Transcription
[Music] [Music] Well, hey! I think you guys know what this means. When I'm on the screen talking to you on a Sunday morning, it means that I'm away right now. And, um, but listen, uh, we have a great opportunity to, uh, learn and to be once again instructed by, in my opinion, a world expert. And I mean that sincerely and accurately. Uh, J Smith is no stranger to this church. Uh, this is a man who is a remarkable, uh, expert on Islamic theology. We've had Jay with us before, and every time he's hit the ball out of the park in equipping you on Islam and its advancement and how to respond to Islam, uh, as it sweeps the world right now. Islam is, as you know, uh, on a march to establish its caliphate around the world. And, uh, there's probably a high probability that you know a Muslim in your life. How do you respond to them? And how can you better understand them? Christian, it's incumbent upon you to know what what's happening in our world regarding Islam. And so, please give a warm welcome to our good friend, one of our missionaries that we love to support, a great brother, Jay Smith.
Excellent. We're going to, what, what I'm going to do today. Jack had me come here all the way from London. No, I've been here in the States now since August, and I've been, we had me fly out here just to help you get for what's been going on in the news. And we're going to bring you up to speed as to who this group is called ISIS, what's their agenda, why are they so popular, why are so many people joining them? And of course, then, what's our response as Christians? Next week, you're going to hear Amir, who's going to show from another side, another angle. My area is Islam, and that's what I have been working with for over 33 years. And it's an area that I continue to work with. And I'm, when I'm in London, I'm at Speaker's Corner every Sunday. I'd be there right now. My, actually, my team is already down there at Speaker's Corner. We, I get up on a line and we take on Muslims right, left, and center. And the people that we take on are the radicals, these very people that are causing this problem around the world.
So I want to go ahead and start the, uh, PowerPoint. And I just want to say, at last service, I saw a lot of people trying to write notes. I speak way too fast, and there are way too many slides for you to keep up. This PowerPoint will be up online for all of you to use. So any of you want to pull it down, feel free to do that. And then slow me right down. And so I, at least I talk like a human. Now, let's start with this group called ISIS. But in order to do that, what does your president say? And this is just on the 10th. He said, ISIS, ISIL. He uses the word ISIL. I wish he wouldn't. Is not Islamic. Because when he uses the word with the L, he's including the Levant, which also includes Lebanon and also Israel. And I don't think he realizes what he's intending. ISIS stands for Islamic State of Iraq and Al Shams. Al Shams is the Arabic name for Syria. So it's just those two states right now. That's all they have, the northeast, northwestern, the eastern part of Syria, and the northern part of Iraq. Your president believes that this group is not Islamic. Do you think he's correct?
Well, goodness, that's unanimous. Well, then my job's done. I might as well go home. He uses the word radicals to describe, uh, ISIS, and he uses the word very well. And I think that's good that he's using that word. I don't think he realizes what that word means. Radical. The word itself in English means root. So a person who's a radical goes back to the root. And that's exactly what ISIS is doing. They're going back to their root. Now, there are many people that believe that this group, ISIS, or Al-Qaeda before, or any of these radical groups, are nothing more than a present phenomena. They're very recent. They've only really been created since the, the creation of the state of Israel in 1948. And have they've been exacerbated because of the situations that are happening in Iraq and Afghanistan. Therefore, it's a political problem needing political solutions, which has nothing to do with the church. I disagree. Isis and radicalism, by nature, by its very definition, has been around since the very beginning. It's been with us for 1400 years. If you have any doubt, just go back to the root and just take a look and see who is at the root. And the root is this book right here. And the model of that root would be Muhammad himself. And just take a look at the model Muhammad. And look and see what he did specifically when he created the Islamic State, the original Islamic State in 624. And from 624 up until 627, look and see what he did to the Jews, just in that three-year period. But then continuing after that up until, until 632 when he died. His whole life was imbued with violence. We'll get back to that. But if you understand, if you want to know where radicalism comes from, I'm going to give you a quick history lesson. You need to go back to Ibn Taymiyyah. Ibn Taymiyyah in the 1300s was the one that created the idea of what a true Muslim was. And he said, a true Muslim has to follow this book, the Quran. But it's very difficult to follow this book because it's, uh, it's all over the place. There's not any, oh, I'm sorry, there's one complete story in the entire book. It doesn't begin, it doesn't end. Stories are all jumbled. It assumes you even know the person that you're talking about. So it's very difficult to understand. Even the religious scholars don't even understand 20% of it. Therefore, how do you follow this book? You have to follow Muhammad. It's Muhammad, it's the model for this book. So Ibn Taymiyyah says, in order to be a true Muslim, you must read the book and follow the man. The book and the man. Very simple.
