In a November 27 address at Georgetown University’s Saudi-funded Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding (ACMCU), University of Michigan Professor Juan Cole discussed his new book, Muhammad: Prophet of Peace Amid the Clash of Empires. His sympathetic audience of about forty in ACMCU’s conference room included ACMCU Professor John Voll, Georgetown University imam Yahya Hendi, and the former Foreign Service Officer Benjamin Tua, a persistent Israel critic.
As Georgetown professor and ACMCU founder John Esposito moderated, Cole discussed his findings on “peace in the Quran and early Islam.” “I am swimming against the stream here,” he said, “as that isn’t the word that comes to mind for most people with regard to Islam.” Yet his elaborated revisionist history was unconvincing.
Cole explained his dubious thesis that any violent characteristics in Islam involved an ex post facto recasting of Islam’s supposedly peaceful seventh-century prophet Muhammad. During the Abbasid caliphate (750-1258), “when the classical Arabic-Muslim corpus of work about Islam was formulated,” Muhammad’s biographers “wrote down his biography in such a way as to militarize it.” “It is very stark, if you follow the Quran itself as your primary source, how different it is from these later times,” Cole stated.
Later Bedouin converts supposedly supplanted the benign teachings of this imagined, little-followed prophet Muhammad with Bedouin warfare traditions. Early Arabic poetry “is all about raiding; how the great warriors are able to raid and they are able to defeat their enemies,” Cole noted. These Arabs “wake up in the morning, and they get drunk on wine, and they go off berserk to the battlefield.” After Muhammad’s death in 632, this “Bedouin ethos of raiding took over to some extent in early Islam,” so “you have to make a big distinction between the life of Muhammad and the later group.”
Cole contrasted that in “Arabic culture a haram was a sanctuary. It was a place of peace” where pagan Arab tribes would gather during special religious pilgrimages under agreed prohibitions of violence. “A lot of the Quran is taking the side of these practices of sanctuary, of creating a zone of peace where the tribes can’t engage in their blood feuds.” In particular, Muhammad’s Banu Hashem clan managed Mecca’s Kaaba shrine, so that his origins were a “peacemaking clan, a clan that is in charge of the sanctuary and in charge of enforcing peace and mediating.”
Cole supported this skewed perspective with cherry-picked Quran verses while ignoring fundamental questions about whether Islamic doctrine supplants peaceful, chronologically earlier Quran verses with later warlike ones. Illustrating his points with slides, he interpreted Quran 7:19-25, on Adam and Eve’s expulsion from the Garden of Eden, as man’s descent into violence. To correct the resulting introduction of sin, “in the Quran the solution is everybody has to be a peacemaker.”
Tellingly, Cole’s exegesis omits this same chapter’s less savory verses. Quran 7:80-84 tell of Sodom’s divine destruction with its attendant condemnation of homosexuality. Quran 7:166 describe Jews as “apes, despised and rejected” while Quran 7:179 condemns non-Muslims as “like cattle.”
Cole similarly whitewashed Quran 48’s account of the conquest of Mecca by Muhammad’s army in 630. Using the traditional Islamic euphemism “Opening of Mecca,” in which conquest “opens” territories for Islam, Cole first acknowledged the thesis of modern Muslim histories. “In the later sources, the Muslims are coming in and they are armed and they have battle standards and there some skirmishes and then they kill some people or execute them.” He spuriously claimed “there is nothing like that in this chapter of the Quran. It is a peace procession” and “nonviolent noncooperation; it’s what Martin Luther King did.”
This grossly distorts Quran 48. The chapter title is “Fatah,” variously translated as “opening” or “victory,” the source of the name for the Palestinian Liberation Organization’s (PLO) Fatah terrorist group. Quran 48:1 opens, “Indeed, We have given you, [O Muhammad], a clear conquest.” Quran 48:29 closes by claiming Muhammad’s followers “are forceful against the disbelievers, merciful among themselves.”
