the enemies of freedom; either we become worldly, as they are, compromise with their desires and receive their friendship, or, we stay honest to our faith in Christ and pay the price - since there is no benefit in having the world but losing eternal joy. Two thousand years ago, our Master saw our days and told us:

If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you, the servant is not greater than his master. If they have persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. If they have kept My saying, they will also keep yours. But all these things they will do to you for My name's sake, because they do not know Him who sent Me. (John 15:18-21, MKJV) 

We cannot expect better things from the world since it does not know Jesus and does not have the joy of His freedom. Also, we cannot persuade people with truth if we are of the world and do not speak truthfully. Therefore, we need to rejoice in our freedom in Jesus Christ which is the power for our triumph over hatred and hostility.

Secondly, we need to stand on our heavenly identity and not invest our time and money for hatred or a worldly fortune, as worldly people do. We are fortunate that we are enabled to bear the hatred of the world, while not being like the world by  responding to hatred with hatred.

Is ISIS Islamic?

Is killing Muslims who are not committed to Islam firmly Islamic? Is crucifying and beheading non-Muslims and taking their wives and daughters as slaves Islamic? Can ISIS be called Islamic since it has been killing people and aiming to erase the borders among Islamic countries and make them a united Muslim nation under the black flag of Islam? Is it un-Islamic when ISIS claims the caliphate, the Islamic global government, and calls all non-Islamic nations to join Islam?

What is the ultimate authority in Islam to distinguish how genuine ISIS is in its Islamic claim and proclamations? Is it really the Saudi Arabian leaders or the leaders of any Islamic country that can categorize ISIS as un-Islamic or should it be the Quran? Is it the leaders in America and the West that have the authority to label ISIS as un-Islamic and as a group that has hijacked Islam? Or is it the Quran, the Muslims’ holy book, which is given the absolute authority to define what a true Muslim is and what he is expected to do?

For years, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and some other Arabic country leaders called the members of ISIS the true fighters of Islam and poured out their millions at their feet so that the Islamic jihad could continue. As long as the overriding focus of ISIS was to fight the Shia government of Syria, Iranian and Hezbollah militias in both Syria and Iraq, it was Islamic. It was only in 2014 that ISIS was called non-Islamic by some of these countries. ISIS linked its mission to the Islamic apocalyptic caliphate and called all Muslim nations to give up their full governing rights to ISIS in order to fulfill the eschatological mission of Islam. It was then that Saudi Arabia felt desperate for help from the West and called ISIS non-Islamic. Consequently, some mosques in the West followed Saudi Arabia, the great money master, and raised their banners in opposition to ISIS. The White House and the leaders of other western countries also ranked ISIS as non-Islamic and blamed it for hijacking the so-called peaceful Islam.

It is so sad that the western leaders align their foreign policy with the fluctuating foreign policies of Islamic countries that are shaped by the capricious political philosophy of Islam. As an ex-Muslim and a scholar in Islam, I have found nowhere in Islam that Muslims should be honest in their approaches to non-Muslims even if they are in desperate need.  If the Quran teaches Muslims (Q. 9:23) not even to befriend their own Muslim parents who follow a moderate path, how could Muslims befriend non-Muslims who do not share anything of Islam with them?

Saudi Arabia and others who are afraid of ISIS are not following pure Islam as much as ISIS is. They are perfectly aware that ISIS is following Muhammad’s 7th century AD political philosophy which is reflected in the Quran, especially in Suras 8 and 9. Muhammad never put critics of Islam in prison, as Saudi does. He killed all who did not apologize. No matter how intolerant Saudi Arabia is, it is still affected by some western values through international relationships and through expatriates who work in that country. The prophet of Islam would not tolerate such non-Islamic influence.

Another grave weakness of Saudi Arabia is that its kingdom never matches the leadership style of Muhammad. Muhammad never allowed himself to be a wealthy man as the kings, princes and leaders in Islamic countries are. He was a kind of revolutionary and guerilla leader who always participated in war personally as the chief commander and fought alongside his fellow jihadists. His overriding focus in Islam was to invade and loot others, destroy every non-Islamic value and share everything with his followers, including enslaved women and girls. He never retreated from warring with others. Islamic country leaders never represent the leadership of Muhammad, but ISIS does. That is why ISIS sees itself a better solution for Saudi Arabia and other Islamic countries.