Jump to the 1700s. In the 1700s, there were two men who then took that paradigm. They were both living in Medina at that time. In the 1700s, one was named Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab, who was from Arabia. The other is named Shah Waliullah. He was from the Indian subcontinent. They were both studying Ibn Taymiyyah's material, going back to the book and the man. Wahhab stayed there in Arabia and he amalgamated with the Ibn Saud family, who then had conquered most of the surrounding tribes, had taken over the Arabian Peninsula and created what is now today called Saudi Arabia, giving their name. But their authority came from Wahhab. Wahhab was the theological authority for the state of, or the, the family called the Ibn Saud family. And Wahhabism, therefore, has been, uh, created using Wahhab's criteria. Following Ibn Taymiyyah, Waliullah went back to India, started in Patna, and then ended up in Delhi. And there he created a whole another set of madrasas. And then we move into the 20th century. There in the Indian subcontinent, two other men in the last century, Muhammad Ilyas al-Kandhlawi, who started what we now know today as Tablighi Jamaat in 1926, using Wahhabi's material, all based on Ibn Taymiyyah's principle of going back to the Quran and following Muhammad. In 1947, when India got its independence, Abdul Mawdudi, who was part of India, moved into what is today Pakistan and created these madrasas all up and down the North-West Frontier. These are madrasas which today are now graduating 1.7 million Talib. 1.7 million students, all started, all reading this book and following the prophet's example. That's happening in the Indian subcontinent. Muhammad Ilyas Kandhlawi started the Jamaat. That group now has grown so big, so strong, that it is considered to be the largest radical group in the world today. It now has a membership of 80 million. 80 million. That's larger than the entire population of Britain. Yet, how many have heard of this name before? We're not even paying attention. We have no idea what we're up against. Meanwhile, over in Egypt, another man in the 1920s, Hassan al-Banna, started the Muslim Brotherhood. His favorite student was Sayyid Qutb. Sayyid Qutb had memorized this book when he was only 10 years old. You can see the prodigy of this young fellow. He was then used by Hassan al-Banna and became the theologian for the Muslim Brotherhood. Was in prison by Nasser, the pan-Arabist, at that time in 1956. And for 10 years, the last 10 years of his life in prison, he wrote two books: In the Shade of the Quran and Milestones. In the Shade of the Quran takes this book and expounds verse by verse by verse, applies it to the 20th century. And that has become the textbooks for all radicals around the world. It's been translated into over 26 languages. He was also the teacher of Ayman al-Zawahiri. Ayman al-Zawahiri was a doctor, another Egyptian doctor, part of the Muslim Brotherhood. He was imprisoned, then was let out. And he immediately amalgamated. He then came across a man named Osama bin Laden, who had an awful lot of money. And they formed together Al-Qaeda. Al-Qaeda, then, was invited to go to, uh, to Afghanistan by the Taliban. Who are the Taliban? Remember what I said earlier? These madrasas that are spewing out 1.7 million Talib. Talib means student in Arabic. The Talib became the Taliban. The Taliban moved into Afghanistan, threw out the Russians, and invited Al-Qaeda to set up shop. And you know the rest of the story, because you know what happened in 2001, September 11th. Now, their teaching and their material is very much the same thing you'll be finding from Hamas, the Mujahideen, the, these are just many groups that use that same paradigm of coming back to this book, modeled on that man, Muhammad.
Today, probably the most popular cleric around the world is this man here, Yusuf al-Qaradawi. Yusuf al-Qaradawi is on Al Jazeera television every night, and he expounds, he explains the Quran for the world. And that's why Muslims love him. And that's why back in 2004, he was brought to, in London, my city, by Ken Livingstone, the mayor of London, who wanted a moderate voice of Islam to show what true Islam was like. And the first question he was asked at the press conference there at Heathrow Airport was, "What do you do with suicide bombers?" And his response was, "They have no difficulty with suicide bombers. It's part of Islam, providing that the, that the suicide bombers target Israelis, men, women, or children, or American soldiers." And then, without even being asked, he said, "It's okay for men to beat their wives," referring to Surah 4, Ayah 34. And it's okay for homosexuals to be given 100 lashes," referring to Surah 24, Ayah 2, which has to do with adulterers. Embarrassing Ken Livingstone, who had invited him there as a moderate Muslim. He should have done his homework. He should have looked and seen where this man came from. This man was trained up by Ayman al-Zawahiri. He was trained up by, he was part of the Muslim Brotherhood. And he was going right back to scripture, going back to the book, modeled by the man.
Now, I want to look at, to look at these two men. Those two men are from London. The man on the right, Assif, is a friend. He used to come to Speaker's Corner every Sunday. He used to be there in the crowd at Speaker's Corner. I didn't really get to know him personally, but people on my team got to know him. And then suddenly, in October of 2002, he disappeared. We were told he was in Syria learning Arabic, a good place to learn Arabic. And then, on April 30th of 2003, his picture and Omar Sharif, not the actor, that's another Omar Sharif, were on the cover of every newspaper. The day before, the night before, they had been in Tel Aviv. They had tried to go into a bar called Mike's, where there was a disco going on, right on the ocean there in Tel Aviv. They were stopped at the door by bouncers. Assif pulled the pin on his jacket, blew himself up, and killed three Israeli guards. When Omar Sharif tried to do the same thing with his jacket, the pin pulled, but there was no detonation. It was a dud. So he jumped into the ocean and drowned. And their pictures were on the cover of every newspaper. So that Sunday, I went down to Speaker's Corner and I wanted to find out if people were talking about these two men. And I held their pictures up on my ladder. Nobody was talking about them. But as soon as I held their pictures up, I sucked all the crowds from the other groups. And I said, "I want you Muslims to come front and center. I want to talk to you Muslims." I said, "How many of you Muslims support what these two men did?" And about 30 raised their hands. Then I said to those Muslims who had raised their hands, "How many of you are willing to blow yourselves up for your God here at Speaker's Corner?" About 15 raised their hand, started punching the air, yelling at the top of their voices. The crowds had gathered by that time, and you could see the horror on the faces of the crowd as they watched these men yelling "Allahu Akbar." And I turned to the crowd and I said, "Take a look at their faces. Memorize those faces. This is not a faceless enemy out there in Afghanistan, in Iraq. It's right here in London. What are you going to do about it?"
