That is a very good question! In Acts chapter 15 the church in Jerusalem came together to consider a very important question dealing with new Gentile converts in Antioch. We learn in verse one that certain Jews had travelled to Antioch and “taught the brethren, ‘Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.’” In short, these “Jewish teachers” were trying to put these new Gentile believers under the Law of Moses in order to be saved. This contradicted the gospel of God’s grace which teaches us to “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved” (Acts 16:31). It was FAITH, not WORKS, that saves the sinner and thus the church needed to come together to settle this matter once and for all. The Apostle Peter’s words in verses 7-11 give us the conclusion that they reached: “Men and brethren, you know that a good while ago God chose among us, that by my mouth the Gentiles should HEAR THE WORD OF THE GOSPEL AND BELIEVE. So God, who knows the hearts, acknowledged them by giving them the Holy Spirit, just as He did to us, and made no distinction between us and them, PURIFYING THEIR HEARTS BY FAITH. Now therefore, why do you test God by putting a yoke on the neck of the disciples which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear? But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved in the same manner as they.” Peter’s words rang true; both Jews and Gentiles were SAVED BY FAITH IN CHRIST ALONE, and NOT by keeping the Law of Moses.

James, a pillar in the church at Jerusalem (see Galatians 2:9), then addressed those assembled with these words, “Therefore I judge that we should not trouble those from among the Gentiles who are turning to God, but that we write to them to abstain from things polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from things strangled, and from blood.” James was surely agreeing with Peter that the Gentiles, “who are turning to God,” were saved by simple faith and not by works, yet he felt they should write a letter to them with these few exhortations. On the surface it may look like he was putting them under some form of law by suggesting they abstain from these things, but I believe these instructions had more to do with important “moral issues” that every believer should take to heart. Due to limited space, we will only consider the first one since your question is related to that.

Gentiles were known for worshipping idols and one of their practices was to “eat foods offered to idols.” In doing so they were “having fellowship with the gods that they worshipped.” Once a Gentile was saved through faith in Jesus Christ, they should avoid anything that would make others think they are still engaged in idolatry, including eating foods that had been offered to idols. The Apostle Paul had this in mind when he wrote the following words to the church at Corinth: “Therefore concerning the eating of things offered to idols, we know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is no other God but one…However, there is not in everyone that knowledge; for some, with consciousness of the idol, until now eat it as a thing offered to an idol; and their conscience, being weak, is defiled, But food does not commend us to God; for neither if we eat are we the better, nor if we do not eat are we the worse. But beware lest somehow this liberty of yours become A STUMBLING BLOCK TO THOSE WHO ARE WEAK” (1^st Corinthians 8:4, 7-9). I believe James and Paul were teaching us that we are to CONSIDER OTHERS WHO MAY BE STUMBLED by our actions. We may know an idol is nothing and that eating food offered to idols has no spiritual consequences, yet if we eat it in front of those without this knowledge, we may cause them to eat it which will have a negative effect. Thus we read in verses 10-11, “For if anyone sees you who have knowledge eating in an idol’s temple, will not the conscience of him who is weak be emboldened to eat those things offered to idols? And because of your knowledge shall be weak brother perish, for whom Christ died.” The bottom line is this: Our actions may cause a believer who is “weak in the faith” to act against their conscience and this in turn will cause them to stumble in their walk with the Lord. Instead of “building them up in the faith” (see Colossians 2:7 and Jude 20), we will be guilty of “bringing them down.” The word “perish” in verse 11 means “ruin” and in this context refers to the “spiritual DAMAGE” that can be done if our actions lead to a brother sinning against his conscience.

In closing, Muslims teach that they do NOT worship idols for they believe they are worshipping the one true God and His name is Allah. Yet what they fail to see is that “Allah is NOT GOD” and thus they are worshipping a “FALSE god,” which is indeed idolatry. They reject the truth of the Triune God and they especially deny that Jesus is the eternal Son of God, co-equal with God the Father (see John 1:1, 14; 5:20-23; 10:25-30; 20:26-31; 1^st John 2:22-23; 4:1-3; 5:20; 2^nd John 7-11). When they have their “festive periods” and are eating food in the celebration of their god Allah, they are indeed engaging in idol worship. When they offer you that food you should “abstain from things offered to idols”; in other words, you should refuse to eat their food. For if you do eat it, others may think you are having “fellowship with idols”; in this case, with Allah and it could cause a true believer to stumble.  (425.5)  (DO)