I have a habit of checking up on ALL "stories" that come my way from the internet Recently, a friend whose intellect and insight I value, sent along a thrice forwarded email the root of which contained the following:
An interesting article..
Allah or Jesus? by Rick Mathes
Last month I attended my annual training session that's required for
maintaining my state prison security clearance. During the training session
there was a presentation by three speakers representing the Roman Catholic,
Protestant and Muslim faiths, who explained each of their belief systems.
I was particularly interested in what the Islamic Imam had to say. The Imam
gave a great presentation of the basics of Islam, complete with a video.
After the presentations, time was provided for questions and answers.
When it was my turn, I directed my question to the Imam and asked:
"Please,correct me if I'm wrong, but I understand that most Imams and
clerics of Islam have declared a holy jihad [Holy war] against the infidels
of the world.
And, that by killing an infidel, which is a command to all Muslims, they are
assured of a place in heaven. If that's the case, can you give me the
definition of an infidel?"
There was no disagreement with my statements and, without hesitation, he
replied, "Nonbelievers!" I responded, "So, let me make sure I have this
straight.
All followers of Allah have been commanded to kill everyone who is not of
your faith so they can go to Heaven. Is that correct?"
The expression on his face changed from one of authority and command to that
of a little boy who had just gotten caught with his hand in the cookie jar.
He sheepishly replied, "Yes."
I then stated, "Well, sir, I have a real problem trying to imagine Pope John
Paul commanding all Catholics to kill those of your faith or Dr.
Stanley
ordering Protestants to do the same in order to go to Heaven!"
The Imam was speechless.
I continued, "I also have problem with being your friend when you and your
brother clerics are telling your followers to kill me. Let me ask you a
question. Would you rather have your Allah who tells you to kill me in order
to go to Heaven or my Jesus who tells me to love you because I am going to
Heaven and He wants you to be with me?"
You could have heard a pin drop as the Imam hung his head in shame.
Needless to say, the organizers and/or promoters of the 'Diversification'
training seminar were not happy with Rick's way of dealing with the Islamic
Imam and exposing the truth about the Muslim's beliefs.
I think everyone in the US should be required to read this, but with the
liberal justice system, liberal media, and the ACLU, there is no way this
will be widely publicized. Please pass this on to all your email contacts.
This is a true story and the author, Rick Mathes, is a well known leader in
prison ministry.
There are two things that get me to Snopes.com fast. The Phrase “ This is a true story” and the phrase “Please pass this along to all your email contacts”
And so…..
http://www.snopes.com/politics/religion/allah.asp
www.snopes.com is a clearing house for internet legends and rumores, True facts and vague factoids. They do their research and they present an unbiased assessment. I highly recommend you add them to your favorites list.
The most obvious point that our friend Mr. Mathes brings to the table with a ration of one sidedness is the notion that protestant and Catholic Religious leaders would never decree a call for the death of infidels.
Umm....can you say Crusades? How about Inquisitions? The Protestants are a little less weighty in the historical guilt factor, I recall a few young ladies in Massachusetts that got kinda hot under the collar for the purification of Salem, but apart from that we don't credit them with much in the way of religious war. Then there is also that classic read, The Old Testemant. Now any fundamental Christian will tell you (and I'll bet Mr Mathes has said this on occasion) "The Word of God is Holy and Correct " Okay, so how about that little band of Pre-Christ followers who in an effort to inform the world that their God was better than all those lower case gods killed a whole friggin bunch of people. I mean SLAUGHTERED them, while singing the praises of Jahovah? (sorry about the run on sentences)
My friend asks in her response to the original email “what is the purpose of this letter”? My answer is that the original writer wants what all strongly religious people want; "To be proven right". And that proof comes in any form that they can get it in. As long as the story has a happy ending for the Good Guys" it needs no refutation or verification. That is why I never forward a story that I haven't checked the source on first.
For myself, I am likely the worst kind of infidel. I think 99% of religions have cooked God right out of their books. And I think that an awful lot of people are going to be incredibly surprised to see some of the faces that will turn up in heaven.
I think God is bigger than we can define, and I am far to spiritually insignificant to play judge and jury on another mans soul. My faith has taught me that God speaks many languages and is known by many names. Most importantly, God is greater than any mans rule book. It is my guise in life to examine my soul before God and make right that which My heart shows me to be sinful in MY life. No One Elses. And that is more than enough of a job to keep me busy. If another soul finds comfort in God through an action of mine, I like to think it is a successful witness. I have never been called by God though, to attempt to strip anyone of there values and supplant them with mine. That is between each of us and God.
