Islamic Misconception Clarified

Misconception: Islam Allows Terrorism And Promotes it.

In The Name Of Allah, The Most Merciful, The Especially Merciful

Today we will be discussing a common modern day Islamic Misconception, one of the most common modern day Islamic misconception and that is, that Islam allows terrorism and promotes it.

In this article, I will not only prove this is false with evidences from the Quraan and Sunnah, but I will also show the evidences the accusers use as evidence for this claim.

Unlike most other defenders of Islam, I won't simply state islam doesn't allow it and leave it at that but, I will also bring about the evidences that islam doesn't infact allow terrorism and doesn't promote it. And I will show the evidences the accusers use to make such claims.

What follows is the evidences the accusers use to make their claim which are many verses from the Quraan and some of them are as follows:

"And kill them wherever you find them and expel them from where they have expelled you, and their trials is worse then killing"
(verse 2:191 Quraan)

"And fight against them until there is no more fitnah and until the religion is for Allah alone"
(verse 8:39 Quraan)

"It is not for a prophet to have captives of war until he inflicts a massacre in the land. You (muslims) desire the commodities of this world, but Allah desires for you the hereafter"
(verse 8:67 Quraan)

"And when the inviolable months have passed, then kill the polytheists wherever you find them and capture them and besiege them at every place of ambush. But if they should repent, establish prayer, and give zakat let them go on their way. Indeed Allah is forgiving and merciful."
(verse 9:5 Quraan)

"Fight them; Allah will punish them by your hands and will disgrace them and give you victory over them and satisfy the breasts of a believing people."
(verse 9:13 Quraan)

And other verses like these.

Now, as we can see there are many verses in the Quraan that speaks about apparent killings and war and jihad, but can we really understand those verses without reading the entire chapter or section regarding that topic and without knowing the context the verses were sent and why?

The simple answer is no. We all remember in English class our teacher always told us, you must read the entire chapter to know the meaning of the verse or the paragraph and non of us deny this; then why would that rule be any different when reading the text from the Quraan?

As well, as knowing the context the verses were sent and why they were sent, makes it clear what exactly is being said and what exactly is intended.

And I can prove this methodology that the accusers of islam use towards the Quraan, is not a practical or logical methodology. And I will use the bible as a example.

What follows are verses from the BIBLE that speaks about fighting and killing of innocents:

"Suppose you hear in one of the towns the lord your god has given you, that some worthless ramble among you have lead their fellow citizens astray by encouraging them to WORSHIP FOREIGN GODS, in such cases you must examine the facts carefully, if you find it's true and can prove that such a detestable act has occurred among you, YOU MUST ATTACK THAT TOWN AND COMPLETELY DESTROY ALL OF IT'S INHABITANTS AS WELL AS ALL THE LIVESTOCK, THEN YOU MUST PILE ALL THE PLUNDER IN THE MIDDLE OF STREET AND BURN IT, PUT THE ENRITE TOWN TO THE TORCH AS A BURNT OFFERING TO THE LORD YOUR GOD"
(Deuteronomy 13:13-19)

"If your own full brother, or your son, or daughter or your beloved wife or your intimate friend, entices you secretly to serve other gods whom you and your fathers have not known, gods of any other nations, near at hand, or far away, from one end of the earth to the other, do not yield to them or listen to him nor look with piety upon him, to spare or shield him but KILL HIM"
(Deuteronomy 13:7-12)

"The lord then gave these further instructions to Moses: 'Tell the people of Israel to keep my sabbath day, for the sabbath is a sign of the convent between me and you forever, it helps you to remember that I am the Lord who makes you holy, yes keep the sabbath day for it is holy, anyone who desecrates it MUST DIE.'
(Exodus 31:12-15)

And Jesus own words according to the BIBLE are: "Do not suppose I have came to bring peace to the earth, I HAVE NOT COME TO BRING PEACE BUT THE SWORD"
(Matthew 10:34)

Now, if we use the exact same mythology the accusers of islam use on the Quraan by simply reading some verses all on their own without reading the entire chapter before and after the verses in question or without knowing the reason the verses were sent then we can also conclude, as well that the bible promotes terrorism among many other things.

But using that methodology goes against the basic rules of first grade English that our teachers have always stressed. And that is, in order to know the meaning of any sentence, chapter, and verse you must read before and after it as well as know the reason the verses were sent. And that should be perfectly clear now. Otherwise if we take verses all on their own we will conclude as well that the bible and Torah promotes terrorism among many other things.

