25 August 2014 A.D. Quotations on Islam from Notable
Non-Muslims
Wiki-offerings.
Quotations on Islam from Notable Non-Muslims
The following sourced quotations are particularly useful, as many apologists like to commit the logical fallacy of appealing to authority by using
(very often out-of-context[1] or false)[2] quotes attributed to various noteworthy non-Muslim individuals, in an attempt to propagate
their faith.
Contents
Abu Bakr Muhammad al-Razi
Muhammad ibn Zakariyā Rāzī (865 – 925 AD) was a Persian
physician, alchemist, chemist, philosopher, and scholar.
If
the people of this religion [Islam] are asked about the proof for the soundness
of their religion, they flare up, get angry and spill the blood of whoever
confronts them with this question. They forbid rational speculation, and strive
to kill their adversaries. This is why truth became thoroughly silenced and
concealed.[3]
You
claim that the evidentiary miracle is present and available, namely, the Koran.
You say: "Whoever denies it, let him produce a similar one." Indeed,
we shall produce a thousand similar, from the works of rhetoricians, eloquent
speakers and valiant poets, which are more appropriately phrased and state the
issues more succinctly. They convey the meaning better and their rhymed prose
is in better meter. ... By God what you say astonishes us! You are talking
about a work which recounts ancient myths, and which at the same time is full
of contradictions and does not contain any useful information or explanation.
Then you say: "Produce something like it"?![3]
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler (1889 – 1945) was an Austrian-born German
politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party,
commonly known as the Nazi Party.
You
see, it's been our misfortune to have the wrong religion. Why didn't we have
the religion of the Japanese, who regard sacrifice for the Fatherland as the
highest good? The Mohammedan religion [Islam] too would have been more
compatible to us than Christianity. Why did it have to be Christianity with its
meekness and flabbiness?[4]
I
can imagine people being enthusiastic about the paradise of Mohammed, but as
for the insipid paradise of the Christians! In your lifetime, you used to hear
the music of Richard Wagner. After your death, it will be nothing but
hallelujahs, the waving of palms, children of an age for the feeding bottle,
and hoary old men. The man of the isles pays homage to the forces of nature.
But Christianity is an invention of sick brains: one could imagine nothing more
senseless, nor any more indecent way of turning the idea of the Godhead into a
mockery. A n***** with his taboos is crushingly superior to the human being who
seriously believes in transubstantiation.[5]
Had
Charles Martel not been victorious at Poitiers -already, you see, the world had
already fallen into the hands of the Jews, so gutless a thing Christianity!
-then we should in all probability have been converted to Mohammedanism
[Islam], that cult which glorifies the heroism and which opens up the seventh
Heaven to the bold warrior alone. Then the Germanic races would have conquered
the world. Christianity alone prevented them from doing so.[6]
The
best thing is to let Christianity die a natural death. A slow death has
something comforting about it. The dogma of Christianity gets worn away before
the advances of science... The instructions of a hygienic nature that most
religions gave, contributed to the foundation of organized communities. The
precepts ordering people to wash, to avoid certain drinks, to fast at appointed
dates, to take exercise, to rise with the sun, to climb to the top of the
minaret — all these were obligations invented by intelligent people. The
exhortation to fight courageously is also self-explanatory. Observe, by the
way, that, as a corollary, the Moslem was promised a paradise peopled with
sensual girls, where wine flowed in streams — a real earthly paradise. The
Christians, on the other hand, declare themselves satisfied if after their
death they are allowed to sing hallelujahs! ...Christianity, of course, has
reached the peak of absurdity in this respect. And that's why one day its
structure will collapse. Science has already impregnated humanity.
Consequently, the more Christianity clings to its dogmas, the quicker it will
decline.![7]
Alexis de Tocqueville
Alexis-Charles-Henri Clérel de Tocqueville (1805 – 1859)
was a French political thinker and historian best known for his Democracy in
America and The Old Regime and the Revolution.
I
studied the Quran a great deal. I came away from that study with the conviction
that by and large there have been few religions in the world as deadly to men
as that of Muhammad. As far as I can see, it is the principal cause of the
decadence so visible today in the Muslim world and, though less absurd than the
polytheism of old, its social and political tendencies are in my opinion more
to be feared, and I therefore regard it as a form of decadence rather than a
form of progress in relation to paganism itself.[8]
Muhammad
professed to derive from Heaven, and he has inserted in the Koran, not only a
body of religious doctrines, but political maxims, civil and criminal laws, and
theories of science. The gospel, on the contrary, only speaks of the general
relations of men to God and to each other - beyond which it inculcates and
imposes no point of faith. This alone, besides a thousand other reasons, would
suffice to prove that the former of these religions will never long predominate
in a cultivated and democratic age, whilst the latter is destined to retain its
sway at these as at all other periods.[9]
André Servier
André Servier was an historian who lived in French
Algeria at the beginning of the 20th century.
Islam
was not a torch, as has been claimed, but an extinguisher. Conceived in a
barbarous brain for the use of a barbarous people, it was - and it remains -
incapable of adapting itself to civilization. Wherever it has dominated, it has
broken the impulse towards progress and checked the evolution of society.[10]
Islam
is Christianity adapted to Arab mentality, or, more exactly, it is all that the
unimaginative brain of a Bedouin, obstinately faithful to ancestral practices,
has been able to assimilate of the Christian doctrines. Lacking the gift of
imagination, the Bedouin copies, and in copying he distorts the original. Thus
Musulman law is only the Roman Code revised and corrected by Arabs; in the same
way Musulman science is nothing but Greek science interpreted by the Arab
brain; and again, Musulman architecture is merely a distorted imitation of the
Byzantine style.[10]
The
deadening influence of Islam is well demonstrated by the way in which the
Musulman comports himself at different stages of his life. In his early
childhood, when the religion has not as yet impregnated his brain, he shows a
very lively intelligence and remarkably open mind, accessible to ideas of every
kind; but, in proportion as he grows up, and as, through the system of his
education, Islam lays hold of him and envelops him, his brain seems to shut up,
his judgment to become atrophied, and his intelligence to be stricken by
paralysis and irremediable degeneration.[10]
Islam
is by no means a negligible element in the destiny of humanity. The mass of
three hundred million believers is growing daily, because in most Musulman
countries the birth-rate exceeds the death-rate, and also because the religious
propaganda is constantly gaining new adherents among tribes still in a state of
barbarism.[10]
To
sum up: the Arab has borrowed everything from other nations, literature, art,
science, and even his religious ideas. He has passed it all through the sieve
of his own narrow mind, and being incapable of rising to high philosophic
conceptions, he has distorted, mutilated and desiccated everything. This
destructive influence explains the decadence of Musulman nations and their
powerlessness to break away from barbarism…[10]
Islam
is a doctrine of death, inasmuch as the spiritual not being separated from the
temporal, and every manifestation of activity being subjected to dogmatic law,
it formally forbids any change, any evolution, any progress. It condemns all
believers to live, to think, and to act as lived, thought and acted the Musulmans
of the second century of the Hegira [8th century A.D.], when the law of Islam
and its interpretation were definitely fixed.
. . .
In the history of the nations, Islam,
a secretion of the Arab brain, has never been an element of civilization, but
on the contrary has acted as an extinguisher upon its flickering light.
Individuals under Arab rule have only been able to contribute to the advance of
civilization in so far as they did not conform to the Musulman dogma, but they
relapsed into Arab barbarism as soon as they were obliged to make a complete
submission to these dogmas.
. . .
Islamized
nations, who have not succeeded in freeing themselves from Musulman tutelage,
have been stricken with intellectual paralysis and decadence. They will only
escape as they succeed in withdrawing themselves from the control of Musulman
law.[10]
Angela Carter
Angela Carter (1940 – 1992) was an English novelist and
journalist. In 2008, The Times ranked Carter tenth in their list of "The
50 greatest British writers since 1945". In 2012, Nights at the Circus was
selected as the best ever winner of the James Tait Black Memorial Prize.
The
kind of power mothers have is enormous. Take the skyline of Istanbul—enormous
breasts, pathetic little willies, a final revenge on Islam. I was so scared I
had to crouch in the bottom of the boat when I saw it.[11]
Anthony Flew
Antony Garrard Newton Flew (1923 – 2010) was a British
philosopher. He was also known for the development of the no true Scotsman fallacy.
I
would never regard Islam with anything but horror and fear because it is
fundamentally committed to conquering the world for Islam... it is, I think,
best described in a Marxian way as the uniting and justifying ideology of Arab
imperialism. Between the New Testament and the Qur'an there is (as it is
customary to say when making such comparisons) no comparison. Whereas markets
can be found for books on reading the Bible as literature, to read the Qur'an is
a penance rather than a pleasure. There is no order or development in its
subject matter.... The Prophet, though gifted in the arts of persuasion and
clearly a considerable military leader, was both doubtfully literate and
certainly ill-informed about the contents of the Old Testament and about
several matters of which God, if not even the least informed of the Prophet’s
contemporaries, must have been cognizant... one thing I’ll say in this
comparison is that, for goodness sake, Jesus is an enormously attractive
charismatic figure, which the Prophet of Islam most emphatically is not.[12]
The
Koran calls for belief and consequent obedience. It is, surely, calculated to
inspire fear, indeed abject terror, rather than love.[13]
Apostolos Euangelou Vacalopoulos
The
Revolution of 1821 is no more than the last great phase of the resistance of
the Greeks to Ottoman domination; it was a relentless, undeclared war, which
had begun already in the first years of servitude. The brutality of an
autocratic regime, which was characterized by economic spoliation, intellectual
decay and cultural retrogression, was sure to provoke opposition. Restrictions
of all kinds, unlawful taxation, forced labor, persecutions, violence,
imprisonment, death, abductions of girls and boys and their confinement to
Turkish harems, and various deeds of wantonness and lust, along with numerous
less offensive excesses – all these were a constant challenge to the instinct
of survival and they defied every sense of human decency. The Greeks bitterly
resented all insults and humiliations, and their anguish and frustration pushed
them into the arms of rebellion. There was no exaggeration in the statement
made by one of the beys if Arta, when he sought to explain the ferocity of the
struggle. He said: ‘We have wronged the rayas [dhimmis] (i.e. our Christian
subjects) and destroyed both their wealth and honor; they became desperate and
took up arms. This is just the beginning and will finally lead to the
destruction of our empire.’ The sufferings of the Greeks under Ottoman rule
were therefore the basic cause of the insurrection; a psychological incentive
was provided by the very nature of the circumstances[14]
At
the beginning of the eleventh century, the Seljuk Turks forced their way into
Armenia and there crushed the armies of several petty Armenian states. No fewer
than forty thousand souls fled before the organized pillage of the Seljuk host
to the western part of Asia Minor. From the middle of the eleventh century, and
especially after the battle of Malazgirt [Manzikurt] (1071), the Seljuks spread
throughout the whole Asia Minor peninsula, leaving error, panic and destruction
in their wake. Byzantine, Turkish and other contemporary sources are unanimous
in their agreement on the extent of havoc wrought an the protracted anguish of
the local population…[The Greek chronicler] Kydones described the fate of the
Christian peoples of Asia Minor thus:
‘The entire region which sustained us,
from the Hellespont eastwards to the mountains of Armenia, has been snatched
away. They [the Turks] have razed cities, pillaged churches, opened graves, and
filled everything with blood and corpses…Alas, too, they have even abused
Christian bodies. And having taken away their entire wealth they have now taken
away their freedom, reducing them to the merest shadows of slaves. And with
such dregs of energy as remain in these unfortunate people, they are forced to
be the servitors of the Turk’s personal comforts.’
“From
the time the Ottoman Turks first set foot in Thrace under Suleiman, son of
Orchan, the Empire rapidly disintegrated….From the very beginning of the
Turkish onslaught under Suleiman, the Turks tried to consolidate their position
by the forcible imposition of Islam. [The Ottoman historian] Sukrullah
[maintained] those who refused to accept the Moslem faith were slaughtered and
their families enslaved. ‘Where there were bells’, writes the same author,
‘Suleiman broke them up and cast them onto fires. Where there are churches he
destroyed them or converted them into mosques. Thus, in place of bells there
were now muezzins. Wherever Christian infidels were still found, vassalage was
imposed upon their rulers. At least in public they could no longer say ‘kyrie eleison’
but rather “There is no God but Allah; and where once their prayers had been
addressed to Christ, they were now to ‘Mohammed, the prophet of Allah.’[15]
Arthur Jeffery
Arthur Jeffery (1892 – 1959) was an Australian professor
of Semitic languages first at the School of Oriental Studies in Cairo, and from
1938 until his death jointly at Columbia University and Union Theological
Seminary in New York City. He is the author of extensive historical studies of
Middle Eastern manuscripts.
The
early Arabic sources quite plainly and frankly describe the expeditions as
military expeditions, and it would never have occurred to anyone at that day to
interpret them as anything else.... To the folk of his day there would thus be
nothing strange in Muhammad, as the head of the community of those who served
Allah, taking the sword to extend the kingdom of Allah, and taking measures to
insure the subjection of all who lived within the borders of what he made the
kingdom of Allah.[16]
Arthur Schopenhauer
Arthur Schopenhauer (1788 – 1860) was an influencial
German philosopher, known for his pessimism and philosophical clarity.
Temples
and churches, pagodas and mosques, in all countries and ages, in their splendor
and spaciousness, testify to man's need for metaphysics, a need strong and
ineradicable, which follows close on the physical. ... Sometimes it lets inself
be satisfied with clumsy fables and fairy-tales. If only they are imprinted
early enough, they are for man adequate explanations of his existence and
supports for his morality. Consider the Koran, for example; this wretched book
was sufficient to start a world-religion, to satisfy the metaphysical need of
countless millions for twelve hundred years, to become the basis of their
morality and of a remarkable contempt for death, and also to inspire them to bloody
wars and the most extensive conquests. In this book we find the saddest and
poorest form of theism. Much may be lost in translation, but I have not been
able to discover in it one single idea of value.[17]
Bhavishya Purana
The Bhavishya Purana
is one of the eighteen major Hindu Puranas. It is written in Sanskrit and attributed
to Rishi Vyasa, the compiler of the Vedas.
Suta
Goswami said: After hearing the king’s prayers, Lord Shiva said: ... There was
a mystic demon named Tripura (Tripurasura), whom I have already burnt to ashes,
he has come again by the order of Bali. He has no origin but he achieved a
benediction from me. His name is Mahamada (Muhammad) and his deeds are like
that of a ghost. Therefore, O king, you should not go to this land of the evil
ghost. By my mercy your intelligence will be purified. Hearing this the king
came back to his country and Mahamada (Muhammad) came with them to the bank of
the river Sindhu. He was expert in expanding illusion, so he said to the king
very pleasingly: O great king, your god has become my servant. Just see, as he
eats my remnants, so I will show you. The king became surprised when he saw
this just before them. Then in anger Kalidasa rebuked Mahamada (Muhammad) “O
rascal, you have created an illusion to bewilder the king, I will kill you, you
are the lowest..."
