Back Story: This post originally appeared as a response to Futile Gesture in this thread in the BBQ Pit. Aldebaran took issue with it but refused to explain precisely what was wrong with it until I took it to GD. I’ve toned down the rhetoric appropriately but other than that it is the same.
I must note that I am not an Islamic Scholar. I’ve read the Koran, a couple of introductions to Islam and have an active interest in Middle Eastern history and that’s about it.
Yeah, but Islam cannot, in my opinion, be truly said to be a religion of peace. No religion can take that label. Religions are programs of indoctrination designed to control the sheep-like masses by allowing them to quell their fear of death with irrational hopes of eternal paradise. Islam and Christianity preach the doctrine of eternal damnation for earthly sins and are therefore, at their most fundamental core, not peaceful religions.
Anyway, back to the Koran. Take the first verse of The Opening
And verse 37 in The Cow
And contrast these sentiments with Allah’s actions:
Verse 9 and 10 of The Cow
In other words, it is futile to warn disbelievers, Allah has blinded them, sealing their fate. This, to me, represents a serious contradiction with verse 1 of ‘The Opening’
Here is another example. Book 4, women, verse 56
Book seven, The Heights, verse 50
These words also present a fundamental contradiction in the nature of Allah as outlined in verse 1 of ‘The Opening’ and verse 9 & 10 of ‘The Cow’
There are many more examples of Allah acting in a manner which a great many people would deem intolerant. For the sake of brevity I’ll leave it at that but I will produce more examples on request.
However, an apologist could explain that away by arguing that the actions of Allah towards unbelievers serve some greater utilitarian good by clearly and unambiguously stating that the path to salvation is through Allah and only through Allah.
That doesn’t, however, explain Allah’s attitude towards homosexuals which is also at variance with what modern people would deem benevolent.
From book 27, The Ant.
Male homosexuals commit “abominations” and act “senselessly” and, when they refuse to compromise themselves they are subjected to a “Dreadful rain”.
Homosexuality isn’t a choice. Gay men who commmit homosexual acts are satisfying desires they can’t help feeling. Hence, gay men are built to commit acts which Allah would deem abominable. Hence, gay men are abominable by nature, in the eyes of Allah. QED.
Any deity which claims to be benevolent and merciful, yet arbitrarily chooses to put 4% of the human population on the fast track to hell cannot, in my opinion, be called benevolent.
Now on to the matters that concerns all of us most here today. Does the Koran sanction violence if the violence can be argued to perpetuate the will of Allah? Does Islam encourage violent jihad? That would surely pose a serious problem for all those who believe, in spite of all the textual evidence to the contrary (and let us not forget that Muslims believe that the Koran is the precise word of Allah, dictated to Mohammed by the angel Gabriel), that Islam is a Religion of Peace.
The bad news for those people is that, yes, the Koran does sanction violent jihad and religious war.
Of course, the Koran advocates violence only defence of Islam. However, in the eyes of many Muslims (such as a statistically significant proportion of those in Palestine), the infidels are at the gates. Given their belief that they are in a state of war, the Koran provides moral justification for their actions.
Take, for example, verse 12 of book 8, ‘The Spoils of War’
Or from book 5, the Table, verse 33.
And, perhaps most telling,
Of course, verse 38 is a pretty hefty qualifier for verse 39 and sounds very reasonable, but what if the “persecutors” are not persecuting but are instead fighting for their very right to exist, as Israel are? In that instance, verse 38 allows jihadists to attack knowing that the “persecutors” will not cease their “persecution”. Verse 38 is an ingenious moral sanction for violent jihad.
There are, in total, nearly 100 verses in the Koran which follow these same lines. I trust that what I’ve quoted thus far is sufficient, however.
Now, lest anyone misinterpret me, let me clearly point out what I’m not saying.
I’m not saying Muslims are violent by nature.
I’m not saying that Islam is somehow inferior to Christianity. I feel that all organised religions are equally worthless.
Most importantly, I’m not saying that Muslims cannot use the positive tenets of the Koran (and there are a reasonable amount of them) as a guide to live a virtuous life.
Having said that, however, I do feel that in order to use the Koran to live a virtuous life, one needs to blank out quite a lot of the bad stuff, and there is a lot of intolerance in the Koran.
My final question to you is, how much of Islam’s most central, most sacred text, can a Muslim afford to ignore and still call himself a Muslim? It’s a tricky one and one that’s open to interpretation. One thing is for sure, however, if we take an open and unbiased look at the Koran from start to finish, there is enough bigotry, brutality and intolerance in its pages to rigorously contest the notion that Islam is, fundamentally, a Religion of Peace.
