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Misinformation About What Is in the Koran on CNN 

Following are lies and misleading statements told by Zainab Chaudry, spokeswoman for the national headquarters of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) during a CNN Interview and posted to the CNN website as: 9 tropes about Muslims that are a product of Islamophobia. Chaudry’s statements are in italics.

“Islam itself forbids compulsion of any sort.”

Ms. Chaudry is obviously referring to Revelation 2:256:

2:256 There is no compulsion in religion; true guidance has become distinct from error. Thus he who disbelieves in the Devil and believes in Allah grasps the firmest handle that will never break. Allah is All-Hearing, All-Knowing.

Revelations must often be read as a group to get the full meaning of what God has to say on any subject, especially when a revelation contains any sentiment about expressing tolerance for unbelievers. The next revelation usually clears things up as it does here. Those who chose not to become believers, after Allah has shown them the error of their ways, "true guidance has become distinct from error", are in league with the devils as Revelation 2:257, which I have never heard quoted in conjunction with 2:256, makes perfectly clear.

2:257 Allah is the Supporter of the believers. He brings them out of darkness into light. As for those who disbelieve, their supporters are the devils who bring them out of light into darkness. Those are the people of the Fire in which they shall abide forever.

Islam is all about compulsion, death being the main motivator to behave as Allah demands. Some will have no choice, having been deliberately led astray by God, Who will then demand that they be killed on the spot.

4:88 How is it that you are divided into two parties regarding the hypocrites, when Allah turned them back (to disbelief) on account of what they earned (on account of their sins and disbelief)? Do you wish to guide those whom Allah leads astray? He whom Allah leads astray, you will not find a way out for him.

4:89 They wish that you disbelieve, as they have disbelieved, so that you will all be alike. Do not, then, take any companions from them, until they emigrate in the Way of Allah. Then should they turn back, seize them and kill them wherever you find them; and do not take from them any companion or supporter;

Narrated Ikrima:

Prophet said: “If somebody (a Muslim) discards his religion, kill him."

Bukhari 52.260

In any event, the verse about no compulsion has been abrogated by the Verse of the Sword, the most far-reaching revelation of the Koran. Ms. Chaudry is undoubtedly familiar with the aptly named revelation. According to the eminent Egyptian theologian Abu al-Fadl ‘Abd ar-Rahman Jalal ad-Din as-Suyuti (d. 1505), "Everything in the Qur'an about forgiveness and peace is abrogated by Verse 9:5."

9:5 Then, when the Sacred Months (these are the four months during which war was prohibited in pre-Islamic times) are over, kill the idolaters wherever you find them, take them [as captives], besiege them, and lie in wait for them at every point of observation. If they repent afterwards, perform the prayer and pay the alms then release them. Allah is truly All-Forgiving, Merciful.

For the purpose of the Verse of the Sword all unbelievers, not just idolaters, are candidates for murder. “If they repent afterwards, perform the prayer and pay the alms then release them.” If they become Muslim don’t kill them, let them go. It has nothing to do with Allah being “All-Forgiving, Merciful.”

Earlier on, Allah showed a measure of respect for other religions.

2:62 The believers (Muslims), the Jews, the Christians and the Sabians – whoever believes in Allah and the Last Day and does what is good, shall receive their reward from their Lord. They shall have nothing to fear and they shall not grieve.

As Islam became a force to be reckoned with, Allah’s position toward other religions hardened, and He sent down another immutable revealed truth abrogating what He had said earlier about Jews, Christians and an obscure sect as having nothing to fear.

3:85 Whoever seeks a religion other than Islam, it will never be accepted from him, and in the Hereafter he will be one of the losers.

It is a God’s prerogative to change His mind:

2:106 Whichever verse We abrogate or cause to be forgotten, We bring instead a better or similar one. Do you not know that Allah has the power over all things?

13:39 Allah blots out and confirms what He pleases; and with Him is the Mother of the Book.

16:101 And if We replace a verse by another – and Allah knows best what He reveals – they say: “You [Muhammad] are only a forger.” Surely, most of them do not know.

