Michael Moore : Psychopathology in Religious Ideation: The Case of Death by Proxy

Psychopathology in Religious Ideation: The Case of Death by Proxy (2013)

Michael Moore

Though there is no unequivocal evidence for a causal relationship between religiosity and psychopathology, a large body of data suggests a connection between these two phenomena. (For some of the controversial research findings, see my paper with Daniela Kramer titled "We are Too Weak to Walk Unaided.") Some of this data is anecdotal: "The association of unusual emotional states and psychic experiences with religion is of great antiquity and undoubtedly antedates any documentary evidence" (Rosen 1968, 48-49).[1] The emotional states include seizures, trances, hallucinations, and other abnormal behavior (Rosen 1968, 49). In her Introduction Karen Armstrong similarly mused: "Had the visions and raptures of the saints also been a mere mental quirk?" (1993, xviii-xix). Yet there is no lack of "documentary evidence," either. Consider, for instance, the 18th-century practice of self-castration in Eastern Russia to atone for the sexuality of Adam and Eve (Menninger 1938), and its repetition in the United Kingdom in the 1960s as "an offering to God" (Kushner 1967). Or take the case of Kenneth Pickett, an extremely religious Jehovah's Witness who killed his former wife because he thought that she was in another relationship, which was forbidden in his interpretation of the Bible. Now jailed for life, Pickett justified the killing by saying that he saved his former wife from sin (Bennett 2009). No wonder that Nietzsche spoke of "that strange and sickly world into which the Gospels lead us—a world apparently out of a Russian novel, in which the scum of society, nervous maladies and 'childish' idiocy keep a tryst" (1895/1918, 96).[2]

DSM-IV (APA 2000) makes a distinction between bizarre and nonbizarre delusions. Though both types indicate psychotic disorders, the former are symptomatic of schizophrenia (especially 295.30 or paranoid type schizophrenia), while the latter serve as the major diagnostic criteria of delusional disorder [paranoid disorder] (297.1). The authors of DSM-IV admit that cultural factors often make it difficult to determine whether a given delusion is bizarre or nonbizarre. Take, for instance, the Capgras delusion, the belief that your relatives have been replaced by impostors. Or take the Cotard delusion, the belief that you have died (Young, Leafhead, and Szulecka 1994). Are they bizarre or nonbizarre? Given this ambiguity, I leave it to readers to decide whether the following phenomena "involve situations that can conceivably occur in real life" (APA 2000, 324).

Consider the case of Aelius Aristides (Rosen 1968, 110-121). This 2nd-century Greek sophist and orator was gravely ill when he decided to put himself under the care of Asclepius, the god of healing in Greek mythology. He lived in Asclepius' shrine and received commands from the god in his dreams for about ten years, prescribing for himself painful and apparently nonsensical treatments. Among other methods, Aristides practiced "sacrificial substitution," identical to pars pro toto ("part taken for the whole") rites once performed on the Nicobar Islands and in Tonga (Tylor 1958, 486). Asclepius demanded that in order to avert death, Aristides sacrifice a finger, later permitting the offering of a ring in place of the finger. When this did not suffice, Aristides (or was it Asclepius?) raised the stakes: He believed that two children of his foster sister died in his stead. Aristides' religious delusion is a good example of the dilemma concerning bizarreness: Though delusional, his ardent following of his god's unconventional treatment methods was culturally accepted, and therefore nonbizarre, in his social environment (Rosen 1968, 120; see also Spiro 1987).

Another delusional believer in death by proxy was Spanish-born Rabbi Yosef Caro, a highly influential Jewish scholar of the 16th century. While living in Salonika, Caro recorded in a diary the messages he received during nightly visitations by a celestial mentor (his Maggid). R. J. Zwi Werblowsky (1962, p. 8) refers to this document as "an intimate diary, recounting a life-time of mystical, if not pathological, experiences," finding great resemblance to the manifestations reported by Caro of "mediumistic states and trances" and of automatic speech (Werblowsky 1962, 22). The Maggid rebuked him in practically every communication for having eaten or drank too much, for having slept half an hour between prayers, and for having had unclean thoughts: "Beware of food and drink and bodily pleasures. Whenever you experience pleasure at eating or drinking, meditate on the repulsiveness of food as it is chewed and even more on its repulsiveness as it is evacuated from the body" (Werblowsky 1962, 163). Another command had to do with studying the Talmud: "always return to the study of my Mishnayoth [part of the Talmud] and never separate your thoughts from them, even for a single moment" (Werblowsky 1962, 267). This injunction is reminiscent of John Dollard and Neal Elgar Miller's "Mrs. A," who was obsessed by the thought that her heart would stop unless she counted the beats; this kept her from having sexual thoughts that caused her great anxiety (Dollard and Miller 1950).
As in the case of Aristides (see above), Caro's delusion escalated:

You have thought of improper things, wherefore you have been condemned to death. But I, the Mishnah, have interceded for you, as also did Jacob Tur, Moses Maimonides, Rashi ... and they redeemed you from death. Your sentence was commuted to illness instead, and also many worthy people were substituted for you. (Werblowsky 1962, 150)

The dead included his first wife (of five wives) and three children. When his wife miscarried, Caro recorded the Maggid's interpretation: "the pregnancy was true and God would not have withdrawn his gift ... even if your sins would have warranted it. But because you were sentenced to death, God, in the abundance of his mercy, wanted to redeem you and put the pregnancy in your place" (Werblowsky 1962, 132).

From Greek orator, through Jewish scholar, I now move to Carl Jung, the famous Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, founder of the school of analytical psychology. Jung strongly believed not only in God, but also in synchronicity—"temporally coincident occurrences of acausal events" (Jung 1952/1993). In his Foreword to the 2010 edition of Jung's Synchronicity: An Acausal Connecting Principle, S. Shamdasani writes that Jung regained his soul "by enabling the rebirth of a new image of God in his soul and developing a new worldview in the form of a psychological and theological cosmology." As a child Jung was greatly influenced both by his father—a Protestant pastor—and his mother, who suffered from severe depression and had visions of nightly visitations by spirits. In his memoires Jung (1965) related that one night he had seen a luminous figure coming from his mother's room, with a head detached from the neck and floating in the air in front of the body.
During a serious illness Jung had a mystical vision of his physician, Dr. H:

Suddenly the terrifying thought came to me that Dr. H. would have to die in my stead[3].... In actual fact I was his last patient. On April 4, 1944—I still remember the exact date—I was allowed to sit up on the edge of my bed for the first time since the beginning of my illness, and on this same day Dr. H. took to his bed and did not leave it again.... Soon afterward he died of septicemia" (Jung 1965, 293).[4]

The delusions of Aristides, Caro, and Jung involving death by proxy belong to a broader class of religious practices that border on the psychopathological.

Scapegoating is a very old sacrificial practice, vividly described in Leviticus 16:10 (ca. 6th century BCE): "the goat, on which the lot fell to be the scapegoat, shall be presented alive before the Lord, to make an atonement with him, and to let him go for a scapegoat into the wilderness." This was also an accepted practice in ancient Greece, where a human or animal scapegoat (the pharmakos) was killed either in an annual rite for the purification of the people, or in times of famine, plague, or drought, to appease the angry deities (Rosen 1968, 85). Here are two examples of ritual scapegoating that have survived in modern times:

On one day of the year the Bhotiyas of Juhar [aka Shaukas], in the Western Himalayas, take a dog, intoxicate him with spirits and ... chase and kill him with sticks and stones, and believe that, when they have done so, no disease or misfortune will visit the village during the year. (Frazer 1959, #458) 

The Jewish New Year's Rite of Caparot [Ransoms] consists of saying three times, holding a fowl above one's head: "I have found a ransom. This is my change, this is my compensation, this is my redemption. This hen (cock for males) is going to be killed, while I shall enter upon a good, happy and peaceful life. (Sephath Emeth n. d., 301) 

In Violence and the Sacred (1972) the French historian and philosopher René Girard hypothesized that both archaic religion and ritual sacrifice originated in the victimization process: when a crisis occurs, the group selects an arbitrary victim who is brutally eliminated. This act serves as a psychological relief for the group, which now regards the victim as a miracle-worker, for peace has been regained:

The victim has become sacred. A myth is created, and subsequent acts of sacrifice are ritual repetitions of the original event. (See Moore 1977 regarding the parataxic nature of this act, that is, seeing causal relationships between logically unrelated events.)[5]
Those, described above, who believe in death by proxy have gone a step further: overwhelmed by anxiety, they delude themselves into believing that a divine power has taken such an interest in them that another human being can be sacrificed in their stead. Their condition comes closest to what DSM-IV (APA 2000) has labeled delusional disorder—grandiose type.[6]

Notes

[1] William James, the son of a Swedenborgian theologian and a member of the Theosophical Society, admitted the psychotic and neurotic origins of religious fervor, but claimed that they were irrelevant. No wonder he treated Nietzsche with disdain: "Poor Nietzsche's antipathy [toward saints] is itself sickly enough" (1902/1963, 373).

[2] See also Novalis' "Fragmente und Studien 1799-1800": "It is marvelous enough that the association of voluptuousness, religion, and cruelty has not attracted the attention of men to their close kinship and common tendency" (1968, 568).

