Deficiencies in Quranic doctrine posted by Adil

Submitted by Prashant, Nov 30, 2016 at 17:30

Dear Dr Pipes, often times Quran is accepted as unchallengeable truth even by non-Muslims and even polite criticism of Quran is not done. I think the views presented by your reader Adil and attributed by him to Quran need to be challenged.

Adil quoted from quran:

"We are not allowed to kill kuffar who do not fight us. If they wage open war against us, then we are allowed to fight them.".

Above statement whether it is from Quran or not is wrong on at least three counts:

1. It does not specify the exact circumstances under which kuffars can be killed. If a Kuffar launches and economic or political war against you, should he still be killed? For example, if a Kuffar assembles a group of Kuffars, to snatch Muslims' land, should they be killed? If other Muslims do the same crime, should they also be killed? I think a somewhat better version of this doctrine will recommend killings only if Kuffars wage wars against you for your religion. Even that will be wrong.

2. A lot of religions -- Christianity in particular-- put a lot of emphasis on forgiveness. How about forgiving a person or group who wages war against you for political, economic or religious reasons. World history is full of instances where some countries have forgiven other countries. Japan forgave USA for the nuclear bombs. India forgave Pakistan for running away with miles and miles of Hindu territory. Zorostrians forgave Iranians for becoming Muslims and pushing those who did not convert into India. On the other hands, Muslims never forgave Jews. Can we rethink the above doctrine in the light of these facts?

3. It talks nothing about consensus. Waging a war on another group of people --with the intention of killing them for good-- is a very serious business. It should never be done without much deliberation and thought. The above doctrine along with rest of the Islamic context franchises violence. It tells every Muslim to kill every Kuffar if the Kuffar wages a war against Muslims. How some deliberation and thought? How about if Kuffars wage war against us, we will call a majlis-ash-shura session and deliberate if the Kuffars need to be killed or something less stringent will suffice?

In summary, while we need to respect every religion, not every bit of text in every religion needs to be left unquestioned. The attribution to Quran, indeed, needs to be challenged.

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