Terrorism's Pagan Islamic Foundation

Tom: Thanks, Gary. You’re listening to Search the Scriptures Daily, a program in which we encourage everyone who desires to know God’s truth to look to God’s Word for all that is essential for salvation and living one’s life in a way that is pleasing to Him. In this segment of our program we’ll be continuing our discussion of Dave Hunt’s new book Judgment Day! Islam, Israel, and the Nations. If you have the book and would like to follow along with us, we’re beginning chapter 6 titled “Terrorism’s Pagan Islamic Foundation.” 

Dave, one of the many things I appreciate about your book is how you’ve been really diligent to present the history of Islam from true Islamic historians and Islamic documents. You haven’t loaded Judgment Day up with materials from an anti-Islamic bias, and neither have you let the many Islamic revisionist so-called “historians” influence your work. So for the next 20 minutes or so, would you give our listeners a basis 101 introduction to Islamic history in view of the title of this chapter, “Terrorism’s Pagan Foundation”?

Dave: Well, Tom, without going into too many details, Muhammad, we think, was born somewhere around 570 AD. He began getting revelations in the late 29…629-630, around there, and at first they were rather benign. He was trying to cater to the Christians and Jews that he knew, that he’d been in contact with. He had heard a bit about the Bible from them; he got rather mixed up on that. He supposedly was illiterate - spoke forth these revelations when this being would come to him whom he claimed to see and claimed to be Gabriel. They would be written down by people who happened to be there listening on whatever they had at hand - sticks, stones, leaves, you name it; they just tried to write something down. Some of them memorized it, and of course they had disagreements when it finally came to be put into writing as to what was the authentic Qur’an. 

But anyway, when the Christians and Jews would not accept him as the prophet of Allah -  and you understand that Allah was the chief god in the Kaaba. Allah is a contraction of Al-Elah, which means the “chief god.” There are about 360 gods in this Kaaba, this idol temple there in Mecca.

Tom: Dave, I just want to interrupt you for a second, because the historians, Islamic historians, seem to imply that Muhammad wasn’t sure whether he was possessed by a demon or not. And you have a quote in here in which his first wife Khadija was trying to help him out to figure whether this was truly from God or whether it was a demon. Let me quote that test - it’s really fascinating: “She said to the apostle of Allah, ‘O, son of my uncle, are you able to tell me about your visitant when he comes to you?’ He replied that he could, and she asked him to tell her when he came. So when Gabriel came to him, as he was wont, the apostle said to Khadija, “This is Gabriel who has just come to me.’ 

‘Get up, O son of my uncle,’ she said, ‘and sit by my left thigh.’ The apostle did so, and she said, ‘Can you see him?’ 

‘Yes,’ he said. 

She said, ‘Then turn around and sit on my right thigh.’ He did so, and she said, ‘Can you see him?’ And when he said that he could, she asked him to move and sit in her lap. When he had done this, she again asked if he could see him, and when he said yes, she disclosed her form (that is, she removed her clothes) and cast aside her veil. With the apostle sitting in her lap she said, ‘Can you see him?’ 

He replied, ‘No.’ 

And she said, ‘O son of my uncle, rejoice and be of good heart! By Allah he is an angel and not a Satan.’”

Dave: This comes from the life history of Muhammad by Ibn Ishaq and it was first published in AD 768, so that’s getting pretty close back there. It is recognized as one of the two authoritative biographies; the other one is The Expeditions of Muhammad by Al-Waqidi, and that was published in AD 822. 

Now, Muhammad, by many accounts from the Hadith and these histories and so forth, was not sure whether he was being demon-possessed. The Islamic authors go into great details about this. Furthermore, Muhammad became suicidal, and he was so uncertain and he was so troubled - in fact, when these so-called revelations ceased for a number of months, he became very suicidal. He was fearful that he had lost touch with God, or whatever it was that was giving him these visitations and these revelations. 

But anyway, at the beginning, his so-called revelations - and I would have to say I think much of it must have come from his imagination, because it was friendly toward the Christians and Jews, because he was catering to them, trying to get them to accept him as a prophet, trying to get them to accept the first major change he made in paganism. This has a pagan foundation now; this was a pagan temple filled with idols. As we said, Allah was the chief idol, one among many. Well, Muhammad got revelations saying Allah was the only god - not the chief god, but the only god, and you either accepted this or you would be killed. Well, the Christians and Jews, why are they going to accept Allah as the true God when they know that Allah is the chief god in a pagan temple which is still sitting there? So they would not accept this; then he turned against them, and the Qur’an begins to change in its tone. Originally the Jews and Christians were called “the people of the Book,” and in fact, the Qibla - that is, the direction of prayer - was toward Jerusalem. That was very brief. When they would not accept this, he had the prayer then toward Mecca, toward the Kaaba. Now, that’s of great interest, because for a number of years at the beginning of Islam, the prayer is directed toward the Kaaba. This is a pagan temple filled with idols, all right? That’s a bit odd.