Every religion has it's group of trouble makers. And every religion has its group of shining stars. To me, the shining stars are the ones who feed the hungery, cloth the naked, and visit the lonely.They are those who breed fellowship and love. I have seen shining stars in the uniforms of all religions. I hope that God by what ever name they call It, smiles at them with pride.
The trouble makers are the ones who breed discord and anger. They cut the heads off the innocent. They shoot Abortion Doctors with high powered sniper rifles. Some fight to force the notion of God out of Government, while others fight to force their view of their brand of God down the throats of all through Government.
Finally, it comes down to a simple litmus test for me. Anything I am asked to believe in and support must pass to questions only: Does this help me love God ? and does this help me love my neighbor?
The article is interesting. And worth studying. But it does not pass either question for me.
Posted by cmckeithan at June 25, 2004 12:41 AM
Dear Editor,
You have my permission to use this article in any way that blesses our Lord. Please include my email MissionGateMinisry@msn.com for those that would like to comment. Thank you for this consideration. Should you wish future articles, please register at my web site: www.missiongateministry.org and I will oblige.
Press On!
Rick Mathes
Simmering Volcano
By Rick Mathes
America is in an epidemic of crime that is sweeping the inner-cities and plying on the young minorities to “join the family.” In St. Louis as well as in other major cities the majority of children are born to fatherless homes and ironically most black men killed are murdered by black men. And our prisons are disproportionately populated by a black population. And now the nation of Islam is sweeping up those that our educational system and racial prejudices have left behind. How can anyone be surprised that minority retribution is cloaking itself within the blessings of Allah? Dumbing-down is backfiring!
Financed by the white suburban addicts buying up all the “white” heroin and meth anyone can produce, these home grown terrorists are raping and pillaging their own neighborhoods as gang after gang hook up with radical Muslims that will not denounce their evil intentions. The silence of the American Muslim community is deafening. Is anyone awake? The volcano is about to explode.
Prisons are a breeding ground for those who have found violence, crime and drug dealing as a way out of the ghetto. When an inmate is released to society he returns to those “who will take care of him” and stands proudly as a parole that has “earned his stripes.” The young gangsters look up to him and all that he has learned while incarcerated by the “Department of Education.” (Or was that Department of Corrections?) The system doesn’t work and more of what doesn’t work, won’t work!
It has been estimated that at the rate of “black flight” from St. Louis, by the year 2037 the last porch light will go out. The city will be desolate and the suburbs will be the new battle ground. That won’t happen but we can’t ignore those that are left behind and the fractured families that are at the mercy of the militant Muslims that make “Osama bin Laden” look like “Mr. Rogers.”
American terrorists are finding their way into the Muslim community and masking their violence and crime with the blessings of Allah. The Koran points the way to a “better society” that excludes those who don’t believe (infidels). So all those unbelievers are the enemy and the victory must go to Allah no matter what it takes or who it harms in the process.
The fatal attraction is not in some far distant country, it is within the very soul of our major cities.
Someone, someday will pen the “Rise and Fall of America” and maybe we have helped him write the final chapter with our tolerance of the silent Muslim community that may very well be a simmering volcano.
I would have to regard this as a bogus article.
I would urge you to discuss this with any Muslims person you meet, I think they if they aren't offended by implication to begin with ('cause it would sort be like asking, 'Is it true that in the evening the customers are all gone, Faire folk sacrifice Christian babies and engage in wild sex rituals ?'). They will tell you very vehemently that this is not the case.
I feel like I don't need to tell you this, but I just have to vent a little after reading what I considered very nasty propaganda and something someone should be very ashamed and retract and seek forgiveness for right away.
The faith of Islam is huge and contains more variety and less centralization than Catholicism.
Catholicism has a Pope as the top spiritual leader on earth. He's at the top of the pyramid, In Islam, there is no pyramid, there is no ultimate top. There are leaders who are well respected and the Imans that form the relgious councils in Iran are looked to by a number of Muslims in the area, especially conservative Muslims, but they don't have the same authority as the Pope.
