In "Anti-Jihad U.: Bringing insurgents in from the cold" in City Journal (thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist), Judith Miller takes up Major General Douglas Stone's claim to use the Qur'an to teach jihadists to lay down their arms and become peaceful, law-abiding citizens. But once again, as in earlier coverage of this initiative, she doesn't offer any specifics whatsoever about how exactly he does it.
When much of the world thinks about America’s treatment of detainees in Iraq, it thinks of torture, humiliation, abuse, and pictures from Abu Ghraib. But do most people know that the American military is now running one of the Middle East’s largest Islamic schools for those detainees? Or that it sponsors religious discussion programs among them about Islam? Or that it trains suspected insurgents to be carpenters, farmers, and artists who are paid for their work each day? The school, programs, and training are core elements of the American military’s radically new approach to detention in Iraq, an integral part of its counterinsurgency effort.For the past nine months, Task Force 134—led by Major General Douglas M. Stone, a two-star Marine general who oversees civilian detention in Iraq—has been experimenting with a series of unconventional initiatives at two large “camps” where 23,245 suspected insurgents, Iraqi and foreign, are being held. The aim of these programs, which I visited in April, is not only to accelerate the identification and release of those falsely accused of “jihadi” activity, but also to de-radicalize and rehabilitate others who may have joined the insurgency primarily to feed their families, or because they were motivated by a militant, perverse interpretation of Islam.
The results to date suggest that Stone’s approach seems to be working, at least for the vast majority of those people who have been arrested as suspected threats to American forces and are now being detained. While a relatively small hard core of detainees probably cannot be safely released any time soon, officers say that the overwhelming majority of detainees, probably over two-thirds of them, are likely to be freed by the end of 2008. Initial data, once in short supply, are impressive: of the 8,000 detainees released so far under the program, only 21 have been recaptured as a result of suspected insurgent activity, a rate that officers say is unprecedented. “It means that only .2 percent of those detained have returned to the fight,” Stone told me after I spent five days with his 9,000-person task force, drawn from all the uniformed services. “At no time in the history of collected data in Iraq do we have anything remotely like this.”
While I was not permitted to talk privately with detainees, I visited both Camp Cropper, near Baghdad International Airport, and remote Camp Bucca, near Basra in southern Iraq. I also attended the educational, religious, and vocational classes and watched three-member administrative panels as they questioned detainees, reviewed their records, and decided their fates. I saw detainees praying, watching television, and playing soccer, volleyball, and ping-pong. I also interviewed more than a dozen American soldiers and Iraqi teachers, social workers, and religious clerics working in the program.
[...]
All graduates of Stone’s “anti-Jihad U.,” as some of his troops call the program, take a pledge before an Iraqi judge prior to their release, vowing not to resort to violence and to respect Iraqi laws. Whenever possible, pledges are guaranteed by family members. Over 7,200 detainees have made such pledges.
Terrorism experts are closely watching Stone’s program, as Saudi Arabia and several other countries plagued by Islamic militancy have launched de-radicalization programs that rely on similar initiatives. They, too, have begun reporting progress in rehabilitating militants. In a world in which militant Islam is not only already endemic but growing, there can be few more crucial challenges.
[...]
A major tipping point in the program, say officers, was when detainees began volunteering for the classes being offered. Although al-Qaida detainees and the Takfiris (another group of religious extremists) pressured fellow Iraqis against participating in the very popular religious discussions, over 3,000 detainees have done so. “After Iraqis here learn how to read and write, they can read the Koran themselves for the first time,” says Sheikh Ali, a Sunni who counsels detainees and who, like most of the Iraqis working in the program, declined to have his surname used and must live in an American-guarded compound to avoid reprisals. “I’ve seen detainees break down and cry when they realize that the conduct they thought was sanctioned by God is actually a sin.”
