Iran Will NOT Be Forced to Ditch Islam By the West - Russia Has Their Back

Submitted by M. Tovey (United States), Jun 20, 2012 at 15:51

AAA's opinion is obviously anti-American, even if it in softer ones than others who will chant 'death to America' (and Israel) and seek the demise of America by whatever means necessary. That this is done under revolutionary Islamists influences is one of the reasons many Americans (and others) take a less than appreciative view of Islam. The opinion of AAA does nothing to diminish that.

In the simpler scheme of things, were the majority of the Iranian population living out their lives in a moderate means that did not follow the preaching of the clerics of Iran and other shia enclaves calling for the about referenced chants of death, then Iranians could conceivably live out their Muslim lives without interference-except they can't. Muslims that do not live according to the fundamentalist teachings are often times called apostate, an endearing term that could result in a pronouncement of death.

Now, AAA, like so many who do not truly understand true discipleship of Jesus Christ, makes the unfortunate association that all western religion operates under the influences of the Holy Bible-and they do not. Thus there is the resultant myth that if one does not decide to follow Jesus Christ, there are of course, consequences; but the Holy Bible does NOT teach that it is incumbent upon the witness of Jesus Christ to execute the judgment of that pronouncement-that is reserved to the Supreme Holy Judge.

The true witness is sharing the faith each true believer has in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sin based upon the redeeming work on the cross; but that is all a Christian witness is commanded to share. The free choice is left to the one to whom the witness is shared-to believe or not. Would I be glad that a person, whether Iranian or otherwise decided upon a life with Jesus Christ as LORD, to be sure; but as sure also, I would be sad they refused: but that is their choice, not mine to force. Those that feel compelled to force it are in violation of Scripture and will be called to account for it.

Is such a choice available in Islam? Decidedly, it is not under fundamentalist teachings so you will not see them leaving in droves. What you will see is that as a general people, Iranians have found themselves in different eras of spiritual influences going way before Islam came to town; the pre-Islamic religions running the spectrum from Zoroastrianism to even first second and third century Christianity along with Judaism. Islam came along and changed all that. We'll leave the musing of how well that is working out for them for others to contemplate.

And as for being inimical to Hizbollah, they have only themselves to blame for the reaction they have heaped upon themselves and their benefactors. Do not try to press an Islamically influenced version of their antagonism towards Israel, for they have reaped what they have sown as much if not more than Israel; and the worst is yet to come, self induced. Israel only responded to the increased frequent cross border instigations of hostilities and Hizbollah has hidden behind a well disciplined process of getting friendly world opinion to back their cause instead of taking responsibility for the incursions they made into Israeli territory. Do not take my word for it-translate Hassan Nasrallah's words against Israel from al-Araby to English and understand why.

And finally, co-religionists leave their false sense of Christianity all the time, some even turning to Islam-go figure. But when they do, do they allow for those left behind to continue in their embrace of the teachings of Jesus Christ? NO, they do not. And why is that? Because, in the basic teaching of Islam, which was started to counter a false teaching of religionist Christianity, they are told that Islam shall rule over all other religions and it is their duty to take their part in the process or be found apostate to the cause.

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".