Sunday, March 07, 2010

Confessions of a Muslim terrorist


I was surprised to read an interview with Mosab Hassan Yousef in the Wall Street Journal this weekend. Mosab is a young man who is the son of a prominent leader of Hamas and has converted to Christianity. Here are just a few words from the article. (I have noted the article at the end if you wish to read it in its entirety.) In his words below he said something that really caught my attention. Hassan said, "The problem is not in Muslims," he continues. "The problem is with their God." This is a brilliant insight from a young believer. It's our beliefs about God, whether Christian, Jew or Muslim that will affect how we live, think and interact with the world around us.

A.W. Tozer wrote in Knowledge of the Holy, "What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us. The history of mankind will probably show that no people has ever risen above its religion, and man’s spiritual history will positively demonstrate that no religion has ever been greater than its idea of God. Worship is pure or base as the worshiper entertains high or low thoughts of God."

Here is a portion of the article- "I converted to Christianity because I was convinced by Jesus Christ as a character, as a personality. I loved him, his wisdom, his love, his unconditional love. I didn't leave [the Islamic] religion to put myself in another box of religion. At the same time it's a beautiful thing to see my God exist in my life and see the change in my life. I see that when he does exist in other Middle Easterners there will be a change."
"I'm not trying to convert the entire nation of Israel and the entire nation of Palestine to Christianity. But at least if you can educate them about the ideology of love, the ideology of forgiveness, the ideology of grace. Those principles are great regardless, but we can't deny they came from Christianity as well."
Mr. Yousef says he felt burned out and decided to stop working for the Shin Bet in 2006, against their wishes. He made his way to friends in southern California whom he'd met through bible study.
As the son of a Muslim cleric, he says he had reached the conclusion that terrorism can't be defeated without a new understanding of Islam. Here he echoes other defectors from Islam such as the former Dutch parliamentarian and writer Ayaan Hirsi Ali.
Do you consider your father a fanatic? "He's not a fanatic," says Mr. Yousef. "He's a very moderate, logical person. What matters is not whether my father is a fanatic or not, he's doing the will of a fanatic God. It doesn't matter if he's a terrorist or a traditional Muslim. At the end of the day a traditional Muslim is doing the will of a fanatic, fundamentalist, terrorist God. I know this is harsh to say. Most governments avoid this subject. They don't want to admit this is an ideological war.
"The problem is not in Muslims," he continues. "The problem is with their God. They need to be liberated from their God. He is their biggest enemy. It has been 1,400 years they have been lied to."
These are all dangerous words. Of the threats issued to his life by Islamists, he says, "That's not the worst thing that can happen to you. I'm OK with it, I'm not afraid. . . . Palestinians have reason to kill me. Some Israelis may want to kill me. My goal is not to defeat my enemy. It is to win over my enemy."

This is a portion of an article that appeared in the Wall Street Journal this weekend. If you would like to read the entire article you can find it here.


10 comments:

Kris Sorensen said...

Thank you for sharing that excerpt on your blog. I will have to check out the whole article!

Anonymous said...

Interesting. i hear him saying that he identifies with the principals of Jesus, but nothing real specific. At what point is someones "conversion", legitimzed?

Also, we should probably reckognize that this is one ex-muslims take on Isalm, it doesnt necessarily represent how all Muslims think or feel about God.

Many Muslims have a completely oppsite concept of Allah, forgiving, close, loving, etc...The issue isnt differnt "Gods", the issue is how you approach the one true God.

Mo

Anonymous said...

sorry for the spelling...
Mo

Anonymous said...

Can you respond to my post, i think its worth responding to, if we are all after truth that is.

Mo

Mike Messerli said...

Mo, sure, I'm glad to respond. May I post your comments and then respond?

You- At what point is someones "conversion", legitimzed?

Me- Great question. Scripture tells me that when a person believes they are converted. It's that act of trust in Christ as savior that brings salvation. It's as if I gave you a check for a million dollars, but you don't really demonstrate faith in my gift until you put it in the bank.

You- Also, we should probably reckognize that this is one ex-muslims take on Isalm, it doesnt necessarily represent how all Muslims think or feel about God.

Me- I agree, but that would be true for any religion or lack of religion. I know Muslims that I would call nominal. They have never read the Quran and are Muslim in heritage only.

You- Many Muslims have a completely oppsite concept of Allah, forgiving, close, loving, etc...

Me- Do you know such Muslims? I know many nice Muslims, but if you read the Quran and take it seriously you will not view Allah as forgiving, or close. In fact the Muslim faith says he is distant and unapproachable. Allah does not have the same attributes as the God of the Bible.

You- The issue isnt differnt "Gods", the issue is how you approach the one true God.

