Islamic apologists routinely claim that violent Qur’an verses have no validity beyond Muhammad’s time, but this story illustrates that this is not the mainstream view in Islam. The persecution of Mouhanad Khorchide also shows the uphill battle that genuine Muslim reformers face: branded as heretics and/or apostates, they’re often shunned (or worse) by the very community that needs their ideas the most.
“Opinion: A German Islam must be liberal, self-critical,” by Susanne Schröter, DW, May 23, 2016:
When the theologian Mouhanad Khorchide, who teaches at the University of Münster, published “Islam Is Compassion” in 2012, he received a variety of diverse reactions. Many non-Muslims celebrated the work as the revelation of a humanistic Islam: an Islam that no one needs to fear. This feeling arose in part because the author created a picture of God that is not “interested in the labels of Muslim or Christian or Jewish, believer or nonbeliever.”
Korchide threw out the idea that Koran verses that appear violent or hostile toward women or non-Muslims may be valid for all eternity. He wanted them to be viewed as the words of a bygone era.
It seemed that the professor, with the swoop of his pen, managed to brush aside all those reservations that made people wonder whether Islam really “belonged to Germany,” as former President Christian Wulff said famously in a 2010. One might even have thought that Muslims would offer Khorchide a pat on the back.
On the website for DITIB, Germany’s Turkish Islamic union and the country’s largest Muslim organization, one can read that Khorchide’s statements were a “rejection of the teachings of classical Islam” and an “insult to Muslim identity.” For this reason, the professor was removed from his post at the university. As if that weren’t enough, the coordinating body of Germany’s Central Council of Muslims (ZMD), a cooperative made up of a number of large organizations, produced a nearly 100-page assessment document to discredit him further, but luckily was not able to get far with it….
“Jihad,” when used in the sense of a real war, is a term that is used in the Koran and in Islamic heritage. There are clerics who claim jihad is an appropriate instrument for avenging insults to the Prophet Muhammad – such as an act of revenge for a nation’s foreign policy. These clerics are even lent the pulpit at some mosques, though the official leaders of the houses of worship issue apologies to the community if religious youths clamor after extremists. But Salafism is a youth movement, and it draws in so many teenagers and young adults that the psychologist Ahmad Mansour speaks of a “Generation Allah.”
Mansour isn’t only referring to those youths who join radical groups and potentially fight in such places as Syria, but also those whose beliefs vacillate between extremism and orthodoxy. “Generation Allah” refers to youths who find meaning in life by subjecting themselves unquestioningly to God and his rules, who ask constantly what is halal (allowed) or haram (forbidden) because their perspective is that they can be winners in paradise. I have spoken to such young men. Living in contemporary German society is dangerous for these young men, full of sin, and as a result they reject any relationships with so-called unbelievers. They go beyond what is normally required of their faith.
Some Muslim organizations encourage such segregation. Nearly every mosque has soccer teams that play against other sides from other mosques. Islamic day care and cultural centers are being founded; Islamic NGOs are working with underprivilileged [sic] people and youth. Parallel structures are being developed that would allow Muslims to avoid contact with non-Muslims from the cradle to the grave….

somehistory says
Reform in islam is not possible. The backer, organizer, *father* of islam is satan the devil. He will not reform and neither will his beast. Evil and violent it began, evil and violent it is, evil and violent it will stay…until it is no more.
mortimer says
In spite of the statements of AUTHORITATIVE ISLAMIC BODIES such as Germany’s Central Council of Muslims (ZMD)and DITIB (Germany’s Turkish Islamic union), Western elites stubbornly refuse to believe Islam can’t be reformed or that it is inherently violent.
Our Western elites have little or now reading of the Islamic source texts and yet, preposterously, present themselves as experts on Islam and capable of making valid policy decisions.
A lack of reading and study about Islam IN NO WAY prepares Western elites to make policy about Islam. They are presumptuous Pollyannas.
