Angry Pakistan Tells America: 'Stop Launching Missile Strikes Over Our Territory' as 20 More Die
October 29, 2008 - 13:57
Frustrated Pakistani officials have ordered the U.S. to stop firing pilotless missiles over their territory.
Pakistan summoned the U.S. ambassador early this morning to protest the missile strikes, led by pilotless U.S. aircraft on the Pakistani side of its border with Afghanistan.
America has increased the number of strikes into the country in an increasingly desperate attempt to halt the intensifying insurgency in Afghanistan. Hampered by a lack of cooperation and communication with locals, U.S. officials recently decided to resort to more missile attacks in the battle against the Taliban and al Qaeda.
There have been more than a dozen missile strikes and a commando raid since the beginning of September.
No senior al Qaeda or Taliban commanders have been reported killed in the attacks.
But with scores of civilians - many of them children - also dying in the attacks, as well as the damage done to property, Pakistan - once the U.S.'s strongest Middle Eastern ally in the war on terror - is demanding a halt.
Pakistan never gave the U.S. permission to carry out the attacks. Two days ago missiles fired by a suspected U.S. drone killed up to 20 militants in the lawless South Waziristan border region. Coming hard on the heels of repeated attacks with civilian casualties, the Pakistani government decided to reassert itself.
"It was underscored to the ambassador that the government of Pakistan strongly condemns the missile attacks which resulted in the loss of precious lives and property," a Foreign Ministry spokesman said in a statement.
"It was emphasised that such attacks were violation of Pakistan's sovereignty and should be stopped immediately."
predator
U.S. ambassador Anne Patterson had previously been summoned to the Foreign Ministry last month after a cross-border ground assault by U.S. commandos on Sept. 3.
Senior U.S. officials have spoken of respect for Pakistani sovereignty but have declined to rule out more strikes.
Pakistan, an important ally in the U.S.-led war on terror, is also battling militants on its side of the border but it says cross-border U.S. strikes undermine its efforts to isolate the militants and build support for government policy against them.
The upper house Senate adopted a resolution this week condemning cross-border missile attacks by the U.S. drones.
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2008/10/29-1
Sunday, November 16, 2008
WHO GOT BAILOUT MONEY SO FAR?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Information Clearing House NewsletterNews You Won't Find On CNN
November 13, 2008
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"If those in charge of our society - politicians, corporate executives, and owners of press and television - can dominate our ideas, they will be secure in their power. They will not need soldiers patrolling the streets. We will control ourselves.": Howard Zinn, historian and author = "The point of public relations slogans like "Support our troops" is that they don't mean anything... That's the whole point of good propaganda. You want to create a slogan that nobody's going to be against, and everybody's going to be for. Nobody knows what it means, because it doesn't mean anything. Its crucial value is that it diverts your attention from a question that does mean something: Do you support our policy? That's the one you're not allowed to talk about.": Noam Chomsky === Click here to read this newsletter online
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/ ===
Number Of Iraqis Slaughtered Since The U.S. Invaded Iraq "1,284,105"
http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/iraq/iraqdeaths.html
===
Number of U.S. Military Personnel Sacrificed (Officially acknowledged) In America'sWar On Iraq 4,196
http://icasualties.org/oif/
The War And Occupation Of Iraq Costs
$570,865,021,154
See the cost in your community
http://nationalpriorities.org/index.php?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=182
=== Paulson the Bungler By Mike Whitney There's more pain to come, but the suffering can be mitigated by sound decision-making and Keynesian policies. That means public work programs, bankruptcy reform, and extensions on unemployment. Nobel prize winner Paul Krugman recommends a stimulus package of $600 billion. That's a good start, but it will take much more than that.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21212.htm === Crisis Is Beyond The Reach of Traditional Solutions By Paul Craig Roberts I cannot predict the future. However, I can explain what the problems are, how they differ from past times of troubles, and why traditional remedies, such as the public works programs that Reich proposes, are unlikely to succeed in reviving the U.S. economy.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21218.htm === A Credit Crisis or a Collapsing Ponzi Scheme? The Two Trillion Dollar Black Hole By PAM MARTENS
Bloomberg News reporter, Mark Pittman, filed a Freedom of Information Act request (FOIA) with the Federal Reserve asking for detailed information relevant to whom the central bank was giving these massive loans and precisely what securities these firms were posting as collateral.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21218.htm === Who Got Bailout Money So Far? By Reuters The Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) has so far committed the following funding:
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21219.htm === U.S. Military Fails To Learn An Ancient Military Lesson No Industrial Economy Equals No Army By Richard McCormack It wasn't long ago that the world watched the collapse of the Soviet Empire. At the time, the USSR had a mighty military force that was overextended throughout the world and was bogged down in Afghanistan. Within a flash in 1989, the Soviet Union came tumbling down, not because it could not produce tanks and nuclear warheads, but because it couldn't produce bread. The collapse happened so rapidly it even surprised the U.S. intelligence community.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21214.htm === Obama and the Crisis of Expecation By Shamus Cooke As the economic crisis deepens, Obama's first priority will be to save the financial institutions and major corporations by providing them with further bailouts, with working people continuing to foot the bill. But opposition has already broken out in response to this perversion of justice:
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21216.htm === Et tu Obama:
Who will your Appointees Serve-Israel or America? By Mohamed Khodr Despite warnings from our founding fathers against the corruptive influence of a minority "faction/special interest group", our government has nevertheless surrendered, pandered, implemented, paid and died for the vital interests of a small foreign nation, Israel.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21216.htm === In Case You Missed It Why Do You Kill Zaid? By Jürgen Todenhöfer The West is much more violent than the Muslim world. Millions of Arab civilians have been killed since colonialism began.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21217.htm === The Making of an Insurgent By Stuart Archer Cohen We all complain about politics, but have you ever wondered what makes a person pick up a gun and start violently resisting the government?
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21211.htm === Obama and Latin America Video - Riz Khan Interviews Former President of Costa Rica, José María Figueres. A free trade agreement with the US has failed to materialise, aid to Latin America has been dwindling and the symbolic distance between North and South took a physical form with the construction of a wall along the border between the US and Mexico.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21209.htm === Could the First World War have been stopped? By George Monbiot. Faced, earlier in the century, with the possibilities of peace, the old men of Europe had decided that they would rather kill their children than change their policies.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21213.htm === 19 killed in attack on U.S. convoy in Afghan market: Anti occupation forces, struck Thursday in the east of the country when an American military convoy was attacked in a crowded market, killing one soldier and 18 civilians, according to the United States military and Afghan police officials.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/11/13/news/afghan.php === Karzai to brief PM on secret Taliban talks: The Afghan President, Hamid Karzai, will today brief Gordon Brown on talks being held with the Taliban with the aim of ending the conflict in his country, The Independent has learnt.
http://tinyurl.com/6axtrb === Taleban bring new fear to Peshawar: The city of Peshawar in north-west Pakistan faces a heightened threat from Islamist militants barely five months after a military operation cleared them from its outskirts.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7727560.stm === Pakistan incurred $34.5 bn losses in war against terror: FM: Pakistan suffered huge losses, amounting to US $34.5 billion, since 2001 for its role in the war against terror and wants regional ownership of the crisis in a bid to bring peace and stability to the troubled region, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said Wednesday.
http://www.pakistanlink.com/Headlines/Nov08/13/05.htm === China provides USD 500 million assistance to Pakistan: - Amid looming economic crisis forcing the country to look towards tough IMF bailout package, Chinese government has agreed to extend USD 500 million financial assistance to Pakistan.
http://tinyurl.com/6rabtx === Iran condemns kidnapping of diplomat in Pakistan: The Iranian Foreign Ministry on Thursday condemned the kidnapping of an Iranian diplomat in Pakistan, saying that the abduction was an act of "terror."
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-11/13/content_10355133.htm === 3 Christian women killed, wounded in Mosul: Two Christian women were killed and another one, from the same family, was injured in an armed attack in northern Mosul, a police source said.
http://en.aswataliraq.info/?p=102938 === 2 gunmen killed in Ninewa: Two gunmen on Thursday were killed when they were attempting to carry out a suicide attack, western Ninewa, said a security source from the province.
http://en.aswataliraq.info/?p=103033 === Iraqi soldier who killed US soldiers was mocked, witnesses say: The Iraqi soldier who killed 4 US soldiers on Wednesday was acting in anger after the Americans mocked him while he was praying, witnesses told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa Thursday.
http://tinyurl.com/5cg279 === Bulgaria to pull troops from Iraq at end of year: Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev said Thursday after a Cabinet meeting that "the presence of the Bulgarian military contingent on a humanitarian mission in Iraq ends on Dec. 31."
http://www.620ktar.com/?nid=46&sid=990060 === Who is Paying for the Iraqi National Intelligence Service?: The history of the Iraqi intelligence service is important because it shows the real distribution of power in Iraq rather than the spurious picture presented by President Bush.
http://www.counterpunch.org/patrick11132008.html === Israel forces UN to suspends food distribution in Gaza: The United Nations announced it was suspending food distribution to half of Gaza's 1.5 million people on Thursday after Israel failed to allow emergency supplies into the Palestinian territory.
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5j1gGXwqABi1BMtPKmO03RClG0i_Q === Israel blocks foreign media from Gaza: Israel has barred foreign journalists from entering the Gaza Strip for a week, in a move media have assailed as a serious violation of press freedom.
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/11/12/news/ML-Israel-Gaza-Blackout.php === Peres lauds Saudi king peace plan: The Saudi plan, proposed in 2002, calls for Israel to withdraw from occupied land in exchange for Arab recognition
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7726241.stm === UN says Congolese troops raped, pillaged: Hundreds of Congolese soldiers rampaged through several villages in eastern Congo, raping women and pillaging homes as they pulled back ahead of a feared rebel advance, the U.N. reported Tuesday.
http://wiredispatch.com/news/?id=450556 === Reports: Kremlin rejects US missile defense: The Kremlin has rejected a second set of U.S. proposals offered to assuage increasingly strident Russian criticism of plans for an American missile-defense system in Poland and the Czech Republic, news agencies reported Wednesday.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081112/ap_on_re_eu/eu_russia_us_missile_defense === Russia offers US 'Zero Option' on nukes: Russia has offered to withdraw its nuclear missiles from European countries should the United States embark on the same move.
http://www.presstv.com/detail.aspx?id=75293§ionid=351020602 === Germany falls into recession: The figures indicate that Germany is in its worst recession for at least 12 years as the global financial problems curb exports and spending.
http://english.aljazeera.net/business/2008/11/2008111375550548522.html === U.S. Foreclosure Filings Rose as Home Prices Fell: More than a quarter million U.S. households received a foreclosure filing in October even as state laws designed to protect property owners from losing their homes slowed the pace of defaults, RealtyTrac Inc. said.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=a3SL4NiQK9bk&refer=us === 85,000 homes lost to foreclosure in October: As government and industry scrambled to stem the housing crisis, another 84,868 homes were lost to foreclosure in October, according to a report released Thursday.
http://tinyurl.com/5zg3ct === Soros says deep recession inevitable, depression possible: Said hedge funds will be "decimated" by the current financial crisis and forced to shrink their portfolios by 50-75 percent.
http://www.reuters.com/article/ousiv/idUSTRE4AC5IN20081113 === Bush defends free market amid 'awful' US jobless figures: More than 500,000 Americans lost their jobs last week, representing the fastest rise in US unemployment since the terrorist attacks of 2001.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article5149367.ece ===
Let us work towards Peace and Joy
Tom Feeley
November 13, 2008
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"If those in charge of our society - politicians, corporate executives, and owners of press and television - can dominate our ideas, they will be secure in their power. They will not need soldiers patrolling the streets. We will control ourselves.": Howard Zinn, historian and author = "The point of public relations slogans like "Support our troops" is that they don't mean anything... That's the whole point of good propaganda. You want to create a slogan that nobody's going to be against, and everybody's going to be for. Nobody knows what it means, because it doesn't mean anything. Its crucial value is that it diverts your attention from a question that does mean something: Do you support our policy? That's the one you're not allowed to talk about.": Noam Chomsky === Click here to read this newsletter online
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/ ===
Number Of Iraqis Slaughtered Since The U.S. Invaded Iraq "1,284,105"
http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/iraq/iraqdeaths.html
===
Number of U.S. Military Personnel Sacrificed (Officially acknowledged) In America'sWar On Iraq 4,196
http://icasualties.org/oif/
The War And Occupation Of Iraq Costs
$570,865,021,154
See the cost in your community
http://nationalpriorities.org/index.php?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=182
=== Paulson the Bungler By Mike Whitney There's more pain to come, but the suffering can be mitigated by sound decision-making and Keynesian policies. That means public work programs, bankruptcy reform, and extensions on unemployment. Nobel prize winner Paul Krugman recommends a stimulus package of $600 billion. That's a good start, but it will take much more than that.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21212.htm === Crisis Is Beyond The Reach of Traditional Solutions By Paul Craig Roberts I cannot predict the future. However, I can explain what the problems are, how they differ from past times of troubles, and why traditional remedies, such as the public works programs that Reich proposes, are unlikely to succeed in reviving the U.S. economy.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21218.htm === A Credit Crisis or a Collapsing Ponzi Scheme? The Two Trillion Dollar Black Hole By PAM MARTENS
Bloomberg News reporter, Mark Pittman, filed a Freedom of Information Act request (FOIA) with the Federal Reserve asking for detailed information relevant to whom the central bank was giving these massive loans and precisely what securities these firms were posting as collateral.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21218.htm === Who Got Bailout Money So Far? By Reuters The Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) has so far committed the following funding:
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21219.htm === U.S. Military Fails To Learn An Ancient Military Lesson No Industrial Economy Equals No Army By Richard McCormack It wasn't long ago that the world watched the collapse of the Soviet Empire. At the time, the USSR had a mighty military force that was overextended throughout the world and was bogged down in Afghanistan. Within a flash in 1989, the Soviet Union came tumbling down, not because it could not produce tanks and nuclear warheads, but because it couldn't produce bread. The collapse happened so rapidly it even surprised the U.S. intelligence community.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21214.htm === Obama and the Crisis of Expecation By Shamus Cooke As the economic crisis deepens, Obama's first priority will be to save the financial institutions and major corporations by providing them with further bailouts, with working people continuing to foot the bill. But opposition has already broken out in response to this perversion of justice:
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21216.htm === Et tu Obama:
Who will your Appointees Serve-Israel or America? By Mohamed Khodr Despite warnings from our founding fathers against the corruptive influence of a minority "faction/special interest group", our government has nevertheless surrendered, pandered, implemented, paid and died for the vital interests of a small foreign nation, Israel.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21216.htm === In Case You Missed It Why Do You Kill Zaid? By Jürgen Todenhöfer The West is much more violent than the Muslim world. Millions of Arab civilians have been killed since colonialism began.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21217.htm === The Making of an Insurgent By Stuart Archer Cohen We all complain about politics, but have you ever wondered what makes a person pick up a gun and start violently resisting the government?
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21211.htm === Obama and Latin America Video - Riz Khan Interviews Former President of Costa Rica, José María Figueres. A free trade agreement with the US has failed to materialise, aid to Latin America has been dwindling and the symbolic distance between North and South took a physical form with the construction of a wall along the border between the US and Mexico.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21209.htm === Could the First World War have been stopped? By George Monbiot. Faced, earlier in the century, with the possibilities of peace, the old men of Europe had decided that they would rather kill their children than change their policies.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21213.htm === 19 killed in attack on U.S. convoy in Afghan market: Anti occupation forces, struck Thursday in the east of the country when an American military convoy was attacked in a crowded market, killing one soldier and 18 civilians, according to the United States military and Afghan police officials.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/11/13/news/afghan.php === Karzai to brief PM on secret Taliban talks: The Afghan President, Hamid Karzai, will today brief Gordon Brown on talks being held with the Taliban with the aim of ending the conflict in his country, The Independent has learnt.
http://tinyurl.com/6axtrb === Taleban bring new fear to Peshawar: The city of Peshawar in north-west Pakistan faces a heightened threat from Islamist militants barely five months after a military operation cleared them from its outskirts.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7727560.stm === Pakistan incurred $34.5 bn losses in war against terror: FM: Pakistan suffered huge losses, amounting to US $34.5 billion, since 2001 for its role in the war against terror and wants regional ownership of the crisis in a bid to bring peace and stability to the troubled region, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said Wednesday.
http://www.pakistanlink.com/Headlines/Nov08/13/05.htm === China provides USD 500 million assistance to Pakistan: - Amid looming economic crisis forcing the country to look towards tough IMF bailout package, Chinese government has agreed to extend USD 500 million financial assistance to Pakistan.
http://tinyurl.com/6rabtx === Iran condemns kidnapping of diplomat in Pakistan: The Iranian Foreign Ministry on Thursday condemned the kidnapping of an Iranian diplomat in Pakistan, saying that the abduction was an act of "terror."
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-11/13/content_10355133.htm === 3 Christian women killed, wounded in Mosul: Two Christian women were killed and another one, from the same family, was injured in an armed attack in northern Mosul, a police source said.
http://en.aswataliraq.info/?p=102938 === 2 gunmen killed in Ninewa: Two gunmen on Thursday were killed when they were attempting to carry out a suicide attack, western Ninewa, said a security source from the province.
http://en.aswataliraq.info/?p=103033 === Iraqi soldier who killed US soldiers was mocked, witnesses say: The Iraqi soldier who killed 4 US soldiers on Wednesday was acting in anger after the Americans mocked him while he was praying, witnesses told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa Thursday.
http://tinyurl.com/5cg279 === Bulgaria to pull troops from Iraq at end of year: Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev said Thursday after a Cabinet meeting that "the presence of the Bulgarian military contingent on a humanitarian mission in Iraq ends on Dec. 31."
http://www.620ktar.com/?nid=46&sid=990060 === Who is Paying for the Iraqi National Intelligence Service?: The history of the Iraqi intelligence service is important because it shows the real distribution of power in Iraq rather than the spurious picture presented by President Bush.
http://www.counterpunch.org/patrick11132008.html === Israel forces UN to suspends food distribution in Gaza: The United Nations announced it was suspending food distribution to half of Gaza's 1.5 million people on Thursday after Israel failed to allow emergency supplies into the Palestinian territory.
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5j1gGXwqABi1BMtPKmO03RClG0i_Q === Israel blocks foreign media from Gaza: Israel has barred foreign journalists from entering the Gaza Strip for a week, in a move media have assailed as a serious violation of press freedom.
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/11/12/news/ML-Israel-Gaza-Blackout.php === Peres lauds Saudi king peace plan: The Saudi plan, proposed in 2002, calls for Israel to withdraw from occupied land in exchange for Arab recognition
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7726241.stm === UN says Congolese troops raped, pillaged: Hundreds of Congolese soldiers rampaged through several villages in eastern Congo, raping women and pillaging homes as they pulled back ahead of a feared rebel advance, the U.N. reported Tuesday.
http://wiredispatch.com/news/?id=450556 === Reports: Kremlin rejects US missile defense: The Kremlin has rejected a second set of U.S. proposals offered to assuage increasingly strident Russian criticism of plans for an American missile-defense system in Poland and the Czech Republic, news agencies reported Wednesday.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081112/ap_on_re_eu/eu_russia_us_missile_defense === Russia offers US 'Zero Option' on nukes: Russia has offered to withdraw its nuclear missiles from European countries should the United States embark on the same move.
http://www.presstv.com/detail.aspx?id=75293§ionid=351020602 === Germany falls into recession: The figures indicate that Germany is in its worst recession for at least 12 years as the global financial problems curb exports and spending.
http://english.aljazeera.net/business/2008/11/2008111375550548522.html === U.S. Foreclosure Filings Rose as Home Prices Fell: More than a quarter million U.S. households received a foreclosure filing in October even as state laws designed to protect property owners from losing their homes slowed the pace of defaults, RealtyTrac Inc. said.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=a3SL4NiQK9bk&refer=us === 85,000 homes lost to foreclosure in October: As government and industry scrambled to stem the housing crisis, another 84,868 homes were lost to foreclosure in October, according to a report released Thursday.
http://tinyurl.com/5zg3ct === Soros says deep recession inevitable, depression possible: Said hedge funds will be "decimated" by the current financial crisis and forced to shrink their portfolios by 50-75 percent.
http://www.reuters.com/article/ousiv/idUSTRE4AC5IN20081113 === Bush defends free market amid 'awful' US jobless figures: More than 500,000 Americans lost their jobs last week, representing the fastest rise in US unemployment since the terrorist attacks of 2001.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article5149367.ece ===
Let us work towards Peace and Joy
Tom Feeley
BUSH LAST 100 DAYS IN OFFICE
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Information Clearing House NewsletterNews You Won't Find On CNN
November 04, 2008
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"There are men - now in power in this country - who do not respect dissent, who cannot cope with turmoil, and who believe that the people of America are ready to support repression as long as it is done with a quiet voice and a business suit": John Lindsay =
We live in oppressive times. We have, as a nation, become our own thought police; but instead of calling the process by which we limit our expression of dissent and wonder "censorship," we call it "concern for commercial viability.": David Mamet =
"The corporate grip on opinion in the United States is one of the wonders of the Western world. No First World country has ever managed to eliminate so entirely from its media all objectivity - much less dissent"": Gore Vidal =
Resistance is feasible even for those who are not heroes by nature, and it is an obligation, I believe, for those who fear the consequences and detest the reality of the attempt to impose American hegemony." : Noam Chomsky
===
Number Of Iraqis Slaughtered Since The U.S. Invaded Iraq "1,273,378"
http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/iraq/iraqdeaths.html
===
Number of U.S. Military Personnel Sacrificed (Officially acknowledged) In America'sWar On Iraq 4,189
http://icasualties.org/oif/
The War And Occupation Of Iraq Costs
$568,049,667,054
See the cost in your community
http://nationalpriorities.org/index.php?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=182
=== The End of International Law? By Robert Dreyfuss A parallel new Bush doctrine is emerging, in the last days of the soon-to-be-ancien regime, and it needs to be strangled in its crib.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21150.htm === Silence on War Crimes By Andy Worthington I can only note that it's a sad indictment of a country's state of mind when the ruling administration has been devoted to dictatorial powers and war crimes, but an election campaign comes and goes as though it had never happened.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21147.htm === Bush's Last 100 Days the Ones to Watch By Jesse Jackson Bush and Vice President Cheney represent a failed conservative era -- and they know it. As the administration moves into its last 100 days, there seems to be a flurry of activity: regulations to forestall Obama's new era of accountability; a flood of contracts to reward friends and lock in commitments; a Wall Street bailout that is pumping money out the door.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21151.htm === Misconceptions Of Obama Fuel Republican Campaign 2 Minute Video Misconceptions and rumours abound and many voters have their facts about the candidates all wrong. Some believe that Democrat Barack Obama is a Muslim, for instance. Casey Kauffman talked to some Republican supporters after a rally by Sarah Palin, the Republican vice-presidential candidate, in Ohio.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21149.htm === Only Nader Is Right on the Issues By Chris Hedges Sen. Barack Obama's vote to renew the Patriot Act, his votes to continue to fund the Iraq war, his backing of the FISA Reform Act, his craven courting of the Israeli lobby, his support of the death penalty, his refusal to champion universal, single-payer not-for-profit health care for all Americans, his call to increase troop levels and expand the war in Afghanistan, his failure to call for a reduction in the bloated and wasteful defense spending and his lobbying for the huge taxpayer swindle known as the bailout are repugnant to most of us on the left. Nader stands on the other side of all those issues.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21152.htm === In Case You Missed It "Hacking Democracy" Must Watch Video "On Tuesday, 40 percent of voters will cast ballots on electronic touch-screens. If you're not worried already about the dangers of paperless voting, this HBO documentary will blow your mind."
