Interview with Father Zakaria Botros, 'Radical Islam's Bane'
Buddhism, still, it obviously offers a good philosophical system and people follow it apparently for its own intrinsic worth. The same cannot be said about Islam. Of all the religions it is the only one that has to threaten its adherents with death if they try to break away; that, from its inception, in order to “buy” followers, has been dedicated to fulfilling some of the worst impulses of man—for conquest, sex, plunder, pride. History alone demonstrates all this: while Christianity was spread far and wide by Christians who altruistically gave up their lives, simply because they believed in Christ, Islam spread by force, by the edge of the sword, by fear, threats, and lurid enticements to the basest desires of man. Islam is by far the falsest religion—an assertion that is at once theologically, philosophically, and historically demonstrable.
FP: You always document your discussions with Islamic sources. Why do Muslim clerics and imams have such a difficulty discussing what Islam itself teaches and instead just attack you personally?
Botros: I think the answer is obvious. The Islamic sources, the texts, speak for themselves. Muslims have no greater enemy than their own scriptures—particularly the Hadith and Sira—which constantly scandalize and embarrass Muslims. To date, I have done well over 500 different episodes dedicated to various topics regarding Islam. And for every one of these episodes, all my material comes directly from Islam’s textual sources, particularly usul al-fiqh—the Koran, hadith, and ijma of the ulema as found in their tafsirs.
So what can the sheikhs of Islam do? If they try to address the issue I raise based on Islam’s texts and sharia, they will have no choice but to agree—for instance that concubinage is legal, or that drinking camel urine is advocated. The only strategy left them, then, is to ignore all that I present and attack my person, instead.
And when well-meaning Muslims ask their leaders to respond to these charges, one of their favorite responses is to quote the Koran, where it says “Do not ask questions of things that will hurt you.”
FP: So what does it say about a religion whose religious teachers and members have to ignore their own theological texts because they cannot endure what those texts really say? What sense does any of this make?
Botros: Again, this is a reflection of the fact that Islam is less a faith, more a vehicle for empowerment. As you say, what is the point for a person to closely guard and follow a religion that he himself has to rationalize, ignore, minimize, constantly reinterpret, dissemble over, and so forth? The fact is, most Muslims do not know what is in their own texts; at best, they know, and here and there try to follow, the Five Pillars. This is why the issues I broach often traumatize Muslims—like a freshening slap across the face: a short, sharp, shock. The stubborn, who take it as an attack of “us versus them,” irrespective of truths, just fume and plot to kill me; the other, more reasonable Muslims, who are really searching for the truth, end up waking up to the biggest hoax perpetrated on the human race in 1400 years, and many come to the ultimate Truth.
A better question is why do the ulema hide these issues from both infidel scrutiny as well as the eyes of the average Muslim? One would think that if anyone is dedicated to the truth it would be the ulema; yet their deceptive tactics reveal the opposite. For instance, it is often the case that, after I quote problematic passages from certain Islamic books, they have a strange tendency of disappearing from the book shelves of the Arabic world.
The bottom line is, many Muslims think of Islam less as a spiritual system dedicated to ascertaining and putting one on the course of the truth, and more a way of life—first and foremost not to be questioned—that if followed closely, will result, not only in future paradise, but earthly success, honor, and power.
FP: You have pointed to a hadith that instructs women to breastfeed men. What exactly is going on here and what do the ulema (prominent Muslim theologians past and present) have to say?
Botros: This is a perfect example of what I just said. After I made popular the Islamic notion of rida‘ al-kabir—wherein women must “breastfeed” strange men in order to be in their presence—instead of confronting their own hadiths which documented this, the ulema attacked me. Why? Because, they have no answer. Much easier to turn it around and slander me, instead of simply addressing their own texts.
Past and present, the ulema have by and large supported this shameful practice—including Ibn Taymiyya, “sheikh al-Islam.” Moreover, sometime after I publicly documented rida‘ al-kabir, a top Islamic scholar in al-Azhar—the most authoritative institution in Sunni Islam—actually issued a fatwa ...
