Islam - What Qur'an Teaches:

Open each numeric link in a new window (right click/new window). The links lead to a website where 3 different people translated verses from the Qu'ran.

Quran tells us to: "not to make friends with Jews, Christians and non-muslims" (5:51) (4:144)(5:82), fight them "until they pay the Jizya (a penalty tax for the non-Muslims living under Islamic rules) with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued" ( 9:29). "kill the disbelievers wherever we find them" (2:191), "murder them and treat them harshly" (9:123), "fight and slay the Pagans, seize them, beleaguer them, and lie in wait for them in every stratagem" ( 9:5).
Quran says that all those who disbelieve in Islam go to hell (5:10), they are najis (filthy, untouchable, impure) (9:28), and orders us to fight the unbelievers until no other religion except Islam is left ( 4.041) (2:193). It prohibits a Muslim to befriend a non-believer even if that non-believer is the father or the brother of that Muslim (9:23), (3:28).
It says that the "non-believers will go to hell and will drink boiling water" (14:17). It asks the Muslims to "slay or crucify or cut the hands and feet of the unbelievers, that they be expelled from the land with disgrace and that they shall have great punishment in the world hereafter" (5:33). And tells us that "for them (the unbelievers) garments of fire shall be cut and there shall be poured over their heads boiling water whereby whatever is in their bowels and skin shall be dissolved and they will be punished with hooked iron rods" (22:19-22) and that they not only will have "disgrace in this life, on the Day of Judgment He shall make them taste the Penalty of burning (Fire)" (22:9). (continued below)

Feeling the love yet? Islam is easily proven to be a harsh divider, not a peaceful uniter. Only Islam treats non-believers as inferior beings who are expendable in the drive to world hegemony. Islam justifies any means to achieve the end of establishing an Islamic world. Also, many people mistakenly believe or have been told that islam means 'peace', but it really means 'submission'. 'Salaam' means peace.) "Cult of Death", "Religion of Peace", whatever you want to call islam, the penalty for leaving is death. (source 2) (source 3) (source 4) (more). Want to know what muslims think about ANYONE outside of their belief system? Look at the picture below, then visit this link, scroll down to 'kafir'. Peace? I think I see Noam Chomsky hiding in there somewhere behind Jesse (from the comments section of this post), Juan Cole is in there too! Check these guys out!

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Is Secularism Anti-Islamic?
Secularists may or may not be opposed to religion per se, but secular humanism as a social movement is especially concerned with religious law, whereby a strict doctrine conflicts with the more general concept of religious freedom. Regarding political matters, secular humanism seeks to keep the government separate from the influence of any particular religion in order that rules developed under secularism may be universally applied.
VS.
"Submission" is the religion whereby we recognize God's absolute authority, and reach an unshakable conviction that God ALONE possesses all power; no other entity possesses any power that is independent of Him. The natural result of such a realization is to devote our lives and our worship absolutely to God ALONE. This is the First Commandment in all the scriptures, including the Old Testament, the New Testament, and the Final Testament (Quran). (from submissiondotorg) (unshakable conviction???? natural result being this?) remember this?
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State and Religion: Muslims believe that Islam is a total and a complete way of life. It encompasses all aspects of life. As such, the teachings of Islam do not separate religion from politics. As a matter of fact, state and religion are under the obedience of Allah through the teachings of Islam. Hence, economic and social transactions, as well as educational and political systems are also part of the teachings of Islam. (source: islamdotorgdotnz / islamic affairs /under heading: 'some islamic principles'.) Islamic Politics 101
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"It is necessary for a Muslim to be acquainted with the laws of Shariah, but it is not necessary for him to delve into each law in order to find the underlying wisdom of these laws because knowledge of the wisdom of some of the laws may be beyond his puny comprehension".
( source: h*tp://www.islam.tc/ask-imam/view.php?q=10896 change * to t. This is a good link if your wondering about the correct way to copulate with your slave women. Verbatim: "the wisdom underlying the permission granted by Shariah to copulate with a slave woman is as follows": read the link)
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Islam means SUBMISSION not PEACE! Peace is ONLY achivable under the authority of ISLAM as a ruling system -
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It attacked democracy as a springboard for "un-Islamic" practices, claiming that its emphasis on majority rule violated the principle that all laws must come from a divine source. "Candidates in elections are seeking to become demi-gods, while those who vote for them are infidels," it said. (Source: Transcript of audio tape reportedly by Militant leader Abu Musabal-Zarqawi. 1-23-05).

