by Raymond Ibrahim<\/p>\n
Private Papers<\/em><\/p>\n S<\/span>ince the terrorist strikes of 9\/11, Islam has often been accused of being intrinsically violent. In response, a number of apologetics have been offered in defense of the religion.The fundamental premise of almost all of these is that Islam\u2019s purported violence \u2014 as found in Islamic scriptures and history \u2014 is no different than the violence committed by other religious groups throughout history and as recorded in their scriptures, especially Jews and Christians. The argument, in short, is that it is not Islam per se but rather human nature that is prone to violence.<\/p>\n So whenever the argument is made that the\u00a0Koran<\/i>\u00a0as well as the historical words and deeds of Islam\u2019s prophet Muhammad and his companions evince violence and intolerance, the counter-argument is immediately made: What about the historical atrocities committed by the Hebrews in years gone by and as recorded in their scriptures (i.e. the Old Testament)? What about the brutal cycle of violence Christians have committed in the name of their faith against both fellow Christians and non-Christians?<\/p>\n Thereafter two examples \u2014 one biblical, the other historic \u2014 are often cited as paradigmatic of the religious violence inherent to both Judaism and Christianity.<\/p>\n The first is the genocide-like conquest of the land of Canaan by the Hebrews (c. 1200 BC).Yahweh told Moses:<\/p>\n But of the cities of these peoples which Yahweh your God gives you as an inheritance, you shall let nothing that breathes remain alive, but you shall utterly destroy them \u2014 the Hittite, Amorite, Canaanite, Perizzite, Hivite, and Jebusite \u2014 just as Yahweh your God has commanded you, lest they teach you to do according to all their abominations which they have done for their gods, and you sin against Yahweh your God (Deuteronomy 20: 16-18).<\/p>\n So Joshua [Moses\u2019 successor] conquered all the land: the mountain country and the South and the lowland and the wilderness slopes, and all their kings; he left none remaining, but utterly destroyed all that breathed, as Yahweh God of Israel had commanded (Joshua 10:40).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n The second example revolves around the Crusader wars waged by European Christians between the 11th<\/sup>-13th<\/sup>\u00a0centuries. To be sure, the Crusades were a \u201ccounter-attack\u201d on Islam \u2014 not an unprovoked assault as is often depicted by revisionist history. A united Christendom sought to annex the Holy Land of Jerusalem, which, prior to its conquest by Islam in the 7th<\/sup>\u00a0century, was an integral part of Christendom for some 400 years.<\/p>\n Nonetheless, these Crusades were violent and bloody and countless atrocities were committed \u2014 all in the name of Christianity and under the banner of the cross. Perhaps the most infamous act of villainy perpetrated by these \u201cfighters-for-Christ\u201d is the 1204 sack of Constantinople, wherein Christian slew Christian in a violent bloodbath.<\/p>\n Old Testament Violence<\/span><\/p>\n In light of the above \u2014 one a prime example of violence from the Bible, the other from Christian history \u2014 why should Islam be the one religion always characterized as intrinsically violent, simply because\u00a0its<\/i>\u00a0holy book and\u00a0its<\/i>history also contain violence? Why should non-Muslims always point to the Koran and ancient history as evidence of Islam\u2019s violence while never looking to their own scriptures and history?<\/p>\n While such questions are popular, they reveal a great deal of confusion between\u00a0history<\/i>\u00a0and\u00a0theology<\/i>, between the temporal actions of men and the immutable words of God. The fundamental error being that Judeo-Christian history \u2014 which\u00a0is<\/i>\u00a0violent \u2014 is being conflated with Islamic theology\u00a0\u2014<\/i>which\u00a0commands<\/i>\u00a0violence. Of course all religions have had their fair share of violence and intolerance towards the \u201cother.\u201d Whether this violence is ordained by God or whether warlike man merely wished it thus is the all-important question.<\/p>\n Old Testament violence is an interesting case in point. Yahweh clearly ordered the Hebrews to annihilate the Canaanites and surrounding peoples. Such violence is therefore an expression of God\u2019s will, for good or ill. Regardless, all the historic violence committed by the Hebrews and recorded in the Old Testament is just that \u2014\u00a0history<\/i>. It happened; God commanded it. But it revolved around a specific time and place and was directed against a specific people. At no time did such violence go on to become standardized or codified into Jewish law (i.e. the Halakha).