Facing Some Hard Facts

Tom: Thanks, Gary. You’re listening to Search the Scriptures Daily, a program in which we encourage everyone who desires to know God’s truth to look to God’s Word for all that is essential for salvation and living one’s life in a way that is pleasing to Him.

If you’re new to the program or haven’t listened in for month or so, in this segment of Search the Scriptures Daily we’re going through Dave Hunt’s new book Judgment Day! Islam, Israel, and the Nations.

Dave, in chapter 8, titled “Facing Hard Facts,” you quote Article 18 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which reads: “Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.” Amazingly, this was approved by a number of Muslim countries, including Saudi Arabia; yet in practice, regarding Saudi Arabia in particular, this is a fraud. How do you explain the world’s acceptance of this?

Dave: Tom, it is so insane that I can’t explain any of it. Now, let me explain something, however: this is the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It’s the prize - you could say it’s the foundation of the United Nations, one of the first things they came out with to define what the United Nations is for. United Nations is supposed to be protecting freedom and individual rights around the world. Now, every nation that is a member of the United Nations did not sign the entire declaration. The reason I mentioned Article 18 in the book is because every nation signed that one. See, they voted on each article individually; every nation agreed to that one. Soviet Union at that time agreed to this.

Tom: China.

Dave: China…is this a joke? I mean, are they just mocking us? And Saudi Arabia, where if a Muslim changes his religion he’s beheaded; where you can’t have any other worship ceremony or service except Islamic; where you cannot build a non-Muslim place of worship; where you must be a Muslim to be a citizen; where there’s no freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of religion, and so forth, and they sign Article 18? And you just read it - let me read it again: “Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.” But you couldn’t carry a Bible on the street in Saudi Arabia. If you are a Saudi, they’ll kill you! If you are a foreigner, they’ll throw you out of the country, unless they put you in jail and torture you to get you to confess that you’re a terrorist or who knows what, or that your own purpose in coming there was to convert Muslims, and that’s against the law, and so forth. Tom, I just challenge anybody that’s listening to us: try to understand this! 

Now, what is even worse - not only is Saudi Arabia and the Muslim countries, not only are they thumbing their noses at us and just laughing up their sleeves and mocking the world when they pledge rights which they do not give, but what about the United Nations? How can the United Nations be content to have nations as members that violate the very foundation of what the United Nations stands for? And no one says a word.

Tom, there ought to be a cry of outrage from the citizens of the world against this sort of thing. There ought to be a cry of outrage from Americans to the United States, you know, our representatives to the UN and to the president of the US. Why do we continue as a member of this without pointing this out? Why don’t we raise some objections? Why don’t we put some pressure on Muslim nations to conform to what they say they stand for and is the very foundation of the United Nations?

Tom: Dave, you said this is really insane, but some of the particulars here… 

Just this week - of course, we tape this program, so it would have been a couple of weeks ago, but as I’m speaking right now, just this week we have France in a situation. They have, what - 6 million Muslims in France, 500 thousand in the suburbs of Paris, and there are riots going on! You have areas in which the police, firemen won’t enter because of fear for their lives! These are conclaves - I don’t know if you’d call them ghettos, but they’re conclaves of Muslims, most of which speak nothing but Arabic; they don’t speak French, and the police will not go in there, and they will tell any tourist or even French citizens not to go in there. Dave, this is part of the insanity that’s going on. So how does a country like France or - you know, the same thing is happening to some degree in England, and in many parts of Europe, and they’re living in fear!

Dave: Well, Tom, I don’t like to say it, but it is their own fault, because they have turned a blind eye to the truth, and that’s why we title this chapter “Facing Hard Facts.” And the same thing is happening in the United States. They have insisted and they still insist that Islam is peace. The president of France honored Arafat, the worst terrorist the world has ever seen, and they helped him out in their hospital, gave him special treatment, and praised this man as the world has praised him. The United Nations accepted Arafat, and they invited him to give a speech. He gives a speech to the general assembly in which he calls for the annihilation of Israel, and they give him a standing ovation…Tom, the world has gone mad. And I was thinking about it last night in the middle of the night: Lord, how can we do something? Because major concern is the Muslims themselves: how can we get the gospel to them? How can we bring the truth to these people who are in bondage to this lie of Islam and they dare not change their thinking? 

Now, let me explain a little bit more about the situation over there: Muslims do not integrate in society. They want to wear their own garb, you know; the women dress like they’re supposed to dress, you see, because part of Islam is whatever Muhammad did, that’s what you must do. You must eat like Muhammad and live like Muhammad and sleep like Muhammad, who, by the way, you remember (I don’t think we’ve mentioned on this program) Muhammad said that as soon as you waken in the morning you must blow your nose three times, because the devil spends the night in a man’s nostrils, okay? All kinds of nonsense like this. But anyway, you must dress like Muhammad…

Tom: This is 7th century AD.

