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New York Times Celebrates Muhammad as ‘Paragon of Compassion’
PJ Media ^ | 11/29/2018 | Robert Spencer

Posted on 11/29/2018 7:53:14 AM PST by SeekAndFind

“Happy Birthday, Muhammad,” the New York Times proclaimed happily last Tuesday in a propaganda piece by Haroon Moghul, the author of a book confidently entitled How to Be a Muslim. I’d say it was a new low for the Times if the Gray Lady didn’t keep stooping lower every day.

Moghul details how he rediscovered Muhammad during a time of doubt, marveling “that he buried the least loved of his fellow Arabs with his own hands. That he put two of his fingers together and promised that he and the orphan would be that close in the life to come. That he so loved the vulnerable that God loved him in turn.”

Laying it on even thicker, Moghul continues: “He was an outsider like me. Being an orphan from age 6 in a very patrilineal, very patriarchal and very tribal society must have been a social death sentence. Muhammad could have reacted by seething with resentment and lashing out at the world. He could have turned on himself. Instead he became a paragon of compassion.”

Why should we believe Moghul? Because he knows: “I’d memorized Muhammad’s life story in Sunday school, cramming facts, dates, lineages into my head as if I was preparing for an A.P. exam, a good Muslim like my parents wanted me to be.”

If that is true, then Moghul knows that what he has published in the New York Times is false from beginning to end.

Here are a few statements attributed to Muhammad in sources that are considered reliable by Islamic scholars and normative for Islamic law, as recorded in The History of Jihad From Muhammad to ISIS (in which the source for each is noted):

“I have been made victorious through terror.”

“Fight against those who disbelieve in Allah. Make a holy war. … When you meet your enemies who are polytheists, invite them to three courses of action. If they respond to any one of these you also accept it and withhold yourself from doing them any harm. Invite them to (accept) Islam; if they respond to you, accept it from them and desist from fighting against them. ... If they refuse to accept Islam, demand from them the Jizya. If they agree to pay, accept it from them and hold off your hands. If they refuse to pay the tax, seek Allah’s help and fight them.”

“I have been commanded to fight against people so long as they do not declare that there is no god but Allah, and he who professed it was guaranteed the protection of his property and life on my behalf except for the right affairs rest with Allah.”

“May Allah curse the Jews and Christians for they built the places of worship at the graves of their Prophets.”

“I looked into Paradise and I saw that the majority of its people were the poor. And I looked into Hell and I saw that the majority of its people are women.”

When asked about this, he explained: “I was shown Hell and I have never seen anything more terrifying than it. And I saw that the majority of its people are women.” They said, “Why, O Messenger of Allah?” He said, “Because of their ingratitude (kufr).” It was said, “Are they ungrateful to Allah?” He said, “They are ungrateful to their companions (husbands) and ungrateful for good treatment. If you are kind to one of them for a lifetime then she sees one (undesirable) thing in you, she will say, ‘I have never had anything good from you.’”

Moghul doubtlessly knows about such passages and many more. But he doesn’t bother to reveal them to his New York Times audience, even to explain them away. Now, why is that?

There are other passages in the earliest Islamic sources in which this paragon of compassion orders the murders of people who have insulted him. These include Abu Afak, who was over one hundred years old, and the poetess Asma bint Marwan. Abu Afak was killed in his sleep, in response to Muhammad’s question, “Who will avenge me on this scoundrel?” Similarly, Muhammad on another occasion cried out, “Will no one rid me of this daughter of Marwan?” One of his followers, Umayr ibn Adi, went to her house that night, where he found her sleeping next to her children. The youngest, a nursing babe, was in her arms. But that didn’t stop Umayr from murdering her and the baby as well. Muhammad commended him: “You have done a great service to Allah and His Messenger, Umayr!”

Then there was Ka’b bin Al-Ashraf. Muhammad asked: “Who is willing to kill Ka’b bin Al-Ashraf who has hurt Allah and His Apostle?” One of the Muslims, Muhammad bin Maslama, answered, “O Allah’s Apostle! Would you like that I kill him?” When Muhammad said that he would, Muhammad bin Maslama said, “Then allow me to say a (false) thing (i.e. to deceive Kab).” Muhammad responded: “You may say it.” Muhammad bin Maslama duly lied to Ka’b, luring him into his trap, and murdered him.

Moghul claims that Muhammad “was forced to take up arms, time and again, to defend his faith, his community, and himself.” But in reality, the vast majority of battles that Muhammad fought in were offensive, and after his death, his followers, emulating him, attacked and conquered the Middle East, North Africa, Persia, Spain, and much of India with astonishing rapidity. None of this was defensive warfare.

Just consider: Muhammad began waging violent jihad in Medina, one city of Arabia. By the time of his death he was master of all Arabia. That’s a most impressive defensive action! And likewise, when he is supposed to have died, in 632, the Muslims controlled only Arabia. By 100 years later, in 732, their empire stretched from Spain all across North Africa and the Middle East to Persia and India.

