The Qur'an's Covenant with the Jewish People

Claims to the Holy Land

by Muhammad Al-Hussaini
Middle East Quarterly
Fall 2009, pp. 9-14

Editors' preface: Who has rights to the land between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River? Zionists cite biblical passages in which God awarded them Eretz Yisrael, the Land of Israel, in perpetuity in his covenant with the children of Israel. Muslims make a counter-claim based in part on verses of the Qur'an that describe the Jews in terms of contempt and in part on rulings in Muslim law that reject Muslims relinquishing rule over a territory under Muslim rule to nonbelievers. But other Muslims cite different Qur'anic verses in support of the Jewish claim. The conflict has a religious quality that makes it the more difficult to resolve.
The Middle East Quarterly commissioned two essays presenting different views of the Qur'an and its passages dealing with the Holy Land and Jews. Here, Muhammad Al-Hussaini, a Muslim scholar, understands the text of the Qur'an to award the Holy Land to the Jews for all time, and he holds that Muslims can be convinced of this interpretation. In the second essay, Robert Spencer argues that Islamic law has not recognized and will never recognize Jewish rights to this territory.

Jewish claims to the Holy Land rest in passages of the Torah, in which the land is given to the Children of Israel in fulfillment of God's promise to them. In the book of Genesis, God promises the Holy Land to Abraham and his descendants unequivocally. Addressing Abraham, God says: "For all the land which you see, to you will I give it, and to your seed for ever" (Genesis 13:15). The promise is repeated to Abraham's son Isaac: "To you and your descendants I will give all these lands and will confirm the oath which I swore to your father Abraham" (Genesis 26:3).

Muslims today derive meanings from the Qur'an that censure the Jews and exalt the city of Jerusalem through reference to the "Night Journey" when the Prophet Muhammad is said to have traveled from Mecca to Jerusalem in a single night and then ascended to heaven to come before God. Chapter 17 of the Qur'an ("The Night Journey") refers to this event: "Glory be to Him, who carried His servant [Muhammad] by night from the holy mosque to the further mosque [al-Masjid al-Aqsa]" (Qur'an 17:1). [1]This "further mosque" is generally interpreted as Jerusalem or a place within it, often claimed to be the site of Al-Aqsa Mosque, built after Muhammad's death in 632.

Until now, there has been no proper dialogue about these founding texts. But a dialogue is possible, first by recognizing that the Qur'an does, in fact, confirm the Biblical promise, then by re-reading commentaries on the Qur'anic text where the Jewish claim is strengthened. Beyond that, although the Jews come in for severe criticism in the works of Muslim apologists and theologians, there are no grounds in religious law to entertain the conceit that God's promise to the Children of Israel has been broken, and none to support the view that Israel is now the property of the Muslims. This effort involves an approach to the analysis of texts that requires Muslim scholars to take lessons from modern Biblical interpretation as practiced by Christian and Jewish exegetes working singly and together. If dialogue at this level were to become widely possible, the long-term implications for peace in the Middle East might be considerable.

Law Takes Precedence over Polemics
Illustrative of the powerful ambivalences and loose ends in Islamic interpretation is the Qur'anic commentary on the verse in Surat al-Ma 'ida (Qur'an 5:21) concerning the Israelite settlement of the Holy Land, an issue which is addressed in some detail by the classical commentators:

O my people, enter the Holy Land which God has prescribed for you, and turn not back in your traces, to turn about losers. [ya qawmi udkhulu'l-ar d al-muqaddasa allati kataba'llah lakum wa la tartadu ' ala 'adbarikum fatanqalibu khasirina.][2]

Islamic commentators simultaneously disdain and revere the Jewish roots of Islam; still some Muslim interpreters unambiguously understand the sacred territory as an Israelite inheritance through Islamic law. This kind of thinking is not uncommon. The Qur'an itself, divided between Meccan and Medinan verses, early and late, presents numerous contradictory statements that interpreters have found ways to reconcile.

In both Judaism and Islam, the status and legal rights of a Gentile or stranger dwelling among Israel, or of the non-Muslim People of the Book, are all matters governed by sacred law. These rulings fall wholly within the purview of practical jurisprudence, not theologies concerning their salvation standing with God. Among rabbinic tractates, Avodah Zarah is replete with condemnation of the idolatrous worship of Christians and pagans,[3] Tosefta Shabbat[4] andSanhedrin[5] excoriate the falsity of the New Testament while at the same time, the rights and property of the stranger are protected and made sacred in Jewish law.[6]

For its part, the Qur'an clearly includes polemic against the Christian Trinity:

They are unbelievers who say, "God is the Third of Three." No god is there but One God. If they refrain not from what they say, there shall afflict those of them that disbelieve a painful chastisement.[7]

However, this does not detract from the judicial rights of freedom of worship historically granted in Islamic Shari'a to the Christians of Najran, allegedly by the Prophet himself:

To the Christians of Najran and the neighboring territories, the pledge of His Prophet are extended for their lives, their religion, and their property, to those present as well as those absent and others besides. There shall be no interference with the practice of their faith or their observance; nor any change in their rights or privileges.[8]

The Prophet is also said to have ordained similar rights for the monks of St Catherine's Monastery in Sinai:

No one is to destroy a house of their religion, to damage it, or carry anything from it to the house of the Muslims. Should anyone take any of these, he would spoil God's covenant and disobey His Prophet.[9]

What is important to grasp is that to the Judeo-Islamic judicial mindset, there is absolutely no inconsistency, on the one hand, between implacable polemics against idolatrous Christians in matters of religious doctrine, and on the other, legal rulings that establish the fair rights, liberties, and rightful property ownerships of these nonbelievers according to sacred law. Both Jewish and Islamic sacred texts and their vast classical traditions of reading are quite big enough to hold both concepts—just as both traditions have in practice applied justice with the same changeability.

Thus, more important even than the interpretation itself, this preparatory analysis is critical in helping form the correct reading of Qur'an 5:21, which commands, "O my people, enter the Holy Land which God has prescribed for you." It is necessary to stand this interpretation against the faulty equation that the anti-Jewish critique in the Qur'an cancels out all Jewish legal, religious, and property rights under Islamic law.

