The SOURCE of Islamic Violence and the True Nature of Islam (updated FALL 2023)
UPDATED – FALL 2023 – Having originally written this after the Paris and San Bernardino Islamic terrorist attacks in 2015, I subsequently updated it in the wake of the Orlando, Florida and Nice, France terrorist attacks in 2016. I updated this document again after the terrorist attack in Belgium on May 29th, 2018. And now with the horrific event that happened last month on October 7th, I am once again updating it after an estimated 1200+ Israelis (and others) were killed by Hamas (and Islamic Jihad) militants in yet another terrorist attack.
I want to say before I continue that I love Muslims and having lived and worked with them for over 30 years, I can attest that the vast majority are not violent. Most Muslims are NOT radical and don’t use or advocate violence (that is despite what the Islamic religious texts below teach and/or advocate). I also love the truth and the truth is that Islamic violence is firmly rooted in the historic Islamic faith. Whereas Christianity began and spread peacefully, and only much later advocated violence (from the 4th century onwards), Islam began and spread violently. Even the argument that Mohammad initially tried peaceful persuasion, is obliterated by the final Qur’anic marching orders that were given to Muslims (see below).
If you want to see a comprehensive list of Islamic-related terrorist attacks this website documents them systematically from all around the world – This link documents Islamic terrorist attacks in 2023 alone:
The media in the West (and that is particularly true of the Western European media) seeks to downplay and/or obscure all terrorist attacks that are carried out by Muslims in the name of Islam. Watching how the media’s narrative has changed since the initial shock and horror of the Hamas-initiated attack on October 7th, illustrates my point. Whatever sympathy the media had had for the Israeli Jewish victims and hostages, seems to have subsequently changed. Countless millions have rather become sympathetic toward groups like Hamas and now Hezbollah. And these groups were the ones who initiated the violence! That was true in 2006, in what became a short war when Hezbollah started by killing and kidnapping Israeli soldiers. And now the current war that began when Hamas terrorists killed/slaughtered as many as 1200+ Israeli civilians. The world’s media simply will not factor into their analysis or commentary what Muslims believe and the violence inherent within the religion of Islam.
In what may be one of the strangest “partnerships” in history, due to current political correctness, Muslims continue to be given “a pass” by the secular press and academics and are almost never criticized. Challenge anything Muslims are doing, criticize Islam in any way, and the charges of “Islamophobia” are swiftly leveled. (Looking at the past few years, I’m sure the label of “racist” will now be attached to any critics as well.)
The level of deception that even many Christians in the West are currently under is possibly most apparent in the whole Immigration/Open Border/Amnesty issue. Having bought into the lies and half-truths being propagated under the guise of “compassion”, many well-meaning Christians have been naively persuaded to embrace positions that lack wisdom and are anything but “Christian”. There is more and more acknowledgment that terrorist elements have crossed into the United States through a pathetic southern border. But those of us who said that several years ago made us racists and xenophobes. When even the “open border” advocates are beginning to change their tune, you know we have a serious problem! As for Christians who continue to argue that Jesus would want an open border in the name of love and/or compassion, they are disobeying His commandments to be wise and to walk in discernment!
As I have been following the news and commentaries about the seemingly constant attacks by radical Muslims, I think what probably concerns me the most is the continual misinformation that politically correct media tolerates and even promotes about the true nature of Islam. People continue to say, “Islam is a religion of peace” when radical Islamists carry out attack after attack all over the world. Paris and San Bernardino, California in 2015 were but two that had gotten our attention (followed by Orlando and Nice, France because they happened to take place in the West, but what about the attacks in Nigeria, Kenya, Turkey, Lebanon, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Pakistan, Egypt, Libya and many other places that simply will never get the same Western media attention? “Nearly” all being carried out by devout Muslims in the name of their prophet and religion. I say “nearly” because it is true that at times non-devout Muslims (like the Nice, France truck terrorist) will carry out these types of suicide missions in hopes of dying a martyr and therefore being admitted automatically into the Islamic concept of heaven.
