Why does Islam Always Seem to be Associated with Violence?

 

 

Demystifying Islam

 by Dr. Ali Shehata

 

Why does Islam Always Seem to be Associated with Violence?

 

Here we come to the issue of the media, and its ability to effectively focus the attention of people. Moreover, this question raises the issue of how should one judge a religion?

 

In regards to how well the media can focus people’s attention both onto and away from something, consider the following facts:

 

·         Latin American and Caribbean countries have lead the world in terms of crime and violence for much of the past two decades. The five countries reporting the highest homicide rates internationally in 2017 were El Salvador, Honduras, Jamaica, St Kitts and Venezuela. In 2016, 43 of the 50 most violent cities in the world were found in Latin America and the Caribbean. (Muggah, R. et al. (2018, Mar 14). Latin America is the World's Most Dangerous Region. But there are Signs it is turning a Corner. Retrieved from: https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2018/03/latin-america-is-the-worldsmost-dangerous-region-but-there-are-signs-its-turning-a-corner/)

 

·         Most people polled think that the problem of child molestation and sexual abuse is confined primarily to the Catholic diocese, whereas in reality, it is a problem involving every denomination of Christianity in America, as well as other religions. (N.A. (n.d.). Soul Betrayal. It's not just priests who abuse youngsters. Clergy of all faiths are guilty of sexual misconduct with children and adults. Retrieved from: http://www.beliefnet.com/story/101/story_10199.html )

 

·         The US has by far the highest number of privately owned guns in the world.( Americans make up less than 5% of the world’s population, yet they own approximately 45% of all the world’s privately held firearms). Estimated for 2017, the number of civilian-owned firearms in the US was 120.5 guns per 100 residents, meaning there were more firearms than people. The world’s second-ranked country was Yemen, a Muslim majority quasi-failed state torn by civil war, where there were 52.8 guns per 100 residents, or less than half that of the US! (http://www.smallarmssurvey.org/weapons-and-markets/tools/globalfirearms-holdings.html). In fact, there are only two Muslim majority countries in the top twenty civilian fire-arms per resident nations. (Lopez, G. (2018, Aug 29). America is one of 6 countries that make up more than half of gun deaths worldwide. Retrieved from: https://www.vox.com/2018/8/29/17792776/us-gun-deaths-global).

 

·         For every one American killed by an act of terror in the United States or abroad in 2014, more than 1,049 died because of guns. (Bower, E. (2016, Oct 3). American deaths in terrorism vs. gun violence inone graph. Retrieved from: https://edition.cnn.com/2016/10/03/us/terrorismgun-violence/index.html).

 

·         According to a report by the US National Counterterrorism Center (https://fas.org/irp/threat/nctc2011.pdf ), in cases in which religious affiliation of terrorism causalities can be determined, Muslims suffered between 82 and 97% of fatalities over the past five years and Muslims are seven times more likely than non-Muslims to be the victims of terror. 

 

·         The Global Terrorism Index reports that between 2001 and 2015, 75% of the fatalities from terrorist attacks occurred in Muslim majority countries. Almost all of the attacks, 98%, occurred outside the US and Western Europe—despite these dominating the news cycle. (http://economicsandpeace.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/Global-Terrorism-Index-2015.pdf )

 

Although one can easily ascertain the truth of what was just mentioned, people have held the other, often opposing, opinions because of the attention given to certain issues on the media over others.

 

From another aspect, the question of how a religion is judged needs to be asked. Are we to judge a religion or idea based upon the actions of a small, extreme minority of its followers, or based upon its primary scriptures? Consider the following questions:

 

 Should Baptist Christians be branded terrorists because some members of the Baptist denomination twisted their scriptures to support and carry out numerous abortion clinic bombings wherein many innocent people were killed?

 

 Should Christianity be branded a racist ideology since the Ku Klux Klan would burn crosses and use the Bible to support their racially motivated violence and murders?

 

 Since hundreds of thousands of innocent children had their youth forever shattered through the rape, sexual abuse and exploitation that they experienced at the hands of clergy; should we then say that Christians are mostly child molesters?

 

 Hitler was known to be a devout Christian acting out on what he believed was God’s plan, as when he said, “I believe that I am acting in accordance with the will of the Almighty Creator. By defending myself against the Jew, I am fighting for the work of the Lord.” (Hitler, A. (1998). Mein Kampf (R. Manheim, Trans.). Houghton Mifflin Company.)

