Recently in Koran Category

In the version of the video containing remarks from the jihad murderer in London today that can be found above, he clearly mentions Surat at-Tawba at the beginning. (Thanks to Kenneth.)

Why has this video been edited to remove his references to the Qur'an?

He says, "Surat at-Tawba through...many, many ayat throughout the Qur'an that...we must fight them as they fight us..."

Surat at-Tawba is the ninth chapter of the Qur'an, and according to Islamic scholars is the last one or one of the last ones to have been revealed that contain doctrinal content -- which means that it takes precedence over the others. Some highlights:

"And when the sacred months have passed, then kill the polytheists wherever you find them and capture them and besiege them and sit in wait for them at every place of ambush. But if they should repent, establish prayer, and give zakah, let them [go] on their way. Indeed, Allah is Forgiving and Merciful." -- 9:5

"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 and remove the fury in the believers' hearts. And Allah turns in forgiveness to whom He wills; and Allah is Knowing and Wise." -- 9:14-15

"Fight those who do not believe in Allah or in the Last Day and who do not consider unlawful what Allah and His Messenger have made unlawful and who do not adopt the religion of truth from those who were given the Scripture - [fight] until they give the jizyah willingly while they are humbled." -- 9:29

"O Prophet, fight against the disbelievers and the hypocrites and be harsh upon them. And their refuge is Hell, and wretched is the destination." -- 9:73

"O you who have believed, fight those adjacent to you of the disbelievers and let them find in you harshness. And know that Allah is with the righteous." -- 9:123

"And We ordained for them therein a life for a life, an eye for an eye, a nose for a nose, an ear for an ear, a tooth for a tooth, and for wounds is legal retribution. But whoever gives [up his right as] charity, it is an expiation for him. And whoever does not judge by what Allah has revealed - then it is those who are the wrongdoers." (Qur'an 5:45)

Gruesome video here. "Report: Syrian rebel defends gruesome video as revenge," from AFP, May 14:

A Syrian rebel who was filmed apparently cutting out and eating the organs of a soldier has defended his actions as revenge for regime atrocities, Time magazine reported on Tuesday.

The U.S. news weekly said it had talked by Skype with the fighter, identified as Khalid al-Hamad, who appeared in a video that sparked outrage and condemnation, including from the Syrian opposition.

Hamad claimed he was driven to the gruesome acts by footage on the dead soldier’s cellphone, showing him “humiliating” a naked woman and her two daughters.

The magazine said Hamad described participating in another acts of mutilating regime forces, including militiamen known as shabiha.

“I have another video clip... In the clip I am sawing another shabiha with a saw. The saw we use to cut trees. I sawed him in small pieces and large ones,” Time quoted him as saying.

The magazine said Hamad, a Sunni like much of the opposition fighting against President Bashar al-Assad’s regime, expressed hatred of member’s of the leader’s Alawite sect.

He also insisted that the rebel, identified as Hamad, had been “previously ejected” from his unit “because of his history of brutality.”

“Hopefully we will slaughter all of them,” he told the magazine,

“They were the ones who killed our children in Baba Amr and raped our women,” he said, referring to a neighborhood of the central city of Homs.

“We didn’t start it, they started it,” he added.

“Our slogan is an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.”...

Yet another link between the Qur'an and jihad terror. Despite a mountain of such links, authorities steadfastly refuse to examine the phenomenon of Qur'an-inspired terrorism or its implications.

"China says clash suspects met to study Quran," from the Associated Press, April 30 (thanks to Kenneth):

BEIJING (AP) -- The perpetrators of deadly violence last week in China's Xinjiang region held secret Quran study sessions and possessed extremist religious literature, authorities said Tuesday, accusations likely to be used by Beijing as justification for its strict rules on Islam in the vast northwestern territory.

The claims came amid new revelations about the April 23 clash in which 25 assailants, police officers and local government workers were killed near the city of Kashgar. It was one of the deadliest incidents of violence in Xinjiang since nearly 200 people were killed in a July 2009 ethnic riot in the regional capital, Urumqi. Police say they arrested 19 suspects and killed six others, all of them from the region's native Turkic Uighur Muslim ethnic group.

The group was led by Kasmu Memet, who began hosting the Quran study sessions in September, according to an account from the Xinjiang police that was posted to official websites. In March, they began manufacturing swords and conducting test explosions in preparation for carrying out a major attack this summer in densely populated areas of Kashgar, the account said....

Actually the perpetrators were Islamic jihadists who not only misunderstood the peaceful teachings of the Book of Peace, but actually cut them out to make room for their bomb.

Yet somehow I doubt that there will be even a single riot over this horrific desecration of the holiest of books. Now, why is that? Could it be that riots over Qur'an desecration are just a tool to intimidate the Infidels? Naaah, that couldn't be it.

(Thanks to all who sent this in.)

Yet no world leader anywhere dares to denounce this murderous madness. "Muslims accuse Jerusalem cop of defiling Quran, threaten his life," by Efrat Forsher and Daniel Siryoti for Israel Hayom, March 8:

A website has issued calls to attack and kill this Israeli policeman for defiling the Quran.

Jerusalem Police is bracing for violence near the Temple Mount on Friday after the spread of an inflammatory internet article claiming that one of its policemen threw a Quran onto the ground and stepped on it.

Police have reinforced their presence near the Temple Mount out of concern that extremists may stir violence at the most sensitive of locations in Jerusalem.

Muslim Internet forums published photos of an Israeli policeman earlier this week, accusing him of defiling Islam's holy book, the Quran. The man serves in the Israel Police's religious sites unit, and the website called on Muslims to throw shoes at the man, and to even slit his throat.

The event which sparked the controversy took place this past Sunday. A group of female Muslim worshippers at the entrance to the Temple Mount were disrupting visitors from entering through the Jewish entrance. Police on site attempted to move the group of women and during the ensuing commotion a Quran fell out of one of the women's bags.

A police officer standing next to the woman in question became the subject of an intense smear campaign; he was accused of throwing the Quran to the ground, kicking it and even stomping on it. As a result of the ensuing death threats against the policeman, Jerusalem police have had to take measures to ensure his safety.

The incident comes after a long string of provocations by both Muslim and Jewish extremists. Police have had to close the Mugrabi gate to Jewish visitors recently....

