If you are Muslim, please help me understand.?

Question

If there are over a billion Muslims in the world: and a lot of this violence and terrorism is being caused by a very small minority of Muslims; and Islam is supposed to be a peaceful religion; the Quran doesn’t advocate violence; where are all the peaceful Muslims and why do they not speak out against the violent extremists? Do I not have something correct in what I say above?

The peaceful majority is being given a bad reputation by the violent minority. This is exacerbated when the peaceful majority will not defend their own image to outsiders by speaking against the minority. Is there no self-policing within Islam? Why all the silence? What am I missing? Or are all non-Muslims just being duped?

I forgot to ask this. No rants please. Let's try to stick to the facts with rational and logical discussion.

Answer 1

That Islam is "peace and tolerance" is the most popular lie in the world today. Intellectuals in the West who defame Christ parrot the most fatuous praise of Muham--mad, in spite of his legacy of murder, pillage and rape. A Sesame Street-type Arabic TV program features children training to be suicide bombers and chanting "Death to Israel" -- for peace, of course. Reporter Ann Coulter suggests, "Inasmuch as liberals are demanding that Americans ritualistically proclaim, Islam is a religion of peace, Muslims might do their part by not killing people all the time." 1

That our leaders promote this lie, and that so many believe it without one fact to support it, bodes ill for America and the world. We only ask Muslims for one example of where and when Islam ever brought peace and tolerance -- and please dont threaten us with death (the standard Islamic persuasion) for asking!

Never forget that Muslims slaughtered and conquered "for Allah" from Spain to China. These Arab conquests (defensive battles, they claim) were "more rapid than the Roman, more lasting than the Mongol...the most amazing feat in military history." 2

Islams founder, Muhammad, began his career attacking rich caravans passing near his base in Medina. The first three assaults failed. The fourth succeeded because the victims were surprised by an ambush during Ramadan. Arab tribes had long refrained from aggression in that "holy month." Muhammad, however, had received a "revelation" authorizing plunder and murder in Allahs name during this special time of peace (Surah 2:217). Another absolved the Muslims of killing: "Ye slew them not, but Allah slew them" (Surah 8:17).

Most Muslims dont realize that in observing Ramadan and the annual pilgrimage (hajj) to Mecca, they follow what pagan Arabs practiced for centuries before Muhammad was born (see TBC Feb 00). Had President Bush known the truth instead of the misinformation fed to him by Cleveland State University law professor David F. Forte, 3 he might not have hosted a White House dinner honoring "the holy month Ramadan," nor flattered Muslims saying "all the world continues to benefit from this faith and its achievements." Benefit?

Challenged to do miracles like Christ, Muhammad could do none. On March 16, 624, near Badr, he led 300 warriors in a vicious attack against a large Meccan caravan protected by a force of 800. Some 40 Meccans were killed and 60 taken prisoner to a loss of only 14 Muslims. This amazing victory was seen as the attesting miracle Muhammad needed. As a result, the ranks of Muslims swelled with those eager to share in future plunder.

Having proved himself the prophet of Allah with the sword, Muhammad sealed his apostleship with more than twenty murders, beginning with al-Nadr, an old enemy from Mecca. Taken captive in the battle at Badr, he pleaded that the Meccan Quraish tribe would never kill captives. Muhammad had him beheaded anyway, justifying the deed with another "revelation": "It is not for any Prophet to have captives until he hath made slaughter in the land" (Surah 8:67).

Much of the growing Muslim wealth came from robbing and killing Jews, causing "the disappearance of these Jewish communities from Arabia proper"4 -- justified by a further "revelation" (Surah 33:26,27). To this day, by law no Jew may set foot in Saudi Arabia.

A number of poets were murdered at Muhammads behest for having mocked him in verse. The first was the poetess Asma bint Marwan, stabbed to death by Umayr while she was nursing her youngest child. The poet Abu Afak (reportedly more than 100 years old) was murdered next. Then came the Jewish poet Kab bin al-Ashraf. A timely "revelation" said all poets were inspired of Satan (Surah 26:221-227).