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21145.htm === Protecting Democracy Must Watch 22 Minute Video Report In 2006, Sarasota County's election suffered 18,412 lost votes, votes that were apparently cast, but never recorded by voting machines.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21146.htm === Pakistan: 18 Taliban killed in Bajaur strikes: Four Taliban died in artillery shelling in different areas of Mamond tehsil on Monday morning, while 14 Taliban were killed in bombing by jet fighters in the afternoon, officials said.
http://tinyurl.com/68uwym === Suicide Bomber Kills 1, Wounds 7 in Northwestern Pakistan: Police in northwestern Pakistan say a suicide bomber detonated an explosives-filled car at a security post Tuesday, killing a Pakistani soldier and wounding at least seven others.
http://www.voanews.com/english/2008-11-04-voa13.cfm === Zardari seeks urgent Saudi funds: Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari has arrived in Saudi Arabia on a two-day visit to seek assistance for Pakistan's cash-strapped economy.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7708267.stm === Intelligence official, militants killed in Afghanistan: Gunmen on a motorbike killed an intelligence officer in the city of Kandahar on Monday evening, and US-led coalition troops killed two militants while a civilian was injured in an ISAF firing on his vehicle in southern Afghanistan, security officials said, Tuesday
http://tinyurl.com/5t7hlk === U.S. civilian kills Afghan after fire attack: A U.S. civilian shot dead an Afghan civilian who tried to set fire to another American on Tuesday, the U.S. military said.
http://tinyurl.com/6day8t === Afghan Officials Helped Taliban Attack U.S. Soldiers: An Afghan police chief and district governor helped Taliban militants attack a U.S. outpost in eastern Afghanistan that killed nine American soldiers, the New York Times said, citing a military report on the incident.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601104&sid=aHUpzqBEJbp4 === Pakistan, Afghanistan to seek contacts with militants: Pakistani and Afghan officials and tribal leaders agreed Tuesday to make contact with Taliban militants in an attempt to end the raging insurgent violence along their porous border.
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5iXxSpkidka2hP18Kog7gxcF3eqxA === 15 Killed In Baghdad Bomb Attacks : Bombs exploded at a bus station and a small market in Baghdad, killing 15 people and wounding 29 others on Tuesday, police and hospital officials said.
http://tinyurl.com/6y2zeq === MP: Ayatollah's SOFA conditions not met: An Iraqi lawmaker says none of the conditions set by Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani for signing the US-Iraq security pact have been met.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=74204§ionid=351020201 === Iraqi Ministry of Defense ready to replace US occupation force: Deputy Head of the parliamentary committee of security and defense on Monday said that Iraqi Ministry of Defense's military commanders announced that they are ready to replace Multi National Forces (MNF) throughout Iraq, in case a security pact is not agreed upon with the U.S.
http://en.aswataliraq.info/?p=102424 === Syria asks foreign staff of U.S. institutions to leave country: Syrian authorities have asked the staff of the American school and cultural center in Damascus to leave Syria within 48 hours, Lebanese radio reported Monday.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1033940.html === Report: Alleged Lebanon spy was tracking Hezbollah for Israel: The Lebanese army had reported Sunday that security officials had detained Jarrah and one other alleged spy suspected of working for the Mossad since the 1980s.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1033846.html === Members of Israeli spy ring 'related to 9/11 hijacker': Two men arrested for running an Israeli spy ring in the Bekaa Valley are relatives of a suicide hijacker who piloted a plane in the September 11, 2001, attacks, a security source told The Daily Star on Sunday.
http://tinyurl.com/5t9hjk === Demonizing Ahmadinejad: Israel's UN envoy: Dangerous words, like Ahmadinejad's, sparked the Holocaust: "The gas chambers were not the starting point of the Holocaust, but rather the end. The Holocaust began with dangerous words uttered by people," said Israel's new United Nations Ambassador, Professor Gabriella Shalev, in a speech at the UN assembly on Tuesday.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1034258.html === Egypt opens Rafah crossing for 3 days: Ihab al Ghussein, spokesman for the Hamas Interior Ministry said Tuesday more than 1,000 people have already signed up to travel through the crossing, which opened at 8 am local time.
http://www.presstv.com/detail.aspx?id=74280§ionid=351020202 === Congo-Kinshasa: U.S. Urged to Take Military Action: The US should help initiate multilateral military action against rebels in the Democratic Republic of Congo if a UN force fails to stabilise areas now rocked by turmoil, an influential US-based think tank said last week.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200811031419.html === Bolivia Gives US Anti-Drug Team Three Months To Leave: President Evo Morales, a staunch foe of the U.S. government, announced Saturday he was suspending the work of the U.S. DEA Administration in Bolivia, accusing it of having encouraged political unrest that killed 19 people in September.
http://tinyurl.com/5qn3dt === Colombia's Army Chief Resigns Amid Scandal: Colombian army commander Mario Montoya resigned Tuesday after the government acknowledged that army personnel may have been involved in extrajudicial killings.
http://tinyurl.com/5dwmxr === Payments to Informants in Colombia Revealed: The Drug Enforcement Administration has paid more than $3.3 million to four confidential informants in an investigation that led to the arrest of a man prosecutors called an international arms dealer, according to court documents.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/04/nyregion/04arms.html?ref=world === Lawyer says US trumped up Russian arms dealer charges: A lawyer for alleged Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout accused the US government Tuesday of trumping up charges against him in a bid to secure his extradition from Thailand.
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5hvz7lXbuCsk_jHyQhqys8R7NIBsw === Counting on Democracy: Video: A must see for those concerned by Fair Elections
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21148.htm === Economic Darkness Descends on Putin's Russia: Privately, bankers and businessmen warn of a lack of currency to import food and the failure of local producers to replace imports. The supplies of foodstuffs available on Moscow supermarket shelves are shrinking as importers struggle to raise credit to replenish their stocks.
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1856037,00.html?iid=tsmodule === Goldman fund loses $990m after 10 months: One of Goldman Sachs's flagship hedge funds, run by two of the Wall Street bank's most talented traders, has lost close to $1bn since its launch in January in further evidence of the crisis facing the industry.
http://tinyurl.com/69b6bo
===
Let us work towards Peace and Joy
Tom Feeley
Forward this email to a friend This email was sent to aaahameed@yahoo.com by email
November 04, 2008
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"There are men - now in power in this country - who do not respect dissent, who cannot cope with turmoil, and who believe that the people of America are ready to support repression as long as it is done with a quiet voice and a business suit": John Lindsay =
We live in oppressive times. We have, as a nation, become our own thought police; but instead of calling the process by which we limit our expression of dissent and wonder "censorship," we call it "concern for commercial viability.": David Mamet =
"The corporate grip on opinion in the United States is one of the wonders of the Western world. No First World country has ever managed to eliminate so entirely from its media all objectivity - much less dissent"": Gore Vidal =
Resistance is feasible even for those who are not heroes by nature, and it is an obligation, I believe, for those who fear the consequences and detest the reality of the attempt to impose American hegemony." : Noam Chomsky
===
Number Of Iraqis Slaughtered Since The U.S. Invaded Iraq "1,273,378"
http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/iraq/iraqdeaths.html
===
Number of U.S. Military Personnel Sacrificed (Officially acknowledged) In America'sWar On Iraq 4,189
http://icasualties.org/oif/
The War And Occupation Of Iraq Costs
$568,049,667,054
See the cost in your community
http://nationalpriorities.org/index.php?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=182
=== The End of International Law? By Robert Dreyfuss A parallel new Bush doctrine is emerging, in the last days of the soon-to-be-ancien regime, and it needs to be strangled in its crib.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21150.htm === Silence on War Crimes By Andy Worthington I can only note that it's a sad indictment of a country's state of mind when the ruling administration has been devoted to dictatorial powers and war crimes, but an election campaign comes and goes as though it had never happened.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21147.htm === Bush's Last 100 Days the Ones to Watch By Jesse Jackson Bush and Vice President Cheney represent a failed conservative era -- and they know it. As the administration moves into its last 100 days, there seems to be a flurry of activity: regulations to forestall Obama's new era of accountability; a flood of contracts to reward friends and lock in commitments; a Wall Street bailout that is pumping money out the door.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21151.htm === Misconceptions Of Obama Fuel Republican Campaign 2 Minute Video Misconceptions and rumours abound and many voters have their facts about the candidates all wrong. Some believe that Democrat Barack Obama is a Muslim, for instance. Casey Kauffman talked to some Republican supporters after a rally by Sarah Palin, the Republican vice-presidential candidate, in Ohio.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21149.htm === Only Nader Is Right on the Issues By Chris Hedges Sen. Barack Obama's vote to renew the Patriot Act, his votes to continue to fund the Iraq war, his backing of the FISA Reform Act, his craven courting of the Israeli lobby, his support of the death penalty, his refusal to champion universal, single-payer not-for-profit health care for all Americans, his call to increase troop levels and expand the war in Afghanistan, his failure to call for a reduction in the bloated and wasteful defense spending and his lobbying for the huge taxpayer swindle known as the bailout are repugnant to most of us on the left. Nader stands on the other side of all those issues.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21152.htm === In Case You Missed It "Hacking Democracy" Must Watch Video "On Tuesday, 40 percent of voters will cast ballots on electronic touch-screens. If you're not worried already about the dangers of paperless voting, this HBO documentary will blow your mind."
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21145.htm === Protecting Democracy Must Watch 22 Minute Video Report In 2006, Sarasota County's election suffered 18,412 lost votes, votes that were apparently cast, but never recorded by voting machines.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21146.htm === Pakistan: 18 Taliban killed in Bajaur strikes: Four Taliban died in artillery shelling in different areas of Mamond tehsil on Monday morning, while 14 Taliban were killed in bombing by jet fighters in the afternoon, officials said.
http://tinyurl.com/68uwym === Suicide Bomber Kills 1, Wounds 7 in Northwestern Pakistan: Police in northwestern Pakistan say a suicide bomber detonated an explosives-filled car at a security post Tuesday, killing a Pakistani soldier and wounding at least seven others.
http://www.voanews.com/english/2008-11-04-voa13.cfm === Zardari seeks urgent Saudi funds: Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari has arrived in Saudi Arabia on a two-day visit to seek assistance for Pakistan's cash-strapped economy.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7708267.stm === Intelligence official, militants killed in Afghanistan: Gunmen on a motorbike killed an intelligence officer in the city of Kandahar on Monday evening, and US-led coalition troops killed two militants while a civilian was injured in an ISAF firing on his vehicle in southern Afghanistan, security officials said, Tuesday
http://tinyurl.com/5t7hlk === U.S. civilian kills Afghan after fire attack: A U.S. civilian shot dead an Afghan civilian who tried to set fire to another American on Tuesday, the U.S. military said.
http://tinyurl.com/6day8t === Afghan Officials Helped Taliban Attack U.S. Soldiers: An Afghan police chief and district governor helped Taliban militants attack a U.S. outpost in eastern Afghanistan that killed nine American soldiers, the New York Times said, citing a military report on the incident.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601104&sid=aHUpzqBEJbp4 === Pakistan, Afghanistan to seek contacts with militants: Pakistani and Afghan officials and tribal leaders agreed Tuesday to make contact with Taliban militants in an attempt to end the raging insurgent violence along their porous border.
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5iXxSpkidka2hP18Kog7gxcF3eqxA === 15 Killed In Baghdad Bomb Attacks : Bombs exploded at a bus station and a small market in Baghdad, killing 15 people and wounding 29 others on Tuesday, police and hospital officials said.
http://tinyurl.com/6y2zeq === MP: Ayatollah's SOFA conditions not met: An Iraqi lawmaker says none of the conditions set by Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani for signing the US-Iraq security pact have been met.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=74204§ionid=351020201 === Iraqi Ministry of Defense ready to replace US occupation force: Deputy Head of the parliamentary committee of security and defense on Monday said that Iraqi Ministry of Defense's military commanders announced that they are ready to replace Multi National Forces (MNF) throughout Iraq, in case a security pact is not agreed upon with the U.S.
http://en.aswataliraq.info/?p=102424 === Syria asks foreign staff of U.S. institutions to leave country: Syrian authorities have asked the staff of the American school and cultural center in Damascus to leave Syria within 48 hours, Lebanese radio reported Monday.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1033940.html === Report: Alleged Lebanon spy was tracking Hezbollah for Israel: The Lebanese army had reported Sunday that security officials had detained Jarrah and one other alleged spy suspected of working for the Mossad since the 1980s.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1033846.html === Members of Israeli spy ring 'related to 9/11 hijacker': Two men arrested for running an Israeli spy ring in the Bekaa Valley are relatives of a suicide hijacker who piloted a plane in the September 11, 2001, attacks, a security source told The Daily Star on Sunday.
http://tinyurl.com/5t9hjk === Demonizing Ahmadinejad: Israel's UN envoy: Dangerous words, like Ahmadinejad's, sparked the Holocaust: "The gas chambers were not the starting point of the Holocaust, but rather the end. The Holocaust began with dangerous words uttered by people," said Israel's new United Nations Ambassador, Professor Gabriella Shalev, in a speech at the UN assembly on Tuesday.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1034258.html === Egypt opens Rafah crossing for 3 days: Ihab al Ghussein, spokesman for the Hamas Interior Ministry said Tuesday more than 1,000 people have already signed up to travel through the crossing, which opened at 8 am local time.
http://www.presstv.com/detail.aspx?id=74280§ionid=351020202 === Congo-Kinshasa: U.S. Urged to Take Military Action: The US should help initiate multilateral military action against rebels in the Democratic Republic of Congo if a UN force fails to stabilise areas now rocked by turmoil, an influential US-based think tank said last week.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200811031419.html === Bolivia Gives US Anti-Drug Team Three Months To Leave: President Evo Morales, a staunch foe of the U.S. government, announced Saturday he was suspending the work of the U.S. DEA Administration in Bolivia, accusing it of having encouraged political unrest that killed 19 people in September.
http://tinyurl.com/5qn3dt === Colombia's Army Chief Resigns Amid Scandal: Colombian army commander Mario Montoya resigned Tuesday after the government acknowledged that army personnel may have been involved in extrajudicial killings.
http://tinyurl.com/5dwmxr === Payments to Informants in Colombia Revealed: The Drug Enforcement Administration has paid more than $3.3 million to four confidential informants in an investigation that led to the arrest of a man prosecutors called an international arms dealer, according to court documents.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/04/nyregion/04arms.html?ref=world === Lawyer says US trumped up Russian arms dealer charges: A lawyer for alleged Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout accused the US government Tuesday of trumping up charges against him in a bid to secure his extradition from Thailand.
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5hvz7lXbuCsk_jHyQhqys8R7NIBsw === Counting on Democracy: Video: A must see for those concerned by Fair Elections
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21148.htm === Economic Darkness Descends on Putin's Russia: Privately, bankers and businessmen warn of a lack of currency to import food and the failure of local producers to replace imports. The supplies of foodstuffs available on Moscow supermarket shelves are shrinking as importers struggle to raise credit to replenish their stocks.
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1856037,00.html?iid=tsmodule === Goldman fund loses $990m after 10 months: One of Goldman Sachs's flagship hedge funds, run by two of the Wall Street bank's most talented traders, has lost close to $1bn since its launch in January in further evidence of the crisis facing the industry.
http://tinyurl.com/69b6bo
===
Let us work towards Peace and Joy
Tom Feeley
Forward this email to a friend This email was sent to aaahameed@yahoo.com by email
REMEMBERING THE VICTIMS OF THOSE WHO BENEFIT FROM WAR
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Information Clearing House NewsletterNews You Won't Find On CNN
November 11, 2008
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Military glory -- the attractive rainbow that rises in showers of blood." - Abraham Lincoln - (1809-1865) 16th US President =
"The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it... Through violence you may murder the hater, but you do not murder hate. In fact, violence merely increases hate... Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out hate; only love can do that." -- Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. - (1929-1968), US civil rights leader === Click here to read this newsletter online:
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info =
Number Of Iraqis Slaughtered Since The U.S. Invaded Iraq "1,284,105"
http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/iraq/iraqdeaths.html
===
Number of U.S. Military Personnel Sacrificed (Officially acknowledged) In America'sWar On Iraq 4,193
http://icasualties.org/oif/
The War And Occupation Of Iraq Costs
$570,308,753,472
See the cost in your community
http://nationalpriorities.org/index.php?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=182
=== War is a Racket
Remembering The Victims of Those Who Profit From War By Chycho How unfortunate that we have a need for such a day, especially since "War is a racket It always has been. It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives." So stated Major General Smedley D. Butler, USMC, the most decorated Marine in US history.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21196.htm === In case you missed it Major General Smedley Butler, USMC. Audio Documentary - Runtime 29 Minutes He joined the Marine Corps when the Spanish American War broke out, earned the Brevette Medal during the Boxer Rebellion in China, saw action in Central America, and in France during World War I was promoted to Major General. Smedley Butler served his country for 34 years, yet he spoke against American armed intervention into the affairs of sovereign nations.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article4377.htm === For What Did They Die? By Joseph L. Galloway A homeless Vietnam veteran patrols the black granite panels. He tells us that he has cancer and is having a hard time getting any benefits from the Veterans Administration. He lives in a mission that houses those who have nowhere else to go, but the doors don't open until 11 p.m.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21198.htm === "Martin, Malcolm, Obama, and Nader." By Doug Tarnopol We refuse to believe that the bank of justice is as bankrupt as our treasury. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. And so, whether Obama prevails or not, we must cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice -- the freedom of economic justice and the justice of economic security.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21199.htm === Common Sense: A Revolutionary Idea 10 Minute Video Would there be a revolution, if every American saw this? The time is now.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21200.htm === Remember Arafat? By Mike Whitney On this--the anniversary of the death of Yasir Arafat--what better tribute to the man than some positive sign that the Palestinians will be helped by Washington to achieve their goal of establishing an independent state. It all starts with Obama and the hope that he will defend the voiceless victims of repression who desperately want peace and a better future for their children.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21197.htm === A Quiet Windfall For U.S. Banks With Attention on Bailout Debate, Treasury Made Change to Tax Policy By Amit R. Paley The financial world was fixated on Capitol Hill as Congress battled over the Bush administration's request for a $700 billion bailout of the banking industry. In the midst of this late-September drama, the Treasury Department issued a five-sentence notice that attracted almost no public attention.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21201.htm ==== Global systemic crisis Alert For Summer 2009: The US Government Will Default On Its Debt By GEAB Our researchers anticipate that, before next summer 2009, the US government will default and be prevented to pay back its creditors (holders of US Treasury Bonds, of Fanny May and Freddy Mac shares, etc.). Of course such a bankruptcy will provoke some very negative outcome for all USD-denominated asset holders.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21194.htm === The DOW a year from now By Denver Research Group Without new dollars flowing on a consistent basis to middle class consumers, many analysts believe the DOW would necessarily fall below the level of the post dot.com, post 9/11 crash of 2002 (8,000)...most likely to the range of 6,500-7,000.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21195.htm === 13 militants killed in Pakistan: At least 13 Islamic militants were killed in clashes with government troops in north-west Pakistan while Taliban gunmen seized a convoy of trucks carrying military vehicles and supplies for NATO troops in Afghanistan, security officials said Tuesday.
http://story.irishsun.com/index.php/ct/9/cid/2411cd3571b4f088/id/428820/cs/1/ === 4 killed in Pakistan suicide bombing: A suicide bomber has killed three people and injured up to 13 others outside a sports stadium in the Pakistani city of Peshawar.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/11/12/2417058.htm?section=justin === Afghanistan: Roadside bomb kills 4: : A ROADSIDE bomb blast in the western province of Herat has killed four people, including the province's security chief and the head of the attorney-general's office.
http://quqnoos.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2003&Itemid=48 === 3 Killed in fresh bombs hit Baghdad rush hour: The two bombs exploded in quick succession in mainly Shia eastern Baghdad during the morning rush hour.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7721814.stm === U.S. draft is rejected by Iraqis: Iraq's government spokesman said yesterday the proposed U.S. changes to a draft security agreement were "not enough" and asked Washington to offer new amendments if it wants the pact to win parliamentary approval.
http://www.columbiatribune.com/2008/Nov/20081111News025.asp === Biden told not to change Iran policy: Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni has warned the US vice president-elect against changing the Bush White House policies toward Iran.
http://www.presstv.com/detail.aspx?id=75051§ionid=3510203 === Ex-KGB general cautions US against Iran war: A former KGB general and Russian prime minister says a war on Iran would produce a question mark over the Republican Party's sanity.
http://www.presstv.com/detail.aspx?id=75036§ionid=351020104 === IAEA 'doubts anti-Iran files authenticity': "The new evidence of possible fraud has increased pressure within the IAEA secretariat to distance the agency from the laptop documents," a source close to the International Atomic Energy Agency told Raw Story.
http://www.presstv.com/detail.aspx?id=75077§ionid=351020104 === In case you missed it: Iran Nuke Laptop Data Came from Terror Group: . German officials have identified the source of the laptop documents in November 2004 as the Mujahideen e Khalq (MEK), which along with its political arm, the National Council of Resistance in Iran (NCRI), is listed by the U.S. State Department as a terrorist organisation.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article19450.htm === Europeans Get Peace Commitment From Hamas: Following intensive negotiations with Hamas, the de facto leadership of Gaza, a group of European parliamentarians has been told by the organization that it will accept a Palestinian state within the internationally recognized 1967 borders as well as offer Israel a long-term ceasefire.
http://tinyurl.com/68fgdp === Hamas denies holding secret talks with Obama's advisors: "The government reiterates that it doesn't reject holding such kinds of contacts or meetings, but it hasn't happened. But if it happens, we won't be hesitant or afraid to declare about it," said Hamas government.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-11/12/content_10343719.htm ==== Divided Palestinians mourn Arafat: Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, has launched a bitter attack on the rival Hamas movement as he attended events to mark the fourth anniversary of the death of Yasser Arafat, the former Palsetinian leader.
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2008/11/20081111164952488446.html === UN warns Gaza food aid may end: The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) aid agency said Tuesday that it will have to halt food distribution to 750,000 needy Gazans by Friday if Israel keeps the territory sealed.
http://tinyurl.com/5sp2xn === Bolivia Requests US Extradite Former President, 2 Ex-Ministers: Bolivia on Monday asked the U.S. to extradite a former Bolivian president and two of his ministers to face charges of genocide and fraud, the Bolivian Embassy in Washington said.
http://tinyurl.com/6zvwk8 === Obama: No decision on trying Guantanamo detainees: U.S. President-elect Barack Obama has made no decision on how try detainees at Guantanamo Bay but remains committed to closing the prison, a senior foreign policy adviser said on Monday as human rights groups urged swift action.
