Islam and the legacy of violence

Many people say terrorist attacks are NOT allowed in Islam. But can we really say they have nothing to do with Islam?
This article will discuss that idea.  I am proposing that the Islamic texts lead to a hostile world view.
I’m not saying Islam allows killing people without a trial. I’m not saying that. I am not saying vigilantism is allowed in Islam. Please understand that.
 
Before you read this and think everything I quoted is out of context. Realize that this is what happens with all religions (especially man-made ones). There will be contradictory statements and interpretations and understandings all over the board.
 
My argument is that a straightforward reading of the Quran and Sunnah leads to something quite awful for humanity.
 
The Quran is antagonistic to kuffar. And whoever made this religion was irresponsible by leaving violent texts full of violent statements which has led to so much bloodshed in Allah’s name. We do not see as much of an emphasis on violent warfare in any other religion as we do in Islam. We do not see so much theological inspired terrorism as we do with Islam.

Sacrifice by Damian Thorne

How to become a Jihadi

  1. Muslims grow up thinking that Islam is the perfect way of life
  2. Many people grow up doing bad things as easily accessible in kafir country
    So their actions dont match their religious teachings, not living according to those standards but living double lives.
  3. Their beliefs are never seriously challenged, they believe Quran + Sunnah is the best way of life, indisputably true.
  4. Some of these Muslims eventually decide to repent
  5. You don’t know your standing with Allah. The day of judgement is taught as terribly terribly terribly horrible. Even Prophet Muhammad said he does not know what Allah will do with him.
  6. There IS one way to feel safe, to avoid the terror of the day of judgement. Dying for Allah’s sake. Guaranteed paradise. No questioning, no reckoning.

Hatred for disbelievers in the Quran

Allah specifically mentions casting terror into the hearts of the kuffar:
“We will cast terror into the hearts of those who disbelieve for what they have associated with Allah of which He had not sent down [any] authority. And their refuge will be the Fire, and wretched is the residence of the wrongdoers.” (3:151)
And then he mentions not taking them as allies and protectors:
“O you who have believed, do not take the Jews and the Christians as allies. They are [in fact] allies of one another. And whoever is an ally to them among you – then indeed, he is [one] of them. Indeed, Allah guides not the wrongdoing people.” (5:51)
And then he calls them the worst creatures:
“Indeed, the worst of living creatures in the sight of Allah are those who have disbelieved, and they will not [ever] believe -” (8:55)
The hadith literature also emphasizes taking care of Muslims. Kindness to Muslims. Forgiving Muslims. Not backbiting Muslims. It always emphasizes your responsibilities towards Muslims, and much less often towards humanity in general. Believers are given a special status:
“And never is it for a believer to kill a believer except by mistake…”
“But whoever kills a believer intentionally – his recompense is Hell, wherein he will abide eternally, and Allah has become angry with him and has cursed him and has prepared for him a great punishment.” (4:92-93)
This is disappointing because we would expect to see these statements made for humanity in general, not just towards other believers.

Jihad against the unbelievers

In this hasan hadith, Muhammad explains the head of Islam is jihad:
‘Shall I not tell you of the head of the matter, and its pillar and pinnacle? (It is) Jihad.’ (Ibn Majah)
And in this hadith
 It was narrated that ‘Amr bin ‘Abasah said:
“I came to the Prophet (ﷺ) and said: ‘O Messenger of Allah, which Jihad is best?’ He said: ‘(That of a man) whose blood is shed and his horse is wounded.’” (Ibn Majah)

And The Quran mentions striving against them:

“Fight them until there is no [more] fitnah and [until] worship is [acknowledged to be] for Allah. But if they cease, then there is to be no aggression except against the oppressors.” (2:193)
“O Prophet, strive against the disbelievers and the hypocrites and be harsh upon them. And their refuge is Hell, and wretched is the destination.” (66:9)
“So let those fight in the cause of Allah who sell the life of this world for the Hereafter. And he who fights in the cause of Allah and is killed or achieves victory – We will bestow upon him a great reward.” (4:74)
In 2:286 Allah teaches us a prayer to gain victory over the disbelievers:
“..You are our protector, so give us victory over the disbelieving people.” (2:286)
There are so many verses about fighting the kuffar I can’t even list all of them here. Do you not see just how much antagonism and hostility the Quran brings forward?
 