That city is known as their site of pilgrimage, a place which was Madina or
free from intoxication. Having a form of a ghost (Bhuta), the expert
illusionist Mahamada (Muhammad) appeared at night in front of king Bhojaraja
and said: O king, your religion is of course known as the best religion among
all. Still I am going to establish a terrible and demoniac religion by the
order of the Lord . The symptoms of my followers will be that they first of all
will cut their genitals, have no shikha, but having beard, be wicked, make
noise loudly and eat everything. They should eat animals without performing any
rituals. This is my opinion. They will perform purificatory act with the musala
or a pestle as you purify your things with kusha. Therefore, they will be known
as musalman, the corrupters of religion. Thus the demoniac religion will be
founded by me. After having heard all this the king came back to his palace and
that ghost (Muhammad) went back to his place.[18]
Benedict XVI
Pope Benedict XVI (born Joseph Alois Ratzinger on April
16, 1927) is Pope Emeritus of the Catholic Church, having served as Pope from
2005 to 2013.
Islam
has a total organization of life that is completely different from ours; it
embraces simply everything,...There is a very marked subordination of woman to
man; there is a very tightly knit criminal law, indeed, a law regulating all
areas of life, that is opposed to our modern ideas about society. One has to
have a clear understanding that it is not simply a denomination that can be
included in the free realm of a pluralistic society.[19]
Bernard Lewis
Bernard Lewis, FBA (born May 31, 1916) is a
British-American scholar in Oriental studies, and political commentator. He is
the Cleveland E. Dodge Professor Emeritus of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton
University. He specializes in the history of Islam and the interaction between
Islam and the West, and is especially famous in academic circles for his works
on the history of the Ottoman Empire.
The
golden age of equal rights [in Spain] was a myth, and belief in it was a
result, more than a cause, of Jewish sympathy for Islam. The myth was invented
by Jews in nineteenth-century Europe as a reproach to Christians.[20]
There
was a time when scholars and other writers in communist eastern Europe relied
on writers and publishers in the free West to speak the truth about their
history, their culture, and their predicament. Today it is those who told the
truth, no those who concealed or denied it, who are respected and welcomed in
these countries. Historians in free countries have a moral and professional
obligation no to shrink the difficult issues and subjects that some people
would place under a sort of taboo; not to submit to voluntary censorship, but to
deal with these matters fairly, honestly, without apologetics, without polemic,
and, of course, competently. Those who enjoy freedom have a moral obligation to
use that freedom for those who do not possess it. We live in a time when great
efforts have been made, and continue to be made to falsify the record of the
part and to make history a tool of propaganda; when governments, religious
movements, political parties, and sectional groups of every kind are busy
rewriting history as they would wish it to have been, as they would like their
followers to believe that it was. All this is very dangerous indeed, to
ourselves and to others, however we may define otherness - dangerous to our
common humanity. Because, make no mistake, those who are unwilling to confront
the past will be unable to understand the present and unfit to face the future.[21]
During
the first formative centuries of its existence, Christianity was separated from
and indeed antagonistic to the state, with which it only later became involved.
From the lifetime of its founder, Islam was the state, and the identity of
religion and government is indelibly stamped on the memories and awareness of
the faithful from their own sacred writings, history, and experience.[22]
...it
is the duty of those who have accepted them [Allah's word and message] to
strive unceasingly to convert or at least to subjugate those who have not. This
obligation is without limit of time or space. It must continue until the whole
world has either accepted the Islamic faith or submitted to the power of the
Islamic state.[23]
Bertrand Russell
Bertrand Arthur William Russell (1872 – 1970) was a
British philosopher, logician, mathematician, historian, socialist, pacifist, and
social critic, who is considered to be one of the founders of analytic
philosophy.
Bolshevism
combines the characteristics of the French Revolution with those of the rise of
Islam… Those who accept Bolshevism become impervious to scientific evidence, and
commit intellectual suicide. Even if all the doctrines of Bolshevism were true,
this would still be the case, since no unbiased examination of them is
tolerated…Among religions, Bolshevism is to be reckoned with Mohammedanism
rather than with Christianity and Buddhism. Christianity and Buddhism are
primarily personal religions, with mystical doctrines and a love of
contemplation. Mohammedanism and Bolshevism are practical, social, unspiritual,
concerned to win the empire of the world.[24]
Rivalry
is a much stronger motive. Over and over again in Mohammedan history, dynasties
have come to grief because the sons of a sultan by different mothers could not
agree, and in the resulting civil war universal ruin resulted... The world
would be a happier place than it is if acquisitiveness were always stronger
than rivalry. But in fact, a great many men will cheerfully face impoverishment
if they can thereby secure complete ruin for their rivals.[25]
Immediately
after his death the conquests began, and they proceeded with rapidity...
Westward expansion (except in Sicily and Southern Italy) was brought to a
standstill by the defeat of the Mohammedans at the battle of Tours in 732, just
one hundred years after the death of the Prophet... It was the duty of the
faithful to conquer as much of the world as possible for Islam... The first
conquests of the Arabs began as mere raids for plunder, and only turned into
permanent occupation after experience has shown the weakness of the enemy...
The Arabs, although they conquered a great part of the world in the name of a new
religion were not a very religious race; the motive of their conquests was
plunder and wealth rather than religion.[26]
The
beliefs appropriate to the impulse of aggression may be seen in Bernhardi, or
in the early Mohammedan conquerors, or, in full perfection, in the Book of
Joshua. There is first of all a conviction of the superior excellence of one's
own group, a certainty that they are in some sense the chosen people. This
justifies the feeling that only the good and evil of one's own group is of real
importance, and that the rest of the world is to be regarded merely as material
for the triumph or salvation of the higher race. In modern politics this
attitude is embodied in imperialism.[27]
Bill Maher
William "Bill" Maher, Jr. (born January 20,
1956) is an American stand-up comedian, television host, political commentator,
author and actor. Maher currently ranks number 38 on Comedy Central's 100
greatest stand-ups of all time, and has a Hollywood Walk of Fame star.
There’s
only one faith, for example, that kills you or wants to kill you if you draw a
bad cartoon of the prophet. There’s only one faith that kills you or wants to
kill you if you renounce the faith... obviously, most Muslim people are not
terrorists. But ask most Muslim people in the world, if you insult the prophet,
do you have what’s coming to you? It’s more than just a fringe element.[28]
I
do agree that there are other groups that pose a terroristic threat to this
country [USA]... I would say that the threat from radicalized Muslims is a
unique and greater threat. It is the greatest threat... It's been going on for
a thousand years, this problem with Islam and the West. We're dealing with a
culture that is in its medieval era. It [Islam] comes from a hate-filled holy
book, the Quran, which is taken very literally by its people. They are trying
to get nuclear weapons. I don’t think Tim McVeigh would ever have tried to get
a nuclear weapon because I think right-wing nuts, they think they love this
country and they are not trying to destroy this country, they want to get it
away from the people they see as hijacking it. That’s different than Muslim
extremists who want to destroy it. And also it is a culture of suicide bombing,
which is hard to deter from people who want to kill themselves.[29]
All
this talk of people who burn the Koran and nothing about the people who reacted
in such a stupid way. We are always blaming the victim and not holding them --
not most Muslims, but at least a large part of Muslim culture that doesn't
condemn their people... There is one religion in the world that kills you when
you disagree with them and they say 'look, we are a religion of peace and if
you disagree we'll f**king cut your head off, and nobody calls them on it --
there are very few people that will call them on it. It's like if Dad is a
violent drunk and beats his kids, you don't blame the kid because he set Dad
off. You blame Dad because he's a violent drunk.[30]
When
South Park got threatened last week by Islamists ... it served or should serve,
as a reminder to all of us that our culture isn't just different than one that
makes death threats to cartoonists, it's better. Because when I make a joke
about the Pope, he doesn't send one of the Swiss Guards in their striped
pantaloons to stick a pike in my ass. When I make a Jewish joke, Rabbis may
kvetch about it, but they don't pull out a scimitar and threaten an adult
circumcision. ... it should in fairness be noted, that in speaking of Muslims,
we realize that of course the vast majority are law abiding, loving people, who
just want to be left alone to subjugate their women in peace. ... but the
western world needs to make it clear, some things about our culture are not
negotiable, and can't change, and one of them is freedom of speech. Separation
of church and state is another, not negotiable. Women are allowed to work here
and you can't beat them, not negotiable. This is how we roll. And this is why
our system is better.[31]
Blaise Pascal
Blaise Pascal (1623 – 1662) was a French mathematician,
physicist, inventor, writer and Catholic philosopher.
Mahomet
established a religion by putting his enemies to death; Jesus Christ by
commanding his followers to lay down their lives
Carey Cash
Rev. Carey Cash is a US Navy chaplain currently assigned
to Camp David, the U.S. presidential retreat. He is often referred to as
"President Obama's pastor".
[Islam]
from its very birth has used the edge of the sword as a means to convert or
conquer those with different religious convictions.[32]
Sadly,
grace is often absent in Islam, which is based upon binding religious law,
requiring strenuous adherence to every tenet of the ‘Five Pillars of Allah’...
A religion that emerges from the soil of strict adherence to law as a means of
gaining God’s favour will always tend toward extreme selfsacrifice.[32]
Carl Jung
Carl Gustav Jung (1875 – 1961) was the Swiss founder of
analytical psychology. He created some of the best known psychological concepts
and his work has been influential in psychiatry and in the study of religion,
literature, and related fields.
We
do not know whether Hitler is going to found a new Islam. He is already on the
way; he is like Muhammad. The emotion in Germany is Islamic; warlike and
Islamic. They are all drunk with a wild god.[33]
Charles-Louis Montesquieu
Charles-Louis de Secondat, baron de La Brède et de Montesquieu
(1689 – 1755), was a French social commentator and political thinker.
It
is a misfortune to human nature, when religion is given by a conqueror. The
Mahometan religion, which speaks only by the sword, acts still upon men with
that destructive spirit with which it was founded.[34]
Christopher Hitchens
Christopher Eric Hitchens (1949 – 2011) was an
English-American author and journalist. His books, essays, and journalistic
career have spanned more than four decades, making him a public intellectual,
and a staple of talk shows and lecture circuits. He has been a columnist and
literary critic at The Atlantic, Vanity Fair, Slate, World Affairs, The Nation,
Free Inquiry, and a variety of other media outlets.
Islam
in its origins is just as shady and approximate as those from which it took its
borrowings. It makes immense claims for itself, invokes prostrate submission or
"surrender" as a maxim to its adherents, and demands deference and
respect from nonbelievers into the bargain. There is nothing—absolutely
nothing—in its teachings that can even begin to justify such arrogance and
presumption.[35]
If
the Qur'an was the word of God, it had been dictated on a very bad day.[36]
"Some
of what people are saying in this mosque controversy is very similar to what
German media was saying about Jews in the 1920s and 1930s," Imam Abdullah
Antepli, Muslim chaplain at Duke University, told the New York Times. Yes, we
all recall the Jewish suicide bombers of that period, as we recall the Jewish
yells for holy war, the Jewish demands for the veiling of women and the stoning
of homosexuals, and the Jewish burning of newspapers that published cartoons
they did not like. What is needed from the supporters of this very confident
faith is more self-criticism and less self-pity and self-righteousness.[37]
Christopher Marlowe
Christopher Marlowe (1564 – 1593) was an English poet and
translator of the Elizabethan era, who also rivalled Shakespeare as the most
powerful dramatist of the Elizabethan period.
Tamburlaine:
Now, Casane, where’s the Turkish Alcoran,
And all the heaps of superstitious
books Found in the temples of that Mahomet Whom I have thought a god? they
shall be burnt.
Usumcasane: Here they are, my lord.
Tamburlaine: Well said! let there be a fire presently.
[They light a fire.]
In vain, I see, men worship Mahomet:
My sword hath sent millions of Turks to hell, Slew all his priests, his
kinsmen, and his friends, And yet I live untouch’d by Mahomet. There is a God,
full of revenging wrath, }From whom the thunder and the lightning breaks, Whose
scourge I am, and him will I obey. So, Casane; fling them in the fire.—
[They burn the books.]
Now, Mahomet, if thou have any power,
Come down thyself and work a miracle: Thou art not worthy to be worshipped That
suffer’st flames of fire to burn the writ Wherein the sum of thy religion
rests: Why send’st thou not a furious whirlwind down, To blow thy Alcoran up to
thy throne, Where men report thou sitt’st by God himself? Or vengeance on the
head of Tamburlaine That shakes his sword against thy majesty, And spurns the
abstracts of thy foolish laws?— Well, soldiers, Mahomet remains in hell; He
cannot hear the voice of Tamburlaine: Seek out another godhead to adore; The
God that sits in heaven, if any god,
For
he is God alone, and none but he.
Dante Alighieri
Dante Alighieri
(1265 – 1321), also known as "the Supreme Poet", was an Italian poet.
His Divine Comedy is often considered the greatest literary work ever composed
in the Italian language and a masterpiece of world literature. Below is Dante's
description of Muhammad and Ali in Hell.
And
one his limb transpierced, and one lopped off, should show, it would be nothing
to compare with the disgusting mode of the ninth Bolgia. A cask by losing
centre-piece or cant was never shattered so, as I saw one rent from the chin to
where one breaketh wind. Between his legs were hanging down his entrails; his
heart was visible, and the dismal sack that maketh excrement of what is eaten.
While I was all absorbed in seeing him, he looked at me, and opened with his
hands his bosom, saying: "See now how I rend me; How mutilated, see, is
Mahomet; in front of me doth Ali weeping go, cleft in the face from forelock
unto chin; and all the others whom thou here beholdest, disseminators of
scandal and of schism while living were, and therefore are cleft thus.[38]
David Cook
David B. Cook is a religious scholar and author from Rice
University in Houston with a focus on Islamic history and Muslim apocalyptic
literature.
There
is no lack of evidence concerning the Muslim practice of jihad. The classical
and modern works on the subject are voluminous, and they are documented by an
examination of Muslim actions as recorded by historians. There can be no
reasonable doubt that jihad is a major theme running through the entirety of
Muslim civilization and is at least one of the major factors in the astounding
success of the faith of Islam.[39]
In
reading Muslim literature -- both contemporary and classical -- one can see
that the evidence for the primacy of spiritual jihad is negligible. Today it is
certain that no Muslim, writing in a non-Western language (such as Arabic,
Persian, Urdu), would ever make claims that jihad is primarily nonviolent or
has been superseded by the spiritual jihad. Such claims are made solely by
Western scholars, primarily those who study Sufism and/or work in interfaith
dialogue, and by Muslim apologists who are trying to present Islam in the most
innocuous manner possible.[40]
...after
surveying the evidence from classical until contemporary times, one must
conclude that today's jihad movements are as legitimate as any that have ever
existed in classical Islam... In short, although the actions of many of these
groups may disgust many Muslims, as far as their conduct of jihad, they fall
within the limits set by classical and contemporary Muslim law.[41]
David Hume
David Hume (1711 – 1776) was a Scottish philosopher and
historian, regarded as one of the most important figures in the history of
Western philosophy and the Scottish Enlightenment.
