Stop the Clash and Start the Debate

Copyright © By Dr. Adel Elsaie, Book Title: "Please Revise the Bible, Again"

1.5 Stop the Clash and Start the Debate

Most people get information and base their decisions from the media. The world has been bombarded with false information about Islam and the Muslims. TV Evangelists, neoconservative book authors, “terrorist experts”, terrorism reports from U.S. corporations and even some local pastors and school teachers are joining forces in a venomous attack on Islam and Muslims. These attacks are mainly designed as a scare tactic for anyone who may contemplate to understand this great monotheistic religion from its sources. The words terrorism, Islamic militants, Jihad, Muslim fundamentalists…etc are being publicized on a daily basis in the media as a part of brainwashing the public.

This intensive brainwashing process was used before in Nazi Germany and the former Soviet Union to promote evil ideas. This same brainwashing process is being used by the Muslim dictators. For that reason, probably the second most powerful position in a dictatorship is the ministry of information that keeps reminding the public that the “great leader” is just a God-sent miracle to solve every citizen’s concern, and people just have to feel that they are in good hands! Remember the information minister of Hitler and Saddam! It is really ironic that some of the western democracies are importing the brainwashing techniques from dictators:

Dictators are exaggerating external dangers, so do some of the western democracies.
Dictators are using the media to their own advantages, so do some of the western democracies.
Dictators lie to their people, so do some of the western democracies.
Dictators promote slogans to direct the public thinking process, so do some of the western democracies.
Dictators use scare tactics to keep the public in check, so do some of the western democracies.

The problem at hand is the intensive brainwashing of the Christians to convince the public that Islam is their real enemy. Yet, there are still some few voices of reason from honest and intellectual people and organizations. Unfortunately these voices are drowned in the venomous ocean of hate and prejudice.

Consequently, we Muslims and Christians have two alternatives. The first is to believe in the clash of civilization and war of ideology, help increase more violence and terror, and face eventual global catastrophe between the West and 2.8 Billion Muslim and Chinese (1.5 Billion Muslims and 1.3 Billion Chinese.) Some Christian radicals believe that this will be the battle of Armageddon that is described in Revelation 16:16 as the final battle between good and evil. Muslims also believe in a final battle between good and evil and in the second coming of Jesus as a Muslim prophet.

Until that final battle happens, should we be involved in violence, clash, and wars? Or should we be involved in understanding, dialogue, and debate? Should we be involved in human suffering? Or should we be involved in human peace and security? Should we be involved in establishing human justice? Or should we be involved in exporting human injustice to some parts on earth? Therefore, the second alternative is to have a debate between Christian scholars (from Christian countries) and Muslim scholars (from Muslim countries.)

If the problem is between the “peaceful Christianity” and the “violent Islam” as many Christian radicals claim, then let us have a debate between Christian and Muslim scholars. Certainly debates are much wiser than killing millions of people. And we are not talking about a local debate in a mosque, church, or a town hall. We are talking about a televised debate about Christianity and Islam in the Muslim and Christian worlds. There is much information that the average Christian and Muslim are not aware of. We have debates between presidential candidates, and certainly such a religious debate is more important than any other debates because it affects global peace. We can have a debate between the two religions that claim to be a monotheistic religion and worship the One and Only true God of Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad.

But before we agree on a debate, Christians have to agree on one version of the Bible. Muslims have only one Quran, in the same Arabic text from the time of revelation until now, and they do not play the versions game that some Christian scholars have mastered. I personally have 5 different versions of the Bible, and sometime a Christian refers to one verse in the bible that I find in one version and is deleted in another Bible, and in a third Bible the meaning of the verse is completely changed. As such, I do not know if this verse was truly inspired or not, and why the meaning is changed. So the Christians have to agree on one version of the Bible, and revise the other versions accordingly. If you have only one version of the Bible and you are not interested in other versions, you may be lucky. But if you have, like myself, more than one version and try to compare crucial verses, you are in for a big surprise and a bigger confusion.

It is also recommended that Christian debaters learn Arabic to read the original version of the Arabic Quran. This is not a difficult task, Thomas Jefferson did it! This is a very worthy cause to stop the human killings and tortures and to avoid a clash of civilization or war of ideology. Also, Thomas Jefferson single-handedly produced his own Bible using four different translations in the process. He placed Greek, Latin, French and English (King James Version) side by side, so that Jefferson, who was fluent in all four languages, could better determine the most accurate reading. He used cut and paste on blank papers. So if Jefferson can do it without computers and word processors, certainly Christian scholars can do it with the available technology. This single version of the Bible should have another major benefit for Christians. Instead of having different Churches with conflicting Bibles and conflicting interpretations, they should have one Church and one Bible, and this was what Jesus intended with the result of having peaceful coexistence between Christian themselves.

