Patrick Soohkdeo on The Islamisation of the West

In an article on The Islamisation of the West Dr. Patrick Sookhdeo of the Barnabas Fund writes,

Governments and the public must be made aware of the danger of allowing Islamist activists to take over Muslim organisations and claim to represent all Muslims. The excessive demands of Islamists must be rejected, along with their blaming of host societies for all the difficulties faced by Muslims. It is important that democratic Western societies do not give up their hard-won heritage of equality before the law, freedom of expression and freedom of religion. It must also be made clear that tolerance must work both ways and that threats of violence are unacceptable. Muslim communities must try much harder to isolate and expose Islamists who reject integration and the violent radicals among them.

For Christians the growing Islamisation of the West can be seen as both a challenge and an opportunity to sharpen our thinking and renew our evangelism. As we Christians see Muslim zeal, commitment, and willingness to sacrifice, we should be driven to repent, to pray for revival and act boldly for God in this generation. We need to stand firm on our Biblical foundations, beware of compromises and reach out in love to Muslims, offering them the Gospel of salvation in Christ.

See here for the whole article (PDF).

Freedom to Believe by Patrick Sookhdeo

Freedom to Believe: Challenging Islam’s Apostasy Law,

Patrick Sookhdeo, Isaac Publishing, 2009, 179pp. 

Article 18 of the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights commits subscribing nations to uphold freedom of religion, including the freedom to change one’s religion. While such a freedom is not recognised under the Old Testament, where apostasy attracts the death penalty, the Christian faith recognises that people should be free to choose their religion and even change their faith without compulsion or fear of intimidation.  The only weapon that the Church of Jesus Christ possesses to spread and maintain the Christian faith is the message of the gospel.

Having said that, the Church’s record on freedom of religion has been somewhat patchy. Augustine of Hippo misguidedly read Jesus’ words in the Parable of the Great Supper, “compel them to come in that my house may be filled” (Luke 14:23) as a justification of the use of force in religion. Episodes such as the Spanish Inquisition and the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre are a blot on the history of Christendom. While those events happened under the auspices of the Roman Catholic Church, Protestantism is not altogether without blame. Infamously the heretic Michael Servetus was burnt at the stake in Calvin’s Geneva. However, nowadays it is almost universally recognised that the use of force to impose the Christian faith is totally incompatible with the teaching of the New Testament. Christians therefore have no problem at all with the concept of freedom of religion. The freedom we require to practice our own faith we gladly extend to others.

Such is not the case with Islam, where apostasy, blasphemy and heresy are often punishable by death in predominantly Islamic regimes. In this book Patrick Sookhdeo, himself a Muslim convert to Christianity examines the roots of Islam’s apostasy law and reflects on current practice in the Islamic world.  The Qur’an seems to sanction the killing of apostates. The hadith makes the position clearer sometimes suggesting that the apostate should be killed instantly without even being given an opportunity to repent. The five main schools of shari’a law differ on the details, but all are agreed that sane adult males should be put to death for apostasy.

The author documents alarming instances of how the apostasy law is applied in Muslim regimes today. People who turn from Islam to other faiths and those who embrace deviant versions of Islam are subject to the deprivation of their rights, harassment and persecution. Some are even put to death. A small number of Muslim voices have called for people to have the freedom to leave Islam, but they are in the minority. Patrick Sookhdeo rightly argues for reform, urging the abolition of all penalties for apostasy in the Islamic world. The Barnabas Fund of which Dr. Sookhdeo is International Director exists to give aid and support to the persecuted church. Order from PTS Christian Bookshop. 


* An edited version of this review will appear in a future edition of Protestant Truth. 

Sharia law "inevitable" in the UK says Archbishop

In a BBC interview (see here), Rowan Williams argued that some aspects of Sharia law should be incorporated into the British legal system. He reflected, "An approach to law which simply said - there's one law for everybody - I think that's a bit of a danger." This sentiment is badly misguided. One law must apply to everybody in the same country. As a Christian I may disagree with some aspects of British law, such as the Abortion Act of 1967. I would even be prepared to defy the law if it required me to deny my Christian faith and principles. But I don't want a separate legal system for Christians. The dictum that the same legal system applies to all citizens is fundamental to liberal democracy and the rule of law.

See here for a report of an address by Patrick Sookhdeo, a converted Muslim, where he speaks of the challenge of Islam to society and the church. In Islamic countries, governed by Sharia law, Christians and other non-Muslims are reduced to second-class Dhimmi status. They face discrimination, persecution and sometimes even death. Do we really want that here in the UK? The recognition of some aspects of Sharia law would only be the first steps in a programme leading to the Islamisation of Great Britain. Christian leaders like Rowan Williams should be warning against this, not arguing for accommodation. Thankfully, leaders of all three main political parties, including the Prime Minister, have rejected the Archbishop's foolish and misguided proposals.

Patrick Sookhdeo on The Challenge of Islam

Christians car-bombed in Iraq

Yesterday evening, we hosted a Barnabas Fund meeting. The speaker was Dr. Patrick Sookhdeo, the Fund's director. His theme was The Challenge of Islam. Dr. Sookhdeo is a Christian convert from Islam and an expert on Islamic teaching. Here is a report of what he had to say.

