Sunday, September 23

Avoiding answering straightforward questions about Islam out of fear or disingenuousness?

Whether it's Hugh Hewitt, Affad Shaikh, Ahmed Bedier, or any other apologist for Islam, answering simple, factual questions often proves to be more than they are able (or willing) to bear.

More from my YouTube acquaintance:
translating is more than changing words into english you have to change around sentences all together, i'm not trying to be a jerk about the language thing but it doesn't seem like you understand what i'm getting at. in english you wouldn't say you're going to the house of Amillennialist, you'd say "I'm going to Amillennialist's house." . However accurate the interpretations/translations are they wont ever be accepted because you're altering the word of Allah. Also, some words in Arabic could have 17 different meanings, so with the bias of the translator it could change the meaning of the whole verse.

I was going to say something else but it'd be rude, especially since it's Ramadan. But, we have no right to argue over what the Quran says if we can't even read Arabic. No matter how good of a translation you have, you're not reading what Allah sent to Muhammad . . . you're reading what a man thinks the Quran says. If someone took the bible and put it into his own words you wouldn't think of it to be the word of God would you? Of course not.
Have you found that the translations of Qur'an and Hadith I use misrepresent the meaning of the texts at all? If so, where? If not, why do you persist in this argument?

As I've noted previously, the three translations to which I refer are commonly-accepted Muslim translations. In validating their renderings of the Verse of the Sword at a local bookstore, all but one of the eleven different Qur'ans being sold there conveyed the same command for offensive warfare against non-Muslims.

And your example makes my point: translation without losing essential meaning is absolutely possible. Either way, you end up at my house. :)

Now that we've established that, will you answer a few simple questions directly?
Does Allah command the faithful to "kill the unbelievers wherever you find them," or not? (Qur'an 9:5)

Does Islam traditionally teach that with the last revelations of Qur'an to Mohammed, the former verses requiring and permitting tolerance of and cooperation with non-Muslims have been abrogated (naskh) by the commands for offensive warfare until "all religion is for Allah," or not?

Did Mohammed command the faithful to convert, subjugate and humiliate, and kill non-Muslims to make the world Islam, or not? (Qur'an 9:5, 9:29, Muslim Book 19, Number 4294, etc.)

Did he confess that he was commanded to war against non-Muslims until all submit to Allah's rule, or not? (Bukhari Volume 1, Book 2, Number 24)

Did Mohammed admit that "terror" was his means of success, or not? (Bukhari Volume 4, Book 52, Number 220)

Did Allah promise Paradise to those who kill and are killed for him, or not? (Qur'an 9:111)

Did Mohammed begin raping little Aisha when she was nine, or not? Did Allah "ordain" his pedophilia, or not? (Tabari 9:131, Bukhari Volume 9, Book 87, Number 139-140)

Did Mohammed, whom Allah describes as a "beautiful pattern of conduct" steal, rape, enslave, and slaughter -- and in so doing provide a model for his followers to emulate -- or not? (Qur'an 33:21)
If not, why not? About what do you have reason to be rude? And how can you justify the evil commanded and carried out by Allah and his apostle?

Does not a deity that not only tolerates but actually sanctifies heresy, deceit, theft, rape, pedophilia, slavery, and genocide prove itself false?

Is not the prophet of such a god also false? And do not those who teach, preach, and practice such a faith consorting with hell?

Jesus came to show us the Father, to die for our sins, and to rise again from the dead. Through Him alone can we see the eternal, omnipotent, and omniscient YHWH.

I urge you to leave the ones who call Christ a blasphemer, liar, and accursed (Qur'an 5:17, 5:73, and 9:30, for example) and to put your faith in the Son of God.
This was offered as representative of my acquaintance's position on interpreting Qur'an. The only problem is that it is a propaganda piece meant to deceive the ignorant and gullible.

Here is my response:
Your "scholar" is either incompetent or deceitful. If incompetent, why is that his errors all fall on the side of misrepresenting Islam as affording non-Muslims full equality under law, freedom of conscience, and true respect?

In arguing that the Verse of the Sword, Qur'an 9:5, is taken out of context by critics of Islam, he takes 9:5 out of context! There are passages and chapters that allow or require fighting in self-defense. 9:5 is not one of them.

The author also attempts to deceive those unfamiliar with Islam into believing that Jews and Christians are respected in that faith. While it is true that early in Mohammed's prophetic career tolerance -- and even honor -- of Jews and Christians existed, that was eventually replaced by words and deeds like:
"And well ye knew those amongst you who transgressed in the matter of the Sabbath: We said to them: "Be ye apes, despised and rejected" (Qur'an 2:65).

