According to Islam, the non-Muslim (kafir) has only three options in Muslim-majority nations: conversion, death or dhimmitude. The last option amounts to living in fear as a second class citizen. It happens all over the Muslim world, but is increasingly happening in the West.
Consider the remarkable case of four young Christians who earlier this year were dragged to jail for daring to share the Gospel with Muslims – in America! I kid you not. The police actually broke up their attempts to share Jesus at an Arab fair in Dearborn, Michigan.
The case has dragged on for some months now, but finally a bit of sanity has prevailed, and a court has just cleared them. But of course the case never should have arisen in the first place. If Christians cannot even talk about their faith in America, then we really have succumbed to dhimmitude.
Their arrest came back in June 18 of this year, and they have been battling the authorities about this ever since. And now that the courts have finally dismissed the case, the four are looking at other options, including possible legal action against the City of Dearborn.
This is how one news report covered the court ruling: “Jurors in Michigan have rejected, at least for now, the concept of a ‘dhimmi’ status for Christians, ruling that four evangelists who went to an Arab festival not just to be present but to ‘change minds’ did not commit a breach of peace as police had claimed.
“The word comes from the Thomas More Law Center, which defended the four Christians after they were charged for being at an Arab festival in Dearborn, Mich. Officials said the verdict came from a jury of six Dearborn residents late Friday, who concluded that Nabeel Qureshi, Paul Rezkalla, Negeen Mayel and David Wood were not guilty of breach of peace charges.
“The issue strikes directly at the heart of what many fear is developing across the nation: where Muslims are given a special treatment that subjects those of other faiths to second-class status. Robert Muise, a senior counsel for the Thomas More Law Center, told WND that’s exactly the situation in this case, since other organizations with a Christian message whose representatives simply ‘were there,’ were not subjected to any charges by police.
“Those organizations, said Muise, already are complying with Islamic religious, or Shariah, law, by not presenting the Gospel message of the Bible to others. ‘They were, “Let’s just get along, just be present”.’ Muise told WND. ‘They are being used. They are not a threat [to Islam]. They already are suppressed’.”
In another news story we find this: “A jury on Friday acquitted four Christian missionaries accused of breaching the peace at the Dearborn International Arab Festival in June, but their attorney says the legal battle is far from over. Robert Muise of the Thomas More Law Center plans to file a civil lawsuit on their behalf against the City of Dearborn ‘in short order,’ he said this morning on WJR-AM 760.
“‘They spent a night in jail for doing nothing but attending an Arab festival and daring to discuss their faith,’ he told host Frank Beckmann. ‘That can’t happen in the United States.’ Dearborn Police Chief Ron Haddad previously explained the evangelists ‘caused a stir’ at the festival, and a police report indicated one of the missionaries was ‘screaming into the crowd’ leading officers to arrest the group ‘to gain control of the situation and avoid a possible riotous crowd.’
“But the missionaries – members of the Act 17 Apologetics group, which openly claims Islam is a false religion – video recorded their interactions at the festival, evidence Muise said convinced the jury they did nothing to provoke a confrontation.” (The links below offer video clips of the actual evangelism which took place in June.)
At the heart of the free and democratic West is the right to freedom of speech and freedom of religion. And at the heart of the Christian faith is the message of what Christ has done for us on the cross, and the urgency of getting that message out.
But it seems that more and more today both of these fundamental goods are being denied to Westerners – not in Islamic countries, but in the West. Freedoms which we sent our sons to die for overseas are now being whittled away in the name of tolerance and not offending anyone.
But free speech will always be offensive to those who want to deny others the right to speak, and the Christian Gospel will always be offensive to those who believe that only Islam is the truth and Judaism and Christianity have been corrupted.
While one must always seek to be discerning as to how best to share one’s faith, and seek to not go out of one’s way to deliberately be provocative or offensive, Jesus and the disciples warned us that simply proclaiming the biblical message will result in many taking offence and resisting what we have to say.
And that is to be expected, say, in a Muslim-majority nation. But when Christian evangelists fear that they will be arrested for preaching the Gospel in America, then dark days have indeed descended upon us. Fortunately this court saw the light, but sadly I suspect many more such cases will soon arise.
There is an awful feeling that we are being stampeded down the wrong road by the secularists and some of the ideologies such as the Frankfurt school are very dangerous. Their intolerance of intolerance has led to a sort of state fascism. Believers should stand firm as a rock and behave in an exemplary way. It may be possible to reconcile the good aspects of secularism with the goodness of Christian faith. Secularists would have the shock of their lives if sharia law did take over. Thanks for this information Bill, depressing though it is.
Rachel Smith
You’re talking more about Dhimmitude, but on that general topic of being fearful about preaching the Gospel and laws against this etc, what about the dudes in Adelaide, Australia, who have been stopped and arrested by the police dozens of times?
