FREEDOM IN THE BIBLE VS. FREEDOM IN ISLAM
As a former Muslim, I am in awe of the loving God of the Bible, Who desires for us not only to heal but to live an abundant life of freedom from bondage.
Nothing in the Koran comes close to Biblical verses such as these: “Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty” (II Corinthians 3:17). “If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed” (John 8:36). “For, brethren, ye have been called into liberty” (Galatians 5:13). “Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage” (Galatians 5:1).
These references to freedom are uniquely Biblical and totally alien to Islam. In fact the Koran advocates the opposite. The word free or freedom, “hurriyya” in Arabic, is never mentioned in the Koran in the Biblical sense.
The Koran and other Islamic sources mean one thing by the words “free” and “freedom”—those terms simply describe men and women who are not owned by others as slaves, and the condition they live in. Islamic scriptures distinguish free men and women from slaves in the context of the widespread slavery in the Islamic world—something that is still regulated in Islamic law books today. Freedom of thought, religion, speech, and freedom from being subjected to cruel and unusual punishment are totally alien to Islamic culture. According to Ibn Arabi, the “Greatest Sufi Master,” who died in 1240, the true freedom is “perfect slavery” to Allah. He refers to Allah as the “master” of his human “slaves.”1
In the early twentieth century, however, as a result of Western influence, Islamic culture started to recognize the Biblical concept of freedom—but only to a limited extent, in a sense that does not explicitly contradict sharia law. That was a time when many Muslims were first exposed to Western education, literature, and the arts. At the end of the eighteenth century, the American Revolution and the French Revolution had spread the Biblical idea of freedom throughout Western culture. When, a little more than a hundred years later, many Muslims came into contact with the West, the pressure mounted on the Muslim world to import “freedom” in the larger sense, not just as a bare, literal description of the state of people who are not literally enslaved. That pressure also resulted in the curtailment of the literal institution of slavery throughout the Muslim world, where it had been accepted without question until that time.
Internal changes to Islamic values as a result of pressure from Muslims who demand it after being exposed to Western values are always threatening to Islam. Every time Muslims rebel against Islamic oppression, especially after being inspired by the West, Islam feels discredited and unsustainable. Even without exposure to Western culture, Islam is in a constant state of conflict and internal rebellion over sharia enforcement. And the mere existence of a successful Biblically based society that permits freedom and human dignity to its citizens is a huge challenge to Islamic sharia.
After America acted on its Biblical principles and endured civil war to abolish slavery, the pressure mounted on Arab countries that practiced slavery. The world now condemned slavery, and it seemed a sign of backwardness that there were still markets selling slaves and eunuchs in open markets in Islamic countries. Some Muslims began to wonder how Islam, which claims to be superior to the Bible, could still practice slavery when the people whom the Koran called sinners had abolished slavery.
Islamic pride in the birthplace of Muhammad, Saudi Arabia, was put to the test. In 1962 the Saudi government finally declared the end of the fourteen-hundred-year-old Islamic institution of slavery. That decision to make slavery illegal, meant to improve the reputation of the Muslim world, was ironically a slap to the credibility of Islamic sharia law. Riots immediately erupted in Mecca and Medina because Muslims considered slavery a religious right endorsed by the Koran, the example of Muhammad, and Islamic law.
Despite the riots, the laws against slavery stayed on the books. But in Islamic society there is always a way to work around the rules while maintaining appearances. Saudi Arabia and other Muslim countries may have abolished slavery officially, but the culture of slavery remains alive and well today in many parts of the Muslim world, where maids, drivers, household help, and anyone of a lower status—often immigrants from both Muslim and non-Muslim countries—have few rights and are often abused by their Muslim employers.
But maintaining de facto slavery while keeping up appearances is not good enough for some Muslims, who think that owning slaves is a right that Muslims should be able to practice out in the open. Prominent Saudi religious leader Sheikh Saleh Al-Fawzan recently called for slavery to be re-instated as legal throughout the kingdom. According to the sheikh, who is a member of Saudi Arabia’s Senior Council of Clerics: “Slavery is a part of Islam. Slavery is part of jihad, and jihad will remain as long as there is Islam.”2 And of course the world has watched in horror as ISIS actually did revive chattel slavery—including even public slave markets.