[3] In The Maccabean Martyrs as Saviours of the Jewish People, Jan Willem Van Henten mentions several cases in Greek tragedy (especially in Euripides), as well as in Roman history, where there is "vicarious death," but these are all cases where a person willingly sacrifices him or herself in order to save others.

[4] A literary example of death by proxy appears in Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway. According to Manly Johnson, Woolf originally intended for Clarissa Dalloway to kill herself, and created the character of Septimus Smith (whom the heroine never meets and who commits suicide) to serve as a "dark double" who takes upon himself this act of desperation.

[5] Christian theology is largely founded on Jesus' vicarious death ("Substitute Sacrifice"). An often quoted verse is 2 Corinthians 5:21: "For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin..." See also Matthew 21:28: "The son of man came ... to give his life a ransom for many."

[6] In the 4th edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, the diagnostic criteria for this type include delusions of inflated worth, power, knowledge, identity, or special relationship to a deity or famous person (APA 2000, 329).

---

References
American Psychiatric Association (APA). Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th ed.). Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Association, 2000.
Armstrong, Karen. A History of God: The 4,000-year quest of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. New York: Ballantine Books, 1993.
Bennett, Michael. "Man Jailed for Life Over 'Religious' Killing." The West Australian. November 6, 2009.
Dollard, John and Neal Elgar Miller. Personality and Psychotherapy: An Analysis in Terms of Learning, Thinking and Culture. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill, 1950.
Frazer, James G. The New Golden Bough, ed. Theodor H. Gaster. New York, NY: New American Library, 1959. [Originally published 1890.]
Girard, René. La Violence et le Sacré. Paris, France: Grasset, 1972.
James, William. The Varieties of Religious Experience. New Hyde Park, NY: University Books, 1963. [Originally published 1902.]
Johnson, Manly. Virginia Woolf. New York, NY: Frederick Ungar Publishing Co., 1973.
Jung, Carl G. Memories, Dreams, Reflections, ed. Aniela Jaffe. New York, NY: Vintage, 1965.
Jung, Carl G. Synchronicity: An Acausal Connecting Principle. Bollingen, Switzerland: Bollingen Foundation, 1993. [Originally published 1952.]
Kushner, A. W. "Two Cases of Auto-Castration Due to Religious Delusions." British Journal of Medical Psychology. Vol. 40, Issue 3 (September 1967): 293-298.
Menninger, Karl. A. Man Against Himself. New York, NY: Harcourt, 1938.
Moore, Michael. "Symbolic Burning and the Modern Sacrifice." International Journal of Symbology, Vol. 8, No. 1 (March 1977): 94-102.
Moore, Michael and Daniela Kramer. "We are Too Weak to Walk Unaided: A Family Therapist View of the Pathogenic Aspects of Prayer" (2000). The Secular Web. <http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/michael_moore/weak.html>.
Nietzsche, Friedrich. The Antichrist, trans. H. L. Mencken. New York, NY: Knopf, 1918. [Originally published 1895.]
Novalis (Friedrich von Hardenberg). "Fragmente und Studien 1799-1800." Schriften, Vol. 3. Stuttgart, Germany: Kohlhammer, 1968.
Rosen, George. Madness in Society: Chapters in the Historical Sociology of Mental Illness. New York, NY: Harper & Row, 1968.
Sephath Emeth (Speech of Truth) Prayer Book. New York: Hebrew Publishing Co., n.d.
Spiro, Melford E. (1987). "Religious Systems as Culturally Constituted Defense Mechanisms." In Culture and Human Nature: Theoretical Papers of Melford E. Spiro, ed. Benjamin Kilborne and L. L. Langness. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1987: 145-160.
Tylor, Edward B. Religion in Primitive Cultures. New York, NY: Harper & Brothers, 1958. [Originally published 1871.]
Van Henten, Jan Willem. The Maccabean Martyrs as Saviours of the Jewish People. Leiden, Netherlands: Brill, 1997.
Werblowsky, R. J. Zwi. Joseph Karo: Lawyer and Mystic. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 1962.
Young, Andrew W., Leafhead, Kate M., and T. Krystyna Szulecka. "The Capgras and Cotard Delusions." Psychopathology, Vol. 27, No. 3-5 (May-September 1994): 226-231.
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https://infidels.org/library/modern/michael_moore/psychopath.html

 

James G. Zumwalt : Europe's Muslim Immigration Plague

Europe's Muslim Immigration Plague

by LT. COLONEL JAMES G. ZUMWALT, USMC (RET)  

March 6, 2017

The Swedish Embassy requested a clarification after President Donald Trump made reference to the country during a Feb. 18 speech he delivered.
Discussing the terrorist threat, Trump mentioned several countries in Europe where it has reared its ugly head. The president told his audience to look at what is happening in Germany, in France and in Belgium. He then said, "... look at what happened last night in Sweden. Sweden, who would believe this. Sweden."
With no report of a terrorist attack occurring in Sweden the night before in the news, the media believed it had caught Trump fabricating a story. The White House later clarified the reference was to Tucker Carlson's Fox News interview with Ami Horowitz. A documentary filmmaker, Horowitz had investigated the "hidden" refugee crisis in Sweden.
This would have been an ideal opportunity for the media to act responsibly - educating the American public on exactly what immigration issues Sweden and other European countries Trump mentioned are experiencing. But a media clearly suffering from Stockholm Syndrome, psychologically allying itself with Muslim criminal refugees about whose conduct it refuses to report, chose instead to focus on a non-existent presidential faux pas.
The president's reference to Sweden was most appropriate. What is happening there should concern us all.
Social issues concerning Muslim immigration have been brewing much longer in Sweden than elsewhere in Europe as the country began welcoming migrants in the 1970s. Thus, Sweden should be viewed by other Western countries as the "canary in the coal mine." Events there should be closely monitored to determine whether the result of a growing Muslim migrant population has been a net plus or net minus for Sweden.
For Swedish women, Muslim immigration has clearly been a net minus. This is evident, as today Sweden is considered the rape capital of the West. And Swedish law enforcement's action plan to protect women is simply to tell them not to venture out alone.
On Carlson's program, Horowitz claimed that the Swedish government is hiding the rapists' Muslim identity to protect "vulnerable" migrants. The bottom line on the crisis, Horowitz said, is things are out of control in Sweden as "European virtues" (read as political correctness) have ended any discussion on Islam's link to the sexual attacks.
Sweden suffers as well from an irresponsible media that refuses to report this threat to the public. More concerned about political correctness than identifying the danger to women, the media fail to link the overwhelming number of rapists to a supposedly peaceful religion. In a very rare report almost two decades ago, one newspaper revealed that nine out of ten of the most criminal ethnic groups were Muslim.
Many Muslims there also refuse to work, quite happy to live off the welfare most European countries provide. Muslim immigrants receive benefits far beyond their pro rata representation of the population yet scoff at contributing to the welfare money pool. Denmark determined while only 5 percent of its population was Muslim, it used 40 percent of welfare benefits.
Ironically, in the U.K., Anjem Choudary, a British-born Islamist preacher promoting terrorism, now in prison, was receiving welfare far in excess of the payments British soldiers fighting Islamism received. Choudary encouraged fellow Muslims not to work, collecting welfare as "jizya" - a tax historically levied against non-Muslims living in Muslim lands, paid so they can practice their own religion.
Things are deteriorating in Sweden. Shockingly, its citizens were just recently told not only will they continue funding immigrant welfare and that immigrants need not adapt to Swedish life, but Swedes now need to contemplate adapting to Muslim life!
It appears the Swedish government has thrown in the towel! It remains to be seen how soon the Swedish people will realize this means eventually accepting Shariah and paying jizya to those Muslims not on the welfare roles.
It is frustrating how few Westerners realize what is happening in Europe. A member of the Belgian parliament, Aldo Carcaci, has tried to warn us. He calls Muslim immigration a "Trojan Horse"-style invasion of Europe that, for the West, will prove to be "the end of civilization."
Other countries of Europe - Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, France - all make direct correlations between Muslim immigrants and rising crime rates. As in Sweden, law enforcement in Germany, where rapes have drastically increased with Muslim immigration, has been ordered to hide the truth. One official there reports police have been instructed "to leave the population in the dark about the actual crime situation." He adds, "The citizens are being played for fools."
Frustrating too is the blind eye the American public turns to declarations from Muslim leaders as to the fate awaiting Europe and America through immigration.
Israel's top imam, Sheikh Muhammad Ayed, explained to his followers that Europe and America accept refugees not out of compassion but a need for workers. However, he says Muslim immigrants will only help secure an Islamic caliphate and advises them to breed with Europeans and Americans to achieve this.
In 2006, Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi observed immigration had already brought 50 million Muslims to Europe. He boasted, "Allah will grant Islam victory in Europe - without swords, without guns, without conquests ... (turning it) into a Muslim continent within a few decades."
In the 14th century, Europe was devastated by the bubonic plague, transmitted across the continent by fleas from infected rats. Back then, Europeans could do nothing to stop it. Today, Europe is being devastated by an immigration plague, transmitted by political correctness infecting free speech, thus banning the questioning of Islam's motives and, consequently, doing nothing to stop it.
This infection is being spread here in the U.S. by a media irresponsibly failing to report on public dangers and by a tone-deaf anti-Trump movement refusing to listen to reality.
The Bible notes, "There are none so blind as those who will not see." Unfortunately, we may have to await Europe's fall to Islam before the American people open their eyes as to the real threat Muslim immigration poses to democracy.
A version of this piece also appeared on http://www.wnd.com/    

Lt. Colonel James G. Zumwalt, USMC (Ret.), is a retired Marine infantry officer who served in the Vietnam war, the U.S. invasion of Panama and the first Gulf war. He is the author of "Bare Feet, Iron Will--Stories from the Other Side of Vietnam's Battlefields," "Living the Juche Lie: North Korea's Kim Dynasty" and "Doomsday: Iran--The Clock is Ticking." He frequently writes on foreign policy and defense issues.

