Is Islam a Violent Religion
A question often asked these days. The so-called experts-on-Islam seem to almost concur on some link between Islam and violence. Though it’s hard to exonerate any of those experts from a political agenda or sometimes a pure hatred for Islam and/or Muslims, it still remains a valid question that every Muslim should be able to answer for him/herself and others. Does Islam condone violence? Is Islam to blame for the rise of terrorist activities? Even if we’re able to clear the name of Islam, clearing Muslims from it is another challenge. Now, the saying, “not every Muslim is a terrorist, but every terrorist is a Muslim”, has almost become a cliché. While, we Muslims know this is not true, and some Muslims go to the extent of proving so by citing examples from KKK to Timothy McVeigh, we still owe an answer to ourselves and to others. To me, whether non-Muslims are involved in terrorist activities or not, is irrelevant, and certainly does not justify Muslims being involved in terrorist activities. Another weak argument is to say that only a small percentage of Muslims are involved in terrorist activities. To me again, no small number is small. Again some of those so-called experts would have us believe that it’s that small number of extremists who are following the literal injunctions of the Quran while the mainstream Muslims are being apologetic and involved in acts of double-talk, perhaps in attempts to dissemble and deceive (in Muslim terminology, practicing Tuqya) the non-Muslim masses. In this short article, I will try to address some of those Quranic passages.
Perhaps the most often quoted verse of the Quran is 9:5. This verse seems to give an open license to kill all pagans or non-believers, without any restriction. First, we have to understand that Islam came to establish a rule of law and vehemently fought anarchism. Islam did not invent war. War existed since the beginning of the human race. Islam came to regulate war. This is why you find clear injunctions by Prophet Muhammad given to his commanders not to kill non-combatants such as women, children, monks, elderly, and so on. One time the Prophet saw a dead woman in the battlefield and he made his objection clear and forbade the killing of women and children [Tirmidhi]. But, what about the verse? Here, we have to observe the context of the verse. Most people who quote this verse rarely take the time to check the verses before or after. That makes you wonder if they’re sincere in trying to understand the context properly. But leaving intentions aside, it’s incumbent on any serious truth-seeker to look beyond one verse and try to understand it in light of other verses. First, looking at the immediate context, we see that verse 13 of the same chapter mentions few reasons for such a war declaration. It talks about people who initiated hostilities, who drove the Prophet and the believers out of their homes (referring to the forced migration to Medina), and who broke their pacts (referring to the truce of Hudaybiyah). Verses 8 and 10 talk about those who have total disregard to ties of kinship and to contracts. It’s clear here that Islam is not waging war against all pagans or non-believers. Looking at the historical context, the Prophet didn’t understand this verse to mean the killing of all pagans. For example, when the conquest of Mecca took place, the Prophet issued a general pardon to all its inhabitants, who were not just pagans, but who fought him for the longest time, and regarding whom many of those verses were revealed.
Looking at other verses of the Quran would allow us to accomplish a more comprehensive understanding of war and peace in Islam. Verse 8:61 tells us that if enemy combatants show any inclination toward peace, then it’s incumbent on us to show a similar inclination. Verse 2:190 tells us to fight only those who fight us and not to commit any act of injustice or transgression. But, then you have the clever so-called expert-on-Islam come and say well all those verses are abrogated and only the Verse of the Sword applies. The Verse of the Sword off course is nothing but verse 9:5 discussed above. The answer to this claim is that it simply is not true. Consider for example the following verse. Verse 60:8 states that God does not stop believers from offering the best forms of treatment to those who didn’t fight them. It’s very interesting that the Quran uses the word Birr, which encompasses all acts of good, to describe dealings between Muslims and the vast majority of non-Muslims. This verse should set the record straight on whether Islam is behind terrorism. According to this verse, not only killing innocent people is forbidden, extending best treatment to such people is an obligation. But is this verse abrogated? Not according to the most prolific exegetes (scholars of Tafseer) of Islam. At-Tabari after mentioning various opinions about the verse says that the most correct opinion is that this verse is general and applies to all who “didn’t fight us” without any exception. Al-Qurtubi asserts that this verse still applies (i.e. not abrogated) according to the vast majority of Muslim exegetes! Both al-Tabari and al-Qurtubi lived at a time when Islam was a super-power, so no one can argue that they were involved in any exercise of double-talk or mass-deception in order to appease to their non-Muslim counterparts!