Brother Mustaq gives a speech from our Wembley Mosque and talks about the fact that Islam is the only religion which explicitly states that there is no compulsion in religion and that we as a people have a choice to make in our lives of who we want to be.
Tag: religion
Is Islam a sensual religion?
There is an age old objection against Islam, which is that Islam is a sensual religion which is just concerned with satisfying carnal desires. We look at the Old and the New Testaments to see what they say about carnal desires. It is shown that Islam merely puts human capacity in all spheres in its proper context. Islam teaches that intimate relations between men and women when carried out in a proper context are not a sin, which is the opposite to what Christianity says.
Franklin Graham: ‘Islam is a religion of war’
In a recent interview on christiantoday.com, Franklin Graham, one of Billy Graham’s children, repeated his assertion that Islam is a “very wicked and evil religion”. He said he looked at Islamic State, at the Taliban and Boko Haram and thought: “This is Islam. It has not been hijacked by radicals. This is the faith, this is the religion. It is what it is. It speaks for itself.”
He added:
I think it is very important that we do all that we can to try to share God’s love with Muslims because they have no hope outside of dying in Jihad. I want them to know, you do not have to die for God. God died for us. He sent His Son to die for us. We do not have to kill ourselves to please God. I want them to know that they can have eternal life.
…The God of Islam is not the same God of the Judaeo-Christian faith. The God that we worship in Christianity is a God that has a Son. To Islam, that is blasphemy, to say that God has a son. Therefore, they do not worship the God that we worship.
I want to answer this in three different ways.
Treatment of Non-Whites in America
First, I want to point at the way non-white inhabitants have been treated by the Christians of the US. Despite saying in the constitution that all men are created equal, non-whites had fewer rights in the US. Even after slavery was abolished non-whites were not allowed to go to the same schools as whites, the Ku Klux Klan, whose members killed non-whites with impunity were all god-fearing Christians, and even today non-white Americans are killed by white policemen with impunity because they know well that they will not be indicted by any Grand Jury.
Is this not wickedness and evil? Mr Graham knows full well that all this, as well as the persecution, torture and killing of non-whites in South Africa were carried out in the name of Christianity. This has been the history of Christianity – that its followers have tortured and brutally murdered Jews, Muslims and their co-religists. Hitler was a Christian but it is strange that Mr Graham does not use his actions to define Christian teaching and call Christianity an evil religion.
What the Old & New Testament say
Second, I want to look at the Old Testament and the New Testament to see what they say about killing. The Old Testament God is neither patient or kind. He is jealous, he boasts, and he is proud. He is rude, self-seeking, easily angered, and remembers wrongs for all eternity. We all know what He did to Egyptian babies (Exodus 2:29-30). Mr Grahnam’s God murders innocent babies for the crimes of Pharoah. The Old Testament says “there was not a house without someone dead.”
Mr Graham’s God wants sorcerers and those who sacrifice to another God to be put to death (Exodus 22:18-20). Punishment of working on the Sabbath is death (Exodus 31:15). Exodus (32:27-28,35) tells us that 3000 people were put to death for worshipping the golden calf. These are not exceptions, pick up Leviticus, Numbers and better still Deuteronomy. This tells the Israelites to destroy every single person who lived in Palestine when the Israelites arrived. It even asks the Jews to kill their own family if they want to follow another religion.
Christians say that Jesus died for our sins and that their God is a God of love. Indeed, Mr Graham goes so far as to say that the God of Jews and Christians is the same because their God had a son whom he sacrificed for the sake of mankind. There are many difficulties with this argument. For a start Jesus said that he had come to fulfil the law and not to abolish it and he approves of what the prophet’s of the Old Testament said (Mathew 5:17).
Mathew 10:14-15 tells us that Jesus said that the cities which do not receive his disciples and hear them shall be treated worse than Sodom and Gomorrah and we know from Genesis that people living there were buried under burning sulphur by God. In Mathew 10:34-36 Jesus clearly says that he has come to spread not peace but sword. In Luke 12:5 Jesus says we should fear God because he has the power not just to kill us but to torment us forever in hell. Indeed, it is a cornerstone of Christian belief that all those who are not baptised in the name of Jesus shall suffer everlasting damnation.