Any logical Christian scholar who knows first grade basic English, will tell you, you must read verses before and after to get the full meaning of the verses or know why the verses were sent and this is the same case with regard to the fighting verses in the Quraan. Why would it be any different?

Now, let us go back to the fighting verses in the Quraan, we said to know the meaning we must read the verses before and after them or know the reason they were sent so let do that.

Let's read before the verse ( 2:191 of the Quraan) to see if it clarifies what is being said:

"FIGHT IN THE WAY OF ALLAH THOSE WHO FIGHT AGAINST YOU BUT DO NOT TRANSGRESS. Indeed Allah does not like transgressors. (2:190 Quraan)

And kill them wherever you over take them and expel them from where they have expelled you, and their trials is worse then killing. (2:191 Quraan)

So, just by reading one single verse before one of the verses in question, we now know that, Allah is telling Muslims, to fight only those who fight against you as it says in one verse before the verse in question. And when Allah says and kill them wereever you find them, he is referring only to THOSE WHO FIGHT WHO, as it says in the verse before.

We can now see clearly that the the verse is talking about self-defense and defending your rights NOT killing innocents.

Let's see another one of the verses in question: ( 8:39 Quraan), let us read the verse before the verse in question.

"Say to those who have disbelieved that if they cease WHAT HAS PREVIOUSLY OCCURRED will be forgiven for them. But if they RETURN (TO HOSTILITY) then the precedent of the former peoples has already taken place." (8:38 Quraan)

"And fight against them until there is no trials from them and until the religion, all of it is for Allah. And if they cease then indeed, Allah is seeing of what they do."
( 8:39 Quraan)

Again, we read in the verse before the verse in question that the non Muslims have done something to the Muslims in form of hostility in the past when these verses were sent, based on the past-tense words used: WHAT HAS PERVIOUSLY OCCURRED and Allah says if they stop, then he will forgive, but if they don't then fight them, again promoting self defense. Defense against hostility as it clearly says I the verse.

Now looking at verse: 8:67 of the Quraan we find reading before of after the verse doesn't make the verse in question any more clear, therefore as we said we must then refer to the reason it was sent.

Based on a authentic narration that verse was sent after the first battle against the idol worshippers was won by the Muslims when the odds was against them 300 to 1000, and the prophet pbuh had some prisoners of war.

So the prophet asked his best friends what should he do with the war prisoners? Since this battle was a attack on the Muslims . Some of them said free them and others said kill them. Then the prophet phuh was leaning towards freeing them until Allah sent the verse in question:

"It is not for a prophet to have captives of war until he inflicts a massacre on the enemies... 8:67 Quraan.

This is because when people are attacking you you can't be easy with them straight away otherwise they will dare to fight and attack again and again, they will say: well, next time even if they capture some of our men they will return them to us unharmed, so no issues. Which will lead them to dare to attack again.

The Hadith that speaks about the reason this verse was revealed can be found on this link:
http://quranx.com/tafsir/Wahidi/8.67

Let us look at the verse before the next verse in question:

"Would you not fight against A PEOPLE WHO BROKE THIER TREATY and determined to expel the messenger, and THEY HAD BEGUN THE ATTACK UPON YOU THE FIRST TIME, Do you fear them? But Allah has more right that you should fear him, if you are truly believers. (9:13 Quraan)

"Fight them, Allah will punish them by your hands and will disgrace them and give you victory over them and satisfy the breast of a believing people". 9:14 Quraan)

Again we can see by reading the verse before the verse in question, that the Muslims had a agreement with the non Muslims as it say TREATY and the non Muslims broke it which is clear from the verse before the verse in question by the verse saying:" would you not fight a people who BROKE THEIR TREATY, showing us that the verse in question is again telling Muslims to fight people who attacked them first even after the non Muslims had agreed to a treaty, they still broke it.

So, we can see clearly see that the Quraan doesn't in fact promote terrorism or killing of innocents but promotes self-defense only. And we made that clear by reading before the verses in question or the reason the verses were sent in order to know the full meaning of the verses in question.

And as we said not doing so, will not give us the full meaning and we proved this by taking some killing verses from the bible and killing statements of Jesus according to the bible and said if we use the same methodology that accusers of islam use towards the Quraan then we will also conclude the bible and Torah as well promote terrorism. But we explained you must read before the verses in question and know the reason they were sent in order to know the full meaning.

