The following article by Sonia Bailley about what Islamic prayer (salat) really means was originally published at American Thinker in a slightly different form.
The Danger in Islamic Prayer
by Sonia Bailley
Before sharing their places of worship, it is crucial that Westerners discover what Muslims are saying when they recite the Islamic mandatory prayers. A few days ago, an Ontario synagogue invited Muslim worshippers to lead the Friday prayer. This article explains what the Islamic daily prayers mean, with focus on the Friday prayer within the context of Islamic law or sharia. Being better informed will make Westerners think twice before opening the doors to Muslim for prayer.
Canadian Muslims in southern Ontario were invited to preach the supremacy of Islam at a local synagogue and church. In a goodwill gesture, Peterborough’s Mark Street United Church and Beth Israel Synagogue opened their doors to Muslims for prayer following the recent fire damage of the Masjid al-Salaam mosque. The president of the Beth Israel Synagogue and his board of directors hosted two Islamic prayer sessions this past Friday with not even a suspicion that the underlying theme in Islamic prayer is to curse and do away with nonbelievers like them.
A deep hatred and rejection of Judaism and Christianity are hardwired into Islamic doctrine, including the Koran. Many of its chapters are incorporated into mandatory daily Islamic prayer. The very first Koranic chapter, considered the most exalted of all chapters, is a prayer directed to Allah asking him to keep Muslims away from the misguided path of Jews and Christians. This chapter is a necessary part of the five mandatory daily prayers, and is recited not once, but anywhere from 17 to 100 times a day by devout Muslims (or in a broader sense, 6,200 to 36,500 times a year).
Repetition priming inculcates the notion of superiority over non-Muslims into the minds of all Muslims, instilling a deep mistrust of non-Muslims: “Guide us along the right path, the path of those whom you favored (referring to Muslims), and not along the path of those who earn your anger (referring to Jews), or those who go astray (referring to Christians). The references to Jews and Christians are in accord with Al-Tirmidhi’s authentic hadiths (or Islamic narrations attributed to Mohammed) and other venerated Islamic interpretations, as reflected in some English translations of the Koran.
Friday prayers also include recitation of Koranic chapters 62 and 63 where Jews who reject Allah’s commandments in the Torah are loathed and compared to “the likeness of a donkey carrying books but understands them not.” Jews are told to “long for death” if they pretend to be Allah’s favorite. Nonbelievers are condemned to a state of error until Mohammed is sent by Allah to purify them “from the filth of disbelief and polytheism” with his verses or revelations from Allah. “Hypocrites” or apostates from Islam are considered enemies, “so beware of them, may Allah destroy them!”. Is it any wonder why many Muslims are prohibited from being friends with Jews and Christians? In nearly 500 verses the Koran condemns them to hell (which melts their skin and bellies) for not believing in Mohammed and for not converting to Islam.
Such are the prayers that are recited over and over again in mosques, and now in some churches and synagogues across the world as more Muslim communities continue to grow and expand. Oblivious to the ignorant Jewish and Christian hosts — whom the Koran portrays as sons of apes and pigs and as the worst of creatures — those very same prayers were recently recited by the Peterborough mosque’s muezzin (one who recites the Islamic call to prayer) in the local church and synagogue. His sonorous and somber voice evoked emotion and tears expressing compassion and admiration of Islam during the Islamic prayer session at the Mark Street United Church a couple of Fridays ago.
Little did these people know that he was chanting verses expressing disgust and disdain for nonbelievers, such as themselves. They appeared to be in a trancelike stupor as if undergoing a spiritual awakening — despite not understanding one word of Arabic prayer that calls for their rejection and eradication due to their misguided behavior. If they only knew what Islamic prayers meant in English, they would not be shedding tears of ignorance, and would certainly think twice before allowing Muslims to pray in their places of worship. “Love thy neighbor” should not be a one-way street.
The Peterborough mosque’s imam Shazin Khan, along with other imams and Islamic spokespeople, uses a common deceptive tactic to show the Church audience that Islam cares about people of all religious faiths. He repeats only part of a well-known Koranic verse taken from the Jerusalem Talmud, asserting that saving one human being is like saving all of humanity. However, unlike the original Talmudic verse that applies equally to all humans, the Koranic verse was modified and prohibits only the murder of Muslims. This verse in its entirety is in accord with Islamic law or sharia, which applies the death penalty for killing Muslims, not non-Muslims.