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/22/20081110/tpl-uk-usa-guantanamo-81f3b62.html === New Gitmo policy will take time to formulate, advisers say: Barack Obama has said repeatedly that he wants to shutter the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, that holds accused terrorists. But aides cautioned Monday that the president-elect isn't close to reaching a decision on how to do it.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-obama-gitmo-webonly-nov11,0,1175272.story === Release of three prisoners highlights failures of Guantánamo: On the eve of the Presidential election, three prisoners - one from Kazakhstan, one from Tajikistan and one from Somaliland - were released from Guantánamo, and their stories neatly encapsulate many of the chronic failures relating to the prisoners' initial arrest and detention that still plague the prison as the new administration begins considering how to shut it down.
http://tinyurl.com/6k7uos === Mystery of lost US nuclear bomb: The United States abandoned a nuclear weapon beneath the ice in northern Greenland following a crash in 1968, a BBC investigation has found.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7720049.stm === Palin wants God to show her way to White House: The devoutly religious 44-year-old mother-of-five said that if God wanted her to run for the highest office, she hoped to be shown the way.
http://tinyurl.com/5zlb2q === Government Announces New Program for At-Risk Mortgages: The goal of the new program would be for borrowers' annual mortgage payment to equal 38 percent of annual income. The companies would do that by extending the loan term, reducing the interest rate and, if necessary, delaying payment on a part of the principal of the loan. If a borrower is able to meet payments for three months, the change becomes permanent.
http://tinyurl.com/5dl9q9 === Citigroup freezes US home repossessions: Citi said it was imposing a moratorium on foreclosures for all clients willing to work "in good faith" to restructure mortgages, as long as they have sufficient income to make payments of some sort.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/nov/11/citigroup-subprimecrisis === Where Homes Are Worth Less Than the Mortgage: While home values have declined across the country, in some places the declines are so sharp that people owe more on their mortgages than their houses are worth
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2008/11/10/business/20081111_MORTGAGES.html?hp === Fed Refuses To Identify Recipients Of $2 Trillion In Emergency Taxpayer Loans: The Federal Reserve is refusing to identify the recipients of almost $2 trillion of emergency loans from American taxpayers or the troubled assets the central bank is accepting as collateral.
http://tinyurl.com/6hx87d === UK: Now banks raise credit card costs: Banks have increased interest rates on credit and debit cards held by tens of millions of shoppers despite the cost of borrowing falling to its lowest level for more than 50 years, research for The Independent reveals today.
http://tinyurl.com/6gpvgl === American Express approved to be bank holding company: American Express has announced to cut 7,000 jobs, or nearly 10 percent of its global work force after it reported last month that its profit fell 24 percent in the third quarter.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-11/11/content_10339938.htm === US Postal Service Looks To Cut 40,000 Jobs In First Layoff In History: "We lost 2 billion dollars and like any other business we have to stay afloat." And to keep from sinking, the United States Postal Service is considering cutting thousands of jobs nationwide.
http://www.ksla.com/global/story.asp?s=9247633 === Starbucks 4Q profit drops 97 pct on closure costs: Seattle-based Starbucks said profit in the quarter fell 97 percent to $5.4 million, or a penny a share, from $158.5 million, or 21 cents per share.
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/081110/earns_starbucks.html ===
Let us work towards Peace and Joy
Tom Feeley
November 11, 2008
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Military glory -- the attractive rainbow that rises in showers of blood." - Abraham Lincoln - (1809-1865) 16th US President =
"The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it... Through violence you may murder the hater, but you do not murder hate. In fact, violence merely increases hate... Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out hate; only love can do that." -- Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. - (1929-1968), US civil rights leader === Click here to read this newsletter online:
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info =
Number Of Iraqis Slaughtered Since The U.S. Invaded Iraq "1,284,105"
http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/iraq/iraqdeaths.html
===
Number of U.S. Military Personnel Sacrificed (Officially acknowledged) In America'sWar On Iraq 4,193
http://icasualties.org/oif/
The War And Occupation Of Iraq Costs
$570,308,753,472
See the cost in your community
http://nationalpriorities.org/index.php?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=182
=== War is a Racket
Remembering The Victims of Those Who Profit From War By Chycho How unfortunate that we have a need for such a day, especially since "War is a racket It always has been. It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives." So stated Major General Smedley D. Butler, USMC, the most decorated Marine in US history.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21196.htm === In case you missed it Major General Smedley Butler, USMC. Audio Documentary - Runtime 29 Minutes He joined the Marine Corps when the Spanish American War broke out, earned the Brevette Medal during the Boxer Rebellion in China, saw action in Central America, and in France during World War I was promoted to Major General. Smedley Butler served his country for 34 years, yet he spoke against American armed intervention into the affairs of sovereign nations.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article4377.htm === For What Did They Die? By Joseph L. Galloway A homeless Vietnam veteran patrols the black granite panels. He tells us that he has cancer and is having a hard time getting any benefits from the Veterans Administration. He lives in a mission that houses those who have nowhere else to go, but the doors don't open until 11 p.m.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21198.htm === "Martin, Malcolm, Obama, and Nader." By Doug Tarnopol We refuse to believe that the bank of justice is as bankrupt as our treasury. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. And so, whether Obama prevails or not, we must cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice -- the freedom of economic justice and the justice of economic security.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21199.htm === Common Sense: A Revolutionary Idea 10 Minute Video Would there be a revolution, if every American saw this? The time is now.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21200.htm === Remember Arafat? By Mike Whitney On this--the anniversary of the death of Yasir Arafat--what better tribute to the man than some positive sign that the Palestinians will be helped by Washington to achieve their goal of establishing an independent state. It all starts with Obama and the hope that he will defend the voiceless victims of repression who desperately want peace and a better future for their children.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21197.htm === A Quiet Windfall For U.S. Banks With Attention on Bailout Debate, Treasury Made Change to Tax Policy By Amit R. Paley The financial world was fixated on Capitol Hill as Congress battled over the Bush administration's request for a $700 billion bailout of the banking industry. In the midst of this late-September drama, the Treasury Department issued a five-sentence notice that attracted almost no public attention.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21201.htm ==== Global systemic crisis Alert For Summer 2009: The US Government Will Default On Its Debt By GEAB Our researchers anticipate that, before next summer 2009, the US government will default and be prevented to pay back its creditors (holders of US Treasury Bonds, of Fanny May and Freddy Mac shares, etc.). Of course such a bankruptcy will provoke some very negative outcome for all USD-denominated asset holders.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21194.htm === The DOW a year from now By Denver Research Group Without new dollars flowing on a consistent basis to middle class consumers, many analysts believe the DOW would necessarily fall below the level of the post dot.com, post 9/11 crash of 2002 (8,000)...most likely to the range of 6,500-7,000.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21195.htm === 13 militants killed in Pakistan: At least 13 Islamic militants were killed in clashes with government troops in north-west Pakistan while Taliban gunmen seized a convoy of trucks carrying military vehicles and supplies for NATO troops in Afghanistan, security officials said Tuesday.
http://story.irishsun.com/index.php/ct/9/cid/2411cd3571b4f088/id/428820/cs/1/ === 4 killed in Pakistan suicide bombing: A suicide bomber has killed three people and injured up to 13 others outside a sports stadium in the Pakistani city of Peshawar.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/11/12/2417058.htm?section=justin === Afghanistan: Roadside bomb kills 4: : A ROADSIDE bomb blast in the western province of Herat has killed four people, including the province's security chief and the head of the attorney-general's office.
http://quqnoos.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2003&Itemid=48 === 3 Killed in fresh bombs hit Baghdad rush hour: The two bombs exploded in quick succession in mainly Shia eastern Baghdad during the morning rush hour.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7721814.stm === U.S. draft is rejected by Iraqis: Iraq's government spokesman said yesterday the proposed U.S. changes to a draft security agreement were "not enough" and asked Washington to offer new amendments if it wants the pact to win parliamentary approval.
http://www.columbiatribune.com/2008/Nov/20081111News025.asp === Biden told not to change Iran policy: Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni has warned the US vice president-elect against changing the Bush White House policies toward Iran.
http://www.presstv.com/detail.aspx?id=75051§ionid=3510203 === Ex-KGB general cautions US against Iran war: A former KGB general and Russian prime minister says a war on Iran would produce a question mark over the Republican Party's sanity.
http://www.presstv.com/detail.aspx?id=75036§ionid=351020104 === IAEA 'doubts anti-Iran files authenticity': "The new evidence of possible fraud has increased pressure within the IAEA secretariat to distance the agency from the laptop documents," a source close to the International Atomic Energy Agency told Raw Story.
http://www.presstv.com/detail.aspx?id=75077§ionid=351020104 === In case you missed it: Iran Nuke Laptop Data Came from Terror Group: . German officials have identified the source of the laptop documents in November 2004 as the Mujahideen e Khalq (MEK), which along with its political arm, the National Council of Resistance in Iran (NCRI), is listed by the U.S. State Department as a terrorist organisation.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article19450.htm === Europeans Get Peace Commitment From Hamas: Following intensive negotiations with Hamas, the de facto leadership of Gaza, a group of European parliamentarians has been told by the organization that it will accept a Palestinian state within the internationally recognized 1967 borders as well as offer Israel a long-term ceasefire.
http://tinyurl.com/68fgdp === Hamas denies holding secret talks with Obama's advisors: "The government reiterates that it doesn't reject holding such kinds of contacts or meetings, but it hasn't happened. But if it happens, we won't be hesitant or afraid to declare about it," said Hamas government.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-11/12/content_10343719.htm ==== Divided Palestinians mourn Arafat: Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, has launched a bitter attack on the rival Hamas movement as he attended events to mark the fourth anniversary of the death of Yasser Arafat, the former Palsetinian leader.
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2008/11/20081111164952488446.html === UN warns Gaza food aid may end: The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) aid agency said Tuesday that it will have to halt food distribution to 750,000 needy Gazans by Friday if Israel keeps the territory sealed.
http://tinyurl.com/5sp2xn === Bolivia Requests US Extradite Former President, 2 Ex-Ministers: Bolivia on Monday asked the U.S. to extradite a former Bolivian president and two of his ministers to face charges of genocide and fraud, the Bolivian Embassy in Washington said.
http://tinyurl.com/6zvwk8 === Obama: No decision on trying Guantanamo detainees: U.S. President-elect Barack Obama has made no decision on how try detainees at Guantanamo Bay but remains committed to closing the prison, a senior foreign policy adviser said on Monday as human rights groups urged swift action.
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/22/20081110/tpl-uk-usa-guantanamo-81f3b62.html === New Gitmo policy will take time to formulate, advisers say: Barack Obama has said repeatedly that he wants to shutter the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, that holds accused terrorists. But aides cautioned Monday that the president-elect isn't close to reaching a decision on how to do it.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-obama-gitmo-webonly-nov11,0,1175272.story === Release of three prisoners highlights failures of Guantánamo: On the eve of the Presidential election, three prisoners - one from Kazakhstan, one from Tajikistan and one from Somaliland - were released from Guantánamo, and their stories neatly encapsulate many of the chronic failures relating to the prisoners' initial arrest and detention that still plague the prison as the new administration begins considering how to shut it down.
http://tinyurl.com/6k7uos === Mystery of lost US nuclear bomb: The United States abandoned a nuclear weapon beneath the ice in northern Greenland following a crash in 1968, a BBC investigation has found.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7720049.stm === Palin wants God to show her way to White House: The devoutly religious 44-year-old mother-of-five said that if God wanted her to run for the highest office, she hoped to be shown the way.
http://tinyurl.com/5zlb2q === Government Announces New Program for At-Risk Mortgages: The goal of the new program would be for borrowers' annual mortgage payment to equal 38 percent of annual income. The companies would do that by extending the loan term, reducing the interest rate and, if necessary, delaying payment on a part of the principal of the loan. If a borrower is able to meet payments for three months, the change becomes permanent.
http://tinyurl.com/5dl9q9 === Citigroup freezes US home repossessions: Citi said it was imposing a moratorium on foreclosures for all clients willing to work "in good faith" to restructure mortgages, as long as they have sufficient income to make payments of some sort.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/nov/11/citigroup-subprimecrisis === Where Homes Are Worth Less Than the Mortgage: While home values have declined across the country, in some places the declines are so sharp that people owe more on their mortgages than their houses are worth
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2008/11/10/business/20081111_MORTGAGES.html?hp === Fed Refuses To Identify Recipients Of $2 Trillion In Emergency Taxpayer Loans: The Federal Reserve is refusing to identify the recipients of almost $2 trillion of emergency loans from American taxpayers or the troubled assets the central bank is accepting as collateral.
http://tinyurl.com/6hx87d === UK: Now banks raise credit card costs: Banks have increased interest rates on credit and debit cards held by tens of millions of shoppers despite the cost of borrowing falling to its lowest level for more than 50 years, research for The Independent reveals today.
http://tinyurl.com/6gpvgl === American Express approved to be bank holding company: American Express has announced to cut 7,000 jobs, or nearly 10 percent of its global work force after it reported last month that its profit fell 24 percent in the third quarter.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-11/11/content_10339938.htm === US Postal Service Looks To Cut 40,000 Jobs In First Layoff In History: "We lost 2 billion dollars and like any other business we have to stay afloat." And to keep from sinking, the United States Postal Service is considering cutting thousands of jobs nationwide.
http://www.ksla.com/global/story.asp?s=9247633 === Starbucks 4Q profit drops 97 pct on closure costs: Seattle-based Starbucks said profit in the quarter fell 97 percent to $5.4 million, or a penny a share, from $158.5 million, or 21 cents per share.
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/081110/earns_starbucks.html ===
Let us work towards Peace and Joy
Tom Feeley
Thursday, September 18, 2008
WHAT THE BIBLE SAID ABOUT PROPHET MUHAMMAD
WHAT THE BIBLE SAYS ABOUT MUHAMMAD (PEACE BE UPON HIM) THE PROPHET OF ISLAM
A lecture by Ahmed Deedat
SAY: "DO YOU SEE ? WHETHER THIS MESSAGE BE FROM ALLAH (God Almighty), AND YET YOU REJECT IT, AND A WITNESS FROM AMONG THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL1 BORE WITNESS OF ONE LIKE HIM......."
(SURA AHQAF) Holy Qur'an 46:10.
1. This refers to Moses. See Yusuf Ali's commentaries Nos. 4783/4 to this verse.
Mr.Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen, The subject of this evening's talk* - "What the BIBLE says about MUHAMMAD (Peace be upon him)" - will no doubt come as a surprise to many of you because the speaker is a Muslim. How does it come about that a Muslim happens to be expounding prophecies from the Jewish and Christian Scriptures ? As a young man, about 30 years ago, I attended a series of religious lectures by a Chriatian theologian, a certain Rev. Hiten, at the "Theatre Royal", Durban in South Africa.
* This is the text of a lecture delivered by the author in the early 1970's.
Pope or Kissinger? This Reverend gentleman was expounding Biblical prophecies. He went on to prove that the Christian Bible foretold the rise of Soviet Russia, and the Last Days. At one stage he went to the extent of proving that his Holy Book did not leave even the Pope out of its predictions. He expatiated vigorously in order to convince his audience that the "Beast 666" mentioned in the Book of Revelation the last book of the New Testament was the POPE, who was the Vicar of Christ on earth. It is not befitting for us Muslims to enter into this controversy between the Roman Catholics and the Protestants. By the way, the latest Christian exposition of the "Beast 666" of the Christian Bible is Dr.Henry Kissinger1. Christian scholars are ingenious and indefatigable in their efforts to prove their case. Rev. Hiten's lectures led me to ask that if the Bible foretold so many things - not even excluding the "Pope" and "Israel" - then surely it must have something to say about the greatest benefactor of mankind2, the Holy Prophet Muhammed (may the peace of Allah be upon him).
As a youngster I set out to search for an answer. I met priest after priest, attended lectures, and read everything that I could lay my hands relating to the fields of Bible prophecies. Tonight I am going to narrate to you one of these interviews with a dominee3 of the Dutch Reformed Church.
1. Christian exegesists give progressive numerical values by sixes, to the English alphabet and add up to get the total 666. i.e.A=6,B=12,C=18, D=24 and so on. Progression by 6's because the number of the Beast in the Bible is "666". Try it for Dr.Kissinger.
2. The writer has just delivered another talk in the City Hall, Durban on the 10th December, 1975 on the subject "Muhummed the Greatest".
3. "Dominee" is the Afrikaans equivalent of priest, parson and predikant.
Lucky ThirteenI was invited to the Transvaal1 to deliver a talk on the occasion of Birthday celebration of the Holy Prophet Muhammed. Knowing that in that province of the Republic, the Afrikaans language is widely spoken, even by my own people, I felt that I ought to acquire a smattering of this language so a s to feel a little "at home" with the people. I opened the telephone directory and began phoning the Afrikaans-speaking Churches. I indicated my purpose to the priests that I was interested in having a dialogue with them, but they all refused my request with "Plausible" excuses. No.13 was my lucky number. The thirteenth call brought me pleasure and relief. A dominee Van Heerden agreed to meet me at his home on the Saturday afternoon that I was to leave for Transvaal.
He received me on his verandah with a friendly welcome. He said if I did not mind, he would like his father-in-law from the Free State (a 70 year old man) to join us in the discussion. I did not mind. The three of us settled down in the dominee's library.
1. One of the Provinces of the Republic of South Africa.
Why nothing? I posed the question: "What does the Bible say about Muhummed?" Without hesitation he answered, "Nothing!" I asked: "Why nothing? According to your interpretation the Bible have so many things to say about the rise of Soviet Russia and about the Last Days and even about the Pope of the Roman Catholics?" He said, "Yes, but there was nothing about Muhummed!" I asked again, "Why nothing? Surely this man Muhummed who had been responsible for the bringing into being a world-wide community of millions of Believers who, on his authority, believe in: (1) the miraculous birth of Jesus, (2) that Jesus is the Messiah,1 (3) that he gave life to the dead by God's permission, and that he healed those born blind and the lepers by God's permission.
Surely this book (the Bible) must have something to say about this great Leader of men who spoke so well of Jesus and his mother Mary?" (Peace be upon them both).
The old man from the Free State replied. "My son, I have been reading the Bible for the past 50 years, and if there was any mention of him, I would have known it."
1. The word "Messiah" comes from the Arabic and Hebrew word masaha which means to rub, to massage, to annoint. The religious significance is "the one who is anointed" - priests and kings were anointed in consecration to their offices. Messiah translated Christ does not mean God. Even the heathen Cyrus is called "Christ" in the Bible, (Isaiah 45:1)
Not One by name! I enquired: "According to you, are there not hundreds of prophecies regarding the coming of Jesus in the Old Testament." The dominee interjected: "Not hundreds, but thousands!" I said, "I am not going to dispute the 'thousand and one' prophecies in the Old Testament regarding the coming of Jesus Christ, because the whole Muslim-world has already accepted him without the testimony of any Biblical prophecy. We Muslims have accepted the de facto Jesus on the authority of Muhummed alone, and there are in the world today no less than 900,000,0001 followers of Muhummed who love, respect and revere this great Messenger of God -Jesus Christ- without having the Christians to convince them by means of their Biblical dialectics. Out of the 'thousands' of prophecies referred to, can you please give me just one single prophecy where Jesus is mentioned by name? The term 'Messiah', translated as 'Christ', is not a name but a title. Is there a single Prophecy where it says that the name of the Messiah will be JESUS, and that his mother's name will be MARY, that his supposed father will be JOSEPH THE CARPENTER; that he will be born in the reign of HEROD THE KING, etc. etc.? No! There are no such details! Then how can you conclude that those 'thousand' Prophecies refer to Jesus (Peace be upon him)?"
1. This was first written in 1976.
What is Prophecy? The dominee replied: "You see, prophecies are word-pictures of something that is going to happen in the future. When that thing actually comes to pass, we see vividly in these prophecies the fulfilment of what had been predicted in the past." I said: "What you actually do is that you deduce, you reason, you put two and two together." He said: "Yes." I said: "If this is what you have to do with a 'thousand' prophecies to justify your claim with regards to the genuineness of Jesus, why should we not adopt the very same system for Muhummed?"1 The dominee agreed that it was a fair proposition , a reasonable way of dealing with the problem.
I asked him to open up Deuteronomy, chapter 18, verse 18, which he did. I read from memory the verse in Afrikaans, because this was my purpose in having a little practice with the language of the ruling race in South Africa.2
'N PROFEET SAL EK VIR HULLE VERWEK UIT DIE MIDDE VAN HULLE BROERS, SOOS JY IS, EN EK SAL MY WOORDE IN SY MOND LE, EN HY SY SAL AAN HULLE SE ALLE WAT EK HOM BEVEEL. Deut.18: 18.
The English translation reads as follows:-
"I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee, and I will put my words in his mouth; and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him."
(HOLY BIBLE) Deuteronomy 18:18.
1. Muhummed is mentioned by name in the Song of Solomon 5:16. The Hebrew word used there is Muhammuddim. The end letters IM is plural of respect majesty and grandeur. Minus "im" the name would be Muhamud translated as "altogether lovely" in the Authorised Version of the Bible or 'The Praised One' 'the one worthy of Praise' i.e. MUHUMMED!(P.B.U.H)
2. If this booklet is translated into any language, please change the Afrikaans words into the local dialect; and do not try a free hand translation of the Biblical quotation. Obtain a Bible in the language in which translation is being made and transcribe exactly as the words occur in that Bible.
Prophet Like Moses Having recited the verse in Afrikaans, I apologised for my uncertain pronunciation, The dominee assured me that I was doing fine. I enquired: "To whom does this prophecy refer?" Without the slightest hesitation he answered: "JESUS!" I asked: "Why Jesus?... his name is not mentioned here." The dominee replied: "Since prophecies are word-pictures of something that is going to happen in the future, we find that the wordings of this verse adequately describe him. You see the most important words of this prophecy are 'SOOS JY IS' (like unto thee), - LIKE YOU - like Moses, and Jesus is like Moses. I questioned: "In which way is Jesus like Moses?" The answer was: "In the first place Moses was a JEW and Jesus was also a JEW; secondly, Moses was a PROPHET and Jesus was also a PROPHET - therefore Jesus is like Moses and that is exactly what God had foretold Moses - "SOOS JY IS". "Can you think of any other similarities between Moses and Jesus?" I asked. The dominee said that he could not think of any. I replied: "If these are the only two criteria for discovering a candidate for this prophecy of Deuteronomy 18:18, then in that case the criteria could fit any one of the following Biblical personages after Moses:- Solomon, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Malachi, John the Baptist etc., because they were also ALL "Jews" as well as "Prophets". Why should we not apply this prophecy to any one of these prophets, and why only to Jesus? Why should we make fish of one and fowl of another?" The dominee had no reply. I continued: "You see, my conclusions are that Jesus is most unlike Moses, and if I am wrong I would like you to correct me."
Three Unlikes So saying, I reasoned with him:
"In the FIRST place Jesus is not like Moses, because, according to You - 'JESUS IS A GOD', but Moses is not God. Is this true?" He said: "Yes." I said: "Therefore, Jesus is not like Moses!
"SECONDLY, according to You - 'JESUS DIED FOR THE SINS OF THE WORLD', but Moses did not have to die for the sins of the world. Is this true?" He again said: "Yes." I said: "Therefore Jesus is not like Moses!"
"THIRDLY, according to You - 'JESUS WENT TO HELL FOR THREE DAYS', but Moses did not have to go there. Is this true?" He answered meekly: "Y-e-s." I concluded: "Therefore Jesus is not like Moses!"