After the legal abolition of slavery and the trouble it caused to the status quo, Islamic leadership did their best to suppress any further challenges to Islam from the impact of Western values. A free competitive market of ideas threatened Islam to its core. The guardians of Islam felt that their system was on the brink of collapse. The influence of the West, the attractive Biblical culture that was the greatest threat to Islam, had to be stopped before sharia was further eroded. Islamic leaders felt that they had to mobilize all Islamic financial, intellectual, media, propaganda, and physical resources to block out the West. Western freedoms had to be portrayed as evil and corrupt. “Freedom” in the mind of Muslims had to be made to mean freedom from outside influences—essentially freedom from the freedoms the West stood for.
So Islamic intellectuals bombarded the Muslim public with negative messages, outright lies, and slander against the West; they denounced the little Satan (Israel) as well as the great Satan (the United States) in the strongest terms. “Istimaar” or “colonialism” was the concept that galvanized hatred and terror of the West throughout the Islamic world, unifying Muslims against the West and mobilizing a new jihad. Muslims were spoon-fed the notion that their freedom, wealth, resources, and oil had been stolen by the West. Under that theory, Muslims were brought together in unity despite the distrust and fear prevalent in Islamic society. The campaign for freedom in the Muslim world was very cleverly framed—Muslims’ energy was channeled away from seeking freedom from Islamic oppression to seeking freedom from the Western Biblical values that formed an existential threat to Islam.
I grew up in the Muslim world in the ’50s, ’60s, and ’70s hearing daily chants, songs, political slogans, and fiery speeches against the evil West. This campaign got more intense and worse by the day until it finally exploded in the face of the West on 9/11. It is still going on today, with smaller explosions of violence occurring every few days all around the world.
The only way for Islam to survive is by keeping sharia, which enables the absolute control that the religion has over the slaves of Allah—all ordinary Muslims. That’s why the abolition of slavery was such a threat to Islamic society. It was an example of Western influence making illegal something that had always been legal under sharia, which still allows for it.
Muslims exposed to Biblical values had forced Arab media and political leaders to put into effect, if only in one discrete reform, the un-Islamic concept of “freedom.” The only solution was for the Muslim leadership, terrified of what could happen to Islam if the trend continued, to constantly counter the influence of Western Biblical values with anti-Western propaganda before Islamic power was eroded further. Islamic law—with its divine endorsement of lying, slander, exaggeration, and terror against the kafirs in the best interests of Islam—was very helpful in the propaganda campaign.
In Islamic culture, demands for freedom rarely refer to human rights, much less to the rights of women and minorities as they are understood in the West. Even during the 2011 Arab Spring, in Tahrir Square in Egypt slogans on freedom never referred to freedom from the oppressive sharia law or for separation of mosque and state. Even the women were carrying signs against Mubarak but no signs demanding equality with men under the law. Not one member of the oppressed Coptic Christian minority carried a sign demanding to live free from Islamic law.
Demands for freedom in Muslim countries are always directed against a specific dictator, who is usually accused of collaborating with the evil “kafir” West. Islamic media does not differentiate between secular liberal Western values and Biblical values in its reporting. So if secularists in the West advocate gay marriage, Muslims do not see America as split over that issue and do not see that Biblical values disagree with gay marriage.3 The Muslim world lumps liberal values with Biblical values because they are not familiar with a society that accommodates two opposite views. Thus the Islamic view of the great Satan is reinforced in the eyes of the unsuspecting Muslim public when Islamic propaganda claims that the Biblical West is corrupt. On an Arabic TV show aired by Christians in the U.S., a Muslim doctor caller said that Christians in the West are morally corrupt because of premarital sex. This doctor was under the impression that this Western phenomenon was sanctioned by the Bible. From the perspective of Muslims, anything that happens in Western society must be approved by the Bible.
Islam is currently in a fight for its survival against the Western and Biblical value of freedom; Muslims cannot understand that anything could happen in Western society without the approval of the Biblical religious authority—because in Islamic society nothing could happen without the approval of sharia. In that fight, Islam has no weapons that are based on truth, only the propaganda of lies, deception, getting offended, name-calling, and finger-pointing, all of which is coupled with the most powerful tool of Islam: terror.