Detainees began volunteering for religious discussion—in addition to the Arabic, civics, history, science, geography, and math that are also offered—after American soldiers physically separated “extremist” elements from the overwhelming majority of camp “moderates.” “Empowering the moderates and isolating extremists has been key for us,” says Stone. When moderate inmates identified the extremists to soldiers and demanded their removal, Task Force 134 knew that its approach was working.
Al-Qaida and Takfiri detainees are now housed in special trailers in separate compounds. Though they get the same privileges as more moderate detainees—access to radio, TV, movies, books, newspapers, and sports—they lose them if there is violence or intimidation in their compounds. Officers say that 20 weeks have passed without such a violent outbreak, another tipping point. Now, even some of the “worst of the worst,” as the most militant, violent detainees are known, have asked to join religious discussion groups in which non-extremist interpretations of the Koran are vigorously debated.
[...]
The program has its critics. Marc Sageman, a psychiatrist, former CIA case officer, and expert in Islamic radicalization, considers the program promising, but says that it’s too early to call it a success before more data are available. He also fears that many detainees considered de-radicalized and then released may eventually revert to their former militancy and violent habits once they move into a still insecure environment that has not substantially improved....
Why are these "non-extremist interpretations of the Koran" so hard to come by? I have asked Islamic spokesmen repeatedly to provide one here. Here, for example, is a question I asked CAIR's Ahmed Bedier, asking him to provide an Islamic refutation of the mainstream Islamic interpretation of the Qur'an that considers the violent passages to have abrogated peaceful ones:
I understand that "all Scripture must be understood in its historical and textual context." In his sira, Ibn Ishaq explains the contexts of various verses of the Qur'an by saying that Muhammad received revelations about warfare in three stages: first, tolerance; then, defensive warfare; and finally, offensive warfare in order to convert the unbelievers to Islam or make them pay the jizya (see Qur'an 9:29, Sahih Muslim 4294, etc.). Tafasir by Ibn Kathir, Ibn Juzayy, As-Suyuti and others also emphasize that Surat At-Tawba abrogates every peace treaty in the Qur'an.In the modern age, this idea of stages of development in the Qur'an's teaching on jihad, culminating in offensive warfare to establish the hegemony of Islamic law, has been affirmed by Qutb, Maududi, the Pakistani Brigadier S. K. Malik (author of "The Qur'anic Concept of War"), Saudi Chief Justice Sheikh Abdullah bin Muhammad bin Humaid (in his "Jihad in the Qur'an and Sunnah"), and others. It is, of course, an assertion of no little concern to non-Muslims, since it encapsulates a doctrine of warfare against non-Muslims and their ultimate subjugation under Sharia rules, with all that implies.
Hence my question: as a moderate Muslim and vociferous opponent of terrorism in all its forms, you reject this exegesis of the Qur'an -- or at least I think it is safe to assume you do (correct me if I'm wrong), since, by the accounts of the terrorists themselves, this expansionist imperative forms the ideological underpinning of much of today's terrorism. But it is based on a contextual analysis of the Qur'an, a relative weighing of Meccan and Medinan suras, and an examination of the asbab an-nazool for a large number of verses. Thus an appeal to read the Qur'an in context, such as you have made [in your email] here, is not adequate in itself to establish that Islam teaches peaceful coexistence between non-Muslims and Muslims on an indefinite basis.
Could you please therefore provide an Islamic refutation of the arguments of Ibn Ishaq, Ibn Kathir, Ibn Juzayy, As-Suyuti, Qutb, Maududi, Malik, and Humaid? Armstrong and Esposito, to which you refer [us], do not provide this. Armstrong says only that the doctrines of offensive jihad were in the course of time "set aside in practice." But of course, today they are being taken up again. Thus I look forward to your answer with great eagerness, as it could contain the key to stemming the tide of today's terrorism, and be used to convince Muslims that violent jihad and Islamic supremacism must be definitively rejected.
I never got an answer.
