Oppression

Muhammad was both oppressed and an oppressor, a heritage passed on to Muslims. Both struggle side by side: isolated women and women-hating men, vulnerable religious minorities and merciless men ruling in the name of God, censored youth and ruthless military tyrants, second-class Christians and police-backed persecution, known hypocrites and strict imams, quiet converts to Christ and upset family members.

Islam is a religion of honor and strength. Un-Islamic shameful actions and failure to obey Sharia law bring punishment. Oppression is necessary to keep from spoiling a nation’s Islamic honor. Submission is a virtue in the Quran (3.19), and independence is never valued. Islam orders everyone to surrender as slaves to Allah.

No one who becomes a Muslim may ever leave  traitors deserve death (Quran 4.89). This aspect of Islam adds to the domineering impulses in any culture. When the ruthless Mongols were won over to Islam, they became the worst possible oppressors of non-Muslims.

Oppression in Islam is accompanied by crippling fatalism: Muslims believe that Allah tests them, so they must bear their pain and shame without protest.

My name is Hassan, and I am from the Hausa tribe. My father is a veterinarian in northern Nigeria. While I attended medical school, conversations with Christian classmates impressed me so deeply that I began to read the Bible in secret. Then Jesus appeared to me in a dream calling me to follow him. My heart said ‘yes.’

Family members noticed a change in my conduct, but I said nothing. My younger brother discovered my Bible, and my father nearly killed me when I refused to return to Islam. I transferred my internship to south Nigeria. Then my parents cut off all support for my studies. Various relatives contacted me trying to lure me back.

Others threatened me. I now live with Christian interns. Recently I heard that my oldest brother is planning to kill me and remove the family shame. I have lost everyone and everything in following Jesus, but Christians are now my new family.

The Lord is a stronghold for the oppressed. Psalm 9:9a 

Whoever oppresses a poor man insults his Maker. Proverbs 14:31

The Lord works righteousness and justice for all who are oppressed. Psalm 103:6

Father of the fatherless and protector of widows is God in his holy habitation. Psalm 68:5

Out of my distress I called on the Lord  the Lord answered me and set me free. Psalm 118:5In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. John 1:1

And Jesus called them to him and said to them, “You know that those who are considered rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. But it shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” Mark 10:42-45

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed. Luke 4:18But Jesus called them to him, saying, “Let the children come to me, and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God. Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.” Luke 18:16-17

I and the Father are one. John 10:30

Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves. John 14:11

Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. John 14:9

For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form… Colossians 2:9

There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. Galatians 3:28

Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Philippians 2:5-8

Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 2 Corinthians 3:17

For freedom Christ has set us free  stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. Galatians 5:1

You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. John 8:32

So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. John 8:36