Cole next claimed preposterously that the only departure “in the Quran from a fairly consistent pacifism” is an Islamic “just war” theory. “This is never aggressive warfare,” he stated, as the “Quran is very insistent that conscience should never be forced.” Noting early Christian just war thinkers like St. Augustine of Hippo (d. 430), Cole concluded “you can take the City of God and just put it next to the Quran on these issues and they are almost identical; it’s incredible.”…
Read the rest here.
FYI says
A Saudi-funded center for muslim-christian understanding?
That smells like …..taqqiya-tawriya-taysin-kitman ..plus lots of Soddy money.
What muslim-Christian understanding do they mean?
“Oh ye who believe!Take not the Jews and Christians for friends.They are friends to one another.He among you who taketh them for friends is one of them”
koran 5 v 51
allah CURSES Christians for believing in Jesus {Koran 9:30}
Georgetown university, “Jesuit values” and “saudi funded”:that says it all!
“Jesuit values”:like those perhaps of pope francis the pro-islam heretic?
mortimer says
The Koran’s actual 164 Jihad Verses: K 002:178-179, 190-191, 193-194, 216-218, 244; 003:121-126, 140-143, 146, 152-158, 165-167,169, 172-173, 195; 004:071-072, 074-077, 084, 089-091, 094-095,100-104; 005:033, 035, 082; 008:001, 005, 007, 009-010, 012, 015-017, 039-048,057-060, 065-075; 009:005, 012-014, 016, 019-020, 024-026, 029,036, 038-039, 041, 044, 052, 073, 081, 083,086, 088, 092, 111, 120, 122-123; 016:110; 022:039, 058, 078; 024:053, 055; 025:052; 029:006, 069; 033:015, 018, 020, 023, 025-027, 050; 042:039; 047:004, 020, 035; 048:015-024; 049:015; 059:002, 005-008, 014; 060:009; 061:004, 011, 013; 063:004; 064:014; 066:009; 073:020; 076:008.
Juan Cole’s sanitized Koran:
gravenimage says
Yes–despite Cole’s ludicrous claims, the Qur’an itself is full of violent diktats.
James Pierce says
If it were ever to be written, “The Peaceful Koran” would replace “Italian War Heroes” as the world’s thinnest book
Dave says
What would be the point of a peaceful Koran? People can just be good. It takes a special effort to be bad. That is why the Koran promotes Violence in so many verses.
gravenimage says
In the West we grow up with generally good values–not so under Islam.
mortimer says
REFUTATION OF ‘PEACEFUL ISLAM’ FALLACY of JUAN COLE … “THERE ARE TWO KORANS”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FM0UFf7IYc
mortimer says
Part 2: REFUTATION OF ‘PEACEFUL ISLAM’ FALLACY OF JUAN COLE: Dualism, Koran of Medina, MIGRATION as JIHAD.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tw9lpvjfhVk
Rob says
There is no ‘Islam Lite’. Read announcements by Al Azhar U Cairo.
mortimer says
JUAN COLE IS A DELUSIONAL CULTIST …
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnNSe5XYp6E&list=PLXscQdjm7G7VT0EkUoupG9czF7BQUHsqv
Renate says
“Peaceful Quran” sounds like an oxymoron.
mortimer says
Renate, there are TWO Korans … the Koran of Mecca which is more peaceful and conciliatory and the Koran of Medina which is intolerant and militant. The Koran of Medina ABROGATES and SUPERCEDES the Koran of Meccan rendering it non-applicable.
In other words, JIHAD has become normative Islam, while ‘peaceful Islam’ has been put aside until the world has been fully conquered by Islamic terrorists.
Renate says
You have to wonder whether it even stops there or do they just continue on because some Muslims won’t be Muslim enough for some other Muslims.
Even some textbooks on Islam state that Islam isn’t a religion but a way of life. I think Islam is 24/7/365 jihad.
mortimer says
Renate, real Islam is not ‘moderate’ … real Islam is imitating Mohammed an unmedicated madman.
