THE TRUTH ABOUT ISLAM (LOOKING IN FROM THE OUTSIDE)

What everyone should know

The purpose of this article is not to analyze Islam nor is it to lynch Islam because of it’s continuous acts of violence against innocent men, women, children and even new born babies or kidnapping and forced conversion of young girls, or muslim men marrying 6 year old girls or even younger than 6 year old girls or of muslim efforts to shove their ideology down everyone’s throats.  The intent is to scrutinize Islam, it’s history and makeup under the same light of the Torah and the Bible, in the same manner all other religions and faiths are scrutinized, and allow the readers to perceive for themselves the true nature of Islam.

In no way, shape or form will I encourage and allow any spiteful or resentful attitudes toward Muslims to be concluded from this article.  It would be unjust and untruthful to judge all Muslims because of heinous and unconscionable violence committed by those who have chosen to commit violence and murder under the guidance of Islamic teachings.

As I’ve said many times before, I am not a theologian or a religious scholar.  I am just an ordinary human being looking in from the outside and probing Islam with spiritual discernment and not with preconceived logical or emotional notions. 

I believe that no matter what your religion is, you should question everything about it. You should question your beliefs, the religion itself and the values associated with it. It is through those questions that you either decide to commit to the religion and make it a central part of your life or remove yourself from it.  Christianity and Judaism is continuously being questioned and criticized and there’s no problem in that because I believe religion is man-made.  God has not tied Himself to any particular religion or faith.  It is man who created religion – NOT GOD. I will give you one simple example:  Jesus Christ was born a Jew.  He lived a Jewish life and he religiously followed the Jewish faith.  When Jesus was crucified and died on the cross, he was still Jewish.  Christianity only began in the 1st century AD after Jesus died, as a small group of Jewish people in Judea, but quickly spread throughout the Roman empire.  Therefore, it is a fact that Jesus did not create Christianity.  The term Christian comes from the Greek word “Christianos” – meaning “Follower of Christ”. 

God created human beings in His own image and therefore, all are of equal value in His sight.  Jews and Christians are all agreed on this fundamental point.  God deals with human beings without regard to their religious affiliation. He does not look at people through the kaleidoscope of religions.  He does not label people according to their religion.  He approaches his creatures directly, using the knowledge they have of the truth and awakening their desire to Him.  Through His Spirit He is able to reach everyone everywhere and to communicate with them individually in the core of their being.  God is for the whole world, not just for any religion in particular.  What God is looking for is faith and obedience, love and peace.

Now when it comes to the question of Islam, historical reliability of the Quran concerns the question of the historicity of the described or claimed events in the Quran. Unlike Christianity and Judaism, in the Muslim world, scholarly criticism of the Quran can be considered an apostasy and can be punished by death.  Many renowned scholars have identified several pre-existing sources for the Quran. The Quran assumes its readers' familiarity with the Christian Bible and there are many parallels between the Bible and the Quran. Aside from the Bible, the Quran includes legendary narratives about Alexander the Great, apocryphal gospels, and Jewish legends. Thus, the question of the historical reliability of the Quran is tied to the question of the historical reliability of the Bible.

Muslims do not like anyone questioning or criticizing Islam. They immediately get angry and violent if anyone questions or criticizes Islam.  To me, scholarly criticism of the Quran, is thus, a beginning area of study in the Islamic world.

Now, to fully understand the spirit of Islam, one must compare the Quran with the Torah and Bible revealing satan’s tactics of spiritual deception and in order to do so, one must thoroughly read all 114 suras or chapters of the Quran and the Hadiths (Sahih Bukhari and Sahih Muslim) including the historical life of Muhammad before Islam and during his life and because the majority of non-Muslims have failed to understand islam, the Islamic people have not been stirred or touched by the scriptures of the Torah and Gospels of the Bible.  They have put up blinders and remain in the darkness of a fanatical religion which forces them to have faith in a god who is unreachable, untouchable and unknowable.