Tabari on Settlement of the Holy Land
Historically there have been two broad approaches to commentary on the Qur'an. One is to use received oral sayings of the Prophet and his Companions to interpret the text.[10] The other is the application of reason as a tool for understanding Scripture.[11] With the battles of the ninth century between the traditionalist Sunni party and the rationalist Mu'tazila school of thought, in which Sunnism emerged victorious,[12] oral tradition became the primary instrument for the interpretation and explanation of Holy Writ.[13]

In the particular case of legal questions, there is an unbending consensus that prevents anyone from expressing disagreement with a ruling based on the recorded texts of oral tradition. This is illustrated in the statement attributed to a companion of Muhammad, Ibn 'Abbas, cited by Muhammad bin 'Abd al-Wahhab:

Ibn 'Abbas said, "Stones are about to rain down upon you from the sky! For I say to you, "The Prophet of God, may God bless him and grant him peace, said…" and you say, "But Abu Bakr [first caliph] and 'Umar [second caliph] said?"[14]

This unassailable reverence for an oral tradition written down for posterity has spectacular consequences in the case of the interpretation of Qur'an 5:21. Of particular interest is the medieval commentary on this verse by Abu Ja'far Muhammad bin Jarir at-Tabari (838-923), among the earliest and certainly the most revered fathers of the science of Qur'anic commentary and interpretation.[15]

After recounting the order from Moses to the Israelites to enter the Holy Land as commanded by God, Tabari explores the differing opinions received from a number of the Prophet's companions as to the identity of the territory in question, these being respectively "At-Tur [the Qur'anic term for Mount Sinai] and that which is around it," ash-Sham (the Levant), Ariha (Jericho) or Dimashq wa Filastin wa ma ba'da'l-Urdun (Damascus, Palestine, and Trans-Jordan).

The Tabari commentary then proceeds to the critical phrase, allati kataba Allah lakum (Which God has prescribed [lit. "written"] for you) with the startling comment, "And the meaning of His saying, 'Which God has written for you' is that He 'confirmed' it in 'the Preserved Tablet' [i.e. the matrix of all scriptures, preserved in heaven] that it is yours as settlements and dwellings, in place of the oppressors who are in it."

Among the key expressions alongside the juristic term kataba lakum (has written for you) is the expression "the Preserved Tablet," a reference to the Islamic conception of a divine blueprint in heaven from which all the revealed books—the Torah, the Psalms, the Gospel, and the Qur'an—have been sent down to man. Later on, Tabari elaborates upon the linguistic implications of kataba, citing other companions of Muhammad in their use of parallel terms for it, such as wahaba (granted, bestowed) and amara (ordered, commanded), concluding with a declaration from the mouth of the companion, Abu Qatada al-Ansari: "They were commanded it, in the manner they were commanded the prayer and the alms-due and the greater pilgrimage and the lesser pilgrimage," reflecting the understanding of Jewish commandments (mitzvot) in the mind of the early Muslims.[16]

Among the key problems addressed by Tabari and in later centuries by another leading commentator, Ibn Kathir (1301-73), is the cowardly disobedience of Israel to enter Canaan and undertake jihad against its powerful inhabitants, as narrated in the succeeding verses:

"So go, you [Moses] and your Lord, and the two of you fight. We are sitting here." And this is their refusal of jihad, and disobedience of their Messenger, and dereliction of fighting the enemies. [17]

This behavior, which provokes a furious anti-Jewish polemic in Ibn Kathir's commentary, culminates in the 40-year banishment of the stiff-necked generation until the second generation returns to claim its inheritance. Thus, Tabari concludes, "It became to them as God, majestic and glorious, said."[18] As ever, the commentators' scorn of Jewish wrongdoing stands shoulder-to-shoulder with the clarity with which they construct the legal argument for Israelite territorial ownership by forensic analysis of language.[19] Ibn Kathir comments in relation to the preceding verse recalling Israel's blessings:

The intended meaning is that they [the Israelites] were the best of their age, except that this community [i.e. that of the Muslims] is more noble than them, more favored before God, with the more perfect law, the more steadfast way of life, the more honored prophet, the greater kingdom, the more abundant bounties, the more plentiful wealth and children.[20]

For Ibn Kathir, Muslim superiority and supersession is naturally unquestionable and barely needs mention. But nowhere at any point does this classical commentator or any other dare to pretend an Islamic-Arab juristic claim upon the Holy Land, which the established and binding tradition of interpretation of the Qur'an has written for another.

Other medieval commentaries on this verse and related verses in the Qur'an (17:1-8 and 101-104) deserve mention, notably the narratives relayed in the accounts by Abu'l-Qasim Mahmud az-Zamakhshari (1074-1143) and his detractor 'Abd Allah ibn 'Umar al-Baydawi (d. 1286 or 1292), who both discuss Abraham's ascension of Mount Lebanon, from which he surveyed the promised inheritance of his descendants.[21] However, being so reverentially bound by inherited traditions, by and large, the consensus of commentators across the sectarian and historical span is strikingly consistent.

Conclusions
The educated American reader will know that the bad habit that Muslims and Christians share in their reading of Scripture is the compulsion to move swiftly from text to dogma. This bad habit might manifest itself in the verse-slinging missionary on a doorstep or the pulpit preacher whose interpretation leaps up a very sharp incline from a single verse to unassailable dogma.
However, a developing approach to a more nuanced engagement with text is a deliberately juxtaposed reading of Islamic Scriptures and traditions in parallel with Jewish and Christian sacred books by scholars from all three faiths—a process known as "Scriptural Reasoning."[22] This began as an intra-Jewish activity at Princeton, exploring how sacred texts might be an instrument for tikkun olam, or repair of the world.[23] In Britain, however, this approach has been taken out of the ivory towers and onto the streets of Muslim communities, resulting in the historic achievement of the first fatwa (religious edict) in modern times issued in 2007 by senior Islamic authorities, giving sanction for lay Muslims to meet with Jews and Christians for interfaith dialogue and frank debate around their sacred texts.[24] Thus a powerful instrument has emerged for the novel exploration of hitherto closed interpretative questions of Muslim relationships with other peoples and faiths—including those of the Middle East conflict.[25]

From a Jewish perspective, there are more important humane considerations for the sanctity of human life, of justice and rights for the Palestinian people that respect human dignity, self-determination, and parity of esteem—things safeguarded by the best of Judaism's legacy of rabbinic wisdom. At the same time, Muslims need to recognize the extent to which a vacuum has been created by the absence of any explicit Qur'anic counterclaim to the Holy Land. This missing concept has been filled instead with Judeophobia—the popular demonization of the Jewish people, embraced as a substitute for the lack of a heavenly eviction order.[26] The mass importation and translation of Western anti-Semitic materials into the Muslim milieu represents possibly the most disturbing novel development, rendering Jewish-Muslim engagement all the more critical.