Shane says
These left wing twits are dhimmis and cowards who do not want to face the fact that Islam is a religion of war and that they will have to fight Islam or submit to Islam. There are no other choices.
rabrooks says
Wrong! islam reformed is called isis!
KrazyKafir says
If he can’t de-fang the snake, it will continue to bit.
KrazyKafir says
Bite. Damn, I hate that there’s no edit function in here.
BC says
Very true I have the same complaint. I am sure it would not be hard fro Robert’s web people to do it
John spielman says
You have to kill the snake, fangs might regrow
There is NO possibility to reform Islam it must be destroyed by teaching the world how evil it is and how vile muhammed was- that demon possessed mass murderer thief liar misogynist and pedophile pervert
common sense says
When prisoners riot, corrections officers no longer engage immediately, they lock everything down and cut the power and water. We can chop off the head of the snake and beat back some of the easy to find radical populous of Islam (if we try) but Islam does re propagate. Just keep a tight net net around those nations that continue their Jihad as best we can. It would take the effort of the world. Pain in the ass but still better than letting them do whatever they want.
It sounds cruel but we could take their women away and they’d die off. Cruel and unusual is what a Jihadist live by though so how could anyone blame us for a sound plan to prevent their violence.
Champ says
‘can’t make a silk purse from a sow’s ear’ …so islam cannot be reformed, and islam is *wholly* evil! Always has been …always will be.
gravenimage says
So true, Champ.
Jaladhi says
Well said! It is so easy to understand – Islam is evil, evil. evil and nothing else. People don’t apply Occam’s razor and see the truth about Islam.
mortimer says
EITHER ‘violent for all time’ /OR ‘violent for the time of Mohammed’… so which is it?
So if Islam is EQUALLY VIOLENT TODAY as in the time of Mohammed…ALL COUNTERJIHADISTS ARE CORRECT…ROBERT SPENCER IS CORRECT.
Therefore, Robert Spencer is vindicated by the University of Munster when he claims that ‘Islam teaches jihad warfare against the disbelievers.’
Not only that, but the University of Munster, Germany’s Central Council of Muslims (ZMD)and DITIB, and Germany’s Turkish Islamic union ALL endorse the thesis of Robert Spencer that normative Islam is a jihadist ideology of war against disbelievers.
Angemon says
There you have it – just because someone is a muslim it doesn’t mean he’s not a bigoted, racist islamophobe. And just because your moral superiors and islamic experts in politics and MSM tell us, over and over, that, despite what our lying eyes and ears insist on showing us, islam has nothing to do with violence and the verses in the quran are meant for a specific time window, you won’t get away saying that the islamic verses should be interpreted as being meant only for a specific time window because that goes against islamic orthodoxy.
Anyway, nothing wrong in bringing in more “syrian” “refugees”, right? RIGHT???
But remember: saying that “no-go zones” exist in European metropolises is bigoted, racist and islamophobic, and absolutely false…
Angemon says
Typo: where it reads
it should read
mortimer says
Theologian Mouhanad Khorchide claims Islam is peaceful, BUT he continues to wear the de rigueur JIHAD CLIPPED MUSTACHE AND BEARD…just as a real jihadist.
Khorchide is playing his own duplicitous game. Most pious Muslim Turks…even jihadists… do not wear facial hair.
BC says
Erdogan has ‘advised’ all Turks living in Germany not to integrate
WorkingClassPost says
The idiocy of islam is only surpassed by the stupidity of those who believe in it.
Timothy Furnish says
There are non-literalist sects of Islam, as I point out in my latest book “Sects, Lies, and the Caliphate:” http://www.amazon.com/Sects-Lies-Caliphate-Years-Observations/dp/0692623213/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1464037867&sr=8-1&keywords=sects+lies
Somerton1951 says
Shireen Qudosi is another Muslim who is rattling the cage of Islam. Writing about Obama’s historic visit to a US mosque she wrote:
“Meanwhile, the narrative we hear echoed again and again is that of a vulnerable demographic—frail, afraid and unsure of its place in American society. Yet a faith that promotes jihad doesn’t produce large populations of helpless followers. Rather than coddling Muslim Americans through soft language, we would have been much better served if Obama’s historic first visit to an American mosque was used as an opportunity to confront extremism within our communities.