Me- I agree completely!

Thanks, Mo, for your comments.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for responding. I do know many Muslims who have an understanding of Allah that's close, loving, compassionate, etc...I have studied the Koran extensively with them and have first hand experiences of interacting with Muslim families. How about you, do you have any firsthand experience with Muslims? And I am not referring to ex-Muslims that have an axe- to grind.

One often quoted verse from the Koran is, "Allah is as close to you as the vein in your neck". That’s a paraphrase, but the point is that much like Christianity, Islam has both transcendent and imminent components of God/Allah. On one hand he is far above and beyond us, his ways are not our ways as you would quote from the Judeo Christian bible. On the other hand, he is within us, close, a loving father, our creator, etc...

The Christian Bible has many stories of Yahweh destroying tribes and nations, or directing the Israelites to do so. But, Christians rationalize these away by saying it had to be done, or that was just for that specific time, or they had their warnings. Well, the Koran has the same stories of Allah directing the people to destroy the infidels, the pagans, etc...Most educated Muslims who know and read their Koran understand that those stories were for that time, and not a directive for all time. It was necessary to preserve his people of faith, just like the Jews had to.

It is very naive to view all Muslims as being enemies to you, as if they want to destroy you because "their God" tells them to. You worship the same god; you just are approaching him from different angles, cultures, and the like. Is your god different than Baptists or from the liberals? Of course not, because there is only one God. you just have different understandings of what that means and looks like.

Within all religions you have extremists, usually those who are uneducated and easily manipulated by those in control. If we took a snapshot in time of the Christian faith and what it means to be Christian, hopefully you wouldn’t want to choose the catholic inquisition time frame.

Hopefully this helps bridge the gap between Christians and Muslims and reduces some misconceptions you hold. It isn’t accurate to assume or encourage others to assume Muslims worship a different tyrannical God than you do.

Mike Messerli said...

Anonymous,

You asked, "How about you, do you have any firsthand experience with Muslims?"

Me- Yes

You write, "It is very naive to view all Muslims as being enemies to you, as if they want to destroy you because "their God" tells them to."

Me- I'm sorry, but I have not said such a thing. I'm not sure where you got this idea, but it didn't come from me.

You continue, "You worship the same god; you just are approaching him from different angles, cultures, and the like."

Me- I disagree completely! We do NOT worship the same God. The God of the Bible is not the God of the Quran. I'm sorry, if you believe that you are not familiar with either religion.

You- "Is your god different than Baptists or from the liberals? Of course not, because there is only one God. you just have different understandings of what that means and looks like."

Me- There is only one God, but not all people believe in the same God. Your Muslim friends would disagree with your comment above.

You- "Hopefully this helps bridge the gap between Christians and Muslims and reduces some misconceptions you hold. It isn’t accurate to assume or encourage others to assume Muslims worship a different tyrannical God than you do."

Me- You said nothing to bridge any gap. There is no gap in my thinking. And, I must tell you I have no misconceptions. I have studied and read extensively in both religions. There are different religions because they believe different things, believe in different Gods. Your closing words are assumptions I never addressed or implied. You close with these words, "It isn’t accurate to assume or encourage others to assume Muslims worship a different tyrannical God than you do." But, they do worship a different God. They claim the same themselves. I did not speak of their religion as tyranical. I simply posted an article by a former Muslim. Quote him if you wish, but don't make his words mine. Anyone who knows the two faiths knows clearly that they do not worship the same God. There is no confusion here, and I will not allow any. The God of the Muslim faith is NOT the God of the Bible. That is clear from both the Quran and the Bible.

Please do not put words in my mouth. You are welcome to comment and I will be glad to respond, but don't quote me as saying something I have not said, ok?

Again, thanks for your comments.

Anonymous said...

Hello,

Islam and Christianity are not nearly as mutually exclusive as you see them to be. This is your viewpoint, based upon your experiences. That is fine, but please understand, one man’s view of the world is just that. I assure you, your view if Islam is not how many Muslims see things. You can’t paint 1 billion people with the same brush. As I noted, there are moderates and conservatives in all things. The moderates in both faiths are vastly more open to each other than where you are coming from.

Today I asked my Muslims friends grandfather what he thought about our dialogue here. He responded with a chuckle, "Why do you argue over details, we are all worshipping the same god because there is only one."

