Is Islam Misunderstood?

Now, Religion in the News: a report and comment on religious trends and events being covered by the media. This week’s item is from BBC News, January 27, 2005, with a headline, “Islam Must Help Curb Extremism— Malaysia’s prime minister has urged Muslim nations and scholars to speak out against Islamic extremism.

“Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, who is also chairman of the organization of the Islamic conference, said Muslims had to close the great divide with the West. He said Muslims were as much to blame as others for misinterpreting Islam and seeing it as justifying violence. Mr. Abdullah was addressing a meeting in Malaysia bringing together academics and diplomats from OIC nations. ‘It is our duty to demonstrate by word and by action that a Muslim country can be modern, democratic, tolerant and economically competitive,’ he told the gathering in the country’s administrative capitol Putrajaya.

“He said Muslims should work to correct the world’s ignorant and extremely damaging perception that Islamic countries were supporters of terrorism and militancy. ‘In embarking on this crucial mission, we must guard against extreme motivations of extremist elements,’ he said. Mr. Abdullah said it was most unfortunate that the concept of jihad, or holy war, had been narrowed down to mean physical fighting. ‘If Muslims themselves can make this mistake, what more can we expect from others?’ he asked.

“Mr. Abdullah’s sentiments were echoed by OIC Secretary General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, who called for collective action by Islamic countries to counter religious extremist fanaticism.”

Tom: If you could believe this, just one part of this: “Muslims should work to correct the world’s ignorant and extremely damaging perception that Islamic countries were supporters of terrorism and militancy.” If this could be done, this would be fantastic. They could shut it down overnight. Bush could bring the troops home. I mean, this would be an item if the Islamic community in this country and every other country got behind this, but do you think it will ever happen?

Dave: Tom, this sounded like a joke to me. You could put this in a book of jokes. The guy’s name is Abdullah, first of all: that means “the servant of Allah,” okay? [chuckles] Now, what did Allah say more than a hundred times in the Qur’an? “Pursue those infidels wherever you find them and behead them; take their heads off.” Muhammad—was he an extremist? I mean, he attacked caravans and villages; he slaughtered people even when they surrendered, like the town of Yathrib—Jewish town. They surrendered. They were promised, you know, “When you surrender, okay, you will be subject to us, but we are not going to kill you.” Well, they slaughtered every male of fighting age. They are buried under the market place there in what now is called Medina. Was he an extremist? Did he have a misunderstanding of Islam? Wasn’t he the founder of this? Come on! He said that Muslims are to blame for, you know, having people think that they believe Islam justifies violence. Islam is all about violence! How did he subject the Arabian Peninsula to Islam in the first place? Violence! When Muhammad died, Abu Bakr’s father-in-law took over as his successor. The Arabs thought they were free, because the founder of this oppressive religion was dead and their loyalty had died with him, you know. They tried to leave Islam, and in what is known in history books as the Wars of Apostasy, Abu Bakr and his men, with the sword, killed about 70,000 Arabs—former Muslims—forcing Arabia back into Islam. Read the history down through. How did they get all the way to China? The takeover of India is called by historians the bloodiest story in history. Now he says, “Oh it’s a misunderstanding that Islam promotes violence”?

Tom: Dave, let me throw this at you; I’ve been thinking about this. Look at any religion, look at the followers of any religion—even biblical Christianity: there are many people who claim to be Christians, and they don’t really understand the Bible; they make it up as they go along. You know, I came out of Roman Catholicism. I remember being a cafeteria Catholic, and most of us were at that time, and still are today. Here’s my point: when you’ve got lots of people involved in a religion that don’t really understand it and may not go along with a lot of it, wouldn’t it be possible for these people to say, “Hey, I don’t buy the history of it, and I don’t really buy much of the Qur’an, and we want to see some changes made,” could they actually raise a protest and turn this around?

Dave: Well, you would have to stop worshipping Allah, because Allah has commanded that the world must submit to him or die; it’s that simple. Now, [if] you’re going to change this, you’re going to have to say, “Well, I guess Allah is not the true God.” The Qur’an commands this. So, you would have to say, “Well, I guess the Qur’an wasn’t really a revelation from the true God. Muhammad wasn’t really a true prophet.” I don’t think you can change that much, Tom. I wish you could. Let’s go to Saudi Arabia, try it there. You can’t even build a non-Muslim place of worship. You can’t carry a Bible on the street. Now, how are you going to introduce this in Egypt? You just had a husband and wife and two daughters—fifteen-year old and eight-year old daughters—that were slaughtered in New Jersey by Muslims. They got into their home under some pretext, slit their throats, stabbed them—how did this come about? Well, he was a Coptic Christian from Egypt who was having some discussions on a Middle East chat line, you know, with Muslims. They warned him, “You keep this up, we will track you down and kill you.” Okay, now you can say, “those were fanatics.” No, they were real Muslims; this is what Islam commands. This is what Abu Bakr and his men did to those former Muslims—Arabs who tried to leave Islam. Tom, I wish it could be changed. I think the one way to change it would be if you guys realize that if you could force the whole world into submission, you haven’t really changed their hearts.

Now, let’s have a discussion about this, guys. Let’s lay it out. I’d like to see an international debate: you give us your evidence, we’ll give you our evidence for Jesus Christ and for the Bible, and let’s allow people to make a free choice without intimidation. That might help.

Tom: Dave, if Iraq is any indication—I am talking about those who do not want democracy under any way—they are fighting it [unintelligible], because the Qur’an, as you know, it doesn’t support democracy; it supports submission to Allah and his Qur’an.