1. The challenge of Islam to society

Patrick drew attention to a recent EU policy speech by David Milliband, the UK Foreign Secretary. Milliband predicted that by 2030 Europe will be struggling with forces beyond its own borders and facing the danger of religious extremism [read Islamic extremism] creating divisions on its own doorstep. Milliband's solution to the challenge of Islam is to allow Turkey to join the EU. But of this were to happen, Europe would by 47% Islamic by 2020. With the growth of Islam in the EU, non Muslims would be reduced to second class dhimmi status in their own countries. Islam is not simply a religion with spiritual goals. It aims at socio-political domination. In Islamic teaching, God rules the world by his law. There are the laws of nature and the Shari'a - or religious laws that govern the whole of life. Already UK governments have acted to allow Shari'a laws the affect pension and mortgage provision, education and prison foods. If further accommodations are made, life could become difficult for non-Muslims in Muslim dominated areas of the UK.

2. The challenge of Islam to the church

Churches that imbibed Liberal theology are slowly fading away. For example, it is predicted that membership of the United Reformed Church will fall by 62% by 2030. Britain has become a post-Christian, secular society where pluralism and consumerism reigns. Liberal theology, emptied out of biblical truth has nothing to offer. Islam, with its absolutist claims is filling the vacuum that was left by the decline of "Christian Britain". Muslims know what they believe, but many church leaders offer an uncertain vision. If the church is to have a future in the UK, we must return to biblical truth and hold to the historic Christian teachings on the Person of Christ and the Trinity. Also we need to recover a properly biblical eschatology that is focused on the return of the Jesus Christ as Saviour and judge. In Islamic eschatology Jesus will return and convert the world to Islam. We must boldly preach that when Jesus comes, he will vindicate the suffering Christian church and hold opponets of the gospel to account. On that day, all people, Muslims included will have to acknowledge that Jesus is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Only the robustly biblical theology of the Reformation will give the churches the doctrinal clarity and spiritual fortitude to rise to the challenge of Islam. Dr. Sookhdeo reminded us that while we may oppose the Islamic faith, we must treat Muslims with love and respect. But it is simply not right to say with some misguided churchmen, that triune God of the gospel is the same as Allah. Our task is to share the good news of Jesus with Muslim people.

3. The challenge to the church in the of Islamic world

Christians in the Middle East find themselves caught between Islam and the West. They are accused by their Muslim neighbours of siding with the West against Islam. Many Christians in Iraq have had to flee the country. There are now 400,000 Christian refugees in Syria. Believers are sent death threats by text and letter. They are warned that they must either conform to Islam and live under Shari'a law or die. Three Christian women were beheaded for refusing to wear the hijab. Under Saddam Hussein, believers were part of the Iraqi middle class, with many Christian Doctors. But now the Christian community suffers deprivation and poverty. Many who can afford to leave the country have done so. Christians are offered little protection by the authorities. A fourteen year old boy was crucified in Basra, where UK forces are at work.

The Barnabas Fund seeks to channel aid to suffering Christians, especially in Islamic countries. See here for details of the Save Iraqi Christians campaign. The Fund also helps to equip the churches to face the challenge of Islam. See here for a major new book, Global Jihad: The Future in the Face of Militant Islam by Patrick Sookhdeo. Please pray for the work of the Barnabas Fund. Visit their website to find out more about their mission. Should we not stand with the 1 in 10 Christians around the world who suffer for Jesus' sake?

"Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all, especially to those who are of the household of faith." (Galatians 6:10)

"But whoever has this world’s goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him?" (1 John 3:17)

Islam the Challenge to the Church

This is a new publication by Patrick Sookhdeo, International Director of Barnabas Fund. The author was brought up as a Muslim, but is now a Christian believer. In this book, Sookhdeo helps Christians to understand Islamic teaching. He makes clear that there are fundamental differences between Islam and Christianity. Islam explicitly denies the deity of Christ with its claim "There is no god but God". Christ's death and resurrection are also rejected. Islam emphasizes the love of power, while Christianity glories in the power of love.

.

If "love is the meaning of reality" for Christians, then power is the meaning of reality for Muslims. Power and its accompanying prestige must be gained at all costs. There is no place in Islam for a suffering God, and human vulnerability is likewise spurned. But the glory of Christianity is the vulnerability of human suffering borne out of our understanding of the suffering of God in Christ Jesus. To the Muslim mind this is an appalling thought. (p. 101)

>

Sookhdeo details the political objectives of Islam and exposes the persecution of Christians and other minority groups in many Islamic regimes. He warns Western Christians not to be naive when it comes to Christian-Muslim relations. The author urges us to engage in open, critical evangelistic dialogue with Muslim people, "it is vital that we week scholarly accuracy, that our hearts are filled with compassionate concern for Muslims as human beings, and that we remain utterly faithful to Christ and to his revelation." (p. 102)

.

This most helpful book will assist the Church to face the challenge of Islam. Click here to order.

Islam in Britain

Read Patrick Sookhedo of the Barnabas Fund on:

The day is coming when British Muslims demand a State within a State.