Read more: Family Security Matters http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/detail/europes-muslim-immigration-plague?f=commentary#ixzz4aiziN68x
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EDWARD CLINE : Islamophobia Revisited

Islamophobia Revisited

by EDWARD CLINE 

 March 6, 2017
We all know – “we” being those who bother to read or think about it – what “Islamophobia” is.
I’ve discussed Islamophobia in dozens of columns over the years. Islamophobia is a (morbid) fear of Islam, Muslims, about how they can reduce an advanced nation to an Islamic pest hole (and hardly “multicultural). It is the fear of anyone who swears unswerving allegiance to Islam, and starts slaughtering infidels, or of anyone who blinks or submits in indifference to islam, such as most of our politicians, and of dhimmies (a.k.a. the dimwitted, clueless activists who believe that Islam is a “religion of peace”), that is, of morons who carried “Refugees Welcome” signs in virtually every Western country.
One correspondent ingeniously devised a new term, Islamo-hegemony, which aptly describes and identifies the principal end of Islamic doctrine and methodology (stealth jihad), which is to establish Islam as the supreme political and religious “way of life” everywhere it turns Western gold into Islamic lead. She also devised another apt term – Islamo-catatonia – which is “unresponsiveness to negative information about Islam.” That is, it is a shrug of the shoulders when reading that women have been raped and beaten by Muslim migrants, or that another woman or girl has been “honor-killed,” or that an infant Muslim girl has died after undergoing female genital mutilation (FGM).
But islamophobia isn't limited to those who know the score about the belligerent, violent nature of Islam and want to fight it or speak out about it. It emasculates and terrifies those who are first-hand witnesses to it, chiefly in Europe. Europeans are rendered impotent not only by their own “Islamophobia,” but by fear of their own governments, which have penalized any criticism of Islam with stiff fines, prison time, or “shaming.” To be afraid of “blasphemy laws” – particularly when they shield Muslims against legitimate or scholarly “trash talk” about them, Allah, and Mohammad – which put freedom so speech and open discussion about Islam at a premium. Europeans, especially Swedes and Germans, are in a catatonic state afraid to “blaspheme” or to help victims of Muslim sexual assaults. If a Swede or a German appeared in a public space carrying a “Refugees Not Welcome, Go Home,” he’d be handcuffed and hauled off almost immediately. He wouldn’t need to appear in person; the monitoring of his email account would be enough for the state to beat him down.
It's frightening when a Western country, such as Canada, seriously contemplates censorship by declaring that any utterance or print of statements that can be declared "Islamophobic" and punishable by the state.

Doubly frightening now is that two of President Trump's national security advisors, Lt. General McMaster and Sebastian Gorka, advise that connecting Islam, such as in the term “Radical Islamic Terrorism,” to terrorism is "unhelpful," in the war against Islam, because they claim that Islam has nothing to do with waging jihad; has been "hijacked" by Islamic terrorists who quote the Koran chapter and verse (clueless and literally dumbfounded George Bush started the “hijack” meme on 9/11) every time they slaughter people in Allah's name, and that the term "Radical Islamic Terrorism" won't ever escape McMaster’ or Gorka’s  lips (even though Trump said it during his speech before the Joint Session of Congress, perhaps in defiance of McMaster and Gorka). I sincerely hope Trump gets his facts straight and shows McMaster and Gorka the door.

On March 3rd, Gatestone carried a hard-hitting column by Judith Bergman, “The West Submits to Blasphemy Laws,” in which she details just how dhimmified Western governments have become in the face of Islam. Blaspheme laws are becoming quite ubiquitous, even in North America.

• "Now that Islamophobia has been condemned, this is not the end, but rather the beginning..." — Muslim Brotherhood affiliate Samer Majzoub, Canadian Muslim Forum.
• The motion still does not offer any definition or any statistics to support its claim that "Islamophobia" is a problem in Canada.
• However, it should hardly shock anyone that the first motion condemning Islamophobia has so swiftly been followed up by a new motion demanding concrete government measures.

The West is submitting to blasphemy laws. Denmark, for example, has apparently decided that now is the time to invoke a dusty, old blasphemy provision. Denmark still has a provision in the penal code against blasphemy, but until now, it has only been used three times. The last time was nearly half a century ago, in 1971. Denmark's Attorney General has nevertheless just charged a man for burning a Quran….

In Norway, the provision against blasphemy was abolished in 2005. A poll conducted in January showed that 41% of Norwegian Muslims believe that blasphemy should be punished, and 7% believe that the penalty for blasphemy anywhere should be capital punishment….

In Britain, at least one man has been prosecuted and sentenced for burning the Quran (in 2011) and several arrested in 2010 and 2014 .

Oh! Canada!

In Canada, meanwhile, anti-Islamophobia motions, aiming gradually to prohibit all criticism of Islam -- and part of Muslim blasphemy laws -- are being passed. The Ontario Provincial Parliament unanimously passed an anti-Islamophobia motion in February. The motion called on the legislature to "stand against all forms of hatred, hostility, prejudice, racism and intolerance; rebuke the... growing tide of anti-Muslim rhetoric and sentiments" and "condemn all forms of Islamophobia." Needless to say, no such motions were introduced to protect Judaism or Christianity.

In October 2016, Canada's national Parliament unanimously passed an anti-Islamophobia motion, which was the result of a petition initiated by Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated Samer Majzoub, president of the Canadian Muslim Forum. At the time, no one knew what they were condemning: Criticism of Islam? Criticism of Muslims? Discussing whether ISIS is a true manifestation of Islam? No one knew, as no one had bothered to define it.

We Muslims don’t need no stinking definitions!

The lack of definition, however, has not stopped Iqra Khalid, a Member of Parliament from the governing Liberal Party, from introducing a new motion on the back of the previous one, Motion M-103, in the Canadian parliament. The motion demands that "Islamophobia" not only be condemned, but that the government develop a comprehensive approach to reducing or eliminating Islamophobia. The motion still does not offer any definition, or any statistics to support its claim that "Islamophobia" is a problem in Canada. However, it should hardly shock anyone that the first motion condemning Islamophobia has so swiftly been followed up by a new motion demanding concrete government measures. After the first motion was unanimously passed, the man who initiated the original petition, Samer Majzoub, had this to say in an interview with the Canadian Muslim Forum:

"Now that Islamophobia has been condemned, this is not the end, but rather the beginning... We need to continue working politically and socially and with the press. They used to doubt the existence of Islamophobia, but now we do not have to worry about that; all blocs and political figures, represented by Canada's supreme legislative authority, have spoken of that existence. In the offing, we need to get policy makers to do something, especially when it comes to the Liberals, who have shown distinct openness regarding Muslims and all ethnicities... All of us must work hard to maintain our peaceful, social and humanitarian struggle so that condemnation is followed by comprehensive policies."

Quiet in the peanut gallery, you dhimmies! European silence, and the suppression of information on the crime rates in Europe – crime rates ballooned by Muslim “refugees,”  together with an alliance with Politically Correctness, is aiding in the transformation of European societies into ones in which the byword among citizens is “Mum’s the word!” Liam Deacon, in his Breitbart column, “Government Report: Islamists Building ‘Parallel Society’ in Sweden Aided By PC Culture of Silence,” of March 4th, reported:

Aided by a politically correct culture of “tolerance”, the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) is secretly building a “parallel” society in Sweden by infiltrating organisations and political parties, a government report has concluded.

Surprisingly, the document takes aim at “political elites” for fostering a doctrine of multiculturalism and silence, which can help and facilitate the nefarious ends of anti-democratic organisation like the Brotherhood….

The paper’s authors claim the Brotherhood is working to increase the number of practicing Muslims in Sweden, encouraging tension with Secular society, and targeting political parties, NGOs, academic institutions and other civil society organisations.

They also slam the “established structure of values among the country’s political elite [which] places a high value on ‘acceptance’ and ‘tolerance’ of citizens who are in some sense different from the mainstream”.

In the report, the Islamism of the MB is described as a totalitarian political ideology born out of Islam, a religion. This can make it “difficult to oppose what on the surface appears to be (a vulnerable minority) religious rights”, it explains.

Separate but equal “parallel” societies? Hardly. Islamo-hegemony won’t hear of it.  Islam claims the whole turf. No fences. No borders. No “good neighbor” policies.
Meanwhile, back in France,  Guy Millière reports on “France’s Death Spiral.”

In 1990, the "Gayssot law" was passed, stipulating that "any discrimination based on ethnicity, nation, race or religion is prohibited". Since then, it has been used to criminalize any criticism of Arab and African delinquency, any question on immigration from the Muslim world, any negative analysis of Islam. Many writers have been fined and most "politically incorrect" books on those topics have disappeared from bookshops.