I remember thinking one day I will move to the land of Islam and use my brain capital to benefit the Muslims. It was always about strengthening believers. I remember hearing scholars say that one should not migrate to the land of kuffar without a good reason: to give dawah (propagate the religion) for example.
The Prophet also said:
“War is deception.” (Bukhari and Muslim)

The day of judgement

The day of judgement is described as the horror of horrors. The day of judgement is incredibly scary.  It is every Muslim’s worst nightmare.  Some even fear it more than hell itself.

On the Day you see it every nursing mother will be distracted from that [child] she was nursing, and every pregnant woman will abort her pregnancy, and you will see the people [appearing] intoxicated while they are not intoxicated; but the punishment of Allah is severe. (22:2)

They fear a Day in which the hearts and eyes will [fearfully] turn about (24:37)

That Day a man will flee from his brother, and his mother and his father, and his wife and his children. (80:34-36).

A free pass

It was absolutely clear to me as a Muslim that physical jihad (fighting) is the best deed in the sight of Allah. A mujahid who dies in the sake of Allah goes to paradise instantly with no reckoning. In some hadith Muhammad mentions martyrdom is so desirable the person who dies in this state will wish to come back to life so they could die in Allah’s cause again.

I heard Allah’s Messenger (ﷺ) saying, “The example of a Mujahid in Allah’s Cause– and Allah knows better who really strives in His Cause—-is like a person who fasts and prays continuously. Allah guarantees that He will admit the Mujahid in His Cause into Paradise if he is killed, otherwise He will return him to his home safely with rewards and war booty.” (Bukhari)

This is an amazing and very appealing opportunity. The day of judgment is described as a horrible terror, one of the worst imaginable things you can describe. It is described as a day that will be 50,000 years long and everyone will be scared as to whether they are going to heaven or hell.
 
I used to worry about the day of judgment a lot. The idea of getting through it scott-free is extremely appealing.
So it is crystal clear that jihad is the best deed one can do. Not just jihad, but dying during jihad is the easiest and fastest way to heaven.

My friend the mujahid

I had a friend who wanted to go for jihad.  He used to watch videos online and was so angry. He used to tell me “They are raping our sisters in Afghanistan and Iraq”. I want to do something. I want to gain the highest rank in paradise.  I want to kill Stephen Harper (the previous prime minister). I managed to convince him not to do so.  He then said “Okay I will go to CFB Trenton and attack the base”, but I convinced him not to do so.  He then left a note for his parents and decided to go travel overseas for jihad, and I could not stop him. I never heard from him since.

This story should show us that Muslim youth sometimes get radicalized.  There were even the Toronto 18 who some seemed innocent and others were considering bombing or hurting Canadians.

How I promoted jihad

I even had articles myself promoting jihad on my old site Light Upon Light. I had articles on the front page such as:

I wanted to promote jihad because it was the best possible deed in Islam. And I wanted Allah’s pleasure.

Proper jihad

Proper jihad is supposed to be done with the ameer or sultan. The ruler of the state needs to call for it. It is not a random attack on people.
But extremist groups will claim that they have legal precedence to call for jihad because Muslim countries are being attacked.  They will claim that America is bombing Syria so this is a defensive war.   They will use all of the above texts to justify that war is deception and that attacks on American soil are justified.
Anwar Awlaki, who was a mainstream a popular American born Yemeni preacher who gained popularity in America for his “Lives of the Prophet” CD set (which I personally owned) inspired the American Army Psychiatrist to commit the Fort Hood massacre and the underwear bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab to bomb an airplane on Christmas 2009.
Sheikh Anwar also said that every Muslim should train for jihad incase the opportunity arises.  He justified suicide bombing as a stratagem of war.  His CD set “Mashari al-Ashwaq” was all about the virtues of jihad.
Even Yusuf Qaradawi, a popular scholar from Egypt justified the use of suicide bombing in the Palestine war:
In one of his best-known fatwas, issued in the 1990s, Sheikh Al Qaradawi permitted the use of suicide bombing as a defensive tactic against Israel. Since then, instead of retracting the fatwa, he has repeatedly responded by saying that he was not the only cleric to justify suicide operations and that his fatwa was tailored specifically for helpless Palestinians in their fight against the Israeli occupation.[ref]The National[/ref]

Why so many Muslims?

Why are so many Muslims committing terrorist attacks?