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If you find this mentality intriguing, research Hirsi Ali , a 32 year old woman raised as a muslim in Somalia and Saudi Arabia. She has become an icon of the treatment of anyone who dares criticize islam, and especially by a woman. Note the statement: "conservative clerics insisted that judgement is forbidden for women in Islam" in the wikipedia bio of Shirin Ebadi. The silence of western feminists on the treatment of women under sharia law is deafening. Brush anything under the rug that may somehow align them with the 'war on terror'? Anyone critical of islam is labeled a kaffir, apostate, blasphemer, incindiary, etc. Speaking out against acts of terror, or descrimination under sharia labels you a neo-con or a conservative apparently. brush brush brush.... Check out the comments section of this post to see how 'Jesse' shows us a fine demonstration of brush and deflect techniques. hollywood and the msm are doing it at this very moment. Short Video. (windows media)
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As for anything on this blog, read and evaluate for yourself. Sources are provided wherever possible. The message of islam and political islam are one and the same. I'll just think out loud here. Why are some muslims called 'moderate muslims' and some called 'islamic fundamentalist'? It seems to me that the tenets of the religion call for one to buy into it 100%. So why the 34% or the 58%? Here is an interesting hypothesis. Note the excerpt from an article posted here: "The problem is that the vast silent majority of these Moslems are not part of the terror and of the incitement, but they also do not stand up against it. They become accomplices, by omission, and this applies to political leaders, intellectuals, business people and many others. Many of them can certainly tell right from wrong, but are afraid to express their views". End quote. Is denouncing terror committed in the name of islam haraam? Remember that for muslims, this life and this world are merely a place to express and prove devotion to allah. The belief system of islam is based entirely on the afterlife, heaven or paradise. Logic, fairness and concepts of peaceful co-existance relating to others may not be a concern for muslims when it comes to determining their pecking order or rank in their percieved paradise. The qur'an also makes the convenient reference that muslims arent responsible for their actions, thus explaining why many muslims are apathetic towards despicable acts of terrorism in the name of the belief system. Its all just shahada to them.

Do (devout, pious, kinda-sorta, whatever) muslims truly believe that their religion supercedes the constitution (above the law) of the countries they may or may not live in? Do non-muslims realize this? (apparently not)
Is there a division among muslims regarding this? Just who's submitting and who's not here? Are peaceful, freedom loving people justified in finding blind faith of an ambiguous belief system integrating into free societys to be a threat to the very concepts those societys are founded on? Research the muslim influx into Malmo, Sweden.
Read and evaluate, and wonder why other blogs/websites dont point blank welcome you to do that. I'm not sold that anyone has all the answers. Some of the people have some of the answers, some claim to be or are percieved as anointed. Personally there are very few issues I feel 100% about because of ambiguous or obscured facts. On the topic of islam and blind faith, I find it appalling, so no 100% for me. Count me out!

This blog isnt dated, I dont like to bury the older posts. Scroll wayyyyy down for more and above all "read and evaluate". Comments welcome. Thought provoking critical analysis is fine by me.
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check out the palistinian agenda (video)

child soldiers

Check out these videos

CAIR goes to great lengths to present a sugar coated peaceful islam. These muslims disagree. (realmedia video) This lady can exist in real life, but if you were to depict her character in a movie, CAIR would flip out!