The Islamic campaign of deception is impacting how the Koran itself is perceived in the West, with new English translations attempting to make the Koran’s views on freedom similar to those of the Bible, when in fact it is the exact opposite.
For example in chapter 3, verse 97, of the Koran, Allah tells those who refuse to believe in Islam that: “Allah is independent (un-wanting) of the entire creation!” This is an accurate translation by Fridul Haque, in which Allah expresses his anger at those who reject Islam by telling them that he (Allah) does not need his whole creation. But a new translation at corpus.quran.com attempts to soften the image of Allah by translating the same verse as “Allah is “free” from any need of the universe.
The bottom line here is that the God of the Bible wants us to have freedom, while the God of Islam wants us to submit. Because unbelievers refuse to submit to Allah, Allah in this verse threatens to reject his whole creation, both believers and unbelievers.
Children of God vs. Enemies or Slaves of Allah
The Bible provides us with an amazing family to belong to. God sees us as His children whom He cares for tenderly: “Keep me as the apple of the eye; hide me under the shadow of thy wings” (Psalms 17:8).
In Islam, however, Allah sees the majority of his human creation—all the non-Muslims—as his enemies. The Koran says that Allah “does not love the unbelievers” (3:31, 30:45). And not even Allah’s followers, the Muslims, are his children. He sees them not as children but as “O ‘Ibadi,” meaning “my slaves.” Muslims are slaves who should worship Allah whether they like it or not: “And unto Allah falleth prostrate whosoever is in the heavens and the earth, willingly or unwillingly, as do their shadows in the morning and the evening hours” (Koran 13:15). Allah here says that everyone and everything—just like their shadows—bows to Allah twice a day whether they want to or not.
When I became Christian and learned that we are God’s children, I wept. I finally had a father, after Islamic jihad had taken mine away from me at age eight. I was overwhelmed with comfort and love in a totally new relationship with a God who calls himself my father in the Bible. I was saved then.
Islam totally rejects the description of God as a father. It also sees the idea of God’s Spirit within us as wrong and disrespectful. Islam recognizes the father-son relationship only in the purely biological sense; it has no concept of the fatherhood of God in the spiritual sense.
As a teenager I remember how embarrassed I was for a Christian friend of mine when a Muslim man reprimanded her for naming God as “the Father.” Muslims in majority-Muslim countries feel entitled to correct Christians like this, lest young Muslims, including me back then, hear any good news about God that might contradict what the Koran says about Allah.
Islamic scriptures never refer to Allah as father. In fact the Koran insists that “Allah is a Father to no one” (5:18; 19:88–93; 21:26). Instead, the Koran describes Allah as a master (10:30) and human beings—including even Muhammad—as his slaves (2:23). Allah’s approval even of Muhammad was dependent on his performance; Muslims who do not perform as Allah requires will suffer Allah’s wrath and torture. Abdullah, meaning slave of Allah, is one of the most popular names for Muslims. And that is exactly how Muslims relate to Allah, as a far and distant God, angry, vengeful, and eager to punish. The Koran depicts a hostile relationship between Allah and his creation: “If you march not forth, He will punish you with a painful torment and will replace you by another people, and you cannot harm Him at all, and Allah is Able to do all things” (9:39). Again Allah here seems to be offended by his creation and threatens his followers with a painful punishment, and to replace them if they reject him.
The difference between how Christians and Muslims relate to God and how God relates to human beings in the Koran and the Bible is like night and day.
The Master-Slave Dialectic
A God who considers most of the human race his enemies and who desires the enslavement of his creatures unfortunately sets the tone for how Muslims relate to one another and to the world. The impact of Allah’s master-slave relationship with his creation colors all Muslim social relationships and every interaction in Islamic society. Muslims relate to one another as cruel masters and servile slaves.
