Here is yet another mainstream media “ISIS is not Islamic” story; this one has more substance than most, and is frankly deceptive, as well as unintentionally illuminating even as it does its best to conceal Islam’s violent doctrines. Note, first off, that the Muslims are shocked by the attack in Baghdad, and Tarek asks, “How can these people kill Muslims during Ramadan?” Nothing about the killings of non-Muslims in Orlando, Tel Aviv, Bangladesh (where those who could recite the Qur’an were not killed), and elsewhere. This is because the Qur’an forbids a Muslim to kill a fellow Muslim (4:92) but exhorts Muslims to kill non-Muslims (2:191, 4:89, 9:5, 47:4). So this entire expression of shock and grief over Baghdad, and Baghdad alone, is actually a manifestation of Islamic supremacism, not compassion as it is understood by non-Muslims.
Much more below.
“Muslims shocked at attack on Baghdad during Ramadan,” by Michael Jansen, Irish Times, July 5, 2016:
Tarek’s brow wrinkled, his eyes sorrowful, mouth twisted, as he asked, “How can these people kill Muslims during Ramadan? Ramadan is supposed to be peaceful.”
Tarek, an Egyptian builder and handyman long resident in Cyprus, simply could not comprehend why people claiming to be Muslims could explode bombs in the centre of Baghdad, killing and wounding scores of innocent people….
Tarek argued Ramadan is not only a time for Muslims to fast during the day but is also a period of truce and settling of differences. The Ramadan fast, one of the five pillars of Islam, is particularly holy for Muslims because it commemorates the initial revelations of the Koran to the Prophet Muhammad. Muslims are expected to engage in spiritual reflection and to study the teachings of Islam.
According to the Koran, “Fighting in [Ramadan] is a grave sin” (Chapter II, verse 217). Consequently, mounting prohibited attacks that kill the elderly, women and children, who are meant to be protected, is considered especially odious during Ramadan.
2:217 actually says: “They ask you about the sacred month – about fighting therein. Say, ‘Fighting therein is great sin, but averting people from the way of Allah and disbelief in Him and al-Masjid al-Haram and the expulsion of its people therefrom are greater evil in the sight of Allah. And fitnah is greater than killing.”
Muhammad’s first biographer, an eighth-century Muslim named Ibn Ishaq, gives the background of this verse. After the Hijrah, Muhammad’s move from Mecca to Medina, the Muslims began raiding caravans of the pagan Quryash — Muhammad’s own tribe, which had rejected him. Muhammad himself led many of these raids.
These raids served a key economic purpose: keeping the Muslim movement solvent. At one point Muhammad sent one of his most trusted lieutenants, Abdullah bin Jahsh, along with eight other Muslims out with orders to watch for a Quraysh caravan at Nakhla, a settlement not far from Mecca, and to “find out what they are doing.”
Abdullah and his band took this as an order to raid the Quraysh caravan, which soon came along, carrying leather and raisins. But it was the last day of the sacred month of Rajab, during which — by longstanding Arab custom — fighting was forbidden. This presented them with a dilemma: if they waited until the sacred month was over, the caravan would get away, but if they attacked, they would sin by killing people during the sacred month.
They finally decided, according to Ibn Ishaq, to “kill as many as they could of them and take what they had.”
On the way home to Medina, Abdullah set aside a fifth of the booty for Muhammad (as per Qur’an 8:41). But when they returned to the Muslim camp, Muhammad refused to share in the loot or to have anything to do with them, saying only: “I did not order you to fight in the sacred month.”
But then Allah revealed v. 217, explaining that the Quraysh’s opposition to Muhammad and supposed persecution of the Muslims was more offensive in his eyes than the Muslims’ violation of the sacred month. The raid was therefore justified: “for persecution is worse than slaughter.”
Whatever sin the Nakhla raiders had committed in violating the sacred month was nothing compared to the Quraysh’s sins. Ibn Ishaq explained this verse: “They have kept you back from the way of God with their unbelief in Him, and from the sacred mosque, and have driven you from it when you were with its people. This is a more serious matter with God than the killing of those whom you have slain.”
