A VIOLENT RELIGION AND WORLD VIEW?

WORDS AND IMAGES WITH VIOLENT CONSEQUENCES

In 2005 and 2006 two events took place in Europe with shed light on the question raised in the title of this page. First, in September 2005 the Danish newspaper, Jyllands-Posten, published some cartoons, viz. pen & ink drawings including one which depicted Islam’s founder, Muhammad, with a turban in the form of a bomb. Readers may view this image by clicking on the following link: http://news.ktab.co.uk/200602/hatred/muhammadcartoon.jpg

Eventually the publication of this cartoon unleashed a frenzy of violent protest demonstrations throughout the Islamic world causing much destruction and several deaths.

In September 2006 Pope Benedict XVI quoted a comment made in the 14th century by Byzantine Emperor Manuel II Paleologus which reads: “Show me just what Muhammad brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached”. Again the Muslims of the world erupted in a paroxysm of rage accompanied by destruction of property and loss of life, thereby affirming by their conduct the verity of the Emperor’s words as re-stated by the Pope. Following the Pope’s speech, clerical and other apologists moved in for damage control by implying that Benedict did not mean what he said. Our review of the subject words in their context satisfies us that he meant exactly what he said and merely used the words of the Emperor for illustration.

From our point of view and that of many non-Muslims, Danish press and Roman pontiff had stated the obvious, each in the proper exercise of his respective mission and liberties long recognized and respected in the free world. That Muslims might object is clear and foreseeable, for Muslims regard any perceived affront to Islam, its founder, his deity and his book as blasphemy (ilhaad), a crime beyond the limits, for which the penalty is death. Herein rests the fundamental contradiction between Islam and the rest of the world – a cultural and ideological divide as vast as the void between heaven and earth. For us free speech is a basic liberty while for the Muslims it can be a criminal offense punishable by death.

Assuming, arguendo, that Danish press and Roman pontiff were factually and morally correct, was the publication of the provocative pictorial and verbal images a prudent exercise of their respective liberties? The dictionary defines “prudence” as the quality or fact of exercising sound judgment in practical matters, especially as concerns one’s own interests, i. e, caution or discretion in conduct or circumspect, not rash. Section 1806 of the CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH defines “prudence” far more expansively as a cardinal virtue. (See full definition in footnote 2 below.) Both definitions are sufficiently inexact to allow the actor great latitude in application, extending from the complicity of silence by Pope Pius XII in the scourging of the Jews by the Nazis in World War II to the bold actions, many centuries earlier, of St. John Chrysostom, Archbishop of Constantinople, in challenging the Emperor twice and twice suffering exile for his effrontery. Moreover, prudence, being of the same order of human virtue as justice, fortitude and temperance, is such that reasonable people acting in good faith may have reasonable differences of opinion about what constitutes prudence and should therefore be allowed the benefit of the doubt by those who are not charged with the decision-making responsibility.

If we assume, as we do, that Danish press and Roman pontiff acted properly in free societies within the scope of their respective missions, then how do we account for the violence of the Muslim responses? First, we must acknowledge that a resurgent Islam remains at war with the non-Muslims of the world as it has been for 14 centuries [3]. This war like those waged by Nazi fascism and Marxist communism in the 20th century goes to the very roots of our understanding of ourselves as human beings, our religions, ideologies and, in short, our cosmologies i. e. how we view ourselves as part of creation. Resurgent Islam’s jihad against us allows only one accommodation, namely our total submission to Muhammad’s god, which is what Islam means – submission to Allah (Surah 8: 39). Islam allows no room for reconciliation, for there is nothing to reconcile and yet to retain of ourselves in the demand for our submission. There is no reciprocity because the Muslims’ view of themselves as “the best of nations raised up to lead all others” (Surah 3: 110) and of us as “the vilest of animals” (Surah 8: 55) is the antithesis of reciprocity. There is no brotherhood of faiths or peoples because Muslims are enjoined by the QURAN to eschew friendly relations with infidels (Surah 5: 51). There is no place for dialogue when the sole purpose of dialogue is to negotiate the terms of our capitulation. There can be no tolerance when the basis of the Muslims’ sufferance of our existence is predicated on our acquiescence as inferiors to the superiority of Muslims in a condition of subjection called dhimma in abject humiliation and abasement affirmed by the annual payment of the jizya tax and by submitting to whatever other impositions of degradation that the Muslim umma may chose to place on us. (Surah 9: 29)

To illustrate our thesis of Islam as a violent cult and world view, we quote variously from the QURAN, primary authority for Muslims in all matters affecting everything. [4]

OUR THESIS AS EXPRESSED IN THE QURAN

2: 89 The curse of Allah is on the infidels.

