Is Islam a violent religion? Is it really a religion of peace as they say?

What is Islam? I'm posting this so you will know the truth...

violent koran passages

The world today is trying to convince us that Islam is really a peaceful religion. Muslim leaders are saying so, the Pope is saying so, liberal media is saying so, even "Christians" are saying so.

Islamic doctrine teaches Muslims to lie to further Islam (using the doctrine of Taqiyya to excuse it), that's why their leaders are saying so.

The Pope and the rest of the world believe the lie, and that's why they're saying so.

Pope Francis: "Authentic Islam and the proper reading of the Koran are opposed to every form of violence"

No one would even be interested in this question were it not for the abundant evidence to the contrary: the daily record of jihad violence carried out by Muslims who point to Islam and the Qur'an to justify their actions, including many who are burning churches and terrorizing Christians in Nigeria, Egypt, Syria, Pakistan and elsewhere. It is because of them that Pope Francis, David Cameron and others feel compelled to insist that, contrary to what we see happening every day, Islam is really peaceful. The question is whether they are doing the victims of jihad any real service by insisting this.

"Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium of the Holy Father Francis to the Bishops, Clergy, Consecrated Persons and the Lay Faithful On the Proclamation of the Gospel In Today's World," from Vatican.va, November 24:

253. In order to sustain dialogue with Islam, suitable training is essential for all involved, not only so that they can be solidly and joyfully grounded in their own identity, but so that they can also acknowledge the values of others, appreciate the concerns underlying their demands and shed light on shared beliefs. We Christians should embrace with affection and respect Muslim immigrants to our countries in the same way that we hope and ask to be received and respected in countries of Islamic tradition. I ask and I humbly entreat those countries to grant Christians freedom to worship and to practice their faith, in light of the freedom which followers of Islam enjoy in Western countries! Faced with disconcerting episodes of violent fundamentalism, our respect for true followers of Islam should lead us to avoid hateful generalisations, for authentic Islam and the proper reading of the Koran are opposed to every form of violence.

The Bishop of Rome, by virtue of his position as successor of St. Peter, can, according to Catholic teaching, speak authoritatively about Catholic doctrine: he has the authority to delineate what is authentic Catholicism. This, however, is a statement about "authentic Islam." It would be interesting to know how he came to this conclusion, since the Pope of Rome has no counterpart within the Islamic world: there is no Muslim authority to which he can appeal in order to discover what "authentic Islam" consists of, and many Muslim authorities would disagree with his statement that "authentic Islam" is "opposed to every form of violence." To take just one of many available examples, I recently debated the Islamic apologist Shadid Lewis, who insisted (falsely) during the debate that Islam had no doctrine of offensive jihad, and that all jihad was defensive. However, he repeated several times that Islam was not a pacifistic religion, and that it did sanction and even mandate warfare under certain circumstances. This position is by no means unique to Lewis; it is quite common among Muslims, most of whom would freely acknowledge that Islam sanctions warfare in defense of the Muslim community or against "oppression." But it contradicts the contention that Islam is opposed to "every form" of violence.

Among the modern-day Muslims (and some from the recent past) who would disagree with Pope Francis's statement about "authentic Islam" are these:

"Jihad was a way of life for the Pious Predecessors (Salaf-us-Salih), and the Prophet (SAWS) was a master of the Mujahideen and a model for fortunate inexperienced people. The total number of military excursions which he (SAWS) accompanied was 27. He himself fought in nine of these; namely Badr; Uhud, Al-Muraysi, The Trench, Qurayzah, Khaybar, The Conquest of Makkah, Hunayn and Taif . . . This means that the Messenger of Allah (SAWS) used to go out on military expeditions or send out an army at least every two months.” -- Abdullah Azzam, co-founder of al-Qaeda, Join the Caravan, p. 30
"If we follow the rules of interpretation developed from the classical "science of Koranic interpretation, it is not possible to condemn terrorism in religious terms. It remains completely true to the classical rules in its evolution of sanctity for its own justification. This is where the secret of its theological strength lies." -- Egyptian scholar Nasr Hamid Abu Zayd
"Many thanks to God, for his kind gesture, and choosing us to perform the act of Jihad for his cause and to defend Islam and Muslims. Therefore, killing you and fighting you, destroying you and terrorizing you, responding back to your attacks, are all considered to be great legitimate duty in our religion." -- Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and his fellow 9/11 defendants
"Allah on 480 occasions in the Holy Koran extols Muslims to wage jihad. We only fulfil God's orders. Only jihad can bring peace to the world." -- Taliban terrorist Baitullah Mehsud
"Jihad, holy fighting in Allah's course, with full force of numbers and weaponry, is given the utmost importance in Islam....By jihad, Islam is established....By abandoning jihad, may Allah protect us from that, Islam is destroyed, and Muslims go into inferior position, their honor is lost, their lands are stolen, their rule and authority vanish. Jihad is an obligation and duty in Islam on every Muslim." -- Times Square car bomb terrorist Faisal Shahzad
"So step by step I became a religiously devout Muslim, Mujahid -- meaning one who participates in jihad." -- Little Rock, Arkansas terrorist murder Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad
"And now, after mastering the English language, learning how to build explosives, and continuous planning to target the infidel Americans, it is time for Jihad." -- Texas terrorist bomber Khalid Aldawsari

