Dear Mike

We get to discuss our failures and faults because we are products of the west. Western society is founded on Judaic Christian values. Yes we acknowledge colonisation, conflict and gross injustice perpetrated by us our ancestors. We make no claim to be perfect; the same cannot be said of many other civilisations. In fact our capacity to beat ourselves endlessly for all our crimes is only matched by those who are happy to watch us do it, particularly those who see our civilisation as nothing more that kafir culture.

Are the sins of our ancestors against the aboriginal people of our continent forgiven Mike? Or does Christ need to take to the cross again? Racism isn’t dead and it never will be. We acknowledge loud and clear those crimes.

Has western civilisation contributed nothing to humanity? Factual history proves otherwise. Is it worth defending or should it die?

You have a platform and a responsibility Mike so where was your mention of the brutality and violence of Islamic conquest, the conquest and subjugation that came out of Arabia and conquered the lands and peoples of North Africa, Syria, Turkey (Asia minor), India, Afghanistan, Spain, Eastern Europe etc. And your mention of the Barbary Raids and Islamic slave trade? These events are all historic FACT. We don’t talk of them now because to do so would be racist or politically incorrect. Only white men have caused sin in the world right?

If you haven’t read the Quran, the Hadith’s (Burkari & Muslim) or the Sira (Muhammad’s Bio) then as suggested by other commenters here, you really should bring yourself up to speed and quickly. As someone with a platform it would be the only responsible thing to do. This textual trilogy is normative/foundational Islam. 91 verses in the Quran command believers to follow the example of Muhammad and where is his example found? The Hadith’s and the Sira. These texts are all by Islamic scholars and are acknowledged as foundational and authoritative, FACT period. I read them regularly to understand why we are hated, why we are kafirs.

Was the Manchester bomber not following in the example of his prophet, was he not aware of Muhammad’s commands? The only authorities on Islam are Allah and Muhammad. I don’t conflate Islam with Muslims because one makes the other not the other way round.

Oh and the crusades, those evil crusades. The moral equivalent of 1400 years of Jihad in all its forms? As a Christian, Mike then surely you know what they were a response to? And what a belated response they were, one of the only times western Christians responded to the cries of help from their eastern brothers and sisters.

Also I thought I’d let you know that your articles are being picked by a group called “Muslims For Progressive Values” who are posting your opinions via their Facebook page. I’ve attended their “Meet A Muslim” events, which are now occurring around Australia. The events are eye opening in that much time is spent reading verses from the Meccan Quran as well as in the case of the meeting I attended, attacking Christian scripture and schooling gullible non-believers (kafirs) on what Islam is really all about. I’d recommend you attend one of these ongoing meetings in your nearest capital city and judge for yourself.

Oh and Chesterton wasn’t exactly fond of Islam, in fact he saw it for what it was, he indeed called a spade a spade. Something we seem unprepared to do to our own peril. Our problem now is we are so divided and that we attack each other rather than focusing on the actual problem.

Islam denys and distorts foundational Christian doctrine Mike, its all there in the Quran for you to read for yourself. Muhammad loved his neighbors so much that this is what he had to say about Christians and Jews on his deathbed –

Burkari, Book 56: Volume 4, Number 660,

On his deathbed Allah’s Apostle put a sheet over his-face and when he felt hot, he would remove it from his face. When in that state (of putting and removing the sheet) he said, “May Allah’s Curse be on the Jews and the Christians for they build places of worship at the graves of their prophets.” (By that) he intended to warn (the Muslim) from what they (i.e. Jews and Christians) had done.

Bear in mind these were the final thoughts of a dying man. I simply refuse to become a useful idiot or enabler for Islam and in the end a Dhimmi.

Happy to talk to you anytime though about these matters.

It seems apparent to me Sir that you have NEVER read a word of the Quran or Hadith. How can a person responsibly discuss a subject he honestly has never bothered to research? and then go public with it? Thats absolutely irresponsible. I bet you do not blame the Nazi ideology for the holocaust either. Actually indeed i cannot cos guess what? I do not have very much first hand information about Nazi ideology. How can i therefore responsibly comment about it. Read the quran and hadith and understand Islam first before making these kinds of commentaries.

Our pluralist western setting can gutlessly and blindly call prophetic critique of other cultures and religion “judgemental”. Unfortunately, there remains plenty of evidence from within the western church that fear and hated filled attitudes fuel a failure to love strangers and our enemies turning up in blanket statements categorising all Muslims as as perpetrators of violence in the wings. The fundamental characteristic of the true Biblical prophets of old was their deep love for and identification with those to whom they spoke with such truthful directness. And with their call they carrried a sense of responsibility to represent all of whom God is to those to whom God had sent them to speak.

We must not, we cannot separate love and truth in this toxic complex space. A cross shaped prophetic position that names the reality of violence as sin, and the particular thinking that fuelled it but lives the way of the Crucified One is our pathway. Finally, it ought give us pause that such great feeling is being outpoured for the Manchester tragedy when simultaneously the terrorist bombings this week in Jakarta and East Java have occupied little media attention or weighed on western awareness. Why is that? What does it suggest to us about our mind set and fears and deficits in compassion?

” I haven’t read enough of the Quran. ” Then what makes you think you can pontificate about this in such an ill-informed &, frankly, dangerous, fashion? There is more than enough material available by responsible Christian apologists with a deep understanding of Islam that I, a humble layperson, can put my hands on, then you, as a leader, should have done so before you put forward what is really no more than the kind of nonsense Islamists claim as their justification for hating Christians. And do you really imagine for one minute that flogging such straw men as Luther’s prejudices, the Crusades, the Inquisition, witch hunts & the KKK in any way enlightens the issues here?

“….we need to be humble enough to admit the myriad ways Christendom has fallen way short over the past 2000 years”. And you don’t think the fact that “Christendom” looks nothing like this today might just suggest to you the fact that she HAS been humble enough to deal with those areas where she fell short? This, however, is not the case with Islam, as it is a literal understanding of the Quran which is behind these terror attacks (or, at the least, confusion over its myriad self-contradictions), not, as is the case of “the myriad ways Christendom has fallen way short over the past 2000 years”, where each has involved a CLEAR CORRUPTION of the Scriptures which has led to them.

Ok, again I agree that there is no monolithic Islam, and there is individual responsibility, but are there not ideas and ideologies, powers and principalities, etc. Which need also to be named and challenged etc?

I didn’t say Islam doesn’t have a relationship to violence. I haven’t read enough of the Quran. Obviously you have. But whenever I post something about gun control or capital punishment or pacifism I have a plethora of Christians quoting the Bible to justify killing.

Please read the Quran in chronological order, it can be found here http://www.qran.org/q-chrono.htm . Read the Sira or Life of Muhammad alongside it following the timeline. The Sira starts before the Quran does, but the Sira tells you when to start reading the Quran in Chronological Order. Once you read those two, then read all the Hadith in the Sahih Bukhair or Sahih Muslim. After that we can talk. Yes it is Islam.