Referring to Judaism and Islam, Kenzu Abdella, the president of the Kawartha Muslim Religious Association (in the Peterborough area near Toronto) who formed an alliance with Larry Gillman, the President of the Beth Israel Synagogue, informed the Canadian Broadcasting Cooperation that “we have more similarities than differences. We have so much common”.
Contrary to his claim, the differences are so great that 57 Islamic states united in the highly influential Organization of Islamic Cooperation rejected the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that views all people as equal and free, and replaced it with the Cairo Declaration of Human Rights in Islam (CDHRI) that views people as neither equal nor free.
The CDHRI, being subject to sharia, limits the right to freedom of religion and expression according to what sharia permits. Women have lesser rights than men, as do non-Muslims than Muslims. Slavery is allowed, as it still has not been abolished in Islam. Human rights in Islam rely upon the most illiberal, draconian, and barbaric corporal punishments imaginable. Where are the similarities?
Mr. Abdella failed to mention that Islam considers itself the mother religion of both Judaism and Christianity, that it existed prior to those two false religions that veered away from the path of strict monotheism. They became corrupt and ignorant until Mohammed was sent by Allah as a gift to set things straight and convert all back to Islam or “the religion of true unspoiled nature”, as per the CDHRI.
The Islamic end-times, according to Bukhari, the most authentic of all hadith collections, will occur when Jesus, considered the last Muslim prophet in Islam, returns to earth to destroy Christianity (“break the cross”) and forces all to convert or die. But until such a time, radical Muslims must continue waging jihad against Christians and Jews who pay an Islamic tax called jizya that masquerades as halal products to support Islamic terrorism worldwide.
It’s long past time that Westerners familiarize themselves with Islam and think twice before rolling out the welcome mats in their places of worship, especially in light of the tens of thousands of unvetted Muslim migrants coming soon to a city near you. Westerners who remain true to their faith by reaching out to Muslim neighbors with compassion will soon find out the hard way that mutual respect can never exist amongst different religions when one views itself as the perfect and supreme religion above all others, as Islam does.
Before sharing premises with Muslim worshippers, ask yourself the following question: would Muslims anywhere ever allow Jews or Christians into a mosque sanctuary to lead a Jewish or Christian prayer service?
It is pathetic, what Christians and Jews will do to stave off the inevitable and to ignore what’s right under their noses. They all seem to be infected with the Rodney King Syndrome: Can’t we all just get along?
Well, Mr. Cline, you’re talking about liberal Christians and Jews. Of them, C. S. Lewis said they”ve been immunized with such a mild form of their religions that they’re immune to the real thing. He could have added that the real thing – authentic spirituality – is a foreign country to such people. They find the people who live there to be primitive and scary; the rituals and traditions of the primitives are mysterious and vaguely threatening.
Have you read any of Flannery O’Connor? Her short stories are startling…Southern gothic as filtered through the lens of a rigorous mid-century American Catholicism. Her stories are required reading in any half-decent college survey course of American literature. Her characters are not the cardboard cut-outs of “To Kill a Mockingbird” or, worse, “Catcher in the Rye”.
I guarantee you the people she invents will stay with you long after you put the story down. An especially fine example is “Good Country People”. Or the English professor’s favorite: “A Good Man Is Hard to Find”.
Here’s the text of “Good Country People”
http://faculty.weber.edu/Jyoung/English%206710/Good%20Country%20People.pdf
The last lines of “A Good Man” will etch themselves on your psyche. I’m sure it’s available somewhere, too. I always enjoyed watching students encounter that story for the first time. Some throw the book across the room, refusing to consider such a world view might exist. Others are quiet and thoughtful as they begin to internalize a much tougher world-view than they could have envisioned on their own…which is what C.S. Lewis was aiming for in that observation.
We all need to ask ourselves a question; at what stage am I prepared to kill on behalf of my culture, my territory and my people?
The answers lie along a spectrum grouped according to politico-religio-cultural brainwashing; killing comes easier to some more than others.
Some are brainwashed into murder of any who deviate from the dominant culture, for some it is the dominant culture that must be murdered.
To yet another group, all killing is wrong unless ordered by ‘elected’ representatives….
In the West, most people expect the state to do their killing for them, so that they can get on with other things; but what happens if the state comes off the rails?
Killing people is a fundamental of human society, but the Judeo-Christian civilization caused a temporary wobble in this doctrine, but now we are no longer living in a Judeo-Christian society, so we will have to change our ideas or perish. Brute humanity is back and life is no longer sacred.