"The only reward of those who make war upon Allah and His messenger and strive after corruption in the land will be that they will be killed or crucified, or have their hands and feet on alternate sides cut off, or will be expelled out of the land. Such will be their degradation in the world, and in the Hereafter theirs will be an awful doom." -- Qur'an 5:33

Where did Mufti Abdel Akhar Hammad get the idea that this verse should be taken at face value? Doesn't he know Arabic? Doesn't he know not to take this verse out of context? Doesn't he know that such passages only applied to Muhammad's time? How did a greasy Islamophobe and misunderstander of Islam and jihad get to be the Mufti of Jama'a al-Islamiya?

"Black Bloc must die, say Jihad and Jama'a al-Islamiya," from Al-Masry Al-Youm, January 29:

The Islamist party of the Jihad Organization and Jama'a al-Islamiya has said the ways of dealing with banditry specified in the Quran must be applied to Black Bloc members, which means they must be killed.

“God orders us to kill, crucify or cut off the hands and feet of those who spread mischief on earth,” said Jama'a al-Islamiya Mufti Abdel Akhar Hammad, citing a verse from the Quran. “The president must give that order.”

Mohamed Samra of the Jihad Organization said that the Black Bloc group is financed from abroad and must be killed, and that the National Salvation Front members must be arrested and charged with incitement to riot.

Last week, Cairo witnessed the first appearance groups describing themselves as the Black Bloc. Decked in black and wearing masks, they clashed with police forces at Qasr al-Aini Street on Thursday. They said they would fight with the police if it targeted protesters. Previously unknown, the Black Bloc's goals remain unclear and its members generally avoid media contact.

Officials from the Muslim Brotherhood and state-run media have accused the group of violence, including attempting to set the presidential palace on fire, attacking the Brotherhood's headquarters, looting government institutions, blocking the railways and exchanging fire with security forces.

However, it is still unclear to what extent the Black Bloc has played a role in any of the violent incidents reported over the past few days, or if they are actually armed. The group is a largely unknown one whose motives remain unclear, and its members generally refuse to speak to the media.

Earlier on Tuesday, Prosecutor General Talaat Abdallah ordered police and deputized members of the Armed Forces to arrest all suspected members of the Black Bloc.

State-run news agency MENA reported that Hassan Yassin, the head of the Public Prosecution's technical office and the prosecution's spokesperson, is claiming that the prosecution has proof that the Black Bloc is carrying out terrorist activities.

No further information was available as to the nature of this evidence or the alleged terrorist activities.

Jihad Watch reader James sent me the above tweet, and I had to laugh.

I don't have a Qur'an! I just borrowed his!

Anyway, this "Muhammad Jack" character has no doubt gotten wind of my Zionist black arts that have cast all this and more into the Qur'an:

2:65 Jews are apes

“And well you know there were those among you [Jews] that transgressed the Sabbath, and We said to them, ‘Be you apes, miserably slinking!’

2:89 Unbelievers, particularly Jews, are accursed

“When there came to them [Jews] a Book from God, confirming what was with them -- and they aforetimes prayed for victory over the unbelievers -- when there came to them that they recognized, they disbelieved in it; and the curse of God is on the unbelievers.

2:191-193 Fight and kill unbelievers until “religion is God’s,” i.e. Islamic law rules all societies

“And slay them wherever you come upon them, and expel them from where they expelled you; persecution is more grievous than slaying. But fight them not by the Holy Mosque until they should fight you there; then, if they fight you, slay them -- such is the recompense of unbelievers, but if they give over, surely God is All-forgiving, All-compassionate. Fight them, till there is no persecution and the religion is God’s; then if they give over, there shall be no enmity save for evildoers.”

3:28 Don’t take unbelievers as friends and allies, unless it is for “fear of them,” i.e. deceptively for protection of oneself or of Islam

“Let not the believers take the unbelievers for friends, rather than the believers -- for whoso does that belongs not to God in anything -- unless you have a fear of them. God warns you that You beware of Him, and unto God is the homecoming.”

3:110-112 Muslims are the best of people, Jews have earned God’s anger

“You are the best nation ever brought forth to men, bidding to honour, and forbidding dishonour, and believing in God. Had the People of the Book believed, it were better for them; some of them are believers, but the most of them are ungodly. They will not harm you, except a little hurt; and if they fight with you, they will turn on you their backs; then they will not be helped. Abasement shall be pitched on them, wherever they are come upon, except they be in a bond of God, and a bond of the people; they will be laden with the burden of God’s anger, and poverty shall be pitched on them; that, because they disbelieved in God’s signs, and slew the Prophets without right; that, for that they acted rebelliously and were transgressors.”

3:151 Terror

“We will cast into the hearts of the unbelievers terror, for that they have associated with God that for which He sent down never authority; their lodging shall be the Fire; evil is the lodging of the evildoers.”

3:181 Jews are bound for hell

“God has heard the saying of those who said, ‘Surely God is poor, and we are rich.’ We shall write down what they have said, and their slaying the Prophets without right, and We shall say, ‘Taste the chastisement of the burning.’”

4:3 Polygamy and sexual slavery

“If you fear that you will not act justly towards the orphans, marry such women as seem good to you, two, three, four; but if you fear you will not be equitable, then only one, or what your right hands own; so it is likelier you will not be partial.”

4:34 Beat disobedient women

“Men are the managers of the affairs of women for that God has preferred in bounty one of them over another, and for that they have expended of their property. Righteous women are therefore obedient, guarding the secret for God’s guarding. And those you fear may be rebellious admonish; banish them to their couches, and beat them. If they then obey you, look not for any way against them; God is All-high, All-great.”

4:89 Kill apostates

“They wish that you should disbelieve as they disbelieve, and then you would be equal; therefore take not to yourselves friends of them, until they emigrate in the way of God; then, if they turn their backs, take them, and slay them wherever you find them; take not to yourselves any one of them as friend or helper.”

4:160 Jews do evil, turn people away from God

“And for the evildoing of those of Jewry, We have forbidden them certain good things that were permitted to them, and for their barring from God’s way many…”

5:17 Christians -- believers in divinity of Christ – are unbelievers

“They are unbelievers who say, ‘God is the Messiah, Mary’s son.’ Say: ‘Who then shall overrule God in any way if He desires to destroy the Messiah, Mary’s son, and his mother, and all those who are on earth?’ For to God belongs the kingdom of the heavens and of the earth, and all that is between them, creating what He will. God is powerful over everything.”