Tragically, in recent years a growing number of Christian missionaries have grown far too ‘sympathetic’ in their assessment of the true nature of Islam and what they believe to be its initial inspiration. Many will go to incredible lengths to defend Islam and the acts of its followers, even when those acts constitute terrorism. They will whitewash Islamic history and ignore the numerous problematic verses in the Qur’an. I know that the lack of receptivity to the Gospel amongst Muslims for centuries led many missionaries to begin exploring those so-called “New Paths”, but that has all changed in the past 20-30 years. The number of Muslims coming to faith around the world today is unprecedented in history and what lies behind such an incredible response is simply not what these “New Paths” missionaries think. More on that in a minute, but let’s just say it isn’t the methodologies of these “New Paths”. I used to advocate for the aforementioned approach myself. I know our motivations were not bad. We longed to see Muslims come to Christ. We wanted to remove any and all “barriers”. We were motivated by love to a large extent. I still have many friends and former colleagues who are still approaching their ministry to Muslims in these ways.
But sadly, we compromise the Gospel when we fail to bring both truth and love. Pretending that Islamic violence didn’t/doesn’t exist and revising Islamic History to hide the truth about such violence doesn’t honor the God of truth. It is precisely the stark contrast and difference between the Lord Jesus Christ and Mohammad that Muslims MUST SEE. For them to think that their prophet was a man of peace when he was not is for them to continue to walk in darkness, in deception.
To get back to the issue of Islam and the misinformation: in short, there really is much confusion regarding Islam and naturally, people are deferring to those who they assume know what they're talking about. What you are about to read is my contribution to the debate/the discussion.
I have been a serious student of Islam for my entire adult life and lived in the Middle East as a missionary for nearly 3 decades. I know Arabic and can therefore read and understand the Qur’an and the Islamic traditions in their original language. As a student of Islamic History, I also know the context in which the narrated events happened. I should also say that I too at one time was trying to “paint” Islam in the most positive light I could –focusing on the Qur’anic verses that were peaceful and promoted tolerance. I had hoped that something like a “Messianic Muslim” movement could be started that would sweep across the Islamic world. God at work “on the inside” of Islam was what many of us were advocating (and many still are). Whereas I can say with the utmost confidence that God is at work deep inside the world of Islam, it is to lead them OUT of Islam and to expose the deception that they have been living in.
And before I respond to the issue of the true nature of Islam and the source of its violence, let me reiterate that I have a deep love for Muslims. I have devoted my life to reaching them with the Gospel. And unlike many who are making the claim about all the Muslim friends they have, I actually have and have had hundreds of Muslims friends as I lived in Muslim neighborhoods in 6 different Arab countries and worked alongside them every day.
I will now speak clearly – the religion of Islam at its source was NOT peaceful and Muhammad was NOT a man of peace but rather a man of excessive violence. Whatever one wants to say about the beginning of his life and mission (I.e., In Mecca), the way he lived at the end of his life was full of terror and violence. Notice I did NOT say that most Muslims are violent. Most of the Muslims that I have known are peace-loving and have been incredible friends. I am grateful that they are not following the example of their prophet and the admonishment to violence in their scriptures (and traditions).
I can cite dozens of Qur’anic verses (I’ve supplied a link below) and far more passages from authoritative Islamic traditions (called the Hadith) in support of what groups like ISIS, Al Qaida, Hamas, Hezbollah, and other terrorist Islamic groups are doing. The command to kill, to behead and even to crucify are all Qur’anic injunctions that are part of the “latest” revealed passages in the Qur’an. What does this (“latest”) mean? It means that the peaceful verses, the verses that you will often hear moderate Muslims and the media citing, have been canceled out (or abrogated) by the latter, and thus more binding/authoritative verses that advocate violence. In short, the final Qur'anic marching orders are the ones to be heeded, to be obeyed.
Here is one example of a verse from the Qur'an that abrogates all of the previous peaceful and tolerant verses that called for peaceful co-existence with non-Muslims and even affirmed other faiths.
