Why Christians, Muslims shouldn’t fight over religion
By Reno Omokri
The vast majority of humanity are not even conscious that they are the product of other people’s choices. If you were born in Saudi Arabia, you would be a Muslim.
If you were born to Jewish parents in Jerusalem, you would be a Jew. If you were born in Italy, chances are strong that you would be a Catholic. If you were born in England to English parents, you will likely be an Anglican. What role did you play in deciding your religion? Nothing.
Less than 1% of Earth’s population chose their religion. Geography and history made that choice for them. And then, throughout their lives, those choices are reinforced by indoctrination. From the cradle to the grave, most people are programmed robots.
I am reminded of a book, The Pirate, by Harold Robbins. In the book, a Jew who lost his wife in a desert sandstorm, gave his son to an Arab family so the child would not die. The boy grew up to become a fanatical Muslim who was against Jews.
Badyr Al Fay’s story happened in 19th Century West Africa in the real life story of Afonja, of Ilorin. Afonja, an ethnic Edekiri (an ethnicity now known by the historically inaccurate name of Yoruba), asked Alimi to teach his son, and his son took to Alimi and became an adherent of Alimi’s ideas. The rest is history.
So stop hating people of other religions as yours, even if that religion is an opposing one. I take myself for example. With the love I have for God, if I were a Muslim, I would go to any extreme allowed by my religion to project my faith. That is the programming.
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That I am a follower of Yeshua today, is because I was able to reject my family’s Catholicism and Anglicanism and take both Scripture, the Bible and al-Quran and read them, as well as other books, and make my own choice. But how many of Earth’s 7 billion people have that luxury? Most people today find two paragraphs too long to read.
In 2019, I was in Nepal and Cambodia, mingling with Buddhist priests and students. If I had been born in either country, who would have taught me about Christ? These were decent men who feared God but believed Him differently than I did.
Even as a member of the sect of the Nazarenes, I visited Ethiopia seven times a year and twenty-five times in my life, and with the purity of Christianity I saw there, I had serious doubts that Christians and Muslims really understood their religion. Without Ethiopia, both Orthodox Christianity and Islam may not have survived in their purest forms.
So, if I hate practitioners of other religions because of their faith and call them arne, or unbeliever, or infidel, as my programming would have me do, they would automatically hate me and reject Yeshua. But if I tried to understand them, they would open up and perhaps want to understand my Saviour.
If you are a Christian, you do not have the luxury of hating anyone because Yeshua, Whom you purport to follow, did not come to Earth to die for Christians. He came to die for the whole world. ‘For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son’-John 3:16
That is why I appreciate men like apostle Suleman. Born a Muslim. Studied and became a Malam. Heard of Christ in the Quran. Bought a Bible. Read it. Was not satisfied. He taught himself Greek and read it in original Greek and gave his life to Christ
You see, Yeshua did not come to establish a religion. He was NOT the Founder of Christianity. If He is attached to any religion, it is to Judaism. He came to reestablish man’s direct fellowship with God. Unknown to many so-called Christians, the Wisemen who visited Christ as a baby included Arabs and Persians. None was a Jew!
In His lifetime, Yeshua mixed with Samaritans, Syrophoenicians, Greeks, Romans, and possibly Edomites (Herod was an Edomite). And Scripture had this testimony about Him: “He went around doing good”-Acts 10:38
In the beginning, God created man. God did not create religion. Men created religion to separate men from other men. Yeshua came to reestablish God’s purpose for creation by reconciling man to God. You do not need religion. You need God!
Gospeller. Business Insider Magazine’s Business Influencer of the Year, 2022. Deep Thinker. #1 Bestselling author of Facts Versus Fiction: The True Story of the Jonathan Years. Avid traveller. Hollywood Magazine Film Festival Humanitarian of the Year, 2019.
