According to Islam, it is NOT peaceful

Today many, including President George W.
Bush, classify Islam as a religion of peace.
When reading the Bible, Christ stated in
Matthew 5:39 “But I tell you, Do not resist
an evil person. If someone strikes you on
the right cheek, turn to him the other
also.” Even in the Old Testament which is
filled arguably more with wrath than is the
New Testament, Leviticus 19:18 states "Do
not seek revenge or bear a grudge against
one of your people, but love your neighbor
as yourself. I am the LORD.”

Those passages
present a spirit
of peacefulness
and yet
Christianity is
not called a
religion of
peace and
Islam is, so it is
important to
look at Islam
and what it
really teaches.

Much of
this site
comes
from the
work by
Gregory
M.Davis at
Jihad
Watch
http://www.
jihadwatch.
org/islam10
1/ and
Paul Wilson

T
H
E
Q
U
R
A
N
--
B
O
O
K
O
F
A
LL
A
H

According to Islamic
teaching, the Quran came
down as a series of
revelations from Allah (See
below 1) through the
Archangel Gabriel to the
Prophet Muhammad, who
then dictated it to his
followers.

The Quran is about as long as the
Christian New Testament. It
comprises 114 suras (a chapter of
the Quran; Quranic passages are
cited as Sura number: verse
number, e.g., 9:5.). According to
Islamic doctrine, it was around 610
AD in a cave near the city of
Mecca (now in southwest Saudi
Arabia) that Muhammad received
the first revelation from Allah by
way of the Archangel Gabriel.

While in Mecca, Muhammad showed great respect
for the monotheism religions of the Christian and
Jewish inhabitants.The Allah of the Quran claimed to
be the same God worshiped by Jews and Christians,
who now revealed himself to the Arab people
through his chosen messenger, Muhammad. It is the
Quranic revelations that came later in Muhammad's
career, after he and the first Muslims left Mecca for
the city of Medina, that transformed Islam from a
relatively benign form of monotheism into an
expansionary, military-political ideology that persists
to this day.

Orthodox Islam does not accept that a
rendering of the Quran into another
language is a "translation" in the way
that the King James or NIV Bibles are
translations of the original Hebrew and
Greek Scriptures. A point often made
by Islamic apologists to defang
criticism is that only Arabic readers
may understand the Quran. Arabic is a
language like any other and fully
capable of translation, thus such a
claim is false.

Those Westerners who manage to pick up a translation of the Quran are
often left bewildered as to its meaning thanks to ignorance of a critically
important principle of Quranic interpretation known as "abrogation". The
principle of abrogation -- al-naskh wa al-mansukh (the abrogating and
the abrogated) -- directs that verses revealed later in Muhammad's career
"abrogate" -- i.e., cancel and replace -- earlier ones whose instructions
they may contradict. Thus, passages revealed later in Muhammad's
career, in Medina, overrule passages revealed earlier, in Mecca. The
Quran itself lays out the principle of abrogation: 2:106. Whatever a Verse
(revelation) do We {Allah} abrogate or cause to be forgotten, We bring
a better one or similar to it. Know you not that Allah is able to do all
things?

It seems that 2:106
was revealed in
response to
skepticism directed
at Muhammad that
Allah's revelations
were not entirely
consistent over time.
Muhammad's
rebuttal was that
"Allah is able to do
all things" -- even
change his mind.

To confuse matters further, though the Quran was revealed to Muhammad sequentially
over some twenty years' time, it was not compiled in chronological order. When the
Quran was finally collated into book form under Caliph Uthman, the suras were
ordered from longest to shortest with no connection whatever to the order in which
they were revealed or to their thematic content. In order to find out what the Quran
says on a given topic, it is necessary to examine the other Islamic sources that give
clues as to when in Muhammad's lifetime the revelations occurred. Upon such
examination, one discovers that the Meccan suras, revealed at a time when the
Muslims were vulnerable, are generally benign; the later Medinan suras, revealed after
Muhammad had made himself the head of an army, are favoring or inclined to starting
quarrels or wars. Let us take, for example, 50:45 and Sura 109, both revealed in
Mecca 50:45. We know of best what they say; and you (O Muhammad) are not a
tyrant over them (to force them to Belief). But warn by the Qur'an, him who fears My
Threat.
109:1. Say (O Muhammad to these Mushrikun and Kafirun): "O Al-Kafirun
(disbelievers in Allah, in His Oneness, in His Angels, in His Books, in His Messengers,
in the Day of Resurrection, and in Al-Qadar {divine foreordainment and sustaining of
all things}!
109:2. "I worship not that which you worship,
109:3. "Nor will you worship that which I worship.
109:4. "And I shall not worship that which you are worshiping.
109:5. "Nor will you worship that which I worship.
109:6. "To you be your religion, and to me my religion (Islamic Monotheism)."

In contrast, take 9:5, commonly referred to as the
"Verse of the Sword", revealed toward the end of
Muhammad's life:9:5. Then when the Sacred
Months (the 1st, 7th, 11th, and 12th months of the
Islamic calendar) have passed, then kill the
Mushrikun {unbelievers, Christians} wherever you
find them, and capture them and besiege them, and
prepare for them each and every ambush. But if
they repent and perform As-Salat (Iqamat-as-Salat
{the Islamic ritual prayers}), and give Zakat
{alms}, then leave their way free. Verily, Allah is
Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful.
Having been revealed later in Muhammad’s life
than 50:45 and 109, the Verse of the Sword
abrogates (cancels, nullifies) Islam's peaceful
verses in accordance with 2:106.

Sura 8, which was revealed shortly before Sura 9,
demonstrates a similar theme:
8:39. And fight them until there is no more Fitnah
(disbelief and polytheism: i.e. worshipping others
besides Allah) and the religion (worship) will all be
for Allah Alone [in the whole of the world]. But if
they cease (worshiping others besides Allah), then
certainly, Allah is All-Seer of what they do.
9:29. Fight against those who believe not in Allah,
nor in the Last Day, nor forbid that which has been
forbidden by Allah and His Messenger and those
who acknowledge not the religion of truth (i.e.
Islam) among the people of the Scripture (Jews
and Christians), until they pay the Jizya with willing
submission, and feel themselves subdued.
9:33. It is He {Allah} Who has sent His Messenger
(Muhammad) with guidance and the religion of
truth (Islam), to make it superior over all religions
even though the Mushrikun (polytheists, pagans,
idolaters, disbelievers in the Oneness of Allah) hate
(it).
The Quran's commandments to Muslims to wage
war in the name of Allah against non-Muslims are
unmistakable. They are, furthermore, absolutely
authoritative as they were revealed late in the
Prophet's career and so cancel and replace earlier
instructions to act peaceably. Without knowledge
of the principle of abrogation, Westerners will
continue to misread the Quran and misdiagnose
Islam as a "religion of peace."

THE
SUN
NAH
--
"WA
Y"
OF
THE
PRO
PHET

MUH
AM
MAD

AND
SIRA

In Islam,
Muhammad is
considered
al-insan al-kamil
(the "ideal man").
Muhammad is in
no way
considered divine,
nor is he
worshipped (no
image of
Muhammad is
permitted lest it
encourage
idolatry),

but he is the
model par
excellence for all
Muslims in how
they should
conduct
themselves. It is
through
Muhammad's
personal
teachings and
actions -- which
make up the
"way of the
Prophet," the
Sunnah -- that
Muslims discern
what is a good
and holy life.
Knowledge of
the Sunnah
comes primarily
from the hadiths
("report"; any of
thousands of
episodes from
the life of
Muhammad
transmitted
orally until
written down in
the eighth
century AD)
and are second
only to the
Quran in
authority.) and
from the Sira
("life";
abbreviation of
Sirat Rasul
Allah, or "Life of
the Prophet of
God"; the
canonical
biography of the
Prophet
Muhammad)
composed by
one of Islam's
great scholars,
Muhammad bin
Ishaq, in the
eighth century
AD.

