The Islamic Antichrist (3 page)

WHY THIS BOOK?
WAKING UP TO THE ISLAMIC REVIVAL

“
Blow the trumpet in Zion; sound the alarm on my holy hill. Let all who
live in the land tremble, for the day of the LORD is coming. It is close at
hand—a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and blackness. Like
dawn spreading across the mountains a large and mighty army comes, such
as never was of old nor ever will be in ages to come
.”

—Joel 2:1–2

I
n the days in which we are now living
, I believe that there are a handful of issues that God is trying to highlight to the West and specifically to the Western Christian church. Yet sadly, even among those few who seem to hear the trumpet blasts from heaven, there are even fewer who seem to discern what they mean. The signs are now emblazoned across the front page almost daily, yet few seem to understand where these signs are pointing. It is my hope that this book will contribute to opening the eyes of many to the times quickly approaching. Beyond this, my prayer is that this book will add understanding to those whose spirits are already both watchful and discerning.

MORE END-TIMES NONSENSE?

Before we begin, we need to identify what type of attitude yours is toward the study of eschatology, that is, end times issues. If you are someone who is cynical regarding this type of
study, then I want to ask you to do something before you continue. I want you to read the appendix first. The appendix explains why I believe that eschatology is a necessary aspect of the normative Christian life. If you are unsure of the necessity of fully embracing biblical eschatology, please read the appendix first and then come back here. If you are already interested in the study of eschatology, then please proceed from this point.

THE PREVAILING IGNORANCE

This book is first and foremost a study of Islamic eschatology (end-time belief) and those specific Islamic doctrines and practices that seem to correlate—in quite an astonishing way—to the biblical descriptions and prophecies of the last days. As a result, I find myself presented with the interesting challenge of introducing much of my readership to more than one subject about which most people are largely uninformed. Certainly most people have some vague ideas about what the Bible says about the “last days”—the difficult times that will encompass the earth, the plagues, the ecological disasters, the eventual return of Jesus. But even many Christians—those who read the Bible regularly—are not exactly sure what they believe about many of the specifics of the last days. And if it can be said that ignorance of biblical eschatology is common, then consider how many people—particularly in the West—have any knowledge at all of what Islam teaches about the last days.

Some Christians are aware of the fact that in Islam, as in Christianity, there is an expectation that Jesus will return to the earth from heaven. This excites most Christians, who see this as an opportunity to build bridges of dialogue between Christians and Muslims. Indeed, the return of Jesus can be a good starting point for such interfaith dialogue. Unfortunately, though, beyond this one point, most Christians generally understand very little about the Islamic end-time perspective, or Jesus’ return, or indeed the nature of who the “Islamic Jesus” really is. Certainly many Christians who
live or minister among Muslims have some understanding of these issues, but this understanding certainly has not been conveyed to the church on a broader scale. It is time to release this startling information to the non-Muslim world. This book represents the first comprehensive popular study of Islamic eschatology as it relates to biblical eschatology. But beyond a mere academic or theological study, this book is also a wake-up call. It is a call for many to realize the degree to which the future of the Christian church—indeed, the future of the entire world—and the future of Islam are divinely and directly interconnected.

Through this study, which presents an introductory overview of both biblical and Islamic eschatology, a much clearer picture of the future will emerge. The overlapping of beliefs in the two systems, and the ways that Islamic eschatology reinforces Christian eschatology, are astonishing and downright eerie. I believe that this study will help the reader gain significant insight into the nature of the last days and help many to begin to see and understand the direction in which the world is heading at ever-increasing speeds. This leads us to the most obvious reason to take notice of Islam: its dramatic and rapid growth and present worldwide revival.

THE ISLAMIC REVIVAL

The clearest reason to study and understand Islam, and specifically Islamic eschatology, is quite simply because Islam is the future. Yes, you read that correctly: Islam
is
the future. If present trends do not change
dramatically
, Islam will bypass Christianity for the title of the world’s largest religion very shortly. In fact, according to most statistics, this may take place in less than twenty years. A majority who read this book will live to see this. Islam is the fastest-growing religion in the world, growing at a rate four times faster than Christianity.
¹
Presently, those who practice Islam make up approximately one-fifth of the world’s population. After reviewing the statistics, one seasoned Bible teacher from England recently
commented, “If present trends continue, half of all global births will be in Muslim families by the year 2055.”
²
Something dramatic and revolutionary is happening right before our eyes, and most Western Christians are oblivious to it. The purpose of this chapter is to inform the reader about the rapid growth of Islam. The picture I am about to paint may surprise some people. Some may be confused. Some may even deny it, but it is the truth and it needs to be told. Even by itself, the spread of Islam is a powerful wake-up call to all Christians.

Islam is the fasting growing religion, not only in the world, but also in the United States, Canada, and Europe.
³
The annual growth rate of Islam in the U.S. is approximately 4 percent, but there are strong reasons to believe that it may have risen to as high as 8 percent over the past few years. Every year, tens of thousands of Americans convert to Islam. Prior to 2001 most reports have the number at roughly twenty-five thousand American converts to Islam per year.
⁴
This may not sound like much, but this yearly figure, according to some Muslim American clerics, has
quadrupled
since 9/11.
⁵
That’s right: since 9/11 the number of American converts to Islam has skyrocketed. As early as one month after the World Trade Center attacks, the reports began flowing in from mosques all over America. Ala Bayumi, the director of Arab affairs at the Council for American Islamic Relations (CAIR), on November 11, 2001, in the London daily newspaper
Al-Hayat
said this:

