• Why Jihad Watch?
  • About Robert Spencer and Staff Writers
  • FAQ
  • Books
  • Muhammad
  • Islam 101
  • Privacy

Jihad Watch

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

Huffington Post: “Islam Isn’t Just Compatible With Western Values, It Fully Endorses Them”

Oct 11, 2016 12:13 pm By Robert Spencer

This article appeared in the Huffington Post yesterday with the note that it was originally published in The Independent. Click on that link and you will see that it appeared in The Independent back on July 17, a week shy of three months ago. Why is it only being reprinted now? Is the Islamic propaganda machine running short of new material?

Anyway, this is a particularly risible farrago of assorted nonsense. You’d think even the Huffington Post would be embarrassed to publish something like this, but such is the state of the public discourse these days. We’re now supposed to believe that Islam is the mother lode of good ideas, the wellspring of freedom and democratic values.

I’ve often mocked government spokesmen and the mainstream media for insisting the jihad terror has nothing to do with Islam while jihad terrorists routinely invoke the Qur’an and Sunnah to justify their actions and make recruits among peaceful Muslims. Now Atif Rashid has taken this idea that massive numbers of Muslims misunderstand their own religion a step farther: apparently we are now to buy the notion that every Islamic state that has ever existed and that exists now has misunderstood Islam. If “Islam from its very outset advocated for complete freedom, justice and democratic values,” it is extraordinary that there has never been a single state that has governed according to Islamic law that has ever allowed for “complete freedom, justice and democratic values.” Every Islamic state, from the Umayyad, Abbasid and Ottoman caliphates to contemporary Saudi Arabia, Iran, Pakistan and the rest, has misunderstood Islam, and missed the principles that Atif Rashid is here presenting as self-evident.

It’s beyond absurd. It’s cynical and deceptive propaganda offered by someone who almost certainly knows that what he is saying is false, in order to deceive unbelievers into remaining complacent about the jihad threat.

More below.

atif-rashid

“Islam Isn’t Just Compatible With Western Values, It Fully Endorses Them,” by Atif Rashid, Huffington Post, October 10, 2016 (thanks to Michael):

Originally published in The Independent

…The core Western values of democracy, freedom and justice can be seen as the bedrock of its civilisation. For practising, informed Muslims, freedom and democratic values are anything but new to them. Islam from its very outset advocated for complete freedom, justice and democratic values.

In reality, the only arguably democratic state in the history of Islam has been Kemalist Turkey, now in its last days. Secular Turkey was founded upon an explicit rejection of political Islam, not upon a development within Islam that allowed for democratic government. There never has been an Islamic humanist democracy in the 1,400-year history of the religion.

It was Islamic injunctions which first spurred the great advancements made during the Islamic Golden Age from the 8th to the 13th century. Many are quick to point out though, how today, Islamic nations seem to have fallen into Dark Age depths. What one would find however, is this being a direct consequence of failing to follow Islamic injunctions faithfully, due to hardline clerical mindsets – as opposed to actually being a result of Islamic teachings.

All right. It’s farfetched enough to claim that every last Islamic state in the world today fails to follow Islamic injunctions faithfully, but every last one throughout history would also have had to have done so if what Rashid says is true. Even if there were “great advancements made during the Islamic Gold Age from the 8th to the 13th century,” and that claim in itself is wildly exaggerated, they never resulted in democratic rule.

From the outset, Islam has always advocated for a democratic form of governance, leaving it to the people to decide how and by whom they should be led.

When? Where? Notice that Rashid offers no examples, because every last Islamic state throughout history has been an authoritarian state.

So any Muslim demanding Shariah Law forcibly be imposed in the West is not only entirely ignorant of Islam but insolent towards the freedom and opportunities Western countries offer – by which they spout their false ideology.

Rashid goes on to offer an exposition of the Qur’an that purports to establish “Islam’s support for a democratic government.” The obvious response to his exegesis is this: why is he apparently the first to have discovered it? Why has no Islamic state ever applied it?

And why does the Huffington Post so assiduously engage in Islamic apologetics? Why is it so intent on making sure that Westerners think Islam is benign in every aspect? What is the endgame here?