5:41 Jews listen to falsehood and pervert the meaning of their Scriptures

“O Messenger, let them not grieve thee that vie with one another in unbelief, such men as say with their mouths ‘We believe’ but their hearts believe not; and the Jews who listen to falsehood, listen to other folk, who have not come to thee, perverting words from their meanings, saying, ‘If you are given this, then take it; if you are not given it, beware!’ Whomsoever God desires to try, thou canst not avail him anything with God. Those are they whose hearts God desired not to purify; for them is degradation in this world; and in the world to come awaits them a mighty chastisement.”

5:51 Don’t take Jews and Christians as friends and allies

“O believers, take not Jews and Christians as friends; they are friends of each other. Whoso of you makes them his friends is one of them. God guides not the people of the evildoers.”

5:59-60 Jews cursed, made into apes and swine

“Say: ‘People of the Book, do you blame us for any other cause than that we believe in God, and what has been sent down to us, and what was sent down before, and that most of you are ungodly?’ Say: ‘Shall I tell you of a recompense with God, worse than that? Whomsoever God has cursed, and with whom He is wroth, and made some of them apes and swine, and worshippers of idols -- they are worse situated, and have gone further astray from the right way.’”

5:64 Jews accursed

“The Jews have said, ‘God’s hand is fettered.’ Fettered are their hands, and they are cursed for what they have said. Nay, but His hands are outspread; He expends how He will. And what has been sent down to thee from thy Lord will surely increase many of them in insolence and unbelief; and We have cast between them enmity and hatred, till the Day of Resurrection. As often as they light a fire for war, God will extinguish it. They hasten about the earth, to do corruption there; and God loves not the workers of corruption.”

5:72 Christians are unbelievers

“They are unbelievers who say, ‘God is the Messiah, Mary’s son.’ For the Messiah said, ‘Children of Israel, serve God, my Lord and your Lord. Verily whoso associates with God anything, God shall prohibit him entrance to Paradise, and his refuge shall be the Fire; and wrongdoers shall have no helpers.’”

5:82 Jews most hostile to the Muslims

“Thou wilt surely find the most hostile of men to the believers are the Jews and the idolaters; and thou wilt surely find the nearest of them in love to the believers are those who say ‘We are Christians’; that, because some of them are priests and monks, and they wax not proud.”

6:91 Jews deny, conceal divine revelations

“They measured not God with His true measure when they said, ‘God has not sent down aught on any mortal.’ Say: ‘Who sent down the Book that Moses brought as a light and a guidance to men? You put it into parchments, revealing them, and hiding much; and you were taught that you knew not, you and your fathers.’ Say: ‘God.’ Then leave them alone, playing their game of plunging.”

6:146 Jews insolent

“And to those of Jewry We have forbidden every beast with claws; and of oxen and sheep We have forbidden them the fat of them, save what their backs carry, or their entrails, or what is mingled with bone; that We recompensed them for their insolence; surely We speak truly.”

7:166 Jews are apes

“And when they [Jews] turned in disdain from that forbidding We said to them, ‘Be you apes, miserably slinking!’”

8:12 God will terrorize unbelievers; Muslims should behead them

“When thy Lord was revealing to the angels, ‘I am with you; so confirm the believers. I shall cast into the unbelievers’ hearts terror; so smite above the necks, and smite every finger of them!’”

8:39 Fight unbelievers until Islam reigns supreme

“Fight them, till there is no persecution and the religion is God’s entirely; then if they give over, surely God sees the things they do.”

8:60 Make war against enemies of God

“Make ready for them whatever force and strings of horses you can, to terrify thereby the enemy of God and your enemy, and others besides them that you know not; God knows them. And whatsoever you expend in the way of God shall be repaid you in full; you will not be wronged.”

9:5 Slay the idolaters

“Then, when the sacred months are drawn away, slay the idolaters wherever you find them, and take them, and confine them, and lie in wait for them at every place of ambush. But if they repent, and perform the prayer, and pay the alms, then let them go their way; God is All-forgiving, All-compassionate.”

9:28 Idolaters unclean

“O believers, the idolaters are indeed unclean; so let them not come near the Holy Mosque after this year of theirs. If you fear poverty, God shall surely enrich you of His bounty, if He will; God is All-knowing; All-wise.”

9:29 Fight and subjugate the Jews and Christians

“Fight those who believe not in God and the Last Day and do not forbid what God and His Messenger have forbidden -- such men as practise not the religion of truth, being of those who have been given the Book -- until they pay the tribute out of hand and have been humbled.”

9:30 Jews and Christians assailed by God

“The Jews say, ‘Ezra is the Son of God’; the Christians say, ‘The Messiah is the Son of God.’ That is the utterance of their mouths, conforming with the unbelievers before them. God assail them! How they are perverted!”

9:31 Jews and Christians have taken their clergy and holy men as lords

“They have taken their rabbis and their monks as lords apart from God, and the Messiah, Mary’s son -- and they were commanded to serve but One God; there is no god but He; glory be to Him, above that they associate.”

9:73 Be harsh with unbelievers

“O Prophet, struggle with the unbelievers and hypocrites, and be thou harsh with them; their refuge is Gehenna -- an evil homecoming!”

9:111 Paradise guaranteed to those who kill and are killed for Allah

“God has bought from the believers their selves and their possessions against the gift of Paradise; they fight in the way of God; they kill, and are killed; that is a promise binding upon God in the Torah, and the Gospel, and the Koran; and who fulfils his covenant truer than God? So rejoice in the bargain you have made with Him; that is the mighty triumph.”

9:123 Fight the unbelievers, be harsh with them

“O believers, fight the unbelievers who are near to you; and let them find in you a harshness; and know that God is with the godfearing.”

47:4 Behead and slaughter the unbelievers; take others captive

“When you meet the unbelievers, smite their necks, then, when you have made wide slaughter among them, tie fast the bonds; then set them free, either by grace or ransom, till the war lays down its loads. So it shall be; and if God had willed, He would have avenged Himself upon them; but that He may try some of you by means of others. And those who are slain in the way of God, He will not send their works astray.”