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Jihad Watch,a program of the David Horowitz Freedom Center, is dedicated to bringing public attention to the role that jihad theology and ideology plays in the modern world, and to correcting popular misconceptions about the role of jihad and religion in modern-day conflicts. ROBERT SPENCER is the director of Jihad Watch and the author of eight books on Islam and jihad. This article is used with permission.
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Although I am not of Arabic origin but I do speak and understand very well the Arabic language. I would like to say to Mr Pat Anderson (and others who think like him) that if Kindness means to hide the truth and to not reveal sin within the human being whether of Muslim Background, Buddhist or Christian background, than how do we describe our Lord Jesus of Nazareth who publicly criticized and revealed the hypocrisy, evilness and fake of Pharisees and Sadducees ??
We love people of Muslim background and it is for that reason that we aught to and we have the mandate to reveal the dark and evil origin of their religion of of their prophet.
Father Zakaria has embarrassed many Christians with his TV programmes. I am a Christian myself and have many Muslim friends. Real Chistianity is what Christ has taught us: Be kind to your fellow men and women and harm no one. Zakaria has been harming millions of our fellow men and women. Muslims are fine people and want to live in peace with us and the rest of the world. We should be kind to them. We should live together in harmony and peace. Stop what you're doing to them and to us Father Zakaria if you are a real Christian.
Thank you Fr. Zakaria, for all that you have done, May God bless you in all your future undertakings, pray specially for you to bring many many more people to Our Lord and Saviour. God bless you abundantly and strenghten you and protect you always.
Jesus died for all, Muslims, Christians, Pagans,and everything in between. What believers must do is pray fervently for people like Father Zakaria and pray that God give us that same boldness to declare His oracles with consistency. Muslims are not bad people but they are mislead into believing that their doctrine is superior. I'm sure Mohammad's intentions to find the True God were just as honest as some of us search this world for answers and guidance. Yet, though we walk in the flesh, we wage not against the flesh....the great Deceiver is behind all this. I know many Muslims and they are good people. it's hard for them to believe we are sincere when we play church by day and play somethng else by night. We can't even tell the chuch apart from the world. We have to share the Jesus that had and still has compassion for the lost. We must share His love with them. We must share our hope with them. More importantly, we must pray for them so that God through Jesus Christ may shine His Word and His light upon them...afterall...they are from the lineage fo Abraham.
It is people like Father Zakaria Botros that remind me, that there are people out there that are fighting for our rights as Christians, and make us feel that we are not constantly plagued by the rapid reproduction of Muslims. Thank you Father Zakaria Botros, you deserve the best now and forever. You endured through alot, especially with your older brother, I would die if I ever lost my older brother. Your a great and awsome man, keep it up, and keep fighting father! No one can stop you, even if you have a 60 million dollar bounty on your head! See how keen Muslims are to get Christians to shut up and not point out the many defects of their religion! For God Sakes! Americans put a 25 million dollar bounty on Osama Binladin and the Muslims put a 60 million dollar bounty on Father Zakaria's head! Pathetic Muslims are!
Thank God for such a brave and selfless man, who has the guts to stand for a Holy GOD, who in the end all men will have to face.
iam a catholic born in iraq and now lives in australia.when i was born there was nearly a million christians in iraq.now there is under 200 thousands and in 2-3 years there will be no christians left in iraq as muslems threating christians and killing them as we saw on the 31-10-2010 the killing of 60 and includin the priests and injuring of another 60 in sayidat al najat catholic church in baghdad by muslems.you can see it at u tube.i took my first comminiuon in this church.
All the world's population except a small fraction know what Qurana contains because of the language. Now the father appears to be the first person to bring to the knowledge of the world including muslims about what the contents of Quran by translating it. Instead of finding fault with the father it would be advisable to introspect and shed wrong portions.
May The Holy Spirit watch over Fr. Botros and protect him always.
I admire and have great respect for the honesty and sincerity of Father Zacharia.There is no doubt that when it comes to The religion of Islam he is in effect exposing that relgion for what is a, bogus religion full of cruelty, lies and contridictions. In my view the overwhlming majority of Muslims have'nt even read their so called Quran,but rely on what they are told by their their Immams.It is thus in their interest to perpetuate the lie and enhance their authoraty.