Does it bother todays Muslims that murder, rape, plunder and slavery of innocent people were the accepted way of life upon which Islam was founded and still operates? Apparently not. Kabs murder (the account slanted with fictitious details) is justified on a popular Muslim website, revealing Islams peculiar meaning of "peace" and "justice":

Kab had become a real danger to the state of peace and mutual trust which the Prophet was struggling to achieve in Madinah....The Prophet was quite exasperated with him....This was all part of the great process...which helped to make Islam spread and establish it on foundations of justice and piety. 5 [Emphasis added]

Christ left Christians "an example, that ye should follow his steps: who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth: who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not...[but] bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness..." (1 Pt 2:21-24). But the Muslim must follow the example of Muhammad who killed all who dared to disagree with him!

A Christian must "know" God (Jer 9:24; Jn 17:3), "love" God with all his heart (Dt 6:5; Mt 22:37, etc.) and "believe" in Christ in his heart (Acts 8:37; Rom 10:9). The God of the Bible wants mans trust and affection without coercion.

In contrast, Allah can be neither known nor loved. Nor does one even have to believe to become a Muslim. Under threat of death, one merely recites aloud, "There is no ila (god) but Allah and Muhammad is his prophet." This "conversion without faith" was established when Abu Sufyan, a Quraish leader, upon surrendering Mecca in 630 to Muhammad and his superior army, admitted that he doubted the latters prophethood. He was warned, "Accept Islam and testify that Muhammad is the apostle of Allah before your neck is cut off by the sword. Thus [without believing] he professed the faith of Islam and became a Muslim." 6 This pattern is followed today: confess or die!

Upon Muhammads death in A.D. 632, many Arabs attempted to abandon Islam. Abu Bakr (the first caliph to succeed Muham-mad) and his warriors in the infamous Wars of Apostasy killed tens of thousands of ex-Muslims, forcing Arabia back into Islam. Muhammad had commanded, "Whoever relinquishes his faith, kill him." Islam is still enforced this way under sharia (Islamic law) in Saudi Arabia and wherever Muslims are able to do so. This is peace and tolerance?!

The Universal Islamic Declaration of Human Rights was announced at the International Conference on the Prophet Muhammad and his Message held in London in April 1980. It declares, "Islam gave to mankind an ideal code of human rights fourteen centuries ago...based on the Quran and the Sunnah [teachings and practice of Muhammad]...." Human rights? What deceit!

Abu Bakr was succeeded as caliph by Umar Abu Hafsa. His armies took Damascus in 635, Antioch in 636, Jerusalem in 638, Syria in 640, Egypt and Persia in 641. Entire cities were massacred, such as Behnesa, Fayum, Nikiu and Aboit in Egypt, Tripoli in North Africa and Euchaita in Armenia. Carthage was razed to the ground. In 644, Umar was murdered.

Uthman ibn Affan, the third caliph, consolidated and expanded the growing Islamic empire. A son-in-law of Muhammad, he standardized the Quran, burning all rival copies over protests of those still alive who remembered different readings and missing verses. Among these was Muhammads favorite wife Aisha who, by the way, never veiled her face. Uthman, too, was murdered by a rival Muslim faction. Prevented from being buried in a Muslim cemetery, he was buried at night by friends, ironically, in a Jewish cemetery.

Islam divides the world into dar al-Islam (the house of peace) and dar al-Harb (the house of war). To bring "peace," Allah commands, "I shall cast terror into the hearts of the infidels. Strike off their heads! (8:13); Slay the idolaters wherever you find them...(9:5); O Prophet, struggle with the unbelievers and hypocrites and be thou harsh with them...(9:73); Believers, make war on the infidels that dwell around you..." (9:123). Perpetual jihad is commanded until all the world is under sharia. Nor would that bring peace, because Muslims fight among themselves, as history testifies.

The fourth and last of the "rightly guided" caliphs was Ali, Muhammads cousin and son-in-law. Accused of complicity in Uthmans murder, he never fully established his rule. Aisha supported a rebellion against him, resulting in the Battle of the Camel in which 10,000 were killed. Ali won, but was murdered in 661.