As Muslim-Americans, we don’t need our ego stroked; we need our egos challenged. Obama spoke of Muslim excellence and heroism in everyday life, but the greatest act of Muslim heroism today is to tackle a decrepit faith.
For Muslims to be able to move forward to tackle our community’s greatest problems—Islamism and ‘radical Islam’—we need to be brutally truthful about the challenges.”
Shireen Qudosi, a Sufi Muslim of Afghan and South Asian ancestry, is a writer on Islam. http://thefederalist.com/2016/02/04/no-obama-muslim-heroism-means-reforming-a-decrepit-faith/#disqus_thread
gravenimage says
Uh huh. Shireen Qudosi writes heartrending articles against drone strikes. In other words, we should do *nothing* to resist violent Jihad.
http://muslimreformers.com/2013/11/05/malala-and-nabila-worlds-apart/
She also writes glowingly about Muslim incursions into the West:
http://muslimreformers.com/2013/06/14/little-arabia-thrives-in-anaheim-garden-grove/
She also writes articles like, “Does Islam Offer the Key to Happiness” and “Please Stop Telling Us to Abandon Islam”.
Perhaps most egregious is her meretricious response to this excellent article: “Response to National Review’s Feature Article “Uncharitable: Zakat is Not About Charity, but Jihad”, where she pretends that Zakat is just “charity”.
She also claims that Anti-Jihad demonstrations are “Anti-Muslim hate”.
Just more Taqiyya enabling of Islam in the end–just more subtle than most.
Mockingjay says
Despite the many – justified – critical comments that the chances of a reformation of islam are very slim to non-existing, I still think that Susanne Schröter delivered an excellent piece that exposes the essence of the problem of having islam in Western nations, and her last sentence (in the original piece) sums it up quite nicely:
“An Islam that belongs to Germany can only be one that embraces reflection – but not one that represents totalitarian thought in the guise of religion”.
Which of course means that islam as it IS certainly has NO place in the West.
Or – what Robert has been saying for all these years…
Sam Hawkins says
Strange, while Schroeter’s article in DW says that he was removed from his post, the university still lists him as faculty: http://www.uni-muenster.de/ZIT/Personen/Professoren/personen_khorchide_mouhanad.html
I’ve seen Khorchide on German TV, and I am sure that he is not the kind who tell lies about peaceful Islam to the public and then laugh together with his Muslim brothers about how he pulled the wool over the infidels’ eyes.
He is sincere.
Unfortunately, the kind of intellectually grounded, compatible with human rights Islam appeals to maybe 0.1 percent of Muslims. They are very few in number. Most Muslims who get as far as Khorchide has instead will drop out of Islam altogether and either become atheists or convert to Christianity.
To me, Khorchide comes across as very conflicted and someone who suffers a great deal from having voluntarily taken on this impossible task of trying to reconcile the irreconcileable.
The cognitive dissonance he has to live with every day makes him appear almost mentally ill. He looks like he is on antidepressants all the time. Frankly I fear that he will take his own life more than he will be assassinated by some jihadi. I hope it does not come to that.
rara says
It IS an error in the English translation.
German version:
http://www.dw.com/de/welcher-islam-geh%C3%B6rt-zu-deutschland/a-19276678
The part which starts “For this reason” is in the original German:
“Aus diesem Grund sei der Gelehrte als Hochschullehrer nicht tragbar und solle aus seinem Amt entfernt werden.”
Google translate:
“For this reason, the scholar is not viable as a university teacher and should be removed from his office.”