Scholars have identified more than two hundred revealed truths that were abrogated by subsequent communications from Paradise. These ephemeral immutable facts and their abrogator(s), most of which, like Revelation 3:85, reflect a god’s growing intolerance, is what Let Me Rephrase That!, Boreal Books wants to bring to your attention.

"Muslims worship the god of Abraham, the same god Christians and Jews worship."

This statement is particularly misleading where Christians are concerned considering Allah’s vociferous denial of the trinity and his accusation that the followers of Christ perverted his revelations.

5:73 Unbelievers too are those who have said that Allah is the third of three. For there is no god except the one God; and if they will not refrain from what they say, those of them who have disbelieved will be severely punished.

5:75 The Messiah, son of Mary, was only a Messenger before whom other Messengers had gone; and his mother was a godly woman. They both ate [earthly] food. Look how We make clear Our Revelations to them; then look how they are perverted!

“There's an entire chapter dedicated to Mary, the mother of Jesus, in the Quran."

Yes, in the Koran there is a surah named after Mary, but, like most chapters of the Koran, the title is not indicative of what is really on Allah's mind. Surah 19, Mary (or Maryam) contains maybe a dozen verses (ayat) out of ninety-eight revelations that could be said to be exclusively about Mary. The verses about Mary in her purported surah have mostly to do with denouncing the Christian belief that her son is the Son of Allah. The infant Jesus, only hours after his birth, at the request of its mother who is being accused of having been unchaste, loudly proclaimed that he was not the Son of God but a prophet sent by Allah, who praises Allah and does as He commands.

19:27 Then she brought him (the child) to her people, carrying him. They said: “O Mary, you have surely committed a strange thing.

19:28 “Sister of Aaron, your father was not an evil man and your mother was not unchaste.”

19:29 Whereupon she pointed to him. They said: “How will we talk to one who is still an infant in the cradle?”

19:30 He [Jesus] said “Indeed, I am the servant of Allah, Who gave me the Book and made me a Prophet.

19:31 “And He made me blessed wherever I am and has commanded me to pray and to give the alms, so long as I live;

19:32 And be devoted to my mother; and He did not make me arrogant and mischievous.

19:33 “Peace be upon me the day I was born, the day I die and the day I rise from the dead.”

“In the West, the term ‘jihad’ is often used interchangeably with ‘holy war’. But that's not what it means. Jihad is an Arabic term meaning ‘to strive’ or ‘to struggle’. In the context of Islam, it means to work toward becoming a better Muslim.”

David Cook, whom you have met in the previous chapter about the redeeming value of killing and dying during hostilities in Allah’s Cause, writes that jihad is “’Warfare with spiritual significance’ [and this] is the primary and root meaning of the term as it has been defined by classical Muslim jurists and legal scholars.”

The Encyclopedia of Islam agrees: “In law, according to general doctrine and in historical tradition, the jihad consists of military action with the object of the expansion of Islam and, if need be, of its defence.”

“Dalia Mogahed (director of research at the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding) points out that the term 'holy war' originated from The Crusades, a series of wars initiated by the Christian church, and does not originate in Arabic or the Muslim tradition at all.”

The concept and conduct of holy war originated with Islam and Muhammad’s attempt to impose the religion by force, not only on the Arabs, but on the world with which he was familiar.

Istanbul’s Topkapi Palace, now a museum, was home to all the Ottoman sultans until the reign of Abdulmecid I (1839-1860), a period of nearly four centuries. In the Holy Treasury within the third courtyard of the old palace, there is a letter. The more than one thousand-year-old letter, now a shrunken piece of parchment, is carefully preserved behind glass. It is one of the letters that Muhammad sent to the various rulers of the kingdoms that bordered Arabia at the time of the Muslim conquest, inviting them, and their subjects, to become Muslims or else! His ultimatum to his neighbours, to convert or have Islam imposed by force, followed a less formal warning to Arab holdouts, that they had four months to submit to Allah’s Will or risk being killed or enslaved.

The letter under glass is addressed to the governor of Egypt, a fellow by the name of Muqawqis. The last sentence is particularly ominous (italics mine).