The
admirers and followers of the Alcoran insist on the excellent moral precepts
interspersed through that wild and absurd performance. But it is to be
supposed, that the Arabic words, which correspond to the English, equity,
justice, temperance, meekness, charity were such as, from the constant use of
that tongue, must always be taken in a good sense; and it would have argued the
greatest ignorance, not of morals, but of language, to have mentioned them with
any epithets, besides those of applause and approbation. But would we know,
whether the pretended prophet had really attained a just sentiment of morals?
Let us attend to his narration; and we shall soon find, that he bestows praise
on such instances of treachery, inhumanity, cruelty, revenge, bigotry, as are
utterly incompatible with civilized society. No steady rule of right seems
there to be attended to; and every action is blamed or praised, so far only as
it is beneficial or hurtful to the true believers.[42]
David Samuel Margoliouth
David Samuel Margoliouth (1858 – 1940) was an orientalist
who was described as a brilliant editor and translator of Arabic works. He was
briefly active as a priest in the Church of England. He was Laudian Professor
of Arabic at the University of Oxford from 1889 to 1937.
In
order to gain his ends he [Muhammad] recoils from no expedient, and he approves
of similar unscrupulousness on the part of his adherents, when exercised in his
interest. He profits to the utmost from the chivalry of the Meccans, but rarely
requites it with the like. He organizes assassinations and wholesale massacres.
His career as tyrant of Medina is that of a robber chief, whose political
economy consists in securing and dividing plunder ... He is himself an
unbridled libertine and encourages the same passion in his followers. For
whatever he does he is prepared to plead the express authorization of the deity.
It is, however, impossible to find any doctrine which he is not prepared to
abandon in order to secure a political end…This is a disagreeable picture for
the founder of a religion, and it cannot be pleaded that it is a picture drawn
by an enemy…[43][44]
Dayanand Saraswati
Maharishi Dayanand Saraswati (1824-1883) was an Indian
Sage who is considered to be the most important Hindu religious leader of his
time.
Having
thus given a cursory view of the Quran, I lay it before the sensible persons
with the purpose that they should know what kind of book the Quran is. If they
ask me, I have no hesitation to say that it can not be the work either of God
or of a learned man, nor can it be a book of knowledge. Here its very vital
defect has been exposed with the object that the people may not waste their
life falling into its imposition... The Quran is the result of ignorance, the
source of animalization of human being, a fruitful cause of destroying peace,
an incentive to war, a propagator of hostility among men and a promoter of
suffering in society. As to defect of repetition, the Quran is its store.[45]
Doctrina Jacobi
The Doctrina Jacobi (or 'Teaching of Jacob'), is a 7th
century Greek Christian polemical tract written sometime between 634-640 AD.
The text provides one of the earliest external accounts of Islam.
When
the candidatus was killed by the Saracens, I was at Caesarea and I set off by
boat to Sykamina. People were saying "the candidatus has been killed,"
and we Jews were overjoyed. And they were saying that the prophet had appeared,
coming with the Saracens, and that he was proclaiming the advent of the
anointed one, the Christ who was to come. I, having arrived at Sykamina,
stopped by a certain old man well-versed in scriptures, and I said to him:
"What can you tell me about the prophet who has appeared with the
Saracens?" He replied, groaning deeply: "He is false, for the
prophets do not come armed with a sword. Truly they are works of anarchy being
committed today and I fear that the first Christ to come, whom the Christians
worship, was the one sent by God and we instead are preparing to receive the
Antichrist. Indeed, Isaiah said that the Jews would retain a perverted and
hardened heart until all the earth should be devastated. But you go, master
Abraham, and find out about the prophet who has appeared." So I, Abraham,
inquired and heard from those who had met him that there was no truth to be
found in the so-called prophet, only the shedding of men's blood. He says also
that he has the keys of paradise, which is incredible.[46]
Edward Freeman
Edward Augustus Freeman (1823 – 1892) was an English
historian, architectural artist, liberal politician during the
late-19th-century heyday of William Gladstone, and a one-time candidate for
Parliament.
[Islam]
is essentially an obstructive, intolerant system, supplying just sufficient
good to stand in the way of greater good. It has consecrated despotism; it has
consecrated polygamy; it has consecrated slavery. It has declared war against
every other creed; it has claimed to be at least dominant in every land… When
it ceases to have an enemy to contend against, it sinks into sluggish
stupidity… It must have an enemy; if cut off, like Persia, from conflict with
the infidel, it finds its substitute in sectarian hatred of brother Moslems… By
[only] slightly reforming, it has perpetuated and sanctified all the evils of
the eastern world. It has, by its aggressive tenets, brought them into more
direct antagonism with the creed and civilization of the west.[47]
Edward Gibbon
Edward Gibbon (1737 – 1794) was an English historian and
Member of Parliament. His most important work, The History of the Decline and
Fall of the Roman Empire, is known for the quality and irony of its prose, its
use of primary sources.
In
the spirit of enthusiasm or vanity, the prophet [Muhammad] rests the truth of
his mission on the merit of his book; audaciously challenges both men and
angels to imitate the beauties of a single page; and presumes to assert that
God alone could dictate this incomparable performance. This argument is most
powerfully addressed to a devout Arabian, whose mind is attuned to faith and
rapture; whose ear is delighted by the music of sounds; and whose ignorance is
incapable of comparing the productions of human genius... If the composition of
the Koran exceed the faculties of a man to what superior intelligence should we
ascribe the Iliad of Homer, or the Philippics of Demosthenes?[48]
Al
Jannabi (Gagmer, tom. iii. p. 487) records his own testimony that he surpassed
all men in conjugal vigour; and Abulfeda mentions the exclamation of Ali, who
washed his body after his death, “O propheta, certe penis tuus cælum versus
erectus est” ["O prophet, thy penis is erect unto the sky!"] (in Vit.
Mohammed. p. 140).[49]
Instead
of a perpetual and perfect measure of the divine will, the fragments of the
Koran were produced at the discretion of Mahomet; each revelation is suited to
the emergencies of his policy or passion; and all contradiction is removed by
the saving maxim, that any text of Scripture is abrogated or modified by any
subsequent passage.[48]
Edward William Lane
Edward William Lane (1801 — 1876) was a British
Orientalist, translator and lexicographer. Lane's Arabic-English Lexicon
remains the world's most revered and scholarly dictionary of the Arabic
language.
The
tax that is taken from the free non-Muslim subjects of a Muslim government
whereby they ratify the compact that assures them protection, as though it were
compensation for not being slain[50]
Emeka Ojukwu
Emeka Ojukwu (1933 - 2011) was the only president of the
short lived Republic of Biafra.
The
Biafran struggle is, on another plane, a resistance to the Arab-Muslim
expansionism which has menaced and ravaged the African continent for twelve
centuries. As early as the first quarter of the seventh century, the Arabs, a
people from the Near-East, evolved Islam not just as a religion but as a cover
for their insatiable territorial ambitions. By the tenth century they had
overrun and occupied, among other places, Egypt and North Africa. Had they
stopped there, we would not today be faced with the wicked and unholy collusion
we are fighting against. On the contrary, they cast their hungry and envious
eyes across the Sahara on to the land of the Negroes.
Our Biafran ancestors remained immune
from the Islamic contagion. From the middle years of the last century
Christianity was established in our land. In this way we came to be a
predominantly Christian people. We came to stand out as a non-Muslim island in
a raging Islamic sea. Throughout the period of the ill-fated Nigerian
experiment, the Muslims hoped to infiltrate Biafra by peaceful means and quiet
propaganda, but failed. Then the late Ahmadu Bello, the Sarduana of Sokoto
tried, by political and economic blackmail and terrorism, to convert Biafrans
settled in Northern Nigeria to Islam. His hope was that these Biafrans on
dispersion would then carry Islam to Biafra, and by so doing give the religion
political control of the area. The crises which agitated the so-called
independent Nigeria from 1962 gave these aggressive proselytisers the chance to
try converting us by force.
It is now evident why the fanatic
Arab-Muslim states like Algeria, Egypt and the Sudan have come out openly and
massively to support and aid Nigeria in her present war of genocide against us.
These states see militant Arabism as a powerful instrument for attaining power
in the world.
Biafra
is one of the few African states untainted by Islam. Therefore, to militant
Arabism, Biafra is a stumbling block to their plan for controlling the whole
continent. This control is fast becoming manifest in the Organisation of
African Unity. On the question of the Middle East, the Sudanese crisis, in the
war between Nigeria and Biafra, militant Arabism has succeeded in imposing its
point of view through blackmail and bluster. It has threatened African leaders
and governments with inciting their Muslim minorities to rebellion if the
governments adopted an independent line on these questions. In this way an
O.A.U that has not felt itself able to discuss the genocide in the Sudan and Biafra,
an O.A.U. that has again and again advertised its ineptitude as a peace-maker,
has rushed into open condemnation of Israel over the Middle East dispute.
Indeed in recent times, by its performance, the O.A.U. might well be an
Organisation of Arab Unity.[51]
Frank Miller
Frank Miller (born January 27, 1957) is an American comic
book artist, writer and film director. He is often regarded as one of the greatest
comic artists of all time.
We're
constantly told all cultures are equal, and every belief system is as good as
the next. And generally that America was to be known for its flaws rather than
its virtues. When you think about what Americans accomplished, building these
amazing cities, and all the good its done in the world, it's kind of
disheartening to hear so much hatred of America, not just from abroad, but
internally... For some reason, nobody seems to be talking about who we're up
against, and the sixth century barbarism that they actually represent. These
people saw people's heads off. They enslave women, they genitally mutilate
their daughters, they do not behave by any cultural norms that are sensible to
us. I'm speaking into a microphone that never could have been a product of
their culture, and I'm living in a city where three thousand of my neighbors
were killed by thieves of airplanes they never could have built.[52][53]
Frank Zappa
Frank Vincent Zappa (1940 – 1993) was a critically
acclaimed musician, songwriter, composer, recording engineer, record producer,
and film director. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and
received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.
Let’s
say we have to make some ‘show of force.’ The most common scenarios involve
small guerilla or terrorist groups. Nuclear retaliation? It has been suggested
by others that Aerosol Pork Grenades would be a better deterrent — Islamic
martyrs are denied entrance to heaven if they show up at the gate smelling like
a pig. Denial of The Big Payoff removes a certain cachet from acts of voluntary
self-destruction.[54]
Gene Simmons
Gene Simmons (born August 25, 1949) is an American rock
bass guitarist, singer-songwriter, record producer, entrepreneur and actor. He
is the bass guitarist/co-lead vocalist of the legendary rock band Kiss.
This
is a vile culture and if you think for a second that it's willing to just live
in the sands of God's armpit, you've got another thing coming... They want to
come and live right where you live and they think that you're evil. Extremism
believes that it’s okay to strap bombs onto your children and send them to
paradise and whatever else and to behead people... Your dog, however, can walk
side by side, your dog is allowed to have its own dog house... You can send
your dog to school to learn tricks, sit, beg, do all that stuff - none of the
women have that advantage.[55]
George Bernard Shaw
George Bernard Shaw
(1856 – 1950) was an Irish playwright and a co-founder of the London School of
Economics. He is the only person to have been awarded both a Nobel Prize for
Literature (1925) and an Oscar (1938).
Islam
is very different, being ferociously intolerant. What I may call Manifold
Monotheism becomes in the minds of very simple folk an absurdly polytheistic
idolatry, just as European peasants not only worship Saints and the Virgin as
Gods, but will fight fanatically for their faith in the ugly little black doll
who is the Virgin of their own Church against the black doll of the next
village. When the Arabs had run this sort of idolatry to such extremes [that]
they did this without black dolls and worshipped any stone that looked funny,
Mahomet rose up at the risk of his life and insulted the stones shockingly,
declaring that there is only one God, Allah, the glorious, the great… And there
was to be no nonsense about toleration. You accepted Allah or you had your
throat cut by someone who did accept him, and who went to Paradise for having
sent you to Hell.[56]
George S. Patton
George Smith Patton, Jr. (1885 – 1945 AD) was a United
States Army officer most famous for his leadership commanding corps and armies
as a general in World War II.
To
me it seems certain that the fatalistic teachings of Muhammad and the utter
degradation of women is the outstanding cause for the arrested development of
the Arab. He is exactly as he was around the year 700, while we have kept on
developing.[57]
G. H. Bousquet
G. H. Bousquet was a great 20th century
scholar of Islamic law.
Islam
first came before the world as a doubly totalitarian system. It claimed to
impose itself on the whole world and it claimed also, by the divinely appointed
Muhammadan law, by the principles of the fiqh, to regulate down to the
smallest details the whole life of the Islamic community and of every
individual believer. ... [T]he study of Muhammadan law (dry and forbidding
though it may appear to those who confine themselves to the indispensable study
of the fiqh) is of great importance to the world today.[58]
Gerd Puin
Gerd Rüdiger Puin (born 1940) is a German scholar and one
of the world’s leading authorities on Qur'anic historical orthography, the
study and scholarly interpretation of ancient manuscripts. He is also
specialist in Arabic paleography. He was a lecturer based at Saarland
University, in Saarbrücken Germany.
The
Qur’an claims for itself that it is ‘mubeen,’ or clear, but if you just look at
it, you will see that every fifth sentence or so simply doesn’t make sense.
Many Muslims will tell you otherwise, but the fact is that a fifth of the
Qur’an is just incomprehensible. This is what has caused the traditional
anxiety regarding translation. If the Qur’an is not comprehensible, if it can’t
even be understood in Arabic, then it’s not translatable into any language.
That is why Muslims are afraid.
G. K. Chesterton
Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874 – 1936) was an English
writer. His prolific and diverse output included philosophy, ontology, poetry,
play writing, journalism, public lecturing and debating, biography, Christian
apologetics, fantasy and detective fiction.
There
is in Islam a paradox which is perhaps a permanent menace. The great creed born
in the desert creates a kind of ecstasy of the very emptiness of its own land,
and even, one may say, out of the emptiness of its own theology... A void is
made in the heart of Islam which has to be filled up again and again by a mere
repetition of the revolution that founded it. There are no sacraments; the only
thing that can happen is a sort of apocalypse, as unique as the end of the
world; so the apocalypse can only be repeated and the world end again and
again. There are no priests; and yet this equality can only breed a multitude
if lawless prophets almost as numerous as priests. The very dogma that there is
only one Mahomet produces an endless procession of Mahomets.[59]
Haran Gawaitha
The Haran Gawaitha
is a Mandaean text written during the 7th to 9th century
and contains some of the earliest non-Muslim references to Muhammad.
