What impact will Pastor Saeed Abedini's freedom have?
Spirited Debate: Ordained Minister Wendy Patrick on the implications of the prisoner exchange with Iran and the danger of people believing all is well
Iranian-American pastor Saeed Abedini has warned that if Christians don't reach Muslims with the "love of Jesus Christ," then Muslims will reach them with jihad.
"If we don't reach Muslims with the love of Jesus Christ, they will reach us with the love of Allah, which is jihad," Abedini wrote on his Facebook page on Sunday.
Abedini, who converted from Islam and spent three years and a half in prison in Iran for his Christian faith, has slammed the teachings of Islam in several statements, arguing that it's a "lie" to believe that Islam is a peaceful religion.
"If Muslims say: we are peaceful, 'it's a lie.' The Qur'an teaches that Muslims must fight and kill (Jihad) unbelievers. 'Wherever you overtake them' until 'religion is Allah's,' i.e. Islamic law rules all societies (2.Sura Al _Baqarah(Cow) 2:190-193). Regarding to the Qur'an's verse, Christians and Jews are included to make them Muslim or kill them in entire the world," Abedini wrote back in March, following the Easter Sunday terror attacks on Christians in Pakistan.
The mass suicide blast in Lahore killed at least 72 people, and Islamic terrorists said it was specifically aimed at Christians.
Muslims leaders around the world, such as Muslim Judicial Council of South Africa President Maulana Ihsaan Hendricks, condemned, at that time, what they called a "heinous and cowardly" attack on Christians.
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