 

Should we then blame the religion of Christianity for the countless deaths and war crimes he ordered?

 

From a more secular standpoint, are all Americans responsible for the death of the 200,000 innocent women, children and men who were annihilated by the nuclear bombs dropped upon Hiroshima and Nagasaki? As Americans, we repeatedly say that war should be between armies and that innocent civilians should never be targeted. Yet, in this very notable case, some people decided that killing such a large number of people might break the Japanese will and cause them to submit. (Kuan, E.K.P. (2010, Aug 10). Was the dropping of the atomic bombs necessary? Retrieved from: https://japantoday.com/category/features/opinions/was-the-dropping-of-theatomic-bombs-necessary)

 

Most religions and even cultures have the concept of “people in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones”. So now consider for yourself, have you been throwing stones at Muslims, while ignoring the condition of your own house? 

 

But, some people will say that the people mentioned above acted on their own, whereas often times when you see Muslims on television after some act of violence, they seem to be using verses from the Quran to support their crimes. Again, this is no different than abortion clinic bombers using the Bible to support their actions, or the words of the successive Popes during the Crusades, or the ideology of the Ku Klux Klan. 

 

Consider the following quote taken from the book The First Crusade: The Accounts of Eye Witnesses and Participants. In November of 1095, Pope Urban II initiated the first European attempt at colonizing the Muslim world, known in the West as the Crusades. He is recorded to have said (words placed in italics are only for emphasis):

 

For you must hasten to carry aid to your brethren dwelling in the East, who need your help, [for] which they have often asked. For the Turks, a Persian people, [referring here to the Muslim nations] have attacked them. I exhort you with earnest prayer—not I, but God—that, as heralds of Christ, you urge men by frequent encouragement, men of all ranks, knights as well as foot soldiers, rich as well as poor, to rush to exterminate this vile race from the lands of your brethren, Christ commands it. 

 

And if those who set out thither should lose their lives on the way by land, or in crossing the sea, or in fighting the pagans, their sins shall be remitted. Oh what a disgrace, if a race so despised, base, and the instrument of demons, should so overcome a people endowed with faith in the all-powerful God, and resplendent with the name of Christ. Let those who have been accustomed to make private war against the faithful carry on to a successful issue a war against the infidels. Let those who for a long time have been robbers, now become soldiers of Christ. Let those who fought against brothers and relatives, now fight against these barbarians. Let them zealously undertake the journey under the guidance of the Lord. (Krey, A.C. (1921). The First Crusade: the Accounts of Eye-Witnesses and Participants. Princeton, Princeton University Press )

    

So in this disturbing passage we see many statements that, when spoken by people of other religions or cultures, have been utterly condemned. Pope Urban II herein calls Muslim people infidels and barbarians, and he commands the Christian people of Europe to empty their lands to go and exterminate them in the name of Christ, moreover as a command of Christ. The book goes on further to describe the scene at the end of the battle of Jerusalem when the Crusaders had achieved victory.

 

And, if you desire to know what was done about the enemy whom we found there, know that in the portico of Solomon and his Temple [the area known as the Temple Mount], our men rode in the blood of the Saracens [derogatory term for Muslims] up to the knees of the horses. 

 

When Jerusalem was conquered on the 15th of July 1099 by the Crusaders who were also known as the Christian Knights, more than 60,000 inhabitants, both Jewish and Muslim, were slaughtered in cold blood. In the words of one witness:

 

...there [in front of Solomon's temple] was such a carnage that our people were wading ankle-deep in the blood of our foes, and after that "happily and crying for joy," our people marched to our Savior’s tomb, to honor it and to pay off our debt of gratitude.

 

It should be further understood that no one survived this carnage on the side of the Muslims, or the Jews who were under the protection of the Muslims at that time. Babies, children, women, and the elderly—all fell under the swords of the Christian knights who then went to say “thank you” before the tomb of Christ. Should Christianity be judged by such events? Of course no Christian, not even a just non-Christian for that matter, would agree to that premise! So then, it can only be fair that Islam not be judged for the far smaller minority of extremists who kill innocent people in the name of God.

 

Another point, which is worth remembering, is how the killing and pillaging in the name of Christianity has in most cases been initiated, instituted and supported by governments and the Church alike—what would be termed “institutional terrorism”.( Riley-Smith, Jonathan. (1999). The Oxford History of the Crusades. New York: Oxford University Press) On the other hand, the acts carried out in the name of Islam are most often the work of individuals without the support of any recognized or established government, and more importantly, without the support of authorized Muslim leadership.

