I was simply repeating what the major schools of Sunni jurisprudence teach. My latest in PJ Media:
A few weeks ago I noticed that the hashtag #ConfessYourUnpopularOpinion was trending on Twitter. So I thought I would have a little fun, posted the tweet below, and forgot about it — until this weekend, when I received this email warning me that the tweet was being evaluated for possible violation of Twitter’s “hateful conduct policy”:
Dear Twitter user,
We are writing to inform you that certain content on your Twitter account @jihadwatchRS has been flagged, for possible violation of Twitter’s hateful conduct policy (https://support.twitter.com/articles/20175054), specifically:
We are sending you this notification to allow you to evaluate it.
If it is determined that the flagged content does not violate our hateful conduct policy, Twitter may still withhold content in France if the content appears to violate the laws of France.
For more information on our Country Withheld Content policy please see this page: https://support.twitter.com/articles/20169222
If you believe we have contacted you in error, please reply to this email and let us know.
Sincerely,
“We are sending you this notification to allow you to evaluate it,” said Twitter.
All right. Let’s do that.
I could quote violent passages from the Qur’an, but those might be waved away with the dismissive and erroneous claim that the Bible contains similar exhortations to violence. Let’s focus instead on what Islamic authorities say — because one should get the impression that Islam is not a religion of peace from the authoritative sources in Sunni Islam, the schools of Sunni jurisprudence (madhahib).
Shafi’i school
A Shafi’i manual of Islamic law that was certified in 1991 by the clerics at Al-Azhar University — one of the leading authorities in the Islamic world — as a reliable guide to Sunni orthodoxy stipulates about jihad that:
[T]he caliph makes war upon Jews, Christians, and Zoroastrians … until they become Muslim or pay the non-Muslim poll tax.
It adds a comment by Sheikh Nuh Ali Salman, a Jordanian expert on Islamic jurisprudence: the caliph wages this war only:
… provided that he has first invited [Jews, Christians, and Zoroastrians] to enter Islam in faith and practice, and if they will not, then invited them to enter the social order of Islam by paying the non-Muslim poll tax (jizya) … while remaining in their ancestral religions. ( ‘Umdat al-Salik, o9.8).
Of course, there is no caliph today, unless one believes the claims of the Islamic State, and hence the oft-repeated claim that ISIS, et al are waging jihad illegitimately, as no state authority has authorized their jihad. But they explain their actions in terms of defensive jihad, which needs no state authority to call it, and becomes “obligatory for everyone” (‘Umdat al-Salik, o9.3) if a Muslim land is attacked.
The end of the defensive jihad, however, is not peaceful coexistence with non-Muslims as equals: ‘Umdat al-Salik specifies that the warfare against non-Muslims must continue until “the final descent of Jesus.” After that?
“ [N]othing but Islam will be accepted from them, for taking the poll tax is only effective until Jesus’ descent” (o9.8).
Hanafi school
A Hanafi manual of Islamic law repeats the same injunctions. It insists that people must be called to embrace Islam before being fought, “because the Prophet so instructed his commanders, directing them to call the infidels to the faith.” It emphasizes that jihad must not be waged for economic gain, but solely for religious reasons. From the call to Islam:
… the people will hence perceive that they are attacked for the sake of religion, and not for the sake of taking their property, or making slaves of their children, and on this consideration it is possible that they may be induced to agree to the call, in order to save themselves from the troubles of war.
However:
“[I]f the infidels, upon receiving the call, neither consent to it nor agree to pay capitation tax [jizya], it is then incumbent on the Muslims to call upon God for assistance, and to make war upon them, because God is the assistant of those who serve Him, and the destroyer of His enemies, the infidels, and it is necessary to implore His aid upon every occasion; the Prophet, moreover, commands us so to do.” (Al-Hidayah, II.140)
Maliki school
Ibn Khaldun (1332-1406), a pioneering historian and philosopher, was also a Maliki legal theorist. In his renowned Muqaddimah, the first work of historical theory, he notes:
[I]n the Muslim community, the holy war is a religious duty, because of the universalism of the Muslim mission and (the obligation to) convert everybody to Islam either by persuasion or by force.
