Know the Enemy 1: heretical Jihad vs "orthodox" Islam

various

[sanchmo]

fyi...

[Dumb_Ox]

Another term, much-overlooked: Dhimmi, from the Arabic word for "pact": those "People of the Book" who live under Islamic rule, often legally disenfranchised and abused as second-class citizens.
Sources from First Things and historian Bat Y'eor

[sanchmo]

A few more terms:
Mullah - A male religious teacher or leader.
Imam - A male spiritual and temporal leader regarded by Shiites as a descendant of Muhammad divinely appointed to guide humans.

[ppaul]

Apologists of Islam still insist on perpetuating the myth of an Islam which accorded equality to her non-Muslim subjects, they talk of a time when all the various religious communities lived in perfect harmony in the Islamic lands.

The same apologists minimize, or even excuse, the persecution, the discrimination, the forced conversions, the massacres, the destruction of the churches, synagogues, fire temples and other places of worship. This rosy but totally false picture of Islam is also built up by

(1) ignoring the destruction and the massacres during the actual process of the Arab conquests;
(2) by concentrating almost exclusively on the fate of Jews and Christians, and consequently dismissing the fate of idolaters (are they not human?), Zoroastrians, Hindus and Buddhists
(3) by relying on Muslim sources, as though they are bound to be less biased!
(4) by ignoring, or excusing the appalling behaviour of the Prophet towards the Jews;
(5) by ignoring the intolerant, hostile, anti- Jewish, anti-Christian, and above all, anti-pagan sentiments expressed in the Koran which were the source of much intolerant, fanatical and violent behaviour throughout the history of Islam against all non-Muslims.

EARLY ATTITUDES: Muhammad and the Koran

The Koran has been divided into early and late Suras, the Meccan and Medinan Suras respectively. Most of the tolerant sentiments of Muhammad are to be found in the early, Meccan Suras: cix
"Recite: O Unbelievers, I worship not what you worship, and you do not worship what I worship. I shall never worship what you worship. Neither will you worship what I worship. To you your religion, to me my religion l.45
"We well know what the infidels say: but you are not to compel them." xliii. 88,89
"And [Muhammad] says, "O Lord, these are people who do not believe." Bear with them and wish them 'Peace '. In the end they shall know their folly."
The exceptions are to be found in Sura ii, which is usually considered Medinan i.e. late: ii.256 "There is no compulsion in religion"; ii.62
"Those who believe [i.e.Muslims] and those who follow the Jewish scriptures, and the Christians and the Sabians, and who believe in God and the Last Day and work righteousness, shall have their reward with their Lord, on them shall be no fear, nor shall they grieve."

Unfortunately, as he gained in confidence and increased his political and military power, Muhammad turned from being a "persuader to being a legislator and warrior, dictating obedience." The Medinan chapters such as Suras ix, v, iv, xxii, xlvii, viii, and ii reveal Muhammad at his most belligerent, dogmatic and intolerant. Muslim theologians are unanimous in declaring that no religious toleration was extended to the idolaters of Arabia at the time of Muhammad. The only choice given them was death or the acceptance of Islam. This total intolerance never seems to be taken into consideration by the apologists of Islam when they lay claims to Islamic tolerance.

Unbelievers in general are shown no mercy in the Koran which is full of lurid descriptions of the punishments awaiting them.

xxii.9:"As for the unbelievers for them garments of fire shall be cut and there shall be poured over their heads boiling water whereby whatever is in their bowels and skins shall be dissolved and they will be punished with hooked iron- rods.

The Koran also enjoins all Muslims to fight and kill non-believers:
xlvii.4: "When you meet the unbelievers, strike off their heads; then when you have made wide slaughter among them, carefully tie up the remaining captives."

[MarkWar]

>OK, gang - let's get to know our enemy....The Quran itself merely prescribes modesty rather than actually forcing the wearing of a particular garment.

