Yesterday there were ceremonies all around the nation remembering the tragic events and loss of life that happened on September 11, 2001. Nineteen Muslim men hijacked four commercial airliners and converted them into flying bombs. Two crashed into two of the World Trade towers, causing the towers to collapse and killing 2,977 people … 415 of them were firefighters, rescue workers, and police officers. Another plane crashed into the Pentagon, killing everyone on board and 55 military personnel.
The story of 9/11 started over 2,300 years ago with a man by the name of Abram. We spoke already about the covenant that God made with Abram … promising to make him “the ancestor of a multitude of nations” (Genesis 17:5) … an amazing and seemingly impossible proposition for a childless couple who were well into the seventies and eighties, amen? Such a thing seemed impossible … even for God … so Abram’s wife, Sarai, decided to use a legal loophole. She offered her Egyptian slave, a woman by the name of Hagar, as a surrogate. What sounded good on paper, however, well, didn’t turn out so good in real life, did it? The Bible says that Hagar looked at Sarai with contempt. After all, Sarai was 75 years old and getting older by the day … her inability to produce a male heir meant that her son would inherit Abram’s vast wealth and property … and no doubt she could convince her son, Ishmael, to kick Sarai out to fend for herself … but that’s not how things happened, amen?
Sarai made things so miserable for Hagar that she decided to run away and return to her homeland in Egypt. Perhaps she was afraid that Sarai would convince Abram to sell her and son … or worse. “The angel of the LORD found [Hagar] by a spring of water in the wilderness … and he said, ‘Hagar, slave-girl of Sarai, where have you come from and where are you going?’ She said, ‘I am running away from my mistress Sarai.’ The angel of the LORD said to her, “’Return to your mistress, and submit to her.’ The angel of the LORD also said to her, ‘I will so greatly multiply your offspring that they cannot be counted for multitude.’ And the angel of the LORD said to her: ‘Now you have conceived and shall bear a son; you shall call him Ishmael, for the LORD has given heed to your affliction. He shall be a wild ass of a man, with his hand against everyone, and everyone’s hand against him; and he shall live at odds with all his kin’” (Genesis 16:7-12).
Oh, my God! That should send a shiver down your spine when you see what’s going on in the Middle East today, amen?
True to His word, Sarai does become pregnant and give birth a male child 14 years after the birth of Ishmael at the age of 90 and named him, as the LORD commanded, “Isaac.” Here’s the thing, Abram loved both of his sons but only one son, Isaac, was the son of the covenant promise through whom would come the great nation promised to Abram. But what about Ishmael? God remembered His promise to Hagar. “I will bless him and make him fruitful and exceedingly numerous,” the LORD reassures Abram, “he shall be the father of twelve princes, and I will make him a great nation” (Genesis 17:20).
Isaac gave birth to Jacob, whose name was changed to Israel, and he had 12 sons who became the heads of the 12 tribes of Israel. Ishmael also had 12 sons who became what we call today the Nation of Islam … which is not entirely accurate … since the “nation” of Islam is not really a nation but a body of believers or practitioners of the Muslim faith that span the globe … just as there is no “Christian Nation” but a body of believers or practitioners of the Christian faith that spans the globe, amen? There are 2.3 billion Christians in the world today … 1.8 billion Muslims … and only 827 million Jews … God has clearly kept His promise to Ishmael and Isaac, amen?
Flick on the news today and what do we see? The hand of Ishmael’s ancestors against everyone and everyone’s hand against the ancestors of Ishmael? Yes … and no. And given what we are experiencing today, it is important to understand who is behind the terrorism and what their motivation is since it appears that we will be dealing with this for perhaps generations to come.
I want to go back to what the angel said to Hagar when she ran away from Abram and Sarai. He told her to return to her mistress and “submit” to her (Genesis 16:9). Does anyone know what the name “Islam” means? It’s Arabic for “Submission.” The root of the word is “sal’m” … which sounds a lot like the Hebrew word “shalom” and means the same thing … to be filled with the fullness and peace of GOD. Sadly, even the name of “Islam” is rife with conflict and sad irony. “Submission” can mean several things. In the case of Hagar, it meant to submit to the will of her master and mistress, Abram and Sarai. In returning to her mistress, Hagar was also submitting to the will of GOD, amen? While the name of “Islam” does mean to submit to the will of God it has unfortunately also come to mean submitting to the will of radical Muslim political and religious leaders and philosophies.