"But dominee," I continued: "these are not hard facts, solid facts, they are mere matters of belief over which the little ones can stumble and fall. Let us discuss something very simple, very easy that if your little ones are called in to hear the discussion, would have no difficulty in following it, shall we?" The dominee was quiet happy at the suggestion.
CHAPTER TWO
Eight Irrefutable Arguments
Father and Mother (1) "Moses had a father and a mother. Muhummed also had a father and a mother. But Jesus had only a mother, and no human father. Is this true?" He said: "Yes." I said: "DAAROM IS JESUS NIE SOOS MOSES NIE, MAAR MUHUMMED IS SOOS MOSES!" Meaning: "Therefore Jesus is not like Moses, but Muhummed is like Moses!" (By now the reader will realise that I was using the Afrikaans language only for practice purposes. I shall discontinue its use in this narration).
Miraculous Birth (2) "Moses and Muhummed were born in the normal, natural course, i.e. the physical association of man and woman; but Jesus was created by a special miracle. You will recall that we are told in the Gospel of St. Matthew 1:18 ".....BEFORE THEY CAME TOGETHER,(Joseph the Carpenter and Mary) SHE WAS FOUND WITH CHILD BY THE HOLY GHOST." And St.Luke tells us that when the good news of the birth of a holy son was announced to her, Mary reasoned: "...HOW SHALL THIS BE, SEEING I KNOW NOT A MAN? AND THE ANGEL ANSWERED AND SAID UNTO HER, THE HOLY GHOST SHALL COME UPON THEE, AND THE POWER OF THE HIGHEST SHALL OVERSHADOW THEE..." (Luke 1:35). The Holy Qur'an confirms the miraculous birth of Jesus, in nobler and sublimer terms. In answer to her logical question:
" O MY LORD! HOW SHALL I HAVE A SON WHEN NO MAN HATH TOUCHED ME? " The angel says in reply: "EVEN SO: ALLAH CREATETH WHAT HE WILLETH: WHEN HE HATH DECREED A PLAN, HE BUT SAITH TO IT "BE," AND IT IS " 1
(HOLY QUR'AN, 3:47).
It is not necessary for God to plant a seed in man or animal. He merely wills it and it comes into being. This is the Muslim conception of the of birth of Jesus. (When I compared the Qur'an and the Biblical versions of the birth of Jesus to the head of the Bible Society in our largest City, and when I enquired: "Which version would you prefer to give your daughter, the QUR'ANIC version or the BIBLICAL version?" The man bowed his head and answered: "The Qur'anic.") In short, I said to the dominee: "Is it true that Jesus was born miraculously as against the natural birth of Moses and Muhummed?" He replied proudly: "Yes!" I said: "Therefore Jesus is not like Moses, but Muhummed is like Moses. And God says to Moses in the Book of Deuteronomy 18:18 "LIKE UNTO THEE" (Like You, Like Moses) and Muhummed is like Moses."
1. Please open the Holy Qur'an 3:42 and 19:16 where the birth of Jesus is spoken about; read it with the commentry, note the high position which Jesus and his mother occupy in Islam.
Marriage Ties (3) "Moses and Muhummed married and begat children, but Jesus remained a bachelor all his life. Is this true?" The dominee said: "Yes." I said: "Therefore Jesus is not like Moses, but Muhummed is like Moses."
Jesus Rejected by his People (4) "Moses and Muhummed were accepted as prophets by their people in their very lifetime. No doubt the Jews gave endless trouble to Moses and they murmured in the wilderness, but as a nation, they acknowledged that Moses was a Messenger of God sent to them. The Arabs too made Muhummed's life impossible. He suffered very badly at their hands. After 13 years of preaching in Mecca, he had to emigrate from the city of his birth. But before his demise, the Arab nation as a whole accepted him as the Messenger of Allah. But according to the Bible: 'He (Jesus) CAME UNTO HIS OWN, BUT HIS OWN RECEIVED HIM NOT.' (John 1:11). And even today, after two thousand years, his people- the Jews, as a whole, have rejected him. Is this true?" The dominee said: "Yes." I said: "THEREFORE JESUS IS NOT LIKE MOSES, BUT MUHUMMED IS LIKE MOSES."
"Other-Wordly" Kingdom (5) "Moses and Muhummed were prophets as well as kings. A prophet means a man who receives Divine Revelation for the Guidance of Man and this Guidance he conveys to God's creatures as received without any addition or deletion. A king is a person who has the power of life and death over his people. It is immaterial whether the person wears a crown or not, or whether he was ever addressed as king or monarch: if the man has the prerogative of inflicting capital punishment - HE IS A KING. Moses possessed such a power. Do you remember the Israelite who was found picking up firewood on Sabbath Day, and Moses had him stoned to death? (Numbers- 15:13). There are other crimes also mentioned in the Bible for which capital punishment was inflicted on the Jews at the behest of Moses. Muhummed too, had the power of life and death over his people.
There are instances in the Bible of persons who were given gift of prophecy only, but they were not in a position to implement their directives. Some of these holy men of God who were helpless in the face of stubborn rejection of their message, were the prophets lot, Jonah, Daniel, Ezra, and John the Baptist. They could only deliver the message, but could not enforce the Law. The Holy Prophet Jesus (Peace p.b.u.h) also belonged to this category. The Christian Gospel clearly confirms this: when Jesus was dragged before the Roman Governor, Pontius Pilate, Charged for sedition, Jesus made a convincing point in his defence to refute the false charge: JESUS ANSWERED, "MY KINGDOM IS NOT OF THIS WORLD': IF MY KINGDOM WERE OF THIS WORLD, THEN WOULD MY SERVANTS FIGHT, THAT I SHOULD NOT BE DELIVERED TO THE JEWS; BUT NOW IS MY KINGDOM NOT FROM HENCE" (John 18:36) This convinced Pilate (A Pagan) that though Jesus might not be in full possession of his mental faculty, he did not strike him as being a danger to his rule. Jesus claimed a spiritual Kingdom only; in other words he only claimed to be a Prophet. Is this true?" The dominee answered: "Yes." I said: "Therefore Jesus is not like Moses but Muhummed is like Moses."
No New Laws (6) "Moses and Muhummed brought new laws and new regulations for their people. Moses not only gave the Ten Commandments to the Israelites, but a very comprehensive ceremonial law for the guidance of his people. Muhummed comes to a people steeped in barbarism and ignorance. They married their step-mothers; they buried their daughters alive; drunkenness, adultery, idolatry, and gambling were the order of the day. Gibbon describe the Arabs before Islam in his "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire", THE HUMAN BRUTE, ALMOST WITHOUT SENSE, IS POORLY DISTINGUISHED FROM THE REST OF THE ANIMAL CREATION.' There was hardly anything to distinguish between the "man" and the "animal" of the time; they were animals in human form.
"From this abject barbarism, Muhummed elevated them, in the words of Thomas Carlysle, "into torch-bearers of light and learning.' 'TO THE ARAB NATION IT WAS AS A BIRTH FROM DARKNESS INTO LIGHT. ARABIA FIRST BECAME ALIVE BY MEANS OF IT. A POOR SHEPHERD PEOPLE, ROAMING UNNOTICED IN ITS DESERTS SINCE THE CREATION OF THE WORLD. SEE, THE UNNOTICED BECOMES WORLD NOTABLE, THE SMALL HAS GROWN WORLD-GREAT. WITHIN ONE CENTURY AFTERWARDS ARABIA WAS AT GRANADA ON ONE HAND AND AT DELHI ON THE OTHER. GLANCING IN VALOUR AND SPLENDOUR, AND THE LIGHT OF GENIUS, ARABIA SHINES OVER A GREAT SECTION OF THE WORLD. ..." The fact is that Muhummed gave his people a Law and Order they never had before.
As regards Jesus, when the Jews felt suspicious of him that he might be an impostor with designs to pervert their teachings, Jesus took pains to assure them that he had not come with a new religion - no new laws and no new regulations. I quote his own words: 'THINK NOT THAT I AM COME TO DESTROY THE LAW, OR THE PROPHETS: I AM NOT COME TO DESTROY, BUT TO FULFIL. FOR VERILY I SAY UNTO YOU, TILL HEAVEN AND EARTH PASS, ONE JOT OR ONE TITLE SHALL IN NO WISE PASS FROM THE LAW, TILL ALL BE FULFILLED.'(Mathew 5:17-18). In other words he had not come with any new laws or regulation he came only to fulfil the old law. This what he gave the Jews to understand- unless he was speaking with the tongue in his cheek trying to bluff the Jews into accepting him as a man of God and by subterfuge trying to ram a new religion down their throats. No! This Messenger of God would never resort to such fo ul means to subvert the Religion of God. He himself fulfilled the laws. He observed the commandments of Moses, and he respected the Sabbath. At no time did a single Jew point a finger at him to say, 'why don't you fast' or 'why don't you wash your hands before you break bread',which charges they always levied against his disciples, but never against Jesus. This is because as a good Jew he honoured the laws of the prophets who preceded him. In short, he had created no new religion and had brought no new law like Moses and Muhummed. Is this true?" I asked the dominee, and he answered: "Yes." I said: "Therefore, Jesus is not like Moses but Muhummed is like Moses."
How they Departed (7) "Both Moses and Muhummed died natural deaths, but according to Christianity, Jesus was violently killed on the cross.1 Is this true?" The dominee said: "Yes." I averred: "Therefore Jesus is not like Moses but Muhummed is like Moses."
Heavenly Abode (8) "Moses and Muhummed both lie buried in earth, but according to you, Jesus in heaven. Is this true?" The dominee agreed. I said: "Therefore Jesus is not like Moses but Muhummed is like Moses."
1. For a full exposition of this topic, see "CRUCIFIXION OR CRUCI-FICTION?".
CHAPTER THREE
Further Proofs
Ishmael The First Born Since the dominee was helplessly agreeing with every point, I said, "Dominee, so far what I have done is to prove only one point out of the whole prophecy- that is proving the phrase 'LIKE UNTO THEE' - 'Like You' - 'Like Moses'. The Prophecy is much more than this single phrase which reads as follows : "I WILL RAISE THEM UP A PROPHET FROM AMONG THEIR BRETHREN LIKE UNTO THEE......." The emphasis is on the words- "From among their brethren." Moses and his people, the Jews, are here addressed as a racial entity, and as such their 'brethren' would undoubtedly be the Arabs. You see, the Holy Bible speaks of Abraham as the "Friend of God". Abraham had two wives - Sarah and Hagar. Hagar bore Abraham a son - HIS FIRST-BORN- '......And Abraham1 called HIS SON'S name, which Hagar bare Ishmael.' (Genesis 16:15). 'And Abraham took Ishmael HIS SON......" (Genesis 17:23). 'And Ishmael HIS SON was thirteen years old, when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin.'(Genesis 17:25). Up to the age of THIRTEEN Ishmael was the ONLY son and seed of Abraham, when the covenant was ratified between God and Abraham. God grants Abraham another son through Sarah, named Isaac, who was very much the junior to his brother Ishmael.
1. According to the Bible, Abraham's name was Abram before it was changed by God to Abraham.
Arabs and Jews If Ishmael and Isaac are the sons of the same father Abraham, then they are brothers. And so the children of the one are the BRETHREN of the children of the other. The children of Isaac are the Jews and the Children of Ishmael are the Arabs - so they are BRETHREN to one another. The Bible affirms, 'AND HE (ISHMAEL) SHALL DWELL IN THE PRESENCE OF ALL HIS BRETHREN.' (Genesis 16:12). 'AND HE (ISHMAEL) DIED IN THE PRESENCE OF ALL HIS BRETHREN.(Genesis 25:18). The children of Isaac are the brethren of the Ishmaelites. In like manner Muhummed is from among the brethren of the Israelites because he was a descendant of Ishmael the son of Abraham. This exactly as the prophecy has it- 'FROM AMONG THEIR BRETHREN'.(Deut.18:18). There the prophecy distinctly mentions that the coming prophet who would be like Moses, must arise NOT from the 'children of Israel' or from 'among themselves', but from among their brethren. MUHUMMED THEREFORE WAS FROM AMONG THEIR BRETHREN!
Words in the Mouth "The prophecy proceeds further:'.......AND I WILL PUT MY WORDS INTO HIS MOUTH.......' What does it mean when it is said 'I will put my words in your mouth'? You see, when I asked you (the dominee) to open Deuteronomy chapter 18, verse 18, at the beginning, and if I had asked you to read, and if you had read: would I be putting my words into your mouth?" The dominee answered: "No." "But," I continued: "If I were to teach you a language like Arabic about which you have no knowledge, and if I asked you to read or repeat after me what I utter i.e.
( I read them in Arabic )
Would I not be putting these unheard words of a foreign tongue which you utter, into your mouth?" The dominee agreed that it was indeed so. In an identical manner, I said, the words of the Holy Qur'an, the Revelation vouchsafed by the Almighty God to Muhummed, were revealed.
History tells us that Muhummed was forty years of age. He was in a cave some three miles north of the City of Mecca. It was the 27th night of the Muslim month of Ramadaan. In the cave the Archangel Gabriel commands him in his mother tongue: 'IQRA' which means READ! or PROCLAIM! or RECITE! Muhummed is terrified and in his bewilderment replies " MA ANA BEQARA which means I AM NOT LEARNED! The angel commands him a second time with the same result. For the third time the angel continues.
Now Muhummed, grasps, that what was required of him was to repeat! to rehearse! And he repeats the words as they were put into his mouth:
These are the first five verses which were revealed to Muhummed which now occupy the beginning of the 96th chapter of the Holy Qur'an.
The Faithful Witness Immediately the angel had departed, Muhummed rushed to his home. Terrified and sweating all over he asked his beloved wife Khadija to 'cover him up!' He lay down, and she watched by him. When he had regained his composure, he explained to her what he had seen and heard. She assured him of her faith in him and that Allah would not allow any terrible thing to happen to him. Are these the confessions of an impostor? Would impostors confess that when an angel of the Lord confronts them with a Message from on High, they get fear-stricken, terrified, and sweating all over, run home to their wives? Any critic can see that his reactions and confessions are that of an honest, sincere man, the man of Truth- 'AL-AMIN' - THE Honest, the Upright, the Truthful.
During the next twenty-three years of his prophetic life, words were 'Put into his mouth', and he uttered them. They made an indeliable impression on his heart and mind: and as the volume of the Sacred Scripture (Holy Qur'an) grew, they were recorded on palm-leaf fibre, on skins and on the shoulder-blades of animals; and in the hearts of his devoted disciples. Before his demise these words were arranged according to his instructions i n the order in which we find them today in the Holy Qur'an.
The words (revelation) were actually put into his mouth, exactly as foretold in the prophecy under discusion: 'AND I WILL PUT MY WORDS IN HIS MOUTH.' (Deut. 18:18).
Un-lettered Prophet Muhummed's experience in the cave of Hira, later to be known as Jabal-un Noor - The Mountain of Light, and his response to that first Revelation is the exact fulfilment of another Biblical Prophecy. In the Book of Isaiah, Chapter 29, verse 12, we read: "AND THE BOOK" (al-Kitaab,al-Quran the 'Reading', the 'Recitation') "IS DELIVERED TO HIM THAT IS NOT LEARNED," (Isaiah 29:12) "THE UNLETTERED PROPHET " (Holy Qur'an 7:158) and the biblical verse continues : "SAYING, READ THIS, I PRAY THEE:" (the words "I pray thee", are not in the Hebrew manuscripts; compare with the Roman Catholics' "Douay Version and also with the "Revised Standard Versions") "AND HE SAITH, I AM NOT LEARNED." ("I am not learned." is the exact translation of the Arabic words MA ANA BEQARA which Muhummed uttered twice to the Holy Ghost - the Archangel Gabriel, when he was commanded : IQRAA "READ!").
Let me quote the verse in full without a break as found in the "King James Version," or the "Authorised version" as it is more popularly known "AND THE BOOK IS DELIVERED TO HIM THAT IS NOT LEARNED, SAYING, READ THIS I PRAY THEE: AND HE SAITH, I AM NOT LEARNED." (Isaiah 29:12).
Important note : It may be noted that there were no Arabic Bibles in existence in the 6th Century of the Christian Era when Muhummed lived and preached! Besides, he was absolutely unlettered and unlearned. No human had ever taught him a word. His teacher was his Creator:
Without any human learning, 'he put to shame the wisdom of the learned'."
(12) There are today Arabic Bibles in Fourteen different scripts and dialects for the Arabs alone. See "The Gospels in many tongues".
Grave Warning "See!" I told the dominee, "how the prophecies fit Muhummed like a glove. We do not have to stretch prophecies to justify their fulfilment in Muhummed."
The dominee replied, "All your expositions sound very well, but they are of no real consequence, because we Christians have Jesus Christ the "incarnate" God, who has redeemed us from the Bondage of Sin!"
I asked, "Not important?" God didn't think so! He went to a great deal of trouble to have His warnings recorded. God knew that there would be people like you who will flippantly, light-heartedly discount his words, so he followed up Deuteronomy 18:18 with a dire warning: "AND IT SHALL COME TO PASS, " (it is going to happen) "THAT WHOSOEVER WILL NOT HEARKEN UNTO MY WORDS WHICH HE SHALL SPEAK IN MY NAME, I WILL REQUIRE IT OF HIM. (in the Catholic Bible the ending words are - "I will be the revenger", I will take vengeance from him - I will take revenge!) "Does not this terrify you? God Almighty is threatening revenge! We shake in our pants if some hoodlum threathens us, yet you have no fear of God's warning?"
"Miracle of Miracles! in the verse 19 of Deuteronomy chapter 18, we have a further fulfilment of the prophecy in Muhummed! Note the words-'.....MY WORDS WHICH HE SHALL SPEAK IN MY NAME," In whose name is Muhummed speaking?" I opened Yusuf Ali's translation of the Holy Qur'an, at chapter 114- 'Sura Nas', or Mankind - the last chapter, and showed him the formula at the head of the chapter: and the meaning: "IN THE NAME OF GOD, MOST GRACIOUS, MOST MERCIFUL." And the heading of chapter 113: and the meaning: "IN THE NAME OF GOD, MOST GRACIOUS, MOST MERCIFUL". And every chapter downwards 112 , 111, 110.......was the same formula and the same meaning on every page, because the end SURAS (chapters) are short and take about a page each.
"And what did the prophecy demand?' ......WHICH HE SHALL SPEAK IN MY NAME and in whose name does Muhummed speak? 'IN THE NAME OF GOD, MOST GRACIOUS MOST MERCIFUL.' The Prophecy is being fulfilled in Muhummed to the letter
"Every chapter of the Holy Qur'an except the 9th begin with the formula: IN THE NAME OF GOD, MOST GRACIOUS, MOST MERCIFUL.' The Muslim begins his every lawful act with the Holy formula. But the Christian begins: "In the name of the Father, son and holy ghost.'"1
Concerning Deuteronomy chapter eighteen, I have given you more than 15 reasons as to how this prophecy refers to Muhummed and NOT to Jesus.
1. The Christian theologians are ignorant of even the "name of God. Because "God" is not a name, and "Father" is also not a name. See "WHAT IS HIS NAME?".
CHAPTER FOUR
New Testament Also Confirms
Baptist Contradicts Jesus In New Testament times, we find that the Jews were still expecting the fulfilment of the prophecy of 'ONE LIKE MOSES', refer John 1:19-25. When Jesus claimed to be the Messiah of the Jews, the Jews began to enquire as to where was Elias? The Jews had a parallel prophecy that before the coming of the Messiah, Elias must come first in his second coming. Jesus confirms this Jewish belief:
".......ELIAS TRULY SHALL FIRST COME, AND RESTORE ALL THINGS. BUT I SAY UNTO YOU, THAT ELIAS IS COME ALREADY, AND THEY KNEW HIM NOT,...THEN THE DISCIPLES UNDERSTOOD THAT HE SPAKE UNTO THEM OF JOHN THE BAPTIST." (Matthew 17:11-13).
According to the New Testament the Jews were not the ones to swallow the words of any would-be Messiah. In their investigations they underwent intense difficulties in order to find their true Messiah. And this the Gospel of John confirms: "AND THIS IS THE RECORD OF JOHN,"(the Baptist) "WHEN THE JEWS SENT PRIESTS AND LEVITES FROM JERUSALEM TO ASK HIM, WHO ART THOU? AND HE CONFESSED AND DENIED NOT; BUT CONFESSED, I AM NOT THE CHRIST." (This was only natural because there can't be two Messiahs1 at the same time. If Jesus was the Christ then John couldn't be the Christ!) "AND THEY ASKED HIM, WHAT THEN? ART THOU ELIAS? AND HE SAITH, I AM NOT." (Here John the Baptist contradicts Jesus! Jesus says that John is "Elias" and John denies that he is what Jesus ascribes him to be. One of the TWO (Jesus or John), God forbid!, is definitely not speaking the TRUTH! On the testimony of Jesus himself, John the Baptist was the greatest of the Israelite prophets: "VERILY I SAY UNTO YOU, AMONG THEM THAT ARE BORN OF WOMEN THERE HAS NOT RISEN A GREATER THAN JOHN THE BAPTIST:... "(Matthew 11:11).
We Muslims know John the Baptist as Hazrut YAHYAA Alai-his-salaam (peace be upon him). We revere him as a true prophet of Allah. The Holy Prophet Jesus known to us as Hazrut ISAA Alai-his-salaam (peace be upon him), is also esteemed as one of the mightiest messenger of the Almighty. How can we Muslims impute lies to either of them? We leave this problem between Jesus and John for the Christians to solve, for their "sacred scriptures" abound in discrepancies which they have been glossing over as the "dark sayings of Jesus"(15). We Muslims are really interested in the last questions posed to John the Baptist by the Jewish elite- "ART THOU THAT PROPHET? AND HE ANSWERED, NO." (John 1:21)
1. The Jews were expecting a single Messiah not two.
2. See the "TIMES" Magazine December 30th, 1974, article "How true is the Bible?" And also see "50,000 Errors in the Bible?" a reproduction from the Christian Magazine "AWAKE!" September 8, 1957.
Three Questions! Please note that three different and distinct questions were posed to John the Baptist and to which he gave three emphatic "NO'S" as answers. To recapitulate:- 1) ART THOU THE CHRIST? 2) ART THOU ELIAS? 3) ART THOU THAT PROPHET?
But the learned men of Christendom somehow only see two questions implied here. To make doubly clear that the Jews definitely had T-H-R-E-E separate prophecies in their minds when they were interrogating John the Baptist, let us read the remonstrance of the Jews in the verses following:
"AND THEY ASKED HIM, AND SAID UNTO HIM, WHY BAPTIZEST THOU THEN, IF THOU BE a) NOT THAT CHRIST, b) NOR ELIAS, c) NEITHER THAT PROPHET?" (John 1:25)
The Jews were waiting for the fulfilment of THREE distinct prophecies: One, the coming of CHRIST. Two the coming of ELIAS, and Three, the coming of THAT PROPHET.
"That Prophet" If we look up any Bible which has a concordance or cross-references, the we will find in the marginal note where the words "the Prophet", or "that Prophet" occur in John 1:25, that these words refer to the prophecy of Deuteronomy 18:15 and 18. And that 'that prophet' - 'the prophet like Moses' - "LIKE UNTO THEE", we have proved through overwhelming evidence that he was MUHUMMED and not Jesus!
