Will the Real Islam Please Stand up

Many Westerners cling to the myth that there is a good Islam and a bad Islam, and it just depends on how we interpret the Koran and the Hadiths, and not what these writings actually teach. One friend asked me what I thought about a David Brooks column on this subject. Here’s my response:

I have major problems with David Brooks’ analysis. He fails to engage Islam and Koranic writings, the self-professed rationale for the deeds of the terrorists. Instead, of engaging the real problem, Brooks launches into psycho-speculation:

• A beheading feels different because it reveals something about the minds of the killers. The journalist Lance Morrow once wrote that “evil is often happiest when it operates in the autonomy of the gratuitous.”

This represents the Western avoidance of dealing with Islam as it is. Instead, this is what the Koran says:

• [Surah 47:4] “So when you meet (in fight…Jihad in Allah’s Cause) those who disbelieve smite at their necks [behead] till when you have killed and wounded many of them, then bind a bond firmly (on them; i.e. take them as captives). Thereafter (is the time for) either generosity (i.e. free them without ransom) or ransom (according to what benefits Islam) until the war lays down its burden. Thus [you are ordered by Allah to continue Jihad against the disbelievers till they embrace Islam (i.e. are saved from the punishment in the Hell-fire) or at least come under your protection.] But if it had been Allah’s Will, He Himself could certainly have punished them (without you). But (He lets you fight) in order to test you, some with others. But those who are killed in the way of Allah, He will never let their deeds be lost…”

• [Surah9:5] “Then kill the Mushrikun [Polytheists and Trinitarians] wherever you find them, and capture them and besiege them, and prepare for then each and every ambush. But if they repent and offer prayers perfectly and give Zakat, then leave their way free …[9:29] Fight against those who do not believe in Allah, nor in the Last Day, nor forbid that which has been forbidden by Allah and His Messenger and those who acknowledge not the religion of truth (Islam) among the people of the Scripture (Jews and Christians) until they pay the Jizya with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued.

• [Surah 4.89] “They desire that you should disbelieve as they have disbelieved, so that you might be (all) alike; therefore take not from among them friends until they fly (their homes) in Allah's way; but if they turn back [from Islam], then seize them and kill them wherever you find them, and take not from among them a friend or a helper.”

ISIS has taken their script right out of the holy writings of Islam, and they claim as much! However, Brooks and other Western commentators will not take them at face value.  Instead, Brooks prefers to dream about a “superior version of Islam”:

• But, ultimately, the Islamists are a spiritual movement that will have to be surmounted by a superior version of Islam.

Those who defend Islam claim that the many violent Jihadic verses are just a matter of interpretation. This is very idyllic but unrealistic. While everything must be submitted to a process of interpretation, this doesn’t mean that any interpretation is as accurate as the next. In fact, when we study Shakespeare or any literature, our aim is to determine what the author meant, not what interpretation we find more pleasing or more “superior.” However, it is quite clear what Mohammad and his followers meant – bloody Jihad, and, sadly, ISIS, al Qaeda, Muslim Brotherhood, Islamic Jihad, Boko Haram, Hamas, Hezbollah, and al-Shabaab all got it right. That’s why they are getting all of the recruits.

Islamo-Realism

My Response to a Liberal Anonymous Christian:

Thanks for your concerned and thoughtful response:

·       If you are concerned about human rights violations, then you'd focus on the violations and not use the violations to prove some point about the religion. Islam is a false religion--which, as it happens, means that there is no "true" interpretation of it. I know several Muslims who believe that the Koran teaches love and mercy and there are many like them Maybe they're wrong about the "real" meaning of the Koran, but that's not the point. The problem with Islamophobia is that it tends to lump all Muslims into the category of either terrorist supporters or potential terrorist supporters.

I appreciate your response because these are substantive issues – issues with which I have long struggled. You are right that my main concerns are the “human rights violations.”  I don’t see how I can stay silent as these appalling rapes, forced conversions and genocides continue through much of the Islamic (and communistic world).

However, if these were isolated instances, you would be correct to question my concerns about Islam. While it is true that a certain minority of Muslims – like the Sufis - do not take their holy writings literally, the vast majority of Muslims do take them literally and want to impose sharia law wherever they can. As a consequence of this, there is not a single Muslim nation where non-Muslim have not been reduced to a second class status and sometimes even far worse.