Two years later, four young men blew themselves up on three different trains, one bus. Maybe they were in that crowd. Today, it doesn't matter. I could ask that question even today, I'd get the same response. You heard about the backpack bombers. Two weeks later, five other young men had backpacks on their back. They went on five other trains. They tried to blow themselves up. The detonators went off, but fortunately, the chemicals inside the bombs had deteriorated, and they only blew their detonators. They're now in prison at Belmarsh Prison in London. We've had the shoe bomber who tried to blow up an Air France flight. He was from Brixton in South London. The underwear bomber who tried to bomb a plane there in Detroit. He, he got his training there in London. The fertilizer bombers who tried to blow up one of our malls called Bluewater. They were caught before they could do that. They're in Belmarsh. The liquid bombers who tried to get on to some planes at Heathrow Airport with liquid bombs. That's why you don't have liquids on board planes anymore. You're not permitted to because of Heathrow Airport and what happened there. The medical bombers, four young bombers, medical students, who tried to blow up two pubs in London and try to blow up Glasgow Airport. They were also caught. One of them actually died in the attempt at Glasgow Airport. We have 149 of these young men now in prison in London. Every one of them has been caught making bombs, transporting bombs, or blowing up bombs. Every one of them are Muslim. Every one of them are Muslim. And all of them, except for four, are British citizens. Can you see the problem we have in Britain?
What's their agenda? They look at the West and say the West is in decline. Culturally, loss of identity. Socially, the breakdown of the family. The real problem with drugs that we have. Morally, look at all the movies and TV. All the enormous amount of, uh, pornography that's on our films. There's an awful lot that they can show for that. Spiritually, they say, "Take a look at you, at Europe today. Only 5% of the people even go to church." In Britain, it's 7%, a little bit better. Economically, the fact that we use usury in our capitalistic system is anathema for them. And politically, the fact that we allow every man one vote, that we allow everybody a vote, they said this is anathema. Democracy is never, has never, was never intended by the prophet, nor by Allah. What's their answer? Therefore, they say they want to eradicate immorality by bringing in Sharia. We now have Sharia in Britain as of 2009. It is legitimate to have Sharia courts. We have 80 Sharia courts now in Britain. They want to eradicate usury, interest, by bringing in Islamic banking. They want to eradicate democracy by bringing in the caliphate, which is based on a theocratic model of Allah at the top, the Caliph underneath, taken from the Ulama, which would be underneath that of the Ummah, underneath that, which would be the believers, under which are the Ajam, which are us, and at the very bottom would be the Kafir. That's a theocratic model. That's the exact same model that we see even Taymiyyah preaching, following the example of the prophet himself. And they want to eradicate Western militaries and replace it with the Ummah, the believers.
They want to use three different stages. And this is what almost all the radicals use. And they follow the example of the prophet himself. The prophet who lived in Mecca and from 610 to 622 to receive the Meccan revelations. That was the first stage. And they were doing that now in Europe, and they're doing that here in the United States. That's called the pen stage, where they use pens, they use, they use writings, they use, uh, all kinds of media, DVDs, getting up on the internet, YouTube, to try to show their message and to try to confront those who stand against them. After Muhammad moved to Medina in 622, for the first two years, then he tried to impose regulations, tried to create a relationship with the Jews. And that's the second stage. They call it the scale stage. That's where they impose laws, rules, and regulations. That's already begun in Britain. It hasn't yet begun here. And then in 624, when the Jews finally rejected them, he rejected the Jews. And then after that time, he then started confronting the Jews. And after the Battle of Badr, he threw out the first Jewish tribe, the Banu Qaynuqa family. And that's where the starts, the sword began. I'll talk more about that later. That they say has now begun with 9/11. And 55 or 77, excuse me, what we have, our number for July the 7th, 2005.
But where do they get their authority? Two sources. They go back to scripture to get their authority, and they come back to the prophet himself. So let's look at scripture. When you look at scripture, one of the first things I always ask my Muslim friends whenever they tell me that Islam is a religion of peace, or when Obama says that ISIS, because it's violent, is not Islamic, I ask them to go back and support that in scripture. And you could do the same. Ask them, "Where are those peaceful verses? Show me a verse that says there to have peace with me." Usually, they start with Surah 2, Ayah 256. "For there is no compulsion in religion." I hear that repeated all the time. But I always ask people, "If that's your verse, why don't you read the rest of the verse?" The rest of the verse in verse 256, and also the next verse that follows, 257, is very clear that that has nothing to do with us. It has nothing to do with whether or not to have peace with me. It's to be peace with them. In fact, it's very clear that it has to do with Muslims who either reject or accept Allah. And if they reject Allah, great will be their perdition, for they will be in hell. Now, tell me, if there's no compulsion, what's more? We have what we call in the Quran a law of abrogation. Because there are so many conflicting verses, over 225 conflicting, contradicting verses, a law of abrogation is included in the Quran in Surah 2, Ayah 106. In Surah 16, Ayah 101, it says, if you have two verses that are conflicting, one is manukh, that's weak, the other is nasikh, that's strong. You always go with the later verse. There are 101 verses that come after Surah 2, Ayah 256 that abrogate it. So you cannot use Surah 2, Ayah 256 in the context of peace. They usually then go to Surah 2, Ayah 190. "Those who fight you, do not transgress limits." Well, I would like to ask, what limits are you not to transgress? Read the rest of the verse: "And slay them wherever you catch them, and fight them until they prevail faith in Allah." So what limits are there to transgress once you slay them? Not very peaceful after all, once you look at the context and read the rest of the verse.