At the end of the 1943 movie, “This Land is Mine,” a French school teacher instructs her students (under duress) to tear unapproved pages from their French history books, unapproved, that is, by the occupying Nazis. M. Millière continues.

The French government asked the media to obey the "Gayssot law." It also asked that history textbooks be rewritten to include chapters on the crimes committed by the West against Muslims, and on the "essential contribution" of Islam to humanity. All history textbooks are "Islamically correct."

Shall we call it Islamofacsism, as well? It is, after all, a companion term to Nazism.
Basically, Islamophobia is the traumatizing, action-stifling fear of intervening when Muslims commit rapes, murders, and just sheet nihilism against anything Western.  Muslims would never, as the MSM are in the habit of doing, ascribe their irrationality to “mental illness.” However, I don’t know of any other “religion” but Islam that sanctions mental illness as a normal state of mind.
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Edward Cline is the author of the Sparrowhawk novels set in England and Virginia in the pre-Revolutionary period, of several detective and suspense novels, and three collections of his commentaries and columns, all available on Amazon Books. His essays, book reviews, and other articles have appeared in The Wall Street Journal, the Journal of Information Ethics and other publications. He is a frequent contributor to Rule of Reason, Family Security Matters, Capitalism Magazine and other Web publications.    

Read more: Family Security Matters http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/detail/islamophobia-revisited?f=commentary#ixzz4aiz4yxIL
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SAMI ALRABAA : Islam is Anti-Peace

Islam is Anti-Peace

by DR. SAMI ALRABAA 

 April 8, 2013

In view of the fact that the Quran (the holy book of Muslims) contains atrocious passages (see below) which incite to killing mostly innocent people - Muslims and non-Muslims - and in view of the fact that it's Muslim extremists who are terrorizing their societies and the whole world, in particular in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Nigeria, Mali, and in Hamas's Gaza, one can safely say: there is something wrong with this "religion."
In addition, wherever Islam rules, also in Iran, Southern Lebanon (where Hizbollah rules) Somalia, and Saudi Arabia, oppression is the rule. There is no freedom of any kind; no religious freedom and no free media. It's dictatorship par excellence.
It's extremely illogical and makes no sense to call a faith "religion" that preaches hate and murder. Neither politically nor religiously does that make any sense in a civilized world.
Unfortunately, there are also passages in the Bible which are incompatible with life in a modern civilised world. There are, for instance, passages in the Bible where women are discriminated against. Here is an example: "The women should keep silence in the churches, for they are not permitted to speak, but should be subordinate, as even the law says. If there is any thing they desire to know let them ask their husbands at home. For it is shameful for a woman to speak in church." [1 Corin. 14:34]
One more quote:
"But any woman who prays and prophecies with her head unveiled dishonors her head - it is the same as if her head were shaven, for if a woman will not veil herself then she should cut off her hair..." [1 Corin. 11:5]
However, this kind of passage has been skipped and ignored for generations by both Jews and Christians. Nobody preaches them, even the most conservative. Otherwise, unlike the Quran, the Bible is violence-free.
On the other hand, conservative Muslims insist on every passage in the Quran, regardless of how atrocious it is. They claim the Quran was composed by Allah, the Muslim God, and delivered to the prophet Muhammad to preach.
Over the past 14 centuries, and since the inception of Islam, the Muslim establishment has rejected skipping or ignoring these passages, or view them in a historical context. Anyone who does that is considered a heretic and faces the death penalty. For conservative Muslims, the Quran is the wording of God and hence it's valid for all times and places, and every single word in the Quran is sacred.
Outspoken and silent critics of Islam are convinced that if ordinary Muslims read the Quran thoroughly, and if they were free to choose, they would slam the door against the face of Islam and desert it. Many liberal Muslims would turn their back to Islam, but they fear of being accused of apostasy which according to the Quran is punished by death. Here is what the Quran says about apostasy: "But if they turn away (leave Islam and embrace another faith), then seize them and kill them wherever you find (them)....." Sure 4, verse 89
Now, unlike other religions, in particular Christianity and Judaism, Islam has never been allowed to go through any kind of reformation. Over its history of 14 centuries, every reform attempt was squashed and nipped in the bud. Reformers were persecuted and as heretics were killed.
Since 9/11 and thanks to the Internet, and internationalization of TV, a huge discussion has started to spread everywhere for the first time in Islam's history. Forums are everywhere where critics of Islam can freely express their views. Both 9/11 and the Internet are exposing Islam.
Still, people everywhere are intimidated and scared by radical Muslims. For example, Reinhardt, whom I gave a critical article of mine about Islam to read, asked me after reading it, "Aren't you scared to be killed by those radical Muslims?" I replied, "Of course I'm scared. But someone out there has to say the truth about Islam." Besides, I told Reinhardt, I'm simply using facts, quotes from the Quran to expose Islam. All I'm saying is look what the holy book of Muslims is preaching. Additionally, I'm not interpreting anything. I'm merely laying out what the highest authority in Islam is saying.
At the end of the day, all I want to achieve is opening the eyes of Muslims and non-Muslims to the truth, to the fact that Muslim terrorists are actually carrying out what their holy book instructs them to do. The evil is in the root, not in the fruit.
Further, I strongly and blatantly believe that if human rights organizations, peace activists, and ordinary people like you and me submit an appeal to any Western human rights court to condemn all those atrocious passages in the Quran, the court would disapprove of these passages and would severely condemn them. In many Western nations there are legislations which do not tolerate hate, which has nothing to do with freedom of speech.
However, some observers are not that optimistic. They believe that some judges are politicized and might approve of those passages after putting them in a historical context.
Now, let's assume that a Western human rights court condemns the atrocious passages in the Quran, then as usual Muslims would take to the street and protest violently, kill innocent people and destroy their premises, like in the Middle Ages.
It is exactly this kind of reaction that many Westerners fear. Some Western political establishments and their media would argue: We provoked them. We should not have done that.
Obviously, the world in the 21st century is destined to live with the evil part of Islam, and this might stay so for generations to come. It's a big dilemma and there is no solution for that in sight, neither in the short nor in the medium run, but maybe in the in the long run.
Politics of Radical Muslims Inspired by Atrocious Passages from the Quran
Hamas, a Palestinian Islamic radical party, has repeatedly, blatantly and bluntly reiterated that its ultimate goal is the "destruction of Israel." This is also stated very clearly in its political program.
In reality, the politics of Hamas, and for that matter of all Islamic radical organisations, are inspired and driven by the Quran. These organisations literally carry out and implement what the Quran teaches them. Here are some passages from the Quran:
Kill the infidels:
"And kill them (non-Muslims) wherever you overtake them....." Sure 2, verse 191
Muslims should not take Jews and Christians as friends:
"O you who have believed, do not take the Jews and the Christians as allies/friends" Sure 5, verse 51
To add insult to injury, Mohammed, the "prophet" of Muslims, repeatedly condemned the Jews during his lifetime. In his Hadeeth (a huge collection of more than 7000 pages of statements and advice which the Muslim leader made during his life time) he incited Muslims to wipe out the Jews wherever they are. He degraded them to apes and monkeys, which in Muslims' eyes are "useless" animals.
The atrocities in the Quran do not end there. The Quran is filled with passages that incite to killing those Muslims who leave Islam:
Kill those Muslims who convert to other religions:
"But if they turn away (leave Islam and embrace another faith), then seize them and kill them wherever you find....." Sure 4, verse 89
Still, Barack Obama and the former German President, Christian Wulff believe, "Islam is a peaceful religion."
Also, the Quran discriminates against women as witnesses, in terms of sex:
Two women are worth one male witness:
"And bring to witness two witnesses from among your men. And if there are not two men [available], then a man and two women from those whom you accept as witnesses - so that if one of the women errs, then the other can remind her." Sure 2, verse 282
Women who commit adultery are to be killed:
"Those who commit unlawful sexual intercourse of your women - bring against them four [witnesses] from among you. And if they testify, confine the guilty women to houses until death takes them...." Sure 4, verse 15
Men are allowed to have sex with their wives whenever they wish so:
"Your wives are a place of sowing of seed for you, so come to your place of cultivation however you wish and put forth [righteousness] for yourselves" Sure 2, verse 223
In addition, the Quran is filled with contradictions. For example, while it says, "There is no compulsion in religion," (Sure 2, verse 256), the same Quran states, "Kill them (the infidels) wherever you find them." (Sure 2, verse 191)
By the same token, the Quran brags, "You (Muslims are the best nation produced for mankind." (Sure 3, verse 110)
While almost everywhere, especially in the developing world, people are demanding democracy and freedom, Muslim leaders shout in mosques and on TV shows:

• Get rid of the infidels and everything will be okay.
• Apply Shari'a (the Islamic law based on the Quran and Hadeeth) and everything will be okay.

