I’m going to touch briefly on a topic which interests many people, that’s the misinformation about Islam regarding Jihad, specifically the “rape or murder” which some claim Islam permits or even encourages.
We can go through the reasons why logically, it doesn’t make sense for people who want to preach a religion to the conquered population, why it would be counterproductive to rape or pillage and destroy, etc. and then determine that to save the same population or their children at least from Hellfire, that the “call” to their religion will follow such crimes against humanity. It doesn’t make sense on any level.
Just because rape and pillage were the modus operandi of the non-Muslim Arabs (many of whom became Muslims later) doesn’t mean that God or the Prophet of God would permit those things; nor is there any proof of this claim just because the non-believers assert that such things happened. In the past, it was the Christians who said the same thing about Muslims - because that was their propaganda to keep women and children afraid, and justify the men’s slaughter, as well as rape of the Muslim (or the followers of other religions) women. The same thing happened this half century in Bosnia Herzegovina; all sides claimed such things happened on a wide scale, whereas there was probably a significant amount of such crimes perpetrated by only one side in the conflict there. And because of the secular nature of European Muslims, in general and their disregard for God’s law or Allah’s commands, men on all sides acted with disregard for human rights, and their actions were the result of reactions to the events and the not surprising but still wrong need to seek revenge by committing the same atrocities they witnessed in their own villages or happening to their own families and closest friends and neighbors.
Genghis Khan didn’t instruct his armies to be kind to people whom they encountered, but to kill everyone, to torture them, to cut heads and pile high pyramids of severed heads. This is because Genghis Khan didn’t want to convert anyone to his religion. He wanted to cause slaughter and mayhem; he lived his entire life and career as the tyrannical leader of his nation satisfying his own bloodlust.
If you study many other worldly leaders who committed genocide, Hitler, etc. they didn’t try to convert others to their religion or way of thinking. They killed to eliminate their enemies, raped and tortured to put fear of themselves in the enemy, and basically were lunatics not guided by any ethos of tolerance or humanitarianism.
Islam on the other hand, proposed many good things while forbidding evil; guiding principles of justice and basic rights and comprehensive change took place in a quarter of a century, which didn’t just serve to alter the course of the Arab nations which accepted Islam, but continued to provide impetus for change outside of the Islamic Empire as well. Scientific investigation owed it to the early Muslims and the belief that education in all positive fields was encouraged by the Quran and the Prophetic sayings - nor was there sex discrimination or bias as far as the pursuit of knowledge. Earlier in history, the non-Muslims never said that Muslims didn’t open doors to education or the pursuit of knowledge, they were well aware that the scientific method and open-mindedness were the Muslims’ starting point to structured learning and the Muslim Universities.
The overall condition of people in the era of Muhammad was characterized by change. As well, the precedent of a new consciousness and desire for learning set early on continued to be the impetus for philosophy and other studies which developed much later, and how and why technology also developed. When Christianity began to stagnate, the Islamic quest for more knowledge and inventiveness were beginning their stride; how can the enemies of Islam among the Christians today accuse Islam of stagnation? In fact, Islam and Muslims never had an inquisition of the general community of scientific or exploratory minds; nor of other religions. The doctrine also didn’t change to suit the whims of any leader in particular who wished to pursue a course of action or philosophy which ran counter to the true doctrines of Islam; if they did, they had many outspoken critics; even al-Hajjaj was opposed so that he executed many of his opposition, but the large body of knowledge and the population of learned Muslims could not all be conquered by hit squads of paid soldiers or a Stalin style leadership. Eventually the oppressors are either assassinated by the population or more often eliminated by other power hungry elite in his own circle or government. As with all Empires, Islam also had its decline when the people didn’t deserve the kind of leaders of the past who upheld the Islamic Sharia. If the leaders are corrupt, no doubt the population also has been led astray by satanic whims and evil practices, godlessness and disregard for religion or goodness. It’s noteworthy that the Quran was one constant in life that could not be effaced, nor did it ever succumb to change.
Yes, Christians eventually threw off the vestiges of their iniquitous past, instead adopting secularism, or democracy, and the religion and state split was more than complete by the turn of this century. But it took a long time. Now the so-called advanced nations and the spokespeople for democracy, or the New world order, or humanitarianism say that they cannot wait 500 years for Islam to likewise throw off the yoke of Islamic government, or the sharia, and quickly adopt any Western or modern style of government. But Islam never was in need of reformation the way that Christianity was; that’s because unlike Christianity, Islam didn’t become corrupt; it wasn’t changed, and the laws of Islam are the basic progressive and just laws which Muslims always enjoyed and which are universal even today; International jurisprudence, (international) maritime law, and Islam’s family law, just distribution in the laws of inheritance (based not on gender equality alone, but a just distribution according to men’s and women’s different responsibilities) etc. are all based on or part of the Islamic Sharia. Why fix something if it’s not broken?
If you read throughout my blog, you’ll see that it isn’t an uphill battle to defend the teachings of Islam and the Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings of Allah unto him. On the contrary, the sources indicate that Islam has and always will be the one constant in history, since Allah revealed His will to the desert Arabs, and from there, it has always been obvious that Islam is a force to be reckoned with and at the same time, is an illuminating light, what humanity can (and should eventually) agree on, at its core is a source of guidance to what is good and right.
http://islamicvoice.com/february.99/comparative.htm#ULT
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