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

Washington Post: Islam was a religion of love, because — Taj Mahal!

Feb 14, 2016 1:55 pm By Robert Spencer

Longtime Jihad Watch readers may recall Haroon Moghul, a veteran peddler of “Islamophobia” victimhood nonsense. Poor Haroon lives in a dark world where greasy, black-hearted Islamophobes lurk around every corner, such that he has to be constantly on guard, even against “Islamophobic” teen baristas: his Starbucks name is not Haroon but “Dwayne.” But despite fear of “Islamophobia” stalking him even to Starbucks, Moghul is no shrinking violet; on the contrary, he is a veteran trafficker in defamation and a deeply dishonest writer who cynically takes advantage of his audience’s ignorance about Islam to invert reality, portraying Muslims as victims of a cruel “Islamophobia” machine, instead of non-Muslims threatened by the global jihad.

Now he has taken to the Washington Post, which is always open to publishing Islamic apologetics and polemics against “Islamophobia,” to claim that Islam is a religion not just of peace, but of love as well. Evidence? The Taj Mahal! This is as ridiculous as saying that Christianity is a religion of heavy makeup and huge false eyelashes because of Tammi Faye Bakker, and it just shows how little Haroon Moghul and others of his ilk have to go on when they try to whitewash Islam’s violent theology and bloody history.

More below.

taj-mahal

“Islam was a religion of love, and the Taj Mahal proves it,” by Haroon Moghul, Washington Post, February 12, 2016:

In the early 1630’s, right around the time the Puritans were beginning to build Boston, Mumtaz Mahal died in childbirth. In those days, tragically, many women died in similar circumstances. But Mahal was a queen. Her husband was ruler of what may have been the wealthiest empire in the world. His power and riches were immense.

The gratuitous mention of the Puritans is unlikely to be simply an attempt to give the reader some historical context. The signal here is that while the Mughal emperor was performing this great act of love, building the Taj Mahal as a monument to his beloved late wife, over in the U.S. there were the Puritans — the Puritans, that is, of Leftist caricature: superstitious, hateful, violent, self-righteous, and sexually repressed. No Puritan would ever have built the Taj Mahal for his wife, you see.

But he could not save the love of his life.

In one night, the legends went, all the emperor’s hair turned grey. Grief-stricken and inconsolable, the man whose very name meant “King of the World” ordered her to be entombed. Shah Jahan, the fifth of the sixth great Mughal rulers, commissioned an immense white marble mausoleum, to be set upon a pedestal and surrounded by gardens that echoed the Muslim conception of paradise.

If Shah Jahan wanted the world to remember her as he did, then certainly he accomplished his aim. Rabindranath Tagore called it “a teardrop on the face of time.” UNESCO calls it a World Heritage Site. Most men know it to mean their every romantic gesture will never be enough. You can buy her roses after all, but can you build her a Taj Mahal?

But I propose we see it as a vision of what Islam used to be, and what Islam could be, a building dedicated to love, and to love across boundaries that seem more like vast chasms today. Shah Jahan was a Sunni ruler from a Sunni dynasty. His beloved wife, however, was Shiite. Far from being doomed to fight, they fell in love. They married. They produced the next emperor. And they are now buried peacefully beside one another.

The First Time As Tragedy

It might strike you as surprising that one of the most famous buildings in the Muslim tradition is a monument to love. What’s the first word you think of when you hear “Islam”? Go ahead, be honest. Probably, you didn’t think of “love.” It might be the last thing on your mind. Probably, the first words that you reflexively associate with Islam are the opposite. But there was a time, a very long time, when love, for friends, for intimates, and for God, was the central theme of the Muslim faith, and in the way some Muslims today say “Islam is a religion of peace,” they’d have said “Islam is a religion of love.”

Struggling to make sense of God’s demand that we worship Him exclusively, early Muslims quickly seized upon an analogy to love, a passionate and consuming love that left no room for the other; so powerful was the image and universal the sentiment it declared, that the next great debate seemed to be about whether the lover merged himself into God, and forgot his own personality and reality or instead remained besotted by God, but still a complete and whole person. Does the moth, as the poets would have said, merely revere the candle, or perish inside it?

Muhammad, who Muslims believe modeled the love of God for humanity, was called (and is called) ‘the beloved of God’; the funerals of Sufi saints were called ‘weddings,’ because after a lifetime of preparation for meeting God, the moment was at hand….

Mughal is describing Sufi mysticism, which is all very well, but the mysticism of the Sufis never blunted their taste for jihad. In reality, Sufis have never rejected the necessity of jihad warfare, and have participated in that warfare. Sufis for centuries have aided the Chechen jihad against the Russians; Hasan Al-Banna of the Muslim Brotherhood was strongly influenced by them; and some of their most revered figures, including al-Ghazali himself, were quite clear in their espousal of violent jihad and dhimmitude for non-Muslims. And in January 2009, Iraqi representatives of the Naqshabandi Sufi order met with Khaled Mashaal of Hamas, praised his jihad, donated jewelry to him, and boasted of their own jihad attacks against Americans in Iraq.

But because love of one’s wife and love of one’s God were not just seen as complementary, but of the same kind; the former was the model for the latter. The Taj Mahal is of course many things to many people. For my beloved wife, it’s an unfair marker to hold a husband to. (I swear I would if I could.) It should also be a monument to Sunni and Shiite harmony, a reminder of a time when the core of the Muslim faith was love: Love of a person for himself, for his family, for his neighbors, for his Prophet, for his God. A time that shall come again. When Islam can be progressive for its time, when we will make the world beautiful, when we can be unapologetically Muslim and shamelessly besotted, because God is beautiful, as Muhammad said, and loves beauty.

