Islam is often viewed as an inherently violent and intolerant world religion. This misconception is fueled in part by the miscreant deeds of some Muslims, particularly toward those of other faith beliefs.
That conduct is then unfairly imputed to Islamic doctrine and coreligionists globally.
The imputation is unfair because the individual Muslim's action may not in fact be supported by informed readings of Islamic legal strictures, nor necessarily be representative of the 2.2 billion Muslims in the world.
This is especially true of violence against religious minorities in Muslim-majority countries, like Egypt or in any country, period.
Discrimination, oppression and/or violence against an individual or group based upon religious affiliation -- or no affiliation -- is fundamentally wrong no matter how you look at it.
This is particularly so from an Islamic perspective.
The Quran is Islam's foundational text regarded by Muslims as the literal word of God. It constitutes a primary source informing Islamic law. And it articulates several significant principles regarding inter-religious harmony, peaceful co-existence and religious pluralistic success.
Several of these principles bear mentioning here.
First, the Quran asserts that monotheistic religions derive from the Divine: "The same religion He has established for you is as that which He enjoined on Noah -- and what We now reveal to you -- and enjoined on Abraham, Moses, Jesus, saying, 'Establish the religion and do not become divided therein'" (42:13).
The Quran further states, "Say, 'We believe in God and in that which He has revealed to us and to Abraham, Ismail, Isaac, Jacob, the descendants and that which was revealed to Moses, Jesus and that which was revealed to the prophets from their Lord, We make no difference between one and another and we bow in submission to Him'" (2:136).
Thus, the Quran makes the belief in all the prophets -- from Adam to Noah to Abraham to Moses to Jesus -- incumbent upon Muslims. All those prophets should be respected, as should their followers.
Indeed, Islam prohibits oppression in all of its ugly forms, irrespective of the faith, gender, race or economic status of the victim or perpetrator. The Quran instructs, "Help one another in benevolence and piety, and help not one another in sin and transgression" (5:2).
As such, Muslims are spiritually prohibited from oppressing the adherents of other faith groups. Thus, killings, mutilation, burnings, discrimination and violence against minority religious communities by Muslims is wrong.
Next, Islamic doctrine provides for religious freedom. The Quran states, "Let there be no compulsion in religion" (2:256) and "Will you then compel mankind, against their will, to believe?" (10:99).
In Islamic legal tradition, humankind has free will to exercise choice, including religious decisions. God is believed to be the sole arbiter of religious differences. This is true even in the case of conversion from Islam. A number of Islamic scholars have found that Muslims are free to leave the fold of Islam without suffering retribution for doing so. Capital punishment, the penalty often meted out to such converts, is reserved by Islamic law for the crime of treason and not conversion, they hold.
Finally, Islam mandates Muslim preservation of all places of divine worship: "For had it not been for God's checking some men by means of others, monasteries, churches, synagogues, and mosques, wherein the name of God is often mentioned, would have been destroyed" (22:40).
Hence the destruction, desecration or vandalism by Muslims of other houses of worship here or abroad is a gross violation of Islamic legal principles.
These Islamic principles derived from the Quran make clear that all of humankind share the same sanctity of life and honor. Moreover, their application has been in practice since Islam's inception.
During the advent of Islam, for instance, the Prophet Muhammad negotiated a covenant between the Muslims and the Jews, binding each community to respect each others beliefs and to provide mutual protection.
In another instance during the Prophet Muhammad's life, a visiting Christian delegation stayed at the mosque where they were permitted to conduct their religious services in one section of the mosque while Muslims prayed in another.
During the reign of Umar ibn al-Khattab, the second caliph to assume Muslim rule following the death of the Prophet Muhammad, a Christian woman lodged a complaint alleging that the Muslim governor of Egypt annexed her house without consent in connection with a mosque expansion project.
In response to Umar's legal inquiries, the Muslim governor explained that the number of worshiping Muslims exceeded mosque capacity necessitating the expansion. He further explained that since the complainant's house was adjacent to the mosque, the state offered to compensate her for the property. She declined this offer. Consequently, the state demolished her home and placed its value with the treasury for her to retrieve.
Ultimately, Umar ruled in favor of the woman, ordering the demolition of the portion of the mosque built on the site of her house and providing her house be re-constructed as it had previously existed.
During the Islamic rule of the Umayyids and Abbasids, the most qualified people were entrusted significant posts without regard to religious beliefs.