Wars of succession pitted Quraish against Bedouins, Umayyads against the Hashimite followers of Ali, etc. Most of Alis family were killed by rival Muslims in 680. Mecca was besieged by troops of Yezid, an Umayyad; the Kaaba (later restored) was burned to the ground, its Black Stone split into three pieces. Mecca was taken in 692 by Abd-al-Malik (who in 691 had built the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem to replace the Kaaba). He united Muslims once again by force and Islam continued its conquests.

In 712, Muslim raiders under Muhammad Qasun began the invasion of India, demolishing temples and palaces and massacring, as in Constantinople, where the streets ran with blood. "The massacres perpetrated by Muslims in India are unparalleled in history, bigger in sheer numbers than the Holocaust...."7 But Islam is "peace!"

The Umayyad caliphate ruled the Muslim world until 749 when all of the Umayyads were murdered by the rival Abbasids, except one survivor, abd-al-Rahman, who fled to Spain where he established an independent caliphate. Thus began the Abbasid caliphate, which lasted until 1258 in spite of intrigue, assassinations and uprisings -- all peaceful, of course.

The double-cross and murder of Muslims at the hands of Muslims continues to this day. Scarcely a Muslim regime is not ruled by a dictator who seized power from other Muslims, as in Syria and Iraq. The ten-year revolution in Algeria has cost 100,000 lives. In Afghanistan, rival Muslim warlords fight one another. "Infidels" have to intervene there as in the Gulf, to enforce peace among "peaceful" Muslims.

Muslims loyal to the murdered Ali and his sons are called Shiites (the majority in Iran). The others are called Sunnis and comprise the majority elsewhere. These two factions have long demonstrated that "Islam is peace" by fighting one another, as in the eight-year war between Iran and Iraq when more people were killed than in World War I.

Muslim conquests involving multiple massacres of literally millions continued for more than 1,300 years. Under the Abbasids the Islamic empire reached its zenith of power, prosperity and learning.

In Spain (to which Muslims point as an example of their tolerance) the garrison of Muez was slaughtered in 920; Pamplona was put to the sword in 923; then Cordova, Zaragoza and Mereda, with all adult males killed and women and children enslaved. The Jews of Granada were butchered in 1066, 34 years after 6,000 Jews had been slaughtered in Fez, Morocco. In 1146, Islamic Fez was put to the sword by rival Muslims, the Almohads, who conquered much of North Africa after annihilating the Almoravides (another Muslim faction) with about 100,000 massacred, another 120,000 killed in Marrakesh, and similar slaughters elsewhere -- all gestures of "peace."

The 400-year rule of the Ottoman Turks saw forced kidnappings of young boys into Islam and slavery, causing parents to mutilate children to make them undesirable. Under the Ottomans, being Greek, Armenian, Serb or any other non-Muslim was to live in daily fear of murder, rape, torture, genocide. To this day, Serbs and Bulgarians loathe Turks and Bosnians.

When Sultan Murad III died, his son Muhammad had all nineteen of his brothers murdered and the seven of his fathers concubines who were pregnant sewn into sacks and thrown into the sea. The successor of Murad IV had all 300 women in his harem sewn into sacks and thrown into the Bosphorus. Like so many other Muslim leaders, he was murdered- -- peacefully.

The persecution of Jews in Roman Catholic Europe was mild compared to what Ottoman Christians endured for four centuries. More than a million Armenians were slaughtered in the last decades of the nineteenth and the first of the twentieth centuries, as well as many thousands of Jews, Greeks, Assyrians, Lebanese, et al. Tragically, the oppression and bloodshed were often condoned by Western powers, particularly England and at times America. In the great 1915 genocide, "women came with butcher knives [to] gain that merit in Allahs eyes that comes from killing a Christian." 8 The destruction of Smyrna in September 1922 with the deliberate massacre of nearly 300,000 inhabitants is another example of Islamic "peace." English, American, Italian and French battleships anchored in the harbor repelled fleeing victims who swam out to them for help.9

The popular "explanation" that Osama bin Laden and other terrorists are not Muslims, but fanatics, is a rebuke to the Quran, to Muhammad, and to Islam itself. As Trifkovic writes (p. 127), "Thirteen centuries of...suffering and death of countless millions, have been covered by the myth of Islamic tolerance...." The West winks at the blatant denial of basic human rights and support of terrorism by Saudi Arabia and other Muslim countries -- even favors Islamic terrorists in Chechnya, Cyprus, Bosnia, Kashmir, Kosovo, Macedonia, Sudan and East Timor.