The Taj Mahal is not actually a monument to Islam as a religion of love. It is a monument to how much Shah Jahan loved Mumtaz Mahal. That’s all. There is no indication that Shah Jahan’s love for her was motivated by Islam, inspired by Islam, or had anything to do with Islam at all. It was the love a man had for a woman, a love that billions of men and women have had for each other. Shah Jahan just had the will and the means to express his love more grandly than most men have the opportunity to do. Does that fact make Islam wonderful? No. It makes Haroon Moghul disingenuous.

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Filed Under: "Islamophobia", Featured, journalistic bias, War is deceit Tagged With: Haroon Moghul, Taj Mahal


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Comments

  1. Sonja says

    Feb 14, 2016 at 2:04 pm

    Islam is a religion of love? Really? Pakistan, Iran and some more countries in the Middle East have just decided to call St. Valentine’s Day illegal. Anyone buying gifts or flowers for their loved ones, is commiting a crime. Valentine’s Day is called ‘not islamic’ by these countries.

    So first it was a religion of peace, but mostly of people ending up in pieces.
    Second it is now a religion of love, where the day people buy gifts or cards for their loved ones is forbidden.
    They already started with islam being the most feminine friendly of all religions and the burqa being the best way to give women their freedom (at least that’s what they say here in my country).
    What will be next?

  2. nacazo says

    Feb 14, 2016 at 2:08 pm

    There is a theory that the Taj Mahal was originally a Hindu temple.

    http://haribhakt.com/taj-mahal-is-hindu-temple/

    • gravenimage says

      Feb 14, 2016 at 8:13 pm

      Very true, Nacazo. Here’s another link:

      “Taj Mahal: Was it a Vedic Temple?”

      http://www.stephen-knapp.com/was_the_taj_mahal_a_vedic_temple.htm

      This article also has links to ten other articles on the subject. Evidence, though perhaps not entirely conclusive at the point, certainly casts doubt on the Taj Mahal having being built by Shah Jahan. Given the Muslim propensity for seizing the churches and temples of conquered peoples, this should hardly surprise.

      • somehistory says

        Feb 15, 2016 at 8:56 am

        I do recall from sometime ago, before the history of the world began to be re-written to satisfy the hunger for supremacy on the part of moslims, the building was said to be a Hindu Temple.

        Back in the early 80’s, my kids and I were reading a history book and it noted that most…if not all…churches and cathedrals that were overrun by moslims were left at least partially intact because the moslim invaders liked the large domed ceilings and other fine architecture.
        I don’t recall the name of the history book or who wrote or published it, but we got it on loan from a library.
        Probably one reason moslims like to burn libraries.
        Now a lot of people rely on wikipedia for their information and it can be written by anyone…and there is a lot of stuff written that is just plain false.

    • sooz22 says

      Feb 15, 2016 at 6:56 pm

      I too thought that the Taj Mahal was a Hindu temple. The predominant faith in India is Hinduism, although the muzzies are persecuting them too, along with the rest of the world. Is this another of the many things that islam has hijacked from other faiths? Wouldn’t be surprised. Just sayin’.

  3. mccode says

    Feb 14, 2016 at 2:15 pm

    Ah, the love. Was the author of this delightful piece forgetting that Shah Jahan was, in addition to being a devoted husband, a dedicated adherent of Islamic intolerance?

    From the annals of history:

    Shah Jahan was a more radical-thinking extremist than his father and grandfather. Upon his accession, he adopted new policies which steadfastly reversed Akbar’s generally liberal treatment of non-Muslims. In 1633, his sixth regnal year, Shah Jahan began to impose his interpretation of Sharia provisions against construction or repair of churches and temples and subsequently ordered the demolitions of newly built Hindu temples. He celebrated Islamic festivals with great pomp and grandeur and with an enthusiasm unfamiliar to his predecessors.

    • Sonja says

      Feb 14, 2016 at 2:19 pm

      Unfortunally this sort of information is never broadly shared. And the public is buying all this untrue inforamtion about islam, without ever investigating it. Their propoganda machine is making a lot of hours at the moment. And I am afraid it is working well.

    • gravenimage says

      Feb 14, 2016 at 8:15 pm

      Also true, mccode. But all too many Infidels prefer the whitewashed version…

  4. Angemon says

    Feb 14, 2016 at 2:19 pm

    This is as ridiculous as saying that Christianity is a religion of heavy makeup and huge false eyelashes because of Tammi Faye Bakker

    For whippersnappers who don’t know who Tammi Faye Bakker was, replace “makeup” with “auto-tanner” and “Tammi Faye Bakker” with “Trisha Paytas”.

    • Kepha says

      Feb 14, 2016 at 8:23 pm

      Angemon, at the risk of sounding as if I’m ignorant about whom a hostile media has anointed as my pope, who the dickens is Trisha Paytas? Never mind. I’ll look her up.

  5. Richard says

    Feb 14, 2016 at 2:42 pm

    “Washington Post: Islam was a religion of love, because — Taj Mahal!”

    The Taj Mahal is not Islam.

