Without the Law of Apostasy, Islam Wouldn't Have Survived

 Raymond Ibrahim is a Christian scholar of Islam.  One of his books which is written with the average person in mind is The Sword and the Scimitar, which tells the true history of Islam from original sources. Some have theorized that Islam arose because of the divide between those who believed that Christ was divine, and those who thought he was just a great man. But understand that those who thought he was a great man only are doing the work of the devil. Orthodox Christianity believes that he was true man AND true God. This belief is supported in the Bible, but it is not the topic today.

Instead, I want to write about a YouTube video of Raymond Ibrahim talking with Winston Marshall. The YouTube video is part of a longer interview that you can find on YouTube as well. But it takes over an hour to watch the whole thing. Twenty seconds into this 13 minute segment, Ibrahim discusses the death of Muhammed and the second generation of Islamic leaders. The important thing to note is that war was waged against breakaway groups of Arabs for apostasy. Note what Ibrahim says: "Muslim clerics will tell you that without the law of apostasy, which is that you kill anyone who tries to leave Islam, Islam would have died out." Let that sink in. The only way Islam can survive is by intimidating and killing anyone who tries to leave. It reminds of the Left, where countries ruled by the Communists kill anyone who tries to leave. Hmmm. I wonder if there is a common thread there.

Gentle readers will want to watch the whole video because what you hear is typically the opposite of what really happened. In light of this history, the crusades make perfect sense, at least from the perspective of secular rulers whose land is being overrun by Muslims. But of course God does not need defending. In any case, He doesn't live in church buildings, nor is He tied to any one land. Rather, He is present wherever one or two are gathered in His name.

Jesus tells the story of the prodigal son who asks for his inheritance now. In the story, the prodigal son is the apostate and the father is God. The father gives it to his son, who goes off and wastes it on wine, women and song. Eventually, in a lucid moment, as he has become a swine herder, he realizes that his father's servants have it better off than he does. He thinks to himself that he will throw himself on his father's mercy and appeal to his father to become his servant. To make a long story shorter, the father had a great party to celebrate his son, who was lost and now is found. This is how the Christian God treats the apostate person. Islam's "god" kills them. I would rather throw myself on the mercy of Christ than to be at the mercy of Islam's "god."