Recently some prominent talk-show hosts, Sean Hannity among them, have been referring to certain verses in the Quran that appear to call for Muslims to kill non-Muslims. These verses have too often been quoted with what appears to be a willful disregard for the context in which they occur, thus inflaming the emotions of listeners, perpetuating grave misunderstandings, and contributing to the potential for violence on all sides.
Though we may not be able to influence those who are hell-bent on hatred, an explanation is owed to all reasonable people who are interested in the truth of the matter and are not looking to create enemies. The vast majority of Muslims deserve to be seen as allies in a common quest for social justice and human dignity -- assuming, of course, that we as Americans have the same goals in mind.
A careful and unbiased study of these and other verses, in their proper context, will reveal that the exhortations to fight "idolaters" and "unbelievers" are specific in nature and are not general injunctions for the murder of all those who refuse to accept Islam as their way of life.
Among the most often cited verses is this one: "Kill the idolaters wherever you find them, and capture them, and blockade them, and watch for them at every lookout..." (Quran 9:5).
According to Islamic belief, the Quran was "revealed" to Muhammad in a process of dialog with the Divine, and some parts of the Quran refer to specific situations, while other parts offer universal spiritual principles. To understand this passage, we must take into account the historical circumstances at the time of its revelation.
The "idolaters" (Arabic: mushrikeen) were those Meccan "pagans" who had declared war against Muhammad and his community. The Meccan oligarchs fought against the Prophet's message from the very beginning. When they realized that the flow of converts to Islam was increasing, they resorted to violent oppression and torture of the Prophet and his followers. The Prophet himself survived several assassination attempts, and it became so dangerous for the Muslims in Mecca that Muhammad sent some of his companions who lacked tribal protection to take asylum in the Christian kingdom of Abyssinia. After 13 years of violence, he himself was compelled to take refuge in the city of Medina, and even then the Meccans did not relent in their hostilities. Eventually, various hostile Arab tribes joined in the fight against the Muslims, culminating in the Battle of the Trench, when 10,000 soldiers from many Arab tribes gathered to wipe out the Muslim community once and for all. As we know, the Muslims survived these challenges and eventually went on to establish a vast civilization.
At the time Verse 9:5 was revealed, Muhammad and his followers had begun to establish themselves securely. They had returned triumphantly to Mecca without violence, most Meccans themselves had become Muslims, and many of the surrounding pagan Arab tribes had also accepted Islam and sent delegations to the Prophet pledging their allegiance to him. Those that did not establish peace with the Muslims were the bitterest of enemies, and it was against these remaining hostile forces that the verse commands the Prophet to fight.
The verses that come immediately before 9:5 state, "Those with whom you have treaties are immune from attack." It further states, "Fulfill your treaties with them to the end of their term, for God loves the conscientious." Now, in its proper context, verse 9:5 can be properly understood.
This was a guidance to the Prophet at that specific time to fight those idolaters who, as 9:4 mentions, violated their treaty obligations and helped others fight against the Muslims. It is not a general command to attack all non-Muslims, and it has never signified this to the overwhelming majority of Muslims throughout history. Had it been so, then every year, after the "sacred months are past," (The "sacred months" are four months out of the year during which fighting is not allowed) history would have witnessed Muslims attacking every non-Muslim in sight. This yearly slaughter never occurred. Though the present verse is only one example, none of the Quranic verses that mention fighting justify aggression nor propose attacking anyone because of their religious beliefs. Nor were forced conversions recognized as valid under Islamic law.
The fundamental Quranic principle is that fighting is allowed only in self-defense, and it is only against those who actively fight against you. Indeed, Islam is a religion that seeks to maximize peace and reconciliation. Yet, Islam is not a pacifist religion; it does accept the premise that, from time to time and as a last resort, arms must be taken up in a just war.
If the enemy inclines toward peace, however, Muslims must follow suit: "But if they stop, God is most forgiving, most merciful" (2:192). Also read: "Now if they incline toward peace, then incline to it, and place your trust in God, for God is the all-hearing, the all-knowing" (8:61).
How then do we explain the early spread of Islam through military conquest? In the two decades following the death of Muhammad, Muslim armies challenged and largely overcame the world's two greatest powers, the Persian and Byzantine empires. Were these conquests truly justifiable according to the Quranic principles outlined above? It is a complex question and not one to be readily answered within the limits of a blog post such as this.
It deserves to be understood, however, that the Muslims fought imperial armies, not civilians, and were forbidden to harm non-combatants or destroy property. Islam guaranteed religious freedom for Christians, Jews, and other minority sects, even while they obliged these "protected" minorities to pay a small tax in exchange for being absolved from military service.