Sam Hawkins says
Thank you. Well, Google Translate is likewise wrong. The verbs “sei” and “solle” denote indirect speech. Thus, the correct translation of the quoted German sentence:
“For this reason, they said, the scholar was not fit to be a university teacher and should be removed from office.”
rara says
Many thanks for the correction and a German language lesson Sam!
Matthieu Baudin says
That’s the recurring pattern – Jihad Watch readers, and other open eyed types, encourage reformers whereas traditional Islam condemns them. Furthermore, our political elites and the mass media typically try to build bridges with traditional Islam and seek the support of its conservative leadership while shunning the views of Moslem born, serious minded, strident advocates of reform. Consequently, our social policies and political strategies leave us as hapless as ants wriggling in a honey pot.
sidney penny says
Yes, what is a religion?
“Hopefully these young people could gain access to the knowledge that liberal, enlightened and humanist Muslims have developed. An Islam that belongs to Germany can only be one that embraces reflection – but not one that represents totalitarian thought in the guise of religion.”
Susanne Schröter is the head of the Research Center on Global Islam at the University of Frankfurt am Main.”
gravenimage says
Germany’s largest Muslim organization gets Muslim prof fired for saying violent Qur’an verses not valid for all time
……………………
What’s a poor Taqiyya artist to do? He should have put “wink wink” after his assertion…
Sam Hawkins says
Khorchide is NOT a “taqiyya artist”.
gravenimage says
Sam, you don’t consider “Islam Is Compassion” to be Taqiyya?
RichardL says
Dear Robert, Khorchide is NOT fired. The reporter made a mistake and you need to change your comment. Maybe she mistook Khorchide for his predecessor, who was indeed moved to another professorship because DITIB & Co wanted it. He said, he was not sure Muhmmad ever existed. His name is Sven Kalisch.
Just to make sure: professors at German public universities are civil servants: they cannot be fired, unless they commit a crime and get sentenced to more than two years in prison.
rara says
The article in German also doesn’t claim that he’s removed, it seem to be a translation error in the English version:
http://www.dw.com/de/welcher-islam-geh%C3%B6rt-zu-deutschland/a-19276678
The part which starts “For this reason” is in the original German:
“Aus diesem Grund sei der Gelehrte als Hochschullehrer nicht tragbar und solle aus seinem Amt entfernt werden.”
Google translate:
“For this reason, the scholar is not viable as a university teacher and should be removed from his office.”
Nic says
Just to add to the above: there is no internet story about the removal of Khorchide, and the Munster University website still lists him as being the Head of the Centre for Islamic Theology, as well as a faculty professor.
The article APPEARS to be a re-hash of an earlier 2014 article in which the various Islamic organisations did INDEED try and get him removed, but the attempt was firmly smacked down by the University authorities.
rara says
Yes, the German version of the article also doesn’t clam that removal happened, I’ve post the details in my other comments here.
duh swami says
If the Quran is bot a ;Holy’ book good for all time, then it is a poorly written history book in drastic need of an editor…If it’s ‘good for all time’, all the ‘calls to action’ are current…
awake says
I have yet to see a single Muslim who truly believes that any reformation of Islam is needed or warranted. Those who pay lip service to the concept always fail to acknowledge the inherent intolerance in the doctrine of Islam itself, which lends to the speculative question as to why it needs to be reformed at all.
Mark A says
So turn the argument around on German leaders.
If this person has been fired at the behest of Muslims for saying these verses of the Koran are outdated and no liner applicable, then it is clear Muslims still consider these verses to be in effect.
If that is the case, then Muslims are at war with non-Muslims, just as these Koran verses say they are.
If they are at war with non-Muslims, then certain conclusions must be drawn……………
Sam Hawkins says
Khorchide has NOT been fired, the English translation of the DW article is wrong. (See above.)
