The Qur’an forbids Muslims to kill other Muslims (4:92), but of course Cherif Chekatt did not set out in Strasbourg to kill Muslims, but non-Muslims. Kamal Naghchband was, alas, collateral damage, but at his funeral, the imam Eyup Sahin seized the opportunity to enunciate some general principles: “Do you think that Allah allows us to kill someone? It is impossible! Islam is a religion of peace (which) no act of terrorism can represent. The Prophet says ‘he who kills a person, it is as if he had killed all humanity.’ The best human being is not ‘the one who is most helpful for Muslims, for Jews, Christians or atheists, but for all humanity.'”
That’s nice, but is it Islamic?
Sahin is wrong about “he who kills a person, it is as if he had killed all humanity.” That is not ascribed to Muhammad, but is in the Qur’an itself: “Because of that, We decreed upon the Children of Israel that whoever kills a soul unless for a soul or for corruption in the land — it is as if he had slain mankind entirely. And whoever saves one — it is as if he had saved mankind entirely. And our messengers had certainly come to them with clear proofs. Then indeed many of them, after that, throughout the land, were transgressors.” (5:32)
Note that this is not a general moral principle applying to everyone, but one only for the Children of Israel. Nor is it is not a general prohibition of killing: there are big exceptions for those who kill “for a soul or for corruption in the land.” And it concludes that even after this command was given, “many of them, after that … were transgressors” — so all it is really saying is that Allah gave a command to the Children of Israel and they transgressed against it. It isn’t anything more than yet another Qur’anic castigation of the Jews. Also, it is followed in the Qur’an by 5:33, which specifies the punishment for the corruption and transgressions of the Children of Israel: “Indeed, the penalty for those who wage war against Allah and His Messenger and strive upon earth corruption is none but that they be killed or crucified or that their hands and feet be cut off from opposite sides or that they be exiled from the land. That is for them a disgrace in this world; and for them in the Hereafter is a great punishment.”
Thus this passage is explaining what must be done with Jews who reject Muhammad, not dictating lofty moral principles. Ibn Warraq sums it up: “The supposedly noble sentiments are in fact a warning to Jews. ‘Behave, or else’ is the message. Far from abjuring violence, these verses aggressively point out that anyone opposing the Prophet will be killed, crucified, mutilated, and banished!”
And as for the “Islam is a religion of peace” business, they have to keep repeating this, because it is so contrary to fact and to the evidence of the daily headlines.
If Islam is a religion of peace, tolerance, harmony and brotherhood, it has been misunderstood by mainstream Islamic authorities throughout the history of the religion. In my new book The History of Jihad From Muhammad to ISIS, I trace the 1,400-year war of Islamic jihadis against the rest of the world, detailing the jihad against Europe, including the 700-year struggle to conquer Constantinople; the jihad in Spain, where non-Muslims fought for another 700 years to get the jihadi invaders out of the country; and the jihad against India, where Muslim warriors and conquerors wrought unparalleled and unfathomable devastation in the name of their religion.
Told in great part in the words of contemporary chroniclers themselves, both Muslim and non-Muslim, The History of Jihad shows that jihad warfare has been a constant of Islam from its very beginnings, and present-day jihad terrorism proceeds along exactly the same ideological and theological foundations as did the great Islamic warrior states and jihad commanders of the past.
The History of Jihad From Muhammad to ISIS is the first one-volume history of jihad in the English language, and the first book to tell the whole truth about Islam’s bloody history in an age when Islamic jihadis are more assertive in Western countries than they have been for centuries. Order it here now.
“Father who fled Afghanistan only to die in Strasbourg laid to rest,” AFP, December 15, 2018 (thanks to The Religion of Peace):
Hundreds of people turned out Friday for the funeral of Kamal Naghchband, a father-of-three who fled violence in Afghanistan only to be gunned down and killed in this week’s Strasbourg Christmas market attack.
Naghchband, 45, had fled strife in Afghanistan to build a new life in France but became one of four people killed when a jihadist gunmen attacked the market in the northeastern French city on Tuesday.
