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HOW THE MUSLIM WORLD CAME INTO BEING
American Thinker
Jan 9 2014
Raymond Ibrahim
Arabic-language websites reported earlier this week that the
al-Qaeda-linked Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, which throughout
the course of the war against the Assad government has committed
any number of atrocities -- from decapitating "infidels" to burning
churches -- has successfully "forced" two Armenian Christian families
to convert to Islam.
A video accompanies some of these reports. In it, what appears to
be an elderly Armenian man stands alongside an Islamic cleric who
announces the Christian man's conversion to Islam -- to thunderous
cries of "Allahu Akbar!" In his exultation, the cleric makes exuberant
statements like "You see, we have no honor without Islam -- without
crying aloud that 'There is no god but Allah and Muhammad is his
prophet!'" (This appears to be another way of saying, "Only by
joining our winning team can you ever escape dishonor," the lot of
all non-Muslim "infidels.")
The cleric also adds that, because the man is the head of his
household, his Christian wife and children are all now Muslim as
well -- "all praise to Allah!" And if they reject their new Islamic
identity, they become "apostates," a crime punishable by death.
The rather flippant and sarcastic text that accompanies this video
on some websites points out the obvious:
After decades of peaceful coexistence between the various religions
of Syria, and after decades of living under the moderate form of
Levantine Islam ... these two Armenian families were none too keen on
entering Islam or learning of its eminence -- except at the hands of
DAASH [al-Qaeda-linked Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant], which
has been presenting a "rosy" picture of Islam and Muslims, by way
of chopping heads, whipping people, and general repression. Thus did
these two Christian Armenian families finally enter Islam, willingly --
but only at the hands of DAASH.
In other words, it's "curious," to say the least, that Christians who
for generations lived amid moderate Muslim majorities in Syria opted
to remain Christian, are now "suddenly" attracted to Islam -- and at
the hands of a jihadi organization that has been bombing churches,
kidnapping and beheading Christians, and teaching even children to
slaughter Christians wherever they may be found.
Sound like genuine conviction to you? Maybe the 2012 news that "a
family of Armenian Christians was found murdered, and all members of
the family horribly decapitated" in Syria is compelling these Armenian
families into seeing the "wisdom" of embracing Islam?
Here we reach an important but overlooked historical point. While many
Christians, past and present, have indeed willingly embraced martyrdom
-- the sword, death -- rather than recant Christ for Muhammad, the
majority of born Christians, when faced with converting to Islam or
dying, have opted for the former. Indeed, call it a lack of idealism
or a lack of faithfulness, but when faced with converting to Islam or
simply being third-class subjects (dhimmis), throughout the centuries,
countless nominal Christians have opted for the former.
That is precisely how and why the so-called "Islamic world" -- the
majority of which was almost entirely Christian before the Islamic
conquests -- came into being: a fact Westerners were well-acquainted
with, before the current age of political correctness and downright
deceit fell upon us.
Raymond Ibrahim is author of Crucified Again: Exposing Islam's New
War on Christians.
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2014/01/how_the_muslim_world_came_into_being.html
From: Baghdasarian
American Thinker
Jan 9 2014
Raymond Ibrahim
Arabic-language websites reported earlier this week that the
al-Qaeda-linked Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, which throughout
the course of the war against the Assad government has committed
any number of atrocities -- from decapitating "infidels" to burning
churches -- has successfully "forced" two Armenian Christian families
to convert to Islam.
A video accompanies some of these reports. In it, what appears to
be an elderly Armenian man stands alongside an Islamic cleric who
announces the Christian man's conversion to Islam -- to thunderous
cries of "Allahu Akbar!" In his exultation, the cleric makes exuberant
statements like "You see, we have no honor without Islam -- without
crying aloud that 'There is no god but Allah and Muhammad is his
prophet!'" (This appears to be another way of saying, "Only by
joining our winning team can you ever escape dishonor," the lot of
all non-Muslim "infidels.")
The cleric also adds that, because the man is the head of his
household, his Christian wife and children are all now Muslim as
well -- "all praise to Allah!" And if they reject their new Islamic
identity, they become "apostates," a crime punishable by death.
The rather flippant and sarcastic text that accompanies this video
on some websites points out the obvious:
After decades of peaceful coexistence between the various religions
of Syria, and after decades of living under the moderate form of
Levantine Islam ... these two Armenian families were none too keen on
entering Islam or learning of its eminence -- except at the hands of
DAASH [al-Qaeda-linked Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant], which
has been presenting a "rosy" picture of Islam and Muslims, by way
of chopping heads, whipping people, and general repression. Thus did
these two Christian Armenian families finally enter Islam, willingly --
but only at the hands of DAASH.
In other words, it's "curious," to say the least, that Christians who
for generations lived amid moderate Muslim majorities in Syria opted
to remain Christian, are now "suddenly" attracted to Islam -- and at
the hands of a jihadi organization that has been bombing churches,
kidnapping and beheading Christians, and teaching even children to
slaughter Christians wherever they may be found.
Sound like genuine conviction to you? Maybe the 2012 news that "a
family of Armenian Christians was found murdered, and all members of
the family horribly decapitated" in Syria is compelling these Armenian
families into seeing the "wisdom" of embracing Islam?
Here we reach an important but overlooked historical point. While many
Christians, past and present, have indeed willingly embraced martyrdom
-- the sword, death -- rather than recant Christ for Muhammad, the
majority of born Christians, when faced with converting to Islam or
dying, have opted for the former. Indeed, call it a lack of idealism
or a lack of faithfulness, but when faced with converting to Islam or
simply being third-class subjects (dhimmis), throughout the centuries,
countless nominal Christians have opted for the former.
That is precisely how and why the so-called "Islamic world" -- the
majority of which was almost entirely Christian before the Islamic
conquests -- came into being: a fact Westerners were well-acquainted
with, before the current age of political correctness and downright
deceit fell upon us.
Raymond Ibrahim is author of Crucified Again: Exposing Islam's New
War on Christians.
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2014/01/how_the_muslim_world_came_into_being.html
From: Baghdasarian