Food for Thought
Christianity
Christians and non-believers can go to any restaurant in town for a night out together. They can dine on pork chops, chop suey, or other favorites. Christians are not only permitted to befriend non-believers, but they can also freely invite them to investigate the Christian faith. If a Muslim friend chooses to become a disciple of Jesus Christ, the Christian community rejoices!
The first Christians were Jews and Jewish proselytes.
Islam
Muslims, on the other hand, are required by Sharia law to consume only what their overlords define as halal. When a Muslim becomes a Christian, he is called an apostate and is worthy of death.
H 13218, Ch. 46, h 4 Ibn Mahbub has narrated from al-‘Ala’ ibn Razin from Muhammad ibn Muslim who has narrated the following: “I once asked abu Ja‘far, ‘Alayhi al-Salam, about an apostate (one who turns away from Islam). He (the Imam) said, ‘If one turns away from Islam and rejects what Allah has revealed to Muhammad, O Allah, grant compensation to Muhammad and his family worthy of their services to Your cause, after his being a Muslim, his repentance has no effect. (After judicial due process) executing him is obligatory, his wife becomes stranger to him like an irrevocably divorced woman and his assets are distributed among his children.’”
Two brothers who were arrested at a Christmas gathering over three years ago have both been sentenced to four years in prison, fined, and exiled from their home province for two years after their release.
Christian converts Mahmoud Mardani-Kharaji, 56, and his brother Mansour, who will turn 50 in April, were convicted under the amended Article 500 of the penal code, which criminalises “deviant propaganda activities contrary to the holy religion of Islam”.
On top of the prison sentences, the brothers were fined 150 million tomans each (around $1,500), banned from membership of any groups for five years after their release, and told they must spend the first two of those years outside the bounds of their home province of Isfahan.
A Cult versus the Church
Christianity
How Many People Leave the Church Each Day
Pre-pandemic, approximately 3500 people left the religious congregations every day. That’s a rate of 1.2 million walking away from church every year. While each church is unique, leading experts say a church should expect to lose about 10%-15% of its members year over year.
Lockdowns Accelerated Church Attendance Decline
The number accelerated due to widespread church lockdowns and many churches are still recovering. Now that lockdowns are behind us and the pandemic has waned, churches are seeing some past members return and new guests arrive. However, on average, churches are at 85% of their pre-pandemic attendance level.
The State of Church Attendance: Trends and Statistics [2025]
It’s difficult to determine current attrition rates for most churches or how many people are leaving the church each year, due to the unique circumstances of the last few years. It may be yet another year or two before we can know what was lost and what was gained with any accuracy.
Islam
Latino Catholics, in particular, are converting to Islam in significant numbers, corresponding surveys over the last two decades have found.
About 9% of converts to Islam are Latino, a 2020 survey confirmed — up from 5% in 2017. Many are of either Mexican or Puerto Rican descent, but conversion to Islam is also a phenomenon across Latin America, the report stated.
A major factor in the conversion rate is the proselytizing (dawah) efforts Islamic evangelistic organizations like IslamInSpanish Centro Islámico in Houston, Texas, make, actively reaching out to Latino Catholics. In November 2021, Latino Muslims celebrated the grand opening of what they claim is the only Spanish-language mosque in the U.S.
Considine also stressed that Islam is drawing converts by building community: “It’s multi-ethnic. It’s multinational. It’s multi-racial,” he said. “It’s the quintessential American story of community building. The Irish and Italians did it. And now they’re doing it not through Christianity but through Islam.”
“Many Hispanic Catholics are turning to Islam, and the Catholic Church is doing absolutely nothing to counter this growing trend,” he said. “This is because the Vatican II documents have given rise to a great deal of confusion over whether Muslims should be evangelized at all, or are part of the ‘plan of salvation.’ Pope Francis has added to this confusion by conducting numerous outreach meetings with Muslim leaders and concluding the highly misleading Document on Human Fraternity.
Excerpts from from Rome to Mecca: The Surprising Surge of U.S. Latino Catholics Joining Islam
What Is A Cult?
What exactly is a cult? Destructive individuals and cults use deception and undue influence to make people dependent and obedient. A group should not be considered a cult merely because of its unorthodox beliefs. It is typically authoritarian, headed by a person or group of people with near complete control of followers. Cult influence is designed to disrupt a person’s authentic identity and replace it with a new identity.
