Can one be Muslim and Christian?

The obvious answer is “no.”  But that did not solve the dilemma for one Episcopal priest.

This dear lady seemed to think saying the shahada was simply adding something.  In fact, she quoted her shahada as: “there’s no God but God and that Mohammed is God’s prophet or messenger.”   When in fact,  the shahada of Islam is more strictly:  “There is no God but Allah and Mohammed is His final messenger.”  What is in the shahada is a redirection of the allegiance of the person to Allah.  In fact,  this priest probably said the shahada in both Arabic and English.  Most Imam’s don’t take the shahada as legitimate unless it is stated in Arabic, even though the person does not know Arabic.

The priest went on to say that no part of the shahada denies any part of Christianity.   I don’t know where she got her education but she is obviously light on investigation in her personal life and ministry.  Islam denies many basic beliefs that a follower of Jesus believes.  A true move from real Christianity to Islam is a radical shift.  I’ve seen many testimonies of supposed Christians who converted to Islam and they understand the shift.

Muslims do not believe that Jesus died.  That means He did not die for man’s sin and thus salvation is not based on anything He did or faith in Him.  The Qur’an and the teachings of Mohammed are clear–you do it–all of it–yourself.  You don’t depend on anyone else.  Your good deeds (and you need lots of them) get you into paradise or the equivalent in the Qur’an to heaven.

I feel sorry for this priest because she does not understand that when she befriended the Imam and said the shahada, her life when an entirely different direction.  She failed to read all the Qur’an first, especially Surah 112.

What are your thoughts?

more…

EGYPT: CITIZEN WINS RARE LEGAL VICTORY TO REVERT TO CHRISTIANITY

Copt who became Muslim, then returned to Christ, gets ‘new’ faith officially recognized.

ISTANBUL, January 8 (Compass Direct News) – An Egyptian convert to Christianity who spent 31 years officially identified as a Muslim has won a rare legal victory to be officially registered in his “new” faith.

An Alexandrian administrative court awarded Fathi Labib Yousef the right to register as a Christian at a Dec. 20 hearing in the Mediterranean coastal city.

Yousef, in his early 60s, was raised Coptic but converted to Islam in 1974 in order to divorce his Christian wife. Becoming Muslim typically allows for an easy nullification of marriage to a non-Muslim within sharia (Islamic law), and conversion is often employed for this reason by both men and women in Islamic countries.

He reverted to Christianity in 2005 after an Orthodox clerical council gave its official permission, according to the advocacy group US Copts Association.

Yousef applied to the civil registry to acknowledge his change of religion the same year. But the government refused to acknowledge his re-conversion, so he filed a lawsuit against the Egyptian prime minister, interior minister and Civil Status Organization chairman. .. read more …

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