"Shall I point out to you something much worse than this, (as judged) by the treatment it received from Allah? Those who incurred the curse of Allah and His wrath, those of whom some He transformed into apes and swine, those who worshipped evil; these are (many times) worse in rank, and far more astray from the even path" (Qur'an 5:60)!

"Allah's Apostle said, 'The Hour will not be established until you fight with the Jews, and the stone behind which a Jew will be hiding will say. "O Muslim! There is a Jew hiding behind me, so kill him"'" (Bukhari Volume 4, Book 52, Number 177).

". . . We were (sitting) in the mosque when the Messenger of Allah . . . came to us and said: (Let us) go to the Jews. We went out with him until we came to them. The Messenger of Allah . . . stood up and called out to them (saying): O ye assembly of Jews, accept Islam (and) you will be safe.

. . . .

"he killed their men, and distributed their women, children and properties among the Muslims, except that some of them had joined the Messenger of Allah . . . who granted them security. They embraced Islam. The Messenger of Allah . . . turned out all the Jews of Medlina. Banu Qainuqa' (the tribe of 'Abdullah b. Salim) and the Jews of Banu Haritha and every other Jew who was in Medina.

. . . .

"It has been narrated by 'Umar b. al-Khattib that he heard the Messenger of Allah . . . say: I will expel the Jews and Christians from the Arabian Peninsula and will not leave any but Muslim" (Muslim Book 19, Number 4363-4366).

"'There is none born but is created to his true nature (Islam). It is his parents who make him a Jew or a Christian or a Magian quite as beasts produce their young with their limbs perfect. Do you see anything deficient in them?' Then he quoted the Qur'an, 'The nature made by Allah in which He has created men there is no altering of Allah's creation; that is the right religion'" (Muslim Book 33, Number 6423).

"Abu Burda reported on the authority of his father that Allah's Apostle . . . said: No Muslim would die but Allah would admit in his stead a Jew or a Christian in Hell-Fire. 'Umar b. Abd al-'Aziz took an oath: By One besides Whom there is no god but He, thrice that his father had narrated that to him from Allah's Messenger . . ." (Muslim Book 37, Number 6666).

"Yahya related to me from Malik that he heard that Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz gave a decision that when a jew or christian was killed, his blood-money was half the blood-money of a free muslim.

"Malik said, 'What is done in our community, is that a muslim is not killed for a kafir unless the muslim kills him by deceit. Then he is killed for it.'

. . . .

"Malik said, 'The blood-monies of the Jew, Christian, and Magian in their injuries, is according to the injury of the muslims in their blood-moneys. The head wound is a twentieth of his full blood-money. The wound that opens the head is a third of his blood-money. The belly-wound is a third of his blood-money. All their injuries are according to this calculation' (Muwatta Book 43, Number 43.15.8b).

"O ye who believe! take not the Jews and the Christians for your friends and protectors: They are but friends and protectors to each other. And he amongst you that turns to them (for friendship) is of them. Verily Allah guideth not a people unjust" (Qur'an 5:51).

"In blasphemy indeed are those that say that Allah is Christ the son of Mary. Say: 'Who then hath the least power against Allah, if His will were to destroy Christ the son of Mary, his mother, and all every - one that is on the earth? For to Allah belongeth the dominion of the heavens and the earth, and all that is between. He createth what He pleaseth. For Allah hath power over all things'" (Qur'an 5:17).

"They do blaspheme who say: Allah is one of three in a Trinity: for there is no god except One Allah. If they desist not from their word (of blasphemy), verily a grievous penalty will befall the blasphemers among them" (Qur'an 5:73).

"The Jews call 'Uzair a son of Allah, and the Christians call Christ the son of Allah. That is a saying from their mouth; (in this) they but imitate what the unbelievers of old used to say. Allah's curse be on them: how they are deluded away from the Truth" (Qur'an 9:30)!

"It is not befitting to (the majesty of) Allah that He should beget a son" (Qur'an 19:35).

"Those who believe fight in the way of Allah, and those who disbelieve fight in the way of the Shaitan. Fight therefore against the friends of the Shaitan; surely the strategy of the Shaitan is weak" (Qur'an 4:76).

"Those who reject (Truth), among the People of the Book and among the Polytheists, will be in Hell-Fire, to dwell therein (for aye). They are the worst of creatures" (Qur'an 98:6).
Finally, your expert blames those who criticize Islamic violence for creating Islamic violence! Mohammed did say, "War is deceit."