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

Robert Spencer at Catholic Answers: Answering a Muslim Apologist

Aug 30, 2014 9:22 am By Robert Spencer

Sohaib SultanOver at Catholic Answers I clear away another set of detours, diversions and deceptions:

Catholic apologists keep very busy clearing up common misconceptions about the Faith: explaining how the Church’s teaching, practice, and history are misunderstood—or willfully misrepresented—by its opponents.

Islam, too, has its apologists. They also claim that many critiques of the Muslim religion are based on ignorance or animus, and insist that the record must be set straight.

One such apologist is Princeton University Muslim chaplain Sohaib Sultan, whose recent piece in Time, “ISIS Is Ignoring Islam’s Teachings on Yazidis and Christians,” would seem to be something that every Catholic, and indeed every free person, should welcome. Sultan condemns the Islamic State (formerly ISIS) and other Islamic jihadists, and asserts that their violent actions have nothing to do with true Islam. Is he correct? Are those who connect Islam with violence as grossly mistaken as those who claim that Catholics are cannibals for eating Jesus’ body, or that we worship Mary as a goddess?

Unfortunately, too often the assertions of Muslim apologists do not inspire confidence that they’re actually engaged in an effort to dispel falsehoods with truth. Sultan’s piece is a textbook example of the difference between defending one’s faith and whitewashing it; between engaging the evidence against one’s position and blithely waving it aside or even denying it exists.

“Until Religion Is All for Allah”

For example, he claims that “when the Quran allows (and, sometimes, even encourages) Muslims to engage in just fighting and resistance, it is in order to deter those who wage wars without just cause and those who engage in religious persecution.” Here and throughout his article, however, his use of Quranic passages is selective and out of context. He doesn’t mention, for example, the exhortation to Muslims to fight not just until “persecution is no more,” but also until “religion is all for Allah” (8:39). He mentions only in passing, without quotation, the Quran’s call to Muslims to fight against the “People of the Book” (primarily Jews, Christians, and Zoroastrians) until they “pay the jizya with willing submission and feel themselves subdued” (9:29)— i.e., until they submit to Muslim hegemony.

Claiming that true Islam does not support the demolition of churches and synagogues, Sultan quotes the Quran inveighing against the destruction of houses of worship: “For, if God had not enabled people to defend themselves against one another, monasteries and churches and synagogues and mosques — in which God’s name is abundantly extolled would surely have been destroyed” (22:39–22:40). This would seem to be a blanket prohibition against the destruction of churches; proof that jihadists who commit that act do so in defiance of their religion.

Unfortunately, though, this is not all that the Quran says. The Quran many times reaffirms that its message is the same as that of the Torah and the Gospels, and calls on Jews and Christians to note that and accept it as divine revelation. Allah tells Muhammad: “And We have revealed to you the Book in truth, confirming that which preceded it of the Scripture and as a criterion over it” (5:48), after affirming that in the Gospel was “guidance and light, confirming that which preceded it of the Torah as guidance and instruction for the righteous” (5:46). Those who do not accept the new revelation are castigated and threatened with punishment: “Indeed, they who disbelieved among the People of the Scripture and the polytheists will be in the fire of Hell, abiding eternally therein. Those are the worst of creatures” (98:6).

So while “God’s name is abundantly extolled” in the churches and synagogues of those who acknowledge Muhammad and the Quran, the same cannot be said of the churches and synagogues of “they who disbelieved among the People of the Scripture.” This is how the Islamic State, in destroying churches and other houses of worship in Iraq and Syria, can justify its actions on solid Islamic grounds. But Sultan does not address this— thereby rendering his piece powerless to refute the actions of the Islamic State, however comforting his arguments may sound to uninformed non-Muslims.

The omissions continue. Sultan quotes the Quran saying about various religious groups that “God will decide between them on Resurrection Day” (22:17), arguing that since God will judge all in the next world, the Islamic State should not act as the executor of divine wrath in this world. Yet the Quran also says: “And as for those who disbelieved, I will punish them with a severe punishment in this world and the Hereafter, and they will have no helpers” (3:56). If the unbelievers are to be punished in this world as well as in the next, how is the Islamic State departing from Quranic orthodoxy by bringing them that punishment?

No Compulsion in Religion?

Sultan also claims that “ISIS insistence that Christians either ‘convert, leave, or die’ defies the Quranic command: ‘Let there be no compulsion in religion’ (2:256).” Islamic spokesmen in the West frequently quote this to disprove the contention that Islam spread by the sword, or even to claim that Islam is a religion of peace. But Sultan does not mention—even to refute it—the quite different understanding that many Muslim authorities have of this verse. According to an early Muslim scholar, Mujahid ibn Jabr, this verse was abrogated by Quran 9:29, which commands Muslims to fight the People of the Book. Others, however, according to the Islamic historian Tabari, say that 2:256 was never abrogated, but was revealed precisely in reference to the People of the Book. They are not to be forced to accept Islam, but may practice their religions as long as they pay the jizya (poll-tax) and “feel themselves subdued” (9:29).

