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

Do the Qur’an and Islamic law forbid terrorism?

Sep 1, 2014 2:25 pm By Robert Spencer

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAThis piece by establishment academic Juan Cole is well over a year old, and as a rule I only post topical material at Jihad Watch. However, with all the condemnations of the Islamic State as un-Islamic lately, coming from both Muslims and non-Muslims, the cognitive dissonance arises again: on the one hand we have armed terrorists (including many more groups besides the Islamic State) quoting the Qur’an to justify their actions and make recruits, and portraying themselves as the embodiment of true Islam. On the other hand we have both Muslims and non-Muslims not only denying this claim, but asserting that these groups not only do not represent a legitimate school of thought in the Islamic tradition, but have nothing to do with Islam at all — which raises the question of how this massive, worldwide misunderstanding of Islam arose.

Juan Cole here purports to show that the Qur’an and Islamic law clearly and unequivocally forbid terrorism. If that is true, then the Islamic State’s critics are correct. So what might happen if a devout and informed supporter of the Islamic State read Cole’s piece? Would his mind be changed, such that he would renounce his support for the jihadis? Or would he immediately think of reasons why Cole’s Qur’anic analysis was incomplete and inadequate?

These are key questions, for working to show that the Qur’an forbids terrorism has two possible purposes: to reassure jittery non-Muslims who are concerned about jihad terrorism and worried about the massive rates of Muslim immigration into Western countries, and to convince Muslims that jihad terror groups like the Islamic State and al-Qaeda are not worth joining or supporting. The first purpose is not only worthless, but counterproductive if the second purpose is not accomplished. This is something I have written about many times: the difference between reform and deception. Many times I’ve been harshly criticized for not warmly endorsing, and even taking issue with, articles purporting to show that Islam forbids what jihad terrorists are doing. My sole issue with such articles is this: Will they convince jihad terrorists that their understanding of Islam is wrong? If not, then their only effect will be to foster complacency among Infidels. Certainly Cole’s piece reassures ignorant Infidels, such as the British Useful Idiot Sarah Brown of the UK dhimmi hate site Harry’s Place, who used it as part of her case against me as the wrong kind of opponent of jihad terror. But would it turn a jihad terrorist away from jihad terror? See below for my comments interspersed.

It is not irrelevant to note also that Juan Cole is on the Board of the National Iranian American Council (NIAC), which has been established in court as a front group lobbying for the Islamic regime in Iran. Said Michael Rubin: “Jamal Abdi, NIAC’s policy director, now appears to push aside any pretense that NIAC is something other than Iran’s lobby. Speaking at the forthcoming ‘Expose AIPAC’ conference, Abdi is featured on the ‘Training: Constituent Lobbying for Iran’ panel. Oops.” According to Charles C. Johnson in the Daily Caller: “Iranian state-run media have referred to the National Iranian-American Council (NIAC) since at least 2006 as ‘Iran’s lobby’ in the U.S.” Iranian freedom activist Hassan Daioleslam “documented over a two-year period that NIAC is a front group lobbying on behalf of the Iranian regime.” NIAC had to pay him nearly $200,000 in legal fees after they sued him for defamation over his accusation that they were a front group for the mullahs, and lost. Yet Juan Cole remains on their Board.

“Top Ten Ways Islamic Law forbids Terrorism,” by Juan Cole, April 17, 2013:

Erik Rush and others who hastened to scapegoat Muslims for the Boston Marathon bombing are ignorant of the religion. I can’t understand why people who have never so much as read a book about a subject appoint themselves experts on it. (Try this book, e.g.). We don’t yet know who carried out the attack, but we know they either aren’t Muslims at all or they aren’t real Muslims, in the nature of the case.

For the TLDR crowd, here are the top ten ways that Islamic law and tradition forbid terrorism (some of these points are reworked from previous postings):

1. Terrorism is above all murder. Murder is strictly forbidden in the Qur’an. Qur’an 6:151 says, “and do not kill a soul that God has made sacrosanct, save lawfully.” (i.e. murder is forbidden but the death penalty imposed by the state for a crime is permitted). 5:53 says, “… whoso kills a soul, unless it be for murder or for wreaking corruption in the land, it shall be as if he had killed all mankind; and he who saves a life, it shall be as if he had given life to all mankind.”