Some imams go further than that. One of them in an Osnabrück mosque/Germany said last Friday, "It's Allah's will that the infidels invented the car and the airplane. He (God) makes the infidels work for us, the Muslims. They are our slaves. Allah is punishing them for insisting on staying infidels."
In other words, Muslims who are allegedly the "best nation produced for mankind" are simply enjoying the fruits produced by the infidels. All this is halal in Muslim eyes.
One wonders how to react on such rubbish. Should one laugh or get outraged?
Now, in all societies where conservative Muslims rule or at least have the say, including Saudi Arabia, sex segregation even at childhood age, and females wearing the hijab are practices which are vehemently enforced.
On Monday, April 1st, Hamas introduced a law according to which girls at school are to be taught only by female teachers. Men are not allowed to teach girls.
Luckily, there are Muslims who reject such medieval measures, but they are powerless. Zainab Al Ghonaimi, a teacher and human rights activist, told me on the phone from Gaza, "As I and some colleagues protested against the law before the spokesman of the Ministry of Education, Mr. Waleed Mizher, told us: If you don't like it, you can leave Gaza. He added: We are simply implementing the Shari'a of Allah, the best law in this universe. Period!"
Al Ghonaimi also told me, Hamas has in recent years imposed the Islamic dress on all females, regardless whether you are a Muslim or not. Men are forbidden from working as hairdressers for women. Further, couples who walk along Gaza's streets are often questioned by the police if they are related.
The Turks in Germany (about 3million) are rejoicing in the fact that the German political establishment is giving in to each and every demand they have raised so far.
Most recently, the trial against the so-called NSU, an alleged "right-wing terror group" who are accused of killing eight Turks in Germany a few years back is due to start mid-April.
The German and international media have applied and received in time observation seats in the court's hall. The Turkish media missed to book such seats, and now they and their government are accusing the German justice of being biased against Turks. The Turkish media say in their news headline, "The Germans do not want Turkey to know the truth about the murder of the eight Turks.
Observers believe that Germany will eventually concede to all Turkish demands.
According to several sociological studies, more than 80% of Turkish women living in Germany wear the Islamic dress; the hijab, a headscarf that covers every hair, and a long coat.
The German taxpayer finances a TV program in Turkish for Turkish kids. For the majority of Turkish kids born and live in Germany, it is not German their first language, it is Turkish.
In the long run, and in view of the fact that the birth rate among Turks is quite high, the Turks could start fighting for independence from the German state and have their own state, a Turkish state in the heart of Europe, a Turkish Islamic state based on Shari'a, the Islamic law.
By the way, according to Hadeeth, Muslims are allowed to lie to non-Muslims, cheat them, rape their women and ill treat them.
Hanna Jabbour, a Syrian Christian refugee who fled the Syrian civil war with his family to Turkey, told me on the phone, "The Turkish authorities here in a refugee camp, situated near the town of Akcakale on the Syrian border discriminate against Christians. They give us less food than they do to Muslim refugees. They refused to allow a priest to celebrate a holy mass in a tent. They treat us like dogs. As we started to protest, the police beat us and used tear gas to disperse us."
This led to a kind of uprising in the camp. Many Christian refugees decided to go back to Syria, "to hell," as Hanna put it, "It's better to die in the civil war than to be ill-treated like that."
Western democracies are victims of their own civilized, ideal humane principles. According to the British newspaper, The Guardian, Abu Qatada, the Jordanian fanatic cleric who is supposed to be deported back to his homeland, Jordan, where he faces terrorist charges, has so far cost the British taxpayer more than 500,000 sterling pounds. The gist of comments by hundreds of readers was, "This is bizarre!" "The man preaches hatred against civilized values and for that he is rewarded with so much money!"
The Turks in Germany cost also the taxpayer billions of Euros each year. What for? "The majority of them are parasite consumers. They hang around and do nothing constructive." Hartmut says outrageously. "The German honest taxpayer would like to see his money better invested in constructive projects and not on lazy buggers!" Dieter added
Finally, the whole world is confronted with three hubs of fatal dangers emanating from nuclear North Korea and Iran, and fanatic Islam.
Yet, while it might be, relatively speaking,  militarily and technically easy to contain a nuclear war, it is going to be, in the long run, extremely difficult to contain Islamic extremism backed by the holy scriptures of Islam and tolerated by Western governments for fear of antagonizing Muslims.
As I said in my article, "Turks are a Time Bomb in Germany," the three million of Turkish immigrants in Germany are demanding and demanding more Islam and getting what they want. In the long run, they will demand their own state and invite the Turkish army to "protect" them as they did in Cyprus. In the long run, we will have an Islamic Califat in the middle of Europe.
To verify the above quoted passages check out:
http://quran.com/1

Dr. Sami Alrabaa, an ex-Muslim, is a professor of Sociology and an Arab-Muslim culture specialist. He has taught at Kuwait University, King Saud University, and Michigan State University. He also writes for the Jerusalem Post and is the author of the book: “Veiled Atrocities”, published by Prometheus, New York 2010 .

Read more: Family Security Matters http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/detail/islam-is-anti-peace?f=puball#ixzz4aiyAFcFZ
Under Creative Commons License: Attribution

Sami Alrabaa : Saudi Textbooks Incite Hatred & Violence against non-Muslims

Saudi Textbooks Incite Hatred & Violence against non-Muslims

by Dr. Sami Alrabaa

26 Jan, 2009

Ahmed Al-Sarraf cited in Al-Qabas (June 2, 2007) some passages from a Kuwaiti school textbook taught at the first secondary grade. Here is an English translation of passages from the book, "Jurisprudence", page 38:

Who is, or who is not, punished in a Muslim society:

*A Muslim who kills an apostate or someone who commits adultery against an infidel is not punished.
* If a Muslim kills an infidel or a slave, he is not punished.
* If a Muslim man, father, or grandfather kills someone from his offspring, he is not punished.

I went through school textbooks taught in Saudi Arabia and Indonesia. Here is an English translation of some passages from these books.
A fourth grade textbook on Monotheism and Religion instructs students:

"Any other religion other than Islam is invalid (false)." (P. 29 )
"Hate (yakrah) the polytheists and the infidels" as a requirement of "true faith." (P. 86)

5th Grade. Book: Monotheism and Religion:

*"Every religion other than Islam is invalid." (P. 33)
*"It is not permitted to be a loyal to non-Muslims, and to those who oppose God and His Prophet." (P. 14)
*"Whoever obeys the Prophet and accepts the oneness of God cannot be loyal to those who oppose God and His Prophet, even if they are his closest relatives." (P. 71)
*"A Muslim, even if he lives far away, is your brother in religion. Someone who opposes God, even if he is your brother by family tie, is your enemy in religion." (P. 73)
*"Just as Muslims were successful in the past when they came together in a sincere endeavor to evict the Christian crusaders from Palestine, so will the Arabs and Muslims emerge victorious, God willing, against the Jews and their allies if they stand together and fight a true jihad for God, for this is within God's power." (P. 75)
*"Jews are the people of the Sabbath, whose young people God turned into apes, and whose old people God turned into swine to punish them." "As cited in Ibn Abbas: The apes are Jews, the keepers of the Sabbath; while the swine are the Christian infidels of the communion of Jesus." (P. 83)
*"The clash between our [Muslim] community (umma) and the Jews and Christians has endured, and it will continue as long as God wills. In this hadith, Muhammad gives us an example of the battle between the Muslims and the Jews." (P. 113)
*"Narrated by Abu Hurayrah: The Prophet said, the hour [of judgment] will not come until the Muslims fight the Jews and kill them. [It will not come] until the Jew hides behind rocks and trees. [It will not come] until the rocks or the trees say, 'O Muslim! O servant of God! There is a Jew behind me. Come and kill him.'." (P. 114)
*"Muslims will triumph because they are right. He who is right is always victorious, even if most people are against him." (P. 117)
"A woman who shows in public any part of her body except that of her eyes will be punished by hellfire by almighty Allah." (P. 194)
"The infidels have established Christian hospitals and clinics and send medics all over the world. As one of the Christianizers said, 'Where you find people, you find pain. And where there's pain, there's a need for a doctor. And where there's a need for a doctor, there's an appropriate opportunity for missionary activity [Christianization].'" (P. 163)
"The infidels have founded many schools and universities in the Muslim world at various educational levels. These include: the American Universities of Beirut and Cairo, the Jesuit University, Robert College in Istanbul, Gordon [Memorial] College in Khartoum, and others too numerous to mention. (P. 186)

Teacher's Manual:
Grade 5:

Teach that after their death, non-Muslims will be sent to hell. (P. 30)
Quiz: Is it permissible to love the Jews and Christians? Of course no. Explain why. (P. 15)

Grade 8:

*Command Muslims to "hate" Christians, Jews, polytheists and other "unbelievers," including non-devout Muslims." (P. 14)
*Teach that the Crusades never ended, and identify the American Universities in Beirut and in Cairo, other Western and Christian social service providers, media outlets, centers for academic studies of Orientalism, and campaigns for women's rights as part of the modern phase of the Crusades. (P. 15)
*Teach that "the Jews and the Christians are enemies of the [Muslim] believers" (P. 16) and that "the clash between the two realms "continues until the Day of Resurrection." (P. 18)
*Instruct students not to "greet," "befriend," "imitate," "show loyalty to," "be courteous to", or "respect" non-believers. (P. 24)

Grade 9:

*Define jihad to include "wrestling with the infidels by calling them to the faith and battling against them," (P. 25) and assert that the spread of Islam through jihad is a "religious obligation." (P. 26) [the word qital, translated here as "battle," is derived from the verb qatala, "to kill," and is virtually never used metaphorically.]
*Instruct that "the struggle between Muslims and Jews" will continue "until the hour [of judgment]" and that "Muslims will triumph because they are right" and "he who is right is always victorious." (P. 27)
Grade 10:
*Cite a selective teaching of violence against Jews, while in the same lesson, ignoring the passages of the Quran and hadeeths [narratives of the life of the Prophet, Peace be upon Him, that counsel tolerance. (P. 28)
*Teach the Protocols of the Elders of Zion as historical fact and relate modern events to it. (P. 29)
*Discuss Jews in violent terms, blaming them for virtually all the "subversion" and wars of the modern world. (P. 30)
*"Give examples of false religions, like Judaism, Christianity, paganism, etc." (P. 66)
*"Explain that when someone dies outside of Islam, hellfire is his fate." (P. 67)

By the way, over 20 Saudi schools, each chaired by the local ambassador from Saudi Arabia, are located throughout the world, in Bonn, Berlin, Washington, Algiers, Ankara, Beijing, Djibouti, Islamabad, Istanbul, Jakarta, Karachi, Kuala Lumpur, London, Madrid, Moscow, Paris, Rabat, Rome, and Tunis. In fact, you can find some of the above stuff in many school textbooks in all the Arab Gulf countries, Egypt, Kuwait, The United Arab Emirates, Qatar, and Jordan. Fourteen-year-old boys' and girls' brains are stuffed with intolerance, animosity towards other religions and their followers.
Al Sarraf wonders, what is the point in devoting $150 million of Kuwaiti money to spend on disseminating tolerance and moderation in society when the foundation of society, the youth, are taught religious fanaticism and religio-centricism? Islam is a tolerant and moderate religion, but some zealous Muslims have hijacked it and are determined to interpret it their own way.
I disagree with Al Sarraf over the last point. Islam is partially tolerant and moderate. When you check out the Koran and Hadeeth (the prophet Muhammad’s comments), you find out that Islam is also a violent faith. It preaches hatred and violence against non-Muslims and discriminates against women. (Check out “Is Islam a Violent Faith?”).
What does all that imply in terms of the war on terror?
The war on Islamic terror will remain futile unless the free world forces Saudi Arabia and the other Arab oil countries on the Persian Gulf to remove hatred and violence from their school textbooks. The root causes of Islamic terror must be rooted out. This is not an internal issue and has nothing to do with freedom of speech. It impacts all of us and the world peace at large. The West must use all its leverage vis-à-vis these states to achieve this goal if it truly wants to gain the war on terror.
I’m also pretty sure that the more and more Muslims around the world who read the Koran thoroughly, many more of them would turn their back to Islam. According to a recent survey by Berlin University, 13% of male Muslims have read the Koran and among women it is only 7%.
Many Muslims around the globe, in particular non-Arabs, do not understand the Koran which is written in an old archaic Arabic. They learn about Islam from what their fanatic imams preach.

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Dr. Sami Alrabaa, an ex-Muslim, is a sociology professor and an Arab/Muslim culture specialist. Before moving to Germany he taught at Kuwait University, King Saud University, and Michigan State University.
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http://www.islam-watch.org/Sami/Saudi-Textbooks-Hatred-Violence.htm

MA Khan : Does the Quran Incite Violence? A Debate with Mike Ghouse,

Does the Quran Incite Violence? A Debate with Mike Ghouse,

by MA Khan

Part 1

17 Feb, 2009

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First Published at desicritics.org

Part 1  –  Part 2

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Mr. Mike Ghouse (MBA, MCom), claims his Website, is by a Speaker, Thinker & Writer on Pluralism/Interfaith, Terrorism, Islam, India & peace. He is a well-known Muslim activist based in Dallas and a prolific contributor to many Websites. I have been confronted by him (also noticed him confronting others) on a few occasions that the Quran is a book of peace and that there is no violent verses in the Quran.

Recently a Hindu writer (Dr R Brahmachari), in an e-mail group, commented on why Muslim terrorists bomb and cause harrowing carnage in Indian cities---such as Bangalore, Ahmedabad, Mumbai etc.---one after another that:

“In the eye of Allah, these kafirs [Hindus] are no better than animals and hence He instructs the Muslims to mount any kind of torture and atrocities on them, kill them, burn them and their houses, take their women and children as captives and rape their women and so on. So the Koran says:

• “We have created, for hell, many genii (races) of men...and they are like brute beasts” (7.179)
• “Verily, those who disbelieve our signs, we will surely cast them to be broiled in the hell-fire, so often as their skins shall be well burnt, We will give them new skins in exchange, so that they may taste the sharper torment” (4.56)
• “Whosoever followeth any religion other than Islam, it shall not be accepted of him in this life, and in the next life he shall be of those who perish” (3.85)
• “I will cast a dread into the hearts of the unbelievers” (8.12)
• “Therefore cut off their heads, and strike off all the ends of the fingers. This shall they suffer because they have opposed Allah and His Prophet, and whosoever shall oppose Allah and His Prophet, verily Allah will be severe in punishing them” (8.13)
• “moreover, as for the non-believers, I will punish them with grievous punishments in this world, and in the world is to come” (3.56)
• “they shall suffer a grievous punishment” (3.77).
• “They (believers) shall fight in the way of Allah and shall slay and be slain” (9:111).”

In response, Mike Ghouse as usual threw in his challenge:

It is time to get over the propaganda that has been dished out over the years. There is no such verse in Qur'an, if you have the list produce me one. Not what is handed down to you, but the one you can point to? Remember, finding the truth is one's own responsibility. You have an open challenge here. Let’s clean the slates and live in peace, one person at a time.

Terrorism is committed by individuals and not religions, these are the dirty games played by individuals donning the mask of Muslims, Christians, Jews, Hindus or any one. They have everything to gain to upload hatred between people.

Although I deal with violent aspects of the Quran in my Website, previously I couldn’t take on Ghouse’s challenges because of the scarcity of time. This time I have taken it up. Ghouse has agreed to an open debate with me, which we have agreed to publish in Websites.

In this first installment, I am initiating the debate as follows.

Dear Mike Ghouse,
I am, hereby, taking up your open challenge and opening the debate here.
The said Indian writer has produced a set of Quranic verses, which obviously incite violence. You can see it yourself and still, you deny that there are no violent verses in the Quran. These verses have obviously been picked from the Quran according to my checking of six different translations. May I now ask you the following questions:

1. Why do you think that these verses do not exist in the Quran?
2. If you think that they exist in the Quran, why do you think that they do not incite violence?
3. Allah himself urges Muslims to ‘strike terror into the heart of the infidels’ [8:12]. Why do you disagree with Allah? Who knows better? You or Allah?
4. Likewise, Prophet Muhammad also said: “I have been victorious with terror.” Why do you disagree with Prophet Muhammad? Do you know better than the Prophet? Why do you think that Prophet Muhammad lied?

Let our debate start from here. I wait for your response.

Mike's Response is posted here and I will return with my reply in Part 2:

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Mike Ghouse: I am pleased to respond to the above item by item:

Quoted as: "We have created, for hell, many genii (races) of men...and they are like brute beasts" (7.179)

As a habit, I include at least one sentence(Verse) before and one after the given sentence to give a better understanding of the verse.

7:178 (Asad) He whom God guides, he alone is truly guided; whereas those whom He lets go astray-it is they, they who are the losers!

Mike: It is the belief in all religions, that everything that happens is God's will, the Bhagavad Gita says, even the blade of grass is God's will. Here God is nature, the energy of the creator that makes things happen.

7:179 (Asad) And most certainly have We destined for hell many of the invisible beings [143] and men who have hearts with which they fail to grasp the truth, and eyes with which they fail to see, and ears with which they fail to hear. They are like cattle -nay, they are even less conscious of the right way: [144] it is they, they who are the [truly] heedless!

144 - Lit.; "they are farther astray"-inasmuch as animals follow only their instincts and natural needs and are not conscious of the possibility or necessity of a moral choice. (Quran 7:179)

Mike: All the holy books and the law books reasonably establish the consequences for one's behavior. Indeed, as the law of Karma is understood, those who do not do the right deeds in this life, they are bound to born in less than human form, where they have all the senses of eyes, ears etc, yet fail to grasp the morality as humans. Hell denotes less than desirable life. I will be occasionally referencing Hindu scriptures as the man who has produced this information is of Hindu faith.

I don't see the author's claim and connection in this verse ""In the eye of Allah, these kafirs [Hindus] are no better than animals and hence He instructs the Muslims to mount any kind of torture and atrocities on them, kill them, burn them and their houses, take their women and children as captives and rape their women and so on."

I have no idea what he was thinking when he wrote the less than intelligent statement.

7:180 (Asad) AND GOD'S [alone] are the attributes of perfection; [145] invoke Him, then, by these, and stand aloof from all who distort the meaning of His attributes: [146] they shall be requited for all that they were wont to do!