Once he received this revelation, Muhammad took Abdullah’s booty and prisoners. And the principle was established: any moral stipulation can be set aside for the good of Islam and the Muslims. So it’s plain journalistic malpractice for the Irish Times to quote just part of this verse without explaining how “fitna is worse than killing” gives carte blanche for the murder of Infidels who are deemed to be persecuting the Muslims.
Arab rulers have for centuries fought wars during Ramadan, claiming self-defence, but Islamic State, which says it represents “true” Islam, cannot put forward this argument because Shia, Sunni and Christian civilians killed in Baghdad, Istanbul and Dhaka in recent days are recognised as believers by Islam. Islamic State, primed by Saudi Arabia’s Wahhabi puritan, fiercely anti-Shia ideology, threatens, wounds and kills them.
That is flatly false. The Qur’an says that those who believe in the divinity of Christ are unbelievers: “They have certainly disbelieved who say that Allah is Christ, the son of Mary.” (5:17, cf. 5:72)
In addition to committing violence against vulnerable civilians during Ramadan, Islamic State has conducted an offensive campaign in flagrant violation of the Koranic injunction, “Fight in the cause of God, but do not commit aggression: God loves not the aggressors” (Chapter II, verse 190).
The idea that the Qur’an teaches only defensive warfare is also false. Ibn Ishaq explained the progression of Qur’anic revelation about warfare. First, he explains, Allah allowed Muslims to wage defensive warfare. But that was not Allah’s last word on the circumstances in which Muslims should fight. Ibn Ishaq explains offensive jihad by invoking a Qur’anic verse: “Then God sent down to him: ‘Fight them so that there be no more seduction,’ i.e. until no believer is seduced from his religion. ‘And the religion is God’s’, i.e. Until God alone is worshipped.”
The Qur’an verse Ibn Ishaq quotes here (2:193) commands much more than defensive warfare: Muslims must fight until “the religion is God’s” — that is, until Allah alone is worshipped. Ibn Ishaq gives no hint that that command died with the seventh century.
The great medieval scholar Ibn Qayyim (1292-1350) also outlines the stages of the Muhammad’s prophetic career: “For thirteen years after the beginning of his Messengership, he called people to God through preaching, without fighting or Jizyah, and was commanded to restrain himself and to practice patience and forbearance. Then he was commanded to migrate, and later permission was given to fight. Then he was commanded to fight those who fought him, and to restrain himself from those who did not make war with him. Later he was commanded to fight the polytheists until God’s religion was fully established.”
In other words, he initially could fight only defensively — only “those who fought him” — but later he could fight the polytheists until Islam was “fully established.” He could fight them even if they didn’t fight him first, and solely because they were not Muslim.
Like opportunists in other faiths, Islamic State ideologues, leaders and military commanders interpret the Muslim holy book as they see fit and pick and chose Koranic verses they want to uphold. The most inconvenient verse for them is, “There is no compulsion in religion,” (Chapter II, verse 256)….
The opportunists who are picking and choosing from the Qur’an are those talking to Michael Jansen. Muslim spokesmen in the West frequently quote Qur’an 2:256 to disprove the contention that Islam spread by the sword, or even to claim that Islam is a religion of peace. However, according to an early Muslim, Mujahid ibn Jabr, this verse was abrogated by Qur’an 9:29, in which the Muslims are commanded to fight against and subjugate the People of the Book. Others, however, according to the Islamic historian Tabari, say that the “no compulsion” verse 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). No compulsion indeed.