    Islam Quran (4:34) – …and (as to) those [women] on whose part you fear desertion, admonish them, and leave them alone in the sleeping-places and beat them; then if they obey you, do not seek a way against them; surely Allah is High, Great.”

    Islam Sahih Hadith Abu Dawud (2142) – “The Prophet (peace be upon him) said: A man will not be asked as to why he beat his wife.”

    Feel the love.

  6. dragaozao says

    Feb 14, 2016 at 2:46 pm

    If Islam is what certain people say it is, I don’t understand how it can raise the tragedy that unfolds before our eyes in so many places in the world. And, so far, no major meeting of islamic scholars and clerics stated that hate and murder of people are an “insult to islam” at the least. Simple…

  7. BoomJosh says

    Feb 14, 2016 at 2:47 pm

    It is long regarded that Taj Mahal was a Hindu temple named Tejo Mahal which was converted to Taj Mahal. Shahjhan forcibly married to Mumatwz’s sister after her death so where was love. This is all BS. Islamist or Islamisim is a new phenomenon for Americans. I am a Indian and we have been seeing Islamisim kill our people since last 1000 years. Many of my ancestors were killed in name of allah by these assholes. America country and continent is the last standing lands where Islam was never able to root itself and if you guys want to keep it that way you need to get rid of likes of obamas and Justin troudeaus. God bless.

    • Pere LaChaise says

      Feb 14, 2016 at 5:11 pm

      It’s particularly sad when a Sikh gets attacked because some dumbass thinks he’s a Moslem. If those hicks knew who the Sikhs were they’d be asking them for advice on community defense against moslems, as Sikhism came into being as such when jihad was being wreaked against Punjabi Hindus.
      As for Shah Jahan, if he had a soft spot for Mahal, it was despite his Islam, not on account of it.

      • Carolyne says

        Feb 15, 2016 at 12:36 pm

        Pere Lachaise, I know of no attack on a Sikh because someone thought he was a Muslim or actually, for any other reason. Could you perhaps enlighten me? Sikhs are quite distinguishable from Muslims by their white turbans and extremely long beards. I believe they are all named “Singh” too. Let us not mix apples and oranges.

        • Jack says

          Feb 16, 2016 at 5:52 am

          Unfortunately, Pere LaChaise is correct.

          http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/savage-machete-attack-sikh-tesco-was-revenge-lee-rigby-1507422

          To the uneducated and simple mind, all south east asians are Muslims. The fact is a lot of Muslims are from South East Asia and the Indian sub continent, and any people who look like this can be mistaken for muslims by idiots.

    • Ciccio says

      Feb 14, 2016 at 8:22 pm

      There are a lot of indications in the building and the style of decorationsthat the Taj Mahal could have been an Indian temple. During the British rule they conducted a very thorough examination particularly of the non public areas in the basement whereupon they were sealed off and closed to all.

  8. Jaladhi says

    Feb 14, 2016 at 2:47 pm

    Islam and love don’t mix! Islam is pure and hate murder and loot and rape and oppression and terror!1 The builder of Taj Mahal was very cruel to the Hindu population of India and was responsible for beheading of hundreds/thousands of Hindu, Sikhs, Buddhists on a daily basis. And this lying moron comes out and says Islam was a religion of love! What a delusional, ridiculous statement and worse yet how stupid are WaPo editors to publish this crap!

  9. Guy Jones says

    Feb 14, 2016 at 2:48 pm

    The Nazis also built some grand structures and buildings; does that make their ideology any less vile and repugnant? The abject stupidity of the author’s thesis speaks for itself. The only observation that is notable is that it appears that apologists for the supremacist ideology of “Submission” are becoming more unabashed and bold about making transparently false claims about Submission. Only a couple of weeks ago, expert theologian Obozo lectured us from a Baltimore mosque to instruct us that the very name of the ideology of Submission means “peace!” An obvious lie certain to be exposed and remarkable only for its’ author’s brazenness and utter indifference to truth in acting as a perpetual public relations spokesperson for Submission who attempts engages in naked historical and theological revisionism and deceit to cast the ideology in the most flattering light possible.

    Infantile, intellectually dishonest foolishness is scarcely worth a rebuttal.

  10. Marty says

    Feb 14, 2016 at 2:50 pm

    Meanwhile, in England —

    “A teenager who kicked a Good Samaritan repeatedly in the face after she gave him directions before bottling and stabbing a stranger in an off-licence has been jailed for 18 years.

    Abdul Rahim Sowe, 19, attacked his first victim in Haverstock Hill, north-west London, after asking her for directions to the local mosque, a court heard.”
    From today’s Daily Express.

