Mike Ghouse, December 23, 2007
A friend sends me a list of ten statements, and wonders, “If the authors of this website might have been a bit too harsh in their assessment of Islam?”
Harshness can be handled intellectually, but not the propaganda. The mind sets of the authors of this website is not a dialogue, a two way system of wanting to know, but rather a program to malign a religion, in this case; Islam.
# 1 10,000 deadly terror attacks committed explicitly in the name of Islam in just the last six years. (Other religions combined for perhaps a dozen or so).
Mike: There are bad people in every religion; badness is the very reason religion came into being; to help people live a life of peace. Most people get it, a few don’t. Most people in America and the World follow the law, traffic rules and a few don’t. In either case, it is not the laws of the nation or constitution or the religion, it is the individual that is criminals. Whether we have a single murder or thousands, those individuals are criminals, not the entire population of those Cities. There are Killer Muslims, Hindus, Buddhist, Christians and Jews killing for one reason or the other. There are mass murders in Sri Lanka, Gujarat India, Iraq, and Bosnia and elsewhere, why aren’t we giving them the religious labels? 1,000 Muslims were murdered in Gujarat in India 5 years ago, and how many Million in Iraq, Afghanistan and Lebanon in the name of America and Israel.
# 2 Muhammad, the prophet of Islam, had people killed for insulting him or criticizing his religion. This included women. Muslims are told to emulate the example of Muhammad.
Mike: This is absolutely false! One has to find the truth on his or her own and not read the books manufactured by the crusading Europeans (not the current ones) and build castles on that foundationless propaganda. Not a single religion teaches hate, all religions focus on making a better human out of us and creating societies of harmony and co-existence.
# 3 Muhammad said in many places that he has been “ordered by Allah to fight men until they testify that there is no god but Allah and that Muhammad is his messenger.” In the last nine years of his life, he ordered no less than 65 military campaigns to do exactly that.
Muhammad inspired his men to war with the basest of motives, using captured loot, sex and a gluttonous paradise as incentives. He beheaded captives, enslaved children and raped women captured in battle. Again, Muslims are told to emulate the example of Muhammad.
Mike: This is propaganda to malign. I would not be a Muslim if that was the case, nor a billion plus people. I was an agnostic for a long time, and after 9/11, I chose to research Islam about such false allegations. I could have followed any religion, all would have taught me to be a good human. If I don’t understand the religion, it is not the religion, it is me.
# 4 After Muhammad died, the people who lived with him, and knew his religion best, immediately fell into war with each other.
Muhammad’s favorite daughter, Fatima, and her husband, Ali (the second convert to Islam, who was raised like a son to Muhammad) fought a war against an army raised by Aishah, Muhammad’s favorite wife – and one whom he had said was the “perfect woman.”
Not only was her husband, Ali, eventually murdered, but Fatima (who survived the early years at Mecca safe and sound) died of stress from the persecution of fellow Muslims only three months after her father died.
Three of the first four Muslim rulers (caliphs) were murdered. All of them were among Muhammad’s closest companions. The third caliph was killed by the son of the first. The fourth caliph was killed by the fifth, which subsequently poisoned one of Muhammad’s two favorite grandsons. Muhammad’s other grandson was later beheaded by the sixth caliph.
Within 50 years, the Kaaba, which had stood for centuries under pagan religion, lay in ruins from internal Muslim war.
Mike: The power struggle would always be there between humans regardless of labeling the excuses such as; political power, controlling energy resources, controlling the nuclear power, controlling the defense research. How many Christian Kings, Popes have been butchered, was that Christianity? Absolutely not! Neither is it Islamic to kill another human being. Then why Islam should be blamed for the acts of individuals. Religion does not teach anything our President is doing, what Ferdinand and Isabel did in 1492 or Osama did on 9/11. It is easy to label the religion as it suits evil men to malign other religions, we need to put the blame where it belongs; the individuals and have them pay for it.
# 5 Muhammad directed Muslims to wage war on other religions and bring them under submission to Islam. Within the first few decades following his death, his Arabian companions invaded and conquered Christian, Jewish, Hindu, Buddhist and Zoroastrian lands.
Mike: This is a false statement; indeed, he initiated and signed the Medina treatise with Jews, Christians and others, where every citizen of Medina was to practice their faith freely.
Individual fanatic rulers and generals have gone out to spread the word of God, just as the Christian kings and soldiers have gone on crusades and have also annihilated native religions. The excesses of these evil men were not the act of Christianity, although they burned the people on stake in the name of Jesus Christ.
