Is Islam Really As Bad As It Is Painted?

By Reno Omokri

If you have a true Muslim as your friend or an Orthodox Christian, you probably have the only human friend you will ever need. I am fifty years old, however, I have yet to see a people so committed over centuries to the principles of their holy books, like the Muslim Ummah and Orthodox Christians. But because of my background, I will not focus on orthodoxy, lest I be accused of bias. I am not a Muslim, and I am not planning on becoming one in this lifetime. So, perhaps I can be more objective when I talk about the conduct of Muslims.

Sure, there will be those who will misinterpret and twist what prophet Muhammad (Sallallahu Alayhi Wasalaam) taught, just as there are in Judaism, Christianity and other faiths, but for the most part, they are guided by their devotion to the prophet and worship of God.

From my experience, if you are going on a long trip and are unsure whether or not you will return, give your money and possessions to a true Muslim in trust for your heirs. That true Muslim may be tempted by government money. But NEVER by your own money.

Their lives are very predictable in that their religion makes allowance for everything that will happen to them from their birth to their death. Including how they eat, go to the toilet, dress, raise children, who they marry, when they marry, how they wed, and almost every other quotidian task.

In terms of tolerance, Western dominance of the mainstream media has given Islam a bad name. But for over a thousand years, when Jews were either banned, restricted or mistreated in Europe, they always had a place of sanctuary in the Muslim world.

After the Spanish Inquisition and the expulsion of Jews from Spain, it was the Ottoman Muslims and the Moors of Morocco that gave them asylum. Oh, please fact-check. There is $10,000 in it if you can fault me.

Sadly, the Western media has so demonised Islam. When my book, Shunpiking: No Shortcuts to God, was released, my publisher arranged for me to be interviewed on American Family Radio, one of the biggest radio stations in America, with 180 radio stations.

I used the word ‘Good Muslims’, and the interviewer interrupted me and asked me why I said that. He then said to me, ‘Are there any good Muslims?’

But there are. The vast majority of the two billion Muslims on Earth are decent people. No faithful Muslim will harm or kill you if you say Yeshua, whom you erroneously call Jesus, is the way to God. They believe that He is a prophet. They believe that He is the Messiah. The Quran calls Yeshua al-Masih eleven times, including in Quran 4.157 and 4.171. Al-Quran also uses the terms Ruhullah and Kalimatullah to describe Him, meaning that He is a Word from God and is infused with the Spirit.

They believe that Yeshua was sent to only the children of Israel, which actually agrees with Matthew 15:24, where Yeshua said, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.”

Those of us who follow Yeshua believe that His mission was expanded to include all humanity. But we can agree to disagree with our Muslim brothers, but they will never kill you on account of that difference. Only extremists will, and we have them in every Abrahamic faith.

The only reason for which a true Muslim will kill you is if you blaspheme the Name of Allah (SWT), or prophet Muhammad, Salla Allahu Alayhi Wasalaam, or engage in homosexuality, murder, etc.

Muslim Ottomans ruled Jerusalem for 400 years, between 1517 and 1917. Ask yourself how many Christians they killed. They allowed the building of churches in Jerusalem, they endured peaceful religious coexistence, and when Catholic Europe expelled all Jews, the Ottomans and the Moors gave the Jews asylum in Istanbul and Morocco:

But since Christian Europeans took over Jerusalem and Palestine in 1917, has there been peace? Are Muslims safe there? Is there peaceful coexistence?

A lot of the mistrust between Muslims and Christians started during the Crusades. And again, please fact-check me: the Crusades were initiated and primarily directed and financed by the Catholic Church against Muslims. Muslims were not the aggressors. They were defending themselves.

I am not referring to the conflicts between Byzantium and the Seljuk Turks. I am referring to the Crusades in the Holy Land. And there is another $10,000 in it if you fact-check me and prove me wrong.

And the European Crusaders showed no humanity, sympathy, and decency to Muslims in the Holy Land. Men, women, children and infants were slaughtered. Look, it is a sad fact of history.

Funny enough, as the first Crusaders were coming from France and Germany to the Holy Land, they were perpetrating pogroms against Jews in Europe. If you doubt what your Catholic brothers did, simply research the Rhineland massacres, which were the worst of them.

In contrast, when Saladin fought back and defeated the Crusaders, he showed humanity and mercy by allowing even surrendered Catholic knights to live and have safe passage back to Europe. Again, fact-check me and win $10,000.

So, in Africa, we must begin to see Islam from a different and proper perspective than what we have been conditioned to believe. And especially in Nigeria. Because we are the largest Islamo-Christian nation in the world. If we do not learn to understand each other, oh, I shudder at the alternative.

And if, God forbid, that alternative occurs, those who have poisoned your Christian hearts against Muslims will jejely sit down in their country while we slaughter each other.

Reno Omokri: Gospeller. Deep Thinker. #TableShaker. Ruffler of the Feathers of Obidents. #1 Bestselling author of Facts Versus Fiction: The True Story of the Jonathan Years. Hodophile. Hollywood Magazine Humanitarian of the Year, 2019. Business Insider Influencer of the Year 2022.