Walter Sieruk says
Those heinous, vicious suicide /homicide ISIS jihad bombing in Baghdad was as brutal and cruel as they are murderous. Such deadly jihad attacks do lead to an important question, which is “Why are the jihadist bombers are , so very, delusional that they actually want to become human bombs ? ” Some of the reasons are that such violent and deadly people are the outcome of the extreme brainwashing that is done in Islamic mind programming centers which are more widely known as mosques and madrasas, by the Muslim clerics, such as the imams and in some countries as Afghanistan and Iran also the mullahs. In those Islamic mind programming centers youth are thoroughly indoctrinated into believing in the Islamic doctrine from the Koran. as found in 44;54. 55:56. 78:31.., of a sexual/lust filled paradise with many virgins, houris, in it for the Muslim male who dies fighting for the cause of Islam in the jihad. First and foremost, those who come out of those places of extreme brainwash are so very warped, sick and deluded that they actually view such murderous bombing attacks as “martyrdom operations” Likewise, they are so very damaged that they have literally become dangerous to self and others. In addition, the Bible does warn about false teachers who ingrain a belief in a doctrine of a story of a /lustful/lust-filled place with much sex in it. For the Bible warns about false teachers, the Muslim clerics do fit this description, in Second Peter 2:18. Which reads “For they speak great swelling words of vanity, they allure through the lusts of the flesh…” Furthermore, many a times a jihad –minded Muslim in his death recording talks about “the wedding with the virgins” that he will have after he becomes a “martyr.” Such a belief Jesus would denounce as being based on false doctrine and false teaching. For Jesus taught “Ye do err, not knowing the scripture, nor the power of God. For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angles in heaven.” Mathew 22:29, 30. In contrast to the delusional Islamic pipe-dream of the jihadist in the Koranic story/doctrine of a place with virgins, Christians have the reality of Second Peter 1:16. Which reads “For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ…” [K.J.V.]
Angemon says
I guess Tarek is not opposed to killing non-muslims – or muslims, if not during ramadan… He can go and live on the shia quarters in Baghdad for all I care…
Hindu American says
Please don’t ignore the emphasis on “these people”, third variable (muslims and ramadan being the first two). Tarek is just miffed that “these people” are his own people (i.e., Isis). It was not supposed to happen this way, at least not during the intermission.
Nigel GFF says
Yeah, kill them any time, just not now.
gravenimage says
Good catch, Angemon.
linnte says
It surprises me when something so blatant passes me by! That WAS a good catch!
Adrian says
Muslim apologists’ and fellow-travelers’ “shock” is disingenuous.
Actually, it is the so-called “moderate” muslims who have nothing to do with Islam.
“Moderates” who are peaceful (so far) are people who ignore Islam and are not good muslims. The myopic West is still thinking in Western terms. They are in for a much ruder awakening.
john spielman says
perhaps muslims should rename this month of slaughter of infidels ( including muslims killed for not being muslim enough) – RamaDAMN!
lord garth says
in the Cairo Declaration (1990) of human rights, the following illustrates the Islamic view of the no compulsion phrase in 2:256
ARTICLE 10:
Islam is the religion of true unspoiled nature. It is prohibited to exercise any form of pressure on man or to exploit his poverty or ignorance in order to force him to change his religion to another religion or to atheism
Jay Boo says
I am not sure of your point, lord garth.
But on the morality of Islam an ex-Muslim recently explained that.
Islam is rotting from within.
“Muslim leaves Islam because of moral teachings of Qur’an and Muhammad”
https://www.jihadwatch.org/2016/07/muslim-leaves-islam-because-of-moral-teachings-of-quran-and-muhammad
lord garth says
the conclusion from my quote is that the Islamic authors of the Cairo Declaration of Human Rights mean to say that the ‘no compulsion’ phrase means that kafir may not try to convert moslem out of Islam but that a moslem may (actually other verses say ‘must try’) try to convert a kafir to Islam.
gravenimage says
True.
