Muslim-Turned-Christian Author of 'Wholly Different' Says Islam Is a 'Rebellion Against the Bible'
An Iraqi Christian man from Mosul, who
fled from violence in their country, reads a book at the Latin
Patriarchate Church in Amman, Jordan,
A former Muslim who received Christ 20
years ago is urging Americans to see the clear distinctions between
Islamic and biblical values because the two are, she says, "wholly
different."
Nahid "Nonie" Darwish, author of Wholly Different: Why I Chose Biblical Values Over Islamic Values,
who was born in Cairo, Egypt, and raised adevout Muslim but now resides
in Los Angeles and is an sincere Christian, believes the problem facing
the West extends beyond radical groups like the Islamic State and
al-Qaeda.
A veteran writer on these issues, the author believes
Americans are at a crossroads and must engage the ideas underpinning the
terror attacks that are being carried out by Muslims and injustices
occurring in the Islamic world while not getting lost in obscurities
about Muslims as a whole.
"It's not because Muslim people are bad
or good," Darwish said in interview with The Christian Post. "It's very
important that the West understand that."
Nonie Darwish, author of Wholly Different: Why I Chose Biblical Values Over Islamic Values
"We are talking about an ideology, not people," she insisted, noting that the mainstream media often "muddy the water" on this.
But
when Darwish, and others, dares raise this issue, some claim that she
also paints with too broad a brush, assigning the worst motive to
Muslims rather engage in criticism of the ideas emanating from Islamic
theology itself.
But this is a departure from past debates about other political creeds, she says.
With European fascism and Soviet
Communism, for example, "we didn't call every Russian evil, every German
was not evil during Nazi Germany, so we should get beyond that now,"
Darwish said.
"Ideology is everything," she continued. "It defines
the culture that we live in, the standards by which we live," and
Islamic values are "the measurement of what good behavior is in the
Muslim world."
And those values are not good, she reiterated.
Each
chapter in the book showcases a specific aspect about the Bible and
Christianity and how it contrasts sharply with the Quran and Islam. Wholly Different, by Nonie DarwishChapter
4, titled The Truth Will Set You Free vs. Lying Is An Obligation,
includes a bit of her personal journey, where she notes that when she
arrived in the United States she learned more about her own religion in a
few months than in a lifetime of education in the Middle East.
"At first the process was intimidating," Darwish writes.
"Muslims
are often frustrated, not knowing what to say when asked what jihad is
or what taqiyya [the Arabic term for deception permitting Muslims to lie
under Sharia law], is. No committed Muslim can venture to tell the
truth about those Islamic doctrines, not even to him or herself. Those
who leave Islam, like myself, are the ones who simply could not continue
with the lies," she explains.
Darwish told CP that she's
particularly baffled by many on the Left — feminists in particular — and
their willingness to defend a religion she came to the U.S. to escape,
especially since their stated values on paper are so diametrically
opposing.
"The leftists in the West like to call themselves
liberal: 'I am for freedom, for democracy, for freedom of speech.' But
really down inside them is an anger.
Their position more of an
anti-position than a pro-[position], more of a rebellion than an
established ideology."
Yet what unites the Western secular left
and the Islamic world, she contends in her book, is a common
antagonistic spirit against biblical truth.
In Chapter 14 of Wholly Different, Darwish defines Islam in part as "a rebellion against the Bible."
The first cultural clash between Islam and the Bible did not occur between Europe and the Middle East, Darwish said.
"The
first cultural clash," she said, "was within the Middle East.
Six-hundred years after Christ, there was one whole area of the Middle
East that was not Christian, and it was Arabia. Christianity was all
over the Middle East by then. It was in Egypt, in the areas of Syria,
Iraq, in Turkey. The Byzantine Empire was thriving and strong."
CP
asked Darwish what she makes of noted moderate and liberal Muslim
dissidents and academics like Zuhdi Jasser, Asra Nomani, and former
Muslim Ayaan Hirsi Ali, now an atheist, whose book, Heretic: Why Islam Needs a Reformation Now outlines how the Islamic religion should be reformed in order to coexist with Western, democratic norms.
"I salute these efforts," she said, but expressed pessimism about their potential to change anything significantly.
"Sixty-four
percent of the Quran is talking about non-Muslims in a very derogatory
way, with many passages calling for them to be killed since they are
enemies of Allah," she said.
Darwish has been speaking in this
manner since 9/11. She came to the Christian faith gradually, receiving
Jesus as her Lord and Savior in 1997, just a few years prior to that
fateful day. She told CP that she had always felt comfortable around
Christians and when she first entered a church tears started flowing
down her face and they didn't stop until after the service concluded and
she left the building.
CP asked Darwish how she encountered the Lord while penning Wholly Different.
She explained that it took her whole heart and soul to do it and that she felt closer to Jesus after writing it.
"I
just thank God every minute of the day for being in America which
allowed me to touch a Bible and to know Jesus," Darwish said. "It is
such a privilege be free to touch a Bible, to talk about it in public.
And this is something that is forbidden if you live in the Muslim
world."
"I see Christianity in everything. I see the biblical values in everything."
Darwish
said she used to have in-laws in Berkeley, California, who were atheist
liberals who, in her words, "hated American values, and wanted to
change everything," but the way in which they lived in their home, she
observed "was totally biblical."
"And they were unaware of it,"
Darwish told CP. "They attributed it to how smart they are, but in fact
they should kiss the Bible and kiss the ground of this country that
allowed them to live by these values. Because in other parts of the
world, the values are so opposite."
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