Boreal

ISLAMOPHOBIA

Terrorism Works 

In at least two previous chapters we put to rest the lie that aggression in the name of Allah is all about defending yourself. What about terrorism that ostensibly has nothing defensive about it? Spreading fear is part and parcel of a proven aggressive strategy sanctioned by both God and Muhammad that Islamists, who would accuse you of Islamophobia, will never admit to. It’s all about dissimulation.

Taqiya is the Islamic Doctrine of Dissimulation, i.e., lying. Islamists will tell you that it’s about believers lying about their faith to avoid persecution when they are a minority among unbelievers. In that there is some truth.

Holy warriors kill to advance Allah’s Cause; Islamists lie for the same reason. Telling the truth would be counter-productive. Better to accuse those who know when they are being lied to of Islamophobia. The Doctrine of Dissimulation, like much of what is unedifying in Islamic scriptures, has its roots in the Koran. Notice that the person who God tells to lie, his wellbeing is not in jeopardy.

4:71 O believers, be on your guard; so march in detachments or march altogether.

4:72 Indeed, among you is one who will stay behind, so that if a disaster befalls you, he will say: “Allah has favoured me, since I have not been a martyr with them.”

4:73 If, however, a bounty from God comes to you, he will say, as though there was no friendship between you and him: “Would that I had been with them; then I would have won a great victory.”

Islamists will lie to you about the Prophet’s sayings and example and Allah’s revelations inspiring acts of unparalleled barbarity to this day. They will lie to you about Muhammad using fear in his war on unbelievers, even after his documented boasting that his modus operandi, like that of the god for whom he spoke, was terror.

Narrated Abu Huraira:

Allah's Apostle said, "I have been sent with the shortest expressions bearing the widest meanings, and I have been made victorious with terror (cast in the hearts of the enemy)."

Bukhari 52.220

In a revelation, Allah admits that some people considered His mouthpiece a “tyrant terrorizing them“ with what he was revealing was in the Koran.

50:45 We know better what they say and you are not a tyrant terrorizing them. So, remind, by the Qur’an, him who fears My Warning.

Allah considered mass killings as essential to instilling terror “in the hearts of the enemy.”

8:57 So, if you should come upon them in the war, scatter (punish them severely) them with those behind them, that perchance they may pay heed.

Additional translations that are even more to the point:

8:57 If thou find them at war [with you], make of them a fearsome example for those who follow them, so that they might take it to heart.

Muhammad Assad

8:57 If thou comest (sic) on them in the war, deal with them so as to strike fear in those who are behind them, that haply they may remember.

M. M. Pickthall

Terrorism made Muhammad, and Allah, victorious because it works!

American Example

In March 2015, New York City announced that, henceforth, students in its public school system would get the day off in recognition of the Muslim holiday celebrating the end of Ramadan and the holiday celebrating the end of the Hajj.

New York City public schools to close doors on two Muslim holidays

Under the new policy, the city’s 1.1-million-pupil public school system will close for Eid al-Adha, which is also known as the Festival of Sacrifice (celebrates the willingness of Abraham to sacrifice a son) [and] Eid al-Fitr, marking the end of Ramadan.

The Associated Press, Mar. 04 2015

The city of New York would never have shown this level of respect for Islam had it not been for 9/11. Muhammad often waited until the feast of Id-ul-fitr (Eid al-Fitr), and that of Id-ul-Adha (Eid-ul-Adha), with his followers more convinced than ever of the need to rid the world of unbelievers after a period of intense immersion in the Koran, to give his army its marching orders.

Narrated Abu Sa'id Al-Khudri:

The Prophet used to proceed to the Musalla (open space outside a mosque that is mainly used for praying,) on the days of Id-ul-fitr and Id-ul-Adha; the first thing to begin with was the prayer and after that he would stand in front of the people and the people would keep sitting in their rows. Then he would preach to them, advise them and give them orders, (i.e. Khutba). And after that if he wished to send an army for an expedition, he would do so.

Bukhari 15.76

Spanish Example

On March 11, 2004, 193 commuters were killed and almost 2,000 injured, many experiencing horrible life-changing injuries, when ten bombs were detonated on four Madrid-area trains during rush hour. The carnage would have been even greater had three bombs not failed to explode.

On April 18th the Spanish government announced it was repatriating its 1,300 troop contribution to the US-led ill-advised invasion of Iraq. In the fight against ISIS, Spain kept a low profile, limiting its contribution to a few hundred troops, mainly for training purposes. It learned its lesson the hard way and did not want a refresher. That would also explain its lack of interest in attempting to stem an Islamic insurgency closer to home in the sub-Sahara.