This man is a devout Muslim, he recites the Koran, prays 5 times daily, believes in all the profits, and is from Iran. He left in the 80's when the Ayatollahs took over. We have known each other for years and had a chance to study together, go to each other church, Mosque. Most of the Muslims at the mosque are more open to Christians than the reverse. Muslims worship God and believe in all the profits. Most of them know the bible very well. They believe God has given us all of the Holy Scriptures and the wisdom within should be praised and lived.
You might disagree on the specifics of the details of the godhead, but no one in truth knows that anyway. When you both close your eyes to pray, your spirit knows nothing more than the presence of God, all your concepts of him disappear. In this moment, there is no difference of your religions.


Mo

Mike Messerli said...

Mo,

Ok, here are the closing comments for this discussion. First, it's clear you do not consider my views of value, that's fine, but my views are not based on experience. They are based on knowledge. So, let me close this discussion with some final responses to your last words and then we will be done with this, ok? And, thank you for your comments. It's clear you believe your Muslim friends more than you beleive me, a Christian of more than 45 years. That's ok as well. But, there are some truths that are not debatable and I will try to cover those below. Here we go:

You said, "Islam and Christianity are not nearly as mutually exclusive as you see them to be. This is your viewpoint, based upon your experiences. That is fine, but please understand, one man’s view of the world is just that. I assure you, your view if Islam is not how many Muslims see things. You can’t paint 1 billion people with the same brush. As I noted, there are moderates and conservatives in all things. The moderates in both faiths are vastly more open to each other than where you are coming from."

Me- Mo, they ARE mutually exclusive because they believe different things. Muslims and Christians know this, how come you don't? We believe differently about Jesus. That alone is a big thing. Christians believe Jesus is God in the flesh. Muslims don't. That is big! There are many more that make us mutually exclusive. We believe different things about God as well. This is not up for debate regardless of what you say and this is not just my experience, it's the writings of both the Bible and the Quran.

You- Today I asked my Muslims friends grandfather what he thought about our dialogue here. He responded with a chuckle, "Why do you argue over details, we are all worshipping the same god because there is only one."
This man is a devout Muslim, he recites the Koran, prays 5 times daily, believes in all the profits, and is from Iran. He left in the 80's when the Ayatollahs took over. We have known each other for years and had a chance to study together, go to each other church, Mosque. Most of the Muslims at the mosque are more open to Christians than the reverse. Muslims worship God and believe in all the profits. Most of them know the bible very well. They believe God has given us all of the Holy Scriptures and the wisdom within should be praised and lived.

Me- So, he chuckles? How is that an argument? Yes, there is only one God. I agree. There can be only one God, so here's the issue- Since the God of Christianity is described one way and the God of Islam is described another then one of them is real and the other does not exist. That is the reality of this discussion. The theology of each faith is so different that both God's cannot exist. (Theology means the study of God.) My point here is this- Islam's teaching about God does not describe the God of the Bible, I too know both faiths. I too have studied and prayed. I too am a devout man. Now, Mo, you have two very spiritual devout men who say two different things. Your job is to really study this for yourself and see that the two faiths describe a different God so the only conlcusion is this- one exists and the other does not. That is the point of this. The prophet of Islam told his followers that if they didn't understand something in the Quran they should ask a Christian or a Jew. You are doing that now. I'm a Christian. I'm giving you honest answers and they are not just my opinions.

more below...

Mike Messerli said...

part 2-

You- You might disagree on the specifics of the details of the godhead, but no one in truth knows that anyway.

Me- Excuse me? You are telling me that no one can know about God, yet above you tell me you believe your Muslim friend that told you they are the same? You can't have it both ways. There are things we can know about God. Both the Bible and the Quran tell us about the God of that faith and they are NOT the same. If you don't know that you need to study for yourself.

You- When you both close your eyes to pray, your spirit knows nothing more than the presence of God, all your concepts of him disappear. In this moment, there is no difference of your religions.

Me- I'm sorry, there is a difference, and it does matter. What you think about when you think about God is the most important thought you have. One man's God tells him to blow up innocent people, another man's God tells him to feed the hungry. Their views of God do show a huge difference. One religion says you get to heaven by living a good life and keeping the 5 pillars(Islam). My faith tells me that I get to heaven by faith alone in Christ alone for salvation, not by works, but by grace.

Mo, these 2 faiths are completely different. There is not doubt about that. I am glad you have found some really nice Muslim friends, but do you know there are really nice Christians as well? They worship differently, they beleive differently and the God they believe in is different. Your comments simply show you need to study a little more. I would invite you to read the gospel of John. It will show you one of the big differenced between these two faiths.

Thank you, Mo, for the discussion. It's clear you have not given me the same respect you have your Muslim friends, and that's ok. I understand. You don't know me personally, but I would love to have a good visit some day to discuss this.

For you- do some study of your own. Get a Bible and read the New Testament. You need to know that what your friends have told you is not true. You need to know the difference. Best wishes to you. I will be praying for you.