 

What Did the Prophet Muhammad Say About Combat?

 

I would like to summarize this section by mentioning only one reference—the statement of the first Muslim caliph (ruler), Abu Bakr, who, upon dispatching an army to the territories of the Levant, gave the following command to his General. This command undoubtedly originates from the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad pbuh:

 

Do not kill a woman, nor a child, nor a weak old person; do not cut down a fruit-bearing tree; do not destroy a dwelling [home]; do not kill a sheep or camel, unless [you need to kill it] for food; do not set bees on fire, nor drown them; do not misappropriate the spoils of war; and do not be cowardly. [Malik]

 

From this one statement, containing ten commands, one should see that the Muslim is obliged in warfare not only to show mercy to innocent and non-combatant humans, but even to the environment and to the animals. If all armies would only follow this advice today, then the wide spread destruction that war brings with it today would certainly not exist, no matter the combatants involved. 

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Is Islam the Only Religion that Sanctions War and Fighting?

 

 

Demystifying Islam

 by Dr. Ali Shehata

 

Is Islam the Only Religion that Sanctions War and Fighting?

 

Unfortunately, many people incorrectly believe that Islam is the only religion that sanctions war. They point to the Jesus of the Bible and say that religions like Christianity are commanded with peace, and even loving the enemy. Is this true? 

 

Undoubtedly, we see the Christian nations and kingdoms throughout history leading the forefront in regards to warfare and killing, as evidenced throughout the numerous Crusades, the Spanish Inquisition, the forceful take over and forced conversion of the Native Americans of both North and South America, clear into the blood baths of the two World Wars.  In his online blog, Professor Juan Cole, the present Richard P. Mitchell Collegiate Professor of History at the University of Michigan, writes:

 

Contrary to what is alleged by bigots like Bill Maher, Muslims are not more violent than people of other religions. Murder rates in most of the Muslim world are very low compared to the United States.

 

As for political violence, people of Christian heritage in the twentieth century polished off tens of millions of people in the two world wars and colonial repression. This massive carnage did not occur because European Christians are worse than, or different, from other human beings, but because they were the first to industrialize war and pursue a national model. Sometimes it is argued that they did not act in the name of religion, but of nationalism. But, really, how naive. Religion and nationalism are closely intertwined. The British monarch is the head of the Church of England, and that still meant something in the first half of the twentieth century, at least. The Swedish church is a national church. Spain? Was it really unconnected to Catholicism? Did the Church and Francisco Franco’s feelings toward it play no role in the Civil War? And what’s sauce for the goose: much Muslim violence is driven by forms of modern nationalism, too.

 

I don’t figure that Muslims killed more than 2 million people or so in political violence in the entire twentieth century, and that mainly in the Iran-Iraq War 1980-1988, and the Soviet and post-Soviet wars in Afghanistan, for which Europeans bear some blame.

 

Compare that to the Christian European tally of, oh, let’s say 100 million (16 million in WW I, 60 million in WWII—though some of those were attributable to Buddhists in Asia—and millions more in colonial wars.)

 

Belgium—yes, the Belgium of strawberry beer and quaint Gravensteen castle—conquered the Congo and is estimated to have killed off half of its inhabitants over time, some 8 million people at least…

 

I could go on and on. Everywhere you dig in European colonialism in Afro-Asia, there are bodies. Lots of bodies. Now that I think of it, maybe 100 million people killed by people of European Christian heritage in the twentieth century is an underestimate.

 

As for religious terrorism, that too is universal. Admittedly, some groups deploy terrorism as a tactic more at some times than others. Zionists in British Mandate Palestine were active terrorists in the 1940’s, from a British point of view, and in the period 1965-1980, the FBI considered the Jewish Defense League among the most active US terrorist groups… 

 

Even more recently, it is difficult for me to see much of a difference between Tamerlan Tsarnaev and Baruch Goldstein, perpetrator of the Hebron massacre.

 

Or, there was the cold-blooded bombing of the Ajmer shrine in India by Bhavesh Patel and a gang of Hindu nationalists. Chillingly, they were disturbed when a second bomb they had set did not go off, so that they did not wreak as much havoc as they would have liked. Ajmer is an ecumenical Sufi shrine also visited by Hindus, and these bigots wanted to stop such open-minded sharing of spiritual spaces because they hate Muslims.