“He was going to see the Christmas market and — in front of his children — he took a bullet,” one of his cousins told AFP.
Described by relatives as friendly and something of a joker, Naghchband survived a day in hospital in a coma before succumbing to his wounds.
He was the joint manager of a garage near the Strasbourg mosque where he would go to pray and where his funeral was held on Friday.
“Our brother martyr Kamal tells us ‘enjoy the moments you have in this world to do good'”, Imam Eyup Sahin said, standing before a coffin covered with a green cloth and a smiling portrait of Naghchband.
“Do you think that Allah allows us to kill someone? It is impossible! Islam is a religion of peace (which) no act of terrorism can represent,” he said.
“The Prophet says ‘he who kills a person, it is as if he had killed all humanity,” continued the Imam.
“The best human being,” he added, is not “the one who is most helpful for Muslims, for Jews, Christians or atheists, but for all humanity”.
Naghchband had lived in France for around 20 years. According to his Facebook page, he was from Kabul and studied in Mazar-i-Sharif, in the north of the country….
mortimer says
Cherif Chekatt justified his attacks from the Koran which FORBIDS Christians to proclaims the INCARNATION OF GOD or the HOLY TRINITY at Christmas time … THIS KORANIC VERSE COMMANDS MUSLIMS TO TERRORIZE CHRISTIANS because they are worship the TRINITY …
KORAN 3.151 – “We will cast TERROR into the hearts of those who disbelieve, because they SET UP (partners … the Second Person of the Trinity) with Allah that for which He has sent down no authority, and their abode is the fire, and evil is the abode of the unjust.”
KORAN 8.60 – “TURHIBUNNA” (terrorize them).
Imam Eyup Sahin told a damnable lie. In fact, Islam clearly teaches terrorism from its PRIMARY SOURCE TEXTS.
Danish researcher Tina Magaard, Ph.D. concluded that Islam is the most warlike religion. After three years analyzing the original texts of ten different religions, Tina Magaard concluded that the Islamic texts stand out by encouraging terror and violence to a larger degree than other religions do. She stated that ‘Islamic texts encourage terror and fighting to a far larger degree than the original texts of other religions. The texts in Islam distinguish themselves from the texts of other religions by encouraging violence and aggression against people with other religious beliefs to a larger degree.’
“What is striking is not in itself that one can find murderous passages in the Islamic texts, as such passages can also be found in other religions. But it is striking how much space these passages take up in the Islamic texts, and how much they focus on an us-and-them logic in which infidels and apostates are characterized as dirty, rotten, criminal, hypocritical and dangerous. It is also striking how much these texts demand that the reader fight the infidels, both with words and with the sword. In many passages, Muhammad plays a central role as one who encourages the use of violence, whether it comes to stonings, beheadings, acts of war or execution of critics and poets.”
Tina Magaard finds it particularly objectionable that so many Islamic scholars in her opinion knowingly fail to disclose these facts, and use their positions of power to create specific standards for what you can say.
gravenimage says
+1
Wellington says
+2
thebigW says
“Cherif Chekatt justified his attacks from the Koran which FORBIDS Christians to proclaims the INCARNATION OF GOD or the HOLY TRINITY at Christmas time ”
Not just at Christmas time, any time.
Battle says
Islam Muslim terrorist kills Islam Muslim Kamal Nachghband an AfganistanI in Strasbourgh France.
Nachghband”s funeral Imam Eyup Sahin and the hundreds who attendedo the funeral have all the more reason to convert to Christian or Judaism Hindu Buddhist etc.
Battle says
Correct to please attended
dan christensen says
“Our brother martyr Kamal tells us ‘enjoy the moments you have in this world to do good’”, Imam Eyup Sahin said.
Most people translate ‘martyr’ into somebody who dies violently for his religious beliefs. The muslim victim Kamal Naghchband died as a consequence of random shooting; with christians as intended targets. His death looks more like a “workplace accident”. Brother Kamal did not die for his religious beliefs!