FYI -- this business of covering women isn't meant as oppression. On the contrary, Fundamentalist Muslims believe in djinns, spirit beings -- akin to JudeoChristian's Fallen Angels -- who are believed often to take an interest in human women and make off with them. Women are advised to hide their beauty to protect themselves from the djinns. Before we single out these people for their "oppression" of women, this belief in spirit beings lusting after women is so deeply entrenched even in our own Bible that in 1 Corinthians 11 Paul goes on at some length about advising women to cover their heads. He even explicitly references the Fallen Angels in 1 Corinthians 11:10 -- "For this reason the woman ought to have a symbol of authority on her head, because of the angels."

Sorry to go on at some length here, but in some press commentaries I've heard, the attacks don't seem to be so much on Islam or Fundamentalist Islam, but rather on Fundamentalism overall. (I'm sure the left wing commentator I heard on PBS a couple of days ago would have been just as happy denoucning Fundamentalist Christians as he was denoucing Fundamentalist Muslims...) Mark W.

[ScreamingFist]

Interesting post, hopefully it won't deteriorate into a flame war. Thanks.

[ScreamingFist]

.

[aruanan]

This is an important point - in Islam Christians and Jews are not infidels, and are not to be the targets of religious war.

This is so far out of touch with the reality of the past 13 or so centuries as to be risible.

[freefly]

Good essay...thanks for posting it.
It describes the tenates of Islam as I found them when I did my little bit of research.
All too many want to brand Islam as an inherently violent religion.
Of course, those that do tend to ignore the parts of the Christian Bible that promote the same sort of thing.
They also forget the evil done in the name of the Christian religion:
the Spanish Inquisition and the attempted genocide of the American Indian
are two things that come immediatly to mind...the list is certainly longer.
Granted it doesn't happen now the way that it used to, but no religion
has clean hands when it comes to violence done to the "unbelievers" in it's name.
Demonizing the practitioners of an entire religion is what the Taliban has done.
We don't need to get down on their level.

[freefly]

Mullah - A male religious teacher or leader.
Imam - A male spiritual and temporal leader regarded by Shiites as a descendant of Muhammad divinely appointed to guide humans.

This is one area that I find interesting.
My reading indicated that Islam is not supposed to have "religious leaders".
All men are supposed to be equal in the eye of G*d.
A person should read the word of the Prophet and convince themselves as to it being the true word...
He should not "follow" any other man as he is supposed to be listening to and following the word of G*d.
This should prevent anyone from following a leader into wrong thought and action.
How the Mullah and Imam came about is beyond me.
From what I understand, they should not have influence on a true Muslim's belief or actions.
Religious "leaders" have tremendous power over those that practice a religion...
good reason not to have them at all.

[Jarhead_22]

I'm still waiting for any mullah or imam, anywhere in the world, to stop mouthing platitudes about how they feel the great loss of lives, and state that whoever planned, financed, harbored or aided this attack needs to be treated at least as severely as a woman caught fully clothed in a room in Riyadh with a man not her husband.

Until then, I'm not buying any.

Semper Fidelis

[Jarhead_22]

I'm still waiting for any mullah or imam, anywhere in the world, to stop mouthing platitudes about how they feel the great loss of lives, and state that whoever planned, financed, harbored or aided this attack needs to be treated at least as severely as a woman caught fully clothed in a room in Riyadh with a man not her husband.

Until then, I'm not buying any.

Semper Fidelis

[Jarhead_22]

My apologies for the double post. I seem to be getting a lot of "Page not found" errors today.

[Ditto]

Of course, those that do tend to ignore the parts of the Christian Bible that promote the same sort of thing.

Which parts are they?

[betty boop]

Bookmark and a BUMP! Thanks, sanchmo.

[longshadow]

Thank you for this post, a small cry for sanity and fact amonst the din of inflammatory, hate-mongering posts gushing forth from our own Taliban-like religious zealots.

[ppaul]

Quoting from history and the Qu'ran is "hatemongering?"
Get a grip!

Before you start accusing, point out where I have erred. Otherwise, shut yer yap about not following President Bush's advice.

[ppaul]

Quoting from history and the Qu'ran is "hatemongering?"
Get a grip!

Before you start accusing, point out where I have erred. Otherwise, shut yer yap about not following President Bush's advice.