For reasons deeply rooted in Islamic orthodox thinking, my Muslim friends continually say that my online persona “lies” or is a “liar” or even an “inveterate liar”. Here are a few popular ayat that are often used to stoke mistrust between Muslims and Christians:

O you who believe! Do not take the Jews and the Christians as allies; some of them are allies of one another. Whoever of you allies himself with them is one of them. Allah does not guide the wrongdoing people.— Quran 5:51 ITANI

Those who disbelieve among the People of the Scripture, and the Polytheists, will be in the Fire of Hell, where they will abide forever. These are the worst of creatures.
As for those who believe and lead a righteous life—these are the best of creatures. — Quran 98:6–7 ITANI

To prove that the above ayat means that Jews and Christians are inveterate liars, some say that Christians copy the Apostle Paul when we allegedly lie, based on Paul’s testimony to the Corinthians:

¹⁹ For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them. ²⁰ To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I might win those under the law. ²¹ To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law. ²² To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. ²³ I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings. — 1 Corinthians 9:19–23 ESV

Anyone who reads the Corinthians passage in context knows exactly what Paul is talking about because he declares it loudly and plainly. He is purposely limiting his rights so that he will not be a stumbling block to weaker brothers and sisters. Neither lying nor deception is part of the passage!

Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Are not you my workmanship in the Lord? ² If to others I am not an apostle, at least I am to you, for you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord.
³ This is my defense to those who would examine me. ⁴ Do we not have the right to eat and drink? ⁵ Do we not have the right to take along a believing wife, as do the other apostles and the brothers of the Lord and Cephas? ⁶ Or is it only Barnabas and I who have no right to refrain from working for a living? ⁷ Who serves as a soldier at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard without eating any of its fruit? Or who tends a flock without getting some of the milk?
…
Nevertheless, we have not made use of this right, but we endure anything rather than put an obstacle in the way of the gospel of Christ.
…
¹⁵ But I have made no use of any of these rights, nor am I writing these things to secure any such provision. For I would rather die than have anyone deprive me of my ground for boasting. ¹⁶ For if I preach the gospel, that gives me no ground for boasting. For necessity is laid upon me. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel! ¹⁷ For if I do this of my own will, I have a reward, but if not of my own will, I am still entrusted with a stewardship. ¹⁸ What then is my reward? That in my preaching I may present the gospel free of charge, so as not to make full use of my right in the gospel. — 1 Corinthians 9:1–18 ESV (excerpts)

To be fair to my Muslim friends, part of the reason for this is that Islamic texts (especially the Quran) tend to have abbreviated contexts. Many Quran verses stand alone in context from verses above and below. Topics change continually. In contrast, the New Testament texts tend to flow from context to context, story to story.

The true deception here is that Muslim faithful are purposely mistaught New Testament scripture by imams and apologists who know better in order to slander Christianity and force it to agree with the Quran. Trust is a valuable commodity in the Islamic community mainly due to its rarity. If an outsider links Jihadist ideology with Islam, politically “woke” Muslims will remind the “Islamophobe” that Muslims kill more of their fellow Muslims than anyone else. Unfortunately, that inconvenient fact works against them in the mutual trust department.

The ironic thing about all this is that Christians can show the true context of the Corinthian passage, but Muslims will hold tight onto the concept that Christians lie because they don’t trust Christians to tell the truth about this passage or anything else! Mistrust is the hardest obstacle to overcome in any relationship.

Now to the topic at hand. This is for you @sutl Al!

I tend to get blocked – a lot – when I interact with my friends on Muslim run YouTube channels. I’m 99.99% sure that the censorship is occurring under the direction of the all powerful Channel Moderator, but I don’t have absolute proof. In other words, I can’t observe him (or her) typing on their keyboard blocking me, can I? All I know is that @A Berean can post a reply that only @A Berean can see. Log in as someone else and the comment vanishes. My Muslim friends say that I’m lying because they can’t (or won’t) believe that The Channel Moderator, one of their own, would do this. Also, all Christians lie, don’t they?

I’ll present two screenshots as evidence. The first is what @A Berean sees, as of 7.20.19. The second is what @A Berean Mirror (or anyone else) sees, also as of 7.20.19.

You can click on the thumbnail to see a full-sized version. Notice the last post by @A Berean in the left thumbnail. Note the timestamp. This proves that the comment was never deleted and subsequently reinserted to maintain an elaborate ruse. I challenge @sutl Al to prove that I am lying based on this evidence. I know that it is possible to fake screenshots through elaborate editing using a paint program, but I can assure you that that didn’t occur here. This cannot be caused by a browser failing to refresh as @sutl Al prefers to think. I invite him to prove his case by refreshing his browser and doing a screenshot of the missing post. Email it to “berean@invitationtograce.org”. At this point, I’m calling on @sutl Al to issue me a public apology for his baseless accusation. I’ll leave it up to him whether to ask forgiveness of Allah for the sin of bearing false witness. May God guide him.

I have a few exit questions for my Muslim friends reading this. How is it just and fair to treat an entire group of people (eg. Jews and Christians) as inveterate liars? Isn’t this the very definition of bigotry? Isn’t bigotry evil? Perhaps Quran 5:51 doesn’t mean what you’ve been taught it means. Perhaps Quran 98:6-7 is just, plain wrong. As always, your comments are appreciated.