There are thousands upon thousands of hadiths,some
running to multiple pages, some barely a few lines in
length. When the hadiths were first compiled in the
eighth century AD, it became obvious that many were
inauthentic.
The early Muslim scholars of hadith spent tremendous
labor trying to determine which hadiths were
authoritative and which were suspect. The hadiths on
this page come exclusively from the most reliable and
authoritative collection, Sahih Al-Bukhari , recognized
as sound by all schools of Islamic scholarship.
Because Muhammad is himself the measuring stick of
morality, his actions are not judged according to an
independent moral standard but rather establish what
the standard for Muslims properly is.
Volume 7, Book 62, Number 88; Narrated Ursa: The
Prophet wrote the (marriage contract) with Aisha while
she was six years old and consummated his marriage
with her while she was nine years old and she
remained with him for nine years (i.e. till his death).(see
8 below)
Volume 8, Book 82, Number 795; Narrated Anas:
The Prophet cut off the hands and feet of the men
belonging to the tribe of Uraina and did not cauterise
(their bleeding limbs) till they died. (see 9 below)
Volume 2, Book 23, Number 413; Narrated Abdullah
bin Umar: The Jews Medina brought to the Prophet a
man and a woman from amongst them who have
committed (adultery) illegal sexual intercourse. He
ordered both of them to be stoned (to death), near the
place of offering the funeral prayers beside the
mosque. (see 10 below)
Volume 1, Book 2, Number 25; Narrated Abu
Huraira: Allah's Apostle was asked, "What is the best
deed?" He replied, "To believe in Allah and His
Apostle (Muhammad). The questioner then asked,
"What is the next (in goodness)?" He replied, "To
participate in Jihad (religious fighting) in Allah's Cause."
(see 11 below)
Muhammad's prophetic career is meaningfully divided
into two segments: the first in Mecca , where he
labored for fourteen years to make converts to Islam;
and later in the city of Medina where he became a
powerful political and military leader. In Mecca, we
see a quasi-Biblical figure, preaching repentance and
charity, harassed and rejected by those around him.
Later, in Medina, we see an able commander and
strategist who systematically conquered and killed
those who opposed him. It is the later years of
Muhammad's life, from 622 AD to his death in 632,
that are rarely broached in polite company. In 622,
when the Prophet was better than fifty years old, he
and his followers made the Hijra (emigration or flight),
from Mecca to the oasis of Yathrib -- later renamed
Medina -- some 200 miles to the north. Muhammad's
new monotheism had angered the pagan leaders of
Mecca, and the flight to Medina was precipitated by a
probable attempt on Muhammad's life. Shortly before
Muhammad fled the hostility of Mecca a new batch of
Muslim converts pledged their loyalty to him on a hill
outside Mecca called Aqaba. Ishaq here conveys in
the Sira the significance of this event:
Sira, p208: When God gave permission to his Apostle
to fight, the second {oath of allegiance at} Aqaba
contained conditions involving war which were not in
the first act of fealty. Now they {Muhammad's
followers} bound themselves to war against all and
sundry for God and his Apostle, while he promised
them for faithful service thus the reward of paradise.

That Muhammad's nascent religion underwent a significant change at this point is
plain. The scholarly Ishaq clearly intends to impress on his (Muslim) readers that,
while in its early years, Islam was a relatively tolerant creed that would "endure
insult and forgive the ignorant," Allah soon required Muslims "to war against all and
sundry for God and his Apostle." The Islamic calendar testifies to the paramouncy
of the Hijra by setting year one from the date of its occurrence. The year of the
Hijra, 622 AD, is considered more significant than the year of Muhammad's birth or
death or that of the first Quranic revelation because Islam is first and foremost a
political-military enterprise. It was only when Muhammad left Mecca with his
paramilitary band that Islam achieved its proper political-military articulation. The
years of the Islamic calendar (which employs lunar months) are designated in
English "AH" or "After Hijra."

SHARIA LAW

Unlike many religions, Islam includes a mandatory and highly specific
legal and political plan for society called Sharia which translates
approximately as "way" or "path." The precepts of Sharia are derived
from the commandments of the Quran and the Sunnah (the teachings
and precedents of Muhammad as found in the reliable hadiths and
the Sira). Together, the Quran and the Sunnah establish the dictates
of Sharia, which is the blueprint for the good Islamic society.
Because Sharia originates with the Quran and the Sunnah, it is not
optional. Sharia is the legal code ordained by Allah for all mankind.
To violate Sharia or not to accept its authority is to commit rebellion
against Allah, which Allah's faithful are required to combat.

There is no separation between the
religious and the political in Islam(See 2
below); rather Islam and Sharia
constitute a comprehensive means of
ordering society at every level. While it is
in theory possible for an Islamic society
to have different outward forms -- an
elective system of government, a
hereditary monarchy, etc. -- whatever the
outward structure of the government,
Sharia is the prescribed content. It is this
fact that puts Sharia into conflict with
forms of government based on anything
other than the Quran and the Sunnah.
The precepts of Sharia may be divided
into two parts:

Acts
of
wors
hip
(al-i
bada
t):

Hum
an
inter
actio
n
(al-
mua
mala
t)

Ritu
al
Purif
icati
on
(Wu
du)

Fina
ncial

trans
actio
ns

Pray
ers
(Sal
ah)

Mar
riage
,
divo
rce,
and
child
care

Fast
s
(Sa
wm
and
Ram
adan
)

Foo
d
and
drin
k

Char
ity
(Zak
at)

War
and
peac
e

Pilgri
mag
e to
Mec
ca
(Haj
j)

Judi
cial
matt
ers
&
Pena
l
puni
shm
ents

As one may
see, there are
few aspects of
life that Sharia
does not
specifically
govern. It
seems fair then
to classify
Islam and its
Sharia code as
a form of
totalitarianism.

JIHAD

Jihad literally translates as "struggle."
Strictly speaking, jihad does not
mean "holy war" as Muslim
apologists often point out.
However, the question remains as
to what sort of "struggle" is meant:
an inner, spiritual struggle against the
passions, or an outward, physical
struggle. Below are excerpts from
Hasan Al-Banna's treatise, Jihad
(italics). In 1928, Al-Banna founded
the Muslim Brotherhood,

which
today is the
most
powerful
organization
in Egypt
after the
government
itself. In this
treatise,
Al-Banna
cogently
argues that
Muslims
must take
up arms
against
unbelievers.
As he says,
"The
verses of
the Qur'an
and the
Sunnah
summon
people in
general
(with the
most
eloquent
expression
and the
clearest
exposition)
to jihad, to
warfare, to
the armed
forces, and
all means
of land
and sea"
fighting."

Al-Banna clarifies that this is not just a fringe element of fanatical
Muslims "Jihad is an obligation from Allah on every Muslim
and cannot be ignored nor evaded. Allah has ascribed great
importance to jihad and has made the reward of the martyrs
and the fighters in His way a splendid one. Only those who have
acted similarly and who have modeled themselves upon the
martyrs in their performance of jihad can join them in this
reward. Furthermore, Allah has specifically honoured the
Mujahideen {those who wage jihad} with certain exceptional
qualities, both spiritual and practical, to benefit them in this
world and the next. Their pure blood is a symbol of victory in
this world and the mark of success and felicity in the world to
come."

