By Rev. Kirby

Everyone can and should be taken back when someone says that radical Islam is not the real problem with terrorism.  The truth is that it is only part of the problem. This series of articles seeks to clarify to a greater degree, the problem the world faces relative to Islam at its very source.  Differentiation has been made between the run-of-the-mill Muslim and radical Islam. Radical Islam is understandably perceived as the origin of the majority of terrorism today. The average Muslim on the other hand, is perceived as being a group that would never become involved with terrorism. This perception is seriously flawed and fatally dangerous. What is the source that feeds radical Islam? The religious ideation is extrapolated from the Koran itself. Islam's sacred literature is the source, which allows for the terrorist attacks we see today. 

The Koran supposedly is consistent with what the Bible teaches.  A side-by-side comparison will show that it is not. Allah supposedly is the Arab concept for the God of the Bible. The Koran itself will belie this falsehood.  Islam is thought to be a peaceful religion.  Both history and current events prove otherwise. 

Although the writer is proficient in biblical languages and biblical interpretation, he is not an Arabic scholar or a student of the Koran.  However a simple look at the facts laid out in this article will lead the reader to the inevitable conclusion that despite the popular notions about terrorism and Islam, Islam is in fact the problem if indeed its adherents follow what the Koran says. 

A side-by-side comparison between the Koran and the Bible 

Read the following excerpts from the Koran which can be accessed at the University of Virginia’s website. http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/koran.html (1) 

All bible quotes are from the New International Version.(3) 

Sura"2.13": And when it is said to them: Believe as the people believe they say: Shall we believe as the fools believe? Now surely they themselves are the fools, but they do not know. 

Fools are those who don’t believe in Islam. 

Sura "2.14": And when they meet those who believe, they say: We believe; and when they are alone with their Shaitans, they say: Surely we are with you, we were only mocking. 

The word Shaitan in Islam means the devil or Satan according to Dictionary.com. (2) 

Sura "2.21": O men! Serve your Lord Who created you and those before you so that you may guard (against evil). 

Sura "2.22": Who made the earth a resting place for you and the heaven a canopy and (Who) sends down rain from the cloud then brings forth with it subsistence for you of the fruits; therefore do not set up rivals to Allah while you know. 

Sura "2.24": But if you do (it) not and never shall you do (it), then be on your guard against the fire of which men and stones are the fuel; it is prepared for the unbelievers. 

Sura "2.30": And when your Lord said to the angels, I am going to place in the earth a khalif, they said: What! wilt Thou place in it such as shall make mischief in it and shed blood, and we celebrate Thy praise and extol Thy holiness? He said: Surely I know what you do not know. 

A Khalif us a spiritual leader of Islam, claiming succession from Muhammad.(2) 

The intention of Islamic is to force everyone to become a Muslim or die. 

Sura "9.5": So when the sacred months have passed away, then slay the idolaters wherever you find them, and take them captives and besiege them and lie in wait for them in every ambush, then if they repent and keep up prayer and pay the poor-rate, leave their way free to them; surely Allah is Forgiving, Merciful. 

Sura "5.33": The punishment of those who wage war against Allah and His apostle and strive to make mischief in the land is only this, that they should be murdered or crucified or their hands and their feet should be cut off on opposite sides or they should be imprisoned; this shall be as a disgrace for them in this world, and in the hereafter they shall have a grievous chastisement, 

The Koran offers no limit to the expansion of Islam.  War can be made against anyone who is not a Muslim.  The penalty for not being or becoming a Moslem is death by cold blooded murder, torture by crucifixion or dismemberment by cutting off of hands and feet. 

Islam is very clear about not being friends with Christians even though Allah is the Arabic name for God. However the God of Islam is not the God Christians worship. The words are the same but the definitions are clearly different. Further differences appear below. 

Sura "5.51": O you who believe! do not take the Jews and the Christians for friends; they are friends of each other; and whoever amongst you takes them for a friend, then surely he is one of them; surely Allah does not guide the unjust people. 

The cornerstone of Christian belief is the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  Islam denies the Christian account and puts their twist on what happened with Jesus and the crucifixion account. 

Sura "4.157": And their saying: Surely we have killed the Messiah, Isa son of Marium, the apostle of Allah; and they did not kill him nor did they crucify him, but it appeared to them so (like Isa) and most surely those who differ therein are only in a doubt about it; they have no knowledge respecting it, but only follow a conjecture, and they killed him not for sure. 

Sura "9.29": Fight those who do not believe in Allah, nor in the latter day, nor do they prohibit what Allah and His Apostle have prohibited, nor follow the religion of truth, out of those who have been given the Book, until they pay the tax in acknowledgment of superiority and they are in a state of subjection. 

(John 19:16-19 NIV)  Finally Pilate handed him over to them to be crucified. So the soldiers took charge of Jesus. Carrying his own cross, he went out to the place of the Skull (which in Aramaic is called Golgotha). Here they crucified him, and with him two others--one on each side and Jesus in the middle. Pilate had a notice prepared and fastened to the cross. It read: JESUS OF NAZARETH, THE KING OF THE JEWS. ( 3) 

Islam absolutely and utterly denies that Jesus Christ is God.  

Sura "9.30": And the Jews say: Uzair (Jesus my addition) is the son of Allah; and the Christians say: The Messiah is the son of Allah; these are the words of their mouths; they imitate the saying of those who disbelieved before; may Allah destroy them; how they are turned away! 

The bible clearly declares Jesus is God’s Son at the baptism of Jesus. 

