Fact checking DNM on Q8-12

Submitted by Prashant (United States), Dec 30, 2020 at 18:24

Dear Dr Pipes, Your reader DNM stated that Quran verse 8:12 talks about beheading people who defy Allah . DNM is right. Q8:12 is more brutal than mere beheading. There are many translations of Q8:12. Most of them use the word 'smite'. Q8:12 asks Muslims to smite non-believers above their necks. Blunt force traumas may be a bit less brutal than beheadings but not by much. But, low and behold, 8:12 goes beyond that. It also asks the believers to smite the fingers of non-believers. If you criticize Allah, your fingers are subject to be crushed or chopped off. Boy, I do not know the order in which these two sentences have to be carried out.

I never pick quranic verses out of context. I never do. So what happens just before and after 8:12. You see, murders are just routine names of the games in Quran. Around 8:11 the believers are told that they should be thankful to Allah for the rain because it helps them clean themselves from what filth cause by Satan. Around 8:13 and 8:14, the author of the Quran (Allah, Muhammad or Gabriel; I do not know who) justifies the punishment of 8:12. Allah is very merciless against people who criticize him.

I am using sarcasm because it is easy. More seriously, dear readers, our world is quite used to criticizing faulty religious doctrines of all religions (Buddism, Judaism, Christianity, Hinduism). Let us do the same for Islam. Islam needs to be criticized where it is wrong. It must be criticized until Muslims learn the virtue of freedom of speech and thought and go on the defensive.

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