Islam's History of Violence.

Submitted by aquariumpro (United States), Apr 23, 2006 at 20:50

Just need to let some of you Muslims out there know I bear no ill will towards Islam or any other religion for that matter. All Muslims I know are good, decent, friendly people who see their faith exactly as most Muslims have described in this thread - a peaceful religion which is also a complete way of life.

However, I want you to know what makes Americans nervous and scared. It's important that we all understand the difference between moderate and militant Islam. Unlike some of the bigots I've seen posting here, I've read the Holy Qur'an and a few of the many many volumes of the Ahadis (translated by Abdul Hamid Siddiqui). Those were some busy scribes!

The truth is that today's expressions of Islamic jihad is backed by a history of aggressive warfare that many moderate Muslims prefer to forget. Some argue that the Qur'an's call to "slay them wherever ye find them... " [Sura 2:191-193] is merely a call to defensive warfare, a conclusion supported, they say, by the context of this and similar verses in modern English versions of the Qur'an.

But it was offensive, not defensive, doctrines that drove Islam's early leaders to conquer land masses stretching from Spain into China in a single century. They used the sword to crush all opposition, expand their territory and force the nations to conevrt to Islam. It is estimated that militant Islamists have been responsible for the deaths of over 150 million Jews, Christians, and bieth over the last 1800 years. This zeal hasn't waned. The last decade saw deadly jihad in Islamic lands from the Sudan to Indonesia. ...and people are still being forced to convert

For over a century and a half the world had forgotten this fact, since most Muslim countries were politically impotent and ruled mainly as the colonies or protectorates of European powers.

Pak Hindu girls forced to convert to Islam http://web.mid-day.com/news/world/2005/november/123248.htm November 13, 2005

More Egyptian girls forced to convert to Islam http://www.human-rights-and-christian-persecution.org/coptic.html Apr 17, 2006

MUSLIM SEMINARIANS TORTURE, KILL FORCED CONVERT http://rightblogger.com/blogs/grant_swank/archive/2006/03/30/508.aspx Thursday, March 30, 2006

"One Muslim extremist of the Islamic Liberation party reminded his interlocutors just before the scheduled opening of the party's international rally in London in August, 1994, that 'there are 123 verses in the Quran about killing and fighting.' And he added, quite unnecessarily, 'Ours is not a passive religion.' Quoted from Fregosi, P. (1998, p.18).

Here are a few of the 123 verses referred to above. [Note: the numbering of these varies slightly between translations.]

"O believers, fight the unbelievers who are near to you, and let them find in you a harshness; and know that Allah is with the godfearing" (Sura 9:123).

"Fight against those who believe not in Allah and the Last Day and do not forbid what Allah and His Messenger, have forbidden -- such men as practise not the religion of truth, being of those who have been given the Book -- until they pay tribute out of hand and have been humbled" (Sura 9:29).

"The punishment of those who wage war against God and His Messenger, and strive with might and main for mischief through the land is: execution, or crucifixion, or cutting off of hands and feet from opposite sides, or exile from the land: that is their disgrace in this world, and a heavy punishment is theirs in the Hereafter;" (Sura 5:33).

NOTE: The Qur'an encourages Muslims to fight, even when they would rather seek peace with those who do not wish to adopt Islam.

"Fighting is prescribed for you, and ye dislike it. But it is possible that ye dislike a thing which is good for you, and that ye love a thing which is bad for you. But Allah knoweth, and ye know not." (Sura AL-BAQARA 2:16)

Most Muslims would say that these verses are misunderstood, but misunderstood or not, the history of Islam shows that many Muslim leaders have used those verses to spread terror. Islam, according to the Qur'an, can be spread by force.

Apologists for Islam often quote the following verse, and most Westerners, unfamiliar with the Koran and imagining that it must obey the same theological logic as the Christian Bible, assume that Islamic scripture mandates religious toleration toward non-Muslims. That assumption is inaccurate.

""Let there be no compulsion in religion; truth stands out clearly from error" (Sura 2.256).

Sounds peaceul enough, right? That is until you learn that the Qur'an includes many abrogated verses, called mansukh, and abrogating verses, nasikh; the latter cancel the former, rendering them invalid, though they nevertheless remain in the Koran and are deceptively quoted, for Western consumption, as though they still represented genuine Islamic beliefs. For example:

O you who believe! When you meet those who disbelieve marching for war, then turn not your backs to them. And whoever shall turn his back to them on that day - unless he turn aside for the sake of fighting or withdraws to a company - then he, indeed, becomes deserving of Allah's wrath, and his abode is hell; and an evil destination shall it be. So you did not slay them, but it was Allah Who slew them and you did not smite when you smote (the enemy) but it was Allah Who smote, and that He might confer upon the believers a good gift from Himself; (8:12-17)

"Slay the idolaters wherever ye find them, and take them (captive), and besiege them, and prepare for them each ambush" (Sura 9.5).

"O you who believe! do not take the Jews and the Christians for friends; they are friends of each other; and whoever amongst you takes them for a friend, then surely he is one of them; surely Allah does not guide the unjust people. (Sura 5.51).

To be fair, such violence isn't unique to Islam. History testifies to the cruel wrath of ancient Assyrians, Vikings, Mongols and others whose religious fervor was fueled by the dark spirit behind the world's unbiblical gods. That spirit has -- especially in times of Biblical ignorance -- accomplished many of its horrors under the banner of Christianity.

LINKS:

http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/history/chronology/
(The history of Islam)

http://biblia.com/islam/islam.htm

http://www.biblia.com/islam/history.htm

http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/fundamentals/hadithsunnah/
(The Hadith of Muhammad (PBUH)) Wow! A lot of Volumes!)

http://debate.org.uk/topics/coolcalm/Dark-Side-of-Islam.htm
(Christian Biased - but provides referenced quotes from Islamic scholars, the Holy Qur'an and Hadith of Muhammad (PBUH).)

http://www.historyofjihad.org
(Christian Biased but they have their facts straight)

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