Is Islam Truly a Religion of Peace?
By Syed Kamran Mirza
NYC, USA
E Mail :
Syed_mirza@hotmail.comThese days, the phrase "Islam is a religion of Peace" is reverberating again and again everywhere not only from the mouth of Muslim apologists and but surprisingly from many westerners including President George W. Bush. We should rephrase the statement in a question form – "Is Islam a religion of Peace?"
Apologist’s mouths are continuously foaming because of repeated delirious Zikir of saying: "Islam is a religion of peace." Many educated mullahs are asserting that, ‘Islam is a religion of peace’—as if, there are some religions really do exists (?) which are not a religion of peace. Otherwise why only the Islam has to chant this famous phrase of so-called "religion of peace," deliriously. Why no other religion in the whole world needs to utter this phrase ad infinitum?
President Bush and many other political and social leaders also uttering (mostly for political reasons) this popular obsolete phrase of peace as I have mentioned above. Converted mullah Yousuf Islam (Cat Stevens) who was up to his neck soaked in rock-n-roll, sex, and drugs in the early seventies in England also arrived with his slogan, "Islam is peace and tolerance." Time magazine and many other newspapers are repeatedly importing this idea of peace.
Even all these kafir columnists in NFB forum (like Abul Kasem, Ali Sina, Syed Kamran Mirza, Aparthib Zaman, etc.) were also thinking Islam is a religion of peace (because they were also brainwashed during their early childhood by Mullah’s one sided sermons) before they read this holy book Qur’an! Alas! Is it really a religion of peace? Is Islam a religion of tolerance? How can we deceive our own eyes after reading so many hundreds of Qur’anic verses and Sahi hadiths which are full of hatred to other religions?
How can a religion be called "peace" when the history tells us that it (Islam) had started with rebellious opposition and had to fight almost 78 bloody wars (within 10 year period) with naked sword? Were those wars with Syria, Iran, Northern African countries, Spain, India etc a defensive wars? Except one (battle of ditch),all 77 wars were forceful offensive wars, no doubt about it. All these 77 wars were fought at the town/country of the enemies.
Most of all, when we can find hundreds of Quranic verses and sahi hadiths, clearly talking about fight/wars, inciting disciples to fight/kill/torture the un-believers—how in the world one can claim "ISLAM A RELIGION OF PEACE" ?
"Well, all these hateful verses you cited are OUT OF CONTEX"- says all hypocritical mullahs. Some ignorant Muslims even threw challenge, "I could not see any hateful verse in Qur’an, can anybody show me one?" What can I say to this? We have been citing hundreds of terrible Qura’nic verses (no pun intended!), yet blind mullahs are keeping their eyes closed and challenging us to show them even one!
They hypocritically claim that these are "out of context"!!! Almost all Islamic apologists try to cover up hundreds of hateful verses by only three tolerant, soft Qur’anic verses. Because there are not any other tolerant verse that they could find in the entire Qur’an, or they cannot find even one tolerant hadith amongst the thousands of Sahi hadiths. These three soft verses of Qur’an I will denote as verses-"A." Below let me compare these good verses with those terrible hateful ones:
Verses-"A": (There is no compulsion in religion…; If you kill one human being…you kill entire human race [by the way this verse was stolen from Bible by Allah]; and the last one- your religion is yours and my religion is mine).
Verse-"B": (Quran-47.4): If you meet the ungodly or un-believers, you should break their necks or cut their throats even if you have to fight with them. Because God will be on your side and if you died in the battle God won’t forget what you did.
Verse-C (4:78): "Where ye are, death will find you, even if ye are in Towers, built up strong and tall" (Perhaps Twin towers of NYC was meant here?)
Hadith-D, Sahi Buchari #1246, page-1180: Hazrat Ali (ra) narrated, "Certainly I heard Prophet Muhammad saying, in the days of last era (before the end of the world) there will be some people evolved who will talk very nice and gentle, but they will never have faith upon Allah, and their faith will be expelled from their hearts like the way an arrow is expelled from a bow. Therefore, you would kill them where ever you find them, because whoever will kill them they will be rewarded by Allah at the Judgment day with heaven.
Now, we got above mentioned verses and hadiths denoting as A, B, C, and D. To me all verses (A,B,C) and one hadith (D) above has no distinction in them to differentiate, as to, which one is "out of context" or, which one is "within context".
To me—if "A" is within context, then all B,C,D also should definitely be within context. Or, If B,C,D are out of context, then "A" also should definitely be out of context. I DO NOT UNDERSTAND, IF "A" IS WITHIN CONTEXT, HOW COME, OR UNDER WHAT GROUND, "B, C, D" ARE OUT OF CONTEXT? In Quran, no where it is mentioned that, this is "out of context" or that is "within context".
