Is American Christianity Capitulating to Islam?

By Wayne Bley | November 17, 2015

Wayne Bley

Since 9/11 there have been over 20,000 terrorist attacks around the world.1 In addition, many hundreds of attacks have been interdicted in the planning phase or were found and cleared after being emplaced but before they could be activated. The number of Christians in Iraq has decreased from over 1.5 million before the 1991 Iraq war to less than 400,000 today, and the number is rapidly decreasing.2 Why? Is there a common denominator? Yes, Islam itself and Shari’ah Law.

What Is Islam?

Contrary to what we hear in the news and most of what is defended by politicians and religious leaders, Islam is not primarily a religion. Yes, there is a part of Islam that should be defined as a religion. However, it is estimated that only fifteen percent of Islam’s principle writings relate to the religious aspects of Islam or man’s relationship to Allah, while eighty-five percent relate to man’s political and interpersonal relations with other men (Muslims and non-Muslims). Those writings include the following:

    • Qur’an—direct uncreated revelation
    • Tafsïr—commentary on the Qur’an
    • Sïrah Rasül Alläh—usual habits and practices of Muhammad or the biography of the Messenger
    • Hadith—narration on the words and deeds of Muhammad
    • Shari’ah jurisprudence—law of all Islamic lands
  • Shari’ah policy—government policy in accordance with the goals and objectives of Shari’ah that in its widest sense applies to all government policies

A common proverb among the many ethnic communities of the Middle East, Asia, North Africa, and the entire world of Islam provides insight into this phenomenon:

    • Me against my brother.
    • Me and my brother against my family.
    • Me and my family against the clan.
    • Me and my clan against the tribe.
    • Me and my tribe against the nation.
    • Me and my sect against the hypocrite and the apostate.
    • Me and the Ummah against America, the West, and all the infidels.

The Ummah is the global community of Muslims, regardless of where they live. For a Muslim, the concept of community first relates to Islam. That is, a Muslim’s first allegiance is to Islam and the Ummah. This means that for a Muslim, allegiance to Islam comes before allegiance to the country in which he lives, unless the country is an Islamic country governed by Shari’ah Law. Thus as a matter of definition, we must understand that:

    • Islam is not just a religion, but a “complete way of life governed by Islamic Law (Shari’ah)” and
    • Islam is a political, economic, military, social, cultural, family, and religious system where theology is subordinate to the requirement to adhere to the Shari’ah.

The significance of this is captured in the constitutions of many of the Muslim majority countries. Within the first few phrases of these constitutions (e.g., Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Yemen, Iraq, and Afghanistan) there are phrases such as, “Islam is the official religion of the State, and it is a basic source of legislation,” and, “No law can be passed that contradicts the undisputed rules of Islam,”3 or “Islamic Shari’ah is the source of all legislation.”4 From the perspective of Islamic constitutional law, the inclusion of these statements at the very beginning of these documents cements the primacy of settled Islamic Shari’ah Law over all other articles of the constitution. Thus, when we read these documents it is prudent to add the phrase “as defined in and not in contradiction to Shari’ah Law” to the end of each subsequent sentence. What is of great significance in this discussion is that the US government led in the writing and approved the constitutions of Iraq and Afghanistan.5

During the writing and subsequent approval process of the constitutions for Iraq and Afghanistan, the US established Shari’ah as the law of the land for these countries. This legal structure includes a unique and very different set of definitions for human rights. The US Bill of Rights is entirely unacceptable for a Muslim as a matter of legal and doctrinal precept within Islam. At the core, the US Bill of Rights and the UN Declaration of Human Rights are fundamentally incompatible with Muslim philosophy. In 1985 this conclusion was formally presented to the UN by Sa’id Raja’i-Khorassani, the permanent delegate to the United Nations from the Islamic Republic of Iran. He declared that, according to Amir Taheri, “The very concept of human rights was ‘a Judeo-Christian invention’ and inadmissible in Islam.”6 The reason? The Bible is the source text for the 1948 UN Declaration of Human Rights, and, according to Islam, the Bible is a corrupted text that has been completely abrogated by the Qur’an.

Who Is Muhammad?