Al-Banna adds that there is punishment for those Muslims who do
not undertake Jihad. "Those who can only find excuses,however,
have been warned of extremely dreadful punishments and Allah
has described them with the most unfortunate of names. He has
reprimanded them for their cowardice and lack of spirit, and
castigated them for their weakness and truancy. In this world,
they will be surrounded by dishonour and in the next they will
be surrounded by the fire from which they shall not escape
though they may possess much wealth. The weaknesses of
abstention and evasion of jihad are regarded by Allah as one
of the major sins, and one of the seven sins that guarantee
failure."

Hanafi School, said: "Jihad linguistically means to exert one's utmost effort in word and action;
in the Sharee'ah {Sharia -- Islamic law} it is the fighting of the unbelievers, and involves all
possible efforts that are necessary to dismantle the power of the enemies of Islam including
beating them, plundering their wealth, destroying their places of worship and smashing their
idols. This means that jihad is to strive to the utmost to ensure the strength of Islam by such
means as fighting those who fight you and the dhimmies {non-Muslims living under Islamic rule}
(if they violate any of the terms of the treaty) and the apostates (who are the worst of
unbelievers, for they disbelieved after they have affirmed their belief).It is fard (obligatory) on us
to fight with the enemies. The Imam must send a military expedition to the Dar-al-Harb
{House of War -- the non-Muslim world} every year at least once or twice, and the people
must support him in this. If some of the people fulfill the obligation, the remainder are released
from the obligation. If this fard kifayah (communal obligation) cannot be fulfilled by that group,
then the responsibility lies with the closest adjacent group, and then the closest after that etc.,
and if the fard kifayah cannot be fulfilled except by all the people, it then becomes a fard 'ayn
(individual obligation), like prayer on everyone of the people. The scholarly people are of one
opinion on this matter as should be evident and this is irrespective of whether these scholars
were Mujtahideen or Muqalideen and it is irrespective of whether these scholars were salaf
(early) or khalaf (late). They all agreed unanimously that jihad is a fard kifayah imposed
upon the Islamic ummah in order to spread the Da'wah of Islam, and that jihad is a fard
'ayn if an enemy attacks Muslim lands. Today, my brother, the Muslims as you know are forced
to be subservient before others and are ruled by disbelievers. Our lands have been besieged,
and our hurruma'at (personal possessions, respect, honour, dignity and privacy) violated. Our
enemies are overlooking our affairs, and the rites of our din are under their jurisdiction. Yet still
the Muslims fail to fulfill the responsibility of Da'wah that is on their shoulders. Hence in this
situation it becomes the duty of each and every Muslim to make jihad. He should prepare
himself mentally and physically such that when comes the decision of Allah, he will be ready.

Dar
al-Isl
am=
Hous
e of
Islam
and
Dar
al-ha
rb=H
ouse
of
War

The violent injunctions of the Quran and the violent
precedents set by Muhammad set the tone for the Islamic
view of politics (See 3,4,5,6,7 below) and of world history.
Islamic scholarship divides the world into two spheres of
influence, the House of Islam (dar al-Islam) and the House of
War (dar al-harb). Islam means submission, and so the
House of Islam includes those nations that have submitted to
Islamic rule, which is to say those nations ruled by Sharia law.

The rest of the world,
which has not
accepted Sharia law
and so is not in a state
of submission, exists
in a state of rebellion
or war with the will of
Allah. It is incumbent
on dar al-Islam to
make war upon dar
al-harb until such time
that all nations submit
to the will of Allah and
accept Sharia law.
Islam's message to the
non-Muslim world is
the same now as it
was in the time of
Muhammad and
throughout history:
submit or be
conquered. The only
times since
Muhammad when dar
al-Islam was not
actively at war with
dar al-harb were
when the Muslim
world was too weak
or divided to make
war effectively.

But the lulls in the ongoing war that the House of Islam
has declared against the House of War do not indicate a
forsaking of jihad as a principle but reflect a change in
strategic factors. It is acceptable for Muslim nations to
declare hudna, or truce, at times when the infidel nations
are too powerful for open warfare to make sense. Jihad is
not a collective suicide pact even while "killing and being
killed" (Sura 9:111) is encouraged on an individual level.
For the past few hundred years, the Muslim world has
been too politically fragmented and technologically
inferior to pose a major threat to the West. But that is
changing.

Due to the state of war between dar al-Islam and dar al-harb, reuses de
guerre, i.e., systematic lying to the infidel, must be considered part
and parcel of Islamic tactics. The parroting by Muslim organizations
throughout dar al-harb that "Islam is a religion of peace," or that the
origins of Muslim violence lie in the unbalanced psyches of particular
individual "fanatics," must be considered as disinformation intended
to induce the infidel world to let down its guardd. Of course,
individual Muslims may genuinely regard their religion as "peaceful" --
but only insofar as they are ignorant of its true teachings, or in the sense
of the Egyptian theorist Sayyid Qutb, who posited in his Islam and
Universal Peace that true peace would prevail in the world just as
soon as Islam had conquered it.

A telling point is that, while Muslims
who present their religion as peaceful
abound throughout dar al-harb, they are
nearly non-existent in dar al-Islam. A
Muslim apostate once suggested to me
a litmus test for Westerners who believe
that Islam is a religion of "peace" and
"tolerance": try making that point on a
street corner in Ramallah, or Riyadh, or
Islamabad, or anywhere in the Muslim
world. He assured the person wouldn't
live five minutes.

A problem concerning law and order {with respect to Muslims in dar al-harb} arises
from an ancient Islamic legal principle -- that of taqiyya, a word the root meaning of
which is "to remain faithful" but which in effect means "dissimulation." It has full Quranic
authority (3:28 and 16:106) and allows the Muslim to conform outwardly to the
requirements of unislamic or non-Islamic government, while inwardly "remaining
faithful" to whatever he conceives to be proper Islam, while waiting for the tide to turn
as did the 9/11 hijackers prior to their suicide mission.

The Prophet said, "War is deceit."

Historically, examples of taqiyya include permission to renounce Islam itself in order to
save one's neck or ingratiate oneself with an enemy. It is not hard to see that the
implications of taqiyya are insidious in the extreme: they essentially render negotiated
settlement -- and, indeed, all veracious communication between dar al-Islam and dar
al-harb -- impossible. It should not, however, be surprising that a party to a war
should seek to mislead the other about its means and intentions. Jihad Watch's own
Hugh Fitzgerald sums up taqiyya and kitman, a related form of deception.
"Taqiyya" is the religiously-sanctioned doctrine, with its origins in Shi'a Islam but now
practiced by non-Shi'a as well, of deliberate dissimulation about religious matters that
may be undertaken to protect Islam, and the Believers. A related term, of broader
application, is "kitman," which is defined as "mental reservation." An example of
"Taqiyya" would be the insistence of a Muslim apologist that "of course" there is
freedom of conscience in Islam, and then quoting that Qur'anic verse -- "There shall be
no compulsion in religion." {2:256} But the impression given will be false, for there has
been no mention of the Muslim doctrine of abrogation, or naskh , whereby such an
early verse as that about "no compulsion in religion" has been cancelled out by later,
far more intolerant and malevolent verses. In any case, history shows that within Islam
there is, and always has been, "compulsion in religion" for Muslims, and for
non-Muslims.

