Can a good Muslim be a good American?
Here is how it began:
Theologically - no. . . Because his allegiance is to Allah, The moon God of Arabia.
Religiously - no. . . Because no other religion is accepted by His Allah except Islam (Quran,2:256) (Koran)
Scripturally - no. . . Because his allegiance is to the five Pillars of Islam and the Quran.
Geographically - no. . . Because his allegiance is to Mecca , to which he turns in prayer five times a day.
After a long litany of other bullet points, the conclusion was this:
Theologically - no. . . Because his allegiance is to Allah, The moon God of Arabia.
Religiously - no. . . Because no other religion is accepted by His Allah except Islam (Quran,2:256) (Koran)
Scripturally - no. . . Because his allegiance is to the five Pillars of Islam and the Quran.
Geographically - no. . . Because his allegiance is to Mecca , to which he turns in prayer five times a day.
After a long litany of other bullet points, the conclusion was this:
Therefore after much study and deliberation, perhaps we should be very suspicious of all Muslims in this country.
They obviously cannot be both 'good' Muslims and good Americans.
I'll spare you the rest of the details, but a similar e-mail is described fully here. Here is my reply:
Dear Sister in Christ,
I've seen this forward before. It is interesting, but I wonder if you couldn't say the same things in similar ways about Christians--our citizenship is not of this world, and we declare our purpose to be that of establishing a heavenly kingdom. If we can question Muslims' ability to show patriotism on the basis of these statements, wouldn't they also have grounds to question ours? And why would we promote the building of walls of suspicion against our Muslim neighbors rather than the bridges of love that Jesus taught us to extend? To protect ourselves, rather than trusting Him to be our Protector as we take risks to make Him known?
There is a video of Barack Obama's response to the allegations of emails such as this at the end of this article (same as the link above).
I'm very concerned that the credibility of Christians, and our ability to impact our society for the kingdom of God, is undermined when we spread condemning allegations in the face of very public evidence to the contrary. I am not in any way endorsing Barack Obama as a presidential candidate, but I will say that the only God I have heard Obama honoring in this campaign is the God of the Bible. See his testimony (along with faith statements from the other candidates and links to more information) in this overview. I can't argue for or against the authenticity of Obama's faith, but since the fact is that he was sworn into the senate on a Bible and has led them in the Pledge of Allegiance, the rest of the claims of this email (which states that Obama was sworn in on a Koran and refuses to salute the flag or say the Pledge) and others like it are also in question. And we can be sure that as one who professes to be our brother in Christ, and simply by virtue of the impact he has as a government leader, he needs our prayers.
I hope you'll take this in the right way and not as a criticism. I've had others challenge me on things that I've sent, and honestly it stung a little, but I'm grateful that they cared enough. I've been convicted about really thinking through what I send along to people, and about the impact that our email activity has on our witness. I wouldn't bother responding to anyone that I didn't think cared about that too, and I know you do!
Blessings,
Tracy
I don't fear the possible implications of a Barack Obama presidency nearly as much as I fear that Christians are so busy letting the world know what we are against that the world will never know the One who is FOR them! Please, Christian friends, let's love our neighbors lavishly, pray for our leaders, and live securely and joyfully in the belief that our great God is the provider, protector and Savior that we love to proclaim that He is.
I don't fear the possible implications of a Barack Obama presidency nearly as much as I fear that Christians are so busy letting the world know what we are against that the world will never know the One who is FOR them! Please, Christian friends, let's love our neighbors lavishly, pray for our leaders, and live securely and joyfully in the belief that our great God is the provider, protector and Savior that we love to proclaim that He is.
One more thing. If someone sends you an e-mail that is intended to cause alarm or get you riled, PLEASE check out its validity at snopes.com before you hit forward. Just type the subject of the e-mail in the search bar. This simple practice has made me better informed, and saved me some embarrassment.
There it is. The closest I'll probably ever get to making a political statement on this blog. I'm getting off my soapbox now. And as always, comments are welcome!