Those who offer 2:256 to claim there is no Islamic imperative to wage jihad against unbelievers omit or fail to recognize that the aim of jihad is not the forced conversion of non-Muslims. For non-Muslims brought to heel by jihad, the choice (as laid out by Muhammad himself) is conversion, death, or subjugation (dhimmitude). The twentieth-century Muslim Brotherhood theorist and Islamic scholar Sayyid Qutb accordingly denies that 2:256 contradicts the imperative to fight until “religion is for Allah” (8:39; 2:193). “Islam has not used force to impose its beliefs,” he says. Rather, jihad’s “main objective has been the establishment of a stable society in which all citizens, including followers of other religious creeds, may live in peace and security”—peace and security meaning, for Qutb, subordinate status for non-believers in an “Islamic social order.”

In this light, the Quranic idea that there is “no compulsion in religion” fits together without any trouble with the exhortation to fight until “religion is for Allah.” Muslims must fight until “religion is for Allah,” but they don’t force anyone to accept Allah’s religion. They enforce subservience upon those who refuse to convert, such that many of them subsequently convert to Islam to escape the humiliating and discriminatory regulations of dhimmitude. Only at the end of the world will Jesus, the Prophet of Islam, return and Islamize the world, abolishing Christianity and thus the need for the jizya. Then religion will be “for Allah,” and there will be no further need for jihad.

And indeed, Sultan acknowledges that the Islamic State demanded jizya payments from the Christians in Mosul, in accord with 9:29, but he waves this away with the assertion that this verse’s “application is vague and it can very well be argued that such an imposition was only intended to manage troublesome and treacherous religious minorities.” Yet the Quran’s command to subjugate the People of the Book and make them pay this tax is nowhere restricted to those People of the Book who are “troublesome and treacherous”; it is, in fact, not restricted at all. Nor was its application vague in the great caliphates of history. Islamic authorities frequently emphasized, long before the advent of the Islamic State, that the purpose of the jizya was to signify and enforce the subjugation of non-Muslims, but of such examples Sultan makes no mention.

A Dubious Document

Instead, he invokes an ancient document, purportedly from Muhammad, granting generous treatment to the Christians under Muslim rule. Known as the Achtiname, it was supposed to have been written by Muhammad around 628 to the monks of St. Catherine’s Monastery in the Sinai. Unfortunately, it is of even more doubtful authenticity than everything else about Muhammad’s life. Instead it bears all the earmarks of being an early medieval Christian forgery, perhaps developed by the monks themselves in order to protect the monastery from the depredations of zealous Muslims, who completed their conquest of Christian Egypt in 642. Modern scholars doubt its authenticity, and the prevailing opinion among Muslims is likewise dubious.

Citing the Achitiname against the Quran to prove that to follow Islam actually means to tolerate other faiths, then, is like citing the “Gospel of Jesus’ Wife” to prove that real Christians must believe Jesus was married.

Honest Catholic apologists strive to dispel clouds of myth and falsehood with the light of fact and reason. Muslim apologists like Sohaib Sultan, when they try to whitewash their religion’s role in present-day atrocities, do the opposite: they pile on myths and half-truths to obscure or distract from Islam’s plain prescriptions.

• • • •

Much confusion on matters like this would be dispelled if non-Muslims understood how Muslims view religious authority. In a future post, I will explain how Muslims view Quranic verses and prooftexts, where the closest thing to a Muslim magisterium can be found, and how to best to weigh arguments when someone quotes the Quran to say “X” but a Muslim apologist or a journalist quotes it to say “Y.”

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Filed Under: Taqiyya, War is deceit Tagged With: featured


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Comments

  1. rubiconcrest says

    Aug 30, 2014 at 9:48 am

    The reformed Islam, about which the Muslim chaplain at Princeton University speaks, does not yet exist. If the chaplain wants to wage a one man reformation effort he should get on Al Jazeera in Qatar or better yet move to Egypt and preach to thousands in his own ‘reformed Mosque’. We do not need his message of tolerance, they do. We don’t need educating, they do.