Video from secular media “Adelaide Street Preachers Hold There Ground”
Thanks Bill
In 1978 there was not one Muslim immigrant in Denmark.
It also had low crime rate. Europe saw the Scandinavians as free-thinking progressive and infinitely generous in their welfare policies. It was also most generous in its immigration policies. By the 1990’s the growing Muslim population was obvious. The Danes, once so welcoming, began to feel slighted. Many had begun to see Islam as incompatible with their long standing values; belief in personal liberty and free speech, in equality for women, in tolerance for other ethnic groups, and a deep pride in Danish heritage and history.
Now Muslims are only 4% of Denmark’s 5.4 million people but make up a majority of the country’s convicted rapists, and especially combustible issue given that practically all the female victims are non-Muslim. Similar, if lesser, disproportions are found in other crimes.
Muslim leaders openly declare their goal of introducing Islamic Law once Denmark’s Muslim population grows large enough, a-not-that-remote prospect. if present trends persist, one sociologist estimates. every third inhabitant of Denmark in 40 years will be Muslim,
Some Muslims in Denmark who opted to leave the Muslim faith have been murdered in the name of Islam, while others hide in fear for their lives. Jews are also threatened and harassed openly by Muslim Leaders, a country where once Christian citizens worked to smuggle out nearly all of ther 7.000 Jews by night into Sweden, before the Nazis could invade.Today, a little late, Denmark has the strictest immigration policies in Europe.
Anne van Tilburg
Thanks Bill
I read the article you suggested and it seems, according to that information, that it is not really religion which drives a Muslim, but culture. As Sennels pointed out: “They do not know what is written in the Quran and do not visit mosques.” He was talking about young male Muslims.
As aggression and anger is part of their culture it makes them so much more dangerous, because of the high status given to aggression and anger.
I suppose it could be likened to a Christian who never reads the Bible and does not pray. Wow! the devil can certainly play ball with him!
There was another “interesting” article where Chancelor Merkel of Germany stated: “Germany will become an Islamic state. Apparently France, the U.K. Belgium and Russia are all facing the same fate.
Anne Van Tilburg
Anne van Tilburg, it is true that Islam is an ideology that creates a culture. But it is also driven by a spiritual force and that Spirit is not that of Christ.
The great danger we all face is that we are confronted with an idolatry for which its adherents are prepared to kill and die themselves. It is a religion of death. We in the west on the other hand, having lost anything to believe in, apart from personal peace and comfort, and no longer valuing the freedoms won by our ancestors, have nothing now with which to combat it.
The closing words of Winston Churchill’s appraisal of Islam longer hold true: “No stronger retrograde force exists in the world. Far from being moribund, Mohammedanism is a militant and proselytising faith. It has already spread throughout Central Africa, raising fearless warriors at every step; and were it not that Christianity is sheltered in the strong arms of science – the science against which it had vainly struggled – the civilisation of modern Europe might fall, as fell the civilisation of ancient Rome.”
“Secularists would have the shock of their lives if sharia law did take over.” (Rachel Smith, above). Yes, they would; might do them a lot of good – and if it does take over, they will only have themselves to blame (I bet they’ll try to shift that blame, however).
John Thomas, UK
There is hope in the air Bill and readers and I for one is excited about it. A hope that some in the USA are awake to the threat of Islam. A team has compiled a 300+ page report on the threat of Islam to America and have given it to all the Congressmen and women. This was done on the 15th of this month. Below is the link to the report and its launch. I found it through Australian Islam Monitor. The 37min video of the documents launch is a MUST watch. It is exciting, stirring and very informative. Let us pray some Congressmen and women in the US will run with it and hopefully run Obama out of office quick smart.
When America wakes up the rest of the West will take notice and hopefully the tide will turn and put a stop to the Calliphate.
Keith Lewis
Churchill, when trying to alert Parliament to the threat of Nazism, in 1938, said: “I foresee and foretell that the policy of submission will carry with it restrictions upon the freedom of speech and debate in Parliament, on public platforms, and discussions in the Press, for it will be said – indeed, I hear it said sometimes now – that we cannot allow the nazi system of dictatorship to be criticised by ordinary common English politicians. And do not suppose that this is the end. This is only the beginning of the reckoning. This is only the first sip, the first foretaste of a bitter cup which will be proffered to us year by year, unless by a supreme recovery of moral health and martial vigour we arise again and take our stand for freedom as in the olden time.”
He could equally have said this of both Islam and the Gay Liberation Front which in many ways are mirror images of one another.
David Skinner, UK
I am overwhelmed by sadness as I read all this. I feel I cannot take on anymore as my energy and time go to the fight against anti-life, anti-marriage and anti-family agendas in society. I do pray daily for several people who are in the front lines in spiritual warfare. I tell myself that should be enough, that I’m just one old woman but maybe I’m wrong.
