Professional Documents
Culture Documents
M S M Saifullah
© Islamic Awareness, All Rights Reserved.
Introduction
The Christian missionary efforts in preaching the Gospel are hardly worthy of
emulation. Ever since the appearance of Islam on the world stage and the first sighting
of tribes (or natives) of the New World, the crusade to convert the whole world to
Christianity was accompanied by the unholy means of deception, exploitation and
persecution.
In this document, we will be concerned with the deceptive tactics and exploitation
used by the Christian missionaries when it came to preaching the 'gospel' to Muslims
or the indigenous people. The detailed study of the issues like persecution of the
indigenous tribal people can be found in specialized books on cultural anthropology
which the reader can refer to in the libraries.
Before reading the below quotes, let have a look at the lecture by Shaykh Salmân al-
Awdah talking about Christian Missionaries Sweeping the Islamic World. This
lecture by the Shaykh deals with various deceptive tactics used by the Christian
missionaries to convert unsuspecting and ignorant Muslims to Christianity. The
deceptive tactics of the missionaries include misquoting of the Islamic sources,
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building churches that look similar to mosques, doing Christian ceremonies on
Fridays purposefully and not on Sundays, and use of natural disasters to forcefully
convert poor and helpless.
In order to verify who exactly is paranoid, we refer to a book called Islam And
Christian Witness by Martin Goldsmith, who lectures at All Nations Christian
College. This book was given to us a few years ago. It was published by OM
Publishing, Carlisle, UK. In a gist, this book is all about how to convert Muslims to
Christianity in the Islamic world using the deceptive ways exactly as mentioned by
Shaykh Salmân al-Awdah in his lecture.
Without beating around the bush let us quote a few paragraphs from the chapter "How
To Witness". Let us start with the Prayer.
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directed his prayers with his face towards Jerusalem;
should the Muslim convert follow the example of Daniel?[4]
There are a few interesting ideas about the way a Mosque should be modeled
In the conclusion of the chapter "The Muslim Convert" the author states:
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of Islam while adding in their hearts a new spiritual
dimension based on a person and work of Jesus Christ.[9]
And with regards to wolf dressed in sheep's skin, the author states
In other words, the ideas of deception are in fact coming straight from the horse's
mouth and then put into practice by his fellow-men. The Shaykh did not invent the
statements and neither did other Muslims.
We should also emphasize that this deception was not an "original" idea of Martin
Goldsmith. Arthur French, a Christian missionary, wrote about the methodology of
"Christianizing" Muslims in India some 80 years ago using a similar deception. He
said:
Dr. cAbdullâh Hâkim Quick writing in the magazine The Message on his recent trip to
East Africa says:
An example of open deception on the WWW can be found here where one can find
"suggestions" for using the Qur'ân in the Muslim Convert Church. Interestingly,
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Christian missionaries talk about being guided by Holy Spirit. Whether it is the God
or Devil of Deception is anybody's conclusion!
To misrepresent another religion for fear of people converting is one thing, but to do
so to one's own in the hope of gaining converts is another. Christian missionaries,
unable to convince the Panare Indians of the Colorado valley to accept faith in Jesus
Christ took to compiling books for the natives to read in their mother tongue, this was
accomplished during 1975 and 1976.[12] The compiling of the books presented certain
linguistic problems, solved in the end in a very cunning fashion.
The problems arose because there are no equivalents in Panare for many words held
as basic to the concept of the Christian religion. There are none, for example, for sin,
guilt, punishment and redemption. Since Panare tribe lived as an isolated society in
the forests for thousands of years, it is impossible to have famines, plagues were
unrecorded and the wars that shaped our history were reduced to a ceremonial
skirmish. The biblical dramas, therefore, were hardly more than shadow plays.[13]
It was soon realized, however, that before the Indians could be made to accept
repentance and salvation - both equally obscure concepts to the Panare - one had to
give them something to feel guilty about. The missionaries came up with an
ingenious, yet underhand, solution - translate and re-edit the New Testament in such a
way so as to implicate the Panare Indians in Jesus' death! Gone from the Bible were
Judas's betrayal, the Romans, the trial, and Pontius Pilate. The text now read at the
appropriate places:
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It is clear that if this could create the feelings of guilt, nothing could. Now there was a
talk of God's vengeance for the dreadful deed. The re-edited New Testament
continued:
It is a huge fire.
