from the Synaxarion:
The Holy Martyr Theodore the Byzantine was a native of the settlement Neokhoreia near Constantinople. In childhood they seduced him into Mohammedanism. For his return to the Christian faith he was hung by the Turks in the city of Mytilene in 1795.
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And yet their "god" is supposed to be so merciful. Within their dictum it calls for death to all but them. Can anyone explain to me what ails those creatures? Or could it be that they have been convinced that the god of the Earth, Satan, is allah?
Well, one of the earliest Christians writing about Islam, St. John of Damascus, said that the followers of Mohammed were a heretical Christian sect. What seems clear is that somehow, teachings peculiar to late Judaism and early Christianity got blended with an indigenous moon-worship cult in Mecca. The fact that the Hagarrites are all idolaters is carefully hidden from them in the Kaaba. So in that sense, they have replaced God with a false God, and thus worship fallen spirits (who, as St. Ignatius Brianchaninov tells us in The Arena, rush to the aid of fallen human nature).
There are several examples listed here on my blog of martyrs who we call the "New Martyrs under the Turkish Yoke." St. John the Bulgarian is one who comes immediately to mind; and there's an example of bravery in the face of the heathen oppressor if ever there was one.
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