48:29 Be merciful to believers, not unbelievers

"Muhammad is the Messenger of God, and those who are with him are hard against the unbelievers, merciful one to another."

62:6 Jews should long for death

“Say: ‘You of Jewry, if you assert that you are the friends of God, apart from other men, then do you long for death, if you speak truly.’”

98:6 Unbelievers are the worst of creatures

“The unbelievers of the People of the Book and the idolaters shall be in the Fire of Gehenna, therein dwelling forever; those are the worst of creatures.”

No doubt Kerry has no idea that Morsi was invoking the Qur'an. But he was:

"This is what these occupiers of the land of Palestine know – these blood-suckers, who attack the Palestinians, these warmongers, the descendants of apes and pigs." -- Mohammad Morsi, President of Egypt

"And (remember, O Children of Israel) when We made a covenant with you and caused the mount to tower above you, (saying): Hold fast that which We have given you, and remember that which is therein, that ye may ward off (evil). Then, even after that, ye turned away, and if it had not been for the grace of Allah and His mercy ye had been among the losers. And ye know of those of you who broke the Sabbath, how We said unto them: Be ye apes, despised and hated!" -- Qur'an 2:63-65

"Say: O People of the Scripture! Do ye blame us for aught else than that we believe in Allah and that which is revealed unto us and that which was revealed aforetime, and because most of you are evil-livers? Shall I tell thee of a worse (case) than theirs for retribution with Allah? (Worse is the case of him) whom Allah hath cursed, him on whom His wrath hath fallen and of whose sort Allah hath turned some to apes and swine, and who serveth idols. Such are in worse plight and further astray from the plain road." -- Qur'an 5:59-60

"Ask them (O Muhammad) of the township that was by the sea, how they did break the Sabbath, how their big fish came unto them visibly upon their Sabbath day and on a day when they did not keep Sabbath came they not unto them. Thus did We try them for that they were evil-livers. And when a community among them said: Why preach ye to a folk whom Allah is about to destroy or punish with an awful doom, they said: In order to be free from guilt before your Lord, and that haply they may ward off (evil). And when they forgot that whereof they had been reminded, We rescued those who forbade wrong, and visited those who did wrong with dreadful punishment because they were evil-livers. So when they took pride in that which they had been forbidden, We said unto them: Be ye apes despised and loathed!" -- Qur'an 7:164-166

So when Morsi calls the contemporary Jews in Israel the "descendants of apes and pigs," he is saying that they're the descendants of the Sabbath-breaking Jews who defied Allah in these Qur'an passages. His epithet, in other words, is inherently Qur'anic. And now Kerry is calling his remarks "reprehensible." Will Islamic supremacist groups in the U.S. demand that he apologize for calling Qur'an-based remarks "reprehensible"? Or will he get a free pass for his blasphemy because he is about to head up Muslim Appeasement Central, the U.S. State Department?

"John Kerry Defends Obama Admin’s F-16 Gifts to Muslim Brotherhood-Ruled Egypt," by Madeleine Morgenstern for The Blaze, January 24 (thanks to Bill):

Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) on Thursday defended the Obama administration’s gift of four F-16 fighter jets to Egypt despite Egyptian President Mohammad Morsi’s newly-surfaced comments referring to Israelis as “descendents of apes and pigs.”

Kerry, during his confirmation hearing to be the next secretary of state, told Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) the foreign aid package was worked out in 2010 when Hosni Mubarak still ruled Egypt.

“The fact that sometimes other countries elect someone you don’t agree with doesn’t give us permission to walk away,” Kerry said.

He called Morsi’s comments “reprehensible” and “unacceptable by anyone’s standard.”

“Those comments set back possibilities of working towards mutual issues of mutual interest,” he said. “They are degrading comments, they’re unacceptable by anyone’s standard and I think they have to be apologized for.”

But he said despite Morsi’s words, Kerry said the U.S. has a “critical interest” in Egypt — hence following through on the aid package.

“Not everything lends itself to a simple classification, black or white,” Kerry said. “We have critical interests with Egypt, critical interests. Egypt has thus far supported, lived by peace agreements with Israel and has taken steps to deal with the problem of security in the Sinai. Those are vital to us, our security interests and the security interests of Israel.”

What indication does he have that Egypt is going to keep abiding by those peace agreements -- especially since the U.S. keeps showering gifts upon it with no regard for accountability?

The Change This campaign is an initiative of a Muslim women's charity that claims that Muslim men who think that the Koran allows them to beat their wives are "manipulating" the real teachings of Islam, which they think forbids wife-beating.

I am all for a campaign to persuade Muslim men not to beat their wives. But here we come up to the perennial problem: denying that the texts of the Koran and Hadith regarding wife-beating say what they clearly say is not reform; it is just deception. It may play well with non-Muslims who don't know what those texts say, but it won't convince any wife-beating Muslim husband to stop beating his wife: he knows that "the Koran says it's okay."

The infamous wife-beating verse:

Men are the managers of the affairs of women for that God has preferred in bounty one of them over another, and for that they have expended of their property. Righteous women are therefore obedient, guarding the secret for God's guarding. And those you fear may be rebellious admonish; banish them to their couches, and beat them. If they then obey you, look not for any way against them; God is All-high, All-great. Koran 4:34)

This is, of course, an extremely controversial verse, so it is worth noting how several translators render the key part of this verse, وَاضْرِبُوهُنَّ, waidriboohunna.

Pickthall: “and scourge them”
Yusuf Ali: “(And last) beat them (lightly)”
Al-Hilali/Khan: “(and last) beat them (lightly, if it is useful)”
Shakir: “and beat them”
Sher Ali: “and chastise them”
Khalifa: “then you may (as a last alternative) beat them”
Arberry: “and beat them”
Rodwell: “and scourge them”
Sale: “and chastise them”
Daryabadi: "and beat them"
Asad: “then beat them”
Dawood: "and beat them"

Laleh Bakhtiar, in a recent translation that has received wide publicity, translates it as “go away from them.” In light of this unanimity among the translators, both Muslim and non-Muslim, this seems difficult to sustain – all of these authorities got the passage wrong until Bakhtiar? But her impulse is understandable, as many Muslims today regard this verse with acute embarrassment. Muhammad Asad adduces numerous traditions in which Muhammad “forbade the beating of any woman,” concluding that wife-beating is “barely permissible, and should preferably be avoided.”