Harun al-Rashid, a famed Muslim ruler, appointed a Christian man as the Director of Public Instruction and all the schools and colleges were placed under his charge. In making such appointments, he considered only excellence in one's field.
These examples are in contradistinction to the contemporary practice of religious discrimination against the members of minority faith communities reportedly occurring in some Muslim majority countries.
To be sure, religious intolerance, discrimination and violence is not a Muslim problem - rather the disturbing phenomenon transcends faith and geography.
Consider, for example, the status of civil rights of American Muslims, a religious minority which constitutes 1 to 2 percent of the total U.S. population.
From Muslims who are indefinitely detained to those who are sent to be tortured in conjunction with our "extraordinary rendition" program; from unlawful police surveillance to the proliferation of so-called "anti-sharia" legislation around the country and politically charged anti-Muslim, anti-Islam rhetoric by those vying for elected office to record high religious employment discrimination claims by Muslims; from physical assaults and murders of those perceived to be Muslim to Islamophobic bullying and destruction of mosque property to Quran burnings -- religious intolerance, discrimination and violence toward a religious minority is dangerously present right here at home.
What message are we -- the international role model on religious freedom and human rights -- then sending to other governments and populations abroad?
Some of you may still be trying to reconcile the apparent disconnect between the Islamic principles enunciated above with disturbing contemporary practices.
To my mind, this disconnect speaks to the absolute necessity of anti-discrimination laws in Muslim-majority countries together with proper implementation and enforcement of such laws.
It also highlights the need for education, particularly in Muslim societies and local communities where Islam enjoys political, social and moral currency. Along these lines, one word springs to mind which seems instructive. According to Islamic tradition, it was the very first word believed to have been revealed by God to the Prophet Muhammad:
"Read."
Engy Abdelkader is a Legal Fellow with the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding.
Many muslims say there would be no prophets after Muhammad, who then was the messenger that brought Sharia?
To claim abrogation, is to claim there would be other messengers, or that God is a fool. The vatican today is prepared to wage war against God. Should that then be a commonality amongst the other religions, all shall fight against God?
They have not picked the battlefield.
They have not picked the time.
They have not picked the enemy, nor thy friend.
Fools, blinded, by only power and glory in their own sight, for their own cause, for their own selves. God be damned, so saith the high priests. And so they were.
"Islamic doctrine provides for religious freedom. The Quran states, 'Let there be no compulsion in religion' (2:256) and 'Will you then compel mankind, against their will, to believe?' (10:99)."
But of course, these verses, along with dozens of other verses dating from the early phase of Muhammad's career, were abrogated by later verses.
"The Qur’an is unique among sacred scriptures in accepting a doctrine of abrogation in which later pronouncements of the Prophet declare null and void his earlier pronouncements. Four verses in the Qu’ran acknowledge or justify abrogation:
Qur'an. 2:106:
"When we cancel a message, or throw it into oblivion, we replace it with one better or one similar."
"...everything in the Qur’an about forgiveness and peace is abrogated by verse 9:5, which orders Muslims to fight the unbelievers and to establish God’s kingdom on earth.
"...For Isma’il bin Kathir (1301-73), a student of Ibn Taymiyya and an influential Qur’an interpreter in his own right, it is clear: As jihad involves death and the killing of men, God draws attention to the fact that disbelief, polytheism, and avoidance of God’s path as shown by the Qur’an are worse than killing them. This creates license for future generations of Muslims to kill non-Muslims solely on the basis of their refusal to accept Islam."
http://www.faithfreedom.org/articles/quran-koran/peace-or-jihad-abrogation-in-islam/
"Because this chapter contains violent passages, it abrogates previous peaceful content. Muhsin Khan, the translator of Sahih al-Bukhari, says God revealed 'Ultimatum' in order to discard restraint and to command Muslims to fight against all the pagans as well as against the People of the Book if they do not embrace Islam or until they pay religious taxes. So, at first aggressive fighting was forbidden; it later became permissible (2:190) and subsequently obligatory (9:5). This 'verse of the sword' abrogated, canceled, and replaced 124 verses that called for tolerance, compassion, and peace."
http://www.faithfreedom.org/articles/quran-koran/peace-or-jihad-abrogation-in-islam/
On this we agree.
However, I have to say that a religion is NOT necessarily the strictures or commands in the Holy Books, nor is it the information of religious and legal scholars. A Religion is Practice -- however perfectly or imperfectly it conforms to the Holy Text. Hence, while religious toleration is demonstrated by the author in the article, religious intolerance is demonstrated by the fact that Apostasy and Blasphemy are death-penalty offenses in Islamic countries. Even if the death penalty is commuted due to exposure to a shocked world, religious freedom is severely limited for non-Islamic practitioners.