Dave: Right, right, and you can’t change that, okay? And you speak Arabic, because that’s the holy language, and the Qur’an supposedly can only be understood in Arabic. They do not integrate with the West. They move to the West because they are there as subversives. They are there to congregate in certain areas until they became a majority, and then they can vote in their own representatives on the school board or city council or whatever it is in those areas. They are determined to take over the world, and I keep trying to say this, and very people want to believe it, at least in the government. 

Now, Holland is a good example. Holland was one of the foremost in saying, “Well, you know, you’ve got to let them be as they want to be,” and so forth and so on. Now people are being murdered in Holland. You remember the filmmaker? He made an honest film about the treatment of women in Islam, and he was murdered. And now there’s an outcry in Holland: “These people must be forced to speak our language. We must tell them that they are not going to be allowed as citizens of Holland unless they speak Dutch. We are not going to lose our society, our culture as we’ve had it here in Holland for centuries by welcoming these Muslims, and then they want to take over and change everything.” France is going to have to recognize this, all of Europe is going to have to recognize this, and the United States is going to have to recognize it.

Tom: Can they really impose something like that?

Dave: Well…

Tom: I mean, they haven’t in the past. Who’s going to let them do it now, or are they driven to it?

Dave: You’re driven to it. I would think they could make a requirement that citizens of Holland speak Dutch. Now, they want to speak Arabic on the side, or Spanish, or whatever, that’s okay. I mean, you have qualifications for citizenship, and that could easily become one of the qualifications. You must learn to speak Dutch - pledge to speak Dutch, at least, and to learn it and be fluent in it, and take an exam in Dutch to become a citizen. Some foreigner moves into the United States, right? To become a citizen of the US, they have to study American history. Unfortunately, it’s been twisted around today, but they have to pass certain exams in order to become citizens of the United States. 

Now, maybe these people don’t want to become citizens. In fact, in Holland they’re saying you have to be a resident for at least six years before they can become citizens. 

But, Tom, you must do something, because, you know, as we’ve quoted a few times, Muhammad said, “Allah has commanded me to fight against all people until all people confess there’s no god but Allah and Muhammad is his prophet.” So they are determined to take over the world, because they’ve been taught Islam is the only true religion, and they want to impose that on everyone. 

Well, somebody says, “Yeah, but you Christians - Jesus said, ‘Go into all the world and preach the gospel.’” Well, that’s true, but we don’t impose Christianity on people, and we do not connect it with the government. But as we’ve mentioned on this program, Islam imposes a theocracy. You cannot separate the religion from the government, and every Muslim understands that.

Now, the astonishing thing is…

Tom: Dave, you explained it in the book.

Dave: Yes, as much as it can be explained. The Bible tells us something about the human heart. Jeremiah:17:9The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?
See All... - God says, “The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it?” It’s not a pleasant statement. I mean, could that be true of my heart and your heart? We can even deceive ourselves? Well, apparently.

And then of course, God goes on, and He says, “I the Lord search the heart.” And this is why David in Psalm 139 said, “Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”

Tom: Mm-hmm. Dave, I guess one explanation of this is that when men turn to their own ways, it doesn’t work out, but they continue. And as they continue, it’s like problem after problem, and they want to resolve problem after problem, but it just gets so far out of control that there’s nothing they can do about it. 

As you mentioned, we were talking about France and their problem with Muslims to the point of riots, to the point of…what can they do about it now?

Dave: Tom, Ruth and I were in France…I can’t remember now - a few years ago when they had some riots in Paris. And you know what the riots were about then? There were some armed Muslims who were, I don’t know, killing people, and the police shot back and killed them. And the Muslims rioted: “How could you dare do that?” So we have a double standard, and as I point out in the book also, it’s not just Muslims (although maybe they’re the worst), but what about Christians who profess one thing with their mouth and their lips and they practice something else? 

So the next verse that I quote is from Isaiah:29:13Wherefore the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honour me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men:
See All..., where Christ rebuked the rabbis of His day - interesting - He rebuked the rabbis of His day with what Isaiah rebuked the people of God in his day. He refers to Isaiah: “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, saying, This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth and honoreth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.” It’s a common human failing to profess one thing with the lips and then deny it in practice. But, Tom, we see it all the time. And this is The Berean Call, Search the Scriptures Daily. We talk about this quite a bit, because we live in a day - as Paul told Timothy, the day was coming when those who call themselves Christians “will not endure sound doctrine.” We have churches that claim to believe one thing, but they don’t practice it. We have a Reformation back there, remember? And supposedly it delivered us from Catholicism, but there’s a great deal of Catholicism that hung on in Reformed churches such as infant baptism and this wafer really is Christ…

Tom: Right the sacrament.

