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The Iowa State Senate opens each daily session with a prayer. On February 8, State Senator Sarah Trone Garriott (D) “shared a prayer” written by one of her constituents who was a Muslim. The prayer was to Allah and included references to a number of Allah’s 99 Names.[1] It is interesting that the Iowa State Senate prayed to the Muslim god Allah, even though there are no Muslim members of that Senate. And it is even more interesting that these state senators bowed their heads in prayer to a god who curses Christians and Jews and condemns them to Hell.

Here is what Allah has to say in the Koran about Christians and Jews:

Allah states that the only religion acceptable to him is Islam (e.g., 3:19 and 3:85); Christians and Jews are disbelievers[2] (e.g. 2:120, 3:99, 3:110, and 5:65), and Jews are among the worst enemies of Muslims (5:82); Allah curses Christians and Jews (9:30) and states that those who believe that Allah had a Son commit the one unforgivable sin in Islam, Shirk[3](e.g. 4:48 and 4:116); Allah states that those who commit Shirk will go to Hell (e.g. 3:151 and 5:72-73); Allah states that Christians and Jews are among the worst of creatures and “will abide in the fire of Hell” (98:6); Allah specifically forbids Muslims from being friends with Christians and Jews (5:51), and instead commands Muslims to fight Christians and Jews (9:29).

Christianity is considered to be a false religion because Allah states that Jesus was not crucified, but it only appeared so (4:157-158). Islam teaches that Allah took Jesus bodily into paradise and made one of Jesus’ disciples look like Jesus; it was that disciple who was crucified. So Muslims who know their religion look at a crucifix or a painting of the Crucifixion and see an imposter hanging on the cross. And of course, if there was no Crucifixion, there was no Resurrection. So Islam teaches that Christianity is a false religion based on a fraud.

According to Koran 4:80, Muhammad spoke for Allah. Here is some of what Muhammad had to say about Christians and Jews:

  1. Christians and Jews will take the place of Muslims in Hell: Abu Burda reported on the authority of his father that Allah’s Apostle (may peace be upon him) said: No Muslim would die but Allah would admit instead of him a Jew or a Christian in Hell-Fire.[4]
  2. Muhammad said that Christians and Jews who remained with their respective religions and did not believe in Islam would go to Hell: It is narrated on the authority of Abu Huraira that the Messenger of Allah (SAW) said: By Him in whose hand is the life of Muhammad, he who amongst the community of Jews or Christians hears about me but does not affirm his belief in that with which I have been sent and dies in this state (of disbelief), he shall be but one of the denizens of Hell-Fire.[5]
  3. Muhammad said that Christians and Jews were inferior to Muslims: It was narrated from ‘Amr bin Shu’aib, from his father, from his grandfather, that the Messenger of Allah ruled that the blood money for the People of the Book is half of that of the blood money for the Muslims, and they are the Jews and Christians.[6]
  4. Muhammad said Muslims must not be the first to greet Christians and Jews: Abu Huraira reported that Allah’s Messenger (may peace be upon him) had said: Do not greet the Jews and the Christians before they greet you and when you meet any one of them on the roads force him to go to the narrowest part of it.[7]
  5. And on his death bed Muhammad had this to say: It has been narrated by ‘Umar b. Al-Khattab that he heard the Messenger of Allah (may peace be upon him) saying: I will expel the Jews and Christians from the Arabian Peninsula and will not leave any but Muslims.[8]

Here is what Allah’s prophet Muhammad specifically said about Jews:

  1. Kill the Jews: Narrated Abu Hurairah: Allah’s Messenger said, “The Hour will not be established until you fight against the Jews, and the stone behind which a Jew will be hiding will say, ‘O Muslim! There is a Jew hiding behind me, so kill him.’”[9]
  2. Muhammad said the Jews were grave robbers. Al-Bukhari reported this hadith under the heading of What has been said about Bani Israel‘Uqba bin ‘Amir said, “I heard him [Muhammad] saying that the Israeli used to dig the grave of the dead (to steal their shrouds).”[10]
  3. Muhammad even said that Jews would be accompanying the anti-Christ: Anas b. Malik reported that Allah’s Messenger (may peace be upon him) said: The antichrist would be followed by seventy thousand Jews of Isbahan wearing Persian shawls.[11]