Unfortunately, however, this is not a unanimous view. The Qur'an commentary Ruhul Ma’ani gives four reasons that a man may beat his wife: “if she refuses to beautify herself for him,” if she refuses sex when he asks for it, if she refuses to pray or perform ritual ablutions, and “if she goes out of the house without a valid excuse.” Also, Muhammad’s example is normative for Muslims, since he is an “excellent example of conduct” (Koran 33:21) – and Aisha reports that Muhammad struck her. Once he went out at night after he thought she was asleep, and she followed him surreptitiously. Muhammad saw her, and, as Aisha recounts: “He struck me on the chest which caused me pain, and then said: Did you think that Allah and His Apostle would deal unjustly with you?” (Sahih Muslim 2127)

Aisha herself said it: “I have not seen any woman suffering as much as the believing women.” (Sahih Bukhari 7.72.715)

"Domestic violence campaign targets Scottish Muslims," by Catrin Nye for the BBC, January 12 (thanks to Halal Pork Shop):

A new campaign asking Muslim men and women to speak out against domestic violence is being launched in Scotland.

The Change This campaign wants people to report any violence they have seen or experienced.

Muslim women's charity Amina will use Islamic teachings and an Imam to challenge the misconception that Islam allows violence against women.

The charity said it was aware of many cases where people used their religion in an attempt to justify violence.

As part of the campaign, it will be going out and speaking to men and women about the issue.

Smina Akhtar, from Amina, said she had been shocked by the way people had manipulated the teachings of Islam.

She said: "We have women coming in, phoning our helpline, time and time again and saying: 'My husband said it's okay, he told me the Koran says it's okay'.

"We're quite surprised that Muslim women are often not educated, even in Islam, because Islam does not condone violence."

She added: "We'll use certain Hadiths (the stories of the words and deeds of the Prophet Muhammad, handed down by word of mouth) - for example when the Prophet, peace be upon him, says: 'The best among you is the one who is the best towards his wife'.

"We'll use these and phrases within the Koran to say no - actually the Koran does not say that it's okay for your husband to hit you."...

Today's concluding installment for Hatred and Violence in the Qur'an Awareness Month brings us the one place in the Qur'an where Muslims are directed explicitly to make war against and subjugate Jews and Christians – the “People of the Book":

Fight those who believe not in God nor the Last Day, nor hold that forbidden which hath been forbidden by God and His Apostle, nor acknowledge the religion of Truth, (even if they are) of the People of the Book, until they pay the Jizya with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued. (Qur'an 9:29)

According to Ibn Kathir, “Allah commanded His Messenger to fight the People of the Scriptures, Jews and Christians, on the ninth year of Hijrah, and he prepared his army to fight the Romans and called the people to Jihad announcing his intent and destination.” This was a raid that Muhammad supposedly attempted against the Byzantine (Eastern Roman) garrison at Tabuk in northern Arabia in 631, but the Byzantine force moved away before Muhammad got there, and did not engage the Muslims in battle. Still, it is presented in Islamic history as the first Muslim attempt to take on the great Christian empire that the believers would chip away at for centuries and ultimately destroy.

Ibn Juzayy says that this verse is “a command to fight the People of the Book” and, in a reference to the subsequent verse, “denying their belief in Allah because of the words of the Jews, ‘Uzayr [Ezra] is the son of Allah’ and the words of the Christians, ‘The Messiah is the son of Allah.’” Muslims must also fight them “because they consider as lawful carrion, blood, pork, etc.” and because “they do not enter Islam.” He says that “scholars agree about accepting jizya [a religious-based poll tax] from the Jews and Christians.” He specifies that it signifies “submission and obedience.”

The Tafsir al-Jalalayn says that this when this verse specifies that Muslims must fight against those who “follow not the Religion of Truth,” it means those who do not follow Islam, “which is firm and abrogates other deens [religions].” Ibn Kathir gives a hint as to why this is so when he explains that the People of the Book were in bad faith when they rejected Muhammad, and that they are not true believers even in their own religions:

Therefore, when People of the Scriptures disbelieved in Muhammad, they had no beneficial faith in any Messenger or what the Messengers brought. Rather, they followed their religions because this conformed with their ideas, lusts and the ways of their forefathers, not because they are Allah’s Law and religion. Had they been true believers in their religions, that faith would have directed them to believe in Muhammad, because all Prophets gave the good news of Muhammad’s advent and commanded them to obey and follow him. Yet when he was sent, they disbelieved in him, even though he is the mightiest of all Messengers. Therefore, they do not follow the religion of earlier Prophets because these religions came from Allah, but because these suit their desires and lusts. Therefore, their claimed faith in an earlier Prophet will not benefit them because they disbelieved in the master, the mightiest, the last and most perfect of all Prophets.

As-Sawi noted that the payment of the jizya signified that the non-Muslims are “humble and obedient to the judgements of Islam.” It ensured the “willing submission" or "state of abasement" specified by this verse and spelled out by the Bedouin commander al-Mughira bin Sa’d when he met the Persian Rustam. Said al-Mughira: “I call you to Islam or else you must pay the jizya while you are in a state of abasement.”

Rustam replied, “I know what jizya means, but what does ‘a state of abasement’ mean?”

Al-Mughira explained: “You pay it while you are standing and I am sitting and the whip hanging is over your head.”

Similarly, Ibn Kathir says that the subject people, the dhimmis, must be “disgraced, humiliated and belittled. Therefore, Muslims are not allowed to honor the people of Dhimmah or elevate them above Muslims, for they are miserable, disgraced and humiliated.” The seventh-century jurist Sa’id ibn al-Musayyab stated: “I prefer that the people of the dhimma become tired by paying the jizya since He says, ‘until they pay the jizya with their own hands in a state of complete abasement.’” As-Suyuti elaborates that this verse “is used as a proof by those who say that it is taken in a humiliating way, and so the taker sits and the dhimmi stands with his head bowed and his back bent. The jizya is placed in the balance and the taker seizes his beard and hits his chin.” He adds, however, that “this is rejected according to an-Nawawi who said, ‘This manner is invalid.’” Zamakhshari, however, agreed that the jizya should be collected “with belittlement and humiliation.”