Jay Boo says
L G
I suspected that was (their) meaning from the first sentence in the concluding paragraph. But I don’t see the point in writing from the point of view of Muslims without a bit of commentary on that last paragraph unless the intention is to appeal only to a tiny subset of those who study Islam while leaving all others hanging on an ambiguity. I wonder if that was merely an oversight on a symptom of an intellectual ejaculation as written.
a fool says
I agree! Muslim is rotten from within! God alone is merciful and He grants that grace to all those who trust in HIM and LOVE HIM! Why is it so far, we have yet to see or hear from any one of the Islamic Faithfuls who speaks up against all those who are committing those hateful murderous and lustful Crimes against themselves and others? If this Religion is truly of God and they say that His name is Allah. If Allah is God, how could they carry out all those ungodly acts? Our God will never permit any of those forms of Hatreds to be practiced. “Love thy neighbor as thyself!” Islam is not from God! It is a religion of Anti God. It is from the Evil ONE! Evil alone HATES and loves Blood, thus, they murder, robe, rape… have no sense of SHAME!
miriamrove says
so what does this mean? I don’t get your post. m
john spielman says
except muslims are encouraged to kill nonmuslims if they refuse to convert to islam, the religion of death darkness and hell
Hindu American says
Islam is a ponzi scheme. Ponzi schemes require their members to perform the deed of their god 24 by 7 by 365. No breaks.
abad says
“Islam is the religion of true unspoiled nature.”
Anyone here besides me see what is wrong with this statement??
In other words, Islam indulges the base nature of the human race. There is no concept of Original Sin in Islam, no acknowledgement of human nature at all.
That is precisely why Islam is a Lie, from Satan himself.
Mirren10 says
“Islam is the religion of true unspoiled nature.”
Anyone here besides me see what is wrong with this statement??
In other words, Islam indulges the base nature of the human race.”
Good point, abad.
Not that I believe in ‘Original Sin’, but there is certainly no universal Golden Rule, in islam, (only for other muslims), nor is there any conception or understanding of Natural Law; the Tao. I believe it was C.S. Lewis who originated this phrase – he gives examples from *every* world religion, practicing some form of the Natural Law; *islam* is the only one omitted.
Ron Mitchinson says
There is such an animal as an “Innocent” Mualim? Do tell.
Ron Mitchinson says
There is such an animal as an “Innocent” Muslim? Do tell.
WorkingClassPost says
The Irish do have a way with words, unfortunately, it’s not always the right way.
Guest says
Where was that sorrow last month?
gravenimage says
Good question. The victims then were just “filthy Infidels”…
montedoro44 says
We don’t know that prevailing Saudi opinion is represented by these innocent or ingenuous defenders of Islamispeacefulhowcouldthishappenhere. IMO more likely, these are the selection of opinions that Western news services choose to feed us. OTOH maybe the outspoken Saudi truthers are already in jail and incommunicado, and the not-yet-jailed ones are afraid to tweet.
mortimer says
Ramadan! The month of JIHAD! The month of VICTORIES!
Muslim victories usually involve attacking people when they are unarmed.
vivienne Leijonhufvu (@goldaleijonhufv) says
No wonder I have stopped reading the Irish TImes if they can’t even report the truth. Is Ireland now going to show her ignorance by adopting these exported muslims to Europe? Maybe the next President of the States can make them see sense. Already Ireland is on the whole antisemitic and the kids born in the last two decades haven’t a clue about Arafat or the history of Israel. No wonder many of us are leaving Ireland and I thought the Irish had more sense?
paddy O'CONNOR says
vivienne…..Agred vivienne Ireland is tough on Jews but is improving . This is evident in the comments section of thejournal.ie where 2 yrs ago any article re Jews/Israel/Pal.etc would have about 90%hostile to Jews. But now those figs. are 70% supportive of Israel.
Illigitimus Non Carburundum!
..
jewdog says
Even assuming that it’s true that these terrorists are misinterpreting the Koran, I find it strange that so many people find it necessary to defend Islam from their alleged heresy. Isn’t it better to be cautious and take a more pessimistic view of the situation, for safety sake? It reminds me of the Pit Bull Controversy: While it may be true that most pit bulls are peaceful, and that it’s probably true that bad training leads to bad dogs, it’s probably a good idea to keep pit bulls away from children.
RiseAKnight says
If they are so shocked then they should denounce and abandon Islam.
miriamrove says
when do the pigs fly?! M
Heather says
Shocked.. I tells ‘ya! I’m as shocked as I am about the Sun coming up every morning! BS they are shocked. It is all they do. Better them than us. RAMpage-ADAN.