 

Buddhists have committed a lot of terrorism and other violence as well. Many in the Zen orders in Japan supported militarism in the first half of the twentieth century, for which their leaders later apologized. And, you had Inoue Shiro’s assassination campaign in 1930’s Japan. Nowadays militant Buddhist monks in Burma/Myanmar are urging on an ethnic cleansing campaign against the Rohingya.

 

As for Christianity, the Lord’s Resistance Army in Uganda initiated hostilities that displaced two million people. Although it is an African cult, it is Christian in origin and the result of Western Christian missionaries preaching in Africa. If Saudi Wahhabi preachers can be in part blamed for the Taliban, why do Christian missionaries skate when we consider the blow back from their pupils?

 

Despite the very large number of European Muslims, in 2007-2009 less than 1 percent of terrorist acts in that continent were committed by people from that community.

 

Terrorism is a tactic of extremists within each religion, and within secular religions of Marxism or nationalism. No religion, including Islam, preaches indiscriminate violence against innocents.

 

It takes a peculiar sort of blindness to see Christians of European heritage as “nice,” and Muslims as inherently violent, given the twentieth century death toll I mentioned above. Human beings are human beings and the species is too young and too interconnected to have differentiated much from group to group. People resort to violence out of ambition or grievance, and the more powerful they are, the more violence they seem to commit. The good news is that the number of wars is declining over time, and World War II, the biggest charnel house in history, hasn’t been repeated. (Cole, J. (2013, April 23). Terrorism and the other Religions. Retrieved from: https://www.juancole.com/2013/04/terrorism-other-religions.html )

 

But, to be fair, let’s look at the hard facts as written in the words of the Bible to see if there is evidence of Holy War in the Old, or New, Testament, and whether Jesus himself ever spoke of war or fighting.

 

Most Christians are very familiar with the following verses:

 You have heard that it was said, “Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.” But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.   [NIV Bible, Matthew 5:43-44]

 

But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked.  [NIV Bible, Luke 6:35]

 

Thus, most people have come to think that the above is the Biblical guidance to those who would attack you, even though, as just mentioned, this is definitely not what the followers of the Bible have practiced throughout history.  Maybe the earlier Christians were implementing the following verses:

 

[Jesus] replied, “I tell you that to everyone who has, more will be given, but as for the one who has nothing, even what he has will be taken away. But those enemies of mine who did not want me to be king over them—bring them here and kill them in front of me.” After Jesus had said this, he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem.   [NIV Bible, Luke 19:26-28]

 

Do not suppose that I [Jesus] have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. [NIV Bible, Matthew 10:34] 

 

So [Jesus] made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple area, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. To those who sold doves he said, “Get these out of here! How dare you turn my Father's house into a market?” [NIV Bible, John 2:15]

 

If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters—yes, even his own life—he cannot be my disciple.  [NIV Bible Luke 14:26]

 

These verses are mentioned here only to bring fairness to the attack of those who claim that Christianity has no basis of violence or hate within its folds, only love and forgiveness. (Ladd, C. (2014, Dec 31). Which religion is the most violent? Washington Times. Retrieved from: https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/dec/31/which-religion-mostviolent/)

 

These same people then take hold of a portion of one of the verses of the Quran and leave off the context, in order to convince innocent people that Islam came with nothing but hate and violence. 

 

Looking into the Old Testament, we find more verses commanding killing, pillaging and even rape—all apparently in the name of God.

 

Now kill all the boys.  And kill every woman who has slept with a man, but save for yourselves every girl who has never slept with a man.  [Numbers 31:17-18]

 

This was allegedly God’s command to Moses in regards to the disbelieving Philistines who occupied the Holy Land promised to the Children of Israel. Also, 

 

All who would not seek the LORD, the God of Israel, were to be put to death, whether small or great, man or woman.  [2 Chronicles 15:13]

 

In contrast others, as Muslims, we encourage people go back and look into the context of these verses and study them to understand.  Why would the God, who is so often mentioned as Loving and full of Grace, command innocent women and boys to be mercilessly killed? 

 

A careful review of the first five books of the Old Testament will reveal even more commands of war, killing, enslaving of people and confiscation of property. The point of this book is not to analyze these circumstances, or the theological questions they pose, or to attack Jewish and Christian scriptures. Instead, the objective of this review is to demonstrate the truth to honest people seeking to understand the reality of religion. The unbiased reader is invited to compare such orders as found in the Old Testament, as well as the words mentioned above from Jesus, with the verses from the Quran that permit people to defend themselves when persecuted and to help oppressed nations.

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