When The British ruled India, they poured in missionaries like frogs in rainy season just to convert the Muslims of India and there are various records of debates between Christian and Muslim scholars. Reverend C.C.P. Fonder who had written a book in Urdu entitled “Meezanul Haq” (The Truth Balanced), with the open intention of casting doubts into the minds of the Muslims about the authenticity of the Quran and Islam. In response to it Maulana Rahmatullah Kairnavi, an Indian Muslim scholar, wrote a book entitled “Izhar-ul-Haq,” (The Truth Revealed). This was internationally recognized as one of the most authoritative and objective studies of the Bible in 1864. This book was originally written in Arabic and it is in 3 volumes. It is a thoroughly researched response to the Christian offensive against Islam in India. These three volumes clearly review the authenticity of the Bible and concisely summarize the main errors, distortions and contradictions in and between the Old and New Testaments of the King James Version. The third volume is devoted to refuting the doctrine of the Trinity; a doctrine that Jesus never taught. In this book there are few debates mentioned which happened between Islamic and Christian scholars. In a debate which took place in January 1854, in Akbarabad in the City of Agra, Reverend Fonder admitted that there were alterations in the Bible in seven or Eight places to which the Maulana Rahmatullah commented "If any alteration is proved to have been perpetrated in a particular text, it is considered null and void and invalidated.” Maulana Rahmatullah Kairnavi was destined to be killed by the British, but God saved him and he left to Makkah where he established an Islamic school “The Madrasa Saulatia.” The debate between Maulana Rahmatullah Kairnavi and Reverend C.C.P. Fonder was a model debate and Christians had to pay heavy price for debating with a Muslim scholar.

This book is intended to help the Christian scholars to develop a single unified revision of the Bible. A system for referencing each verse should be adopted, and the history of the ancient copies should be explained. Verses of the Bible that are proven to be written by humans as marginal notes, and included in the main text in the following version should be taken out. Why am I doing this service? Simply because I believe that I am among the vast majority of Muslims and Christians that prefer peace over war, debate over clash, and understanding over violence. As for the battle of Armageddon, it is no use to even think to push God to do His Work. This battle is going to happen according to God’s Will, not according to the desires of the interpreters of the Bible.

Revising the Bible is not out of the ordinary. The Bible has been revised many times with verses deleted and by changing critical words that affect the Christian theology. The following is just a sample of revised Bibles where the word “revised” appears on the title:

Revised Standard Version.
New Revised Standard Version.
Revised Version KJV
Revised Douay-Rheims: Holy Bible
English Revised Version.
Geneva Bible revised.
Revised Luganda Bible.
Korean Revised Bible.

It is a fact that revising the whole Bible, Old and New Testament, is a monumental task. Therefore, it is our intention to present road map of why and how to revise only the four Gospels into a single Gospel much like what Thomas Jefferson did. To accomplish that, Jefferson “Gospel” is presented as a historic document that a single knowledgeable human developed. This is followed by comments that Christian scholars can use to issue a single version of the Gospel. We will not attempt to produce a revised New Testament. This is done out of respect to Christian theologian scholars, unlike some Christians that attempted to write “their own fake Quran” based upon arrogant and distorted ideas. This resulted in a mediocre work that not many Muslims attempted to read, but mainly used by Christian missionaries as part of their Weapons of Missionary Deception.

The main references in this book are the Quran and the different versions of the Bible, thus it should be easy for the reader to check these references. Also, a major part of the information on Christianity in this book was obtained from Western authors and friends whether they are Christians or not. Allah addressed mankind to get to know each other, Surah 49, Ayah 13:

“O mankind! We created you from a single (pair) of a male and a female, and made you into nations and tribes, that ye may know each other (not that ye may despise (each other). Verily the most honoured of you in the sight of God is (he who is) the most righteous of you. And God has full knowledge and is well acquainted (with all things).”

Consequently, as a Muslim I had to form my ideas about Christianity from its sources. That is something that most critics of Islam never tried.

[Table of Contents] [Home]