Pastor Saeed Abedini: If Christians Don't Reach Muslims With Love of Christ, Muslims Will Reach Them With Jihad

By Stoyan Zaimov, Christian Post Reporter Monday, May 30, 2016

Saeed Abedini, a pastor from Idaho is pictured with Congressman Robert Pittenger at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Landstuhl, Germany, in this undated handout photo provided by Congressman Robert Pittenger, on January 20, 2016. Abedini, 35, an Iranian-American pastor from Idaho who was setting up an orphanage in Iran in 2012 when he was detained, was released on Sunday in a prisoner swap following the lifting of most international sanctions against Iran under a deal to curb Tehran's nuclear program. | (Photo: Reuters/Congressman Robert Pittenger/Handout)

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.

"The Islamic teaching in the Quran states that, 'Whoever kills a person, it is as though he has killed all mankind. And whoever saves a life, it is as though he had saved all mankind,'" Hendricks said, arguing that terror groups refuse to respect this teaching.

Abedini insisted, however, that Muslims who are peaceful and do not believe in violent jihad are following a "new religion."

"ISIS, al-Qaeda, Taliban, Islamic Republic of Iran are practicing the real Islam by destroying churches and killing Christian every day," the pastor wrote at that time.

He argued that there is no region in the world where Islamic societies are coexisting with others in peace.

"So, where is the place which the most completest religion of the world known as Islam (as Muslims say) and Muslims believe that works peacefully in the entire world?!" he asked. "The answer is 'NO WHERE.'"

Abedini says on his website that he convered to Christianity at 20 year old, leaving behind Islam, and felt called to plant and grow churches in his native Iran, despite the persecution he faced.