Shadowland

By Burt Jones

Burt Jones developed a friendship with a Muslim student from Morocco while in college. Knowing little about his friend's religion, Burt asked for help to understand the Islamic faith. He gained an elementary frame of reference regarding Arabic terminology, word pronunciation, and what is socially and religiously acceptable. This led to a continu

• Language: English
• Publisher: Publishing Designs Inc.
• Release date: Sep 5, 2022
• ISBN: 9781945127281

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Publishing Designs, Inc.

P.O. Box 3241

Huntsville, Alabama 35810

© 2009 by Burt Jones

Second printing, August 2022

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without written permission from Publishing Designs, Inc., except for the inclusion of quotations in a review.

All Bible references are from the King James Version.

____________________________________

Publisher’s Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Jones, Burt, 1936–

Shadowland / Burt Jones

pp. 160

1. Islam religion—sects, worship, Qur’an, Muhammad. 2. Islam—Contrasted to Christianity. 3. Islam—terrorism, future.

I. Title.

ISBN 978-0-929540-72-6

EBOOK ISBN 978-1-945127-28-1

297

Printed in the United States of America

Contents

Foreword

Preface

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Laila

Section One: Fundamentals

1. Roots

2. The Prophet

3. The Qur’an

4. The Hadith

Section Two: Structure

5. Sects

6. Beliefs

7. Conflict

Section Three: Mission

8. Growth

9. Future

Epilogue

Glossary

Works Cited

Foreword

Western culture has developed a fascination for the religion of Islam. The freedom of religion enjoyed by citizens of the United States and the widening class gaps have created a fertile environment for Islam to spread. Every pluralistic society that affirms all religions equally relevant has also contributed to the rise of Islam in the West. The events of September 11, 2001, sent shockwaves of awareness to many in our society, but still, postmodern thought has found a way to reinterpret those stark realities in a more compromising way. While there does exist great multitudes of people in the Islamic world who desire to live a peaceful existence, their perspective of peace exists under the star and crescent symbols of Islamic theocracy.

As a little girl growing up in an Islamic country, I suffered at the hands of other little girls who called themselves my friends. They tormented me, not because of the color of my skin or because I was somehow awkward or different, but because I came from a Christian family. This antagonism came at the hands of little girls who grew up in homes of the so-called peaceful religion of Islam. They often pressured me with pledges of love for me if I were a Muslim, but because I wasn’t a Muslim they felt justified in their hostile actions toward me.

The American media is reluctant to classify Islam as anything other than a peaceful religion. As a product of the government school system in an Islamic country, I can tell you with all confidence that Islam is a religion steeped in war and conflict. The American public seems all too ready to swallow the dispassionate propaganda of prime time news regarding Islamic agenda in the wider world.

While there are good and innocent people caught under the shadow of the crescent who indeed desire better and more peaceful lives, they are largely a silent population often compared to all the peace-loving Germans of World War II who failed to understand the true intents of Adolf Hitler and the Third Reich. In fact, most average Muslims are insulated from the realities of life in much of the rest of the world. They are not taught world history and are not allowed to receive international newscasts. The only exposure to Western culture most Muslim families have is a limited array of old American sitcom reruns such as Three’s Company, Mama’s Family, and Knight Rider. Lately in some Islamic countries the satellite dish has brought such Western delights as Friends and Bay Watch.

Life in Islamic cultures is an existence of contradictions and double standards. Islam is a man’s world; every aspect of life is controlled and dominated by men. Muslims often come to the West to take advantage of the economic prosperity that their religion as a whole disdains. While in the West they are allowed to buy property and build mosques and Islamic schools in order to create Islamic micro cultures to insulate their own families from Western culture and spread their religion to those fascinated with Islam. Foreign religions do not receive those same freedoms in Muslim countries. As a matter of fact, religious and ethnic minorities are constantly persecuted, if allowed to exist at all.

In the pages that follow, you will gain a realistic perspective of Islam’s rise and agenda in the world. Burt Jones has undertaken this great work to inform the world of the truth of Islam and the great need for the gospel. While Islam may frighten some and fascinate others, Christians need to come to grips with the reality that Islam represents millions of souls in need of salvation. The gospel of Jesus Christ is the only way for the entire world that includes those nations and peoples ruled by Islam. The gospel truly is the light of hope for a dark world (John 8:12).

