Wednesday, March 18, 2020

Islam critiqued loves his enemies, especially those that hate him, like Jesus obviously!

In answer to the video "Thanks, Muhammad, for the Death Threats"

God did not command Jesus to fight just as He did not command Noah and other prophets to fight in His way, because God intended to bring down His punishment on the rejectors differently, and He did so quite severely after Jesus' departure. If God had willed to punish the transgressors through his prophet Jesus as He did through the Israelite prophets before him, Jesus would have taken up arms and fought in Allah's way, like his predecessors did, and like the Ishmaelite prophet did after him
47:4"and if Allah had pleased He would certainly have exacted what is due from them, but that He may try some of you by means of others".
This method of punishment upon the rejectors of a prophet is therefore a trial for the sake of men and does not mean Allah needs men to accomplish a task He is unable to do by Himself. Had He willed, He would have destroyed them Himself by sending a disaster from the heavens or from within the earth. Before them, many nations were destroyed by His torment in the blink of any eye. He could have similarly routed them as well. 

The Quran draws an interesting parallel in sura hadid, between the sending of prophets and Iron. This metal is a symbol of the forceful establishment of the natural balance of justice if needs be, and the verse 57:25, after speaking of both the prophets and iron, ends with God's attributes of might and strength. See also 22:40-41.

Jesus did everything but "pray for his enemies", he kept on promising the doom of those who rejected him after calling them all sorts of names. He remained passive in the face of oppression because he knew God would not punish his rejectors through him, but differently as he prophesied in the NT.

Jesus was part of an Israelite tradition of prophets and divinely inspired "judges", leaders, kings who all were commanded to "fight the Lord's battles" as is here said of David 1Sam25:28, and who were allowed and even many times commanded, like all followers of God's revealed laws to kill in certain circumstances, whether in retribution of an injustice, religious transgression or wars. It was certainly not against wisdom to kill, for it is precisely Solomon's wisdom that David appeals to in order to circumvent an oath not to kill Shimei who had cursed him 1Kings2:8-9. What evidence is there that he would have acted differently than the Israelite Prophets and Ishmaelite Prophet had he been commanded to, especially considering he appeals to this very tradition. Jesus proclaimed his belief in the Torah, never denying a single letter from it, never abrogating any of its laws, including those relating to obligatory as well optional warfare.

Yes, we're talking of wars solely meant to increase Israel's glory, and wealth.

On a general note, history shows that in the absence of a dominant political system that has the monopoly of violence, a religious movement, any type of movement will not hesitate to take up arms and defend its own interests whenever it is oppressed or wants to expand its interest. Contrary to Judaism and Islam, Christianity was born under the Roman empire. It had to remain quite and passive if it wanted to survive. However, the moment Christianity became state religion in the 4th century, the Church had no qualms in militarily advancing its interests around the world. This standpoint was abandoned in 16th century Europe after millions of Christians lost their lives in interreligious warfare. Before that, the Jews similarly abandoned religious military action, once it became clear that YHWH would not "smite the nations before them". This occured following the double crushing defeats, first with the 2nd destruction of the Temple and 2nd with the defeat of the messianic bar kochba revolt. That tendency is even more pronounced in the Rabbinic tradition of the Mishnah. Fearing that any new hot headed messianic claimant would rise up again and this time take the community to complete extinction, the elders or sages completely overturned the Biblical militant tone. This is done by separating between divinely commanded wars, including defensive, on one side and which every Jew is obligated to participate in, and any other type of war, deemed non-compulsory.

Just besides Jesus' notorious "love your enemies" and "turn the other cheek" verses, he is portrayed as vilificating his enemies and those that rejected him to the extreme. We read of some bizarre, unjust and violent incidents attributed to him such as causing the death by drowning of a herd of swine, in fact stealing them from their rightful owners, then allowing demons to purposely enter their bodies Matt8:32,Mk5:13,Lk8:33. Another bizarre incident one wouldnt expect a supposedly peaceful preacher to do is destroying a fig tree for not having fruit out of season Matt21:18-21,Mk11:13-14. On a more violent note, Jesus foretold the punishment of the Israelites, similar to the people of Galilee. 

His magnanimous utterance, asking God to forgive his torturers and oppressors isnt even agreed upon as authentic
Lk23:34"Father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing".
It is absent from manuscripts earlier than 200CE. 

He attacked the Pharisees and Jewish scribes in public, exposing their hypocrisy. He kicked out the money-lenders from the Temple when it was within his own power, besides threatening the Israelites with divine judgment, which includes destruction, for their rejection of him and calling their religious leaders and scribes all sorts of names from "serpents", "race of vipers" to "sons of hell" or calling them "hypocrites" and "blind fools" in public, called their generation "wicked and adulterous", told his followers to "Leave them; they are blind guides", compared them to "whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men's bones and everything unclean", "full of hypocrisy and wickedness" compared them to "unmarked graves, which men walk over without knowing it" and when one of the pharisees objected with
"when you say these things, you insult us"
Jesus continued his truthful admonition until he finished with the terrible sentence that
"this generation will be held responsible for the blood of all the prophets that has been shed since the beginning of the world" Matt23.
In the parable of the good samaritan Lk19 that Christians like harping upon, we see Jesus again vilificating those "race of vipers" that rejected him by portraying them as inhumane, incapable of even a simple act of mercy.

Therefore as a punishment in this very world for their spiritual blindness and rejection of him he purposely spoke in complicated parables to create confusion in the minds of those kind of people outside his followers, and avoid them turning to God and repenting Mk4:10-12.

The evidence, as is clear, points to the exact opposite of the claims that he would have acted any different than the Israelite prophets that preceded him. In fact, not only are there no instances where he loved and prayed for his rejecters and oppressors who persecuted and put him and his handful of powerless followers in a corner, ultimately brutally murdering them, but he consoled his companions by telling them to hold fast, for the time is surely coming that God would bring forth his justice and judgement in this world through the Paraclete, and that further, Jesus' name will be honored in a world where neither he or his apostles werent given any.

At best, he only forgave those who wronged others.

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