    • Jack Gordon says

      Aug 31, 2014 at 9:17 am

      The chaplain is at Princeton. American higher education finds itself in a much degraded state these days, but I suppose people there like the chaplain still have brains sufficient to realize he would be killed in Egypt soon after stepping off his airplane. The fact he doesn’t go there tells us this, and suggests he is lying fulsomely while over here. (Of course, some might argue that he will instead be given a medal by Mohammedans for having successfully pulled the wool over the eyes of so many Americans, for indulging in Olympic-level taqiyya. )

      • Jay Boo says

        Aug 31, 2014 at 3:51 pm

        Why is ISIS murdering Yazidis?
        Smiley face Katie Couric’s friends have a whitewashed answer for us to digest in link below.

        1 SHIFT THE FOCUS — According to the link, it is (because of who the Yazidis are) and not about who ISIS is.
        2 EQIVOCATE— Because (just like Christians) ISIS Sunni Muslims consider Yazidis devil worshipers.
        3 SIMPATHIZE and see ISIS point of view — Because ISIS and their form of religion feel threatened by the Yazidis.
        4 Yes, this MSM indoctrinator actually said that they (feel threatened by the Yazidis)

        Have they no shame left at all.

        http://news.yahoo.com/yazidi-yezidi-iraq-refugee-isis-223354739.html? outbr=katiec2014

  2. Myxlplik says

    Aug 30, 2014 at 10:24 am

    Europe has already elected a politician whose goals included establishing an “Islamic Order” on European soil. I also suspect it will not be the last time such a declaration is made.

    Read all about it Alija Izetbegovic goes on and on about it at length.

    http://www.hraicjk.org/islamic_declaration.html

  3. Donald Richardson says

    Aug 30, 2014 at 10:42 am

    Catholic Answers does some good work. However, they believe that Allah is the God of the Bible and Christians and Moslems “worship the same God.”

    Because interreligous dialogue has the sanction of the popes (including JP2 who apparently kissed the Quoran) well ID just has to be swell.

    • AnneM says

      Aug 30, 2014 at 11:57 am

      I have been over at Catholic Answers and when the subject of Islam comes up, a number of the comments come from Catholics who really, really do not agree with the Church and its position on the issue, I kid you not.

      • Julian says

        Aug 30, 2014 at 12:57 pm

        Rather than actively disagreeing with the Church, some may perhaps be slightly confused by the statements and interpretations of Lumen Gentium, some of which are slightly nuanced and vague when speaking about Islam. The Church believes that Islam is a false religion, so Catholics that disagree with this aren’t really Catholics.

        • BC says

          Aug 31, 2014 at 8:56 am

          What you need to realise is that all religion is false. There is no good religion but some are just a lot worse than others. Christianity has a long record of torturing, killing and massacring people whom the powerful of the day thought were unbelievers, apostates or heretics.

        • Julian says

          Aug 31, 2014 at 10:01 am

          @BC

          Having studied my religion (Roman Catholicism) meticulously as well as having studied most other world religions, and other Christian denominations, I have come to the conclusion that the fullness of truth is contained within the Roman Catholic Church and I am sorry that you do not reach the same conclusion. Jesus did exist; Jesus did rise from the dead; Jesus did found and institute the One Holy Catholic Church. These are all premises that can be subject to rudimentary historical analysis and study to show the premises are all true. What you may need to realise is that to blindly declare all religions to be false without taking the necessary time to study them may itself be a narrow-minded position.

          You haven’t defined what the criteria would be for a “good religion”. The Catholic Church is responsible for building and running the earliest universities and hospitals and spreading these concepts around the world through their millions of missionaries. It was the Catholic understanding of man’s relation to God that instituted the scientific method, the idea of separation of Church and state, the idea of innocence before being proven guilty and so many more revolutionary ideas that the western world takes for granted, even abuses. This is before we even get to the actual truth contained within the Catholic faith.

          You bring up the Inquisition. What do you think the existence of the Inquisition demonstrates? That Catholics are sinners? Guilty as charged. That at times people in authority have sometimes used poor judgement? Ditto. That otherwise good Catholics, afire with zeal, sometimes lose their balance? Ditto. But such charges could be made even if the Inquisition had never happened.

          To compare Catholicism to Islam is to compare a diamond to a lump of coal. Both are made of carbon (both are religions), but that does not mean that they are all dull monotone blocks, as great beauty can be seen in the Catholic faith, sorely lacking in the Islamic faith.

        • Jay Boo says

          Aug 31, 2014 at 4:06 pm

          Julian
          Your words are wasted on BC
          BC resolves the repressed feeling of cognitive dissonance and political incorrectness of criticizing Islam with lashing out at Christianity.
          The two letter moniker BC says it all.

  4. AnneM says

    Aug 30, 2014 at 11:58 am

    Plus I am one of those Catholics who do not agree with Catholic Answers position on the “worship the same God stuff.”

  5. pongidae rex says

    Aug 30, 2014 at 11:59 am

    The Reformation of Islam is under way. Predictably their idea of a reformation is opposite of what happened with Christianity. ISIS is the new Islam.

