Friday, November 10, 2006

The Prophet and The Messiah

I don't know how to review this book, The Prophet and the Messiah, by Chawkat Moucarry, which is I have not reviewed it before now. The book was written by an Arab Christian who has made a career teaching Muslims and Christians about each other. That such a job is both vitally important and woefully neglected is undeniable. The book was written to reach people the author cannot reach himself.

It is certainly a good book and absolutely worth a read by any Christian, any Christian at all whether he or she engages with Muslims or not. There are too many myths, too much shouting, too much demonizing and burying of truth in our society. Shouting pundits and crying televangelists do nothing to bridge the yawning gap between our faiths and in fact simply make it wider. We American Christians foment hatred and false truths about Muslims just as surely as Middle Eastern Muslims do so about us.

The book is valuable especially to Christians working in evangelism. Moucarry does not begin his discussion by claiming Islam is wrong and its practitioners evil, as so many evangelists do. It's hard to minister to a people you think to be demons, doubly so when you don't understand where the people are coming from. Muslims are justifiably proud of their faith, and any attempt to evangelize to them that starts with "you're wrong and here's why" will cause offense and close ears and minds and hearts, and is a waste for both parties.

Moucarry starts by discussing the differences between Islam and Christianity; this discussion is clearly geared toward a Christian audience and seeks to put to rest the myths Christians tend to hear about Islam. He then goes on to discuss the myths Muslims are taught about Christianity, at some length, and where they come from and why they are myths and, to some degree, how Christians can explain these things to Muslims without offending them. He then goes into specific doctrines of Islam that Christians can question validly, and why similar doctrines of Christianity are defensible against questioning by Muslims. Finally he treats the question of the truth of Islam, of whether there is genuine revelation in the faith and what we might learn from it.

It can be a difficult book to read, especially in the early going when Moucarry cites Islamic false claims about Christianity in one chapter and only in the next chapter gets around to laying out the truth. Reading with an open mind is absolutely vital, and a Bible is a necessary resource. But difficult though it may be, the book is a worthy read and I recommend it highly.

3 comments:

  1. Anonymous15:26

    I was wondering if you were going to review this one. It sounds like I may have to put this on my list. Well not that i have an actual list other than one I carry in my head. Dang you and your reviewing books that make me want to read them.

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  2. Anonymous11:13

    Because of course you don't do the same to me...

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  3. Anonymous15:10

    Speaking of Muslims...