  11. satch1 says

    Feb 14, 2016 at 2:50 pm

    Psst’ If you want the real honto’ listen up! Satan, who was very perturbed with God for kicking him out of heaven, and then punishing him again for talking Eve and Adam into eating the forbidden fruit- being punished to crawl on the ground eating dust, Satan was really put out! Thinking real hard how he could get back at God he searched the whole world over for someone stupid enough to do his dirty work. Ishmael was almost the one but then Satan thought- I don’t want to rush this so he waited. Not at his best, Satan allowed God to bring a Son perfect and sinless to give his blood an atonement for all mankind’s sins. Jesus came and was born into the Jewish blood line allowing man to be reinstated back into the grace of God again if they accepted Jesus as Lord after he died a sinless death on the cross.! Satan now said, I gotta really get busy and find this no life unscrupulous no account stupid enough to do my bidding! Whoa! here came a robber of merchants, a woman hater, a child molester, and a murder of men women and children, and a Liar as well ! Satan fell in love with him and fibbed a bit telling him that he was Gabriel, an angel of god and this fellow named Muhammad believed it all! Satan told him to kill nearly 600 Jews and bury them in this city of Medina, that started the Crusades Wars that lasted for Centuries! After beheading innocent Jews by beheading them, Muhammad had to hide in caves for his life was in danger, so Satan told him to begin writing a book. He loved this guy that would do anything Satan asked. This book was words filled of hate, murder and persecution to any who were not Muslim. As people read these verses they found irregularities and contradiction, so Satan told Mo’ to say that Allah, the big god is who stands beside you and you can change any words you like. Muhammad even admitted this later in life before he was killed by being poisoned by a Jewess whose husband and family were killed by—yup, Muhammad! Poor Muhammad about went outta his head and if it weren’t for ladies grabbing onto him, he would have jumped to his death! This happened on two occasions. Insanity found a home in this retarded fellas head. The book was finally put together 50 years after Muhammad’s death by bits and pieces that friends and acquaintances brought together to form the Koran, [Quran] that follow Satan’s guiding even today, and how beheading was first started by killing Jews in that means at the beginning! Even the Crusades are being re-established as ISIS is following the same pattern. Islam has no accountability for sin–but the One True God of the Holy Bible DOES, and sent Jesus to free man from the burden leading to death in judgement of Hell. Promise of virgins and food is all that Allah offers and countless of innocent lives will be accounted for when every knee bows at the throne of Gods Son who Has All ~power and Authority given Him by the Father in heaven.
    All this is found in history books that Muslim’s haven’t destroyed to keep the truth from you, or you can read the Holy Bible which never changes and reveals how to live forever with the creator God! Check it out! Time is running out and Satan is trying to beat the clock, but Hell and the Lake of Fire await Him in judgement forever and ever. Don’t join him for company!

    • somehistory says

      Feb 14, 2016 at 3:09 pm

      Great comment.

  12. mortimer says

    Feb 14, 2016 at 2:55 pm

    Years back, I heard a wise Indian give a speech. He noted that when Westerners come into wealth, they most often endow a hospital, a university or create a program to help the unfortunate. Contrariwise, when Muslims came into money in the East, they built an ostentatious tomb that would help, heal or feed no one.

    The Taj is a monument to grandiosity, crushing power, narcissism and supremacism…as Guy Jones points out, the grandiosity of the Nazis did not prove their moral superiority.

  13. somehistory says

    Feb 14, 2016 at 3:00 pm

    If he loved her so much, why didn’t he build her something when she could appreciate it?

    First, the writings of a murdering raper of children are supposed to be all about *peace*…while adherents are killing and raping and subjugating any and all other people they can.

    Now this guy wants us to believe that islam is all about *love* because some moslim built a tomb after his wife died…having had something like 14 children…in childbirth, while modern adherents, just like their so-called *prophet* killed and raped and stole his way across the landscape in search of victims he could enslave and kill…are killing, raping, stealing across the landscape of earth.

    Of course, all of the words in the dictionary of the moslim mean different things entirely from the dictionary of those who appreciate Truth. Much like *Bizarro World* language, islam takes everything good…love, peace, justice, etc. and turns it all around to mean the opposite.

    And it is quite tiresome.

    • Golem2 says

      Feb 15, 2016 at 4:18 pm

      great comment

  14. Neil Jennison says

    Feb 14, 2016 at 3:02 pm

    Shah Jahan loved his wife so much that he had to have another wife at the same time……that’s devotion.

  15. Hope says

    Feb 14, 2016 at 3:53 pm

    I’m sure Hitler and the Nazis laid claim to their own perverted, twisted version of “love,” as well. When societies cave in to moral relativism, pretending that all cultures and points of view are equally valid, love and evil become indistinguishable.

  16. BlueRaven says

    Feb 14, 2016 at 4:57 pm

    OK – Islam is a religion of love, where is any other monument built by Muslims for love? There aint any. I didn’t think Org Mo ever loved and built anything for love.

  17. Emnauel says

    Feb 14, 2016 at 5:29 pm

    It would have been more honest if the writer actually told the story of how the wealth of this empire came about. Which was not by peace or love. Also as stated above; Shah Jahan was a horrible man and a very bad example if you want to claim that Islam is a religion of peace and tolerance. If only once muslims could give an actual relevant example of Islam being benign instead of living of the oldest merits anybody could ever claim. Its like me saying i´m a good guy because my great, great, great grandfather was progressive onehundred and fifty years ago. Which really would not have been that hard back then.

  18. DRHazard says

    Feb 14, 2016 at 5:35 pm

    In Sunni Islam it is forbidden to raise a tomb or even a high marker over a grave. The Taj Mahal is definitely something ISIS would blow up.

