Recently I offered 38 questions to ask those carrying signs proclaiming, “I’m A Muslim — Ask Me Anything.” Here are answers to questions sixteen through twenty-three.
16. This question again underscores the harsh treatment of critics of Muhammad raised in the previous question. When he was asked about Abu Afak, Muhammad is reported in a hadith as saying: “Who will rid me of this pestilent fellow?” — which is what one of his loyal followers promptly did, stabbing Abu Afak to death. There is no direct quote from Muhammad after the killing, unlike the report of his exclamation after the killing of Asma bint Marwan, but it is safe to assume that if the person he called a “pestilent fellow” was gotten rid of, Muhammad was well satisfied. You want to make sure your listeners learn of these political murders carried out by followers of Muhammad to please him, as they are constantly barraged with propaganda — see any Muslim website — as to Muhammad’s “kind and gentle nature,” and his teaching of “love, kindness, and compassion.” You beg to differ, and so do the ghosts of Asma bint Marwan and Abu Afak.
17. An impossible question for the M.I. to answer. If he doesn’t answer at all, he will look bad. If he claims there are “so many different views expressed in the Qur’an and Hadith,” but “on the whole the Qur’an is deeply respectful of Christians and Jews” – “Moses and Jesus, after all, are considered to be prophets in Islam” — he will look bad once you respond by quoting Qur’an 98:6, where Christians and Jews are called “the most vile of created beings.” That will make a deep impression on the onlookers who, never forget, are your real audience.
18. Not quite so impossible a question as #17, but it should provide a salutary shock for onlookers to discover that the Qur’an describes Muslims as the “best of peoples” (3:110), especially after having just learned that they themselves, the non-Muslims listening to your exchange with that“Ask-Me-Anything” Muslim, are described in no uncertain terms in the Qur’an as “the most vile of created beings.” There is no possible way for the M.I. to put an exculpatory spin on either 98:6 or 3:110.
19. While Islam makes universalist claims, it is in fact a vehicle for Arab supremacism. Muslims must turn toward Arabia – the Hejaz – five times a day in prayer, must ideally read the Qur’an in Arabic, should model their behavior on that of Muhammad, and also in some cases on that of his Companions. The way of life that is normative in Islam is thus based on the teachings and practices of a 7th century Arab.
While taking an Arabic name is not required of converts, it is a longstanding practice, a way to slough off a previous, non-Islamic identity, and to express disdain for one’s previous life as an Infidel, while signalling a complete embrace of this new Islamic identity. The mass adoption of Arab names is prompted by, and in turn further promotes, the belief among Muslims that an Arab identity is superior to a non-Arab one. The M.I. will have difficulty deflecting attention from this matter, much less deny it altogether, as there are so many well-known examples (Adam Gadahn becomes Azzam al-Amriki, Cat Stevens becomes Yusuf Islam, Cassius Clay becomes Muhammad Ali). This business of name-changing is one more example of Islam as a vehicle for Arab supremacism, a theme you want to keep hammering home, to the great and well-deserved discomfort of your Ask-Me-Anything Muslim interlocutor.
20. This question is meant to raise the matter of the many contradictions in the Qur’anic text. Muslim scholars, having to reconcile these contradictions, came up with the doctrine of “abrogation” or naskh, in which later passages are said to “abrogate” earlier ones. The main internal contradictions in the Qur’an are between the later ones, identified as coming from the period when Muhammad was in Medina (hence called “the Medinan verses”) which are much harsher than the earlier ones from his time in Mecca (“the Meccan verses”). Why does this matter? It means that those milder verses that Muslim apologists tend to quote are often those earlier verses that have been abrogated by the later more unyielding Medinan verses, but the listeners are blissfully unaware of this, and assume that the milder abrogated verses are still valid. You must clearly explain how naskh applies, and give an example of verses that have been abrogated, and by what later verses. The Verse of the Sword, Qur’an 9:5, abrogated many earlier less violent verses. You can find them listed here. Muslim apologists, of course, will quote the abrogated verses as if they are still valid, in an attempt to give non-Muslims a false view of the Qur’an and of Islam.
21. This is to raise the matter of misogyny in Islam. Assuming that the M.I. will either deny that Muslim men are allowed to beat their wives, or will claim (falsely) that they can do so, but only “lightly,” you should be ready to respond with Qur’an 4:34: “Men are the maintainers of women because Allah has made some of them to excel others and because they spend out of their property; the good women are therefore obedient, guarding the unseen as Allah has guarded; and (as to) those 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.” Contemporary translations sometimes water down the word “beat,” but it is the same one used in verse 8:12 and clearly means “to strike.”