It should in all respects be vividly apparent that it is in the interpretative relationship between Muslim peoples and Islam's sacred scripture—at this powerful and explosive nexus—that a significant part of our shared history will be written in the coming century. And it is here, therefore, that our conversations as Abrahamic believers round the family table and our reasoning together around scripture must begin.

Muhammad Al-Hussaini is fellow and lecturer in Islamic Studies at Leo Baeck Rabbinical College, London.
[1] All translations of the Qur'an from A. J. Arberry, ed., The Koran (London: Allen and Unwin, 1955, subsequently Oxford University Press).
[2] Qur'an 5:21.
[3] Avodah Zarah 26a.
[4] Tosefta Shabbat 116a.
[5] Sanhedrin 59a.
[6] Baba Kamma 113b.
[7] Qur'an 5:73.
[8] Muhammad Hamidullah, Majmu' al-Watha'iq as-Siyasiya (Cairo: Lajna at-Ta'lif wa 't-Tarjama wa 'n-Nashr, 1956), pp. 111-2.
[9] A. Zahoor and Z. Haq, trans., "Prophet Muhammad's Charter of Privileges to Christians: Letter to the Monks of St. Catherine Monastery," accessed July 26, 2009.
[10] Ibn al-Athir, An-Nihaya fi Gharib al-Hadith, Mahmud Muhammad at-Tanahi, ed. (Cairo: Dar al-Ma'arif, 1385/1965-66), 4:71.
[11] 'Abd al-Jabbar, Tanzih al-Qur'an 'an al-Mata'in (Beirut: Dar al-Kitab al-'Arabi, n.d.), pp. 118-9.
[12] Abu 'l-Fath Muhammad ash-Shahrastani, Kitab al-Milal wa 'n-Nihal, 3 vols. (Cairo: Dar al-Ma'arif, 1948), 2:12-3.
[13] Leah Kinberg, "Muhkamat and Mutashabihat (Koran 3/7): Implication of a Koranic Pair of Terms in Medieval Exegesis," Arabica, 35 (1988): 143-72.
[14] Muhammad bin 'Abd al-Wahhab, Kitab at-Tawhid alladhi huwa Haqq Allah 'ala 'l-'Abid, (Mecca: Muslim World League, 1400/1980), p. 63, (author's translation).
[15] Abu Ja'far Muhammad b. Jarir at-Tabari, Jami 'al-Bayan fi Tafsir al-Qur'an, 12 vols. (Beirut: Dar al-Kutub al-'Ilmiyya, 1412/1991-92), 15:127.
[16] Tabari, Jami', on Qur'an 2:62.
[17] Isma'il bin 'Umar Ibn Kathir, Tafsir al-Qur'an al-Karim, Yusuf 'Abd ar-Rahman al-Mar'ashli, ed. (Beirut: Dar al-Ma'arifa, 1987), on Qur'an 5:24, (author's translation).
[18] Tabari, Jami', on Qur'an 5:21, (author's translation).
[19] Abu Nasr Isma'il b. Hammad al-Jawhari, Taj al-Lugha wa sahah al-'Arabiyya, Nasr al-Hurini, ed. (Cairo: Dar al-Ma'arif, 1365/1946), 2:287.
[20] Ibn Kathir, Tafsir, on Qur'an 5:20.
[21] Abu'l-Qasim az-Zamakhshari, Al-Kashshaf 'an Haqa'iq Ghawami' at-Tanzil wa-'Uyun al-'Aqawil fi Wujuh at-Ta'wil, 4 vols. (Beirut: Dar al-Kitab al-'Arabi, n.d.), on Qur'an 5:21.
[22] Steven Kepnes, "A Handbook for Scriptural Reasoning," Modern Theology, June 2006, pp. 367-83.
[23] Peter Ochs, "Introduction," in Textual Reasonings: Jewish Philosophy and Text Study at the End of the Twentieth Century, Peter Ochs and Nancy Levene, eds. (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2002), pp. 2-14; idem, "The Logic of Indignity and the Logic of Redemption," in God and Human Dignity, R. Kendall Soulen and Linda Woodhead, eds. (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2006), pp. 143-60.
[24] Muhammad Fathallah, Salah al-Ansari and Muhammad al-Salamoni, "Fatwa on Scriptural Reasoning," Scripturalreasoning.co.uk, accessed May 1, 2009.
[25] Jenny Williams, "Sense and Spirituality," The Baptist Times (Didcot, U.K.), Mar. 12, 2009; Chad Pecknold, "Preface: The Promise of Scriptural Reasoning," Modern Theology, June 2006, pp. 339-43.

[26] See, for example, Sayyid Qutb, In the Shade of the Quran (Leicester: Islamic Foundation, 2007), on Qur'an 5.

Source: http://www.meforum.org/2464/quran-covenant-with-jewish-people

IHS

Koran only Islam II: Pray to Sina!!

FFI published a previous posting on a sequence of emails with a Koran-only Muslimah. The following is a copy of the last email we received from her, along with the editor’s analysis. The editor decided not to continue correspondence with this lady for reasons that will become apparent while reading her email and the editor’s analysis of her email

Here is her latest email

Well, I guess we well have to start praying to Dr. Ali Sina, and instead of Quraan we will read all Ali Sina’s books for religious guidance

Oh also as your website dictates we will abandon religion altogether and follow our own lust.

You offer much criticism but ZERO alternatives.