145 - This passage connects with the mention, at the end of the preceding verse, of "the heedless ones" who do not use their faculty of discernment in the way intended for it by God, and remain heedless of Him who comprises within Himself all the attributes of perfection and represents, therefore, the Ultimate Reality. As regards the expression al-asma' al-husna (lit., "the most perfect [or "most goodly"] names"), which occurs in the Qur'an four times-i.e., in the above verse as well as in 17:110, 20:8 and 59:24-it is to be borne in mind that the term ism is, primarily, a word applied to denote the substance or the intrinsic attributes of an object under consideration, while the term al-husna is the plural form of al-ahsan ("that which is best" or "most goodly"). Thus, the combination al-asma' al-husna may be appropriately rendered as "the attributes of perfection" -a term reserved in the Qur'an for God alone.(Quran Ref: 7:180 )

146- Le., by applying them to other beings or objects or, alternatively, by trying to "define" God in anthropomorphic terms and relationships, like "father" or "son" (Razi).(Quran Ref: 7:180 )

~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-

Quoted as: "Verily, those who disbelieve our signs, we will surely cast them to be broiled in the hell-fire, so often as their skins shall be well burnt, We will give them new skins in exchange, so that they may taste the sharper torment" (4.56)

4:55 (Asad) and among them are such as [truly] believe in him, [72] and among them are such as have turned away from him. And nothing could be as burning as [the fire of] hell:
[72]I.e., in Abraham - implying that they are faithful to his message. It is to be borne in mind that the Prophet Muhammad, too, was a direct-line descendant of Abraham, whose message is confirmed and continued in the Qur'an.(Quran Ref: 4:55 )

4:56 (Asad) for, verily, those who are bent on denying the truth of Our messages We shall, in time, cause to endure fire: [and] every time their skins are burnt off, We shall replace them with new skins, so that they may taste suffering [in full] [73] Verily, God is almighty, wise.

[73] This awesome allegory of suffering in the life to come is obviously meant to bring out the long-lasting nature of that suffering (Razi).(Quran Ref: 4:56 )

Mike: The concept of reward and punishment exists in all human endeavors; Swarga and Naraka have been a part of the Hindu system of belief. Naraka is not a place one would enjoy life, it is a bloody hell. The paradise and the hell exist in all forms of justice. Whether it is religious texts or civil or criminal laws there is always a grim consequence or liberation. What is God's message? What does it mean when Krishna says "Surrender to me?" and What does Jesus or Allah mean when they say "follow me" or "submit to my will respectively?."

It does not mean falling flat on the ground and acting dead, it rather means, following the path of truth, dharma - the golden rule in every religion; treat others as you would wanted to be treated. It is the fear of punishment that is a deterrent from wrong doing, as a result ensuring a fairly peaceful existence. The above verse would be wrong in Qur'aan, IF our criminal laws say there is no punishment for the violent killer, rapists or a thief. Imagine your society without the punishment!

For the 2nd time, I don't see the author's claim and connection in this verse "In the eye of Allah, these kafirs [Hindus] are no better than animals and hence He instructs the Muslims to mount any kind of torture and atrocities on them, kill them, burn them and their houses, take their women and children as captives and rape their women and so on."

Where did he cook this up from? And How many has he fed this? I wish he had made the effort to follow Bhagvad Gita "Finding the truth is one's own responsibility".

4:57 (Asad) But those who attain to faith and do righteous deeds We shall bring into gardens through which running waters flow, therein to abide beyond the count of time; there shall they have spouses pure: and [thus] We shall bring them unto happiness abounding. [74]

[74] The primary meaning of zill is "shade", and so the expression zill zalil could be rendered as "most shading shade"- i.e., "dense shade". However, in ancient Arabic usage, the word zill denotes also "a covering" or "a shelter" and, figuratively, "protection" (Raghib); and, finally, "a state of ease, pleasure and plenty" (cf. Lane V, 1915 f.), or simply "happiness" - and in the combination of zill zalil, "abundant happiness" (Razi) - which seems to agree best with the allegorical implications of the term "paradise". (Quran 4:57 )

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Quoted as "Whosoever followeth any religion other than Islam, it shall not be accepted of him in this life, and in the next life he shall be of those who perish" (3.85)

3:84 (Asad) Say: "We believe in God, and in that which has been bestowed from on high upon us, and that which has been bestowed upon Abraham and Ishmael and Isaac and Jacob and their descendants, and that which has been vouchsafed by their Sustainer unto Moses and Jesus and all the [other] prophets: we make no distinction between any of them. [68] And unto Him do we surrender ourselves."
[68] - The prophets

3:85 (Asad) For, if one goes in search of a religion other than self-surrender unto God, it will never be accepted from him, and in the life to come he shall be among the lost.

Mike : Just as Lord Krishna proclaims " whenever adharma takes over the society, I will re-appear to bring the dharma back", God says in Qur'aan that" to every nation, every tribe, and every community he has sent a messenger to bring the righteousness back whenever the society went astray.

Then Qur'an, Al-Hujurat, Surah 49:13: "O mankind! We have created you male and female, and have made you nations and tribes that ye may know one another. The noblest of you, in sight of God, is the best in conduct. God Knows and is Aware of everything we do." Dharma operates when people conduct themselves well and treat others as they would want to be treated. That is when Satya (truth ) triumphs.

If you do not follow what Lord Krishna says or God says, the results are same - adharma prevails.

Qur'aan further adds that " it is your Karma that earns you a place in heaven, not necessarily your prayers and wealth. Prophet Muhammad told his own daughter that she will have to earn her place with her Karma and she ain't going to get a free pass because she is the daughter of the prophet. It is individual responsibility.

For the third time, I don't see the author's claim and connection in this verse "In the eye of Allah, these kafirs [Hindus] are no better than animals and hence He instructs the Muslims to mount any kind of torture and atrocities on them, kill them, burn them and their houses, take their women and children as captives and rape their women and so on."

Where did he cook this up from? And How many has he fed this? I wish he had made the effort to follow Bhagvad Gita "Finding the truth is one's own responsibility".

3:86 (Asad) How would God bestow His guidance upon people who have resolved to deny the truth after having attained to faith, and having borne witness that this Apostle is true, and [after] all evidence of the truth has come unto them? [69] For, God does not guide such evildoing folk.

[69] The people referred to are the Jews and the Christians. Their acceptance of the Bible, which predicts the coming of the Prophet Muhammad, has made them "witnesses" to the truth of his prophethood. See also verses 70 and 81 above.(Quran Ref: 3:86 )

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Quoted as: "I will cast a dread into the hearts of the unbelievers" (8.12)

I will stop at this... I bet, there is a pattern of mis-information here. I call it mis-information because it incites hate among Hindus for Muslims. Right information like right karma would help one heal and create goodness.

If you want me to continue, I will. But I think this should be sufficient, I have responded to similar false claims umpteen times.

Pick up the Quraan translation by Mohammad Asad, or a few others and look directly into it. I did not write any of the above except my comments. It is all from the Qur'aan.

It is another story that the Europeans had paid to mistranslate the Qur'aan and even called it a Mohammadan Religion. Much of it is documented at the blog http://quraan-today.blogspot.com/

Mike Ghouse
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• "Therefore cut off their heads, and strike off all the ends of the fingers. This shall they suffer because they have opposed Allah and His Prophet, and whosoever shall oppose Allah and His Prophet, verily Allah will be severe in punishing them" (8.13)
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• "moreover, as for the non-believers, I will punish them with grievous punishments in this world, and in the world is to come" (3.56)

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• "they shall suffer a grievous punishment" (3.77).

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• "They (believers) shall fight in the way of Allah and shall slay and be slain" (9:111)."
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Does the Quran Incite Violence? A Debate with Mike Ghouse, Part 2

by MA Khan

22 Feb, 2009

I am responding below to Mike Ghouse’s reply to Part 1 in this debate.
Let me start by addressing Ghouse’s favorite arguments regarding the Quran, which I encountered in his emails and postings in Websites quite a few times. He frequently says that, in the colonial era or before, the Westerners intentionally mistranslated the Quran to harm Islam. “The Quran was mistranslated three times (by Europeans)”, he asserts. Thereafter, Muslim rulers (as pious as the Saudis, who are main sponsors of translations of the Quran) also embarked on the same mission to mistranslate the Quran, obviously to harm Islam and Muslims, as Ghouse would have it. “The Kings on the Arabian lands had to fool their people too to get their support”, as he puts it.
To him, these translators distorted the Quran so badly that, by reading it, Muslims are becoming terrorists all over the world in the name of Islam—the religion of pristine peace and tranquility. Let me first ask Ghouse a few questions
:

1. First, what is his scholarship, expertise in Arabic, to judge translations of the Quran of most famous scholars like Abdullah Yusuf Ali, Dr. Muhshin Khan et al.? May I ask, if Ghouse, probably an India-born student of business/commercial studies, is fluent in Arabic or understand Arabic at all?
   
   
2. Secondly, would Ghouse sit in Saudi Arabia and dare distorting the Quran intentionally. I can assure Ghouse that the kind of “gross distortion” he accuses other famous translators with, if he does the same level of distortion of whatever kind sitting in Saudi Arabia, he would not last a day. Well, Ghouse may even give a try of the same at Islamabad, Khartoum, Cairo or Kabul. His is unlikely to last much longer, if at all. Let me inform readers that Muhshin Khan and his co-translator, Muhammad Taqi-ud-Din Al-Hilali, taught at the Islamic University of Medina, the city of Muhammad, where Islam was born. Abdullah Yusuf Ali, another brilliant translator, was sponsored by the Saudis.
   
