Q7. Dr. Labib, I am really curious, with all these information, why are so many people embracing Islam?

Answer

Dr. Labib: Well, 'so many people' is somehow an exaggeration. Say 'many people' but not 'very many people'. Because of so many reasons. In Islamic countries people are forced to embraced Islam because of poverty. If you don't embrace Islam you may not find a job; you may not find an apartment, and you'll be in financial trouble. And because of that so many people embrace Islam out of need, or out of poverty, out of prosecution. In the US I think they present a political Islam. This is what I want to say, the Islam presented especially to the African Americans is an Islam of brotherhood. You know, the white man prosecuted you, he was racist, he didn't deal with you right because of the color of your skin. But we will deal with you fairly. You will be a brother for us. In a way it will satisfy the ego of the African Americans. Well, I want to tell you something. After they become Muslims they leave Islam. And that is also a fact. In the Washington Post it was a very interesting story of a woman and her husband. The husband became a Muslim, and then he convinced his wife to become a Muslim. And he took her to the mosque, and they started to listen to the studies of the Quran. And she became veiled, she put a veil. And life went on. And one day it was a party for the Muslim family. And the woman went to her husband at the party, and of course, as usual, man will sit in a room, women will sit in another room. But one of the women, or two should serve the food to the men. And that wife, who was a black African American woman, she was assigned to take the food to the men. And when she went there, she numbered the men. And she came back to the ladies' room, and she realized that the number of women is more than the number of men. So she said to one of the ladies, "Listen, is this not a family party?" "Yes." "So every man should have his wife." "Yes." "But I realized our number here is more than the number of the men. It's something wrong." And she said, "Between me and you, let me tell you. The Quran permits the men to marry more than one woman. But of course, because we live in the US we cannot do that. It's against the law. But some Muslims do marry more than one woman in spite of the law." She said, "I see. Maybe my husband is married to another woman." After the party, she said to her husband, "Come. Are you married to another woman? Tell me the truth." He said, "Honestly? Yes." "How come?" "Well, in Islam we can marry up to four. I married only one beside you." "But you didn't tell me." "Forget it. You are a Muslim and I am a Muslim. Accept the fact." But the woman was furious. And she went home, took off her veil, and she demanded a divorce. And she wrote her story in a full page in the Washington Post. And she said in that page, "I dismissed the Islam once and for all. And then, when I took my veil and looked at myself in the mirror, I came to realize one thing. This veil means I am not existing, and that was terrible. I became to feel myself again." Yes, they embrace it, but sometimes they leave Islam. And here, if a Muslim will embrace Islam and leave Islam, he is not under the threat of death. They cannot, Muslims, they cannot kill apostates in the US. They can kill them elsewhere, in the Muslim countries, but not here. So this is one thing, because of poverty, and because of circumstances like that.

But again, there is another reason why many Americans embrace Islam. And that is the ignorance of the truth of Christianity. So many Christians do not know the meaning, or they cannot understand who is the Triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And many times, the Muslims will go and say, "You see, you are people who are believing in three -gods, and this is polytheism. And we want you to understand that this is not a true god." And because they don't understand the Triune God, and the meaning of the Triune God, and they are confused with that, it is easy for them to believe in the oneness of god in Islam. But I remember one time, and it happened while I was in Egypt. I took a taxi cab, and usually I used to sit beside the driver when I was in Cairo. And it was my custom to take my Bible with me, in my visitations, so the Bible in Arabic here, the Holy Bible. You can read it in Arabic or English, it is the same. So the driver looked, and saw the Bible, Holy Bible, so he assumed I am a Christian. So he looked at me and he said, "Sir, are you a Christian?" I said, "Yes." He said, "I have a question for you." I said, "All right." He said, "You know, Christians are very intelligent people. Many of them are doctors, many are lawyers, many are engineers, many journalist, many accountants. Intelligent people, no doubt. But at the same time they are stupid." I said, "How come they are intelligent and stupid?" He said, "Because they say Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are one. How could it be? Father is one, son is one, Holy Spirit is one. There are three. How could they be one?" Don't forget that we are in Egypt, and he can open the door of the cab and throw me away if I just say anything out of order, so I have to be very careful. So I prayed and I said, "Lord, give an answer to this man." And I said, "I tell you, I am going to answer your question with few questions. Would you mind?" He said, "Of course!" "Would you tell me, please, before God created angels and man, with whom was He talking?" He said, "What? With whom was He talking?" "Yes, because God is a talking God, isn't He? He gave us the ability to talk because He can talk." I said, "In the Quran God talked to Moses. It is a very plain verse." He said, "Yes." I said, "With whom was He talking before he created angels and men? With whom was He talking?" He said, "I don't know." I said, "Well, again, God is love. He loves those people in the Quran, He loves those people who give to the poor, He loves those people who fight for His cause. He loves, then He is loved. He has this emotion of love. Do you agree?" He said, "Yes." I said, "Before He created the angels and the man, whom did He love? Or wasn't he unable to love. If He was unable to love and He became able to love, then He is not perfect in himself, perfected by His creation. This is a heresy, this is not right." He said, "You are right." I said, "Then, whom did He love?" He said, "Sir, I don't know." I said, "He is a seeing God. What did He see? And He is a hearing God. Whom did He hear?" And he looked at me and said, "What do you mean by that?" I said, "Well, answer my question. God is not in need of His creation to practice His attributes. And He is a talking God, He is a loving God, He is a hearing God, He is a seeing God. Whom did He talk to, whom did He love, whom did He see, whom did He hear?" He said, "I don't know." I said, "But you see, if you believe in a Triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, then they can communicate, they can talk, they can love, they can see, they can hear, they can practice all their attributes. This is it. And this is the mystery of God." And the man looked at me and he said, "Sir, shall I tell you the truth?" I said, "Yes." He said, "There are deep things in religion and we, stupid people, should not come to conclusion unless we understand it." I said, "You are right!" And that was it.