Renate says
If I thought for a second that real Islam was moderate, I wouldn’t be posting comments on this website.
gravenimage says
Even a lot of the Meccan verses are pretty ugly–although they got much worse after the “Prophet” consolidated his power in Medina and had built a conquering army.
Renate says
I’m glad others know what’s in it, because I can’t bring myself to read it.
abad says
Um, but Islam IS a way of life, according to Islam, specifically, the Quran and Hadith.
IOW there is no separation of Islam from anything in the life of an average Moslem. Not in politics, not in anything else that goes on in the environment of a Moslem.
And there is a reason the Hadith pretty much dictates daily habits, from what to do after pooping, to Quran (the book itself) etiquette (never place it on the floor, for example).
I know I have addressed this about Islam before but it bears worth repeating.
Islam teaches its followers what to think, not how to think.
Dave says
Islam is brainwashing, with polluted water
mortimer says
JUAN COLE wants us to think he is SMARTER than ALL PREVIOUS GENERATIONS of Muslims.
JUAN COLE thinks that ALL PREVIOUS GENERATIONS of Muslims had the WRONG INTERPRETATION of Islam.
Yeah, Cole … they were ALL wrong … and you are the only Muslim who FINALLY figured it out.
Sure. Anything you say, Cole.
David Longfellow says
Liberals like the Quran and those who follow its terroristic teachings. Both groups share a dangerous hatred of a large number of other religious, ethnic and nationalities.
mortimer says
Juan Cole has come PRECARIOUSLY close to the thesis that EARLY PROTO-ISLAM was a NESTORIAN-CHRISTIAN HERESY which preached pacifism. This supposed gentle, heretical group was HIJACKED by a bunch of Arabian bandits and highwaymen known as the SA’ALIK.
The SA’ALIK vagabond-hoodlums-highwaymen HIJACKED this ‘peaceful’ Nestorian-heretical cult and turned it into the MISOGYNISTIC, EXTORTIONIST DEATH CULT we know and fear today.
At this realization, German ISLAM SCHOLAR Professor Sven Muhammad Kalisch LEFT ISLAM and he now doubts the EXISTENCE OF MOHAMMED !!!
https://www.meforum.org/campus-watch/articles/2008/scandal-exposes-islam-s-weakness-on-muhammad-sven
George Williams says
He’s toast.
mortimer says
In 2010, Prof. Sven Kalisch renounced Islam. His department was then renamed the department for “the intellectual history of the middle east in the post-antiquity period”.
Ade Fegan says
For “invents” read FABRICATES
mortimer says
Juan Coles is ‘fabricating’ a ‘MODERATE’ version of Islam, but how can he REFORM something that is ETERNAL, PERFECT and COMPLETE ??
Clearly, if you reform perfection you have admitted it wasn’t perfect to begin with, nor complete, nor eternal.
If Islam is not perfect or eternal, then why follow it? Why not simply walk away from it?
Nona says
The koran – a whole mish-mash of texts from different religions, blended in together (do I tepeat myself?), by illiterate, low- IQ, unwashed, lice-ridden, psycho tribal leaders.
Michael Copeland says
An “incoherent jumble of fable and precept and declamation …….”
Edward Gibbon
“When I have time, I must put it into German so that every man may see what a foul and shameful book it is.”
Martin Luther
https://libertygb.org.uk/news/book-reviews-koran
Nona says
The koran – a whole mish-mash of texts from different religions, blended in together (do I repeat myself?), by illiterate, low- IQ, unwashed, lice-ridden, psycho tribal leaders.
Hari Singh says
This is not surprising as Juan Ricardo Cole is an excommunicated Bahais. Bahá’ís preach that Muhammad was peaceful and the violence is a later development. This is pure speculation .
Bahá’ís also obfustacate on the Koranic differences with the Bible on Jesus’ atoning death, resurrection .
gravenimage says
Juan Cole Invents a Peaceful Quran
…………………….
A dhimmi’s dhimmi…
Here’s more on this useful idiot:
https://usefulstooges.com/2018/11/06/juan-cole-jihad-apologist/
mortimer says
If Islam is a religion of peace then why were there 33,000 deadly terror attacks committed explicitly in the name of Islam since 9-11?
