Moshe, for me Tariq has the advantage of doubt

Submitted by Jan (Austria), Oct 1, 2006 at 06:34

Dear Moshe,

I know many muslims and used to be one myself. Most muslims have an image of the prophet in particular and Islam in general related to the period of Mecca where the Prophet had an excellent reputation until the time that he started to insult people and their religion/gods/idols. This insulting part is carefully neglected in what muslims tell about the start of islam;

In summary about the period of Mecca:

- Muhammad was a very gentle and peaceful person who did not harm anybody

- Muhammad was simply following the instructions of Allah, you can not blame him for that. Aren't we all following the will of God?

- Muhammad and his followers were persecuted for saying la illah illa allah (please close your eyes for the fact that the persecutions started when Muhammad started his insults. Imagine if i would go to Mecca in 2006 and start to insult Allah or the prophet? But for Muhammad this was OK because he was the real and true messenger of Allah. What is morally wrong for everybody is morally right for the Prophet;)

Muslims have a hard time imagining that the prophet started his actions of revenge shortly (7 to 8 months) after his arrival in Medina. And the revenge consisted of killing, stealing and raping. The Meccans thought that they got rid of him and were minding their own business. They had a hard time imagining that this once peaceful but crazy guy would turn into a killing machine. Muslims try to convince themselves that the Meccans were now even more aggressive than before and came to Medina on a killing spree, so the muslims had to defend themselves. The authentic islamic history sources tell the opposite. Muhammad attacked their trading caravans heading north to Syria so the Meccans had to come out to defend their assets. In the mind of the muslim this fact is turned the other way round by stating that they were attacked and had to defend themselves. The battle of Badr is a good example of it.

No muslims that I know are able or willing to see this fact because for them it is too absurd. They just talk about self-defense.

I hope that Tariq will start to read islamic history (Ibn Ishaq, Tabari, Ibn Sa'd) and discover the truth about Islam and his beloved prophet. Note that I encourage him to use islamic sources only to discover the truth

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