.....
God is good.
One does not have to think hard in order to realize what payment was being
demanded; namely, unquestioning submission to the missionaries' demands, the
abandonment of their traditional lives and their customs, and the acceptance of
Christianity. The Indians were terrified. The first Indian woman came forward and
said:
It seems it was a common practice among the Christian missionaries to accuse Indians
of killing the Christ.
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From the present discussion, it would seem that the Bible will be 'translated' for the
benefit of winning the souls even if it requires gross deception and misrepresentation
of the scripture itself.
In the Gospel according to John, chapter six, Jesus(P) is reported to have said: "I am the
bread of life." In the time of Jesus(P) at least, and probably even today in the Middle
East, bread is the "staple of life", it is essential and it is available even to the poor. It is
a 'relatively cheap' food. If the Bible translators would translate something like that
into the tribal languages of Papua New Guinea literally, what would these people
think? In these countries, 'bread' is something only the rich can afford. If they read "I
am the bread of life," they would immediately think "Oh, Jesus is not for me, I can't
afford to become a Christian... " and this would mean a complete miscommunication.
In Papua New Guinea the staple food is sweet-potato. And therefore this verse would
be best translated by the missionary standards as "I am the sweet-potato of life" as
well as communion/eucharist is celebrated with sweet-potato instead of bread. This
way the meaning would be "preserved" and convey what Jesus(P) "meant" albeit the
original text is re-edited. It is available for all, it is life essential, since for those
people a meal without sweet-potato is not a complete meal. Perhaps for the Chinese,
Jesus(P) would be the "rice of life". And to win the souls of some Russian drunks, a
translation of Jesus(P) being the "vodka of life" would be perfect!
This explains many of the problems within Christianity; they can't make up their mind
on the translation of their scripture as much as the actual extent of their scripture. And
above all the deception of any kind is exercised to win converts.
In 1795 the London Missionary Society was formed, its immediate attention focused
upon the Pacific; two years later a convict ship bound for Australia put the first
missionaries ashore on Tahiti. It was four years before any of them learned enough of
the local language to be able to preach a sermon to a puzzled though sympathetic
audience. The Tahitians built houses for them, fed them, and provided them with
servants galore, but after seven years not a single convert to Christianity had been
gained. The missionaries opted for a more brutal tactic and gained the upper hand by
helping to reduce the local chief called Pomare to an alcoholic and then offered him
backing in a war against other islands chiefs by supplying firearms (the enemy having
only wooden clubs to defend themselves). But Pomare would be backed in a war
against the other island chiefs on the understanding that:
With their power base firmly established in Tahiti, the missionaries moved swiftly to
the outer islands. The methods they employed were as before. A local chieftain would
be baptised, crowned king, introduced to large quantities of alcohol and left to the
work of converting his own people. Chieftains who put up any form of opposition
were quickly shown the might of the missionary forces. Where no resistance was
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found, a native teacher supported by a half dozen missionary police would take over
an island within a week.[19] What a way to love your neighbour!
Conclusion
The present discussion has dealt with in the deceptive tactics used by the Christian
missionaries to gain converts. The deceptive tactics would involve imitation of the
religious ideas of other faiths, gross mistranslation of the Bible even if it involves
tampering with the 'word' of God and to persecute people to win the souls for Jesus(P).
Commenting on the book of Norman Lewis, The Missionaries: God Against The
Indians, the famous writer Graham Greene said:
Exposing TV Evangelism
But is it only the Muslims who are saying that? Why not check out what the Jews say:
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References
[1] Martin Goldsmith, Islam & Christian Witness, OM Publishing, Carlisle (UK), p.
113.
[5] Ibid.
[12] Norman Lewis, The Missionaries: God Against The Indians, 1988, McGraw-Hill
Publishing Company, p. 208.
[18] Ibid., p. 4.
[19] Ibid., see a detailed discussion on the missionaries' tactics from pp. 4-8.
[20] Ibid., see the review on the back flap of the book.
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