Haran, where Abraham moved in answer to God's call, was also a moon-god center. Also Hazer, in Palestine. There, 2 idols were found, both of which were men sitting on a throne, with a crescent moon carved on his chest.

In Ur, the moon was worshipped in the form of the above-mentioned Sin. The birth place and home of Abraham, was the seat of the great temple of this moon-god.

The name Sin shows up in our Bibles as the children of Israel are in the wilderness. There is a wilderness in fact called Sin, and a mountain called Sinai, you will recall. The famous Ishtar, namesake of Easter, was the daughter of Sin and his sun-goddess wife. The stars are considered the daughters of this union.

The peninsula next to Egypt was saturated with this cult. And so was Egypt itself. The name of the moon god there was Isis. Only a coincidence that many followers of Muhammad today wear that acronym?

Syria praised the god of the moon, associated with the symbol of the crescent moon, and called him Karnaim. Here again, the Moon-god Sin was usually seen as a crescent moon.

Later the Greeks and the Romans too got on board with moon worship. The well known Artemis/Diana was the goddess of light by night, that is, the goddess of the moon.

It is said that everywhere in the ancient world one can find the symbol of the crescent moon, whether on pottery, or weights, or jewelry, wall murals etc. Bread was baked in the form of a crescent. The crescent was always placed at the top of a list of gods, showing the predominance of the moon cult.

The moon in Israel and our own culture

God's people followed suit during the reign of the kings. Israel was surrounded by this paganism and eventually fell prey to it. Jeremiah especially has to deal with the queen of heaven and the sun, moon, and stars being revered by Israel.

Excavations at Tell-el-Obeid uncovered a copper calf with a crescent moon on its forehead, perhaps the very idol worshipped by Israel in the wilderness of Sin, the moon-god!

The moon continues to be significant to us. Whether the romantically inclined, or the people at NASA, or the weekly coming around to the second day, Moon-Day, we are forever a part of this culture ourselves.

"Lunatic" refers to the fact that the moon’s pull on our planet is greater in some individuals than others. Can one actually go mad because of moon-waves? One thing is certain. The religion of the crescent moon among us today is bringing a depression on the earth unequaled since the days of the Communists and the Nazis. Fear is gripping millions as the terror of the people of the moon descends upon us.

Paganism in Arabia

Let’s say it outright: Foremost among the gods of Arabia was the god of the moon.

Archaeology proves that the dominant religion of Arabia in Muhammad’s day and long before was the cult of the moon- god. This conclusion is based on the thousands of inscriptions from walls and rocks in Northern Arabia, and other artifacts used in worship to Allah and the "daughters of Allah" as some lesser gods, perhaps stars, were called. Sometimes, in statue relics, the daughters are seen together with Allah, who is symbolized by a crescent moon above them.

The last king of Babylon, Nabonidus, in the 500's B.C. built Tayma, Arabia to be a center of Moon-god worship. Mecca also was built originally as a shrine for the Moon-god, though 360 other gods were worshipped at the Ka'aba, making it by far the most sacred site of the country.

In 1944, G. Caton Thompson discovered a temple of the moon-god in southern Arabia that has over 20 inscriptions bearing the name Sin, i.e., the Babylonian moon-god.

The Sabeans of Arabia were known to forego the image business and just go outside at night and worship the created moon itself. This was the very thing God had warned his people about while they were in that Sin wilderness. In Deuteronomy 4:19 they are told not to lift their eyes to heaven and be tempted to worship heavenly creations that were meant simply to be enjoyed and shared with all earthlings. The moon is listed as one of these temptations. The nations, including Arabia, had long ago fallen into this trap. Moon worship was universal there.

This moon-god in Arabia was called by various names, but there is no question that one of those names was Allah. More about this name later.

How does paganism connect to Islam?

So, in what sense is the Muslim faith connected to this ancient paganism? Is it fair to enjoin upon Islam a relationship to deceiving demons who are bringing judgment on the Earth? Consider the evidence, weigh it seriously, before your response. The Christian church, as in so many other areas, is divided on this issue. It is not as clear as some want to think. Would you expect it to be?

We talked earlier of the Sabeans who settled in southern Arabia, today's Yemen. Hear what was said about their religious practices, long before Muhammad:

"The Arabs during the pre-Islamic period used to practice certain things that were included [later ] in the Islamic Sharia. They, for example, they did not marry both a mother and her daughter. They considered marrying two sisters simultaneously to be a most heinous crime. They also censured anyone who married his stepmother, and called him dhaizan. They made the major [hajj] and the minor [umra] pilgrimage to the Ka'aba, performed the circumambulation around the Ka'ba [tawaf], ran seven times between Mounts Safa and Marwa [sa'y], threw rocks and washed themselves after intercourse. They also gargled, sniffed water up into their noses, clipped their fingernails, plucked their hair from their armpits, shaved their pubic hair and performed the rite of circumcision. Likewise, they cut off the right hand of a thief."

— Muhammad Shukri al-Alusi, Bulugh al-'Arab fi Ahwal al-'Arab, Vol. 2, p. 122

The Sabeans are mentioned twice in the Koran. Muhammad says that this southern kingdom was actually the Sheba of Solomonic fame. The well-known queen of same is said to have become monotheistic after being with Solomon in Israel. The one god she clings to, per Muhammad, is Allah.