    One thing that struck me as odd in the days after 9/11 was Bush saying "We will not tolerate conspiracy theories [regarding 9/11]". Sure enough there have been some wacky conspiracy theories surrounding the events of that day. The most far-fetched and patently ridiculous one that I've ever heard goes like this: Nineteen hijackers who claimed to be devout Muslims but yet were so un-Muslim as to be getting drunk all the time, doing cocaine and frequenting strip clubs decided to hijack four airliners and fly them into buildings in the northeastern U.S., the area of the country that is the most thick with fighter bases. After leaving a Koran on a barstool at a strip bar after getting shitfaced drunk on the night before, then writing a suicide note/inspirational letter that sounded like it was written by someone with next to no knowledge of Islam, they went to bed and got up the next morning hung over and carried out their devious plan. Nevermind the fact that of the four "pilots" among them there was not a one that could handle a Cessna or a Piper Cub let alone fly a jumbo jet, and the one assigned the most difficult task of all, Hani Hanjour, was so laughably incompetent that he was the worst fake "pilot" of the bunch, with someone who was there when he was attempting to fly a small airplane saying that Hanjour was so clumsy that he was unsure if he had driven a car before. Nevermind the fact that they received very rudimentary flight training at Pensacola Naval Air Station, making them more likely to have been C.I.A. assets than Islamic fundamentalist terrorists. So on to the airports after Mohammed Atta supposedly leaves two rental cars at two impossibly far-removed locations. So they hijack all four airliners and at this time passengers on United 93 start making a bunch of cell phone calls from 35,000 feet in the air to tell people what was going on. Nevermind the fact that cell phones wouldn't work very well above 4,000 feet, and wouldn't work at ALL above 8,000 feet. But the conspiracy theorists won't let that fact get in the way of a good fantasy. That is one of the little things you "aren't supposed to think about". Nevermind that one of the callers called his mom and said his first and last name ("Hi mom, this is Mark Bingham"), more like he was reading from a list than calling his own mom. Anyway, when these airliners each deviated from their flight plan and didn't respond to ground control, NORAD would any other time have followed standard operating procedure (and did NOT have to be told by F.A.A. that there were hijackings because they were watching the same events unfold on their own radar) which means fighter jets would be scrambled from the nearest base where they were available on standby within a few minutes, just like every other time when airliners stray off course. But of course on 9/11 this didn't happen, not even close. Somehow these "hijackers" must have used magical powers to cause NORAD to stand down, as ridiculous as this sounds because total inaction from the most high-tech and professional Air Force in the world would be necessary to carry out their tasks. So on the most important day in its history the Air Force was totally worthless. Then they had to make one of the airliners look like a smaller plane, because unknown to them the Naudet brothers had a videocamera to capture the only known footage of the North Tower crash, and this footage shows something that is not at all like a jumbo jet, but didn't have to bother with the South Tower jet disguising itself because that was the one we were "supposed to see". Anyway, as for the Pentagon they had to have Hani Hanjour fly his airliner like it was a fighter plane, making a high G-force corkscrew turn that no real airliner can do, in making its descent to strike the Pentagon. But these "hijackers" wanted to make sure Rumsfeld survived so they went out of their way to hit the farthest point in the building from where Rumsfeld and the top brass are located. And this worked out rather well for the military personnel in the Pentagon, since the side that was hit was the part that was under renovation at the time with few military personnel present compared to construction workers. Still more fortuitous for the Pentagon, the side that was hit had just before 9/11 been structurally reinforced to prevent a large fire there from spreading elsewhere in the building. Awful nice of them to pick that part to hit, huh? Then the airliner vaporized itself into nothing but tiny unidentifiable pieces most no bigger than a fist, unlike the crash of a real airliner when you will be able to see at least some identifiable parts, like crumpled wings, broken tail section etc. Why, Hani Hanjour the terrible pilot flew that airliner so good that even though he hit the Pentagon on the ground floor the engines didn't even drag the ground!! Imagine that!! Though the airliner vaporized itself on impact it only made a tiny 16 foot hole in the building. Amazing. Meanwhile, though the planes hitting the Twin Towers caused fires small enough for the firefighters to be heard on their radios saying "We just need 2 hoses and we can knock this fire down" attesting to the small size of it, somehow they must have used magical powers from beyond the grave to make this morph into a raging inferno capable of making the steel on all forty-seven main support columns (not to mention the over 100 smaller support columns) soften and buckle, then all fail at once. Hmmm. Then still more magic was used to make the building totally defy physics as well as common sense in having the uppermost floors pass through the remainder of the building as quickly, meaning as effortlessly, as falling through air, a feat that without magic could only be done with explosives. Then exactly 30 minutes later the North Tower collapses in precisely the same freefall physics-defying manner. Incredible. Not to mention the fact that both collapsed at a uniform rate too, not slowing down, which also defies physics because as the uppermost floors crash into and through each successive floor beneath them they would shed more and more energy each time, thus slowing itself down. Common sense tells you this is not possible without either the hijackers' magical powers or explosives. To emphasize their telekinetic prowess, later in the day they made a third building, WTC # 7, collapse also at freefall rate though no plane or any major debris hit it. Amazing guys these magical hijackers. But we know it had to be "Muslim hijackers" the conspiracy theorist will tell you because (now don't laugh) one of their passports was "found" a couple days later near Ground Zero, miraculously "surviving" the fire that we were told incinerated planes, passengers and black boxes, and also "survived" the collapse of the building it was in. When common sense tells you if that were true then they should start making buildings and airliners out of heavy paper and plastic so as to be "indestructable" like that magic passport. The hijackers even used their magical powers to bring at least seven of their number back to life, to appear at american embassies outraged at being blamed for 9/11!! BBC reported on that and it is still online. Nevertheless, they also used magical powers to make the american government look like it was covering something up in the aftermath of this, what with the hasty removal of the steel debris and having it driven to ports in trucks with GPS locators on them, to be shipped overseas to China and India to be melted down. When common sense again tells you that this is paradoxical in that if the steel was so unimportant that they didn't bother saving some for analysis but so important as to require GPS locators on the trucks with one driver losing his job because he stopped to get lunch. Hmmmm. Further making themselves look guilty, the Bush administration steadfastly refused for over a year to allow a commission to investigate 9/11 to even be formed, only agreeing to it on the conditions that they get to dictate its scope, meaning it was based on the false pretense of the "official story" being true with no other alternatives allowed to be considered, handpicked all its members making sure the ones picked had vested interests in the truth remaining buried, and with Bush and Cheney only "testifying" together, only for an hour, behind closed doors, with their attorneys present and with their "testimonies" not being recorded by tape or even written down in notes. Yes, this whole story smacks of the utmost idiocy and fantastic far-fetched lying, but it is amazingly enough what some people believe. Even now, five years later, the provably false fairy tale of the "nineteen hijackers" is heard repeated again and again, and is accepted without question by so many Americans. Which is itself a testament to the innate psychological cowardice of the American sheeple, i mean people, and their abject willingness to believe something, ANYTHING, no matter how ridiculous in order to avoid facing a scary uncomfortable truth. Time to wake up America.

