The Present Situation of Holy War
By: Abdel-Massih
During the Yom Kippur War between the Arab states and Israel in October 1973, the organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) raised the price of crude oil four times. The price was increased progressively until the oil became thirty times more expensive than before the war. This indicated an Islamic renaissance -- a new, massive wave of Holy War over the entire globe.
Oil-producing Islamic countries became extravagantly rich through seven years of financial influx from industrialized nations. The accumulated oil billions served as a motor in the Islamic rebirth. Through their financial power, Muslims were enabled to realize their dreams in many aspects of life. They have aspired to political prowess, granted loans, bought industries and banks, constructed Islamic universities in many countries, bought time at radio and television stations, and established countless mosques and prayer centers in the East and West.
When the West recognized that fossil fuel had become a weapon in the Muslim's Holy War, they conserved their oil consumption and sought out alternative energy sources. As a result, the price of oil decreased to an amount only eighteen times higher than before 1973. But this setback in prices did not weaken the vitality of the Islamic renaissance.
The invasion of Kuwait by Saddam Hussein in August 1990 has proven that many nations are still dependent upon oil-producing Islamic states. The immediate rise in oil prices was sufficient proof of this. Who could have imagined that a super-force of multi-national armies would one day defend Muslim oil-fields, risking their lives to regenerate Islam!
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Some Islamic countries are developing into remarkable financial powerhouses. They are trying to introduce the Sharia in third-world states and industrial nations alike, with the hope that these nations will, step by step, become dependent upon them.
Every Islamic country has its own struggle with the Sharia, with more of less success. At times, civil wars have erupted when the Sharia was initiated or hindered in a particular country. Although the majority of Muslims are liberal or indifferent, preferring a contemporary, moderate legal system, a strong minority of twenty to forty percent is striving for political and religious reform in their states.
In countries where the majority are Muslim, but where an Islamic state has not yet been formed, an Islamic reformation may occur, aiming to root out all reminders of Christianity and Western colonialism from the laws of the land. Indeed, there is potential for a revolution to overthrow the existing government with one that will implement the Sharia. In the Democratic Republic of the Sudan, many Muslims demand that the Sharia should again become the sole legal code of the country. Lebanon, Malaysia, Nigeria, and Tanzania are examples showing the long-term political strife and trials involved in forming an Islamic state. The majority of the population in these countries are not Muslim. Despite this ratio, Christian leaders are removed from their positions of influence one by one. Police and military positions are filled progressively by Muslims, and newspapers and other media increasingly transmit Islamic propaganda. The atmosphere in these countries is often tense and explosive.
Those who actively and continuously oppose the aims of Islam may receive threats. Some may be taken hostage. Killer squads are dispatched secretly to execute leading personalities who hinder the implementation of the Sharia. Stories of public executions in the streets of Istanbul, Cairo, Jerusalem, Beirut, Tehran, Dacca, and other cities appear in newspapers. Truly, Holy War is an unholy thing!
An immediate aim of Holy War is the extinction of Christianity in Muslim countries. Lebanon is a vivid illustration of this. In this war-torn land, the withdrawal of U.S. troops in February 1984 helped Syria reach its goal. The Persian Gulf Crisis sealed the fate of this country in autumn 1990.
Christian missions in countries with a Muslim majority are either prohibited or seriously restricted. Any infringement from foreigners upon the faith of Muslims is viewed as an attack upon the state in which they live. Therefore, those who attempt to evangelize Muslims risk punishment by law, owing to the indivisibility of religion and state in Islam. According to the Sharia, converts from Islam to Christianity are to be killed after a one-month period, if they refuse to repent. During this time, a sheik is usually appointed to guide the apostate back to the Ummah, the Islamic community.
There is no religious freedom for Muslims; they cannot change their religion. The Western concept of human rights has no room where Allah's Sharia rules -- no matter what the prevailing government might say. Indigenous Christians living in Muslims countries face mounting pressure either to convert to Islam or emigrate.
In the West, Muslim immigrants, guest-workers, and students demand increasing religious privileges and change Islamic slogans in the streets, under protection by police. They are buying time on radio and television, and utilize other media to further their cause. They arrange open discussions and debates, challenging and defeating Christian leaders who are often ill-prepared and ignorant of the real Islam. Some Muslims marry Christian wives with the purpose of converting them to their own faith. They are building mosques with towering minarets and train local missionaries to convert uncommitted Christians who distrust the authority of their Bible. They provoke the East and West today with open aggression and verbal warfare, but most Christians either neglect this challenge or fail to offer sufficient answers.
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