Islam operates by two powerful schemes: reward and punishment. It mesmerizes the believer by its encyclopedic descriptions of Allah’s lush paradise that awaits the worthy faithful. For the kefir (unbeliever) and a not-so-true Muslim, the destination is Allah’s dreadful hell.
Muslim clergy tirelessly preach about these two locations, with great success. Fear of hell, for some, even out-muscles the attractions of paradise, and works wonders in keeping the flock servile to the parasitic clergy.
A powerful well-honed scheme involves pol-e As-Sirāt (the foot-bridge of the path). The kefirs, after they die, do not even get a chance to see if they can cross this foot-bridge; they go directly to Allah’s hell. Yet all Muslims cross it. The problem is in crossing it. The preachers describe at great length how difficult it is to cross this bridge over the gorge of hell to the other side where paradise is located.
A great majority of blindly faithful Muslims are either illiterate or semi-literate. These people tend to take everything the charlatan preachers say as literal truth; many panic with fear and beg the preachers to tell them what they need do to cross that dreadful foot-bridge. They become ripe for the picking. The preachers, the perennial well-trained con-artists that they are, burden these simpletons with all kinds of well-rehearsed fabricated demands to keep the flock in their pen. The preachers say, for instance, that they must do this and they must do that to earn the good graces of Allah. And when they die, Allah will commission two angels to hold the person on both sides and safely transport them over the bridge. Wayward Muslims, on the other hand, are all on their own and most likely will succumb into the dreadful hell with their very first steps.
When asked about the mercy of Allah, since he is billed as the most merciful, can they count on his mercy to send them the helpful angel if they somehow themselves fail to live completely up to the standards of the faith; the preachers have a pet response to that, too. Allah’s mercy has limits. You best not to count on it too much. He has already shown you his abundance of mercy by sending you his beloved messenger Muhammad. Allah guides and it is your duty to follow. And if you are confused or in doubt about things, just go to the preachers. They will clarify things for you and set you on the straight path. The crafty preachers claim that they have spent their life learning the very intricacies of the faith and it is their humble task to serve the believers.
This is one, and a rare one, claim of the Islamic clergy that has an element of truth to it. In order to become a cleric of any rank, the aspiring candidate must commit himself, heart and soul, to the party dogma. He should banish any and all independent thinking and pack his brain with what he is taught in the seminaries and spit them out, parrot-like. This total blind adoption is the requisite for an aspiring preacher to make the grade. If he is somewhat more literate and more ambitious, the individual will continue his “education” in more and more advanced seminaries conducted by high-ranking clergy. As he continues his training, he must prove his undying adherence and obedience to what he is taught.
At no time is the preacher-to-be, either during the course of his training or after assuming his congregation, allowed to deviate in the least in his preaching from the party line. He is, however, given great latitude to embellish things to impress his parishioners and keep them as docile obedient sheep.
There is no room for a maverick in the clergy system. If a seminarian fails the rigorous test of blind obedience, he is castigated and expelled. On occasion, some of these ambitious people strike out on their own and manage to gather small or even large numbers of followers. And it is through this process that Islam has fractioned into numberless sects, sub-sects, and schools.
Being a good Muslim to attract the blessings of Allah and avoid his fury is a 24/7 business. It is not good enough to simply comply with the five pillars of Islam:
Shahada (belief or admission of faith)
Salat (performance of obligatory prayers five times each day)
Sawm (fasting during the month of Ramadan)
Zakat (alms giving or tithing)
Hajj (Male pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina, at least once in a lifetime)
Every detail of a Muslim’s life is rigidly and elaborately prescribed. To lead life according to this complex and highly confusing prescription is beyond the capability of the lay believer. That is why there are millions of professional clerics to literally walk the believer through the morass of Islam’s bewildering dos and don’ts.
You want to be a good Muslim, yet you are petrified by doing the wrong things and failing to do the right things? You don’t have the answers? No problem. You go to your nearest mullah or imam and ask him. In most instances, these highly indoctrinated operators will flip the well-honed time-tested card with the pat answer on it. They don’t have the card for a particular question? No problem again. These connivers are well-versed in fabricating some answers on the spot that would send you away feeling secure and even smug.
The rigid indoctrination practiced in Islamic preacher factories are not too dissimilar from those prevalent in even secular learning institutions in the West. A university’s professed aim is to educate and train; a transfer of knowledge to the young. This transfer, however, can often take the form of indoctrination particularly in fields such as social science and humanities. Liberal-leaning professors dominate the staff at many universities.
