Islam Under Scrutiny by Ex-Muslims
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Civilization Clash between Islam and the West - Part 4
[ Part1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 5 - Part 6 - Part 7 ] Prophet Muhammad's Violence against the Jews It is already explained that prophet Muhammad was highly influenced by the Jewish and Christian monotheistic beliefs which apparently had turned him towards preaching Islam in order to propagate the oneness of God amongst the Mecca idolaters. It has also been described that the Prophet was, very likely, trained in the scriptures of the Jewish and Christian faiths in the run up to his receiving the revelation. These premises are supported by his association with his wife Khadija and Nofal, who were both Christians at the time they met. His frequent contacts with the Jewish rabbis and Christian monks during this period also lend support to this idea. While in Mecca, he is known to have been friendly with one learned Jewish rabbi named Abdais ben Salom who is said to have had recited the Jewish Scripture to Muhammad and described the Jewish tradition to him. This rabbi, who allegedly became a Muslims himself named Abdullah ibn Salam, is believed to be the witness mentioned in the Koran (Q 46:09) to affirm the agreement between the Koran and the Jewish Torah (Tisdall, 1911, p134). Passages from the ibn Hisham's biography of the Prophet reveal that he used to visit the Beth ha-Midrash, a house of study of the biblical commentary. He is even reported to have had attended the Synagogues (Hughes, 1977, p193). This premise is further affirmed in the placing of the Jewish and Christian faiths in a high esteem in the Koran. Jewish patriarch Abraham, Prophet Moses, Jew Kings David (Dawood) and Solomon (Sulaiman) et al. have found highly respectable position amongst Prophets of Islam in the Koran. Especially the early part of the Islamic revelation as well as Muhammad's personal gesture towards the Jewish and Christian faiths was very well-disposed. He is reported to have said, "He who wrongs a Jew or a Christian will have me as his accuser on the day of judgment". His initial gesture towards these religions suggest that he might have sought to bring a monotheistic faith to the idolater Arabs and would form part of a common faith with Judaism and Christianity. Early verses in the Koran recognize Jews as highly well-regarded people: "-Jews are privileged above all people" [Q 45:15]. Koran regards the Jewish Torah as "enshrines the behests of God" [Q 5:47] and is "a perfect code for the righteous" [Q 6:155]. Koran recognizes Palestine as a "blessed land" in multiple places and at the beginning Muhammad looked upon Jerusalem as the centre of his own faith, including Muslim's facing towards Jerusalem during prayers. Muhammad had copied the Jewish custom of making contribution to Charity, gave it an Aramaic name Zakat and made it one of the five pillars of Islam. Following the Jewish tradition, the Prophet also prohibited the eating of pig meat, introduced ceremonial ablutions and purifications and established the 'Sabbath observance' on Saturdays. Also following the Jewish customs and practices, Muhammad established the fasting rituals and favored circumcision. He himself is claimed to have born circumcised. Also at the beginning, he used to call him "Navi" - the Jewish term for the Prophet. Seeing this friendly and well-regarded position of the Jewish faith in Prophet Muhammad new religion, the Jews initially welcomed the Muhammad. When Muhammad arrived in Medina in 622 with his converts, the Jews - who were a thriving, rich and influential community there - were rather welcoming to him as they regarded his mission as an endeavor to extirpate the idolatry from the midst of Arab pagans which is abhorred in the Jewish doctrine. Documents preserved from Ibn Ishaq's commentary titled "Covenants Between the Muslims and the Jews" was signed shortly after Muhammad's arrival in Medina states that 'To the Jews who are well-disposed towards us belong help and equality. He shall not be wronged, nor his enemies aided'. The Prophet also issued a ruling to one his general: 'No Jews is to be troubled in the practice of Judaism'. As Prophet Muhammad continued preaching his religion actively amongst pagans and Jews of Medina, he started getting many converts very fast including from the Jew community. As this must have had annoyed the Jewish tribes (remember that preaching to Muslims in banned in most Muslim countries; in Saudi Arabia, preaching to Muslims bear death penalty even in today's civilized world), there must have arose tension between Muhammad and the Jewish clans who had given him shelter and support on his arrival in Medina. With this conflict, the Prophet's tone and gesture towards the Jews started changing. Prophet Abraham, from a Jewish Patriarch, now became a Muslim and precursor of Muhammad himself: "Abraham was a hanif and an early Muslim" [Q 03.60]. Muhammad now started claiming that 'he was restoring the religion of Abraham (millat Ibrahim), which is the true religion, to its pure form.' [Q 2:129]. Muhammad, allegedly a descendent of Abraham's son Ishmael, now started claiming the he was