SD says
And then the very same people would most likely have the audacity to criticize Donald Trump’s Muslim ban policy. Well the real reason why they are so much against him it’s because he is a Westerner who has awoken to reality, and the reality about Islam is that means home to everyone who is not Muslim and/or who does not a spouse to live according to Islamic laws and principles. The signs are everywhere even in Western countries it is very difficult to assimilate Muslims because Muslims do not wish to assimilate and they do not wish to assume it is because the ideology tell them not to do so. If we are seeing problems in Sweden, Germany, France, Italy, Switzerland, Netherlands, United Kingdom, Spain Etc how can we then say that it would be different when they migrate to the United States in large numbers, are we living in la-la land. Trump is right with his Muslim ban policy and the European nations would be well-advised to copy this policy.
rabrooks says
Either way, we Christians have the Bible. The “Old Testament” does have violent/savage portions. This was from a time when that was the way the world was. The OT is HISTORY! Not how we live today.
The “New Testament” is how we live today! Same rules, different way of carrying them out! JC came and made it possible for us to be acceptable in the eyes of God.
Jesus never stole, killed, kidnapped, raped, lied or made war on anyone. Now that’s someone to emulate!
Cesar Canales says
The thing about “reformed” Islam is that reform in Islam is prohibited. It seems that the concept of innovation (Bidah) makes anything that contradicts the Quran or the Sunnah equal to apostasy from traditional Islam. Anyone can have his own version of Islam, but in the end the basis for Islamic doctrine is the Quran as it has been interpreted and practiced by the first Muslims, starting with Mahommed and his descendants.
Sjun Demartelaere says
Mouhanad Khorchide must not think that he knows better than Muhammad and his Allah. Is is said that his eternal word for all times is in the Qu’ran. For now Mouhanad Khorchide only got fired but on shirk the deathcult of islam has another punishment. One hothead with the instant need for paradise will be enough according to Muhammad.
Amir says
“Bismill’ah hir Rah’man nir Ra’heem”.
http://www.johnthebaptistfatherofjesuschrist.com
(click on link)
It is our goal to establish the truth about the Messiah, Jesus, and to show that he was really the son of a man. That God The Almighty is One, the only One worthy of being worshipped. He has no associates, He has no Begotten son and nothing is like the likeness of The Creator and Lord of the Universe.
Through the years, man has held the concept that there is a superior being and has sought knowledge of that being and even ascribed partners and associates to Him. Mostly it was to establish dominance over their surroundings and the people around. We have accepted what is called Revelations and compiled them into books which we read. It is from some of these books that we intend to produce evidence of the fact that:
•There Is Only One God, The Almighty
•His methods of dealing with his creation is Consistent
•Man Begets Man and The Almighty God has no Begotten Son
•The Messiah Jesus (Isa, Yeshuah) was the descendant of David
•The Messiah Jesus (Isa, Yeshuah) was Begotten of a Woman and a Man
•The Bible and The Qur’an points out that the fact that Jesus (Isa) had a father who is known as John (Yahya, Yochanan, Hanna, Yuhannaa).
•Before you let your belief and emotions cloud your reasoning and judgment, I would urge you to look at the evidence presented and judge for yourself with your intellect which your Lord has given to you. You are responsible for your belief. God, The Almighty has said that You shall not ascribe to him any partners or craven image and that might as well the heavens and the earth crumble than He should have a son. (Qur’an 19:88-92).
Mary’s birth.
Her Name———Mar-i-am Imran(Imran her maiden surname)
Father’s Name—Joachim Fakudh:Imran in Arabic.A Levite by tribe
Mother’s Name—Hannah Anne in English. A Levite by tribe
Date of Birth——Year 39 B.C.E.
Birthplace——— City of Nazareth in Galilee Province
Race—————–Semitic people–offspring of Abraham,Isaac,Jacob
Country————-Palestine.The Holy Land.Formerly,Land of Canaan
Nationality———Israelite (a Levite not a Jew)
Citizenship———Palestinian by birth.
