THE WATCHTOWER & ISLAM

by steve2 18 Replies latest watchtower bible

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  steve2

  This question is aimed more at Watchtower scholars who have impressed me with their ability to unearth amazing stuff from the distant and more recent past on statements made in Watchtower publications:

  1. Has the Watchtower ever directly critcised the Islamic faith or its sacred text, the Koran? If so, what are some specific examples.

  2. Currently, how frequently do Watchtower publications mention Islam and in what context?

  3. Is there a change in the way Watchtower publications discuss Islam or the Koran (i.e., is it less inflammatory, less dogmatic)?

  My questions are prompted by the fact that some religious targets are easier to attack than others (e.g., it is usually safer to vigorously attack practices in the Roman Catholic church than it is practices in Islam).
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  stillajwexelder

  There is very little about Islam - THE LAST MAJOR PIECE WAS IN THE MANKINDS SEARCH FOR GOD BOOK wehen they got a whole chapter
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  Terry

  My guess is they are scared out of their minds of what a nice huge target the Brooklyn building would make for a Muslim whom they piss off with a nasty article. The 9/11 incident put fear and trembling in them for certain.

  You won't see word one critical of Muslims or the Koran in any high profile sense. Not since the World Trade Center vanished in their neighborhood.

  T.
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  stillajwexelder

  London Bethel in the UK is also a juicy target very not far from that hot bed of Radiclism the Finsbury Park Mosque
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  steve2

  You won't see word one critical of Muslims or the Koran in any high profile sense. Not since the World Trade Center vanished in their neighborhood.

  I suspected as much. Really, though, who can blame them? It's a human characteristic of self-survivial to weigh up when it's worth criticising something and when it's just better to shut one's trap. Still, given that the JWs claim to be God's only channel on earth, and that the Islamic faith is growing so extremely rapidly, the publication silence seems far more suspect than scriptural. Don't Biblical injunctions to spread the Good News and, ipso facto, expose false teachings override the mere human desire to cover one's butt? Bring back Rutherford, I say. Imagine if he wrote a Watchtower book on Bin Laden. I shudder to think what the title would be and what nauseatingly hostile sound-bites he'd be feeding to the world's media. I shudder to also think what the sorry impact would be on the few witnesses who manage to get to express a squeak or two in any Islamic country.

  By the same token, though: The Watchtower took on Hitler and claims it won. Different time and generation? Different country? Different issue? Possibly. I think though it's more likely that the real difference is the calibre of the Witnesses today: They're not as pig-headedly convinced that the Watchtower speaks for Jehovah, but equally, they're too scared to even think about looking elsewhere.

  ...Islam? What's that? Oh, a rapidly growing religion whose sacred text is different from ours and has extremist elements that react violently to criticism? Doesn't that sound like the governing body? Oh, these extremists actually blow up big buildings? Oops...We're somewhat out of our depth here...Let's "pitter patter" ever so quietly lest they know we're here. Let's change the topic to the wicked Roman Catholic Church. Say what you like about the Catholics, they jolly good sports when you criticise them!!!
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  zulukai

  If the WTBTS ever criticized Islam the way they have raged and deficated all over Christendom for decades there would be NO Borg, period. Our radical friends in the Middle East would have quite literally lit a match under the whole sorry-assed organization and sent it to kingdom come. It's quite spooky actually (to take another view here.)...but radical Islam has quite a startling similarity to the watchtower religion in several aspects. The hatred of secular education AND for the same reasons..it's the devil's way to corrupt the faithful. Women are dumbed down, treated like semi-retarded children and relegated to a servant's role and are seen as decidedly stupid, weak-minded and fickle. In Islam four women have to be witnesses to a crime before their testimony will stand in court and even then it may be disregarded on the whim of a male judge. The testimony of one man however is accepted as truth because women are too emotional and unstable. Ring any bells? I've read that same self-serving drivel in plenty of watchtower propaganda. Convienience marriage is another shared tenat. A man is not to enter a room and be alone with a woman or their judicial courts will decree that sex has taken place and the woman is therefore of suspicious morals. ( In Islam this usually means a death sentence however.) How often were we taught about not being seen in compromising situations for the exact same reasons A woman is not to teach a man, or have any authority over a man. And a rather interesting situation as regards pedophilia can certainly be found between these two religions. The LEGAL age for a girl to be married in Iran for instance is NINE. Yes, you read correctly. Nine year old girls in Iran are given in marriage to men of any age all the time. Pediphilia is a state sanctioned pastime in many Islamic countries, but it's ok because the little girls are "married". The Borg protects child molesters too. I may be stretching out too far here, but ever since I worked in an Islamic country and saw whereof I speak, I have had suspicions that the bizzare undercurrents presently coming to light about the witness religion are not of Christian origin at all, but along with Islam come from the same prehistoric mumbo-jumbo as the masons and the star worshippers of ancient Mesopotamia. The robotic mindset, the hypnotised lock-step mentality, the same death to the infidel hatred and freaky addiction to mind numbing rehash is just too similar for words. Maybe that's another reason the Borg doesn't diss Islam.
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  jst2laws

  A writer name Nathan McCall wrote a book called Makes Me Wanna Holler

  He was a tough dude in his time but when he returned to his getto he suddenly felt fear. He knew the desperate people on the street were more willing to die than he was.

  That is surely what the Watchtower fears about Islam: A people with as much faith as theirs but more willing to die for their beliefs then they are.

  Another factor is that the WT has next to zero growth in all Islamic countries. Why mess with the piggy bank that has now money?