Cole says of the Qur’an that “murder is forbidden but the death penalty imposed by the state for a crime is permitted.” So he acknowledges that the Qur’an doesn’t forbid all killing. Terrorists claim to be killing those whom the Qur’an directs them to kill. Among these are people who fight against the Muslims and have driven them out of lands: “Fight in the way of Allah against those who fight against you, but begin not hostilities. Lo! Allah loveth not aggressors. And slay them wherever ye find them, and drive them out of the places whence they drove you out, for persecution is worse than slaughter” (2:190-191). That would include Israelis, who according to Islamic supremacist myth drove the Muslims out of their homes and seized their land in 1948. The Qur’an also directs Muslims to kill those who joined the Muslims but then turn against them: “They long that ye should disbelieve even as they disbelieve, that ye may be upon a level (with them). So choose not friends from them till they forsake their homes in the way of Allah; if they turn back (to enmity) then take them and kill them wherever ye find them, and choose no friend nor helper from among them” (4:89). That would include those who are considered apostates from Islam and those who collaborate with perceived enemies of the Muslims — such as Muslims who aid America-backed regimes in Afghanistan and Iraq. Muslims are also told in the Qur’an to kill idolaters: “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” (9:5). That would include pretty much everyone who is not a Muslim. And Muslims are to kill in battle (by beheading) those who don’t believe in Islam: “Now when ye meet in battle those who disbelieve, then it is smiting of the necks…” (47:4). There again, there is no qualifier — the directive is against non-Muslims in general.

Thus as they kill Israelis, supporters of or collaborators with U.S.-backed regimes, and non-Muslims, terrorists don’t believe they are committing murder, but executing commands of the Qur’an itself.

2. If the motive for terrorism is religious, it is impermissible in Islamic law. It is forbidden to attempt to impose Islam on other people. The Qur’an says, “There is no compulsion in religion. The right way has become distinct from error.” (-The Cow, 2:256). Note that this verse was revealed in Medina in 622 AD or after and was never abrogated by any other verse of the Quran. Islam’s holy book forbids coercing people into adopting any religion. They have to willingly choose it.

Contrary to Cole’s claim that 2:256 was never abrogated, according to an early Muslim scholar, Mujahid ibn Jabr, it was actually abrogated by Quran 9:29, which commands Muslims to fight the People of the Book. Others, however, according to the Islamic historian Tabari, agree with Cole 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.

Terrorists know all this, and will laugh derisively at Cole’s invocation of 2:256 against their activities.

3. Islamic law forbids aggressive warfare. The Quran says, “But if the enemies incline towards peace, do you also incline towards peace. And trust in God! For He is the one who hears and knows all things.” (8:61) The Quran chapter “The Cow,” 2:190, says, “Fight in the way of God against those who fight against you, but begin not hostilities. Lo! God loveth not aggressors.”

The Qur’an also tells Muslims to fight the People of the Book until they “pay the jizya with willing submission and feel themselves subdued” (9:29); that verse doesn’t mention anything about fighting only those People of the Book who begin hostilities. So how does that verse fit in with 2:190? Is aggressive warfare actually forbidden in Islamic law? Many Islamic authorities say no. In his eighth-century biography of Muhammad, Ibn Ishaq explains the contexts of various verses of the Qur’an by saying that Muhammad received revelations about warfare in three stages: first, tolerance; then, defensive warfare; and finally, offensive warfare in order to convert the unbelievers to Islam or make them pay the jizya. Mainstream Qur’an commentaries by Ibn Kathir, Ibn Juzayy, As-Suyuti and others also emphasize that the ninth chapter of the Qur’an, which contains this command to fight the People of the Book, abrogates every peace treaty in the Qur’an.