Share this:

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window)
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • More
  • Click to share on Skype (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Telegram (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)

Follow me on Facebook

Filed Under: Featured, journalistic bias, Leftist/Islamic Alliance, Taqiyya, willful ignorance Tagged With: Atif Rashid, Huffington Post


Learn more about RevenueStripe...

Comments

  1. mortimer says

    Oct 11, 2016 at 12:14 pm

    Gaslighting.

    • Allan says

      Oct 11, 2016 at 1:08 pm

      Gaslighting costs money, and someone has to provide it. So to find out who that might be, I visited Huff Po. The following advertisers were being touted by the gaslighters:

      Goldman Sachs
      Estēe Lauder
      State Farm
      BMW
      Subway
      American Family Insurance
      Netflix
      GEICO
      GEMS World Academy

      All were marked with the AdChoices logo and placed by AOL Advertising

      • Terry Gain says

        Oct 11, 2016 at 6:00 pm

        Boycott them all. And get the word out to them that you are doing so and why. Money talks.

      • Lynne says

        Oct 12, 2016 at 4:24 pm

        Thank you for the list. I will not support these establishments. I live in Canada.

  2. Michael Copeland says

    Oct 11, 2016 at 12:17 pm

    “Using deception to mask intended goals”
    Muslim Brotherhood Explanatory Memorandum.

    • jihad3tracker says

      Oct 11, 2016 at 1:15 pm

      In case this queue fills up fast, please permit me to give readers here, early in the comment stack, ANOTHER MORONIC ITEM: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/long-story-short-islam_us_57f53c36e4b09d1ff73e216a?section=&section=us_video

      It runs 4:13, made by another one of those abundant young male cheerleaders-for-Muhammad. He covers the major elements — Qur’an, jihad, Sharia — so briefly that it is hilarious, and even has a professor of Islamic studies toss in a bit of taqiyya.

      THERE IS A COMMENT SECTION ! ! ! So far, with just one response by a guy who actually knows some FACTS. Why don’t you all jump into the pool as well and hose everyone of the seditionist lefties at HuffPo with inconvenient TRUTH?

  3. mortimer says

    Oct 11, 2016 at 12:19 pm

    Robert Spencer: “Why is it so intent on making sure that Westerners think Islam is benign in every aspect? What is the endgame here?”

    Answer: it’s about the presidential election. They want Americans to go to sleep about the jihad threat.

    • Steve says

      Oct 12, 2016 at 4:32 pm

      Reference the 1571 battle of Lopanto

  4. john spielman says

    Oct 11, 2016 at 12:25 pm

    oh, Great! if is islam is ” compatible with western values” then I can criticize and “blaspheme” allah and muhammed all I want, and have no threats to my life!
    allah of islam is Satan of the Bible and muhammed was his demon possessed mass murdering raping thieving lying pedophile false prophet according to the Bible’s principles

    • Terry Gain says

      Oct 11, 2016 at 6:02 pm

      Keep saying it brother.

  5. Michael Laudahn says

    Oct 11, 2016 at 12:31 pm

    I may have said something like that before, but then we’re being confronted with the same situation over and over again: HC Andersen, danish poet and author of ‘The Emperor’s new clothes’, would spin in his grave if he knew how his fairy tale didn’t end there where he thought it would, but in fact just goes on and on and on – and no end in sight. Sigh…

  6. Peter says

    Oct 11, 2016 at 12:42 pm

    Islam is incompatible with freedom (speech, press, association, thought, etc.), liberty, individualism, reason, man-made laws and institutions, democracy, political and legal equality, the rule of (man-made) law, and human progress (etc.).

    Not only that, Islam seeks the destruction of all “other systems of belief” and the imposition of its totalitarian doctrines on mankind. It is a declaration of permanent war on humanity.

    Puffington Poop is so far removed from reality, and tries yet again to get people to believe in its delusions, fantasies, ideological stupidity, and fanciful thinking.

  7. Jay Boo says

    Oct 11, 2016 at 12:52 pm

    Battle of the Rashids.

    Atif Rashid should debate ‘Brother’ Rashid.

    • Mockingjay says

      Oct 11, 2016 at 12:55 pm

      Oh yeah!

  8. Mockingjay says

    Oct 11, 2016 at 12:54 pm

    This “newspaper” – and so many others of its kind – are just an INSULT to our intelligence.