Another common theme we hear is that Muhammad was primarily a religious leader. However, a brief look at his biography reveals a more significant responsibility. Muhammad’s life was divided into two distinct periods and sets of activities: the pre-hijra (emigration) years in Mecca (from AD 570 to 622) and the post-hijra years in Medina (from 622 until 632). The capstone event in Muhammad’s life was the hajj, or his pilgrimage to Mecca (AD 631). During the Meccan period Muhammad struggled for acceptance. During the Medinan period, Muhammad personally led twenty-seven raids and authorized thirty-eight other major battles, many lesser raids, assassinations, and executions.

Why is this bit of ancient history of importance today? For a Muslim, the perfect example is Muhammad in all of his words, actions, and deeds. While Muhammad is not worshiped, he is to be obeyed:

O ye who believe! Obey Allah, and obey the Messenger, and those charged with authority among you. If ye differ in anything among yourselves, refer it to Allah and His Messenger, if ye do believe in Allah and the Last Day: That is best, and most suitable for final determination.7

For a Muslim, strict obedience to the Qur’an, the Tafsïr, the Sïrah Rasül Alläh, and the Hadith means to, as literally as possible, live after the example of Muhammad, down to the smallest details, and this dictates the Conventions of War8;)) in Islam, which are vastly different from what we know as the Geneva Conventions.9 An understanding of this reality casts a different light on the current events in the Islamic world. Those actions, which seem so foreign to twenty-first-century Westerners, are normal for a Muslim who follows Muhammad faithfully.

What Is the Islamic Strategy? How Is Islam Organized?

Fundamental to understanding Islam is the concept of the Ummah. From a Muslim perspective every human being is a Muslim at birth and thus a member of the Ummah, even though the person may not realize this. Thus, in Islamic terms, the unaware “reverts” to Islam when he converts to Islam.

In the United States there are hundreds of Muslim organizations focused on permanently changing America into a country ruled by Islamic Shari’ah. One example of this stated objective is outlined in the Islamic Circle of North America’s (ICNA) “member handbook,” published in April 2010. ICNA is now openly calling for a Worldwide Caliphate—the imposition of Shari’ah Law on not only America but the entire world. The handbook clearly spells out the association’s ultimate goal—establishment of Islam as the sole basis of global society and governance. The group has specifically set its sights on America. In conjunction with ICNA, the Pakistani Minister of State Ayatullah Durrani has stated the desire to see the Caliph (Islam’s ultimate ruler who will oversee worldwide political, military, and spiritual affairs leading to the forceful world conversion to Islamic Law) to be consecrated at none other than Ground Zero. The Ground Zero mosque, if built, will be the headquarters for the Cordoba Initiative.

Why the Cordoba Initiative? Because for Muslims, Cordoba, Spain, represents a high point and a low point in Islamic history. In ad 712 Muslims conquered Cordoba and built what would become the third largest mosque in the world where there had been a church. In 1236 King Ferdinand III reconquered Cordoba, and the mosque was then converted into a cathedral. For Muslims Cordoba is a rallying point in their process of retaking the world for Islam and Muhammad. Placing a mosque at Ground Zero is a means to affirm their triumph over America, the infidel.

The mosque is the focal point of all things Islamic. Based on Islamic doctrine and history, the mosque may be the diplomatic center, political center, financial center, military center and armory, community center, and educational or propagation center for each community of Muslims. Each Muslim community has responsibility to engage in Dawa,10 the propagation of Islam in order to bring the whole world under the authority and governance of Islam. This objective is captured in the following Muslim Brotherhood statements.

    • “It is the nature of Islam to dominate, not to be dominated, to impose its law on all nations and to extend its power to the entire planet.”11
    • The Creed of the Muslim Brotherhood: “Allah is our goal; the Messenger is our guide: the Qur’an is our law; Jihad is our means; and martyrdom in the way of Allah is our inspiration.”
    • The Key Pillars of the Muslim Brotherhood are, “1) The introduction of the Islamic Shari’ah as the basis controlling the affairs of state and society. 2) Work to achieve unification among the Islamic countries and states, mainly among the Arab states, and liberating them from foreign imperialism.”
    • The Objective of the Muslim Brotherhood in the US is, “The Ikhwan [Muslim brotherhood] must understand that their work in America is a kind of grand jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western Civilization from within and ‘sabotaging’ its miserable house by their hands and the hands of the believers so that it is eliminated and God’s religion is made victorious over all other religions.”