Tom: Muhammad, his family, his tribe, that’s how they worshipped; this was their belief system.

Dave: This was how they made their money, in fact, because they had an idol there for everybody that might come through on one of the caravans through Mecca. 

So it becomes even odder as we progress, because in 628 - that would be Hijra 6. The Muslim calendar is AH, Anno Hijra. The English calendar, or the Western calendar, is AD, Anno Domini. The date 622, Muhammad fled from Mecca to Yathrib (at that time it was called Yathrib). The city had been founded by Jews, and Muhammad eventually killed every Jew. And about 900 of the warriors, who were promised free passage if they would surrender (Muhammad had a superior force at that time, they surrendered, and then they were beheaded. In fact, they are buried under the marketplace in what is now called Medina, which means “the City of the Prophet.” So the Muslim calendar dates from 622.

Tom: Isn’t that a little odd that the calendar would begin when he flees Mecca? Not exactly an item to boast about, or of significance from a pride standpoint.

Dave: A lot of it is very odd, because, as we mentioned, Mecca was the center for the stone worship, the idol worship. The Kaaba had 300-and-some idols, and his qibla - that is, the direction of prayer - is toward this idol temple. No wonder the Christians and Jews would not accept this! They know this is an idol temple. The Muslim calendar dates from 622 AH, Anno Hijra. Our calendar, of course, AD, Anno Domini, “in the year of the Lord” - that is, in the year of the Hijra; that’s when he fled. So in AH 6 (that’s 628 AD) Muhammad had such a longing to join the hajj. Now, the Muslims have a hajj; you can make it at any time, but…

Tom: A pilgrimage.

Dave: A pilgrimage to the Kaaba, and there are pagan ceremonies that they go through, which are the same today. People think that the hajj is something that Muhammad came up with; it’s something specifically Islamic. In fact, it is not. It was practiced by the pagan Arabs for centuries before Muhammad was born. So in 628, Muhammad wants to return to Mecca peacefully and join the hajj. What’s he going to do with his new Muslim followers? He’s going to join thousands of pagans to go to a pagan temple filled with idols. Well, the Meccans happen to be too strong for him at that time, and so they met him and refused entry, and they entered into - it’s called a hudna, a temporary ceasefire. It was a 10-year agreement that they would not fight one another. It’s called the Treaty of Hudaibiya. Very, very important in Islamic history, because this sets the precedent, and this is the basis of the law of war and peace in Islam. No Muslim can make peace, they can only make a hudna - that is, a temporary ceasefire - with, whether it’s Christians or Jews or whoever it is, and the only purpose of it is not to cease hostilities, but to gather your forces for the final assault to defeat the enemy. It’s to deceive the enemy. Part of the agreement of the Treaty of Hudaibiya was that the next year, in 629, Muhammad would then be allowed to enter. But in order to gain that privilege, he had to acknowledge that he was not the prophet of Allah. Again, rather interesting, because there it is in writing. We still have copies of this that have come down today, and all the Muslim historians agree on this. So in 629, here comes Muhammad, the leader of this supposed new religion Islam leading his followers - new Muslims they are - and they join the pagans in this pilgrimage to the Kaaba. When they get there, they go around it seven times; each time they kiss the dark stone, they touch another stone at the Yemeni corner, and I can’t go into all the details. They go out and they - and this goes over a period of days: they run back and forth seven times between Marwah and Safa, a couple of mountains, supposedly in memory of Hagar’s search for water. They go to Wadi Mina, and there are three stones there which supposedly represent Satan; they throw seven stones at each one of these representations - 21 stones at Satan. 

You may recall that at the last hajj - I don’t remember how many - several thousand people were trampled to death right there at Wadi Mina. There’s a small bridge that goes over to get there, and people were pressing from behind, and people were knocked off of the bridge and some were trampled to death. It happens at every hajj, almost, that many people die. 

But anyway, so he joined in all these pagan ceremonies which his ancestors had been performing for centuries in which he, before he supposedly became the founder of this new religion Islam, he had practiced these from childhood. 630 AD (he was strong enough now) he broke this treaty. These treaties, these hudnas, are only made to be broken as soon as you have the power to do so, and no Muslim today can go against this. No Muslim would dare to make peace. This is why when Anwar Sadat supposedly made peace with Israel, they killed him, his own troops as he is reviewing a parade there, you know, a military parade. 