Non-Muslim Americans are now interested in getting to know Islam. There are a number of signs… Libraries have run out of books on Islam… English translations of the Qur’an head the American bestseller list… The Americans are showing increasing willingness to convert to Islam since September 11… Thousands of non-Muslim Americans have responded to invitations to visit mosques, resembling the waves of the sea crashing on the shore one after another…
⁶

After testifying to the dramatic strides that Islam had made as a result of the 9/11 attacks, Bayumi went on to say that:

Proselytizing in the name of Allah has not been undermined, and has not been set back fifty years, as we thought in the first days after September 11. On the contrary, the eleven days that have passed are like eleven years in the history of proselytizing in the name of Allah.
⁷

In an article from the British newspaper the
Times of London
, January 7, 2002, just four months after 9/11, we read:

There is compelling anecdotal evidence of a surge in conversions to Islam since September 11, not just in Britain, but across Europe and America. One Dutch Islamic centre claims a tenfold increase, while the New Muslims Project, based in Leicester [England], and run by a former Irish Roman Catholic housewife, reports a “steady stream” of new converts.
⁸

I recently asked a Muslim acquaintance how many Americans he had witnessed converting to Islam in just the past year. He explained that he has personally participated in at least one hundred conversion ceremonies in the past year alone. I have similarly asked dozens of American Muslims if they have witnessed a dramatic increase in conversions to Islam since 9/11, and the answer every time has been a resounding yes. Newer official data is difficult to come by and analyze for more than one reason. First of all, very few comprehensive studies have been done since 9/11; most studies seem to have been done just prior to 2001. Also, since 9/11, many American Muslims are very hesitant to give information away to pollsters who come to the mosques. There is a widespread suspicion among the Muslim community that pollsters are gathering information for the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) or the FBI. Most converts wish to remain relatively anonymous. But in my own personal, albeit anecdotal, experience, I have talked to many American converts to Islam who have converted since 9/11.

But here’s the other sad aspect of these figures: Over 80 percent of these American converts to Islam were raised in Christian churches.
⁹
If the higher figures of conversion are
accurate, that would mean that as many as sixty thousand Americans raised in Christian homes convert to Islam annually. I have one acquaintance who, although he was a pastor’s son raised in a deeply religious and traditional Christian family, nevertheless converted to Islam in college. I have read numerous testimonies of bishops, priests, missionaries, and divinity students, not to mention members of the Christian laity, who have converted to Islam. Among them are even self-described former “spirit-filled Christians.” If you are a Christian, you may object that this is impossible. If this is the case, you might ask, then why aren’t these statistics more widely known? You may be wondering why you do not personally know anyone who has converted. There are easy answers to these questions. One of the primary reasons that these trends have gone largely unnoticed is that most American Muslims are concentrated in the larger metropolitan centers. The greater Chicago metropolitan area for instance is home to well over 350,000 Muslims. Greater New York City has twice that number with over seven hundred thousand Muslims.
¹⁰
The other important statistic that sheds light on why this issue isn’t more commonly discussed in many white American churches is that 85 percent of American converts to Islam are African American. White Christian America has not been as impacted by this phenomenon nearly as much as black Christian America has. Islam is absolutely sweeping through the inner cities, a very sad commentary on the discontinuity and disunity of the American church. One Muslim authority estimates that by the year 2020 most American urban centers will be predominantly Muslim.
¹¹
But as the number of conversions increases, the face of the Muslim convert is changing as well. Shortly after 9/11, National Public Radio did a special on Islam and those who had converted after 9/11:

One of the most important topics [in an NPR broadcast] was an interview with several young women at American universities who recently converted to Islam through the Islamic Society of Boston. They hold advanced degrees from universities in Boston, such as Harvard, and they spoke of the power and the greatness of Islam, of the elevated status of women in Islam, and of why they converted to Islam. The program was broadcast several times across the entire U.S. …
¹²

From an article in the
New York Times
, October 22, 2001, we read a portion of Jim Hacking’s story:

Nine years ago, Jim Hacking was in training to be a Jesuit priest. Now, he is an admiralty lawyer in St. Louis who has spent much of the last month explaining Islam at interfaith gatherings… He made the
Shahadah
[Muslim conversion ceremony] on June 6, 1998. “
The thing I’ve always latched to is that there’s one God, he doesn’t have equals, he doesn’t need a son to come do his work
.”
¹³
(emphasis mine)

A typical testimony of a former Christian convert reads:

As a child, Jennifer Harrell attended church and Sunday school. In high school, she was on the drill team and dated a football player. After college, she became a Methodist youth minister. At age 23, she became a single parent. At age 26, she became a Muslim. “I grew up in Plano doing all the things I thought I was supposed to do,” said Ms. Harrell, 29, of Dallas. “I went to church. I went to parties. But I wasn’t concerned about heaven or hell. I took it all for granted.” Eventually, she took a job in sales, where she was introduced to Islam by Muslim co-workers. One of them loved to debate religion, which stirred Ms. Harrell to rethink her Christian faith. She studied the Bible, but also Islam, in order to do a better job of defending her faith. Instead, she became intrigued that Muslims prayed five times a day, fasted, and gave alms as a way of life. “I wasn’t the type of Christian who prayed every morning,” she said. She said Muslim beliefs about Jesus made more sense to her because they revere him as a prophet and not God’s son. “When I was a Christian, I never understood why Jesus had to die for my sins,” Ms. Harrell said. “I mean, they’re my sins.” Before becoming a Muslim, she visited a Christian minister. She said she asked why Christians ate pork, why women didn’t cover their heads in church, and why Christians dated. “I wanted him to defend the Bible,” she said. “I gave him everything that I had found wrong with Christian interpretation.” His answers didn’t satisfy her.
¹⁴