Now 14 centuries have passed, and it needs to be recognized that the Quran does not have an inherent, built-in agenda for aggression or domination. The vast majority of Muslims are content to live and let live. In fact, that is part of their religion. Relations with other religious communities are based on acceptance and encouragement to follow the best of your own religion:
To each community among you has been prescribed a Law and a way of life. If God had so willed He would have made you a single people, but His plan is to test you in what He has given you: so strive as in a race in all virtues. The goal of you all is to God; it is He that will show you the truth of the matters in which you differ. (5:48)
And Muslims believe that the God of Islam is not other than the God of Abraham, Moses, and Jesus and that the diversity of religions is according to Divine plan: "Truly those who keep the faith, and the Jews, and the Christians, and the Sabaeans -- whoever believes in God and the Last Day and performs virtuous deeds -- surely their reward is with their Lord, and no fear shall come upon them, neither shall they grieve." (2:62)
Perhaps these verses help to explain why in the city of Jerusalem, which has been ruled by Muslims for most of the last 13 centuries, the sacred sites of Jews and Christians have been protected, and those communities themselves have for the most part been able to live in peace together with Muslims. The assertion that Islam or the Quran inherently call for a "war on unbelievers" is sheer fallacy and fantasy. Peace be with you.
Parts of this post first appeared in The BeliefNet Guide to Islam by Kabir Helminski & Hesham Hessaboula. For a more thorough discussion, read "Is Islam a 'Religion of the Sword'?"
Cynthia Boaz: Separating Church and Hate: Irrationality and Anti-Muslim Stereotyping
Now if you could only get those 57 Islamic nations to agree with your interpretation of those verses as specific rather than general.
Bonne chance, la-bas.
But the religion must evolve over the period of time. Christianity has evolved; Islam remains the same as in 7th century.
Religious fanaticism practices violence against any divergence from its creeds. The areas it controls are run by fear, intimidation violent schisms and cruel punishment. These areas are expanding rapidly. It now looks like religious fanaticism will demolish the only real change that occurred for this short period of history which we now enjoy as the Enlightenment. To succeed religious fanaticism must abolish its greatest enemy the Enlightenment, and return all peoples of the planet to their past former misery, blind conformity and mass ignorance.
Mr. Hannity and Mr. Beck and Mr. Limbaugh and many of the other media trash talkers and hate fomenters are uneducated, unread men who inflame others like them to pad their own wallets. Today's posts are a welcome respite from the "my religion is better than your cult" claptrap that the trolls regularly put on the board.
All three have been taught in their own scriptures that one does not bear false witness, break your vow or deny mercy under any circumstance. Jews are taught to respect the stranger and treat him with dignity, freedom and respect. Christians were taught to love their neighbor and forgive as they have been forgiven. Islam is taught to make peace with whomever will do so and is specifically commanded to allow Jews and Christians alone to follow their own religions.
When it comes to reading the Quran, I must point out that Islam is where Christianity was before Martin Luther and the Reformation. Shortly after Mohammad died his advisors collected his writings/prophecies, included stories/accounts of his life not written by him and included several swaths of societal custom at the time which were very archaic and patriarchal. Something akin to the Law of Moses but was not commanded by Mohammad himself. In one book you have very obvious statements from Mohammad stating the equality of men and women - the next book how to smack her without leaving a mark.
The Quran was born after Mohammad died. His official writings/teachings were supplemented by other historical accounts and behavior opinions from a fracturing group that continues to fight for 'divine heir' status of Mohammed to this day.
Do you even know your church history? I wish we could sit face to face and talk.
Death to Followers of Other Religions
Whoever sacrifices to any god, except the Lord alone, shall be doomed. (Exodus 22:19 NAB)
Kill Nonbelievers
They entered into a covenant to seek the Lord, the God of their fathers, with all their heart and soul; and everyone who would not seek the Lord, the God of Israel, was to be put to death, whether small or great, whether man or woman. (2 Chronicles 15:12-13 NAB)
Kill False Prophets
If a man still prophesies, his parents, father and mother, shall say to him, "You shall not live, because you have spoken a lie in the name of the Lord." When he prophesies, his parents, father and mother, shall thrust him through. (Zechariah 13:3 NAB)
There really is no legitimate room for any religious pots to call any religious kettles black. And as for the Atheists, if they think to imagine themselves superior, they should read, without conviction-bias, some of the Atheists' comments against the religious here on HuffPost. Many show the viciousness and intolerance and tendency to paint all adherents to whatever religion is target with a single blackly smearing brush that is hallmark to religious warriors.
While atheism is the orthodox form, agnosticism can be the progressive form.
Fact of the matter is that religion is not the reason for the world's ills. Religions do not teach people to commit genocide or target civilians... The people who have committed these acts are not following their own religions.
The responsibility therefore lies with the people themselves and not on the teachings that they themselves are not following. These people use religion as an excuse.
You can find any number of excuses to justify killings. These justifications are both religious and secular in nature.
How do you explain the killings of Stalin (An atheist communist), or Mao Tse Tung's cultural revolution? Funny thing is that there are even hindus who profess in the sactity of all life, are vegetarians, but have no qualms about killing christians, muslims and sikhs whole scale.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graham_Staines
I came across an idiot here who even justified this act. Killing of children 9 and 6 years of age.
