A blogger who calls himself The Saker conducted a video interview with an Islamic imam and scholar named Sheikh Imran Hosein.
According to Wikipedia, Sheikh Imran Nazar Hosein (born 1942) is an Islamic scholar, author and philosopher specializing in Islamic eschatology, world politics, economics, and modern socio-economic/political issues. He is the author of Jerusalem in the Qur’an.
Note: Eschatology is the branch of theology that is concerned with the end of the world or of humankind.
Born on the Caribbean island of Trinidad in 1942 from parents whose ancestors had migrated as indentured laborers from India, Hosein is a graduate of the Aleemiyah Institute of Islamic Studies in Karachi and has studied at several institutions of higher learning including the Graduate Institute of International Relations in Switzerland.
Hosein worked for several years as a Foreign Service Officer in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Government of Trinidad and Tobago but gave up his job in 1985 to devote his life to Islam. He lived in New York for ten years, during which time he was the Imam at Masjid Dar al-Qur’an in Long Island, New York, as well as the Director of Islamic Studies for the Joint Committee of Muslim Organizations of Greater New York. Hosein is active in inter-faith dialogues with Christian and Jewish scholars while representing Islam in the USA.
In his “About” page, The Saker identifies himself as a Eur0pean, whose family “came from” Russia, who transplanted himself to the United States in 2002. He says that by 2007, he had become “an unrepentant Hezbollah-groupie and Nasrallah fanboy.”
Note: Hezbollah is a Shi’ite Muslim militant terrorist political party based in Lebanon, which is funded and supported by Iran.
He says his blog, The Saker: Stop the Empire’s War on Russia, “exploded” when Ukraine became a flash point, on which he clearly is pro-Russia. It’s not clear whether The Saker still resides in the United States because on his blog’s banner are the words “Now flying in Iceland.”
The Saker published the video interview with Sheik Hosein as a post on his blog on April 3, 2015. In his introduction to the interview, The Saker refers to himself as an “Orthodox Christian” and profusely, obsequiously thanks Hosein for his efforts in forging an alliance between Orthodox Christians and Muslims:
“I would like to express to you my deepest gratitude for all the efforts you have made towards making an alliance between Orthodox Christians – Romans – and Muslims a reality.”
In response to the first question submitted by The Saker on whether the Koran and/or Muslim scholars make a distinction between Orthodox Christians and Christians who ally themselves with Jews, here’s my transcript of Hosein’s answer (beginning at the 2:28 mark of the video below).
“My answer is that I am unaware of any prominent Islamic scholar who has given the views which I have given on this subject. I came to the understanding of the verses of the Koran on this subject in consequence of pioneering the branch of knowledge which we described as Islamic eschatology. But as I have explained the Koran on this subject of the two different Christian views, Islamic view of Christianity — number one, the Orthodox Christian or Rome, which the Koran speaks of in a very positive way. And indeed I have recognized when the Koran says they will be a Christian people who assure the greatest love and affection for you Muslims the time to come. I recognize that to be Orthodox Christianity or Rome. And on the other hand, a Christian people who would form friendships — an alliance with the Jews. This is condemned by the Koran and we Muslims are prohibited from maintaining any kind of friendship or alliance with such Christians.
This understanding of the Koran came as a consequence of my studies in Islamic eschatology. And it is by Allah’s kindness that I am pioneering this branch of knowledge today. Christians and Jews have a long history in Jewish eschatology, in Christian eschatology. But we do not have that, an Islamic eschatology, because the subject has been studied as part of the traditions of the Prophet of Islam and never as an independent branch of knowledge. And so yes, the answer is that at this point in time, I do not know of any another prominent scholar of Islam who holds this view that I have. But the good news is that as I have taught this subject and explained it, explain the Koran, wherever my words have reached, very la-a-a-rge numbers of Muslims around the world have accepted my views and in agreement with me. The dissenting views have been much much smaller than those who have embraced my views as correct and valid and the momentum is in this direction of greater and greater acceptance of the views that I have expressed.”
Christians like The Saker, “orthodox” or otherwise, who imagine that Islam is or can ever be a friend of Christianity are seriously deluded.
H/t Don Hank
~Éowyn