All of these, of course, may be dismissed as "extremists," although they were also all devout Muslims who were determined to follow their religion properly. One finds the same thing, however, when one turns to the authoritative sources in Sunni Islam, the schools of Sunni jurisprudence (madhahib):

Shafi'i school: A Shafi'i manual of Islamic law that was certified in 1991 by the clerics at Al-Azhar University, one of the leading authorities in the Islamic world, as a reliable guide to Sunni orthodoxy, stipulates about jihad that "the caliph makes war upon Jews, Christians, and Zoroastrians...until they become Muslim or pay the non-Muslim poll tax.” It adds a comment by Sheikh Nuh ‘Ali Salman, a Jordanian expert on Islamic jurisprudence: the caliph wages this war only "provided that he has first invited [Jews, Christians, and Zoroastrians] to enter Islam in faith and practice, and if they will not, then invited them to enter the social order of Islam by paying the non-Muslim poll tax (jizya)...while remaining in their ancestral religions.” ('Umdat al-Salik, o9.8).
Of course, there is no caliph today, and hence the oft-repeated claim that Osama et al are waging jihad illegitimately, as no state authority has authorized their jihad. But they explain their actions in terms of defensive jihad, which needs no state authority to call it, and becomes "obligatory for everyone" ('Umdat al-Salik, o9.3) if a Muslim land is attacked. The end of the defensive jihad, however, is not peaceful coexistence with non-Muslims as equals: 'Umdat al-Salik specifies that the warfare against non-Muslims must continue until "the final descent of Jesus." After that, "nothing but Islam will be accepted from them, for taking the poll tax is only effective until Jesus' descent" (o9.8).
Hanafi school: A Hanafi manual of Islamic law repeats the same injunctions. It insists that people must be called to embrace Islam before being fought, "because the Prophet so instructed his commanders, directing them to call the infidels to the faith.” It emphasizes that jihad must not be waged for economic gain, but solely for religious reasons: from the call to Islam "the people will hence perceive that they are attacked for the sake of religion, and not for the sake of taking their property, or making slaves of their children, and on this consideration it is possible that they may be induced to agree to the call, in order to save themselves from the troubles of war.”
However, "if the infidels, upon receiving the call, neither consent to it nor agree to pay capitation tax [jizya], it is then incumbent on the Muslims to call upon God for assistance, and to make war upon them, because God is the assistant of those who serve Him, and the destroyer of His enemies, the infidels, and it is necessary to implore His aid upon every occasion; the Prophet, moreover, commands us so to do.” (Al-Hidayah, II.140)
Maliki school: Ibn Khaldun (1332-1406), a pioneering historian and philosopher, was also a Maliki legal theorist. In his renowned Muqaddimah, the first work of historical theory, he notes that "in the Muslim community, the holy war is a religious duty, because of the universalism of the Muslim mission and (the obligation to) convert everybody to Islam either by persuasion or by force.” In Islam, the person in charge of religious affairs is concerned with "power politics,” because Islam is "under obligation to gain power over other nations.”
Hanbali school: The great medieval theorist of what is commonly known today as radical or fundamentalist Islam, Ibn Taymiyya (Taqi al-Din Ahmad Ibn Taymiyya, 1263-1328), was a Hanbali jurist. He directed that "since lawful warfare is essentially jihad and since its aim is that the religion is God’s entirely and God’s word is uppermost, therefore according to all Muslims, those who stand in the way of this aim must be fought.”

