November 18, 2015 While Muslim terrorists with ISIS have begun an aggressive new campaign against the West including the bombing of a Russian airliner and murdering at least 129 people in Paris, a 78 year old British pastor may end up going to prison for criticizing the violent elements of Islam.
Pastor James McConnell was preaching a sermon in a church at the Whitewell Metropolitan Tabernacle in May, 2014, when he called Islam a “satanic” religion for wanting to punish Meriam Ibrahim, a pregnant woman who committed the crime of refusing to renounce her Christian faith and marrying a Christian man.
During his message McConnell said that it is impossible that the God of the Hebrew and Christian Bible is the Allah of the Koran. He said:
"The Muslim religion was created many hundreds of years after Christ. Mohammed, was born in 570. But Muslims believe that Islam is the true religion, dating back to Adam, and that the biblical Patriarchs were all Muslims, including Noah and Abraham and Moses, and even our Lord Jesus Christ.
"To judge by some of what I have heard in the past few months, you would think that Islam was little more than a variation of Christianity and Judaism. Not so. Islam's ideas about God, about humanity, about salvation are vastly different from the teachings of the Holy Scriptures. Islam is heathen. Islam is satanic. Islam is a doctrine spawned in Hell."
It was those words that streamed live on the Internet — violated the 2003 Communications Act by "sending, or causing to be sent, by means of a public electronic communications network, a message or other matter that was grossly offensive."
While the words spoken by McConnell may sound harsh in today’s culture of “microagressions,” it is nothing more than traditional bible teaching by great men of God over the years including George Whitefield, John and Charles Wesley, Charles Spurgeon, DL Moody, and many others. Indeed, one of the foundations of Christianity is that Jesus is the only way of salvation and all other ways lead to hell.
Yet it now appears that preaching traditional Christianity is now illegal in the UK. Following his sermon, McConnell was told that he was facing hate crime charges and has a court date scheduled for Dec. 14-16 in a Belfast court.
McConnell is refusing to back down for his statements defending Christianity and criticizing Islam, saying at the time he made his comments he was specifically referencing Ibrahim.
“It began with the Muslim issue when I protested (through my sermon) concerning the young Muslim woman who was pregnant and had been converted to Christianity,” the pastor wrote. “She was to receive 80 lashes and possibly martyrdom. Thankfully she and her husband are now living in the United States. I have no regrets about what I said. I do not hate Muslims, but I denounce Islam as a doctrine and I make no apologies for that".
McConnell said, his situation should be alarming for everyone, including those who disagree with him because of the implications for the right to engage in free speech and to freely practice religion.
“I also appeal and challenge every Muslim who lives in this country. No-one is questioning your right to worship here and practice your religion,” McConnell wrote. “If I was living in many Muslim countries in the world, I would be forbidden to practice my religion and would probably be imprisoned or even put to death for doing so. Yet you, as a Muslim, have perfect liberty here. So I appeal to you, come with me and protest.”
McConnell summed it up this way: "Islam is allowed to come to this country, Islam is allowed to worship in this country, Islam is allowed to preach in this country and they preach hate. And for years we are not allowed to give a tract out, we are not allowed in Islam, we are not allowed to preach the gospel. We are persecuted in Islam if we stand for Jesus Christ."
Interestingly, McConnell has received support from Suzanne Breen, a prominent Irish journalist and editor.
“As an atheist, I carry no candle for Christian fundamentalists, but there is something seriously wrong in hauling a pensioner pastor in ill health through the courts for simply expressing his opinion," Breen wrote.
While it is easy to dismiss the issue as something that is happening “over there,” Christians in America need to realize that it is just a matter of time before the same thing happens here.
Following the terrorist attacks in Benghazi, President Obama responded to the attacks by saying “the future must not belong to those who slander the prophet of Islam.”
There is also a move by the United Nations to make criticism of Islam a crime against humanity. For years the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) has been pushing for a UN resolution that would make defamation of religion a criminal offense.
While the resolution does not mention any single religion, it is noteworthy that the resolution has been aggressively pushed by Muslim countries. The Obama administration strongly supports the resolution.
In 2011, the State Department and then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton sponsored a closed door conference in Washington on implementing the resolution. The stated purpose of the conference was to establish international standards for criminalizing “intolerance, negative stereotyping and stigmatization of … religion and belief.”
In 2012, a Pennsylvania judge dismissed assault charges against a Muslim man who attacked an atheist for insulting his faith.
American Atheists Pennsylvania State Director, Ernest Perce was attacked by a Muslim while dressed as a zombie Muhammad in a Halloween parade. During the same parade another atheist was dressed as a zombie Pope, but there were no reports of a Roman Catholic attacking anyone.
In dismissing the charges, Judge Mark Martin berated the victim, saying essentially he deserved it and should be grateful he did not live in an Islamic country where he could face the death penalty for daring to insult Islam.
The judge, who is an admitted Muslim said, “There’s a big difference between how Americans practice Christianity – I understand you’re an atheist – but see Islam is not just a religion. It’s their culture, their culture, their very essence, their very being.”
He continued, “Whenever it is very common, their language, when they’re speaking to each other, it’s very common for them to say, uh, Allah willing, this will happen. It’s, they’re so immersed in it. And what you’ve done is, you’ve completely trashed their essence, their being. They find it very, very, very offensive. I’m a Muslim. I find it offensive.”
