“Religion of Peace” My Foot! – Part 5: Treating Others

This is an extension to the “Golden Rule” discussion, focusing on the Islamic principles regarding tolerance: the approach towards the Unbelievers.
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Here are some quotes:
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2:256: “No compulsion is there in religion: already the right way is distinct from the wrong way. So whosoever disbelieves in Taghut and believes in Allah has laid hold of the most firm handle, unbreaking. Allah is hearing, knowing.”
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The gist of this verse is: We will not force you to submit to Islam, but if you elect not to, then you are gravely in error, and on a shaky and fragile foundation.
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If we ignore the second part, this statement sounds fairly tolerant: we will not compel you to convert. This verse is used by Islamic apologists in support of their “religion of peace” claims.
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The reality, however, is different: the history of the Islamic empire is littered with events in which the sward was used to spread Islam, showing little or no regard to the “no compulsion” verse.
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It all goes downhill from here:
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9:29 “Fight those who believe not in Allah and the Last Day and do not forbid what Allah and His Messenger have forbidden — such men as practice not the religion of truth, being of those who have been given the Book — until they pay the tribute out of hand and have been humbled.”
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This verse epitomises the Islamic principle of treating the Unbelievers:
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1. Those who do not accept the teachings of Muhammad and his god must be fought against and subdued.
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2. If these Unbelievers are of the “people of the book”, namely Jews and Christians, then they may hold on to their UNTRUE religion, but be reduced to a status of tributary cast, humbled and humiliated.
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3. By referring to Islam as the religion of truth, all other religions are branded false. Islam does not show any respect to other belief systems.
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The Quranic verses that preach intolerance towards the Unbelievers, and specifically towards Jews and Christians, are too numerous to list. Here are another two:
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5:51 ”O believers, take not Jews and Christians as friends; they are friends of each other. Whoso of you makes them his friends is one of them. Allah guides not the people of the evildoers.”
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66:9 “O Prophet! Strive against the disbelievers and the hypocrites, and be stern with them. Hell will be their home, a hapless journey’s end.
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So, to summarise, Islam does not say much in support of peace, extols the virtues and rewards of was and killing Unbelievers, and shows no tolerance or acceptance towards those who hold other beliefs.
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There is no escaping the conclusion that Islam is definitely not a religion of peace.

“Religion of Peace” My Foot! – Part 4: The Golden Rule

(Reminder: we are still on a break from “book posting” while I post this series on the religion of peace. In the meantime, my loyal readers may view the many previous book posts and complete chapters on the right).

The “Golden Rule” is the basic rule of human decency which comes from the Hebrew Bible Leviticus 19:18 ”Thou shalt not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: I am the LORD.”
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There are many other biblical passages regarding the fair treatment of the poor, the orphan, widows and strangers, that is, not only “the children of thy people”.
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The “Golden Rule” was epitomised nicely by the 1st century BCE Jewish scholar Hilel the Elder, who is quoted as saying to a gentile who asked to be taught the whole of the Jewish law (Torah) while standing on one leg:
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“That which is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow. That is the whole Torah; the rest is the explanation; go and learn.”
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You would expect all major religions to contain this element in one form or another, but I was never sure about Islam.
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To find out what Islam has to say about the “Golden Rule”, I looked it up in Wikipedia. The Wikipedia article lists all major religions and how the “Golden Rule” is manifested in the teachings of each one.
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Scrolling down to Islam, I found that the article lists 2 Quranic references, 1 Islamic tradition, and one book written in 1938.
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With your permission and for obvious reasons, I will ignore the last reference. So let’s dispose of the 2 Quranic references first:
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83:1 – 83:4 is a discussion about weights and measures, warning the believers that if they cheat they will go to Hell. There are other rules that deal with fairness in business transactions in the Quran, which could be used here.
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Although there is an element of “using the same measure for yourself as you would for others”, this is really too specific to qualify as a “Golden Rule” reference.
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59:9 is about the poor emigrants who fled Mecca with Muhammad, and has absolutely nothing to do with the “Golden Rule”. It was an appeal for charity. How this can be interpreted as preaching the “Golden Rule” is beyond me. The author of this Wikipedia article should be ashamed for making this suggestion.
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The next Wikipedia reference is from a Hadith (Islamic traditions narrated by someone who heard it from someone else who heard it from… etc. etc. all the way to Muhammad’s contemporaries).
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This one is the quote that is most widely used in support of the Islamic “Golden Rule” claim. Here it is:
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Sahih Bukhari 1.12 “Narrated by Anas: The Prophet said, “None of you will have faith till he wishes for his (Muslim) brother what he likes for himself.”
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The insertion of “(Muslim)” in brackets is not mine. This is how it is interpreted in the English translation.
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This interpretation is correct, as it refers to people having faith, namely, accepting Islam.
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This is as close as Islam gets to the “Golden Rule”, and as you see, it is exclusive to Muslims only. The “others”, the “stranger”, and the “unbeliever” do not merit this privilege.
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This should not come as a surprise to those who have followed the posting of “The Cow” on my blog. The exclusion of the Unbelievers is a central element in Islam.
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So, there is a “Golden Rule” in Islam, but with a caveat: it only applies to Muslims.
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Also, Islamic writing is extremely scanty on this kind of preaching: this one is the only reference that comes close to the “Golden Rule”, and it is not even in the Quran.
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Tomorrow (or later): “Religion of Peace” My Foot! – Part 5: Treating Others