Taking this into account, remember, there are vast numbers of Catholics (like me) who don't agree with all of the Church's teachings and there are organization like Dignity, the Catholic gay organization, and Catholic parishs like Holy Redeemer church in SF that welcome gays.
If there can be that amount of variation in the strictly hierarchical Catholic Church, then I seriously seriously doubt that every Muslim believe that they need to kill non-Muslims to go to Heaven.
He deserves Paradise who makes his companions laugh. - the Koran
So apparently there's a choice, either kill a non-believer OR make your friends laugh.
Dear Editor,
You may use this article in any way you see fit but please include my name (Rick Mathes) and web page www.missiongateministry.org in the credits. This request is in response to those who want to know who the author is and how to reach him. See “Kentucky Fried Christianity” under “Editorials” at my web site or email me: MissionGateMinistry@msn.com.
LETTER TO IRAQI PATRIOTS
Dear Cousins,
Please accept the god we trust in and you too will share in these advantages of our culture:
1. Eliminating God from government and replacing Him with any god you may choose will conform to our “In any gods we trust” motto.
2. M.D.’s (murdering doctors) will kill your unwanted babies as they struggle to wiggle their way into the arms of parents that don’t want them.
3. The aged, disabled and unproductive will be given the option of a dignified death by the same M.D.’s that have said an oath of preserving life.
4. Queers and perverts will be able to marry and adopt children that will propagate the same mentally ill lifestyles.
5. Weekend marriages (married on Fri and divorced on Mon) will become the new rage.
6. Legalizing prostitution will eliminate the curse of immorality and adultery.
7. The underprivileged minorities will gamble their last dinar and the ruling class will pay fewer taxes because of their squandering of money and addiction to chance.
8. We will install our “dumbing-down” Department of Education so that the elite will continue to have control and authority over lower class repressed students.
9. Pornography will be very available in every form on the pretence that this will prevent “acting out” acts of sexual offences.
10. Our new enemy interrogation methods will be photographed and published uncut at a wonderful profit that will help the salary needs of “mentally sick” army personnel.
11. Our capitalistic corporate leaders will teach you how to rip off millions from fellow citizens and only have small and insignificant penalties to pay without complete restitution.
12. We will export our profitable prison industry as we have become the number one nation in the world expanding industry profits from incarcerating the most number of prisoners.
13. And we will show you how you too can merchandise “Kentucky Fried Christianity” as we have so that you too will never have to be accountable to God for the 10 Commandments our country was founded on.
Judge Roy Moore told me that the question our country needs to resolve is,
“Can the State acknowledge God?”
Upon that answer, our future as a nation “under God” rests.
We the ungodly people of Amerika do strongly encourage you to accept our superior culture or we will blow your country to dust, except the oil fields of course!
Signed:
The Godless people of Amerika
Word Count 438
PS My natural father was blown to bits in WWII defending the Judeo-Christian values of America that have been trampled on. Now, all I have left is a purple heart and the flag that draped his casket. And all America has is a country without God. This article is written in memory of my Dad.
To Whom It May Concern:
Greetings in the Spirit of our Lord!
This article is an exact reporting of a real event I participated in.
Regarding the snopes "false" report:
Mr. Kniest was not at the training session to know what did or did not occur. And what would you expect him to say for fear of Muslim retribution.
2. The official that said this conversation did not happen remains "unnamed" and why doesn't someone ask the dozen or so volunteers about it. They heard every word.
3. The inmate was introduced as the Muslim Imam that was chosen by the fellow Muslims to lead them and chosen by the Department of Corrections to teach us. We had no reason to question it because there are Priests and Ministers in prison that do the same.
4. I prefaced my remarks with, "Please correct me if I am wrong," and he didn't.
5. When I said, "It is real hard to be your friend," everyone burst out laughing.
6. We felt sorry for him and I gave him a hand sign and said, "Salaam" and he did the same back to me with a smile.
I asked questions and recorded the answers or lack thereof. Socrates did the same but I am not into drinking hemlock.
The false report issued by snopes does not question my reporting but my major premise and they base it on the word of Muslims clerics that can't even agree on what a "jihad" is.
The article is not the issue the issue is the issue:
Would you rather have an Allah who says to kill me to go to heaven or a Jesus who says for me to love you because I am going to heaven and He would like you to be with me?
Isn't it interesting that NO ONE has commented on the issue. They would rather destroy the messenger and ignore the message.
I hope this clears up things for you.
Press On!
Rick Mathes