  6. Kepha says

    Aug 30, 2014 at 1:48 pm

    We sure have been treated to quite a parade of dhimmified RC and mainstream “Protestant” (who would have Zwingli, Luther, Calvin, Ridley, and Knox rolling over in their graves). lately, haven’t we? Good for Robert that he’s willing to face squarely the “bad news” that is Islam, and let the rest of the world know it!

    Julian speaks of Lumen Gentium as “nuanced”, and hence confusing. Well, the original meaning of “nuanced” is “cloudy”, so no wonder it confuses people! Long ago, when a young man trying to figure out his place in the Christian universe, I read the Documents of Vatican II. My sense was that they’re heading in the same general direction as liberal Protestantism–only wanting to keep a very authoritative church proclaiming the very relativistic message. Their answer to Nietzsche’s loud, obnoxious “God is Dead!” is “Yes, but His house will go on living.” Well, we now know how fatuous all of that really is.

    Can we any more wonder why the major, well-endowed, supposedly Christian hierarchies can no longer give us any direction, or inspire resistance to an Islam that is obviously rotting in its own propensity for violence? How can they, when they have fled the clear light of the Gospel itself into the cloudy relativism of a theological liberalism in which God is only the plaything of the so-called theologians and ethics is no more than the Zeitgeist?

    As for any reform of Islam, the only one that I think will be worth anything is the mass conversion of Muslims to the Jesus Christ presented in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments. Period.

    • Julian says

      Aug 30, 2014 at 3:25 pm

      Many of the Saints of the Church condemned Islam in ways that would make probably even Robert Spencer blush, let alone the PC crowd.

      St Alphonsus Liguori: “The mohammadan paradise is only fit for beasts, for filthy sensual pleasures is all the believer has to expect there.”

      St Thomas Aquinas: “As for proofs of the truth of his (Muhammad) doctrine, he brought forward only such as could be grasped only by the natural ability of anyone with a very modest wisdom. Indeed the truths that he taught he mingled with many fables and with doctrines of the greatest falsity.”

      St Juan de Ribera: “(Muhammad) did not prove his new sect with any motive, having neither supernatural miracles nor natural reasons, but solely the force of arms, violence, fictions, lies, and carnal license. It remains an impious, blasphemous, vicious cult, an innovention of the devil, and the direct way into the fires of hell. It does not even merit the name of being called a religion.”

      There are so many more. You are right that many Church leaders today have neglected their duty to warn the world about the danger of Islam to Christianity and Christians around the world. We should pray for them, that they take inspiration and guidance from the brave Saints of old regarding Islam.

      • Centurion_Cornelius says

        Aug 31, 2014 at 5:50 am

        Affirmative, Julian!

        Way too many Pastors of Catholic Churches are fat, dumb, and lazy in their sinecures and fiefdoms they have established to be troubled by radical Islam. I have never, repeat, “NEVER” heard a homily on opposing radical Islam.

        Donut Sunday, the annual summer Carnival, “social justice” outreach, father/son canoe outings, and Girl Scout cookie drives, consume their days.

        I have written spoken, and tried to awake my Pastor and my local Diocese to this coming hurricane, to no avail. I’ve gotten the silent treatment–no replies–no nothing.

        Our Diocese, however, has a “Interfaith Commission” which touts the brotherhood of Islam and they meet and sing, hold hands, sing kumbaya and “Give Peace a Chance” regularly.

        …all well and good until the IEDs start detonating, 7.62 x 39 start flying, and scimitars start lopping off infidels heads in the USA.

        What did Bibi Netanyahu recently say: “Coming soon to a theater near you!”

        BE PREPARED. No one else is responsible for the safety of you, your family and loved ones.

        • Julian says

          Aug 31, 2014 at 9:24 am

          You are right that a good Catholic homily publically and resoundingly denouncing Islam is becoming all too rarer. If you would like, here is a link to a fantastic homily by a Catholic priest matter-of-factly displaying the truth about Islam, ISIS and the west silence regarding Islamic terrorism in general.

          A quote from the homily is “Through the ministry of Muhammad, the evil one established Islam, penned the Quran and established this ingenious deception for the children of Adam. This would be the new nemesis for the Kingdom of God, the Roman Catholic Church…”

      • Abe says

        Aug 31, 2014 at 10:48 pm

        Great Post, thank you.

  7. Kathy Brown says

    Aug 30, 2014 at 11:57 pm

    Julian, indeed our example should be the ‘brave saints’. Under PC, the saints would be condemned as not diverse enough and the martyrs deemed intolerant.

    ‘Course I’d rather stand well with Almighty God than with the atheist pagans like Obama. And indeed we must never cease praying for the conversion of the latter.

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