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Chrislam originated in Nigeria in the 1980’s, G.K. Chesterton, The Islamic Transformation of America

Chrislam



According to Wikipedia, the term Chrislam originated in Nigeria in the 1980’s. Wiki describes it as "Chrislam uses both the Bible and Quran and sees them both as holy texts." In fact, the term Chrislam was first coined much earlier, namely by the British writer G.K. Chesterton in his book The Flying Inn, published in 1914.

Chesterton

Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874-1936) was a British poet and writer much beloved in his day. He wrote numerous books with scurrilous stories such as the Paradise of Thieves and the aforementioned Flying Inn. The Paradise of Thieves follows the local padre on his crime-finding missions, sort of like the episodes of the movie character Monseigneur Don Camillo set in the fascist 1940’s regime in Italy. In the Flying Inn, Chesterton describes an (imaginary) period of a (then) futuristic England with a legally-prescribed temperance movement driven by a form of progressive Islam and the travails of some characters bringing the goods to the people by taking advantage of an ancient legal "loophole."

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In Chesterton’s book, the term Chrislam was meant to be as a bon mot by one of the main characters in the story. The Flying Inn and other Chesterton books continue to be available in both hardcopy and audio formats.

Chesterton’s Islam

Chesterton’s description of the imaginary Chrislamic system in England was, perhaps, visionary. Prohibition (of alcohol) never came about in the UK but in the US it existed from 1920 until it was repealed in 1933. Prohibition, however, is the least of Chrislamic evils you’d imagine to befall you, again. More sinister is the loss of freedom because freedom is essential to drive society at large to new endeavours, to experiment, to explore the boundaries of knowledge and to advance science in general.

Islam’s Claim to Fame

Islamic scholars often point to historic achievements by the peoples now under their realms, including such as in mathematics, textile dying and manufacturing, and many other accomplishments. History though shows that most of such advancements were unrelated to Islam. For example, the Pazyryk carpet (Fig. 1), a nearly pristine example of "oriental" rug making, dates back approximately 2,500 years, well before the advent of Islam. Artisanal glass vessels for use as containers of perfumes and lotions are well known from pre-Islamic 1st-3rd century AD Persia; you can find them even on eBay. And the abacus, a tool to tally and calculate numbers dates back some 4,000 years to ancient Mesopotamia.

Christian Churches

Christianity has its own problems. Apart from the three major congregations, Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant Churches, there are numerous splinter groups, some with gaining and others with declining support. Some of them espouse traditional methods of appeasement with other beliefs and curricula, confront the issue, or they avoid it like the plague. In 2009, Pope Benedict XVI visited the Hagia Sofia in Istanbul. That structure is the oldest Christian building surviving to this day, dating back to the 3rd century (not in the current form). Benedict actually went there to pray, only the second Pope to do so, ever. Except for John Paul II, not a single one of his other predecessors had the gumption to do so for obvious reasons. Despite being the oldest Christian Church structure in Asia Minor still existing, the "secular" country of Turkey does not allow any faith other than Islam to even possess any land, much less any structure of worship. For that matter, even the possession of Bibles is outlawed there. And Benedict was only allowed to pray in a small ante-room, not the church proper. The Protestant Church by and large tries the appeasement route. Even today, it’s much an environ of "mutual tolerance", all based on the "another faith" principle. For example, the Protestant Church of Germany (Evangelische Kirche in Deutschland, counting approximately 50 million members) has both a working group on "Christian-Muslim Dialogue" and an advisory document on "Intercession for persecuted Christians and oppressed 2013 - Country Focus Indonesia" on its web site. One wonders which one is more important to the Church. From my perspective, it sounds like a cop-out, appeasement par excellence. The Coptic Church is probably suffering the most from the "Arab Spring" and its follow-up around the Mediterranean area. Coptic Christians are being killed, persecuted, and driven out of Egypt, Sudan and other Near East countries at an alarming rate. Their buildings of worship are burning, their women and children molested and the men killed outright by radical members of Islam. Of course, with few theological leaders of Islam taking a stance to the opposite, none of the perpetrators find a cause for change. The Coptic World reports that currently two Christian boys, age 9 and 10, are about to be tried in Egypt for allegedly ripping out some pages of a copy of the Quran they found in a pile of rubbish. Not much peaceful tolerance to witness there.

Crux of the Matter

As described in other recent posts to CFP, "Islam provides an antithesis to secular America", warns Paul L. Williams in his book Crescent Moon Rising: The Islamic Transformation of America. For example, Islam explicitly forbids other faiths any equal legitimacy. Islam also considers women and infidels (non-believers) as second class citizens. Furthermore, the Quran tells its followers that deceit is perfectly all right if it is meant to achieve the ultimate goal of advancing Islam in the world. Idle complacency, attempts at appeasement and tolerance only embolden the attacks aimed at the destruction of Judaeo-Christian societies. There simply is no middle ground, no live and let live. It is a question of all or nothing. The meaning of Chrislam has not changed much from Chesterton’s time to today. It remains a mesh-mash of Christian principles with those of Islam. In the minds of believers in the latter, of course, it dominates the curriculum and most of the others are taken in by the promises and protestations of Islam being "just another religion," and a peaceful one at that. One wonders: what gives? Perhaps Chrislam is not far off becoming a reality after all.


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Dr. Klaus L.E. Kaiser -- Bio and Archives

Dr. Klaus L.E. Kaiser is author of CONVENIENT MYTHS, the green revolution – perceptions, politics, and facts Convenient Myths


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