   
3. Thirdly, Ghouse has found a good translator in Muhammad Asad (d. 1990), an Austro-Hungarian Jews, who converted to Islam and later ended up in India, where, in the company of fanatic Allama Iqbal, he became a scholar of Islam. “Go to Mohammad Asad’s translation of Quran, it is one of the most accepted translations”, he asserts. In fact, Asad’s translation is not correct enough for Ghouse, as he say: “If I live longer, Insha Allah, God willing, I will do the translation to reflect the intent of the Quran”.
   Although Asad’s credential in Arabic was undoubtedly good, he had no real training in Arabic at its crown centres of Baghdad, Cairo, Saudi Arabia, which scholars like Muhshin Khan and Muhammad Taqi-ud-Din Al-Hilali had. Moreover, born in a Jewish Rabbi family and well-acquainted with developments of the 20th-century Europe, I leave it to readers to reflect on how his background could have influenced his English rendering of the Quran and on Ghouse’s wisdom of picking Asad as a more reliable translator.
   
   
4. Fourthly, does Ghouse want to tell us that all the Imams, Muslim clerics—from Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and elsewhere in the Muslim world—who keep spewing hatred on Quranic justification, read the Quran in English translations? Do Arabs like Osama bin Laden, Ayman al-Zawahiri, late al-Zarqawi and all those Islamic terrorists read the Quran in Arabic? Ghouse would obviously have us believe so.

I must point out another great point of this sagacious Islamic scholar, Mike Ghouse. The University of Southern California [probably with association of CAIR, MSA (Muslim Students of America) etc.] hosts the Compendium of Islamic Text, which says:

There were about 360 idols around the Ka`abah. He pulled them down with his sword while reciting: “And say: ‘Truth has arrived and falsehood has perished for falsehood is by its nature bound to perish.’” (Al-Qur’an, 17:81) Also “Say: ‘Truth has arrived and falsehood neither creates anything new nor restores anything.’” (Al-Qur’an, 34: 49) The idols tumbled on their faces.

On the basis of such info, Wikipedia notes that:

In 630, Muhammad and his followers returned to Mecca as conqueror, and he destroyed the 360 idols in and around the Kaaba.[28][29] While destroying each idol, Muhammad recited [Qur'an 17:81] which says "Truth has arrived and falsehood has perished for falsehood is by its nature bound to perish."[28][29]

But to Ghouse, this information is all false. That means leading Islamic organizations in American, like CAIR and MSA, are out to harm Islam and Muslims, too. It is false even when most of the greatest classical scholars of Islam say so. Ibn Ishaq [Karachi, p. 552], Muhammad’s first pious biographer, says that after capturing Mecca, Muhammad ordered the destruction of all idols of the Ka’ba, shouting out: “Truth has (now) arrived, and Falsehood perished: for Falsehood is (by its nature) bound to perish”.
But to Ghouse, those greatest were ignorant or were out to harm Islam and Muslims. So, where lies truth? Who knows the truth? It is Michel Wolfe, a non-Muslim filmmaker of our time and the producer of the film “The Message”. When Ghouse asked Wolfe, the latter replied, as Ghouse puts it: “From his (Wolfe’s) understanding the idols were ‘removed’”, not destroyed, the latter remark being “blatantly misleading”.
Allah or Muhammad probably paid a visit to Wolfe lately to furnish him with the correct information. He has no other way to discover this truth. I wonder how Ghouse’s wisdom failed to ask Wolfe as to how he discovered the truth.
Nonetheless, the moral of the story is: You can take over a temple and remove there idols therein, not destroy them. Idolaters of the world can this message of Ghouse home.

Now let me turn to the Quranic verses Ghouse has addressed. I will not respond to his comments on other religious scriptures, because my expertise doesn’t lie there. I have spent the last 5-6 years researching Islam extensively, on which I am confident of commenting. If other scriptures have violent content, they incite violence too.

In explanation of verse 7:179, despite whatever unnecessary things he has written, Asad’s translation still says that the Kafirs, such as Hindus, “are like cattle -nay, they are even less conscious of the right way”. That means a non-Muslim, heedless to Allah’s messages, is worse, more evil, than animals like cattle, which the original author put as: they are “like brute beast.” I need someone explain what’s the difference between the two. Therefore, the claim of the original author that “In the eye of Allah, these kafirs [Hindus] are no better than animals” is roughly right, although he would been accurate had he said “kafirs [Hindus] are worse than animals (cattle)”. That’s what Asad affirms and Ghouse agrees.

Why not Ghouse give a fitting treatment to his non-Muslim neighbor deserving of animals like cattle, nay, worse than cattle as Asad puts it. I grew up in the countryside, we raised cattle. Worse than cattle around us were foxes that grabbed our chickens or spoiled sugarcane plantations. We used to kill them at the first opportunity. Tigers, hyenas, wolves are worse than cattle, too. What treatment would Muslims render, if they happen to come across animals like these in their neighborhood? Heads of the kafirs should roll.
Concerning my quoted verse 4:56, Asad’s translation basically say the same thing: For those rejecting Islam, “We (Allah, there are few Allahs it seems) shall, in time, cause to endure fire: [and] every time their skins are burnt off, We shall replace them with new skins, so that they may taste suffering [in full]…”
This horrible cycle of punishment—that a Hindu, Christian or Jew deserves—would continue for eternity; so vile a people are they. No doubt, Allah’s psychopathic punishment would surpass the barbarity of Hitler by infinite folds. Again, the original author is accurate in emphasizing that Allah has intense hatred of non-Muslims.
I will now touch upon three verses that Ghouse did not address. First verse 3:56:

“…moreover, as for the non-believers, I will punish them with grievous punishments in this world, and in the world is to come.”

The question of how Allah will punish the kafirs in this world? Not by Himself but through the hands of his followers, aka Muslims. Muslims must engage the vile unbelievers in Jihadi wars and inflict grievous punishment on them; and those, who perish in the process, will receive Allah’s succor in paradise (loaded with eternal virgins of immaculate beauty) as says the Quran [Quran 47:4]:

“Therefore, when ye meet the Unbelievers (in fight), smite at their necks; At length, when ye have thoroughly subdued them, bind a bond firmly (on them): thereafter (is the time for) either generosity or ransom: Until the war lays down its burdens. Thus (are ye commanded): but if it had been Allah's Will, He could certainly have exacted retribution from them (Himself); but (He lets you fight) in order to test you, some with others. But those who are slain in the Way of Allah,- He will never let their deeds be lost.”

Next verse 8:13:

“Therefore cut off their heads, and strike off all the ends of the fingers. This shall they suffer because they have opposed Allah and His Prophet, and whosoever shall oppose Allah and His Prophet, verily Allah will be severe in punishing them”.

The message is crystal-clear here. This means, Muslims must endeavor to take hold of those vile unbelievers, who oppose Allah and Muhammad mission (i.e., reject Islam) and “cut off their heads, and strike off all the ends of the fingers.” Allah’s clear words are enough; nothing more is needed to be said on this.
Let me move on the last verse 9:111:

“Allah hath purchased of the believers their persons and their goods; for theirs (in return) is the garden (of Paradise): they fight in His cause, and slay and are slain: a promise binding on Him in truth, through the Law, the Gospel, and the Qur'an: and who is more faithful to his covenant than Allah? then rejoice in the bargain which ye have concluded: that is the achievement supreme..”

This can be accurately dubbed as verse of 9/11 attacks. Life of Muslims has been purchased by Allah for fighting in Allah’s cause (i.e., Jihad), in which they must slay and be slain. That is, they must wage Jihad and try their best to slay the kafirs. Obviously some Jihadis would be killed in such holy wars. But this death in Jihad battles, called martyrdom, is no loss for Muslims; instead, it the greatest, the most desirable, thing ever can happen to a Muslim; because, this martyrdom gives him a ticket for straight landing in Allah’s paradise. Getting a ticket to paradise, believe Muslims, is the central aim of their every action in this world.
Some master deceivers of Islam would tell us that Jihad means struggling with the self, which will help them gain paradise. I hope, some of them will come forward and explain to us as to how struggling with the self would result in slaying the kafirs and getting killed in the process. Probably Ghouse can enlighten us on that.
Let me emphasize that Ghouse has done little research on the Quran. Moreover, he is either a good-hearted person with little knowledge of Islam or he is on a mission of deceiving the gullible kafirs. The fact that he said, “However, the verses that have been quoted "as from Quran" are actually manufactured a 1000 years ago and the neocons have been recycling it to malign a religion, that is their business and livelihood”, means that he is undoubtedly out to deceive his willing audience.
Has Ghouse torn away those pages of his Quran that contain these manufactured verses of brutality?
Let me emphasize to the reader that engaging with ignorants or deceivers like Ghouse takes us to no meaningful enlightenment on the subject. Therefore, I may wish to conclude this debate here, unless Ghouse comes forward with some solid, well-researched, arguments that deserve a response.
However, if readers are keen to get a full picture of the incitement of violence (i.e., Jihad) in Islam, I urge them to get a copy of my just-released book, Islam Jihad: A Legacy of Forced Conversion, Imperialism and Slavery and/or Dr Ali Sina’s Understanding Muhammad.
I believe these book will have strong humanizing impact on radical-minded Muslims, while help everyone understand clearly why the world today is mired in the horror of terrorism.
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http://www.islam-watch.org/MA_Khan/Does-Quran-Incite-Violence-Debate-Mike-Ghouse-MA-Khan-2.htm