22. The Muslim heaven, Jannah, is described in the Qur’an and hadith in great and loving detail as an material paradise, with gardens of bliss, endless and delicious food that is forever fresh and can never rot, flagons of pure water and other drinks, fruit without thorns, fountains scented with camphor or ginger, and “maidens restraining their glances.” You get the picture – the Muslims are promised a very different sort of paradise from the spiritual one of Christianity, and let’s not forget the many fabled dark-eyed virgins available to service each Muslim man (contrary to popular belief, the number of houris is specified as 72 only in one hadith collection, Sunan al-Tirmidhi). The important point to be made is the stark contrast between the spirituality of Christianity’s heaven and the thoroughly material heaven promised to Muslims.
23. This question is meant to raise the horrific business of “honor killings,” in which a Muslim father can kill his daughter without facing any punishment in an Islamic society. M.I. will deny that the father can escape punishment. But you should be ready with the following: The authority for allowing the father to kill his daughter is Umdat al-Salik or Reliance of the Traveller, a manual of Islamic law, certified in 1991 as a reliable guide to Sunni Islam by Muslim Council of Cairo’s al-Azhar University. This 14th-century law-manual states that punishment or “retaliation is obligatory against anyone, who kills a human being purely intentionally and without right,” EXCEPT when “a father or mother (or their fathers or mothers)” kills their “offspring, or offspring’s offspring” (section o1.1-2). In other words, when a parent, murders his/her child for the sake of honor, this is not a crime under Islamic law. You can also have at the ready a few examples of such “honor” killings where the father got off scot-free. You can also, if you wish, give a few recent examples of honor killings that went unpunished, to show that this is a continuing problem. For example, in 2008, a woman was killed in Saudi Arabia by her father for “chatting” with a man on Facebook. “The killing became public only when a Saudi cleric referred to the case, to criticize Facebook for the strife it caused.” Or in 2013 in Yemen, a “15-year-old girl was killed by her father, who burned her to death, because she talked to her fiancé.’ That should be enough to leave onlookers aghast.

mortimer says
QUESTIONS ABOUT ISLAM FOR THINKING MUSLIMS
1. Why does Allah want His believers to kill kufaar for Him, rob, rape and enslave them? Why did Allah not teach Muslims to observe the Golden Rule? Why are Muslims alone in rejecting: ‘Love your neighbours’?
2. Why did Allah not refrain from creating kufaar if He first deceives them so they will not believe? Did Allah create the kufaar so he might torment them as an amusement?
3. Why can’t Allah kill the kufaar Himself? If Allah is so helpless, then does he exist?
4. Why can’t Allah create females the way He wants them instead of making them half as intelligent and half as religious as men?
5. Why does Allah keep giving women clitorises, if they should be sliced off?
6. Why did Allah not reveal adult monogamy, instead of revealing child marriage, multiple marriages and sex slaves? Is pedophilia good for children?
7. Why does Allah need to tempt believers by promising them eternal sex with slaves in paradise? Is owning slaves the meaning of your life?
8. Why does Allah need slaves?
9. Why did Allah deceive everyone when He saved Jesus Christ from crucifixion?
10. Why did Allah let Christianity form and grow in spite of His divine deception of the followers of Jesus, without stopping it RIGHT AWAY before doing so much ,damage,? Why did Allah allow Christianity to have MORE ADHERENTS than Islam and DOMINATE Muslims?
gravenimage says
All excellent questions, Mortimer.
frederick King says
The whole powerful all-knowing god concept evades me for many of the questions you ask. Perhaps the magic will only work in this manner ?
Roger the cabin boy says
Why would I even want to talk to some Islamic nut case standing there wth a sign
Idiots
I must thank Robert for wading through all this Islamic writing
I have never looked at the Koran or had any desire to
So I am grateful some one has done it
Now that I know what is in there I want even less to do with these guys
gravenimage says
Roger, a small point, but this article was written by contributor Hugh Fitzgerald, not Robert Spencer.
And these questions–and answers–are not intended to convince Islamic nut cases of anything–instead, they are intended for any Infidels who might be there, to help *them* lean about Islam–and about how meretricious most Muslims are when talking to the “filthy Kuffar”.
gravenimage says
By the way, I love the cheeky double entendre in your username!
Angemon says
“Why would I even want to talk to some Islamic nut case standing there wth a sign”
To ask him some questions about issues that he’d rather his mark not know about.
Mary miller says
Again, you are not doing this for the nut case but for the audience
frederick King says
I would just ask him to go live in some islamic country.
Mary miller says
Amen to those faithful scholars who pave the way so we can be educated mouthpieces!