In the modern age, this idea of stages of development in the Qur’an’s teaching on jihad, culminating in offensive warfare to establish the hegemony of Islamic law, has been affirmed by Muslim Brotherhood theorist Sayyid Qutb, Pakistani Islamic scholar and politician Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi, the Pakistani Brigadier S. K. Malik (author of The Qur’anic Concept of War), Saudi Chief Justice Sheikh Abdullah bin Muhammad bin Humaid (in his Jihad in the Qur’an and Sunnah), and others. The terrorists know all this, too.

4. In the Islamic law of war, not just any civil engineer can declare or launch a war. It is the prerogative of the duly constituted leader of the Muslim community that engages in the war. Nowadays that would be the president or prime minister of the state, as advised by the mufti or national jurisconsult.

Here Cole is ignoring the distinction between offensive and defensive jihad, which is not surprising, since he denies the existence of offensive jihad as a concept in Islamic law. In Islamic law, only the caliph can declare offensive jihad, and that jihad is an obligation on the community as a whole (fard kifaya); an individual is released from it if others are taking it up. But all the schools of Islamic jurisprudence agree that when a non-Muslim force enters a Muslim land, defensive jihad becomes the individual obligation of every Muslim (fard ‘ayn) rather than a collective obligation of the entire umma, and need not be declared by anyone. Bulghah al-Salik li-Aqrab al-Masalik fi madhhab al-Imam Malik (“The Sufficiency of the Traveller on the Best Path in the School of Imam Malik,”) says this: “Jihad in the Path of Allah, to raise the word of Allah, is fard kifayah [obligatory on the community] once a year, so that if some perform it, the obligation falls from the rest. It becomes fard `ayn [obligatory on every Muslim individually], like salah and fasting, if the legitimate Muslim Imam declares it so, or if there is an attack by the enemy on an area of people.” The Hanafi, Maliki, and Shafi’i schools of Sunni jurisprudence further declare that jihad, once it is fard ‘ayn, is no different from prayer and fasting — in other words, to engage in warfare with non-Muslims in that case is a religious devotion that cannot lawfully be evaded. Hashiyah Ibn `Abidin, an authoritative text of the Hanafi school, says that jihad is “fard ‘ayn if the enemy has attacked part of the Islamic homeland. It thus becomes an obligation like salah [prayer] and fasting which cannot be abandoned.”

Today, in the absence of a caliph (at least until the advent of the Islamic State), jihadis cast all their jihads as defensive, and retail lists of grievances to justify them and bring them into accord with Islamic law, which only allows for defensive jihad without a caliph. Thus the terrorists, as long as they cast their jihads as defensive, need not have a declaration of war from any leader.

5. The killing of innocent non-combatants is forbidden. According to Sunni tradition, ‘Abu Bakr al-Siddiq, the first Caliph, gave these instructions to his armies: “I instruct you in ten matters: Do not kill women, children, the old, or the infirm; do not cut down fruit-bearing trees; do not destroy any town . . . ” (Malik’s Muwatta’, “Kitab al-Jihad.”)

Terrorists who believe that it is perfectly acceptable for them to kill innocent non-combatants can point to this hadith: “It is reported on the authority of Sa’b b. Jaththama that the Prophet of Allah (may peace be upon him), when asked about the women and children of the polytheists being killed during the night raid, said: They are from them.” (Sahih Muslim 4321) “They are from them” — i.e., the women and children of the polytheists are from the polytheists and can lawfully be killed.

6. Terrorism or hirabah is forbidden in Islamic law, which groups it with brigandage, highway robbery and extortion rackets– any illicit use of fear and coercion in public spaces for money or power. The principle of forbidding the spreading of terror in the land is based on the Qur’an (Surah al-Ma’ida 5:33–34). Prominent [pdf] Muslim legal scholar Sherman Jackson writes, “The Spanish Maliki jurist Ibn `Abd al-Barr (d. 464/ 1070)) defines the agent of hiraba as ‘Anyone who disturbs free passage in the streets and renders them unsafe to travel, striving to spread corruption in the land by taking money, killing people or violating what God has made it unlawful to violate is guilty of hirabah . . .”