The imam Eyup Sahin probably bought his imam degree in a Beirut bazaar.
Mark Spahn (West Seneca, NY) says
I think of Quran 5:32-33 every time I see on TV America’s most famous Muslim, the MyPillow guy Mike Lindell, sporting around his neck jewelry displaying a miniature of the Islamic instrument of torture referred to in Q5:33.
In Q5:32, Allah gave the Jews a truly crazy moral principle concerning taking or saving lives: numbers don’t matter. So if you rob a liquor store and kill the man behind the counter, you may as well gun down all the witnesses. And saving the life of one person is like saving all seven billion people on the planet. By this math, as long as you save one more person than you kill, you’re golden!
As far as I can see, the penal provisions of Q5:33 apply to everyone, not just Jews. For the infractions listed therein, the “none but” wording means that only the enumerated punishments are available, and these do no include incarceration. Your only choices are (1) being killed, (2) being crucified, (3) having one hand and one foot chopped off on opposite sides, and (4) being exiled from the land. I think I’ll pick No. 4, Your Honor.
Gamzu says
The cited verse is not from the Bible, but is found in Rabbinic literature, probably the Talmud, and is well known to Jews. This was not a commandment from God but a homiletic response to the question of why God created a single individual, Adam. If Adam had been killed (early on) it would have meant the death of all humanity and none of us would be here. That is supposed to show how precious each human life is. It is not taken literally by Jews. Genocide is definitely regarded as worse than the killing of one.
Marisol Enrique says
I was frustrated with the continuing misrepresentation by Muslims of Qu’ran verse 5:32, that I finally published this in our main newspaper:
Akbar Ali misquotes Qur’an 5:32: “Killing one person is like killing all of humanity.”
The beginning of that quote, which is conveniently left out, is a commandment to the children of Israel (Jews) on how to behave in their land. It was plagiarized from the Talmud, Mishnah Sanhedrin 4:5, which predated the Qur’an and Muhammad by over 300 years.
The Jewish people were instructed: “Whosoever destroys a soul, it is considered as if he destroyed an entire world, and whoever saves a life, it is considered as if he saved an entire world.”
What Allah commanded for Muslims is found in the next verse of the Qur’an (5:33): “The punishment of those who wage war against God and His Apostle (Muhammad) is execution, or crucifixion, or the cutting off of hands and feet from opposite sides…”
Mark Spahn (West Seneca, NY) says
Thanks, Gamzu, for this observation, which had not occurred to me: that if you kill someone you also prevent the coming-into-existence of a worldful of their descendants. It’s kind of like the Taiwanese law whereby if you run over a chicken you have to compensate the chicken’s owner not just for the chicken but also for the value of the chicken’s would-have-been descendants and their eggs; see
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Present_value
gravenimage says
France: Muslim cleric says it’s “impossible” that “Allah allows us to kill someone…Islam is a religion of peace”
………………………………
Izzat so? And yet, so very many Muslims seem to have missed that, and are mass slaughtering people in the the name of their faith. Perhaps Imam Sahin should take this up with his fellow Muslims, instead of the credulous Infidels… (even though this was said at a Muslim funeral, it was clearly for the consumption of the French and international press)
More:
The Qur’an forbids Muslims to kill other Muslims (4:92), but of course Cherif Chekatt did not set out in Strasbourg to kill Muslims, but non-Muslims. Kamal Naghchband was, alas, collateral damage
………………………………
And this has happened many times before–including 9/11 and the terror attack in Nice.
But how do Muslims regard such collateral damage? The general sense seems to be that if the unintentional Muslim victim was a lax Muslim, that he can be regarded as an Infidel, and killing him was praiseworthy, just as is killing non-Muslims–sometimes this is deduced simply by the location of the attack–what good Muslim is, say, at a bar or a concert (or perhaps a Christmas market)? But if the Muslim was devout, then he goes straight to paradise if he died as a “Martyr” in a Jihad terror attack–so the Jihadist actually did him a favor.