There is not much of a record that I’m aware of … there could be … of any on-going or violent clashes between Ishmael’s Arab descendants and Isaac’s Jewish or Israeli descendants until you get to the year 601 AD … the year that the Prophet Mohammed … whose name means “praiseworthy” … founded the beginning of a religious movement that we call “Islam” or “Submission” today. Most of Mohammed’s early life was as a merchant. At the age of 40, he was commanded by the Angel Gabriel to write down a series of revelations that were bound together and became the Koran … which is the foundational basis for the Muslim faith just as the “Tanakh” … the Old Testament … and the “Tanakh” and New Testament are the foundational documents or books for our faith and the Jewish faith. By 630 A.D., Mohammed had unified most of Arabia under a single religion (geniusrevive.com/en/muhammad-founder-of-islam/) … an amazing feat given the many, many centuries of constant clashes and warfare between the many tribes that made up that particular region of the world at that time.
I want to make two points … twos very important point … before I go on. First of all, the majority of the world’s Muslims are peaceful, hard-working people … just as the majority of Christians are also peaceful, hard-working people … but, like every religion, we have our extremists and they have theirs, amen? So, I want to be clear that I am not painting all Muslims with a broad brush. After all, we have blood on our hands too. The goal of the Crusades was not to convert infidels but to stop the spread of Islam, which had taken over the city of Jerusalem and was rapidly spreading across the Middle East and heading towards western Europe. In the process, however, many were forced to convert at the point of a sword just as many indigenous people were forced to convert by conquistadors and explorers claiming new lands for their respective home countries.
The other has to do with the fact that I’m not trying to be “political” but it’s impossible to speak about what’s happening today without getting political since religion and politics are so closely intertwined with what’s happening in the Middle East … and this is not a feature unique to Islam. One of the geniuses of this country was our founders’ insistence on a clear distinction between the role of state and religion … a genius that was born out of experience. When England had a Catholic king or queen, they sought to eliminate Protestants and Protestant influence. When England had a Protestant king or queen, they sought out and persecuted Catholics. In the case of King Henry VIII, well … he made a whole new denomination which became the official church of England.
The question that I want to answer today … if there is an answer … is: “What makes people strap on bombs or fly airplanes into building in the name of Allah?” … and let’s leave aside the discussion about whether “Allah” refers to the Judeo-Christian “YAHWEH” or some updated or modified version of one of the many pagan gods worshipped by the Arabs before the formation of the Islamic religion. Whatever the case, the people who blow up themselves and other people believe that they are doing it in the name of “GOD” … or the One whom they believe to be the one true GOD. And in order to do that, we have to start … ready for this? … we have to start in Afghanistan. Now you see why this is so important? The other question we have to answer is: “How do we respond to all this violence that is being done in the name of ‘God’?”
We’ve all been hearing the name of ISIS lately, amen? We’ve also been hearing a lot about al-Qaeda and the Taliban and Taliban K. It all started when the Prophet Muhammed died in 632 A.D. His death created a situation that we will see replicated over and over again … who will replace him and fill the vacuum that his passing created? According to Robin Wright, a joint fellow at the non-partisan U.S. Institute of Peace, "The original schism between Islam's two largest sects was not over religious doctrine. It was over political leadership" (Chuck, E. What are the Differences Between Sunni and Shiite Muslims, NBC News, January 4, 2015; www.nbcnews). Religiously, the Sunni and Shiite are pretty much the same. “Both Sunnis and Shiites read the Quran, the sayings of the Prophet. Both believe [that the] Prophet Muhammad was the messenger of Allah. And both follow the five tenets of Islam. They fast during Ramadan, pledge to make a pilgrimage to Mecca, practice ritual prayer (which includes five prayers each day), give charity to the poor, and pledge themselves to their faith” (Chuck, Ibid.).