So then they love to go to Surah 5, Ayah 31 and 32. The story of Cain and Abel. Cain kills his brother Abel, doesn't know what to do with the body. He sees a raven burying its partner, so he follows the example of the raven and buries his brother. And then in verse 32, you have this verse, which says, "We ordained for the children of Israel that if anyone slew a person not in retaliation of murder or to spread mischief in the land, it would be as if he slew the whole people. And if anyone saved a life, it would be as if he saved the life of the whole people." That sounds pretty redemptive, doesn't it? Kind of peaceful. I asked my radical friends, "So how would you execute this verse?" Well, they said, "Well, hold on a minute. Who are the people it's referring to? It has to refer to us." Therefore, put Muslim there. Then they read it, "That if anyone slew a Muslim in Chechnya, or Bosnia, or Iraq, or Afghanistan, not in retaliation or murder, it would be as if he slew all Muslims, including me. And it's if anyone saved a life of a Muslim in Chechnya, or Bosnia, or Iraq, or Afghanistan, it would be as if he saved the life of all Muslims." And they all turn to me and say, "Therefore, that's why we go and we join up wherever the state, wherever Muslims, even individual Muslims, are being threatened." Because of 5:32. Is that a good interpretation of that verse? Who cares if you're not going to read the first part? Look at the first part. It says, "We ordained for the children of Israel." This has nothing to do with Muslims. And if you're going to throw that out of the verse, then you can execute it any way you want, either peacefully or violently. But then they asked me to come back to Surah 9. Surah 9 is the last chapter that was revealed to the prophet, according to Islamic tradition, in 632. Therefore, it's the most important chapter. It's the one that abrogates anything that comes before. Surah 9, Ayah 5: "But when the forbidden months are passed, then fight and slay those who join other gods with Allah wherever you find them. Besiege them, seize them, lay in wait for them with every kind of ambush." Does that sound very peaceful to you? Especially when you know those who join other gods with Allah, the word in Arabic is mushrikun. And many of us think that we are mushriks because we take Jesus and supposedly we elevate him to the status of God. We are mushriks. So that would have to do with us. How, now, how does that make you feel? If you don't like that one, go on a few verses to verse 29. "Make war upon such of those to whom the scriptures have been given." That's us. They're to make war upon the Ajam. We are the Ajam. What about how are they to do it? "When you encounter the unbelievers, strike off their heads." Cut off their heads. That's where the authority comes from for wiping and taking off the heads of the journalists. And now the UK man, yes, yesterday. Surah 8:33-38-39: "Unbelievers and fight them on until there is no more tumult or oppression, and there prevailed justice and faith in Allah." These are the two verses that stipulate more than any other that they are to use violence. As far as those who die in Jihad, to him who fights it in the cause of Allah, soon shall we give him a reward of great value. Verse 47:46: "Those who are killed in the way of Allah, they will be admitted to Paradise." Remember, in Islam, there is no assurance of salvation. Muslims only hope that they are saved. They have no assurance whether or not they're going to be able to cross that Sirat bridge, that razor-sharp bridge over into Paradise. Allah can throw them down into hell at any time. Even Muhammad didn't know whether he was going to make it across. Except for those two verses, if you die in the cause of Allah, in the cause of Jihad, you go straight to heaven. Can you then understand why dying in the cause of Allah is such an attraction for so many young men and women, if that's the only way you can get insurance of salvation? Thank God we don't have that problem. Thank God we all know where we're going, and we don't die for God, he dies for us.
