Response to Dr Waheed & Mr Farooq

Submitted by Emmanuelle Evangelou (United Kingdom), Jan 6, 2004 at 15:48

Dear Dr Waheed & Mr Farooq,

I've only just read your reply to an article published exactly a year ago in Capitalism magazine. The article was entitled 'What does the Arabic word "Jihad" mean.'

I would like to address your comparison of Islam with ""western colonilaism" and "capitalism."

Neither Western colonialism nor colonialism have claimed to be Christian. I am a Christian and I have read the Bible extensively. No-where have I read that God compels his followers to espouse colonialism or capitalism.

Even George Bush, who professes to be a Christian, rules over a nation which wants Christianity kept out of schools and government.

No (please excuse my ignorance if I am mistaken) Western nation that I know of has based its government on Christianity. The secular and the religious are completely separate - unlike many Muslim countries.

Western Christians have acknowledged that the Crusades in the Middle Ages were inspired by man and not, as claimed at the time, by God. Indeed many Christian groups have gone to Muslim countries and apologised for the atrocious behaviour of Christians during the Crusades.

The Koran, on the other hand, advocates violence against non-Muslims. I refer here to one of the many Surahs in the Koran which advocate this - namely Surah 47: 4 where Muslims are commanded by Allah to smite the necks of all those who do not accept the teachings of Islam.

As a Christian, I acknowledge that much of Western culture is immoral and unGodly. By the same token this culture is not Christian. There are no Western countries, to my knowledge, whose government has adopted a Christian constitution.

Yours sincerely,

Emmanuelle Evangelou

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