I
will tell you, (O ye) priests who live in the Arab age, (of that which occurred)
before the Son-of-Slaughter, the Arab, went out and prophesied as a prophet in
the world so that they performed circumcision like Jews and changed sayings -
for he is the most degraded of false prophets. Mars accompanieth him because he
is the Seal of prophets of the Lie, (although) the Messiah will appear after
him at the end of the age! I will inform you, Nasoraeans, that before the
Son-of-Slaughter, the Arab, emerged and was called prophet in the world and
Mars descended with him, he drew the sword and converted people to himself by
the sword
. . .
And so a Hardabaean (Sasanian) dynasty
ruled for three hun- dred and sixty years , and then the Son of Slaughter, the
Arab, set up as king, went forth and took a people to himself and performed
circumcision. (Even then), after this had happened and these events had taken
place, sixty banners (still) remained and pertained to me in Baghdad. Then he
took the sword and put to the sword from the city of Damascus unto Bit Dubar,
which is called Bdin . He governed it all and ruled over the lord of the
hill-country of the Persians who are called Hardbaeans and took away
sovereignty from them.
Then,
when this had taken place, in time there came (one) Anus', called the son of
Danqa, from the uplands of the Arsaiia [from (to?) the city of Baghdad bis'us'
kings of the planting of Artabanus, and brought in his own, belonging to
Muhammad son of 'Abdallah son-of-Slaughter, the Arab...[60]
Jacques Ellul
Jacques Ellul (1912 – 1994) was a French philosopher, law
professor, sociologist, lay theologian, and Christian anarchist.
In
a major encyclopedia, one reads phrases such as: "Islam expanded in the
eighth or ninth centuries ..."; "This or that country passed into
Muslim hands..." But care is taken not to say how Islam expanded, how
countries "passed into [Muslim] hands." .. Indeed, it would seem as
if events happened by themselves, through a miraculous or amicable operation...
Regarding this expansion, little is said about jihad. And yet it all
happened through war!
...the jihad is an institution. and not an event, that is to say it is a
part of the normal functioning of the Muslim world... The conquered populations
change status (they become dhimmis), and the shari'a tends to be
put into effect integrally, overthrowing the former law of the country. The
conquered territories do not simply change "owners."[61]
Joe A
Joe A is a British pornography producer notable for his focus on the
"Indian" or "Asian" niche market.
Many
of the [South Asian] girls I meet are interested in working with me [in porn]
but are worried about their family finding out. The strangest thing is, most of
my models have been Muslims, who are the strictest of all.[62]
John Adams
John Adams (1735 – 1826) was an American Founding Father
and the second President of the United States (1797–1801). The following is
taken from the preface of the Qur'an owned by him:
This
book is a long conference of God, the angels, and Mahomet, which that false
prophet very grossly invented; sometimes he introduceth God, who speaketh to
him, and teacheth him his law, then an angel, among the prophets, and
frequently maketh God to speak in the plural. … Thou wilt wonder that such
absurdities have infected the best part of the world, and wilt avouch, that the
knowledge of what is contained in this book, will render that law contemptible
…[63]
John Calvin
John Calvin (1509 – 1564) was an influential French
theologian and pastor during the Protestant Reformation, and a principal figure
in the development of Calvinism. Originally trained as a humanist lawyer, he
broke from the Roman Catholic Church around 1530.
For
even if many men once boasted that they worshipped the Supreme Majesty, the
Maker of heaven and earth, yet because they had no Mediator it was not possible
for them truly to taste God’s mercy, and thus be persuaded that he was their
Father. Accordingly, because they did not hold Christ as their Head, they
possessed only a fleeting knowledge of God. From this it also came about that
they at last lapsed into crass and foul superstitions and betrayed their own
ignorance. So today the [Muslim] Turks, although they proclaim at the top of
their lungs that the Creator of heaven and earth is God, still, while
repudiating Christ, substitute an idol in place of the true God.[64]
John R. Newman
John R. Newman is an historian of religions who
specializes in Indian and Tibetan Buddhism. His research focuses on the
Vajrayana Buddhist Kalachakra Tantra
("Wheel of Time system of mysticism") tradition.
We
may summarize the Kalacakra tantra's perception of Islamic beliefs and
practices as follows: from the Buddhist point of view Islam is demonic and
perverse, a perfect anti-religion which is the antithesis of Buddhism.[65]
John Quincy Adams
John Quincy Adams (1767 – 1848) was the sixth President
of the United States. He was also an American diplomat and served in both the
Senate and House of Representatives.
…he
[Muhammad] declared undistinguishing and exterminating war, as a part of his
religion, against all the rest of mankind…The precept of the Koran is,
perpetual war against all who deny, that Mahomet is the prophet of God.[66]
In
the seventh century of the Christian era, a wandering Arab of the lineage of
Hagar [i.e., Muhammad], the Egyptian, combining the powers of transcendent
genius, with the preternatural energy of a fanatic, and the fraudulent spirit
of an impostor, proclaimed himself as a messenger from Heaven, and spread
desolation and delusion over an extensive portion of the earth. Adopting from
the sublime conception of the Mosaic law, the doctrine of one omnipotent God;
he connected indissolubly with it, the audacious falsehood, that he was himself
his prophet and apostle. Adopting from the new Revelation of Jesus, the faith
and hope of immortal life, and of future retribution, he humbled it to the dust
by adapting all the rewards and sanctions of his religion to the gratification
of the sexual passion. He poisoned the sources of human felicity at the
fountain, by degrading the condition of the female sex, and the allowance of
polygamy; and he declared undistinguishing and exterminating war, as a part of
his religion, against all the rest of mankind. THE ESSENCE OF HIS DOCTRINE WAS
VIOLENCE AND LUST: TO EXALT THE BRUTAL OVER THE SPIRITUAL PART OF HUMAN NATURE
[Adam's capital letters]….Between these two religions, thus contrasted in their
characters, a war of twelve hundred years has already raged. The war is yet
flagrant…While the merciless and dissolute dogmas of the false prophet shall
furnish motives to human action, there can never be peace upon earth, and good
will towards men.[67]
As
the essential principle of his faith is the subjugation of others by the sword;
it is only by force, that his false doctrines can be dispelled, and his power
annihilated. They [The Russians] have been from time immemorial, in a state of
almost perpetual war with the Tatars, and with their successors, the Ottoman
conquerors of Constantinople. It were an idle waste of time to trace the causes
of each renewal of hostilities, during a succession of several centuries. The precept
of the Koran is, perpetual war against all who deny, that Mahomet is the
prophet of God. The vanquished may purchase their lives, by the payment of
tribute; the victorious may be appeased by a false and delusive promise of
peace; and the faithful follower of the prophet, may submit to the imperious
necessities of defeat: but the command to propagate the Moslem creed by the
sword is always obligatory, when it can be made effective. The commands of the
prophet may be performed alike, by fraud, or by force. Of Mahometan good faith,
we have had memorable examples ourselves. When our gallant [Stephen] Decatur
ref had chastised the pirate of Algiers, till he was ready to renounce his
claim of tribute from the United States, he signed a treaty to that effect: but
the treaty was drawn up in the Arabic language, as well as in our own; and our
negotiators, unacquainted with the language of the Koran, signed the copies of
the treaty, in both languages, not imagining that there was any difference
between them. Within a year the Dey demands, under penalty of the renewal of
the war, an indemnity in money for the frigate taken by Decatur; our Consul
demands the foundation of this pretension; and the Arabic copy of the treaty,
signed by himself is produced, with an article stipulating the indemnity,
foisted into it, in direct opposition to the treaty as it had been concluded.
The arrival of Chauncey, with a squadron before Algiers, silenced the
fraudulent claim of the Dey, and he signed a new treaty in which it was abandoned;
but he disdained to conceal his intentions; my power, said he, has been wrested
from my hands; draw ye the treaty at your pleasure, and I will sign it; but
beware of the moment, when I shall recover my power, for with that moment, your
treaty shall be waste paper. He avowed what they always practised, and would
without scruple have practised himself. Such is the spirit, which governs the
hearts of men, to whom treachery and violence are taught as principles of
religion.[68]
Had
it been possible for a sincere and honest peace to be maintained between the
Osmanli and his christian neighbors, then would have been the time to establish
it in good faith. But the treaty was no sooner made than broken. It never was
carried into effect by the Turkish government.[69]
[From
the Ottoman Reis Effendi, to his Russian counterparts] ‘The present friendly
letter has been composed and sent, to acquaint your excellency. with the
circumstance; when you shall learn, on receipt of it, that the Sublime Porte
has at all times; no other desire or wish than to preserve peace, and good
understanding ; and that the event in question has been brought about,
entirely by the act of the said minister, we hope that you will endeavor, do
every occasion, to fulfil the duties of friendship.’ But precisely at the time
when this mild, and candid, and gently expostulary epistle was despatched for
St. Petersburg, another state paper was issued, addressed by the Sultan to his
own subjects-this was the Hatti Sheriff of the 20th of December, sent to the
Pashas of all the provinces, calling on all the faithful Mussulmen of the
empire to come forth and 'fight for their religion, and their country, against
the infidel despisers of the Prophet. The comparison of these two documents
with each other, will afford the most perfect illustration of the Ottoman
faith, as well as of their temper towards Russia.
The Hatti Sheriff commenced with the
following admirable commentary upon the friendly profession, which introduced
the letter to count Nesselrode. ‘It is well known (said the Sultan) to almost
every person, that if the Mussulmen naturally hate the infidels, the infidels,
on then part, are the enemies of the Mussulmen : that Russia, more especially,
bears a particular hatred to Islamism, and that she is the principal enemy of
the Sublime Porte.’
This
appeal to the natural hatred of the Mussulmen towards the infidels, is in just
accordance with the precepts of the Koran. The document does not attempt to
disguise it, nor even pretend that the enmity of those whom it styles the
infidels, is any other than the necessary consequence of the hatred borne by
the Mussulmen to them—the paragraph itself, is a forcible example of the
contrasted character of the two religions. The fundamental doctrine of the
christian religion, is the extirpation of hatred from the human heart. It
forbids the exercise of it, even towards enemies. There is no denomination of
christians, which denies or misunderstands this doctrine. All understand it
alike—all acknowledge its obligations ; and however imperfectly, in the
purposes of Divine Providence, its efficacy has been shown in the practice of
christians, it has not been wholly inoperative upon them. Its effect has been
upon the manners of nations. It has mitigated the horrors of war – it has
softened the features of slavery – it has humanized the intercourse of social
life. The unqualified acknowledgement of a duty does not, indeed, suffice to
insure its performance. Hatred is yet a passion, but too powerful upon the
hearts of christians. Yet they cannot indulge it, except by the sacrifice of
their principles, and the conscious violation of their duties. No state paper
from a Christian hand, could, without trampling the precepts of its Lord and
Master, have commenced by an open proclamation of hatred to any portion of the
human race. The Ottoman lays it down as the foundation of his discourse.[70]
If
ever insurrection was holy in the eyes of God, such was that of the Greeks
against their Mahometan oppressors. Yet for six long years, they were suffered
to be overwhelmed by the whole mass of the Ottoman power; cheered only by the
sympathies of all the civilized world, but without a finger raised to sustain
or relieve them by the Christian governments of Europe; while the sword of
extermination, instinct with the spirit of the Koran, was passing in merciless
horror over the classical regions of Greece, the birth-place of philosophy, of
poetry, of eloquence, of all the arts that embellish, and all the sciences that
dignify the human character. The monarchs of Austria, of France, and England,
inflexibly persisted in seeing in the Greeks, only revolted subjects against a
lawful sovereign. The ferocious Turk eagerly seized upon this absurd
concession, and while sweeping with his besom of destruction over the Grecian
provinces, answered every insinuation of interest in behalf of that suffering
people, by assertions of the unqualified rights of sovereignty, and by
triumphantly retorting upon the legitimates of Europe, the consequences
naturally flowing from their own perverted maxims.”[71]
This
pretended discovery of a plot between Russia and the Greeks, is introduced, to
preface an exulting reference to the unhallowed butchery of the Greek Patriarch
and Priests, on Easter day of 1822, at Constantinople, and to the merciless
desolation of Greece, which it calls ‘doing justice by the sword’ to a great
number of rebels of the Morea, of Negropont, of Acarnania, Missolonghi, Athens,
and other parts of the continent.The document acknowledges, that although
during several years, considerable forces, both naval and military, had been
sent against the Greeks, they had not succeeded in suppressing the
insurrection.[72]
John Wesley
John Wesley (1703 – 1791), was a theologian and founder
of the English Methodist movement.
Let
us now calmly and impartially consider what manner of men the Mahometans in
general are.
6. An ingenious writer, who a few
years ago published a pompous translation of the Koran, takes great pains to
give us a very favourable opinion both of Mahomet and his followers. But he
cannot wash the Ethiop white. After all, men who have but a moderate share of
reason, cannot but observe in his Koran, even as polished by Mr. Sale, the most
gross and impious absurdities. To cite particulars is not now my business. It
may suffice to observe in general, that human understanding must be debased to
an inconceivable degree, in those who can swallow such absurdities as divinely
revealed. And yet we know the Mahometans not only condemn all who cannot
swallow them to everlasting fire; not only appropriate to themselves the title
of Mussulman or True Believers: but even anathematise with the utmost
bitterness, and adjudge to eternal destruction, all their brethren of the sect
of Mi, all who contend for a figurative interpretation of them.
That these men then have no knowledge
or love of God is undeniably manifest, not only from their gross, horrible
notions of him, but from their not loving their brethren. But they have not
always so weighty a cause to hate and murder one another, as difference of
opinion. Mahometans will butcher each other by thousands, without so plausible
a plea as this. Why is it that such numbers of Turks and Persians have stabbed
one another in cool blood ? Truly, because they differ in the manner of
dressing their head. The Ottoman vehemently maintains, (for he has
unquestionable tradition on his side) that a Mussulman should wear a round
turban. Whereas the Persian insists upon his liberty of conscience, and will
wear it picked before. So, for this wonderful reason, when a more plausible one
is wanting, they beat out each other's brains from generation to generation.
It
is not therefore strange, that ever since the religion of Mahomet appeared in
the world, the espousers of it, particularly those under the Turkish emperor,
have been as wolves and tigers to all other nations ; rending and tearing
all that fell into their merciless paws, and grinding them with their iron
teeth: that numberless cities are rased from the foundation, and only their
name remaining : that many countries which were once as the garden of God,
are. now a desolate wilderness; and that so many once numerous and powerful
nations are vanished away from the earth ! Such was, and is at this day,
the rage, the fury, the revenge, of these destroyers of humankind![73]
Jonathan Edwards
Jonathan Edwards (1703 – 1758) was a preacher,
theologian, and missionary to Native Americans. Edwards "is widely
acknowledged to be America's most important and original philosophical
theologian," and one of America's greatest intellectuals.
By
the false prophet [in Revelation 16:13], is sometimes meant the Pope and his
clergy; but here an eye seems to be had to Mahomet, whom his followers call the
great prophet of God.[74]
Louis Bertrand
Louis Bertrand (1866 – 1941) was a French novelist, historian
and essayist. He was the third member elected to occupy seat 4 of the Académie
française in 1925.