(Mat 3:16 NIV)  As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting on him. (3) 

Matthew, Luke, Mark and the epistle of 2^nd Peter tell of the account known as the transfiguration. 

(Mat 17:5 NIV)  While he was still speaking, a bright cloud enveloped them, and a voice from the cloud said, "This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!" (3) 

(Mark 9:7 NIV)  Then a cloud appeared and enveloped them, and a voice came from the cloud: "This is my Son, whom I love. Listen to him!" (3) 

(Luke 9:35 NIV)  A voice came from the cloud, saying, "This is my Son, whom I have chosen; listen to him." (3) 

(2 Pet 1:17 NIV)  For he received honor and glory from God the Father when the voice came to him from the Majestic Glory, saying, "This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased." (3) 

Jesus himself claimed to be God. 

(John 10:30 NIV)  I and the Father are one." 

(John 10:31 KJV)  Then the Jews took up stones again to stone him. 

(John 10:32 KJV)  Jesus answered them, Many good works have I showed you from my Father; for which of those works do ye stone me? 

(John 10:33 KJV)  The Jews answered him, saying, for a good work we stone thee not; but for blasphemy; and because that thou, being a man, makest thyself God. (3) 

Most of the Jewish leadership of Jesus day were blind to who Jesus was, but they understood His claim to be God because they were going to stone him because of it.  

In addition to not believing in that Jesus Christ is God, they pronounce a curse upon anyone who believes that he is God. 

Islam differs greatly with Christianity's concept of Jesus and Christianity's concept of the Holy Trinity. 

Sura "4.171": O followers of the Book! do not exceed the limits in your religion, and do not speak (lies) against Allah, but (speak) the truth; the Messiah, Isa son of Marium is only an apostle of Allah and His Word which He communicated to Marium and a spirit from Him; believe therefore in Allah and His apostles, and say not, Three. Desist, it is better for you; Allah is only one God; far be It from His glory that He should have a son, whatever is in the heavens and whatever is in the earth is His, and Allah is sufficient for a Protector. 

The Christian doctrine of the Trinity is "within the nature of the one God there are three persons God the father, God the son, and God the Holy Spirit.” 

During Jesus’s baptism we see God the Father speaking from heaven, God the Son in the water being baptized, and God the Holy Spirit descending upon Jesus in the form of a dove. 

(Mat 3:16 NIV)  As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting on him. ( 3) 

(Mat 3:17 NIV)  And a voice from heaven said, "This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased." ( 3) 

In the Gospel of John we have a clear communication of Jesus’ eternality and sameness of nature with God. 

(John 1:1 NIV)  In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. (3) 

The word is synonymous with Jesus; “in the beginning was the Word” reflects continuous timeless existence in the period prior to creation.  The last phrase of John 1:1“and the Word was God” - the writer is expressing through the use of the Anarthrous pronoun, that the Word, i.e. Jesus and God, possess the same nature, meaning Jesus is God. (4) 

Jesus and the Koran differ in how we are supposed to treat our enemies.

Sura"8.60": And prepare against them what force you can and horses tied at the frontier, to frighten thereby the enemy of Allah and your enemy and others besides them, whom you do not know (but) Allah knows them; and whatever thing you will spend in Allah's way, it will be paid back to you fully and you shall not be dealt with unjustly.

 (Mat 5:44 NIV)  But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,  (3) 

The Koran repeatedly advocates war against unbelievers i.e. non-Muslims. 

Sura"9.13": What! Will you not fight a people, who broke their oaths and aimed at the expulsion of the Apostle, and they attacked you first; do you fear them? But Allah is most deserving that you should fear Him, if you are believers. 

Matthew 5:39 

(Mat 5:39 NIV)  But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. (3) 

Sura"2.191": And kill them wherever you find them, and drive them out from whence they drove you out, and persecution is severer than slaughter, and do not fight with them at the Sacred Mosque until they fight with you in it, but if they do fight you, then slay them; such is the recompense of the unbelievers. 

Matthew 5:11 

(Mat 5:11 NIV)  "Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. (3) 

(1 Pet 2:20 NRSV)  If you endure when you are beaten for doing wrong, what credit is that? But if you endure when you do right and suffer for it, you have God's approval. (3) 

Sura"9.111": Surely Allah has bought of the believers their persons and their property for this, that they shall have the garden; they fight in Allah's way, so they slay and are slain; a promise which is binding on Him in the Taurat and the Injeel and the Quran; and who is more faithful to his covenant than Allah? Rejoice therefore in the pledge, which you have made; and that is the mighty achievement 

(John 3:16 NIV)  "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. (3) 

It should be clear from the statements in the Koran itself that Islam in reality has nothing to do with Christianity other than it is a religion.  Islam differs sharply with Christianity on cardinal doctrines like the divinity of Christ and the Holy Trinity.  In addition, common ethical practices in Christianity such as loving your enemy and praying for those who despitefully use you are not followed in Islam. The Koran clearly teaches to kill and dismember your enemies and espouses war for the advancement of Islam.  Warfare against unbelievers is repeatedly taught in the Koran. Not every Muslim would ascribe to Jihad and secretly plot against the United States. However sources say Islam is the fastest growing religion in the world. (5) With a world population of one in five persons being Muslim, and estimates of 15%, which are radical Muslims, and another 15%, which can be swayed to become radical Muslims, the problem should be apparent. With a population of over one billion Muslims the estimates are 150 million radicals currently with an additional 150 million Muslims who can be recruited into the ranks of radical Islam (6)