Take a look at all those verses. 149 verses. Those are your sword verses, folks. When Muslims say that this book is a book of peace, just remind them of every one of those verses I've just gone through, five or six for you today. All of them are about violence. All of them are in the Meccan suras. All of them, therefore, are the more authoritative verses. How should we execute these verses? Well, we have to go back to Muhammad. He is the only one that we can go to, because he is the paradigm. That's what Ibn Taymiyyah says. That's what Wahhab, that's what Shah Waliullah said. They all have been saying the same thing. In order to understand the context, you need to go to the man and take a look at his life. Just look at his biography, written by, written by Ibn Ishaq, written by, look and see what they say about his life, or his sayings, the Hadith, written by Bukhari, Sahih Muslim, Ibn Majah. And when you look at that, you find out that in, for the first, for, uh, for the last eight years of his life, from 624 to 632, that last eight-year period, he was involved personally in 29 battles and planned another 39 on top of that. His whole life was imbued with violence. So how can you say this man was a man of peace? Those who stood against him, those who were under his authority, the Jews that were there in Medina. Remember, the Jews were from Medina. Muhammad was not from Medina, he was from Mecca. He went there on invitation by the Ansar. Within two years of arriving in Medina, he started confronting the Jews. In 624, after the Battle of Badr, after he'd been there for two years, he then came to the Banu Qaynuqa family, threw them out. A year later, when the Meccans tried to come back and, uh, revenge against the Battle of Badr, which they lost, he then came back after that battle, having lost the battle, Muhammad lost the battle, got angered by the Jews that were there, and threw out the Banu Nadir family. And then two years later, in 627, after the Battle of the Trench, he came to the last remaining Jewish family, the largest Jewish family, the Banu Qurayza family. They could not stand against him. And so he took all 800 men, gave them spades, had them dig trenches, lined them up in front of the trenches, and then slit their throats all in one afternoon. That's the example of the prophet. I can give you four different sources for that. Ibn Ishaq, Al-Waqidi, both from the Hadith, and Al-Tabari, from four different authorities, three different genres. This is not, not our material, this is their material. Those who criticized him, Asma was a poet who criticized him in poetic verse. He said, "Who's going to take care of this poetess for me?" When he first moved to Medina, one of his disciples went that night, and as she was suckling her baby in the middle of the night, he stabbed her through the heart. Came back the next morning, told Muhammad what he had done, and Muhammad praised him for supporting his prophet. 25 people he assassinated. And their only crime, their only crime was criticism of him. Can you then understand why Muslims, when the Danish cartoons came out there in Denmark, all over the world, Muslims rioted, and 17 people lost their lives? Because of their example, they were following their example. Muhammad, with these scriptures and the example of the Prophet Muhammad. Can you then understand why so many within Islam today are saying what they are saying and doing what they are doing? Their authority, they believe, is that of holy writ, a divine authority modeled by the greatest and clearest paradigm for mankind, for all peoples, all places, and for all times, including Iraq and Syria today.
So let's unpack ISIS and let's see just how Islamic they are. The Islamic State of Iraq and Al Shams. That's their flag. But this is the man that's leading them, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. On the upper left-hand side, you can see what he was like as a military leader. And then as he then took over Iraq, he then appeared in Mosul three weeks ago, four weeks ago now, and he preached at the largest mosque in Mosul to now show his religious authority. Who is this man? Well, he's from Iraq. He's from Samarra, just in a suburb of Baghdad. That's why they call him al-Baghdadi. He has a PhD in Islamic Studies from the Islamic University of Baghdad. He has a PhD in both Islamic law and theology. This man knows his material like no one else. That's why he's so dangerous. You can see immediately what he did as soon as his ragtag of men, only about 800 when he started six weeks ago, when he came across out of Syria, moved into Iraq, they came in jeeps and trucks with their black flags with a Shahada on the top of the flag. And they immediately did a blitzkrieg right across Northern Iraq, coming down through the two rivers. They followed the Tigris in the north and the Euphrates in the south. And they took over Mosul and Tikrit and Samarra. They took over Kirkuk. They took over Ramadi, Fallujah. They went all the way to the suburbs of Baghdad. And the reason they were able to do that so quickly is because we, or you as Americans, destroyed Iraq, gave a democratic vote to all the people, knowing that 60% of the people were Shiites. They, of course, won the elections. Al-Maliki won the elections. He's a Shiite, hated by the Sunnis. He then let, he then made his put his own man in power, al-Maliki. And Maliki, one of the first things he did was to get rid of all the officers, all the generals who are Sunni, and replace them with Shiite officers who had no experience, were not at all aware of how to lead an army. And they were the ones that met ISIS when they came across the borders. Of course, you know what happened next. They just decimated. Isis, I'm sorry, ISIS just decimated the Shiite military. The Shiite military took off their uniforms, laid down their weapons, all of which were American weapons, left their bases, and went home. When al-Baghdadi came with all his men, they went into those bases, they went into the offices, opened up the filing cabinets, and found the addresses for every one of those men. Went to their houses and arrested every one of them, as you can see in the pictures there. And then they brought them out in humiliation, beating them as they did. And they took them out into the desert, gave them spades, had them dig trenches, and then they mowed them down, 1,700 in one case, at one time. And they filmed everything they did. Why did they film it? Was it for your sake? For your president's sake? This had nothing to do with us. The reason they filmed it is so the Muslims around the world could see what they were doing, because they were doing exactly what Muhammad did to the Banu Qurayza in 627. Baghdadi was doing in 124. And instead of using knives, they now use AK-47s, following the exact example of the prophet himself.