Number and proportion of terrorist and extremist prisoners in custody on 31 December 2015 by declared religion. (Terrorism in Great Britain: the statistics)

Also see List of Islamic terrorist attacks in 2017 (Wikipedia)

More hardline versions of Islam

In “The Antagonism of Salafism and Wahhabism” I discuss how the Salafi interpretation of Islam is even worse and leads to more antagonism and hatred.  It is literally one stone’s throw away from terrorism.

In conclusion

Going back to my first statement. I’m not saying the interpretation of Islam I followed allowed killing vigilante style. But it was reckless and irresponsible for a God to put so many violent verses in his book and paint such a dark and nasty picture of hostility between Muslims and Non-Muslims.
 
A straightforward reading of the Quran and Sunnah leads you to this tragic reading. Many believers don’t take these verses literally as applying to today’s day and time or context, but many do.
This is part of the legacy of Islam on the world.
The rotten fruits of this tree results in the long list of repeated Islamic terror attacks all over the world.
 
Yes, many people say these attacks are NOT allowed in Islam. But can we really say they have nothing to do with Islam?

7 thoughts on “Islam and the legacy of violence

  1. Thank you Abdullah for another superb article. You are absolutely right, the Quran has an enormous amount of hatred and violence in it. It is, without doubt, the catalyst for the barbaric terror and bloodshed we are witnessing in the world today.

    The quran is the driving force behind ISIS and other Jihadi terror groups. Why wont the media address this issue? Instead, we see Western Governments increase surveillance, set up PREVENT programmes, etc. But, never do we ever hear of them saying – Lets look at the scriptures in Islam. What do they say? Do they inspire terror? If so, what shall we do about it?

    Those are the questions that the West need to start asking. The false statement – “It’s nothing to do with Islam” is starting to wear thin. This statement is already being used following this weeks horrific suicide bombing in Manchester, England. Muslims are all over the media saying “Islam means peace”. No, it does not. Islam means submission.

    The Muslim community has got to face reality and accept that the Muslim scriptures are the root cause of terror attacks committed in the name of Islam. Fact. Continuing to pretend otherwise is only going to further harm the Muslim community and drive an ever bigger wedge between Western democracies and Islam.

    http://www.reformingislam.org

  2. Great article Abdullah Sameer I can’t agree with you more. Reforming Islam your comment also has hit the nail on the head. The world leaders are not stupid though, I think they know very well what the Quran says, most of them have read it (excluding that idiot Trump) but they are afraid to open a can of worms in fear of upsetting the Saudi’s and disrupting the various lucrative trade deals – Greed, money and power all come before peace if afraid!

    There are so many verses I the Quran and a vast amount of Hadith that preach and incite hatred and violence against all non-muslims its truly horrifying and is one of the reasons for me leaving Islam. To all normal people whether Muslim or not and those whom are caring and compassionate and have a conscience will know that acting in such a way is wrong however Islam encourages this hence this leads me to the conclusion once again that this is not a divine message from our creator. Its counter intuitive to believe a ‘good’ divine entity would instruct and encourage such behaviour.

    The scriptures are the direct cause of Islamic terrorism and the growth of ISIS and their ability to recruit so easily worldwide. Muslims will keep burying their head in the sand and western politicians won’t raise the issue and therefore I see no end to this mess.

  3. There are two kinds of religious people.

    First we have the good ones that don’t take their religion seriously.

    Second we have the fundamentalist ones who should be called religiots in disrespect of their fascist religious views.

    The killing of innocent people is always wrong no matter who the perpetrator is.

    What we have learned since 9/11 is that religiot Muslims are willing to go very far in their support for their religiot views.

    Islam is a fascist political movement hiding inside a religion. If that is neglected as a fact these religiots are permitted, and given more space, to continue their struggle to kill as many infidels they can.

    The core of Islam, as well as all other religions in the world (Christianity included) is to suppress women to grant the male part of the population access to female genitals whenever they so see fit.

    Islam is a religion that worships and adores a man who married his wife when she was six. He then waited three years before he had sex with her. At age nine she was raped the first time.

    His name was Muhammad. The girls name was Aisha.

    This makes Muhammad a pedophile and a child rapist. He then continued his life by defending, and advocating for, his perverted interest in penetrating young girls genitals by killing everyone who was against his perversion. At the time gunpowder wasn’t known yet. This is why Saudi Arabia and ISIS/Daesh still use swords when executing, decapitating, people in public. As Muhammad did it, so shall they.

    In plain English:
    At its core Islam is a religion for pedophiles, and the religiot part of the congregation is more than willing to kill anyone who oppose their God given religiot right to have access to penetrate young girls private parts at all times.