Anyone? Anyone? Bueller? Can anyone show me a mainstream Islamic interpretation of the Qur'an that denies that Muslims must wage war against unbelievers in order to establish the hegemony of Sharia? There are plenty floating around that claim that Muslims may only fight in self-defense -- and then we hear that self-defense includes fighting against any impediment in the way of the spread of Islam. No -- I am asking for a mainstream interpretation of the Qur'an that teaches that Muslims and non-Muslims must live together as equals on an indefinite basis. Send it to me at director[at]jihadwatch.org. I'll be in the Jihad Watch offices all day, waiting and watching as they pour in.
"Can anyone show me a mainstream Islamic interpretation of the Qur'an that denies that Muslims must wage war against unbelievers in order to establish the hegemony of Sharia?"
Its not required. They broke down and cried and said that they were sorry. isn't that enough for a good christian?
Sounds like WW1 all over again. ie, the "generals"
have no real idea. Scary isn't it? I am starting to hope that god is on our side as by ourselves we are....in trouble.
If we can truly believe that the detainees are turning away from violence due to the deprograming of Anti-jihad U, I think it points to the innate goodness of most people who pursue a religion. Most people assume religion teaches goodness, and those indoctrinated with the Jihad ideology are assuming it must be "good" if Allah wills it. It is very encouraging to learn that most people are relieved to "find out" that their religion is actually "good." But what will happen to these same deprogramed souls who then learn that Islam actually does teach violence, now that they can read the Quran on their own time? So, a man who pursues religion usually wants to be good, but in Islam "Allah cometh in between the man and his own heart." Quran 8:24
I have my own questions stirred by this utopian prose.
1) Viz some of them learning to become carpenters, etc.: what is that Islamic tenet that lets them lie to us, to sucker us into trusting them? Come on, somebody help me out here? Takiya? Something like that? People like that are called bullshit artists, not
2) Impressive data? Maybe it should be interpreted and stated this way: "Of the 8000 released, only 21 have been recaptured… so far. We have no data telling us how many of them are out there again with AK's and RPGs waiting for another opportunity to kill us."
3) That they were praying, watching television, and playing soccer, volleyball, and ping-pong is supposed to tell us exactly… what? Oh, yea; Forrest Gump played ping-pong for world peace. I get it.
4) So they take a pledge? Wow. In front of a Muslim judge? Ooo. And exactly how many of those finger-bowling hands fully intend to go right back into the jihadi cookie jar as soon as the oath echo fades and they're released?
Puh-lease.
not "converts."
I would rather my generals practice firepower than prayerpower.
Yea, what he said.
Of course any religious discussion of Islam that convinces Muslims that terrorism is unIslamic and sinful, would have to include a pack of lies, but then they already live a pack of lies, so why argue with success -- that's if it's really successful.
23,245 being held and 8,000 released!!!
so much for the tiny minority of extremists
Rush Limbaugh is having an interesting discussion with Andrew McCarthy who prosecuted the blind sheik and wrote Willful Blindness: Memoir of the Jihad
Major General Douglas M. Stone, a two-star Marine general who oversees civilian detention in Iraq..."
-- from the article above
In my mind's eye, I imagine someone bluff, gruff, wanting in finesse and cunning, sure that he knows what's what and no one can pull the wool over his eyes, and after all aren't they just accomplishing what our friends the Saudis do in their "brilliant" re-education programs?
Yes, I see him as being played by George C. Scott, in his American-general's role in "Dr. Strangelove."
Someone tell me I have the Marine general all wrong; tell me that he is intimately familiar with the texts and tenets and attitudeds of Islam, cannot be fooled with Taqiyya-and-Tu-Quoque, knows all the tricks and wiles of the Muslims who tell him it's just those "extremists" and "radicals," knows what's what, and is as clever and ruthless as, say, Victor Sorge, or Markus Wolff. Please -- tell me I've got him all wrong, and that's really what he's like.
Robert you seem to be mixing two different points in this post.