These professors, knowingly and unknowingly, slant their lectures in favor of their personal preferences and influence the students along the same line and perception. Radical departure from the professor’s line can result in serious adverse consequences for the student. It seems that the loyal party line students are the ones who continue advancing with their education through the doctoral level and in turn they become professors and indoctrinators of the next generation of students.
dan christensen says
I really can’t see the advantage of learning all this useless information on islams doctrines and internal conflicts.
As the christian bible says “A Tree Is Known by Its Fruit – “For a good tree does not bear bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit.”
Islam is completely devoid of any moral and ethical values, but an expert in deceit and conquering strategy.
Michael Copeland says
“This wretched book … I have been unable to discover in it one single idea of value.”
Arthur Schopenhauer
“It’s a depressing book. It really is. It’s just the rantings of a schizophrenic. There is also the barrenness of the message. It has no ethical dimension.”
Sebastian Faulks
https://libertygb.org.uk/news/book-reviews-koran
gravenimage says
Dan, I think is it important to thoroughly understand the threat we face.
But you are quite right–every ideology is know by its fruit–and that of Islam is obviously hideously ugly.
aVoice says
Much advantage in every way: for the one who dies in the “faith”…eternity in Hell; for Satan it is the destruction of one made if God’s image, and the elimination of one who could have worshiped Jesus the Lord.
James says
This sounds like the Catholic method of indoctrination, where the faithful can’t or won’t learn for themselves.
Rob Crawford says
That you believe this says more about YOU than about Catholicism.
LB says
While I disagree, this actually has a ring of truth to it. Just look at most of catholic priests today — they all parrot the words of the current marxist / globalist pope without question, while ignoring (or cherry-picking) the core teachings of the faith, as well as entirely forgetting its history with islam. This makes them “popeists” (I just made up that word) instead of catholics. As for why that is the case… well, leftist (papal) indoctrination and blind faith (“not learning for themselves”) are the prime suspects. This is where Mr. Spencer’s often-mentioned quote is appropriate:
“Leave them; they are blind guides. And if a blind man leads a blind man, both will fall into a pit.” (Matthew 15:14)
Sobieski says
“This makes them “popeists” (I just made up that word) instead of catholics…”
You’re not the first to invent or use that derogatory term (or some form of it) for Roman Catholics.
Introduction to the KJV of the Bible: “…if on the one side we shall be traduced by Popish persons at home or abroad…”
gravenimage says
James, Catholicism has little in common with the horrors of Islam.
For one thing, no one is threatening to murder unorthodox or ex-Catholics. Can you say the same about Islam?
StellaSaidSo says
As far as I can tell, James’ point was about indoctrination, which – to a greater or lesser extent – is a feature of most religions. The Jesuits say ‘Give me the child for the first seven years of his life, and I will give you the man’. James made no claim to the effect that Catholicism had anything, beyond the use of indoctrination, ‘in common with the horrors of Islam’.
WPM says
Catholics and other Christian faiths believe in free will ,the golden rule forgiveness of others who have sin against us . Islam has none of these things ,if Catholics question their faith ,or leave it, or condemn it, they do not face being killed by other Christians , or the clergy. We are all indoctrinated no matter who we are between being born and age 7.We are indoctrinated by our parents , our culture , our religion ,our country ,our brothers and sisters. Some indoctrinations is good some is bad ,if you look up to a rapist, murder, child molester, warlord ,wife beater , as your ideal man . Follow his books and beliefs ,I would say that is a bad indoctrination. If you are taught that your relationship to God is a master to slave, that you cannot question your faith ,violence is the answer to most of your faiths foundations ,might makes right ,you have a indoctrination for a violent future in your life. Islam is like the movie Clockwork Orange violence becomes common acceptable matter of course in your everyday life. There is nothing strange , or repulsive in it, it settles who is master who is slave, Islam believes the only way to order is violence, the only way to prove what is right is violence , that is why it will not stand up to questioning.
Rarely says
You have to give islam credit for the marvelously imaginative comedy it gives the world. Woody Allen, the Marx Brothers and Mel Brooks couldn’t make this stuff up.
It is unbelievably sad and pitiful that islam would teach this garbage to its followers.
It becomes clearer and clearer why its adherents must be kept uneducated, superstitious and ignorant.
They MUST enforce absolute obedience too so that no one can look critically at this idiocy.
And to think that it is people with this mindset that make up much of the current immigrant wave. Islam is incompatible with any society that allows or encourages rational thinking, obviously.
jerry zavage says
Islam has made life on Earth Hell for over 1400 years and counting.