Note that Imam Sahin refers to Kamal Naghchband as a Martyr–something he would never have said about the Infidel targets of this Jihad attack.
And yes–as for the frequently-quoted Qur’an 5:32, this is a threat to Jews who are not living up to their *own* civilized values–it is not a message to Muslims at all, as the subsequent Sura makes clear. “Allah” never asks Muslims not to kill–just the opposite, in fact.
Wellington says
Fine post, gravenimage. Wish most everyone in the West would grasp the truths in it you laid out.
Sam says
How can anyone, muslim or not, can make a statement like that. “Islam is A religion of peace” should be replaced with ISLAM IS EVIL
Terry Gain says
Anyone who says that the evil and incoherent ideology of Islam is a religion of peace is obviously a liar. It is neither.
JAT 349 says
Islam…
A misunderstood, peaceful, non-violent non-violent religion….NO….
Never was, is not now and never will be.
All we have to do is look at 1400 years of islamic history.
DHazard says
I tried to find a specific definition of what constitutes “corruption” in the context of Shariah.
All attempts led to equally broad and vague terms. In practical terms an extremist Muslim would take it to mean any act of disobedience to Allah.” As Church Lady said, “How convenient”.
“Abu Ja`far said that Ar-Rabi` bin Anas said that Abu Al-`Aliyah said that Allah’s statement,(And when it is said to them: “Do not make mischief on the earth,), means, “Do not commit acts of disobedience on the earth. Their mischief is disobeying Allah, because whoever disobeys Allah on the earth, or commands that Allah be disobeyed, he has committed mischief on the earth. Peace on both the earth and in the heavens is ensured (and earned) through obedience (to Allah). Ar-Rabi` bin Anas and Qatadah said similarly”
The above paragraph is an example of the “chain of narration” method used in Islam. The poor 1.7 billion Muslims of the World are led by imams and “scholars” who pride themselves on knowing this kind of worthless information. In this case “corruption” is defined as “mischief” which does nothing to clarify Allah’s intentions.
https://www.ummah.com/forum/forum/library/learn-arabic-and-other-languages/qur-an-and-islamic/348821-what-is-corruption-and-fasad
Martin says
…there is always a falsification of the real meaning of the words in Islam— in a way to deceive themselves but above all the non-Muslims :
[…]There are many ways of spreading corruption upon the earth, the worst of them being the association of partners with Allah in worship by attributing the rights that are exclusively His to others.
[…]The greatest crime that people can commit against themselves and the greatest self-harm that they can accomplish is by is by committing shirk, or associating partners with Allah in worship.
[…]different types of sins are also an act of causing corruption(…)Some of them are: Practicing magic, committing murder, making interest-based transactions, usurping the property of orphans, fleeing from a battle with disbelievers, falsely accusing innocent believing women with fornication, mistreating one’s parents, bearing false witness, adultery and fornication, drinking alcohol and taking narcotics, stealing, severing bonds of kinship etc.
[…]Another clear act of corruption and mischief on the earth today is the merciless transgression, injustice, killings and destruction that the Jews are perpetrating in the holy land of Al-Quds, or Jerusalem. They kill innocent people, expel them from their land and besiege them without even showing mercy to the elderly or infants.
[…]associating partners with Him in worship are the greatest forms of corruption that man can commit.
In fact, associating partners with Allah and disobeying Him are at the head of all forms of corruption.