"Kitman" is close to "taqiyya," but rather than outright dissimulation, it consists
in telling only a part of the truth, with "mental reservation" justifying the
omission of the rest. One example may suffice. When a Muslim maintains that
"jihad" really means "a spiritual struggle," and fails to add that this definition is a
recent one in Islam (little more than a century old), he misleads by holding
back, and is practicing "kitman." When he adduces, in support of this doubtful
proposition, the hadith in which Muhammad, returning home from one of his
many battles, is reported to have said (as known from a chain of transmitters,
or isnad), that he had returned from "the Lesser Jihad to the Greater Jihad" and
does not add what he also knows to be true, that this is a "weak" hadith,
regarded by the most-respected muhaddithin as of doubtful authenticity, he is
further practicing "kitman."

In times when the greater strength of dar al-harb necessitates that the jihad take an
indirect approach, the natural attitude of a Muslim to the infidel world must be one of
deception and omission. Revealing frankly the ultimate goal of dar al-Islam to
conquer and plunder dar al-harb when the latter holds the military trump cards would
be strategic idiocy. Fortunately for the jihadists, most infidels do not understand how
one is to read the Quran, nor do they trouble themselves to find out what
Muhammad actually did and taught, which makes it easy to give the impression
through selective quotations and omissions that "Islam is a religion of peace." Any
infidel who wants to believe such fiction will happily persist in his mistake having
been cited a handful of Meccan verses and told that Muhammad was a man of great
piety and charity. Digging only slightly deeper is sufficient to dispel the falsehood.

DHIMMITUDE

Islam's persecution of non-Muslims is in no way limited to jihad, even though that is
the basic relationship between the Muslim and non-Muslim world. After the jihad
concludes in a given area with the conquest of infidel territory, the dhimma, or treaty
of protection, may be granted to the conquered "People of the Book" -- historically,
Jews, Christians, and Zoroastrians. The dhimma provides that the life and property
of the infidel are exempted from jihad for as long as the Muslim rulers permit, which
has generally meant for as long as the subject non-Muslims -- the dhimmi -- prove
economically useful to the Islamic state. The Quran spells out the payment of the
jizya (poll- or head-tax; Sura 9:29), which is the most conspicuous means by which
the Muslim overlords exploit the dhimmi. But the jizya is not merely economic in its
function; it exists also to humiliate the dhimmi and impress on him the superiority of
Islam.

Al-Maghili, a fifteenth century Muslim theologian, explains: On the day of
payment {of the jizya} they {the dhimmi} shall be assembled in a public place like
the suq {place of commerce}. They should be standing there waiting in the lowest
and dirtiest place. The acting officials representing the Law shall be placed above
them and shall adopt a threatening attitude so that it seems to them, as well as to
others, that our object is to degrade them by pretending to take their possessions.
They will realize that we are doing them a favor in accepting from them the jizya and
letting them go free.

Islamic law codifies various
other restrictions on the
dhimmi, all of which derive
from the Quran and the
Sunnah. Several hundred years
of Islamic thought on the right
treatment of dhimmi peoples is
summed up by Al-Damanhuri,
a seventeenth century head of
Al-Azhar University in Cairo,
the most prestigious center for
learning in the Muslim world:

… just as the dhimmis are prohibited from building churches, other things also are
prohibited to them. They must not assist an unbeliever against a Muslim … raise the
cross in an Islamic assemblage … display banners on their own holidays; bear arms
… or keep them in their homes. Should they do anything of the sort, they must be
punished, and the arms seized. …
The Christian, Jewish, and Zoroastrian peoples of the Middle East, North Africa, and
much of Europe suffered under the oppressive strictures of the dhimma for centuries.
The status of these dhimmi peoples is comparable in many ways to that of former
slaves in the post-bellum American South. Forbidden to construct houses of worship
or repair extant ones, economically crippled by the jizya, socially humiliated, legally
discriminated against, and generally kept in a permanent state of weakness and
vulnerability by the Muslim overlords, it should not be surprising that their numbers
dwindled, in many places to the point of extinction. The generally misunderstood
decline of Islamic civilization over the past several centuries is easily explained by the
demographic decline of the dhimmi populations, which had provided the principle
engines of technical and administrative competence.

Should the dhimmi violate the conditions of the dhimma -- perhaps through practicing his own
religion indiscreetly or failing to show adequate deference to a Muslim -- then the jihad
resumes. At various times in Islamic history, dhimmi peoples rose above their subjected status,
and this was often the occasion for violent reprisals by Muslim populations who believed them
to have violated the terms of the dhimma. Medieval Andalusia (Moorish Spain) is often pointed
out by Muslim apologists as a kind of multicultural wonderland, in which Jews and Christians
were permitted by the Islamic government to rise through the ranks of learning and government
administration. What we are not told, however, is that this relaxation of the disabilities resulted
in widespread rioting on the part of the Muslim populace that killed hundreds of dhimmis,
mainly Jews. By refusing to convert to Islam and straying from the traditional constraints of the
dhimma (even at the behest of the Islamic government, which was in need of capable
manpower), the dhimmi had implicitly chosen the only other option permitted by the Quran:
death.

JI
H
A
D
T
H
R
O
U
G
H
HI
S
T
O
R
Y

The
First
Maj
or
Wav
e of
Jihad
: the
Arab
s,
622-
750
AD

Near the end of his life, Muhammad sent letters to the great empires of the Middle East
demanding their submission to his authority. This dispels any notion that the Prophet
intended Islam's expansion to stop with Arabia. Indeed, it is only logical that the one true
religion, revealed by the final and fullest prophet, should have universal sway. Thus, as
Muhammad had fought and subdued the peoples of the Arabian peninsula, his successors Abu
Bakr, Umar, Uthman, and Ali (known as "the four rightly-guided Caliphs") and other Caliphs
fought and subdued the people of the Middle East, Africa, Asia, and Europe in the name of
Allah. Unleashing upon the world the blitzkrieg of its day, Islam rapidly spread into the
territories of Byzantium Persia, and Western Europe in the decades after Muhammad's death.
The creaking Byzantine and Persian powers, having battled each other into mutual decline,
offered little resistance to this unanticipated onslaught. The Arab Muslim armies charged into the
Holy Land, conquered what is now Iraq and Iran, then swept west across North Africa, into
Spain, and finally into France. The Muslim offensive was finally halted in the West at the Battle
of Poitiers/Tours , not far from Paris, in 732 AD. In the east, the jihad penetrated deep into
Central Asia
Almost overnight, the more advanced civilizations of the Middle East, North Africa, Persia, and
Iberia saw their agriculture, native religions, and populations destroyed or plundered. Save for a
handful of walled cities that managed to negotiate conditional surrenders, the catastrophes those
lands suffered were very nearly complete.

Bat Ye'or, the leading scholar of Islam's
expansion and its treatment of non-Muslims,
has provided an inestimable service through the
compilation and translation of numerous
primary source documents describing centuries
of Islamic conquest. She includes these
documents in her works on Islamic history and
the plight of non-Muslims under Islamic rule. In
the history of jihad, the slaughter of civilians,
the desecration of churches, and the plundering
of the countryside are commonplace.

Here is Michael the Syrian's account of the
Muslim invasion of Cappodocia (southern
Turkey in 650 AD under Caliph Umar:

… when Muawiya {the Muslim commander} arrived {in Euchaita in Armenia} he ordered all
the inhabitants to be put to the sword; he placed guards so that no one escaped. After gathering
up all the wealth of the town, they set to torturing the leaders to make them show them things
[treasures] that had been hidden. The Taiyaye {Muslim Arabs} led everyone into slavery --
men and women, boys and girls -- and they committed much debauchery in that unfortunate
town: they wickedly committed immoralities inside churches. They returned to their country
rejoicing.
The following description by the Muslim historian, Ibn al-Athir (1160-1233 AD), of razzias
(raiding expeditions) in Northern Spain and France in the eighth and ninth centuries AD,
conveys nothing but satisfaction at the extent of the destruction wrought upon the infidels,
including noncombatants. Hisham, prince of Spain, sent a large army commanded by Abd al-
Malik b. Abd al-Wahid b. Mugith into enemy territory, and which made forays as far as
Narbonne and Jaranda . This general first attacked Jaranda where there was an elite Frank
garrison; he killed the bravest, destroyed the walls and towers of the town and almost managed
to seize it. He then marched on to Narbonne, where he repeated the same actions, then,
pushing forward, he trampled underfoot the land of the Cerdagne {near Andorra in the
Pyrenees}. For several months he traversed this land in every direction, raping women, killing
warriors, destroying fortresses, burning and pillaging everything, driving back the enemy who
fled in disorder.