Heres something to ponder... whenever you see some mob of islamists burning an American flag on tv or wherever, consider this: They're not burning it because of Bush, Clinton, McDonalds, Carter, Reagan, foreign policy, hijab bans, Israel etc etc etc. They are burning it because the American flag represents the most visible antithesis to Sharia ( islamic law) and the islamic dominated lifestyle. It is very cut and dried. The line is drawn and anything on the other side is 'America'. Here is a good example: "they excoriate the US, along with everything that comes from that direction, reforms or otherwise". Read the article (note how the al-jazeera editors use only the most unflattering pics of western representatives). Remember that due to the multitude of 'burn in hell' threats from the koran, al-jazeera's "Persuit of Arab Reform" section boils down to the catch-22 of anyone logically addressing reform issues will get labeled a blasphemer. Forget logic, calling someone a blasphemer is an expression of shahada. Its all about paradise, remember? Al-jazeera is a bu$ine$$ that panders to this audience. Fan the flames. $$$$$. Watch whats going on in your town, your country, the world and especially the Middle East. Every time you see that American flag burning, consider that free speech, equality and democracy can be considered haraam by many within islam. Its religious fascism straight from the quran. Promoted by islamic theocrats (religious politicians, clerics, imams, sheiks) near you to the submitters (muslims). example? tons more .

Islam is just as guilty of imperialistic, expansionistic, discrimination as those it points the finger at. Regardless of the mountain of eyebrow raising, stomach turning evidence, CAIR will continue to promote their perpetual victim syndrome, and try to make this about flesh and blood people. Is it? No it isnt. Its about an ideology. And no ideology is above critical examination of its motives. For example, examinig racial bigotry isnt about the racist, its about racism. Read and Evaluate.

