The Islamic Invasion
By Robert Morey, Christian Scholars Press, 1992, 231 pages.
By Kent Curry
February 11, 2002
Of course, everyone wants to know more about Islam now, but the saddest part
of this sudden interest is it took a tragedy
to create it. As this book, written in 1992, attests, Islam has been the
world’s fastest growing religion for a decade, yet so many Christians seemed
happily oblivious because the expansion was always somewhere else. Maybe now we
can focus on our world’s current reality.
That said, if you’re looking for a book that dissects and explains Islam,
the Quran, and Mohammed in a clean, straightforward manner, then this is the
book for you. Author Robert Morey taps into his vast knowledge and personal
experience, assiduously footnotes his sources and the Suras (chapters) in the
Quran to present a compelling case on the problems of this belief system. It’s
important to understand these facts so that we might witness to them, while also combating their doctrine through knowledge.
Some salient facts in three key areas:
Mohammed
Born into the largest tribe of Mecca (now in Saudi Arabia),
it seems indisputable that the Prophet of Islam had some type of visions that he
parlayed into “prophet” status. Today, these visions are diagnosed as
epileptic fits or some variation, with some other component involved. After
doubting these revelations at first, he soon accepted they were from God and
began slowly converting his own family. From there the conversions grew, though
not without heated opposition.
That said, by any religion’s definition, he wasn’t a
moral man:
1.
He broke his word and repeatedly killed after he became a prophet:
·
The Muslims first aggression was the Nakhla Raid, where they
looted a caravan during the month of traditional peace and truce, and killed a
man.
·
Soon, attacks began on the Jews, who controlled the gold and
silver trade, leading to great wealth for the conquerors. After one Jewish town
surrendered, at least 700 men were beheaded, while the women and children were
sold into slavery.
·
He agreed to a ten-year peace treaty with Mecca, but broke his
word and forced Mecca to surrender within a year of the agreement.
·
Once in control, he selectively murdered those who had left the
cause or created problems to his power base.
(It’s an interesting fact that
in its first 300 years, Christianity grew and spread despite persecution and
death, while Islam, in its first 300 years, spread almost exclusively by
violence and forced conversions.)
2.
When the local merchants of Mecca, who made their money off of religious
travelers, rioted over the declaration of one god, Mohammed decided that it was
okay to pray and worship Allah’s three daughters¾Al-Lat,
Al-Uzza, Manat (thus creating polytheism). Once monotheistic Islam became
established, these declarations were declared “The Satanic Verses” and
stricken from the Quran, since Mohammed, in a moment of weakness, had obviously
been under the inspiration of Satan.
3.
Besides the “great truths” he was given by Allah, he had customized
revelations at opportune moments:
·
After Mohammed’s (adopted) son-in-law refused to give up his
beautiful wife to him, the prophet received a revelation that made it
permissible to take another man’s wife (Sura 33:36-38). Want to guess whose
wife he took?
·
When he wanted more wives or wanted his numerous wives to stop
bickering, Allah gave him a revelation for it. (In fairness, he was married to
one wife for 25 years before she died.)
Pagan Traditions as Muslim Truths
To gain adherents, Mohammed adopted many pagan traditions
that now seem legitimate religious practices, but are easily recognizable to
historians. Some of the more obvious:
·
Allah was the name of a 7th century moon God (Arabic
tradition made the moon god male and the sun god female), not a monotheistic
deity.
·
Mohammed’s home city of Mecca made a great deal of money from
religious travelers coming to worship one of the 360 idols surrounding the Kaaba,
the giant black stone (probably a large meteorite), in its pagan temple. In
pre-Islamic Arabia, everyone was supposed to pray toward Mecca at set times
during the day and make a trip to Mecca at least once in their lives. Both are
key aspects of Islam today.
·
The Sabeans, a dominant astral religion just before Mohammed’s
time, regulated their month of fasting by the lunar calendar.
Islam calls this Ramadan.
Quran
There are problems with the Muslim holy book as well. While
most people find it unreadable (even in the literary sense that the Holy Bible
is often appreciated), many of Allah’s sayings to Mohammed (which is what the
Quran is) were never organized in his lifetime. (Plus, these divine sayings were
written on so many different surfaces¾flat
stones, palm leaves, pieces of leather¾as
they were spoken, that many were lost before the Quran was compiled.) The Quran
was then organized from the biggest chapters to the smallest chapters, in no
chronological sequence. This, of course, makes a mishmash of comprehension.
I had to laugh when Morey wrote, “Since the Quran has so
many problems, we will limit ourselves to approximately 100 of the most obvious
ones.”1
Even with triple-digit inaccuracies, it turned out to be pretty quick
reading.
For a holy book that claims to be without contradiction (Sura
39:23, 28), it contradicts itself on essential matters; the most glaring example
is who exactly gave Mohammed his divine revelations. The Quran lists four
different ways:
1.
Allah came to Mohammed in the form of a man and told him (Sura 53:2-18).
2.
The “holy Spirit” came to him (Sura 16:102, 26:192-194).
3.
The angels told him (Sura 15:8).
4.
The angel Gabriel told him (Sura 2:97). This is the most popular and
accepted version.
Other problems include:
·
“According to the literal Arabic translation of Sura 3:106, 107,
on Judgment Day, only people with white faces will be saved. People with black
faces will be damned.”2
The Hadith, the complementary Islamic holy book, records Mohammed
referring to black people as “raisin heads.”3
·
The Quran claims to incorporate the Jewish Bible (The Old
Testament) and the Christian Bible (the Old and New Testaments), but is the
final revelation (and thus, a higher truth) than these earlier, corrupted
versions; yet it contradicts basic details of both testaments. This is most
obvious in its jumbled version of Bible stories (Nimrod and Abraham interact¾yet
they lived centuries apart; Haman is named as Pharaoh’s minister, not
Ahasuerus’; and there is a misunderstanding of Miriam, the sister of Moses,
with Mary (Miryam) the mother of Jesus).
For the proclaimed “people of the book,” this should
cause serious consternation. Instead, it has created blind obedience.
Morey shares chapters comparing Jesus with Mohammed, and
Allah with the Christian God, as well as appendices of the Hadith and Allah, the
moon god.
Morey writes in small, bite-sized chunks that make for easy
digestion. At times he presses too hard (deciding Mohammed didn’t have a sense
of humor), but he’s a scrupulous footnoter (though I was a bit non-plussed at
how many books seemed to be from the first half of the last century instead of
the last. Weren’t there recent works worth quoting?). He also uses personal
stories to elaborate upon different points, especially the overwhelming use of
circular reasoning by Muslim apologists today. As with most books of this type,
there is some repetition, but it is not extensive. None of these faults damage
the clarity of his arguments.
In fact, after reading this book, I couldn’t help but
imagine that if we resurrected the small-time dictator Mohammed today, he would
laugh at the cosmic joke of his epileptic sayings becoming the world’s
second-largest religion. By his life, and the incoherence and inaccuracies of
his sayings, I can only conclude he was playing an elaborate, religious con game
upon his 7th century peers that continues to this day.
ninetyandnine.com
ã
2002, Kent d Curry
--------
Kent d Curry is
an Executive Editor of ninetyandnine.com.
1.
Page 137.
2. Page 155.
3. Page 182.
| 