Notice that Cole invokes but does not quote 5:33-34. Now why might that be? Could it be because this passage actually mandates harsh penalties reminiscent of the Islamic State and the Taliban for those who “make war upon Allah and His messenger”? “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; save those who repent before ye overpower them. For know that Allah is Forgiving, Merciful” (5:33-34)

7. Sneak attacks are forbidden. Muslim commanders must give the enemy fair warning that war is imminent. The Prophet Muhammad at one point gave 4 months notice.

A Muslim warrior recounted of the Khaybar raid: “We met the workers of Khaybar coming out in the morning with their spades and baskets. When they saw the apostle and the army they cried, ‘Muhammad with his force,’ and turned tail and fled. The apostle said, ‘Allah Akbar! Khaybar is destroyed. When we arrive in a people’s square it is a bad morning for those who have been warned'” (Ibn Ishaq 511). The Jews of Khaybar were coming out with their spades and baskets because they were not expecting to do battle; they were going to work on their farms. Muhammad’s appearance was a complete sneak attack. He says that the inhabitants of Khaybar had been warned, but he had not warned them he was coming or given them any notice of the attack; he had just warned them about the impending judgment of Allah.

8. The Prophet Muhammad counseled doing good to those who harm you and is said to have commanded, “Do not be people without minds of your own, saying that if others treat you well you will treat them well, and that if they do wrong you will do wrong to them. Instead, accustom yourselves to do good if people do good and not to do wrong (even) if they do evil.” (Al-Tirmidhi)

He also represented in the Hadith as having said this: “Fight against those who disbelieve in Allah. Make a holy war…When you meet your enemies who are polytheists, invite them to three courses of action. If they respond to any one of these you also accept it and withhold yourself from doing them any harm. Invite them to (accept) Islam; if they respond to you, accept it from them and desist from fighting against them…. If they refuse to accept Islam, demand from them the Jizya. If they agree to pay, accept it from them and hold off your hands. If they refuse to pay the tax, seek Allah’s help and fight them” (Sahih Muslim 4294).

Once again, the terrorists know this.

9. The Qur’an demands of believers that they exercise justice toward people even where they have reason to be angry with them: “And do not let the hatred of a people prevent you from being just. Be just; that is nearer to righteousness.”[5:8]

As far as the terrorists are concerned, carrying out the dictates of the Qur’an, including those mandating the killing of unbelievers, is precisely what justice is.

10. The Qur’an assures Christians and Jews of paradise if they believe and do good works, and commends Christians as the best friends of Muslims. I wrote elsewhere, “Dangerous falsehoods are being promulgated to the American public. The Quran does not preach violence against Christians.

Quran 5:69 says (Arberry): “Surely they that believe, and those of Jewry, and the Christians, and those Sabeaans, whoso believes in God and the Last Day, and works righteousness–their wage waits them with their Lord, and no fear shall be on them, neither shall they sorrow.”

In other words, the Quran promises Christians and Jews along with Muslims that if they have faith and works, they need have no fear in the afterlife. It is not saying that non-Muslims go to hell– quite the opposite.

When speaking of the 7th-century situation in the Muslim city-state of Medina, which was at war with pagan Mecca, the Quran notes that the polytheists and some Arabian Jewish tribes were opposed to Islam, but then goes on to say:

5:82. ” . . . and you will find the nearest in love to the believers [Muslims] those who say: ‘We are Christians.’ That is because amongst them are priests and monks, and they are not proud.”

So the Quran not only does not urge Muslims to commit violence against Christians, it calls them “nearest in love” to the Muslims! The reason given is their piety, their ability to produce holy persons dedicated to God, and their lack of overweening pride.

