Is Islam Compatible with Christianity?
The September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States brought the subject of Islam to the forefront of daily conversation. Since that fateful day, there has been a strong effort to establish a politically correct stance that separates the religion of Islam from the radical beliefs of the terrorists. Ecumenical religious services with rabbis, priests and Islamic imams spouting pious platitudes about unity and peace have become commonplace. All are rightly concerned about preventing retaliation against Muslims generally.
Unfortunately, the tendency in these ecumenical meetings is to find the lowest common theological denominator in which the three “great faiths” of Judaism, Christianity and Islam find compatibility, while largely ignoring the militant beliefs of mainstream Islam. Apparently the “sincerity of faith,” “love for fellow human beings,” and “tolerance for those of different religions” is sufficient to cover up the blatantly anti-Christian aspects of Islam. For example, during Desert Storm, Christian chaplains serving with the troops in the Middle East were not allowed to wear their chaplain insignias on their uniforms, lest it offend their Muslim “hosts.”
Historically we know the interdependence between Christianity and Judaism. The tree of Christianity flows out of a Hebrew seed planted on Israel’s soil. Every major tenet of Christianity is an extension of concepts found in the Hebrew Scriptures. However, this interdependence stops when we get to Islam.
Muslims claim to worship the God of the Bible and allude to stories in the Old and New Testament as their own. They acknowledge Noah, Abraham, Moses, even Jesus as true prophets, but according to Islamic teaching, these authentic men of God only serve to prepare the way for God’s final revelation through the prophet Mohammed.
The revelations alleged by Mohammed and their subsequent traditions form the foundation for the Muslim faith. These are recorded in the Muslim holy book, the Quran (Koran), and purport to be God’s corrective to the rampant polytheistic idolatry found among the Arabian population of seventh-century A.D. During that time, Allah was only one of 360 gods honored in the Ka’aba, the famous religious center in the city of Mecca.
Mohammed’s personal religious quest led him to conclude that Allah, the chief moon god of his particular Quraish tribe, was actually the one true God. Mohammed’s faith in Allah gained in prominence through ecstatic seizures, which were believed to be encounters with the angel Gabriel, who supposedly communicated Allah’s revelation to him. Mohammed’s political influence and his use of violence overcame the local opposition to his religious claims and established him as a theocratic leader of his region. His authority was passed down to a number of caliphs who spread his teachings through fear and intimidation.
While claiming compatibility with Judaism and Christianity, the teachings of Islam actually contradict the Bible. Its monotheistic claim that Allah is the one and only true God has no historical or theological basis whatsoever. In addition, the views of the Quran (Koran) clearly teach that Islam is not a religion of conversion but one of coercion. Islam’s treatment of non-believers (called infidels) and women are distinctively contrary to Scripture, and Islam’s discrimination against Christians in predominantly Muslim countries undermines recent claims that Islam is a religion of peace. The willingness of so-called mainstream Islamic countries such a Saudi Arabia to fund homicide bombings against Israel is but one example of Islam’s intention to eradicate non-Muslims.
