They will not stop?

Submitted by Aidyl Nurhadi (Malaysia), Apr 3, 2006 at 01:57

Assalamu'alaikum Warahmatullah
Dear RB,
You said,"As an indian...myself and all of my non-muslim people have all been brought up never to trust a muslim, by our fathers and forefathers...why do you think this is so? Because they have fought wars and survived holocausts over the last 1400 years to try and prevent the devil from walking over the earth. ...why is it that every other religion on earth permits anyone from any faith to enter its temples and churches, and Islam does not permit, nay tolerate members of other faiths?"

Muslims have fought wars and survived holocausts for the past 1400 years to prevent the devil from walking the earth? Where did you get this? The first question you raised in your post is why do Islam forbid non-believers to enter its sacred places(mosques) when other religions do not. Where in the accepted Islamic sources(Qur'an and Sunna) does it say that non-Muslims are not allowed to enter mosques?

On the contrary sir. If I may relate to you a story of the treaty of the Prophet with Christians of Najran. This incident occured in the year 10 after Hijrah which is equivalent to 631 CE. A 60 member strong delegation of the Christians of Najran went to consult the Prophet in Medinah. They were accepted and received IN the Prophet's mosque(Masjid An-Nabawi). They discussed with the Prophet about the latter's beliefs and claim of prophethood. They stayed, ate and were even given permission by the Prophet himself to pray in the Prophet's Mosque! It was during this incident that the famous Surah Al-Ikhlas was revealed to the Prophet in response to the Christians' question regarding Islam's concept of God. In conclusion my dear sir, non-Muslims SHOULD be allowed in any mosque around the world save Mecca. If your local Muslims puts a prohibition for you and your non-Muslim friends from enterring the mosques, that is not the fault of Islam. I would very much like to speak to these Muslims if possible :).

Your second question was and I quote,"why is it that everone else turns the other cheek peacfully to an affront, but the koran tells a muslim to murder anyone who offends?"

Everyone else? who are these everyone else? Do be more specific next time. Such generalisations weighs no proof. Perhaps you mean Christianity, as that phrase turn the other cheek is taken from the Bible when Jesus is purported to have said,"It has been said of old time, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, but I say to you if a man slaps you in the left cheek give the other to him also." A very pleasant teaching on the face of it of course. But incidentally in another place, in Luke 19:27 Jesus said," But those enemies of mine who did not want me to be a king over them-bring them here and kill them in front of me." Why don't you account for this? Anyway about turning the other cheek. Islam teaches that also, but only to a certain extent. The Qur'an says in 25:63, The true servants of Allah are those who behave gently and with humility,and whenever the foolish quarrel with them,they reply with [words of] peace.In 41:34 the Qur'an says,"Respond to an evil deed with something good and see how somone whois seperated from you because of enmity becomes a dear friend." But the Qur'an at the same time also tells us that if you are oppressed, defend yourself, but do not transgress for God love not the transgressors.

It is the duty of every able bodied Muslim men to defend his religion, county, people and family against those who attack you PHYSICALLY and not just anyone who offends you or your religion as what you tried to insinuate. There are rules of war in Islam. For starters Muslim fighters are only allowed to fight those who are actually fighting you, those with arms and so on. Not even trees are allowed to be cut down unnacessarily in a non-Muslim territory should a conflict occur therein. Islam is the most practical and wholesome religion on Earth. Let's say we apply this idea of turning the other cheek whole heartedly. Here's an analogy. Say you lived in India during the days of the Christian colonisation and you had a family. One day, a group of drunk British soldiers approach your residence and break in. They attack you brutally, causing much injury. Do you just remain passive and stand by? All right, that's your own life, if ya want them to trash you feel free. But after trashing you, their madness is not yet saturated and they saw your wife and children and hurry towards them to rape your wife and possibly even kill your children. So do you turn the other cheek? What are you? a spineless bastard? you would let your wife and children be killed while you just stand by and watch? This is an example of oppression that Muslims are told to ward off.

You next question is and I quote,"why is it that the koran condemns anyone who dares question it?" Where does the Qur'an condemn those who question it??? Again be specific, don't just throw red-herrings without support. They would remain nothing more than mere ramblings. But anyway, I shall answer your plea. The Qur'an condemns those who question it. On the contrary sir, it is quite the other way around. The Qur'an encourages people to question it, over and over again. You will know this if you've actually read the Qur'an. The challenge of the Qur'an to those who disbelieve in it to find any discrepency within it is proof enough that it encourages questioning. There are dozens if not hundreds more examples of the encouragement of the Qur'an to people to question its validity and to establish a platform of understanding. Repute scholars such as Al-Ghazali, Ibn Rushd and so on have written countless of books about the Qur'an and those who question it. During the time of the the Vizier Nizam Al-Mulk, he established a reputed court for debate among thinkers at the Nizamiyyah Institution of Baghdad. Countless scholars questioned the Qur'an to find answrs and so on. Zamakhshan a scholar of much repute took out seeminlgy grammatical errors in the Qur'an and explained them in his work Al-Kasshaf. And Al-Ghazali spoke about hermeneutics and expounded on metaphors and similes in the Qur'an in his Mishkat Al-Anwar. In short, no other religion ON THE FACE OF THE EARTH, encourages pondering(tadabbur), reflection(tafakkur) and questioning of its sources.