I’m also saddened by evidence of venom against any people as a group, regardless of their false ideology or their sinful behaviour or their venom or hatred towards me. My understanding of how I should live as a follower of Jesus is that I should see Christ in every person no matter how deeply concealed His sacred face.
I should speak the truth about my faith but always with courtesy and respect. If people will not listen then I should “shake the dust from my feet” and leave them to God. Perhaps the time of their conversion is not yet or doesn’t involve me. I hope this doesn’t seem smug or sanctimonious. I just really struggle with these issues at times. God bless us all as we struggle to serve Him in spite of all our shortcomings.
Anna Cook
I thought that I would share a story that has recently occurred.
My Church received a phone call a couple of months ago from a Muslim immigrant to Australia who was enquiring about Jesus. A few weeks ago she was baptised. She spoke about how she couldn’t return to her homeland and see her parents as she would be killed after being baptised.
Further, she shared some stories about how she was involved in some community groups (Government sponsored) for non-English speaking immigrants. She told of how she was accosted by a Pakistani who told her that she should be wearing a Hijab as her country demands it, being in Australia was no reason to deny the ways of your home country in his mind. Further, when she dismissed him he started to yell and claim that she must have become a Christian and she should be put to death, as that is what happens in her country to converts. She was terrified by this man’s outburst and never went back.
As if this wasn’t bad enough, a thoughtless member f our church works with her spouse, and mentioned before other Muslim workers that his wife attends her church. The husband had to lie and claim that she was already a Christian before angry co-workers.
Christian’s simply do not understand the risks of Muslim converts in a free Australia, let alone the the risk to their families still back in their homeland.
There is an awful feeling that we are being stampeded down the wrong road by the secularists and some of the ideologies such as the Frankfurt school are very dangerous. Their intolerance of intolerance has led to a sort of state fascism. Believers should stand firm as a rock and behave in an exemplary way. It may be possible to reconcile the good aspects of secularism with the goodness of Christian faith. Secularists would have the shock of their lives if sharia law did take over. Thanks for this information Bill, depressing though it is.
Rachel Smith
You’re talking more about Dhimmitude, but on that general topic of being fearful about preaching the Gospel and laws against this etc, what about the dudes in Adelaide, Australia, who have been stopped and arrested by the police dozens of times?
Video from secular media “Adelaide Street Preachers Hold There Ground”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-p7g3atj40
Nathan Keen
One wonders how much sympathy Obama has for the citizens of America and how much protection he will afford those who offend Islam?
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/8008087/Cartoonist-behind-Draw-Mohammed-Facebook-page-goes-into-hiding.html
David Skinner, UK
Thanks Bill
In 1978 there was not one Muslim immigrant in Denmark.
It also had low crime rate. Europe saw the Scandinavians as free-thinking progressive and infinitely generous in their welfare policies. It was also most generous in its immigration policies. By the 1990’s the growing Muslim population was obvious. The Danes, once so welcoming, began to feel slighted. Many had begun to see Islam as incompatible with their long standing values; belief in personal liberty and free speech, in equality for women, in tolerance for other ethnic groups, and a deep pride in Danish heritage and history.
Now Muslims are only 4% of Denmark’s 5.4 million people but make up a majority of the country’s convicted rapists, and especially combustible issue given that practically all the female victims are non-Muslim. Similar, if lesser, disproportions are found in other crimes.
Muslim leaders openly declare their goal of introducing Islamic Law once Denmark’s Muslim population grows large enough, a-not-that-remote prospect. if present trends persist, one sociologist estimates. every third inhabitant of Denmark in 40 years will be Muslim,
Some Muslims in Denmark who opted to leave the Muslim faith have been murdered in the name of Islam, while others hide in fear for their lives. Jews are also threatened and harassed openly by Muslim Leaders, a country where once Christian citizens worked to smuggle out nearly all of ther 7.000 Jews by night into Sweden, before the Nazis could invade.Today, a little late, Denmark has the strictest immigration policies in Europe.
Anne van Tilburg
Thanks Anne
Speaking of Denmark and Islam, this is a very revealing article which covers similar ground: http://europenews.dk/en/node/21789
Bill Muehlenberg, CultureWatch
Thanks Bill
I read the article you suggested and it seems, according to that information, that it is not really religion which drives a Muslim, but culture. As Sennels pointed out: “They do not know what is written in the Quran and do not visit mosques.” He was talking about young male Muslims.
As aggression and anger is part of their culture it makes them so much more dangerous, because of the high status given to aggression and anger.
I suppose it could be likened to a Christian who never reads the Bible and does not pray. Wow! the devil can certainly play ball with him!
There was another “interesting” article where Chancelor Merkel of Germany stated: “Germany will become an Islamic state. Apparently France, the U.K. Belgium and Russia are all facing the same fate.