# 6 Muslims continued their Jihad against other religions for 1400 years, checked only by the ability of non-Muslims to defend themselves. To this day, not a week goes by that Islamic fundamentalists do not attempt to kill Christians, Jews, Hindus and Buddhists explicitly in the name of Allah.
None of these other religions are at war with each other.
Mike: It is a shame that those few Muslims are killing others. What about Rwanda, Sri Lanka, Ireland? Take a principle stand man; can you cast the first stone?
# 7 Islam is the only religion that has to retain its membership by threatening to kill anyone who leaves. This is according to the example set by Muhammad.
Mike: Sheer propaganda, on the contrary the principle of no compulsion in religion was operative. Yes, there are shameful incidences of such deaths, but you will find more examples of Christians burning apostates, probably outnumber. In both cases, it is not the religion of Islam or Christianity; it is the crooked men in the garb of clergy. Check the website www.ApostasyandIslam.com
# 8 Islam teaches that non-Muslims are less than fully human. Muhammad said that Muslims can be put to death for murder, but that a Muslim could never be put to death for killing a non-Muslim.
Mike :: the holy book says, if you kill one human, it is like killing the whole humanity, and one of the most civil pluralistic statements is – One is to spread the word of God with respect, if they don’t, don’t condemn them, but treat them as equals with the statement “Unto you, your moral law, and unto me, mine !”
109:1 SAY: “O you who deny the truth!
109:2 “I do not worship that which you worship,
109:3 and neither do you worship that which I worship! [1]
109:4 “And I will not worship ~hat which you have [ever] worshipped,
109:5 and neither will you [ever] worship that which I worship. [2]
109:6 unto you, your moral law, and unto me, mine !” [3]
# 9 The Qur’an never once speaks of Allah’s love for non-Muslims, but it speaks of Allah’s cruelty toward and hatred of non-Muslims more than 500 times.
Mike: This is non-sense, there are plenty of verses, but I will quote two:
God has assured that one does not have to be a Muslim to earn his grace; it is how one treats the fellow beings that determine one’s ability to earn God’s grace.
Qur’an, Al-An’am, Surah 6:163-164: I ask whether I should seek any god besides God–when he is the Lord of all things. All people will reap the harvest of their own deeds; no one will bear another’s burden. Ultimately, all of you will return to your Lord, and he will resolve your disputes.
Islam is indeed a pluralistic faith, as all faiths are, and imbues a sense of humility and ideals of equality of humankind. These values are embedded in its rituals practices. All people harvest their own deeds.
Qur’an, At-Taghabun, Surah 64:2-4: “It was God who created you; yet some of you refuse to believe, while others have faith. He is aware of all your actions. He created the heavens and the earth to manifest the truth.” “He fashioned each one of you–and each one of you is beautiful. To God you will all return. He knows all that the heavens and the earth contain. He knows all that you hide and all that you reveal. He knows your deepest thoughts.”
The Madinah pact, prescribes the rights of its Citizens and Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) was the signatory to it as the head of the City State. It was an all inclusive agreement between the Jews, Christians, Sabeans, Quraish, Muslims and other tribes for a peaceful co-existence. An example was set for a pluralistic society in documenting the rights of individuals. Perhaps it was the first historical document that included diverse people. The Word Ummah was used in the document to mean all residents of the City.
God could have made us all sinless angels; instead he chose to make us humans, giving guidance on one hand, temptations on the other – then giving room to make mistakes, and room for correction. Islam has not claimed monopoly to heaven; it is assured to those who do good deeds.
# 10 “Allahu Akbar! Allahu Akbar! Allahu Akbar!”
(The last words from the cockpit of Flight 93)
Mike: How ignorant? It simply means God is great. Those idiots used the phrases that they should not have; can we compel you to say or not? Did not the Christians slaughter Jews and Muslims in the name of Jesus Christ? How different was it?
There are thousands of websites out there with sheer propaganda like this one – http://www.thereligionofpeace.com/Pages/Top-10-Reasons.htm . No sane person can fight these guys, they are as extremists as the other guys. Both of them are bent on spreading hate and creating fear and chaos, and almost all of them ask for your money.
Please give your money and time to those who are committed to conflict reduction and fostering peace and co-existence for all. As peace makers, we should be drawn to those and not this.
Mike Ghouse
www.MikeGhouse.net
www.FoundationforPluralism.com
www.WorldMuslimCongress.com
In a message dated 12/23/2007 10:55:00 A.M. Central Standard Time, Lxxxxxrl writes:
TheReligionofPeace – The Top 10 Reasons Why Islam is NOT a Religion of Peace
As someone partial towards the concept of multiculturalism and pluralism, i wonder if the authors of this website might have been a bit too harsh? in their assessment of Islam?
Your comments are appreciated.
Dr. D.