Islam is a very complex and complicated “religion” (if it can be called a religion) far from any Judeo-Christian understanding.  To a Muslim, Islam is a complete system that encompasses every aspect of society. Muslims unequivocally assert that the laws of Islam meet not only the religious and moral codes of society, but also the economical, ethical and political codes as well.  Many of the Islamic teachings are a reflection of 7th century Arabian culture and society.  Many rituals and practices enforced by Islam have been traced back to Pre-Islamic Arabia.  One researcher eloquently pointed out , “Archeological and linguistic works done since the latter part of the nineteenth century has unearthed overwhelming evidences that Muhammad constructed his religion and the Quran from pre-existing materials in pagan Arabian culture”.

The word “Islam” means “total submission to Allah” and to be a Muslim one must completely submit oneself to Allah making submission a strong characteristic of this “religion”.  Allah demands total subjection of a person in all aspects of life.  In seventh century Arabia a tribe acknowledged to Muhammad their faith in Allah by saying “We believe in Allah.”  Muhammad replied to them, “You have not believed until you say, ‘We have submitted ourselves!” (Surah Al-Hujurat [49:14] – al Quran – al Kareem).

To become a Muslim is to become the “Slave of Allah”.  Many Muslims take on the name Abd-Allah or Abdallah or Abdullah, meaning “slave of Allah.”  Therefore the goal of Islam is to produce a theocracy with Allah as the ruler of society with no separation between religion and state meaning, a society with no democracy, no free will and no freedom of expression. When Islam takes over a home, family, society or country, it takes control of every aspect of life.  This fact is observable in Islamic states... prime example, look at Iran.

Now let’s look at the very foundation of Islam.  Islam emanates from two fundamental sources, the Quran and the traditions and instructions of Muhammad known as the Hadiths. To religiously adherent or radical/fundamentalist Muslims, Islam is a comprehensive self evolving system.  It is seen as the ultimate solution and path of life, an ideology able to govern every political, economic, political, cultural and social aspects of their society, applicable to all times and places.  Therefore, Islam to Muslims is more than a religion or daily rituals.  It is a way of living, thinking and reasoning.

Knowing this helps us understand why Muslims think and reason in a manner that is alien to non-Muslims.  Islam compels it’s followers to adhere and follow Muhammad’s way of thinking.   The first statement of the Quran in Arabic is “lā ʾilāha ʾillallāh,” and “Muḥammad rasūlu-llāh” which when translated it means “There is no God except Allah” and “Muhammad is his prophet.”  However, in a more historical context, a more accurate interpretation would be, “There is no God who is allowed to be worshipped except Allah, and every man must follow Muhammad and his teachings.”  Hence, in Islamic countries, other religions do not have the right to exist.  The few people who practice other religions are under tremendous oppression. Many are routinely violated, forcibly converted to Islam, incarcerated and executed.

Next is to look at the nature and character of Islam and in order to do so, I have to very briefly describe myself.  I was born in a Judeo-Catholic family and raised in an Islamic country which exposed me to the Islamic “religion” and it’s practices which kind of became part of normal life for non-Muslims.  I also have a copy of the Quran authored by N.J. Dawood from the time I was in college in Chittagong, Bangladesh that I’ve read all 114 chapters (surahs), all 6,236 verses (ayats) of the Quran many times over for my own understanding and knowledge.  So, to clearly understand the nature and character of Islam, one must look at Islam from a scriptural point of view otherwise Islam remains an enigma.  We need to explore the similarities between the Baal cults of the Torah and Bible and Islam of today.

In the Torah and the Biblical Old Testament, the followers of Baal were major opposers and challengers of God (Jehovah) and His people.  Baal was worshiped as a male god of the Phoenicians and Canaanites, and the worship of Baal was often connected with the goddess Ashtoreth (mentioned in the Book of Judges 2:13), the female counterpart.  The characteristics of Baal worship can be seen in many of today’s cults and false religions because the worship produces a spirit of hatred toward God’s elect, a spirit of immorality, fear, bloodshed, division and war.

