Chapter 15
Christians, the Birth of Islam & Jihad As earlier noted, a time came when Islam was so persecuted that eightythree Muslims had to flee for safety to Abyssinia, a Christian country (now Ethiopia). The Negus and his Christian subjects protected the Muslims and lavished love on them. When the Meccan persecutors demanded their repatriation, the Christians refused to hand them over. The Muslims had earlier defended their faith in public debate, confessing their belief in Christ’s Virgin birth, His miracles, and His ascension into heaven (the favorable passages about Jesus in the Koran may have been “revealed” for that purpose). If those refugees were not outright willful deceivers, one wonders why they did not state their position on Christ’s sonship, His death on the cross, and subsequent resurrection? In any case, Muhammad’s accommodation with the Christians was short-lived. After Islam became fully established, it revealed its true color as a rabid anti-Christian religion, and the blotting out of Christianity from under heaven has been a major aim of Islam ever since. In their quest to destroy Christianity, Muslims even went as far as to forge a false “gospel,” allegedly written by Barnabas.1 Following in the footsteps of their prophet, Muhammad’s successors, the Khalifahs, launched a Jihad against Christendom – in Mesopotamia, Asia minor, central Asia, and in Egypt – killing millions and forcing the rest to embrace Islam.2 Then they attacked and occupied Jerusalem. As if all this wasn’t enough, on the very site where the magnificent temple of the “I AM” once stood, the Muslims chose to construct the Dome of the Rock and their third most “holy” mosque (the mosque of Omar).
1 Barnabas is believed to have been written by a monk named Marino, a Catholic turned Muslim, who was later known as Mustapha Arandi. Barnabas contains direct quotes from the Koran and from a 15th century comedy by Dante. 2
Before his death in 632, Muhammad ordered a military operation against Christian Byzantine (the Eastern Roman Empire).