Killing and the Koran in the Light of the Arab Spring

Killing and the Koran in the Light of the Arab Spring [Excerpts]

Muslims have been persecuting Christians ever since the time of Muhammed.  But in the wake of the so-called “Arab Spring,” such activity seems to be on the rise throughout much of the Islamic world, now that Muslims in several countries are enjoying greater freedom to do things they felt more restrained from doing before.  Christians are being beaten and murdered, churches attacked and destroyed.

If there is a positive side of this terrible development, it is this: if there’s more such persecution going on, more attention is finally being paid to it in the mainstream Western media.  Yet even as some of the media are daring to report on these events, there remains a strong disinclination to suggest that this pattern of persecution has anything whatsoever to do with Islam.

[On October 13, 2011], USA Today ran an op-ed  which did a splendid job of presenting the persecution of Christians as un-Islamic.  The author of the op-ed, a Muslim named Qasim Rashid, chided his coreligionists for persecuting Christians, and quoted the Prophet Muhammed against them: “Christians are my citizens, and by God, I hold out against anything that displeases them.”  And: “We defend Christians. … No Muslim is to disobey this covenant until the Last Day.”

Alas, Ahmadi Muslims represent a tiny minority of Muslims around the world.  Other Muslims do not even consider them Muslims, and in many Islamic countries they are persecuted and punished for identifying themselves as members of the Muslim faith.  While Ahmadis, moreover, consider these “nice” passages from the Koran to be at the center of their faith, mainstream Muslim theologians overwhelmingly disagree.  For them, it is not just the Koran but also the Hadith, or sayings of Muhammed, that are legitimate sources of Islamic law.  Also, there’s the question of which parts of the Koran you prioritize over the others.  Like those who prefer Woody Allen’s earlier, funnier movies, Ahmadi Muslims tend to stress the older, more humane portions of the Koran, while virtually all other Muslims consider those benign passages to have been abrogated by the more violent and intolerant material that came along later.

If Rashid wants to influence the conduct of Christian-baiting Sunni and Shi’a Muslims, he will have to wrestle with some of the harsh Koranic passages by which they live, such as the following:

* “O ye who believe! Take not the Jews and the Christians for friends. They are friends one to another. He among you who taketh them for friends is (one) of them. Lo! Allah guideth not wrongdoing folk.”  (5:51)

* “Fight against such of those who have been given the Scripture as believe not in Allah nor the Last Day, and forbid not that which Allah hath forbidden by His messenger, and follow not the Religion of Truth, until they pay the tribute readily, being brought low.” (9:29)

O ye who believe! Fight those of the disbelievers who are near to you, and let them find harshness in you, and know that Allah is with those who keep their duty (unto Him).”  (9:123)

There’s a lot more where these came from, of course.

http://frontpagemag.com/2011/10/17/killing-and-the-koran/