What Radical Anti-Islam Christians Teach Their Flock: Islam “Does Not Teach” Charity

Categorized | Loon Pastors

Tags | AFA, American Family Association, Anti-Muslim, Charity, Christianity, Extremism, Islam, Islamophobia, Tim Wildmon

What Radical Anti-Islam Christians Teach Their Flock: Islam “Does Not Teach” Charity

Posted on 15 May 2012 by Garibaldi

This is supposed to be a positive picture of Tim Wildmon

American Family Association president Tim Wildmon says, “Islam does not teach charity.”

It is a blatant lie, since one of the five pillars of Islam is Zakat, or mandatory charitable giving. The Qur’an, if these right-wingers would ever read it is also filled with exhortations on nearly every page extolling the virtues of Sadaqah or voluntary charity.

Tim Wildmon Says Islam ‘Does Not Teach’ Charity

(Right-Wing Watch)

American Family Association president Tim Wildmon today used his column praising the admirable works of Christian charitable organizations to criticize Muslims.

If there ever was a contrast in worldviews, it is with Christianity and Islam. One of the most striking differences is that Christianity teaches, practices, and encourages charity. Islam does not. It is the Christians from America who are doing the majority of the private charity and humanitarian work around the world. Just these past couple of weeks alone, I was reminded by several examples of this.

…

American Family Association/American Family Radio has been participating in this project with Gospel for Asia for several years. Why do we care about the outcast people of India? Because in the Bible, Jesus instructs us to do so.

There is no such comparable work being done around the world by Islamic groups or organizations — because the Koran does not teach such charity.

Religion, more than anything else, affects the values and morals of a culture, a society, a country.

In fact, charitable giving is one of the five pillars of Islam. Wildmon could have done a simple Google search to find the names of major Muslim charitable organizations like Islamic Relief, Red Crescent Societies and Muslim Aid, but seeing that the American Family Association is one of the most malicious purveyors of misinformation and bigotry in this country, it should come as no surprise that its leader can twist an article about the importance of charitable work into an attack on the Muslim people.

Just Stopping By

@Dawood: Your explanation of describing diversity in a religion as opposed to making authoritative statements is very good and reflects what I should have written. But I still want credit for an on-topic citation of the hadith on the relative number of followers for Moses and Muhammad!

And, a last word on the singer’s accent. I put your text into Google Translate, from Arabic to Arabic, so I could use its listen function. To me, at least, the result sounded much more Arabic than the singer did. He actually sang the Hebrew with very clear enunciation that undid the way that speakers tend to let phonemes or syllables blend together; so I’m guessing that he did not speak Arabic but was just going with something written out for him phonetically and trying his best.
Dawood

@Just Stopping By: “I would not claim to be an expert in Islam, for example, but I am comfortable pointing out to certain acquaintances…”

Indeed, but that’s very different from making authoritative statements regarding the religion. Often it’s a matter of history or or showing a diversity of opinions exist within the religious tradition, which can definitely be shared if known. But that’s very different from – for example – engaging in scriptural interpretation yourself and passing it off as authoritative and normative for Muslims, etc., as many Islamophobes do.

@Steve: A fatwa by its nature is non-binding and only a type of “advisory opinion”; it cannot be enforced and is just the scholar’s view on a specific issue. There’s a saying taught when learning Islamic law المفتي مخبر والقاضي مجبر, which means “The Mufti informs, while the Qadi enforces”. That being the case, and depending on how well-known the scholar and his opinions are, the fatwa might be countered or simply ignored then it fades to the depths alongside every other opinion which never gained traction for the Muslims.

As for Spencer and Geller and what they do regarding such things, I am not sure. But I do know that they have posted, for example, regarding the Saudi shaykh’s sermon on the Hajj and so forth, which is again not incumbent upon Muslims to agree with or follow. And I’ve no doubt they reported on the Saudi scholar’s fatwa about churches recently and so on as well.
Steve

When a muslim scholare or cleric issues a ridiculous fatwa (and it isn’t uncommon) do Spencer or Geller claim it is incumbent on all muslims to follow that fatwa?

Do other muslim clerics and scholars announce such fatwas are nonsense?
Just Stopping By

@Garibaldi: It’s not often that one can make such a strong accusation and be thanked for it. Besides the problem that it misrepresents Zakheim’s view (conflating it with those of one strand of thought), my other real issue is that what was written is so close (in my view) to what people like Geller and Spencer do that it helps serve to validate their methodologies. I am sure that that is not what Danios intended, but if you are not extra careful in your scholarly work, it allows others to justify their actions through your mistakes.

And I definitely agree: Dawood should comment or post here more often!