We Muslims are not denying that Jesus was the "Messiah", which word is translated as "Christ".1 We are not contesting the "thousand and one prophecies" which the Christians claim abound in the Old Testament foretelling the coming of the Messiah. What we say is that Deuteronomy 18:18 does NOT refer to Jesus Christ but it is an explicit prophecy about the Holy Prophet MUHUMMED!"
The dominee, very politely parted with me by saying that it was a very interesting discussion and he would like me very much to come one day and address his congregation on the subject. A decade and half has passed since then but I am still awaiting that privilege.
I believe the dominee was sincere when he made the offer, but prejudices die hard and who would like to loose his sheep?
1. How the word Messiah was transmuted to Christ?. See "Christ in Islam"
The Acid Test To the lambs of Christ I say, why not apply that acid test which the Master himself wanted you to apply to any would be claimant to prophethood? He had said: "BY THEIR FRUITS YE SHALL KNOW THEM. DO MEN GATHER GRAPES FROM THE THORNS, OR FIGS FROM THE THISTLES? EVERY GOOD TREE WILL BEAR GOOD FRUIT AND EVERY EVIL TREE WILL BEAR EVIL FRUIT....BY THEIR FRUITS YE SHALL KNOW THEM. (Matthew 7:16-20).
Why are you afraid to apply this test to the teachings of Muhummed? You will find in the Last Testament of God - the Holy Qur'an - the true fulfilment of the teachings of Moses and Jesus which will bring to the world the much-needed peace and happiness. "IF A MAN LIKE MOHAMED WERE TO ASSUME THE DIC TATORSHIP OF THE MODERN WORLD, HE WOULD SUCCEED IN SOLVING ITS PROBLEMS THAT WOULD BRING IT THE MUCH NEEDED PEACE AND HAPPINESS." (George Bernard Shaw)
The Greatest! The Weekly Newsmagazine "TIME" dated July 15, 1974, carried a selection of opinions by various historians, writers, military men, businessmen and others on the subject: "Who Were History's Great Leaders?" Some said that it was Hitler; others said - Gandhi, Buddha, Lincoln and the like. But Jules Masserman, a United States psychoanalyst put the standards straight by giving the correct criteria wherewith to judge. He said: "LEADERS MUST FULFIL THREE FUNCTIONS:- (1) Provide for the well-being of the led, (2) Provide a social organization in which people feel relatively secure and (3) Provide them with one set of beliefs."
With the above three criteria he searches history and analyses - Hitler, Pasteur, Gaesar, Moses, Confucius and the lot, and ultimately concludes:
"PEOPLE LIKE PASTEUR AND SALK ARE LEADERS IN THE FIRST SENSE. PEOPLE LIKE GANDHI AND CONFUCIUS, ON ONE HAND, AND ALEXANDER, CAESAR AND HITLER ON THE OTHER, ARE LEADERS IN THE SECOND AND PERHAPS THE THIRD SENSE. JESUS AND BUDDHA BELONG IN THE THIRD CATEGORY ALONE. PERHAPS THE GREATEST LEADER OF ALL TIMES WAS MOHAMMED, WHO COMBINED ALL THREE FUNCTIONS. To a lesser degree, MOSES DID THE SAME."
According to the objective standards set by the Professor of the Chicago University, whom I believe to be Jewish, - JESUS and BUDDHA are now - here in the picture of the "Great Leaders of Mankind", but by a queer coincidence groups Moses and Muhummed together thus adding further weight to the argument that JESUS is not like MOSES, but MUHUMMED is like MOSES: Deut.18:18 "LIKE UNTO THEE" - Like MOSES!
Reverend James L. Dow in Collins Dictionary of the Bible gives further proof, that JESUS is not like MOSES, but MUHUMMED is like Moses: "AS A STATESMAN AND LAWGIVER MOSES IS THE CREATOR OF THE JEWISH PEOPLE. HE FOUND A LOOSE CONGLOMERATION OF SEMITIC PEOPLE, NONE OF ......
*Also in "THE ENCYCLOPAEDIA OF RELIGION", Moses is looked upon in the different traditions. Under Moses in Islam; we read
"MOSES IS HIGHLY REGARDED IN ISLAM AS THE GREAT PROPHET WHO FORETOLD THE COMING OF MUHAMMAD, HIS SUCCESSOR...THERE IS MUCH IN THE LIFE OF MUHAMMAD THAT IS IMPLICITLY REMINISCENT OF THE MOSES TRADITION. P121, THE ENCYCLOPAEDIA OF RELIGION, Mircea Eliade (EDITOR IN CHIEF)Volume 10, Macmillean Publishing Company
In conclusion, I end with a quotation of a Christian Reverend the commentator of the Bible, followed by that of his Master:
"THE ULTIMATE CRITERION OF A TRUE PROPHET IS THE MORAL CHARACTER OF HIS TEACHING."(Prof. Dummelow.)
"BY THEIR FRUITS YE SHALL KNOW THEM." (Jesus Christ)
COME LET US REASON TOGETHER
SAY:"O PEOPLE OF THE BOOK! COME TO COMMON TERMS AS BETWEEN US AND YOU: THAT WE WORSHIP NONE BUT GOD; THAT WE ASSOCIATE NO PARTNERS WITH HIM; THAT WE ERECT NOT, FROM AMONG OURSELVES, LORDS AND PATRONS OTHER THAN GOD." IF THEN THEY TURN BACK, SAY:"BEAR WITNESS THAT WE (AT LEAST) ARE MUSLIMS (BOWING TO GOD'S WILL)." (SURA AL-I-'IMRAN) Holy Qur'an 3:64
"PEOPLE OF THE BOOK" is the respectful title given to the Jews and the Christians in the Holy Qur'an. The Muslims is here commanded to invite - "O People of the Book!" - O Learned People! O People who claim to be the recipients of Divine Revelation, of a Holy Scripture; let us gather together onto a common platform - "that we worship none but God", because none but God is worthy of worship, not because "THE LORD THY GOD IS A JEALOUS GOD VISITING THE INIQUITY OF THE FATHERS UPON THE CHILDREN UNTO THE THIRD AND FOURTH GENERATION OF THEM THAT HATE ME." (Exodus 20:25). But because He is our Lord and Cherisher, our Sustainer and Evolver, worthy of all praise, prayer and devotion.
In the abstract the Jews and the Christians would agree to all the three propositions contained in this Qur'anic verse. In practice they fail. Apart from doctrinal lapses from the unity of the One True God, (ALLAH Subhanahu wa ta-ala) there is the question of a consecrated Priesthood (among the Jews it was hereditary also), as if a mere human being - Cohen or Pope, or Priest, or Brahman, - could claim superiority apart from his learning and the purity of his life, or could stand between man and God in some special sense. ISLAM DOES NOT RECOGNISE PRIESTHOOD!
The Creed of Islam is given to us here in a nutshell from Holy Qur'an:
Say ye: "We believe in Allah, And the revelation given to us, And to Abraham, Isma'il, Isaac, Jacob, and the Tribes, And that given to Moses and Jesus And that given to (all) Prophets from their Lord: We make no difference Between one and another of them: And we bow to Allah (in Islam)."
(SURA BAQARA) Holy Qur'an 2:136.
The Muslim position is clear. The Muslim does not claim to have a religion peculiar to himself. Islam is not a sect or an ethnic religion. In its view all Religion is one, for the Truth is one. IT WAS THE SAME RELIGION PREACHED BY ALL THE EARLIER PROPHETS. (Holy Qur'an 42:13). It was the truth taught by all the inspired Books. In essence it amounts to a consciousness of the Will and Plan of God and a joyful submission to that Will and Plan. IF ANYONE WANTS A RELIGION OTHER THAN THAT, HE IS FALSE TO HIS OWN NATURE, AS HE IS FALSE TO GOD'S WILL AND PLAN. Such a one cannot expect guidance, for he has deliberately renounced guidance.
BACK TO THE DEEDAT PAGEWWW.JAMAAT.NET
A lecture by Ahmed Deedat
SAY: "DO YOU SEE ? WHETHER THIS MESSAGE BE FROM ALLAH (God Almighty), AND YET YOU REJECT IT, AND A WITNESS FROM AMONG THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL1 BORE WITNESS OF ONE LIKE HIM......."
(SURA AHQAF) Holy Qur'an 46:10.
1. This refers to Moses. See Yusuf Ali's commentaries Nos. 4783/4 to this verse.
Mr.Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen, The subject of this evening's talk* - "What the BIBLE says about MUHAMMAD (Peace be upon him)" - will no doubt come as a surprise to many of you because the speaker is a Muslim. How does it come about that a Muslim happens to be expounding prophecies from the Jewish and Christian Scriptures ? As a young man, about 30 years ago, I attended a series of religious lectures by a Chriatian theologian, a certain Rev. Hiten, at the "Theatre Royal", Durban in South Africa.
* This is the text of a lecture delivered by the author in the early 1970's.
Pope or Kissinger? This Reverend gentleman was expounding Biblical prophecies. He went on to prove that the Christian Bible foretold the rise of Soviet Russia, and the Last Days. At one stage he went to the extent of proving that his Holy Book did not leave even the Pope out of its predictions. He expatiated vigorously in order to convince his audience that the "Beast 666" mentioned in the Book of Revelation the last book of the New Testament was the POPE, who was the Vicar of Christ on earth. It is not befitting for us Muslims to enter into this controversy between the Roman Catholics and the Protestants. By the way, the latest Christian exposition of the "Beast 666" of the Christian Bible is Dr.Henry Kissinger1. Christian scholars are ingenious and indefatigable in their efforts to prove their case. Rev. Hiten's lectures led me to ask that if the Bible foretold so many things - not even excluding the "Pope" and "Israel" - then surely it must have something to say about the greatest benefactor of mankind2, the Holy Prophet Muhammed (may the peace of Allah be upon him).
As a youngster I set out to search for an answer. I met priest after priest, attended lectures, and read everything that I could lay my hands relating to the fields of Bible prophecies. Tonight I am going to narrate to you one of these interviews with a dominee3 of the Dutch Reformed Church.
1. Christian exegesists give progressive numerical values by sixes, to the English alphabet and add up to get the total 666. i.e.A=6,B=12,C=18, D=24 and so on. Progression by 6's because the number of the Beast in the Bible is "666". Try it for Dr.Kissinger.
2. The writer has just delivered another talk in the City Hall, Durban on the 10th December, 1975 on the subject "Muhummed the Greatest".
3. "Dominee" is the Afrikaans equivalent of priest, parson and predikant.
Lucky ThirteenI was invited to the Transvaal1 to deliver a talk on the occasion of Birthday celebration of the Holy Prophet Muhammed. Knowing that in that province of the Republic, the Afrikaans language is widely spoken, even by my own people, I felt that I ought to acquire a smattering of this language so a s to feel a little "at home" with the people. I opened the telephone directory and began phoning the Afrikaans-speaking Churches. I indicated my purpose to the priests that I was interested in having a dialogue with them, but they all refused my request with "Plausible" excuses. No.13 was my lucky number. The thirteenth call brought me pleasure and relief. A dominee Van Heerden agreed to meet me at his home on the Saturday afternoon that I was to leave for Transvaal.
He received me on his verandah with a friendly welcome. He said if I did not mind, he would like his father-in-law from the Free State (a 70 year old man) to join us in the discussion. I did not mind. The three of us settled down in the dominee's library.
1. One of the Provinces of the Republic of South Africa.
Why nothing? I posed the question: "What does the Bible say about Muhummed?" Without hesitation he answered, "Nothing!" I asked: "Why nothing? According to your interpretation the Bible have so many things to say about the rise of Soviet Russia and about the Last Days and even about the Pope of the Roman Catholics?" He said, "Yes, but there was nothing about Muhummed!" I asked again, "Why nothing? Surely this man Muhummed who had been responsible for the bringing into being a world-wide community of millions of Believers who, on his authority, believe in: (1) the miraculous birth of Jesus, (2) that Jesus is the Messiah,1 (3) that he gave life to the dead by God's permission, and that he healed those born blind and the lepers by God's permission.
Surely this book (the Bible) must have something to say about this great Leader of men who spoke so well of Jesus and his mother Mary?" (Peace be upon them both).
The old man from the Free State replied. "My son, I have been reading the Bible for the past 50 years, and if there was any mention of him, I would have known it."
1. The word "Messiah" comes from the Arabic and Hebrew word masaha which means to rub, to massage, to annoint. The religious significance is "the one who is anointed" - priests and kings were anointed in consecration to their offices. Messiah translated Christ does not mean God. Even the heathen Cyrus is called "Christ" in the Bible, (Isaiah 45:1)
Not One by name! I enquired: "According to you, are there not hundreds of prophecies regarding the coming of Jesus in the Old Testament." The dominee interjected: "Not hundreds, but thousands!" I said, "I am not going to dispute the 'thousand and one' prophecies in the Old Testament regarding the coming of Jesus Christ, because the whole Muslim-world has already accepted him without the testimony of any Biblical prophecy. We Muslims have accepted the de facto Jesus on the authority of Muhummed alone, and there are in the world today no less than 900,000,0001 followers of Muhummed who love, respect and revere this great Messenger of God -Jesus Christ- without having the Christians to convince them by means of their Biblical dialectics. Out of the 'thousands' of prophecies referred to, can you please give me just one single prophecy where Jesus is mentioned by name? The term 'Messiah', translated as 'Christ', is not a name but a title. Is there a single Prophecy where it says that the name of the Messiah will be JESUS, and that his mother's name will be MARY, that his supposed father will be JOSEPH THE CARPENTER; that he will be born in the reign of HEROD THE KING, etc. etc.? No! There are no such details! Then how can you conclude that those 'thousand' Prophecies refer to Jesus (Peace be upon him)?"
1. This was first written in 1976.
What is Prophecy? The dominee replied: "You see, prophecies are word-pictures of something that is going to happen in the future. When that thing actually comes to pass, we see vividly in these prophecies the fulfilment of what had been predicted in the past." I said: "What you actually do is that you deduce, you reason, you put two and two together." He said: "Yes." I said: "If this is what you have to do with a 'thousand' prophecies to justify your claim with regards to the genuineness of Jesus, why should we not adopt the very same system for Muhummed?"1 The dominee agreed that it was a fair proposition , a reasonable way of dealing with the problem.
I asked him to open up Deuteronomy, chapter 18, verse 18, which he did. I read from memory the verse in Afrikaans, because this was my purpose in having a little practice with the language of the ruling race in South Africa.2
'N PROFEET SAL EK VIR HULLE VERWEK UIT DIE MIDDE VAN HULLE BROERS, SOOS JY IS, EN EK SAL MY WOORDE IN SY MOND LE, EN HY SY SAL AAN HULLE SE ALLE WAT EK HOM BEVEEL. Deut.18: 18.
The English translation reads as follows:-
"I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee, and I will put my words in his mouth; and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him."
(HOLY BIBLE) Deuteronomy 18:18.
1. Muhummed is mentioned by name in the Song of Solomon 5:16. The Hebrew word used there is Muhammuddim. The end letters IM is plural of respect majesty and grandeur. Minus "im" the name would be Muhamud translated as "altogether lovely" in the Authorised Version of the Bible or 'The Praised One' 'the one worthy of Praise' i.e. MUHUMMED!(P.B.U.H)
2. If this booklet is translated into any language, please change the Afrikaans words into the local dialect; and do not try a free hand translation of the Biblical quotation. Obtain a Bible in the language in which translation is being made and transcribe exactly as the words occur in that Bible.
Prophet Like Moses Having recited the verse in Afrikaans, I apologised for my uncertain pronunciation, The dominee assured me that I was doing fine. I enquired: "To whom does this prophecy refer?" Without the slightest hesitation he answered: "JESUS!" I asked: "Why Jesus?... his name is not mentioned here." The dominee replied: "Since prophecies are word-pictures of something that is going to happen in the future, we find that the wordings of this verse adequately describe him. You see the most important words of this prophecy are 'SOOS JY IS' (like unto thee), - LIKE YOU - like Moses, and Jesus is like Moses. I questioned: "In which way is Jesus like Moses?" The answer was: "In the first place Moses was a JEW and Jesus was also a JEW; secondly, Moses was a PROPHET and Jesus was also a PROPHET - therefore Jesus is like Moses and that is exactly what God had foretold Moses - "SOOS JY IS". "Can you think of any other similarities between Moses and Jesus?" I asked. The dominee said that he could not think of any. I replied: "If these are the only two criteria for discovering a candidate for this prophecy of Deuteronomy 18:18, then in that case the criteria could fit any one of the following Biblical personages after Moses:- Solomon, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Malachi, John the Baptist etc., because they were also ALL "Jews" as well as "Prophets". Why should we not apply this prophecy to any one of these prophets, and why only to Jesus? Why should we make fish of one and fowl of another?" The dominee had no reply. I continued: "You see, my conclusions are that Jesus is most unlike Moses, and if I am wrong I would like you to correct me."
Three Unlikes So saying, I reasoned with him:
"In the FIRST place Jesus is not like Moses, because, according to You - 'JESUS IS A GOD', but Moses is not God. Is this true?" He said: "Yes." I said: "Therefore, Jesus is not like Moses!
"SECONDLY, according to You - 'JESUS DIED FOR THE SINS OF THE WORLD', but Moses did not have to die for the sins of the world. Is this true?" He again said: "Yes." I said: "Therefore Jesus is not like Moses!"
"THIRDLY, according to You - 'JESUS WENT TO HELL FOR THREE DAYS', but Moses did not have to go there. Is this true?" He answered meekly: "Y-e-s." I concluded: "Therefore Jesus is not like Moses!"
"But dominee," I continued: "these are not hard facts, solid facts, they are mere matters of belief over which the little ones can stumble and fall. Let us discuss something very simple, very easy that if your little ones are called in to hear the discussion, would have no difficulty in following it, shall we?" The dominee was quiet happy at the suggestion.
CHAPTER TWO
Eight Irrefutable Arguments
Father and Mother (1) "Moses had a father and a mother. Muhummed also had a father and a mother. But Jesus had only a mother, and no human father. Is this true?" He said: "Yes." I said: "DAAROM IS JESUS NIE SOOS MOSES NIE, MAAR MUHUMMED IS SOOS MOSES!" Meaning: "Therefore Jesus is not like Moses, but Muhummed is like Moses!" (By now the reader will realise that I was using the Afrikaans language only for practice purposes. I shall discontinue its use in this narration).
Miraculous Birth (2) "Moses and Muhummed were born in the normal, natural course, i.e. the physical association of man and woman; but Jesus was created by a special miracle. You will recall that we are told in the Gospel of St. Matthew 1:18 ".....BEFORE THEY CAME TOGETHER,(Joseph the Carpenter and Mary) SHE WAS FOUND WITH CHILD BY THE HOLY GHOST." And St.Luke tells us that when the good news of the birth of a holy son was announced to her, Mary reasoned: "...HOW SHALL THIS BE, SEEING I KNOW NOT A MAN? AND THE ANGEL ANSWERED AND SAID UNTO HER, THE HOLY GHOST SHALL COME UPON THEE, AND THE POWER OF THE HIGHEST SHALL OVERSHADOW THEE..." (Luke 1:35). The Holy Qur'an confirms the miraculous birth of Jesus, in nobler and sublimer terms. In answer to her logical question:
" O MY LORD! HOW SHALL I HAVE A SON WHEN NO MAN HATH TOUCHED ME? " The angel says in reply: "EVEN SO: ALLAH CREATETH WHAT HE WILLETH: WHEN HE HATH DECREED A PLAN, HE BUT SAITH TO IT "BE," AND IT IS " 1
(HOLY QUR'AN, 3:47).
It is not necessary for God to plant a seed in man or animal. He merely wills it and it comes into being. This is the Muslim conception of the of birth of Jesus. (When I compared the Qur'an and the Biblical versions of the birth of Jesus to the head of the Bible Society in our largest City, and when I enquired: "Which version would you prefer to give your daughter, the QUR'ANIC version or the BIBLICAL version?" The man bowed his head and answered: "The Qur'anic.") In short, I said to the dominee: "Is it true that Jesus was born miraculously as against the natural birth of Moses and Muhummed?" He replied proudly: "Yes!" I said: "Therefore Jesus is not like Moses, but Muhummed is like Moses. And God says to Moses in the Book of Deuteronomy 18:18 "LIKE UNTO THEE" (Like You, Like Moses) and Muhummed is like Moses."
1. Please open the Holy Qur'an 3:42 and 19:16 where the birth of Jesus is spoken about; read it with the commentry, note the high position which Jesus and his mother occupy in Islam.
Marriage Ties (3) "Moses and Muhummed married and begat children, but Jesus remained a bachelor all his life. Is this true?" The dominee said: "Yes." I said: "Therefore Jesus is not like Moses, but Muhummed is like Moses."
Jesus Rejected by his People (4) "Moses and Muhummed were accepted as prophets by their people in their very lifetime. No doubt the Jews gave endless trouble to Moses and they murmured in the wilderness, but as a nation, they acknowledged that Moses was a Messenger of God sent to them. The Arabs too made Muhummed's life impossible. He suffered very badly at their hands. After 13 years of preaching in Mecca, he had to emigrate from the city of his birth. But before his demise, the Arab nation as a whole accepted him as the Messenger of Allah. But according to the Bible: 'He (Jesus) CAME UNTO HIS OWN, BUT HIS OWN RECEIVED HIM NOT.' (John 1:11). And even today, after two thousand years, his people- the Jews, as a whole, have rejected him. Is this true?" The dominee said: "Yes." I said: "THEREFORE JESUS IS NOT LIKE MOSES, BUT MUHUMMED IS LIKE MOSES."
"Other-Wordly" Kingdom (5) "Moses and Muhummed were prophets as well as kings. A prophet means a man who receives Divine Revelation for the Guidance of Man and this Guidance he conveys to God's creatures as received without any addition or deletion. A king is a person who has the power of life and death over his people. It is immaterial whether the person wears a crown or not, or whether he was ever addressed as king or monarch: if the man has the prerogative of inflicting capital punishment - HE IS A KING. Moses possessed such a power. Do you remember the Israelite who was found picking up firewood on Sabbath Day, and Moses had him stoned to death? (Numbers- 15:13). There are other crimes also mentioned in the Bible for which capital punishment was inflicted on the Jews at the behest of Moses. Muhummed too, had the power of life and death over his people.
There are instances in the Bible of persons who were given gift of prophecy only, but they were not in a position to implement their directives. Some of these holy men of God who were helpless in the face of stubborn rejection of their message, were the prophets lot, Jonah, Daniel, Ezra, and John the Baptist. They could only deliver the message, but could not enforce the Law. The Holy Prophet Jesus (Peace p.b.u.h) also belonged to this category. The Christian Gospel clearly confirms this: when Jesus was dragged before the Roman Governor, Pontius Pilate, Charged for sedition, Jesus made a convincing point in his defence to refute the false charge: JESUS ANSWERED, "MY KINGDOM IS NOT OF THIS WORLD': IF MY KINGDOM WERE OF THIS WORLD, THEN WOULD MY SERVANTS FIGHT, THAT I SHOULD NOT BE DELIVERED TO THE JEWS; BUT NOW IS MY KINGDOM NOT FROM HENCE" (John 18:36) This convinced Pilate (A Pagan) that though Jesus might not be in full possession of his mental faculty, he did not strike him as being a danger to his rule. Jesus claimed a spiritual Kingdom only; in other words he only claimed to be a Prophet. Is this true?" The dominee answered: "Yes." I said: "Therefore Jesus is not like Moses but Muhummed is like Moses."