This was not the first time the Iowa State Senate had opened a session by praying to Allah. On April 7, 2014, the opening prayer for the Senate that day was given by Des Moines Imam Mohammad Khan. In Arabic Khan recited the first chapter of the Koran – Al-Fatihah (this was confirmed by a native Arabic speaker).[12]

Al-Fatihah consists of only seven verses. Let’s focus on the last two verses. In Verse 6 Muslims ask to be guided to the Straight Way. Allah’s prophet Muhammad said the Straight Way (or Path) was Islam.[13] The modern Tafsir Ahsanul-Bayan explained the meaning of the Straight Path:

The Straight Path here means the religion of Islam as enshrined, enunciated and explained in the final Revelation, the Qur’an, and the authentic sayings and acts of Allah’s Messenger, called hadeeth.[14]

In Verse 7, Muslims then ask not to be guided to the way of those who have earned Allah’s anger or to the way of those who have gone astray. So who are those who have earned the anger of Allah? Allah’s prophet Muhammad said they were the Jews.[15] And who has gone astray? Allah’s prophet Muhammad said that those who had gone astray, or were misguided, were the Christians.[16]

The Muslim scholar Ibn Kathir explained these two deviations from the Straight Way:

These two paths are the paths of the Christians and Jews, a fact that the believer [Muslim] should beware of so that he avoids them. The path of the believers is knowledge of the truth and abiding by it. In comparison, the Jews abandoned practicing the religion, while the Christians lost the true knowledge. This is why ‘anger’ descended upon the Jews, while being described as ‘led astray’ is more appropriate of the Christians…We should also mention that both the Christians and the Jews have earned the anger [of Allah] and are led astray, but the anger is one of the attributes more particular of the Jews.[17]

So Allah is actually angry with both the Jews and Christians!

On two different occasions now the members of the Iowa State Senate have bowed their heads and prayed to Allah, the god of Islam, who curses the Christian and Jewish senators in that body and condemns them to Hell. It takes some thick skin to be a Christian or Jewish elected official in the Iowa State Senate.

Dr. Stephen M. Kirby is the author of six books about Islam. His latest book is Islamic Doctrine versus the U.S. Constitution: The Dilemma for Muslim Public Officials.

[1]           https://www.legis.iowa.gov/dashboard?view=video&chamber=S&clip=s20210208125917369&dt=2021-02-08 – it starts at 1:07.

[2]           For an in-depth look at how the Koran and Muhammad differentiated between the “believers” (Muslims) and the Jews and Christians, see my article “The Fantasy Islam of the University of Chicago’s Fred Donner (Part 1),” Jihad Watch, January 30, 2019, https://www.jihadwatch.org/2019/01/the-fantasy-islam-of-the-university-of-chicagos-fred-donner-part-1.

[3]           Shirk: polytheism, worshipping others along with Allah, and/or ascribing partners to Allah (including ascribing a Son to him). By believing that Jesus is the Son of God, Christians commit Shirk.

[4]           Abu’l Hussain ‘Asakir-ud-Din Muslim bin Hajjaj al-Qushayri al-Naisaburi, Sahih Muslim, trans. ‘Abdul Hamid Siddiqi (New Delhi, India: Adam Publishers and Distributors, 2008), Vol. 8, No. 2767R1, p. 269.

[5]           Sahih Muslim, Vol. 1, No. 153, p. 103.

[6]           Muhammad bin Yazeed ibn Majah al-Qazwini, Sunan Ibn Majah, trans. Nasiruddin al-Khattab (Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia: Darussalam, 2007), Vol. 3, No. 2644, p. 521.

[7]           Sahih Muslim, Vol. 6, No. 2167, p. 439.

[8]           Sahih Muslim, Vol. 5, No. 1767, p. 189.

[9]           Muhammad bin Ismail bin Al-Mughirah al-Bukhari, Sahih Al-Bukhari, trans. Muhammad Muhsin Khan (Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia: Darussalam, 1997), Vol. 4, Book 56, No. 2926, p. 113.

