Thursday, May 17, 2012

"not that I am come to destroy the law" - Islam & Anglo Saxon Christianity


Around the Tokyo Station...

Islam & Anglo Saxon Christianity

It was when Christianity started to diffuse among Anglo Saxon tribes that Islam emerged in the Arabian Peninsula.  Both the incidents occurred around 600.

It was Pope Gregory I that promoted Christianity in Anglo Saxon and Germanic people.   
Pope Gregory I (540 – 604), better known in English as Gregory the Great, was pope from 3 September 590 until his death. Gregory is well known for his writings, which were more prolific than those of any of his predecessors as pope.

Throughout the Middle Ages he was known as "the Father of Christian Worship" because of his exceptional efforts in revising the Roman worship of his day.

He is also known as St. Gregory the Dialogist in Eastern Orthodoxy because of his Dialogues. For this reason, English translations of Orthodox texts will sometimes list him as "Gregory Dialogus". He was the first of the popes to come from a monastic background...

Gregory is credited with re-energizing the Church's missionary work among the non-Christian peoples of northern Europe. He is most famous for sending a mission, often called the Gregorian mission, under Augustine of Canterbury, prior of Saint Andrew's, where he had perhaps succeeded Gregory, to evangelize the pagan Anglo-Saxons of England. The mission was successful, and it was from England that missionaries later set out for the Netherlands and Germany. The preaching of the Catholic faith and the elimination of all deviations from it was a key element in Gregory's worldview, and it constituted one of the major continuing policies of his pontificate.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Gregory_I#Controversy_with_Eutychius

 The  founder of Islam was not a stranger to Christiainity:
Pre-Islamic
At the age of nine, Muhammad went to Syria with his uncle and had interactions with Christians. One important contact was with the Nestorian monk Bahira in Bosra, modern Syria who foretold to the adolescent Muhammad his future prophetic career.
Waraqah ibn Nawfal was a Nestorian monk,[2] Mecca's priest or preacher according to some sources. 
Meccan period
Waraqah is said to have believed in Muhammad as a prophet, but died as a Christian. After the early Sahaba ("Companions") faced intense persecution, Muhammad sent 90 of his followers to Abyssinia. There the Muslims were received by the Christian king Aṣḥama ibn Abjar. 
Medinian period
In 630 AD Muhammad received a Christian delegation from Najran in Medina. Debate with Christians ensued some days. Finally the Christians asked Muhammad for peace and he accepted. Muhammad extended the hand of friendship towards them, a treaty was signed and both parties left on friendly terms. 
Another Christian delegation this time from Iraq by Jesujab II was heading to Medina but Muhammad died before it arrived.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muhammad_and_Christianity

In other word, Muslims of today and (Anglo Saxon) Americans of today have almost the same traditions in their religion concerning the length of period of time.

But did God and Allah plan to have Muslims and Americans to confront with each other in the early 21st century?  Then Why?

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Mat 5:17 Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.