2: 191 Kill them [the infidels] wherever you find them and drive them out from wherever they drove you out … and do not fight with them at the Sacred Mosque [in Mecca] until they fight with you, then kill them, for such is the penalty for infidels.

2: 193 Fight with them until the struggle is over and there is no religion except Islam.

3: 12 Say to the infidels: you shall be conquered and driven to hell.

3: 85 No religion but Islam is acceptable …

4: 34 Because men support women …, good women should be obedient … and for those women who are disobedient and ill mannered, then admonish them and if they refuse to obey and to behave properly, then let them sleep alone and beat them.

4: 56 As for the infidels who reject our message, we shall burn them and as often as their skins are burned off, we shall give them new skins so that they may suffer the same punishment again.

4: 76 Muslims fight for Allah and infidels fight for Satan, therefore fight the friends of Satan, for the way of Satan is surely weak.

4: 101 When you travel abroad, there is no fault if you shorten your prayers for fear that the infidels may distress you, for surely the infidels are your enemies.

5: 33 Those who resist Allah and Muhammad and cause trouble in the land shall be punished by killing or crucifying them or by cutting off their hands and feet on opposite sides of the body or by imprisoning them.

5: 38 The man or woman who steals shall have their hands cut off as their deserved punishment from Allah.

5: 60 Shall I tell you about them who suffer Allah’s wrath the most? They are the Jews whom Allah has cursed, upon whom he has visited his wrath, and whom he has converted into apes and swine, for they serve Satan. They are the worst and most grievous in error.

7: 182 Those who reject our commandments, we shall ambush stealthily.

8: 12 I shall strike terror into the hearts of the infidels. Therefore, strike off their heads and the fingertips of all of them.

8: 39 Fight the infidels until there is no religion but Islam.

8: 65 Oh Muhammad, urge the Muslims to war. Twenty of them can conquer two hundred infidels and a hundred of them can conquer a thousand infidels.

9: 5 When the sacred months have passed, kill the infidels wherever you find them and take them captives and besiege them and ambush them, but if they become Muslims, leave them alone.

9: 29 Fight those who reject Allah or the final judgment or do not forbid what Allah forbids, or follow Islam, but spare those who are “people of the Book” [Jews and Christians] provided that they pay to the Muslims the annual jizya (humiliation) tax in acknowledgment of the superiority of Muslims and their own abasement.

9: 33 Allah sent his messenger [Muhammad] with guidance and with the religion of truth to prevail over all other religions.

9: 111 Allah has purchased from the Muslims their persons and property in exchange for the promise of Paradise so that they may fight to kill and be killed in the cause of Allah ...

9: 123 Oh Muslims, fight the infidels around you and let them know how tough you are.

40: 10 Surely those infidels who have been called upon to convert to Islam and who have rejected that call shall know Allah’s hatred which is far greater than their hatred of themselves.

45: 11 This is a warning to infidels who reject Islam: they shall be punished for their own corruption.

47: 4 When you engage the infidels in battle, cut off their heads until you have defeated them, take them prisoners and afterwards you may release them or hold them for ransom.

48: 29 Muhammad is the messenger of Allah and his followers are tough on the infidels.

76: 4 Surely we have prepared for the infidels chains and shackles and burning fire.

OUR THESIS IN PHOTOGRAPHS

Above we draw from Muhammad’s book, the Quran, to illustrate the theme of this page, namely that Islam is a violent ideology and world view. Islam is more than a religion; it is a complete way of life – social, political, economic, legal and, of course, cosmological. Thus it impacts far more than matters of belief; it applies to everything. Nothing is excluded. Its resurgence is modern times is but a continuation and further implementation of what Muhammad preached fourteen centuries ago. There is little change between the message from the Quran above and from the modern photographs below.

Our readers should note that all of the signs and placards below bear messages in English evidencing the intent to threaten and to intimidate English speaking people who read them into avoiding the threatened words and actions and into submitting to the Muslims’ will. Some of the participants are masked like Palestinian terrorists thus contributing to the aura of intimidation implicit in their messages. Threats and intimidation, in short, terrorism, are inherent in Islam and have colored its relations with infidels for the past fourteen centuries. Use of terror to intimidate one’s enemies derives from the practices of the ancient Bedouin tribal society and was incorporated into Islam as an effective tool to compel conversion of Muhammad’s opponents to his cult.