Anne Van Tilburg
Anne van Tilburg, it is true that Islam is an ideology that creates a culture. But it is also driven by a spiritual force and that Spirit is not that of Christ.
The great danger we all face is that we are confronted with an idolatry for which its adherents are prepared to kill and die themselves. It is a religion of death. We in the west on the other hand, having lost anything to believe in, apart from personal peace and comfort, and no longer valuing the freedoms won by our ancestors, have nothing now with which to combat it.
The closing words of Winston Churchill’s appraisal of Islam longer hold true: “No stronger retrograde force exists in the world. Far from being moribund, Mohammedanism is a militant and proselytising faith. It has already spread throughout Central Africa, raising fearless warriors at every step; and were it not that Christianity is sheltered in the strong arms of science – the science against which it had vainly struggled – the civilisation of modern Europe might fall, as fell the civilisation of ancient Rome.”
Technology is no defence against Islam.
These words from the Q’ran and other Islamic writings are hardly words of peace
http://www.prophetofdoom.net/Islamic_Quotes.Islam
http://www.prophetofdoom.net/quotes.aspx?g=405&i=4507
David Skinner, UK
“Secularists would have the shock of their lives if sharia law did take over.” (Rachel Smith, above). Yes, they would; might do them a lot of good – and if it does take over, they will only have themselves to blame (I bet they’ll try to shift that blame, however).
John Thomas, UK
There is hope in the air Bill and readers and I for one is excited about it. A hope that some in the USA are awake to the threat of Islam. A team has compiled a 300+ page report on the threat of Islam to America and have given it to all the Congressmen and women. This was done on the 15th of this month. Below is the link to the report and its launch. I found it through Australian Islam Monitor. The 37min video of the documents launch is a MUST watch. It is exciting, stirring and very informative. Let us pray some Congressmen and women in the US will run with it and hopefully run Obama out of office quick smart.
http://www.centerforsecuritypolicy.org/p18523.xml
http://www.islammonitor.org/
When America wakes up the rest of the West will take notice and hopefully the tide will turn and put a stop to the Calliphate.
Keith Lewis
Churchill, when trying to alert Parliament to the threat of Nazism, in 1938, said: “I foresee and foretell that the policy of submission will carry with it restrictions upon the freedom of speech and debate in Parliament, on public platforms, and discussions in the Press, for it will be said – indeed, I hear it said sometimes now – that we cannot allow the nazi system of dictatorship to be criticised by ordinary common English politicians. And do not suppose that this is the end. This is only the beginning of the reckoning. This is only the first sip, the first foretaste of a bitter cup which will be proffered to us year by year, unless by a supreme recovery of moral health and martial vigour we arise again and take our stand for freedom as in the olden time.”
He could equally have said this of both Islam and the Gay Liberation Front which in many ways are mirror images of one another.
David Skinner, UK
I am overwhelmed by sadness as I read all this. I feel I cannot take on anymore as my energy and time go to the fight against anti-life, anti-marriage and anti-family agendas in society. I do pray daily for several people who are in the front lines in spiritual warfare. I tell myself that should be enough, that I’m just one old woman but maybe I’m wrong.
I’m also saddened by evidence of venom against any people as a group, regardless of their false ideology or their sinful behaviour or their venom or hatred towards me. My understanding of how I should live as a follower of Jesus is that I should see Christ in every person no matter how deeply concealed His sacred face.
I should speak the truth about my faith but always with courtesy and respect. If people will not listen then I should “shake the dust from my feet” and leave them to God. Perhaps the time of their conversion is not yet or doesn’t involve me. I hope this doesn’t seem smug or sanctimonious. I just really struggle with these issues at times. God bless us all as we struggle to serve Him in spite of all our shortcomings.
Anna Cook
I thought that I would share a story that has recently occurred.
My Church received a phone call a couple of months ago from a Muslim immigrant to Australia who was enquiring about Jesus. A few weeks ago she was baptised. She spoke about how she couldn’t return to her homeland and see her parents as she would be killed after being baptised.
Further, she shared some stories about how she was involved in some community groups (Government sponsored) for non-English speaking immigrants. She told of how she was accosted by a Pakistani who told her that she should be wearing a Hijab as her country demands it, being in Australia was no reason to deny the ways of your home country in his mind. Further, when she dismissed him he started to yell and claim that she must have become a Christian and she should be put to death, as that is what happens in her country to converts. She was terrified by this man’s outburst and never went back.
As if this wasn’t bad enough, a thoughtless member f our church works with her spouse, and mentioned before other Muslim workers that his wife attends her church. The husband had to lie and claim that she was already a Christian before angry co-workers.
Christian’s simply do not understand the risks of Muslim converts in a free Australia, let alone the the risk to their families still back in their homeland.
Matt Harris