reply to Ahmed

Submitted by Jan (Belgium), Mar 21, 2006 at 19:37

Dear brother Ahmed,

I studied Islam by myself and did not discuss with muslims very much as I tend to get too emotional about it. The only question that I asked was about the source scriptures that tell what the real islam is. And everybody indicated the books that I quoted. I consulted many islamic websites among which the one of the MSA (muslims students association) is a very good and clear one.

Quran and Hadith of Bukhari and Muslim are all considered to be 100% reliable (sahih) by Sunni muslims (80-90% of all muslims). I will not quote the hadith of Abu Dawood and the Muwatta of Malik, because some people says they are not 100% reliable. In Bukhari and Muslim there is enough material to satisfy my thirst about Islam.

Funny thing is that websites against Islam also use the same references. And I came to the conclusion that if you want to prove that islam is peaceful you find enough evidence in the Quran and the Hadith to support this.

If you want to prove that Islam is evil, your job is easier because you will find even more evidence. The Hadith gives a clear picture of how the prophet was like. On one hand he appeared to be very shy, soft spoken, smiling, gentle and very accessible. One hadith reports that women came to him to complain about his teachings, more specifically that he told that "women are deficient in intelligence and religion". Now it is not possible to complain about the teachings anymore in any islamic country.

On all occasions the prophet hid himself behind the Quran and explained Allah told so. On one instance he had trouble with his wives and got the right revelation at the right time to discipline them. You find this episode in surah 33.28 and onwards.

Ibn Ishaq narrates that on the conquest of Makkah, he ordered his people to kill an apostate, but when the friend of the apostate came to plead for mercy, he did not have the courage to refuse the request. After they left he asked his comrades why they did not kill the man? They replied that if he would have told so, they would have killed him, on which he replied "a prophet does not kill by pointing"?!

On the other hand, his period in Makkah was a period of not being accepted as a new prophet on which he insulted the religion of virtually everybody including their ancestors who sure got a ticket to hell. Finally he had to leave Makkah for Medina. His time in Medina was a time of non-stop bloodshed to take revenge for his alledged bad treatment in Makkah. This included his order to kill his critics. This is the reason why somebody who criticizes Islam or the prophet should be killed still in 2006.

As I have told in another comment, the Quran is calling for violence in too many places especially but not exclusively in surah 9 and surah 8. The name of Surah 8 is the booty of war. I do not know how this can relate to anything else than to war. The terrorists used them to blow up the WTC. I do not blame them because they follow the Quran and they think like you that by following the Quran they can not go wrong. I am confident that you are a good person and cherrypick the good parts and leave out the agressive ones like all muslims that I know do.

I had a discussion with a muslim about a court order in Saudi Arabia that asked for the removal of the eye of an Indian man who had a clash with a Saudi national that lost an eye as a result of this. The court followed Quran 4.45 (saying ... eye for eye ...)and I do not blame them because they follow the Quran. My muslim friend is a good man and told me that he knows the ayah but there are a great number of ayahs that give the possibility to forgive (without him being specific). So my question : is ayah 4.45 not valid then? And if it is not valid, why is it there in the first place? Anyway if you get confused, there is a hadith to help you.

SAHIH MUSLIM Book 016, Number 4142:
Anas b. Malik reported: A girl was found with her head crushed between two stones. They asked her as to who had done that-has so and so (done it) until they mentioned a Jew. She indicated with the nod of her head (that it was so). So the Jew was caught, and he made confession (of his guilt). And Allah's Messenger (may peace be upon him) commanded that his head be smashed with stones.

So the Saudi court might be right.

I think that the question whether the Hadith is 100% reliable or not and whether Ibn Ishaq's book on the life of the prophet is 100% accurate is not relevant. The bottom line is that the Quran is not clear enough to be used alone so that's where the other books come in. These books are used by the most devout muslims and these books make what Islam is. Without those books there is no Islam. My point is that ALL THOSE BOOKS ARE AN INSULT for the prophet and islam. They depict the prophet with characteristics that have words that I would not like to pass my lips. The good news is that 99% of the muslims do not follow the example of the prophet. The bad news is that 1% does follow it and that anybody from the 99% category can switch to the 1% category at any time by becoming more devout.

I think that Islam is the only religion that produces suicide bombers of which one says: "well, Khaled became very religious over the past 2 years, we were expecting something like this"

Islam is the only religion that I know of that makes a father report his son to the police because he became a christian so that he can be brought to court and sentenced to death. Among the islamic scholars there is no doubt that islam commands that apostates should be killed, there is only disagreement about the procedure to follow. There is a high profile case of apostacy in Afghanistan now.

I hope the above explains something.

Peace be with you Ahmed

---

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".