From: abbasi@ecs.umass.edu
Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian
Subject: desert storm. hasit ended?
Date: 11 Apr 92 06:31:51 GMT

[This posting arrived in upper case only.  The author says that he is
unable to enter text in the correct case.  For readability I have
turned it into lowercase only.  Unfortunately I don't have any
automatic way to supply correct capitalization, and it's long enough
that I don't have time to do it manually.  --clh]

 christ in islam by ahmed deedat

	once more the plans of a dictator have been dashed - dashed in the 
desert sand with the loss of hundred of thousands of lives.  desert storm will 
be remembered, by those involved, for years to come. but it is not the first 
desert storm.  a strom has been raging in the desert for more than 2000 years
over a man called jesus (peace be upon him) and his mission.  disputes 
concerning the nature of christ have delidged the earth with the blood of 
millions of people sonce his birth(mathew 2:16). what then is the muslim stand
point regarding the personality of the prince of peace-jesus.


			chapter 1
			---------

		christian muslim responses
		--------------------------

	debate on tv
	------------

at the end of the debate- "christianity and islam"- which appeared on the 
sabc-tv programme "cross(+) questions" on sunday 5th june 1983(1), the chairman,
mr.bill chalmers commented.
	"i think it can be said said from this discussion that there is, at 
present, somewhat more accomodation on the islamic side for the founder of
christianity then ther is on the christian side for the founder of islam. what
the significance of that is, we leave it to you, the viewer, to determine, but 
i do think you will agree that we are talkin together."
 "bill" as eh is probably addressed, without any formalities, on all his 
programmes, by all his panelists, is extremely charming and stupendous in his 
humility.  he is the picture of what the holy qor'an portrays of a good 
christian :

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.  if you missed the program or wish to review it again, we will gladly send
you a vhs video tape on loan, please phone the, "centre" for details. regret,
this offer applies to south africa only.

                                1


"......and nearest                       
 among them in love  		    				

to the believers
wil't thou find

those who say,
"we are christians"(1):

because 
among these 
are men devoted to learning

and men
who have renounced the world

and they are
not arrogant."

                  the holy qur'an 5:85 

 	jesus- his status
	-----------------

were the muslims on the panel, trying to placate the viewers out of policy, 
deceit or diplomacy? nothing of the kind! they were omly articulating what
god almightyhad commanded them to sayin so many words- "we mulims beleive
, that jesus was one of the mightiest messengers of god, that he was the 
christ, that heale intervention ( which many modern day christians do not 
beleive today), that he gave life to the dead by god's permission, in fact  
and that he healed those born blind and the leppers nby god's permission.
in fact no muslim is a muslim if he does not beleive in jesus!".

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

1.   "christians", the meaning is not that they call themselves christians, but
that they are such sincere christians that they appreciate ,muslim virtues. they
would say:"it is true we are christians, but we understand your point of view, 
and we know you are good men." thay are muslims at heart, whatever their label
may be.

 

		pleasant surprise
		-----------------

over 90% of the people who witnessed the debate must have been pleasantly.
but sceptically, surprised. thay might have not beleived their ears.  they 
might have surmised that the mulims were playing to the galerry- that they
were trying to curry favour with their fellow christian countrymen; that if 
the muslims would say a few good words about jesus, then in reciprocation 
the christians might say a few good words about muhummed(may the peace and
blessings of god be upon all his righteous servants- moses, jesus, muhummed
e.t.c); that i scratch your back and you scratch my back- which would be a 
sham or hypocrisy.

		hate cultivated
		---------------

we cannot blame the christians for their skepticism. thay have been so 
programmed for centuries. they were trained to think the worst of the man 
muhummed(pbuh) and his religion. how aptly did thomas carlisle say his 
christian brethren over a hundred and fifty years ago-"the lies which well-
meaning zeal has heaped round this man (muhummed) are disgracefulto ourselves 
only." we muslims are partly responsible for this stagerring ignorance of the 
1,200,000,000 christians of the world. we have not done anything substantial
to remove the cobwems.

		ocean of christianity
		---------------------

south africa is an ocean of christianiaty. if libya boasts the highest 
percentage of muslims on the continent of africa, then the republic of south
africa would also be entitled to boast the highest percentage of christians.
in this ocean of chrstianity - the r.s.a- the muslim is baely 2% of the total 
population. we are a voteless minority - numerically we count for nothing;
politicaly, we count for nothing; and economically, one white man as 
oppenheimer, could buy out the whole lot of us, lock, stock and barrel.
	so f we had feigned to appease, we might be excused. but no! we must 
proclaim our master's will; we must declare the truth, whether we liked it or
not. in the words of jesus (pbuh): "seek ye the truth, and the truth shall set 
you free"-
(john 8:32).

 		jesus in the quran
		------------------

	christians unaware
	------------------

the christian does not know that the true spirit of charity the that the muslim 
displays, always, always towards jesus and is mother mary spring from the
fountainhead of his faith - the holy quran . he does not know that the muslim 
does not takethe holy name of jesus, in his own language, wihout saying hazrat e
eesa (meaning revered jesus) or eesa alai-hiss-salaam (jesus, peace be upon him)
.	
	every time the muslim mentions the name jesus (pbuh) without tese words
of respect, he would be considered disrespectful, uncouth or barbaric.  the 
christian does not know that in the holy qur'an jesus(pbuh)is mentioned by name
fiev times (5*) more than the number of times the prophet of islam is mentioned
in the book of god.  to be exact- twenty five times as against five. for 
example:

...we gave jesus the
son of mary

clear signs and
strenghtened him
with the holy spirit.

 			holy quran 2:87

..."o mary! god 
giveth thee glad
tidings of a word
from him:

his name will be
christ jesus, the
son of mary.....

			holy quran 3:45

"...christ jesus
the son of mary 

was (no mare 
than) an apostle 
of god....

			holy quran 4:171

...and in their ( the 
previous')
footseps we sent
jesus the son of mary...

			holy quran 5:49

and zakariya and 
john and jesus
and elias:

all in the ranks of
the righteous:

			holy quran 6:85

		jesus-his titles
		----------------

though jesus is mentioned by the name in twenty five places in the holy quran,
he is also addressedwith respect as:"ibne maryam"- son of mary; as masih-heb
(mesiah)- translated as christ: "abd-ullah"-servant of allah; "rasul-ullah" -
messenger of allah.
he is spoken of as the word of god",as "the spirit of god", as a "sign of god",
and numerous other epithets of honourspread over fifteen different chapters. 
the holy quran honours this mighty messenger of god and the muslims have not 
fallen short over the past fourteen hundred years in doing the same, there is 
not a single disparaging remark in the entire quran to which even the most 
jaundiced among the christians can take exception.

	"eesa" latinized to jesus as "eesa", and this name is used more times
than any other title because this was his "christian"(1) name. actually, his 
proper name was "eesa" (arabic), or "esau"(hebrew);classical "yeheshau" which 
the christian nations of the west latinized as jesus. neither the "j" nor the 
second "s" in the name jesus s to be found in the orignal tongue- thay are not 
founs in the semitic languages.

	the word is very simple - "esau" - a very common jewsh name,, used more
than sixty times in the very first booklet alone of the bible, in part called :
"genesis". there was at leastone "jesus" sittnin on the "bench" at the trial of
jesus before the sanhendrin.