Slit, slice and dice all you want

Submitted by Alain Jean-Mairet (Switzerland), Dec 4, 2013 at 00:23

Several traditions indicate clearly that Mohamed was literate and the Koran doesn't clearly say the contrary. So some Muslims affirm that he was illiterate (in order to make the Koran more of a miracle), come others contest it on the very ground (he is supposed to have been a successful merchant–how come without any paper work? He is supposed to have been a spiritual person–how come without any reading skills?), some others say that he must have learned to read and write after the beginning of the revelation. And I say it is a mash and people who push clear-cut affirmations have no ground under their feet.

But that was only my "small example". My big one was the jihad. I wrote:

A big example: jihad. Muslims fighters in conquest had a very efficient way to progress. They were supposed to ask the population on their way 1. To convert and to fight with them; or 2. To convert without carrying out the jihad (but then they got no booty, so that all the confirmed criminals out of those populations chose to fight with the Muslims, who could keep 80pc of their booty); or 3. To politically submit and pay a heavy tax (that was essentially used to support the jihad). Those who refused all three offers, they had to attack (without further notice) and thus making great killings (that is, more than necessary), tie the survivors before the scene, and make of them anything they saw fit: enslave them (all women), kill them all, whatever.

It was efficient but blind. No-one could tell at the beginning where this would lead. Now, would it have come from God, Muslims would have conquered the whole world and established God's rules everywhere. But as a matter of facts, they didn't. Most [of] the world stood free from them and where they won, they never could fully establish Sharia. Judging by the fruits of it, that was just a huge bloody shot in the dark.

So whatever the truth is about God, it is clear that you and your religion don't possess it.

Any comment on the big picture, for a change?

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