Charlie in NY says
Do not forget that what in the West is sometimes still called the Yom Kippur War in October 1973 took place during Ramadan. In fact, among the Arabs it is referred to as the Ramadan War.
Memories are short, especially when it is Jews who are attacked by Muslims.
Dan says
“Muslims shocked at attack on Baghdad during Ramadan,” by Michael Jansen, Irish Times, July 5, 2016″.
Yet they weren’t “shocked” when Muslims blew up infidels during Ramadan?
Welp.
In the immortal words of John McClane: “Welcome to the party, pal.”
Sam says
Muslims have a tendency of “being shocked” when their “religion of peace” does not allow them to tell the truth.
gravenimage says
Muslims shocked! shocked! at attack on Baghdad during Ramadan
………………….
Taqiyya. There is nothing more Islamic than slaughtering Infidels, heretics, and the “insufficiently Islamic” during Ramadan.
Here’s Islam Q & A, the most popular Islamic site in English, on the permissibility of Jihadists breaking the fast during Ramadan so they can keep up their strength for slaughter:
“Praise be to Allaah.
Yes, it is permissible for the mujaahideen to break their fast in Ramadaan, so that they will have strength for jihad…”
https://islamqa.info/en/12641
billybob says
There is an article in the New York Daily News today…
KING: ISIS terrorists aren’t Muslims — they’re just evil men hell-bent on carnage and destruction
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/king-isis-terrorists-aren-muslims-evil-men-article-1.2699463
This guy King whoever he is just goes spouting off one opinion after another, these opinions being totally divorced from fact, and having no references.
“I have … come to learn that all or nearly all of the victims of Sunday’s attack were Muslims.”
“They were attacked by ISIS because the men who make up ISIS are evil and hell-bent on carnage and destruction. Another suicide bomber detonated himself on Monday in Medina, Saudi Arabia, at what many consider one of the holiest sites in all of Islam — The Prophet’s Mosque — where the Prophet Muhammad is buried.”
“These men aren’t Muslims. They have no regard for Islam.”
“Claiming a religion as cover for terrorism doesn’t make you a genuine follower of that religion. Yelling “Allahu Akbar” (which simply means God is great) before killing people makes a man a Muslim no more than yelling “Hallelujah” before a mass shooting makes a man a Christian.”
“The world has 1.6 billion Muslims. Estimates are that ISIS has less than 35,000 members. They are the KKK. They are a small, ugly group of evil, insecure, hyper-masculine men who do not represent the faith. Period.”
“it’s time that we understand the primary people being attacked by ISIS aren’t Americans, or Europeans, or Christians, or even white people — they are Muslims living in places like Syria and Iraq. Talk of banning Muslims from entering this country isn’t just xenophobic — it’s fundamentally dumb and misinformed. It’d be like banning white Christians from traveling to Canada or Europe because of neo-Nazis or the KKK.”
“Now is the time we need to stand in solidarity and strength with Muslims who are being terrorized.”
This is what passes for information in the New York Daily News?
The biggest problem with his article is that he doesn’t explain what ISIS’s motive is if it isn’t religion. “These men aren’t Muslims. They have no regard for Islam.” Then he comes up with this brilliant line… “ISIS has less than 35,000 members. They are the KKK” So stupid to compare them to the KKK. KKK has a clear motive, and that is racial supremacism. Every act of the KKK is consistent with that motive.
ISIS doesn’t discriminate on the bases of race. They will kill anyone without regard to race. Furthermore, there has to be a motive. ISIS doesn’t commit random acts of violence. There is a pattern there. The onus is upon any reporter to discern what that pattern is, and what motive would best explain them. The author of this article is clearly not a journalist.
In the article, King seems proud of his ignorance: “I knew next to nothing about [Iraq] before I prepared to write this article.” Did it not occur to him to also learn something about Islam before he wrote the article?
Until recently, I had a subscription to the NYT, but I cancelled just a few weeks ago because of trash reporting like this.
abad says
“Ramadan is supposed to be peaceful.”