Throughout history Islam has proved time and time again to have similar nature and character. Many rituals practiced within Islam are similar to those of Baal worship and in my opinion, the spirit of Baal worship in Phoenicia and Canaan and later in Babylon, is the same spirit that raised Islam in pagan Arabia.  If you check in the Encyclopedia of Religion, “Allah” is a pre-Islamic name corresponding to the Babylonian Bel (or Baal).  According to the renowned Middle East scholar Elwood Morris Wherry, in pre-Islamic times both Allah-worship and Baal-worship involved the worship of the sun, moon and stars which defines them as astral religions.  The crescent moon which is the symbol of moon worship is also the symbol of Islam.  It is printed on the flags of many Islamic countries and is also seen on top of minarets and mosque domes.

Spiritually speaking, the false god Baal, the spirit of Baal and the religious practices of Baal was created by satan to give people a counterfeit religious and spiritual experience that is still alive and growing today.  This false religion was created well before Muhammad, Allah or Baal and can be traced to Genesis Chapter 10, to the time of Nimrod and the Tower of Babel and we all know the details from the Torah and the Bible of how God commanded the people to take the land and remove all false gods, altars, idols and worship.  The people did not listen to God and Baal was the primary deity to become a snare to their soul as God had said would happen and we know from scriptures what happened in the end.   This was not the end of this false god Baal, because in some regions Baal became known as “Hubal”, which in Hebrew means “the Baal”.  As “Hubal”, he became known as the “god of the moon,” and this was the deity that became well known during Muhammad’s time in Mecca. 

The Kaaba was originally dedicated to the moon god in Arabia, and him alone.  Eventually, it was used for the 360 pagan/tribal gods the Arabians worshipped, one for each day on the Arabic calendar year.  When the Kaaba was just a shrine to “Hubal” the pagan Arabs worshipped a black meteorite that they claimed was from the moon god.  At the beginning, travelers came to pray, worship, pay tribute and kiss the black meteorite in reverence to “Hubal”.  After the addition of the idols, the worship was dedicated to the idols as well.   The Quraysh tribe that Muhammad and his grandfather belonged to in Mecca worshipped an idol named “Allah”.   So, centuries before Muhammad  even uttered that god revealed his name as “Allah”, the Arabs already had a false idol deity called “Allah”, whom they said had three daughters: Al-Uzza, Allat and Manat.   Let’s not forget that from his childhood Muhammad was taught the religion of “Baal” or “Hubal”, as well as the ceremonies and traditions of this idol worship.  His grandfather and uncle shared with Muhammad many traditions passed down of “Baal” or “Hubal” and later the idol “Allah”, which the Quraysh tribe worshipped.

According to Islamic teachings after Muhammad got his revelation in a cave from, the angel Gabriel, he claimed that there is one true god and his name was...none other than “ALLAH” and that he has no son or daughters.  He mentioned son because he was around Christians and had heard about Jesus being the son of God and many of Jesus’s teachings and doctrines for salvation.

While "Allah" could refer to God literally (in Arabic), the Allah of Islam is the moon god of ancient pagan Arabia. The Arabic word for "god" is "ilah," while "al" is the Arabic for "the." Therefore, "Allah" combines "al" with "ilah" and removes the "i" to literally mean, "the god."  

But much like "Yahweh/Jehovah" is the personal name of the God of the Torah and the Bible, "Allah" is also the personal name of the moon god, the chief among the 360 pagan idols that were worshipped in Mecca.

So, what the ancient pagan Arabians do to worship their moon god Allah? They prayed while bowing toward Kaaba, the "house of Allah" in Mecca that houses a meteorite - a rock from space - several times a day, visited it once a year, and walked around it several times during their visit. To worship their Allah today:   

• Muslims pray bowing toward the Kaaba in Mecca five times a day.
• About two million Muslims visit Mecca every year and walk around the Kaaba (the black cube, which is 40 feet tall).
• The Muslim "holy" month of Ramadan starts at the sighting of a new crescent moon.
• Perched atop churches across the world is the cross, the symbol of the sacrifice made by the God of the Bible (see The Gospel). Perched atop mosques across the world is the crescent moon, the symbol of Muhammad's Allah, the god of Islam.

When confronted with the details above, Muslim typically re-assert that "Allah" still means "al" + "ilah" - i.e., "the" + "god" - and is same as the God of the Bible, not the moon god of pagan Mecca. They even point out that Arabic Christian Bibles use "Allah" to refer to God.

