Ground Zero Imam: I‘ve ’Always Been’ a Jew and a Christian
- Posted on August 30, 2010 at 7:59pm by
Jonathon M. Seidl
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NEW YORK–Christianity, Judaism, and Islam are one in the same. That’s according to Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, the man behind the Ground Zero mosque. And New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg agrees.
In a 2003 speech at a memorial service for slain journalist Daniel Pearl, Rauf claimed that based on the “common ground of our faiths,“ he has ”always been” a Jew and a Christian.
“If to be a Jew means to say with all one’s heart, mind and soul: ‘Shma Yisrael, Adonai Elohenu Adonai Ehad; Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One,’” Rauf said, “not only today I am a Jew, I have always been one. If to be a Christian is to love the Lord our God with all of my heart, mind and soul, and to love for my fellow human being what I love for myself, then not only am I a Christian, but I have always been one.”
Last week, New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg (who is Jewish) supported the statement. At a dinner he hosted to commemorate Ramadan, Bloomberg added, “In that spirit, let me declare that we in New York are Jews and Christians and Muslims, and we always have been.”
But equating Islam with Judaism and Christianity is considered by some Jews and Christians as a gross misinterpretation.
“To claim that Christianity, Islam, and Judaism are essentially the same thing ignores the fact that they make competing theological claims about God, humanity, and the relationship between the two,” says Darian Lockett, assistant professor of biblical and theological studies at BIOLA University in Los Angeles. “Though these three monotheistic religions share a connection to Abraham, these three groups make significantly different claims about God.”
Additionally, by claiming to be all three, Lockett argues, Rauf strips each faith of its specific truth claim: “Christianity focuses upon the finished work of Christ as the only path to God, while Judaism focuses on following Torah and Islam demands following the law of Allah as a means to salvation.” Rauf’s statement, he adds, is grossly contradictory.
Still, the three faiths do share a common theme of loving God and neighbor. One of the five pillars of Islam is giving alms to the needy, and both Old and New Testament scriptures admonish Jews and Christians to love God and care for others. But those similarities do not mean the faiths are interchangeable, according Arthur Hyman and Adam Mintz, two Jewish scholars in New York City.
Hyman, dean of the Bernard Revel Graduate School of Jewish Studies at Yeshiva University says that sharing some beliefs does not make the religions identical. “While to love God and your neighbor are parts of the three religions,” he explains, “these cannot be considered as determining the essential part of each religion.” For example, he points out that Jesus is the cornerstone of the Christian faith (considered the Son of God), while he is only a prophet in Islam and completely absent from orthodox Judaism.
Adam Mintz, an orthodox Rabbi in New York City and adjunct professor at Queens College, also recognizes that some practices are shared by the three faiths. But when asked if Judaism is simply about loving God and neighbor, he responded, “That is definitely not what Judaism is.”
According to Lockett, neither are the other faiths. To define them as such, “papers over the different ways each community understands God, love, and neighbor.“ And while ”it is ‘cool’ in our culture to use the same words and import our own meaning into them,” he adds, “this is both theologically and intellectually dishonest.” To him, then, the Imam’s statement appears disingenuous.
Christian apologist Dinesh D’Souza, author of What’s So Great About Christianity and the newly appointed president of The King’s College in New York City, offers a slightly different view. He says the Imam‘s and the mayor’s statements can be defined in two ways–as either political or theological.
Theologically, the statements cannot be justified: “Certainly in the sense of salvation Christianity is unique; It has distinctive differences form Judaism and Islam.” But politically the statements make sense. “Politics is about how we live together,” he explains,”not about what happens to our souls when we die.” He believes the mayor’s statement may have been intended to find the lowest common denominator. The Imam’s statement still, however, “gives me pause.”
Lockett puts it much more forcefully: “It is impossible to be rationally coherent and claim to be all three.”
–Calls and e-mails to Muslim leaders were not returned
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Comments (54)
MERRYRIVER
Posted on August 31, 2010 at 12:41amJust two/three days ago, I read that Michael Bloomberg self-describes himself as “not particularly religious.” Now today he’s become Muslim, Jew and Christian!
Obviously, the terms are not being used sincerely by highly political persons in highly manipulative speech. That these types (Imam Rauf, Bloomberg, etc.) are making so many public declarations as “authorities” about such profound issues that they clearly both reject and misrepresent (via artificial and superficial definitions and references) serves to emphasize the patent political nature of this Mr. Rauf and his ‘mosque’.
Report Post »fireupfreedom
Posted on August 31, 2010 at 12:37amWe do not worship the same God as Islam. They worship Satan.
Report Post »rhet 2
Posted on August 31, 2010 at 12:00amI just have to disagree with this statement:
“Christianity focuses upon the finished work of Christ as the only path to God, while Judaism focuses on following Torah and Islam demands following the law of Allah as a means to salvation.” Rauf’s statement, he adds, is grossly contradictory.”