Your next question is and I quote,"why is it that muslims kill someone who denounces the faith, yet actively seeks out to convert other people to its vile docrtine?" Do you know what the punishment for corroborating with the enemies of the state in America? Death or life imprisonment. In England, traitors may also be executed. There is a word for this. It's TREASON. It's not just a matter of apostasy sir. But an apostate is afforded execution after being given chances to repent because of mainly rebellion and disturbance of peace. A good example is, Dr. Ali Sina of www.faithfreedom.com . It's allowed to ask constructive questions for the sake of understanding and learning but when you question, mock and ridicule out of vile and manipulate facts. It becomes a different story all together. Dr. Ali Sina calls for the ERADICATION of Islam. No sane and educated Muslim would ever call for the eradication of another religion. Shame on him.

You next question is and I quote,"why does Islam's perspective of god promise 72 virgins, wealth and material things to mass murderers in its name? Is sex not an earthly desire / pleasure...surely 'material' things like that are well beneath a deity?" lol again SPECIFICITY is the aim! Could you produce one single verse in the Qur'an that promises such things for MASS MURDERERS who commit their evil deeds in the name of God or Islam? The Qur'an says,"For those of you who kill a person save those who do mischief is as if he has killed the whole of humanity and those of you who save a life it will be as if he has saved all humanity".

You said in the statement that follows the question above and I quote,"These are just a few questions [there are hundreds more] we all need to ask...and I agree with the originator of this blog, that our stupid liberal / human rights orientated governments are appeasing muslims and fear offending them...This will be the civilised world's undoing"

Our stupid liberal/human rights oriented government are appeasing Muslims and fear offending them? How are these governments appeasing Muslims by attacking Afghanistan and Iraq? How are these governments appeasing Muslims for failure of doing justice to the Innocen Muslim and Christian Palestinians? What do you mean appease us? Appease us how? Their ruthless policies do not reflect liberalism or humanism. Again which governments are you talking about? America? European countries? what? I suppose you have nothing to say against those Europeans who colonised your people in India and exploited your country's wealth?

You said and I quote,"We need to tackle the Islamist threat head on, before it is too late, right now there are around 1 billion muslims in the world and that number is growing fast (why else do you think they are allowed to marry 4 women, so they have numerous offspring, more than 10 children in many cases)." Statistically, by year 2050 or earlier Islam will surpass even Christian it's biggest rival. You're trying to say that the growth is due solely to polygyny and procreation. This is an old orientalist polemic you're raising. No doubt that birth contributes greatly to Islam's growth but in truth, so does conversion. And only a fraction of Muslims marry more than one while the first wife is still alive(polygyny), in fact less than 10% of the Muslim population actually practices it. So to attribute polygyny to Islam's growth is nothing more than mere conjecture. Further more, you fail to realise or see the wisdom behind the permission to marry more than 1 and up to four. I would just like to assert that Muslims are forbidden to marry more than one women simply out of lust if he cannot do justice to more than one wife. The Qur'an in fact is the only religious book on the face of the earth that has this expression"MARRY ONLY ONE". It is in Surah An-Nisa' where you may find the permission for polygyny. It says,'Marry women up to twos and threes and fours, but if you cannot do JUSTICE between them MARRY ONLY ONE'. And in another place the Qur'an says that it is difficult for a husband to maintain even one wife, what more 2, 3 or 4.

You later state mercilessly and out of pure ignorance as I can see that and I quote,"There are still 5 billion untainted people left on the earth and we need to make a choice...get rid of them before they get rid of us...
Remember the koran teaches them to decieve us and then convert or slaughter us [this is not some fancy...study the koran and its there, we must know our enemy] ..."
There are 5 billion more untainted? So we 1.5 billion Muslims are tainted then? with what? You said,'get rid of them(the 5 non-Muslims) before they become Muslims and get rid of you? Now who's advocating terrorism and devilishness? I for one as a Muslim have no intention whatsoever to get rid of you or any other pitiful ignoramus people. You further stated that "Remember the koran teaches them to deceive us, then convert or slaughter you". How terribly have you derailed from the truth. Where in the whole Qur'an does it teach us to deceive you with lies or convert you or otherwise kill you??? One verse from the Qur'an will disprove this malicious accusation of yours. The Qur'an says in Surah Al-Baqarah, verse 256,"LET THERE BE NO COMPULSION IN RELIGION ,TRUTH STANDS OUT CLEAR FROM ERROR. It is forbidden for Muslims to force others to convert at the point of a sword.

Further more, their conversion if made by force is worthless as you can only become a genuine Muslim in the sight of God if you accept the truth freely.
Also the Qur'an says,'Invite (all) to the way of your Lord, with wisdom and beautiful preaching. (16:125). Not with nuclear bombs, TNT, machine guns, rifles, snipers, swords or knives, but with WISDOM and BEAUTIFUL PREACHING!
...

I hope I have answered all your questions and misunderstandings. ...

May Allah S.W.T. guide us all to the right path. Ameen.
Wabillah HiTaufiq Walhidayah Wassalamu'alaikum Warahmatullah

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