From Muhammad the servant and Prophet of Allah, to Muqawqis, the leader of the Coptic tribe. There is safety and security for those believers who follow the correct path. Therefore I invite you to accept Islam. If you accept it, you shall find security, save your throne, and gain twice as much reward for having introduced Islam to your followers. If you refuse this invitation, let the sin of calamity which awaits your followers be upon you. You too are People of the Book; therefore let us come to a word common between us that we worship none but Allah and shall equalise anything with him. Let us not abandon Allah and take others for lords other than him. If you do not consent to this invitation, bear witness that we are Muslims.

The implied threat, “If you do not consent to this invitation bear witness that we are Muslims" Muhammad may have adapted, like other portions of this letter, from a general warning to Christians, Jews and Sabians (People of the Book) to worship Allah, and only Allah, or else!

3:64 Say: "O People of the Book, come to an equitable word between you and us, that we worship none but Allah, do not associate anything with Him and do not set each other as lords besides Allah.” If they turn their backs, say: "Bear witness that we are Muslims."

In the letter, the phrase “gain twice as much reward for having introduced Islam to your followers” is a reminder that jihad is very much about plunder, for these additional riches can only come from those who refuse to submit, and therefore can legally be slaughtered forthwith and their possessions—wives and daughters included—shared among those who killed them and whoever is in charge.

The intimidating letter did not have the desired effect. It would be up to Muhammad’s successors to make good on the threat it contained. Within twenty short years after his passing, during the period known as the Rashidun (the reign of the first four successors known as the Rightly Guided Caliphs, three of whom were assassinated by disgruntled believers), Muslim armies imposed Allah’s Rule on Persia (including modern day Iraq), Syria, Armenia, Egypt and most of North Africa.

The Koran, perhaps the first holy book containing specific instructions on the conduct of a holy war, i.e., crusade was revealed in the 7th century. Al-Mubarak’s Book of Holy War, the definitive layman’s text on the subject, was written in the 8th century, 400 and 300 years respectively before the first crusade.

It seems to me that a politically correct mythology is replacing history on many of these topics. Consider the Crusades. The Christians are often depicted as barbarian aggressors and the Muslims as their highly cultured victims. But the Crusades were primarily a response to 300 years of jihad (whether the crusaders were aware of the Islamic doctrine or not). They were a reaction to Muslim incursions in Europe, the persecution of Eastern Christians, and the desecration of Christian holy sites. And few people seem to remember that the crusaders lost all but the first of those wars.

Although the Crusades were undoubtedly an expression of religious tribalism, the idea of holy war is a late, peripheral, and in many ways self-contradictory development within Christianity—and one that has almost no connection to the life and teachings of Jesus. One can’t say the same about the status of jihad under Islam...

The reality of martyrdom and the sanctity of armed jihad are about as controversial under Islam as is the resurrection of Jesus under Christianity. It is not an accident that millions of Muslims recite the shahadah or make pilgrimage to Mecca. Neither is it an accident that in the year 2015, horrific footage of infidels and apostates being decapitated has become a popular form of pornography throughout the Muslim World. All these practices, including this ghastly method of murder, find explicit support in scriptures.

Sam Harris and Maajid Nawaz, Islam and the Future of Tolerance, Harvard University Press, 2015

“Sharia is a set of guidelines that are taken from the Quran and teachings of Prophet Muhammad that are designed to help Muslims live a moral and ethical way of life. People have developed misconceptions about it because of misinformation shared through media, pop culture, and anti-sharia bills...”

Law, by definition, is not a set of suggestions. To say that Islamic law “is a set of guidelines” is quite disingenuous. Nonetheless, there’s the rub. As you may now appreciate, much of what the ”Quran” demands of believers is the antithesis “of a moral and ethical way of life.” Muhammad’s "teachings" and example, as you will further discover in the next chapter, are no better.