No New Laws (6) "Moses and Muhummed brought new laws and new regulations for their people. Moses not only gave the Ten Commandments to the Israelites, but a very comprehensive ceremonial law for the guidance of his people. Muhummed comes to a people steeped in barbarism and ignorance. They married their step-mothers; they buried their daughters alive; drunkenness, adultery, idolatry, and gambling were the order of the day. Gibbon describe the Arabs before Islam in his "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire", THE HUMAN BRUTE, ALMOST WITHOUT SENSE, IS POORLY DISTINGUISHED FROM THE REST OF THE ANIMAL CREATION.' There was hardly anything to distinguish between the "man" and the "animal" of the time; they were animals in human form.
"From this abject barbarism, Muhummed elevated them, in the words of Thomas Carlysle, "into torch-bearers of light and learning.' 'TO THE ARAB NATION IT WAS AS A BIRTH FROM DARKNESS INTO LIGHT. ARABIA FIRST BECAME ALIVE BY MEANS OF IT. A POOR SHEPHERD PEOPLE, ROAMING UNNOTICED IN ITS DESERTS SINCE THE CREATION OF THE WORLD. SEE, THE UNNOTICED BECOMES WORLD NOTABLE, THE SMALL HAS GROWN WORLD-GREAT. WITHIN ONE CENTURY AFTERWARDS ARABIA WAS AT GRANADA ON ONE HAND AND AT DELHI ON THE OTHER. GLANCING IN VALOUR AND SPLENDOUR, AND THE LIGHT OF GENIUS, ARABIA SHINES OVER A GREAT SECTION OF THE WORLD. ..." The fact is that Muhummed gave his people a Law and Order they never had before.
As regards Jesus, when the Jews felt suspicious of him that he might be an impostor with designs to pervert their teachings, Jesus took pains to assure them that he had not come with a new religion - no new laws and no new regulations. I quote his own words: 'THINK NOT THAT I AM COME TO DESTROY THE LAW, OR THE PROPHETS: I AM NOT COME TO DESTROY, BUT TO FULFIL. FOR VERILY I SAY UNTO YOU, TILL HEAVEN AND EARTH PASS, ONE JOT OR ONE TITLE SHALL IN NO WISE PASS FROM THE LAW, TILL ALL BE FULFILLED.'(Mathew 5:17-18). In other words he had not come with any new laws or regulation he came only to fulfil the old law. This what he gave the Jews to understand- unless he was speaking with the tongue in his cheek trying to bluff the Jews into accepting him as a man of God and by subterfuge trying to ram a new religion down their throats. No! This Messenger of God would never resort to such fo ul means to subvert the Religion of God. He himself fulfilled the laws. He observed the commandments of Moses, and he respected the Sabbath. At no time did a single Jew point a finger at him to say, 'why don't you fast' or 'why don't you wash your hands before you break bread',which charges they always levied against his disciples, but never against Jesus. This is because as a good Jew he honoured the laws of the prophets who preceded him. In short, he had created no new religion and had brought no new law like Moses and Muhummed. Is this true?" I asked the dominee, and he answered: "Yes." I said: "Therefore, Jesus is not like Moses but Muhummed is like Moses."
How they Departed (7) "Both Moses and Muhummed died natural deaths, but according to Christianity, Jesus was violently killed on the cross.1 Is this true?" The dominee said: "Yes." I averred: "Therefore Jesus is not like Moses but Muhummed is like Moses."
Heavenly Abode (8) "Moses and Muhummed both lie buried in earth, but according to you, Jesus in heaven. Is this true?" The dominee agreed. I said: "Therefore Jesus is not like Moses but Muhummed is like Moses."
1. For a full exposition of this topic, see "CRUCIFIXION OR CRUCI-FICTION?".
CHAPTER THREE
Further Proofs
Ishmael The First Born Since the dominee was helplessly agreeing with every point, I said, "Dominee, so far what I have done is to prove only one point out of the whole prophecy- that is proving the phrase 'LIKE UNTO THEE' - 'Like You' - 'Like Moses'. The Prophecy is much more than this single phrase which reads as follows : "I WILL RAISE THEM UP A PROPHET FROM AMONG THEIR BRETHREN LIKE UNTO THEE......." The emphasis is on the words- "From among their brethren." Moses and his people, the Jews, are here addressed as a racial entity, and as such their 'brethren' would undoubtedly be the Arabs. You see, the Holy Bible speaks of Abraham as the "Friend of God". Abraham had two wives - Sarah and Hagar. Hagar bore Abraham a son - HIS FIRST-BORN- '......And Abraham1 called HIS SON'S name, which Hagar bare Ishmael.' (Genesis 16:15). 'And Abraham took Ishmael HIS SON......" (Genesis 17:23). 'And Ishmael HIS SON was thirteen years old, when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin.'(Genesis 17:25). Up to the age of THIRTEEN Ishmael was the ONLY son and seed of Abraham, when the covenant was ratified between God and Abraham. God grants Abraham another son through Sarah, named Isaac, who was very much the junior to his brother Ishmael.
1. According to the Bible, Abraham's name was Abram before it was changed by God to Abraham.
Arabs and Jews If Ishmael and Isaac are the sons of the same father Abraham, then they are brothers. And so the children of the one are the BRETHREN of the children of the other. The children of Isaac are the Jews and the Children of Ishmael are the Arabs - so they are BRETHREN to one another. The Bible affirms, 'AND HE (ISHMAEL) SHALL DWELL IN THE PRESENCE OF ALL HIS BRETHREN.' (Genesis 16:12). 'AND HE (ISHMAEL) DIED IN THE PRESENCE OF ALL HIS BRETHREN.(Genesis 25:18). The children of Isaac are the brethren of the Ishmaelites. In like manner Muhummed is from among the brethren of the Israelites because he was a descendant of Ishmael the son of Abraham. This exactly as the prophecy has it- 'FROM AMONG THEIR BRETHREN'.(Deut.18:18). There the prophecy distinctly mentions that the coming prophet who would be like Moses, must arise NOT from the 'children of Israel' or from 'among themselves', but from among their brethren. MUHUMMED THEREFORE WAS FROM AMONG THEIR BRETHREN!
Words in the Mouth "The prophecy proceeds further:'.......AND I WILL PUT MY WORDS INTO HIS MOUTH.......' What does it mean when it is said 'I will put my words in your mouth'? You see, when I asked you (the dominee) to open Deuteronomy chapter 18, verse 18, at the beginning, and if I had asked you to read, and if you had read: would I be putting my words into your mouth?" The dominee answered: "No." "But," I continued: "If I were to teach you a language like Arabic about which you have no knowledge, and if I asked you to read or repeat after me what I utter i.e.
( I read them in Arabic )
Would I not be putting these unheard words of a foreign tongue which you utter, into your mouth?" The dominee agreed that it was indeed so. In an identical manner, I said, the words of the Holy Qur'an, the Revelation vouchsafed by the Almighty God to Muhummed, were revealed.
History tells us that Muhummed was forty years of age. He was in a cave some three miles north of the City of Mecca. It was the 27th night of the Muslim month of Ramadaan. In the cave the Archangel Gabriel commands him in his mother tongue: 'IQRA' which means READ! or PROCLAIM! or RECITE! Muhummed is terrified and in his bewilderment replies " MA ANA BEQARA which means I AM NOT LEARNED! The angel commands him a second time with the same result. For the third time the angel continues.
Now Muhummed, grasps, that what was required of him was to repeat! to rehearse! And he repeats the words as they were put into his mouth:
These are the first five verses which were revealed to Muhummed which now occupy the beginning of the 96th chapter of the Holy Qur'an.
The Faithful Witness Immediately the angel had departed, Muhummed rushed to his home. Terrified and sweating all over he asked his beloved wife Khadija to 'cover him up!' He lay down, and she watched by him. When he had regained his composure, he explained to her what he had seen and heard. She assured him of her faith in him and that Allah would not allow any terrible thing to happen to him. Are these the confessions of an impostor? Would impostors confess that when an angel of the Lord confronts them with a Message from on High, they get fear-stricken, terrified, and sweating all over, run home to their wives? Any critic can see that his reactions and confessions are that of an honest, sincere man, the man of Truth- 'AL-AMIN' - THE Honest, the Upright, the Truthful.
During the next twenty-three years of his prophetic life, words were 'Put into his mouth', and he uttered them. They made an indeliable impression on his heart and mind: and as the volume of the Sacred Scripture (Holy Qur'an) grew, they were recorded on palm-leaf fibre, on skins and on the shoulder-blades of animals; and in the hearts of his devoted disciples. Before his demise these words were arranged according to his instructions i n the order in which we find them today in the Holy Qur'an.
The words (revelation) were actually put into his mouth, exactly as foretold in the prophecy under discusion: 'AND I WILL PUT MY WORDS IN HIS MOUTH.' (Deut. 18:18).
Un-lettered Prophet Muhummed's experience in the cave of Hira, later to be known as Jabal-un Noor - The Mountain of Light, and his response to that first Revelation is the exact fulfilment of another Biblical Prophecy. In the Book of Isaiah, Chapter 29, verse 12, we read: "AND THE BOOK" (al-Kitaab,al-Quran the 'Reading', the 'Recitation') "IS DELIVERED TO HIM THAT IS NOT LEARNED," (Isaiah 29:12) "THE UNLETTERED PROPHET " (Holy Qur'an 7:158) and the biblical verse continues : "SAYING, READ THIS, I PRAY THEE:" (the words "I pray thee", are not in the Hebrew manuscripts; compare with the Roman Catholics' "Douay Version and also with the "Revised Standard Versions") "AND HE SAITH, I AM NOT LEARNED." ("I am not learned." is the exact translation of the Arabic words MA ANA BEQARA which Muhummed uttered twice to the Holy Ghost - the Archangel Gabriel, when he was commanded : IQRAA "READ!").
Let me quote the verse in full without a break as found in the "King James Version," or the "Authorised version" as it is more popularly known "AND THE BOOK IS DELIVERED TO HIM THAT IS NOT LEARNED, SAYING, READ THIS I PRAY THEE: AND HE SAITH, I AM NOT LEARNED." (Isaiah 29:12).
Important note : It may be noted that there were no Arabic Bibles in existence in the 6th Century of the Christian Era when Muhummed lived and preached! Besides, he was absolutely unlettered and unlearned. No human had ever taught him a word. His teacher was his Creator:
Without any human learning, 'he put to shame the wisdom of the learned'."
(12) There are today Arabic Bibles in Fourteen different scripts and dialects for the Arabs alone. See "The Gospels in many tongues".
Grave Warning "See!" I told the dominee, "how the prophecies fit Muhummed like a glove. We do not have to stretch prophecies to justify their fulfilment in Muhummed."
The dominee replied, "All your expositions sound very well, but they are of no real consequence, because we Christians have Jesus Christ the "incarnate" God, who has redeemed us from the Bondage of Sin!"
I asked, "Not important?" God didn't think so! He went to a great deal of trouble to have His warnings recorded. God knew that there would be people like you who will flippantly, light-heartedly discount his words, so he followed up Deuteronomy 18:18 with a dire warning: "AND IT SHALL COME TO PASS, " (it is going to happen) "THAT WHOSOEVER WILL NOT HEARKEN UNTO MY WORDS WHICH HE SHALL SPEAK IN MY NAME, I WILL REQUIRE IT OF HIM. (in the Catholic Bible the ending words are - "I will be the revenger", I will take vengeance from him - I will take revenge!) "Does not this terrify you? God Almighty is threatening revenge! We shake in our pants if some hoodlum threathens us, yet you have no fear of God's warning?"
"Miracle of Miracles! in the verse 19 of Deuteronomy chapter 18, we have a further fulfilment of the prophecy in Muhummed! Note the words-'.....MY WORDS WHICH HE SHALL SPEAK IN MY NAME," In whose name is Muhummed speaking?" I opened Yusuf Ali's translation of the Holy Qur'an, at chapter 114- 'Sura Nas', or Mankind - the last chapter, and showed him the formula at the head of the chapter: and the meaning: "IN THE NAME OF GOD, MOST GRACIOUS, MOST MERCIFUL." And the heading of chapter 113: and the meaning: "IN THE NAME OF GOD, MOST GRACIOUS, MOST MERCIFUL". And every chapter downwards 112 , 111, 110.......was the same formula and the same meaning on every page, because the end SURAS (chapters) are short and take about a page each.
"And what did the prophecy demand?' ......WHICH HE SHALL SPEAK IN MY NAME and in whose name does Muhummed speak? 'IN THE NAME OF GOD, MOST GRACIOUS MOST MERCIFUL.' The Prophecy is being fulfilled in Muhummed to the letter
"Every chapter of the Holy Qur'an except the 9th begin with the formula: IN THE NAME OF GOD, MOST GRACIOUS, MOST MERCIFUL.' The Muslim begins his every lawful act with the Holy formula. But the Christian begins: "In the name of the Father, son and holy ghost.'"1
Concerning Deuteronomy chapter eighteen, I have given you more than 15 reasons as to how this prophecy refers to Muhummed and NOT to Jesus.
1. The Christian theologians are ignorant of even the "name of God. Because "God" is not a name, and "Father" is also not a name. See "WHAT IS HIS NAME?".
CHAPTER FOUR
New Testament Also Confirms
Baptist Contradicts Jesus In New Testament times, we find that the Jews were still expecting the fulfilment of the prophecy of 'ONE LIKE MOSES', refer John 1:19-25. When Jesus claimed to be the Messiah of the Jews, the Jews began to enquire as to where was Elias? The Jews had a parallel prophecy that before the coming of the Messiah, Elias must come first in his second coming. Jesus confirms this Jewish belief:
".......ELIAS TRULY SHALL FIRST COME, AND RESTORE ALL THINGS. BUT I SAY UNTO YOU, THAT ELIAS IS COME ALREADY, AND THEY KNEW HIM NOT,...THEN THE DISCIPLES UNDERSTOOD THAT HE SPAKE UNTO THEM OF JOHN THE BAPTIST." (Matthew 17:11-13).
According to the New Testament the Jews were not the ones to swallow the words of any would-be Messiah. In their investigations they underwent intense difficulties in order to find their true Messiah. And this the Gospel of John confirms: "AND THIS IS THE RECORD OF JOHN,"(the Baptist) "WHEN THE JEWS SENT PRIESTS AND LEVITES FROM JERUSALEM TO ASK HIM, WHO ART THOU? AND HE CONFESSED AND DENIED NOT; BUT CONFESSED, I AM NOT THE CHRIST." (This was only natural because there can't be two Messiahs1 at the same time. If Jesus was the Christ then John couldn't be the Christ!) "AND THEY ASKED HIM, WHAT THEN? ART THOU ELIAS? AND HE SAITH, I AM NOT." (Here John the Baptist contradicts Jesus! Jesus says that John is "Elias" and John denies that he is what Jesus ascribes him to be. One of the TWO (Jesus or John), God forbid!, is definitely not speaking the TRUTH! On the testimony of Jesus himself, John the Baptist was the greatest of the Israelite prophets: "VERILY I SAY UNTO YOU, AMONG THEM THAT ARE BORN OF WOMEN THERE HAS NOT RISEN A GREATER THAN JOHN THE BAPTIST:... "(Matthew 11:11).
We Muslims know John the Baptist as Hazrut YAHYAA Alai-his-salaam (peace be upon him). We revere him as a true prophet of Allah. The Holy Prophet Jesus known to us as Hazrut ISAA Alai-his-salaam (peace be upon him), is also esteemed as one of the mightiest messenger of the Almighty. How can we Muslims impute lies to either of them? We leave this problem between Jesus and John for the Christians to solve, for their "sacred scriptures" abound in discrepancies which they have been glossing over as the "dark sayings of Jesus"(15). We Muslims are really interested in the last questions posed to John the Baptist by the Jewish elite- "ART THOU THAT PROPHET? AND HE ANSWERED, NO." (John 1:21)
1. The Jews were expecting a single Messiah not two.
2. See the "TIMES" Magazine December 30th, 1974, article "How true is the Bible?" And also see "50,000 Errors in the Bible?" a reproduction from the Christian Magazine "AWAKE!" September 8, 1957.
Three Questions! Please note that three different and distinct questions were posed to John the Baptist and to which he gave three emphatic "NO'S" as answers. To recapitulate:- 1) ART THOU THE CHRIST? 2) ART THOU ELIAS? 3) ART THOU THAT PROPHET?
But the learned men of Christendom somehow only see two questions implied here. To make doubly clear that the Jews definitely had T-H-R-E-E separate prophecies in their minds when they were interrogating John the Baptist, let us read the remonstrance of the Jews in the verses following:
"AND THEY ASKED HIM, AND SAID UNTO HIM, WHY BAPTIZEST THOU THEN, IF THOU BE a) NOT THAT CHRIST, b) NOR ELIAS, c) NEITHER THAT PROPHET?" (John 1:25)
The Jews were waiting for the fulfilment of THREE distinct prophecies: One, the coming of CHRIST. Two the coming of ELIAS, and Three, the coming of THAT PROPHET.
"That Prophet" If we look up any Bible which has a concordance or cross-references, the we will find in the marginal note where the words "the Prophet", or "that Prophet" occur in John 1:25, that these words refer to the prophecy of Deuteronomy 18:15 and 18. And that 'that prophet' - 'the prophet like Moses' - "LIKE UNTO THEE", we have proved through overwhelming evidence that he was MUHUMMED and not Jesus!
We Muslims are not denying that Jesus was the "Messiah", which word is translated as "Christ".1 We are not contesting the "thousand and one prophecies" which the Christians claim abound in the Old Testament foretelling the coming of the Messiah. What we say is that Deuteronomy 18:18 does NOT refer to Jesus Christ but it is an explicit prophecy about the Holy Prophet MUHUMMED!"
The dominee, very politely parted with me by saying that it was a very interesting discussion and he would like me very much to come one day and address his congregation on the subject. A decade and half has passed since then but I am still awaiting that privilege.
I believe the dominee was sincere when he made the offer, but prejudices die hard and who would like to loose his sheep?
1. How the word Messiah was transmuted to Christ?. See "Christ in Islam"
The Acid Test To the lambs of Christ I say, why not apply that acid test which the Master himself wanted you to apply to any would be claimant to prophethood? He had said: "BY THEIR FRUITS YE SHALL KNOW THEM. DO MEN GATHER GRAPES FROM THE THORNS, OR FIGS FROM THE THISTLES? EVERY GOOD TREE WILL BEAR GOOD FRUIT AND EVERY EVIL TREE WILL BEAR EVIL FRUIT....BY THEIR FRUITS YE SHALL KNOW THEM. (Matthew 7:16-20).
Why are you afraid to apply this test to the teachings of Muhummed? You will find in the Last Testament of God - the Holy Qur'an - the true fulfilment of the teachings of Moses and Jesus which will bring to the world the much-needed peace and happiness. "IF A MAN LIKE MOHAMED WERE TO ASSUME THE DIC TATORSHIP OF THE MODERN WORLD, HE WOULD SUCCEED IN SOLVING ITS PROBLEMS THAT WOULD BRING IT THE MUCH NEEDED PEACE AND HAPPINESS." (George Bernard Shaw)
The Greatest! The Weekly Newsmagazine "TIME" dated July 15, 1974, carried a selection of opinions by various historians, writers, military men, businessmen and others on the subject: "Who Were History's Great Leaders?" Some said that it was Hitler; others said - Gandhi, Buddha, Lincoln and the like. But Jules Masserman, a United States psychoanalyst put the standards straight by giving the correct criteria wherewith to judge. He said: "LEADERS MUST FULFIL THREE FUNCTIONS:- (1) Provide for the well-being of the led, (2) Provide a social organization in which people feel relatively secure and (3) Provide them with one set of beliefs."
With the above three criteria he searches history and analyses - Hitler, Pasteur, Gaesar, Moses, Confucius and the lot, and ultimately concludes:
"PEOPLE LIKE PASTEUR AND SALK ARE LEADERS IN THE FIRST SENSE. PEOPLE LIKE GANDHI AND CONFUCIUS, ON ONE HAND, AND ALEXANDER, CAESAR AND HITLER ON THE OTHER, ARE LEADERS IN THE SECOND AND PERHAPS THE THIRD SENSE. JESUS AND BUDDHA BELONG IN THE THIRD CATEGORY ALONE. PERHAPS THE GREATEST LEADER OF ALL TIMES WAS MOHAMMED, WHO COMBINED ALL THREE FUNCTIONS. To a lesser degree, MOSES DID THE SAME."
According to the objective standards set by the Professor of the Chicago University, whom I believe to be Jewish, - JESUS and BUDDHA are now - here in the picture of the "Great Leaders of Mankind", but by a queer coincidence groups Moses and Muhummed together thus adding further weight to the argument that JESUS is not like MOSES, but MUHUMMED is like MOSES: Deut.18:18 "LIKE UNTO THEE" - Like MOSES!
Reverend James L. Dow in Collins Dictionary of the Bible gives further proof, that JESUS is not like MOSES, but MUHUMMED is like Moses: "AS A STATESMAN AND LAWGIVER MOSES IS THE CREATOR OF THE JEWISH PEOPLE. HE FOUND A LOOSE CONGLOMERATION OF SEMITIC PEOPLE, NONE OF ......
*Also in "THE ENCYCLOPAEDIA OF RELIGION", Moses is looked upon in the different traditions. Under Moses in Islam; we read
"MOSES IS HIGHLY REGARDED IN ISLAM AS THE GREAT PROPHET WHO FORETOLD THE COMING OF MUHAMMAD, HIS SUCCESSOR...THERE IS MUCH IN THE LIFE OF MUHAMMAD THAT IS IMPLICITLY REMINISCENT OF THE MOSES TRADITION. P121, THE ENCYCLOPAEDIA OF RELIGION, Mircea Eliade (EDITOR IN CHIEF)Volume 10, Macmillean Publishing Company
In conclusion, I end with a quotation of a Christian Reverend the commentator of the Bible, followed by that of his Master:
"THE ULTIMATE CRITERION OF A TRUE PROPHET IS THE MORAL CHARACTER OF HIS TEACHING."(Prof. Dummelow.)
"BY THEIR FRUITS YE SHALL KNOW THEM." (Jesus Christ)
COME LET US REASON TOGETHER
SAY:"O PEOPLE OF THE BOOK! COME TO COMMON TERMS AS BETWEEN US AND YOU: THAT WE WORSHIP NONE BUT GOD; THAT WE ASSOCIATE NO PARTNERS WITH HIM; THAT WE ERECT NOT, FROM AMONG OURSELVES, LORDS AND PATRONS OTHER THAN GOD." IF THEN THEY TURN BACK, SAY:"BEAR WITNESS THAT WE (AT LEAST) ARE MUSLIMS (BOWING TO GOD'S WILL)." (SURA AL-I-'IMRAN) Holy Qur'an 3:64
"PEOPLE OF THE BOOK" is the respectful title given to the Jews and the Christians in the Holy Qur'an. The Muslims is here commanded to invite - "O People of the Book!" - O Learned People! O People who claim to be the recipients of Divine Revelation, of a Holy Scripture; let us gather together onto a common platform - "that we worship none but God", because none but God is worthy of worship, not because "THE LORD THY GOD IS A JEALOUS GOD VISITING THE INIQUITY OF THE FATHERS UPON THE CHILDREN UNTO THE THIRD AND FOURTH GENERATION OF THEM THAT HATE ME." (Exodus 20:25). But because He is our Lord and Cherisher, our Sustainer and Evolver, worthy of all praise, prayer and devotion.
