Murder in the Name of Allah — Page 5
Religion drips with Blood starving creatures bellowed and snorted and, with hissing screeches, attacked. The Christians were gored or trampled to death. And after this festival of blood, the laughing Romans returned joyfully home. The 'apostates' had been fittingly punished. But while the Christians' legs trembled, their hearts beat strongly with faith in God. . Their persecution went on intermittently for three centuries. And when they found no place to hide, they fled underground to the catacombs. These long labyrinths exist today and they remind us that the. Christians could live with insects, scorpions and snakes but not with religious leaders in their fine clothes. . As well as those people who fled underground - Ashabi Kahf - the. Quran also mentions other Christians who believed in the Unity of God and were burned alive for their pains. God says:. By the heaven having mansions of stars, and the Promised Day, and the witness and he to whom witness is borne, cursed be the Fellows of the. Trench - the fire fed with fuel - when they sat by it and they were the witnesses of what they did to the believers. And they hated them not but only because they believed in Allah, the Almighty, the Praiseworthy, to. Whom belongs the Kingdom of the heavens and the earth; and Allah is. Witness over all things. (85. 2-10). The enormity of these atrocities is made worse because of the socalled religious protectors who actually prevent worship of Allah; their victims feel a greater anguish from being prevented from worshipping than they do from torture itself. The Quran says: 'And who is more unjust than the man who prohibits the name of Allah being glorified in Allah's mosques and seeks to destroy them?' (2. 115) So the Quran totally rejects the use of force to suppress religious freedom. It declares that though such suppression takes place, true believers never use force to preach the name of Allah. . So far we have told the story of the persecution of prophets who came before the time when God's light was to illuminate the world. But eventually the sun of eternal truth rose on the skies of the Arab peninsula and the world was soon to bask in the light of Muhammad'ssa message. . For thousands of years the world had awaited the greatest prophet. . One hundred and twenty-four thousand prophets had lived and died in the hope of welcoming this Seal of the Prophets. The man for whom the whole world was created finally appeared, reflecting the full glory of his. Creator. He was greater than all the prophets; his religion was complete. . But he, too, was persecuted and his persecution was without precedence. . Our Master and Lord, Prophet Muhammad, endured every conceivable. S