They defended themselves all the way to conquering nearly half of the known world? Pull my other leg.

Yet Moghul continues: “When terrorists struck New York and Washington in 2001 I was horrified, scared and bewildered. The Muhammad I revered bore no resemblance to the Muhammad they claimed. In their view, Muhammad was a conqueror first, a politician and a general second, and a man of faith last, and least.”

9/11 was hardly the first act of violence committed by Muslims acting in the name of Islam and in accord with its teachings. The History of Jihad From Muhammad to ISIS demonstrates from Islamic sources that violent jihad has been a constant of Islamic history. If Moghul is to be believed, then Muslims for 1,400 years, everywhere Muslims have gone, have misunderstood Islam and outraged the memory of Muhammad. And this mass apostasy took place at the very top, as the violent jihad was led by the caliphs and other Muslim rulers who were, by their own accounts, endeavoring to emulate Muhammad and put his teachings into practice.

Moghul even claims that when Muhammad emigrated to Medina, “he pledged that the Muslim community would defend the native Jewish community from any of its enemies, and declared Medina to be one nation of two faiths, a profound and unusual gesture of pluralism and tolerance.”

Moghul doesn’t tell you what happened next: Muhammad exiled two of the three Jewish tribes of Medina, and massacred the third. Then he went to the oasis of Khaybar, where the two Jewish tribes he exiled had gone from Medina, and massacred them. On his deathbed, he vowed to expel all Jews, as well as Christians, from Arabia.

Haroon Moghul almost certainly knows that what I am writing here is all true. He will take no notice of this article, of course, and will hope that you won’t see it, because the question arises inevitably: what does Moghul make of the abundance of material, only some of which have I quoted above, found in canonical Islamic texts, that contradicts his picture of Muhammad? Why doesn’t he discuss this material and offer some explanation for it? Or is he just hoping that we don’t know about it, and that his vilification of those who point it out as “Islamophobes” will suffice for his readers to dismiss it?

Whatever the explanation, Haroon Moghul is a dissembler and propagandist of the most cynical type. That this disingenuous huckster spreads his lies in the New York Times is an indication of how far the Times has fallen from any actual journalistic standards. And the New York Times is his eager and willing accomplice.


TOPICS: Current Events; Islam; Religion & Culture; Religion & Politics
KEYWORDS: compassion; islam; muhammad; newyorktimes
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1 posted on 11/29/2018 7:53:14 AM PST by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

The NYT is the enemy and should be treated as such.

How about: for each American killed by a naturalized Muzzie, we kill one NYT journalist?

For each American woman raped by a Muzzie, we pick one female NYT journalist and give them to your local Muzzie to rape also. Seems only fair.

Journalists are slime. Pure slime. Pond scum. Vermin. Excrement.


2 posted on 11/29/2018 7:56:51 AM PST by Da Coyote
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To: SeekAndFind

Calling a Madrassa ‘Sunday School’ is a real stretch.

I stopped reading there.


3 posted on 11/29/2018 7:56:57 AM PST by ridesthemiles
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To: SeekAndFind

The compassion of a caravan raider, a head chopper, a rapist and false prophet.


4 posted on 11/29/2018 7:57:57 AM PST by Rurudyne (Standup Philosopher)
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To: SeekAndFind
“I looked into Paradise and I saw that the majority of its people were the poor. And I looked into Hell and I saw that the majority of its people are women.”

For Muslim women often 'hell' is right here on earth ... married off as children to spend life with the violent rapist from their childhood. Yes, there's lots of nice people who happen to be Muslim, but there is almost NOTHING good about the religion.

5 posted on 11/29/2018 8:00:13 AM PST by GOPJ (Watch for our survival: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPjzfGChGlE)
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To: Da Coyote

YA got my vote SIR !


6 posted on 11/29/2018 8:01:00 AM PST by litehaus (A memory toooo long.............)
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To: GOPJ

I looked into Paradise and I saw that the majority of its people were the poor.

And I looked into Hell and I saw that the majority of its population are MUSLIM ....


7 posted on 11/29/2018 8:04:46 AM PST by litehaus (A memory toooo long.............)
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To: SeekAndFind; nuconvert

But, was Mohammad a historical person?

Muhammad Sven Kalisch is an Islamic researcher at the University of Münster. He is also the first person in Germany to hold a Chair of Islamic Religion. Kalisch’s recent public admission that he is unsure whether the Prophet Muhammad was actually a historical person has got him into hot water.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2088564/posts

Later he remove Muhammad from his name, i.e. it is now only Sven Kalisch https://wikiislam.net/wiki/Sven_Kalisch


8 posted on 11/29/2018 8:05:10 AM PST by AdmSmith (GCTGATATGTCTATGATTACTCAT)
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To: SeekAndFind

NYT = Total Rubbish


9 posted on 11/29/2018 8:06:43 AM PST by EnglishOnly (Fight all out to win OR get out now. .)
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To: Da Coyote; bitt; vette6387; ZULU; NFHale; SkyPilot; unkus; Howie66; sheik yerbouty; ...