C.S. Lewis: “I sometimes wish that Christians were a little more willing to die for their faith. Like the Mohammedans”?
In fact, it is simply unacceptable that a Christian church should be used for non- Christian worship. No matter how much we love and care for Muslims, we believe that their religion is false and cannot be preached in a Christian place of worship.
As a footnote: Muslims themselves would never lend their places of worship to Christians. In fact, in Saudi Arabia, Christian worship is totally prohibited anywhere and those who disregard this prohibition are punished with utmost severity. In other Muslim countries (in Assad’s Syria or Jordan, for example), there is much more tolerance, but still I am not aware of any single case of Muslims permitting Christians to worship in their mosques – or of Christians asking for such a permission.
I visited the Dome of the Rock with a Catholic friend. When she knelt in prayer inside, she was very roughly told to stop by our Muslim guide.
That’s amazing, since Jews aren’t allowed to enter at all.
As you mentioned only Syria and a while back a couple of mosques in the UK were ok for some ‘heretical’ offshoot of Islam to pray in. Doubt it happens, the intolerance is ripening by the day.
After all this time. Imagine that. You don’t say. Jesus that sound like you very belatedly found out about something or started to notice how cracked up Judeo and Christian strippers have become. Meanwhile in the Saudi ‘neck’ of the woods and the Gulf of Islam generally there are wild parties and such. “Christian” professionals making hay while the sun shines so to speak. We’re all set for a Sodom and Gomorrah showdown it seems – this time on camera.
Thanks for the reading suggestion.
You are mistaken! CS Lewis was responsible for what you call “smoothing” of faith. Get a quote from CS Lewis himself, he did more to make relativized Christian faith, as the popes in recent years: “There are people in other religions who are being guided by the secret influence of God to focus on the aspects of their religion, that comply with Christianity. “in other words, he is saying that other religions lead to God the same way that Christianity, he is saying that Christianity is not unique. in saying this he places also within that precept Islam, because though Islam turn headline and show his true colors by terrorism, it does not take away from him the title of religion, and a path to the sacred. CS Lewis did a disservice to Christianity, quote it is a mistake without equal.
I would have to see the context of the quote, but from what you’ve given I read it differently.
Rather than an assertion that other religions offer the same salvation as christianity, it appears more as encouragement to profess the faith: God disposes some people of other religions (obviously those who seek truth and holiness) to aspects that resonate with Christianity. They will be receptive of the truth when they hear it.
This sounds less like “all religions are equal” and more like “God has prepared fruit for the harvest.”
Thanks Dymphna, will read Flannery O’Connor whom I also assumed to be an Irish male writer.
“Jesus, considered the last Muslim prophet in Islam”
Huh? In the version of Islam I know, Jesus is neither the most recent nor the final prophet; Muhammad is.
“But until such a time [when Jesus returns], radical Muslims must continue waging jihad against Christians and Jews who pay an Islamic tax called jizya that masquerades as halal products to support Islamic terrorism worldwide.”
A tax masquerades as products? What does that even mean?
Dymphna, thanks for the tip about Flannery O’Connor. I have seen the name before, but always assumed it was some Irish male writer.
Informative article and appreciated. I wish I had the inclination and the time to learn to read and speak Arabic. It would give me an edge on what Muslims are up to.
“Jews who reject Allah’s commandments in the Torah”
I thought the two components of the Talmund date back between 200 and 500 years before Christ, and that Islam wasn’t officially a religion until around 632 AD, so why does the author say that Allah’s commandments are in the Torah?
Jews are told to “long for death” if they pretend to be Allah’s favorite.”
I cannot comprehend this line at all. Why would Jews pretend to be Allah’s favourite?.
long before Moham. & even up to today middle & far eastern people said/say allah when they meant god. So basically the muslim god has no name or didn’t tell his followers/slaves what it is. They took the word allah & said its their moon god. Up until recently they didn’t make a fuss when Christians used it in the Bible. But in Indonesia they passed a fatwa the Christians could no longer use allah in their bibles or prayers. The still do in Bethlehem.
I believe that was in Malaysia, where it was banned for Christians to use the word Allah. http://edition.cnn.com/2014/06/24/world/asia/malaysia-allah-ban/index.html
Indonesia actually has a higher percentage of Christians than Malaysia (10% vs. 9.2%) which translates into a much larger number, given Indonesia’s population (25 million in Indonesia, vs. 2.6 million in Malaysia).
