The Bible, Koran are the same
the difference is just in the name.
But the difference is great
One redeems, one is hate.
The Pope is plain wrong, that’s a shame.
A year ago the Bishop Of Rome addressed his Roman Catholic followers regarding the importance of exhibiting religious tolerance. Pope Francis was quoted telling the Vatican’s guests that the Koran, and the spiritual teachings contained therein, are just as valid as the Holy Bible.
“Jesus Christ, Jehovah, Allah. These are all names employed to describe an entity that is distinctly the same across the world. For centuries, blood has been needlessly shed because of the desire to segregate our faiths. This, however, should be the very concept which unites us as people, as nations, and as a world bound by faith. Together, we can bring about an unprecedented age of peace, all we need to achieve such a state is respect each others beliefs, for we are all children of God regardless of the name we choose to address him by. We can accomplish miraculous things in the world by merging our faiths, and the time for such a movement is now. No longer shall we slaughter our neighbors over differences in reference to their God.”
Mea culpa. The story seems to be a “free interpretation” of the Pope’s remarks at a gathering between Roman Catholics, Orthodox, Jews and Muslim leaders. The tone was one of reconciliation, respect, and acceptance of each others faith, but the Bible and the Koran was not specifically mentioned. What threw me off was it was attributed to the Washington Post. (or more specifically washingtonpost.com.co, a Colombian outfit in no way associated with the newspaper.) What the Pope really said was:
I greet and thank cordially all of you, dear friends belonging to other religious traditions; firstly the Muslims, who worship the one living and merciful God, and call upon Him in prayer. I really appreciate your presence, and in it I see a tangible sign of the wish to grow in recipricol trust and in cooperation for the common good of humanity.
The Catholic Church is aware of the importance of the promotion of friendship and respect between men and women of different religious traditions – this I wish to repeat this: the promotion of friendship and respect between men and women of different religious traditions – this is attested evident also in the valuable work undertaken by the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue. The Church is equally aware of the responsibility that each of us bring towards our world, abd to the whole of creation, that we must love and protect. And we can do a lot for the good of the less fortunate, for those who are weak and suffering, to promote justice, to promote reconciliation, to build peace.. But above all, we must keep alive in our world the thirst for the absolute, and must not allow the vision of the human person with a single dimension to prevail, according to which man is reduced to what he produces and to what he consumes: this is one most dangerous threats of our times.
We know how much violence has been provoked in recent history by the attempt to eliminate God and the divine from the horizon of humanity, and we feel the need to witness in our societies the original openness to transcendence that is inherent in the human heart. In this we feel the closeness also of those men and women who, while not belonging to any religious tradition, feel, however the need to search for the truth, the goodness and the beauty of God, and who are our precious allies in efforts to defend the dignity of man, in the building of a peaceful coexistence between peoples and in the careful protection of creation.
Dear friends, thank you for your presence. To all, I offer my cordial and fraternal greetings.
Nevertheless, the approach to paper over irreconcilable differences is a warning sign.
My wife is Danish, so I follow Danish news. The newspaper Jyllandsposten had in September 2005 issued a competition for the best cartoon of Muhammad. This was in response to a threat from the Muslims. There had been an honor killing in Denmark, and the Danes decided: We will not put up with this. So they gave lengthy sentences to all six involved, including the taxi-driver, since he too was in on it. They got death threats for the way they reported it. So Jyllandsposten editors decided: We are not afraid. Numerous riots and more than a hundred deaths have occurred since the publication of the cartoons. The Danish flag also got the honor of being burned together with the Israeli and U.S. flag.
I followed in horror. Is this the face of Islam? Why do they not condemn the insanity of it? I told the Lord in prayer. I am going to find out about the Muslims. The Lord answered: You may do that, but first you must learn the Holy Bible fully. So I put the Bible to Power-point, 11000 slides and growing, then I put the Koran to power-point, 2040 slides. To understand the message better I wrote it down in the order of revelation rather than in the order of length, the traditional way. I was disappointed. The message from Mecca, the first chapters, is peace and tolerance. The message after Muhammad moved to Medina is War, holy war, arbitrary laws(sharia), and mind-control. This is evil.
The symbol of Christianity is the cross, the symbol of Islam is the crescent moon. Roman Catholics frequently use the crucifix, reminding them of the suffering Christ and His death on the cross. Evangelicals use the empty cross, reminding them of the centrality of the cross. Jesus died on the cross to reconcile us back to Himself, was buried and on the third day rose again from the dead. This is the true Christian message of reconciliation, God seeking man.
This message of reconciliation is anathema to Islam. The Koran denies Jesus died on the cross, it only seemed so to the Jews. The Koran agrees that Jesus ascended to heaven, but directly without death, burial and resurrection. Muslims also believe Jesus will return, but in their belief he will be accompanied by the 12th imam and proclaim Muhammad to be greater than himself and destroy all crosses. Instead, Islam has a set of rules how man can be accepted by Allah.
One of the five pillars of Islam is fasting during the month of Ramadan. It is a hard fast from sunrise to sunset. This year Ramadan starts after sunset June 5 if you are a Sunni, after sunset June 6 if you are a Shi’i (since the new moon must be seen by the Shia leader before Ramadan can be declared). The rules are, pray thus, say that, pray now, don’t pray when the Sun is in Zenith but wait 2 minutes, and so on. Every year Ramadan comes 11 days earlier in the year, so Muslims experience 103 years when we go through 100. Islam is based on a strictly lunar calendar, whereas the rest of the world have either a solar calendar or a Lunisolar calendar with 5 leap months every 19 years, completing a 19 year lunar cycle. This way years and seasons line up.
Islam is based on lunacy, the number 19 is prevalent in Koranic numerology and is the reason for the crescent moon being their main symbol.
There is no least common denominator between Islam and Christianity. Christianity have gone through a transformation since the dark ages where the Church ruled tyrannically. Islam must go through a similar transformation separating mosque and state.
Without that I see no avenue for reconciliation.
Len Bilén's blog, a blog about faith, politics and the environment. 