Psychology Today, Steven A Hassan PhD, June 5, 2021, Understanding Cults: The Basics
The seduction of Islam is not a new phenomenon. For hundreds of years, Arabs became Jewish proselytes. In 1 AD, on the Day of Pentecost, Arabs who were Jewish Proselytes became Christians. Jews also became Christians. Reference: Acts 2:1-6, Modern English Version
1 When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. 2 Suddenly a sound like a mighty rushing wind came from heaven, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3 There appeared to them tongues as of fire, being distributed and resting on each of them, 4 and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues, as the Spirit enabled them to speak.
5 Now dwelling in Jerusalem were Jews, devout men, from every nation under heaven. 6 When this sound occurred, the crowd came together and were confounded, because each man heard them speaking in his own language.
…8 How is it that we hear, each in our own native language? 9 Parthians, Medes and Elamites, residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the regions of Libya near Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, 11 Cretans and Arabs—we hear them speaking in our own languages the mighty works of God.”
Excerpts from the New Testament, Acts chapter 2, Modern English Version
In AD 610, an Arab named Muhammad claimed to have received a vision from god. [Lower-case ‘g’ because this was not the God of the Bible.] Over the next 12 years, 610 to 622 AD, Muhammad became an itinerant preacher.
Muhammad’s old trusted friend, Abu Bakr, , “the True” compiled all the manuscripts, the notes on Muhammad’s sermons recorded by his followers, “the reciters’. The finished product was the Quran (Koran).
Saudi Arabia once hosted a thriving Jewish community. For almost a thousand years (three times longer than the Jews have been in America), Jews lived in the oases of Teyma, Khaybar, and Yathrib (later known as Medina), in the northern Arabian Peninsula. According to Dr. Hagai Mazuz, an Orientalist specializing in Arabic language, Islam, and Islamic culture, “The Jewish community of northern Arabia was one of the largest ancient Jewish communities in the history of the Jewish people.”
They were powerful and wealthy. They were respected by the local Arabian tribes for their religion, culture, erudition, and literacy. They built castles on mountaintops and developed productive plantations. They had military prowess, horses, and advanced weaponry. And they were almost totally annihilated in the short span of a few years.
How the Quran differs from the Bible
After Abu Bakr compiled the Quran, he destroyed all the original manuscripts. How can you know this to be true? None are to be found. Reference: Questions on Islam—Why were the first written copies of the Quran eliminated?
The 66 books of the Bible, Old Testament and New, were written over xxx years, from 1445 BC to 96 AD, a total of 1,541 years.
The Bible is not a single work but rather an anthology of 66 books written by approximately 40 authors over a 1,400-year period that ended nearly 2,000 years ago. As such, the original copies of these works have not lasted to today, though a large number of early copies allow us to reconstruct the text as it stood in its earliest form.
The full history of the Bible from Compelling Truth: Does the original Bible exist today? What are some of the oldest manuscripts of the Bible currently in existence?
Religious Freedom—Islam vis-à-vis Christianity
Throughout the United States of America, Muslims freely and openly practice their religion, including prayer meetings in physical mosques. They do so without governmental limitations or control. This holds true for Muslim citizens of Israel. Muslims serve as freely elected representatives to the Israeli Knesset. American Muslims serve in the U.S. Armed Forces.
Arab Muslims, Arab Christians, and Bedouins are not conscripted to serve in the IDF.
“Until recently, military service in the IDF has been a sensitive issue for most Muslim Arab Israelis. However, IDF Lt.-Col. (res.) Hisham Abu Raya believes that it is becoming increasingly accepted among Arab Israeli citizens to serve in the Israeli military.” In 2008, Hisham Abu Raya made history as the first non-Bedouin Muslim officer in the IDF. Now, he actively advocates for greater participation of Arab-Israeli youth in military service. Raya quickly realized that military service is crucial for advancing within Israeli society and feeling connected to the state. Source: Muslim IDF officer says Arab Israelis are increasingly joining military
When Muslims come to faith in Jesus Christ, churches readily accept and disciple them. When a U.S. Muslim leaves Islam to become a Christian, persecution and threats follow.
Islam is readily identified as a cult.
A Warning to the American Church Leaders
Read the full story at RAIR Foundation USA: EXCLUSIVE With Hunted Islamic Expert Brother Rachid: ‘Muslims Will Be the Majority, They Will Govern the West’ (Video Interview) https://rairfoundation.com/exclusive-with-hunted-islamic-expert-brother-rachid-muslims-will-be-the-majority-they-will-govern-the-west-video-interview/
John White
Rockwall, Texas
John N. White 