In Islam, the person in charge of religious affairs is concerned with “power politics,” because Islam is “under obligation to gain power over other nations.”
Hanbali school
The great medieval theorist of what is commonly known today as radical or fundamentalist Islam, Ibn Taymiyya (Taqi al-Din Ahmad Ibn Taymiyya, 1263-1328), was a Hanbali jurist. He directed:
[S]ince lawful warfare is essentially jihad and since its aim is that the religion is God’s entirely and God’s word is uppermost, therefore according to all Muslims, those who stand in the way of this aim must be fought.
This is also taught by modern-day scholars of Islam.
Majid Khadduri was an Iraqi scholar of Islamic law of international renown. In his book War and Peace in the Law of Islam, which was published in 1955 and remains one of the most lucid and illuminating works on the subject, Khadduri says this about jihad:
The state which is regarded as the instrument for universalizing a certain religion must perforce be an ever expanding state. The Islamic state, whose principal function was to put God’s law into practice, sought to establish Islam as the dominant reigning ideology over the entire world. … The jihad was therefore employed as an instrument for both the universalization of religion and the establishment of an imperial world state. (P. 51)
Imran Ahsan Khan Nyazee is an assistant professor on the Faculty of Shari’ah and Law of the International Islamic University in Islamabad. In his 1994 book The Methodology of Ijtihad, he quotes 12th century Maliki jurist Ibn Rushd:
Muslim jurists agreed that the purpose of fighting with the People of the Book … is one of two things: it is either their conversion to Islam or the payment of jizyah.
Nyazee concludes:
This leaves no doubt that the primary goal of the Muslim community, in the eyes of its jurists, is to spread the word of Allah through jihad, and the option of poll-tax [jizya] is to be exercised only after subjugation [of non-Muslims].
All this makes it clear that there is abundant reason to believe that Islam is indeed inherently violent.
It would be illuminating if Twitter produced some quotations from Muslim authorities they consider “authentic,” and explained why the authorities I’ve quoted above and others like them are inauthentic. While in reality there is no single Muslim authority who can proclaim what is “authentic” Islam, and thus it would be prudent not to make sweeping statements about what “authentic Islam” actually is, clearly there are many Muslims who believe that authentic Islam is inherently violent and not a “Religion of Peace.”…
Read the rest here.
mariam rove says
And who the hell they are deciding what is hate speech. Is there any legal action that can be taken here? m
mortimer says
Message to “TWITTER: IT’S THE IDEOLOGY, STUPID!”
Twitter is actually protecting the supremacist JIHAD IDEOLOGY from criticism. This is absurd because JIHAD KILLS … 270 million have been killed by the political action of jihad.
To say ‘JIHAD KILLS’ should be no more controversial than saying ‘SMOKING KILLS’ or ‘DRUNK DRIVING KILLS’.
When Muslims become DRUNK with JIHAD IDEOLOGY, they kill people intentionally. Jihadists kill because the JIHAD ideology.
In the 1950s many American doctors sheltered the tobacco industry from criticism by claiming there were no studies that proved a link between smoking and cancer.
Twitter is SHELTERING the JIHAD IDEOLOGY from criticism even though it kills thousands every year.
Jihad has killed one person every 3 minutes since Mohammed.
Jay says
There’s your answer Mortimer. Dump Twitter. Social media is a disease, and like all contagious diseases it needs stamping out.
gravenimage says
Platforms for free speech are not a “disease”. We should be able to reach a lot of people on social media–but not with this censorship.
JawsV says
Islam is NOT peaceful. Islam is war and conquest against the “unbelievers” — Jews and Christians.
Twitter sucks. I’ve never used Twit and never will. Ditto leftist Fake Book.
Benedict says
This Twitter flag reminds us of the false prophets of old who also practiced deceit:
“Peace, peace,” they say, when there is no peace.
Bob says
But they were false prophets!