This is also taught by modern-day scholars of Islam. Majid Khadduri was an Iraqi scholar of Islamic law of international renown. In his book War and Peace in the Law of Islam, which was published in 1955 and remains one of the most lucid and illuminating works on the subject, Khadduri says this about jihad:

The state which is regarded as the instrument for universalizing a certain religion must perforce be an ever expanding state. The Islamic state, whose principal function was to put God's law into practice, sought to establish Islam as the dominant reigning ideology over the entire world....The jihad was therefore employed as an instrument for both the universalization of religion and the establishment of an imperial world state. (P. 51)

Imran Ahsan Khan Nyazee, Assistant Professor on the Faculty of Shari'ah and Law of the International Islamic University in Islamabad. In his 1994 book The Methodology of Ijtihad, he quotes the twelfth century Maliki jurist Ibn Rushd: "Muslim jurists agreed that the purpose of fighting with the People of the Book...is one of two things: it is either their conversion to Islam or the payment of jizyah." Nyazee concludes: "This leaves no doubt that the primary goal of the Muslim community, in the eyes of its jurists, is to spread the word of Allah through jihad, and the option of poll-tax [jizya] is to be exercised only after subjugation" of non-Muslims.

All this doesn't sound like a religion whose "authentic" manifestation is "opposed to every kind of violence." It would be illuminating if Pope Francis or someone around him produced some quotations from Muslim authorities he considers "authentic," and explained why the authorities I've quoted above and others like them are inauthentic. While in reality there is no single Muslim authority who can proclaim what is "authentic" Islam, and thus it would be prudent not to make sweeping statements about what "authentic Islam" actually is, clearly there are many Muslim who believe that authentic Islam does sanction violence.

The Pope also declared that the authentic understanding of the Qur'an is "opposed to every form of violence." For that to be true, there would have to be a general rejection among Muslims of the literal understanding of these verses:

2:191-193: "And slay them wherever you come upon them, and expel them from where they expelled you; persecution is more grievous than slaying. But fight them not by the Holy Mosque until they should fight you there; then, if they fight you, slay them -- such is the recompense of unbelievers, but if they give over, surely Allah is All-forgiving, All- compassionate. Fight them, till there is no persecution and the religion is Allah’s; then if they give over, there shall be no enmity save for evildoers.”
4:34: "Men are the managers of the affairs of women for that Allah has preferred in bounty one of them over another, and for that they have expended of their property. Righteous women are therefore obedient, guarding the secret for Allah’s guarding. And those you fear may be rebellious admonish; banish them to their couches, and beat them. If they then obey you, look not for any way against them; Allah is All-high, All-great.”
4:89: "They wish that you should disbelieve as they disbelieve, and then you would be equal; therefore take not to yourselves friends of them, until they emigrate in the way of Allah; then, if they turn their backs, take them, and slay them wherever you find them; take not to yourselves any one of them as friend or helper.”
5:33: "This is the recompense of those who fight against Allah and His Messenger, and hasten about the earth, to do corruption there: they shall be slaughtered, or crucified, or their hands and feet shall alternately be struck off; or they shall be banished from the land. That is a degradation for them in this world; and in the world to come awaits them a mighty chastisement."
5:38: "And the thief, male and female: cut off the hands of both, as a recompense for what they have earned, and a punishment exemplary from Allah; Allah is All-mighty, All-wise."
8:12: "When thy Lord was revealing to the angels, ‘I am with you; so confirm the believers. I shall cast into the unbelievers’ hearts terror; so smite above the necks, and smite every finger of them!’”
8:39: "Fight them, till there is no persecution and the religion is Allah’s entirely; then if they give over, surely Allah sees the things they do.”
8:60: "Make ready for them whatever force and strings of horses you can, to terrify thereby the enemy of Allah and your enemy, and others besides them that you know not; Allah knows them. And whatsoever you expend in the way of Allah shall be repaid you in full; you will not be wronged.”
9:5: "Then, when the sacred months are drawn away, slay the idolaters wherever you find them, and take them, and confine them, and lie in wait for them at every place of ambush. But if they repent, and perform the prayer, and pay the alms, then let them go their way; Allah is All-forgiving, All-compassionate.”
9:29: "Fight those who believe not in Allah and the Last Day and do not forbid what Allah and His Messenger have forbidden -- such men as practise not the religion of truth, being of those who have been given the Book -- until they pay the tribute out of hand and have been humbled.”
9:111: "Allah has bought from the believers their selves and their possessions against the gift of Paradise; they fight in the way of Allah; they kill, and are killed; that is a promise binding upon Allah in the Torah, and the Gospel, and the Koran; and who fulfils his covenant truer than Allah? So rejoice in the bargain you have made with Him; that is the mighty triumph.”
9:123: "O believers, fight the unbelievers who are near to you; and let them find in you a harshness; and know that Allah is with the godfearing.”
47:4: "When you meet the unbelievers, smite their necks, then, when you have made wide slaughter among them, tie fast the bonds; then set them free, either by grace or ransom, till the war lays down its loads. So it shall be; and if Allah had willed, He would have avenged Himself upon them; but that He may try some of you by means of others. And those who are slain in the way of Allah, He will not send their works astray.”