This first wave of jihad engulfed much of the Byzantine, Visigothic, Frankish, and Persian
Empires and left the newborn Islamic Empire controlling territory from Southern France, south
through Spain, east across North Africa to India, and north to Russia. Early in the second
millennium AD, the Mongol invasion from the east greatly weakened the Islamic Empire and
ended Arab predominance therein.

The
Seco
nd
Majo
r
Wave
of
Jihad:
the
Turks
,
1071
-168
3 AD

Some twenty-five years before the first Crusading army
set out from central Europe for the Holy Land, the
Turkish (Ottoman) armies began an assault on the
Christian Byzantine Empire, which had ruled what is now
Turkey since the Roman Empire's capital was moved to
Constantinople in 325 AD. At the battle of Manzikert, in
1071, the Christian forces suffered a disastrous defeat,
which left much of Anatolia Turkey open to invasion. This
second wave of jihad was temporarily held up by the
invading Latin Armies during the Crusades but, by the
beginning of the 14th century, the Turks were threatening
Constantinople and Europe itself.

In the West, Roman Catholic armies were bit by bit forcing Muslim forces down the Iberian
peninsula, until, in 1492, they were definitively expelled (the Reconquista). In Eastern Europe,
however, Islam continued in the ascendant. One of the most significant engagements between
the invading Muslims and the indigenous peoples of the region was the Battle of Kosovo in
1389, where the Turks annihilated a multinational army under the Serbian King, St. Lazar,
though their progress into Europe was significantly slowed. After numerous attempts dating
back to the seventh century, Constantinople, the jewel of Eastern Christendom, finally fell in
1453 to the armies of Sultan Mahomet II. Lest one ascribe the atrocities of the first wave of
jihad to the "Arabness" of its perpetrators, the Turks showed they were fully capable of living
up to the principles of the Quran and the Sunnah. Paul Fregosi in his book Jihad describes the
scene following the final assault on Constantinople Several thousand of the survivors had
taken refuge in the cathedral: nobles, servants, ordinary citizens, their wives and children,
priests and nuns. They locked the huge doors, prayed, and waited. {Caliph} Mahomet {II}
had given the troops free quarter. They raped, of course, the nuns being the first victims, and
slaughtered. At least four thousand were killed before Mahomet stopped the massacre at
noon. He ordered a muezzin {one who issues the call to prayer} to climb into the pulpit of St.
Sophia and dedicate the building to Allah. It has remained a mosque ever since. Fifty thousand
of the inhabitants, more than half the population, were rounded up and taken away as slaves.
For months afterward, slaves were the cheapest commodity in the markets of Turkey.
Mahomet asked that the body of the dead emperor be brought to him. Some Turkish soldiers
found it in a pile of corpses and recognized Constantine {XI} by the golden eagles
embroidered on his boots. The sultan ordered his head to be cut off and placed between the
horse's legs under the equestrian bronze statue of the emperor Justinian. The head was later
embalmed and sent around the chief cities of the Ottoman empire for the delectation of the
citizens. Next, Mahomet ordered the Grand Duke Notaras, who had survived, be brought
before him, asked him for the names and addresses of all the leading nobles, officials, and
citizens, which Notaras gave him. He had them all arrested and decapitated. He sadistically
bought from their owners {i.e., Muslim commanders} high-ranking prisoners who had been
enslaved, for the pleasure of having them beheaded in front of him

This second, Turkish wave of jihad reached its farthest extent
at the failed sieges of Vienna in 1529 and 1683, where in the
latter instance the Muslim army under Kara Mustapha was
thrown back by the Roman Catholics under the command of
the Polish King, John Sobieski. In the decades that followed,
the Ottomans were driven back down through the Balkans,
though they were never ejected from the European continent
entirely. Still, even while the imperial jihad faltered, Muslim
land- and sea-borne razzias into Christian territory continued,
and Christians were being abducted into slavery from as far
away as Ireland into the 19th century.

Ji
ha
d
in
th
e
M
o
d
er
n
Er
a

Following its defeat at the walls of
Vienna, Austria in 1683, Islam entered a
period of strategic decline in which it was
increasingly dominated by the rising
European colonial powers. Due to its
material weakness vis-à-vis the West,
dar al-Islam was unable to prosecute
large-scale military campaigns into infidel
territory. The Islamic Empire, then ruled
by the Ottoman Turks, was reduced to
fending of the increasingly predatory
European powers.

In 1856, Western pressure
compelled the Ottoman government
to suspend the dhimma under which
the Empire's non-Muslim subjects
labored. This provided hitherto
unknown opportunities for social and
personal improvement by the former
dhimmis, but it also fomented
resentment by orthodox Muslims who
saw this as a violation of the Sharia
and their Allah-given superiority over
unbelievers.

By the late 19th century, tensions among
the European subjects of the Empire
broke out into the open when the
Ottoman government massacred 30,000
Bulgarians in 1876 for allegedly rebelling
against Ottoman rule. Following Western
intervention that resulted in Bulgarian
independence, the Ottoman government
and its Muslim subjects were increasingly
nervous about other non-Muslim groups
seeking independence.

It was in this atmosphere that the first stage of the Armenian genocide
took place in 1896 with the slaughter of some 250,000 Armenians.
Both civilians and military personnel took place in the massacres. Peter
Balakian, in his book, The Burning Tigris, documents the whole horrific
story. But the massacres of the 1890s were only the prelude to the
much larger holocaust of 1915, which claimed some 1.5 million lives.
While various factors contributed to the slaughter, there is no mistaking
that the massacres were nothing other than a jihad waged against the
Armenians, no longer protected as they were by the dhimma. In 1914,
as the Ottoman Empire entered World War I on the side of the central
powers, an official anti-Christian jihad was proclaimed.

To promote the idea of jihad, the
sheikh-ul-Islam’s {the most senior
religious leader in the Ottoman
Empire} published proclamation
summoned the Muslim world to arise
and massacre its Christian oppressors.
“Oh Moslems,” the document read,
“Ye who are smitten with happiness
and are on the verge of sacrificing your
life and your good for the cause of
right, and of braving perils, gather now
around the Imperial throne.”

In the Ikdam, the Turkish newspaper that had just
passed into German ownership, the idea of jihad
was underscored: “The deeds of our enemies have
brought down the wrath of God. A gleam of hope
has appeared. All Mohammedans, young and old,
men, women, and children must fulfill their duty. …
If we do it, the deliverance of the subjected
Mohammedan kingdoms is assured.” … “He who
kills even one unbeliever,” one pamphlet read, “of
those who rule over us, whether he does it secretly
or openly, shall be rewarded by God.”

The anti-Christian jihad
culminated in 1922 at Smyrna,
on the Mediterranean coast,
where 150,000 Greek
Christians were massacred by
the Turkish army under the
indifferent eye of Allied
warships. All in, from
1896-1923, some 2.5 million
Christians were killed, the first
modern genocide, which to this
day is denied by the Turkish
government.