Everyone is born a Muslim.  We had no control over our coming and we definitely cannot stop our demise.  The meaning of Muslim is one that submits to the will of Allah.

You’re so cocky stop your own death.  Better yet, kill yourself and prove that there is no god and come back with pictures or some kind of proof.

You want proof, well I should have caught you sooner, you would have seen the crescent moon and the star in the sky during this holy month of Ramadan.

Next time you are up at sunrise or right before sunset notice the Direction the birds are facing while they are chirping (making salat).

Allah says in Quraan ALL of creation worships him.  Only man, was given the test of free will to choose not too.

I choose to worship Allah.  We will all know the truth on judgment day.  I will take my chances with faith.  You take your chances with your learned s cholars and their books.

What man begins a book,” In the name of Allah most gracious most merciful”?  As arrogant as you have proven man to be, why give credit to someone other than yourself? You have definitely gone out of your way to give different men’s opinions and books as references as more relevant.

I put my trust in Allah, period, stop.

You are spreading your jargon of hate well you just met someone that you cannot nor will not agree with or follow your line of thinking and guess what there are millions of those like me.

Islam teaches us that we as individuals are responsible for our worship.  I do not need a mosque to worship Allah I know when I have to make salat, fast during Ramadan, give charity nor do I need help reading or understanding my Quran..  Allah promised Muslims that we will be increased in knowledge and wisdom and that the Quraan is complete..

Obviously you are still looking for your guru!

You must remember one small thing, Allah makes Muslims.  We do not solicit people to become Muslims,anyone that does is not following Quraan.  Allah says he guides, we are to concern ourselves only with the believers.

It is clear you are a non-believer and I doubt if you have ever been a Muslim.  As Allah says for the disbelievers, he puts blinders on your eyes and deafness in your ears, you are not allowed to understand Quraan.  While I on the other hand weep at hearing the words of Allah, it is clear your heart is cold and Allah refuses to guide you.

I will not waste no more of my time with you.  The devil has succeeded with you.  Satan asked Allah why he cursed him, when man will NOT worship him and shed blood.  Unfortunatly Satan was right, you are a prime example. And like Satan said he is taking a whole bunch of Adam’s children with him to hell.

Find someone you can mesmerize with you hypocrisy I am NOT the one.

Peace Out.

Oh Allah protect me from the disbelieving folks.

Editor’s Analysis

I have to admit that this is one of the most idiotic emails we ever received. I will quote verbatim from the above email:

Quote 1
 “Well, I guess we well have to start praying to Dr. Ali Sina, and instead of Quraan we will read all Ali Sina’s books for religious guidance”

The above quote is irrelevant to any of the previous emails to this lady. We suggested to her to read Sina’s challenge. We do that to many people we receive emails from. We walk shoulder to shoulder with our brother Sina. We have a great respect for him. This does not by any means imply that we agree with everything he says. In fact we don’t. But, as a matter of fact, Ali is correct in his accusations to Muhammad in the “Challenge”. When someone is right, the honorable thing to do is to say “Yes he is right”. Trying to belittle our accusations to Muhammad and Islam by saying we should regard Sina and his books as holy is immaterial and unrelated to the issue at hand.

Quote 2
 
 “Oh also as your website dictates we will abandon religion altogether and follow our own lust”

The above quote about FFI site is mistaken. FFI is not against Faith. It is against Hate. FFI does not ask people to abandon religion. In fact, many apostates become believers in other religions. The Rifqa Bary story is one example of that. She left Islam in favor of a God of love and forgiveness. We, at FFI do not see anything wrong with leaving Islam and believing in a different religion. Our main concern is to make people see how Evil Islam is. Once they see that, they will leave Islam. What kind of belief system they chose after that is up to the individual. Also, abandoning religion does not mean that a person will follow his/her own lust. There is a golden rule that applies to everyone: “Treat others as you want to be treated”. This is a universal moral compass that all humans should abide by.

Quote 3
 
 “You offer much criticism but ZERO alternatives.”

This is also incorrect. Other religions are an alternative to Islam. Atheism is another, and so is agnosticism.

Quote 4
 
 “Everyone is born a Muslim.”

This is utter nonsense. I do not know of any child who was born and proceeded to tell other humans around that he/she is a Muslim. In fact, when you go to isolated islands and see how those people in the Island lived, you will see that those people are no Muslims, not by a long shot. In fact, some of them value Pigs to a high degree. What kind of Muslims are those. Well, lets call them “Pigs only Muslims”!

This editor will stop here. This lady’s email is rich with invalid arguments/reasoning and mistaken assumptions. I leave it to the readers to analyze her many mistakes. Pretty much, there almost is not a line in her email that its falsity cannot be shown. This is why I have decided that continuing our email correspondence with her won’t serve any purpose. trying to show the errors of someone who does not have any idea about what good resoning is does not give us any glory. We are not here to put down people, but to try to have a constructive dialogue with those who are willing and able to do so. 

Source: http://www.faithfreedom.org/2009/09/15/koran-only-islam-ii-pray-to-sina/

IHS

Making of Islamic Terrorists

Dr. Babu Suseelan

FFI disclaimer: we do not believe that assassinating anyone is a justifed moral action. Some of the views in this article represent the author’s view, and not that of FFI staff.

Introduction

The destructive instinct is in every human being. It is true, nevertheless, courageous application of our intelligence, values, spiritual philosophy and formula for co-existence led to the logical progression toward civilization. We were able to face disease, destruction, war, accidents, and natural calamities. In the face of these overwhelming calamities, men were able to create poetry, philosophy, literature, music, art and science. As a result a brotherhood of humanity flourished. Men were able to prolong their life and diminish their sufferings. Many great men developed spiritual guidelines and practical formula to ward of our death instinct and destructive tendencies.

Mohammed, who claimed to be a prophet successfully exploited destructive tendencies of man and established a rigid, dogmatic, reductionist and non-compromising dogma called Islam. Islamic followers marched ahead with their vengeful hands with the abhorrent Islamic faith. Time after time in the past, Islamic dogmatic believers with the strength of their flesh proved bloodshed was honorable. Millions of innocent people were hacked to death, and several civilizations perished.