That's three verses about slaying polytheists, apostates, etc. wherever they are found, one about beating disobedient women, two about beheading, and more. However Muslim spokesmen in the West may explain these away -- as only applying to the seventh century, or under strict circumstances, etc. -- it would be hard to see how this could all be reconciled with the claim that the Qur'an is "opposed to every form of violence."

To be sure, there are some tolerant verses in the Qur'an as well -- see, for example, sura 109. But then in Islamic tradition there are authorities who say that violent passages take precedence over these verses. Muhammad's earliest biographer, an eighth-century Muslim named Ibn Ishaq, explains the progression of Qur'anic revelation about warfare. First, he explains, Allah allowed Muslims to wage defensive warfare. But that was not Allah's last word on the circumstances in which Muslims should fight. Ibn Ishaq explains offensive jihad by invoking a Qur'anic verse: "Then God sent down to him: 'Fight them so that there be no more seduction,' i.e. until no believer is seduced from his religion. 'And the religion is God's', i.e. Until God alone is worshipped."

The Qur'an verse Ibn Ishaq quotes here (2:193) commands much more than defensive warfare: Muslims must fight until "the religion is God's" -- that is, until Allah alone is worshipped. Ibn Ishaq gives no hint that that command died with the seventh century.

The great medieval scholar Ibn Qayyim (1292-1350) also outlines the stages of the Muhammad's prophetic career: "For thirteen years after the beginning of his Messengership, he called people to God through preaching, without fighting or Jizyah, and was commanded to restrain himself and to practice patience and forbearance. Then he was commanded to migrate, and later permission was given to fight. Then he was commanded to fight those who fought him, and to restrain himself from those who did not make war with him. Later he was commanded to fight the polytheists until God's religion was fully established."

In other words, he initially could fight only defensively -- only "those who fought him" -- but later he could fight the polytheists until Islam was "fully established." He could fight them even if they didn't fight him first, and solely because they were not Muslim.

Nor do all contemporary Islamic thinkers believe that that command is a relic of history. According to a 20th century Chief Justice of Saudi Arabia, Sheikh 'Abdullah bin Muhammad bin Humaid, "at first 'the fighting' was forbidden, then it was permitted and after that it was made obligatory." He also distinguishes two groups Muslims must fight: "(1) against them who start 'the fighting' against you (Muslims) . . . (2) and against all those who worship others along with Allah . . . as mentioned in Surat Al-Baqarah (II), Al-Imran (III) and At-Taubah (IX) . . . and other Surahs (Chapters of the Qur'an)." (The Roman numerals after the names of the chapters of the Qur'an are the numbers of the suras: Sheikh 'Abdullah is referring to Qur'anic verses such as 2:216, 3:157-158, 9:5, and 9:29.)

