In the Middle East: Obama - Severe Mistakes

by Shira Sorko-Ram

Perhaps the greatest strategic mistake any world leader can make today is to not understand Islam and its goals.

Islam is a religion, a culture, a legal system, and a total way of life. Its stated goal is to rule the world, and all methods to achieve that are permissible. Extreme violence, fanaticism, deceit and recreating the historical narrative are its devices.

This religion of the sword sprang forth in the Seventh Century at a time, when Christianity was at a disastrous moral low.

Completely backslidden and broken into two pieces through power struggles, both East and West had lost the knowledge of God – except for a true penitent here and there who tried to do what seemed right in his own eyes.

It was then that an Arabian religious leader named Muhammad ibn ‘Abdullah began to evangelize a new faith loosely based on Jewish and Christian teachings as well as his own visions.

I have heard it said that Islam was God’s wrath against a Christianity that had become – as had Judaism in Old Testament Days – a religion of idols and abominations.

Yet God – who always works in a thousand ways at the same time – allowed Islam to be birthed to test the nations. Islam came into existence to annihilate the reborn Jewish state God foretold would come back to life in these last days.

One might counter that Christianity massacred untold masses of Jews throughout the ages. But here is the difference.

The further Christians strayed from the central truths of the Gospel, the greater the violence and hatred against the Jewish people.

With Islam it is the exact opposite. The closer a Muslim moves towards the central principles of Islam, the more extreme his hatred and violence toward the Jewish people.

PRO-ISRAEL NATIONS STAND ALONE

Today pro-Israel nations must dare to stand against the tsunami of world hatred and revulsion towards Israel.

There are only a handful. But those who do stand with the Jewish nation will receive special blessings in these last days.

Those discerning the times understand what Islamic leaders are saying. They broadcast it every day, every night, on TV, in blogs, on the Internet, in the press. Hundreds of statements daily.

Their goal is the same. Their religious leaders spell it out: To destroy Israel – AND – to take over the world.

This religion has never produced a truly democratic and free society. It cannot, because it cannot deny itself. Islam is multiplied through dictatorships in Islamic countries, and through mullahs who promote tumult and mayhem under the noses of free nations.

Islam beheads or hangs those who want to escape the chains of this anti-God religionlaw-culture, where women are chattels and men are beaten into submission.

The Allah of Islam and the God of Israel cannot be the same God. One has commanded the destruction of Israel and the Other the salvation of Israel.

Dalia Mogahed, an American Muslim scholar of Egyptian origin, is now advisor
on the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships.
Two other devout Muslims - one from Damsacus and the other whose parents
emigrated from Pakistan now serve in high positions in the department of homeland security.

ENTER THE PRESIDENT

Enter the president of the United States, whose father and step-father were Muslims. Those are the only facts concerning Barack Obama’s background on which most people agree.

Obama attended school for four years in Indonesia. It would seem to me the main product of those years on Obama’s life would be a certain affinity, shall we say an empathy, for Islam which is foreign to most Christians and Jews.

From my observation, since he became president, Obama has publicly defended Islam many more times than he has Christianity.

There are pictures on the Internet of Obama removing his shoes to visit a mosque in Istanbul, while he decided not to attend the annual National Day of Prayer at the White House – which President Harry Truman initiated in 1952.

Curiously, the LA Times noted that Obama has shown an unusual sensitivity toward atheists, the first president to mention non-believers in an inaugural address when he said, “For we know that our patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness. We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus and nonbelievers.” (Los Angeles Times, 7May2009)

So it was quite natural for President Obama to visit two Muslim countries during the first half year of his presidency. (Since his inauguration He has not visited Israel which is supposedly a close ally of the U.S.)

On his trip to Egypt – the most populated Arab land with almost 90,000,000 inhabitants – he made an important speech reaching out to the entire Muslim world. Here are a few excerpts.

Barack Obama as U.S. Senator visited Kenya, his Muslim father’s birthplace. He dressed as a tribal elder during an official visit to a Muslim area of the country in 2006.	President Obama removing his shoes as he visits the famous Blue Mosque (once a church) in Istanbul, Turkey, on his first visit to an Islamic country three months after assuming the presidency.

ASSALAAMU ALAYKUM

“I am also proud to carry with me the goodwill of the American people, and a greeting of peace from Muslim communities in my country: assalaamu alaykum.

“I have come here to seek a new beginning between the United States and Muslims around the world; one based upon mutual interest and mutual respect; and one based upon the truth that America and Islam are not exclusive, and need not be in competition. Instead, they overlap, and share common principles – principles of justice and progress; tolerance and the dignity of all human beings.

“Part of this conviction is rooted in my own experience. I am a Christian, but my father came from a Kenyan family that includes generations of Muslims. As a boy, I spent several years in Indonesia and heard the call of the azaan at the break of dawn and the fall of dusk.

“So I have known Islam on three continents before coming to the region where it was first revealed. And I consider it part of my responsibility as President of the United States to fight against negative stereotypes of Islam wherever they appear. So let there be no doubt: Islam is a part of America. All of us have a responsibility to work for the day... when Jerusalem is a secure and lasting home for Jews and Christians and Muslims, and a place for all of the children of Abraham to mingle peacefully together as in the story of Isra, [from the Koran, ed.] when Moses, Jesus, and Mohammed (peace be upon them) joined in prayer.“ (From Obama’s speech in Cairo, from NYTimes, 4June2009)

Truly, this president comes from a different mindset than any other in the history of the United States of America. He has little motivation to see America as a Bible-believing nation under God, the God of Israel, the God of the Old and New Testaments.

SHEEP NATIONS AND GOAT NATIONS

In the Bible we learn that when Israel had a righteous ruler who obeyed the commandments of God, Israel prospered. When a disobedient king was in charge, the nation suffered – severely.

Israel is God’s example of the way He deals with the human race. He has given us His Word so that we will know the Truth and the Way.

The Bible harshly challenges political correctness.

Surely there is not a single politician in the Western nations who does not have a Bible tucked away somewhere in his library. According to that Bible, Israel will be one of the ways God tests every nation.

As a Nigerian leader wrote us concerning the UN Security Council vote for a Palestinian state on the land God promised to Israel, “We are seriously interceding for Nigeria... God forbid that Nigeria will become a goat-nation at a time that we have a Christian president. We are praying – that all the enemies of Israel will be put to shame.”

May there be intercessors around the world who hold up their own countries in prayer, so that those nations may receive the Blessing of Abraham, first of all in spiritual awakening and also in physical and economic wellbeing.

Thank you for your fervent prayers,
Ari and Shira Sorko-Ram

Ari and Shira Sorko-Ram are the founders of Maoz Israel Ministries. The mission of MAOZ is: 1) To declare the Message of Messiah and make disciples in the city of Tel Aviv and throughout Israel. 2) To raise up Israeli leaders to prepare for the coming spiritual awakening among the people of Israel. 3) To educate and inform Christians world-wide of the strategic importance of Israel and the Jewish people in God's plan for world revival. The MAOZ web site is http://www.maozisrael.org/.