Today I want to look at a story where a Group of “Christians” tries to build bridges to their Muslim counterparts and share the love of Christ with Muslims. I am fully behind sharing the love of Christ with Muslims but this group is very naive. We are going to talk about some mistakes they are making.

This is a group of 20 pastors in Denver, CO. Here is an excerpt from an article they published:

During this year’s Q conference, a gathering of Christian thought-leaders in Denver, we hosted a conversation about how we can love our Muslim neighbors in the midst of a cultural moment dominated by ISIS, Islamophobia, and all-around fear.

But we knew that any meaningful dialogue would be impossible if it did not include members of the Muslim community.

One thing we’ve learned in our years of waging peace: talking with someone is always better than talking about them.

So with the help of our friends at Peace Catalyst, we reached out to a Denver-area mosque. Without hesitation, the imam invited us to come—and to bring as many Christian leaders as we could.

On the way to the mosque they were discussing the meeting and found than none of them had ever visited a mosque before and many of them said they didn’t have a single Muslim friend. This group was very ignorant about Islam and about Muslims.

Every time you hear about one of these interfaith meetings, it is the Christians who are going to hear the Muslims. Muslims don’t come to hear the Christians teach them about Christianity.

After some refreshment that got into a “more intentional dialog.” Here are some of the things they talked about:

So we talked about head coverings. (The hijab, we learned, is more than an article of clothing. It is a character trait, one meant to be cultivated by women and men alike in Islam.)

We talked about violence and martyrdom. The treatment of women. How Islam had come to abolish slavery over time (not unlike Christianity).

These people are being suckered. They left the meeting thinking this was a great thing. They thought they had things in common with the Muslims. These “Christian” pastors were indoctrinated and told a bunch of lies. They didn’t examine the things they were told.

Let’s look at the evidence. The imam told them Islam has improved the treatment of women and has abolished slavery. What does Islam really teach about slavery?

In my book Refuting Islam I have a whole chapter on this subject. The Sharia Law Book gives two codes dealing with slavery. One deals with enslaving a woman, and the other deals with enslaving a man. Here is what they say:

ROT o9.13 When a child or a woman is taken captive, they become slaves by the fact of capture, and the woman’s previous marriage is immediately annulled.

If a captured she becomes a slave, and if she is married her marriage is immediately annuled. She is now available to have sex with men under the practice of Al Sabi and any sexual activity is not adultery.

ROT o9.14 When an adult male is taken captive, the caliph considers the interests and decides between the prisoner’s death, slavery, release without paying anything, or ransoming himself in exchange for money or for a Muslim captive held by the enemy. If the prisoner becomes a Muslim then he may not be killed, and one of the other three alternatives is chosen.

Do you see the options for a male prisoner? He could be killed, made a slave, released, or ransomed for money or a Muslim prisoner of the enemy. If the prisoner becomes a Muslim he may not be killed.

This is what Sharia Law says. It means that if Islam captures someone they can be put into slavery. This was done by Muhammad many times. Chapter eight of the Qur’an gives the rules for war booty. There is a khums tax which is one fifth of the spoils of war paid to Muhammad. He had over 6,000 slaves he had gained through the khums tax. The rest of the spoils are divided among the other warriors. Not only is this tax taken before anyone gets their part, each warrior has to then pay the khums tax on what he takes.

Muhammad not only had 6,000 regular slaves, he also had countless sex slaves. This takes us to the doctrine of Al-Sabi. Al Sabi is the doctrine of enslaving women for the purpose of sex for the Muslim fighters.

Here is what the Qur’an says about this doctrine:

Surah 23:5-6 – And they who guard their private parts, except from their wives or those their right hands possess, for indeed, they will not be blamed}

This give him the right to have sex with his wives and with his captives. Don’t tell me, Mr. Imam, that Islam came to destroy slavery.

America’s first war on foreign soil was the Barbary Pirate War. This war was with Muslims in North Africa. Our Marine Corps was created just for this war. This is why their hymn  says “From the halls of Montezuma, to the shores of Tripoli.” Tripoli is Libya in North Africa.

The Muslim pirates were capturing our merchant ships and the crews and  passengers. They would kill them, make them slaves, or hold them for ransom. President Adams was paying the ransom and it was bankrupting our treasury. Thank God that Jefferson, our third President, understood the problem. He bought a Qur’an and met with some Muslims so he could understand why they were doing what they did. From this he learned that the Muslims where doing what was commanded by their Prophet and their scriptures. They were commanded to make war with non-Muslims and to enslave them.

The Muslims were being successful so they kept capturing our ships. Jefferson created the Marines and took the sword to Islam. As a result the practice stopped.

We need to remember that the slaves we brought to America were first captured by Muslims in the interior of Africa. They brought them to the coast and sold them to Europeans and Americans. I am not saying that we were right to buy them, we were not, but who where the ones who first enslaved these people? It was the Muslims.

It was not Muslims who stopped the slave trade. The abolition of slavery came from Christians. The 20 pastors who were told that Islam stopped slavery were fools for buying it.

They got into other things like abrogation, and how the Islamic scriptures came over a long period of time. They said that the interpretation of the Qur’an has to be done in the context of the time when a portion was given. This is true. This is why I often say that to understand Islam and the Qur’an you must first understand Muhammad.

I am going to stop here, but tomorrow I am going to continue with this subject so we don’t make the same mistakes this group of pastors made.