by Raymond Ibrahim<\/p>\n
Private Papers<\/em><\/p>\n T<\/span>he Pope is under attack.\u00a0 Once again, riots, demonstrations, and \u201cretaliations\u201d have sparked throughout the Muslim world.\u00a0 Major Muslim figures \u2014 political and religious \u2014 have condemned the Pope. The \u201cMuslim Street\u201d is burning his effigy.<\/p>\n What great crime did the Pope commit, exactly?\u00a0 He quoted history.\u00a0 In a speech about faith and reason, he quoted a debate between 14th<\/sup>-century Byzantine emperor Paleologus II and a Muslim theologian, where the former asked, \u201cShow me just what Mohammad brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman \u2014 such as the command to spread by the sword the faith he preached.\u201d\u00a0 In the context of the Pope\u2019s speech, the point in evoking this anecdote was twofold: 1) to show how even centuries ago, there was inter-religious dialogue \u2014 a good thing to be preserved; and 2) to show that there is no room for violence where faith is concerned.<\/p>\n Twice the Pope clarified that he was\u00a0quoting<\/i>.\u00a0 He also described the Byzantine emperor\u2019s remark as \u201cbrusque.\u201d Moreover, the Pope made it a point to mention one of the Koran\u2019s most tolerant verses \u2014 \u201cThere is no compulsion in religion\u201d [Koran 2:256].<\/p>\n Had the Pope really wanted to defame Islam, he could have quoted from the much more numerous \u201csword-verses\u201d of the Koran, which most Muslim theologians are agreed have abrogated the more tolerant ones:\u00a0 \u201cFight those of the People of the Book [Christians and Jews] who do not believe in Allah nor the Last Day, nor forbid that which has been forbidden by Allah and His Messenger, nor acknowledge the religion of Truth [Islam], until they pay tribute with willing submission, and feel themselves utterly subdued\u201d\u00a0 [Koran 9:29].\u00a0 Or \u201cWhen the sacred months have passed, slay the idolaters wherever you find them \u2014 seize them, besiege them, and make ready to ambush them\u201d [Koran 9:5]<\/p>\n Even more ironic, had the Pope not been quoting, had these been his own words, he, like Paleologus, would only have been declaring historic truth \u2014\u00a0as recorded by Muslim historians themselves.\u00a0\u00a0<\/i>Indeed, almost everything we know about the early Islamic conquests is derived entirely from Muslim sources: the Koran, the Hadith, and the histories.\u00a0 And\u00a0all<\/i>\u00a0of them unabashedly declare that Islam was established by the sword.<\/p>\n For Muslims to be enraged because the Pope evoked a fact recorded in their own texts, is no less ridiculous than if Christians became enraged because some Muslim authority evoked something out of Christian history and as recorded in the Gospels \u2014 for example, that Paul and the other apostles preached the Gospel around the Mediterranean, and as a result were persecuted and martyred (in the passive sense, that is).\u00a0 Of course, the method which Paul and others used to spread Christianity \u2014 preaching \u2014 differs significantly from the method that Muhammad used spread Islam \u2014 the sword \u2014 hence the touchiness of the topic.<\/p>\n M<\/span>ore amazing still is that when radical Muslims portray Islam as a religion of the sword (remember the flag of Saudi Arabia, birthplace of Islam), far from being criticized by other Muslims, they usually receive only applause and recruits.<\/p>\n A cherished Hadith, quoted by virtually every militant Muslim, records the prophet saying \u2014 \u201cBehold! Allah sent me [Muhammad] with a sword, just before the Hour [of Judgment], and placed my daily sustenance beneath the shadow of my spear, and humiliation and contempt on those who oppose me, and whoever imitates a group is [numbered] among them.\u201d<\/p>\n Abdullah Azzam, deceased mentor of Osama bin Laden and Muslim icon, once wrote:\u00a0 \u201cWe are terrorists. Every Muslim must be a terrorist. Terrorism is an obligation as demonstrated in the Koran and Sunna. Allah Most High said: \u2018Muster against them [infidels] all the men and cavalry at your command, so that you may strike terror into the heart of your enemy and Allah\u2019s enemy\u2019 [Koran 8:60]. Thus terrorism is a religious obligation. And the Messenger [Muhammad] of Allah is the first terrorist and the first menace\u201d [al-Hijra wa al-I\u2018dad<\/i>].<\/p>\n Bin Laden himself, after discussing Islam\u2019s relationship to the world, concludes that \u201cThe matter is summed up for every person alive: either submit [to Islam], or live under the suzerainty of Islam [as a second-class citizen, a \u201cdhimmi<\/i>\u201d], or die.\u201d\u00a0 And after murdering 3,000 civilians in the name of Islam, and repeatedly stating that his actions were in accordance to Sharia law, why didn\u2019t Muslims protest in mass and burn his effigy for defaming their religion and prophet?\u00a0 Instead, a recent poll by al-Jazeera where 41,000 individuals participated revealed that 49.9% support the U.S.\u2019s most wanted man.<\/p>\n In fact, when al-Qaeda, Hezballah, Hamas, the Taliban, Iranian mullahs, or the imam at any given Western mosque portray Islam as a religion of the sword, nary a word of criticism \u2014 indeed only affirmation \u2014 will be heard on the Muslim street.<\/p>\n But when the Pope\u00a0quotes in passing<\/i>\u00a0someone else saying the same thing \u2014 then woe, all is woe.\u00a0 The reason for this is obvious. Muslim anger at the Pope\u2019s remark is less due to the fact that he implied that Islam was spread by the sword \u2014 a historic fact that Muslims have traditionally been proud of \u2014 but because the main point of his talk was to show that violence is always contrary to God\u2019s will.\u00a0 Clearly such a conviction implies that Islam, which Muslims\u00a0know<\/i>\u00a0was spread by the sword, is not only ungodly, but false.\u00a0 In other words, if you evoke Islam and violence (i.e. jihad) in a positive manner \u2014 such as al-Qaeda\u00a0et. al.<\/i>\u00a0do \u2014 saying Allah \u201cwills it,\u201d you are a hero, but when you evoke it in a negative context, which the Pope did, by saying that \u201cViolence is incompatible with the nature of God and the nature of the soul,\u201d you are a villain.<\/p>\n At any rate, has the international Muslim response \u2014 burning papal effigies, making death-threats, attacking Christian churches, shooting nuns in the back, and God knows what else \u2014 shown that Islam is\u00a0not<\/i>\u00a0violent?\u00a0 That is, after all, what this is all about?<\/p>\n [Raymond Ibrahim has a new book coming out in Spring 2007 translating the letters of Osama bin Laden and is a regular contributor to\u00a0<\/i>Private Papers]<\/i><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Pope’s Remark Revisited by Raymond Ibrahim Private Papers The Pope is under attack.\u00a0 Once again, riots, demonstrations, and \u201cretaliations\u201d have sparked throughout the Muslim world.\u00a0<\/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":[227,770],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-1rj","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":775,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/islamic-hate-for-a-dead-pope\/","url_meta":{"origin":5537,"position":0},"title":"Islamic Hate for a Dead Pope","author":"victorhanson","date":"May 20, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"by Raymond Ibrahim FrontPage Magazine Inasmuch as the recent death of Coptic Pope Shenouda III exposed the humanity of some Muslims, it also exposed the inhumanity of Islamic teachings. 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