    The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, prohibited plastering the graves, sitting upon them, and building structures over them.
    Source: Sahih Muslim 970, Grade: Sahih

    Shall I not send you on a mission as the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, sent me? Do not leave an image without effacing it and do not leave an elevated grave without leveling it.
    Source: Sahih Muslim 969, Grade: Sahih

    Topping off his ignorance of Islamic teachings the writer uses the same false logic used by the “Golden Age of Islam” people; if something good happened that in some way involved Muslims then Islam is the reason it happened. Of course it only works when that thing is considered good or beneficial. Just ignore the hundreds of years of violence and intolerance that followed the spread of Islam. Basically the writer’s logic is:

    1. Taj Mahal good
    2. Taj Mahal built by Muslim
    3. Islam good

    In this case the writer goes further and turns it into a romance novel story line involving Allah. The strange and unsupported claim is that the Muslim devotion to one God was somehow transferred to the love between a man and a woman. Is there any evidence for this other than the Taj Mahal? Of course not since we all know what Islam teaches about the role and status of women.

  19. rob avery says

    Feb 14, 2016 at 5:36 pm

    And not a crock of soup, either. Thicker,browner, smell a like an outhouse in mid summer.

  20. Mark Breza says

    Feb 14, 2016 at 6:03 pm

    You act like you have not read ‘The Courtship of Miles Standish’
    where the christian Puritan leader kills a native pagan
    to impress his girlfriend, then leaves the head on a post for over a year.

    Get off your high hating horse Robert Spencer.

    • celticwarriorcanada says

      Feb 14, 2016 at 8:05 pm

      Hay Mark Breza : You act like you have never read THE WORKS OF Jonathan Edwards. Thomas Brooks , John Owen , The Existence And Attributes Of God By Stephen Charnock , The Works Of Thomas Manten, The Christian In Full Armor by William Gurnal. John Bunyan’s Pilgrims Progress , Lex Rex by Samuel Rutherford ,The Works of Thomas Goodwin , The Reformed Pastor by Richard Baxter ,The Letters Of Samuel Rutherford Etc ! Get off your high hating horse Mark Breza ! And ACTUALLY take some time to read what Early Reformation Protestants SLANDEROUSLY labelled Puritans by The Anglo Catholics and Romanist, actually believed and taught. You will discover that they were really not like Leftist Writers like Perry Miller portrays them ! ( I really Challenge You To Check These Authors out Mark! )

      • Kepha says

        Feb 14, 2016 at 8:34 pm

        @celticwarriorcanada–

        I see you have read a lot of my long dead friends, too.

        Now, don’t be too hard on Perry Miller. He did try to understand the Puritans with a bit of sympathy, although he was admittedly still struggling with the aftereffects of the 19th century Unitarian, Episcopalian, Arminian, Roman Catholic, and secularist demonologies that masqueraded as history. He did, however, punch through some of the false picture and urge a more balanced view.

        Since you have Samuel Rutherford in your list, I’ve sometimes had the chance to explain partsof Puritan political theory to classes when we look at the Mayflower Compact in Government or at the English Revolution in World history.

        Mark Breza’ appeal to Longfellow is an appeal to one of the shapers of the Unitarian demonology. _The Crucible_ by Arthur Miller, a fictitious play about the Salem Witch Trials, which was actually a Communist crie de coeur over the McCarthy era, is also a shaper of our American tradition of spitting on the shapers of our country, informing what the average American thinks he “knows” about Puritanism and Puritans. Our High Schoolers, however, are not taught that one of those judges, Samuel Sewall (who later publicly repented of his role) also was one of our early opponents of the slave trade and the enslavement of Africans.

    • gravenimage says

      Feb 14, 2016 at 9:01 pm

      Get off your high hating horse Robert Spencer.
      ………………………

      Yes–decrying Islam’s murdering Infidels and those who dare marry for love is nothing but “hate”…who could possibly object to this but a bunch of greasy Islamophobes?

      By the way, when was the last time Americans murdered anyone in the name of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow poetry? How about never?

      Would that we could say the same thing about the Qur’an, Sira, and Hadiths of Islam…

    • Carolyne says

      Feb 15, 2016 at 11:07 am

      Hmmmmmm………”Get off your high horse.” Where have I recently heard that? Oh Yeah. Obama disparaging Christians by using the crusades, which occurred.hundreds of years ago as an example.
      Anything recent? Christians cause mayhem in Paris lately? Have they flown airplanes into buildings in the last couple of decades or so? Oh.

      • sooz22 says

        Feb 15, 2016 at 9:18 pm

        You’re good! Thanks for your spot-on comment.

    • Angemon says

      Feb 15, 2016 at 3:35 pm

      Mark Breza posted:

      “You act like you have not read ‘The Courtship of Miles Standish’
      where the christian Puritan leader kills a native pagan
      to impress his girlfriend, then leaves the head on a post for over a year.

      Get off your high hating horse Robert Spencer.”

      Huh, Mark? You’re actually arguing FOR Mr. Spencer’s point: just because someone professing to follow a given ideology does something, it doesn’t mean he’s acting in accordance with the ideology he professes to follow.

  21. john spielman says

    Feb 14, 2016 at 6:06 pm

    just more CRAP from the WAPO(O)

  22. gravenimage says

    Feb 14, 2016 at 6:18 pm

    Washington Post: Islam was a religion of love, because — Taj Mahal!

    It might strike you as surprising that one of the most famous buildings in the Muslim tradition is a monument to love.
    …………………….

    Actually, there is some evidence that the Taj Mahal was actually a Hindu temple before being seized by Muslims.

    But even if it was built as a tomb, the idea that this somehow makes Islam a creed that embraces romantic love could not be more absurd.