Christianity teaches that Jesus of Nazareth is God — Allah, in Arabic. Not a prophet, God Himself, made flesh to complete the perpetual blood sacrifice required as atonement for sin, to be the perprtual 24/7 lamb of sacrifice pictured in the lamb’s blood painted on the doorposts during the final divine action that forced Egypt to release the Children of Abraham from slavery to the sins and torments of evil emblemized as slavery to Egypt.
He is God and He is the Lamb of perpetual sacrifice that makes all the ritual sacrifices of the Law of Moses obsolete and no longer necessary.
More, He is the only source of perfect righteousness and rebirth whereby sinful men can be literally reborn into first a new life of the soul and then, in the future, a new life of the body, too.
We don’t have to love Christ. We have to accept His atonement for our own sins AND accept the gift of Christ’s absolute perfect righteousness so that we then are made new and FIT TO BE friends of God, enabled to learn how to love God and our fellow man. Without that rebirth, through acceptance of Christ as both God and Man and the Lamb of Sacrifice, we cannot love God at all, because our hearts and minds are corrupt, blinded and perverted by both our Adamic curse and by our own personal sin, especially the sin of pride, which is the same crime that Satan committed, so that we are NOT FIT to stand in the Presence of the Holy ONE. A Christian is not a person who loves God. A Christian is a person who has been reborn and given the perfect and undeserved righteousness of Christ so that the Christian may then BEGIN to learn how to love God and how to then love his fellow man.
I’m sorry, but this imam has not believed in and accepted the Lamb of God as GOD — and has rejected the sacrifice of atonement, rejected the absolute righteousness attributed to us by Christ when we believe in Him. The imam has the process exactly reversed: first we believe in Christ as God and Lamb of Sacrifice, then we get reborn, then we start learning — and when we finally get Translated into Heaven, Then, and only then, do we finally achieve the perfect love of God and of each other which is His promised gift to us. Until then, we’re just babies barely able to love at all — and then only by grace of God, moment by moment, day by day — and failing nearly as often as we succeed.
Like in so much else, the doctrines of islam are so very twisted, the exact opposite of what Christ actually taught.
Report Post »GeeWhiz
Posted on August 30, 2010 at 11:48pmAt best he‘s trying to be romantic ’we‘re all the same’. At worst, he‘s trying to have us think that hes’ romantic, when he’s not.
Report Post »TPARTY RADIO
Posted on August 30, 2010 at 11:07pmYes, and I am a Liberal, a Progressive, and a Communist, as well as a Conservative Constitutionalist.
Report Post »NDwind
Posted on August 30, 2010 at 10:41pm… and the snake replied: “You knew I was a snake when you picked me up”
Report Post »jarjen
Posted on August 30, 2010 at 10:37pmOMG! He sounds like Obama!
Report Post »tommyboy
Posted on August 30, 2010 at 10:13pm” If to be a Christian is to love the Lord our God with all of my heart, mind and soul, and to love for my fellow human being what I love for myself, ”
First that’s not what it takes to be a Christian and nowhere in the NT does is say it is. Second, you have never loved the Lord with ALL of your heart, mind and soul for even a whole hour in your entire life. (nor has anyone else except Jesus)
Report Post »anna8
Posted on August 30, 2010 at 10:03pmGreat write up, they got it straight,thank you Blaze media
Report Post »Other media think we are stupid,you do not,thank you millions!!!!!!
God Bless You,
spstainers
Posted on August 30, 2010 at 11:15pmI am on board with you anna8!
Report Post »j-mac
Posted on August 30, 2010 at 9:58pm“I am the way, the truth, and the light. No man comes to the Father, but by me.”–Jesus Christ
Report Post »Waiting4George
Posted on August 30, 2010 at 9:57pmJust when you think this guy can’t get any creepier….
Report Post »Thaddeus
Posted on August 30, 2010 at 9:54pmThis is why Obama can claim to be a Christian without fear of being labeled a Muslim apostate (the sentence for which is death under Sharia law). We have heard Obama say that he is a Christian but we have never heard Obama say that he is not a Muslim, and I suspect that we will not. Just like the Ground Zero Imam can be both a Christian, and a Jew, and yet still a Muslim, the same for Obama. I would love to see someone challenge Obama to affirmatively state that he is not a Muslim, that he does believe that Jesus is the one and only true, literal son of God ever to walk the face of the Earth, and that Muhammad is a false prophet. This I believe he would not and could not do.
Report Post »DanWanLi
Posted on August 30, 2010 at 9:53pmI think what you have here is the world’s answer to the challenge of fundalentalist Islam… water it down like the denominational churches did to Christianity. Make Islam interchangeable with Buddhism, Eastern Mysticism, and Catholicism and you have effectively eliminated the danger that the Qu’ran truly is.
Report Post »MERRYRIVER
Posted on August 31, 2010 at 1:06amYes, Danwanli, exactly so.
“Thou shalt not surely die” — so said the serpent to Eve when she tried to protest eating of the fruit, and cited God‘s command as He’d cautioned her not to do so.