And increasingly, even in Islamic nations with "religious freedom," the push is to outlaw or crush other faiths. Only here in the West, where Islam is yet a minority faith, have there been no pushes to restrict religious freedom.
And that makes us wary of theological arguments saying Islam approves of religious pluralism. Islam is not a Theology. It is the Practice of its People. And that Practice, world-wide, constitutes a problem.
I am willing to be persuaded otherwise. But there are a mountain of facts that need to be acknowledged, explained, and understood. And there needs to be a plan by those practicing "true Islam" to change the practice of those who violate those tenets.
Even the Klingons from Star Trek would say: 'Only a fool fights in a burning house.'
Guess what. The thatch is alight.
And from that qualifier, many atrocities have been visited by authoritarian monotheists upon many people who are not Abrahamic monotheists.
I may well have a monistic-ish sense of the Divine, but I am a polytheist. Like my people before me.
I am a Pagan. You know. 'Those people' you Abrahamics profess peace toward each other as long as your're not.... Pagans.
I got your pluralism right here.
And that's not on the basis of how many of you book people can agree to deign to admit each others' humanity, never mind *mine.*
You're the ones accountable to the world you seek to conquer and rip apart.
Or.... You could be welcome here.
I have no quarrel with you monotheists you do not demand yourselves, nor do my people.
Frankly, the world's in a bit of a fix right now and the *rest* of us would appreciate it if you Abrahamics got *off* *your thing* and started helping with something, while you argue who's the mightiest of y'all.
Get it? Yet?
But seriously, here again we have the "That's not what it says in the Quran" defense, complete with the "no compulsion in religion" quote, when one could easily find no shortage of mainstream, respected Islamic theologians whose views on religious pluralism are more, to put it one way, traditional. Whose interpretation is right? If anything, my inclination is to believe that the blood-and-guts, slay-the-nonbelievers version is a lot closer to what the founders intended (and that goes for Christianity and any other ancient desert ideology as well).
Ultimately, it's the Westernized, let's-all-get-along version of Islam (and Christianity, and any other religion) that I can live with, and I share the author's dim view of the version of it practiced in the Middle East. However, I cannot accept that the fundamentalist, Middle-Eastern version of the religion can be criticized on the grounds that it "doesn't represent the real Islam".
Side note: there are 1.6-7 billion Muslims in the world, not 2.2.
http://www.faithfreedom.org/articles/quran-koran/peace-or-jihad-abrogation-in-islam/
All religions have really nice writings in them prohibiting all sorts of terrible deeds and then you turn the page and find writings encouraging and commanding deeds just as horrible. And theologians can argue 'till the proverbial cow comes home about which of the multitude of interpretations is the right one - they will never know conclusively because it's impossible to prove - all the writers are long dead.
Religion is a man-made polititcal power tool fueled by fear and need and greed and based on ancient hearsay literature that was written, edited and published by men.
People are usually not nearly so eager to look kindly upon Islam, even though it is the third religion of Abraham and more in tune with our own Judaeo-Christian tradition.
The old hatred of lslam continues to flourish on both sides of the Atlantic and people have few scruples about attacking this religion, even if they know little about it.
The hostility is understandable, because until the rise of the Soviet Union in our own century, no polity or ideology posed such a continuous challenge to the West as Islam.
Western scholars denounced Islam as a blasphemous faith and its Prophet Muhammad as the Great Pretender, who had founded a violent religion of the sword in order to conquer the world.
' Mahomet' became a bogy to the people of Europe,
This inaccurate image of Islam became one of the received ideas of Europe and it continues to affect our perceptions of the Muslim world.
The problem has been compounded by the fact that, for the first time in Islamic history, Muslims have begun to cultivate a passionate hatred of the West.
In part this is due to European and American behaviour in the Islamic world.
Mistake to imagine that Islam is an inherently violent or fanatical faith, as is sometimes suggested. Islam is a universal religion and there is nothing aggressively oriental or anti-Western about it.