What nonsense.
There has never been anything peaceful about Ramadan or Islam.
Klaas de Bakker says
Thanks for pointing all of this out, Robert.
What amazes me most, however, is that I already know all this. I just started studying Islam after the Paris attacks, using Islamic sources, and whenever some Islam apologists starts a verse I know what it says, and how the next verse and the historical context destroys it. When I read “Fighting in the holy month is a grave sin” I already know the textual and historical context. I am not saying this to diminish your knowledge, but just to point out how easy it is to get to the truth, and how scandalous it is that so many people refuse to know anything about it.
More than anything else it is the continuous stream of blatant lies that has turned me against Islam. Obviously, people that tell lies like this have a hidden agenda.
Strange as it may sound, there is no good excuse for any free human being anymore NOT to read the quran. It takes some effort, but reading it will open your eyes. Because seeing the verses in context makes everything even worse.
You rarely surprise me anymore, Robert. But thanks for opening my eyes!
billybob says
Congratulations on your rapid assimilation of knowledge on the subject Klaas. I began learning about Islam only a little over a year ago and now already am able to hold my own in internet debates with those same people you refer to with the hidden agenda. I’m finding suitable quotations and references to back up my arguments thanks to Google and the search feature on this very site.
I am seeing a rapid evolution in the social consciousness. People are taking the trouble to learn about Islam, because of how it is impacting our lives these days as the world continues to shrink. The more people like Obama go on trying to cover up for Islam, the more people distrust the hidden agenda and educate themselves.
linnte says
Billy! Me too! I know I have tons yet to learn, but the people here are so knowledgeable, and of course, Robert! I am also seeing people become interested in learning about Islam, not to convert, but for knowledge sake.
Dacritic says
Robert mentioned Quran 2:190 above that Muslims love to quote to tell us that Allah prohibits them from being “aggressors” or “transgressing limits”. Jay Smith told us to read the next verse, which says:
“And kill them wherever you overtake them and expel them from wherever they have expelled you, and fitnah is worse than killing. And do not fight them at al-Masjid al- Haram until they fight you there. But if they fight you, then kill them. Such is the recompense of the disbelievers.”
What limits then are they not to “transgress” when the Quran already gave them permission to kill?
Ahem says
Koranic verse 2:190 has been abrogated by two verses, viz:
9:5
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.
and:
9:36
Surely the number of months with Allah is twelve months in Allah’s ordinance since the day when He created the heavens and the earth, of these four being sacred; that is the right reckoning; therefore be not unjust to yourselves regarding them, and fight the polytheists all together as they fight you all together; and know that Allah is with those who guard (against evil).
How I wish that a downloadable and searchable edition of the Koran existed in which every abrogated verse – about 193 of them – is followed by the abrogating verse or verses.
It looks like we will be forever cursed by western idiots quoting peaceful verses from the Koran to “prove” that Islam is a nice, peaceful religion and not the disgusting murder cult that it actually is.
Mirren10 says
”How I wish that a downloadable and searchable edition of the Koran existed in which every abrogated verse – about 193 of them – is followed by the abrogating verse or verses.”
Yes, that would be *very* useful. The below link isn’t what you asked for, but perhaps helpful ?
http://www.answering-islam.org/Quran/abrogatedverses.html
linnte says
Book marked Mirren. Thanks!
Mirren10 says
Your welcome, linnte.
sancho panza says
According to the Koran, “Fighting in [Ramadan] is a grave sin” (Chapter II, verse 217).
As Robert has shown, the Koran is referring to the month of Rajab here. Actually, Ramadan does not feature in the list of the four forbidden months wherein fighting (and killing) is haraam – the four months being, Moharram, Rajab, Dhul Qadah and Dhul Hijjah.
It is a falsehood to say that the Koran forbids fighting in the month of Ramadan.
For some years now, thereligionofpeace.com has been keeping a tally of the people killed by Muslims during Ramadan. And every year the count keeps getting higher.