Islamic terrorism is nothing new. It is as old as Islam. After the death of Mohammed, his followers had dispatched Jihadi warriors to conquer non-Islamic world through a wave of Islamic terror. Mohammedans placed their sacred duty to conquer the world for Islam at the front of their policy. Mohammedans had crushed Persia, Syria, Egypt, Iraq, Hungary, Part of India, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Balkans, Afghanistan, and every part in North Africa. Mohammedans were exuberant. They were inspired by Allah. They were inspired as one without pity or restraint. They had the blessing of Allah and Jihad war was the manifestation of the divine will of Allah. Jihad War unfettered and pure was fought to its smoking conclusion through every conceivable extreme cruelty and horror. Mohammedans claimed those who have not known war has not known Allah. Jihadi warriors considered the power of Allah flow through them.

Islam has been responsible for more death and destruction on the face of this planet than just about anything else. Islam was started by predators and spread by predators. It has lived off the decaying corpses of the civilizations it has destroyed.

Even today, Jihad Muslims are busy planting explosive bombs on schools, hotels, office buildings, museums, temples, churches, trains and airplanes. They are willing to sacrifice themselves for injuring and killing others. Why do Islamic homicide bombers spend their time, energy and life in shortening life of others? Why do Islamic homicide bombers allow themselves to be dominated by their death instinct? If at heart, they want to die for Allah, why do they want to kill innocent people? Why Islamic homicide bomber’s “wish to kill” triumph over the wish to live? Why they love hate, death and destruction? Instead of loving life, why do they nurture destructive tendencies? Does Islamic religious indoctrination maintains their homicide instinct to kill others?

THE ISLAMIC MINDSET
Over the course of the last three decades, a number of large-scale prospective studies have convincingly demonstrated that, Islamic Jihadis commit a disproportionately large percentage of all serious and violent offenses. Since 1973, there have been 179 armed conflict around the world 169 were involved with Muslims. Worldwide Islamic Jihadist offenders accounted 95 percent of homicide bombing, 89 percent of aggravated assault and hundred percent of honorable (dishonorable) killing.

Clearly Jews and Hindus are primary targets of Islamic terrorists. Islamic Jihad and Hezbollah have murdered more than 1,600 and injured over 6,000 in the past two years. In Kashmir, India, Islamic terrorists have either killed or forced out all Hindus. These worldwide Islamic terrorist acts are meant to overthrowing democracy and replacing it with Islamic sharia. Killing innocent civilians is a high priority and legitimate way to achieve their goals. Jihadists justify heartless, cold blooded killing of infidels, women and children on behalf of Allah. Jihad murderers want to become martyrs and expect rewards from Allah. Since 9/11, Islamic terrorists have carried out more than 13944 attacks. Islamic Taliban leaders in Pakistan and Afghanistan wander around the country, pursuing their vision of Islam with fanatical zeal while the poor villagers struggle with cold, hunger, wretched poverty and disease. They have no pity for the citizens. The history of Islamic martyrs clearly indicates insensitiveness to the suffering of poor citizens. They are happy to desert their families for the sake of Jihad war and happy to imperil their own lives by their flaming devotion to Allah.

Today is tough for many non-Muslims living in Islamic countries. What makes matters worse is Islamic religious police (Mutaween) freely exercise their power in intimidating, harassing, abusing and punishing non-Muslims. All Islamic countries strictly enforce Islamic blasmephy laws to satisfy Allah and the virtues of Islam. To their support, they use Koran and Sahi Hadiths. In Islamic countries, non-believers have no value over the Islamic virtue. Fanatical Jihadists can kill non-believers, so easily in the name of Allah. Jihadists believe they are following the dictums of Allah. Jihadists have no fear, guilt, or shame whatsoever in committing terrorism, homicide bombing, public beheading, limb amputation, stoning women to death, practicing polygamy or child marriage.

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF JIHADIST HOMICIDE BOMBERS
It is important that we need to understand the psychology behind Islamic homicide bombers. How can it be that Islamic homicide bombers kill others and kill themselves? It is not impossible to dissect and investigate the process and elucidate its details. It enables us to recognize how the “killer instinct: is activated by Jihadists. The purposeless self-destructive acts are projected upon infidels. It arrests our attention, and demands that we scrutinize analytically various ways in which Jihadists commit homicide/suicide. What underlying motives determine Jihadists to commit voluntary homicide/suicide? If their death instinct is dominant why not commit suicide? Are they afraid of life, can’t they endure life and tolerate non-believers?

The question of homicide bombing and destructive acts by Islamic terrorists is one which has received no competent scientific investigation. In the popular mind the homicidal tendency is a social reaction against American-Israeli- and Indian interference in Islamic affairs. There is no convincing scientific evidence that the Islamic homicidal impulse is external.

It is a known fact that death wish is inherent in Islam. Islam approves martyrdom in the name of Allah and the Islamic community is gratified when kefirs (infidels) are murdered. Muslims are seen rejoicing when a kafir is beheaded, hanged, killed in some other way, or stoned to death. Such heinous behavior is unintelligible to the uninitiated partly because it is clearly reveals the content of the Islamic mind. The preoccupation with homicide, terrorism, beheading, limb amputation, and stoning always seems shocking and incredible to those not familiar with Jihadist terrorist methods. Their deviant methods leave little doubt as to their general significance and reinforce as to the motives of Jihadist acts. The curious element is the formation of Islamic self-concept.

THE ISLAMIC SELF-CONCEPT

We should not overlook Islamic justification for martyrdom. What seem to us to have been unnecessary and foolhardy hazards may be interpreted to mean that their attitudes were determined by strong individual tendencies toward self-destruction. But at the same time, these impulses were undoubtedly stimulated by popular Islamic influences. Islamic culture contains certain elements which tend to encourage and facilitate the individual self-destructive trends.