I grew up around a number of Indonesian Christians and know a bit about the level of oppression there. It is not as bad as Malaysia, but it’s getting there.
For the curious — really, for anyone on this website — you absolutely MUST READ:
V.S. Naipaul’s “Among the Believers”. If you want to really understand what’s motivated the growth of political Islam in these countries, particularly in Pakistan, Iran, Indonesia and Malaysia, what Naipaul calls “the disease” is incredibly well documented in this book.
But to the question at hand, it was Malaysia which banned the use of the arabic word “Allah” among Christians.
I certainly appears the world is full of ignorant people. Seems there should be an app to translate this Arabic and project it in a rainbow banner for these events.
Spot on, Sonia Bailley.
There are no quid pro quo with islam that can rescue peaceful religions and ideologies.
It’s just not room in islam. It’s designed to conquer and dominate. It’s strict monoculture, not multicultural, for the idiots still believing in that meme.
There are no room for islam in the west, neither can weak minded politicians and quislings of the European nations create any coexistence where freedom and equality can survive. Islam is totalitarian and supremacist, just as nazism and now also the EU.
For those still in the fog and did not notice. EU and the old communist Merkel just paid jizzya to Turkey and the wannabe Kalif, Erdogan. And so it begins.
Indeed the whole EU has, and not just for one year either!
Very informative article. However, Muslims will continue to lead church services as Christians have a steadfast belief that compassion and understanding will bridge the gap between love and hate. Christians believe that the soul is more important than the flesh, and that the end-game is more important than the collateral damage that precedes it. And so, Christians will likely pave the way for Islamist global domination — unless, of course, Christians become warriors again. This is an excellent article by Ms. Bailley and I thank GofV for posting it.
With all respect Ingrid, some statements that appear in your comments are too broad. “Christians believe”… it depends which “Christians” you have in mind.
As it has already rightly pointed out in other ways, no Bible-believing follower of the Lord Jesus Christ would EVER allow their church to be used as a place of ‘prayer’ to the god of Islam.
While we do not maintain any sacrality in a building, we are well aware to whom the ‘prayers’ of Muslims are directed.
Sorry, I cannot speak for Jews and their synagogues, but I’d venture to say that on the whole most Jews would shudder even at the very thought.
I beg to differ; it’s not Bible-believing Christ followers who will pave the way for Muslim domination but spiritually ignorant politicians and leaders of religious movements that have jettisoned belief in the Jesus Christ of the Bible and embraced pseudo divinities of their own making.
I like your last statement: Christians to become warriors again – with the proviso that we keep in mind the apostle Paul’s words to the Jesus followers in Ephesus, “we do not fight against flesh and blood…” etc.
I’ve just read the short story, Good Country People, and enjoyed it very much. Thanks for the link.
>C. S. Lewis said they”ve been immunized with such a mild form of their religions that >they’re immune to the real thing
Hi Dymphna, do you have the source for this insightful quote? Thank you.
It’s been too long since I read it to recall. Either “The Screwtape Letters” or “Mere Christianity” – but that’s a guess.
It goes much deeper than religion. I got an in-depth, up-close-and-personal view of what Arabs/Moslems are like in mid-1980’s France and Morocco, why anyone would want to invite them into their countries, cities, homes, churches or anywhere at all is beyond me.
I share your views. I worked in France for four years in the late 70’s and saw the hatred from Arabs/Muslims up close. These people did not integrate then and they never will…ever.
You are correct, Wolfie65. This Islamist nonsense, immigration issues, global debt, etc., all take a back seat to the ultimate goal of global domination by a single source — and it isn’t Islam. In fact, certain sovereign nations are hoping for internal rioting, for whatever reason, so martial law can be declared and personal property confiscated. Then the agenda can move forward. Research Obama’s Executive Order 13603. What is overtly happening is merely diversionary.
I used to be a “why can’t we all just get along” type.
Then I spent the past 3 years living and working in North Africa.
The “leadership” in the West is insane for inviting these humanoids into our nations.
To Ingrid’s point, I believe that the elites continue coddling the RoP because they see it as the perfect control mechanism for their globalist project.
They envision a world where the flock polices itself via the RoP while these upper-crust hypocrites travel about on their yachts and private jets to engage in debauchery and filth. Much like your average Saudi prince.