So Muhammad now, he broke the treaty; he takes over Mecca, but he still allowed the pagan Arabs for a short period of time to join with the Muslims in this pagan ceremony. Then he gave them four months: “You either convert to Islam within these four months, or we kill you.” And from that time on, no one who was not a Muslim could approach Mecca, and that is the law today. 

Now, how does this relate to terrorism? How does this, the Islamic foundation, a pagan foundation of terrorism? Because Muhammad - there is no other way to explain what he practiced except terrorism. He began his career with murders of about 25 poets. Muhammad would get a revelation whenever he needed it, and because these poets were writing verse that was not complimentary to him, he received a revelation that’s in the Qur’an that all poets were inspired of Satan and should be killed. So he had them killed. One of them was nursing her youngest child when she was stabbed to death; another one was, I think, around 100 years old. 

But anyway, then his career began also not only with murders, but with attacks on caravans and villages. And you remember that the first three attacks on caravans were a failure. Well then, what do you know? Muhammad got a new revelation! You understand that Ramadan is not an Islamic invention, it’s not something that is specifically Islamic. Again, it is a practice of the pagan Arabs; it went on for centuries before Muhammad was born. So the pagan Arabs had agreed for centuries that Ramadan is a time of peace; we do not attack. And what do you know? Muhammad received a revelation! Again, it’s in the Qur’an. The Qur’an declares that it was first inspired during the month of Ramadan, okay? So Ramadan already existed, according to the Qur’an, and Muhammad received a revelation that - what do you know? Muslims could fight during Ramadan! And that brought him his first successful attack against a caravan near a place called Badr.

Tom: Because the caravan was very unsuspecting that anybody would do that.

Dave: That’s right, they were not expecting an attack, and that was Muhammad’s first success. So the Qur’an supposedly has inspirations from Allah which cater to Muhammad’s desires, and that was how Islam was launched. Then, because of this success…see, Muhammad had been challenged to do a miracle like Jesus. He couldn’t do a miracle, but now this was the sign that this was the true god Allah, and Arabs began to join Islam to get in on the booty which was promised to them, and the promise came through the Qur’an that those who die in this jihad now - because this was for the purpose of spreading Islam. “You don’t accept Islam peacefully? We will take your head off unless you do.” And right there at this attack at Badr, Muhammad made some conversions at the point of a sword. So he began to attack villages. There were about 65 attacks during his lifetime which he plotted. He was apparently a pretty shrewd military strategist. He personally led 27 of them. This was slaughter, mayhem, murder, slavery, and if you didn’t accept Islam, you were killed. It’s just that simple, and no one can deny it! Is this terrorism? I don’t know what else you could call it. What is a terrorist trying to do today? They are trying to enforce Islam on the world. They are trying to intimidate the Western world so that we will embrace Islam. That’s the whole purpose of it. They want to destroy our civilization, and they want to impose an Islamic civilization on the world - you have to eat like Muhammad, you have to live like Muhammad, and dress like Muhammad. That’s the reason why you see the Taliban, and this is why they dress the way they do, and practice the way they do, and veil women, and so forth. This was part of paganism previously to Islam. The Arabs attacked one another, they fought one another, their loyalty was to the tribe, there was great animosity, but Muhammad turned that loyalty from the tribe to Islam and to Allah, and he enforced Islam on all of Arabia.

Tom: What you’ve just articulated has to do with the 7th century, and it’s not like we’ve had a society that’s changed over these centuries and now they are reverting way back to when - this is engrained, this is taught. Those who piloted the jets that went into the Twin Towers, for example, they were living out what their faith had taught them and looking for the reward. That’s why they use martyrs. But no, this is why they committed the suicide…

Dave: Murder.

Tom: …murder for the prizes that go back and have been engrained in them, certainly in their lifetime, but goes back century after century after century.

Dave: Yeah, let me explain how engrained it is, Tom. Muhammad took over Arabia. When he died in 632 AD, the Arabs who had converted to Islam at the point of a sword thought they were free. They tried to abandon Islam. Abu Bakr, his first successor, and his men in the name of Allah and in obedience to Allah who had said, “Whoever relinquishes his faith, kill him,” they killed tens of thousands - some historians say 70 thousand - forcing Arabia back into Islam. From there on, Islam spread. It was the fastest spreading and largest empire ever known, all the way from France to China with the sword. 

Now, anybody that wants to check up on this, just go on the internet and look up Wars of Apostasy - that’s what they are called - because of the 70 thousand that were killed, forcing Arabia, former Muslims, back into (these are Arabs) back into Islam. This is Islam today, and this is what the terrorism is all about. They’re not out there just trying to kill people, they’re out there trying to force this world into Islam, and in fact this is what Allah commanded. Muhammad said, “Allah has commanded me to fight against all people until all people confess there is no god but Allah and Muhammad is his prophet,” and that is the foundation of Islamic terrorism today.