Mr. Schwelm said he was more than apprehensive about making this presentation, but he feels he must. The discussion today is about Islam. He said you can’t begin a fair discussion of Islam without starting with the Bible, because Islam starts with the Bible. He picked up the story in Genesis. At about 500 years old, Noah had three sons. The only one who is important is Shem. He was righteous and he was blameless. He was a pure man. What is happening in the Genesis story is that Adam and Eve had the opportunity to be pure. They sinned, and sin entered the world, and God is about to end civilization and restart, and he’s picked this blameless person named Noah. And so, Islam recognizes Noah. In the 600th year there’s this flood. When it’s all over and this boat ends up on Ararat – the Christians say, and another mountain Islam says. So, we’re picking up the mutual story. This is where it’s coming together.
This line of Shem lived in Mesopotamia – that’s modern day Arabia. And then from that line comes a gentleman named Abram. Again Islam recognizes Abram as Abraham. But Abram has a wife Sara, which becomes Sarai. In this story, because Abram does not truly listen to God, he hears that I’m going to give you a son who will populate the earth. 25 years go by, and nothing happens. He’s quite old, and so is Sara. So, they have an Egyptian servant named Hagar who comes there to be with Abram, and so Sara says we need a child to carry on, not a servant, to be a child of you. So Hagar has a child, and that child becomes Ishmael. So Ishmael is the start of Islam. That’s the lineage. Then comes Isaac. That’s where the Bible and Islam start to part.
When it comes to – God’s speaking to Abraham now. I want you to take your son and sacrifice. So he takes his son, Isaac out. In Islam you take your son Ishmael to this mountain, you’re to sacrifice your son. And because you are faithful, that act of courage and faith in this being - God, then the child was not sacrificed, obviously. But from Ishmael came the Muslims, and from Isaac came the Jews. In Christianity, it talks about Ishmael – a wild donkey of a man. His hand will be against everyone. He will live in hostility to all his brothers. But it is guaranteed that I will make you a nation. And that same guarantee was given to Isaac.
You mention history – well, history is his story – God’s story. This nameless - you can’t put your hands on - being who created all of us. We are living God’s story. Mr. Schwelm said he was trying to be balanced about this, but this is God’s story and has both of these in it. He said it’s a very heavy topic. It’s not about hatred toward Muslims, because Muslims need more love. If we say – kill you – we get nowhere. Revenge and all that just doesn’t get anywhere. We’re just like you.
However, Mr. Schwelm said, let’s just stop for a moment and see what’s going on in America. There’s a recent poll of Islamic youth in America, that says 26% of Muslims in America say it’s OK to kill Americans. That’s 26% of all the Muslims who live in this wonderful country and enjoy all its freedoms say it’s OK to kill Americans. How can that happen? That’s a huge major thing that’s going on
So, he said, if we go back – the Arabic word for God is Allah. We start – God Bible-God Quran, and there’s where the differences come. The Quran says Jesus is in heaven. And so, to educate us a little bit about this gentleman called Mohammad. He said he would present this man without judgment. Mohammad was a very interesting person, not learned – illiterate. But a very caring, very meticulous, very obedient person. And searching, like people who try to do the right thing all the time. He was unusual, even for his own culture. So, they make him as sort of the final prophet. God revealed his final message to humanity through Mohammad and the angel Gabriel.
When Mohammad was on this earth polytheism was all around him. People worshiped wood, and things. His children grew up in that environment, and the city they lived in worshiped the moon god. He said it’s interesting that Ishmael and Isaac - the crescent from the moon god is part of the Muslim symbol. . There’s some polytheism in Islam.
For Christianity, Jesus was the final prophet. They acknowledge Jesus. They acknowledge that Jesus lived. They acknowledge that Jesus did miracles. They do not acknowledge that Jesus was crucified. Islam acknowledges that somehow, in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus was raised up to heaven to be with Allah, and that Jesus’ image was superimposed on one of the other people, and that person was crucified. So the Quran is what the majority of the people think. Submission to the will of God is basically the message of it. They say that Islam is the oldest of the monotheistic religions, and that this Quran codifies the whole religion. They acknowledge Abraham. They acknowledge Moses. They acknowledge Jesus. And they acknowledge Mohammed. Mohammed is the seal, who seals all the prophets. Christians and Jews are called people of the book, but they have been deceived. The words have been changed. The words have been manipulated. They have altered the meaning and placement of words in the holy text.
So there are five pillars of Islam. There’s a declaration of faith that there’s no God but Allah. They acknowledge prayer as a pillar, and that’s five times a day. The focus is Mecca. It’s interesting that initially, before Mohammad and his men conquered Mecca, the focus was Jerusalem. They prayed towards Jerusalem. They are very generous people. Wealth is held in trust. Muslims should give 2.5% of their wealth. They fast on Ramadan. Everyone should make a once in a lifetime pilgrimage to Mecca.
They have Articles of faith. Mohammad does not preach a unique faith but summed up all the prophets’ revelations. That is why there is so much in this book the Quran of the Bible.
