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A Rebuttal of William F. Vendley on Why Muslims Condemn Terrorism

Jul 21, 2020 11:00 am By Isaac Marshall

In a video from the 5th of July this year, Catholic theologian and Emir-Stein Center representative William F. Vendley presents a case for why Muslims do condemn [Islamic] terrorism, but there are many issues with the picture presented here by Vendley.

One of Vendley’s claims in this video is that peaceful Muslims condemning terrorism are rarely seen in the media. In fact, they are far more commonly seen than are Muslims justifying terror, as Muslim apologists such as Reza Aslan, Mehdi Hasan and Ahmed Soliman have been frequently seen on the biggest television and news stations defending Islam.

Vendley’s case for non-violent Muslims being separate and condemning violent Muslims hinges solely on anecdotal evidence. His first story is from 2015, when a bus filled mainly with Muslims was attacked by al-Shabab. The attackers demanded that the people on the bus identify the Christians so that they could be slaughtered. The Muslims on the bus refused to identify the Christians and protected their identity, and the terrorists eventually gave up.

The questions here include: what is Vendley’s definition of Muslim, and who was acting in accordance with Islam? Vendley cannot claim a Muslim is simply someone who claims to be one, or else the terrorists would be just as Muslim as those who defended the Christians. A Muslim is a person who follows the Qur’an as direct, perfect, unchangeable, eternal, perfectly preserved word of Allah, and who believes that Muhammad is his final messenger. This is the Shahada’s meaning. So who was acting in accordance with Allah’s word?

In Surah 9:5, Allah commands: ‘So when the forbidden months are passed, so kill the polytheists wherever you find them, and take them [as captives] and besiege them and lay wait for them with every kind of ambush’, showing that the al-Shabab terrorists were acting upon the exact command of Allah, in the correct manner and style. The passengers on the bus were transgressing against Allah’s word, including Surah 5:51, where Allah states; ‘O you who have believed, do not take the Jews and the Christians as friends. They are friends to one another. And whoever among you takes them as friends, so surely he is of them.’

The only instance here in which al-Shabab acted wrongly in terms of Islam was by allowing the people on the bus to live, because the fate of transgressors according to Allah is extremely clear. A Muslim who takes a Christian for a friend is one of them, and transgressors are met with harsh punishment. In Surah 4:89, we read: ‘They desire that you should become infidels as they are infidels so that you should be alike. So do not take any of them for friends until they emigrate for the sake of Allah. So if they turn away, so seize them and kill them wherever you find them, and do not take from them as friends or helpers.’ It seems that once these Muslim protectors turned away to help the inferior Christians (the worst of creatures, according to Surah 98:6), they turned away from Allah.

Vendley’s second story involves the hiding of men and women who were mostly Christian from herdsmen in 2018 by the Nigerian imam Abubakar. Again, the terrorists in this instance complied with all the verses commanding the slaughter of Christians, and asked for them to be turned over, but the imam refuses and offers himself instead. This shows a similar flawed, dynamic. According to the words of the Qur’an, the terrorists were correct in demanding the Christians, and the imam transgressed against Allah in taking the Christians as allies.

Allah commands in Surah 9:123: ‘O you who have believed, engage in war against the infidels who are near to you. And let them find in you harshness’. This war for the sake of Allah can only end when all religion is for Allah, as seen in Surah 8:39: ‘And engage in war with them until there will not be sedition and the religion will be completely to Allah. So, if they cease, so surely Allah sees what they do.’ Those who turn away from engaging in war are confronted by Allah in Surah 8:16: ‘And whoever will turn his back to them on that day, unless he turns away strategically to engage in war or to rally some other group, so indeed, will return with wrath from Allah’.

Once again, the Muslim defenders in this scenario are lucky that the devout followers of Allah did not anticipate this occurring, which is why these scenarios are so rare, because in Surah 9:73, we read Allah commanding Muhammad to perform Jihad against hypocrites: ‘O you prophet, perform jihad against the infidels and the hypocrites, and be harsh with them. And their abode will be hell, and evil is the final place.’ We are constantly reminded that transgressors are not loved by Allah and that hell will be their final abode.

The third story involves a bishop friend of Vendley’s being welcomed as a friend before a crowd at a Saudi imam’s mosque. We’ve already seen that this kind of behavior is not the will of Allah according to the words of the Qur’an, so it is irrelevant to the question at hand.