Surat Al Tawba (9:5) (Chapter of Repentance):
“…slay the pagans (mushrikeen) wherever you find them”
(Note: mushrikeen – often translated as “pagans” or “idolaters” literally means “those who have associated something/someone with God”. This includes Christians because we believe in the Trinity and have therefore committed the sin of shirk (association) by our belief in Christ’s Deity).
Through the years, I have had dozens and dozens of Muslims confirm to me that because I believe that Jesus is God and that He is the Second Person in the Holy Trinity, I am a mushrik (an associator). Every single one of those Coptic Orthodox young men who were beheaded on the beach in Libya in 2015 were beheaded because they believed in the Trinity and refused to renounce Christ as Lord. Therefore, they were mushrikeen (associators). This very verse was being obeyed when they martyred those men. Horrific!! This is not an isolated or a cherry-picked verse but representative of dozens and dozens of similar violent ones.
This verse of terror comes from the final chapter revealed in the Qur’an. This is like their “Great Commission” chapter. We have Matthew 28; they have this chapter. Their final word, their final marching orders. This presents a huge problem for modern Muslims because as I said before, most are not violent, and actually despise violence. Let me reaffirm once again what I said before; the vast majority of my Muslim friends have been some of the kindest, most charitable people I have ever known and truly abhor the violence being done in the Name of Islam.
After literally centuries of almost no response to the Gospel from the Muslim World, I believe that we are living in a new season where God has begun to radically expose the true nature of Islam for all to see so that many of its captives will be set free. It was Jesus who said that those things that are hidden, will one day be exposed. In Matthew 10:26, Jesus said, "Therefore, do not fear them, for there is nothing concealed that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known. So, we must not fear them. Fear is never a legitimate Christian response. We fear God alone. And we welcome hidden things (I.e., the true nature of Islam) being exposed for all to see.
I am convinced that we are living in days when the true nature of Islam is being shown and will continue to be shown over and over again with each and every subsequent terrorist attack. That could never have happened before the age of mass media and globalization. The acts of ISIS and other such groups are almost instantaneously being uploaded and broadcast to the world. News of these atrocities travels almost as fast as they happen.
Despite the constant attempts by the moderate Muslims and ironically the Western media to declare it to be a religion of peace, Islamic violence is increasing all over the world. The Middle East I was living up until 2022, is far more dangerous than the one when I first arrived in Jordan back in 1992. For years, there were many places where I traveled freely and without fear with no problems whatsoever. Today that would be unthinkable in a number of those countries.
I know that what I have just written would have me labeled an “Islamophobe” and would be called “hate speech” by many, including many Christians today. But we cannot stand by when lies are being uttered, and Islam is being portrayed as something its own scriptures and tradition completely undermine. Especially when the exposure of the violent nature of Islam is now one of the leading factors responsible for leading Muslims OUT OF Islam. While it is true that many are turning to atheism in the abandonment of Islam (sadly because they assume that Christianity must be no different), I can attest to this being a major (if not the major) factor in the lives of the Muslims I have been discipling recently for walking away from the Islamic faith. The violence in the Qur’an and the Hadith and the acts being done today by radical Muslims seeking to obey those sources, in reality, helped lead them to Christ.
If these verses are so prevalent, and these chapters in early Islamic history so clearly full of violence, why doesn’t every Muslim see these things or know about them? How do they reconcile these things with their own practice of their faith? Essentially, I believe it boils down to deception. Many simply don’t see it, or are unable to see it, even when you show it to them.
For example, a couple of us were meeting with a devout Shi’ite Muslim whom I had prayed for to be healed. During an interesting conversation, I told him that I was grateful that he didn’t obey the Qur’an. He was confused. So, I showed him the verse - “Do not take for yourselves friends from amongst the Christians and Jews”. He refused to believe that it was talking about friendship although I was showing him the verse in Arabic. It simply didn’t “fit” with his interpretation of what Islam is supposed to be. Another example in that same conversation was when I challenged the Islamic belief that Muhammad was without sin (a universally held belief by all branches and sects of Islam). However, in four different places in the Qur’an, God commands Muhammad to “seek forgiveness for HIS OWN sin”. I showed this Shi’ite young man the verse in Arabic – I broke down the grammar and the vocabulary of this incredibly clear verse. It didn’t matter, however, what the Qur’an said – he was convinced of something else and so what the clear Arabic says, he simply rejected. Deception.