FINAL WORD

The story above in words from the Quran and from recent photographs states the obvious. Fourteen centuries have passed between Muhammad’s promulgation of the Quran and the events which are documented in the above photographs, yet the message of Islam remains essentially the same, namely that all mankind must submit to Muhammad’s god and its followers, and that the means toward that end will be ceaseless violence and warfare. Curiously Muslims residing in free societies demand for themselves the civil rights accorded to the citizens of their host countries in order to defame and to intimidate them, but are loath to admit that free people may enjoy any such rights deemed inimical to Islam and, of course, would offer none of the same liberties to the religious and ethnic minorities in their countries of origin. The free peoples of the earth must develop their responses to this threat and prepare themselves ideologically for the conflict which appears to be escalating. We urge our readers to inform themselves about the nature of the threat and accordingly we recommend the following bibliography.

1. ISLAM UNVEILED by Robert Spencer
2. THE POLITICALLY INCORRECT GUIDE TO ISLAM by Robert Spencer
3. THE MYTH OF ISLAMIC TOLERANCE – HOW ISLAMIC LAW TREATS NON-MUSLIMS by Robert Spencer
4. THE TRUTH ABOUT MUHAMMAD by Robert Spencer
5. THE DECLINE OF EASTERN CHRISTIANITY UNDER ISLAM by Bat Ye’or
6. ISLAM AND DHIMMITUDE by Bat Ye’or
7. THE SWORD OF THE PROPHET by Serge Trifkovic
8. SWORD OF ISLAM by John F. Murphy Jr.
9. MILITANT ISLAM REACHES AMERICA by Daniel Pipes
10. INFILTRATION by Paul Sperry

FOOTNOTES:

1) According to Islamic tradition, Muhammad purportedly traveled from Mecca to Jerusalem over night on a four-legged beast with wings and the head of a man. From the Temple Mount in Jerusalem he and his beast flew to heaven where he met with the prophets. This myth of Muhammad’s Night Journey is the basis for the Islamic claim to Jerusalem as one of its “holy cities”. The above image of the Night Journey is Persian. While Arab Muslims dislike depictions of people including Muhammad, Persian, Turkish and Indian Muslims frequently include images of people including Muhammad in their art.

2) Section 1806 of the CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH defines “prudence” as follows: Prudence is the virtue that disposes practical reason to discern our true good in every circumstance and to choose the right means of achieving it; the prudent man looks where he is going … It is not to be confused with timidity or fear, nor with duplicity or dissimulation. It is called … the charioteer of virtues; it guides other virtues by setting rule and measure. It is prudence that immediately guides the judgment of conscience. The prudent man determines and directs his conduct in accordance with this judgment. With the help of this virtue we apply moral principles to particular cases without error and overcome doubts about the good to achieve and the evil to avoid.

3) Wherever a substantial number of Muslims adjoin infidels there is confrontation and conflict, to wit: Northern India, southern Russia, western China, southern Thailand, southern Philippines, southern Nigeria, southern Sudan, southeastern Europe & eastern Africa.

4) The QURAN is Muhammad’s instruction for guiding the beliefs and conduct of Muslims and is their primary authority. There are also lesser authorities in Islam such as the HADITH (pl. AHADITH) or traditions, far more extensive that the QURAN, and the SHARIA (Islamic law code), the writings of certain religious leaders and judges, and certain fatwas issued by eminent Muslims. The five canons of QURANIC construction are: 1) The Quran is the word of Allah and eternal, i. e. not man-made. 2) The Quran is unalterable, i. e. it may not be changed; 3) The Quran is the literal word of Allah, neither symbolic nor allegorical. It may not be interpreted to change its literal meaning; 4) The Quran is the complete revelation of Allah to Muhammad; and 5) The Quran is the final revelation of Allah. Our readers will find the Quran unlike Jewish and Christian scripture. It is divided into chapters or surahs which are divided into verses. These surahs appear in the Quran in the order of their length, not chronologically nor by subject matter. It is tedious to read and difficult to understand. Moreover it is not consistent throughout which has led to the application of the practice of treating later revelation as replacing earlier revelation inconsistent with it. For example, Surah 2: 256 reads: “There shall be no compulsion in religion” quoted by Muslims, liberals and other Islamophiles as upholding the proposition that Islam is a tolerant religion. In fact, however, Surah 2: 256, revealed early in Muhammad’s mission, has been replaced by later revelation such as Surah 9: 33 which directs Muhammad to prevail over all other religions. Surah 9 is the last revelation of Muhammad.
As stated above, reading and understanding the Quran in foreign translations is difficult because of the constraints under which the translators, almost exclusively Muslims, must work. Only the Arabic version of the Quran is authoritative; translations, while tolerated, are not. Because the Quran is the literal word of Allah, the translations are literal, i. e. words are translated rather than meaning. This leads to the anomaly of the translator frequently inserting extra explanatory words enclosed in brackets into the text in order to render it intelligible. Footnotes, annotations and cross references are forbidden lest the translator be accused of seeking to alter the text.