Irene Brekelmans says
People forget that with THE NEW TESTAMENT, THE OLD ONE WAS ONLY VALID FOR HISTORICAL
KNOWLEDGE, but any bad things of fighting or anything of that kind WAS AND IS NO LONGER VALID, as with the NEW TESTAMENT JESUS CAME IN AND PREACHED THE LOVE, and that became the way of life. And with Mozes with the 10 commands, those were not real commands as Mozes asked God, : What are the best rules where to live by in life? Because our God and neither did Jesus commanded us to live by his rules or laws. That is up to yourself . But you have to try at least to live by those so called laws.
But whatever you choose, it always action and reaction, that is a Cosmic Law, There is no God or Jesus that punishes you, you do that by yourself, by your actions, you get reactions.
We don’t have a God (never had) who imposes the most crazy stuff on us. A lot of people wrote in the old testamant pieces , so they could hold dictatorships over people and get better of it.
But the Bible reformed itself, but the u’ran did not and see the actions they never will, because certain people will not give up their power. And so their prophet and Imams will hold their power over the rest of the people. And that is how I see it and if nobody believes that, that is ok by me.
Les says
I hear many scholars describe the New Testament as revealing the Old. Also God is patience and He is trying to teach His people the same way we teach our children. At an Early age we give our children simple commands and responsibilities. As we grow we are taught more and begin to live on our own. When the Word was made flesh Jesus atoned for our fallen state and what He spoke was His final revelation until His second coming.
John A. Marre says
It’s not the words. It’s who said them. Spencer repeats the words of Muslims. They contain hate and anger. When Muslims say them, the Muslims are treated with respect.
gravenimage says
Grimly, this is often true.
Jack Holan says
Robert, it can now officially be said that Twitter engages in Political Censoship.
It’s worth noting that prelude to the Shoah didn’t just appear one day. I’m aware you know fully the history. It didnt even start with my People, Jews. Harriet Saeger was influential to the German/Nazi Eugenics program until the backlash by Germans. From that point forward the acts of barbarism, mass-executions and annihilation was performed in secret outside Germany and the propaganda machine of Goebbles worked 24/7 to prepare Germans for the dehumanizations of Jews and gradual loss of their citizenship rights.
The Left with all their shrills of NAZIs and Facists forget Joe Stalin and Mao Tze Tung who both individually murdered more people than Hitler and employed the same methodology. However the
Left does know as does a Alinsky.Obama and so forth One of the first steps of the NAZI regime was to engage business to get behind their programs not just to support them but to creatively contribute to them. So, Zuckerberg listens to Obama, a Constitutional Attorney who used his knowledge to evade the legislature and make his own laws Merkel an Ex-Stasi Officer in East Germany and both ask him him to violate our most fundamental Rights. He’s so smart that he’s dumb or ver clever. Then, Twitter YouTube and the rest of them have never read the Constitution. They may succeed at some point in bringing violence to the Streets. history shows that once you take away people’s ability to express their grievences through speech they will express it another way.
simpleton1 says
“take away people’s ability to express their grievances through speech they will express it another way.”
Once bottled up, no free speech, then the pressure builds up.
Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable. John F. Kennedy
Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/j/johnfkenn101159.html
mortimer says
Thanks for the Kennedy quote.
gravenimage says
Robert Spencer in PJ Media: Twitter Flags Saying ‘Islam Is NOT a Religion of Peace’ as Possible ‘Hateful Conduct’
…………………..
Twitter’s censorship is becoming more ludicrous–and more onerous–all the time.
Bob says
Who, honestly needs twitter anyway – there’re other means of keeping in touch, surely. I persoally avoid ’em all!
Michael says
Yes, social media is inherently flippant, trivial, and repugnant. But the freedom of speech should still apply to these public forums.
gravenimage says
Michael, Robert Spencer’s Tweet is *not* flippant, trivial, and repugnant.
How is telling the truth about Islam any of the above?
mgoldberg says
So how can this dreadful tyranny be fought?