One may ask, if Saudi Arabia is not following pure Islam, why then has it been pouring millions of dollars into the pockets of terrorists throughout the past decades? The answer can be multidimensional. There are powerful Muslim clergies in Saudi Arabia with significant number of followers that even the Saudi kingdom cannot stop from supporting terrorists. A great portion of terrorist monies flow out from these clergies. Secondly, as long as terrorists are not serious threats to Saudi Arabia, Saudi leaders would not mind if they destroy other cultures. Thirdly, Saudi leaders believe that Allah is happy with their system otherwise he would not bless them. As a result, they are happy to export their own kind of Islam, Wahhabism, which means to ruin other cultures and still please Allah. Fourthly, they also need to please many of their people, including those who serve their interests in non-Islamic countries, and to export Islam. Islam cannot be exported unless it is involved with some kinds of terrorism, either physical, cultural, social or political. Saudi must get involved in some kind of terrorism in order to gain support from its people.

What Saudi and other fundamental Islamic countries are doing is only enough to pave the way for the promised eschatological caliph of whom Muhammad spoke. But the Saudi king is not that caliph. He must humble himself to that caliph. The leader of ISIIS saw the qualities of that caliph in himself, announced himself a caliph and expected the Saudi king to know Islam well and accordingly bow down to him.  But the Saudi king is firmly attached to his throne, unlike his prophet, and never showed allegiance to the caliph.

The leader of ISIS, Al Baghdadi, is deep in Islamic study. He knows that the money from Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the Emirates and Turkey helps in the advancement of the true Islam but not those countries’ political philosophy which is affected by western politics. ISIS is honest in its call to Muslim nations to follow its model. ISIS is well aware that no Islamic country leader fits the eschatological government of Islam. ISIS knows the Quran well and how the Quran defines a true Muslim.

The Quran in Sura (chapter) 49:14 defines a Muslim as someone who surrenders to Islam without any choice for understanding. In his biography, Muhammad said that he himself was forced and violated by an angel to accept the Quran. He said this so that his followers would know that force in Islam is inherent and they had no choice to question the Quran. Muslims who want to take a softer approach are called infidels. (Sura 4:150-151) But the life in Saudi Arabia does not match the qualities of theses verses strictly.

The Quran also in Sura 9:123 defines a pious Muslim (Al-Muttaqûn) as someone who is harsh in his attitude and ready to kill non-Muslims, even relatives and neighbors. In Sura 4:95 it says that Allah has granted a grade higher to those who personally go to war and kill than to those who sit at home.

The responsibility of every pious Muslim is to punish, shame and terrorize those who reject Islam and Allah. (Suras 8:12, 9:2, 14 and 58:20) These verses teach that killing non-Muslims or infidel Muslims is a remedy to pious Muslims’ souls. That’s why they need to control every part of people’s lives and make sure that everything is solely in accordance with Islam. Even prayer that is expected to be a personal thing is not personal in Islam. If you do not pray, you and your family can be locked in your house and be burned by a pious Muslim. The prophet of Islam said: “I was about to order for collecting firewood and then order someone to pronounce the Adhan (prayer call) for the prayer and then order someone to lead the people in prayer and then I would go from behind and burn the houses of men who did not present themselves for the (compulsory congregational) prayer.”  (Bukhari V9, B89, H330).

What ISIS has been doing is the true reflection of the Quran’s instructions and of Muhammad’s life. ISIS sees its model in Muhammad, not in the king of Saudi or in any other Muslim leader. All evidences in Islam prove that ISIS is following the pure Islam. The western leaders will never be able to help Muslims, especially the young, if they continue blaming ISIS and other terrorist groups with non-Islamic actions and indirectly question the authority of their very sacred book, the Quran. The facts cannot be hidden long; sooner or later they will be obvious.

Islamic country leaders also need to stop hiding Islamic facts. Islam has not left any choice for living in peace with non-Muslims or even with moderate Muslims. They therefore need either to join ISIS, get involved in unceasing wars like their prophet Muhammad, pour out the blood of innocent people and please their Allah or to leave Islam and find a better alternative so that their nations can live in peace at home and with others.