For the exception of very brief periods, this seems to have been their historical experience under Islam. Therefore, although I am pleased whenever a human rights issue can be successfully addressed, it also should be observed that these problems have been ubiquitous under Islam. We can treat the symptoms, but if the underlying cause remains, it will just re-express itself, as it now does, wherever there is a sizeable Islamic population, as we are beginning to find in the West.

I think that it is unfair to compare conservative Christians to Muslim terrorists:

·       I don't think that Jesus taught us to be hypocrites on human rights, but the fact is that conservative Christians in the US tend to be hypocritical on human rights. It's no accident that the Bible Belt was also the place where Jim Crow was established.

Were these really Bible-believing Christians or were they merely cultural Christians, more similar to our liberals? I really don’t know. Please also bear in mind that it was Bible-believing Christians who had vigorously campaigned against slavery here and brought it to an end in England under the leadership of William Wilberforce.

Admittedly, Christians have done terrible things, betraying their faith. However, when they did so, it wasn’t because of their religion had given them encouragement. However, the Islamic terrorists are finding direct support for their actions from the Koran and Hadiths and are claiming to be the true Muslims.

Westerners naively think that the Islamic experience will be different in the West. They think that we have to sharply distinguish between the terrorists and the “majority of peace-loving moderate Muslims.” However, they are in denial about the nature of Islam, Islamic nations, and the historical Islamic experience. They wrongly regard Islam as vacuous, neutral, and capable of promoting any number of interpretations and peaceful expressions. To point these things out is not Islamophobia but Islamo-realism.

Nazi-Phobia and Islamophobia

 

Here is my response to a “progressive Christian” who accused me of Islamophobia:

I do appreciate your attempt to explain your behavior towards me. You stated:

“Anytime Christianity is used to condone Islamophobia, Anti-semitism, Homophobia, Racism, or any other prejudice, it does great damage to the Christian religion. That's why it has to always be confronted.”

I too care about how Christianity is perceived, and it profoundly grieves me that my adopted faith – I come from a Jewish/Zionist background – is so denigrated throughout most of the world. I mourn daily because of this.

As a Jew, I used to fantasize about what I would do, had lived in Nazi Germany? Sometimes, I would envision myself making payments to the Nazis to free Jews from the “death camps.” At other times, in my young adult imagination, I saw myself picking up arms to liberate my brethren.

Today, as I survey the Communist and Islamic worlds, I am confronted with the appalling sight of tens of thousands of Christians exterminated, kidnapped, raped and subjected to forced conversion or blasphemy charges, in accordance with the literal teachings of Islam:

• Qur’an 9:29 - Fight against Christians and Jews ”until they pay the tribute readily, being brought low.” (9:7-9; 9:12-14; 9:5; 2:191-2; 4:91)

• Qur’an (5:51) - ”O you who believe! do not take the Jews and the Christians for friends; they are friends of each other; and whoever amongst you takes them for a friend, then surely he is one of them; surely Allah does not guide the unjust people.”

• Qur’an (2:65-66) - Christians and Jews must believe what Allah has revealed to Muhammad or Allah will disfigure their faces or turn them into apes, as he did the Sabbath-breakers. (9:30; 5:72; 5:53; 5:63; 5:59)

• Qur’an (5:80) – “You will see many of them befriending those who disbelieve; certainly evil is that which their souls have sent before for them, that Allah became displeased with them and in chastisement shall they abide.” Those Muslims who befriend unbelievers will abide in hell.

Had I been in Nazi Germany, I would not have been able to keep silent. I would like think that as I saw Hitler’s rise to power that I would have exposed his evil agenda before it was too late.

Exposing the Koranic agenda is no different. While there are many lovely Muslims, once they become trained in the writings of the Koran and Hadiths, they become radicalized. Meanwhile, I pray that Muslims might learn to interpret their writings in ways that accord with love, justice and peace. However, this requires that the literalistic interpretation be revised, and I think that our role is should be one of confrontation and not denial. This is why I post and re-post articles demonstrating the atrocities of Islam, when taken at face-value.

Wisdom requires us make critical distinctions among the various worldviews. We might disagree with many of them, but we can still live with them. With others, we cannot. Some are not amenable to justice for all and equality, but advocate violence to achieve their ends. Denial of this fact can only prove costly. While we desire, “Peace in our Time,” a false peace is worse than no peace at all.