    Debunking Popular Mechanics lies:
    http://www.lookingglassnews.org/viewstory.php?storyid=6880
    someone else debunking Popular Mechanics crap:
    http://www.serendipity.li/wot/pop_mech/reply_to_popular_mechanics.htm
    still more debunking Poopular Mechanics:
    http://letsroll911.org/ipw-web/bulletin/bb/viewtopic.php?t=5505
    and still more debunking of Popular Mechanics:
    http://www.reopen911.org/ericreubt.htm

    Poopular Mechanics staff replaced just before laughable “debunking” article written:
    http://www.reopen911.org/hiddenhand.htm
    another neo-con 9/11 hit piece explodes, is retracted:
    http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/august2006/180806hitpiece.htm
    Professor Steven Jones debunks the N.I.S.T. “report” as well as the F.E.M.A. one and the 9/11 commission "report":
    http://www.infowars.com/articles/sept11/wtc_buildings_collapse_steven_jones.htm
    N.I.S.T. scientist interviewed:
    http://www.teamliberty.net/id235.html
    F.B.I. says no hard evidence linking Osama bin Laden to 9/11 which is why his wanted poster says nothing about 9/11:
    http://forum.afghansite.com/index.php?showtopic=9349
    Fire Engineering magazine says important questions about the Twin Tower “collapses” still need to be addressed:http://fe.pennnet.com/Articles/Article_Display.cfm?Section=OnlineArticles&SubSection=Display&PUBLICATION_ID=25&ARTICLE_ID

