Islam 101 - Part 2

This is a couple of days late due to a combination of factors, including some computer problems. But it's here at last, the second article of six detailing why Islam is not a religion of peace. This one looks at incitements to violence in the Qur'an and Islamic tradition.

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THE QUR'AN AND THE HADITH

We have seen that there were a lot of violent events in Muhammad's life. But is violence enshrined in the Qur'an and other Islamic texts?

The answer is emphatically yes. The Qur'an contains over 100 passages which incite believers to commit violence against non-believers. Also enjoining much violence are the hadith, the collected traditions of Muhammad, a vital companion to the Qur'an (which is often incomprehensible without them) and the most respected of which are considered by Muslims to be almost, if not as, holy as the Qur'an itself.

The Qur'an contains verses such as the following:

"O ye who believe! Fight the unbelievers who gird you about, and let them find firmness in you: and know that Allah is with those who fear Him." (9:123)

"Then, when the sacred months have passed, slay the idolaters wherever ye find them, and take them (captive), and besiege them, and prepare for them each ambush. But if they repent and establish worship and pay the poor-due, then leave their way free. Lo! Allah is Forgiving, Merciful." (9:5) The "poor-due" referred to in this verse is zakat, a charity tax which can only be paid by Muslims - therefore the verse is saying that the "idolaters" should only be left alone if they become Muslims.

"Fight those who believe not in Allah nor the Last Day, nor hold that forbidden which hath been forbidden by Allah and His Messenger, nor acknowledge the religion of Truth, (even if they are) of the People of the Book, until they pay the Jizya with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued." (9:29) The People of the Book are the Jews and Christians. The jizya was a tax that was inflicted upon non-Muslims when the Muslims conquered them. This was part of the system of the dhimma, which relegated Jews and Christians in Muslim lands to second-class status as dhimmis and imposed a series of humiliating rules and regulations on them so that they "feel themselves subdued".

The Qur'an also promises a place in Paradise to those who fight in the name of Allah: "Allah hath purchased of the believers their persons and their goods; for theirs (in return) is the garden (of Paradise): they fight in His cause, and slay and are slain: a promise binding on Him in truth" (9:111)

These are just a fraction of such verses in the Qur'an.

You may be thinking: "OK, so the Qur'an commands war in some places. But that's just a small part of the religion, isn't it? There's more to it than that, isn't there?"

While war is of course not the sole focus of Islam, Muhammad made clear, particularly in the hadith, which were collected to explain various passages of the Qur'an and answer followers' questions, that there was nothing better or holier that a Muslim could do than fight jihad warfare. When asked what was the "best deed" one could do besides becoming a Muslim, he replied: "To participate in jihad in Allah's cause" (Bukhari v.1, b.2, no.26, and others). On other occasions he told followers that those who did not fight in jihad would be punished by Allah (Abu Dawud b.14, no.2497) and that jihadists would go to a higher level of Paradise than others (Muslim, b.20, no. 4645).

The hadith also contain some words of Allah regarding warfare which do not appear in the Qur'an; these are considered by Muslims to be just as holy as anything in the Qur'an. In one such tradition, Muhammad tells Muslims that they should offer three choices to non-Muslims:

"When you meet your enemies who are polytheists, invite them to three courses of action. If they respond to any one of these, you also accept it and withold yourself from doing them any harm. Invite them to (accept) Islam; if they respond to you, accept it from them and desist from fighting against them...If they refuse to accept Islam, demand from them the Jizya. If they agree to pay, accept it from them and hold off your hands. If they refuse to pay the tax, seek Allah's help and fight them." (Muslim b.19, no.4294)

So the choices are:

1. Convert to Islam

2. Pay the jizya and be dhimmis under Islamic hegemony

3. Fight and die

Note that unbelievers AREN'T given the choice to coexist peacefully as equals with the Muslims.

Another tradition repeated many times in the most reliable hadith collection, Bukhari, has Muhammad saying: "I have been ordered (by Allah) to fight against the people until they testify that none has the right to be worshiped but Allah" (Bukhari v.1, b.2, no.25, and others)

The message of Islam presented by these passages is that non-believers must be fought in jihad until they either convert or accept dhimmi status under Islamic rule. Allah's marching orders to all Muslims.

At this point Islamic apologists will typically accuse critics of Islam of "cherry-picking" violent verses from the Qur'an and convenienty ignoring all the more benign and peaceful ones simply to make Islam look worse than it really is. This cherry-picking, however, is consistent with Islamic theology, due to the principle of naskh, or abrogation. This says that Allah can change his mind about what he tells Muslims, and that when he does this, the new verse abrogates - i.e. cancels and replaces - any earlier passages which it may contradict. The Qur'an itself lays out abrogation: "Whatever communications We abrogate or cause to be forgotten, We bring one better than it or like it. Do you not know that Allah has power over all things?" (2:106).

The implication of this is that violent verses abrogate peaceful ones, because they were revealed later chronologically. You may have noticed that all of the violent verses I quoted earlier are from the 9th sura (chapter) of the Qur'an. There are many others elsewhere, but I did this because the 9th sura was the last to be revealed and therefore represents the Qur'an's final word on jihad.

Let us take, for example, verse 9:5, also known as the Verse of the Sword: "slay the idolaters wherever ye find them". The classic twelfth-century commentary on the Qur'an by Ibn Kathir says that this verse "abrogated every agreement of peace between the Prophet and any idolater, every treaty and every term". Another commentator, Ibn Juzayy, says that the purpose of the Verse of the Sword is "abrogating every peace treaty in the Qur'an". Some scholars believe that this verse abrogates as many as 124 other verses in the Qur'an.

As with everything in Islam, there is disagreement about abrogation among Islamic scholars. But these interpretations were written by mainstream commentators and have been studied and believed by Muslims for centuries. It is generally agreed among Muslims that sura 9 was the last sura to be revealed and that therefore all other suras should be read in light of it.

So the message of Islam and the Qur'an appears to be anything but peaceful. These are the aspects of Islam that jihadists today use to justify their actions. Moderate Muslims must either find non-literalist ways to explain these passages, or else reject them altogether - and convince the jihadists that what they are doing is wrong. As it is, most Muslims seem content to make asinine excuses for such material, instead of finding positive ways to deal with it. With more and more jihad attacks occuring around the world, they can no longer afford to do this, or the jihadists will edge ever closer to victory.

Next week: The Qur'an vs. the Bible. Islam vs. Christianity. Are they really just as violent as each other, and just as likely to incite violence in their followers?