The problem was Muhammed’s successor. After Muhammad’s death, his friend Abu Bakr was named “caliph” and ruler of the Islamic community. This group became known as the “Sunni.” Another group, however, believed that the power should stay in the family and believed that Muhammed’s cousin, Ali, should become the caliph and ruler. That issue has never been resolved. The Sunnis still believe that their caliph or leader should be elected by Muslims while the Shi’ites still believe that the caliph or leader should be based on family lineage (https://courses.lumenlearning.com/). This schism forms the basis for many of the factions that we see in the Middle East today.
Political turmoil in the 1970s led to a coup in Afghanistan that deposed the reigning king, Mohammed Zahir Shah. He was replaced by pro-Communist Mohamed Doud Khan. When the people of Afghanistan rose up against Khan, Khan appealed to Moscow for help and they sent troops to Afghanistan in mid-1979. The conservative Muslims who waged “jihad” … religious war … against Russia were called “mujahideen” … which means “holy warriors.” You can see the mixing of religion and politics, amen? Mujahideen … or “holy warriors” … from all over the Middle East streamed to the aid of their mujahideen brothers in Afghanistan. One of those “mujahideen” … or holy warriors … was a young scholar and friend to the royal Saudi family by the name of Osama bin Laden. The Russians withdrew from the conflict in Afghanistan and slinked away in 1989 … leaving behind … can you guess? Billions of dollars of weapons and ammunition. They literally left behind all their material except for the vehicles that they needed to transport them back over the border (Katz, M. Lessons of the Soviet Withdrawal from Afghanistan. Middle East Policy Council at https://mepc.org/, 2020).
The leadership vacuum created by the Russian withdrawal led to the formation of … ready for this … the Taliban … founded by Mullah Mohammed Omar, a religious zealot who started a movement with 50 followers who became known as Omar’s “students” … which is what the word “Taliban” means in Arabic. Omar’s goal was to make Afghanistan a “perfect Islamic state operating under sharia law” (Jeremiah, D. Is This the End? Nashville: W Publishing Group. 2016, p. 186). Starting see some of this come together?
While the Taliban movement began spreading across Afghanistan, another group was forming under the leadership of Osama bin Laden in response to a U.S.-led collation force that invaded Kuwait to drive out Saddam Hussein’s Iraqi army. This group became known as … al-Qaeda … which means “the base.” Those who joined al-Qaeda viewed the U.S.’s action as yet another invasion of Islamic lands and the group’s goal was to drive Westerners out of the Middle East by using terror attacks against Western targets … like subway stations in England, commercial centers like the World Trade Towers, and militarily-significant targets like the Pentagon. “Al-Qaeda became the world’s most high-profile terrorist organization and its leader, bin Laden, the world’s most wanted man” (Jeremiah, Ibid., p. 187) … until May 2nd of 2011, when U.S. forces raided his compound hideout in Pakistan and killed him.
On November 1st, 2012, then President Obama announced that Al-Qaeda had been destroyed and that the war in Iraq was over. Again … hummm? What really happened is that bin Laden and his lieutenants decentralized when the United States invaded Afghanistan. “Franchise” operations were set up in many different nations … most notably Iraq … again, to fill the vacuum left by the ouster of Saddam Hussein in 2003 by U.S. and coalition forces. Beginning to see a pattern here?
When we pulled out of Iraq in November of 2007, guess what it created? Another political power vacuum. You’re catching on. The Sunnis … remember them … were in charge of Iraq until the U.S. pulled out. They were replaced by Shi’ite Muslims, which lead Sunni insurgents in al-Qaeda … led by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi … to take over. Al-Qaeda in Iraq became known as the ISI … the Islamic State in Iraq. Al-Baghdadi was a ruthless leader who parlayed religious fervor, the hatred of nonbelievers, and the power of the internet to turn the ISI into an organization that, at its peak, controlled a territory the size of Great Britain from which the ISI could direct acts of terror in more than three dozen countries. When al-Baghdadi moved his Sunni forces into Syria to fight against President Bashar al-Assad’s Shi’ite government force, he brought along his ruthless tactics as well: beheadings, rapes, selling women into sex slavery and unwanted marriages, throwing homosexuals off buildings, and mutilating lawbreakers (Jeremiah, Ibid., p. 188).