The earth can never be in order, nor can its inhabitants live in peace unless all acts of worship are done for the sake of Allah alone and performed in accordance with the example laid down by His Messenger
[…]
more on this page
http://www.radioislam.org.za/a/index.php/library/140-friday-khutbahs-sermons/9579-and-cause-not-corruption-upon-the-earth.html
thebigW says
that’s a useful quote. i think that Muslim cleric’s sermon was at the mosque in Mecca, the “Masjid al Haraam”, which is like the equivalent of a sermon by the Pope in the Vatican, so it’s not just some extremist quack cleric.
https://twitter.com/haramaininfo/status/822360592002338816?lang=en
Martin says
yes he is imam in Mecca — :maybe not a quack but — a spiritual charlatan — like they all are
Sheikh Al-Khayyat was born in Makkah in 1951, and was appointed Imam of the Grand Mosque in Makkah in 1997. He learned and memorized the Quran at a young age, from his father. He has served as a member of the Saudi Parliament (Majlis Ash-Shura) and as an Iman
www(dot)thoughtco(dot)com/profile-of-makkahs-imams-2004594
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLnkWoKcvl0
Wellington says
If Islam is a religion of peace, then Nazism is pro-Jewish and Marxism thinks laudably of capitalism.
No Fear says
Muslims often quote Q5:32 as proof that Islam is peaceful. It is rarely quoted completely. The first words of the verse indicate that the injunction to peace was for “children of Israel”. These words are almost always omitted by muslims when they quote Q5:32. Of course the next verse Q5:33 is never quoted by muslims.
“Indeed, the penalty for those who wage war against Allah and His Messenger and strive upon earth corruption is none but that they be killed or crucified or that their hands and feet be cut off from opposite sides or that they be exiled from the land. That is for them a disgrace in this world; and for them in the Hereafter is a great punishment.”
Crusades Were Right says
Wouldn’t an imam be someone who is KNOWLEDGEABLE in the Islamic texts? If so, then the imam is LYING! And if he is lying about an act of jihad terrorism that has already happened, how can the French people and French state have any confidence he isn’t PREACHING JIHAD to his “flock”?
Karen says
Was it purely coincidental that this rather nice man was killed, while out with his kids, enjoying the festivities of the season? While embracing a bit of French and non-Muslim culture? Or was he targeted, for the same? I think the latter is a real possibility.
FYI says
Perhaps he should follow allah’s advice given in koran 10:94 and “question those who read the scripture that was before thee”
That is referring to ..The Bible {allah confirms it:koran 3:3} which teaches OBEDIENCE to God’s official commandments and not DISOBEDIENCE to God’s commandments as the ‘holy’ koran preaches.
Exodus 20
“Thou shalt not kill”
Sixth commandment
Religiously observant Jews and authentic Christians understand the need to OBEY God’s Laws:muslims don’t.. as we see EVERY single day and for 1,400 years of islamic evil.
muslims think they are free to violate God’s Laws because their commandment-of-God violating koran says so.
allah is NOT the Biblical God.
allah is the “best of deceivers” koran 3:54
allah is bAAL.
Brother Charles says
They always forget to tell you that when they say ISLAM is a religion of peace and they are not to kill , It means NOT TO KILL OTHER MUSLIMS ,BUT INFIDELS ARE OK TO KILL. ?
Michael Carpenter says
Mohammad is the spiritual leader of Islam, whom all Muslims are to emulate to please Allah, the god of Islam. Mohammad is the perfect Muslim. Where is peace in his many statements and actions?
Hadith Sahih Muslim M001,0031 Mohammad: “I have been ordered to wage war against mankind until they accept that there is no god but Allah and that they believe I am his prophet and accept all revelations spoken through me.
Hadith Sahih Muslim M020,4696 Mohammad: “The man who dies without participating in jihad, who never desired to wage holy war, dies the death of a hypocrite.”
dan christensen says
“Do you think that Allah allows us to kill someone? It is impossible! Islam is a religion of peace (which) no act of terrorism can represent,”
So the Spanish defenders impaled themselves on Moorish spears during the muslim conquest in the 8’th century, threw themselves under the muslim horses and got in the way of little fast flying muslim sticks with pointed ends.
How unfortunate for the Spanish people that they did not know the peculiar nature of muslim ‘peace’.
Harry Giles says
What about the 400,000 in Syria, and 1 billion in India by the Abbasids, who became the Sunni Muslims, and the Millions in 1947, and l;ater the 3,200,000 Hindusby Bangaldesh to celebrate theirindependence from Pakistan.