Our politically correct delusion is leading to disaster. Tragically, the gospel is kept from Islamic countries by the failure of Western governments to admit and confront the truth about Islam. Please continue to inform yourselves, to protest to our leaders, to pray for Gods intervention, and to be witnesses for Christ to Muslims in our country. TBC

1 www.jewishworldreview.com/cols...

2 Will Durant, The Story of Civilization (Simon and Schuster, 1950), IV: 188.

3 Imprimis (Oct 2002), 2-6; Serge Trifkovic, The Sword of the Prophet: The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (Regina Orthodox Press, 2002), 83-84 (See offering list).

4 W.N. Arafat, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, 1976, 100-107.

5 www.islam101.com/people/compan...

6 Cf. Ibn Hisham, part 4 of his Biography of the Prophet, cited in Trifkovic, Sword, 48.

7 Trifkovic, Sword, 112.

8 Michael J. Arlen, Passage to Ararat (Ruminator Books, 2002), 224.

9 Nicholas Gage, Greek Fire (Alfred A. Knopf, 2000), cited in Trifkovic, 125.

Answer 2

I am not a muslim, but I will tell you something very important today. Look at the mess today. Realise one thing. This is a conspiracy.

Muslims have killed more than 4 million people in just one small part of the world. Yet there is this war in the middle east where a handful of people have died and there is so much propaganda on tv and media.

The whole thing is a conspiracy. Something else is going on from which attention is being diverted. I dont know what it is but I hope there will not be something else going on that is more severe than what is happening now.

Do I sound sane? Maybe not. But I think those people who think they can carry on this conspiracy and cheat the victims are insane.

There was information on television which stated that United States has pledged to protect Saudi Arabia in exchange for oil.

What does everyone make of that?

Someone else has stated that the Saudi king has suggested there must be a better way of doing this.

Why ask the perpetrators?

What about justice? Everywhere in the media, it is all about peace.

Not one person is whispering for justice, forget about screaming.

I have not heard anything so I can only say what I know and hear.

Answer 3

Hi there good question
The reason behind the silence, as a muslim the way I see it, is that Muslim socities have this very weird characteristic. George W. Bush is a christian president and that's one very supportive element in elections and maybe it's the main reason he won both his battles (Gore and Kerry). In Muslim countries, religion is 100% separated from politics and when I say 100% I mean it. ((All)) the religious statements are made only by muslim institutes like Al-Azhar in Egypt and they are not binding. They have nothing to do with formulating laws except in the areas of marriage and divorce and stuff like that. In 1999 in Egypt The 'Mufty' (Arabic word for a Muslim preacher that solves disputes and determines the opinion of Islam on different cases) issued an unquestionable statement that (oh God finally!!!) Islam considers smoking 'haram' (means forbidden by God). This statement was based on very extensive research making up a number of years and scientific/religious opinions gathered from diverse sources. The man was removed from his position as the Egyptian Mufty the year that followed and the reason they did this, while he was only in his early fifties, was that all tobacco companies in Egypt are state-owned.
Politicians do all that's in their power to limit the influence of men of religion to the bare minimum. When the famous preacher Amr Khaled (believe it or not his website has the no. 1 record in history for most visited followed by Oprah's!!!) started to gain so much popularity in Egypt, The Egyptian authorities forced him to leave Cairo, but when people from Cairo actually travelled every Friday to listen to his sermons in a mosque outside Cairo they forced him to leave Egypt altogether!!! Not that I'm a fan of him but THIS IS SICK!! The reason muslim socities have pseudo to no democracy is that their politicians are small men. Paranoid fanatics who believe that religion compromises their authority. They are not true muslims and, like all politicians, they know that the end justifies the means.
Adequate muslim logic says that if anyone is to condemn, it would be the Mufty and men of religion; but when the government wants silence, then silence is what is going to be or else...
In muslim countries, if people arrange a demonstration and go out on the streets shouting slogans, they are RISKING THEIR WELL BEING AND THEIR CAREERS and I'm not exaggerating a bit.
In one sentence: Freedom of speech is the most messed up value in these nations.
People there covet your systems.
If u r so interested u might wanna watch a few of their local movies, where the great majority condemns the actions of the small minority. They have been producing movies like these for decades and still to this day and nothing is changing. Violence and silence with a few liberated opinions just around the corner. A scene expected to last for a very long time to come