British Example

After the London bombings of July 2005, the British government saw to it that no serious discussion about the book or the advocate of terror that inspired the slaughter of 54 British citizens ever took place. It silenced critics of Islam with threats of fines and imprisonment. A tacit bargain was struck with those for whom terrorism is a means to an end. Put away your bombs, guns and knives and you will be allowed to recruit, largely unopposed, in our corner of the Land of War (anywhere the Sharia is not the law of the land).

The Racial and Religious Hatred Act 2006 was given royal assent on February 16, 2006. From one day to the next, the country that fought a world war to preserve us from genocidal fanatics became a more tolerant and intolerant society. More tolerant of religious zealots, not unlike those in the following Daily Mail photograph who disrupted Armistice Day 2010 commemorations in central London, and less tolerant of their critics because of a brutal act of terrorism.

Since this appeasement act went into effect, there have been, at this writing, at least five terrorist attacks in the UK where people were killed. The worst in terms of fatalities: the Manchester arena bombing.

French Example

On Friday November 13, 2015, 130, mostly young people attending a concert in Paris were murdered by holy warriors with guns. After that massacre, France closed 20 of 2,500 mosques for allegedly preaching a radical interpretation of Islam.

In July 2016, 86 people, including 10 children, were crushed to death in Nice by a 19-ton transport truck. The following month, France's Minister of the Interior, Bernard Cazeneuve, announced that his government would be working with the French Muslim Council to launch a foundation to help finance mosques within France using the fiction that terrorism on French soil was a result of mosques built with foreign money.

The slaughter in Paris caused a halt to what the Nice massacre reversed. The murder of children in such a horrible manner was enough to convince the French government that what the county needed was more mosques. More proof that terrorism works if you are willing to be brutal enough.

Canadian Example

When I was still a member of what is probably best termed the British Jihadi Network, a series of semi-autonomous British Muslim terrorist groups linked by a single ideology, I remember how we used to laugh in celebration whenever people on TV proclaimed that the sole cause for Islamic acts of terror like 9/11, the Madrid bombings and 7/7 was Western foreign policy. By blaming the government for our actions ... [they] did our propaganda work for us. More important, they also helped to draw away any critical examination from the real engine of our violence: Islamic theology.

Hassan Butt, My plea to fellow Muslims, The Observer

In Canada, convert Michael Zehaf-Bibeau shot a soldier standing at attention next to the tomb of Canada’s Unknown Soldier before making his way into the Parliament buildings where he was riddled with bullets. Martin Couture-Rouleau sat in an idling car for almost two hours beside a Tim Hortons in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu before he spotted two Canadian Armed Forces officers and rammed them, killing one and injuring the other. He was later shot to death by police.

These are relatively minor acts of terror compared to those described so far; nonetheless they had the desired impact in gaining respect for Islam and converts to Allah’s Cause, just has such acts did during the time of Muhammad.

The leader of one of Ottawa’s largest mosques says he’s concerned about the spike in the number of young men who have wanted to convert to Islam since October’s terrorist attack in the nation’s capital.

Ottawa Citizen, Jan 15, 2014

A religion that sanctions violence on its god’s behalf would appeal to those who lack direction in their lives, along with rapists, sadists, sociopaths and psychopaths. Another reason, I suspect, for the heightened interest in Islam after a horrific murder or mass murder is the mainstream media, particularly in Canada, rushing to publish opinions about Islam not being a religion that encourages violence, but exactly the opposite.

Canada’s newspaper of record, The Globe and Mail, does this all the time. After the slaughter of twelve writers, cartoonists and staff at the satirical French magazine Charlie Hebdo, it published an interview that its contributing columnist on Islamic affairs, Sheema Khan, had with Lorna Dueck, host of Context TV, a program which, to quote the producer, "explores news and current affairs stories from a Christian world view."

Khan quickly took control of the discussion from a hapless, uninformed Dueck. Like so many others who would explain to the layperson why believers kill, Khan begins by shifting some of the blame to the so-called Islamophobes, accusing them of misinterpreting what the Koran teaches. Bracketed "()" text, which you find in the transcript of the interview, may indicate that information was added for emphasis prior to publication by The Globe and Mail.

Lorna Dueck: These are difficult days to be a Muslim, and I want to go public with some private conversations you and I have been having on the trouble of radicalization in Canada… What are the core beliefs in Islam that are being used to justify violence?

Sheema Khan: These are indeed, very trying times… So, let us begin our dialogue from a place of strength, power and courage. Muslim extremists and Islamophobes are two sides of the same coin – in their exclusivist vision based on hatred. Thus it is not surprising that both quote (or should I say, misquote) the same Koranic passages as justification for their views. Violence is not a “core belief” of Islam. Violence has a role in armed conflict, but with strict conditions.