Kinsfolk————A woman of Imran by birth
Ancestry————Aaron and Moses— Levite sons of Amran & Joshebed.
Mary’s birth place is marked by
three significant events.
1.Rome’s 2nd invasion,capture of Jerusalem,execution of Antigonus 11 ending the reign
of Jewish Kings and High Priests over Palestine.
2.The crowning of Herod the Great as Rome’s client King over the Holy Land-Palestine.
King Herod’s reign was from 40 B.C. to 4 B.C. the time-span marking the births of
Mariam,Yahya and Isa.
3.Induction of the Jewish nation under the yoke of Roman Foreign Rule and Rome’s
imposition on Jews having to pay tribute to Emperor Caesar’s as ‘Augustus’ meaning God.
John’s Birth.
Name——————John,Yahya in Arabic,Yuhannah in Hebrew.
Father’s Name——Zachariah.Offspring of A-bi-ah of King David’s descent
Mother’s Name—–Elizabeth.She & Mariam were grand-daughters of Mat-than.
Date of birth——–Year 22 B.C.E.
Place of Birth——-Ain Karem,Jerusalem’s municipality,Judea Province
Race——————Semitic people–descendant of Abraham,Isaac,Jacob
Nationality———-Israelite–of the Holy Land,Palestine
Tribe—————–Jew of the tribe of Judah
Descent————–offspring of David of the course of A-bi-ah (Luke 1:5)
Genealogy———–from Abraham to King David (14 generations)
from King David to Babylon (14 generations)
from Babylon unto Christ (14 generations)
(Matthew 1:17.)
Ancestry—————And King David beget Solomon,Solomon beget Ro-bo-am.
He beget A-bi-ah,the forefather of Zachar-i-ah(Matthew 1:67)
John’s Birth is marked by two significant events.
1.Rebuilding of Jerusalem’s Holy Temple by king Herod,in year 20 B.C.
King Salomon’s Temple was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar in 587 B.C.
2.Rome’s Senate crowned Octavian ‘Augustus’ (God–the Exalted),the Supreme Ruler
of the Roman Empire.
He reigned from 44 B.C. to 14 A.D. within which time-span Mariam,Yahya and
Isa were born.
Jesus’s Birth .
Name—————— Christ Jesus (Hebrew) Al-Masih Isa (Arabic)
Father’s Name—— John (English); Yuhannah (Hebrew); Yahya (Arabic)
Mother’s Name—— Mary (English); Mar-i-am (Hebrew); Mariam(Arabic)
Date of Birth——— Year 6 B.C.E.
Place of Birth——- -Manger Square Bethlehem,Province of Judea.
Residence————-Nazareth, Galilee Province from one year after birth.
Race——————- Semitic people–offspring of Abraham,Isaac,Jacob.
Nationality———– -Israelite of the Holy Land,Palestine
Tribe——————– Jew of the tribe of Judah,a Jude an.
Descent—————–Davidic.By seed,root,DNA David’s offspring
God’s Oath————God sworn on Oath He will rise up Christ from the
seed of David,according to the flesh,to sit on his
throne (Act 2:30)
Fulfillment————-‘I Jesus,have sent mine angel to testify these things
in the churches,I am the root and offspring
of David.’ (Rev 22:16)
Jesus’s Birth is marked by two significant events.
1.The death of Herod the Great in year 4 B.C.He ruled King over Palestine from 40 B.C.
1 Mary 39 B.C;
2.Yahya 22B.C;
3.Christ 6 B.C.
2.Palestine,Herod’s Kingdom was divided in four territories,one each to his three sons
and the fourth to his sister Salome.
Herod Archelaus ruled Samaria,Judea & Idumea;Herod Antipas ruled Galilee
and Peria.
With this truth “ISLAM” will triumph and falsehood shall perished.
May God guide us in the right path as He guided those before us.