The Sharia also makes no allowance for reasonableness. Abu Hanifah (b. 700 - d. 767), founder of the Hanafi Madhhab, the most progressive of the four mainstream Sunni schools of Islamic jurisprudence, was accused of using logic to arrive at his fatwas (rulings on points of Islamic law). In a conversation with Imam Muhammad al-Baqir, related by Mojlum Khan in his The Muslim 100 - The Lives, Thoughts and Achievements of the Most Influential Muslims in History, Hanifah denied that reason played any part in his rulings using Revelation 4:11, “Allah commands you, with respect to your children, that the male shall inherit the equivalent of the share of two females.”

Hanifah: Who is weaker, man or woman?

Baqir: Woman.

Hanifah: Which of them is entitled to larger share in inheritance?

Baqir: The man.

Hanifah: If I had been making deductions by analogy, I should have said that the woman should get the larger share, since on the face of it the weaker one is entitled to more consideration. But I have not said so.

“As a matter of fact, part of Sharia is that Muslims must abide by the law of the land in which they reside.”

Yes, until they are in a position to impose Allah’s religion by force. Muhammad’s successful, bloody campaign to convert his Arab brethren through the use of force and the threat of death remains the preponderant example and the impetus for the ongoing armed conflicts and mass murders to exalt Islam above every other religion.

48:28 It is He Who sent forth His Messenger with the guidance and the religion of truth, that He may exalt it above every other religion. Allah suffices as Witness.

In the never-ending bloodshed to spread Allah’s unassailable truth and make Islam the dominant, and eventually the only religion, should you seek peace with the unbelievers? Only if you are losing!

47:35 So do not weaken and call for peace, while you have the upper hand and Allah is with you. He will not stint you your actions.

“Claims that Islam encourages violence against non-Muslims are usually the result of people isolating verses from the religious texts that grant Muslims the right to defend themselves. People who regurgitate the myth that Islam is violent haven’t studied the religion.”

This has to be the most egregious lie of all. Muslim armies, with the Koran and Muhammad’s example as inspiration, in short order for the times, conquered territory extending from Morocco on the Atlantic to Indonesia on the Pacific (nearly 8,000 miles, or almost one third the circumference of the Earth) following Muhammad’s passing. This was all, for the most part, unprovoked aggression that continues to this day and has nothing to do with self-defence. Islam is not only a belligerent, confrontational religion, but a brutal one.

9:73 O Prophet, fight the unbelievers and the hypocrites and be stern with them. Their abode is Hell, and what a terrible fate!

66:9 O Prophet, struggle with the unbelievers and the hypocrites, and deal harshly with them. Their refuge shall be Hell, and what an evil resort!

Islamists have been lying to us, but also to themselves, for a very long time.

For more than a millennium before [Tunisian] President Bourguida evicted Zeitouna's bearded scholars and students, in 1956, this university spread Islamic knowledge across North and West Africa as far as Nigeria and Senegal...

"This was an archaic, medieval place. Back in 1956, we were still studying an Islamic law course on how to treat slaves and how to punish a slave who escapes from a master..."

After leaving Zeitouna and tasting secular education, [Abdallah] Amami (Tunisian writer and former diplomat) was shocked by the disparity. At the Islamic university, he had been told that Vasco da Gama was following the real explorer, Arab navigator Ibn Majid. Descartes copied from the Moghul Muslim emperor Shah Jahan, who built the Taj Mahal. And Dante plagiarized from the blind Arab poet Abu Al Alaa al Maari.

"For fourteen centuries the Muslims have been falsifying their history. They never learned it as it was. The truth was always adapted to improve the image of Islam." Amami said.

Yaroslav Trofimov, Faith at War, A Journey On The Frontlines of Islam, Henry Holt, 2005, p. 49

The difference between an Islamist and a jihadist, e.g., holy warrior and why the former is more worrisome if you live in a democracy:

Islamism is commonly expressed as the desire to enforce a version of Shari’ah as law… An Islamist attempts to impose his version of Islam on society, and a jihadist is an Islamist who attempts to do so by force… Political Islamists seek to impose their views through the ballot box, biding their time until they can infiltrate the institutions of society from within.

Maajid Nawaz, author of Radical, My Journey out of Islamist Extremism Labels