Lying for Islam

Today's post concerns a little understood doctrine of Islam called "Taqiyya," in which the Muslim is permitted, even encouraged. to deliberately lie to advance Islam. Of course, with a little thought one can quickly see that once a person internalizes this doctrine, it becomes very difficult to separate when one is lying for Islam, and when one is lying for purely personal gain. It is the exact opposite of our Christian doctrine wherein we are supposed to be truthful at all times. Indeed, the more I study the workings of Islam and the behavior of Muslims, the more I understand the attraction of the secular Left to it, for in both, every day is opposite day.

 Carol Brown has a piece on taqiyya over at the American Thinker today entitled The Taqiyya Factor. It is required reading for anyone who wants to navigate in this brave new America. Brown writes:

Taqiyya is an Islamic doctrine that allows Muslims to deceive non-Muslims. As in lie to them. Dr. Sami Mukaram, author of Taqiyya in Islam, writes: “Taqiyya is of fundamental importance in Islam. Practically every Islamic sect agrees to it and practices it… Taqiyya is very prevalent in Islamic politics, especially in the modern era.”

Thus, for example, when a Muslim commits an act of outrageous jihad, yelling "Alahu akbar" as he kills someone, the MSM routinely quotes some Islamic figure as complaining about a "backlash against Muslims."  That there has never been a backlash doesn't stop them from complaining about one.  Remember when that special snowflake Muslim woman wanted to have her driver's license photo taken while wearing a burqua that covered her face entirely.  When the State of Florida refused, she complained of being "discriminated" against.  Of course, to "discriminate" means to single out one person for special, usually extra legal, treatment.  In this case, she was being treated the same as everyone else who obtains a driver's license in Florida, thus was not being discriminated against.

Brown again:

The obvious problem with lying is that once you know a group of persons will intentionally deceive, everything they say or do is called into question. And therein lies one of the rubs with Muslims. How can any non-Muslim know when a Muslim is telling the truth or telling a lie? We can’t. For the sake of self-preservation, one must err on the side of caution and maintain skepticism at all times. Because taqiyya can only work if the person being lied to is uninformed.

As Daniel Pipes wrote (emphasis mine): “…Taqiyya has been used by Muslims since the 7th century to confuse and split 'the enemy'. A favored tactic was 'deceptive triangulation'; to persuade the enemy that jihad was not aimed at them but at another enemy. Another tactic was to deny that there was jihad at all. The fate for such faulty assessments by the target was death.”

Brown asks how any nation can survive such an onslaught. Clearly, we must be sure of our Christian heritage, and its doctrines, and we must be ready at a moments notice, Put on the "Armor of God," but also be prepared to defend your life and the lives of those around you. In yesterday's post, I pointed out that we Christians are called to defend ourselves and those we love, but self defense can only be justified when you are being physically attacked, and must stop the moment the attack stops. Revenge is the Lord's. More importantly, we must be prepared to resist those who would conquer and subjugate us.  Martin Luther left behind a summary of his teaching on the Bible in the form of The Large Catechism. While this was written in the 1500's, remember that God's truths are unchanging from age to age, and that human nature has no history. If your particular denomination has no such document, may I recommend Luther's as a good place to start.

The older I get, the less of a religion I make of Christianity. For outside the writings of the Jewish priesthood, the Bible teaches not a religion, but how to get along in this world in a moral manor. The Good News, of course, is that God has come into the world to take our eternal punishment for us, and freed us to do his will in the world.  But the first thing one has to do is tell the truth, at least as one knows the truth.

 Grace and peace to everyone who reads this from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Update:  Victor Hanson Davis has an article at Townhall entitled The Fiction of "Truth." The article deals with whoppers the Left tells to advance their twisted agenda, but as I pointed out above, I think this is part of the reason the Left is attracted to Islam. Both can only advance by lying about their true purpose and deceiving us until it is too late. It may be unpopular to speak about the Devil in today's world, but evil does exist. In a former time, it was thought that the Devil signed pledges from people in blood to give their eternal souls over to him for something they wanted today.  But the Devil is much subtler than that,  Instead, he convinces people that the only way they can achieve what they want is through lying.  Of course, these people never ask themselves the important question: if lying is necessary to achieve our goals, how good are our goals in the first place?