Thus to have enemies, to oppress, and to be oppressed has become normal, justified, and even God-like in Islam. One attribute of Islamic society that outsiders notice first is the ugly way citizens relate to one another. Oppression permeates every level of Islamic society; from the head of state to the street sweeper. Master-slave relationships characterize all social and political institutions from the military, the mosque, the political system, and corporations all the way down to the family unit.
It is not uncommon for Muslims to kiss the hands of religious and political leaders as proof of their submission and subservience. One incident in 2014 in Saudi Arabia sheds light on how the master-slave relationship dominates life in Islamic society. A Saudi woman by the name of Suad al-Shamari, co-founder of the Saudi Liberal Network, was held in a Jeddah prison on charges of insulting Islam. Her crime? Posting a photo on Twitter of a man kissing the hand of an Islamic cleric with this comment: “Notice the vanity and pride on his face when he finds a slave to kiss his hand.”
People from such a background who come to live in America quickly notice the difference. People in the United States relate to each other as free citizens with human dignity. Most of us welcome the change, but there is often a side of the Islamic psyche that misses the power and unearned respect of the slave-master dynamic that Islam has created in all of us.
Transformation vs. Conformity
One of the most freeing verses in the Bible, one that helped me shed my bondage to Islam, is Romans 12:2: “And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”
That verse gave me permission to be transformed. The Bible tells Christians to be born again, to have purpose and meaning, to become like Christ. The very concepts of renewal, transformation, atonement, revival, and second chances are sadly alien to Islam.
Islam does not go much beyond Allah’s demand for total conformity. Muslims demand a very high degree of conformity from each other, especially from family members.
While in the Bible Jesus says, “Behold, I make all things new” (Revelation 21:5), Islam resists any kind of novelty. Muhammad said, “For every newly begun matter is innovation, every innovation is misguidance, and every misguidance is in Hell” (Reliance of the Traveller w29.3 p. 914–915). Muslims today still reject change and shame and shun those who copy non-Muslim society. The Islamic ideal is to mimic and conform to the lifestyle of second-century Arabia, slavishly copying how Muhammad lived, dressed, and behaved.
The Islamic lifestyle is set in stone for the Muslim. Those who aspire to transform themselves and evolve beyond their roots, past the norms of their clan and birth conditions, are shamed and sometimes condemned as apostates. What Islam fears the most is for Muslims to be transformed so profoundly that they abandon the jihad against non-Muslims. Those who do are considered apostates under Islamic law and must be killed. An Urdu book on jihad quotes the eleventh-century jurist Al-Sarakhsi arguing that “One Who Rejects Jihad Is an Infidel.”4
Hostility to nonconformity and change is common even among more moderate Muslim, like the ones in India. Remaining the same and protecting the status quo are Islamic values that go back to Arab pride and that have moved far beyond the Arab world into India and elsewhere. Transformation to follow one’s conscience is prohibited to Muslims.
To the average Muslim the very word transform is foreign. Why transform if the future is already pre-determined by Allah? are the common words of wisdom spoken by Muslims. Muslims who look for new ways and solutions outside of the box of Islam are shunned, called names, and told You forgot your roots and abandoned the culture that brought you up or Have you no respect for your origin?
I have personally experienced this kind of Islamic shaming to enforce conformity. After 9/11 I called friends and family in Egypt because I wanted to be comforted after I saw many celebrating the carnage in the Middle East. I was hoping to hear some soul-searching from Egyptians, and a rejection of the hate education that we were all subjected to—which the 9/11 hijackers had acted on. But the response of one of my childhood friends to me was, “The flesh on your shoulders is from Arab generosity! How dare you accuse Arabs to be behind 9/11?” Even though I was already Christian then, the words still did hurt me. My friend’s response to me was condemnation because I had dared to evolve, be transformed, and take the side of the enemies of Islam.
Even Islamic heads of State are not immune from harsh reactions, threats of removal from office, and even assassination—President Anwar Sadat of Egypt was killed for this very reason—if they veer from sharia and introduce novelty or innovation that is considered offensive to Islam. Islamic laws prohibit a Muslim head of State from being transformed, evolving, or accepting any novelty (Reliance of the Traveller o25.3 p. 640).