In 2013, al-Baghdadi broke away from al-Qaeda and formed the ISIS … which stands for “Islamic State in Iraq and Syria” … a new Islamic state or “caliphate” with himself as the leader or “caliph.” Al-Baghdadi was killed by U.S. soldiers during a special operations raid in Idlib, Syria, on October 26, 2019 (Timeline: The Life and Death of Abu Bakr al Baghdadi. The Wilson Center, October 28m 2019; https://www.wilsoncenter.org/).
Despite the loss of al-Baghdadi, ISIS’ purpose and goals haven’t changed. Their mission is still to take Muslims “back to the Qur’an” to “restore the purity of the religious teachings that Muhammad supposedly received from Allah and recorded for the faithful” (Jeremiah, Ibid., p. 189).
The religious instruction and teachings that ISIS uses as their guide come from what is called the “Hadith” … which is a record of Muhammad’s teachings and activities during his tenure as caliph or leader of Islam. The Hadith is a collection of writings, rulings, and interpretations of Muhammad’s teachings within the Qur’an gathered over the past two centuries. “All Muslims embrace the Qur’an and Hadith, but in varying ways. Many modern Muslims de-emphasize the teachings prescribing jihad against infidels, hatred of Jews and Christians, subjugation of women, and overly strict lifestyle regulations … But not ISIS” (Jeremiah, Ibid., p. 190).
I love what Rabbi Shalom Lewis said in one of his Rosh Hashanah sermons:
“There are [over] one billion Muslims in the world and authorities agree that 5% are committed Islamists who embrace terror and wish to see, by any means possible, the Muslim flag fly over every capital, on every continent. I was relieved when I heard only 5%. Thank God it’s only 5%. Now I could sleep soundly. But wait … 5% of a billion is 50 million Koran-waving, Allah Akbar-howling Muslim murderers out there planning to slit our throats, blow us up or forcibly convert us” (‘Ehr Daw’ – They’re here. Front Page, October 6, 2014).
Although the vast majority of modern Muslim do not support ISIS, ISIS is determined
to follow Muhammad’s example to the letter. Although ISIS “has attracted psychopaths and adventure seekers, drawn largely from the disaffected populations of the Middle East and Europe,” author Graeme Wood describes ISIS as the purest form of the original expression of Islam, “following the prophecy and example of Muhammad, in punctilious detail” (Walvoord, J.F. Israel in Prophecy. Grand Rapids: Zondervan; 1962; p. 72).
And so … we have come full circle. Our recent withdrawal from Afghanistan left another vacuum … one that is currently being filled by the Taliban. Given what we learned today, it’s no surprise that we are hearing the names of al-Qaeda and ISIS again, amen? The Taliban, like ISIS, is clear that its mission is religious but will use any means at its disposal, including political one, to accomplish its goals of establishing a “worldwide Islamic caliphate based on sharia law” (Jeremiah, Ibid., p. 193). The White House’s and U.S. State Department’s shock over the lack of inclusivity and the absence of women, homosexuals, and transexuals in leadership positions in the so-called “new” Taliban would be laughable were it not so tragic. Hibatullah Akhundzada, the “supreme commander” of the “Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan” spoke like a world-class politician but it was pretty clear in his address to the world what was going to happen. Women would be allowed to work and to learn, he said, in accordance with sharia law … and sharia law promotes the kinds of things that we’ve seen ISIS do over the years … like beheadings, rapes, selling women into sex slavery and unwanted marriages, throwing homosexuals off buildings, and mutilating lawbreakers. We’ve all seen the news stories. A group of Muslim women being beaten by Taliban soldiers. Six Taliban soldiers posted a video of themselves on August 17 holding the severed head of a local police officer by the hair and singing praises to their leader, Akhundzada (Richards, T. Taliban Celebrate Beheading of Police Officer in Grisly Video. The Washington Examiner, September 11, 2021). On August 6th, the Taliban shot and killed a 21-year-old woman named Nazanin for wearing tight clothes and leaving her home unaccompanied by a male relative (Tahir, T. U.S. Sun, August 6, 2021.) Akhundzada worked as head of the Sharia Courts in the 1990s … so, is anyone here surprised that the Taliban might go back to banning television, music, movies, make-up, and stopping girls aged 10 and over from attending school?