Arabs
have never invented anything except Islam... they have made absolutely no
addition to the ancient heritage of Greco-Latin civilization.
It is only a superficial knowledge that has been able to accept without
critical examination the belief current among Christians during the Middle
Ages, which attributed to Islam the Greek science and philosophy of which
Christianity had no longer any knowledge. In the centuries that have followed,
the Sectarian spirit has found it to be to its interest to confirm and
propagate this error. In its hatred of Christianity it has had to give Islam
the honour of what was the invention, and, if we may so express it, the personal
property of our intellectual ancestors.[10]
On the influence of Islam on Christian Europe:
The
worst characteristic which the Spaniards acquired was the parasitism of the
Arabs and the nomad Africans: the custom of living off one's neighbour's
territory, the raid raised to the level of an institution, marauding and
brigandage recognized as the sole means of existence for the man-at-arms. In
the same way they went to win their bread in Moorish territory, so the
Spaniards later went to win gold and territory in Mexico and Peru.
They were to introduce there, too, the
barbarous, summary practices of the Arabs: putting everything to fire and
sword, cutting down fruit-trees, razing crops, devastating whole districts to
starve out the enemy and bring them to terms; making slaves everywhere,
condemning the population of the conquered countries to forced labour. All
these detestable ways the conquistadores learnt from the Arabs.
For several centuries slavery
maintained itself in Christian Spain, as in the Islamic lands. Very certainly,
also, it was to the Arabs that the Spaniards owed the intransigence of their
fanaticism, the pretension to be, if not the chosen of God, at least the most
Catholic nation of Christendom. Philip II, like Abd er Rahman or El Mansour,
was Defender of the Faith.
Finally,
it was not without contagion that the Spaniards lived for centuries in contact
with a race of men who crucified their enemies and gloried in piling up
thousands of severed heads by way of trophies. The cruelty of the Arabs and the
Berbers also founded a school in the Peninsula. The ferocity of the emirs and
the caliphs who killed their brothers or their sons with their own hands was to
be handed on to Pedro the Cruel and Henry of Trastamare, those stranglers under
canvas, no better than common assassins.[75]
Maimonides
Moses ben-Maimon called Maimonides (1135 – 1204) was a
preeminent medieval Jewish philosopher and one of the greatest Torah scholars
and physicians of the Middle Ages.
After
arose the Madman [Muhammad] who emulated his precursor [Jesus], since he paved
the way for him. But he added the further objective of procuring rule and
submission and he invented what is well known [Islam].[76]
Let
Ye understand, my brothers, the Holy One Blessed HE through the trap created by
our iniquities cast us amongst this nation, the people of Ishmael [Muslim
Arabs] whose oppressiveness is firmly upon us and they connive to do us wrong
and despicably downgrade us as the Almighty decreed against us (Deuteronomy 32:31,
“Your enemies shall judge you”).
There never came against Israel a more
antagonistic nation. They oppress us with the most oppressive measures to
lessen our number, reduce us, and make us as despicable as they themselves are.
King David, may he rest in peace, saw through Divine Inspiration all the
calamities that were destined to come upon Israel. Nevertheless [even though he
saw all the other troubles], he still began to shout out and lament in the name
of the whole nation against the oppression that would be occasioned by the
Ishmaelites. David said, “Woe is me, that I sojourn in Mesech, that I dwell in
the tents of Kedar!” [Psalms 120:5].
Notice
how David emphasizes “Kedar” out of all the other Children of Ishmael. This is
because that Mad Man [Muhammad] came from Kedar according to what has been
published concerning his geneaology.[77]
Manuel II Palaiologos
Manuel II Palaiologos or Palaeologus (1350 – 1425) was
the Byzantine emperor from 1391 to 1425.
Show
me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only
evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he
preached.[78]
Mark Twain
Samuel Langhorne Clemens (1835 – 1910), well known by his
pen name Mark Twain, was an American author and humorist. Twain is noted for
his novels Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, which has been called "the
Great American Novel", and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. He is extensively
quoted, and was a friend to presidents, artists, industrialists, and European
royalty.
That
is a simple rule, and easy to remember. When I, a thoughtful and unblessed
Presbyterian, examine the Koran, I know that beyond any question every
Mohammedan is insane; not in all things, but in religious matters.[79]
Michael Cook
Michael Cook (born in 1940) is the Cleveland E. Dodge
Professor of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University. He is widely
considered "among the most outstanding scholars on the history of
Islam", and is the author of several classic works on Muhammad and early
Islamic theology.
Shortly
after 9/11, there was a book published called How Did This Happen? that
included an essay by Karen Armstrong in which she said a world religion has
been hijacked by this band of fanatics. I don’t buy that for a minute.[80]
Michael H. Hart
Michael H. Hart (born April 28, 1932 in New York City) is
a Jewish American astrophysicist who has also written three books on history
and controversial articles on a variety of subjects. Muhammad's success as a
warlord and conqueror were one of Hart's biggest reasons for placing him as the
most influential person in history.
Muhammad
(unlike Jesus) was a secular as well as a religious leader. In fact, as the
driving force behind the Arab conquests, he may well rank as the most
influential political leader of all time. Of many important historical events,
one might say that they were inevitable and would have occurred even without
the particular political leader who guided them. For example, the South
American colonies would probably have won their independence from Spain even if
Simon Bolivar had never lived. But this cannot be said of the Arab conquests.
Nothing similar had occurred before Muhammad, and there is no reason to believe
that the conquests would have been achieved without him. The only comparable
conquests in human history are those of the Mongols in the thirteenth century,
which were primarily due to the influence of Genghis Khan.[81]
Muhammad Sven Kalisch
Muhammad Sven Kalisch
is a Professor at Münster University, one of Germany's oldest and most
respected universities. In 2004 he went on to become Germany's first ever
professor of Islamic theology.
I
said to myself: You've dealt with Christianity and Judaism but what about your
own religion? Can you take it for granted that Muhammad existed? ... The more I
read, the historical person at the root of the whole thing became more and more
improbable.[82]
With
regard to the historical existence of Muhammad ... I consider my position
simply as a continuation of the most recent research results. It appears so
spectacular only because it has been said by a Muslim ... Most Western
scientists turn down such an hypotheses out of respect for Islam or because
they are afraid of the reactions of their Muslim friends or because they think
it is speculative nonsense... My position with regard to the historical
existence of Muhammad is that I believe neither his existence nor his non-existence
can be proven. I, however, lean towards the non-existence but I don't think it
can be proven. It is my impression that, unless there are some sensational
archeological discoveries -- an Islamic "Qumran" or "Nag
Hammadi" -- the question of Muhammad's existence will probably never be
finally clarified.[83]
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (1881 – 1938) was a Turkish army
officer, revolutionary statesman, writer, and founder of the Republic of Turkey
as well as its first president.
Turks
were a great nation even before they adopted Islam. This religion did not help
the Arabs, Iranians, Egyptians and others to unite with Turks to form a nation.
Conversely, it weakened the Turks’ national relations; it numbed Turkish
national feelings and enthusiasm. This was natural, because Mohammedanism was
based on Arab nationalism above all nationalities.[84]
For
nearly five hundred years, these rules and theories of an Arab Shaikh and the
interpretations of generations of lazy and good-for-nothing priests have
decided the civil and criminal law of Turkey. They have decided the form of the
Constitution, the details of the lives of each Turk, his food, his hours of
rising and sleeping the shape of his clothes, the routine of the midwife who
produced his children, what he learned in his schools, his customs, his
thoughts-even his most intimate habits. Islam – this theology of an immoral Arab
– is a dead thing. Possibly it might have suited tribes in the desert. It is no
good for modern, progressive state. God’s revelation! There is no God! These
are only the chains by which the priests and bad rulers bound the people down.
A ruler who needs religion is a weakling. No weaklings should rule.[85]
Our
life here is truly hellish. Fortunately, my soldiers are very brave and tougher
than the enemy. What is more, their private beliefs make it easier to carry out
orders which send them to their death. They see only two supernatural outcomes:
victory for the faith or martyrdom. Do you know what the second means? It is to
go straight to heaven. There, the houris, God's most beautiful women, will meet
them and will satisfy their desires for all eternity. What great happiness![86]
Omar Khayyám
Omar Khayyám (1048 – 1131 AD), was a Persian polymath,
mathematician, philosopher, astronomer, physician, and poet. He wrote treatises
on mechanics, geography, and music.
Allah, perchance, the secret word might spell;
If Allah be, He keeps His secret well;
What He hath hidden, who shall hope to find?
Shall God His secret to a maggot tell?
…
The Koran! well, come put me to the test—
Lovely old book in hideous error drest—
Believe me, I can quote the Koran too,
The unbeliever knows his Koran best.
And do you think that unto such as you,
A maggot-minded, starved, fanatic crew,
God gave the secret, and denied it me?—
Well, well, what matters it! believe that too.[87]
Oriana Fallaci
Oriana Fallaci (1929 – 2006) was an Italian journalist,
author, and political interviewer. A former partisan during World War II, she
had a long and successful journalistic career, interviewing many
internationally known leaders and celebrities.
Europe
is no longer Europe, it is Eurabia, a colony of Islam, where the Islamic
invasion does not proceed only in a physical sense, but also in a mental and
cultural sense... I am an atheist, and if an atheist and a pope think the same
things, there must be something true. There must be some human truth that is
beyond religion... I am disgusted by the anti-Semitism of many Italians, of
many Europeans... Look at the school system of the West today. Students do not
know history! They don't know who Churchill was! In Italy, they don't even know
who Cavour was!... Servility to the invaders has poisoned democracy, with
obvious consequences for the freedom of thought, and for the concept itself of
liberty... State-run television stations contribute to the resurgent
anti-Semitism, crying only over Palestinian deaths while playing down Israeli
deaths, glossing over them in unwilling tones... The increased presence of
Muslims in Italy and in Europe is directly proportional to our loss of
freedom... The Muslims refuse our culture and try to impose their culture on
us. I reject them, and this is not only my duty toward my culture-it is toward
my values, my principles, my civilization... The struggle for freedom does not
include the submission to a religion which, like the Muslim religion, wants to
annihilate other religions... The West reveals a hatred of itself, which is
strange and can only be considered pathological; it now sees only what is
deplorable and destructive... These charlatans care about the Palestinians as
much as I care about the charlatans. That is not at all... When I was given the
news, I laughed. The trial is nothing else but a demonstration that everything
I've written is true... President Bush has said, 'We refuse to live in fear.'
Beautiful sentence, very beautiful. I loved it! But inexact, Mr. President,
because the West does live in fear. People are afraid to speak against the
Islamic world. Afraid to offend, and to be punished for offending, the sons of
Allah. You can insult the Christians, the Buddhists, the Hindus, the Jews. You
can slander the Catholics, you can spit on the Madonna and Jesus Christ. But,
woe betide the citizen who pronounces a word against the Islamic religion.[88]
The
problem is that the solution does not depend upon the death of Osama bin Laden.
Because the Osama bin Ladens are too many, by now: as cloned as the sheep of
our research laboratories. In fact, the best trained and the more intelligent
do not stay in the Muslim countries... They stay in our own countries, in our
cities, our universities, our business companies. They have excellent bonds
with our churches, our banks, our televisions, our radios, our newspapers, our
publishers, our academic organizations, our unions, our political parties.
Worse, they live in the heart of a society that hosts them without questioning
their differences, without checking their bad intentions, without penalizing
their sullen fanaticism.[88]
To
make you cry I’ll tell you about the twelve young impure men I saw executed at
Dacca at the end of the Bangladesh war. They executed them on the field of
Dacca stadium, with bayonet blows to the torso or abdomen, in the presence of
twenty thousand faithful who applauded in the name of God from the bleachers.
They thundered "Allah akbar, Allah akbar." Yes, I know: the ancient
Romans, those ancient Romans of whom my culture is so proud, entertained
themselves in the Coliseum by watching the deaths of Christians fed to the lions.
I know, I know: in every country of Europe the Christians, those Christians
whose contribution to the History of Thought I recognize despite my atheism,
entertained themselves by watching the burning of heretics. But a lot of time
has passed since then, we have become a little more civilized, and even the
sons of Allah ought to have figured out by now that certain things are just not
done. After the twelve impure young men they killed a little boy who had thrown
himself at the executioners to save his brother who had been condemned to
death. They smashed his head with their combat boots. And if you don’t believe
it, well, reread my report or the reports of the French and German journalists
who, horrified as I was, were there with me. Or better: look at the photographs
that one of them took. Anyway this isn’t even what I want to underline. It’s
that, at the conclusion of the slaughter, the twenty thousand faithful (many of
whom were women) left the bleachers and went down on the field. Not as a
disorganized mob, no. In an orderly manner, with solemnity. They slowly formed
a line and, again in the name of God, walked over the cadavers. All the while
thundering Allah–akbar, Allah–akbar. They destroyed them like the Twin Towers
of New York. They reduced them to a bleeding carpet of smashed bones.[89]
I
am not speaking, obviously, to the laughing hyenas who enjoy seeing images of
the wreckage and snicker good–it–serves–the–Americans–right. I am speaking to
those who, though not stupid or evil, are wallowing in prudence and doubt. And
to them I say: "Wake up, people. Wake up!!" Intimidated as you are by
your fear of going against the current—that is, appearing racist (a word which
is entirely inapt as we are speaking not about a race but about a religion)—you
don’t understand or don’t want to understand that a reverse–Crusade is in
progress. Accustomed as you are to the double–cross, blinded as you are by
myopia, you don’t understand or don’t want to understand that a war of religion
is in progress. Desired and declared by a fringe of that religion, perhaps, but
a war of religion nonetheless. A war which they call Jihad. Holy War. A war
that might not seek to conquer our territory, but that certainly seeks to
conquer our souls. That seeks the disappearance of our freedom and our
civilization. That seeks to annihilate our way of living and dying, our way of
praying or not praying, our way of eating and drinking and dressing and
entertaining and informing ourselves. You don’t understand or don’t want to
understand that if we don’t oppose them, if we don’t defend ourselves, if we
don’t fight, the Jihad will win. And it will destroy the world that for better
or worse we’ve managed to build, to change, to improve, to render a little more
intelligent, that is to say, less bigoted—or even not bigoted at all. And with
that it will destroy our culture, our art, our science, our morals, our values,
our pleasures...Christ! Don’t you realize that the Osama Bin Ladens feel
authorized to kill you and your children because you drink wine or beer,
because you don’t wear your beard long or a chador, because you go to the
theater or the movies, because you listen to music and sing pop songs, because
you dance in discos or at home, because you watch TV, wear miniskirts or
short–shorts, because you go naked or half naked to the beach or the pool,
because you *** when you want and where you want and who you want? Don’t you
even care about that, you fools? I am an atheist, thank God. And I have no
intention of letting myself be killed for it.[89]
Penn Jillette
Penn Fraser Jillette (born March 5, 1955) is an American
illusionist, comedian, musician, and best-selling author known for his work
with fellow magician Teller in the team Penn & Teller.