    – Really – how DUMB to the islamists behind all of this, and their leftist servants, think we are?

    These people GROSSLY underestimate us.

    It will be THEIR demise.

    • Mockingjay says

      Oct 11, 2016 at 12:56 pm

      – how DUMB DO the islamists –

  9. pnr says

    Oct 11, 2016 at 12:58 pm

    semitic slavery sucks

    Earth must become Ahimisically and Dharmically correct to combat latest form of slavery: I-slam, I-slum,I-zlam

    Thanks Prabhupad sahib ji. Jagrati patrols to combat sharia patrols plus worldly police too. Respect law but remember Plato’s words: it is a just person who disobeys unjust laws. Natural law is always in operation (The highest power/God knows all.) 24/7 surveillance society makes Dharmically correct procreation and meditation and study impossible. Bad marriages create slavery. Combat slavery in whatever form it appears. “Eternal vigilance is price of liberty”. Jefferson

    Every girl a Sita, every man an Aryavartan Aryaputra. Bharat Mata ki jai!

    Earth belongs to Mahapurakhs, not rakshasic humanoids.

    I will always hate islam and islamists. Not be egotistical, but I am Islamophobic and Homophobic and I always will be. If hate helps me survive and thrive I will hate. I hate slavery.

    Sivananda di Jai!

    It’s a bit early but Happy Diwali to the Dharmic (ethical) population of Earth.

  10. August West says

    Oct 11, 2016 at 1:07 pm

    East Germany was officially called The German Democratic Republic.

    They vote in Iran. Perhaps Iran will rename itself the Islamic Democratic Republic of Iran.

    The mere fact that this author has gone through this much effort to show that Islam is “democratic” in and of itself is proof that Islam is not.

    Yes the author claims that other muslims are not true muslims – they all do that.

    One the last day of the last islamic caliphate the last two muslims will fight to the death over which one is practicing islam correctly.

    Democracy – Res Ispa Loquitor

  11. somehistory says

    Oct 11, 2016 at 1:08 pm

    His eyes are evil, he has the grin of a snake about to eat the poor rabbit that warmed him during the long winter.

    islam is a wild beast. It is not compatible with anything to do with humanity, morals, ethics, virtue, truth, justice, etc. islam is wholly evil and straight from satan’s pr department, designed to manipulate.

    • Carolyne says

      Oct 12, 2016 at 12:08 pm

      Islam is incompatible with human life,

  12. Angemon says

    Oct 11, 2016 at 1:19 pm

    This article appeared in the Huffington Post yesterday with the note that it was originally published in The Independent. Click on that link and you will see that it appeared in The Independent back on July 17, a week shy of three months ago. Why is it only being reprinted now? Is the Islamic propaganda machine running short of new material?

    Why create new material when you can simply get something already done on the other side of the pond?

  13. Richard Paulsen says

    Oct 11, 2016 at 1:19 pm

    First White House Eid Celebration. Muslims not allowed wishing Merry Christmas to non-Muslims.

  14. Zha says

    Oct 11, 2016 at 1:27 pm

    Refugees or an Occupation Army?[Changes in laws will occur gradually]

    by Maria Polizoidou • October 11, 2016 at 5:00 am

    “Allah requires from the believers to be masters of the land where they live, and only they can have property, and only we will be able to own the land.” — Muslim migrants in Crete, Greece.

    The migrants were ready to wage jihad because they believed a rumor about an event for which, even had it been true, the Greek State and its inhabitants had no responsibility.

    The establishment in Greece is a miniature of the American establishment: politicians and institutions of government corrupted to the bones.

    We Greeks have already been crushed by Islam, by the twentieth century genocide in Turkey and the more recent Turkish occupation of Cyprus, again with the world’s complicity.

    What is happening in Greece, as in much of Europe, is actually a massive replacement of its population, its values and its way of life.

    The mainstream political parties obey the self-destructive EU policies on immigration that could eventually cause the end of the Hellenic-Judeo-Christian values of Europe, such as individual freedom, critical thinking and dispassionate inquiry.

