You Are Quite Mistaken, Dr. Pipes

Submitted by Jay Esbee (United States), Jul 30, 2002 at 08:39

I've read your columes and watched your appearances on news/debate forums for a long time. I was always thankful to have one person who was not subject to the intellectual crippling of political correctness. Sadly, with this article, and a previous one, a clear pattern of drift to an entirely baseless middle ground on Islam is emerging.

You, first and formost, have shown yourself NOT to be very knowledgeable about Islam with this article.

The Qu'ran is divided into tow main historical segments from which Islamic doctrine is formulated: Meccan Islam and Medina -living- Islam.

The "softer" verses you cited which call for religious tolerence are abrogated verses in Islam. Do you know what this means? If not, you'd better find out before you issue any more pro-Islamic propaganda inadvertantly.

When Muhammad met with resistance to his message of one God and peaceful proclaimations in Mecca, he went to war with those who would not accept him as being sent by God. The "Medina" phase of Islam began and generated new scriptures in the Qu'ran. The one's that instruct followers to kill Jews and Christians and to cut of their fingers and heads.

In Islam, "meccan" verses are regarded as "dead", having been abrogated by "living" Islam. While there is some confusion -mostly for the self serving propaganda machine in front of the press- among Muslims in America who've converted HERE, 99 percent -we may as well say 100 percent really- of the Muslims in the Middle East practice MEDINA Islam, and truth be told, the of the "two Islams" that exist, one has a basis in reality -Medina-, while the other is used as propaganda but not actually practiced by the VAST majority of Muslims.

You have done a serious disservice to the truth in this most recent assesment of Islam. NO OTHER RELIGION CONTAINS EXPLICITE DIRECTIVES TO HARM EXISTING ETHIC OR RELIGIOUS GROUPS, and THAT is a fact.

There is also the issue of Hadith. REAL Islam expounds upon it's living -Medina- doctrines and is taught in Mosques all over the world. Here are a few:

"Muhammad is God's apostle. Those who follow him are ruthless to the
unbelievers but merciful to one another." (Surah 48:29)

"The Day of Resurrection will not arrive until the Moslems make war
against the Jews and kill them, and until a Jew hiding behind a rock and
tree, and the rock and tree will say: 'Oh Moslem, oh servant of Allah, there
is a Jew behind me, come and kill him!'" (Sahih Bukhari 004.52.176)

It is a 'divine' commandment to persecute Jews and Christians, to defeat them in battle and then to consign them either to slavery or to death (Surah 8:39; 9:5,29: 47:4).

When you make statements that there is hope for some kind of "reformation" in Islam and that "It's not the problem", you make two demonstrably false statements.

Islam isn't going to be successfully "reformed" because it simply doesn't contain the scriptural materials requisite to such an attempt as authoritative. There is no "golden rule" in Islam, and if you study the Qu'ran's living verses, you will see that there is obviously NO possibility of reconcilliation between the Meccan verses and the Medina verses. Were there any reconciliation possible, the principle of abrogation would never have been needed by Islamic scholars to create a religion with some semblence of logic.

You are seriously starting to sound like a man who's been worn down by his enemies Daniel. Muslims are -as a group- universally dishonest and the Qu'ran actually grants them moral license to dishonesty if they're not dealing with a "Brother". Here you go:

9:3, And an announcement from Allah and His Messenger, to the people (assembled) on the day of the Great Pilgrimage,- that Allah and His Messenger dissolve (treaty) obligations with the Pagans. If then, ye repent, it were best for you; but if ye turn away, know ye that ye cannot frustrate Allah. And proclaim a grievous penalty to those who reject Faith.

Notice the "present tense" use of the word "fight" as oppossed to "fought" in the next verse:

9:29, Fight those who believe not in Allah nor the Last Day, nor hold that forbidden which hath been forbidden by Allah and His Messenger, nor acknowledge the religion of Truth, (even if they are) of the People of the Book, until they pay the Jizya with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued.

This is not "history", it is a commandment. Muslims when facing scrutiny in the west will deny it, evade, issue endless "Out of context" arguments, but when the dust has settled, there is NO escape from the FACT that the entire 9th chapter of the Qu'ran is both THE current "policy" directive with regard to dealing with "Pagans, Christians, Jews and Infidels", and that commandment is to KILL them, period.

Usma Bin Laden has been accused of "twisting" Islam by so-called "Moderate Muslims". There is NO SUCH THING AS A MODERATE MUSLIM. They are either utterly disingenuis -the majority-, or they are ignorant unfaithful practicioners of the religion they're claiming. Bin Laden is a VERY accurate reflection of the doctrines and policies set forth in the Qu'ran and it can be DEMONSTRATED that ACCORDING TO THE QU'RAN, those who do NOT follow him, are in fact infidels.

Here you go:

9:39, Unless ye go forth, (for Jihad) He will punish you with a grievous penalty, and put others in your place; but Him ye would not harm in the least.

Islamic propagandists will insist that this jihad is only an "inner spiritual struggle". They LIE. Notice the words "GO FORTH". Notice the subject of the verse which preceeded it:

9:29, Fight those who believe not in Allah nor the Last Day, nor hold that forbidden which hath been forbidden by Allah and His Messenger, nor acknowledge the religion of Truth, (even if they are) of the People of the Book, until they pay the Jizya with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued.

In other words, Muslims who will NOT attack non-Muslims in the cause of Allah are actually under a Qu'ranic condemnation. This means -Islamically speaking- Bin Laden FOLLOWS the religion faithfully, and there is NO COINCIDENCE when the Islamic world loves and admire him for it.

Seriously Mr. Pipes, please devote some time to actually studying the Qu'ran and it's historical positions before you make another false proclaimation in it's favor. It is not enough to base one's understanding of a religion on what others say about it, especially followers who've shown themselves to have an agenda for global conquest and feel justified by their god in lying to Kafir about their true intentions. Read chapter 9 Mr. Pipes and realize that when it comes to Islam, this is reality.

Thank you ~Jay

---

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".