Jesus taught His Disciples to pray that His Kingdom come and that His will, God’s will, be done on earth as it is in Heaven (Matthew 6:10). “Those two outcomes will converge in the second coming of Jesus Christ and the establishment of His millennial kingdom of righteousness on earth” (Jeremiah, Ibid., p. 197). Believe it or not, the Muslims are waiting for the same thing … kind of. They believe that the “Mahdi” … the Messiah … not Jesus but a different messiah … will come and establish his rule over a worldwide caliphate based on sharia law. Muslims do not worship Jesus as LORD … they consider that to be blasphemy … they do not see Jesus as our only Savior, and they certainly don’t expect Him to be their returning messiah. The Sunni believe that Muhammad al-Mahdi will appear on earth sometime in the future. The Shi’ites believe that the Mahdi is already here and has been hiding in the spiritual realm since 874 A.D. “Because the final apocalyptic battle between Islam and the world causes the Mahdi to appear, all militant Muslims view violence and struggle as a way to hasten that day” (Jeremiah, Ibid., p. 200). If ISIS soldiers are killed in battle before the Mahdi comes, they will meet him in paradise and if they live to see the apocalypse, they will get to welcome the Mahdi and help him to establish his worldwide caliphate. “I say to America that the Islamic Caliphate has been established,” said one ISIS press officer during a recent documentary on the rise of ISIS. “Don’t be cowards and attack us with drones. Instead send your solders, the ones we humiliated in Iraq. We will humiliate them everywhere, God willing, and we will raise the flag of Allah in the White House” (Part 1: The Islamic State. Vice News, August 13, 2014).
What’s more dangerous than the enemy that you can see is the enemy that you can’t see. The Muslim Brotherhood is also committed to the establishment of a global Islamic caliphate but the means of achieving their goal is through stealth or “gradualism.” Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi explained the Muslim Brotherhood’s method of “incrementalism” or “gradualism”:
“Must this conquest necessarily be through war? No, it is not necessary. There is such a thing as a peaceful conquest. The peaceful conquest has foundations in this religion. So I imagine that Islam will conquer Europe without using violence. It will do so through predication and ideology” (Colombo, V. The Muslim Brotherhood’s ‘Peaceful Conquest.’ Gatestone Institute International Policy Council, May 28, 2014).
In an earlier interview, al-Qaradawi said that there “should be no chopping off hands for the first five years” (Ibid.) Hummm … echoes of what the Taliban seems to be saying, amen? We won’t throw homosexuals off of roofs or beat women for not wearing burka … at least not right away.
Islam may be the second largest religious group in the world but it is the fastest growing. As I said earlier, not all Muslims are terrorists or share the terrorists’ goals and ambitions but we must keep ourselves informed about what’s going on. “The madness of radical Islam is now part of our lives because the always-on news cycle has shrunk the world to the size of our smartphone screens. We cannot escape the fact that radical Islam poses an existential threat to all of us, but especially to our Christian brothers and sisters in many parts of the world who endure severe persecution at the hands of ISIS and its sister organizations” (Jeremiah, Ibid., p. 201).
What should we do? I wish I had a clear-cut, definitive answer. We do not know what the future holds in the Middle East or the West but we do know Who holds the future, amen? While we wait for the day when swords will be beaten into plow shares and spears into pruning hooks (Isaiah 2:4), let us faithfully represent Christ to all who do not yet know Him … even to those who are the enemies of His church.
