Replies

I suppose the key point is do they actually KNOW much about true Islam? This requires reading the early Muslim authors and historians rather then the relatively recent sanitised versions written as Islam’s religious and State leaders realised the true Islam practised by Mohammad was unpalatable to decent human beings in the West! I suggest a religious dictatorship is no better than an atheistic dictatorship. The problem is both rule by force, not by the rule of law. Iran is a modern example. Looking at the violence of Mohammad (as recorded by early Muslim scholars and historians) doesn’t give me any confidence in an Islamic dictatorship as a role model for “peace and happiness” despite all the spin in the world. Here are some examples of the prophet in action: Ibn Ishaq makes it clear that as the Prophet of Allah grew in power no opposition was allowed. For example one woman by the name of Asma bint Marwan, who was a suckling mother, criticized Muhammad’s killing of people. This criticism angered the Prophet of Allah so he asked, “Who will rid me of Marwan’s daughter?” Umayr went to her house that night and killed her. [675-676]1. People such as Abu Afak [Ishaq 675 and Kitab al- Tabqat vol 2 Ibn Sa’d (2) page 32) ] and Al-Harith bin [son of] Suwayd bin Samit,(Ishaq 135-6,162-3, 308-312, 675) who wrote some poetry which Muhammad disliked were killed. Other cases include the killing of § Uqba bin Abu Mu’ayt [Ishaq 164, 308]; § Ka’b bin al-Ashraf [Ishaq 366-368, Also Bukhari 5/369 and Ibn Sa’d vol 1, p37) § Mirba bin Qayzi [Ishaq 372-373]; § Sallam Ibn Abu’l-Huqayq [Ishaq 369, 482-483]; § Kinana bin al-Rabi-tortured then murdered [Ishaq 510-517]; § One-Eyed Shepherd [Ishaq 674-675]; § Abdullah bin Khatal and one of his Two Singing Girls [Ishaq 551]; § al-Huwayrith [Ishaq 551]; § Sara, a Freed Slave [Ishaq 551]. § Umaiya bin Khalaf Abi Safwan (Bukhari 4/826) § Amr B. Jihash (Ishaq 438) (a convert to Islam killed on the suspicion he might harm Mohammad) § Ibn Sunayna (Ishaq 369 and Abu Dawud 19/2996) § Abullah b Sa’d (one of the scribes) ordered to be killed, but protected by Uthman (Ishaq 550) The key points to grasp are that (i) these people did not physically threaten Mohammad or Islam. They verbally challenged his authority as a religious prophet or mocked him (like the Satanic Verses in modern parlance). Nothing has changed, and (ii) Mohammad the prophet of Allah approved of these killings and (iii) Allah approves the killing of non believers in the Quran. Such killing was thus carried on according to the revelations from Allah: When your Lord inspired the angels, (say-ing): I am with you. So make those who believe stand firm. I will throw fear into the hearts of those who disbelieve. Then smite the necks and smite of them each finger. That is because they opposed Allah and His messenger. Whoever opposes Allah and His messenger, (for him) lo! Allah is severe in punishment. (Sura 8:12-13).See also sura 9:5-6) In even the relatively enlightened state of Malaysia where Islam is the State religion a convert to Christianity can’t change her religion on her ID card (why have your religion on an ID card in the first place?) without getting the permission of a sharia court, which won’t give it. Malaysian states can ( and most have) pass laws preventing the conversion of Muslims to other faiths (but not the other way round!) In “secular” Turkey, as the Pope prays in the Blue Mosque Hakan Tastan and Turan Topal, two converts to Christianity; continue to languish in jail charged with insulting “Turkishness” and trying to convert other Turks to Christianity. Some naively think a religious dictatorship would be an “improvement” on that!

Who cares what Shaw thought?

He was a Communist!

Aww, shucks, Buckwheat. Cain't we jest be friends?

"Later on somebody told him of Tarudant, a city in Morocco in which no Christian had ever set foot. Concluding at once that it must be an exceptionally desirable place to live in, he took ship and horse: changed the hat for a turban; and made straight for the sacred city, via Mogador. How he fared, and how he fell into the hands of the Cadi of Kintafi, who rightly held that there was more danger to Islam in one Cunninghame Graham than in a thousand Christians, may be learnt from his account of it in Mogreb-el-Acksa, without which Captain Brassbound's Conversion would never have been written."

~ George Bernard Shaw » Captain Brassbound's Conversion » Author's Notes