Since
the
brea
kup
of
the
Islam
ic
Empi
re
follo
wing
Worl
d
War
I,

various jihads
have been
fought around
the globe by
the
independent
Muslim
nations and
sub-state
jihadist
groups. The
most
sustained
effort has
been directed
against Israel,
which has
committed the
unpardonable
sin of
rebuilding dar
al-harb on
land formerly
a part of dar
al-Islam.
Other
prominent
jihads include
that fought
against the
Soviets in
Afghanistan,
the Muslim
Bosnians
against the
Serbs in the
former
Yugoslavia,
the Muslim
Albanians
against the
Serbs in
Kosovo, and
the Chechens
against the
Russians in
the Caucasus.

Jihads have also been waged throughout
northern Africa, the Philippines, Thailand,
Kashmir, and a host of other places
throughout the world. In addition, the
overwhelming majority of terrorist
attacks around the world have been
committed by Muslims, including, of
course, the spectacular attacks of
9/11/01 in the USA, 3/11/04 in Spain,
and 7/7/05 in UK. (For a more
comprehensive list of Muslim attacks,
visit www.thereligionofpeace.com.)

The fact is, the percentage of
conflicts in the world today that
do not include Islam is pretty
small. Islam is making a
comeback. The second-largest
religion in the world after
Christianity, Islam is also the
fastest-growing religion. In the
United States, for example,
nearly 80 percent of the more
than 1,200 mosques have been
built in the past 12 years.

In 2008, the Archbishop of Canterbury (Spiritual leader of the world's Anglicans - head of the
Church of England) stated "it could help build a better and more cohesive society if Muslims
were able to choose to have marital disputes or financial matters, for example, dealt with in a
sharia court. The adoption of some elements of sharia law "seems unavoidable". So our
staunchest ally and country from which the United States was formed has its highest Christian
leader stating that England should use Sharia law! A report by the Church of England and
endorsed by the Archbishop of York says the UK Government has become “unbalanced” in
its approach and that the Government has been diverting state funds towards Muslim groups
and away from Christian groups wanting to help the poor. An excerpt stated "The Equality
Unit gave Muslim groups £1.5 million of public money, compared with £137,500 given
to Christian charities and £110,000 given to Jewish organisations."

CONCLUSION

The chief barrier today to a better understanding of Islam --
apart, perhaps, from outright fear -- is sloppy language. Let
us take, to start with, the much-vaunted "war on terror."
Upon scrutiny, the phrase "war on terror" makes as much
sense as a war on "blitzkrieg," "bullets," or "strategic
bombing." The "war on terror" implies that it is perfectly fine
if the enemy seeks to destroy us -- and, indeed, succeeds in
doing so -- as long as he does not employ "terror" in the
process. "Terrorism," it should be obvious, is a tactic or
stratagem used to advance a goal; it is the goal of Islamic
terrorism that we must come to understand, and this logically
requires an understanding of Islam.

As we have seen, contrary to the widespread insistence
that true Islam is pacific even if a handful of its
adherents are violent, the Islamic sources make clear
that engaging in violence against non-Muslims is a
central and indispensable principle to Islam. Islam is less
a personal faith than a political ideology that exists in a
fundamental and permanent state of war with
non-Islamic civilizations, cultures, and individuals. The
Islamic holy texts outline a social, governmental, and
economic system for all mankind. Those cultures and
individuals who do not submit to Islamic governance

exist in an ipso facto
state of rebellion with
Allah and must be
forcibly brought into
submission. The
misbegotten term
"Islamo-fascism" is
wholly redundant: Islam
itself is a kind of fascism
that achieves its full and
proper form only when
it assumes the powers
of the state.

The spectacular acts of Islamic terrorism in
the late 20th and early 21st centuries are
but the most recent manifestation of a
global war of conquest that Islam has been
waging since the days of the Prophet
Muhammad in the 7th Century AD and
that continues apace today. This is the
simple, glaring truth that is staring the world
today in the face -- and which has stared it
in the face numerous times in the past --
but which it seems few today are willing to
contemplate.

It is important to realize that we have been
talking about Islam -- not Islamic
"fundamentalism," "extremism," "fanaticism,"
"Islamo-fascism," or "Islamism," but Islam
proper, Islam in its orthodox form as it has
been understood and practiced by
right-believing Muslims from the time of
Muhammad to the present. The mounting
episodes of Islamic terrorism in the late 20th
and early 21st centuries are due largely to the
geostrategic changes following the end of the
Cold War and the growing technical options
available to terrorists.

With the collapse of Soviet
hegemony over much of the
Muslim world, coupled with the
burgeoning wealth of the Muslim
oil-producing countries, the
Muslim world increasingly
possesses the freedom and means
to support jihad around the globe.
In short, the reason that Muslims
are once again waging war against
the non-Muslim world is because
they can.

It is paramount to note, however, that, even if no
major terrorist attack ever occurs on Western soil
again, Islam still poses a mortal danger to the
West. A halt to terrorism would simply mean a
change in Islam’s tactics -- perhaps indicating a
longer-term approach that would allow Muslim
immigration and higher birth rates to bring Islam
closer to victory before the next round of
violence. It cannot be overemphasized that
Muslim terrorism is a symptom of Islam that may
increase or decrease in intensity while Islam
proper remains permanently hostile.

Muhammad Taqi Partovi Samzevari, in his “Future of the Islamic Movement” (1986), sums up
the Islamic worldview.Our own Prophet … was a general, a statesman, an administrator, an
economist, a jurist and a first-class manager all in one. … In the Qur’an’s historic vision Allah’s
support and the revolutionary struggle of the people must come together, so that Satanic rulers
are brought down and put to death. A people that is not prepared to kill and to die in order to
create a just society cannot expect any support from Allah. The Almighty has promised us that
the day will come when the whole of mankind will live united under the banner of Islam, when
the sign of the Crescent, the symbol of Muhammad, will be supreme everywhere. … But that
day must be hastened through our Jihad, through our readiness to offer our lives and to shed the
unclean blood of those who do not see the light brought from the Heavens by Muhammad in his
mi’raj {“nocturnal voyages to the ‘court’ of Allah”}. … It is Allah who puts the gun in our hand.
But we cannot expect Him to pull the trigger as well simply because we are faint-hearted.

It must be
emphasized
that all of the
analysis
provided here
derives from
the Islamic
sources
themselves
and is not the
product of
critical
Western
scholarship.

Footnotes

References
1. Was Allah
The Moon God
of Ancient Arab
Pagan?
By Syed
Kamran Mirza
http://www.faithf
reedom.org/Arti
cles/skm30804.
htm

Historical evidences,
impartial logic, well
versed references and all
available circumstantial
judgments can very well
prove that?
(a) Allah name of deity
was pre-existed much
before the arrival of
Islam,
(b) Pre-Islamic Pagan
peoples worshipped
Allah as their supreme
deity (moon-god).
Allah's name existed in
pre-Islamic Arab. In
ancient Arab the Allah
was considered to be the
supreme God/deity (as
Moon-God) and Arab
Pagans worshipped Allah
before Islam arrived.