What the Holy Quran says
On the contrary the Holy Quran tells people that the truth has come and it is up to them to accept it or not (18:29). It clearly says that every soul (not just Muslims) shall be rewarded for the good it does. It tells the Holy Prophet (s) not to compel anyone to embrace Islam (50:45) as opposed to the Old Testament which asked the Jews to kill anyone who wanted to leave Judaism. It is true that Islam allows Muslims to fight but it clearly says that those who are persecuted for their beliefs are allowed to fight (22:39-40). How different is this from the New Testament, which threatens anyone who does not hear Jesus’ disciples with burning Sulphur. And it tells Muslims to make peace if the other party offers it (8:61-62)
Islam, as opposed to Mr Graham’s God, says Allah is the Lord of everyone and not just Christians and Jews. He says: “I think it is very important that we do all that we can to try to share God’s love with Muslims . . .” and yet every word he speaks is full of hatred for the non-Christian World, not just Muslims. I wonder how the Western Media would have reacted if a Muslim religious leader had made similar violent statements about Jews or Christians?
Compulsion in Religion
In this speech Mr Mustaq Ali looks at the example of the Holy Prophet (pbuh) and how he formed his Islamic state without compulsion, atrocities and freedom of religion. He gives examples from the Holy Quran and from Hadith and further examples from the companions of the Holy Prophet (pbuh).
If you are not able to watch the video then you can listen to the podcast below;
The Religion of Abraham
By instituting the Hajj and Eid-ul-Adha, Islam draws the attention of Jews, Christians and Muslims to the religion preached and practised by Abraham. It was a simple religion of belief in oneness of God, submission to Him, and being prepared to sacrifice what we love in His way. Later followers of Abraham made his religion into one of elaborate rituals and theological controversies on small matters of detail. Hajj and Eid-ul-Adha remind us all that we should turn back to Abraham’s religion of simplicity and sincerity, and that Jews, Christians and Muslims come from the same religious origin.
Not able to watch the video? Then you can listen to the podcast below;
The Psychology of Islam
Yahya Saqib speak on the psychology of Islam and explains how it is a carefully designed and purposeful religion. He looks at why we are taught to pray at a very young age and he goes into detail to explain the meaning of Prayer and why we pray five times a day.
Islam to be recognized officially in Lower Saxony
As a preliminary contract has been signed for Islam to be recognized as an official religion in Lower Saxony after Bremen and Hamburg provinces in Germany, Lower Saxony Prime Minister Stephen Weil convened the representatives of Islamic institutions at the provincial guest-house to initiate the talks to accept Islam as an official religion.
Noting the Muslims in Lower Saxony were a key part of the society, the prime minister said, “A mutual scepticism occurred in the past and our government wishes to show its respect to the Muslims with this contract” during the meeting that hosted the Chairman of Provincial Union of Lower Saxony and Bremen of Turkish Islamic Union of Religious Affairs Yilmaz Kilic, Chairman of Hannover Council Avni Altiner and Chairman of Alawite Unions Federation in Germany Huseyin Mat along several German politicians and guests.
Some great news for Muslims. One after another the German states are beginning to recognise Islam as an official religion. It is now for us to prove that we a valuable asset and a positive force in Germany.
Original Source: Worldbulletin.net
The Truth of Religion
On Friday 28th June 2013, on his last full day in the UK, Hazrat Ameer, the Global Head of the Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement in Islam, took to the podium to give the Friday Khutba.
He chose to read from Chapter 20, verses one to eight of The Holy Quran.
He cited these verse as an example of the truth of religion and the evidence of the existence of Allah.
Changing my religion
A British strand of Islam is emerging as more people become converts
from the Economist
MUSLIM converts have an image problem. A handful, like Richard Dart, a Dorset native jailed last month, have been implicated in terrorism. Samantha Lewthwaite, who was married to Germaine Lindsay, one of the 7/7 bombers and himself a convert, is wanted by Kenyan police in connection with an alleged bomb plot.
Even without the taint of extremism, women are sometimes pitied for joining a religion accused of oppressing them. Despite these concerns, converts, for the most part peaceable, propel Islam’s transition from an immigrant religion to a home-grown one.
Is Religion a force for good or evil
Is religion a force for good or evil? Can religion and science go hand in hand?
Professor Richard Dawkins speaks with Al Jazeera in Oxford, UK to address the above questions and attempts to express his understanding of science and the Universe during a forty minute interview which also includes a Q&A session with the audience.
Islam is the religion of peace
Dr Abdul Karim Saeed Pasha is the current Hazrat Amir of the Ahmadiyya Anjuman Isha’at-e-Islam Lahore movement. He has been travelling around the world visiting our mosques from The Netherlands to Suriname and he recently arrived on the last leg of this long tour in the UK.
On Friday 30th November 2012, we were privileged that he led the Friday prayers and gave a speech to the masses who came to see him in person.
The speech was based around the theme of how and why Islam is a religion of peace.