• Why Jihad Watch?
  • About Robert Spencer and Staff Writers
  • FAQ
  • Books
  • Muhammad
  • Islam 101
  • Privacy

Jihad Watch

Exposing the role that Islamic jihad theology and ideology play in the modern global conflicts

Hamid Mir spreads falsehoods about me

Nov 21, 2006 10:09 am By Robert Spencer

Despite being unable to defend his remarks about Islam when challenged to do so at the America’s Truth Forum, Pakistani journalist Hamid Mir has repeated and expanded his false charges about me:

However the Muslim allies of the West, like General Pervaiz Musharraf, are very unlucky. On one side, their friends like George W. Bush have always praised their efforts in the war against terror, but on the other side Western writers like Robert Spencer are creating an impression that the real problem is not radical Islamism: but Islam as such. Robert Spencer claimed that Islam is a violent religion, which orders Muslims to kill all the Jews and Christians, he is also alleging that the Holy Quran allows Muslims to lie and so Muslims should change the Quran. Robert Spencer is wrong. Islam allows Muslim men to marry Jewish and Christian women, without changing their religion. What does it mean? Islam is a tolerant religion. Robert Spencer cannot deny the fact that Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) himself struck a peace-deal with Jews of Medina, if our Prophet could have a peace-deal with Jews, we can also have a peace deal with Jews and Christians.

I don’t understand why some Western writers are trying to impose a radical form of Islam on all the Muslims.I am not a Muslim scholar, but — for me – Islam is very simple, and according to my understanding, Islam is not violent, it is peaceful. Islam says that the blood of an innocent non-Muslim is equal to the blood of a Muslim. The Quran speaks for truth, there is no permission in the Quran for lying. Robert Spencer cannot malign Islam with wrong facts and figures. He cannot mix-up real Islam with extremism.

I believe it is a peculiar species of dishonor for someone to repeat claims after already having declined to defend them, and to expand upon them with falsehoods. But for the record, here are Mir’s assertions and my replies:

Robert Spencer claimed that Islam is a violent religion, which orders Muslims to kill all the Jews and Christians…

I have never said this — not at the America’s Truth Forum symposium in Las Vegas where I met Hamid Mir, or anywhere else. I challenge Hamid Mir to produce a quotation by me to substantiate his claim, or else to retract it.

…he is also alleging that the Holy Quran allows Muslims to lie and so Muslims should change the Quran.

As I told Hamid Mir in Las Vegas, this is in Qur’an 3:28 and 16:106. Don’t believe me — take it from Ibn Kathir, who is a mainstream Qur’an commentator. In his commentary on 3:28, Ibn Kathir says that it means that when Muslims “in some areas or times fear for their safety from the disbelievers,” they may “show friendship to the disbelievers outwardly, but never inwardly. For instance, Al-Bukhari recorded that Abu Ad-Darda said, ‘We smile in the face of some people although our hearts curse them.’ Al-Bukhari said that Al-Hasan said, ‘The Tuqyah [taqiyyah] is allowed until the Day of Resurrection.'”

Let Hamid Mir challenge such teachings from Ibn Kathir. I didn’t make them up.

Robert Spencer is wrong. Islam allows Muslim men to marry Jewish and Christian women, without changing their religion. What does it mean? Islam is a tolerant religion. Robert Spencer cannot deny the fact that Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) himself struck a peace-deal with Jews of Medina, if our Prophet could have a peace-deal with Jews, we can also have a peace deal with Jews and Christians.

Actually, the fact that Muslim men can marry Jewish and Christian women, but Jewish and Christian men cannot marry Muslim women, shows just the opposite: traditional Islamic law is anything but tolerant. And as for Muhammad’s peace treaty with the Jews, by the end of his life he had killed or exiled all the Jews of Arabia. It would be nice if that treaty could be the basis for hope, but the fact that Muhammad himself broke it doesn’t bode well for its utility as a model.

I don’t understand why some Western writers are trying to impose a radical form of Islam on all the Muslims.