People
have to realize that having an imaginary friend may be dangerous. When 9/11
hit, the second thing I said to myself was, “This really is what religious
people do.” Those people flying the plane were very good, very pious, truly
faithful believers. There’s no other way to paint them. Of course, they are
extremists by definition, but they certainly aren’t going against Islam in any
real way.[90]
...
we haven't tackled Islam because we have families [...] and I think the worst
thing you can say about a group in a free society is that you’re afraid to talk
about it—I can’t think of anything more horrific. [...] Teller and I have been
brutal to Christians, and their response shows that they’re good f**king
Americans who believe in freedom of speech. We attack them all the time, and we
still get letters that say, “We appreciate your passion. Sincerely yours, in
Christ.” Christians come to our show at the Rio and give us Bibles all the
time. They’re incredibly kind to us ...[91]
Rabindranath Tagore
Rabindranath Tagore (1861 – 1941) was a Bengali polymath
who reshaped his region's literature and music. The composer of both the
national anthem of India as well as the national anthem of Bangladesh, he
became the first non-European to win the Nobel Prize in Literature.
A
very important factor which is making it almost impossible for Hindu-Muslim
unity to become an accomplished fact is that the Muslim can not confine their
patriotism to any one country. I had frankly asked the Muslims whether in the
event of any Mohammedan power invading India, would they [Muslims] stand side
by side with their Hindu neighbors to defend their common land or join the
invaders. I was not satisfied with the reply I have obtained from them… Even
such a man as Mr. Mohammed Ali has declared that under no circumstances is it
permissible for any Mohammedan, whatever be his country, to stand against any
Mohammedan.[92]
Richard Dawkins
Clinton Richard Dawkins (born March 26, 1941), is a
British ethologist, evolutionary biologist and popular science author. He was
formerly Professor for Public Understanding of Science at Oxford and was a
fellow of New College, Oxford.
Islam
deserves criticism on account of the logical consequences of its dogma, namely,
that the murder of fellow human beings is to be rewarded with sensual pleasure
in a hedonistic “Paradise”—a concept born in the fantasies of an Arab rebel
some fourteen centuries ago. The religion of Mohammed is a dangerous system
when the teachings and example of the “prophet” are believed and followed.
I'm
reasonably optimistic in America and Europe. I'm pessimistic about the Islamic
world. I regard Islam as one of the great evils in the world, and I fear that
we have a very difficult struggle there.
[Why is it more
problematic than Christianity, for instance?]
There's a belief that every word of
the Quran is literally true, and there's a kind of close-mindedness there,
which is, I think, less present in the former Christendom. Perhaps because
we've had long- I don't know quite why, but there's more of a historical
tradition of questioning.
There
are people in the Islamic world who simply say: "Islam is
right!","We are going to impose our will" and there's an
asymmetry. I think in a way we are being too nice. I think that it's possible
to be naively over optimistic - and if you reach out to people who have
absolutely no intention of reaching back to you, then you may be disillusioned.[93]
I
do feel visceral revulsion at the burka because for me it is a symbol of the
oppression of women.[94]
It’s
almost impossible to say anything against Islam in this country, because you
are accused of being racist or Islamophobic.[94]
Every
person I met believes if there is any disagreement between the Koran and
science, then the Koran wins. It's just utterly deplorable. These are now
British children who are having their minds stuffed with alien rubbish.
Occasionally, my colleagues lecturing in universities lament having
undergraduate students walk out of their classes when they talk about
evolution. This is almost entirely Muslims.[95]
Robert Redeker
Robert Redeker
is a philosophy teacher and writer for Le Figaro.
The
exaltation of violence; a merciless war chief, plunderer, slaughterer of Jews
and a polygamist, such is the man revealed through the Koran... Turning to
Mahomet, by contradiction, reinforces hate and violence. Jesus is a master of
love, Mahomet is a master of hatred... The stoning of Satan, each year at
Mecca, is not just a superstitious phenomenon. It not only sets the scene for a
rabble flirting with barbarity. Its scope is anthropological. Here in effect is
a rite, which each Muslim is invited to submit himself to, emphasizing violence
as a sacred duty in the heart of the believer. This stoning, annually
accompanied with deaths by trampling of the faithful, sometimes in several
hundreds, is a ritual which nurtures archaic violence. Instead of getting rid
of this archaic violence... Islam builds a nest for this violence, where it can
grow in the warmth... Islam is a religion which, even in its sacred text, as
well as in its banal rites, exalts violence and hate... Hate and violence
inhabit the book with which each Muslim is educated, the Koran.[96]
After the article Mr. Redeker received numerous death
threads and had to go in to hiding under police protection.
What
is happening to me corresponds fully to what I denounce in my writing — the
West is under ideological surveillance by Islam... I have the impression that
I’ve been drafted against my will into a conflict from the 17th or 18th century.
It’s all about opposing religious intolerance.
Rory Bremner
Roderick "Rory" Keith Ogilvy Bremner, FKC (born
April 6, 1961) is a Scottish impressionist, playwright and award-winning
comedian, noted for his work in political satire and impressions of prominent
British politicians.
When
[I'm] writing a sketch about Islam, I'm writing a line and I think, 'If this
goes down badly, I'm writing my own death warrant there.' Because there are
people who will say, 'Not only do I not think that's funny but I'm going to
kill you' – and that's chilling... If you're a Danish cartoonist and you work
in a Western tradition, people don't take that too seriously. Suddenly you're
confronted by a group of people who are fundamentalist and extreme and they
say, 'We're going to kill you because of what you have said or drawn.' Where
does satire go from there, because we like to be brave but not foolish.[97]
Salman Rushdie
Sir Ahmed Salman Rushdie (born June 19, 1947) is a
British-Indian novelist and essayist. He achieved notability with his second
novel, Midnight's Children (1981), which won the Booker Prize in 1981.
Of
course this is "about Islam." The question is, what exactly does that
mean? After all, most religious belief isn't very theological. Most Muslims are
not profound Koranic analysts. For a vast number of "believing"
Muslim men, "Islam" stands, in a jumbled, half-examined way, not only
for the fear of God -- the fear more than the love, one suspects -- but also
for a cluster of customs, opinions and prejudices that include their dietary
practices; the sequestration or near-sequestration of "their" women;
the sermons delivered by their mullahs of choice; a loathing of modern society
in general, riddled as it is with music, godlessness and sex; and a more
particularized loathing (and fear) of the prospect that their own immediate
surroundings could be taken over -- "Westoxicated" -- by the liberal
Western-style way of life.[98]
The
pope gets ridiculed every day, but you don't see Catholics organizing terrorist
attacks around the world.[99]
If
Woody Allen were a Muslim, he'd be dead by now.[100]
Salomon Reinach
Salomon Reinach (1858 – 1932) was a French archaeologist,
who made valuable archaeological discoveries at Myrina near Smyrna in 1880-82,
at Cyme in 1881, at Thasos, Imbros and Lesbos (1882), at Carthage and Meninx
(1883-84), at Odessa (1893) and elsewhere. He received honours from the chief
learned societies of Europe.
From
the literary point of view, the Koran has little merit. Declamation,
repetition, puerility, a lack of logic and coherence strike the unprepared
reader at every turn. It is humiliating to the human intellect to think that
this mediocre literature has been the subject of innumerable commentaries, and
that millions of men are still wasting time absorbing it.[101]
Sam Harris
Sam Harris, Ph.D (born 1967) is an American non-fiction
writer, CEO, and winner of the prestigeous PEN Martha Albrand Award (2005).
Anyone
familiar with my work knows that I am extremely critical of all religious
faiths. I have argued elsewhere that the ascendancy of Christian conservatism
in American politics should terrify and embarrass us. And yet, there are
gradations to the evil that is done in name of God, and these gradations must
be honestly observed. So let us now make sense of the impossible by
acknowledging the obvious: there is a direct link between the doctrine of Islam
and Muslim terrorism. Acknowledging this link remains especially taboo among
political liberals.
. . .
While the other major world religions have been fertile sources of intolerance,
it is clear that the doctrine of Islam poses unique problems for the emergence
of a global civilization. The world, from the point of view of Islam, is
divided into the “House of Islam” and the “House of War,” and this latter
designation should indicate how Muslims believe their differences with those who
do not share their faith will be ultimately resolved. While there are
undoubtedly some moderate Muslims who have decided to overlook the
irrescindable militancy of their religion, Islam is undeniably a religion of
conquest. The only future devout Muslims can envisage—as Muslims—is one
in which all infidels have been converted to Islam, politically subjugated, or
killed. The tenets of Islam simply do not admit of anything but a temporary
sharing of power with the “enemies of God.” Devout Muslims can have no doubt
about the reality of Paradise or about the efficacy of martyrdom as a means of
getting there. Nor can they question the wisdom and reasonableness of killing
people for what amount to theological grievances. In Islam, it is the moderate
who is left to split hairs, because the basic thrust of the doctrine is
undeniable: convert, subjugate, or kill unbelievers; kill apostates; and
conquer the world.[102]
Islam,
more than any other religion human beings have devised, has all the makings of
a thoroughgoing cult of death.
As
a matter of doctrine, the Muslim conception of tolerance is one in which
non-Muslims have been politically and economically subdued, converted, or put
to sword.
Yes,
the Bible contains its own sadistic lunacy—but the above [Qur'an] quotations
[taken from The End of Faith, pp. 117-123] can be fairly said to convey the central
message of the Qur’an—and of Islam at nearly every moment in its history. The
Qur’an does not contain anything like a Sermon on the Mount. Nor is it a vast
and self-contradictory book like the Old Testament, in which whole sections
(like Leviticus and Deuteronomy) can be easily ignored and forgotten. The result
is a unified message of triumphalism, otherworldliness, and religious hatred
that has become a problem for the entire world. And the world still waits for
moderate Muslims to speak honestly about it.[103]
The
penalty for apostasy is death. We would do well to linger over this fact for a
moment, because it is the black pearl of intolerance that no liberal exegesis
will ever fully digest.
As
a source of objective morality, the Bible is one of the worst books we have. It
might be the very worst, in fact—if we didn’t also happen to have the Qur’an.[104]
There
is no such thing as Islamophobia. Bigotry and racism exist, of course—and they
are evils that all well-intentioned people must oppose. And prejudice against
Muslims or Arabs, purely because of the accident of their birth, is despicable.
But like all religions, Islam is a system of ideas and practices. And it is not
a form of bigotry or racism to observe that the specific tenets of the faith
pose a special threat to civil society. Nor is it a sign of intolerance to
notice when people are simply not being honest about what they and their
co-religionists believe.[105]
Sibel Kekilli
Sibel Kekilli (born 16 June 1980) is a German actress of
Turkish background. For her performances, she was awarded twice with the most
prestigious German movie award, the Lola, and she also received the Best
Actress award at Turkey's most important national film festival.
I
have experienced myself that physical and psychological violence is seen as
normal in Muslim families. Unfortunately violence belongs to the culture in
Islam.[106]
Simon Ockley
Simon Ockley (1678 – 1720) was chosen Adams Professor of
Arabic at Cambridge University in 1711. He was educated at Queens' College,
Cambridge, and graduated B.A. in 1697, MA. in 1701, and B.D. in 1710.
An
Arabian author cited by Maracci,[107] says that Abubeker was very
averse to the giving him his daughter [Ayesha, who was then but seven years
old] so young, but that Mohammed pretended a divine command for it; whereupon
he sent her to him with a basket of dates, and when the girl was alone with
him, he stretched out his blessed hand (these are the author’s words), and
rudely took hold of her clothes; upon which she looked fiercely at him, and
said, “People call you the faithful man,[108] but your behaviour to me shows
you are a perfidious one.” And with these words she got out of his hands, and,
composing her clothes, went and complained to her father. The old gentleman, to
calm her resentment, told her she was new betrothed to Mohammed, and that made
him take liberties with her, as if she had been his wife.[109]
Speros Vryonis Jr.
Speros Vryonis Jr. (born 1928) is an American author and
historian of Greek descent and a specialist in Greek and Byzantine history. He
is professor emeritus of history at UCLA, the former Director of the Speros Basil
Vryonis Center for the Study of Hellenism and is currently the AHIF Senior
Fellow for Hellenism and for Greek and Turkish Studies.
The
process itself is described in its essential details by the Georgian chronicle
for northeast Asia Minor and the adjoining Georgian regions. The process which
it describes was not unique to the northeast, for we see it in the west and the
south of Asia Minor as well..
‘The emirs spread out, like locusts,
over the face of the land…The countries of Asis-Phorni, Clardjeth, up to the
shores of the sea, Chawcheth, Adchara, Samtzkhe, Karthli, Argoueth, Samokalako,
and Dchqondid were filled with Turks who pillaged and enslaved all the
inhabitants. In a single day they burned Kouthathis, Artanoudj, and hermitages
of Clardjeth, and they remained in these lands until the first snows, devouring
the land, massacring all those who had fled to the forests to the rocks, to the
caves…The calamities of Christianity did not come to an end soon thereafter,
for at the approach of spring, the Turks returned to carry out the same ravages
and left [again] in the winter. The [inhabitants] however were unable to plant
or to harvest. The land, [thus] delivered to slavery, had only animals of the
forests and wild beasts for inhabitants. Karthli was in the grip of intolerable
calamities such as one cannot compare to a single devastation or combination of
evils of past times. The holy churches served as stables for their horses, the
sanctuaries of the Lord served as repairs for the abominations [Islam]. Some of
the priests were immolated during the Holy communion itself, and others were
carried off into harsh slavery without regard to their old age. The virgins
were defiled, the youths circumcised, and the infants taken away. The
conflagration, extending its ravages, consumed all the inhabited sites, the
rivers, instead of water, flowed blood. I shall apply the sad words of
Jeremiah, which he applied so well to such situations: “the honorable children
of Zion, never put to the rest by misfortunes, now voyaged as slaves on foreign
roads. The streets of Zion now wept because there was no one [left] to
celebrate the feasts. The tender mothers, in place of preparing with their
hands the nourishment of the sons, were themselves nourished from the corpses of
these dearly loved. Such and worse was the situation at the time.’…
By
the time [of the late 11th and early 12th centuries, i.e. (1083-1125)]…the
nomads had effected permanent settlement in these regions, moving into the
abandoned and devastated areas with their tents, families, and flocks of
livestock.[110]
Stephen Harper
Stephen Joseph Harper PC MP (born April 30, 1959) is the
22nd and current Prime Minister of Canada.