Dave: …and so forth. See, so this is a common problem with human beings. We lie to ourselves and to others, we’re not consistent in our lives… A child can give its mother a Mother’s Day card and honor its mother on Mother’s Day, and say, “Mommy, I love you!” And then give it a few hours, and it’s rebelling against its mother.

Okay, so that’s a common practice, Tom. But what we also point out in the book is that some cultures encourage this natural evil and dishonesty of the heart, and that’s the culture from which Islam sprang, the Arab culture, and it is still deeply rooted in it. It’s one thing for an individual Christian to profess to love Christ and neighbor as oneself, and yet fail to live up to this in daily life. It’s something else, however, for one’s religion itself to teach its followers to lie, commit violence, plunder, and murder in order to advance its cause in the world. And this is the situation with Islam: it offers - dares to offer paradise, rewards in heaven (virgins and so forth) for murdering innocent women and children! 

And now, Tom, I’m sure you know Al Jazeera television, the latest now - what they’re calling suicide bombers is a “paradise operation,” because it will take them to paradise. The world ought to rise up in outrage against a religion whose god says, “Go out and kill people, and I will give you a reward in paradise for doing it.”

Tom: Dave, you note, and I’m quoting here, “A RAND corporation analyst told the Pentagon’s Defense Policy Board that Saudi Arabia was an enemy of the United States, that the Saudis were active at every level of the terror chain.” 

Now, in this chapter, chapter 8, you do, though, give a glimmer of hope here, or at least it seems that way, that maybe pressure is being brought to bear for the Saudis at least to change their image, and they seem to be doing some things.

Dave: Well, I’d like to hope it was more, but it’s really more of a pretense. Saudi Arabia, for example, says, “We’ll make all possible efforts to improve our international image, higher education…” Minister Dr. Khaled Al-Ankari made that statement in Riyadh on October 2, 2004. But much of it is either deceptive window-dressing or pure public relations. How can they change anything without changing their religion? But there could be enough pressure put upon them that will cause some changes; that’s what I’m hoping for.

Tom: Yeah, Dave, when they have a conference or at least bring people in, they’re all not going to be “yes men,” I would think. There may be some people who truly, just for the sake of credibility with the foreign press, they may bring some people in who want to see some change.

Dave: Tom, listen to this - this is Al-Ankari, the minister of higher education, and he refers to what he calls “strident media campaigns attempting to tarnish the kingdom [that’s Saudia Arabia’s] international image, and discredit its values and institutions since the September 11th event.” 

Well, Tom, we document in the book that they have bankrolled al-Qaeda to over half a billion dollars, that they are supporting the suicide bombers that go against Israel as well as the ones going into Iraq, and what - you are tarnishing the kingdom’s image when this is what they stand for, this is what they do; when a Jew can’t even enter Saudi Arabia; only a Muslim can be a citizen, as we’ve said many times, but I want people to get it drilled into them; it’s the death penalty (beheading) for a Muslim to change to any other religion, and we document in the book the numbers of beheadings each year and so forth…how could you tarnish the image of a country that does that? And these people apparently are blinded to the horror of what Islam really is, because if they admitted that, they would have to give up their religion. They would lose Mecca. Why would people come to what used to be an idol temple and go through all these pagan ceremonies that the pagan Arabs practiced for centuries before Muhammad was born and which he retained as part of Islam - this is the Hajj, or Ramadan, the so-called holy month, which was practiced by pagan Arabs even before Muhammad was born for centuries! 

And by the way, remember Muhammad received a revelation that went into the Qur’an that Muslims could attack. They could kill people during Ramadan, and that became a surprise attack, his first success, on a caravan, because the pagan Arabs had agreed there would not be any violence during Ramadan, and what did we just have happen now? There was violence during Ramadan in Paris; there were suicide bombers - one went into Israel during Ramadan, the so-called “time of peace”; and then at the end of Ramadan, President Bush will welcome the Arab leaders into the White House, and they’ll have the Eid Festival, the feast, where now they can eat well and so forth…

Tom, actually the fasting during Ramadan is during the day, then you can eat all you want at night, and the facts are that Muslim areas consume more food and drink during Ramadan then any other comparable period.

Tom: Mm-hmm. You quote from a PBS documentary, January 2005: “It might come as a surprise to many Americans, but the most pressing threat to the United States is not the suspected al-Qaeda cells at home [I assume the US], but rather the cells operating overseas, especially in Western Europe. Home to an estimated 18 million Muslims, Western Europe has become the new and deadly battleground in the war on terror.”

Dave: I’m afraid that’s true, Tom, and that was an excellent documentary. Really opened people’s eyes, and I hope it gets wide distribution. We need that information.