Let us examine
below some
valid questions
and answers :
Did the Pagan
Arabs in
pre-Islamic
times worship
360 gods? Yes
Did the pagans
Arabs worship
the sun, moon
and the stars?
Yes
Did the Arabs
built temples to
the Moon-god?
Yes
Did different
Arab tribes give
the Moon-god
different
names/titles?
Yes
What were
some of the
names/titles?
Sin, Hubul,
Ilumquh, Al-ilah.
Was the title
al-ilah (the god)
used as the
Moon-god? Yes
Was the word
Allah derived
from al-ilah? Yes
Was the pagan
Allah a high god
in a pantheon of
deities? Yes.
Was he
worshipped at
the Kabah? Yes.
Was Allah only
one of many
Meccan gods?
Yes
Did they place a
statue of Hubul
on top of the
Kabah? Yes.
At that time was
Hubul
considered the
Moon-god?
Yes.
Was the Kabah
thus the house
of the
Moon-god?
Yes.
Did the name
Allah eventually
replace that of
Hubul as the
name of the
Moon god? Yes.
Did they call the
Kabah the
house of Allah?
Yes.
Were al-Lat,
al-Uzza and
Manat called
the daughters of
Allah? Yes.
Yusuf Ali
explains in fn.
5096, pg. 1445,
that Lat, Uzza
and Manat were
known as the
daughters of
God [Allah]
Did the Qur'an
at one point tell
Muslims to
worship al-Lat,
al-Uzza and
Manat? Yes. In
Surah 53:19-20.
Have those
verses been
abrogated out
of the present
Quran? Yes.
What were they
called? The
Satanic Verses.

The variable
names (Sin,
Hubul,
llumquh,
Al-ilah) of
moon god
were used by
various tribes
of pagan
Arabs. Pagan
god SIN was
the name of
Moon-god.

Who is actually Allah?

According to Islamic Theologians (Mullahs, Maulana, Moulavis, etc.), or Islamic teachings--
Allah is the supreme God or creator who (suddenly one day?) talked or introduced Himself
with Prophet Muhammad through an Angel named Gabriel, disclosing the truth that it is the
Allah who created everything in the universe. Surprisingly, Quran never defines the word Allah
as to who actually Allah was or what was the relation of Allah with pagans. I believe, 99%
percent of Muslims do believe that Allah's name was invented or started right from the time
when Gabriel disclosed the truth to Prophet Muhammad in the cave of Hira Parvat (Mountain)
and gave Muhammad the Quran. They believe that before this truth was revealed pagan Arabs
were in the total darkness (Andhakar Zuug) and they used to worship various puppet goddess
and that the pagans were very evil people. I can bet on this fact that no mullahs ever told us the
real truth, neither they believe this clean truth that Allah was in fact a pre-existing deity in pagan
Arabia. What a hypocrisy?

Some important factors which will suggest that the name Allah was
already in use by Pagans as their chief God/deity:
(A) In pre-Islamic days, that Muslims call the Days of ignorance, the
religious background of the Arabs was pagan, and basically animistic.
Through Moon, Sun, Stars, Planets, Animals, wells, trees, stones, caves,
springs, and other natural objects man could make contact with the
deity. At Mekka, Allah was the chief of the gods and the special deity of
the Quraish, Muhammad's tribe. Allah had three daughters: Al Uzzah
(Venus) most revered of all and pleased with human sacrifice; Manah,
the goddess of destiny, and Al Lat, the goddess of vegetable life. These
three daughters of Allah (there is a Quranic verse about them) were
considered very powerful over all things. Therefore, their intercessions
on behalf of their worshippers were of great significance.
(B) Arabs used to give their children names such as Abdullah (slave of
Allah). Clean proof was the fact that, Muhammad's father's name was
Abdullah. Logical analogy here is had there been no Allah in pre-Islamic
Arab, there could be no Abdullah or slave of Allah in Arabia.
(C) Even today, in the entire Arab World, not only Muslims but all other
non-Muslim (Jews, Christians, Sabians, Bahai, an atheist etc.) Arabs
says "Ya Allah" as the expression of surprise or unhappiness/sorrow.
(D). Albert Hourani's statement: "The Islamic name used for God was
Allah, which was already in use for one of the local Gods (it now used
by Arabic-speaking Jews and Christians as the name of God (A history
Of Arab people by Albert Hourani, 1991, page-16, Belknap press of
Harvard University, USA)

History tells us two
theories of Allah's
existence in and around
the Kaba Sharif:
(1) Pagans used to call
the largest Statue amongst
the 360 deities as
ALLAH whom they used
to consider the
chief/supreme deity (god).
Or,
(2) Pagan Arabs used to
worship 360 deities inside
Kaba Sharif, and they
used to consider them
different smaller deities
under the total control of
a single most powerful
chief deity called ALLAH
who was invisible
(Nirakar) and was the
all-powerful, all-knowing,
and totally unknowable.

Amazing Similarities with Hindu Religion:
In India's Hindu religion is quite similar to the number two theory
(above) of pagan belief. Although, Hindus worship many different
Goddesses they invariably have faith upon a single supreme invisible
deity called Bhagaban (some call it Ischhaar) whom they call
Nirakar. And, surprisingly there is no sculptural image/figure for this
Bhagaban. But all Hindus worship Him along with other numerous
deities. This Bhagaban is considered as the lord of all other deities.
What would happen if some intelligent prophet would have asked
Hindus to give up worshipping other goddesses and keeping only
Bhagaban as their only deity making it a monotheist religion just like
Islam? Could it not be another religion like Islam?

Now
some
factors
which
will
suggest
Allah
was
the
Moon-
god of
Arab
pagans:

(A) In Quran there are at least a dozen verses in which Allah repeatedly swears by the names
such as moon, sun, stars, planets, night, wind etc. It is a mystery why the creator Allah should
swear by his creations. Normally, we swear by the name of something much superior to us,
such as we swear by God or by the name of our father (who is considered senior or superior
to us). But we never swear by the name of something inferior to us. Here in the Quran
swearing fashions of Allah (God) by moon or stars hinting us that Allah considered these
things superior to himself. And this makes us to think (otherwise) as to who actually acted as
Allah in Quran. However, in his explanation of why the Quran swears by the moon in Surah
74:32, "Nay, verily by the Moon," Yusuf Alli comments, "The moon was worshipped as a
deity in times of darkness"(fn. 5798, pg. 1644). Perhaps, this swearing of Allah was due to
the usual/cultural habits of worshipping moon as their God in pagan customs.

(B) Yousuf Ali stated (Page-1921-1623 of his English Translation of Holy Quran):
Moon-worship was equally popular in various forms. Apollo and Diana the twin brother
and sister, representing the sun and moon in the Vedic religion of India the moon god was
Soma, the lord of the planets. Moon was male divinity in ancient India. Moon was also
male divinity in ancient Semitic religion, and the Arabic word for the moon ,qamar, is of
the masculine gender, on the other hand, the Arabic word for sun, shams, is feminine
gender. The pagan Arabs evidently looked upon the sun as a goddess and the moon as a
God. The Pagan deities best known in the Kaba and round about Mecca were Lat, Uzza,
and Manat. the 360 idols established by the Pagans in the Kaba probably represented the
360 days of an inaccurate solar year. This was the actual modern pagan worship as
known to the Quraish contemporary with our prophet.

(C) Influence of Moon in Islam: Who can deny the paramount influences of moon in Muslim's
life? In Islam, moon is considered holiest astronomical object, and moon is the guiding light of
all Islamic rituals/festivals. Contradictions and conflicts are very common with the dates of Eids
and Ramadan and obviously it is a chronic problem and moon is the nucleus of this problem.
Crescent moon and stars are the symbolic sign in the national flags of many Muslim countries,
and it is present over the Mosques, in the Muslim graveyard etc. Prophet Muhammad
compromised to Pagans to establish Islam in Arabia: Prophet Muhammad did his clever tactics
of adapting many rites of paganism into Islam, in order to accommodate Islam among the pagan
Arabs. He made lots of political pacts with the Pagan Leaders such as Abu Suffian to
accommodate his new idea of religion and he agreed to incorporate many of the Pagan rituals in
Islam. Prophet Muhammad asked the pagans to worship only the Allah the largest God, and
destroy the idols of all other gods and goddesses that existed in Kabah. To establish oneness
(monotheist) of God, he repeatedly asked them not to make any partners to Allah (That is why
we can find hundreds of Quranic verses asking not to make any partners to Allah). Finally, the
Prophet was able to convince (by force of course) the pagans to destroy all idols, and on return
(he) agreed (perhaps) to keep the Names of the goddess of most famous Pagan tribes as the
alternative names of Allah hence Islam has 99 NAMES of Allah.