You start by wondering whether there's "one" "non-extremist interpretation," and then you switch to ask for "mainstream" peaceful interpretation.
Finding one peaceful interpretation isn't so hard, right? What's wrong with Taha's? Sure he got killed for it, but so what. That's not uncommon among controversial religious figures, is it?
Seems to me that if Stone really is teaching Taha's interpretation, that would be a good thing, and there's no need to be mysterious at all about it.
That's very different from saying it's "mainstream," but I think it would be hard to fault them for starting/trying, if that's the one being taught. An interpretation can't go from non-existence to mainstream instantaneously, can it?
Their tears offer very little comfort to me. I am still of the opinion that we need to error on the side of caution to the EXTREME with these guys! They may be sorry for their sins, but who of us can say that we would trust them with our lives, or with the lives of a loved one? I certainly won't, not when there are those who are worthy of that kind of trust. There is too much at stake to trust these guys, it's just not worth it in my book.
“I’ve seen detainees break down and cry when they realize that the conduct they thought was sanctioned by God is actually a sin.”
Translation: “I’ve seen detainees break down and cry when they realize that killing fellow Muslims is a sin, but killing only Infidels is what is sanctioned by God.”
Ridiculous!
This is wishful thinking on the part of the good general.
Who would believe that a jihadist is so weak in his conviction that he breaks down the moment a 'moderate' Muslim imam whispers sweet nothing in his ear? And even if he did, that effect wouldn't last a day, because the next 'radical' is just around the corner.
Alternatively, he can just check the Koran and he's 'back to normal'.
"Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?"
Unfortunately, Robert, I think you're going to get the same reply as Ben Stein did in that film.
Cue crickets anytime.
OT, for those praying-types on JW, my hubby's off to Afghanistan tomorrow. It's been heating up this week, so needless to say, our family is a little on edge. (Especially since he's a medic, and it seems like they try to target people - like medics - who try to help them. Go figure. Good thing he's also a damn good shot.)
Back to topic, I don't expect to hear of any tearful Qur'anic epiphanies when he comes home ...
God be with he and thee, Lori.
Thank you, and your husband, for the sacrifices you make.
"...(the school) trains suspected insurgents to be carpenters, farmers, and artists.."
Artists? If representational art is involved, especially the depiction of sentient creatures, then such instruction is un-Islamic. In a country such as Iraq where, thanks to our well-intentioned, but dangerous ignorance, Shari'a law is enshrined in its new constitution, such artists will find limited prospects to ply their livelihood, and may actually be placing their lives in danger, risking being declared "takfir" (heretic).
The above article also appeared in today's New York Post, which also had this passage (not appearing above): "Ahmed, a 30 year-old Sunni, talked with me as he was being released. He told me he'd....learned to play chess. 'Because I had never played chess before, I had to cheat to win,' he joked. 'None of this would have happened in an Iraqi jail.'"
Yes, probably true. Because chess, like representational art, is considered not only un-Islamic, but sinful. It would not be permitted in an Iraqi jail. Our friend Ahmed, in all likelihood, will find few willing partners for chess among his Muslim peers should he be released by his American captors. Very likely, he is ignorant of the Muslim proscription against chess. Almost certainly, so are the Americans, who are also clueless as to how orthodox Islam views art, along with poetry and music. Ahmed would do well to conceal his relish for chess from his fellow Muslims.
The worst, however, is certainly this: “After Iraqis here learn how to read and write, they can read the Koran themselves for the first time,” says Sheikh Ali, a Sunni who counsels detainees.."
So under our auspices, we are promoting literacy so that Muslims can read their war manual and learn at first hand about their obligation to wage war against the unbelievers. And so they learn, as JeffS astutely points out in his comment above, that they must redirect their vengeful, murderous impulses against the occupying Infidel instead of each other, which is why “...detainees break down and cry when they realize that the conduct they thought was sanctioned by God is actually a sin.”
Yeah - and I've seen murderers break down and cry on the witness stand when it suited their interests.