Islamic history gives abundant testimony to the existence of martyrdoms and assassins. Devouring Islamic enemies (kafirs) is justified by Mullahs. They encourage Jihadists to seek positive satisfaction in martyrdom. Islamic homicide bombers behavior denotes the destructive elements in their self. The Jihadist may have wished to destroy them and others because of the Islamic social values are predominant in them. They clearly demonstrate their deliberate goal of destruction by subordinating their interest in life. They glorify Islamic martyrdom and its social usefulness. The paradox of joy out of pain, suffering and death is one of the strange phenomenons in Islam. Homicide bombing, public beheading of infidels, arson, limb amputation, stoning women to death, assassination of opponents, and unrealistic interpretation and justification of such heinous crimes in the name of Allah is a kind of socially acceptable psychosis in Islamic society.

Islamic religious education indoctrinates Muslims not to accept non-believers. Jihadists use martyrdom as an aggression, a weapon of offense and an ex-pression of their buried feelings of revenge, anger, hostility, and distorted reaction. These are developed at Islamic religious schools and remain dormant in a latent form until their full flower later in life. The underlying psychological faults in Jihadist terrorism have been observed through Islamic rationalization. The elements of joy in death, of love gratified by inflicting suffering to non-believers and of violence against infidels are clear in Jihadists.

The cost to the individual Jihadi, his family and the victims is enormous. Why Mullahs could force Jihadists to commit homicide/suicide? There is nothing in Islam to neutralize or soften the hostile drives. The Islamic education results in the rigidity of the personality and they suffer from intermittent explosive disorder, defiant personality disorder and cognitive disorder. The iron control which the Mullahs impose upon certain forms of critical thinking, kindness, and tolerance, encourages destructive truths. There is nothing in Islamic education sufficient to hold in check the aggression, hostility and anger which are extraordinarily powerful in Muslim youths.

Ego development is not a function of simple brainwashing. For ego development one needs to go through different stages. Islamic education at the religious school allows only the values of the Islamic community to be internalized. Right and wrong, good and bad are defined by compliance with Islamic rules rather by universally accepted moral standards. Islam never allows Muslims to transition from conformist to conscious stage. As a result Muslims are not permitted to deviate from Islamic norms. Multiple possibilities, self-awareness and eclectic thinking are not allowed. Nor do Muslims see moral rules as primarily creating better conditions for non-Muslims. They do not see non-Muslims as having a rich internal life. They fail to develop more accurate empathy and mutuality in interpersonal relations. They fail to comprehend individual differences and the complexity of circumstances. They lack the ability to tolerate paradox and contradictions, and understanding of psychological causality. Muslims in general see non-Islamic world as hostile, nauseating and impure. They cannot hold of broad, abstract, social ideals, such as justice, tolerance and pluralism and they miserably fail to achieve peace or higher understanding.

Islamic history is overflowing with evidence of brutal behavior, assassination, homicide, beheading, kidnapping, and sexual aggression due to the selective effect of Islamic self-concept and deviant beliefs. Even today, Islam tends to maintain and reinforce dangerous Islamic self-concept. This circular characteristic of the self-concept may often be observed in the violent behavior of Hamas, Hezbollah, Taliban, Al-Qaeda and Lasker-E-Taibia. To make matters worse, Jihadists are frequently surrounded by a veritable conspiracy in which their murderous behavior is corroborated. The self-perpetuating effect of the Islamic self-concept is no means limited to Jihadist terrorist groups. The same dangerous dynamics may be seen at work in every Islamic community. The circular effect of this Islamic self-concept operates in negative directions.

Muslims cite Islamic taboos and Koranic injections as more important than freedom of thinking. Freedom of ex-pression is and always has been subject to Islamic taboos. Islamic taboos exist to keep Muslims from thinking independently and these taboos are enforced by Mullahs and Islamic rulers. Those who oppose are silenced or beheaded. Public ex-pression against Mohammed or Allah will be labeled as apostate and those dissenters will be severely punished. Strict censorship is imposed on TV, film, magazines and newspapers by religious bodies and by the government.

Islamic Madrassa education does not allow Muslim youths to develop greater consciousness and more autonomy or freedom for critical thinking which is necessary condition for personality change. Mohammed, the Islamic leader is the only model they are expected to emulate. They are not expected to higher level models for “pacer-situations” which are clearly necessary condition for healthy personality development. Islamic culture that values conformity prevents Muslim youths from seeking greater freedom and autonomy and higher consciousness. Jihadi terrorists are schooled to love death. The lust for death may overwhelm the Jihadists that go beyond any bounds of social norms. The custom of humiliating non believers and publically demeaning them is widespread in Islamic communities. Mullahs recognize and approve deviant behaviors of Islamic homicide maniacs. It is Allah’s will that they present themselves –compelling them to be more cruel against Kafirs. They seem to be in a state of unhealthy exaltation before they detonate the bombs to kill infidels.

The necessity to hate is so fundamental in Islam and the frequent breakdown of relationship with infidels bears witness to their underlying hate. When they speak of Jews, Hindus and Americans the hate impulses gain an overwhelming strength. They have no pity for Jews, Hindus, Buddhists and kafirs. The Islamic martyrs show unconscious pride and satisfaction in killing Jews and Hindus. The paradox of pleasure from inflicting pain influence Islamic martyrs. They are also motivated by the special privileges supposed to be secured through martyrdom. This impelling thirst for sexual privileges is an important factor in determining the homicidal intend. The flagrant display of murderous tendencies is universally disapproved. But in Islamic society, such cruel acts against non-believers is socially accepted and supported.

All behavior is a function of the perception that exist for an individual at the moment of behaving, especially those perceptions about self and the world. As a consequence of Islamic indoctrination, Muslim’ perceptual field becomes narrow. The self-concept Jihadist accumulates at the Islamic religious schools is a unique and the distorted self-concept is extremely difficult to change. Islamic self-concept is a gestalt, a peculiar pattern they use as identification which enable Muslims to exclude non-Muslims. They seldom expand their self-concept to include non-Muslims or abstract ideas of justice, coexistence, pluralism, liberty and secularism.

HOW TO NEUTRALIZE ISLAMIC TERRORISTS

Why some of the biggest problems we face from Islamic terrorists never seem to be fixed? The reason is simple. The solutions just are not convenient for the politicians and phony liberals. For several years, appeasement policies and special interests and outright irrational tolerance have gotten us far away from the effective solutions we need.