Vendley then concludes by saying; ‘I could go on and on about the courage and kindness of ordinary Muslims standing up to terrorism’. The issue is that these acts of courage and kindness are directly in opposition to the words of Allah in the Qur’an; the people Vendley describes are standing up to not only the terrorists, but Islam. How can these acts be held up as correlating to their Muslim identity when they are in direct transgression against Allah’s words?

Vendley says ‘terror in the name of Islam is evil’. I don’t really take much notice of the actions of Muslims unless the action is in accordance with Islamic teaching. Anything else is irrelevant. What matters is if it is justified according to the Qur’an. All of the instances given by Vendley most certainly are not. Vendley follows with ‘all [people], especially Muslims, need to condemn’ terrorism. My question here, though, is on what grounds? How can a knowing Muslim condemn an act of terrorism if it is commanded by Allah? When God is the objective moral standard, he defines what is ultimately good, what is righteous and how someone will be judged. The only way for someone to legitimately critique such actions is after leaving Islam.

The ‘ugly trap’ Vendley then presents is to fall into criticising Islam, and the bait and switch is complete. Not once did Vendley prove from Islamic scripture that the terrorists were wrong, or that the victims were correct according to Islam. The evidence has proved quite the opposite.

In his final statement, Vendley suggests bringing people out of a ‘sinkhole of darkness’, where fear and revulsion lie, by using decency, empathy, courage and care. One important factor he forgot to include in his equation of sentimental synonyms is truth, which always ultimately sets someone free from fear, hate and the like. In my opinion, the decent, empathetic, courageous and caring thing to do is to tell the truth, so that the backbone of terrorism of this nature, i.e. commands of Allah, is torn out.

My first question to William F. Vendley would be the following. If Muslims condemn the direct, perfect, unchangeable, eternal, perfectly preserved word of Allah, are they Muslim any longer or are they transgressors and hypocrites? I would also be intrigued to see if Mr. Vendley could fulfil the classic challenge: show me one verse in the Qur’an that preaches love to an unbeliever. Until then, it seems there is only one set of Muslims who are truly Muslims.

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Filed Under: Useful idiots, War is deceit Tagged With: Emir-Stein Center, William F. Vendley


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Comments

  1. mortimer says

    Jul 21, 2020 at 11:16 am

    The Emir-Stein Center has obviously been set up to whitewash Islam so that people will not see the threat of discriminatory Sharia societies. I have tried to view a number of Emir-Stein videos, but I ended up feeling sick to my stomach with the constant stream of partial-truths and outright falsehoods that are pedalled.

    So-called ‘progressive liberals’ like them actually think that they have a magical power to WISH INTO EXISTENCE their own watered-down fantasy version of Islam. They wish to create an Islam that is designed in their own ‘liberal’ image.

    To Mr. Vendley, I repeat the sober word’s of Fr Henri Boulad SJ:

    “Islamism is not a caricature, nor a counterfeit, nor a heresy, nor a fringe or atypical phenomenon versus classical, orthodox, Sunnite Islam.

    To the contrary, I think Islamism is naked Islam, Islam without a mask and without paint, Islam perfectly consistent and true to itself, an Islam that has the courage and lucidity to go all the way to its ultimate conclusions and final implications.

    Islamism is Islam in all its logic and in all its rigour. Islamism is present in Islam as the chick is present in the egg, as the fruit is present in the flower and as the tree is present in the seed.

    But what is Islamism?

    Islamism is political Islam, the bearer of a project for a model society and whose aim is to establish a theocratic state based on Sharia, the only legitimate law—since it is divine—since it was revealed and enshrined in the Koran and Sunna—it’s a law that applies to everything.

    Here is an all-inclusive and all-encompassing project, one that is total, totalizing and totalitarian.” – Fr Henri Boulad SJ.

    • Isaac Marshall says

      Jul 21, 2020 at 11:28 am

      I was sickened by what I saw from the Emir Stein Center so writing rebuttals for all appropriate material from their channel was a nagging requirement for me over the last couple of weeks. They only have 14 topical videos on their channel and I wrote rebuttals for 10, the other four I don’t think are worth the time. I have never came across a channel or organisation worse than the Emir Stein Center in all the time i’ve trawled and followed Islamic apologetics. I’m relieved to be finished the series. Those quotes are so apt; Father Henri Boulad sounds like exactly the sound of priest we need in the world today.