The "Allah" in the Arabic Christian Bibles is literally "the God" and does refer to the God of the Bible. Advise Muslims that if this is really the God they are worshipping, then they should stop bowing down to a meteorite five times a day and the crescent moon should neither start their "holy" month nor top their mosques. If the "Allah" they are worshipping is genuinely the God of the Bible, then they should worship Him as the Bible instructs.

So far we’ve learned about the false god named “Baal” who was worshipped around the Middle East (mainly Mecca) who later became known as “Hubal”, which in Hebrew means “the Baal”.  As “Hubal”, he became known as the “god of the moon,” and this was the deity that became well known during Muhammad’s time in Mecca.   Now I am going to illustrate the similarities between Islam and Baal/Hubal Worship.  Remember “Hubal” became known as the god of the moon which later morphed into “Allah” the ancient pagan Arab moon god.

  

Before I proceed any further I do want to express that this is not an attempt to bash Muslims or promote any type of hate toward them.  All I’m attempting to do is put the truth forward based on historical facts and not fallacies and to show the readers that from the very creation of Islam, Muslims have and still worship an ancient false god and that “Allah” is NOT the same God that Jews and Christians worship...

Now here are the similarities and you dear readers be the judge:

Baal worship

Prayed to Baal facing Mecca.

Islam

Pray to Allah always facing Mecca.

Baal worship

Worship included pilgrimage to Mecca to the Kaaba, to worship and honour Hubal (Baal) – not a new revelation as taught in Islam but practiced centuries before Muhammad created Islam.

Islam

Muslims are encouraged to make one pilgrimage in their lifetime to Mecca and the Kaaba

Baal worship

Worshippers marched around the Kaaba 5 to 7 times to worship Hubal.

Islam

Muslims march around the Kaaba in worship; the only thing Muhammad changed was that they don’t have to be naked as it was practiced by Baal worshippers.

  

Baal worship

While at the Kaaba, they kissed the black stone in worship.

Islam

Muhammad would kiss the black stone – a tradition he learned from Hubal / Allah worship in his tribe. He made it a tradition in Islam (Islamic tradition says the stone was white, but it turned black from man’s sin passed on to the stone).

Baal worship

While at the Kaaba, stones would be thrown at walls or pillars to be symbolic of stoning satan.

Islam

Today, during Hajj which is the annual Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca, Muslims throw stones at an oberlisk, which represents satan to Muslims.

Baal worship

The worshippers would cut themselves.  This is recorded in the Torah and Bible in “I Kings 18:28”  (And they cried aloud, and cut themselves after their manner with knives and lancets, till the blood gushed out upon them.)  If you want to read the full account on Baal/Hubal worship you can go to  “I Kings 18: 21-28” in the Old Testament of the Bible/Torah.

Islam

Shia Muslims cut themselves and put a mark on their foreheads on the Muslim holy day of Muharram to mourn the death of Muhammad’s grandson.

Baal worship

Baal, who became known as “Hubal”, was called the, “god of the moon” or simply the “moon god”.  Hubal, in Hebrew means, “the Baal”

Islam

Allah is called, “the moon god”.  Most times Muslims will deny this and say it is based on a lunar calendar and that the moon has nothing to do with Allah.  Yet, almost every mosque has a crescent moon on it.  One mosque has a full moon on it, the dome of the rock in Jerusalem.  Muslims say this is because Jerusalem is the place where everything will come full circle.  They believe Jerusalem is theirs and will be fully theirs again soon.  The crescent moon, star and bulbous finials of the mosque markers are a throwback to the pagan origins of Islam before Muhammad introduced his Quran.  The finials have bulbous knots in them that represent the fallen stars Muhammed put underneath (destroyed) Islam with the crescent moon encircling the star that represents the black stone in the Kaaba.

If you ask Muslims about the bulbous finial which is a representation of a full moon above the Dome of the Rock, they will say it is symbolic of total control over everything that is Jewish. A circle is complete like the subjugation of the Jews in their own city.  This is totally false because they try to divert facts.

Central to Islam is the worship of the stone in Mecca but, they deny it who bow down and face it to pray 5 times daily with repetitive prayers from all over the world. They set their mats down towards Mecca with special attention to alignment.

