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"ByLine with Dan Betzer" Program #2320
Friday, August 23, 2002
"Jihad and the Son of God"
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It is pretty hard to be hopeful for a Middle East peace
accord after reading a recent interview with the mother
of one of the suicide bombers.
The interview was published in a London-based Arabic
daily paper. The mother was quoted as saying, "Allah be
praised, I am a Muslim and I believe in jihad. I encouraged
my son to die a martyr's death for the sake of Allah. Jihad
is a religious obligation incumbent upon us. I sacrificed
my son as part of my obligation."
This Muslim mother pinpoints one of the principal
differences between fundamentalist Islam and
Christianity. While she believed that she had to sacrifice
her son, the Bible says that God sacrificed His Son for us.
The Muslim mother continued, "I asked Allah to give me
ten Israelis for my son and Allah granted my request, [my
son killed] ten Israeli settlers and soldiers. And many
more Israelis were wounded."
What kind of religious belief causes a mother to want her
son to be killed and to take many others with him? What
kind of belief system glorifies the deaths of human
beings? On the other hand, what is the distilled essence
of Christianity? From the lips of our Lord Jesus: "You
shall love the Lord your God and ... love your neighbor as
yourself." Catch the verb used twice? Love! Not hate, not
kill. Think it through. If one follows Jesus' teachings, would
a Christian mother want or pray for her son to kill ten
innocent people? Could a true follower of Christ be joyful
over the deaths of fellow human beings?
There are those who claim that all religions are alike. I
beg to differ. There is no similarity whatsoever between
Christianity and Islam.
--Reprinted with permission from ByLine Online, a free email subscription.
Copyright (c) 2002
Media Ministries of the Assemblies of God.
"ByLine with Dan Betzer" is a 2-minute daily program heard on radio
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