When
people think of Islamic terrorism, they think of Afghanistan, or maybe they
think of some place in the Middle East, but the truth is that threat exists all
over the world ... There are a number of threats on a number of levels, but if
you are talking about terrorism it is Islamicism ... There are other threats
out there, but that is the one that I can tell you occupies the security
apparatus most regularly in terms of actual terrorist threats ... homegrown
[Islamic] terrorism is something we keep an eye on.[111][112]
Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt (1858 – 1919) was
the 26th President of the United States (1901 – 1909). Historians
typically rank Roosevelt among the top five American presidents of all time.[113][114]
Christianity
is not the creed of Asia and Africa at this moment solely because the seventh
century Christians of Asia and Africa had trained themselves not to fight,
whereas the Moslems were trained to fight. Christianity was saved in Europe
solely because the peoples of Europe fought. If the peoples of Europe in the
seventh and eighth centuries, an on up to and including the seventeenth
century, had not possessed a military equality with, and gradually a growing
superiority over the Mohammedans who invaded Europe, Europe would at this
moment be Mohammedan and the Christian religion would be exterminated. Wherever
the Mohammedans have had complete sway, wherever the Christians have been
unable to resist them by the sword, Christianity has ultimately disappeared.
From the hammer of Charles Martel to the sword of Sobieski, Christianity owed
its safety in Europe to the fact that it was able to show that it could and
would fight as well as the Mohammedan aggressor... The civilization of Europe,
American and Australia exists today at all only because of the victories of
civilized man over the enemies of civilization because of victories through the
centuries from Charles Martel in the eighth century and those of John Sobieski
in the seventeenth century. During the thousand years that included the careers
of the Frankish soldier and the Polish king, the Christians of Asia and Africa
proved unable to wage successful war with the Moslem conquerors; and in
consequence Christianity practically vanished from the two continents; and today,
nobody can find in them any "social values" whatever, in the sense in
which we use the words, so far as the sphere of Mohammedan influences are
concerned. There are such "social values" today in Europe, America
and Australia only because during those thousand years, the Christians of
Europe possessed the warlike power to do what the Christians of Asia and Africa
had failed to do — that is, to beat back the Moslem invader.[115]
Theodor Nöldeke
Theodor Nöldeke (1836 – 1930) was a celebrated German
Semitic scholar, who in 1859 won the prize of the French Académie des
Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres for his "History of the Qur'an".
On
the whole, while many parts of the Koran undoubtedly have considerable
rhetorical power, even over an unbelieving reader, the book, aesthetically
considered, is by no means a first-rate performance... Muhammad, in short, is
not in any sense a master of style. This opinion will be endorsed by any
European who reads through the book with an impartial spirit and some knowledge
of the language, without taking into account the tiresome effect of its endless
iterations. But in the ears of every pious Muslim such a judgment will sound
almost as shocking as downright atheism or polytheism. Among the Muslims, the
Koran has always been looked upon as the most perfect model of style and
language. This feature of it is in their dogmatic the greatest of all miracles,
the incontestable proof of its divine origin. Such a view on the part of men
who knew Arabic infinitely better than the most accomplished European Arabist
will ever do, may well startle us. In fact, the Koran boldly challenged its
opponents to produce ten suras, or even a single one, like those of the sacred
book, and they never did so. That, to be sure, on calm reflection, is not so
very surprising. Revelations of the kind which Muhammad uttered, no unbeliever
could produce without making himself a laughingstock.[116]
Thomas Aquinas
Saint Thomas Aquinas (1225 – 1274), an immensely
influential philosopher and theologian.
On
the other hand, those who founded sects committed to erroneous doctrines
proceeded in a way that is opposite to this, The point is clear in the case of
Muhammad. He seduced the people by promises of carnal pleasure to which the
concupiscence of the flesh goads us. His teaching also contained precepts that
were in conformity with his promises, and he gave free rein to carnal pleasure.
In all this, as is not unexpected, he was obeyed by carnal men. As for proofs
of the truth of his doctrine, he brought forward only such as could be grasped
by the natural ability of anyone with a very modest wisdom. Indeed, the truths
that he taught he mingled with many fables and with doctrines of the greatest
falsity. He did not bring forth any signs produced in a supernatural way, which
alone fittingly gives witness to divine inspiration; for a visible action that
can be only divine reveals an invisibly inspired teacher of truth. On the
contrary, Muhammad said that he was sent in the power of his arms—which are
signs not lacking even to robbers and tyrants. What is more, no wise men, men
trained in things divine and human, believed in him from the beginning, Those
who believed in him were brutal men and desert wanderers, utterly ignorant of
all divine teaching, through whose numbers Muhammad forced others to become his
followers by the violence of his arms. Nor do divine pronouncements on the part
of preceding prophets offer him any witness. On the contrary, he perverts
almost all the testimonies of the Old and New Testaments by making them into
fabrications of his own, as can be. seen by anyone who examines his law. It
was, therefore, a shrewd decision on his part to forbid his followers to read
the Old and New Testaments, lest these books convict him of falsity. It is thus
clear that those who place any faith in his words believe foolishly.[117]
Thomas Carlyle
Thomas Carlyle (1795 - 1881) was a Scottish satirical
writer, essayist, historian and teacher during the Victorian era.
...
I must say, it [the Koran] is as toilsome reading as I ever undertook. A
wearisome confused jumble, crude, incondite; endless iterations,
long-windedness, entanglement; most crude, incondite; — insupportable
stupidity, in short! Nothing but a sense of duty could carry any European
through the Koran ... It is the confused ferment of a great rude human soul;
rude, untutored, that cannot even read; but fervent, earnest, struggling
vehemently to utter itself in words ... We said "stupid:" yet natural
stupidity is by no means the character of Mahomet's Book; it is natural
uncultivation rather. The man has not studied speaking; in the haste and
pressure of continual fighting, has not time to mature himself into fit speech
... The man was an uncultured semi-barbarous Son of Nature, much of the Bedouin
still clinging to him: we must take him for that. But for a wretched
Simulacrum, a hungry Impostor without eyes or heart ... we will not and cannot
take him. Sincerity, in all senses, seems to me the merit of the Koran; what
had rendered it precious to the wild Arab men ... Curiously, through these
incondite masses of tradition, vituperation, complaint, ejaculation in the
Koran, a vein of true direct insight, of what we might almost call poetry, is
found straggling.[118]
Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson (1743 – 1826) was the third President of
the United States, and the principal author of the Declaration of Independence.
Jefferson was one of the most influential Founding Fathers, known for his
promotion of the ideals of republicanism in the United States.
In reference to the Islamic slave trade of Americans and
Europeans by the Barbary states, Jefferson asked Tripoli's envoy to London,
Ambassador Sidi Haji Abdrahaman, by what right he extorted money and took
slaves in this way. He answered:
The
ambassador answered us that [the right] was founded on the Laws of the Prophet,
that it was written in their Koran, that all nations who should not have
answered their authority were sinners, that it was their right and duty to make
war upon them wherever they could be found, and to make slaves of all they
could take as prisoners, and that every Mussulman who should be slain in battle
was sure to go to Paradise.[119][120]
Jefferson later went to war with the Barbary states.
Tony Blair
Tony Blair (born 6 May 1953) is a Labour Party politician
who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007. He
led Labour to a landslide victory in 1997. The party went on to win two more
elections under his leadership, in 2001 and 2005.
There
is not a problem with Islam... But there is a problem within Islam, and
we have to put it on the table and be honest about it. There are, of course,
Christian extremists and Jewish, Buddhist, and Hindu ones. But I am afraid that
the problematic strain within Islam is not the province of a few extremists. It
has at its heart a view of religion – and of the relationship between religion
and politics – that is not compatible with pluralistic, liberal, open-minded
societies. At the extreme end of the spectrum are terrorists, but the worldview
goes deeper and wider than it is comfortable for us to admit. So, by and large,
we don’t admit it. This has two effects. First, those who hold extreme views
believe that we are weak, and that gives them strength. Second, those Muslims –
and the good news is that there are many – who know the problem exists, and
want to do something about it, lose heart.[121]
Turan Dursun
Turan Dursun (1934 – 4 September 1990) was a Turkish
Islamic scholar and writer. He was also formerly the Mufti of Sivas, before
becoming an atheist and his eventual assassination.[122][123]
So
many people can't live their childhood properly because of him [Muhammad]. So
many people are sufferers of his disasters. So many people know what's right as
wrong and what's wrong as right because they think the darkness that he chose
exists. Human emotions and human creations haven't progressed in many ways,
because of him.[122]
...
if there is a God, he's not Mohammed's.[122]
Urban II
Pope Blessed Urban II (ca. 1035 – 29 July 1099), born
Otho de Lagery (alternatively: Otto, Odo or Eudes), was Pope from 12 March 1088
until his death on 29 July 1099. Regarding the first Crusade:
Freshly
quickened by the divine correction, you must apply the strength of your
righteousness to another matter which concerns you as well as God. For your
brethren who live in the east are in urgent need of your help, and you must
hasten to give them the aid which has often been promised them. For, as the
most of you have heard, the Turks and Arabs [Muslims] have attacked them and
have conquered the territory of Romania [the Greek empire] as far west as the
shore of the Mediterranean and the Hellespont, which is called the Arm of St.
George. They have occupied more and more of the lands of those Christians, and
have overcome them in seven battles. They have killed and captured many, and
have destroyed the churches and devastated the empire. If you permit them to
continue thus for awhile with impurity, the faithful of God will be much more
widely attacked by them. On this account I, or rather the Lord, beseech you as
Christ's heralds to publish this everywhere and to persuade all people of
whatever rank, foot-soldiers and knights, poor and rich, to carry aid promptly
to those Christians and to destroy that vile race from the lands of our
friends.[124]
Voltaire (François-Marie Arouet)
François-Marie Arouet (1694 – 1778), better known by the
pen name Voltaire, was a French Enlightenment writer and philosopher famous for
his wit and for his advocacy of civil liberties, including freedom of religion
and free trade.
But
that a camel-merchant [Muhammad] should stir up insurrection in his village;
that in league with some miserable followers he persuades them that he talks with
the angel Gabriel; that he boasts of having been carried to heaven, where he
received in part this unintelligible book, each page of which makes common
sense shudder; that, to pay homage to this book, he delivers his country to
iron and flame; that he cuts the throats of fathers and kidnaps daughters; that
he gives to the defeated the choice of his religion or death: this is assuredly
nothing any man can excuse, at least if he was not born a Turk, or if
superstition has not extinguished all natural light in him.[125]
Most
blessed Father [Pope Benedict XIV]— Your holiness will pardon the liberty taken
by one of the lowest of the faithful, though a zealous admirer of virtue, of
submitting to the head of the true religion this performance ["Fanaticism,
or Mahomet"], written in opposition to the founder of a false and
barbarous sect. To whom could I with more propriety inscribe a satire on the
cruelty and errors of a false prophet, than to the vicar and representative of
a God of truth and mercy? Your holiness will therefore give me leave to lay at
your feet both the piece and the author of it, and humbly to request your
protection of the one, and your benediction upon the other; in hopes of which,
with the profoundest reverence, I kiss your sacred feet.[126]
Will Durant
William James Durant (1885 – 1981) was a prolific
American writer, historian, and philosopher. The Story of Philosophy, written in
1926, has been described as a groundbreaking work that helped to popularize
philosophy.
The
Islamic conquest of India is probably the bloodiest story in history. It is a
discouraging tale, for its evident moral is that civilization is a precious
good, whose delicate complex of order and freedom, culture and peace, can at
any moment be overthrown by barbarians invading from without or multiplying
within.[127]
William Ewart Gladstone
William Ewart Gladstone (1809 – 1898) was a British
Liberal statesman. He served as Prime Minister four separate times (1868–1874,
1880–1885, February–July 1886 and 1892–1894), more than any other person.
Qur’an…
an accursed book… So long as there is this book there will be no peace in the
world.[128]
William Hay
William Hay was formerly the Professor of Oceanography at
the University of Colorado, USA. He is notable for having been quote-mined and
misrepresented since the 1980's by Muslim apologists making claims of
scientific Qur'an "miracles".
Interviewer: A
Qur'an which has got claims for scientific miracles in, and you're listed in
the back. And it says for that part, “And when he was asked about the source of
the Qur'an, he replied, 'Well, I would think it must be the divine being.'” So
are you saying that that is a misrepresentation?
William Hay: That's a misrepresentation. There's no question about that.
... Most of them [alleged scientific miracles in the Qur'an] are things that I
would think that if God wanted to make a great revelation, these are not things
that I would have expected, because they are all readily absurd.[129]
William Montgomery Watt
William Montgomery Watt (1909 – 2006) was a Scottish
historian, an Emeritus Professor in Arabic and Islamic Studies at the
University of Edinburgh. Watt was one of the foremost non-Muslim interpreters
of Islam in the West, was an enormously influential scholar in the field of
Islamic studies and a much-revered name for many Muslims all over the world.[130]
Aisha
was still a child when Muhammad married her, and she continued to play with her
toys.[131]
There
is some evidence that, besides his regular marriages and his unions with
concubines, Muhammad had relations with women in accordance with the older
matrilineal customs.[131]
In
connexion with the other verse Aisha is said to have made the remark “God is in
hurry to satisfy your desires". Even if she really said this (and it is
not a later invention), it would only show that Aisha was suspicious of the
correspondence between the revelation and Muhammad’s desires.[131]
Firstly,
at one time, Muhammad must have publicly recited the Satanic verses as part of
the Quran; it is unthinkable that the story could have been invented later by
Muslims or foisted upon them by non-Muslims. Secondly, at some later time
Muhammad announced that these verses were not really part of the Quran and
should be replaced by others of a vastly different import.[132]
William Muir
Sir William Muir, KCSI (1819 – 1905) was a Scottish
historian and writer specialising in the history of the time of Muhammad and
the early caliphate.
The
sword of Mahomet, and the Coran, are the most fatal enemies of Civilization,
Liberty, and Truth, which the world has yet known.[133]
Some,
indeed, dream of an Islam in the future, rationalised and regenerate. All this
has been tried already, and has miserably failed. The Koran has so encrusted
the religion in a hard unyielding casement of ordinances and social laws, that
if the shell be broken the life is gone. A rationalistic Islam would be Islam
no longer. The contrast between our own faith and Islam is most remarkable.
There are in our Scriptures living germs of truth, which accord with civil and
religious liberty, and will expand with advancing civilisation. In Islam it is
just the reverse. The Koran has no such teaching as with us has abolished
polygamy, slavery, and arbitrary divorce, and has elevated woman to her proper
place. As a Reformer, Mahomet did advance his people to a certain point, but as
a Prophet he left them fixed immovably at that point for all time to come. The
tree is of artificial planting. Instead of containing within itself the germ of
growth and adaptation to the various requirements of time and clime and
circumstance, expanding with the genial sunshine and rain from heaven, it
remains the same forced and stunted thing as when first planted some twelve
centuries ago.[134]
Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill (1874 – 1965) was a
British politician known chiefly for his leadership of the United Kingdom
during World War II. He is widely regarded as one of the great wartime leaders,
and was voted the greatest Briton of all time.[135]
How
dreadful are the curses which Mohammedanism lays on its votaries! Besides the
fanatical frenzy, which is as dangerous in a man as hydrophobia in a dog, there
is this fearful fatalistic apathy. The effects are apparent in many countries.