Prophet Muhammad did command his followers to participate in
these pagan ceremonies while the pagans were still in control of
Mecca. (Please See Yusuf Ali, fn. 214, pg. 78). "... the whole of the
[pagan] pilgrimage was spiritualized in Islam..." (Yusuf Ali: fn. 223
pg. 80). In the Tafsir (of Quran-2:200) maoulana Yousuf Ali stated:
"After Pilgrimage, in Pagan times, the pilgrims used to gather in
assemblies in which the praises of ancestors were sung. As the whole
of the pilgrimage rites were spiritualized in Islam, so this aftermath of
the Pilgrimage was also spiritualized. It was recommended for
pilgrims to stay on two or three days after the pilgrimage, but they
must use them in prayer and praise to God.(#223 of Shane nazul by
Maoulana Yousuf Ali, page-81)

In Islam many rituals performed (today) by devoted Muslims
in the name of Allah are connected to the pagan worship that
existed before Islam. Pagans practices of the Pilgrimage of
Kabah once a year--the Fast of Ramadan, running around
the Kabah seven times, kissing the black stone, shaving the
head, animal sacrifices, running up and down two hills,
throwing stones at the devil, snorting water in and out the
nose, praying several times a day toward Mecca, giving alms,
Friday prayers, etc. are strictly followed by Muslims today.
Nobody can deny the fact that, all the above rituals of
Muslim's hajj today existed well before the arrival of Islam.

It is highly plausible to consider
the fact that by incorporating
much of the Pagan's rituals in
new religion Islam Prophet
successfully reduced the
pagan-risk and it was perhaps
one of the most important
milestone-attempts to conquer
the minds of Pagans resulting in
massive breakdown of the
Pagans' moral and support to
oppose Islam.

The central shrine at
Mekka was the Pagan's
Kaaba (called House of
Allah), a cube like stone
structure which still stands
though many times rebuilt.
Imbedded in one corner is
the black stone, probably
a meteorite, the kissing of
which is now an essential
part of the Muslim's
pilgrimage.

It is the historical fact that the
Kaaba, the sacred shrine which
contains the Black Stone, in
Mecca was used for pagan idol
worship before Islam and even
called the House of Allah at that
time. The name of the God whom
the Arabs worshipped was the
god of pantheon Ali-ilah the god,
the supreme, the predeterminer of
everybody's life or destiny the
chief God Allah

Who did not read the story of BLACK STONE which was
very sacred (povitra) to all various tribes of Quraish. When one
day this sacred stone was needed to transfer from one place to
another, there was a quarrel amongst the various tribes, as to
who will carry that sacred stone? Then most intelligent and
righteous young boy Muhammad (was not a prophet then)
invented the solution of this serious problem. He (Muhammad)
put this sacred stone over a Chaddor (piece of cloth) and
asked one representative from each tribe to hold the Chaddor
and carry the stone. I narrated this story briefly just to prove
that black stone did exist long before Islam was invented.

References:
a. The Holy
Qur'an,
Translated by
A. Yousuf
Ali, Published
by Amana
Corporation,
Brentwood,
Maryland,
1983
b. Buchari
Sharif,
Bengali
Translation
by Maulana
Muhammad
Mustafizur
Rahman,
Sulemani
Printers and
Publishers,
Dhaka,
Second
edition-1999
c. A History
of the Arab
peoples, by
Albert
Hourani, the
Belknap
press of
Harvard
University
press,
Cambridge,
Massachusetts
, 1991
d. Dr. Robert
Morey, 1996
Research and
Education
Foundation.
e. Gilchrist,
The Temple,
The Kaaba,
and the Christ
(Benoni,
South Africa,
1980), p. 16.
f. G. J. O.
Moshay,
Who Is This
Allah?,
(Dorchester
House,
Bucks, UK,
1994), pg.
138
g. Ibn
Warraq, Why
I Am Not A
Muslim,
(Prometheus,
Amherst,
1995) p. 42.
h.
Encyclopedia
of Islam, eds.
Lewis,
Menage,
Pellat,
Schacht
(Leiden: E. J.
Brill, 1971,
II:1093.)
i.
Encyclopedia
of Religion
and Ethics
(ed.
Hastings),
I:326.
j.The
Ultimate
Encyclopedia
of
Mythology,
Arthur
Cotterell and
Rachel
Storm,
Lorenz
Books, New
York 10011,
Anness
Publishing
Limited 1999
k. Roots of
the Western
Tradition, (a
short history
of ancient
world) by
C.Warren
Hollister,
Library of
congress
cataloging-in-
publication
data, 6th
edition, 1
Syed_mirza@
hotmail.com

2. Ayatollah Muhammad Yazdi, a conservative member of
Iran’s Guardian Council and the former head of the
judiciary, lashed out at Mr. Rafsanjani, saying the former
president did not have the right to call for the release of
arrested protesters. He also said Mr. Rafsanjani had
exaggerated the role of democracy in Islamic government
and thereby diminished the importance of divine sanction.
“Legitimacy and acceptance are different in Islamic
government,” Ayatollah Yazdi told the semi-official Fars
news agency. “Votes alone do not create legitimacy.”
http://www.nytimes.
com/2009/07/19/world/middleeast/19iran.html

3.
Paki
stan:
Polic
e
patro
l
stree
ts
after
Chris
tians
murd
ered

4.
You
ng
Musl
ims
in
Turk
ey
Mur
der
Thre
e
Chri
stian
s

5. 130
Christian
s
murdere
d over
cartoons
,
Muslim
rioters
rampage
through
Nigerian
villages

6. At least 6
Christians - all but
one women and
children - have been
killed in Gojra,
Pakistan by a
rampaging mob of
Muslim
fundamentalists. The
reason? It was
rumored that a Koran
was damaged in a
Christian wedding
held in the town.

7. A young
Christian
man was
raped and
brutally
murdered in
Pakistan for
refusing to
convert to
Islam, and
police are
doing
nothing
about it.

8.
M
uh
am
ma
d
wa
s
a
pe
do
phi
le

9.This article deals
with Muhammad's
request to have his
men murder a
Jewish man named
Abu Afak. Abu
Afak was 120 years
old. What was
Afak's crime? He
had urged his fellow
Medinans to doubt
Muhammad.

10. Allah allowed Muhammad
along with the other men (as well
as Muslims of today) to commit
adultery with married women
whom they have enslaved or
taken captive. In light of the
teachings of the Holy Bible, the
true Word of God, we are
forced to conclude that Allah is
not the true God of Abraham,
Isaac and Jacob nor is
Muhammad a true messenger.

11.

Isla
m
Mu
ha
mm
ad
and

the
Ko
ran

Resources

Islam
Watch
at
http://
www.i
slam-
watch.
org/ind
ex.htm
l

Jihad
Watch
at
http://
www.j
ihadw
atch.or
g/

What
the
West
Needs
to
Know
at
http://
whatth
ewestn
eedsto
know.
com

The
Middl
e East
Forum
at
http://
www.
meforu
m.org/