"...uncanny similarities... exist between those Islamic fighters of Muhammad’s time and their counterparts of today. It is also found that except for two or three, all other cases of armed conflict were due solely to the aggressive terrorist acts of the Muslim perpetrators [of Muhammad’s time]. It was invariably the Islamic Jihadists who usually initiated the conflict, in many cases without any plausible reason/s and/or without or slightest provocation. The result of these terror tactics was that the participant Muslims engaged in unbound savagery that often included gratuitous murder, genocide, ethnic cleansing, revenge killings, political assassinations, and in many cases, simply plain plunder and armed robbery. Muhammad followed this path of terror and pillage to reward his followers with easy and handsome booty, land, other goods and material benefits. The exercise of terror and its concomitant gain made the early Jihadists rich, self-supporting and this was crucial in the establishment of the authority of Islam in the entire Arabian Peninsula..."
http://www.faithfreedom.org/Articles/AbulKasem40730.htm
You wonder what Prophet Muhammad achieved This question was raised particularly after the recent defamation of his honorable character by western media.
Through revelation from God , Muhammad transferred humanity from obedience and submission to other men to the worship and submission to God alone, associating nothing with Him. Consequently, humanity became free from servitude to other than Allah, and this is the greatest honor for mankind.
He liberated the human mind from superstition, deception, and submission to false objects of worship as well as those concepts contrary to reason. This includes the claim that God had a human son, and that idols and stones can harm people.
Muhammad laid the foundations for tolerance among people. The Prophet also clarified the rights of non-Muslims who do not wage war against Muslims and guaranteed protection of their lives, children, property, and honor.
Even today in many Muslim countries there are Jewish and Christian citizens living in peace and security, in contrast to the Spanish Inquisition when Muslims were exterminated in an ethnic cleansing that violated all basic human principles.
In fact, his teachings include mercy even to birds, animals, plants, and inanimate beings. He forbade harming them without right or reason.
Muhammad showed unparalleled respect for and appreciation of all the prophets who preceded him, among them Abraham, Moses and Jesus
Try to kill your hatred
But right now, these 60 states routinely and as a matter of principle violate the UN Charter on Human Rights in the name of their god and their prophet.
We have members right here on this blog, who are themselves Muslims, who have had to flee their Islamic homeland because they were not the right sort of Muslims.
We have other Muslims blogging on Huffpo who are LGTB, and would be persecuted and killed simply for being alive, if they were living in Islamic countries.
And we have yet other Muslims blogging on Huffpo who share terrible stories of what it means to be a woman living in an Islamic state.
And we all know stories about those hounded and killed because they choose to be free-thinkers, or to change their religion.
This has NOTHING to do with western "prejudice" and EVERYTHING to do with systematic religious FASCISM.
The only worthwhile jihad for Muslims these days is jihad against Islamo-fascism.
Concentrate your efforts there, working to replace the Islamo-fascist states with secular, pluralistic democracies - and the rest of us will be as accepting of you as we are of Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Hindus, and so on.
Bibles contain profound wisdom and man's profound unawareness. part of the journey is to learn and know the difference.
Examples:
obligatory feeding the poor,
protecting the orphans,
punishment for misappropriating the wealth of the orphans,
fighting against the oppressors and those who chased people from their homes and lands,
charity, social justice,
laws of war such as protecting the women, children, sick, aged, not cutting down the fruit trees, forbidding mutilation,
importance of patience,
warning those who lie, backbite and are arrogant, jealous and proud,
importance of chastity,
cancelling out the money lent to the poor who are unable to pay,
solving matrimonial disputes by arbitration,
protecting the places of worship of all religions,
keeping close bond with blood relatives,
keeping promises,
recognising the unity of humanity and equality of human beings,
respecting the parents and not even to say “Fie on you”, so on and so forth.
Tell us how the above laws of God contradict your pluralism that you talk about
What is wrong with all these?
Even in the case of Atheists when it comes to such moral teachings the demarcation line is very thin and narrow. You are biased
If there need to be a change, a new interpretation is worth considering
Shariah is an essential compendium on moral code that every Govt has included in their constitutional laws knowingly or unknowingly
Some economists forcefully argue that Market Economy is the best but others assert that Mixed Economy is the best, both try to influence each others contentions and philosophies. No one finds it wrong.
Just a brilliant reply!! Its amazing how those who think they are giant pillars of "pluralism" start attacking things they don't even have a clue about!! Pluralism as long as the intrinsic diversity of the other doesn't have to be respected or completely diluted which isn't pluralism at all, rather, intellectual imperialism of the worst kind disguised under the false pretense of a pseudo "open-mindedness."
Please know just one obvious fact, the Godly reason that Islam was created precedes even its founder and all subsequent and current skirting into sheer authoritative commanding of the masses.
The author is asking us to simply ignore history.