    Here’s an article from the BBC:

    “Valentine’s Day: Countries that don’t love February romance”

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/article/31382332/valentines-day-countries-that-dont-love-february-romance

    Countries where Valentine’s Day is either frowned upon or banned outright include Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan, Iran, and Saudi Arabia–the BBC gratuitously tosses in some mild scolding about unmarried love from a conservative Hindu leader–lest readers get the perfectly rational idea that everywhere that bans Valentine’s Day *is Muslim*.

    But it should surprise no one that Islam hates romantic love–this is a creed that allows child marriage, forced marriage, polygamy, the Triple Talaq summary divorce for men, wife beating, and “Honor Killing”. One of the most common causes of “Honor Killing”, in fact, is women who dare to marry for love.

    Here is one such horrifying case:

    “Pakistan: Woman stoned to death by her family for marrying man she loved”

    http://www.jihadwatch.org/2014/05/pakistan-woman-stoned-to-death-by-her-family-for-marrying-man-she-loved

    The fact is there is no love in Islam.

    Any romantic love that *does* exist between Muslims–rare though it is–is not on the tenets of Islam, but *in defiance* of them.

    • Kepha says

      Feb 14, 2016 at 8:40 pm

      The visible Hindu element in the Taj Mahal is seen in the three domes, which some say testified to Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva. However, the general character of the building reflects traditions of Islamic architecture.

      I’ll admit that I’m somewhat moved by the story of Shah Jahan and Mumtaz-e-Mahal–just as I am by Bai Juyi’s paean to the love between Tang Ming Huang and Yang Gui Fei; or Tristan and Isolde; or Romeo and Juliet. I will gladly admit that the building was commissioned by a Muslim ruler in a style developed by Muslim architects. For all I know, it has Koranic inscriptions inside. But I still question whether it is a monument to the love inspired by the spirit of Islam or the general love of a man for woman.

      • gravenimage says

        Feb 14, 2016 at 9:18 pm

        Kepha, there is photographic evidence suggesting that the Taj Mahal contains Hindu inscriptions–it is not merely that the Taj Mahal is done in Hindu style.

        Certainly, I can’t count the number of times I have seen Hagia Sophia touted as classic Islamic architecture–even though the structure was built as a Christian cathedral and actually well predates Islam.

        Personally, I would find the story of Shah Jahan and Mumtaz Majal more compelling if it didn’t exist in complete isolation–it smacks rather more of Taqiyya than anything else.

        But if this love story is true, it is good to think that Shah Jahan could be a loving husband–to one of his wives, in any case–when he wasn’t out razing Sikh temples and enforcing Shari’ah law against Hindus and Christians.

  23. Typoist says

    Feb 14, 2016 at 6:25 pm

    An example one would think more likely from someone anti-Islam, as Mahal was dead because she’d been forced to bear so much children so frequently. Yet Horoun Moghul calls that an Islamic example of love.

  24. celticwarriorcanada says

    Feb 14, 2016 at 7:06 pm

    I really hope that all the PrePubescent Yazidi and Christian Girls, Sexually Tortured by men, who Thanked Allah and Quoted the koran while they ABUSED AN BULLIED THEM : Get a chance to read this Valentines Day Article in the Washington Post ! That way they will get to Read About, WHAT TRULY Romantic MEN ( Sorry ! I almost typed MONSTERS) DEVOUT muslim men:really Are ! And if THAT doesn’t Persuade Anyone , I’d suggest an old blacken white ARCHIVED PHOTO FROM The Latter part of the Ottoman ERA . It shows ROWS of Crosses With Beautiful Young Brown Haired Armenian Christian Girls Hanging from them , hung there after they were brutally Gang Raped And TORTURED . OH YES ! Devote islam is such a Romantic Religion ! And devote muslim men make Such LOVING HUSBANDS and FATHERS.( If you like being married to a Rapist )

    • gravenimage says

      Feb 14, 2016 at 9:19 pm

      I share your righteous anger, celticwarriorcanada.

    • Keys says

      Feb 15, 2016 at 2:10 pm

      @Celticwarriorcanada
      That’s what I call dousing this WaPo romantic fantasy wih a dose of reality!

    • sooz22 says

      Feb 15, 2016 at 9:24 pm

      Turns my stomach, and I thought I’d seen it all. Everything they do is calculated satanism.

  25. sidney penny says

    Feb 14, 2016 at 11:40 pm

    “The Taj Mahal is not actually a monument to Islam as a religion of love. It is a monument to how much Shah Jahan loved Mumtaz Mahal. That’s all.”

    “It is a monument to how much Shah Jahan loved Mumtaz Mahal”

    Well Robert it may not even be that!

    http://www.moviemint.com/the-truth-behind-taj-mahal-tejo-mahalaya-lord-shiva-temple/

    The Truth Behind Taj Mahal

    “Taj Mahal is not an Islamic mausoleum but an ancient Shiva temple known as Tejo Mahalaya which the 5th generation Mogul emperor Shahjahan commandeered from the then Maharaja of Jaipur. Therefore the Taj Mahal must be viewed as a temple-palace complex and not as a tomb. That makes a vast difference. You miss the details of its size, grandeur, majesty and beauty when you take it to be a mere tomb. When told that you are visiting a temple-palace complex you won’t fail to notice its annexes, ruined defensive walls, hillocks, moats, cascades, fountains, majestic garden, hundreds of rooms, arcaded verandahs, terraces, multi-storied towers, secret sealed chambers, guest rooms, stables, the trident (trishul) pinnacle on the dome and the sacred, esoteric Hindu letter OM carved on the exterior of the wall of the sanctum sanctorum now occupied by the cenotaphs”

    see more:

    103 facts of The Truth Behind Taj Mahal

  26. sidney penny says

    Feb 14, 2016 at 11:48 pm

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_JNKBORv5E&feature=related

    Taj Mahal The real Story Part 4

    “Check the links to understand the real story of Taj Mahal. A temple of Lord Shiva converted to a grave by a Muslim emperor .The same thing you see on the The Temple Mount in Jerusalem.A typical Muslim habit. “The Islam” shows its greatness by converting other cultures monuments and staking a claim on it.”