Evangelism has become a Dirty Word, even for Christians

We are so used to being told that we Christians shove our religion down others’ throats that it might be worthwhile to hear from some other voices. I first became acquainted with Ayaan Hirsi Ali – ex-Muslim, ex-Dutch Parliamentarian, and atheist - in an atheist book club. They expressed great esteem for her and her book Nomad, except for what she said about Christianity:

• The Christianity of love and tolerance remains one of the West’s most powerful antidotes to the Islam of hate and intolerance. Ex-Muslims find Jesus Christ to be a more attractive and humane figure than Muhammad, the founder of Islam.

•  I have a theory that most Muslims are in search of a redemptive God. They believe that there is a higher power and that this higher power is the provider of morality, giving them a compass to help them distinguish between good and bad.  Many Muslims are seeking a God or a concept of God that in my view meets the description of the Christian God.  Instead they find Allah. They find Allah mainly because many are born in Muslim families where Allah has been the reigning deity for generations… (p. 239)

•  The Christian leaders now wasting their time and resources on a futile exercise of interfaith dialogue with the self-appointed leaders of Islam should redirect their efforts to converting as many Muslims as possible to Christianity, introducing them to a God who rejects Holy War and who has sent his son to die for all sinners out of a love for mankind… The Vatican and all the established Protestant churches of northern Europe believed naively that interfaith dialogue would magically bring Islam into the fold of Western civilization. It has not happened, and it will not happen…. To help ground these people in Western society, the West needs the Christian churches to get active again in propagating their faith. It needs Christian schools, Christian volunteers, the Christian message… The churches should do all in their power to win this battle for the souls of humans in search of a compassionate God, who now find that a fierce Allah is closer to hand. (pp. 247, 249, 250, 251)

Interfaith dialogue is worse than a “futile exercise.” It is an invitation to be deceived by Imams who have every Koranic justification to deceive (Taqiyya) the infidel for the sake of Islam, even to the point of feigning friendship. It is noteworthy that we will not find true interfaith dialogue in the Muslim world where the Muslim has already obtained their goal - the subjugation the non-Muslim under Islamic Law.

Instead, Ali calls the Christian to do something that many pastors and priests aren’t calling us to do – to evangelize the Muslim. And Ali does not even believe in God, let alone Jesus!

Moderate Islam: A Myth or just Irrelevant

It’s hard to deny the extent of Islamic violence, even in Western nations. However, the secular narrative has drawn a sharp distinction between radical and moderate Islam, assuming that the latter group represents the majority and will eventually exercise a moderating influence. However, there are many indications that this assessment might be nothing more than wishful thinking. For example:

• In May, an opinion poll published by NCRV public television and radio found that nearly three-quarters (73%) of Dutch Muslims believe that Muslims who travel to participate in jihad in Syria are heroes. Most Muslims (75%) surveyed believe that those who want to leave for Syria should be free to do so and do not want them to be arrested and prosecuted. Upon their return, they should be accepted back into Dutch society and their Dutch passports should not be revoked.

With such high esteem for terror and Jihad within the Islamic community, there is little reason to expect that these tendencies will be checked. These findings receive support from other surveys. For example, the:

• “Berlin Center for Social Science Research” has conducted a survey whose results were just published in a paper by Ruud Koopmans, “Fundamentalism and out-group hostility Muslim immigrants and Christian natives in Western Europe” (free download at the link; WZB’s summary is here).

The respondents were Muslims of Turkish and Moroccan origin – certainly not the most radical Islamic nations. However, Koopmans was surprised by the findings and concluded:

• These findings clearly contradict the often-heard claim that Islamic religious fundamentalism is a marginal phenomenon in Western Europe or that it does not differ from the extent of fundamentalism among the Christian majority. Both claims are blatantly false, as almost half of European Muslims agree that Muslims should return to the roots of Islam, that there is only one interpretation of the Koran, and that the rules laid down in it are more important than secular laws. 

Even more startling, approximately 53% of the Muslim respondents admitted that “Muslims aim to destroy Western culture.” This raises the question of the survival of Western democracy in light of a growing subculture from which many will readily use violence to replace democracy and Western values with Islamic Law.