The same can be applied to the efforts of CAIR and all muhammedan organizations which deceive the public with similarly articulated statements. A current example is the televised statement provided for mass consumption in response to the San Bernardino terror jihad:
CNN version
Terror linked CAIR spokesman, Muzammil Siddiqi, formerly head of ISNA, now the chairman of the Fiqh Council of North America and the North American Islamic Trust repeated the disingenuous and hypocritical admonitions against terror.
Fast forward to 1:28 in the linked video to hear Siddiqi suggest:
If human life is so precious Islamic doctrine wouldn’t characterize Christians and Jews as pigs and apes. Islam does not consider kafir to be human and many people are becoming aware of these facts.
Bill Warner put together a terrific presentation on Statistical Islam from which I quote:
None of the dedicated material to ‘kafirs’ which, by the way, is a derogatory term for unbelievers is pleasant.
Clever parsing is just one of the tools amid Taqiyya and Muruna used by these deceptive representatives of Islam.
I think the plural for kafir is kufar.
I remember this because I used our English form for making plurals by using an ‘s’ or ‘es’ in most cases with that word and had it explained to me…then I remembered our plural for mouse is not mouses and used that as a mnemonic device to help me remember.
Arabic is certainly not an Indo-European language, that’s for sure.
“kafirs” was a direct quote from Bill Warner’s linked site. However, I’m fairly certain Mr. Warner is aware of the proper plural form being “kufar” as I recall him specifically spelling it out in one of his latest videos.
The general rule: if you italicize a foreign noun, use the foreign plural form. If you don’t italicize it, adding an -s is fine.
So “kuffar” and “kafirs” are both acceptable forms.
Islam is self destructive, but the current civilization is no different from Islam. The entire West has become so rancorous as Islam, Islam uses that political correctness cuddle in your favor. Islam hates Christians and Jews? Yes, but the current hate Western civilization as much as Islam. I see no difference in Islamic ideology, lifestyle and Western philosophy.
Might be a trifling point, but as most Muslims don’t understand Arabic the repetition of al fatiha (Sura 1) seventeen or more times a day surely implies the meaning is likely lost on them. Then again it only needs to be explained just the once for them to remember doesn’t it?
From:
http://eaglerising.com/25980/the-five-pillars-of-islam-are-dangerous-to-all-non-muslims
Salat: Prayer
Salat is Islamic prayer and consists of five daily prayers.
All of these prayers are recited while facing in the direction of the Kaaba in Mecca.
Five times every day, a doctrinaire Muslim must pray for non-Muslims—referred to as Kafirs—to suffer.
The chauvinistic prayers of Muslims are recited as follows:
http://eaglerising.com/18215/can-the-doctrinaire-muslim-be-my-neighbor-on-the-hate-speech-embedded-in-islamic-prayer/
First Prayer: O, Allah, we ask You for help and seek Your forgiveness. And we believe in You and have trust in You. And we praise You in the best way. And we thank You and are not ungrateful to You.
And we forsake and turn away from the Kafirs.
O, Allah, we worship You only and pray to You and prostrate ourselves before You. And we run towards You and serve You. And we hope to receive Your mercy. And we fear Your punishment. Surely the Kafirs will receive Your punishment.
Second Prayer: O, Allah, verily we seek Your help. We believe in You, we put our trust in You, and we praise You, and we are not ungrateful to You. Oh Allah, You alone do we worship, and to You we pray and prostrate. For Your sake, we strive. We hope for Your mercy and fear Your punishment, for Your punishment will surely reach the Kafirs.
O, Allah, punish the Kafirs of the People of the Book [proselytizing Christians] who are preventing others from following Your way.
Third Prayer: In the name of Allah the Beneficent, the Merciful, all praise is due to Allah, the Lord of the World, the Beneficent, the Merciful, Master of the Day of Judgment. You do we serve, and You do we beseech for help. Keep us on the right path—the path of those upon whom You have bestowed favors. Not the path of those upon whom Your wrath is brought down [Jews], nor those who go astray [Christians].
Islam is the only “religion” whose prayers emphatically curse all unbelievers. Actually, Islam is more properly considered an ideology, rather than a religion; for Islam promotes activities considered to be condemnable by the moral standards of most world religions: assassination, honor-killings, pedophilia, slavery, sex-trafficking, wife-beating, and so forth. So illegal are these traditional undertakings of Islam that Islam should not be allowed classification as a religion in the United States, with all the First-Amendment protections thereto appertaining. Islam should be classified as a criminal enterprise and its scofflaw adherents brought up on racketeering charges and the like, whenever possible, in order to safeguard Americans from their violent ways.