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCyyxKBWssk
    Taj Mahal The real Story Part 3

  27. dajjal says

    Feb 15, 2016 at 12:22 am

    Life Of Moe 651

    Lay injuctions on women kindly, for they are prisoners with you having no control of their persons. You have them only as a trust from God, and you have the enjoyment of their persons by the words of God, so understand my words, O men, for I have told you.

    That summarizes Isdamnic love. Who will tell WAPO?

  28. sidney penny says

    Feb 15, 2016 at 12:23 am

    Too busy fighting to build anything.Better and easy to take over.Apart from swear words and threats no one has been able to refute the not love story version.

    Have you notice how many monuments to love there is in the Islamic State.

    http://www.stephen-knapp.com/an_architect_looks_at_the_taj_mahal_legend.htm

    AN ARCHITECT LOOKS AT THE TAJ MAHAL LEGEND by Professor Marvin H. Mills Pratt Institute,
    New York

    The reviewer Marvin Mills is a leading New York architect and professor of architecture at the Pratt Institute.

  29. sidney penny says

    Feb 15, 2016 at 12:55 am

    http://www.stephen-knapp.com/distorted_history_of_taj_mahal.htm
    The Distorted History of Taj Mahal By Dr Radhasyam Brahmachari

    The True History of Taj Mahal:

    “But according to Stephen Knapp, a well known researcher on Taj Mahal, it was not built by Shah Jahan and he writes, “There is ample evidence that the Taj Mahal was never built by Shah Jahan. Some say the Taj Mahal pre-dates Shah Jahan by several centuries and was originally built as a Hindu or Vedic temple/palace complex and Shah Jahan merely acquired it (by brute force) from its previous owner, the Hindu King Jai Singh.” [5] Not only Stephen Knapp but many other researchers like Yogesh Saxena, V S Godbole and Prushottam Nagesh Oak (or P N Oak) hold a similar view and P N Oak is the most prominent and pioneer among scholars who worked to discover the real author of Taj Mahal.”

  30. sidney penny says

    Feb 15, 2016 at 1:01 am

    Robert Spencer does not love Haroon Moghul..

    http://www.stephen-knapp.com/an_architect_looks_at_the_taj_mahal_legend.htm

    There are fundamental problems with the current theory of Islamic Architecture in India of which the following may be noted.

    (1) Unlike in the case of Hindu architecture, where there are literally hundreds of works on Vastu in several Indian languages, there seem to be almost no texts or manuals on Islamic architecture. It is difficult to see how a great school of architecture lasting 600 years could flourish without any technical literature.

    (2) Hindu architectural practices and traditions are maintained by thousands of mason families, especially in South India. These are known as Vishwakarmas or Vishwa Brahmanas. They are greatly in demand all over the world. No such Muslim families are known.

    (3) There are no standards of units and measurements for Islamic architecture in India. It is inconceivable that great works of architecture could come up without them. This is an objective requirement.

    SO:

    “If Shajahan did not build the Taj for the love of Mumtaz, then why did he want it? His love for Mumtaz was evidently a convenient subterfuge. He actually wanted the existing palace for himself. He appropriated it from Raja Jai Singh by making him an offer he could not refuse, the gift of other properties in exchange. He also acquired whatever was precious within the building including the immensely valuable gold railing.

    By converting the complex into a sacred Moslem mausoleum he insured that the Hindus would never want it back. Shahjahan converted the residential quarters to the west of the main building to a mosque simply by modifying the interior of the west wall to create a mihrab niche. He added Islamic inscriptions around many doorways and entries to give the impression that the Taj had always been Islamic.

    Sure enough, the scholars have been silent or deceived ever since.”

  31. sidney penny says

    Feb 15, 2016 at 1:07 am

    “The Taj Mahal is not actually a monument to Islam as a religion of love. It is a monument to how much Shah Jahan loved Mumtaz Mahal. That’s all”

    Sorry to disappoint you Robert.

    Shahjahan was married to several other women before and after Mumtaz. She, therefore deserved no special consideration in having a wonder mausoleum built for her.

    Mumtaz died giving birth to her 14th child!

    ah what love!

  32. Pumbar says

    Feb 15, 2016 at 2:11 am

    As Tina Turner said, “what’s love and taqqiyah got to do with it”?

    • Keys says

      Feb 15, 2016 at 2:13 pm

      LOL

  33. siesmann says

    Feb 15, 2016 at 4:31 am

    Famous urdu poet Sahir Ludhianvi says this about Taj Mahal——-

    ik shahanshaah ne daulat ka sahaaraa le kar
    ham ghariibon kii muhabbat kaa uRaayaa hai mazaaq

    that’s just how an emperor,
    using his wealth and power,
    mocks the love between us poor people,
    Could we meet somewhere else, darling ?