  Jst2laws
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  sonnyboy

  I think they're too busy bashing other Christian sects to focus on Islam.
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  ezekiel3

  Actually there are plenty of references. Search "Islam" in the WT CD and you get these:

  ---

  ISLAM

  (See also Koran; Muhammad)

  Allah: sh 284-5

  attitude toward Trinity: sh 296-7; ti 4

  beliefs: sh 295-7, 299-303; rs 23-4

  Abraham: w86 4/15 6

  Adam: gu 8

  Bible: gu 4, 30-1; sh 286

  condition of the dead: sh 297, 299-300

  death: g88 7/8 8

  fasting: w96 11/15 4

  fate (Kismet): w90 8/15 3, 6

  Five Pillars of Islam: sh 303; g89 7/22 22

  holy war: g89 7/22 22

  influence of ancient Greece: ie 16

  Jesus Christ: ol 9; gu 20-1; ct 145; sh 295-6

  judgment day: w01 7/15 3

  Mahdi (rightly guided one): w92 10/1 6

  monotheism (no Trinity): sh 296-7

  name of God: gu 10; w93 11/1 3-4

  Paradise: sh 300

  resurrection: sh 297

  Six Pillars of Belief: sh 296

  soul: w99 4/1 13-14; ie 16; w90 5/1 18; sh 297, 299-300; g88 7/8 8

  sources: g89 7/22 22

  Sufism (mysticism): g89 7/22 24

  dating system (calendar): sh 292; it-1 447

  discussion: g91 1/8 17-18; sh 284-303; g89 7/22 21-4

  empire: g89 7/22 22-3

  map: g89 7/22 23

  experiences:

  appreciation for Awake! series: g94 12/8 30

  Black Muslims: w01 9/15 4, 6; g90 3/22 21-4

  Muslims accept truth: yb99 74, 76; km 2/98 4; yb90 235; w88 6/1 21; w86 4/15 23

  prays for truth: w98 4/15 27

  professor intrigued by Bible questions: w92 12/15 28

  visitor to Germany branch office: g03 3/8 24

  former Soviet republics:

  agreement with Russian Orthodox leaders to stop Witnesses and others: g96 5/22 28

  Imam a chaplain in U.S. army: g94 6/8 28

  Iran:

  Khomeini’s objectives: g87 1/8 8; g87 4/22 4

  Shiite objectives: g87 1/8 8

  Kaaba: g94 3/8 24; g91 1/8 17-18; sh 287, 289, 292

  marriage: sh 300-1

  meaning of terms:

  A.H.: sh 292

  Allah: g89 7/22 21

  Barzakh: ie 16; sh 299

  hegira (hijrah): sh 292; g89 7/22 21

  imam: sh 293

  Islam: sh 285; g89 7/22 21

  Koran: sh 284; g89 7/22 21

  Muslim: sh 285; g89 7/22 21

  muta: sh 300-1

  shahadah: sh 296, 303

  sura: sh 284

  more than just a religion: g89 7/22 22

  mosques: sh 301-2

  Casablanca, Morocco: g89 5/8 29

  Córdoba, Spain: sh 302-3; g88 11/8 25

  Jerusalem, Israel: it-2 48

  photos: sh 298

  Rome, Italy: g90 1/22 29

  number of Muslims: sh 284-5

  percentage of world population: w89 7/1 3

  prayer: sh 284, 301

  propagation of beliefs: g88 11/8 24

  sword used in response to Crusades: g89 8/8 22

  sacred places:

  Jerusalem: sh 286, 298; g89 7/22 22

  Mecca: g94 3/8 23-4; sh 4, 286-7, 289, 303; g89 7/22 22

  Medina: sh 292; g89 7/22 22

  sacred writings:

  Hadith (Sunna): sh 290-1

  Koran: sh 17, 284-6, 288, 290-1

  Shari‘a: sh 290-1

  Saudi Arabia:

  pilgrims die in stampede: g90 10/8 28-9

  sects: g89 7/22 23-4

  Khariji: sh 294; g89 7/22 22

  Shiah: sh 293-5, 301; g89 7/22 23-4

  Sunni: sh 293-5, 301; g89 7/22 23

  Spain: sh 302; g89 8/8 22; g88 11/8 23-7

  spread: g89 8/8 22-3

  after death of Muhammad: sh 292

  after sixth century C.E.: sh 302

  successors to Muhammad: sh 293-5

  ‘transmission belt for technology’: g88 11/8 26-7

  United States: g01 12/22 29

  war:

  former Yugoslavia: g94 10/22 4

  witnessing to Muslims: km 11/99 8; km 2/98 6; w94 6/15 27; km 1/91 7; km 8/91 1; km 12/90 1; rs 23-4; w87 2/15 28

  articles "Is Our Future Written in Advance?" and "What Will Your Future Be?": w98 4/15 3-8

  Bible authenticity: gu 29-31

  brochure The Guidance of God—Our Way to Paradise: gu 1-32; km 11/99 8; km 12/98 7

  Jesus as God’s Son: ol 9; gu 20; ct 145

  tract How to Find the Road to Paradise: km 11/90 7
• 

  DanTheMan

  There are the occasional references, and even publications written specifically to appeal to Muslims. But poaching followers from the hated enemy Christendom has long been the WT's MO.

  Joey Rutherford was the spiritual father of the modern day borganization, and I imagine that Islam was, to him, little more than an esoteric religion practiced by brown-skinned people in faraway lands, in other words, not anything that he (or most Westerners at the time) gave a lot of thought to. The "old whore" whose hide he sought to tan was Roman Catholicism far above anything else.