But so many Christians do not understand the issue of God, the Triune God. And because of that, when the Muslims challenge them with the oneness of God, they say, "We are the only religion, monotheistic religion," and because of their ignorance, they embrace Islam. You see, things like that make Christians embrace Islam.

Another thing, that is ignorance of the reality of the Islam. I remember a few years ago, a white woman, a Caucasian woman, American, came to my house, and she came with her veil, not entirely, but in part, and said bragging, "I am a Muslim, and I am married to a Muslim from Saudi Arabia. And I think that Islam is a fantastic religion." I said, "Is it?" She said, "Yes. My husband explained Islam to me. I am totally convinced." I said, "Do you know that the Quran permits your husband to banish you in bed, and to beat you if you rebel against him?" She said, "No, no, no! Nothing like that! What are you talking about? There is nothing like that!" I said, "If I give you the verse of the Quran, and let you read it, what would you say?" She said, "Show me!" So I get the verse from the Quran, and if you fear rebellion from your wives, banish them in bed; talk to them or preach to the, and beat them! And she read it. And I said, "... and beat them, beat them." She said, "I never saw, nobody told me about this verse in the Quran. Husband is allowed to beat his wife?" "Yes." "With no sense of guilt? Why?" Because the Quran says that if you fear rebellion from your wife, don't have sex with her, and beat her. But you come to Christianity, to the New Testament, "men love your wives as Christ loved the church, and gave himself for her." Look at the difference! Love as Christ loved the church. A sacrificial love, not beat, not banish them in sex. What are you talking about? She said, "Well, I tell you frankly I never read this verse in the Quran, but from now on I am going to make another research."

Of course, because of this kind of ignorance, so many Americans, because of a distorted, Islamic and understanding presented to them, they embrace Islam. If anyone will come to the Bible and know that Noah and his wife, their three sons, went to the ark and were rescued from the flood. And they come to the Quran, and they read in the Quran that Noah's wife perished and one of his sons drowned in the flood. What would this man say? Which one is right, the Quran or the Bible? It makes a big difference. So when Islam is presented to the, it is the Islam that the Muslim clerics want to present. The woman will not inherit, but heir of the man. The testimony of a woman is not accepted in the court of the law. Two women, equivalent to one man. And you go on, and on, and on, to see things like that. Man has the privilege of marrying two, three, or four. The woman doesn't have that privilege. If a Muslim woman wants to marry a Christian man, she will be executed. But if a Muslim man wants to marry a Christian woman, he can marry her. Double standard. And it is in the Quran. Do the Americans understand the Islam that way? Of course that they don't. And to understand Islam, they have to read the Quran. And to understand the Quran it is very difficult, even in the Arabic language. It is difficult. And because of that, because of the ignorance, because of Islam, because of the ignorance of real Christianity, because of poverty, these three reasons encourage Americans to become Muslims. And I think when they understand Islam in its real meaning, they will never ever embrace Islam.

Who will embrace a religion of a prophet who married a girl while she is 6 years old, Aysha. If we want to say something and say it thoroughly, we call it a child abuse. 53 years old man, marrying a 6 years old girl. And he had intercourse with her when she was 9, and he was 56! Half a century difference in age between the little girl and the prophet Mohammed. And you want to believe that this is a prophet coming from God? How come it would be that way? And that prophet, when he came saying, "I met Gabriel." Gabriel? Who is Gabriel? The angel Gabriel. What did he say to you? Mohammed was afraid when he met the spirit at the cave of Hira. He was scared.

When you come to the New Testament, every time, and I repeat, every time Gabriel met somebody, the first sentence he said to him was, "Do not be afraid." He met Daniel, Daniel was afraid, and he said, "Don't be afraid." He met Zachariah, the father of John the Baptist, he said to him, "Don't be afraid." He met Mary, he said, "Don't be afraid." He met Mohammed and he left him scared. Did he meet Gabriel? Did he change his style? Why didn't he say to him, "Mohammed, don't be afraid. I am Gabriel?" But he didn't! He didn't! He left him trembling, afraid. And who else could testify with Mohammed that he had seen Gabriel? One man to testify for himself. His testimony accounts for nothing. Something should authenticate the prophet to be a prophet. And because of that, Americans don't understand all these facts; and because of that they embrace the Islam. And Islam, without the blood, is a religion without forgiveness, because there is not forgiveness of sins without the blood. No remission of sin without a sacrifice. And God, for the whole history, made it very clear. When Adam sinned, and Eve sinned, what did God do? He slaughtered two lambs, and made clothes for Adam and Eve. And I think that Adam looked, and Eve looked, and they said, "These innocent animals died for me! That blood was shed for me!" And they took that story with the promise of the coming one who will crush the head of Satan, and they taught their children. Listen, the only way to come near to God is by a bloody sacrifice, which is the time of the coming redeemer.
Abel believed his father. Cain rejected his father, and invented salvation by works. God rejected the offering of Cain, and accepted the offering of faith of Abel, the offering of the blood, who is the symbol of the shed blood of Jesus Christ who is to come.
If we look through the whole story like that, I think that we see that Christianity is unique in its God, in its Bible, in its prophets, in its standards, in its eternity, in its whole establishment. And I would urge everybody to receive the Lord Jesus Christ, who came in due time, died on the cross to save you if you receive Him. May you open your hearts to Him and say, "Yes! This is the most logical thing. I cannot save myself. I found a Savior. I found Jesus Christ. I believe in Him. I receive Him!" May God bless you!