StellaSaidSo says
Islam is a prison in which prisoners are taught that a perfect world is one in which every living soul is incarcerated.
Rumpled Nixon says
Sounds like the socialist Democrats in America.
StellaSaidSo says
Indeed, the Islamists and the Democrats share a profound admiration for totalitarian rule.
rubiconcrest says
Thank you for this article that is explains in detail the thoroughness of Islamic indoctrination. Comparing it to liberal Universities in the USA is a bridge too far. There is no fire and hell awaiting students who begin to question the liberal line once out of college. But I understand the point you are trying to make. In either case it is indoctrination.
StellaSaidSo says
I agree re the comparison between liberal universities and Islamic indoctrination being ‘a bridge too far’. The final two paragraphs are unnecessary to the main thesis of the article, and demand either further development, or culling.
Amil Imani says
My pleasure
gravenimage says
Thank you for the article.
CogitoErgoSum says
I recently watched Martin Scorsese’s movie “Silence” which deals with keeping faith even unto martyrdom and also with the alternate route of choosing apostasy in order to avoid death. I think it’s a fantastic movie and, if anyone else has seen it, I am curious as to who, if anybody, in the picture you would call a hero and what you think is the greatest sin committed by any of the characters in the movie.
If you haven’t seen “Silence,” I highly recommend it. It’s beautifully made and deals with “culling” and what it means to be human and what love of God and also of our fellow man requires of us sometimes.
Here’s the trailer for the movie:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkuUOeP6ZFE
Walter Sieruk says
The founder and prophet of Islam manufactured his religion he incorporated some of the doctrines and ideas of a number of other religions that are the combined elements that is now the man made religion which is Islam. For Muhammad combine pieces and parts of Arabian religious folklore and Judaism , Christianity , both Bible based Christianity and non-biblical warped “Christianity” and even bit of Hinduism into the making of Islam. One religion that also played apart in this false prophets new religion [Islam] was the religion further East known as Zoroastrianism. For this Islamic doctrine of walking over that horrible bridge doctrine of Islam was a dogma that Muhammad had stolen from Zoroastrianism to make up Islam..
This specific connection between Muhammad and Zoroastrianism for the construction of Islam had been well made know by many sources . One of which is in the book written by a former Muslim who is now a Christian, [1]
[1] ISLAM AN THE SON OF GOD by Dr. Daniel Shayesteh pages 16-19.
FYI says
And the language of allah’s islamic paradise is…arabic.
allah,unlike the Biblical God, is after all ,a monoglot.
So how do muslims explain the following:
the Torah{which allah claims he wrote in k3:3}is in HEBREW
the Gospel{which allah claims he wrote in k3:3} is in ALL Languages so as to be conveniently understood by ALL MANKIND.
But allah’s “perfect” koran….{which CONTRADICTS both the Torah and the Gospel:
the koran claims in k3:3 that it confirms the Bible!It doesn’t}…is of course,limited to Arabic and so is inconveniently NOT understandable for all mankind,only arabic speaking moslems.Non-Arabic speaking muslims in Indonesia,for example,often haven’t a clue what they are “praying” or know how to read the koran.
the koran’s teachings violate the moral laws revealed in Exodus 20 and defeat the whole point of the Torah:Obedience to God’s laws,not disobedience as the koran teaches.
What language did Moses and Jesus pray in?
It wasn’t arabic was it?LOL
So the prayers Jesus and Moses said were NOT in Arabic and must have been valid…yet allah only accepts “prayers” in Arabic!
allah the islamic koranic monoglot god of islam.
Carolyne says
All religions of which I am aware use the threat of a “Hell” in order to force certain behavior on its adherents. In fact on this very forum a couple of months ago a Christian took exception to my statement that I did not believe in the concept of hell. He , a prolific and respected contributor here, said that it was only the fear of going to hell which made him not rape and pillage, steal and murder, etc. I thought it sad that a person would only be a moral human being at threat of hell.
There are many paintings considered to be great works of art which depict Christians suffering the torments of hell; As a reminder, one supposes, to behave oneself or this could happen to you. It is not much different with Islam, except the behavior expected by Allah is what civilized people consider barbarian.
aVoice says
As a believer in Christ Jesus, for Whom I prefer to use His Hebrew title: Yeshua HaMashiach, He is the Messiah of Israel and the Savior to all who receive HIM….I am one spirit with Him, born again and accepted in the Beloved.
No threat of punishment needed; it’s His love and presence that motivates and guides me.