If Islam is a religion of peace then why did Muhammad, the prophet of Islam, have people killed for insulting him or for criticizing his religion?
If Islam is a religion of peace then why are Muslims told to emulate the example of Muhammad who committed a violent act every six weeks in the last nine years of his life?
If Islam is a religion of peace then why did Mohammed say he was “ordered by Allah to fight men until they testify that there is no god but Allah and that Muhammad is his messenger”??
If Islam is a religion of peace then why after Muhammad died, did the people who lived with him and knew his religion best immediately fall into war with each other?
If Islam is a religion of peace then why did Mohammed’s whole family get murdered by Muslims?
If Islam is a religion of peace then why did three of the first four Islamic rulers get killed by Muslims?
If Islam is a religion of peace then why did Muhammad direct Muslims to wage war on other religions and bring them under submission to Islam?
If Islam is a religion of peace then why did Muslims continue their Jihad against other religions for 1400 years, checked only by the ability of non-Muslims to defend themselves?
If Islam is a religion of peace then why is Islam the only religion that has to retain its membership by formally threatening to kill anyone who leaves?
If Islam is a religion of peace then why does Islam teach that non-Muslims are less than fully human? Muhammad said that Muslims can be put to death for murder, but that a Muslim could never be put to death for killing a non-Muslim
If Islam is a religion of peace then why does the Koran never once speak of Allah’s love for non-Muslims, but it speaks of Allah’s cruelty toward and hatred of non-Muslims more than 500 times?
If Islam is a religion of peace then why do so many people fear it…including Muslims?
If Islam is a religion of peace then why are Muslim countries called Dar al Islam, while non-Muslim countries are called Dar al Harb?
If Islam is a religion of peace then why is there no punishment in Sharia law for the MURDERERS of apostates or blasphemers.
If Islam is a religion of peace then why are there 164 jihad verses in the Koran?
If Islam is a religion of peace then why why are many thousand terrorists and militants acting in the name of jihad and sharia?
If Islam is a religion of peace then why do different Islamic sects make war on each other?
If Islam is a religion of peace then why are there an average of 4.5 lethal jihad attacks every day of the year?
If Islam is a religion of peace then why is killing cartoonists and blasphemers accepted in mainstream societies in the Islamic world?
If Islam is a religion of peace then why is it that criticising an apparently flawed ideology causes rioting ?
If Islam is a religion of peace then why is Islam the only ideology in which the mainstream believes that apostasy should be punished with death?
Kathleen Wallace says
Juan Cole belongs to a group that is basically a mouthpiece for the Iranian ayatollah in the U.S. He and the truth about Islam parted ways long ago.
Mr. Maxwell S. J. Fenton says
Islam is not a religious text but a long, repetitive psychotic rambling from Muhammad.
Why would Islam be seeking peace as a goal? It has no reason for peace, this is why Muhammadans can’t bring peace to the table of any negotiation, it is a method of invasion, capture and domination.
It is pointless trying to spiritually interpret those suras of pagan poesy, they’re the mortal imaginings of a very fleshy sinner, a stagnant swamp of spiritual detritus, useless, toxic but poisonous.
Here’s a Christian understanding of Islam, a false prophets false religion.
Ann Marie says
The Quran ‘peaceful’?? Oh, so, murdering, cheating, raping, pillaging are now considered ‘peaceful’ acts?
Is he drugged, stupid or being paid a lot of money by Alwaleed Bin Talal to write this garbage?
Manuek 2 Paleologus says
I don’t imagine how God putts up with all these idiots and professional misleaders.
Many ignorants fall because of lack of education and information.
Islam is not a religion to begin with-it is just a. political-social cult, anti human and crazy enough to bring the annihilation of humanity. It contains all evil.
Norger says
The “Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding.” Yes, let’s trust the Saudis and their bought and paid for propagandists to tell us about “true” Islam. Georgetown is a disgrace.
gravenimage says
+1