Islam is threatened by transformation. Conformity, uniformity, submission to group thinking, remaining the same, and protecting the status quo are what Islam expects of Muslims. These are all strong Islamic values.
Changing Yourself vs. Changing Others
The Bible teaches us to focus on changing ourselves instead of changing others: “how canst thou say to thy brother, Brother, let me pull out the mote that is in thine eye, when thou thyself beholdest not the beam that is in thine own eye? Thou hypocrite, cast out first the beam out of thine own eye, and then shalt thou see clearly to pull out the mote that is in thy brother’s eye” (Luke 6:42).
Islam is all about changing, fixing, or at least impressing others rather than changing or fixing yourself. Holiness in Islam is measured by how committed a Muslim is to do jihad to bring others to Islam. When the word jihad is mentioned in the Koran, 97 percent of the time it refers to interacting with others in such a way as to force them to become Muslim. Because Muslims believe that non-Muslims are the sinners, it is the job of the Muslim to fix them. That is the main reason why Islam is in constant trouble with outsiders: the fact that the predominant message of Muslim scriptures is to use violence, force, intimidation, shaming, and humiliation to change others.
Changing others is the imperative of Islam, and it must be accomplished at virtually any cost, using the most violent means. The God of the Bible never tells us to do vengeance against His “enemies” on His behalf. On the contrary, the Bible admonishes Christians, “Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord” (Romans 12:19). But the Koran is full of commandments to Muslims to do just that. Allah entrusts Muslims with doing his bidding on Earth, commanding them to engage in retaliation, vengeance, fighting, and forced conversion for his sake—not to mention lying, slander, deceit, and exaggeration. All of that is for the purpose of changing others, so that they submit to Allah and conform to his commandments. That’s the point of Muhammad’s being “victorious through terror.” It’s the purpose for which the Koran tells Muslims to torture the enemies of Allah and smite off their heads. It’s the reason Muslims demand that Christians and Jews convert, die, or pay the jizya. It’s why Allah commanded Muslims to kill, torture, flog, behead, stone, and amputate the limbs of other Muslims who leave Islam, criticize Muhammad, or disobey sharia law.
As Muslims devote themselves to carrying out Allah’s commands to change others, they remain oblivious to the need to change themselves. Even the most heinous crimes they commit are never their fault, but something they blame on their victims. Look what you made me do! is a frequently heard expression in Islamic society It is very common for Muslims to blame women for being raped. They say things like She was not properly dressed, She wore perfume, She was not wearing Islamic clothes, or She allowed herself to be alone with me.
Muhammad himself set the example of blaming others instead of taking responsibility. For example, when Jews refused to convert to Islam Muhammad beheaded six to nine hundred males of one Jewish tribe. Muhammad and the Koran justify the beheading, blaming it on the wicked Jews. The mere existence of non-Muslims (the kafirs) is offensive to Muslims. No wonder Muslims are constantly complaining about being offended by other religions, cultures, and people whose beliefs are different from theirs. Like Christianity, Islam is a religion that focuses on sins—but in the case of Muslims, it’s the sins of others.
Fearing God vs. Fearing Man
While Christians and Jews try to please God, Muslims are focused on pleasing other human beings. The Bible tells us, “The fear of man bringeth a snare: but whoso putteth his trust in the Lord shall be safe” (Proverbs 29:25). Relations between citizens in the West are less formal and more at ease precisely because the God of the Bible tells us that He is in control; He does not abdicate His power to humans. He warns us against fear of man and depending on other people for approval and self-worth. Being in constant need of people’s validation is not just a sign of insecurity. It is an indication that a person lacks fear of God.
When we are in Christ we are free from people-pleasing, fear of man, rejection, and tyranny. Biblical culture is accepting of those who express their weaknesses, sins, and vulnerability. A society shaped by the Christian Bible does not shame people, or subject them to social ostracism and humiliation.
But because the Islamic God delegated vengeance and punishment of sin to Muslims against others, both Muslims and non-Muslims, Islamic culture cannot help but be a man-fearing and people-pleasing culture. Muslims are forced to become people-pleasers to avoid other Muslims’ wrath, shaming, and cruelty.