It is exactly the same with the dozens and dozens of horrifically violent verses in the Qur’an. Because most of the world’s Muslims are in practice peaceful people, and as I said this is our experience living amongst Muslims for nearly 25 years, they simply refuse to see and admit that these verses are there. Or they try to explain them away as metaphorical, or as somehow not applicable today. They just continue to repeat the oft-cited mantra, “Islam is a religion of peace”. As if saying these words, somehow makes them true. In today’s fallen world, ‘perception is reality’. Millions of Muslims “perceive” that Islam is a religion of peace despite what the Islamic sources clearly teach to the contrary.
Again, here’s the problem. One of the main factors that is helping Muslims to leave Islam today and come to Christ is the realization that they have been deceived. That Islam is NOT the peaceful religion they had always been told. They are going back into the Qur’an and into their authoritative traditions and discovering that their prophet was not in fact a man of peace, that he was anything but tolerant.
This is a major crisis that is currently going on in Islam. This would explain one of the common trends amongst modern Muslims to completely reject the Hadith (Islamic traditions) and to essentially advocate a “Quran-only” Islam. This is because the traditions are in fact so violent and so indefensible in a modern rationalistic world, that they feel compelled to abandon them. It doesn’t really help as they are still left with all the violent verses in the Qur’an, which are excessive and which happen to be the final, latest revelations!
What is so tragic is that many Christians, and sadly many Christian missionaries, perpetuate the lie that Islam at its source is a peaceful religion. Are there peaceful teachings in the Qur’an? Yes, but as I said (and this is in accordance with orthodox, authoritative Islamic Qur’anic interpretation) they were abrogated (canceled out, deemed non-applicable) by the more later violent “revelations”. So, it is exactly the opposite of what we have in the Bible. Jesus’ teaching supersedes anything in the Old Testament (thinking of the violent verses) and we are bound by His commands in the New Testament. Thankfully, Christ left us “a new and living way”.
In Islam, it is exactly the opposite. The earliest verses in the Qur’an, which is where you find the peaceful and tolerant ones, have been replaced by the later commands to attack, to kill, to subdue, to “strike terror”, to behead, and to even to crucify non-Muslims. If anyone is interested, here is a link that highlights many of the violence verses in both the Qur’an and the Islamic traditions:
So, we love Muslims; we befriend them and we share with them the love of Christ and His Gospel.
However, what we cannot do is to acquiesce to the “spirit of the age” (the political correctness) and agree with ridiculous statements about Islam that are historically untrue and in complete contradiction to the clear final teachings of the Qur’an which are binding for Muslims to this day.
It is like God is wielding a two-edged sword – doing miraculous things in the lives of Muslims AND exposing the falseness of their religion and the lies they have believed. It is these two factors that are behind the greatest number of Muslims coming to Christ in all of history. It is happening all over the Muslim world and in the lives of Muslims who have emigrated elsewhere. And as countless Christians have suffered martyrdom at the hands of Islamic extremists, the world (including the Islamic world) is watching. The Muslim world is also observing the true nature of Christianity as many of these martyrs have willingly given their lives instead of denying Christ. They have even been seen/heard praying for their very executioners at the time they were being slain. Such powerful testimonies and so much like Christ Himself who when being unjustly murdered uttered the words, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34) even as an act of terrorism, His crucifixion on the cross, was being committed against Him.
Endnote: I have also written about Islamic End Times (eschatology) beliefs that fuel what is currently going on in the Middle East. I personally do not believe one can explain the actions of Hamas and now Hezbollah without factoring in what Muslims believe about the End Times as it relates to Jerusalem, the Jews and their belief in a worldwide Islamic revolution.
I have posted that in another blog post at the following link:
Thank you for this writing Dave. This is clear valuable and informative information I did not know. Julie
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