Stephanie says
fact, ‘… I will cast terror?into the hearts of those who disbelieved, so strike? upon the necks …’
http://quran.com/8/12-17
Walter Sieruk says
As this above article starts out with the quote “I’m a Muslim -ask me anything” Well that statement may be true for quite a number of Muslims when speaking to non-Muslims living in the West.. Nevertheless, when such a Muslims are asked a question the answer given to that person who is a non-Muslim may speak the truth or lie .As in giving a total falsehood of an answer.. This ,of course , depends of the question being asked.
This involves the Islamic doctrine that is called Taqiyya . This is the Islamic dogma that lying and deception is a good thing for a Muslim to do as long as it’s done fro the advancement of Islam.
In other words, according to Taqiyya a Muslim may,indeed, blatantly lie to a non-Muslim to further the cause of Islam
.
mortimer says
Taqiyya permeates almost every contact Muslims have with Kafirs, especially when they speak about Islam. They feel there is nothing wrong with lying about Islam to promote it! Imagine! Lying about Islam to promote it … and feeling nothing is wrong with it! That’s the brain on ‘Islam’!
Taqiyya is a direct assault on the truth, but Muslims also use KITMAN, an OBLIQUE assault on the truth by using plays on words, half-truths and multiple meanings. I have found that Muslims usually misrepresent Islam through KITMAN.
dumbledoresarmy says
And then there is tawriyya, and muruna, and mudarat – there are so many different arabic technical terms for different forms of deception, or practices like darura and taysir, that essentially function as deceit.
Islam: The Religion of the Lie.
Wellington says
Yes indeed. Islam has mendacity written all over it. By now, most all should know this.
Unfortunately, human society is nowhere close to comprehending the many forms of deception which Islam enthusiastically proffers, and has for some 1400 years now. And said society will continue to pay a very high price for this inexcusable ignorance. A very high price.
And it will be the West paying the highest price of all since fools, like the Chancellor of Germany, the Prime Minster of Canada, the current Pontifex Maximus, and the present Prime Minister of the UK, are well educated and pampered jokers who are presently in the process of tremendously harming Western Civilization by way of their woeful, tragic and immensely harmful continued willful ignorance about the longest-lived evil ideology of all time——–Islam.
The sin upon their heads forever. Forever.
Cameron says
This is great stuff, but could you not put all the questions on this page too? It’s a little annoying needing to go back and forth between the two different articles so as to know what question is being answered.
Mary miller says
Good point I would appreciate that as well.
Aardvark says
Or a link to the original list of questions.
abad says
Here’s a question:
Why can’t Muslims just do their own thing and do it in their own Muslim nations instead of coming here to complain?
frederick King says
Because the jizya is higher in the west.
DFD says
Prediction
========.
An article about Dr. David Engels writings in the civil wars in Europe. Will be reported on here in JW, soon. It’s a bit dated by now. He warned of of that in 2011 – few years before I did. His conclusions are interesting, congruent with mine (as I wrote recently: The Rise of the Fuhrers – for which I was of course condemned as if I wanted that – SHOOT THE MESSENGER!)
Though, he is simultaneously right and wrong in his predictions. By profession he is historian, looks a bit like Johnny Depp in his movie about a Satanic book). Drawing parallels with the Roman Republic and its fall are intriguing, I didn’t know that.
Anyway, I will comment. Well, OK, practically prepared my comment to the upcoming article two days ago… 🙂
STJOHNOFGRAFTON says
What this joker is really saying : “I’m a Muslim – ask me anything. I’m omniscient.”
duh swami says
Do you believe that the Quran is the very Holy words of Allah, good for all time? Is there any verse that you can ignore or disobey? If so please list them and explain how you’re going to exp0lain it to Allah when your time comes…
Florida Jim says
This is great to debunk Islam and realize Jesus Christ was perfect and Mohammad was not nor did he claim to be.
Buford says
How could anybody believe the nonsense that calls for using Deception, Slavery, Over populating non Muslims Country’s with Muslims to change the Political & Religious Structure with a Demonic objective. If Islamic beliefs are so great why not stay in Islamic Country’s.
Greg says
It must be remembered that there are two things everyone here hates about what the muslims are doing. 1/ They think they are better than us 2/ They are full of hate. Be careful not to fall into the same trap.
It is the spirit of islam that is deceiving them. Muslims are real people the same as the rest of us.The spirit of islam is real. I agree that we need to do something to stop the spread of this most vile of spiritually deceptive force, but if we engage in hatred and think of our selves as better than muslims; are we not doing the exact same thing that we detest? Jesus said that if you hate; you commit murder in your heart.
If you have hated muslims then; unless YOU repent you will ALL like wise perish.