<\/p>\n This is where Islamic violence is unique. Though similar to the violence of the Old Testament \u2014 commanded by God and manifested in history \u2014 certain aspects of Islamic violence have become standardized in Islamic law (i.e. the Sharia) and apply at\u00a0all<\/i>\u00a0times. Thus while the violence found in the\u00a0Koran<\/i>\u00a0is in fact historical, its ultimate significance is theological. Consider the following Koranic verses:<\/p>\n Then, when the sacred months have passed, slay the pagans wherever you find them \u2014 take them [captive], besiege them, and prepare for them each ambush. But if they repent and establish worship and pay the poor-due [i.e. submit to Islam], then leave their way free. Lo! Allah is Forgiving, Merciful (9:5).<\/p>\n Fight those who believe not in Allah nor the Last Day, nor hold that forbidden which hath been forbidden by Allah and His Messenger [i.e. Islamic law], nor acknowledge the religion of Truth [i.e. Islam], from the people of the book [i.e. Jews and Christians], until they pay tribute with willing submission, and feel themselves utterly subdued (9:29).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Sword-Verses<\/span><\/p>\n As with Old Testament verses where Yahweh commanded the Hebrews to attack and slay their neighbors, these Koranic verses also have a historical context. Allah (through Muhammad) first issued these commandments after the Arab tribes had finally unified under the banner of Islam and were preparing to invade their Christian and pagan neighbors. But\u00a0unlike<\/i>\u00a0the bellicose verses and anecdotes of the Old Testament, these so-called \u201csword-verses\u201d subsequently became fundamental to Islam\u2019s relationship to both the \u201cpeople of the book\u201d (i.e. Christians and Jews) and the \u201cpagans\u201d (i.e. Hindus, Buddhists, animists, etc).<\/p>\n In fact, based on the sword-verses (as well as countless other Koranic verses and oral traditions attributed to Muhammad), Islam\u2019s scholars, sheikhs, muftis, imams, and qadis throughout the ages have all reached the consensus \u2014 binding on the entire Muslim community \u2014 that Islam is to be at perpetual war with the non-Muslim world, until the former subsumes the latter. (It is widely held that the sword-verses alone have abrogated some 200 of the Koran\u2019s more tolerant verses.) Famous Muslim scholar and \u201cfather of modern history\u201d Ibn Khaldun articulates the dichotomy between jihad and defensive warfare thus:<\/p>\n In the Muslim community, the holy war [i.e. jihad] is a religious duty, because of the universalism of the Muslim mission and the obligation to convert everybody to Islam either by persuasion or by force… The other religious groups did not have a universal mission,\u00a0and the holy war was not a religious duty for them, save only for purposes of defense<\/i>… They are merely required to establish their religion among their own people. That is why the Israeilites after Moses and Joshua remained unconcerned with royal authority [e.g. a \u201ccaliphate\u201d]. Their only concern was to establish their religion [not to spread it to the nations]\u2026\u00a0But Islam is under obligation to gain power over other nations<\/i>\u00a0(The Muqudimmah<\/i>, vol. 1 pg. 473, emphasis added).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Even when juxtaposed to their Old Testament counterparts, the sword-verses are distinctive for using language that transcends time and space, inciting believers to attack and slay non-believers today no less than yesterday. Yahweh commanded the Hebrews to kill Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites \u2014 all specific peoples rooted to a specific time and place. At no time did Yahweh give an open-ended command for the Hebrews, and by extension their descendants the Jews, to fight and killgentiles<\/i>.<\/p>\n On the other hand, though Islam\u2019s original enemies were, like Judaism\u2019s, historical (e.g. Christian Byzantines and pagan Persians),\u00a0<\/b>the\u00a0Koran<\/i>\u00a0rarely singles them out by their proper names. Instead, Muslims were (and are) commanded to fight the people of the book \u2014 \u201cuntil\u00a0<\/i>they pay tribute with willing submission and feel themselves utterly subdued\u201d\u00a0<\/b>(9:29) and to \u201cslay the pagans\u00a0wherever<\/i>\u00a0you find them\u201d (9:5). The two conjunctions \u201cuntil\u201d and \u201cwherever\u201d demonstrate the perpetual nature of these commandments: there are still \u201cpeople of the book\u201d who have yet to be \u201cutterly subdued\u201d (especially in the Americas, Europe, and Israel) and \u201cpagans\u201d to be slain \u201cwherever\u201d one looks (especially Asia and sub-Saharan Africa).