God Wants People Fed; Allah Wants People Dead

In church last Sunday the lesson for the day was Jesus feeding the multitude (John 6:1-13). A little lad had two fishes and five small barley rolls which he in child like simplicity offered to Jesus.  Under the beneficient hand of Jesus the multitude of over 5,000 people were fed.  No matter what you think happened, miraculous or not, the compassion of Jesus shines through the passage.  Jesus viewed the feeding of hungry as a God directed activity.  The feeding of the multitudes  is the only miracle recorded in all four of the Gospels.

And even today Christians follow in the footsteps of Jesus.  Feeding hungry, destitute people is an activity all Christians endorse.  Millions of people around the world depend on the benevolent spirit of Christians for their daily sustenance.

For a moment contrast this with the teachings of Islam.  There is not one whit of evidence that the Prophet Mohammed ever had any concern for a hungry mankind.  I am sure Mohammed urged the feeding of fellow Muslims, but not suffering humanity in general.  In fact Mohammed authorized one set of ethics for Muslims, and a different, more brutal, set of ethics for Kafirs (non-Muslims).  Famine was often used as a weapon of Jihad.  Even today, in Sudan, Somalia, Egypt, Turkey and Iraq, famine is a major tool of Islamic conquest.  The choice often is to convert to Islam and have plenty to eat, or continue being a Jew or a Christian and watch your children slowly starve to death in agony before your very eyes. Most parents cannot make a choice that condemns their own children to death.  So they at least become nominal Muslims.

Muslims envision the world divided between Muslims and Kafirs.  It is the Koranic dictated duty of every Muslim to wage war against the Kafirs.  The Christian ideal is the family of God composed of all races and nationalities sitting around the banquet table of God.

Allah wants non-believers dead.  The God of the Judeo-Christian ethic wants all people saved.  Allah teaches a savage theology of war to gain converts.  The God of Jesus teaches the persuasive power of divine love to recruit followers.  The god of Mohammed brings untold suffering to people.   The God of Jesus suffers on behalf of all humanity. Mohammed taught the division of humanity based on strife.  Jesus taught the unity of the human family based on love.  Mohammed taught the sanctity of some human life.  Jesus taught the sanctity of all human life.

Those of us in the Judeo-Christian tradition have a long and wonderful history of feeding the starving.  We do not believe in using famine as a weapon of war.  We believe that compassion will in the longer term overcome hatred.  We believe in feeding all people, anyone who needs our help.  We believe the strongest tactic is unconditional love, even of Muslims.