So, WHO IS ALLAH?  WHERE DID ALLAH COME FROM?

Many Muslims will argue that Allah is the same God that the Jews and Christians worship.  However, by studying the Quran one will see a monumental gap of character, nature and personality exists between the God of the Torah and Bible and the Allah of the Quran.  You don’t have to be Jewish or a Christian to see the vast differences – Muslims who study both the Quran and Bible will see that difference.  To point this difference to a Muslim or to anyone who hasn’t studied Islam would be a waste of time and energy.  All that needs to be done is to honestly show what Islam teaches and practices and only then will one know what Islam really is as Jesus Christ said in Matthew 12:33 – “A tree is known by it’s fruit”.  Just as an apple tree produces apples and a thorn tree produces thorns, the fruit that Islam has produced throughout history thus far are the fruits of fear, terror and bloodshed.

We all know that Muhammad was born in the city of Mecca in 570 A.D. and we know his father Abdullah (meaning “slave of Allah”) died before Muhammad was born and mother Amina died when he was six years old.  Muhammad was raised by his grandfather Abdul Muttaleb who also didn’t live very long.  He was then taken by his uncle Abu Talib.  Let’s not forget that Muhammad’s family belonged to a very powerful Arabian tribe called the “Quraish”. 

Anyways, when Muhammad turned twenty-five, he met and married a forty year old wealthy widow named Khadija who lived in Mecca and through her he was introduced to some influential; people in the Meccan society.  He immediately took advantage and in no time associated himself with the religious and political situation of Arabia.

Now during Muhammad’s time the people of Arabia worshipped a number of deities.  Mecca was a shrine city where the Kaaba (that black “Cube”) a cubicle structure known as the “house of Allah” that stands today which  Muslims today believe that this house was built by Abraham and his son Ishmael.

However, that is not true because before and during Muhammad’s time, the Kaaba was full of images of other gods and goddesses.  It was a custom for pilgrims who came to Mecca  to walk around the Kaaba seven times, kissing and touching the Black Stone.

So, let’s examine the Black Stone.  The Black Stone is a meteorite to which the pagan Arabs attached great religious significance.  This pagan custom was later adopted by Muhammad in the Islamic pilgrimage of “hajj” which is practiced even today.

At the time of Muhammad, Jews and Christian lived in Arabia and they both lacked the power to convince the Arabs of the one, true God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.  Instead, Muhammad started spending time in a cave on the side of Mt Hira and around 610 when he turned forty, he claimed to have had a visitation from angel Gabriel who told him to “Recite,  the name of the Lord who has created, man from the clots of blood.  Recite, seeing that the Lord is the most generous, who has taught by the pen, taught man what he did not know” (Surah Al-'Alaq [96:1-5] – al-Quran Al-Kareen). 

This experience instilled great doubt in Muhammad’s mind.  Could this be a message from Allah, the God who Arabs venerate to be the supreme God?  For months after that Muhammad did not receive any revelation and he got depressed and even considered suicide.  After about two year Muhammad claims to have received other revelations in various form.  He claims he saw an angel and even heard voices and received messages in dreams.  Apparently, when a message came to him, he would fall to the ground and foam at the mouth.  The messages apparently came to him in Arabic and he spoke the words he received which were then written down by those who heard him.  Since Muhammad was illiterate, the revelations were collected by his followers in a book called Quran (which means reciting or reading), were not Muhammad’s words but the very words of God.  Thus, Muslims believe that the Quran is a miracle from God because an illiterate man could not write such a book.

Soon after, Muhammad started to preach that there is no God but Allah and that he was the prophet of Allah.  He called upon people to repent from worshipping other gods and turn to Allah.  His wife Khadija, his adopted son Zaid and a young cousin Ali embraced Allah.  Later about a hundred more people joined the new movement and together they attacked the gods in the Kaaba.

So, Muslims began worshipping this new god named  Allah. They also give him ninety-nine other names. The question that naturally arises is who or what is this Allah? Where did the Muslims derive their ideas of Allah's nature and attributes?