Thus this verse is the epitome of both Qur'anic hatred and Qur'anic violence, and -- despite the fact that there is much more hatred and violence in the rest of the Qur'an -- a fitting end to our series.

Today's installment brings the Qur'an's quintessential violent passage:

Then, when the sacred months have passed, slay the idolaters wherever ye find them, and take them (captive), and besiege them, and prepare for them each ambush. But if they repent and establish worship and pay the poor-due, then leave their way free. Lo! Allah is Forgiving, Merciful. (Qur'an 9:5)

This is the notorious Verse of the Sword, a verse that is much beloved by present-day jihadists. In a 2003 sermon, Osama bin Laden rejoiced over this verse: “Praise be to Allah who revealed the verse of the Sword to his servant and messenger [the Prophet Muhammad], in order to establish truth and abolish falsehood.”

The Qur'an commentator Ibn Juzayy says that this verse abrogates “every peace treaty in the Qur’an,” and specifically abrogates Qur'an 47:4’s directive to “set free or ransom” captive unbelievers. Another, As-Suyuti, says: “This is an Ayat of the Sword which abrogates pardon, truce and overlooking” – that is, perhaps the overlooking of the pagans’ offenses. The Tafsir al-Jalalayn says that the Muslims must “slay the idolaters wherever you find them, be it during a lawful [period] or a sacred [one], and take them, captive, and confine them, to castles and forts, until they have no choice except [being put to] death or [acceptance of] Islam.”

Ibn Kathir echoes this, directing that Muslims should “not wait until you find them. Rather, seek and besiege them in their areas and forts, gather intelligence about them in the various roads and fairways so that what is made wide looks ever smaller to them. This way, they will have no choice, but to die or embrace Islam.” He also doesn’t seem to subscribe to the view commonly put forward by Muslim spokesmen in the West today — that this verse applies only to the pagans of Arabia in Muhammad’s time, and has no further application. He asserts, on the contrary, that “slay the unbelievers wherever you find them” means just that: the unbelievers must be killed “on the earth in general, except for the Sacred Area” – that is, the sacred mosque in Mecca, in accord with Qur'an 2:191.

If the unbelievers convert to Islam, the Muslims must stop killing them. The Tafsir al-Jalalayn: “But if they repent, of unbelief, and establish prayer and pay the alms, then leave their way free, and do not interfere with them.” Ibn Kathir: “These Ayat [verses] allowed fighting people unless, and until, they embrace Islam and implement its rulings and obligations.” Sayyid Qutb says that the termination of the treaties with a four-month grace period, combined with the call to kill the unbelievers, “was not meant as a campaign of vengeance or extermination, but rather as a warning which provided a motive for them to accept Islam.”

Finally, it is noteworthy that, according to As-Suyuti, the jurist “Ash-Shafi’i took this as a proof for killing anyone who abandons the prayer and fighting anyone who refuses to pay zakat [alms]. Some use it as a proof that they are kafirun [unbelievers].” Likewise Ibn Kathir: “Abu Bakr As-Siddiq used this and other honorable Ayat as proof for fighting those who refrained from paying the Zakah.” Thus even Muslims who do not fulfill Islamic obligations fall into the category of those who must be fought. This is a principle that latter-day Salafist movements apply broadly and use frequently in branding governments that do not rule according to strict Islamic law as unbelievers who must be fought by those who regard themselves as true Muslims. This has played out over the last couple of years in the "Arab Spring" revolts.

Both hatred and violence in today's installment:

Indeed, the worst of living creatures in the sight of Allah are those who have disbelieved, and they will not [ever] believe -- the ones with whom you made a treaty but then they break their pledge every time, and they do not fear Allah.

So if you, [O Muhammad], gain dominance over them in war, disperse by [means of] them those behind them that perhaps they will be reminded.

If you [have reason to] fear from a people betrayal, throw [their treaty] back to them, [putting you] on equal terms. Indeed, Allah does not like traitors. And let not those who disbelieve think they will escape. Indeed, they will not cause failure [to Allah ].

And prepare against them whatever you are able of power and of steeds of war by which you may terrify the enemy of Allah and your enemy and others besides them whom you do not know [but] whom Allah knows. And whatever you spend in the cause of Allah will be fully repaid to you, and you will not be wronged. (Qur'an 8:55-60)

"The worst of living creatures in the sight of Allah are those who have disbelieved” (v. 55) — another indication that unbelievers are worthy of no respect or consideration, but should merely be despised.

Meanwhile, if the Muslims “fear from a people betrayal,” they should simply break the treaty they have with them (v. 58). Ibn Kathir says this means that Muslims should tell the unbelievers “that you are severing the treaty. This way, you will be on equal terms, in that, you and they will be aware that a state of war exists between you and that the bilateral peace treaty is null and void.”

Then comes war: Muslims should “prepare against them whatever you are able of power and of steeds of war by which you may terrify the enemy of Allah and your enemy” (v. 60). Islamic apologists in the West often make much of the next verse: "And if they incline to peace, then incline to it [also] and rely upon Allah . Indeed, it is He who is the Hearing, the Knowing." However, this is the peace of subjugation and dhimmitude (cf. Qur'an 9:29), not a peace treaty between equals. Moreover, some do not believe this truce should be indefinite in length. Sayyid Qutb explains:

At the time when this surah was revealed, God instructed His Messenger to remain at peace with those groups who refrained from fighting him and the Muslims, whether they entered into a formal treaty with the Muslims or not. The Prophet continued to accept a peaceful relationship with unbelievers and people of earlier revelations until Surah 9 was revealed, when he could only accept one of two alternatives: either they embraced Islam or paid jizyah [a tax levied on non-Muslims, per Qur’an 9:29] which indicated a state of peace. Otherwise, the only alternative was war, whenever this was feasible for the Muslims to undertake, so that all people submit to God alone.

That is, to Islam.

My ABN show from last Wednesday evening.

Today's Qur'an reading prescribes violence until the world is Islamized:

And fight them until there is no fitnah and [until] the religion, all of it, is for Allah. And if they cease - then indeed, Allah is Seeing of what they do. (Qur'an 8:39)

Fitnah is disturbance, upheaval, disorder, chaos. According to numerous early Muslim authorities, including Ibn Abbas, Abu Al-`Aliyah, Mujahid, Al-Hasan, Qatadah, Ar-Rabi` bin Anas, As-Suddi, Muqatil bin Hayyan and Zayd bin Aslam, the statement that Muslims must fight until there is no more fitnah means that they must fight “so that there is no more Shirk.”