The Qur’an also says: “Lo! those who disbelieve, among the People of the Scripture and the idolaters, will abide in fire of hell. They are the worst of created beings” (98:6). Who are “those who disbelieve, among the People of the Scripture”? They are the Christians and Jews who do not become Muslims. The Tafsir al-Jalalayn explains: “Before his [that is, Muhammad’s] arrival they had all agreed to believe in him when he would come; then those who disbelieved in him from among them became envious of him.” The passages about Jews and Christians being saved refers to Jews and Christians who become Muslims, while those who remain Jews and Christians are “the worst of created beings.” In his commentary on 5:69, Ibn Kathir makes this clear, telling Jews and Christians that they will have “no real religion until you adhere to and implement the Tawrah [Torah] and the Injil [Gospel]. That is, until you believe in all the Books that you have that Allah revealed to the Prophets. These Books command following Muhammad and believing in his prophecy, all the while adhering to his Law.”

So Juan Cole has failed to make his case that the Qur’an and Islamic law forbid terrorism: no terrorist will be convinced. All that Juan Cole has achieved is making the Sarah Browns of the world go away contented — at least, that is, until the next bomb drops.

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Comments

  1. Beagle says

    Sep 1, 2014 at 3:47 pm

    “I have been made victorious with terror.”

    — Things ProMo Said, in Bukhari 2.52.220

    For context: 7.004 (Pickthall)
    “How many a township have We destroyed! As a raid by night, or while they slept at noon, Our terror came unto them.”

    Apparently the terror relates to destroying towns and killing sleeping people. Seven is one of those peaceful Meccan suras.

  2. JOHN SPIELMAN says

    Sep 1, 2014 at 3:57 pm

    in islamic theology, NO ONE IS INNOCENT, not even muslims as the more ” devout” are called to kill the less “devout ” because the less devout are seen as apostates and all is done to impress Allah(Satan to nonmuslims) and gain bonus points for the day of judgement
    Thus it is with islamic works righteous theology

  3. ploome says

    Sep 1, 2014 at 5:26 pm

    depends what the word ‘terrorism’ is

    we call it terrorism and slaughter, they call it jihad and sharia

    muslims think what we call ‘terrorism’ is koranic mandate

    • Western Canadian says

      Sep 1, 2014 at 11:06 pm

      muslims also call what they do, terror on more than a few occasions….. it’s just since we are NOT innocent (meaning the right kind of muslim), it’s what we deserve.

  4. wildjew says

    Sep 1, 2014 at 5:26 pm

    I thought Juan Cole an intrepid debater who did not cower in fear before anyone.

    I wanted to watch a good on-line debate. Guess I was wrong.

    “Juan Cole shows himself to be another cowardly pseudo-academic, ducks offer to debate Spencer

    Robert Spencer Aug 2, 2011 at 4:47pm academia, Robert Spencer

    http://www.jihadwatch.org/2011/08/juan-cole-shows-himself-to-be-another-cowardly-pseudo-academic-ducks-offer-to-debate-spencer

  5. Thomas Wells says

    Sep 1, 2014 at 5:53 pm

    An interesting variation of the ”Twinkie:” defense- the book made me do it.

  6. Wellington says

    Sep 1, 2014 at 6:35 pm

    Fine refutation of Cole by Spencer. Two observations: 1) In order for anyone to defend Islam, it is imperative certain verses of the Koran be highlighted while other verses are ignored (ditto for various chapters in Mohammed’s life). 2) In order for anyone to defend Islam, word games are really important (e.g., what the word “innocent” means).

    Of course, it’s all tedious stuff because Islam, quite frankly, is simply horrible, and it’s not rocket science one has to engage in to figure this out, but it’s a tedium that is necessary to master (and no one has mastered it better than Robert Spencer) in order that those who continue to defend the only major faith which is also a totalitarian political ideology cannot get away with slick rhetoric and verbal slight-of-hand while making excuses for man’s worst religion of all time.

  7. Sorry to break the circlejerk but... says

    Sep 1, 2014 at 6:40 pm

    This article has falsities, and I stopped reading it after one of the misquoted quotes of the Qur’an. Call me Muslim or whatever you wish to please your hate, but I expected a better article than this.

