A GENTLED HEART

We are offered a new solution for the brutality in the Middle East - a job.

Even though we have a shortage of jobs here, the plan is to help ISIS find jobs?

We are being told that poverty and lack of education are the reasons for a brute's heart.  Is that right?  What gentles a heart?

Consider these men:

This man is from a wealthy Nigerian family; his banker father is said to be one of the richest in Africa.  The man grew up in an affluent neighborhood and graduated with a degree in mechanical engineering.  Later he went to Yemen for more education and became increasingly more "pious",  going to the mosque for dawn prayers and spending hours in his room reading the Quaran.

We know this radical Islamic terrorist to be the underwear bomber, trained by AQAP (Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula), and now jailed.

This man was born in Virginia to Palestinian immigrants from the West Bank, educated at Virginia Tech, and received a medical degree in psychiatry from Walter Reed Medical Center.  In his job counseling soldiers, he carried an inscription on his calling card "soldier of Allah".

We know this radical Islamic terrorist to be the Ft. Hood shooter who killed 13 and wounded 30 others and now is jailed.

This man was born in Memphis to a family of four who were Baptists.  His father was a businessman who ran Blues City Tours.  He graduated from high school and went to TN State University for several semesters before converting to Islam in 2004 in a Memphis mosque.  He stated "I've loved jihad ever since I became a Muslim".  By 2007 he was a deeply religious Muslim who legally changed his name and adopted legalistic practices according to the salafi tradition.  Salafis return to practices that the prophet Mohammed was said to employ...such as growing a beard, rolling up pants legs above the ankle, and chewing a "miswak" (stick for cleaning one's teeth).

We know this radical Islamic terrorist to be Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad (aka Carlos Bledsoe), the man who killed one and wounded another outside the Little Rock military recruiting office, and is now jailed.

This man was born in New Mexico to Yemeni parents (his father was in the States as a Fulbright scholar to do graduate work at universities).  He spent 11 years in Yemen and returned to the U.S. for college, graduating in Civil Engineering from Colorado State University.  He was proven to have contact with many terrorists and terrorist plots (including  9/11, the underwear bomber, the Ft. Hood shooter, the Times Square bomber, and the American convert, John Walker Lynd).  In a video posted to the internet, he called for Muslims around the world to kill Americans without hesitation and overthrow Arab leaders.

We know this radical Islamic terrorist to be Anwar al-Awlaki and he was killed by a drone in 2011.

As these men's lives reveal, the problem with extremism is neither poverty nor education.  In a New York Times ARTICLE about the "madrassah myth", the backgrounds of 75 terrorists behind major attacks against Westerners was studied.  They found that 53% of the terrorists had attended college or received a college degree.  Since only 52% of Americans have been to college, terrorists seem as well-educated as we are.

And poverty?  Could we agree that there are poor people all over the world who do not cut off heads?  Please remember that Osama bin Laden was born into a BILLIONAIRE'S family.

So if the problem is not poverty or education...what is the problem?  The problem is ideology.  You do what you do because you believe what you believe.  And the patience of God is granting a piece of time for all peoples to make up their minds about which "founder" to follow.

The ISIS power surge is nothing new.  Across the timeline, Islam has followed their founder's command for conquest.  They also follow their founder in the belief that half their population (women) can be held in subjugation, and that forgiveness is absent but justice is swift.

A Muslim's faith rests on their own shoulders.  A good Muslim DECLARES (the Shahada "there is no god except God and Muhammad is God's Messenger"), PRAYS (a ritual prayer 5x a day), GIVES (to the poor), FASTS (during Ramadan), and MAKES A PILGRIMAGE (to Mecca at least once in a lifetime).  Their connection to God is based on what they do and "doing" gets heavy.

On the other hand, Jesus said HE DID IT ALL.  The Book says there's nothing good in us that we would choose Him...and none are righteous, not one.  He CAME, He IDENTIFIED with all our frailties, He SUFFERED and DIED so that His blood would cover our sin and purchase accessibility to God, and then He ROSE from the grave to prove His claims.  Has Muhammed proven any of his claims?  Jesus did not kill anyone to make followers.  Can Islam say that?

Our brutal day makes the gospel shine.  While every heart on this planet needs to be gentled, we should be very careful about which "founder" we follow. Jesus said "Come to Me, all who are heavy-laden and I will give rest" and  "Come, follow Me!"