The Muslims say that the words in the books of the Christians and the Jews have been distorted, and so the revelation had to be sent one more time, making Mohammad the seal of the prophet in the Quran. There will be a day of resurrection where God will hold every individual accountable for his or her actions. So, Mr. Schwelm asked, does this so far sound any different from the Bible? It doesn’t and it couldn’t.
Israel is a remos political system. It’s a socio-political religious system ordered on earth, and Muslims are to strive to bring this about. So it crosses the border. And that’s when we begin to separate from Christianity. You’re in it. You’re of it, and it’s all around you. It runs the government. So, currently religious groups are working to bring non observant Muslims back to active practice, and to make conversions of others. Many of the Muslims just want simply to live a good moral life.
Muslims will allow religious pluralism, but only after they subjugate other religions. Once they subjugate you, it’s OK to have your only religion, as long as they are in charge. As long as you’re not Islamic, you are basically given three choices; become a Muslim, you can become a dhimmi -a non Muslim under their influence and pay a tax, or you are given the choice of death. So, you will convert, you will pay a tribute, or you will fight. This is where the Bible and the Quran deviate.
A quote from the Quran “But when the forbidden months pass then fight and slay the pagans wherever you find them, and seize them, and belabor them, and lie in wait for them in every stratagem of war, but if they repent in regular prayers and practice, then open the way for them, for Allah is al giving and merciful.”
So, Mr. Schwelm said, even in the Old Testament, a god told them to go in and take it. He sent them into the land of Canaan and fought Malachites by name and the giants by name and, and then at some point they had to learn to live with those around them, because they couldn’t kill them all. In Islam, you’re supposed to kill, conquer all these other people. In the Quran they are to kill and crucify. They will cut off hands and feet, or alternate sides cut off, or have then put out of the land. Such will be their degradation in this world and in the hereafter.
Quote from the Quran; “Remember the world inspired the angels with this message, I am with you. Give firmness to these believers. I will instill terror into the hearts of these unbelievers. Smite ye above their necks, and smite all of their fingertips off of them.”
“Prophet, rouse the believers to the fight. Twenty among you patient and preserving will vanquish a hundred. If one hundred will vanquish a thousand of the unbelievers, for these are the ones without understanding.”
Mr. Schwelm said, that’s what’s going on with what we call the radical movement. These people gather one, two, ten, a hundred. They’re patient. A person he knows met with some young people 20-some years ago. They are on their plan. They have consumed. He said we will see France totally gone, and none of us will depart not having seen Islam completely take over England. This person, Mr. Schwelm says, is sure that this country will be overcome. That Islam will take over.
There is salvation, but there is no guarantee of salvation. Their Allah really is disinterested. He made man from a clot, and, of course, God made man from the dust. And there seems to be this total dispassionate disinterest. There’s no relationship with this higher being for the Islamic people. And so, if you do good in life, it’s kind of a deeds, works sort of thing. The Muslim people tell me that in their interaction, there’s a line. You get your right foot into the goal. You’re not at the goal. Somewhere in that transitioning time you get to whatever Heaven is, he whimsically decides you don’t get there, you just don‘t get there. So the only guarantee of salvation, to Islam, is to die in Jihad. So, as a former teacher, Mr. Schwelm said, he understands the concept of store and pour. You pour in the times tables, and they regurgitate. Friends he has met from Persia have said, Karl, 1979, Shah is gone, Ayatollah comes in. 1970 to this year, all the children who were born since then – 28 years ago. 75% of the people of Iran, what have they had poured into their heads? They’ve been indoctrinated that way. And even so they’re got significant problems over there. It’s no wonder they’ve been able to find fighters. If you’re a guy, and you’ve been promised 72 virgins, then it might be OK. Your parents are going to get some money. Go kill somebody in the hjame of Jihad. This is another deviation from our Christian values. We don’t openly advocate lying, but the Quran OKs lying. It’s this duality of the reality, so our interactions with these wonderful Muslim people may or may not be real. These people may be friends with you, but at what level. However, it isn’t the Quran. It’s OK to lie. It’s kind of a Machiavellian thing. It’s bad if you treat a fellow Muslim like that, but not anyone else.