Answer 4

You are right about one thing Koran... doesn't advocate Violence
but for the rest of what you say is ill informed garbage
Why do you think its got anything to do with religion because it happens to be a war and each side have a different faith ...now all of a sudden its between Muslims and Christians what a lot of tosh ..American history ..civil war ..independance..then you have all the shite KKK ..oh not forgetting the American natives (red Indians) I herd of no religion speculated..British .had the I R A
blowing up every thing and every where .with British i can go on
they have history of violence no religion is mention there
if your country was under attack Right or wrong would you not stand up and fight

Answer 5

Mohammed taught to kill christians and jews. it is a religion based on hatred. There is nothing peaceful about it. The muslims even hate each other...watch the sunnis and shiites.... we have nothing to do with that and they fight anyhow...the muslims have been blowing up jews since they returned to their homeland in 1948, based on a legal transfer of land to them by Britian. The arabs that live over there were uneducated and non-productive and became jealous when the jews came back and were successful living in the land..... now that it is built up the arabs want the property. It has never occurd to them that if they become educated and productive, they will have nothign to be jealous of because they will be successful too. All muslims support the violence. That is why they refuse to stop it. It is their culture.

Answer 6

According to the teaching of Koran, the killing of a human being is the same as the killing of the whole humanity. However, in case of aggression, moslems are ordained to fight back. Under all the religions of the world and even under the international law, people are entitled to engage in armed struggle to resist occupation, invasion and aggression. As their perception, Moslems think they are being targeted as the new enemy of the West after the collapse of the Eastern Bloc. Their land is being occupied, their children, women and elderly are being slaughtered, their beliefs and age old customs are being desecrated, their lifestyle is being put into questioned. They are not accepted. They are looked upon as alien, a threat to a certain way of life. Their invalubale contribution to modern culture and science is ignored. They used to rule the world, having built a huge empire extending from China to Spain, adopting, fostering and developing a remarkable civilization. Now they are treated like the red Indians of America. Before European colonial powers left, they had put in place systems of goverment at the hand a ruling elite educated Western style to make sure their interests are not affected upon the so called independence. Hence the puppet like moslem "leaders". The only alternative left by way of fighting back is terrorism.

Answer 7

If you think what you see of Islam is bad, you should see how others see America. Fundamentalist Christians, and exactly the same as what you have been saying with a quiet peaceful majority, why don't they speak out?

I think the problem in this is that if someone does something moderate, it is not half as newsworthy as someone doing something radically angry.

(Yeah, I am an atheist, so I can't claim to speak for Muslims of someone contradicts me)

Answer 8

anyone in power is a terrorist of sorts .. this is worldwide and not just Muslim
of course there are extremists but there are extremists in every religion and have been since religion started
i would put money on those lovely peaceful Muslims being very scared to voice their peaceful opinions to those who matter
just the same as in many other cultures and religion
what we have now over religious conflict in the past is more media coverage and the eastern conflicts is the " now " so always being given media coverage

Answer 9

This question comes up often. I have not seen it defended by a Muslim yet.
But you are right----""WHY"" don't Muslims stand up and denounce Muslim terrorist.
I KNOW the answer. Islam is terror. Read the 2 books written by a Palestinian EX-Muslim Annis Shorrosh-"Islam Revealed" and "The Liberated Palestinian". If you can not get a clear sense of the problem griping the Arabs from these 2 books-you can not read.

Answer 10

You should watch the news more often. Many Muslims have spoken out and against what the extremists have been doing. They have constantly been saying there is no truth to the terrorists/extremists claims and that in fact they are going against the teachings of Islam.

Answer 11

The Islamic teaching has it own moral and ethical value to be followed be it followers.For once if the west just leave the islamic countries alone, dont force us to accept your man-made ethical and moral teaching, i hink the world would be a much nicer place.
We have live peacefully before, jut hav a look during the Islamic golden ages where the law is based on Islamic laws and no opression is heard during that time.