In the abstract the Jews and the Christians would agree to all the three propositions contained in this Qur'anic verse. In practice they fail. Apart from doctrinal lapses from the unity of the One True God, (ALLAH Subhanahu wa ta-ala) there is the question of a consecrated Priesthood (among the Jews it was hereditary also), as if a mere human being - Cohen or Pope, or Priest, or Brahman, - could claim superiority apart from his learning and the purity of his life, or could stand between man and God in some special sense. ISLAM DOES NOT RECOGNISE PRIESTHOOD!
The Creed of Islam is given to us here in a nutshell from Holy Qur'an:
Say ye: "We believe in Allah, And the revelation given to us, And to Abraham, Isma'il, Isaac, Jacob, and the Tribes, And that given to Moses and Jesus And that given to (all) Prophets from their Lord: We make no difference Between one and another of them: And we bow to Allah (in Islam)."
(SURA BAQARA) Holy Qur'an 2:136.
The Muslim position is clear. The Muslim does not claim to have a religion peculiar to himself. Islam is not a sect or an ethnic religion. In its view all Religion is one, for the Truth is one. IT WAS THE SAME RELIGION PREACHED BY ALL THE EARLIER PROPHETS. (Holy Qur'an 42:13). It was the truth taught by all the inspired Books. In essence it amounts to a consciousness of the Will and Plan of God and a joyful submission to that Will and Plan. IF ANYONE WANTS A RELIGION OTHER THAN THAT, HE IS FALSE TO HIS OWN NATURE, AS HE IS FALSE TO GOD'S WILL AND PLAN. Such a one cannot expect guidance, for he has deliberately renounced guidance.
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BASIC BELIEF BETWEEN ISLAM AND CHRISTIANITY
Basic Beliefs: Christian versus Muslim
Belief in
What Christians Believe
What Muslims Believe
God
God is three gods merged into one God. This one God is called a Trinity. However, to say that God is three is a blasphemy of the highest order. All three parts of the Trinity are "coequal" "co-eternal" and "the same substance." For this reason, this doctrine is described as "a mystery."
God is one God in the most basic, simple, and elementary meaning of the word. He has no children, no parents nor any equal. In Islam God is known by the name "Allah" and more than 99 other venerated names, such as "the Merciful," "the Gracious," "the All-Powerful," etc.
Jesus
The second member of the Triune God, the Son of the first part of the Triune God, and at the same time "fully" God in every respect.
A very elect and highly esteemed messenger of God. No Muslim is a Muslim if he does not believe this.
The Holy Spirit
The third member of the Triune God, but also "fully" God in every respect.
He is the angel Gabriel. The angel Gabriel is highly esteemed as the "Trustworthy Spirit"
Mary the mother of Jesus
A chaste and pious human woman who gave birth to Jesus Christ, the second member of the Trinity, the Son of God, and at the same time "fully" God Almighty in every respect.
A chaste and pious human woman who was chosen, purified, and preferred over all of the women of creation to be the one to give birth to Gods elect messenger Jesus through the command of God without any father whatsoever.
The Word
Part of God which was "with" God but also "fully" God and then became Jesus the Son of God.
God's command "Be!" which resulted in Jesus' conception in the womb of Mary without the need for a human father.
Previous prophets
All accepted, respected, and believed.
All accepted, respected, and believed.
The Bible
Accepted as 100% the faultless word of God
Muslims believe in the books of the previous prophets including the "Torah" which was sent to Moses, the "Zaboor" (Psalms) which were given to David, the "Injeel" (Gospel) which was given to Jesus, and the Qur'an which was given to Muhammad However, Muslims are told that the previous scriptures were tampered with by mankind and the Bible should only be accepted in as far as it is confirmed by the Qur'an. It is to be treated with respect, however any statements which clearly oppose those of the Qur'an are to be rejected as the work of mankind.
Muhammad
Varying beliefs. Some believe that he was a liar, some believe he was a lunatic, some believe he was the False Messiah, and yet others claim he was deceived by the Devil.
The last messenger of God to all of humanity. He was known as "The Truthful, the Trustworthy" before he received his first revelation. He was sent by God as a mercy to all creation. He was a human being but performed a number of miracles during his lifetime by the will of God.
The Qur'an
Varying beliefs ranging from it being a copy of the Bible to it being the work of Muhammad (pbuh), to it's being the work of Christians and Jews who were conspiring with Muhammad.
The last book of God sent to mankind. It was given the distinction of being personally guarded by God from human tampering. It is on a literary level never before seen by mankind. No Arab to this day has ever been able to meet it's challenge to "write a work similar to it." It shall remain safe from the tampering of mankind till the day of Judgment as a guidance for all Humanity.
Message of Jesus
That he was sent by God (who was at the same time "fully" Jesus) in order to die on the cross and save all mankind from the sin of Adam. Without this sacrifice all of humanity was destined to perish in the sin of Adam. After the crucifixion all that is required of humanity is faith without any works.
That he was sent by God as a messenger to the Jews in order to return them to the pure and true religion of Moses, and to relieve them of some of the regulations which had been placed upon them in ancient times. He taught them to have faith as well as works. Neither one can stand alone.
Jesus' giving life to the dead, healing the blind and the lepers
All accepted. He performed them because he was the Son of God and also at the same time "fully" God and the "incarnation" of God.
All accepted. They were performed through the will of God just as Moses, Noah, and all other prophets did so in ancient times through the will of God.
The crucifixion
Jesus was given over to the Jews. He was spat on, cut, humiliated, kicked, striped, and finally hung up on the cross and killed very slowly and painfully.
Jesus was not forsaken to the Jews to be abused and killed, however, it was "made to appear so to them." God saved Jesus by raising him up unto Himself.
The second coming of Jesus.
Accepted. Originally expected to happen during the lifetime of the first disciples, many predictions have been made later and he is still expected at any moment. He is currently anticipated to arrive around the turn of the century (2000 C.E.)
Accepted. Jesus did not die but was raised up into heaven by God. He shall return to earth just before the Day of Judgment in order to kill the "False Messiah" and to establish peace and justice on earth. He will kill the pigs, break the cross, and call all humanity to Islam.
The original sin
All of humanity has inherited the sin of Adam. Only the death of the sinless offspring of God could erase this sin. No one is born clean, no matter if his life is only for a single day. Only baptism and faith in the death of Jesus can save one from this destiny.
There is no such thing. Humanity is created by God destined for heaven unless they chose to disobey Him and refuse His mercy. God can very trivially and effortlessly forgive the sins of all of Humanity no matter if they were to fill the lofty regions of the sky. Such a matter would be trivial and inconsequential for Him since He has already done much more than that such as creating everything we can ever see, hear or imagine. He loves to bestow His mercy and forgiveness on His creation and rewards the most trivial acts with the most tremendous rewards. In order to achieve God's reward one must have faith as well as works
The atonement
The sin of Adam was so great that God could not forgive it by simply willing it, rather it was necessary to erase it with the blood of a sinless innocent god named Jesus who was also "fully" God.
Adam "atoned" for his sin by saying "My Lord I have sinned and if you do not forgive me and have mercy upon me then I shall indeed have lost." So God forgave him. Similarly, all human beings have the door to forgiveness left open to them by God until the day they die. There are no intermediaries between mankind and God. If they sincerely repent to God, ask His forgiveness, and forsake their evil deeds before their hour comes then He shall forgive them and there is nothing more pleasing to Him than to forgive the sins of one who comes to Him in sincere repentance.
The path to salvation
If you have faith in the atonement of Jesus for the sin of Adam which you have inherited then you shall be saved. You only need faith. No work is necessary.
If you have faith in God, believe in His messengers, and obey His commands then He shall multiply every single good deed that you do many, many times and erase your evil deeds, until on the Day of Judgment His mercy shall cause your good deeds to far outweigh your evil deeds and grant you passage into an ecstasy and Paradise so great that we can not even imagine it, to abide there eternally. In the Hereafter there is only reward and no work.
In this book it will be demonstrated (by God's will), through the words of the Bible and some of history's most eminent conservative Biblical scholars and references only, how most of the founding beliefs of Christianity today were indeed inserted by mankind into the message of Jesus long after his departure. Jesus (pbuh) himself never had anything whatsoever to do with them. These beliefs include:
The "Trinity."
The claim that Jesus (pbuh) is the Son of God in the later "orthodox" sense.
The "original sin" of Adam which mankind is alleged to have inherited.
The "atonement," or death of Jesus (pbuh) on the cross in order to erase this sin of Adam.
The "incarnation" of God in the form of a human being, namely, Jesus (pbuh).
It will further be demonstrated that the true message of Jesus (pbuh) was:
That God is One. He is indivisible. He has no equal.
God has no children nor parents. There is no other god in existence other than God Himself.
Jesus (pbuh) was a human being. He was not God, but only an elect messenger of God.
God does not hold anyone responsible for the sin of anyone else, nor does He forgive the sins of one man by sacrificing another.
God does not give preference to a certain race, color, nation, lineage or anything else above any other. Only a person's individual actions and worship will distinguish them in the eyes of God.
God's justice refuses that any human being bear the sin of any other.
God is a merciful god who bestows His forgiveness without a price or asking for any compensation.
Entering into heaven requires both faith and work. Neither one can stand alone.
Muslims are taught that throughout the ages, God sent messengers to all tribes and nations all over the earth beginning with Adam (pbuh), the first prophet of God as well as the father of humanity. Every time a messenger of God would pass away, his people would begin to fall back on their evil deeds until a few generations later they would have managed to have completely corrupted His original message to them. When God's message was in danger of being completely obliterated by these people, He would chose from among them a new messenger to receive the original, uncorrupted message and convey it to them. Some of them would listen. Others would not. However, the message would always be available for those who wanted it. In this manner, God made sure that all of mankind would always have access to His true religion, no matter where or when they lived. It would then be up to them to seek out this knowledge.
Muslims are further taught that each messenger was sent only to his own people. His message was then fine-tuned to suit them. Thus, the basic message would be the same for all messengers: "God is one!, Worship Him alone!" However, the details of each people's worship would be molded to suit their lifestyle, state of knowledge, and so forth. This was also true for Jesus (pbuh). Jesus was sent specifically to the Jews, and only to the Jews. It shall be demonstrated how one of the most fundamental reasons which led up to the loss of his message was that those who came after him attempted to preach it to those for whom it was never intended, namely, the Gentiles. The Gentiles eventually managed to introduce into the message of Jesus many aspects of their own beliefs which ultimately led up to the loss of the message of Jesus.
This book demonstrates how the diversion of the religion of Jesus (pbuh) from it's original teachings progressed in the following stages:
Jesus (pbuh) came to show the Jews how their religion had been changed from that preached to them by Moses and their previous prophets (pbut).
Jesus (pbuh) called the Jews back to the true religion of God sent down upon their previous messengers. Jesus himself observed every single aspect of the religion of Moses (pbuh) steadfastly and uncompromisingly. He fasted as Moses (pbuh) fasted, he worshipped as Moses (pbuh) worshipped, he refrained from tasting a single pig, he believed in circumcision and himself was circumcised, he observed the Sabbath, never having violated it. He did this up until the crucifixion. It was only after the crucifixion, according to the Bible, that he allegedly returned in "visions" to Paul in order to nullify the law he had spent his whole life upholding. The Bible actually bears witness that during his lifetime, Jesus commanded his followers to follow the religion of Moses (pbuh) and threatened severe retribution from God for all of his followers who would forsake a single aspect of this religion until the end of time (see below).
Jesus (pbuh) departed from this earth and his apostles continued to follow his teachings religiously. They too followed the religion of Moses (pbuh) as Jesus (pbuh) had done before them and commanded them to do. For the first three decades after the departure of Jesus (pbuh), the followers of Jesus would merely be Jews who affirmed that Jesus (pbuh) was their promised Messiah. For the first three decades after the departure of Jesus (pbuh), his followers would continue to worship in the synagogues and Temple of the Jews and observe all of the aspects of the religion of Moses (pbuh) without exception.
Shortly after the departure of Jesus (pbuh), a Jew named Saul of Tarsus persecutes Jesus' followers every way he knows how. By his own admission, he does his utmost to utterly waste the Church and to wipe the religion of Jesus from the face of the earth and the minds of men. He has never met Jesus (pbuh) in person.
Suddenly Saul claims to be receiving "visions" from Jesus (pbuh). The apostle Barnabas takes him under his wing, and through Barnabas he is accepted by the rest of the apostles. Barnabas then travels with him extensively until his reputation as a persecutor and killer of Christians is replaced with one of a true convert.
Now Saul parts ways with the apostle of Jesus (pbuh), Barnabas, and decides to preach to the Gentiles. He claims that the apostles of Jesus (pbuh) are lazy, misguided, hypocrites. He claims that it was necessary for him to constantly guide the apostles out of their ignorance into the truth of God which he was receiving in his "visions." He openly claims that he learned nothing from the apostles, and every single word he preached was from direct divine inspiration. The neighboring gentiles hated the Jews with such a passion that he found it all but impossible to convince them to accept the Judaism that Jesus (pbuh) practiced his whole life and taught his apostles to carry on after him until the end of time.
Saul readily admits in the Bible in many places that he was willing to do anything without exception in order to convert the gentiles. He claims that everything has been made lawful for him. For this reason, Saul begins to compromise with the pagan gentiles and simplify the religion of Jesus for them in order to make it more appealing to them that they might convert.
Saul continues to compromise with the gentiles and mold the religion of Jesus (pbuh) closer and closer to their established beliefs in order to gain their conversion. In the end, all that he requires of them is "faith" without work. The pagan gentiles he is preaching to worship many "sons of almighty Jupiter or Zeus" and other such gods. Among them are such as Attis, Adonis, Dionysus, etc. They believe that these pagan gods had died for their sins and been resurrected. Saul now explains to them that Jesus (pbuh) was not merely a normal human prophet but a "Son of God" and that this "Son of God" died in atonement for the sins of all mankind. The Gentiles immediately see the parallels and the great degree of similarity with that which they already believe. All they have to do is change a few labels. In this manner, Saul manages to convince the Greeks (and other gentiles) to accept the "religion of Jesus." This is because, unlike the Jews, the religion of the Greeks already accepts "Trinities," and "father gods" and "son gods," and the death of gods, and the resurrection of gods, and the incarnation of gods, and divine savior gods, and the eating of the flesh of gods, and the drinking of the blood of gods...etc. All of these concepts are old news to them. He becomes a great leader among them and is named "Saint Paul."
"Saint Paul" now writes extensively and gains more and more converts.
Once his converts begin to exceed the number of converts to the more strict and demanding religion of the apostles of Jesus (pbuh), they begin to kill the followers of the apostles, persecute them, and burn their Gospels.
The followers of "Saint Paul" are challenged to prove their claims of "son of God," "original sin," ..etc. through the scriptures and prove that Jesus (pbuh) or God had anything to do with them. They cannot. There are too many verses which declare that there is only ONE God in existence and that He does not hold mankind responsible for the sin of any man. Examples of these verses are available to this day (e.g. Isaiah 43:10-11, Ezekiel 18:19-20, Deuteronomy 24:16...etc.). Thus, it becomes necessary for them to recognize that God is a "Trinity" similar to the ancient "Trinities" of the Greeks and Romans so that they can have three Gods but claim that they only worship one. The ancient "Trinities" of Greek philosophy are redefined with new labels and applied to God Almighty in order to define this new doctrine of "three gods in one." Once again, the "Trinity" could not be proven through the Bible, so the Church began to receive divine inspiration from God commanding them to clarify their Bible so that the "Trinity" could be seen clearly (see for example section 1.2.2.5). These "clarifications" would only be discovered by the scholars of Christianity centuries later. They would later provide irrefutable proof of how, when, and by whom these "clarifications" were inserted into the Bible. In the twentieth century, Thirty two conservative biblical scholars of the highest eminence backed by fifty cooperating denominations would justly throw out 1 John 5:7 as a fabricated insertion of the church. Many other fabrications would be discovered by them.
For the first four centuries CE Christianity is split into innumerable sects of countless divergent beliefs. Countless gospels of varying degrees of authenticity begin to spring up. These sects bitterly fight among one another with each one claiming that they alone possess the "true" religion of Jesus and the "true" Gospel. All of these sect vie for the backing of the Roman pagans in order to gain the upper hand over the other sects and silence them once and for all.
In the fourth century CE., the followers of the "Trinity" manage to enlist the aid of the pagan Roman empire. They wield the power of this pagan nation to "cleanse" the earth of the "heretical" and "blasphemous" followers of the apostles. They later launch campaigns of "inquiry" to "convert" them.
"Trinitarian" beliefs are touted as the only truly correct religion of Jesus (pbuh). The writings of Paul are collected and today they form the majority of the books of the new testament. The books of the apostles are burned. They are all labeled "apocryphal" lies. The list of "truly inspired" books of the Bible that we have in our hands today was not officially sanctioned until the year 367C.E. The "Bibles" in the hands of the first three hundred years of Christians was very drastically different than the ones in our hands today. Within the span of a three centuries the Trinitarians manage to "recognize" that all of the books that were considered inspired and divine during the very first centuries CE were indeed all lies and apocrypha. Only those books that were considered apocryphal during these very first centuries CE are now recognized to be canonical, authentic, and divine. Those who are found concealing the original books of the apostles are now burned to death with their books. Paul's followers obtain copies of the Gospels of the apostles. They copy them but with drastic modifications to the doctrine found therein. They claim that the apostles wrote them. These books are attributed to Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. The additions to these books will continue for many more centuries. Only centuries later will Christian scholars begin to see the evidence that the claimed authors did not write these books.
Since the general populace of Christendom is perceived by the Church to be too backward and heathenistic to understand such sacred scriptures, therefore it becomes necessary for the Church to horde the Bible for their own personal use. Anyone who wishes to learn what the Bible says must come to the Church and ask them. The Church then through a combination of divine inspiration and verses of the Bible will tell them what they need to know.
Six hundred years after Christ, Muhammad (pbuh) is born. He follows the religion of Abraham (pbuh) which was handed down to him and all Arabs from the father of the Arabs, Ishmael, the eldest son of prophet Abraham (pbut). Upon reaching the age of 40, God sends the angel Gabriel to Muhammad to teach him His final message, the message of Islam. He tells him that the "people of the book" have changed the religion of Jesus (pbuh) and have altered it from a religion of submission to one God to a religion where multiple gods are being worshipped. He is told that he will be the final messenger, and that his message is to be directed to all of mankind including the Jews and Christians.
The Jews and Christians claim that Muhammad (pbuh) is a liar, a lunatic, deceived by the Devil, and a false prophet. They claim that he has just copied the Bible in order to write his Qur'an. Just as many Jews refused to accept Jesus (pbuh) as a true messenger of God, so too do many Jews and Christians refuse to believe Muhammad (pbuh).
Muhammad (pbuh) passes away. The Trinitarians continue with their burning at the stake any Christian who opposes the "Trinity" or openly speaks about the discrepancies in the Bible. They launch campaigns of "inquiry" to cleanse the earth of all remnants of believers in one (monotheistic) God. They slaughter the Jews at every opportunity. The sentences of death by these inquisitions become so unbounded in their nature that whole nations are sentenced to death. A single holy decree of the Trinitarian church in 1568 would later condemn three million men women and children of the Netherlands to the scaffold as heretics. In the end, over twelve million people were put to death through the authority of the "Inquisitions."
The Church loses its power to the scientists and is pushed into a dark corner. Without the threat of death hanging over their heads, many Christian scholars begin to publish countless books exhibiting detailed examples of contradicting verses and evidence of modification and tampering with the text of the Bible. The ancient manuscripts of the Christian society are studied in detail and slowly, the previous picture begins to come together. Countless excuses are made by the Church and those who's livelihood and power depend on these established beliefs. They now begin to give practically every single verse of the Bible "abstract" meanings. They tell their flock to have blind faith. They convince their flock that they can not understand the Bible without the interpretation and holy inspiration of the Church. They tell their flock that Jesus (pbuh) never means what he says and that every reference he makes to following the religion of Moses (pbuh) is not meant to be taken "literally" but was meant by Jesus (pbuh) to have "hidden" meanings totally in opposition to the obvious meanings. Only they can tell you what these hidden meanings of Jesus (pbuh) were.
Copies of the original Gospels of the apostles of Jesus (pbuh) begin to surface. They are found, of all places, hidden away in the capital of Christianity, the Vatican itself. These Gospels (Such as the "Gospel of Barnabas") confirm the teachings of the Qur'an. Copies of these Gospels have a tendency to disappear mysteriously. They are labels false Gospels and lies written by Muslims. Suddenly, in 1947, the Dead Sea Scrolls are discovered. For close to forty five years, they are hoarded in Israel and hidden from the masses. When they are finally forced out into the open, an amazing discovery is made. They too confirm the Qur'an! They foretell the coming of not one but TWO Messiahs. They claim that these two Messiahs will be announced by an eschatological prophet. The dual prophesy is very clear and prevalent throughout the scrolls. The scrolls claim that the first Messiah will be betrayed by one of his followers but will not be forsaken by God to die, rather, the one who betrayed him shall be taken in his place. The scrolls specifically state that no nail shall touch the Messiah. There is so much in the Dead Sea Scrolls that parallels the teachings of the Qur'an, however, once again it is all explained away with abstract meanings. We are told that the fact that the Jews who lived 100 years before Jesus (the authors of the Dead Sea Scrolls) were expecting TWO Messiahs does not mean that they were expecting two different Messiahs, but rather, they must have been expecting a single Messiah with two different personalities. Thus, we are told, Jesus (pbuh) is BOTH Messiahs. On the other hand, the Jews explain that both prophesies refer to past or future occurrences and neither one could possibly refer to Jesus (pbuh) or Muhammad (pbuh).
Muslims are told that when God created mankind, He gave them "The Choice." They were told that they could either live their lives then die and fade out of the picture, like the animals do. Or they could elect to be held accountable for their actions. If they accepted the accountability, then the potential reward will be great. The potential retribution would be equally great.
With mankind's acceptance of this accountability came their free will. God gave mankind a free will to chose to either worship Him or to disobey Him. Out of God's infinite mercy, He then assisted mankind with many factors in order to guide them to His true path and the ultimate reward. Firstly, He sent the messengers. In this manner, no matter how much mankind tried to corrupt His religion, it would always be available to those who searched for it.
Secondly, He supplied mankind with minds. He gave them these minds in order to be able to distinguish between right and wrong using their intellect. If they see someone worshipping fire, and they see that the fire can not hear their prayers nor answer their calls, then no matter how much these fire-worshippers "spititualize" their worship and tell them of the great miracles the fire has worked for them and how it has answered their prayers, and how it "loves" them, their intellect will refuse to believe these concoctions.
