(AgapePress) - The founder of a Christian ministry dedicated to helping women trapped in Islamic marriages says the current situation in Iraq and the rest of the Middle East will not be solved unless people turn to Jesus.
W.L. Cati is the founder of Zennah Ministries. The former Muslim says she totally supports President Bush's desire for regime change in Iraq and believes that deposing Saddam Hussein is a good move -- but political change, she says, is not going to help the spiritual problem in that region.
"I'm not saying not to fight -- we're not supposed to lay down and play dead. But ... it's going to be the love of Jesus that's going to win them to Christ," Cati says. "Winning them to the Lord is the answer, that's the bottom line. We need to really be fasting and praying as Christians like never before."
She says Muslims consider idols more sacred than human life, explaining that fanatical Muslims would be more devastated if U.S. forces destroyed their "sacred sites."
"If you really wanted to affect the heart of Islam ... if you're going to attack something, go attack the Kaaba [where Muslims conduct the ritual of the hajj]," Cati says. "I would go to the mosque ... take down the Kaaba, and see if that doesn't do something."
Cati says Islam is a false religion that teaches that killing others is the only way to salvation. She says that is why it is extremely important to share the gospel of Jesus with Muslims in Iraq and throughout the Middle East. Otherwise, she says, not much will really change in that part of the world.
'War Verses' in Koran
A former missionary to Indonesia says Christians need to know what Muslim clerics and a few scholars have known for decades: Islam is not a religion of peace.
In his new book Secrets of the Koran, Don Richardson exposes the truth about Islam. For example, Richardson says the Koran contains 109 verses in which Mohammed calls for the murder and torture of non-Muslims. Richardson says those verses are what inspire Muslims to carry out terror attacks.
"What we are seeing by way of terrorism [and] suicide bombings flows from those 109 verses -- and yet we Christians remain so naïve, so uninformed," Richardson says. The result, according to the author, is that many Christian parents are at a loss for words when their child reports to them about pro-Islamic statements they hear from teachers.
What exactly do some of the verses say? Richardson cites examples that instruct followers to chop off the heads or the fingertips of non-Muslims -- which he says includes Christians, Jews, pagans, idol worshippers, and people of other religions like Zoroastrianism.
"One-hundred-nine verses call for violence," he says. "Other verses warn 'do not make friends with infidels,' meaning non-Muslims."
Richardson and his wife spent 15 years as missionaries in Indonesia. Most Muslims, he says, are not students of the Koran and are not familiar with what he calls the "war verses."
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