Then they went to Mosul. Now, remember, Mosul was a Christian town. Mosul has had Christians in it for 2,000 years. They went into Mosul and they attacked the, uh, the banks, took all the money out of the banks, and some say as much as $2 billion. What a war chest they have. And then they went to the Christians and they had, they painted on all their doorstops the noon sign, which is just the letter noon, which is the first letter of the Nazarene. I want this gentleman here just to stand up. Take a look at his shirt. He is wearing that symbol in solidarity, I assume. I think we all need to buy shirts like that. See, that is the noon sign that the prophet Muhammad used in the 7th century. That's the sign to designate who is a Christian. It's the Quranic name Nazarene that you find uniquely in the Quran for Christians. We are Nazarenes or Nazarenes. Put them on the doorstops of all the houses there in Mosul. And then he gave them three options: either to convert, or to pay the jizya tax. The jizya tax is uniquely for Christians and Jews. You can find that in the Quran in chapter 9, verse 29. Surah 9, Ayah 29. Now, the jizya tax depends on how it is given, is levied depending on how rich you are. If you're a poor family, you only pay 20%. If you're medium income, you pay 40%. If you're a rich family, you pay 80%. But the Muslims only pay the zakat, which is 2.5%. 2.5% for Muslims, 20 to 40 to 80 for Christians. If they refuse to pay the jizya, then they would be killed. Convert, pay the jizya, or die. Now, the Christians in Mosul took a fourth option. They fled. So that today, there are no Christians left in Mosul. Baghdadi is not from Mosul, just like Muhammad was not from Medina. The Jews lived in Medina, they were there for many generations. The Christians have lived in Mosul for 2,000 years. Baghdadi has thrown all the Christians out. The only Christians that are left now are the old and the infirm. People are now wearing these shirts now to support them and show solidarity with them. And we also need to say, if you're going to kill them, we kill us as well.
And then he went outside of Mosul to the Monastery of Mar Behnam. A fourth-century monastery. It's been around for the 4th century, one of the oldest monasteries in the area. He went inside the monastery, threw out the priests, only let them take the shirts on their back. Then he went and destroyed the relics and then he burned the manuscripts, the biblical manuscripts, the oldest Coptic manuscripts in the world, 17th-century manuscripts. How many of you knew about it? How many of you complained? Did your government complain? As the church complained? These are some of our oldest manuscripts destroyed. Three weeks ago, he went to the churches that were there in Mosul and took down the crosses and put up his flag. And there you can see pictures of it up there on the screen now. This group that has been only started with 800 has now grown to 31,000 in just six weeks. Where are they getting them from? Many of them are from Iraq. Many of them are Sunnis who are now joining them. But look and see the numbers that are now. This is the estimated numbers that are coming from around the world. Most of them in Europe are coming from Belgium and Denmark and France. Far away as Australia, Norway. And take a look, how many of them are coming from Jordan, Tunisia, Lebanon? These are all Muslims who are joining them. Why are they joining him? Because of who this man is and what he's doing. And the fact that he filmed everything he's doing, proving that he is not just any other Muslim. He is following exactly the model of the prophet, based on this book. He's doing what Ibn Taymiyyah says all Muslims should do. That's his popularity. This is what your government doesn't want to tell you. This is what Obama has no idea of. He has no idea what he's up against. These are some of the pictures of those who have joined him from Chechnya, Minneapolis, USA, German, French, Australian, Welsh.
So who must confront ISIS? Well, you would say it's the state. That's their responsibility. This is a political problem, it needs political solutions. And the only ones who can do that are the military. That's why we elect them to office. That's why they're there to protect us, to secure us. And the US is doing a very good job. Finally, I think the US woke up. They are helped the Yazidis who were, who are being pushed up into Sinjar Mountain, 40,000 of them. Finally, the US sent its F-16s and its F-18 Hornets from the USS George H.W. Bush there in the Gulf. They sent their drones up, and they were able to push back the Yazidis. They also helped the Peshmerga, the Kurds. The only ones that have a democratic state. The Kurds are the only ones in the entire region that have a democratically elected political office. Um, office. They also have women in parliament. They are the only ones that have free press, 50 journals in Erbil that are being published freely. It's the only example of a democratic state anywhere in the Middle East outside of Israel. US has now gone for their defense. And as long as the ISIS are in the deserts, the US can destroy them and keep them back, as long as they can use air power, which means using, uh, air power against convoys on the roads in a place where there's very little cover on a flat land. Your air power will do fine. The problem is, what are you going to do with the cities? What are you going to do with Mosul, Tikrit, Samarra? What are you going to do once they move into Baghdad and take over Baghdad? That's your Air Force cannot do. You cannot fight that battle unless you have boots on the ground. And I don't think America has a stomach for that. So be careful of what the state can do. It can only do so much. Look what happens. ISIS retaliates. James Foley, a few weeks ago, had his, he was beheaded. Steven Sotloff, just a few weeks ago, was also beheaded. And then yesterday, David Haines from the United Kingdom, he was beheaded. They have another one ready to go in another two weeks, another Englishman. And they're going to continue doing this. Take a look at the man there with the knife in his hand. It's the same man in every picture. Have you noticed that? Have you ever heard him speak? He speaks English. He's from London. We know him. He's part of the Mahdi Army, the group that I have to deal with. He's a convert to Islam. He mocks Obama. They use him specifically because of his command of the language. You notice the orange clothes that they're wearing? Why