    [picture removed) Archbishop Hieronymus of Athens and All Greece is pictured distributing food to migrants at the Port of Piraeus. ****The Archbishop removed his cross from his vestments during the visit to Piraeus, in order, he said, not to “offend” the Muslim migrants. (Image source: HellasNewsTv video screenshot)

    What does an occupation army do when it is installed in a country? It occupies the land, forcing residents to follow its own way of life. It implements measures against the country’s inhabitants, it propagandizes its beliefs and uses force to have them imposed.
    This, sadly, is what has been happening in Greece from the migrants who seem to “forget” that they are hosted in Greece and force the Greeks to feel like guests in their own country.
    If someone is a war refugee or his life is in danger in his homeland, it would seem appropriate, when he arrives in the country which offers him asylum, to be grateful to this country, respect its history, its people its values and its laws. The same would hold true for an immigrant who wants to go to a country where he hopes he will find a better future.

    Just for reference …..
    Al-Makkari, Ahmed ibn Mohammed. The History of Mohammedan Dynasties in Spain. 1629; translated from originals in the British Library by Pascual de Gayangos, (W.H. Allen and Co., London, 1840). Print.

    Please use the word MOHAMMEDAN for the followers of Mohammad. Like in Mohammedan LAW as it was a few decades ago before the days of Muslim Brotherhood introducing terms like Islamophobhia and hijab for ‘our’ females, to set them apart, so that nobody dare touch them.

  15. David says

    Oct 11, 2016 at 1:49 pm

    Remember, islam is “The Lie”.
    So it’s to be expected that any one speaking on their behalf would be a practiced liar.
    Islam/Sharia/Satanism will never be compatible with the sane values of Western civilization.
    After all, as they are so fond of saying :
    “They love DEATH!”

  16. Voytek Gagalka says

    Oct 11, 2016 at 1:52 pm

    “…why does the Huffington Post so assiduously engage in Islamic apologetics…?” Why? Because they are PAID to do so by such “un-Islamic” sources of “democracy” like Saudi Arabia, Qater, Iran and others: to lure unbelievers into complacency. Only uninformed unbelievers can be lured to that, though. But they majority now, unfortunately, and most politicians and media know exactly from where financial winds are blowing. Thus we have the result.

  17. Wellington says

    Oct 11, 2016 at 2:20 pm

    And let’s not forget that the 1936 USSR constitution guaranteed religious freedom (in article 124).

    Yep, Islam through the centuries promoted true democracy about as much as Stalin and his successors promoted true religious freedom in the USSR.

    Totalitarian ideologies and their supporters make all kinds of bogus claims, even guarantees, and such claims and guarantees should be treated with the utter contempt that they fully deserve.

  18. common sense says

    Oct 11, 2016 at 2:32 pm

    Oh I’m so glad he gave us his permission to decide what is compatible with Americans and our laws. Sarc/ on

    Arrogant bastard!

    Good then I can oppose Islam and and fight Jihadist’s. The only reason this tool opens his mouth about it is to cover the sins of Islam. Hindus and Buddhists don’t make proclamations like this.

  19. Joe says

    Oct 11, 2016 at 3:24 pm

    The liberal media has their bloody hands doing the work for Islamic jihad. They’re useful idiots, because in the end they’ll all lose their freedom and life.

  20. Ciudadano says

    Oct 11, 2016 at 4:10 pm

    The good news is that commenters in the HuffPost and The Indi detroyed the article. That shows people are not buying the MSM Islamic propaganda.

    • Guest says

      Oct 11, 2016 at 9:19 pm

      Yes, I’m really pleased to note that. Liberal/left pro-gay and women’s rights people noticing and intelligently arguing why islam is *not* their friend!

  21. No Fear says

    Oct 11, 2016 at 4:26 pm

    The only example of ‘western values’ that Islam is compatible with is Nazism.

  22. Veka Fitzfrancis says

    Oct 11, 2016 at 4:33 pm

    Taqqika. Need we say anything more?

  23. Terry Gain says

    Oct 11, 2016 at 5:59 pm

    Yes, Islam supports freedom of speech and conscience and the separation of church and state.

    And Donald Trump doesn’t just love women, he’s a feminist.

    There are a lot of crazy people out there.