According to the Historical Sources of Islam, historians, linguists, and archeologists have dug into this question for over a century. Various archeological digs in Arabia and throughout the Middle East have uncovered the answer: Islam is a modern version of the ancient fertility religion of the moon god. Once this is grasped, the rise and history of Islam becomes clear.

The Arab conquests were made possible because the central powers in the Middle East had exhausted themselves in wars against each other. They were not able to fight off wave after wave of Arab armies which subdued entire nations with merciless slaughter, rape and plunder.

The Arabs also destroyed some of the wonders of the ancient world such as the world famous library in Alexandria, Egypt, They destroyed many ancient churches and synagogues. Anthropologists have recorded how the Arabs destroyed the cultural heritage of any nation which fell under their sword.

So, who were these Arabs? They obviously were not Christians because they destroyed churches and murdered priests wherever they went. Obviously, they were not Jews because they persecuted Jews without pity. This is seen today in their hatred of Israel and the many wars and acts of terrorism waged against Jews throughout the world.

If the Arab hordes which swept over the ancient world were not Christians or Jews, then what were they? They were pagans who worshipped a pagan god called Allah and followed pagan rites which were practiced in Arabia long before the religion of Islam evolved (As I illustrated above the similarities between Islam and worship of the pagan god Baal / Hubal).

So, let’s look into the Pagan Origins of Islam - Allah, the moon god of the Kaaba

Islam's origins have been traced back by scholars to the ancient fertility religion of the worship of the moon god which was always the dominant religion of Arabia. The moon god was worshipped by praying toward Mecca several times a day, making an annual pilgrimage to the Kaaba which was a temple of the moon god, running around the Kaaba seven times, caressing an idol of a black stone set in the wall of the Kaaba, running between two hills, making animal sacrifices, gathering on Fridays for prayers, giving alms to the poor, etc.. These were pagan rites practiced by the Arabs long before Muhammad was born.

Denial is Not a Refuge and therefore, denying the truth doesn’t change facts

What religion today practices the pagan rites of the moon god? Islam! This explains why the crescent moon is the symbol of Islam. It is placed on top of mosques and minarets and displayed on hats, flags, rugs, amulets and even jewelry. Every time you see the Muslim symbol of a crescent moon, you are seeing the ancient symbol of the moon god.

Does the average Muslim know that he is worshipping a moon god? No.

Does he know why the crescent moon symbol sits on top of his mosque? No.

Is he shocked and perhaps angered at these facts of history? Yes.

But can mere denial or angry threats refute the fact that Islam is nothing more than a modern version of the ancient religion of the moon god Allah? No.

The average Muslim has been kept in the dark by the Mullahs and Imams who would lose their power if the truth ever got out.

There are a number of scholars who believe that Allah, was originally the name of the moon god of Northern Arabia. It is important to remember that the word "Allah" simply means "the god" and corresponds to "ho theos" in the Greek New Testament as "the God" which refers to the Father in John 1:1 and the Son in John 20:28 and Heb 1:8. What is interesting is that Hubal was the top pagan moon god of the Kabah. So Allah is the generic and Hubal, may have been the actual name, in the same way that "the God" is generic and "Jehovah" is the name. The Arabs may have referred to "Hubal" as "Allah", just like Jews would refer to "Jehovah" as "The God".

1.    "Allah, the Supreme Being of the Mussulmans: Before Islam. That the Arabs, before the time of Muhammed, accepted and worshipped, after a fashion, a supreme god called Allah,--"the Ilah, or the god, if the form is of genuine Arabic source; if of Aramaic, from Alaha, "the god"—seems absolutely certain. Whether he was an abstraction or a development from some individual god, such as Hubal, need not here be considered...But they also recognized and tended to worship more fervently and directly other strictly subordinate gods...It is certain that they regarded particular deities (mentioned in 1iii. 19-20 are al-'Uzza, Manat or Manah, al-Lat'; some have interpreted vii, 179 as a reference to a perversion of Allah to Allat as daughters of Allah (vi. 100; xvi, 59; xxxvii, 149; 1iii, 21); they also asserted that he had sons (vi. 100)..."There was no god save Allah". This meant, for Muhammed and the Meccans, that of all the gods whom they worshipped, Allah was the only real deity. It took no account of the nature of God in the abstract, only of the personal position of Allah. ...ilah, the common noun from which Allah is probably derived..." (First Encyclopedia of Islam, E.J. Brill, 1987, Islam, p. 302)