I have made it my life’s calling to bring hope and economic capacity to women in my home country. Over the last few years, with the help of Almighty God and many generous individuals, I have set up sewing centers in various overseas locations where women are taught the gospel and are taught how to sew in order to support themselves. I could relate many acccounts of women oppressed and mistreated in the name of Islam that would break your heart and fill you with anger. If these women can be reached with the gospel, they have a much greater chance for a better life in a country that does not provide them with very much hope or any identity of their own.

I am grateful to brother Burt Jones for asking me to write a foreword to this comprehensive work. I know from my conversations with him that this work is a labor of love and was produced with a wealth of academic and practical knowledge. More important, it has been put forth with a great passion for the gospel and lost souls who need to be reached for Christ. It is my sincere hope that this volume will both inform and inspire you as you seek to fulfill the Great Commission. I am grateful for the opportunity to be a part of this book. Every Christian home should own a copy, because it is written by a Christian and not a celebrity journalist interested in furthering his liberal media agenda.

I solicit your prayers for our work among the women of the Islamic world that we might offer them the hope of the gospel, the only hope for the entire world. My mission is to reach women with the gospel to give them the freedom that comes from being in Christ rather than the darkness blinding them behind the veil of Islam.

Sameea Collins, Christian

Woodstock, Georgia

Sameea Collins of Woodstock, Georgia, spent her first eighteen years in Pakistan. She grew up as a Christian in that Muslim nation, enduring the persecution attached to that brave decision. Sameea later married a gospel preacher. She plans to continue to help raise their children, assist her husband in his spiritual work, and conduct ladies’ seminars.

Preface

One of my dearest friends in college was Muhammad Abu Taleb, a Muslim from Morocco. He was a class favorite from his freshman year through his senior year. Muhammad was very disciplined in his observance of Islamic law and custom. My ignorance and curiosity about his religion caused me to ask my friend to help me understand this Middle Eastern faith which in a few decades would grow to be the second largest world religion and shake the pervading attitudes of six billion souls. Muhammad gave me an elementary frame of reference regarding Arabic terminology, word pronunciation, and what is socially and religiously acceptable in predominantly Islamic countries.

Muslim is an Arabic word meaning submission to Allah. Muslims are quick to point out that their god and our God are the same. However, the basic nature of the Islamic Allah is quite different from the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The Qur’an, the holy book of Islam, is said to have been revealed to Muhammad who dictated it to his companions. Today’s Muslims still consider it a miracle.

Muhammad, the prophet and founder of Islam, was born about A.D. 570 in Mecca, a city in modern-day Saudi Arabia. He died of natural causes around A.D. 632 at sixty-three years of age. It is imperative that we understand that Islam stands or falls with Muhammad, just as Christianity stands or falls with Christ.

The major focus of this work is to show the effect Islam has had on the world and on the day-to-day lives of its adherents. It will specifically deal with the early and contemporary influence of Islam and the future of this strangely bewitching religious phenomenon.

Burt Jones

September 2008

Acknowledgments

Some of my dearest friends, fellow preachers, and elders who have encouraged me to write this book classify it as courageous. The only reason it might be called courageous is because it is a compilation of forthright and well-researched material done by those much braver than I.

So I lay no claim to originality; I lean heavily on the works of real scholars. To them I am grateful.

I agree with the person who said, What is here is mine, whether I got it from a book or from life is not important. The point of which I had to be certain is whether or not I have made a right use of it.

I seriously doubt that most Islamic scholars would openly approve of the use I have made of their research and scholarship. I accept all responsibility for the final judgments of Islam in this book.

Several dear souls have made this journey possible, a journey into a better understanding of Islam and the Islamic world.

Mary Jane Moser, researcher and typist without equal.

Sameea Collins, without whose comments this book would have been severely lacking in content.

Charles Box, my father in the gospel.

My children and grandchildren who make everything worthwhile and who keep me humble—very humble.

Introduction

La ilaha ila Allah; Muhammadur-rasul Allah. (There is no god other than Allah; Muhammad is the messenger of god.) That is probably one of the most common phrases you will hear in the Muslim world.

During the fourteen hundred years of its existence, Islam has moved from the Arabian Peninsula to all continents, but the heartland of Islam continues to be in the Middle East and South Asia, the places of its birth. Huge mosques, shrines, and stimulating educational centers designed to convert