    Twin Towers’ construction certifiers say they should have easily withstood it:
    http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/november2004/121104easilywithstood.htm
    USA Today interview with the last man out of the South Tower, pursued by a fireball:
    http://www.usatoday.com/news/sept11/2001/12/19/usat-escape.htm
    Janitor who heard explosions and escaped has testimony ignored by 9/11 whitewash commission:
    http://www.americanfreepress.net/html/ignoring_9-11.html
    Janitor starts speaking out about it and his apartment is burglarized, laptop stolen:
    http://kurtnimmo.blogspot.com/2005/08/apartment-of-nine-eleven-hero-william_28.html
    Firefighters tell of multiple explosions:
    http://www.wnbc.com/news/1315651/detail.html
    Eyewitnesses tell of explosions:
    http://research.amnh.org/users/tyson/essays/TheHorrorTheHorror.html
    Interview with another firefighter telling of explosions:
    http://www.nytimes.com/packages/html/nyregion/20050812_WTC_GRAPHIC/Banaciski_Richard.txt
    Firefighter saw “sparkles” (strobe lights on detonators?) before “collapse”:
    http://www.nytimes.com/packages/html/nyregion/20050812_WTC_GRAPHIC/Fitzpatrick_Tom.txt
    Other eyewitnesses talk of seeing/hearing explosions:
    http://georgewashington.blogspot.com/2005/11/more-proof-911-inside-job-witnesses-to.html
    Surviving eyewitnesses talk of multiple explosions there:
    http://www.thememoryhole.org/911/veliz-bombs.htm
    Cutter charge explosions clearly visible:
    http://www.rense.com/general63/cutt.htm
    The pyroclastic wave (that dust cloud that a second before was concrete) and how it wouldn’t be possible without explosives:
    http://st12.startlogic.com/~xenonpup/physics/
    Detailed description of the demolition of the Twin Towers:
    http://gordonssite.tripod.com/id2.html
    Freefall rate of “collapses” math:
    http://www.911blimp.net/prf_FreeFallPhysics.shtml
    More about their freefall rate “collapses”:
    http://www.serendipity.li/wot/second_wave.htm
    Video footage of the controlled demolition of the Twin Towers:
    http://www.plaguepuppy.net/public_html/video%20archive/
    Video footage of the controlled demolition of WTC # 7 building:
    http://911research.wtc7.net/talks/wtc/videos.html
    More of WTC # 7 controlled demolition:
    http://www.wtc7.net/
    Naudet brothers' video footage of the North Tower crash:
    http://www.911blimp.net/vid_Naudet.shtml
    Photos of the Pentagon’s lawn (look at these and see if you can tell me with a straight face that a jumbo jet crashed there):
    http://www.911blimp.net/cached/HuntTheBoeing!.htm
    More photos of this amazing lawn at the Pentagon:
    http://cryptogon.com/docs/Introducing%20the%20amazing%20Penta-Lawn%202000!%20(9-11).htm
    Very unconvincing fake “Osama” “confession” tape:
    http://welfarestate.com/wtc/faketape/
    More about the fake “Osama” tape:
    http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/osamatape2.html
    Fake “Mohammed Atta” “suicide” letter:
    http://www.welfarestate.com/wtc/fake-letters.txt
    Commercial pilots disagree with “official” 9/11 myth:
    http://www.prisonplanet.com/september_11_us_government_accused.htm
    More commercial jet pilots say “official” myth is impossible:
    http://www.masternewmedia.org/2001/10/31/commercial_jet_pilots_analysis_of_the_twin_tower_attack.htm
    Impossibility of cell phone calls from United 93:
    http://www.physics911.net/cellphoneflight93.htm
    More about the impossible cell phone calls:
    http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/CHO408B.html
    Experiment proves cell phone calls were NOT possible from anywhere near the altitude the “official” myth has them at:
    http://physics911.ca/org/modules/news/article.php?storyid=9
    Fake Barbara Olson phone call:
    http://www.vialls.com/lies911/lies.htm
    Where the hell was the Air Force?
    http://www.welfarestate.com/wtc/af-scramble.txt
    More about the Air Force impotence question:
    http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0331-11.htm
    Sept. 10th 2001, Pentagon announces it is “missing” $2.3 trillion (now why do you think they picked THAT day to announce it? So it could be buried the next day by 9/11 news):
    http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/01/29/eveningnews/main325985.shtml
    Unocal pipeline-through-Afghanistan plan:
    http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0513/p05s01-wosc.html
    Unocal pipeline-through-Afghanistan plan mentioned:
    http://thetyee.ca/Views/2006/05/19/OutOfAfghanistan
    More on Unocal Afghan pipeline:
    http://www.newscentralasia.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1031
    The attack on Afghanistan was planned in the summer of 2001, months before 9/11:
    http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/1550366.stm
    Pentagon deliberately misled 9/11 Commission:
    http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=EGG20060802&articleId=2887
    Evidence destruction by authorities and cover-up:
    http://www.flcv.com/coverup.html/
    9/11 whitewash Commission and NORAD day:
    http://fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/071204_final_fraud.shtml
    The incredible fish tales of the 9/11 Commission examined:
    http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=%20GR20051213&articleId=1478
    Jeb Bush declares state of emergency 4 days before 9/11 for Florida, saying it will help respond to terrorism:
    http://www.eionews.addr.com/psyops/news/jebknew.htm
    Steel debris removal from Ground Zero, destruction of evidence:
    http://911research.wtc7.net/wtc/groundzero/cleanup.html
    Over two hundred incriminating bits of 9/11 evidence shown in the mainstream media:
    http://thewebfairy.com/killtown/911smokingguns.html
    Tracking the “hijackers”:
    http://www.welfarestate.com/911/
    “Hijacker” patsies:
    http://911review.org/Wiki/HijackersPatsies.shtml
    “Hijackers” receiving flight training at Pensacola Naval Air Station:
    http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0208/S00085.htm
    Several accused "hijackers" still alive and well, wondering why they are accused:
    http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/1559151.stm
    Yet the F.B.I. insists that the people it claims were the "hijackers" really were the "hijackers":
    http://www.prisonplanet.com/fbi_denies_mix_up_of_911_terrorists.htm
    No Arabs on Flight 77:
    http://www.sierratimes.com/03/07/02/article_tro.htm
    Thirty experts say “official” 9/11 myth impossible:
    http://911fraud.blogspot.com/2005/06/us-governments-offical-911-story-is.html
    “Al Qaeda” website tracks back to Maryland:
    http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/alqmaryland.html
    Al Qaeda videos uploaded from U.S. government website:
    http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/july2004/140704governmentwebsite.htm
    Operation: Northwoods, a plan for a false-flag “terror” attack to be blamed on Castro to use it as a pretext for America to invade Cuba, thankfully not approved by Kennedy back in 1962 but was approved by the Joint Chiefs of Staff and sent to his desk:
    http://www.prisonplanet.com/us_terror_plan_cuba_invasion_pretext.html

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