<\/p>\n The Prophet’s Life as Model<\/span><\/p>\n Aside from the divine words of the\u00a0Koran<\/i>, Muhammad\u2019s pattern of behavior \u2014 his \u201cSunna\u201d or \u201cexample\u201d \u2014 is an extremely important source of legislation in Islam. Muslims are exhorted to emulate Muhammad in all walks of life: \u201cYou have indeed in the Messenger of Allah a beautiful pattern [of conduct]\u201d (33:21). And Muhammad\u2019s pattern of conduct vis-\u00e0-vis non-Muslims is quite explicit. Sarcastically arguing against the concept of \u201cmoderate\u201d Islam, terrorist Osama bin Laden, who enjoys half the Arab-Islamic world\u2019s support per a recent al-Jazeera poll, portrays the prophet\u2019s Sunna thus:<\/p>\n \u201cModeration\u201d is demonstrated by our prophet who did not remain more than three months in Medina without raiding or sending a raiding party into the lands of the infidels to beat down their strongholds and seize their possessions, their lives, and their women\u201d (from\u00a0The Al-Qaeda Reader<\/i>).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n In fact, based on both the\u00a0Koran<\/i>\u00a0and Muhammad\u2019s Sunna, pillaging and plundering infidels, enslaving their children, and placing their women in concubinage is well founded (e.g. 4:24, 4:92, 8:69, 24:33, 33:50, etc.).<\/p>\n While law-centric and legalistic, Judaism has no such equivalent to the Sunna; the words and deeds of the patriarchs, though recorded in the Old Testament, never went on to be part of Jewish law.\u00a0 Neither Abraham\u2019s \u201cwhite-lies,\u201d nor Jacob\u2019s perfidy, nor Moses\u2019 short-fuse, nor David\u2019s adultery, nor Solomon\u2019s philandering ever went on to instruct Jews or Christians. They were merely understood to be historical actions perpetrated by fallible men who were often punished by God for their less than ideal behavior.<\/p>\n As for Christianity, much of the Old Testament law was abrogated by Jesus. \u201cEye for an eye\u201d gave way to \u201cturn the other cheek.\u201d Totally loving God and one\u2019s neighbor became supreme law (Matt 22:38-40).\u00a0 Furthermore, Jesus\u2019 \u201cSunna\u201d \u2014 as in \u201cWhat would Jesus do?\u201d \u2014 is characterized by passivity and altruism.<\/p>\n And it is from here that one can best appreciate the Crusades. However one interprets these wars \u2014 as offensive or defensive, just or unjust \u2014 it is plainly evident that they were\u00a0not<\/i>\u00a0based on the teachings of the New Testament or the example of Jesus who exhorted his followers to \u201clove your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you\u201d (Matt 5:44). It would seem that if anyone, it is the Crusaders \u2014 not the jihadists \u2014 who have contradicted their religion.<\/p>\n In fact, far from suggesting anything intrinsic to Christianity, the Crusades ironically help better explain Islam. For what the Crusades demonstrated once and for all is that irrespective of religious teachings \u2014 indeed, in the case of these so-called \u201cChristian\u201d Crusades, despite them \u2014 man is in fact predisposed to violence and intolerance. But this begs the question: If this is how Christians behaved \u2014 who are commanded to love, bless, and do good to their enemies who hate, curse, and persecute them \u2014 how much more can be expected of Muslims who, while sharing the same violent tendencies, are further commanded by the Deity to attack, kill, and plunder non-believers?<\/p>\n Raymond Ibrahim is a research librarian at the Library of Congress. His new book,\u00a0<\/i>The Al Qaeda Reader,\u00a0<\/i>which translates Osama bin Laden’s communiqu<\/i><\/span>\u00e9s,\u00a0will be available in April 2007<\/i>.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Is Judeo-Christian violence the same thing as Islamic violence? by Raymond Ibrahim Private Papers Since the terrorist strikes of 9\/11, Islam has often been accused of being intrinsically violent. In response, a number of apologetics have been offered in defense of the religion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[227,759],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-1qD","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2548,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/how-islamic-absurdities-prove-islamic-violence\/","url_meta":{"origin":5495,"position":0},"title":"How Islamic Absurdities Prove Islamic Violence","author":"victorhanson","date":"July 10, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"by Raymond Ibrahim FrontPageMagazine.com The other day I saw a\u00a0video of a sheikh\u00a0warning Muslims against disregarding Muhammad's\u00a0sunna, or the rules and customs the prophet prescribed for Muslims. 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