  24. AformerMuslim says

    Oct 11, 2016 at 8:50 pm

    Democracy is contrary to Islam. This is what Muslim scholars think,

    Shaykh Muhammad Saalih al-Munajjid (Fatwa no 107166)–Democracy is a man-made system, meaning rule by the people for the people. Thus it is contrary to Islam, because rule is for Allaah, the Most High, the Almighty, and it is not permissible to give legislative rights to any human being, no matter who he is… The one who understands the true nature of the democratic system and the ruling thereon, then he nominates himself or someone else (for election) is approving of this system, and is working with it, is in grave danger, because the democratic system is contrary to Islam and approving of it and participating in it are actions that imply apostasy and being beyond the pale of Islam.

    A Former Muslim
    http://www.aformermuslim.com

  25. Guest says

    Oct 11, 2016 at 11:44 pm

    The few times I read the dribble on the Huffington post. The comments never seem to agree with the articles.

  26. Karen says

    Oct 12, 2016 at 12:54 am

    I didn’t realize that Mohammad and the early Calliphs had been voted in to office, har har.

    “So any Muslim demanding Shariah Law forcibly be imposed in the West …..”

    Woops, Rashid forgot the script for a moment; this supposedly never happens according to Islamists and their media allies.

  27. Crusades Were Right! says

    Oct 12, 2016 at 8:56 am

    “Al taqiyya for a ride, kaffirs!”

    “Oh, SJWs, let’s signal our virtue by endorsing the Brown People’s religion!”

  28. Carolyne says

    Oct 12, 2016 at 12:17 pm

    Arianna Huffington, Greek born, was once the wife of a CA Congressman which gave her access to the media and other celebrity opportunities. She was a Conservative politically and in the past appeared on many conservative talk programs. Then, her husband decided he was gay and left her for a man. She and he had several young children at the time. I think that the experience embittered her and she became a flaming liberal and started the Huffington Post (Don’t know why she used her ex-husband’s name, maybe her Greek name was composed of only vowels.)

FacebookYoutubeTwitterLog in

Subscribe to the Jihad Watch Daily Digest

You will receive a daily mailing containing links to the stories posted at Jihad Watch in the last 24 hours.
Enter your email address to subscribe.

Please wait...

Thank you for signing up!
If you are forwarding to a friend, please remove the unsubscribe buttons first, as they my accidentally click it.

Subscribe to all Jihad Watch posts

You will receive immediate notification.
Enter your email address to subscribe.
Note: This may be up to 15 emails a day.

Donate to JihadWatch
FrontPage Mag

Search Site

Translate

The Team

Robert Spencer in FrontPageMag
Robert Spencer in PJ Media

Articles at Jihad Watch by
Robert Spencer
Hugh Fitzgerald
Christine Douglass-Williams
Andrew Harrod
Jamie Glazov
Daniel Greenfield

Contact Us

Terror Attacks Since 9/11

Archives

  • 2020
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2019
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2018
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2017
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2016
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2015
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2014
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2013
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2012
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2011
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2010
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2009
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2008
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2007
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2006
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2005
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2004
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2003
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • March

All Categories

You Might Like

Learn more about RevenueStripe...

Recent Comments

  • Walter Sieruk on Iranian top dogs approve bill to end UN nuclear inspections, increase enrichment
  • Dude on Muslim cleric: ‘We welcomed the takeover of ISIS because they wanted to implement the Sharia’
  • Infidel on Uighur leader: ‘We’re actually quite worried’ about what Biden might let China get away with
  • Infidel on Uighur leader: ‘We’re actually quite worried’ about what Biden might let China get away with
  • Mojdeh on Audio: Robert Spencer on Muslim Brotherhood influence in a Biden/Harris administration

Popular Categories

dhimmitude Sharia Jihad in the U.S ISIS / Islamic State / ISIL Iran Free Speech

Robert Spencer FaceBook Page

Robert Spencer Twitter

Robert Spencer twitter

Robert Spencer YouTube Channel

Books by Robert Spencer

Jihad Watch® is a registered trademark of Robert Spencer in the United States and/or other countries - Site Developed and Managed by Free Speech Defense

Content copyright Jihad Watch, Jihad Watch claims no credit for any images posted on this site unless otherwise noted. Images on this blog are copyright to their respective owners. If there is an image appearing on this blog that belongs to you and you do not wish for it appear on this site, please E-mail with a link to said image and it will be promptly removed.

Our mailing address is: David Horowitz Freedom Center, P.O. Box 55089, Sherman Oaks, CA 91499-1964

loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.