If you are amazed at the willingness of Muslim radicals to die for what they believe in, ask yourself this: Who was called to this kind of commitment long before the Muslim radicals ever came into existence? Us. “Whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be my disciple,” said Jesus (Luke 14:27). He calls us to give everything because He gave everything. As His followers, we must display to the world and our Muslim friends what may seem radical to them: love, sacrifice, courage, and a commitment for spreading the good news of the gospel to the world (Matthew 28:19-20). Believe it or not, we already have a leg up in that department. Muslims honor Jesus as a great prophet … perhaps we can help them take the next step and see Jesus as their Savior, Lord, and Friend, amen?
We need not fear ISIS or al-Qaeda or the Taliban because the gates of Hades shall not prevail against us or the Church (1st Peter 16:18). ISIS, al-Qaeda, and the Taliban can drive Christians away, even behead us, and even destroy our churches but they will never prevail over the church of Jesus Christ, amen?
Let me close by sharing something with you that happened in February of 2015 that illustrates what I’ve been talking about. Twenty men were lined up on a beach in Libya and told to kneel in the sand. Behind each man stood an ISIS soldier holding a knife to their throats. The prisoners were dressed in orange coveralls, the same color coveralls worn by radical Muslims incarcerated at Guantanamo Bay, to make a rather graphic point. The prisoners were given the opportunity to recant their faith and live … but each refused. You can see each prisoner mouthing prayers and praising God in the video that ISIS released so that the world could see that they meant business.
All 20 of the men executed that day were from small Egyptian farming communities who had traveled to Libya in search of work. Thirteen of these men belong to same Coptic church in al-Our, 150 miles south of Cairo, Egypt. At first, their church prayed for their safe return. Later on, says their priest Father Makar Issa, “[we] asked [God] that if they [must die, that] they [would] die for their faith” (Malsin, J. Christians Mourn Their Relatives Beheaded by Isis. Time, February 23, 2015).
Bashir Kamel, whose two brothers and a cousin were among those murdered on the beach that day said, “I felt peace knowing that they died as martyrs in the name of Christ” (Ibid.). Bishop Feloubes Fawzy lost a nephew and four cousins in the slaughter. “I am happy for my relatives,” he said. “They had faith in God. They had faith in Jesus Christ. And that is what matters. They died for their faith. They died for Christianity” (Rashad, J. Christian Martyrs Change the World. Vice News, February 26, 2015). The mother of 24-year-old Malak Ibrahim told reporters, “I’m proud of my son. He did not change his faith [even at] the last moment of death. I thank God. Malak is with his father. Jesus … is taking care of him” (Ibid.). Despite her grief, the mother of Samuel Abraham expressed the ultimate meaning and triumph to be found in the death of her son and his companions. “Now more people believe in Christianity because of them,” said Samuel’s mother. “ISIS showed what Christianity is. We thank God that our relatives are in Heaven. He chose them” (Ibid.).
We may find their faith shocking, but should we? Many, many Christians have had to face the same challenge many times in many countries, amen? Over and over again, we see how persecution has spread the witness of our Christian faith. “In their heroic deaths,” says Dr. David Jeremiah, “these men did indeed show the world and ISIS the power of faith over fear. They demonstrated with their last breath the ultimate reality of God and a love more powerful than death” (Ibid., p. 179).
Matthew Ayairga, an African from Chad, was also forced to kneel on that beach that day. Matthew as not a Christian. We’re not sure why he was rounded up by ISIS but he was there nonetheless. Matthew listened as each Christian was asked to renounce their faith in Jesus Christ and then he had to listen as each one of them was beheaded. When the butchers finally reached Matthew, they demanded that he reject his Christian God. “Having observed the faith and courage of the Egyptian Christians throughout the ordeal, [Matthew] was deeply moved by the unbending power of their belief. At that moment he knew that he wanted what they had more than life itself, so he calmly confessed to his captors: ‘Their God is my God’” (Jeremiah, Ibid. p. 204).
I believe that Matthew entered paradise along with his fellow martyrs. In an attempt to shrink the size of the church triumphant by 20, ISIS actually caused it to grow by one. Heaven will one day reveal how many others, like Matthew, will have entered paradise after witnessing the faith and martyrdom of those 20 Egyptian Christians, amen?