Finally, God gave mankind an inborn sense called in Arabic "Fitrah" (instinct). This "Fitrah" is the small voice inside each one of us which tells us "this doesn't feel right." When we pick up a gun for the first time in order to kill someone, we have to fight mightily in order to overcome our "Fitrah" which tells us that killing is wrong. In a similar manner, all mankind is born automatically knowing that "God is one." They must really fight themselves for a long time and be continually persuaded by those who are around them to believe otherwise. This is how they end up worshipping fire, stones, statues, multiple gods, and other things. It is forced upon them in spite of their "Fitrah" as they grow up.
This book goes back to the arguments of the original apostles. We will start with the "Trinity" and work our way backwards through history. We will see that there is absolutely no basis whatsoever for the "Trinity" in the Bible. Once the "Trinity" has been disproved we will see how the rest of these fabricated beliefs will unravel one by one till we return to the original teaching of Jesus (pbuh). All of this will be done in chapter one. After that, it will be demonstrated how Muhammad (pbuh) was indeed prophesied by both Jesus (pbuh) and the previous prophets, as claimed in the Qur'an over 1400 years ago. I pray that you will find this information illuminating.
NOTE: The above table is taken from the book, "What Did Jesus Really Say". The page was downloaded from http://www.islaam.com/, where the complete text of the book is available on-line.
Belief in
What Christians Believe
What Muslims Believe
God
God is three gods merged into one God. This one God is called a Trinity. However, to say that God is three is a blasphemy of the highest order. All three parts of the Trinity are "coequal" "co-eternal" and "the same substance." For this reason, this doctrine is described as "a mystery."
God is one God in the most basic, simple, and elementary meaning of the word. He has no children, no parents nor any equal. In Islam God is known by the name "Allah" and more than 99 other venerated names, such as "the Merciful," "the Gracious," "the All-Powerful," etc.
Jesus
The second member of the Triune God, the Son of the first part of the Triune God, and at the same time "fully" God in every respect.
A very elect and highly esteemed messenger of God. No Muslim is a Muslim if he does not believe this.
The Holy Spirit
The third member of the Triune God, but also "fully" God in every respect.
He is the angel Gabriel. The angel Gabriel is highly esteemed as the "Trustworthy Spirit"
Mary the mother of Jesus
A chaste and pious human woman who gave birth to Jesus Christ, the second member of the Trinity, the Son of God, and at the same time "fully" God Almighty in every respect.
A chaste and pious human woman who was chosen, purified, and preferred over all of the women of creation to be the one to give birth to Gods elect messenger Jesus through the command of God without any father whatsoever.
The Word
Part of God which was "with" God but also "fully" God and then became Jesus the Son of God.
God's command "Be!" which resulted in Jesus' conception in the womb of Mary without the need for a human father.
Previous prophets
All accepted, respected, and believed.
All accepted, respected, and believed.
The Bible
Accepted as 100% the faultless word of God
Muslims believe in the books of the previous prophets including the "Torah" which was sent to Moses, the "Zaboor" (Psalms) which were given to David, the "Injeel" (Gospel) which was given to Jesus, and the Qur'an which was given to Muhammad However, Muslims are told that the previous scriptures were tampered with by mankind and the Bible should only be accepted in as far as it is confirmed by the Qur'an. It is to be treated with respect, however any statements which clearly oppose those of the Qur'an are to be rejected as the work of mankind.
Muhammad
Varying beliefs. Some believe that he was a liar, some believe he was a lunatic, some believe he was the False Messiah, and yet others claim he was deceived by the Devil.
The last messenger of God to all of humanity. He was known as "The Truthful, the Trustworthy" before he received his first revelation. He was sent by God as a mercy to all creation. He was a human being but performed a number of miracles during his lifetime by the will of God.
The Qur'an
Varying beliefs ranging from it being a copy of the Bible to it being the work of Muhammad (pbuh), to it's being the work of Christians and Jews who were conspiring with Muhammad.
The last book of God sent to mankind. It was given the distinction of being personally guarded by God from human tampering. It is on a literary level never before seen by mankind. No Arab to this day has ever been able to meet it's challenge to "write a work similar to it." It shall remain safe from the tampering of mankind till the day of Judgment as a guidance for all Humanity.
Message of Jesus
That he was sent by God (who was at the same time "fully" Jesus) in order to die on the cross and save all mankind from the sin of Adam. Without this sacrifice all of humanity was destined to perish in the sin of Adam. After the crucifixion all that is required of humanity is faith without any works.
That he was sent by God as a messenger to the Jews in order to return them to the pure and true religion of Moses, and to relieve them of some of the regulations which had been placed upon them in ancient times. He taught them to have faith as well as works. Neither one can stand alone.
Jesus' giving life to the dead, healing the blind and the lepers
All accepted. He performed them because he was the Son of God and also at the same time "fully" God and the "incarnation" of God.
All accepted. They were performed through the will of God just as Moses, Noah, and all other prophets did so in ancient times through the will of God.
The crucifixion
Jesus was given over to the Jews. He was spat on, cut, humiliated, kicked, striped, and finally hung up on the cross and killed very slowly and painfully.
Jesus was not forsaken to the Jews to be abused and killed, however, it was "made to appear so to them." God saved Jesus by raising him up unto Himself.
The second coming of Jesus.
Accepted. Originally expected to happen during the lifetime of the first disciples, many predictions have been made later and he is still expected at any moment. He is currently anticipated to arrive around the turn of the century (2000 C.E.)
Accepted. Jesus did not die but was raised up into heaven by God. He shall return to earth just before the Day of Judgment in order to kill the "False Messiah" and to establish peace and justice on earth. He will kill the pigs, break the cross, and call all humanity to Islam.
The original sin
All of humanity has inherited the sin of Adam. Only the death of the sinless offspring of God could erase this sin. No one is born clean, no matter if his life is only for a single day. Only baptism and faith in the death of Jesus can save one from this destiny.
There is no such thing. Humanity is created by God destined for heaven unless they chose to disobey Him and refuse His mercy. God can very trivially and effortlessly forgive the sins of all of Humanity no matter if they were to fill the lofty regions of the sky. Such a matter would be trivial and inconsequential for Him since He has already done much more than that such as creating everything we can ever see, hear or imagine. He loves to bestow His mercy and forgiveness on His creation and rewards the most trivial acts with the most tremendous rewards. In order to achieve God's reward one must have faith as well as works
The atonement
The sin of Adam was so great that God could not forgive it by simply willing it, rather it was necessary to erase it with the blood of a sinless innocent god named Jesus who was also "fully" God.
Adam "atoned" for his sin by saying "My Lord I have sinned and if you do not forgive me and have mercy upon me then I shall indeed have lost." So God forgave him. Similarly, all human beings have the door to forgiveness left open to them by God until the day they die. There are no intermediaries between mankind and God. If they sincerely repent to God, ask His forgiveness, and forsake their evil deeds before their hour comes then He shall forgive them and there is nothing more pleasing to Him than to forgive the sins of one who comes to Him in sincere repentance.
The path to salvation
If you have faith in the atonement of Jesus for the sin of Adam which you have inherited then you shall be saved. You only need faith. No work is necessary.
If you have faith in God, believe in His messengers, and obey His commands then He shall multiply every single good deed that you do many, many times and erase your evil deeds, until on the Day of Judgment His mercy shall cause your good deeds to far outweigh your evil deeds and grant you passage into an ecstasy and Paradise so great that we can not even imagine it, to abide there eternally. In the Hereafter there is only reward and no work.
In this book it will be demonstrated (by God's will), through the words of the Bible and some of history's most eminent conservative Biblical scholars and references only, how most of the founding beliefs of Christianity today were indeed inserted by mankind into the message of Jesus long after his departure. Jesus (pbuh) himself never had anything whatsoever to do with them. These beliefs include:
The "Trinity."
The claim that Jesus (pbuh) is the Son of God in the later "orthodox" sense.
The "original sin" of Adam which mankind is alleged to have inherited.
The "atonement," or death of Jesus (pbuh) on the cross in order to erase this sin of Adam.
The "incarnation" of God in the form of a human being, namely, Jesus (pbuh).
It will further be demonstrated that the true message of Jesus (pbuh) was:
That God is One. He is indivisible. He has no equal.
God has no children nor parents. There is no other god in existence other than God Himself.
Jesus (pbuh) was a human being. He was not God, but only an elect messenger of God.
God does not hold anyone responsible for the sin of anyone else, nor does He forgive the sins of one man by sacrificing another.
God does not give preference to a certain race, color, nation, lineage or anything else above any other. Only a person's individual actions and worship will distinguish them in the eyes of God.
God's justice refuses that any human being bear the sin of any other.
God is a merciful god who bestows His forgiveness without a price or asking for any compensation.
Entering into heaven requires both faith and work. Neither one can stand alone.
Muslims are taught that throughout the ages, God sent messengers to all tribes and nations all over the earth beginning with Adam (pbuh), the first prophet of God as well as the father of humanity. Every time a messenger of God would pass away, his people would begin to fall back on their evil deeds until a few generations later they would have managed to have completely corrupted His original message to them. When God's message was in danger of being completely obliterated by these people, He would chose from among them a new messenger to receive the original, uncorrupted message and convey it to them. Some of them would listen. Others would not. However, the message would always be available for those who wanted it. In this manner, God made sure that all of mankind would always have access to His true religion, no matter where or when they lived. It would then be up to them to seek out this knowledge.
Muslims are further taught that each messenger was sent only to his own people. His message was then fine-tuned to suit them. Thus, the basic message would be the same for all messengers: "God is one!, Worship Him alone!" However, the details of each people's worship would be molded to suit their lifestyle, state of knowledge, and so forth. This was also true for Jesus (pbuh). Jesus was sent specifically to the Jews, and only to the Jews. It shall be demonstrated how one of the most fundamental reasons which led up to the loss of his message was that those who came after him attempted to preach it to those for whom it was never intended, namely, the Gentiles. The Gentiles eventually managed to introduce into the message of Jesus many aspects of their own beliefs which ultimately led up to the loss of the message of Jesus.
This book demonstrates how the diversion of the religion of Jesus (pbuh) from it's original teachings progressed in the following stages:
Jesus (pbuh) came to show the Jews how their religion had been changed from that preached to them by Moses and their previous prophets (pbut).
Jesus (pbuh) called the Jews back to the true religion of God sent down upon their previous messengers. Jesus himself observed every single aspect of the religion of Moses (pbuh) steadfastly and uncompromisingly. He fasted as Moses (pbuh) fasted, he worshipped as Moses (pbuh) worshipped, he refrained from tasting a single pig, he believed in circumcision and himself was circumcised, he observed the Sabbath, never having violated it. He did this up until the crucifixion. It was only after the crucifixion, according to the Bible, that he allegedly returned in "visions" to Paul in order to nullify the law he had spent his whole life upholding. The Bible actually bears witness that during his lifetime, Jesus commanded his followers to follow the religion of Moses (pbuh) and threatened severe retribution from God for all of his followers who would forsake a single aspect of this religion until the end of time (see below).
Jesus (pbuh) departed from this earth and his apostles continued to follow his teachings religiously. They too followed the religion of Moses (pbuh) as Jesus (pbuh) had done before them and commanded them to do. For the first three decades after the departure of Jesus (pbuh), the followers of Jesus would merely be Jews who affirmed that Jesus (pbuh) was their promised Messiah. For the first three decades after the departure of Jesus (pbuh), his followers would continue to worship in the synagogues and Temple of the Jews and observe all of the aspects of the religion of Moses (pbuh) without exception.
Shortly after the departure of Jesus (pbuh), a Jew named Saul of Tarsus persecutes Jesus' followers every way he knows how. By his own admission, he does his utmost to utterly waste the Church and to wipe the religion of Jesus from the face of the earth and the minds of men. He has never met Jesus (pbuh) in person.
Suddenly Saul claims to be receiving "visions" from Jesus (pbuh). The apostle Barnabas takes him under his wing, and through Barnabas he is accepted by the rest of the apostles. Barnabas then travels with him extensively until his reputation as a persecutor and killer of Christians is replaced with one of a true convert.
Now Saul parts ways with the apostle of Jesus (pbuh), Barnabas, and decides to preach to the Gentiles. He claims that the apostles of Jesus (pbuh) are lazy, misguided, hypocrites. He claims that it was necessary for him to constantly guide the apostles out of their ignorance into the truth of God which he was receiving in his "visions." He openly claims that he learned nothing from the apostles, and every single word he preached was from direct divine inspiration. The neighboring gentiles hated the Jews with such a passion that he found it all but impossible to convince them to accept the Judaism that Jesus (pbuh) practiced his whole life and taught his apostles to carry on after him until the end of time.
Saul readily admits in the Bible in many places that he was willing to do anything without exception in order to convert the gentiles. He claims that everything has been made lawful for him. For this reason, Saul begins to compromise with the pagan gentiles and simplify the religion of Jesus for them in order to make it more appealing to them that they might convert.
Saul continues to compromise with the gentiles and mold the religion of Jesus (pbuh) closer and closer to their established beliefs in order to gain their conversion. In the end, all that he requires of them is "faith" without work. The pagan gentiles he is preaching to worship many "sons of almighty Jupiter or Zeus" and other such gods. Among them are such as Attis, Adonis, Dionysus, etc. They believe that these pagan gods had died for their sins and been resurrected. Saul now explains to them that Jesus (pbuh) was not merely a normal human prophet but a "Son of God" and that this "Son of God" died in atonement for the sins of all mankind. The Gentiles immediately see the parallels and the great degree of similarity with that which they already believe. All they have to do is change a few labels. In this manner, Saul manages to convince the Greeks (and other gentiles) to accept the "religion of Jesus." This is because, unlike the Jews, the religion of the Greeks already accepts "Trinities," and "father gods" and "son gods," and the death of gods, and the resurrection of gods, and the incarnation of gods, and divine savior gods, and the eating of the flesh of gods, and the drinking of the blood of gods...etc. All of these concepts are old news to them. He becomes a great leader among them and is named "Saint Paul."
"Saint Paul" now writes extensively and gains more and more converts.
Once his converts begin to exceed the number of converts to the more strict and demanding religion of the apostles of Jesus (pbuh), they begin to kill the followers of the apostles, persecute them, and burn their Gospels.
The followers of "Saint Paul" are challenged to prove their claims of "son of God," "original sin," ..etc. through the scriptures and prove that Jesus (pbuh) or God had anything to do with them. They cannot. There are too many verses which declare that there is only ONE God in existence and that He does not hold mankind responsible for the sin of any man. Examples of these verses are available to this day (e.g. Isaiah 43:10-11, Ezekiel 18:19-20, Deuteronomy 24:16...etc.). Thus, it becomes necessary for them to recognize that God is a "Trinity" similar to the ancient "Trinities" of the Greeks and Romans so that they can have three Gods but claim that they only worship one. The ancient "Trinities" of Greek philosophy are redefined with new labels and applied to God Almighty in order to define this new doctrine of "three gods in one." Once again, the "Trinity" could not be proven through the Bible, so the Church began to receive divine inspiration from God commanding them to clarify their Bible so that the "Trinity" could be seen clearly (see for example section 1.2.2.5). These "clarifications" would only be discovered by the scholars of Christianity centuries later. They would later provide irrefutable proof of how, when, and by whom these "clarifications" were inserted into the Bible. In the twentieth century, Thirty two conservative biblical scholars of the highest eminence backed by fifty cooperating denominations would justly throw out 1 John 5:7 as a fabricated insertion of the church. Many other fabrications would be discovered by them.
For the first four centuries CE Christianity is split into innumerable sects of countless divergent beliefs. Countless gospels of varying degrees of authenticity begin to spring up. These sects bitterly fight among one another with each one claiming that they alone possess the "true" religion of Jesus and the "true" Gospel. All of these sect vie for the backing of the Roman pagans in order to gain the upper hand over the other sects and silence them once and for all.
In the fourth century CE., the followers of the "Trinity" manage to enlist the aid of the pagan Roman empire. They wield the power of this pagan nation to "cleanse" the earth of the "heretical" and "blasphemous" followers of the apostles. They later launch campaigns of "inquiry" to "convert" them.
"Trinitarian" beliefs are touted as the only truly correct religion of Jesus (pbuh). The writings of Paul are collected and today they form the majority of the books of the new testament. The books of the apostles are burned. They are all labeled "apocryphal" lies. The list of "truly inspired" books of the Bible that we have in our hands today was not officially sanctioned until the year 367C.E. The "Bibles" in the hands of the first three hundred years of Christians was very drastically different than the ones in our hands today. Within the span of a three centuries the Trinitarians manage to "recognize" that all of the books that were considered inspired and divine during the very first centuries CE were indeed all lies and apocrypha. Only those books that were considered apocryphal during these very first centuries CE are now recognized to be canonical, authentic, and divine. Those who are found concealing the original books of the apostles are now burned to death with their books. Paul's followers obtain copies of the Gospels of the apostles. They copy them but with drastic modifications to the doctrine found therein. They claim that the apostles wrote them. These books are attributed to Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. The additions to these books will continue for many more centuries. Only centuries later will Christian scholars begin to see the evidence that the claimed authors did not write these books.
Since the general populace of Christendom is perceived by the Church to be too backward and heathenistic to understand such sacred scriptures, therefore it becomes necessary for the Church to horde the Bible for their own personal use. Anyone who wishes to learn what the Bible says must come to the Church and ask them. The Church then through a combination of divine inspiration and verses of the Bible will tell them what they need to know.
Six hundred years after Christ, Muhammad (pbuh) is born. He follows the religion of Abraham (pbuh) which was handed down to him and all Arabs from the father of the Arabs, Ishmael, the eldest son of prophet Abraham (pbut). Upon reaching the age of 40, God sends the angel Gabriel to Muhammad to teach him His final message, the message of Islam. He tells him that the "people of the book" have changed the religion of Jesus (pbuh) and have altered it from a religion of submission to one God to a religion where multiple gods are being worshipped. He is told that he will be the final messenger, and that his message is to be directed to all of mankind including the Jews and Christians.
The Jews and Christians claim that Muhammad (pbuh) is a liar, a lunatic, deceived by the Devil, and a false prophet. They claim that he has just copied the Bible in order to write his Qur'an. Just as many Jews refused to accept Jesus (pbuh) as a true messenger of God, so too do many Jews and Christians refuse to believe Muhammad (pbuh).
Muhammad (pbuh) passes away. The Trinitarians continue with their burning at the stake any Christian who opposes the "Trinity" or openly speaks about the discrepancies in the Bible. They launch campaigns of "inquiry" to cleanse the earth of all remnants of believers in one (monotheistic) God. They slaughter the Jews at every opportunity. The sentences of death by these inquisitions become so unbounded in their nature that whole nations are sentenced to death. A single holy decree of the Trinitarian church in 1568 would later condemn three million men women and children of the Netherlands to the scaffold as heretics. In the end, over twelve million people were put to death through the authority of the "Inquisitions."
The Church loses its power to the scientists and is pushed into a dark corner. Without the threat of death hanging over their heads, many Christian scholars begin to publish countless books exhibiting detailed examples of contradicting verses and evidence of modification and tampering with the text of the Bible. The ancient manuscripts of the Christian society are studied in detail and slowly, the previous picture begins to come together. Countless excuses are made by the Church and those who's livelihood and power depend on these established beliefs. They now begin to give practically every single verse of the Bible "abstract" meanings. They tell their flock to have blind faith. They convince their flock that they can not understand the Bible without the interpretation and holy inspiration of the Church. They tell their flock that Jesus (pbuh) never means what he says and that every reference he makes to following the religion of Moses (pbuh) is not meant to be taken "literally" but was meant by Jesus (pbuh) to have "hidden" meanings totally in opposition to the obvious meanings. Only they can tell you what these hidden meanings of Jesus (pbuh) were.
Copies of the original Gospels of the apostles of Jesus (pbuh) begin to surface. They are found, of all places, hidden away in the capital of Christianity, the Vatican itself. These Gospels (Such as the "Gospel of Barnabas") confirm the teachings of the Qur'an. Copies of these Gospels have a tendency to disappear mysteriously. They are labels false Gospels and lies written by Muslims. Suddenly, in 1947, the Dead Sea Scrolls are discovered. For close to forty five years, they are hoarded in Israel and hidden from the masses. When they are finally forced out into the open, an amazing discovery is made. They too confirm the Qur'an! They foretell the coming of not one but TWO Messiahs. They claim that these two Messiahs will be announced by an eschatological prophet. The dual prophesy is very clear and prevalent throughout the scrolls. The scrolls claim that the first Messiah will be betrayed by one of his followers but will not be forsaken by God to die, rather, the one who betrayed him shall be taken in his place. The scrolls specifically state that no nail shall touch the Messiah. There is so much in the Dead Sea Scrolls that parallels the teachings of the Qur'an, however, once again it is all explained away with abstract meanings. We are told that the fact that the Jews who lived 100 years before Jesus (the authors of the Dead Sea Scrolls) were expecting TWO Messiahs does not mean that they were expecting two different Messiahs, but rather, they must have been expecting a single Messiah with two different personalities. Thus, we are told, Jesus (pbuh) is BOTH Messiahs. On the other hand, the Jews explain that both prophesies refer to past or future occurrences and neither one could possibly refer to Jesus (pbuh) or Muhammad (pbuh).
Muslims are told that when God created mankind, He gave them "The Choice." They were told that they could either live their lives then die and fade out of the picture, like the animals do. Or they could elect to be held accountable for their actions. If they accepted the accountability, then the potential reward will be great. The potential retribution would be equally great.
With mankind's acceptance of this accountability came their free will. God gave mankind a free will to chose to either worship Him or to disobey Him. Out of God's infinite mercy, He then assisted mankind with many factors in order to guide them to His true path and the ultimate reward. Firstly, He sent the messengers. In this manner, no matter how much mankind tried to corrupt His religion, it would always be available to those who searched for it.
Secondly, He supplied mankind with minds. He gave them these minds in order to be able to distinguish between right and wrong using their intellect. If they see someone worshipping fire, and they see that the fire can not hear their prayers nor answer their calls, then no matter how much these fire-worshippers "spititualize" their worship and tell them of the great miracles the fire has worked for them and how it has answered their prayers, and how it "loves" them, their intellect will refuse to believe these concoctions.
Finally, God gave mankind an inborn sense called in Arabic "Fitrah" (instinct). This "Fitrah" is the small voice inside each one of us which tells us "this doesn't feel right." When we pick up a gun for the first time in order to kill someone, we have to fight mightily in order to overcome our "Fitrah" which tells us that killing is wrong. In a similar manner, all mankind is born automatically knowing that "God is one." They must really fight themselves for a long time and be continually persuaded by those who are around them to believe otherwise. This is how they end up worshipping fire, stones, statues, multiple gods, and other things. It is forced upon them in spite of their "Fitrah" as they grow up.
This book goes back to the arguments of the original apostles. We will start with the "Trinity" and work our way backwards through history. We will see that there is absolutely no basis whatsoever for the "Trinity" in the Bible. Once the "Trinity" has been disproved we will see how the rest of these fabricated beliefs will unravel one by one till we return to the original teaching of Jesus (pbuh). All of this will be done in chapter one. After that, it will be demonstrated how Muhammad (pbuh) was indeed prophesied by both Jesus (pbuh) and the previous prophets, as claimed in the Qur'an over 1400 years ago. I pray that you will find this information illuminating.
NOTE: The above table is taken from the book, "What Did Jesus Really Say". The page was downloaded from http://www.islaam.com/, where the complete text of the book is available on-line.
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