  34. ICH says

    Feb 15, 2016 at 8:04 am

    50 bucks says ISIS would destroy it regardless of the dribble
    from Washington Post which I could barely read because
    it was too boring and painful

  35. sinantara says

    Feb 15, 2016 at 8:47 am

    Sah Jahan was a ruler of the Mogul Dynasty, founded by Humayun, descendant of Mongol-Turkish conquerors who brought Islam to India in the wake of the earlier Umayyad conquest of Sind. Sultan Akbar was a sufi who tried to make peace with his Hindu subjects by among others marrying a Rajput wife leaving her free to practice her faith. He succeeded to bring Muslims and Hindus together. Sah Jahan was a mystic following in the footsteps of his father, he was greater than life but his son was not. So he was overthrown by Sultan Akbars grandson from another line,, Aurungzeb, who overthrew Sah Jahan as a heretic, and revert4d to the discrimination, oppression and terrorizing of his Hindu subjects. To jihad with other words. The result was widespread rebellion.And this in turn weakened the Sultanate sufficiently to allow the British in. So in the history of the Sultanate, only Sultan AKbar was an effective multculturalist, his son was a loving mystic who was undone by Aurungzeb who brought normalcy to the Sultanate, jihad. So in fact, western imperialism saved the Hindu’s from total Islamization by force.This doesn’t meand that Muslims are no homo sapiens with a potential for artistic creation like Han Chinese or Inca’s or (pre Islamic) Egyptians.

    • Carolyne says

      Feb 15, 2016 at 12:53 pm

      Sorry, I don’t believe Muslims to be Homo Sapiens, but a branch of early man which failed to evolve as Homo Sapiens did. When early man left Africa, some going to the Middle East and some going north, the Middle Eastern ones stayed as they were, while the Europeans evolved into present man. They invent nothing, they are not creative in any way and they are barbarians, There is no potential for artistic creation. And while there was no improvement in the Middle Eastern species, all potential for advancement was stopped dead in its tracks by their “Perfect man” Mohammed.

      • gravenimage says

        Feb 15, 2016 at 11:35 pm

        Carolyn, Muslim apostates are frequently quite civilized, I doubt you would consider someone like Ayaan Hirsi Ali to be sub human.

        And then, converts *to* Islam are just as savage as are those who have been Muslim for generations–just look at Western “reverts”.

        The intense inbreeding in so much of Dar-al-Islam certainly does not help matters, but it is *ideology*, not genetics, that makes Islam as backward and barbaric as it is.

  36. Dacritic says

    Feb 15, 2016 at 9:08 am

    Muslims are writing more and more stupid articles to defend their religion.

  37. Richard P, Sweden says

    Feb 15, 2016 at 1:34 pm

    Must say that I find the mosques with their scrolls, circles, triangels,parallellograms, rectangels boring.

  38. Raj says

    Feb 15, 2016 at 4:42 pm

    Mahal is not an Arabic/Muslim word, it is a Sanskrit word. Taj Mahal was actually a Hindu temple called Tejo Mahalya according to Professor P N Oak. He wrote a book on it in 1970’s proving its originality. Indian Govt at that banned it to please muslims. There are still locked rooms there which contain the true information but govt sleeps on it.

    • nacazo says

      Feb 15, 2016 at 6:12 pm

      Indian government acts like the stereotypical abused wife. They have been abused for so long by Islam that they blame themselves for any beating they get.

    • sidney penny says

      Feb 15, 2016 at 8:24 pm

      The Indian Government cannot get itself a common civil code, that is ,one law that applies to everyone of its citizens.

      • Raj says

        Feb 15, 2016 at 9:56 pm

        That is only possible when everybody believes in Democracy, secularism and humanity which in India it is not as majority of muslims are not influenced by common sense, they are influenced by Sharia sense.

  39. HANSEL says

    Feb 15, 2016 at 10:45 pm

    Actually would be really interesting if u guys read up on shah jahan ñ how many wives he had.. Love.. Yea right

  40. gravenimage says

    Feb 15, 2016 at 11:41 pm

    Here’s more on the meretricious Haroon Moghul:

    “Don’t be fooled by Haroon Moghul”

    http://www.jihadwatch.org/2015/05/dont-be-fooled-by-haroon-moghul

    He excoriates Pamela Geller for daring to stand up for freedom of speech in the face of Muslim savagery.

  41. Vijay says

    Feb 16, 2016 at 3:34 am

    Here’s a link that should throw some light on Taj Mahal. It is actually said that the Taj was built to hide the fact that a temple was destroyed. There is still an underground cellar that is said to still contain the Idol which no visitor is allowed to see.

    http://www.hoaxorfact.com/Inspirational/taj-mahal-not-a-symbol-of-love.html

  42. Pkm says

    Feb 16, 2016 at 9:01 am

    It seems the wapo is intending to fool westerners abt taj mahal, they r conveniently hiding its bloody past. After the taj mahal was built 22000 Hindu artisians who worked there had their arms chopped off by shahjahan to prevent any copycat monument frm popping up. It seems Muslims suffer from selective amnesia. Plus don’t try to refute me ,I am a Hindu Indian and I have studied my history thoroughly

  43. Pisslam says

    Feb 16, 2016 at 9:47 am

    And in India Muslims demand to convert Taj Mahal into a mosque where they will pray for the destruction of non Muslims. Yeah so much love towards non Muslims.

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