Then get early parole.
Then kill again after released.
Sydney: Imams condemn Islamic teacher
http://sheikyermami.com/2008/05/02/sydney-imams-condemn-islamic-teacher/
"...I'll be waiting and watching as they pour in..."
RS
Go make yourself a sandwich and take the rest of the night off. We will watch the tickertape...sigh..
I'm all for determining (with appropriate investigative techniques) any who have not participated in violence and who have not acted against the alliance/government, and letting them go. It's too bad, but it is inevitable that there will be some such in an operation this size, and the more effectively they are weeded out the better.
The rest should be firmly incarcerated with no chance of early release, and those guilty of serious offenses...no chance of release period.
For those in between -- radicalized, guilty of incarcerable offenses, and desiring some leniency, there should be a choice of indoctrination -- with the goal of possible conversion -- into any of several schools of (non-islamic) religion: Christian, Buddhist, Hindu, perhaps Baha'i. Judaism is not omitted because it is any more dangerous than these but because there is not a strong drive to proselytize in Judaism, and because conversion to Judaism would probably lead to the most extreme backlash, worse even than conversion to Christianity.
Release should not be sudden, but in stages designed to determine the genuine nature of the ex-jihadist's new orientation, and their commitment to serve society in a nonviolent fashion.
I would avoid other religious varieties such as Animism, any brand of Islam other than Amadiyya, Shinto or athiesm because of their tendency to organize along totalitarian political lines and their propensity toward violence once so organized.
commonsense,
Gallows humor mode, it's dual use training, "...(the school) trains suspected insurgents to be carpenters,(how best to booby trap a house)farmers (planting IED's) and artists (suicide bombing as performance art)..."
Convincing these folks that Mohammad was a false prophet, which is the ONLY way to really put a stop to Qur'an inspired murder? Most unlikely.
fat BASTARDS like Mike Moore and their calorie induced delusions... only cry when their cream filled donuts are out of arm length, what a sack of shit... how he helps the enemies of America. God Bless America.
talking to radical islamics about the koran will never educate them, don't be so rediculous, real men on the front line educate them every day.
god bless.
Prisoners agreeing with (AKA: lying to) their interrogators to get better treatment, coax out more privileges, and maybe gain early release?
How could anyone doubt their honesty or sincerity?
"War is deceit"?
What s.o.b. said that!?!
One can only hope that some of those who read the Quran and find out what it actually says, will be repelled rather than seduced.
It has been known to happen. If one visits Ali Sina's or Ibn Warraq's site, and reads the testimonies of the apostates, there are those who were truly shocked when they found out what the Quran was saying.
I also second Archimedes2 - give these people access to good quality presentations of alternative possible programming, rather than keeping them trapped within Islam's closed circle.
Fill the environment with tempting possibilities.
Give them access to Mr Ali Sina's and Mr Ibn Warraq's websites. Perhaps their TVs could include the possibility of tuning in to Mr Zakaria Botros' 'Life TV' (which I understand has a large and fascinated, if horrified, Muslim following). Let them hear from the happy apostates, by all means!
Put 'the Jesus film', dubbed in Arabic, on the library shelf. Curiosity is a powerful human force, and many of these people are still young enough that Islam has not 100 % killed their curiosity. Likewise, the Bible Society has something called 'Faith Comes By Hearing' - essentially, Bible recitations. Order a whole bunch and stick them in the jailhouse library and let curiosity do its work. And, shamelessly, slip in dvds of films like 'The Hiding Place' and 'Inn of the Sixth Happiness', and 'The Cross and the Switchblade' - get them dubbed in Arabic!
When Walid Shoebat originally set out to read the Bible he did so with gritted teeth and hostile intent, determined to prove how wrong it all was...
Initial data, once in short supply, are impressive: of the 8,000 detainees released so far under the program, only 21 have been recaptured as a result of suspected insurgent activity, a rate that officers say is unprecedented. “It means that only .2 percent of those detained have returned to the fight,” Stone told me after I spent five days with his 9,000-person task force, drawn from all the uniformed services. “At no time in the history of collected data in Iraq do we have anything remotely like this.”