Arab culture is more concerned about public honor and appearances than the interior relationship with God. Being offended by the opinion of others can drive Muslims to horrific acts of violence, in which they feel completely justified.
Islamic culture has great respect for power, more than for integrity. Thus even bloodthirsty dictators like Saddam Hussein remain a hero to many Muslims no matter how many they murder and torture. Muslim culture pays the greatest honor to those who have power over other people. Because Muslim culture loves power, it ends up discouraging and punishing those who express their vulnerability or show any of their weaknesses. Those who do are often publicly shamed and humiliated.
This all goes back to how Muhammad arranged the social and legal structure of Islamic society so that Muslims are judge, jury, and executioner of one another.
“Khaf min rabbina” or “Fear God” is a common expression in Muslim society. Muslims express great pride in their devotion to Allah and Muhammad to the extent that whenever the name of Muhammad is mentioned it has to be followed with “Sallalahu ‘alayhi wa sallam” or “May peace be upon him.” Muslims always correct one another if they forget to say that. Muslim respect, devotion, and fear of Allah is exhibited daily in elaborate rituals, symbols, clothing, traditions, and the unified public Islamic prayers often held on street corners.
But behind this image of devotion to Allah one cannot but wonder whom Muslims are really trying to impress: Is it Allah, or is it one another? The truth as I personally felt it after living thirty years as a Muslim in a Muslim society is that Muslims are more terrified of one another than they are concerned about pleasing Allah. The life of a Muslim behind closed doors is totally different from his public life precisely because there is more fear of man than Allah.
During the month of Ramadan, government religious virtue police in countries like Pakistan and Saudi Arabia bring those who break the fast by eating or drinking water to a barbaric public flogging.
In less radical Muslim countries it is not the government that enforces fasting as much as it is the family, co-workers, and even strangers on the street—who will shame or in some extreme cases assault those who don’t fast. The extreme social pressure to fast during Ramadan is felt everywhere. The poor Christians in Egypt have learned the hard way to never eat or drink in public during Ramadan. Even U.S. troops stationed in Muslim countries are lectured on not eating in public during the month of Ramadan.5
Muslims feel justified in taking offense when others do not comply with Islamic sensibilities. Even in the West, Muslim taxi drivers reject customers carrying alcohol or dogs. Muslims seeking food from food banks are offended by the cans of pork ’n beans on the shelves. Muslim cashiers refuse to touch pork and alcohol products at the cash register.
And the pressure they bring to bear on their fellow Muslims is relentless. You don’t have to go to areas controlled by ISIS, Al Qaeda, or the Muslim Brotherhood to see and feel the pressure that Muslims exert on one another to comply with sharia law. The reason for the extreme fear of the judgment of others is precisely that sharia law assigns the Muslim public the authority to enforce its severe and degrading punishments on those who do not fully comply or cooperate. Islamic law allows vigilante street justice, severe violence for non-compliance with Islamic morality.
When Allah seems to have abdicated prerogatives and made the average Muslim judge, jury, and executioner on his behalf, Muslims were given permission to do his vengeance right here on Earth; fear of God in Muslim society was transferred to fear of fellow man.
Muslims have developed elaborate traditions of maintaining appearances before others, traditions of appeasement and respect, especially to those with any degree of authority. There are many images of Saddam Hussein showing that even his military leaders would kiss his hand in public. Such elaborate appeasement rituals have developed over the centuries to allow Muslims to cope with the wrath and judgment of the people around them and live in relative privacy and peace.
It is not only political leaders who are honored in these rituals of respect for man. I remember as a child seeing my grandfather and grandmother’s hands being kissed by the peasants who rented their agricultural land. Every quarter, they came to pay their rent, and as they entered the house my grandparents would pull their hands back, not wanting them to be kissed, even though that was the expected greeting to the landowner.
Such a culture of fear and appeasement of fellow man reflects the power of people over one another in the Islamic world. Islam has produced a culture of slaves and masters. Muslims do not live at ease with one another, except when they are brought together as a minority in the West. Then the dynamics change, and they start relating to one another as allies against the Bible-based culture of the West. As the Arab proverb says, “My brother and I against our cousin, and my cousin and I against the stranger.”