    • Robert Spencer says

      Sep 1, 2014 at 6:43 pm

      Hi circlejerk. Can you please be specific about these supposed misquotes of the Quran? All the Qur’an translations are from Pickthall’s translation of the Qur’an, the same one Cole used in his piece. They are all exactly as Pickthall rendered them. Pickthall was a Muslim.

    • Wellington says

      Sep 1, 2014 at 7:55 pm

      Echoing Robert Spencer, be specific. If you don’t reply (and with examples to support your contention), then you will simply reveal yourself as an insulter with no substance as opposed to an arguer with possible substance. The ball is in your court.

      Let me put it another way: If you don’t reply with details, then you are completely dismissable, in effect a joke. Got that? You will reveal to all on this thread that you’re just a bloviator and nothing more if you don’t reply to Robert Spencer’s challenge. Again, your turn.

    • Jack Gordon says

      Sep 2, 2014 at 8:18 am

      I don’t know whether you are a Mohammedan or not but, like Obama, you do a fine imitation of one if you are not. The Internet is plagued by Mohammedan lurkers who debate endlessly (usually in pidgin English, often with laughable mistakes) and try to bore readers to death. The fact you write relatively little tells me that if you are a Muslim, you are a recent convert for, as I say, long-time Mohammedans suffer from verbal diarrhea. At any rate, others who post here are correct: If you can’t do better than what we see above, vague and unsubstantiated allegations, you must be dismissed out of hand.

  8. R Cole says

    Sep 1, 2014 at 7:03 pm

    In essence what he is doing is trying to reassure western Christians – which is to say nothing of the Yazidis.

    ‘No compulsion in religion’ – is their best verse – except if you are or were a Muslim [or your father was a Muslim] – then most definitely there ‘is compulsion.’

    As we have seen in Egypt and in the Sudan – the state can act to forcibly convert – non-practicing children [even adult] – where the father converts to Islam or was a Muslim.

    Certainly this is not in dispute – especially where it takes international efforts to free these apostates from Islam – usually sentenced to death.

    :: ::

    – Off subject – the question is why did Muhammad even venture to say – there is no compulsion – Jesus for example never had to say anything like this – with crowds flocking to hear his message – people touching his robes to be healed [or see family members healed] – he literally had the masses eating out of his hand. Muhammad on the other -hand – some 600 years later – had no such magnetism – must have behind his statement entertained the idea of compelling – and so it was – when his lack of faith in his own message ran out – he turned to action:-

    “Muhammad sent Khalid Ibn al-Walid to the tribe of the children of Haritha and told him: ‘Call them to accept Islam before you fight with them. If they respond, accept that from them, but if they refuse, fight them.’ Khalid told them: ‘Accept Islam and spare your life.’ They entered Islam by force. He brought them to Muhammad. Muhammad said to them: ‘Had you not accepted Islam I would have cast your heads under your feet”‘

    ‘Accept Islam and spare your life.’ – Is undoubtedly ‘Covert or Die’ – an ancient call – under-which the majority of the Muslim world must have been compelled to join Islam.

    :: ::

    That Islam does not support terrorism – primarily is not an Islamic argument. These are westerners often from Christian backgrounds who can’t fathom – that a religion has such things in it. Theirs are largely empty denials – while viewing all who don’t agree with them as being ‘racists’ and accusing them of having a lack of knowledge about Islam. [Blah, blah]

    Off the main radar – there is the Muslim-Muslim argument. And here we had seen something different – here it is rather on whose authority should such acts be carried out. One of the answers put forward was that these attacks should come under the directive of the Caliphate – of which ISIS has sought to resolve this issue – versus say Bin Laden referred to as a mere Sheikh.

    Then they are saying that the west doesn’t want to see a unified Islamic state or the restoration of the Caliphate.

  9. abad says

    Sep 1, 2014 at 7:25 pm

    No.

    If anything, the Quran is the #1 handbook on terrorism

  10. Ahem says

    Sep 2, 2014 at 4:09 am

    @ R Cole

    Chapter and Verse 2:226 concerning “no compulsion in religion” has been repealed, revoked, expunged, deleted, erased, abolished or, to use the more conventional term: “abrogated”, as agreed to by every school of what is laughingly referred to as “Islamic Jurisprudence”.