What's impressive is the idiocy of this general. The 21/8000 recapture rate means just that. What it says about the other 7979 who haven't been recaptured is problematic. Are they just clever in avoiding recapture? Haven't been activated yet? Converted to Christianity or Atheism? Doesn't say. Sadly, this kind of B.S. is the hallmark of the Bush administration.
‘And Thou Seest Men Entering the Religion of Allah in Troops’.
To Call the people of old civilization like the Babylonian and dwellers of the Nile basin as clue less people in the present day of US Global adventurism on move under the cover of war against Terrorist by the west or depicting the inheritor of seat of knowledge and wisdom of Islam to be ‘illiterate’ is an absurd analogy and saying that they have learnt to read and write Arabic or Quran ‘now’ is a flagrant morbid anomaly.
Where as western atrocious violence and monstrous barbarity has learnt to parcel itself out neatly; the obvious counter strikes of retaliating forces in the occupied lands of Middle East and Northern states like Afghanistan are depicted as savage, blunt and blatant. This marks the absence of favour able opinionators in the today’s ‘opinion influenced world’ of electronic media at hands of so called adversaries of the west.
The deceit and cleverness has many faces and tracks-n-trails of fallacy to turn to but ‘Ishq’ of scared (or say ‘vine’) is neither a Mullah nor a priest or a Hakeem (healing doctor).
History shows that the old domination sadly became the recipient of severe punishments for their transgressions but for the ‘Word of God’ which had already gone before [1]. For the mankind,still in a raw form had to go through the process of evolution that it had yet to cross the age of adolescence. In spite of their marked transgression, they were allowed to live for due maturing to become the stepping stones in the grand scheme of God before this that they finally were accepted for the completion phase for further grooming in Islam. Where as the righteous one among them were granted a sure survival against all the odds; the others, the side peddlers were also given respite that they might be able to catch up. Where as the righteous flourished in humility but the side peddlers kept on surfacing as defiant like the towering unwanted weeds in the wheat crops that the farmers keep on caring or watering the wheat crops to reap a better yield but the weeds like (Bhokat) in the bliss of that watering and care is seen towering above the wheat crops thinking that all the watering and care is being done for the weeds only?
For the sake of accomplishment of the Grand scheme of God that to day we see the prized fulfilment of God words in Islam which is now going through its consolidation impetus phase and triumphant successes; the masses still staying out of its fold are expected to join in soon. Quran describes as in [110:2] ‘ And thou seest men entering the religion of Allah in troops’.
The forces envying Islam or still staying out as disbelievers are certainly found in oblivion?
-----------------
Adabarez
[1] Al-Shura [42:14]‘…And had it not been for a word that had already gone forth from thy Lord for an appointed term, the matter would, surely, have been decided between them.
And
In Surah Yunus (Jonah) [10:19] ‘And mankind were but one community, then they differed among themselves; and had it not been for a word that had gone before from thy Lord, it would have already been decided between them concerning that in which they differed.’
And up pops 'adabarez', telling lies, and then lying some more when he claims that Islam is superior to Judaism and Christianity, the last word in religions.
First. Some facts. Literacy levels throughout the Islamosphere are deplorably low; worse among women than among men. This is a fact.
Again - the Arabic of the Quran is archaic; 20 % of the text, if people try to read it as Arabic, makes no sense.
Furthermore: it is terribly sad that many in Egypt think they are 'Arabs' when their genetics would show that they are the descendants of Copts who - crushed by the horrible cruelty of jihad and dhimmitude, unable to endure any longer - gave up and became Muslims. The Coptic Christians are the true representatives of ancient pre-Islamic Egyptian civilisation. By becoming a Christian, Magdi Cristiano Allam returned to the faith of his long-ago Christian ancestors.