In addition to all of this, there was huge Jewish tribes in Madinah where the prophet pbuh lived and he didn't go around killing them simply because they were non Muslims.

In addition, the prophet pbuh married a Jewish lady who converted to islam and she loved him very much to the point upon seeing him on his deathbed she said" O messenger of Allah, I wish what you suffer was in me rather then in you." If islam teaches us to kill all non Muslims then why didn't the prophet pbuh kill her along with all of Arabia who at the time was mainly non Muslims?

Additional prove of all of the above is the very first known constitution written in history of mankind on command of the prophet Mohammed pbuh, that states that Muslims and non Muslims will live together as citizens of a state with equal rights, each of their rights protected, each abiding by the laws of their own religions and legal social religious laws will be applied based on each's own religious scriptures. Both not harming one another and both have the right to live in peace as long as they wants to be part of this pact and both not harming the state:
http://www.constitutionofmadina.com/

In addition to all of this, we can find many verses in the Quraan that speak about mercy and kind treatment towards others and the statements of the prophet pbuh himself testifies to this as well.

The following verses are:

"There is NO COMPULSION in religion" (2:256 Quraan)

"Allah DOES NOT FORBID you from being kind to those who do not fight you because of your religion and do not expel you from your homes..." Indeed Allah loves those who act justly" (60:8 Quraan)

"Allah ONLY FORBIDS you from THOSE WHO FIGHT you because of religion and expel you from your homes and aid in your expulsion, forbids that you make allies with them"...(60:9 Quraan)

"And there is not upon the messenger EXECPT TO GIVE the MESSAGE" (24:54 Quraan)

"But if they turn away ( O Mohammed) then ONLY UPON YOU is to give THE CLEAR MESSAGE" (16:82 Quraan)

" And obey Allah and obey the messenger, but if you turn away, then upon our messenger IS ONLY TO DELIVER THE MESSAGE" ( 64:12 Quraan)

And as if all of this still is not enough the prophet Mohammed pbuh said regarding treating non Muslims bad or killing them:

"WHOEVER HURTS A NON MUSLIM in a Muslim state, HURTS ME and whoever hurts me makes god angry" (Bukhari)

"He who HURTS A NON MUSLIM in a Muslim state, I AM HIS ADVISORY AND SHALL BE HIS ADVISORY ON THE DAY OF JUDGMENT" ( Bukhari)

"WHOEVER IS CRUAL AND HARSH AGAINST NON MUSLIM MINORITIES OR CURTAILS THIER RIGHTS, OR BURDENS THEM MORE THEN THEY CAN BEAR OR TAKES ANYTHING FROM THEM AGAINST THIER FREEWILL . I prophet Mohammed will complain about them on the day of judgment". (Abu Dawood)

"Whoever KILLS A PERSON WHO HAS TRUCE with the Muslims with not even smell the smell of paradise." ( Saheeh Muslim)

So, now you can see as we have proven in great detail that islam doesn't allow terrorism or promote it and we have proved this by proving if you take verses by them-self without reading the entire verse or at least before and after, which goes against first grade basic English, you will not know what is really being said and we read before the verses in question or learned the reason they were sent and it is now clear that all war and killing verses in the Quraan are talking about self defense as we have proven in detail above by reading before the verses in question or by knowing the reason they were sent and then we saw they were all talking about self defense.

And we said prophet Mohammed phuh never killed anyone solely based on their faith and that is a yet further prove the killing verses in the Quraan do not mean to kill solely based on people's faith.

And we said prophet married a Jewish lady and she loved him and we said most of Arabia was non Muslim and he did not harm them when he had full power over Arabia.

And we showed many verses from the Quraan that tells us that there is no compulsion in Islam and the Muslims job is only to deliver the message and defend himself not force anyone to believe or kill unjustly solely because others don't believe.

And we concluded with the various statements of the prophet pbuh who preached tolerance and justice for non Muslims who do nt harm us.

So it is perfectly clear now that islam doesn't allow terrorism or promote it. And I have proven it with clear undebatable proves.

Now you are likely thinking if this is all true why then is there Islamic terror groups then? We will discuss this in our next article.

I conclude with May the peace and blessing be on the best man to walk the face of the earth, the Prophet Mohammed and all those who follow him until the last day.

Lecture of Islamic misconceptions Clarified by Slave Allah