(Continuation) Quran says that "those who invoke a god other than Allah not only should meet punishment in this world but the Penalty on the Day of Judgment will be doubled to them, and they will dwell therein in ignominy" (25:68). For those who "believe not in Allah and His Messenger, He has prepared, for those who reject Allah, a Blazing Fire!" (48:13). (Look at article 7 of the Palestinian constitution, and article 3 of Syria's constitution. Speaking of Palestine, <<--go here and click on "view the trailer".) As for him who does not believe in Islam the Prophet says that after he dies it will be announced with a "stern command": "Seize ye him, and bind ye him, And burn ye him in the Blazing Fire. Further, make him march in a chain, whereof the length is seventy cubits! This was he that would not believe in Allah Most High. And would not encourage the feeding of the indigent! So no friend hath he here this Day. Nor hath he any food except the corruption from the washing of wounds, Which none do eat but those in sin." (69:30-37)
The holy Prophet prescribes fighting for us and tells us that "it is good for us even if we dislike it" (2:216). Then he advises us to "strike off the heads of the disbelievers"; and after making a "wide slaughter among them, carefully tie up the remaining captives" (47:4). Our God has promised to "instill terror into the hearts of the unbelievers" and has ordered us to "smite above their necks and smite all their finger-tips off them" (8:12). and "to strike terror into (the hearts of the enemies" (8:60).
He has made the Jihad mandatory and warns us that "Unless we go forth, (for Jihad) He will punish us with a grievous penalty, and put others in our place" (9:39). Allah speaks to our Holy Prophet and says "O Prophet! strive hard against the unbelievers and the Hypocrites, and be stern against them. Their abode is Hell,- an evil refuge indeed" (9:73).
He promises us that in the fight for His cause whether we slay or are slain we return to the garden of Paradise (9:111). In Paradise he will "wed us with Houris (celestial virgins) pure beautiful ones" (55:56). There we are promised to eat and drink pleasantly (no hangovers!) for what we did (56:19). And have "boys like hidden pearls" (52:24) and "youth never altering in age like scattered pearls" (76:19)
As you see, Allah has promised all sorts of unlimited rewards, gluttony and sex to Muslim men who kill the unbelievers in his name, not forgetting even those with pedophilic inclinations. We will be admitted to Paradise where we shall find "goodly things, beautiful ones, pure ones confined to the pavilions that man has not touched them before nor jinni" (56:67-71).
In the West we enjoy freedom of belief but we are not supposed to give such freedom to anyone else because it is written "If anyone desires a religion other than Islam (submission to Allah), never will it be accepted of him; and in the Hereafter He will be in the ranks of those who have lost (all spiritual good) (3:85).
As for women, the book of Allah says that they are inferior to men and their husbands have the right to scourge them if they are found disobedient (4:34). It advises men to take a green branch and beat their wives, because a green branch is more flexible and hurts more. (38:44). It teaches that women will go to hell if they are disobedient to their husbands (66:10). It maintains that men have an advantage over the women (2:228). It not only denies the women's equal rights, it decrees that their witness is not admissible in the courts of law (2:282). This means that a woman who is raped cannot accuse her rapist unless she can produce a male witness. Our Holy Prophet allows us to marry up to four wives and he licensed us to sleep with our slave maids and as many 'captive' women as we may have (4:3) even if those women are already married. He himself did just that.
[A word of warning for those who may find their version of Quran is translated differently from those appearing in this article: Almost all the translators of Quran have deliberately tried to soften the harsh verses of Quran. Yusufali especially goes out of his way to twists the meaning of the words and hide the harshness of Quran. For example he translates the verse (38:44) that says "take a green branch and beat your wife" as "take a little green grass and strike therewith". Or when he translates the verse (4:34) that says "beat your wife" he cannot help it but to add the word (lightly) in parenthesis.]
Dear fellow Muslim: Is this the Islam you believe in? Is this your Most Merciful, Most Compassionate Allah whom you worship daily? Could God incite us to kill other peoples? Please understand that there is no terrorist gene but there could be a terrorist mindset. That mindset finds its most fertile ground in the tenets of Islam. Denying it and presenting Islam as a religion of peace similar to Buddhism to the lay public is suppression of truth. The history of Islam between 7th and 14th century is riddled with violence, fratricide and wars of aggression, starting right from the death of the Prophet and during the so-called 'pure' or orthodox caliphate. And Muhammad himself hoisted the standard of killing, looting, massacres and bloodshed. How can we deny the entire history? The behavior of our Holy Prophet as recorded in authentic Islamic sources is quite questionable from a modern viewpoint. The Prophet was a charismatic man but he had few virtues. Imitating him in all aspects of life (following Sunnah) is firstly impossible and secondly dangerous in the 21st century. Why are we so helplessly in denial on this simple issue?
