Given current events, this is not a particularly startling assertion. What is somewhat surprising, is that a Muslim is making it. Tarek Fatah, a Muslim, reckons that the antics of ISIS are inherent to the teaching and tradition of Islam and a continuation of the received understanding of the activities of its founder.
From here:
We Muslims need to acknowledge the beheadings by ISIS are part of Islamic tradition, text and history, not some fringe interpretation of our faith.
None other than the grandson of Prophet Mohammed was slaughtered and his head paraded through the streets of Damascus on a spike.
The ISIS jihadis are doing exactly what we Muslims are taught our Prophet did during warfare.
Here is a quote from the voluminous biography of the Prophet of Islam, Sirat Rasul Allah by Ibn Ishaq, popularly known as the Sira:
“Then they (Jews) surrendered and the apostle (Prophet Mohammed) confined them in Medina. Then the apostle went out to the market and dug trenches in it. Then he sent for them (Jews) and struck off their heads in those trenches … There were 600 or 700 in all.”
In my book, The Jew is Not My Enemy, I disputed this account of mass murder, but was assailed for having challenged what many, if not all Muslims, consider absolute truth.
Islam is not a religion of peace.
Now wait a minute! I have just read some verified quotes of Barack Hussein Obama and he says:
” The future must not belong to those who slander the prophet of Islam.” — “Islam has a proud tradition of tolerance.” —
Islam has demonstrated through words and deeds the possibilities of tolerance and racial equality.” And finally, ” I have made it clear, America is not, and never will be at war with Islam.” Seems clear where this man’s allegiance falls, the only man who may be able to help the victims of Iraq, Syria, and save the world from another holocaust. May God have mercy on us all.
Islam is not from God!!
This is anti-semetic
Do you mean “Anti-Semitic?.” Given that both Jews ( Hebrews) and Arabs claim descent from Abraham , who was a descendant of Shem, for Arabs to be Anti – Semitic appears to me to be oxymoronic.
Obama supporters demand that we accept his declaration of Christianity while at the same time Obama denies ISIS’s declaration of Islam.
Neat trick for the ultimate Sophist.
I heard on the radio this morning that Obama has authorized the air bombing of ISIS. But is still steadfast in his position that no ground forces will be deployed. To me this is obviously a political decision and not a military one. He does not realize that there is no way to wipe out ISIS without the use of ground forces, and thus Obama shall yet again be a failure.
Too bad that it took mass murders, genocide, and the beheading of American reporters before Obama finally decided to actually do something (and not just talk about doing something). Also too bad that what Obama has decided to do is not what is actually needed.
AMP I think it might be the best of bad options. As soon as US troops are on Arab territory, it unites all Arab groups to fight against them. The US seems to have found a way to be “enablers” for Arab self-policing of Arab terrorists. This of course leaves lots of opportunities for the US to be “played” by various Islamist groups, but maybe it will burn-off the ‘cancer’ for a while longer.
And, yes, I am very aware that ISIS/Boko Haram/Janjaweed are not a new phenomenon – Islam has been expanding through genocide and forced conversion throughout all their history. Approximately 100,000 people died in the Jihad (i.e. crusade) to make Pakistan Islamic.
Pietro running Jews out of Israel is antisemitic not liking Jews & the Jewish religion
Arabs doing it, is more like intertribal aggression, or similar.
One of the things people are beginning to understand – at least, I hope – is that Islam is fatally flawed in being able to surmount the most base and violent impulses of man.
As Muslims themselves battle internally for the identity of Islam, we are able to see that the Qur’an – and indeed, the Hadith literature – as religious texts, are simply not grounded enough in history, do not have sufficient context, and do not have sufficient manuscript data for their adherents to be able to distinguish Islamic truth from Islamic error.
The moderate Muslim around the corner who runs the kebab shop and the ISIS militant who cuts the heads off his enemies, both claim to follow the real Islam. The frighting reality is that they are both right. Both of them can cogently argue their case that they are interpreting both the Qur’an and Hadith correctly, and there is no real corrective.
For example, in some parts of the most reliable collections of Hadith, there are verses in which Muhammad instructs believers that killing women and children is acceptable co-lateral when attacking infidels. ISIS makes utility of those verses. However, those same “violent” verses literally abut other verses in which Muhammad expresses displeasure that women and children are killed. Two contrary teachings are literally placed side-by-side.
The Qur’an cannot be understood without the Hadith; and the Hadith are such a sprawling collection of variously reliable traditions compiled long after Muhammad’s death, that one can find competing schools of interpretation in every direction in regards to them. Each school of interpretation claims legitimacy and, due to the nature of the text, cannot be overturned by other schools in the manner to which Christians are familiar when dealing with challenges to the Bible.
For instance, there is a reason why orthodox Christians of the three major strands – Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and Protestant – all reject religious violence. This is because the Bible is transparent in ruling it out. Indeed, even Roman Catholics now recognise that the Crusades were contrary to the teaching of scripture (despite infallible church councils calling crusades in the very same documents they establish dogmas like Transubstantiation).
The Bible has enough context, enough grounding in time and space and the real worlds of archaeology and history, for us to be able to rule sensibly on virtually all controversial and serious issues. The Qur’an and the Hadith, however, being the products of a highly authoritarian and artificial process, are devoid of such features.
So when you next hear someone saying that ISIS is not “really Muslim”, the claim is vacuous, politically-correct nonsense – that is to say, false – and is predicated on the strange notion that “real Islam” is peaceful. Anyone who has read Islamic history for five minutes knows that this is simply ridiculous. The civil wars, the rival “prophets”, the hysterically opposed interpretations, and the savage intra-religious conflict (even within the family of the prophet), began the moment Muhammad died.
Thanks for your educated comments. They help a simple man’s understanding of Islam. I read today a comment from a politico in the U. S. , that called ISIS, “Satan made flesh”. I thought it one of the best descriptions of these evil adherents of Islam.
When the balance of religious trade allows The Holy Bible to circulate as freely in Islamic lands as the Koran is permitted to do in Western lands, that would be but the beginning of a peaceful intent by Islam. V. ‘Open Doors’ annual report of global religious persecution to substantiate this.