NYT should try spewing their Marxist Liberal propaganda to Danny Pearl’s widow or the thousands of families and loved ones of US troops killed and disabled in the Middle East! Why does anyone read anything from the NYT? It’s only use is toilet paper or bird cage liner.


10 posted on 11/29/2018 8:08:37 AM PST by ExTexasRedhead
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To: AdmSmith
RE: But, was Mohammad a historical person?

The author of this very article does not think so. Here is the book that he wrote:


11 posted on 11/29/2018 8:09:15 AM PST by SeekAndFind (look at Michigan, it will)
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To: Da Coyote
I'm a born again Christian, but I do not consider myself a fundamentalist nut. I will however take sides filtered by the Holy Spirit within me (when I'm not being rebellious against my Savior) and it just now occurred to me ..... everything really IS, and manifestly so, spiritual warfare between good and evil (or as my fundamentalist brothers and sisters will correct me; holiness and evil).


This perspective is making FR a more boring read than not.


I have been a lot less active since the midterms because of what I perceive as a let down by what I had hoped was a Conservative majority in America.


At the age of almost 71, I don't have the personal fears I'd have if I was 30, but the fight for us elders must now be a LOT of prayer and whatever we can contribute to helping others think differently than what they seem to be exercising.

I'll cite one example;

I heard last night after an announcement regarding GM's closing of plants, that one problem the auto industry has is a young buying demographic that doesn't seem that interested in even owning a car !

Think about that.

What's the sense in being 16 in America if you're not looking forward to your license and driving a car ?


I don't know if that's true, but if it is, WE have the responsibility to correct the indoctrination that has formed that mind set in out kids.

OK ... I'm done .... I had to get that off of my chest.

12 posted on 11/29/2018 8:13:01 AM PST by knarf (I say things that are true; I have no proof .... but they're true.)
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To: Da Coyote

You defame and demean pure slime, pond scum, vermin and excrement.

They are devilspawn, accursed and foul beyond comparison.

To ascribe “compassion” to the sun-crazed, schizophrenic sand hermit is to totally invert and distort the meaning and content of the word. The murderous, perverted, and utterly self-righteous and self-absorbed false prophet cribbed what he used to compose the Koran from the words of the Torah and the New Testament, picking and choosing only those quotes that fit his frame of mind, then airily dismissed all other religious writings and tracts as blasphemous, and forbidden to his followers.

Nowhere in the Koran is there any reference to the Ten Commandments, or to the Golden Rule. No form of the Lord’s Prayer appears. The story of the roles of the two sons of Abraham, Isaac and Ishmael, is completely reversed. The Ascension of Christ is recast as the ride of Mohammed Ali to heaven, and the idea of “Paradise” completely overturns the version revealed in the Christian scriptures.


13 posted on 11/29/2018 8:13:40 AM PST by alloysteel (To try and fail, that is glorious. To never try at all, that is ignominy, far worse than failure.)
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To: SeekAndFind

NYC has nice tall buildings to throw homosexuals off, which that “compassionate” Mohammed commanded.


14 posted on 11/29/2018 8:14:53 AM PST by txrefugee
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To: SeekAndFind

complete lies like Mohamm mad


15 posted on 11/29/2018 8:15:16 AM PST by aces
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To: SeekAndFind
"New York Times Celebrates Muhammad as ‘Paragon of Compassion..."

Ayup. Just like they celebrated Stalin as a champion of the people. Nice to see that you always know where they're coming from.

16 posted on 11/29/2018 8:16:07 AM PST by Desron13 (Inside every progressive is a petty tyrant straining to break free.)
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To: SeekAndFind

The NYT has no shame. Muhammed was the instigator of the greatest mass murder machine in this planet’s history.

https://www.amazon.com/History-Jihad-Muhammad-ISIS/dp/1682616592/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1543508044&sr=8-1&keywords=robert+spencer+the+history+of+jihad


17 posted on 11/29/2018 8:16:12 AM PST by Blennos
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To: SeekAndFind

“Seething with resentment and lashing out at the world” describes Mohamed pretty well, yes?


18 posted on 11/29/2018 8:20:00 AM PST by BenLurkin (The above is not a statement of fact. It is either satire or opinion. Or both.)
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To: SeekAndFind
So long as the guy is still dead, I'm good.

Islam = Isis
19 posted on 11/29/2018 8:26:45 AM PST by davius (You can roll manure in powdered sugar but that don't make it a jelly doughnut.)
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To: SeekAndFind

I guess without the Soviet Union to suck up to, the NYT has to find another source of the compassion they so admire.

Strangely, I’ve always found that Christianity and capitalism are the roots and causes of compassion.

But who am I to argue with the NYT?


20 posted on 11/29/2018 8:31:24 AM PST by ConservativeDude
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