The remnant of the Mesopotamian/ Assyrian people are the Assyrian CHRISTIANS; many in Mesopotamia who now think they are 'Arabs' are the descendants of people brutally and violently arabised by Islam, the Arab Imperial Religion.
What's worse: Islam TEACHES Muslims to hate their own family members, if those people are not Muslims - so we see the Arabised Islamised descendants of Copts, murdering and raping and robbing the Coptic Christians; we see the Arabised Islamised descendants of Assyrians, murdering, raping and robbing the Assyrian Christians. What lovely deeds Islam teaches, what charity, what holiness...*spit!*
And don't try to press any guilt buttons. The USA came into existence in 1776. Islam had already been waging jihad against everybody it could, everywhere it could, for 1100 years prior to that date. It's the Quran, the Sira and the Hadith that teach Muslim jihadis to hate us, and attack us. They would be doing it even if we had never come near them (pray tell what the Indians of Sind had ever done to the Muslim Arabs of Baghdad, on the other side of the indian ocean?).
Here's Andrew McCarthy, prosecutor in a counter-jihadi case, who came to realize that, and what he says about it:
"The ideology that we're talking about here is 14 centuries old. It existed and thrived before there was a United States. It has commanded the allegiance of the old and the young, the rich and the poor, the educated and uneducated -- to some extent, Sunnis and Shi'ites, princes and paupers. You know, you can't pigeonhole one rationale for why it exists other than the obvious one, which is that it's a matter of doctrine and the people who believe it believe it's a divine injunction and that mankind doesn't have a right to make laws which run afoul of what they believe is the law that was handed down by Allah directly to Mohammed 14 centuries ago."
And we know what that 'law' commands - most notably, that non-Muslims must be converted, subjugated, or killed.
Finally: as for there being any 'relationship' at all between johnny-come-lately Arab-imperial-religion Islam on the one hand, and the ancient and anti-imperialistic faiths of Judaism and Christianity, on the other:
The God of the Bible, YHWH, the liberator, the life-giver, the Holy One, the Faithful One, maker and keeper of everlasting Covenant, the Shepherd, the Husband of Israel His Beloved, has NOTHING in common with the unholy war-god of the Arabs, 'allah' the accursed, drinker of human blood, to whom some 270 MILLION innocent non-Muslims have been sacrificed over the past 1350 years of merciless jihad mass killings and enslavements. One might add to "allah"'s trophy list of human sacrifices the thousands, perhaps millions, of MUSLIMS who have been murdered by OTHER MUSLIMS on the flimsiest of excuses (especially all the women accused of 'honor' crimes, or who were unlucky enough to be raped and were then accused of 'adultery', and got murdered for it).
Ubul Kassim ha-Meshugga stole - and twisted most dreadfully - some persons and stories from the Jewish and Christian scriptures. That doesn't mean his religion has anything to do with the God of the Jews and the Christians. If someone steals a good man's name and his passport photo, that doesn't mean they're him - specially if they go on a crime spree under his name.
Islam is not part of the Biblical story of the Covenant. It is, rather, an implacable enemy to the people of the Covenant and to the Covenant God (as it is, also, indeed, to all humanity, for it does not merely stifle, it actively attacks and destroys, with an antihuman viciousness, the free development and exercise of the gifts of the body and the mind).
A poster here, poetcomic1, put it beautifully, on May 4, at 2:04 pm:
"Islam established is a pure and inhuman stasis; an absolute dictatorship of body, mind and soul."
Everything in the Islamic scriptures, and the record of desolation and ruin in all the lands devoured by Islam, especially the sickening cruelty and injustice of sharia when people try to enforce it in something like its totality (as in Iran, Saudi Arabia, and under the Taliban) supports that statement.
dda,
No, Allah could not possibly be the biblical God of the Covenant--if Allah entered into a covenant with his own slaves, then "Allah's hand is bound; [of course,] Allah's hand is not bound."