      • gravenimage says

        Jul 21, 2020 at 7:57 pm

        Thanks so much for your series exposing this Taqiyya, Mr. Marshall.

        The Center is named for Emir Abdal Qadir al-Jazairi, who fought the French in Algeria.

        He is supposed to have sheltered some Christians in Damascus who were being pursued by a Muslim mob–again, like those on the bus attacked by Al-Shebaab, he acted counter to Islam itself.

        It is notable that Infidels–including the French he had earlier attacked–were impressed by this humanitarianism on his part. He was, notably, never honored by any Muslims for this action.

  2. elee says

    Jul 21, 2020 at 11:19 am

    Muruna. Look it up.

  3. mortimer says

    Jul 21, 2020 at 11:27 am

    Vendley begins with the WRONG PREMISE and then goes over the edge with his conclusion. Let’s start on the right foot … To begin with, let’s differentiate between what CLASSICAL, ‘CONSENSUS’ Islam actually teaches and the small amount of it that most Muslims actually believe and practice.

    Most Muslims do not practice most of what Islam teaches. Islam is not a democracy nor a popularity contest in which Muslims may pick and choose which parts of its teachings they like and then reject the other parts.

    A major reason Muslims don’t criticize other Muslims, is that it is AGAINST THE RULES OF ISLAM to criticize fellow Muslims.

    Muslims also are afraid that if they criticize the terrorists, they will be the next victims of the terrorists.

    What an individual Muslim thinks subjectively about terrorism is not relevant. ‘CONSENSUS’ ISLAM teaches that all Muslims are required to contribute to or conduct jihad in a number of different ways.

    Most of jihad is the ‘jihad of the tongue’ … that is concealing, cloaking and dissembling the method and meaning of jihad so that dirty kafirs are unable to defend themselves from it.

    Vendley is a dhimmi helping jihad to go undetected, but he is too naïve to see it.

    • elee says

      Jul 21, 2020 at 1:28 pm

      In short a Useful Idiot.

    • gravenimage says

      Jul 21, 2020 at 8:06 pm

      Vendley is head of “Religions for Peace”–the name is obviously based on ludicrously referring to Islam as a “Religion of Peace”–but notably this is not a Muslim organization.

  4. Michael Copeland says

    Jul 21, 2020 at 12:18 pm

    The Quran directly commands us to commit terrorism – R H Hamida
    …to strike terror into the hearts of the enemies — Gen. S. K. Malik
    Terrorism is part of Islam! – Abu Izzadeen
    Every Muslim is a potential terrorist – Nassim ben Iman
    Every Muslim is a terrorist – Zakir Naik
    The Management of Savagery – Islamic State manual
    Our terrorism is blessed, a divine call – child with dagger MEMRI.

    https://gatesofvienna.net/2020/02/islams-agenda-muslims-speak/

  5. MykeJohn says

    Jul 21, 2020 at 12:21 pm

    The muslims would be dancing all the way to al-jennah if any, because they have turned William F. Vendley into useful idiot in furtherance of their cause through taqiyya.

  6. FYI says

    Jul 21, 2020 at 12:30 pm

    Vendley says ‘Terror in the name of islam is evil’.

    muhammed,the ‘prophet’ of islam,would disagree about the use of terrorism in islam for

    muhmamed said ‘I have been made victorious through terror”
    {Sahih Bukhari 4:52:220}

    If Vendley is right,by his reasoning ,islamic terrorists must be evil :But since muhammed admitted to being a terrorist in the name of islam that means muhammed is…evil.

    And I thought islamic ‘scholars’ were logically challenged..

    Here is one piece of scripture for Theologians and academics.

    “The scripture says,”I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and set aside the understanding of the scholars”.
    So then,where does that leave the Wise?Or the scholars?Or the skillful debaters of this world?
    God has shown that this world’s wisdom is foolishness”
    I Corinthians I v 19-20

    Theology is ‘this world’s wisdom’:it is what Theologians imagine God to be all about.
    Much of it is speculative ‘foolishness’

    The reason the Apostles had the Gift of the Holy Spirit was to confound the scholars:they did not need to be Theology graduates.They had a better understanding than the scholars,much greater wisdom.

    “For what seems to be God’s foolishness is wiser than human Wisdom and what seems to be God’s weakness is stronger than human strength”
    I Corinthians 1 v 25

    What makes God laugh?
    Theologians and weather forecasters.