In another hadith, Muhammad said that the Jews would hide behind stones and trees, and these stones and trees would call out,

Muslim, or the servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me; come and kill him; but the tree Gharqad would not say, for it is the tree of the Jews.

Sahih Muslim, Vol. 8, No. 2922, p. 349.

[10]         Sahih Al-Bukhari, Vol. 4, Book 60, No. 3452, p. 413. Bani Israel, or Banii Israa’iil, is an expression used in the Koran to refer to the early Jews. See the entry for Israa’iil in Mahmoud Ismail Saleh, Dictionary of Islamic Words & Expressions, 3rd ed. (Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia: Darussalam, 2011), p. 102.

[11]         Sahih Muslim, Vol. 8, No. 2944, p. 366.

[12]         https://www.legis.iowa.gov/chambers/video/archive?chamber=S&ga=85; click on the link to the Senate session on April 7, 2014 at 1:12 PM.

[13]         Abu al-Fida’ ‘Imad Ad-Din Isma’il bin ‘Umar bin Kathir al-Qurashi Al-Busrawi, Tafsir Ibn Kathir (Abridged), abr. Shaykh Safiur-Rahman al-Mubarakpuri, trans. Jalal Abualrub, et al. (Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia: Darussalam, 2000), Vol. 1, p. 84.

[14]         Salahuddin Yusuf, Tafsir Ahsanul-Bayan, trans. Mohammad Kamal Myshkat (Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia: Darussalam, 2010), Vol. 1, p. 23.

[15]         Abu ‘Abdullah Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Ansari al-Qurtubi, Tafsir Al-Qurtubi: Classical Commentary of the Holy Qur’an, Vol. 1, trans. Aisha Bewley (London: Dar Al Taqwa Ltd., 2003), p. 127; Abu ‘Eisa Mohammad ibn ‘Eisa at-Tirmidhi, Jami’ At-Tirmidhi, trans. Abu Khaliyl (Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia: Darussalam, 2007), Vol. 5, No. 2954, p. 281; Interpretation of the Meanings of The Noble Qur’an, trans. Muhammad Muhsin Khan and Muhammad Taqi-ud-Din Al-Hilali (Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia: Darussalam, 2007), n. 1, p. 12; Safiur-Rahman al-Mubarakpuri, The Sealed Nectar (Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia: Darussalam, 2008), p. 493; Tafsir Ibn Kathir, Vol. 4, p. 410; and Sahih Al-Bukhari, Vol. 6, Book 65, No. 4475, p. 22.

Commentary about the Jews being those with whom Allah is angry is found in: Tafsir Ibn Kathir, Vol. 1, p. 87; Tafsir Ahsanul-Bayan, Vol. 1, p. 24; and Jalalu’d-Din al-Mahalli and Jalalu’d-Din as-Suyuti, Tafsir Al-Jalalayn, trans. Aisha Bewley (London: Dar Al Taqwa Ltd., 2007), p. 2.

[16]         Tafsir Al-Qurtubi, p. 127; Tafsir Ibn Kathir, Vol. 4, p. 410; Sahih Al-Bukhari, Vol. 6, Book 65, No. 4475, p. 22; Jami’ At-Tirmidhi, Vol. 5, No. 2954, p. 281; Interpretation of the Meanings of The Noble Qur’an, n. 1, p. 12; and The Sealed Nectar, p. 493.

Commentary about the Christians being those who had gone astray is found in: Tafsir Ibn Kathir, Vol. 1, p. 87; Tafsir Ahsanul-Bayan, Vol. 1, p. 24; and Tafsir Al-Jalalayn, p. 2.

[17]         Tafsir Ibn Kathir, Vol. 1, p. 87.

Author: Steve Kirby

Dr. Stephen M. Kirby is the author of six books about Islam. His latest book is Islamic Doctrine versus the U.S. Constitution: The Dilemma for Muslim Public Officials.  He is also the Chair for the Warren County Republicans.  The views expressed here are his own.

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