The Project and the Explanatory Memorandum on the General Strategic Goal for the Group in North America (here and here) provide a clear picture of the extensive nature of the Islamic network in the United States and the finer points of their strategy.

Globally, the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) acts as Islamic equivalent of the United Nations. The fifty-seven states that belong to the OIC along with the members of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) (with over 120 members, of which fifty-six are also members of the OIC) act as a bloc in the UN and its Commissions to enforce Muslim sensitivities. An example of the power of this bloc was demonstrated in September 2010 when Canada’s quest for a rotating seat on the UN Security Council was denied in the UN General Assembly because of Canada’s continued support of Israel.12 The OIC led the charge with many members of the NAM providing the needed margin. The OIC and the Muslim Brotherhood are inseparable.

One of the more significant purposes of the OIC is to function as “the collective voice of the Muslim world and . . . to safeguard and protect the interests of the Muslim world.”13 In additional OIC postings it becomes clear that this includes Muslims who live in non-Muslim majority nations, such as the United States. Americans are thus faced with a conflict as it relates to our willingness to determine whether we really believe Article VI of the Constitution:

This Constitution, and the laws of the United States which shall be made in pursuance thereof; and all treaties made, or which shall be made, under the authority of the United States, shall be the supreme law of the land; and the judges in every state shall be bound thereby, anything in the Constitution or laws of any State to the contrary notwithstanding.

The question we must ask relates to which law is to be the law of this land? Is it the US Constitution or Shari’ah Law? You may have heard the term “Creeping Shari’ah.” Among the more recent examples of this process is the example of the employees of the Payne County Bank in Oklahoma being required by the Federal Reserve to remove buttons that say “Merry Christmas, God with Us” and the bank being required to remove the daily Bible verse because of Islamic sensitivities.14 Creeping Shari’ah is the means to accomplish the objectives identified previously.

What Should Our Response Be?

Muslims are busily at work to bring the US under the authority of Islam to include the imposition of Shari’ah Law as the Law of the Land. The Muslim community has a creed, a defined set of principles, a plan of action, and a methodology; more importantly, they are energized and are being successful.

What about the Christian community and, in particular, Fundamental Baptists? What are the consequences for individual Christians, local church pastors, and local churches? Is there reason to be fearful? Yes, if we do not take to heart the principles of Acts 1:8. Additionally, to infuse this argument with a bit of strategic wisdom, we must decide where we stand in this spiritual and cultural battle:

If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.15

There are two principle reasons as to why Christianity, individual Christians, pastors, and local churches are capitulating to Islam. First, there is a refusal to get to know the tenets of the enemy at the original source level and, second, there is a practical lack of confidence in the power the Lord has given us to be successful in this spiritual battle.

Wayne A. Bley is a retired Navy chaplain who has been working in the National Security arena since 9/11, focusing on the issue of Islam as a threat to the US interests domestically and internationally. Currently he is supporting the Department of Defense. He is available at to provide seminars on this topic.

(Originally published in FrontLine • March/April 2011. Click here to subscribe to the magazine.)

  1. Editor’s Note: Links provided in this article were current at the time of original publication. For reference, see here, here, here, and here. [↩]
  2. “Christians on the verge of extinction,”  “Iraq Christian Exodus,” Barnabas Fund – Iraq [↩]
  3. Iraq constition [↩]
  4. Yemen constitution [↩]
  5. See here, et. al. [↩]
  6. Robert Spenser, “Khomeini in Dearborn,” FrontPageMagazine .com, 17 November 2004 [↩]
  7. Qur’an 4:59. [↩]
  8. See urer' [↩]
  9. See here [↩]
  10. See Methodology of Dawa by Shammim A. Siddiqi for additional details. [↩]
  11. Hasan al-Banna, founder of the Muslim Brotherhood. [↩]
  12. See here. [↩]
  13. See here. [↩]
  14. See herehere. [↩]
  15. Source. [↩]
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