    This is what only religion is capable of doing to some people. No other movement in the history of mankind has caused as many deaths and as much suffering as religions has.

    Furthermore, this is why I, in respect of all religions, nowadays hold my middle finger stretched up high in the air.

    Religiots should be despised, disrespected, criticized, and made fun of, until they disappear from the minds of mankind.

    All religions are an insult to the human intellect.

    Finally, let me repeat a part from above;
    All religions have the same goal; To suppress girls and women so men can fuck them, rape them, whenever they want to.

    This is the essence of all religions. Free access to penetrate female genitals. It’s a despicable view on half of our population! It’s revoltingly appalling.

  4. I was raised christian but i lean towards a buddhist philosophy of the goodness of mankind and unity with each other and nature. I can’t believe humans are inherintly bad. So when i helped to sponsor syrian refugees i ĺearned a little bit about Islam and didn’t consider their choice of religion would be a problem, and it hasnt been at all. I love these families and i have become part of their families. They have no wish to kill anyone. One of the men has become my best friend. He has told me that the trouble makers are the wahabe sect of Islam and that their followers are not being true Muslim. I understand this as i certainly know of untold number of christians who dont follow
    The true teachings of Jesus.

    But my former Pastor who used to be my friend delved into the Quran and began a mission to spread hate of Islam based on the very verses quoted in this essay. I couldnt argue with him but i couldnt believe a normal person no matter what faith of their God would wish such violence as you’ve described.
    It seems to me that more violent acts are by white americans than any other category of people. It doesnt get talked about as much on our news in Canada, but the stats are outragiously scary.

    1. Clifford, you show the classic symptoms of the apologist for Islam. You are making excuses for the violent and barbaric verses in the Quran by comparing them to more white Americans being violent. Do these white Americans that you mention use religious scripture to commit their crimes? And then use the a “phobia” label (in this case Islamophobia) to fend off any criticism or debate? The answer is NO.

    2. You following a ‘philosophy of the goodness of mankind and unity with each other and nature’ is a wonderful thing and if all people followed this rather than Religion the world would be a better place. You say you can’t believe people are inherently bad, well I think you are right people are not which makes it even more extraordinary that a Religion can force people to go against human nature and commit such atrocities of terror in the name of their Religion.

      The majority of Muslims like those you have come across are just decent down to earth lovely people, no different to my family, friends and wider Muslim community. The minority are those who kill in the name of Allah as directed to in the scriptures. The majority will say the minority are misreading and misinterpreting the scriptures, the minority will say the scripture is clear and we are simply following the orders of our creator. Regardless of who is right and who is wrong the problem still comes down to the scriptures Quran and Hadith, hate and violence against non-believers is plentiful now you confirm you know these verses exists and that you cannot argue with your Pastor friend on the same yet you say you can’t believe a normal person would wish such violence but they are wishing it and they are doing it. Now the question is what is normal, I would say normal is a non-religious person and no doubt a religious person would say the opposite, so religious terrorists who follow the scriptures to kill non-believers are normal people (in their eyes) doing horrendous things in the name of Allah.

      Not sure what point you are making in respect of westerners killing more people than any other category of people. Yes the stats are correct they do kill more but they are for many different reasons with religion being either non-existent as a reason or at best at the bottom of the list. UK and USA’s illegal war in Iraq resulted in the death of in excess of 100,000 civilians, that had nothing to do with Christianity telling them to kill Muslims, it was motivated by a whole array if other issues.

      We are not saying in this blog that Muslims kill more people that anyone else in the world we are saying more Muslims kill in the name of religion that anyone else in the world.

      This is yet another reason why religion is manmade nonsense.

  5. Hi,
    I’m an Indian Muslim(Not anymore) – Unfortunately not able to tell in public. A year back, when I just discussed some doubts, I faced violent, psychologically deflating reactions. So, I have hidden my Atheism for time being. India is a democratic country – still we feel unsafe to reveal negatives of religion and come out openly against islam. It appears impossible to change my wife and other relative’s thoughts. Sometimes, I feel like I’m slowly dying from inside. I’m just holding up in relationships because of my toddler. I wish I had understood the religion before the birth of my child. What you and “The masked Arab” are doing is remarkable. Unfortunately, we could not come out in open and support your cause. Hopefully, one day I would come out, make videos to spread the real truth to the world and support in saving the people and the planet.

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