Our response so far is based on a criminal justice model using the criminal justice system to arrest, prosecute and sentence Jihadist terrorists. Such justice system is politically motivated, slow and Jihadist groups exert pressure on the system and it is ineffective.

Failure to neutralize Jihadist extremism would result in Islamic terrorists to grow in strength. Our failure will strengthen Taliban in Afghanistan, Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon, Mullah al-SadrÂ’s Islamic army in Iraq, Al-Qaeda in the Middle East, and Lasker-e-Taiba in Pakistan.

The self-perpetuating characteristics of the Islamic self-concept make it of special concern in dealing with Islamic terrorism, homicide bombing, beheading, oppression of women and honor killing. Having defined themselves as AllahÂ’s warriors, they remain forever victims of their own self-perception.

Islamic education must be changed to discovering more effective relationships between Muslims and the world. To accomplish this objective, non-Muslims need to confront Islamic system. Non-Muslims must engage in subtle and active process in changing Islamic education. Passive approaches are ineffective.

Appeasement, unconditional positive regard, non-directive policies and passive diplomatic initiatives are unable to turn the tide completely. Non-Muslims must not fall into the trap of thinking that “All Religions are the same”. To do so may only contribute further to the inadequacies of Jihadists. Such an unfortunate attitude overlooks the fact that Islam is hostile to co-existence, pluralism, and liberty.

We need to wage a psychological warfare effectively and efficiently for cognitive and behavior restructuring Of Muslims. The methods required for cognitive restructuring of Muslims must be powerful ones. The world cannot ignore or reward perverse philosophy of the Jihadists.

Phony secularists and leftist liberals must be confronted and forced to change their bogus theories. Their mindless theories are totally inadequate, ambiguous and it rests on a tragic illusion. Their misguided moral idealism is not in itself a guarantee of moral goodness, peace and freedom. It is a pathway to Islamic terrorism, death, destruction and wholesale anarchy. Their goal is not to free the world from the roots of Islamic terrorism or destroy destructive urges of Islamic terrorists. They are interested only in slippery slope arguments. We have to defeat leftist liberals in order to protect and preserve freedom and peace for us and for the children yet to be born.

Liberal media with their conspiracy of silence, attempt to cover up the root cause of Islamic terrorism. The media is determined not to rock the boat and pretending that they did not know. Such callous indifference to the life and limb of innocent civilians is shocking. It is of course utterly inconsistent with the sanctity of life and the obligations to defend citizens from Jihadist murderers. There must be public awareness against liberal politicians and the media. They should be condemned and exposed for continuing to stand by passively as our innocent civilians are killed and maimed by Jihadists.

The media are potent in shaping and defining attitudes and actions. Media should be coerced, if need be, to have some effect on the desired outcome. In this era of globalization, media including TV can reach every continent. We need to use the Internet, satellite Communications, digital Photography and all available communications technology for a broad range of operations against Islamic ideology of hatred and terror. Information warfare is the “Battle of Will” for shaping the will and attitude of Islamic fascists.

Our Schools, Colleges and Universities must teach Islamic dogma as it is without distortion. We also need to change the cultural perception of public affairs dealing with Islamic nations. In addition to formal education to expose brutal Islamic history, public officials and military leaders might be exposed to a series of programs on Jihadist terrorist operations. Islamic leaders should be kept abreast of our concerns and warn them the need for revision for Islamic education.

Continuing Islamic terrorism require special and unorthodox means. Such means include defensive preemptive measures that can range from targeted assassinations of known Jihadist leaders. In this respect we must take special attention to the principle:

Ubi Cessat Remedium ordinarium Ibi decurritur ad Extraordinaritur; “Where the remedy fails, recourse must be had to an extraordinary one”.

Islamic terrorists are enemies of the human race. We are justified in uniting together with whatever means necessary to punish and even exterminate such brutal lunatics. 

Source: http://www.faithfreedom.org/2009/09/15/making-of-islamic-terrorists/

IHS

Two Minute Points. Brainwashed

<sup>Let me take liberty to draw your attention towards two minutes points where (according to my knowledge) no one paid paid attention till now. These points expose further falsehood and ignorance mentioned in Quran.

030.024 YUSUFALI: And among His Signs, [3rd person] He shows you the lightning, by way both of fear and of hope, and He sends down rain from the sky and with it gives life to the earth after it is dead: verily in that are Signs for those who are wise.

In the above verse “gives life to the earth after it is dead” indicates a basic law of biology. During the primitive days Greek philosophers believed that a living thing can be born from non-living material. That idea is called “bio genesis”. They believed that fish can be born from mud when the mudd is watered. They believed that vegetation can grow from dry land when the dry land is watered. Later in the sixteenth century Louis Pasture introduced his famous theory through a practical and proved that living things can not be born through non-living things. This proven and universally admitted biological law is called “A bio gensis”.

007.057 YUSUFALI: It is He [3rd person] Who sendeth the winds like heralds of glad tidings, going before His mercy: when they have carried the heavy-laden clouds, We [1st person] drive them to a land that is dead, make rain to descend thereon, and produce every kind of harvest therewith: thus shall We raise up the dead: perchance ye may remember

In the above verse, look at “His mercy: when they have carried the heavy-laden clouds”. During the 7th century all over the world people were astonished that how the clouds full of water are flying (they thought being full of water clouds are heavy). Now we know that hot air is the reason of evaporation. The hotter the air, the more capable to have more water vapor in it. Moreover, hot air tends to go upward being lighter. This is the start of formation of clouds. On the high altitudes, due to cool air, water vapor becomes condensed and forms in the shape of cloud. Air does not lift the heavier clouds but clouds are lighter and when they become heavier they cause rain.  

Source: http://www.faithfreedom.org/2009/09/15/two-minute-points/</sup>


IHS

Indecent Humility and the Muslim Mind

ProudChristian

Humility is like underwear, essential, but indecent if it shows - Helen Nielsen
Has anyone here ever come across a comment by a Muslim urging unbelievers to become Muslims or otherwise they are going to face the wrath of Allah on the Judgment Day?
And have you ever imagined what entails the wrath of Allah?