As an example, extremists will use Koranic passages 2:190-193 to justify the killing of those who do not ascribe to their worldview.

Khan only provides the reference number of verses she says are misquoted by extremists. Following are the revelations in their entirety and an explanation:

2:190 And fight for the Cause of Allah those who fight you, but do not be aggressive. Surely Allah does not like the aggressor.

Don’t be fooled by Allah’s uncharacteristic caution to his holy warriors, that they show restraint. It has nothing to do with unbelievers whom Allah commands, in the very next revelation in this series, that you “Kill them wherever you find them.”

2:191 Kill them wherever you find them and drive them out from wherever they drove you out (from Mecca). Sedition is worse than slaughter. Do not fight them at the Sacred Mosque until they fight you at it. If they fight you there kill them. Such is the reward for the unbelievers.

Verse 2:191 can be a bit confusing. A line by line reading should clear things up.

Kill them wherever you find them…

That would be the unbelievers, of course.

…and drive them out from wherever they drove you out.

This clause refers to the Meccans who, having had enough of listening to what they considered a hateful and intolerant doctrine forced Muhammad to flee to Medina. He would return with an army of holy warriors a few years later and convinced, as recounted earlier, the Meccans to surrender without a fight. Today, this clause serves as a warning to anyone who would be foolish enough to attempt to limit Islam’s expansion, let alone force a retreat, once it has established a beachhead anywhere.

Sedition is worse than slaughter.

This line is unambiguous in its invitation to mass murder, if not genocide. Allah would rather see entire communities put to death than have them abandon Islam, the meaning of sedition.

Do not fight them at the Sacred Mosque until they fight you at it.

Allah is referring to the Mosque in Mecca, but it could be any mosque.

If they fight you there, kill them.

This additional command I consider superfluous or simply God’s way of reminding the believers that he means business when it comes to killing people, having already commanded them to “Kill them wherever you find them” in the first line of this verse.

Such is the reward for the unbelievers.

This is just Allah being Allah. Death is the usual reward unbelievers can expect for resisting Islam. Remember, revelations often must be read as a group to appreciate the totality of what is being revealed, as is the case with the two verses that follow Revelation 2:191.

2:192 But if they desist, Allah is truly All-Forgiving, Merciful.

“But if they desist”, i.e., become Muslims, Allah will obviously forgive them for giving up for that is what this aggression by holy warriors is all about.

2:193 Fight them until there is no sedition and the religion becomes that of Allah. But if they desist, there will be no aggression except against the evildoers.

Kill all those who will not submit, i.e., “the evildoers” so that only believers are left alive: “and the religion becomes that of Allah.” In the Koran, unbelievers and evildoers are generally synonymous, and against evildoers, the believers are not expected to show restraint. This would explain Khan’s lack of specifics after referencing a revelation that has nothing to do with God wanting his holy warriors to be less ruthless with unbelievers. Her portrayal of Muhammad is even more disingenuous.

Lorna Dueck: What about all the Koranic injunctions, and the other sayings, that say non-believers should be second class citizens?

Sheema Khan: …at a personal level, the Koran, and the life example of the Prophet, make it very clear that we are to treat people with kindness and respect, for we are all part of the human family. He was a mercy to humanity, and Muslims are to carry forth his legacy of compassion…

Extremism is often accompanied with harshness, rather than compassion and mercy (which were the hallmarks of Prophet Mohammed)… Murder is completely antithetical to the Prophet’s life example.

The Ottawa Citizen’s portrayal of Muhammad was just as misleading. The National Capital’s de facto newspaper is part of Postmedia, Canada's largest chain of "English-language daily newspapers by paid circulation, reaching millions of Canadians every week." Within twenty-four hours of the Charlie Hebdo massacre the Citizen had its first misleading article.

Aisha Sherazi: The true offence to the prophet Muhammed

It is said that the Prophet Muhammed (sic) never took revenge for any personal injury to himself. When his deadly enemies were all standing before him defeated, having persecuted him and his followers, hunted them down for years, and were at his mercy after the city of Mecca was taken back, he forgave every last one of them.

Ottawa Citizen, January 7, 2015

The respect that 9/11, and subsequent mass murders, generated for Islam was reflected on the Citizen’s front page on the somber twelfth anniversary of the brutal death of nearly 3,000 people. It showed an exquisitely attired model fawning over the incredibly violent book that motivates holy warriors to this day, like the 9/11 terrorists, to commit acts of unparalleled barbarity.