“When did Muhammad ever behead anyone?” asks Selvedin Beganovic. He meant it as a rhetorical question to show that the Islamic State is un-Islamic. But then there is this:
“Then they [the Jewish Qurayzah tribe] surrendered, and the apostle [Muhammad] confined them in Medina in the quarter of d. al-Harith, a woman of B. Al-Najjar. Then the apostle went out to the market of Medina (which is still its market today) and dug trenches in it. Then he sent for them and struck off their heads in those trenches as they were brought out to him in batches. Among them was the enemy of Allah Huyayy b. Akhtab and Ka’b b. Asad their chief. There were 600 or 700 in all, though some put the figure as high as 800 or 900.” — Ibn Ishaq 690
Beganovic also says: “When did [Muhammad] take a knife and slaughter an innocent journalist?”
Well, I don’t think there were any people who thought of themselves as “journalists” in seventh-century Arabia, or in the eighth or ninth centuries when the traditions about Muhammad were assembled. But as for slaughtering innocent people, there is this: “Kinana b. al-Rabi`, who had the custody of the treasure of B. al-Nadir, was brought to the apostle who asked him about it. He denied that he knew where it was. A Jew came (T. was brought) to the apostle and said that he had seen Kinana going round a certain ruin every morning early. When the apostle said to Kinana, ‘Do you know that if we find you have it I shall kill you?’ he said Yes. The apostle gave orders that the ruin was to be excavated and some of the treasure was found. When he asked him about the rest he refused to produce it, so the apostle gave orders to al-Zubayr b. al-Awwam, ‘Torture him until you extract what he has,’ so he kindled a fire with flint and steel on his chest until he was nearly dead. Then the apostle delivered him to Muhammad b. Maslama and he struck off his head, in revenge for his brother Mahmud.” (Ibn Ishaq 515).
Besides showing that Selvedin Beganovic is not entirely free of disingenuousness when he opposes the Islamic State, this story also illustrates that the caliphate enjoys much support among Muslims, even in “moderate” Bosnia, where all the Muslims are (we’re told, and must believe on pain of charges of “Islamophobia”) are secular and pro-Western.
“Bosnian imam attacked 7 times over call to stay out of Syria,” by Amel Emric, Associated Press, January 5, 2015:
TRNOVI, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AP) — The long-bearded man burst into the mosque’s yard and pinned Selvedin Beganovic to the ground. Shouting “Now I will slaughter you!” he plunged a knife three times into the imam’s chest and fled.
It was no random attack: Beganovic has suffered seven assaults blamed on Muslim extremists in the past year — with three just last month.
The apparent reason for the jihadi wrath? Beganovic uses his pulpit to tell the faithful in predominantly Muslim Bosnia they have no business fighting in Syria or Iraq. And he vows to keep preaching the message no matter how many times extremists try to silence him.
“That is not our war,” the imam told The Associated Press in his small northwestern town. “Our jihad in Bosnia is the fight against unemployment. The care for our parents who have small pensions. The care for the socially jeopardized.”
Some 150 Bosnians have joined Islamic militants in Syria or Iraq, officials estimate, with many fighting for the Islamic State group. All are apparently members of a small community that follows an ultra-conservative interpretation of Islam. Last month, a court in Bosnia charged a man believed to be the spiritual leader of the group with recruiting Bosnians to fight with Islamic militants in Syria and organizing a terrorist group.
Beganovic, who preaches every week to a full mosque, tells his followers that groups like IS are spreading a “perverted version of Islam.”
“When did (the Prophet) Muhammad ever behead anyone?” he said. “When did he take a knife and slaughter an innocent journalist?”…