Here again, obviously there is a widespread understanding of the Qur'an within Islamic tradition that does not see it as "opposed to every form of violence" at all. And we see Muslims who clearly understand their religion as sanctioning violence against Infidels acting upon that understanding around the world today, in Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, Burma, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Egypt, Israel, Nigeria and elsewhere. We can hope that those who embody the "authentic Islam" of which Pope Francis speaks would come forward and work against the Muslims who believe in violence. So far we have not seen that. On the contrary, we see reformers threatened and cowed into silence. The Moroccan imam Ahmed Assid condemned violence in Islam's name and was immediately declared an apostate and threatened with death by his fellow clerics. If the Ahmed Assids of the world represent "authentic Islam," the message has not gotten through to all too many of their coreligionists.

We may hope it does someday. In the meantime, it is imperative to continue to speak about how Islamic jihadists use the texts and teachings of Islam to justify violence and supremacism, so as to alert all people of good will to the nature and magnitude of the jihad threat, and its motives and goals. This is not indulging in "hateful generalisations." This is simply to speak honestly and realistically about a threat all free people face. If we cannot speak about it, it will nonetheless keep coming, and catch us unawares.

Thanks to: Posted by Robert Spencer on November 28, 2013

Additional note by Dan:

We need to remember that the Quran (Koran) was written over time during the life of Mohammed (conveyed or recited by him). He started as a peaceful man, but as time went on he changed many of his values. As he became increasingly violent, his writings matched his attitude. The correct interpretation of the Quran is to take any conflict in doctrine, of which there is a whole lot, and replace an older verse with the latest one, supplanting it's meaning with the more recent version in a process called abrogation.

This very clearly means that Muslims should obey the later writings and ignore the conflicting earlier writings. Those earlier writings are the one's that they use to convince the world that they are "peaceful" and non-violent. The earlier writings are from when Mohammed was peaceful, but as he became more and more violent throughout his career, his writings became more and more violent. And Muslims are instructed to obey the later writings!

This is part of the practice of Taqiyya (deceit to assist in the ascendency of Islam) that the leaders of Islam even use on new Muslim converts to lure them in, and then slowly lead them to stronger and stronger doctrine as they become devout Muslims.

The three types of moderate Muslims:

By phony, I mean those who do not truly believe but identify as Muslim for cultural reasons, maybe out of fear for their life, because their family is Muslim. Does this mean they are "moderate"? No, they will do whatever it takes to continue making their relatives believe that they believe, mostly out of self-preservation. These are they that will encourage their devout brother to commit the atrocities that they themselves do not want to do. Don't expect these so called "moderates" to stop their devout brother, or do anything to save you.
The second type are those who do not truly understand their own religion. I have seen and heard many testimonies of ex-Muslims who did not understand their own religion. And, I recently saw a video of a man talking about how he, as a Muslim, thought his religion was a peaceful religion, but as he grew to understand Islam and read the Quran, he came to understand that it is not a peaceful religion and that he was actually instructed to kill for Allah. This is a great example of how many Muslims, like Christians who never read their Bible, do not understand their own religion, and how the Imams (preachers of Islam) use the practice of Taqiyya (lying to assist the ascendency of Islam) on their own people and lure them in with promises of peace and love while they hope to bring them in deeper and turn them into devout Muslims who will die for them.
The third type are those who are purposefully and deceitfully practicing Taqiyya (deceit to assist in the ascendency of Islam). This is used by Muslims to placate those who would be a threat until they can either over-power them or defeat them from within by infiltrating their society. The leaders of Islam even use this on new Muslim converts to lure them in, and then slowly lead them to stronger and stronger doctrine as they become devout Muslims.

See this page to read more: Islam in the Bible

Should we hate Muslims because they worship a false god, have a violent religion, and hate the lord Jesus?

Absolutely not. I have seen and heard many testimonies of ex Muslims who did not understand their own religion. And, I recently saw a video of a man talking about how he, as a Muslim, thought his religion was a peaceful religion, but as he grew to understand Islam and read the Quran, he came to understand that it is not a peaceful religion and that he was actually instructed to kill for Allah. This is a great example of how many Muslims, like Christians who never read their Bible, do not understand their own religion, and how the Imams (preachers of Islam) use the practice of Taqiyya (lying to assist the ascendency of Islam) on their own people and lure them in with promises of peace and love while they hope to bring them in deeper and turn them into devout Muslims who will die for them.

It is our job to try to help those Muslims who think it's a peaceful religion to understand the truth of it. This does not mean we should be ok with a false religion by any means, but that we should talk to any who are willing to listen and help them to understand, if at all possible.