are they wearing those orange jumpsuits? That's from Guantanamo. Those are the same jumpsuits that you make Muslims wear in Guantanamo Bay. They're mocking you by wearing the orange jumpsuits. Can, therefore, the state really defeat ISIS? They can militarily, they can keep them at bay. But see, remember, ISIS is based on a book, modeled by a man. What motivates ISIS is an ideology. Can you destroy an ideology with bombs, bullets, and cruise missiles? No, you can't. The only way you can take on this ideology is to confront this book. And your government cannot confront this book. That's not their remit. That's not why we ask them to go. That's not why we elect them to power. And that's not what they're able to do, because they don't even read this book. They're not even aware of what it says. They have no idea who Baghdadi is or what he's saying, or why he's so attractive, and why so many men and women are joining him from all over the world. The state wants unanimity. They do not want exclusivity. They don't want anybody to be saying something that's exclusive, including Christians. So therefore, who can confront radical Islam? The only ones I know are radical Christians. And I'm looking at them right here. You're the only ones that can confront them. The reason why? Because we also are radical. As uncomfortable as that makes you feel. My radical means that we also go back to a book, do we not? This book right here. It's the bigger one. Remember that. It's always the bigger one, the better one, modeled by another man, a much bigger man, a much better man, a more relevant man, Jesus Christ. And that's why we are the only ones that understand the radicals of Islam, 'cause we're just as radical as they are. Hallelujah. And as they go to a book, we go to a bigger book. As they go to a God, we go to a bigger God. As they go to an Isa, we go to a bigger Yeshua. And that's why we're the only ones that can take on ISIS. Thank you. That's our responsibility. We have the tools to confront them. We have the best and only alternative. And we do that. But here are the problems. We have no models. How many people do you know that are confronting Islam head-on? How many people do you know that are confronting this book? There are a few here. David Wood in New York, Sam Shamoun in Chicago, Dr. James Wood, I'm sorry, Dr. James, uh, White in Phoenix, and Nabeel Qureshi. They're all friends of mine. So you do have a few that are doing it. But how many people are supporting them? How many churches are supporting them? Very few. And the reason why is because we have no schools at all to teach this material. There's no school in the United States or anywhere in Europe to teach how to confront this book. There are very few schools that even tell you you're supposed to read it. We have no schools at all to help us learn how to confront Islam. The reason why is because we have no confrontational theology. The only model we have is what we call the apologetic approach, becoming friends with Muslims. And that's true. You all need to become friends with them. But sooner or later, you're going to have to preach the gospel. Sooner or later, you're going to have to talk about Jesus Christ. And sooner or later, you're going to have to talk about the Bible. Otherwise, you're wasting your time. What happens then when you tell them that you believe Jesus is God and the Bible is the word of God? Where do you go next? And what school is going to help you learn how to answer those questions or go on the offensive, ask the same questions of their prophet and their book? We don't have that theology in our church yet. Interestingly, that was the theology in the first century. It's very much the theology that's used all over the church in chapter 15 to chapter 17 of Acts. Just read those three chapters, and you will see a confrontational theology. Certainly by Jesus himself before the Acts was written, where he confronted the money changers there in the temple. And he certainly confronted the Pharisees in Matthew Chapter 13, verse, I'm sorry, Matthew Chapter 23, verses 13 to 33. "You hypocrites, you den of vipers, you whitewashed tombs," all the way through. Jesus was confronting the Pharisees. That's my Jesus. That's the side of Jesus we don't preach about. And how about Paul? In Lystra, Cappadocia, Berea, Ephesus, every city he went, he went right to the synagogue and he confronted the Jews with what they had done to the Messiah. That's my Paul. Oh, they threw him into prison, he was spat upon, he was beaten up, he was whipped twice, they tried to stone him to death. He just got up after that and went to the next city and started it all over again. He caused a riot there in Ephesus, and finally he was killed there in Rome. That's my Paul. Where are we getting our Pauls today? Why can't we confront like Paul confronted? Because we're fearful. We fear Islam. We've become timid. We've become shy. We don't know what we believe, and we cannot defend what little we know. Those are the three, four things I hear from my radical Muslim friends whenever I ask them, "What's your definition of a Christian?" Timid, shy, knows little, and can defend little. What an indictment against us. That's the way we come across. 'Cause that's all we're taught. We have no confrontational theology. Yet we have by far got the best material. We have by far got the best material. When you take a look and see the Bible, when you just look at this book here against this book, take a look and see, we win every discussion. In two weeks, I'm going to be doing a debate in Toronto where I'm going to destroy this book. We're going to take the manuscripts of this book, and we're going to use Muslim sources. We're going to quote Muslim sources. I'm going to quote only Muslim sources, and I'm going to show that all the major manuscripts which Muslims believe come from Muhammad, the major manuscripts which were written first by, um, by Uthman in 650, that's about 18 years after Muhammad died, every one of those manuscripts, they