Report Post »paul1149
Posted on August 30, 2010 at 9:50pmJust set foot in his precious Mecca and you’ll find out very quickly just how ecumenical these people are. Taqiyya.
Report Post »MARY1949
Posted on August 30, 2010 at 9:49pmNone of the lamestream Media and even Obama just don’t not get it.
Report Post »It’s all about sensitivy to the family members of 9-11 fallen. They don’t report this at all.
They avoid the real problem with the mosque being built there. This is who they are. They twist it all around and call people racist. How Sad these LITTLE PEOPLE are.
The MSM is Pathetic. I am appalled at some of the reporters and people that they have employed there.
Unreal.
Trinity
Posted on August 30, 2010 at 9:34pmWOW- Schizophrenia on the national stage. I wonder how that internal struggle is going for this man of many faiths. I wonder how he quiets that voice telling him to wipe himself off the face of the earth while a different voice is pondering a 5ft vs. a 6 ft “Holiday” tree. But to be fair maybe he is just covering his bets for judgment day.
Report Post »Txsleuth
Posted on August 30, 2010 at 9:26pmI would never have Bloomberg or Rauf speak for me, regarding my faith. However, this can’t just be considered a religious discussion. There is real peril here.
There was an article today that said that Bloomberg met with Obama last week and they could havediscussed Sharia financing. THAT is a dangerous topic and anything sharia should be unacceptable to an American, regardless of religion.
http://bigjournalism.com/mfrazier/2010/08/27/follow-the-money-could-mayor-bloombergs-business-interests-in-the-middle-east-have-anything-to-do-with-his-support-of-the-ground-zero-mosque/
Report Post »MERRYRIVER
Posted on August 31, 2010 at 1:11amAnd, Bloomberg has big investments going on in the Middle East. So he’s keyed into the financial dealings with the Saudis and not into the religious issues — he was quoted last week (at that Ramadam dinner he held in New York) as saying he “wasn’t particularly religious”.
He says he is a supporter of Israel but one wonders why he maintains such a position and with what sincerity he does since he’s not a religious Jew. Which means he’s an atheist who is Jewish by ethnicity and only so.
I think he‘s likely more than anything just being a useful idiot for Imam Rauf and the Saudis and Obama’s got willpower issues in addition, he ‘needs’ to control this operation and get that mosque created there for sick, egotistical reasons.
Report Post »Consigliere5
Posted on August 30, 2010 at 9:19pmIn October, he’ll be attending “The Interfaith Visionary Call To Action Conference on Sustainable Development” along with Keynote Speaker Van Jones. It’s in honor of the 50th Anniversary of the Temple of Understanding.
Report Post »http://templeofunderstanding.org/wwd_2010_awards-2.htm
Mizzoumama
Posted on September 8, 2010 at 9:46amI thought this was a far-fetched joke, but no it’s true. What an insane world.
Report Post »KenM2
Posted on August 30, 2010 at 9:17pmIsn’t this like saying based on our “common ground of our all being humans, I have always been like Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin and Bin Laden? Preposterous!
Report Post »PinkIris
Posted on August 30, 2010 at 9:13pmJust what I was thinking when I read his comments, Philo – Islam says it is OK to lie to infidels.
Report Post »Consigliere5
Posted on August 30, 2010 at 9:11pmI‘m not surprised to hear this considering that he’s part of a lot of the global “interfaith” UN-loving groups such as the “Temple of Understanding” and he’s a Vice Chair of the “Interfaith Center of New York”
Report Post »Cynewulf
Posted on August 30, 2010 at 9:11pm“If to be a Christian is to love the Lord our God with all of my heart, mind and soul, and to love for my fellow human being what I love for myself, then not only am I a Christian, but I have always been one.”
If to be a sperm whale is to have a fondness for calamari, then not only am I a sperm whale, but I’ve been one since the 8th grade.
Report Post »anhaga
Posted on August 31, 2010 at 1:55amCynewulf:
you disgrace the name you have chosen as a nickname.
Report Post »Cynewulf
Posted on August 31, 2010 at 2:18amDo explain, O solitary one. Perchance you are on the wrong path.
Report Post »Snowbunnie
Posted on August 30, 2010 at 9:02pmI believe it does as well as advocating other things that can obscure what they really have planned for the rest of the world.
Report Post »veteranmarine
Posted on August 30, 2010 at 9:01pm1300 years of war and this guy says we all believe the same thing?
Philo Beddoe
Posted on August 30, 2010 at 8:53pmDoesn’t islam preach that it is ok to lie to the infidels?
MATT JESSEN
Posted on August 30, 2010 at 9:47pmi have heard the same thing it would be interesting if this would get reported on. i think it is called taqiyya
Proud Conservative
Posted on August 30, 2010 at 9:56pmI learned everything I need to know about ISLAM on 9/11…
SamAdams
Posted on August 30, 2010 at 11:40pmThat’s exactly what I was thinking while reading this article. This statement is dripping with Taqiyya. Just another statement to lure the infidel into a false sense of agreement. We ain‘t buyin’!
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