2.    Allah. Islamic name for God. Is derived from Semitic El, and [Allah] originally applied to the Moon; he [Allah] seems to have been preceded by Ilmaqah, the Moon-god. Allat is the female counterpart of Allah. (Everyman's Dictionary of Non-Classical Mythology, Egerton Sykes, Godspeed, Allah)

3.    The Bedouin's astral beliefs centred upon the moon, in whose light he grazed his flocks. Moon-worship implies a pastoral society, whereas sun-worship represents a later agricultural stage. In our own day the Moslem Ruwalah Bedouins imagine that their life is regulated by the moon, which condenses the water vapours, distils the beneficent dew on the pasture and makes possible the growth of plants. On the other hand the sun, as they believe, would like to destroy the Bedouins as well as all animal and plant life. (History Of The Arabs, Philip K. Hitti, 1937, p 96-101)

4.    There are stories in the Sira of pagan Meccan praying to Allah while standing beside the image of Hubal. (Muhammad's Mecca, W. Montgomery Watt, Chapter 3: Religion In Pre-Islamic Arabia, p26-45)

5.    "The relation of this name, which in Babylonia and Assyrian became a generic term simply meaning 'god', to the Arabian Ilah familiar to us in the form Allah, which is compounded of al, the definite article, and Ilah by eliding the vowel 'i', is not clear. Some scholars trace the name to the South Arabian Ilah, a title of the Moon god, but this is a matter of antiquarian interest" (Islam, Alfred Guillaume, 1956, p 6-7)

6.    "The first pre-Islamic inscription discovered in Dhofar Province, Oman, this bronze plaque, deciphered by Dr. Albert Jamme, dates from about the second century A.D. and gives the name of the Hadramaut moon good Sin and the name Sumhuram, a long-lost city....The moon was the chief deity of all the early South Arabian kingdoms—particularly fitting in that region where the soft light of the moon brought the rest and cool winds of night as a relief from the blinding sun and scorching heat of day. In contrast to most of the old religions with which we are familiar, the moon god is male, while the sun god is his consort, a female. The third god of importance is their child, the male morning star, which we know as the planet Venus...The spice route riches brought them a standard of luxurious living inconceivable to the poverty-stricken South Arabian Bedouins of today. Like nearly all Semitic peoples they worshipped the moon, the sun, and the morning star. The chief god, the moon, was a male deity symbolized by the bull, and we found many carved bulls' heads, with drains for the blood of sacrificed animals." (Qataban and Sheba, Wendell Phillips, 1955, p. 227)

7.    "...a people of Arabia, of the race of the Joktanites...the Alilai living near the Red Sea in a district where gold is found; their name, children of the moon, so called from the worship of the moon, or Alilat." (Gesenius Hebrew and Chaldee Lexicon to the Old Testament Scriptures, translated by Samuel Prideaux Tregelles, 1979, p. 367)

8.    Allat, according to recent study of the complicated inspirational evidence, is believed to have been introduced into Arabia from Syria, and to have been the moon goddess of North Arabia. If this is the correct interpretation of her character, she corresponded to the moon deity of South Arabia, Almaqah, `Vadd, `Amm or Sin as he was called, the difference being only the oppositeness of gender. Mount Sinai (the name being an Arabic feminine form of Sin) would then have been one of the centers of the worship of this northern moon goddess. Similarly, al-`Uzza is supposed to have come from Sinai, and to have been the goddess of the planet Venus. As the moon and the evening star are associated in the heavens, so too were Allat and al-`Uzza together in religious belief, and so too are the crescent and star conjoined on the flags of Arab countries today. (The Archeology Of World Religions, Jack Finegan, 1952, p482-485, 492)

Though this is only a snapshot of this particular subject, I hope that I have provided enough proof and reasoning as to why I believe modern day Islam is the same religion as ancient Baal worship and that Allah is the moon god and not the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.  Allah is definitely NOT the same God of the Jews and Christians as Muslims claim.