When the Prophet was in Mecca and he was still not powerful enough he called for tolerance. He said "To you be your religion, and to me my religion" (109:6). This famous quote is often misused to prove that the general principle of Quran is tolerance. He advised his follower to speak good to their enemies (2:83), exhorted them to be patient (Q. 20:103) and said that "there is no compulsion in religion" (2:256). But all that changed drastically when he came to power. Then killing and slaying the unbelievers was justified in innumerable verses with harshness and without mercy. The verses quoted to prove Islam's tolerance ignore many other verses that bear no trace of tolerance or forgiveness. Is it normal that a book revealed by God should have so many serious contradictions?
The Prophet himself set the example of unleashing violence by invading the Jewish settlements breaking the treaties he had signed with them and banished some of them after confiscating their belongings massacring others and taking their wives and children as slaves. He inspected the youngsters and massacred all those who had pubic hair along with the men and those who were younger he kept as slaves. He distributed the women captured in his raids among his soldiers keeping the prettiest for himself (33:50). He made sexual advances on Safiyah a Jewish girl in the same day he captured her town, Kheibar, and killed her father, husband and many of her relatives. Reyhana was another Jewish girl of Bani Quraiza whom he used as sex slave after killing all her male relatives. In the last ten years of his life he accumulated a score of wives, concubines and sex slaves including the 6* year old Ayesha. (*Often disputed. Additional source is h*tp://islam.tc/ask-imam/view.php?q=6778 ).
These are not stories but records from authentic Islamic history and the Hadiths. It can be argued that these behaviors were not unknown or unusual for the conquerors and leaders of the mediaeval world but these are not the activities befitting of a peaceful saint and certainly not of someone who claimed to be the Mercy of God for all the creation.
There were known assassinations of adversaries during the Prophet's time, that took place at his behest. Among them there was a 120 year old man, Abu 'Afak whose only crime was to compose a lyric satirical of the Prophet. (Kitab al Tabaqat al Kabir, Volume 2, by Bin Sa'd, page 32) Then when a poetess, a mother of 5 small children, 'Asma' Bint Marwan, wrote a poetry cursing the Arabs for letting Muhammad assassinate an old man, our Holy Prophet ordered her to be assassinated too in the middle of the night, which was carried out while her youngest child was suckling from her breast. (Sirat Rasul Allah (A. Guilaume's translation "The Life of Muhammad") page 675, 676).
Dear conscientious Muslims: Question yourselves- isn't this compulsive dogma of following a man who lived 1400 years ago, leading us to doom in this changing world? Who are we deceiving? See how our Umma (people) have sunk into poverty and how we lag behind the rest of the world? Isn't it because we are following a religion that is outdated and impractical? In this crucial moment of history, when a great catastrophe has befallen us and a much bigger one is lying ahead, should not we wake up from our 1400 years of slumber and see where things have gone wrong?
The hatred has filled the air and the world is bracing itself for its doomsday. Should we not ask ourselves whether we have contributed, unwittingly, to this tragedy and whether we can stop the great disaster from happening?
Unfortunately the answer to the first question is yes. Yes, we have contributed to the rise of fundamentalism by merely claiming Islam is a religion of peace, by simply being a Muslim and by saying our shahada (testimony that Allah is the only God and Muhammad is his messenger). By our shahada we have recognized Muhammad as a true messenger of God and his book as the words of God. But as you saw, those words are anything but from God. They call for killing, they are prescriptions for hate and they foment intolerance. And when the ignorant among us read those hate laden verses, they act on them and the result is the infamous September 11, the result is human bombs in Israel, massacres in East Timor and Bangladesh, kidnappings and killings in Philippines, slavery and genocide in Sudan, honor Killings in Pakistan and Jordan, torture in Iran, stoning and maiming in Afghanistan and Iran, violence in Algeria, terrorism in Palestine and misery and death in all Islamic countries. We are responsible because we endorsed Islam and hailed it as a religion of God. And we are as guilty as those who put into practice what Quran preaches and ironically we are the main victims too.
If we are not terrorists, if we love peace, if we cried with the rest of the world for what happened in NYC, then why are we supporting Quran that preaches killing, that advocates holy war, that calls for murder of non-Muslims? It is not the extremists who have misunderstood Islam. They do literally what Quran ask them to do. It is we who misunderstand Islam. We are the ones who are confused. We are the ones who wrongly assume that Islam is the religion of peace. Islam is not a religion of peace. In its so-called pure form it can very well be interpreted as a doctrine of hate. Terrorists are simply doing that and we the intellectual apologists of Islam are justifying it.