Take for instance the comment of londonspirit, a Muslim member of FFI, when responding to some critics of Islam in one of the posts here, and I quote him verbatim:

 “But any way even if i did assume ali sina is right and muhammed is wrong. Than let me analyze. By following muhammed i am promised pradise but by following ali sinas way when i die i will just turn in to dust and nothing will happen. By not following muhammed i am promised hell fire. So therefore i have nothing to loose by following islam but assuming ali sina is wrong i am promised hell fire so i have all to loose. Let me see what my brain tells me to follow?” [Emphasis mine]

And with all honesty I must first begin by stating that, in my opinion, londonspirit is one of those nice Muslims out there. He has by every means depicted all the characters of moderate Islam. And by deducing from the direct clarity of what he posts here, unlike many Muslim trolls here, londonspirit is a learned man.

But this has always remained to be a philosophical question to many of us. Why can someone really educated, even up to the level of PhD, yet profess to be a Muslim? Well, while it is true, the sort of Islam they profess is far from what Allah, Muhammad or any of the seventh century Muslims would approve to be the authentic Islam as depicted in the Quran and authentic Hadiths.  Yet you cannot easily ignore that in every way they love and revere Muhammad. They cannot emulate him to the letter, because many of these knowledgeable Muslims are living in progressive nations. And thus they cannot take 9 years old kids to be wives or otherwise they will be called child molesters and will be placed behind bars. They cannot marry more than one wife because polygamy is outlawed in non Muslim nations. The least they can do to show their reverence is to grow long beards and follow what Mohammad prescribed in the Quran and Hadiths, as long as it does not conflict with the norms and laws of the progressive nations in which they live. Or occasionally they can raise considerable sums of money to send back to Dar-Il Islam (the House of Islam), which can be used accordingly by true Muslims, the Taliban and Al Qaeda or any other organization that shares the ideals of true Islam.

So what is really going on in the minds of the likes of londonspirit and other moderate but knowledgeable Muslims? Why could someone knowledgeable, unwittingly call an evil thing good? Despite all the evidence indicating Muhammad to be a morally reprehensible person, why would anyone persist in revering Muhammad? Is he being dishonest?

While many of you will respond unequivocally to the latter as to be the case, and rightly so, one cannot ignore the aspects of humility in the lives of many Muslims. It really takes huge humility to submit your intelligence to a man like Muhammad. It also takes an equal amount of humility to dedicate your time to read such a difficult book to comprehend, the Quran, as a matter of creed. The highest point of humility is really shown when adult Muslims pack themselves with explosives and blow themselves up just for the sake of Allah and Muhammad. They are human beings just like any other non-Muslim and the right questions to ask at this point is; how could Muslims actually get to this point of humility unprecedented in any of the non-Muslim cultures?

While this may seem to be a complex question to answer, as probably some of you are aware, it may be important to appeal to one of the little known Muslim doctrines and traditions of Adaab al-Qabr translated in English, Grave Punishments. Travel to any of the majority Muslim communities and you will not miss this apparently important doctrine that could help to understand how humility is instilled in young Muslim minds, how apparently intelligent people could submit their intelligence to a bandit or how a first class Medical Doctor can pack himself with explosives to blow up subways.

The doctrine tells step by step after death experiences of Muslims and non Muslims when the corpse is being buried.

First, just before the corpse is interred, the soul is forced to return to the corpse moaning with fear “I am about to be lonely; I am about to be dust; I am about to be food for worms, I am now a stranger, where are they taking me?”

After the corpse has been laid to rest, it is now a time to be judged (keep in mind, not the Final Judgment of the Hell Fire) by the two angels, one on the head position and the other on the legs start interviewing the soul within the corpse. Key questions are “Who is your lord, what is your religion, who is your prophet?” If Allah, Islam and Muhammad are the answers to the interview, you have passed and paradise is yours and if not, oh my God, you will know who Allah is.

Some of you will say “Ah, that is an easy interview to pass, but you’ll only be fools. Don’t you know Allah is the best knower and the best deceiver? “Allah will keep firm those who believe, with the word that stands firm in this world (i.e. they will keep on worshiping Allah alone and none else), and in the Hereafter. And Allah will cause to go astray those who are Zâlimûn (polytheists and wrong-doers, etc.), and Allah does what He wills” (Koran 14:27).

Non Muslims have no chance whatsoever of passing the interview and by Allah’s power they’ll forget everything and begin stuttering and from that moment the grave punishments begin.

First the angels using a huge stone continuously pound the body to such an extent that the body is shredded into minute pieces but by Allah’s power the body is reconstructed again and the process is repeated over and over again, apparently up till the Day of the Judgment.

As if that punishment is not enough, Allah narrows to infinity the tomb space to such an extent that the body and the soul entrapped in it is squeezed by pressure until all the bones crack. All this time the soul and body remains at a deep darkness never ever experienced in this world, only to be exposed to a quanta of light, for a fraction of a second, and while you are at it, that there is something hopeful to take place, a huge snake comes to eat your flesh from head to toe while unleashing its stinking venom into your body. And these punishments repeat as a vicious cycle until the Day of Judgment.

I know, I know, many of you here are so filled with shock and cannot understand as to how someone intelligent could sit in the mosque and listen to a preacher giving such emotionally terrorizing sermons.

But that is what I exactly intended to instill in your mind that although these terror sermons are unbelievable to many people raised in non Muslim cultures, but at any rate they are part of the tools that are being used by Islamic clerics in Muslim cultures to instill terror and humility in the young Muslim minds to always be afraid and stay submissive to the will of Allah and what he is capable of doing to him/her when he/she is dead. It’s one of the reasons it is easy to de-convert a Christian, a Jew, a Hindu but not a Muslim.

Now add this to the eternal excruciating punishment of the Hell Fire where the only food for unbelievers in Hell will be pus. Also add to the eternal orgy promised by Allah to Muslim males (Muslimahs are out of luck). The key is to pack this into the young Muslims brain, and too often the kids must learn these while their butts are being scourged by their Ulemas in their madrassahs and by their parents at home. And therefore it should not surprise anyone here to find a Doctor or an Engineer professing to be a Muslim. It’s called indecent humility earned the hard way.

Source: http://www.faithfreedom.org/2009/09/15/indecent-humility-and-the-muslim-mind/

IHS