The world is facing the possibility of a nuclear war. On October 7, 2023, Hamas infiltrated Israel through Gaza, initially killing over 1400 Jews. Over 200 people were kidnapped, women were raped and over 40 babies were beheaded. As I type this pastoral article, the war is escalating, drawing more nations into the conflict. The government of Israel not only formally declared war on Hamas, but is bombing targets in Gaza as well as Hezbollah targets. The United States has also bombed targets in Syria and Israel is preparing for a military invasion of Gaza.
To understand Hamas, Hezbollah and nations such as Iran, one must understand their prophet Mohammed, the Koran and Islam.
Below are some excerpts from the book, “Philistine”, by Ramon Bennett:
“Islam is the antithesis of Biblical Christianity. Christianity advocates love and compassion toward God and one’s neighbor; Islam promotes hatred and cruelty…Mohammed, the founder of Islam, wrote the Koran, the Moslem holy book. It is a mixture of desert folklore and customs, revelations of Mohammed, and elements of teaching from both Judaism and Christianity…Not only have parts of the Koran been lost or deliberately removed, but ‘entire verses and chapters have been added to it’…The Koran also claims that Abraham was thrown into a fire by Nimrod.
The mere fact that Nimrod died centuries before Abraham was born appears to be of no account! The Koran contains many such errors.
As a young child Mohammed was nursed by a Bedouin woman by the name of Halima… ‘The child had had numerous fits, which made Halima think he was demon possessed.’ Early Moslem tradition records that when Mohammed was about to receive a revelation from Allah: ‘…he would often fall down on the ground, his body would begin to jerk, his eyes would roll backward, and he would perspire profusely…’ It was while Mohammed was in this ‘trancelike’ state that he received his ‘divine’ revelations…Mohammed had ‘an appetite for women’ and married 15 wives, including a ten year old girl. He even married the ex-wife of his adopted son who was divorced from her husband specifically for that purpose. The marriage caused such a scandal that Mohammed received ‘divine’ revelation to the effect that he was married by Allah’s direct command…
In February 1989, Salman Rushdie, a Moslem living in the United Kingdom, wrote a novel entitled ‘Satanic Verses’ which caused a worldwide storm among Moslems…The verses concerned Mohammed’s appeasement of the pagans in Mecca. He received ‘divine’ revelation that it was ‘perfectly proper to pray to and worship the three daughters of Allah: Al-lat, Al-Uzza and Manat.’ The verses caused another storm within Islam because it showed rejection of monotheism in favor of polytheism.
But Mohammed later returned to monotheism and subsequently received revelation of Allah’s ability to ‘abrogate’, that is, cancel a past revelation and replace it with a ‘similar’ or ‘better revelation’. The ‘Satanic verses’ were not included in the text of the Koran after Mohammed’s death; they were ‘abrogated’. ‘The literature on the ‘Satanic verses’ is so vast that an entire volume could be written just on this one issue. Every general and Islamic reference work, Moslem or Western, deals with it as well as all the biographies of Mohammed.’…While Mohammed was trying to encourage the Jews to accept him as a prophet, Moslems prayed five times each day facing Jerusalem and also kept the Jewish Sabbath and other Jewish laws. When it became increasingly obvious that the Jews were not at all interested in becoming his disciples, the incensed prophet changed the direction of prayer by turning his back to Jerusalem and faced Mecca instead. He also dropped the Jewish laws, and adopted the pagan Friday Sabbath in place of the Jewish Sabbath…
Moslem scholar and statesman Ali Dashti writes: ‘The historical evidence is crystal clear that Mohammed adopted the pagan religious rite of a pilgrimage to Mecca to worship at the Ka’abah in order to appease the Meccan merchants who made a tremendous amount of money out of these pilgrimages. Thus, for financial and cultural reasons, Islam adopted the pagan pilgrimage to Mecca…
The roots of Islam are buried in Arabia-in Mecca-in a square, stone building called the Ka’abah…In the Ka’abah, there were 360 jinn (genies-idols, angels and demons), one of whom was called Allah….’\ ‘Allah is a purely Arabic term used in reference to an Arabian deity.’ ‘Allah was known to the pre-Islamic Arabs; he was one of the Meccan deities.’ ‘Allah-worship, as well as the worship of Baal, were both astral religions in that they involved the worship of the sun, the moon, and the stars.’
‘In Arabia, the sun god was viewed as a female goddess and the moon as the male god…The name Allah was used as the personal name of the moon god.’ ‘Allah, the moon god, was married to the sun goddess. Together they produced three goddesses who were called ‘the daughters of Allah.’ These three goddesses were called Al-lat, Al-Uzza, and Manat [of the ‘Satanic verses’].’