Shirk is the association of partners with Allah – i.e., calling Jesus the Son of God. So this verse, although it was revealed in the aftermath of a seventh-century battle between Muslims and pagans, has a universal application: the Tafsir al-Jalalayn glosses it this way: “And fight them until sedition, idolatry, is, exists, no more and religion is all for God, alone, none other being worshipped…”

Muhammad himself said: “I have been commanded to fight against people so long as they do not declare that there is no god but Allah, and he who professed it was guaranteed the protection of his property and life on my behalf except for the right affairs rest with Allah.” (Sahih Muslim 30)

Today is Beheading Day in Hatred and Violence in the Qur'an Awareness Month:

[Remember] when your Lord inspired to the angels, "I am with you, so strengthen those who have believed. I will cast terror into the hearts of those who disbelieved, so strike [them] upon the necks and strike from them every fingertip." (Qur'an 8:12)

Plus:

So when you meet those who disbelieve [in battle], strike [their] necks until, when you have inflicted slaughter upon them, then secure their bonds, and either [confer] favor afterwards or ransom [them] until the war lays down its burdens. That [is the command]. And if Allah had willed, He could have taken vengeance upon them [Himself], but [He ordered armed struggle] to test some of you by means of others. And those who are killed in the cause of Allah - never will He waste their deeds. (Qur'an 47:4)

These passages are the chief justifications for the Islamic practice of beheading hostages and war captives. At the beheading of American hostage Nicholas Berg in May 2004, for example, the late Iraqi jihad leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi invoked the Battle of Badr, a discussion of which is the Qur'anic context of 8:12. "Is it not time for you," al-Zarqawi asked Muslims, "to take the path of jihad and carry the sword of the Prophet of prophets?…The Prophet, the most merciful, ordered [his army] to strike the necks of some prisoners in [the battle of] Badr and to kill them….And he set a good example for us."

One that many still follow.

Today's Qur'an passage brings us the revolting idea that the supreme being created people solely in order to torture them for all eternity:

And We have certainly created for Hell many of the jinn and mankind. They have hearts with which they do not understand, they have eyes with which they do not see, and they have ears with which they do not hear. Those are like livestock; rather, they are more astray. It is they who are the heedless. (Qur'an 7:179)

These unbelievers are entirely bestial, "like livestock." And they are indeed created in order to drink molten lead and suffer the other tortures of hell: the Qadaris of early Islamic history held that mankind had free will, and was thus capable of choosing to do good or evil. Their opponents maintained that Allah determined everything. While both sides had abundant Qur’anic citations to support their views, eventually Muslim authorities condemned Qadarism as a heresy, as it restricted Allah’s absolute sovereignty over all things. Thus those who reject faith do so because Allah wills it, as per this verse, not because they have free choice. Says the Qur'an commentator Ibn Kathir: “Whomever Allah has written to be miserable, they shall never find anyone to guide them to happiness, and whomever Allah directs to misguidance, he shall never find anyone to guide him.” (A good brief overview of the Qadari controversy can be found in the renowned Islamic scholar Ignaz Goldziher’s Introduction to Islamic Theology and Law.)

Incidentally, the passage that Hamas-linked CAIR recently featured on deceptive subway and bus ads follows not long after this: "Show forgiveness, speak for justice and avoid the ignorant" (Qur'an 7:199) -- or, as the Sahih International translation has it, "Take what is given freely, enjoin what is good, and turn away from the ignorant." It is noteworthy that according to one early Muslim authority, Abdur-Rahman bin Zayd bin Aslam, “Allah commanded [Prophet Muhammad ] to show forgiveness and turn away from the idolators for ten years. Afterwards Allah ordered him to be harsh with them.”

As we shall soon see.

In my country it is customary for people to celebrate this day of Hatred and Violence in the Qur'an Awareness Month by exchanging gifts, having a big Hatred and Violence in the Qur'an Awareness dinner, and spending the day with loved ones. I am not sure where or how this quaint and intriguing custom originated, but I wish you all the happiest of days.

In any case, today's installment again inculcates hatred of Jews and Christians by emphasizing their dishonesty and perversity:

Say, "What thing is greatest in testimony?" Say, " Allah is witness between me and you. And this Qur'an was revealed to me that I may warn you thereby and whomever it reaches. Do you [truly] testify that with Allah there are other deities?" Say, "I will not testify [with you]." Say, "Indeed, He is but one God, and indeed, I am free of what you associate [with Him]."

Those to whom We have given the Scripture recognize it as they recognize their [own] sons. Those who will lose themselves [in the Hereafter] do not believe.

And who is more unjust than one who invents about Allah a lie or denies His verses? Indeed, the wrongdoers will not succeed.

And [mention, O Muhammad], the Day We will gather them all together; then We will say to those who associated others with Allah , "Where are your 'partners' that you used to claim [with Him]?" Then there will be no [excuse upon] examination except they will say, "By Allah , our Lord, we were not those who associated." See how they will lie about themselves. And lost from them will be what they used to invent. (Qur'an 6:19-24)

This passage emphasizes the oneness of Allah, and claims that “those to whom We have given the Scripture ” – that is, the Jews and Christians – “recognize it” – that is, the truth of Muhammad’s message – “as they recognize their sons” (v. 20). That is, the Jews and Christians know that Islam is true. This is because, says Ibn Kathir, “they received good news from the previous Messengers and Prophets about the coming of Muhammad, his attributes, homeland, his migration, and the description of his Ummah.” That is, their unbelief in Islam is not a sincere rejection based on honest conviction, but sheer perversity: they “lie about themselves” (v. 24).

Still more Jew-hatred: they "misled many," they have "strayed," they are cursed by David and Jesus, Allah is angry with them, and they're the worst enemies of the Muslims:

Say, "O People of the Scripture, do not exceed limits in your religion beyond the truth and do not follow the inclinations of a people who had gone astray before and misled many and have strayed from the soundness of the way."

Cursed were those who disbelieved among the Children of Israel by the tongue of David and of Jesus, the son of Mary. That was because they disobeyed and [habitually] transgressed. They used not to prevent one another from wrongdoing that they did. How wretched was that which they were doing.