This is, of course, a charge that Dean Esmay and others have made: that by speaking of the way jihadists use the Qur’an and Islamic theology, I am only encouraging them. But whether coming from Mir or Esmay or anyone else, this charge is false, and hides an unwillingness by self-proclaimed moderate Muslims to do what they must do: confront and combat the jihad ideology. I am not trying to impose radical Islam on all the Muslims. I am trying to get self-proclaimed moderates like Hamid Mir to confront the elements of Islam that need reforming instead of simply denying that those elements exist. For if they don’t confront the jihadists, the jihadists will continue using those Islamic teachings to recruit and motivate terrorists. But it looks as if Hamid Mir, like so many others, would rather confront me.

Islam says that the blood of an innocent non-Muslim is equal to the blood of a Muslim.

Then why did the Sufi Sheikh Sultanhussein Tabandeh in his book A Muslim Commentary on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, say this: “Since Islam regards non-Muslims as on a lower level of belief and conviction, if a Muslim kills a non-Muslim”¦then his punishment must not be the retaliatory death, since the faith and conviction he possesses is loftier than that of the man slain”? Did I tell him that?

Since Hamid Mir is again making assertions about Islam and then denying that he actually knows anything about Islam, I doubt he will agree to a debate or dialogue with me, but in any case I nevertheless hereby issue the invitation to him to do so.

Share this:

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window)
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • More
  • Click to share on Skype (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Telegram (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)

Follow me on Facebook

Filed Under: Uncategorized


Learn more about RevenueStripe...

FacebookYoutubeTwitterLog in

Subscribe to the Jihad Watch Daily Digest

You will receive a daily mailing containing links to the stories posted at Jihad Watch in the last 24 hours.
Enter your email address to subscribe.

Please wait...

Thank you for signing up!
If you are forwarding to a friend, please remove the unsubscribe buttons first, as they my accidentally click it.

Subscribe to all Jihad Watch posts

You will receive immediate notification.
Enter your email address to subscribe.
Note: This may be up to 15 emails a day.

Donate to JihadWatch
FrontPage Mag

Search Site

Translate

The Team

Robert Spencer in FrontPageMag
Robert Spencer in PJ Media

Articles at Jihad Watch by
Robert Spencer
Hugh Fitzgerald
Christine Douglass-Williams
Andrew Harrod
Jamie Glazov
Daniel Greenfield

Contact Us

Terror Attacks Since 9/11

Archives

  • 2020
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2019
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2018
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2017
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2016
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2015
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2014
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2013
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2012
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2011
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2010
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2009
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2008
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2007
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2006
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2005
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2004
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2003
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • March

All Categories

You Might Like

Learn more about RevenueStripe...

Recent Comments

  • gravenimage on New study reveals that Muslim religiosity strongly linked to hatred towards the West
  • gravenimage on Chief Rabbi of UK Says It’s ‘Alarming’ That 44% of Muslims Are Anti-Semitic
  • Boycott Turkey on Iranian Kurdistan: Muslim brothers behead their sister in honor killing over her romantic relationship
  • gravenimage on India: Police make first arrest for ‘love jihad’ under new law
  • Mojdeh on New study reveals that Muslim religiosity strongly linked to hatred towards the West

Popular Categories

dhimmitude Sharia Jihad in the U.S ISIS / Islamic State / ISIL Iran Free Speech

Robert Spencer FaceBook Page

Robert Spencer Twitter

Robert Spencer twitter

Robert Spencer YouTube Channel

Books by Robert Spencer

Jihad Watch® is a registered trademark of Robert Spencer in the United States and/or other countries - Site Developed and Managed by Free Speech Defense

Content copyright Jihad Watch, Jihad Watch claims no credit for any images posted on this site unless otherwise noted. Images on this blog are copyright to their respective owners. If there is an image appearing on this blog that belongs to you and you do not wish for it appear on this site, please E-mail with a link to said image and it will be promptly removed.

Our mailing address is: David Horowitz Freedom Center, P.O. Box 55089, Sherman Oaks, CA 91499-1964

loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.