Religion of Peace My Foot! – Part 3: The Statistics of War

The Quran contains around 200 occurrences of the words “war”, “fight”, “kill”, and their derivations.
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This is 4 times as many as the mentions of “Peace” or words that have been translated as “Peace”. These are too numerous to list here. You may do a simple web search in sites like this one, or other similar websites.
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Most of the passages in which war and fighting are mentioned promote war and fighting: they define fighting the unbelievers as a noble duty and obligation of every Muslim, they contain instruction on how to wage this war, calls to war, the rewards of war, the rewards of martyrdom in Paradise, and so on.
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The Arabic word for War and fighting in the Quran is derived from the root Q.T.L., which also means kill.
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A few of the most notorious verses – 2:216, 47:4, 4:95, 8:39, 9:29.
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For example, 2:216 says “Prescribed for you is fighting, though it be hateful to you. Yet it may happen that you will hate a thing which is better for you; and it may happen that you will love a thing which is worse for you; God knows, and you know not.”
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Variations on 2:216 are found in many places in the Quran.
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The Bible does contain instruction to wage war against certain peoples, but these relate to specific times and places in the past, and no longer relevant. The rest of passages which mention war are descriptive, relating the histories of wars fought in the past.
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In the Section “No More Jihad” of the Epilogue to my book, I in fact maintain that this is how the Quranic war instruction should be viewed in Islam: confined to times and places in the past.
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Hey, that would really make Islam a peaceful religion!
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Alas, no Islamic authority has done so yet, and it is very unlikely that it will happen in the foreseeable future.
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Fighting in the path of Allah is glorified in the Quran and in Islamic traditions many more times than being a peaceful person.
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For example, Muhammad is quoted numerous times in the Hadith traditions, as saying that being martyred while fighting is the best deed and will earn the believer the highest reward.
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Nothing like that is said about peace in Islamic writings.
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So, the statistics of war do not look good either.
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What about just plain old preaching to be good and do good unto others? You know, the so-called “Golden Rule”. This is the subject of part 4, to be posted tomorrow (or later).
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”Religion of Peace” My Foot! – Part 2: The Statistics of Peace

I have searched the Quran for all the occurrences the English translators inserted the word “peace”.
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My search of the Quran yielded 51 occurrences of this word:
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As salutation, well-wishing (e.g. as in Salaamu Alekum)- 6:54, 7:46, 11:48, 11:69, 13:24, 14:23, 15:52, 16:32, 19:15, 19:33, 19:47, 19:62, 20:47, 24:61, 27:59, 28:55, 36:58, 37:79, 37:109, 37:120 37:130, 37:181, 39:73, 51:25, 56:26
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Paradise is peace – 6:127, 10:10, 10:25, 15:46, 19:95, 25:75, 33:44, 33:37, 39:24, 33:55, 50:34, 97:5
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Peace being the definition of unconditional surrender of the enemy – 4:90, 4:91, 8:61
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Not saying “Peace” (i.e. surrendering) to the enemy while you have the upper hand in battle – 47:35.
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Peace between quarrelling Muslims – 2:182, 2:224, 49:9
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Peace between a quarrelling husband and wife – 4:35, 4:128
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Hypocrites pretend to be peace makers – 2:11
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The Bible is a message of peace – 5:16
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Praying for peace and security for Mecca – 14:35
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Peace being protection from Allah’s punishment – 56:91
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Saying “Peace” when walking away from an argument with the Unbelievers – 43:89
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Now that last example looks very positive: walking away from a conflict. This is goodness. Two comments on this seemingly singular example:
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1. It could be a genuine instruction not to engage in quarrel, but it could also be good advice to the early Muslims to keep away from people who could, by arguing against the new religion, sway them from the prescribed path.
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2. No reasonable person claims that the content of the Quran is exclusively negative and violent. It does preach doing good. These passages, however, are few and far between. Case in point: verse 43:89, being the only reference to peace that could be considered positive.
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As you can see, none of the occurrences of “peace”, or any other Arabic word that is interpreted as “peace” by (mostly biased Islamic) translators, supports the claim that Islam is a peaceful religion.
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There is nothing in these verses that extols the virtues of peace. As you will see later, Islamic writings are full of verses and passages that extol the virtues of war.
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In fact, some of the mentions of the word “Peace” actually relate to war and hostilities.
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The word “Salaam” itself occurs less in the Quran, as some of the references above do not contain that word, yet were translated into English using the word “Peace”.
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Tomorrow (or later): “Religion of Peace” My Foot! – Part 3: The Statistics of War.

“Religion of Peace” My Foot! – Part 1: Introduction

This is another “book posting hiatus”.
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I was recently asked by a blogger to comment on his blog, which was created to promote Islam as a peaceful religion, respectful, tolerant etc.
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I posted some comments arguing the opposite, but they were censured, which did not surprise me at all, so I decided to post my comments on my blog. Why should the fruit of my 4 finger typing go to waste??
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So here are my comments – substantially expanded – on how peaceful (not!) Islam is.
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Other people have written on this subject, demonstrating how Islam is far from being a peaceful religion, so there is nothing new here.
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However, like everywhere else in this blog, everything that I post is typed by own hands, on my own keyboard, based on my own study and research of source material. You will never see in this blog material that was copied and paste from other blogs, or the opinions of others presented as my own.
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I will demonstrate how Islam is anything but a religion of peace using only Islamic texts seen with my own eyes.
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For those who believe that Islam is a Peaceful religion: A question to ponder while you eagerly await the posting of Part 2: Why is Islam the only religion that requires its followers and supporters to put so much effort in convincing us that it is a “Religion of Peace”? Why doesn’t this need exist in connexion any other belief system?
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Tomorrow (or later): “Religion of Peace” My Foot! – Part 2: The Statistics of Peace.