The actual issue is the lack of empathy for people.
1.2 million iraqis are dead. Will George Bush ever be tried for war crimes?
of the 1.2 millioin alleged iraqi deaths, how many were at the hands of u.s. troops?
as opposed to an islamic radicalism (promoted by a large percentage of the islamic world) which can rationalize suicide bombings.
your position has no basis in fact. how can we ( or W) be at fault if we did not set off the bombs, that killed all of those people?
are we responsible for the collateral damage in the bombings of dresden, hiroshima, nagisaki?
do those who are at fault ever find condemnation in your mind, or is it just the oppressive americans forcing the poor people of iraq to choose their government, rather than have it dictated to them.
just wanted to correct a typo for you.
It was written in their Qu'ran, that all nations which had not acknowledged the Prophet were sinners, whom it was the right and duty of the faithful to plunder and enslave; and that every Muslim who was slain in this warfare was sure to go to paradise. He said, also, that the man who was the first to board a vessel had one slave over and above his share, and that when they sprang to the deck of an enemy's ship, every sailor held a dagger in each hand and a third in his mouth; which usually struck such terror into the foe that they cried out for quarter at once. [2] [3]
Jefferson reported the conversation to Secretary of Foreign Affairs John Jay, who submitted the Ambassador's comments and offer to Congress.
Look up what the term means... Even the US had privateers. The brit privateers were called pirates by the spanish and vice versa...
The Council of Nicaea was formed to determine if Jesus was to be worshipped as God Himself or as an ultimate prophet/king, the earthly perfect son of God. The concept fo the Trinity was thus born.
A similar council discussed the question "do women have souls?"
One should not pass judgements upon things when all you have done is listen instead of research. Evil and corrupt men who use religion to kill and oppress are everywhere.
thirty-one:
Good weapons are instruments of fear; all creatures hate them.
Therefore followers of Tao never use them.
The wise man prefers the left.
The man of war prefers the right.
Weapons are instruments of fear; they are not a wise man's tools.
He uses them only when he has no choice.
Peace and quiet are dear to his heart,
And victory no cause for rejoicing.
If you rejoice in victory, then you delight in killing;
If you delight in killing, you cannot fulfill yourself.
Atheists know more about religion than believers... no surprises here
Some of the questions were faith based, but many were either secular questions or questions involving tenants of other faiths.
I like cake a lot more.
That is the same God of Abraham, of Moses, of Jesus...
Islam says that belief in God is not enough. You have to follow that up with good deeds. If you are a muslim and your bad deeds outweigh your good deeds; you will go to hell just like everyone else.
If you are not muslim, but believe in one God and do good deeds you will go to paradise.
There is no concept of the original sin in Islam. Every man will only bear the burden of his own deeds.
God did forgive both Adam and Eve for their transgression (Both were equally guilty; that is not so in Christianity).
Each child is born muslim. In Christianity, if a child dies without baptism, he will go to hell or perdition (Not sure which). That is not the case in Islam.
http://www.islamicity.com/mosque/quran/7.htm
Verses 6 through 33
Oh I don't know, The New testament has a decidedly big spanking as in if you do not Follow Christ you go to hell for all eternity flavor.
Now I happen to be a big fan of the Moral teaching of the Old and new testament. There is plenty of examples of teaching that exemplifies a good way to live your life in both.
As Hillel says: 'What is hateful to you, do not to your neighbour: that is the whole Torah (first 5 books of the OT), while the rest is the commentary thereof; go and learn it.'
And Jesus says the two greatest commandments are Love God and love your neighbor.
It just depends on what you are looking for in the bible. If you are looking for a guide for living to get closer to the creator and love God and your neighbor you find it. If you are looking for reasons to hate you can find it also.
All religion is a tool of states and powers that be to control people. There is plenty of ammunition in any of the religions of the book. To say Islam is not a violent religion is to say any other religion is not violent either, which is proved false by everything from the crusades to witch burnings.
There is currently a pile of Muslims emphasizing the violent parts of the "religion of peace" as a rationale to kill people they percive as enemies, and that is a lot of Americans. A Pew Trust poll of 38,000 Muslims around the world in 2004(5?) had majorities of Muslims supporting the use of suicide bombing as a tactic sometimes. The numbers went down in the latest.
The deal for me is that I don't want anyone telling me or my wife what to wear - be they conservative xtian, Muslim or whatever. Sometime, somehow we're going to haver to come to terms with our cultural differences and figure out if and how we're going to live together. It's my hope that ALL religions will fade away. Til then, we'll argue about angels on pinheads and if the Flying Spaghetti Monster is real. What a waste!
Thats what Bush did with the Iraq war and the WMD argument. Their objective was war and not a factual understanding of reality.
So they manufactured that reality.
If you have any specific verses please share and we can discuss the context. Could be that you're wrong.
It could be that I'm wrong. But dont generalize.