We can stop this madness. Yes we can avert the disaster that is hovering over our heads. Yes we can denounce the doctrines that promote hate. Yes we can embrace the rest of humanity with love. Yes, we can become part of a united world, members of one human family, flowers of one garden. We can dump the claim of infallibility of our Book and the questionable legacy of our Prophet.
Dear friends, there is no time to waste. Let us put an end to this lie. Let us not fool ourselves. Islam is not a religion of peace, of tolerance, of equality or of unity of humankind. Let us read the Quran. Let us face the truth even if it is painful. As long as we keep this lie alive, as long as we hide our head in the sands of Arabia we are feeding terrorism. As long as you and I keep calling Quran the unchangeable book of God, we cannot blame those who follow the teachings therein. As long as we pay our Khums and Zakat our money goes to promote Islamic expansionism and that means terrorism, Jihad and war.
Islam divides the world in two parts: Darul Harb (land of war) and Darul Islam (land of Islam). Darul Harb is the land of the infidels, Muslims are required to infiltrate those lands, proselytize and procreate until their number increase and then start the war and fight and kill the people and impose the religion of Islam on them and convert that land into Darul Islam. (Funny, I dont recall Michael Moore discussing this in Fahrenheit 911. I also wonder why Susan Sarandon or Sean Penn never touch on these topics. When analyzing the far left or far right, look at what they DONT discuss, as well as what they do).
In all fairness we denounce this betrayal. This is an abuse of trust. How can we make war in the countries that have sheltered us? How can we kill those who have befriended us? Yet willingly or unwillingly we have become pawns in this Islamic Imperialism. If this sound to you abhorrent, we ask you how can you support a doctrine that is so deceiving, so cunning and so ruthless? Let us see what great Islamic scholars have to say in this respect.
Dr. M. Khan, the translator of Sahih Bukhari and the Quran into English wrote: "Allah revealed in Sura Bara'at (Repentance, IX) the order to discard (all) obligations (covenants, etc), and commanded the Muslims to fight against all the Pagans as well as against the people of the Scriptures (Jews and Christians) if they do not embrace Islam, till they pay the Jizia (a tax levied on the Jews and Christians) with willing submission and feel themselves subdued (as it is revealed in (9:29). So the Muslims were not permitted to abandon "the fighting" against them (Pagans, Jews and Christians) and to reconcile with them and to suspend hostilities against them for an unlimited period while they are STRONG and have the ability to fight against them. So at first "the fighting" was forbidden, then it was permitted, and after that it was made obligatory "[Introduction to Englishtranslation of Sahih Bukhari, p.xxiv.]
Dr. Sobhy as-Saleh, a contemporary Islamic academician, quoted Imam Suyuti the author of Itqan Fi 'Ulum al- Qur'an who wrote: ?The command to fight the infidels was DELAYED UNTIL THE MUSLIMS BECOME STRONG, but when they were weak they were commanded to endure and be patient. [ Sobhy as_Saleh, Mabaheth Fi 'Ulum al- Qur'an, Dar al-'Ilm Lel-Malayeen, Beirut, 1983, p.269.]
Dr. Sobhy, in a footnote, commends the opinion of a scholar named Zarkashi who said: "Allah the most high and wise revealed to Mohammad in his weak condition what suited the situation, because of his mercy to him and his followers. For if He gave them the command to fight while they were weak it would have been embarrassing and most difficult, but when the most high made Islam victorious He commanded him with what suited the situation, that is asking the people of the Book to become Muslims or to pay the levied tax, and the infidels to become Muslims or face death. These two options, to fight or to have peace return according to the strength or the weakness of the Muslims." [ibid p. 270]
Other Islamic scholars (Ibn Hazm al-Andalusi, Ga'far ar-Razi, Rabi' Ibn 'Ons, 'Abil-'Aliyah, Abd ar-Rahman Ibn Zayd Ibn 'Aslam, etc.) agree that the verse "Slay the idolaters wherever you find them" (9:5) cancelled those few earlier verses that called for tolerance in Quran and were revealed when Islam was weak.
Can you still say that Islam is the religion of peace?
Conclusion: We know too well that it is not easy to denounce our faith as it means denouncing a part of ourselves. We are a group of freethinkers and humanists with Islamic roots. Discovering the truth and leaving the religion of our fathers and forefathers was a painful experience. But after learning what Islam stands for, we had no choice but to leave it. After becoming familiar with the Quran, the choice became clear: it is either Islam or it is humanity. If Islam is to thrive, humanity has to die. We decided to side with humanity. We are still Muslims culturally but we no more believe in Islam as the true religion of God. We are humanists. We love humanity. We endeavor for the unity of humankind. We work for equality between men and women. We strive for secularization of Islamic countries, for democracy and freedom of thoughts, beliefs and expressions We have decided not to live anymore in self-deception but to embrace humanity, enter into the new millennium hand in hand with people or other cultures and beliefs in amity and in peace. We denounce the violence that is eulogized in Quran as holy war (Jihad). We condemn killing in the name of God. We believe in sacredness of human life, not in the inviolability of beliefs and religions. And we invite you to join us and the rest of the humanity and be part of the family of humankind with love, camaraderie and peace.