Recently, I was at a debate hosted by Winston Marshall in Central London. The topic was “Is Islam compatible with the West?”.
I’ll explain my explanation as to why Islam is not compatible with the West.
Two faiths, two belief systems reveal overlap yet incompatibility
In a nutshell the two constructs of the The West and Islam are built on different faiths: Islam worships Allah as GOD. The West is build principally on the Judeo-Christian value system, with Christianity primarily at its core and the Creator GOD is the same entity for both.
First, let us address the basic difference between the god of Islam and that of the West…
Names of GOD
There are many names for the G-D of the Bible. None of them is Allah.
Elohim. Jehovah. Yaweh. Immanuel. Yeshua. These are a few of the names of the GOD of the Bible. The GOD who sees (Hagar). The provider (Jehovah Raph) are two more…. There are many more. But not Allah.
These two belief systems worship different gods.
Culture
At the core, these are two different religious systems, both with a moral code. There are some overlapping principles such as
– Conservatism: both are fundamentally against abortion, for example.
– Both the Bible and the Koran say sexual practices are meant to be between members of the opposite sex.
– Excess with alcohol is discouraged… although Islam goes further and says alcohol is not allowed (some denominations of churches frown on alcohol too, but that is not ordained by GOD but rather, is a Christian cultural choice).
– the Family is valued as a construct… though Islam allows polygamy whereas Christianity embraces “one wife”
Politics
This name of GOD reveals a definite distinction between the two constructs of Christianity and Islam. The West is built on Judeo-Christian values and although there has been a definite shift (largely through pressure and manipulation of the pre-existing system towards socialism, beginning in the late 19th century, with the Fabian Society (on which much of Labour Party policy and many Labour MPs rests), Alice Bailey, and Cultural Marxism in the UK for example, Judeo-Christianity is still the bedrock on which the entire West was founded centuries ago.
Islam is locked into revenge and aggression whereas Christianity and the West are founded on consequences with forgiveness. “An eye for an eye” in the Koran and the Old Testament has been replaced with “turn the other cheek,” for example. Further even in the Old Testament, the principle of forgiveness was evident time and again as the Israelites pleaded with GOD to forgive their trespasses, which He did repeatedly do.
There are a series of other differences which I will only mention in passing for the sake of brevity
– The view of women as equal v subservient
– Equality v inequality in the sight of the law
– Expectation toward truth telling in Christianity v acceptable to lie to the infidel in Islam
– Regard for the stranger as welcome (and to assimilate into the Western culture) v the stranger in a foreign land, if Islamic, has a duty toward Jihad (to overtake)
– The Western society is based upon love your neighbour as yourself v one the Islamic which is based on suppression and superiority to overtake your neighbour
Both beliefs are Evangelistic
Since both faith systems encourage evangelism and since they are competing rather than complementary systems, this puts the two constructs in opposition to one another.
Conclusion:
Islam is the antithesis of the West
– Christianity centres around GRACE: forgiveness is its benchmark
– in Islam, personally, I see NO GRACE, only punishment and a lack of forgiveness
Islam is therefore, clearly not compatible with the West.