So, they’re waiting for Mohammad to come. Jesus came the early Christians spread out. In 570, Mohammad is born in Mecca in a small tribe, the Koresh. Unfortunately, dad dies quickly; mother dies soon after, so he’s an orphan and gets bounced around. He gets a lot of time with the Christian grandfather. But, in that swirl of being on the caravan trade route, he meets a lot of Christians. He meets a lot of Jews. And he sees what is swirling around this, this theism. You go to the next town, and they worship some stick, the next town they worship the sea, the next town whatever. He sees all this and it troubles him – all this polytheism. We would refer to him as a sort of go to guy with a great future, because he partakes from all these caravans. They he is first befriended and then given the opportunity to marry a much older woman who owns this caravan business – she’s 40 he’s 25. They have a really god life together. They have sons and daughters. Unfortunately, all the sons die. The daughters live on, and the most famous daughter is Fatima. 40 years later he’s in a cave. He’s a very introspective person. In this case he has an experience. He hears this voice and sees this vision – an angel, and he’s extremely troubled because he’s fearful. In most every experience with an angel in the Bible, the angel says – Be Not Afraid. This angel does not. So he goes on back and talks to his wife and his mentors and they believe it’s the angel Gabriel speaking to him. Mohammad is told that now he is the new prophet, because the words of the people of the book, Christians and Jews, have been corrupted. And that’s why he’s the seal of God’s revelation to mankind. When Mohammad starts preaching, people know him. He’s illiterate. People say – who are you? A prophet can’t talk in his own home town. Jesus suffered the same thing. Mohammad is persecuted. Like the early Christians, these people were persecuted, so they went to Medina where there were people more like them. So Mohammad got followers and they raided the caravans to fund their growing religion. Mohammad doesn’t live all that long. After he dies is the beginning of the Sunni, Shiia split. There is huge turmoil over who is going to carry this on. There’s a nephew, Ali, who tries to get power, but he doesn’t, so his followers follow him off, and that’s the Shiia. The majority of the people, the Sunni, chose more of a leadership person, rather that a genetic biological leadership, the Caliphs.
So time went on and words began. The 2nd or 3rd Caliph, Othman, has the Caliph before him murdered and takes over. Then he takes all the scraps of paper, all the tidbits of what Mohammad had said, and by the time he is assassinated by Ali in 656, he has asked everyone to write down what they think Mohammad said and sent it to him. He reads through it. He decided what Mohammad said, and burned the rest. So, there are no Dead Sea Scrolls. And Ali only got to go five years, and they he was murdered. So, initially on the Sunni and Shiia fought all the time, and then for a long, long time they didn’t fight at all. Just recently, when we did Iraq, they went against each other.
Regarding women, Mr. Schwelm quoted Mohammad through Othman’s words, and said, in his mind, every American woman should be highly against Islam. “Women lack common sense, because their minds are deficient.” “Women are like a field, a tilth. Your wives are a tilth for you, so go into your tilth when you like, and do good before hand for yourselves, and be careful of your duty to Allah, and know that you will meet him and give good news to the believers.” In the Quran he spoke about mothers and seemed to respect them. It talks about women and protecting women, but its kind of an odd way of protecting them that they do. And then they decide that a women’s testimony is worth only half of that of a man. “Call in to witness from among your men, two witnesses, but if there are not two men then one man and two women from among those whom you choose to be witnesses so that if one of the two errs, the second of the two may remind the others.” “A daughter’s inheritance is half that of a son’s.” And Quran tells husbands to beat their wives. “The good women are therefore obedient, guarding the unseen as Allah has guarded. Admonish them, leave them alone in the sleeping places, and beat them, and then if they obey you, do not seek a way against them. Surely Allah is high and great.”
Mr. Schwelm said, his experience with women, he had the one wife, he was celibate until 25, they did 15 years together, and then he starts marrying women at the cyclical rate (that’s a military term), ends up with 12 wives, only one of whom is a virgin. There’s a dispute about her age, but she’s probably six years old when he married her, did not consummate until nine years old because of her physical inability. In the Quran it explains how he could do that. The Quran gives men the right to have four women, so he limited the rest of the people to four wives, however, if they sacked a city or a caravan and the plunder was something you wanted, and they were under your right hand, that didn’t count as a wife. That’s different.
This is a deviation from the Bible, “There is no law of righteousness of Allah”. In other words, he did not lay down any sort of Ten Commandments. There are lots of different rules that come out in the Hadise. “Allah has no affection or feeling for any creature. Allah does not make covenant with man. Allah can and does change his mind.” So, Mr. Schwelm said, if a Muslim was giving this presentation about Christians, this is what he would say: “Christians are permissive, dugs, sex, pornography, and alcohol. America is decadent colonial power that practices world economic control. America is a blind supporter of Israel against her Arab, Muslim neighbors. Western Christian women are out of control as evidenced by the way they dress. Westerners do not value life as seen by their support of abortion and euthanasia. Families in the west are broken up and fragmented by divorce and children who lack respect for their parents. America is irreligious as seen in the absence of public prayer.” Mr. Schwelm said there is truth in every one of those statements. None of those are defensible.
Mr. Schwelm quoted a friend from former Islam, “The time for a naive look at the world is over. We must open our eyes to see if the real cause of terrorism is hate. Hate is a belief. Who and what is being hated.?.
Mr. Schwelm spoke about his friend, Captain Chick Burlingame, who was the pilot of Flight 77, and trying to imagine how his friend was trying to handle the hijacking to keep everyone safe, because no one had ever faced anything like those guys faced that day. He said the Marine side of him wants to respond, the human side says, when does the violence end? It never ends. But, there is great hope in that the President of Iran is not really respected. There is hope for humanity.