Could any Islamists tell us what is the formula by which a Quranic readers can determine which one is out of context, or which one is within context? Or can anybody please explain how, or on the basis of which formula/pretext, those hundreds of hateful verses can be "out of context"?
Let us examine this current scenario:
Mohamed Atta was identified by FBI as the ring-leader of the 19 men suspected of carrying out the Sept. 11 hijackings and theirs eventual ramming of the WTC and a portion of the Pentagon Building. A letter with full of religious sermons and instructions for the hijackers was discovered among his belongings (WTJV-TV via Miami Herald/AP Photo). Words of Terror Handwritten Letter Gave Hijackers Religious, Practical Instructions as follows:
"Remember, the battle of the prophet … against the infidels, as he went on building the Islamic state,… the prophet fought infidels with 100 men against 1,000 infidels…. Keep a very open mind, keep a very open heart of what you are to face. You will be entering paradise. You will be entering the happiest, everlasting life … "
Let us compare it with Qur’an: (Translation by Yousuf Ali)
8:65: "O Apostle! Rouse the believers to fight. If there are twenty amongst you, patient and persevering, they will vanquish two hundred; if a 100 , they will vanquish a 1,000 of the unbelievers.."
8:66:"….if there are a 100 of you, patient and persevering, they will vanquish 2,00, and if a 1,000 , they will vanquish 2,000 (two thousands) with the leave of Allah…"
Now, does it take a rocket scientist to understand the source of the fanatical will of a terrorist? Does it ring the bell from where these Islamic terrorists get their inspiration and hope? Will our Islamists still say, "Islam is a religion of peace," or that "Qur’an is full of kind and compassionate advices?"
Who is Muslim?
A Muslim is a person who gets his/her life's inspiration from the Koran (Quran), the Hadiths and the Sunna. The devout Muslims believe that life's all solutions are contained in those books because those books are words of Allah, infallible-unchangeable-eternal and they must follow those books word by word without any question. By any ordinary Muslim, Qur’an is taken as an eternal/infallible book of God.
Following this line of thinking the Muslims believe that anyone who does not agree with them is their enemy. A Muslim must oppose his/her enemy and kill him/her whenever the opportunity arises. This set of mindset gives the Muslims a sense of brotherhood (Umma) among themselves, a sense where Islam gives all the protections they need for their lives and happiness.
Osama bin Laden is the true Muslim who follows Quran and hadiths in ‘Toto’ and this hero of Muslim interprets Quranic verses and hadiths as per the needs of Islamic Umma, and of course, as per the real spirit of medieval Islam. That is why true Muslims (Maulanas, Mullahs, Madrassha students [Talibans], all leaders of Islamic political parties) of Pakistan, Bangladesh, Indonesia, and other Muslim countries are supporting Osama and his host, Talibans of Afghanistan.
It’s totally irrelevant and useless to claim that Osam and Talibans are not true Muslims, or they are Muslims by their distorted views of Islam. Actually, they are the real Muslims, and they are the Muslims by the book. All others so called progressive Muslims (living in the western comfort) are simply Muslims by the birth in a Muslim family.
We must differentiate between the true followers of Islam and those Muslims simply by their birth in a Muslim parents. We should never forger the fact that, unlike Christianity, there is no hierarchy, or any supreme leader (like the Pope in Christianity) in Islam who can give a final interpretation/applicability of Qur’anic verse. Each and every Muslim can take Qur’an literally for his purpose and suitability. Who can control this? Osama bin Laden and his terrorist team will not come to any educated Mullahs (who are living in the comfort of western world) for the interpretation of those hateful verses.
Conclusion:
Fact of the matter is, ignorant and naïve persons such as Prof. Taj Hasmi, Cats Stevens, Karen Armstrong, or other hypocritical Mullahs will play ostrich by hiding the truth under the rug, and will continue to beat the drum of lies with some pick-and-choose verses. Their hypocritical acts will bring more misery and more backlashes for those innocent peoples of Muslim origin living in the western world. Because, as long as those hundreds of terrible hateful verses stay in Qur’an—more and more Osama Bin Ladens will be born, and more terrorism will occur in the name of so-called peaceful Islam. Mullahs can never hide several hundreds of hateful verses by only three good verses for sure.
Time is right to admit the scriptural fallacies that do exist in Koran or hadith. No more denial of the truth but do the needful to diffuse world’s anger against Islam. As humans we have enormous responsibilities on our shoulder to do the needful to show that Islam’s Jihadi writings have inspired scores of terrorists to make this world a bit unstable. Therefore, we should all work for a humane world even if it means to take out the fangs from Islamic scripture.
===============================================================
The article is kept in Mukto-Mona Article page . The Article was originally published in NFB (Oct 15, 2001) :
http://www.bangladesh-web.com/news/oct/15/gv4n718.htm#A1