Improvident habits, slovenly systems of agriculture, sluggish methods of
commerce, and insecurity of property exist wherever the followers of the
Prophet rule or live. A degraded sensualism deprives this life of its grace and
refinement; the next of its dignity and sanctity.
The fact that in Mohammedan law every woman must belong to some man as his
absolute property, either as a child, a wife, or a concubine, must delay the
final extinction of slavery until the faith of Islam has ceased to be a great
power among men. Individual Moslems may show splendid qualities - but the
influence of the religion paralyses the social development of those who follow
it. No stronger retrograde force exists in the world. Far from being moribund,
Mohammedanism is a militant and proselytizing faith. It has already spread
throughout Central Africa, raising fearless warriors at every step; and were it
not that Christianity is sheltered in the strong arms of science, the science
against which it had vainly struggled, the civilisation of modern Europe might
fall, as fell the civilisation of ancient Rome.[136][137]
Fanaticism
is not a cause of war. It is the means which helps savage peoples to fight. It
is the spirit which enables them to combine--the great common object before
which all personal or tribal disputes become insignificant. What the horn is to
the rhinoceros, what the sting is to the wasp, the Mohammedan faith was to the
Arabs of the Soudan--a faculty of offence or defence.[138]
It
is, thank heaven, difficult if not impossible for the modern European to fully
appreciate the force which fanaticism exercises among an ignorant, warlike and
Oriental population. Several generations have elapsed since the nations of the
West have drawn the sword in religious controversy, and the evil memories of
the gloomy past have soon faded in the strong, clear light of Rationalism and
human sympathy. Indeed it is evident that Christianity, however degraded and
distorted by cruelty and intolerance, must always exert a modifying influence
on men's passions, and protect them from the more violent forms of fanatical
fever, as we are protected from smallpox by vaccination. But the Mahommedan
religion increases, instead of lessening, the fury of intolerance. It was
originally propagated by the sword, and ever since, its votaries have been
subject, above the people of all other creeds, to this form of madness. In a
moment the fruits of patient toil, the prospects of material prosperity, the
fear of death itself, are flung aside. The more emotional Pathans are powerless
to resist. All rational considerations are forgotten. Seizing their weapons,
they become Ghazis--as dangerous and as sensible as mad dogs: fit only to be
treated as such. While the more generous spirits among the tribesmen become
convulsed in an ecstasy of religious bloodthirstiness, poorer and more material
souls derive additional impulses from the influence of others, the hopes of
plunder and the joy of fighting. Thus whole nations are roused to arms. Thus
the Turks repel their enemies, the Arabs of the Soudan break the British
squares, and the rising on the Indian frontier spreads far and wide. In each
case civilisation is confronted with militant Mahommedanism. The forces of
progress clash with those of reaction. The religion of blood and war is face to
face with that of peace. Luckily the religion of peace is usually the better
armed.[139][140]
Winston S. Churchill
Winston Spencer-Churchill (October 10, 1940 – March 2,
2010), generally known as Winston Churchill, was a British politician, and a
grandson of former Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill.
At
its most extreme, authoritarianism is exemplified by the isms of the 20th
Century — Communism, Fascism and Nazism. The Fascists and Nazis were
responsible for the deaths of more than 30 million human beings, while more
than 50 million are estimated to have been murdered by Stalin and the Russian
Communists, while Mao-Tse-Tung and the Chinese Communists are believed to have
accounted for some 80 million.
But today a new challenge — another
ism — confronts us, and that is the challenge of Islamic fundamentalism.
Extremist Islam has declared war on the rest of the world, as evidenced by
their ruthless attacks across the globe — overwhelmingly targeted at innocent
civilians. Beside the outrage of 9/11, the bombings in Madrid, in Bali, in
London and, most recently, in Jordan come to mind.
Those who have declared jihad against
the West, and Western values, such as freedom of speech, are doing all in their
power to mobilize against us the large Muslim communities living in our
midst... Unbelievably, Washington is urging Europe to admit Turkey to the EU.
Were that to happen, the Muslim population of Europe would skyrocket to 100
million — an act, in my view, of consummate folly. Already Judeo-Christian
Europe is under siege from a tidal wave of Islamic immigration. The admission
of Turkey would hasten its demise... Intriguingly, the dangers of extremist
Islam were foreseen by Winston Churchill all of 85 years ago, as I discovered
to my amazement, while compiling my most recent book NEVER GIVE IN! The Best of
Winston Churchill’s Speeches.
Churchill
is, of course, well-known for his gift of prescience and, specifically, for
being the first to warn of the menace of Hitler and Nazism as early as 1932,
and of the Soviet threat in his famous Iron Curtain speech in 1946 in Fulton,
Mo. But how many know that he also warned the world of the dangers of Islamic
fundamentalism? I certainly did not![141]
Wole Soyinka
Akinwande Oluwole "Wole" Soyinka (born July 13,
1934) is a Nigerian writer, poet and playwright. In 1986, he became the first
African to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. In 1994, he was designated
UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador for the promotion of African culture, human rights,
freedom of expression, media and communication.
England
is a cesspit. England is the breeding ground of fundamentalist Muslims. Its
social logic is to allow all religions to preach openly. But this is illogic,
because none of the other religions preach apocalyptic violence. And yet
England allows it. Remember, that country was the breeding ground for
communism, too. Karl Marx did all his work in libraries there.
. . .
We should assemble all those who are
pure and cannot abide other faiths, put them all in rockets, and fire them into
space.
. . .
A virus has attacked the world of sense and sensibility, and it has spread to
Nigeria.
. . .
The
assumption of power over life and death then passed to every single
inconsequential Muslim in the world-as if someone had given them a new
stature...Al Qaeda is the descendent of this phenomenon. The proselytization of
Islam became vigorous after this. People went to Saudi Arabia. Madrassas were
established everywhere.[142][143]
This page is featured in the core
article, Islam and
Propaganda which serves as a starting point for anyone wishing
to learn more about this topic
See Also
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External Links
References
1. Jump up ↑ For example, this site asks "Whom do you wish to
believe concerning the character of the Prophet Mohammed?", before listing
several quotes and blatantly lying; claiming Michael H. Hart's book is a rating
of "men who contributed towards the benefit and upliftment of mankind".
This is untrue. Hart's list is purely based on his opinion of who has had the
most influence and does not comment on whether it was positive or negative. For
more details click here.
4. Jump up ↑ Quoted by Albert Speer, Inside the Third Reich: Memoirs,
pg. 115
5. Jump up ↑ "Hitler's Table Talk", p. 143, translated by N.
Cameron and R.H. Stevens, Enigma Books (1953)
6. Jump up ↑ Adolf Hitler's Monologe im Führerhauptquartier (Monologue
with Headquarters of the Führer). Hamburg: Albrecht Knaus, 1980.
7. Jump up ↑ "Hitler's Table Talk", translated by N. Cameron
and R.H. Stevens, Enigma Books (1953)
11. Jump up ↑ Angela Carter (1940-1992), British author. interview by
Lorna Sage in New Writing, eds. Malcolm Bradbury and Judy Cooke (1992).
14. Jump up ↑ Vacalopoulos, A.E. Background and Causes of the Greek
Revolution, Neo-Hellenika, Vol. 2, 1975, pp.54-55
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Byzantine Period, 1204-1461, New Brunswick, N.J., 1970, pp. 61, 68; 72-73
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Islam," Journal of Near Eastern Studies 1 (1942): 386.
18. Jump up ↑ Bhavishya Puran: Prati Sarg: Part III:3,3 5-27
20. Jump up ↑ Bernard Lewis, "The Pro-Islamic Jews," in Islam
in History (Chicago: Open Court, 1993), p. 148.
21. Jump up ↑ B. Lewis, "Other People's History," in Islam
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22. Jump up ↑ Bernard Lewis, U.S. Middle Eastern specialist. Islam and
the West, ch. 8, Oxford University Press (1993).
23. Jump up ↑ Bernard Lewis, "The Political Language of
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26. Jump up ↑ The History of Western Philosophy, Book Two, Part 2,
Chapter X: Mohammedan Culture
27. Jump up ↑ Why men fight: a Method of Abolishing the International
Duel.
34. Jump up ↑ Charles-Louis de Secondat, "Spirit of the Laws",
Book XXIV, Chapter IV (1748)
35. Jump up ↑ Christopher Hitchens - god is not Great (2007)
36. Jump up ↑ Free Inquiry Magazine, Volume 21, Number 4
42. Jump up ↑ David Hume, Of the Standard of Taste, 1760
43. Jump up ↑ The Arabs in History, Lewis, p.45-46
45. Jump up ↑ Dayanand Saraswati, “The religion of Moslems,” Ch. 14 of
'The Light of Truth', Published by Sarvadeshik Arya Pratinidhi Sabha, 3/5,
Maharishi Dayanand Bhawan, Ramlila Ground New Delhi – 110002.
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Saracens", Kessinger Publishing Co (2004), ISBN 9781417948291, pp. 246-247
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entre Jihad et Dhimmitude. VIIe-XXe siecle (1991); English translation in
the preface to Bat Ye'or, The Decline of Eastern Christianity under Islam
(Cranbury, NJ: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1996), pp. 18-19.
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André, ca. 1580-ca. 1660, tr; Adams, John, 1735-1826, former owner, "The Koran : commonly called the Alcoran of
Mahomet (1806)," Springfield [Mass.] : Printed by Henry
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II, Chapter VI)
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on Greece, written while JQA was in retirement, before his election to Congress
in 1830” [Chapters X-XIV (pp. 267-402) in The American Annual Register for
1827-28-29. New York, 1830.]
67. Jump up ↑ “Unsigned essays dealing with the Russo-Turkish War, and
on Greece, written while JQA was in retirement, before his election to Congress
in 1830” [Chapters X-XIV (pp. 267-402) in The American Annual Register for
1827-28-29. New York, 1830.] p. 269
68. Jump up ↑ “Unsigned essays dealing with the Russo-Turkish War, and
on Greece, written while JQA was in retirement, before his election to Congress
in 1830” [Chapters X-XIV (pp. 267-402) in The American Annual Register for
1827-28-29. New York, 1830.] p. 274-275
69. Jump up ↑ “Unsigned essays dealing with the Russo-Turkish War, and
on Greece, written while JQA was in retirement, before his election to Congress
in 1830” [Chapters X-XIV (pp. 267-402) in The American Annual Register for
1827-28-29. New York, 1830.] p. 276
70. Jump up ↑ “Unsigned essays dealing with the Russo-Turkish War, and
on Greece, written while JQA was in retirement, before his election to Congress
in 1830” [Chapters X-XIV (pp. 267-402) in The American Annual Register for
1827-28-29. New York, 1830.] p. 299-300
71. Jump up ↑ “Unsigned essays dealing with the Russo-Turkish War, and
on Greece, written while JQA was in retirement, before his election to Congress
in 1830” [Chapters X-XIV (pp. 267-402) in The American Annual Register for
1827-28-29. New York, 1830.] p. 278
72. Jump up ↑ “Unsigned essays dealing with the Russo-Turkish War, and
on Greece, written while JQA was in retirement, before his election to Congress
in 1830” [Chapters X-XIV (pp. 267-402) in The American Annual Register for
1827-28-29. New York, 1830.] p. 301
74. Jump up ↑ The Fall of Antichrist (1829), Part VII, page 395, New
York, Published by S. Converse
75. Jump up ↑ Louis Betrand and Sir Charles Petrie, The History of Spain
(2nd ed. London, 1945), p. 160
76. Jump up ↑ Norman Roth. Jews, Visigoths, and Muslims in Medieval
Spain: Cooperation and Conflict, BRILL, 1994, p. 218.
77. Jump up ↑ Maimonides, “Letter to Yemen” 1:4.
84. Jump up ↑ Yurttaslik Bilgileri, Yenigun Haber Ajansi (1997 edition)
p. 18
85. Jump up ↑ Harold Courtenay Armstrong (1932). Grey Wolf: Mustafa
Kemal – An intimate study of a dictator , pp. 199-200.
86. Jump up ↑ letter to Corinne Lütfü, from the Gallipoli peninsula (20
July 1917) as translated in Atatürk: The Biography of the founder of Modern
Turkey (2002) by Andrew Mango
87. Jump up ↑ Omar Khayyám, Rubaiyat (1048–1123), translation by Richard
Le Gallienne
88. ↑ Jump up to: 88.0 88.1 From "A Sermon for the West" By Oriana Fallaci -
Oct. 22, 2002 Address to an audience at the American Enterprise Institute
92. Jump up ↑ Interview of Rabindranath, "Through Indian Eyes on
the Post Khilafat Hindu Muslim Riots", Times of India, April 18, 1924
96. Jump up ↑ Robert Redeker, "Face aux intimidations islamistes,
que doit faire le monde libre?", Le Figaro, september 2006
98. Jump up ↑ Salman Rushdie, "Yes, This Is About Islam", November,
2001
100.
Jump up ↑ Independent (London, 18 February 1989), quoted from The
Columbia Dictionary of Quotations
101.
Jump up ↑ Salomon Reinach, Orpheus: A History of Religions, (1909)
108.
Jump up ↑ Abulfeda says he was called Al Amin, “the faithful one,”
when he was young.
110.
Jump up ↑ Vryonis, Speros Jr. “Nomadization and Islamization in Asia
Minor”, Dumbarton Oaks Papers, Vol. 29, 1975, pp. 50-51
115.
Jump up ↑ Fear God and Take Your Own Part (1916) p. 70
118.
Jump up ↑ Thomas Carlyle, "On Heroes, Hero-Worship and the
Heroic in History", pg. 64-67
124.
Jump up ↑ (Fulcher of Chartres: Gesta Francorum Jerusalem Expugnantium)
Bongars, Gesta Dei per Francos, 1, pp. 382 f., trans in Oliver J. Thatcher, and
Edgar Holmes McNeal, eds., A Source Book for Medieval History, (New York:
Scribners, 1905), 513-17
125.
Jump up ↑ François-Marie Arouet, Letter to Frederick II of Prussia,
December 1740, referring to Muhammad
127.
Jump up ↑ Will Durant, "The Story of Civilization: Our Oriental
Heritage", p. 459.
132.
Jump up ↑ W. Montgomery Watt, Muhammad at Mecca, P. 103, Oxford at
Clarendon Press, 1968
133.
Jump up ↑ William Muir, The Life of Mahomet, vol. 4, 1861, p. 322
134.
Jump up ↑ (Taken from the Rede Lecture he delivered at Cambridge in
1881) Asia. 2d ed., rev. and corrected. Published 1909 by E. Stanford in
London. Page 458
136.
Jump up ↑ Winston Churchill, The River War, first edition, Vol. II,
pages 248 50 (London: Longmans, Green & Co., 1899)
141.
Jump up ↑ Winston S. Churchill speaking at the John Locke
Foundation's 16th anniversary dinner in Raleigh, North Carolina, on February
10, 2006 (full
transcript).
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