They are a private company but as with the other moguls of facebook, and google, the control the doorway to communication.
So… how do we bring this to the forefront of public concern, and battle this awful awful tyranny.
simpleton1 says
A dam good question.
In the mean time we must push every point, all the time and defend “free speech”.
We must search and find and use every angle possible.
The awakening seems to be slow, and how to bring it to public concern.
It is a life and death issue, but it needs to be battled with words, and I do not know whether commonsense and reason, will win.
Still battle on, so a remnant carries that knowledge, that may later be fanned and burst into flame.
D Austin says
Twitter, Fakebook…all a cyber ghetto.
gravenimage says
It is a very large ghetto, though. We can still get the word out about the threat of Islam without these platforms–but it will be a lot more difficult.
Lydia says
Okay, let’s look into this.
Yup!
Islam is not a religion of peace.
It is a religion of violence and intolerance.
The quran is the proof, as well as the actions of muslims and other words of theirs, as noted above.
Albeit, the Bible does not espouse unjust violence. We have the death penalty today for fitting crimes as well, and this was thousands of years ago already.
DTOM says
Another excellent report Robert the last sentence summarizes the whole article perfectly.
common sense says
DWS IT aide’s (Aswan Bros) wife to come back to the US and face charges of fraud. Report says she’ll most likely get immunity.
What’s to come Americans are not going to like. It’s ugly and it’s coming.
underbed cat says
A simple rely to twitter could be, Thank you for your reply to my comments, in fact I have evaluated your response and would like to inform you that Islam has been evaluated and it is indeed as I described…….to educate yourself further on this important subject please subscribe. …..I think that would work and they would find this article, but it might flutter a few feathers or expose a nest. Go Robert.!!!! Boy you do know the facts and verses. …..
Milo says
Robert “Islam Is NOT a Religion of Peace” Is the wrong strategy.
Rather, ‘Islam Is a Religion of Peace’ and then you cite the quotations.
gravenimage says
Milo–with all respect–I don’t think openly telling the truth about Islam is a “wrong strategy”. Not in a country that has freedom of speech, anyway.
Holy Tshinge Maduha Ncube says
Islam is an evil satanic..bloodthirsty.barbaric cult..It is also a fraud..A copycat of Christianity and Judaism with evil modifications and fabrications by the pedophile rapist.murderer and false prophet of the devil called Mahamad..Allah is just another name for satan the devil..I am sorry for the deceived muslims..for they will burn in hell together with mahamad..They also hate dogs and cats..God’s creations..There is something inherently devilish and evil about islam
duh swami says
Social media is only as good as the leftist scumbags who run it… That’s why I avoid it like I avoid the plague…
FYI says
Trying to silence people for expressing contrary opinions is… hateful.
And if the leftie liberals want hate speech,kindly read the anti-Semitic vitriol in the koran/the hadith.
John A. Marre says
Hateful thoughts expressed by Muslims are not condemned. When a non-Muslim QUOTES the hateful thoughts spoken by a Muslim, using the exact same words, the non-Muslim is condemned. Robert Spencer gives the very words spoken by Muslims, and HE is called the bigot.
When Pope Benedict, in Regensburg, quoted Manuel by saying: “Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached” Benedict was condemned and ultimately forced to resign to make way for a pope who actively favors Islam.
The goal of the left is to send non-Muslims to the gulag (figuratively, of course) and to encourage the spread of Islam.
Gordon Miller says
I sure hope your last sentence is wrong.
eduardo odraude says
These words of Robert Spencer succinctly explain a point about which many Jihad Watchers have wondered over the years: why does Robert Spencer condemn jihad but not make general statements unequivocally condemning Islam? It has been wondered if his motive was strategic rather than sincere. But his statement shows his motive is not strategic — he’s just being objective and carefully epistemological.
Gordon Miller says
Good point, Eduardo. This impels me to make a statement myself:
Islam is a false religion and is itself an enemy of the civilized world. The word “Islam”does not even deserve to be used in the same breath as Christianity and Judaism.