Page 324 - Christians Must Heed Jesus

Christians Must Heed
Jesus

There is absolutely no commandment in the verses of the Koran
that can offend anyone or make them uneasy. Islam was sent down so
that people could live in happiness and tranquility. A Muslim has a re-
sponsibility to pray for others, even idolators to find happiness, to treat
them with compassion and to protect and watch over them. God has
given Muslims a responsibility even to protect unbelievers as they go
from one place to another. Muslims are charged with protecting unbe-
lievers even at the cost of their own lives. One verse on the subject reads:

If any of the idolators ask you for protection, give them protection
until they have heard the words of God. Then convey them to a
place where they are safe. That is because they are a people who
do not know. (Koran, 9:6)

Islam is a religion built on love, affection, understanding and re-
spect. Those who engage in other practices are unacquainted with and
do not live by the moral values of Islam.

Fundamentalists are Dissimulating When
They Say, "There Is No Compulsion in the

Religion"

Some people point to various Muslims who initially say "there is
no compulsion in the religion" but later employ stealthy and compul-
sive tactics to impose it, and suggest that Muslims are employing dis-
simulation on this matter. First of all, these people need to make a
careful distinction between true Muslims and extremists who live by
superstitions rather than by the Koran. A fundamentalist is a radical
who has failed to fully grasp the goodness and wisdom in the com-
mandments that God has revealed in the Koran, who has failed to
properly understand the spirit of the Koran and who is therefore not
convinced that the Koran is the one true Book. He, in his own eyes,

imagines that if he resorts to force and compulsion, despite God's clear

322