It was the Jewish refusal to accept Mohammed as their prophet that instigated the raw Islamic hatred against them…Allah subsequently commanded Mohammed to destroy all the other idols in the Ka’abah, and thus Allah, the moon god, became Allah, and Islam, ‘absolute submission’, was born…The Middle East is the homeland of Islam. It is where Islam was born…And in 1948, the Jews (whom Mohammed, the prophet of Allah, belittles in the Koran and urges his followers to kill) disposed Allah from a portion of his land…For this reason, 1948 became ‘the day of the greatest shame in the modern history of the Arabs.’ The ‘face’ of the Arab nation was ‘blackened’ with shame, as was the face of its god…No true Moslem can rest until Israel as a nation is obliterated, Allah, the god of Islam, has been dispossessed of a portion of his land, and his honor has been sullied, as has that of his ‘warriors’-Israel must be annihilated to restore that honor…
The Koran forbids the existence of the Jewish state, and there can be no peace in the Middle East while it exists…Mohammed, who all Moslems revere, said, as he was dying: ‘Never do two religions exist in Arabia.’…Mohammed, the founder of Islam, who taught his followers that: ‘A day and night of fighting on the frontier is better than a month of fasting and prayer.’…Mohammed’s teachings urged his followers on, and still initiates, statements like the one previously cited from the Moslem cabinet minister, that ‘Violence is the Moslem’s most positive form of prayer.’
‘Let the reader make no mistake; both the Jews and Christians are targeted for total annihilation, unless they are willing to submit to Islam…Christians must heed what Moslems in the Middle East chant in their demonstrations: ‘First we will fight the Saturday people; then we will fight the Sunday people.’ ‘…In their holy war against the infidels of the Judeo-Christian faiths, they declare that they will first reckon with the ‘Saturday’ (that is, conquer the Jews). Then ‘Sunday’ will succumb to the conquering hordes of the prophet and his god, Allah. Islam will thus triumph over the ‘Christian’ world.’
‘During the 1991 Gulf War against Iraq, a survey was taken of Arab-American Moslems living in the United States, and the results were startling for those that conducted the survey. They reported that a staggering 82 percent said they would not fight nor would they allow their sons or daughters to fight for the United States in the war…On the day that Arafat signed the agreement on the White House lawn-on the very day-he made an address to the Palestinian Arabs on Jordan TV in which he said inter alia: ‘Since we cannot defeat Israel in war we do this in stages. We take any and every territory that we can of Palestine, and establish a sovereignty there, and we use it as a springboard to take more. When the time comes, we can get the Arab nations to join us for the final blow against Israel.’…Arafat’s concept of peace is the same as that of Mohammed and Saladin…’Peace for us means the destruction of Israel. We are preparing for an all-out war which will last for generations.
Since January 1965, when Fatah was born, we have become the most dangerous enemy that Israel has. We shall not rest until the day when we return to our home, and until we destroy Israel.’ Arafat was even more pragmatic when he defined the peace he offers Israel: ‘The PLO offers not the peace of the weak, but the peace of Saladin.’ Saladin was the great Moslem warrior of the 12th century. His capture of Jerusalem in 1187 sparked the Third Crusade. But Saladin is also ‘famous’ for the ‘peace’ which he made with the Crusaders, before he attacked with ferocity and drove the Crusaders from the Holy Land.
It was Mohammed himself who laid the foundation for Islam to build a history of making peace with an enemy in order to attack at a later, more opportune time. In 628 Mohammed made a ‘peace treaty’ with the Kuraish tribe in Mecca in order for Moslems to worship at the Ka’abah. Two years later, when he had gained more followers and was considerably stronger, he abrogated the treaty and attacked the Kuraish people, slaughtering every male among them. This agreement between Mohammed and the infidels of Mecca is known as the ‘Truce of Hudaybiyyah.’ ‘This truce became a model and a precedent in Islamic law for all agreements with infidels: never permanent…”
The government of Israel has offered a two state solution to Hamas five different times, but they refused. According to their charter, they are not seeking peace with Israel. They want them wiped off the face of the map. Hamas also states in their charter, "from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free."
Islam wants to bring every nation under its umbrella. Islam is a constitution. They are loyal to the Islamic constitution, not the nation to which they migrate.
In Islam, Jesus is a prophet who returns to kill the Jews and Christians, bringing the world under Islam. In Christianity, Jesus is God. In Islam, it is blasphemy to say Jesus is God, and they can kill you for saying that.
It is so terrible that demonstrations are taking place across America, including university campuses, to support Hamas. Even teachers, professors and some politicians are supporting Hamas murderous attack on Israeli citizens.
I personally believe that immigrants who have taken an oath to live in America, defend the constitution and uphold our values of life, should not support a terrorist organization that calls for the destruction of Israel and America. If they do, they should be deported to the country from which they came.
Blessings, Jonathan Hansen