    {islamic ‘scholars’ of course are a JOKE:allah tells them to consult the Bible if in doubt {koran 10:94} and had they done that they would have seen all the ERRORS in the koran{for example allah’s mistaken belief MARY is in the Trinity koran 5:116}And they had 14 centuries approx do do that simple task..}

    • gravenimage says

      Jul 21, 2020 at 8:18 pm

      +1

  7. Wellington says

    Jul 21, 2020 at 12:48 pm

    Many, actually most, religious people do not follow all the dictates, commands, directives, etc. of their religion of choice. So what?

    Imperative is what the religion in its theory asserts. And Islam is the only major religion whose theory, whose ideology, authorizes the use of force by its believers to spread Islam across the earth and subdue all non-Muslims by way of sundry humiliating restrictions, and if such restrictions are not met, then severe harm or death will follow. Islam also commands death for any Muslim who leaves Islam (e.g., Sura 4:89).

    A Muslim not fulfilling violent, control-freak, barbaric commands that exist in Islam should NEVER be an example of what Islam teaches. It is a huge mistake to do this. An error of the first degree.

    Again I point out that virtually every religion has two threats: 1) a person will be punished in the next life somehow for not believing or acting in a way demanded by the religion in question; and 2) the deity or deities of a religion may punish a person in this world for not believing or doing what is expected of that person. Here Islam is no different from other religions.

    But Islam is unique in having a third threat and that is why Islam is such a menace to mankind and certainly to liberty. This third threat involves the authorization for Muslims, the believers themselves, to use force in this world “until all religion is with Allah.” {Sura 8:39} Minus this third threat Islam would be essentially like every other religion. But because of this third threat Islam is a curse to mankind and Muslims that don’t engage in this third threat are actually bad Muslims though often times good people. But so what? Counting on Muslims who aren’t prepared to exercise this third threat demanded of them by their own religion and thinking therefore Islam is peaceful and not a problem is a profoundly foolish conclusion to come to. This is exactly what William Vendley has done—and why he is drastically and even dangerously wrong.

    • elee says

      Jul 21, 2020 at 1:33 pm

      What “individual Muslims” purportedly say do or think is irrelevant. K. 33.37. Oh and one can simultaneously be a Muslim and a useful idiot.

    • James Lincoln says

      Jul 21, 2020 at 7:46 pm

      Wellington says,

      “Counting on Muslims who aren’t prepared to exercise this third threat demanded of them by their own religion and thinking therefore Islam is peaceful and not a problem is a profoundly foolish conclusion to come to.”

      100% true.

      All Western leaders should be prepared for some muslims to exercise that third threat – anytime, anyplace.

    • gravenimage says

      Jul 21, 2020 at 8:20 pm

      Good post, Wellington.

  8. gravenimage says

    Jul 21, 2020 at 7:45 pm

    A Rebuttal of William F. Vendley on Why Muslims Condemn Terrorism
    …………………..

    Good rejoinders from Isaac Marshall.

    These anecdotes–even assuming they are all accurate, in no way show that Jihad terrorism is not Islamic. As Bosch Fawstin has said, some Muslims are simply better than their religion.

    And so often, when Muslims *are* supposedly “condemning terrorism”, it turns out that they don’t mean Jihad terror–they are actually condemning Infidels like the US and Israel for taking any measures to protect their citizens against Jihad.

  9. OLD GUY says

    Jul 22, 2020 at 11:04 am

    Beware of the Islamic lying machine, they have mastered lying as taught by Muhammad their pervert leader.

  10. Patriotliz says

    Jul 22, 2020 at 5:00 pm

    Here we go again…can’t condemn the ideology of ISLAM because not ALL Muslims are terrorists.
    If you can’t condemn Islam then you are condoning Islamic terrorism committed by Muslims who devoutly follow the teachings in the Koran.
    The inciting ideology has to be condemned because it can never be reformed….because it’s PERFECT you can’t eliminate the inhumane passages in the Koran.
    The only solution is for those Muslims, who are not fundamentalist Muslims, is that they MUST become apostates o/w they support terrorism even if they don’t engage in Islamic terrorism…by the BOOK… which is PERFECT.
    You can’t be proud to be a Nazi but not approve what Hitler did to Jews.
    Muslims have a choice if living in what’s left of the Free World…they can choose not to be associated with Islam and become apostates o/w they support the first Jihadist who invented and promulgated Islamic terrorism in the name of his allah.

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