claim come from him that means the Top Copy manuscript in Istanbul. That means the uh the Suan manuscript in Tashkent. That means the Husayn manuscript in Cairo. The Mel manuscript in London. The Petropolitan manuscript in uh Paris. And also the Sana manuscript in Yemen. Those six major manuscripts, we're going to show, quoting Muslim scholars now for the first time, that every one of them do not come from the 7th Century. They come from the 8th, 9th, and 10th Century, 60 to 100 years after Muhammad. Not one of them is from the century Muhammad came from. What's more, not one of them is complete. The Top Copy has is only have 78% of the Quran. It has 2,270 manuscript variants. The Tashkent manuscript only goes up to Sura 43. There's 14 suras in the Quran. The Metropolitan manuscript is only 26% of the Quran. The Husayn one is much too late to even describe how much it has. And the Sana manuscript is probably the most exciting one. We're going to now expose that one in two weeks in Toronto. I'll be debating Dr. Shabadi, considered to be the world's authority, leading debater in the Muslim world. He's not heard this material yet. There's some new material that I'm introducing that I don't even dare say here because this is all going up on the internet. I don't want him to find out about it before we introduce it. That's even more devastating. Oh, I can't wait because it makes my job enough a lot easier. We can destroy the Quran now. And see, folks, it's the radicals that are absolutely dependent on this book. For them, this is divine edict. This is eternal, the eternal Quran, the unchanged, the Quran, the complete Quran. I'm going to destroy its eternality. I'm going to destroy its unchanged. And I'm going to show the fact that it was never complete. Which means if it doesn't even begin to appear until the 8th Century, who then is Muhammad? Oh, I love this. So in one fell swoop, we're going to destroy the Quran and Muhammad using the same criteria. And folks, this is what we need to now train people to do. Train the rest of the world to realize that we will not take it lying down. We've will not taken lying down. We need to start standing up and put this book against this book and show what a better book we've got. We need to put the Kingdom of God versus the kingdom of Islam. The Kingdom of God where there are two or three who are who are in his name. That means right now I'm looking at the Kingdom of God. And this kingdom is everywhere. It's not based on violence. It's not maintained by violence. It's maintained by relationship. Relationship with Jesus and us. Where are two or three gathered in his name, there we are everywhere. Where you'll find the Kingdom of God. What a kingdom. Come back to. And here's a man with his name on his chest burying that kingdom. Women, I won't even get into that. What problem that this book has with women. You all know about this if you're here last year. This book has a lot of problems with women. Unlike this book, when we come back to Jesus, what a better Jesus we've got. This Jesus never denies his divinity like this book does. This Jesus does get up on the cross and die for us, unlike this book here, lets another man die in his place. This Jesus, I love this Jesus. I don't know. Yahweh versus Allah. Take a look at Yahweh. What a name. Allah means nothing to me. Allah has no definition. It's just the god generic. He doesn't even come to Earth, incapable of coming my direction, incapable of walking and talking with me, incapable of having relationship with me. But my God comes to Earth anytime he wants, takes on any form he wants, can walk and talk in my presence, can even eat with me. And my God dies for me. What a God we've got. And he has a personal name, Yahweh, a universal name, a holy name. And I want everyone to know that name. And peace. The world wants peace. Don't go to Isis, probably the best example for Islam today. You better come on home. You want peace? Better come to Jesus Christ. You want peace? Better come to his victim that says to put away the sword, for he who lives by the sword dies by the sword. Rather than take the sword and slay everyone, cut off their heads, no. Come on back to Jesus. Talk about relevancy. Who's the most relevant man today? What's his name? Yahweh. What's his name? Yah. I can't hear you. Come on, let's come on back to Jesus. He is Yahweh. You're right. But that's the name we're now using at Speaker's Corner every Sunday. And we say, who is the Lord of Lords? Jesus. Who is the King of Kings? Jesus. Who is God in heaven? Jesus. Who is God on Earth? Jesus. Who died on the cross? Jesus. Who then rose again? Jesus. Who's up now in heaven? Jesus. Who is waiting for you and me? Jesus. What's his name? Jesus. What's his name? Jesus. Ooh, I love that name. Folks, that's the name we've got to bring. That's the name that's so clear. Now, there is a group of doing who's doing that. And we're called Founder Center of Apologetics. We're now headquartered in London. We've been asked to come to Norway. We've been asked to come to uh Finland. We're going to be going to Belarus. We're be going to Italy, to Germany, to Switzerland in the next year. We now have funding for that. Now you now asked us to go to Addis Ababa in in Ethiopia. They want us to come down to South Africa. They also want us to go to Brazil, to Indonesia, Mozambique, India, and Hong Kong. Those are the next ones we're going to go because nobody is teaching people how to deal with radical Islam. How to deal not only with apologetics, but to go the other direction and actually confront them head on. We're the only ones that are doing it. Pray for us. Come and join us. If any of you want to be on our prayer list and you want to be on our newsletter, go into the gym. We have a table there. Sign up and you'll get all the news that that's going on. Where we're going to be, how you can pray for us, how you can support us. And more than that, how you can pray that what's going to happen in two weeks on the 27th. Pray that we start destroying this book and destroying that man, bringing him back to our book and our man.
Let's pray. Our heavenly Father, we want to thank you for who you are. We see Isis all over the news. It seems to be growing, going from 8 thou 800 to 31,000 in just six weeks. There is a model there that attracts lots of young men and young women. It's a model of power. And yet, yet Lord, we know that that ideology based on a book is absolutely helpless and hopeless. But Lord, we need more people to stand up and be held accountable and to confront that book and that man, to confront that ideology from which Isis, Al Qaeda, and many other groups are dependent on. Help us to give us to know us, know exactly what we're to say, where we're to say it, how we're to do it, and who is it we're to represent. And in everything we do, Lord, may we represent you. In Christ's name, we pray. Amen.
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