You see many of them becoming allies of those who disbelieved. How wretched is that which they have put forth for themselves in that Allah has become angry with them, and in the punishment they will abide eternally.

And if they had believed in Allah and the Prophet and in what was revealed to him, they would not have taken them as allies; but many of them are defiantly disobedient.

You will surely find the most intense of the people in animosity toward the believers [to be] the Jews and those who associate others with Allah ; and you will find the nearest of them in affection to the believers those who say, "We are Christians." That is because among them are priests and monks and because they are not arrogant.

And when they hear what has been revealed to the Messenger, you see their eyes overflowing with tears because of what they have recognized of the truth. They say, "Our Lord, we have believed, so register us among the witnesses.

And why should we not believe in Allah and what has come to us of the truth? And we aspire that our Lord will admit us [to Paradise] with the righteous people." (Qur'an 5:77-84)

The passage says that while the Muslims will find that these Jews are their fiercest enemies, those closest to them in affection will be the Christians (v. 82). According to the Ma’alimut Tanzil, this verse doesn’t refer to all Christians, but only to those who accept Islam; this is made clear by the subsequent verses, in which these Christians "hear what has been revealed to the Messenger," whereupon "you see their eyes overflowing with tears because of what they have recognized of the truth."

This just reinforces the idea that good Jews and Christians will convert to Islam, and that those who do not are simply obstinate in their wickedness and perversity.

Today brings still more Qur'anic antisemitism:

And the Jews say, "The hand of Allah is chained." Chained are their hands, and cursed are they for what they say. Rather, both His hands are extended; He spends however He wills. And that which has been revealed to you from your Lord will surely increase many of them in transgression and disbelief. And We have cast among them animosity and hatred until the Day of Resurrection. Every time they kindled the fire of war [against you], Allah extinguished it. And they strive throughout the land [causing] corruption, and Allah does not like corrupters. (Qur'an 5:64)

"The hand of Allah is chained"? It is unclear what Jewish concept, if any, the Qur’an is referring to in this case. Ibn Kathir comments: “Allah states that the Jews, may Allah’s continuous curses descend on them until the Day of Resurrection, describe Him as a miser. Allah is far holier than what they attribute to Him.”

Allah is also absolute will, with hand absolutely unfettered: Allah’s unfettered hand is a vivid image of divine freedom. Such a God can be bound by no laws. Muslim theologians argued during the long controversy with the heretical Islamic Mu‘tazilite sect, which exalted human reason beyond the point that the eventual victors were willing to tolerate, that Allah was free to act as he pleased, even to the extent that he was not bound to govern the universe according to consistent and observable laws. “He cannot be questioned concerning what He does” (Qur’an 21:23).

Accordingly, there was no point to observing the workings of the physical world; there was no reason to expect that any pattern to its workings would be consistent, or even discernible. If Allah could not be counted on to be consistent, why waste time observing the order of things? It could change tomorrow. Stanley Jaki, a Catholic priest and physicist, explains that it was the renowned Sufi thinker al-Ghazali who “denounced natural laws, the very objective of science, as a blasphemous constraint upon the free will of Allah.”

The great twelfth-century Jewish philosopher Moses Maimonides explained orthodox Islamic cosmology in similar terms, noting that Islamic thinkers of his day assumed “the possibility that an existing being should be larger or smaller than it really is, or that it should be different in form and position from what it really is; e.g., a man might have the height of a mountain, might have several heads, and fly in the air; or an elephant might be as small as an insect, or an insect as huge as an elephant. This method of admitting possibilities is applied to the whole Universe.”

Relatively early in its history, therefore, science was deprived in the Islamic world of the philosophical foundation it needed in order to flourish. It found that philosophical foundation only in Christian Europe, where it was assumed that God was good and had constructed the universe according to consistent and observable laws. Such an idea would have been for pious Muslims tantamount to saying, “Allah’s hand is fettered.”

This same verse also says that whenever the Jews “kindled the fire of war [against you], Allah extinguished it” That is, says the Tafsir al-Jalalayn, “war against the Prophet(s).” According to Bulandshahri, “The Jews make every effort to instigate wars against the Muslims, but Allah foils their attempts each time, either by instilling terror in their hearts or by their defeat in these battles.” The Jews also “strive to do mischief on earth” – that is, fasaad (فَسَاد) – for which the punishment is specified in Qur'an 5:33: “they will be killed or crucified, or have their hands and feet on alternate sides cut off, or will be expelled out of the land.”

Today's installment brings more dehumanization of Jews:

Say, "O People of the Scripture, do you resent us except [for the fact] that we have believed in Allah and what was revealed to us and what was revealed before and because most of you are defiantly disobedient?"

Say, "Shall I inform you of [what is] worse than that as penalty from Allah ? [It is that of] those whom Allah has cursed and with whom He became angry and made of them apes and pigs and slaves of Taghut. Those are worse in position and further astray from the sound way." (Qur'an 5:59-60)

The Tunisian Muslim cleric Ahmad Al-Suhayli showed how seriously Muslims take this in a Friday sermon he delivered just a few weeks ago. From MEMRI, November 30:

Following are excerpts from a Friday sermon in Rades, Tunisia, which was delivered by Sheik Ahmad Al-Suhayli, which aired on Hannibal TV on November 30, 3012 [sic]:

Sheik Ahmad Al-Suhayli: Ever since the days of the prophets, the Jews have been obstinate. They rebelled against the decrees and laws of Allah. Whenever Allah commanded them to do something, they did the exact opposite.

[…]

The Jews continued with their deviations and transgressions. Those accursed Zionist Jews even had the audacity to slay the prophets of Allah. Allah said: “They were struck with humiliation and misery, and they drew upon themselves the wrath of Allah, because they rejected His signs, slayed the prophets without just cause, and rebelled and transgressed.” In the days of Allah’s prophet David, a group of Jews was transformed into apes, because they violated the laws of Allah....

Oh Allah, just like you destroyed the people of ‘Aad and Thamud, destroy this gang of Jews. Strike them with a deterring force that will destroy them....

Oh Allah, you know everything that those accursed Jews have done – the corruption they spread on earth, their diverting of people from your path, and their humiliation of your servants. Strike them with a resounding blow, and do not leave a single one of them....