    In this case the abrogation is by Chapter:Verse 9:5 which reads:

    “But when the forbidden months are past, then fight and slay the Pagans wherever ye find them, and seize them, beleaguer them, and lie in wait for them in every stratagem (of war); but if they repent, and establish regular prayers and practise regular charity, then open the way for them: for Allah is Oft-forgiving, Most Merciful.”

    That’s the verse of the sword. A busy little verse that’s responsible for abrogating 126 of the 246 abrogated verses in the Koran all by its little self.

    There is absolutely no point trying to read that disgusting book known as the Koran without at the same time being in a position to read the abrogating verse.

    The time for an authentic and truthful edition of the Koran that would include all of the abrogated verses in the correct place is way, way overdue.

  11. http://islamforbids.com says

    Sep 2, 2014 at 10:30 am

    I am please so many are much more knowledgeable than they were 14 yearsd ago .Thank you .

  12. voegelinian says

    Sep 2, 2014 at 6:29 pm

    Spencer writes: “Certainly Cole’s piece reassures ignorant Infidels, such as the British Useful Idiot Sarah Brown of the UK dhimmi hate site Harry’s Place, who used it as part of her case against me as the wrong kind of opponent of jihad terror.”

    I recall that episode a few months ago where there was a brief flurry of “cultural exchange” between Harry’s Place and Jihad Watch. A few prominent Harry’s Place regulars tried to protest their counter-jihad bona fides while at the same time promoting asymptotic points & principles (such as touting as moderate the Quilliam Foundation and its influential and unctuously colubrine member, Maajid Nawaz). It’s worthwhile to revisit those 100+ comments almost a year ago here at Jihad Watch:

    http://www.jihadwatch.org/2013/10/norway-muslims-affirm-that-sharia-punishments-not-extreme-theyre-just-islam

    (I was “LemonLime” back then.)

    Spencer’s characterization of them back in 2011 sums it up nicely:

    “The Leftist dhimmi blog Harry’s Place, which dabbles dilettanishly in counter-jihad poses while seldom missing an opportunity to denigrate and defame genuine counter-jihadists…”

  13. Brian Ozzy says

    Sep 3, 2014 at 9:58 pm

    Beautifully refuted Robert, as always with these charlatans.
    He obviously doesn’t know the koran too well as indicated by his usage of the continually misquoted (5:53 says, “… whoso kills a soul, unless it be for murder or for wreaking corruption in the land, it shall be as if he had killed all mankind; and he who saves a life, it shall be as if he had given life to all mankind.”) It is actually verse 5:32 that he is trying to quote and the full verse is: “On that account: We ordained for the Children of Israel that if any one slew a person – unless it be for murder or for spreading mischief in the land – it would be as if he slew the whole people: and if any one saved a life, it would be as if he saved the life of the whole people. Then although there came to them Our apostles with clear signs, yet, even after that, many of them continued to commit excesses in the land.” It is talking to the Jews (no mention of Muslims) and was purloined, I believe, from the Talmud.
    The liars that continually bring out this verse to appease all the ignorant always carefully edit out “On that account: We ordained for the Children of Israel” and “unless it be for murder or for spreading mischief in the land” i:e refuting or arguing with the koran.
    Of course none of these taqiyya loving apologists ever quotes the next verse 5:33 “Indeed, the penalty for those who wage war against Allah and His Messenger and strive upon earth [to cause] corruption is none but that they be killed or crucified or that their hands and feet be cut off from opposite sides or that they be exiled from the land. That is for them a disgrace in this world; and for them in the Hereafter is a great punishment.” Nothing peaceful about that one folks!
    5:33 actually says :And those who believe will say, “Are these the ones who swore by Allah their strongest oaths that indeed they were with you?” Their deeds have become worthless, and they have become losers.” Sort of sums up Mr. Cole himself really – Their deeds have become worthless and they have become losers” if I may take a leaf out of his book and misquote a verse for my own ends.

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