the messiah whose coming was foretold in the Torah [Q 7:157], although he couldn't specify the verses. The Jewish Rabbis disproved his claims by citing a Koranic verse revealed earlier that the Prophethood is bestowed upon the children of Israel only [Q 45:15] and more specifically upon the family of Isaac and Jacob [Q 29:27], who were of different family line than Ishmael's. As Ishmael was an illegitimate child of Abraham through his relation with an Egyptian concubine Hagar of non-Semitic race, he was, thus, outside God's covenants with Abraham. Moreover, the Bible described him as an 'uncouth and violent' man [Gen 16:12]. Jews also rejected Koran as God-given since it was not revealed in a sacred language like Hebrew or Syriac but in Arabic - a language of the poets and drunkards. The Jews also pointed to multiple errors in Muhammad's versions of the event of Torah and called him ignorant of Jewish Scripture which he had claimed to affirm. For example, he wrongly accused the Jews of saying that Ezra (Ozayr) was the son of God (Q 9:30) which they easily refuted. In summary, the Jews termed Muhammad's alleged revelations as garbled, fallacious and at times unintelligible and rejected his Prophethood. This bitter arguments, antagonism and rift with the Jews came to a head in about October 623, barely one year after Muhammad's arrival in Medina, shortly before the battle of Badr against the Mecca pagans. Jewish Torah - which was initially recognized as "enshrines the behests of God" [Q 5:47] and "a perfect code for the righteous" [Q 6:155] - now became perverted by the Jews [Q 02:70]. Jews, who were recognized as "privileged above all people" in the Koran [Q 45:15] - now turned into "those who show the most hostility to the believer are the Jews [Q 5:85]." He now started calling himself a Rasool (messenger) instead of the Jewish term Navi. He received a revelation for the changing the direction for prayers from toward Jerusalem to towards Mecca [Q 02:44]. He also changed the Saturday Sabbath to Friday (Juma). He changed the 10-day fasting ending with Ashura, matching with the Jewish fasting rituals, to month-long fasting of Ramadan according to the pagan Arab tradition. Muhammad either changed or modified multiple other Jewish customs and practices which they had adopted after arriving in Medina. Jews now accused him of fickle-mindedness and indecisiveness. They also ridiculed him for worshipping towards a piece of black stone in an idolatrous temple (Ka'ba) as well as for practicing pagan rituals like the Ramadan fasting. The Jews became an increasing irritant to Prophet Muhammad's mission with their razor-sharp criticism of the revelations to which he often did not have any answer. Emboldened by the win against the Meccans in Badr as well as his increasing power and resources obtained through a series of plundering raids of the caravans, Muhammad now turned his sword at the Jews. He ordered assassinations of those who used to criticize his alleged revelation that included a 120-old poet named Afaq. In April 624, on the excuse of a market brawl between a Muslim and Jew man of the Kaynuka tribe, he besieged the settlements of that tribe - the wealthiest community in the region. After 15 days of siege, the Jewish tribe surrendered. Their men were tied and preparations were made for their summary execution. At this point, Abdullah ibn Obayi, chief of the Khazraj clan, seriously intervened. He urged Muhammad, "By God, would you cut down these 700 men in one morning?" He further cautioned, "I am a man, circumstances may change!" Muhammad, prudent as always, relented from the slaughtering and instead exiled them to Syria. They were given three days to leave but forbidden to take any implements of their trade. Once the Jews left, Muhammad quickly captured their homes and properties and distributed amongst the Muslims as booty obtained through winning Jihad. According to ibn Ishaq, Muhmmad had already approved slaying the Jews before this event and at least one Jew, named Ibn Sunayna was assassinated. Yet, more Jew atrocity was to follow. In August 625, Muhammad accused the Jews of the Nadhir tribe of treason because they had commercial dealings with Abu Sufian of Mecca before the battle of Ohud and ordered them to evacuate their settlements and proceed to Syria on pain of death. Abdullah, the hypocrite denounced the treason charge as baseless. Yet, the Jews were evicted and Muhammad took possession of their swords, cuirasses, and helmets along with their homes, firms and lands and distributed amongst the followers. The most horrendous act of cruel barbarity against the Jews came in April 627, immediately after the Battle of the Ditch when the Muslim army seized the Jewish clan of Banu Quraiza and extirpated the entire male population of 800-900, which has already been cited in an earlier section. After surrender by Quraiza tribesmen, they offered to go to exile like the Banu Nadhir tribe people but Prophet Muhammad refused. He instead ordered them to accept Islam to spare their lives. Only one Jew agreed. The responsibility of deciding on fate of the Quraiza people was handed to one Saad ibn Muad, a fanatical follower of Muhammad, who was known to be hostile to the Jews and himself was wounded in the same seize. He decided that the men of Quraiza tribe be slain, the women and children be taken as slaves and their homes and properties, as usual, be captured and distributed amongst the Muslims. As protests were raised from a number of Arabs against such barbaric and cruel punishment, the Prophet quickly found a revelation to justify this barbaric verdict as inspired by Allah [Q 33:26-27]:
When Saad ibn Muad died shortly after passing this verdict, the prophet allegedly said that he was such a holy man his death shook the throne of Allah in heaven [Rodinson, Mohammed, 1976, p213] Following this, a trench was dug at the market-place and in Prophet Muhammad's presence, more than 8 hundreds captives, in groups of five, were brought to the brink of the trench with their hands tied behind and were beheaded with swords before pushing the dismembered bodies into the trench. It went on all through the day and continued by torchlight into the night. This ghastly massacre even created repulsion in Karen Armstrong, a renowned writer sympathetic to Islam, so much that she termed it impossible to dissociate from the Nazi atrocity [Armstrong, 1991, p207]. Clearly this cruel event can be termed the "First Holocaust" against the Jews. A Jewish woman whose husband was beheaded demanded her husband's fate for herself than becoming slave to the Muslims and her wish was granted. She accepted death with a smiling face. Ayesha, the Prophet's young wife, who witnessed the massacre, had later said that this heroine's smile as she embraced death was to haunt her ever after. Another old Jew man named Zubir, who had earlier saved lives of some Muslims, was offered pardon. But he declined saying he had no desire to live anymore as all his dear ones gone. Muhammad shouted, "Yes, you too will join them - in the fire of Hell" and order his execution. [Walker, 1998, p185] Following this, Jewish strongholds of Khaybar, Fadak, Kamus, Watih, Solalim, Wadi al-Kora and other were also forced to submit and exiled and no important Jewish settlements were left around Medina. More detailed information of prophet Muhammad atrocity against the Jews can be found in the following links:
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Invasion of Banu Nadir:
http://www.faithfreedom.org/Articles/sina/b_nadir.htm
There have been a number of complaints about my raking into the old ashes of the 7th century events during the days of Islam's genesis in addressing the Civilization Clash of today. The overriding point has been: "Come on, we are in the 21st century. What is the point of delving into the 14 centuries-old events which is dead as a dodo? You are dealing with a 21st century issue, the clash of civilization." There is a lot of substance in such complaints. Yet, it is absolutely essential to have the basic idea of the events about Islam's genesis to understand the present conflict between Islam and West. The clash of civilization is not an absolutely 21st century problem. It is, instead, deeply connected to the 7th century sayings, actions and deeds of Prophet of Islam. Although a majority of the Muslims, called the moderates, probably do not refer to the life-style of the Prophet in governing there daily life today, yet they all unequivocally agree to the notion that the Prophet of Islam is the only perfect man ever to be born. This assertion is indeed affirmed by the Muslim God in the Koran which states, "In the apostle of God (Prophet Muhammad), you have an excellent example" [33:21]. Thus following leads from the only perfect man - whom Allah recognizes to be the excellent example to follow - should only do good to humanity and should be encouraged. More importantly, those Muslims who have initiated the present-day Clash of Civilization do indeed refer to the sayings, and actions of the Prophet. Although a small minority, they have been able to shake the life of the entire 6 billion people at every corner of the world. When dealing with the Clash of Civilization we are probably not dealing with the majority of moderate pseudo-Muslims but with the minority of true Muslims whose ideology, psyche and actions are overwhelmingly influenced by the events around the life of Prophet Muhammad. Hence, it is impossible to leave the 7th century events of the days of Islam's genesis separate whilst dealing with the today's issue of Civilization Clash.
Yet
others have complained that the Koran is all about Islam - the
complete code of life. The Muhammad's life and actions should be
deemed a historical event and are irrelevant. It should be left
dead in the past. This is a strong point. Although the Koran has
been peddled as the complete code of life by 100% of the Muslims,
yet it can hardly be a source of complete guidance in governing
any modern-day individual's life. Yet, I have already shown that
Koran itself is overwhelmingly a book of intimidation, vengeance,
hatred, violence and terror against the non-Muslims. Thus, the
actions and sayings of the Prophet (Sunnah) are almost
completely in line with the Koranic dicta. Thus, referring to the
perfect man's life would hardly do any harm but only good. Yet,
despite the claim that Koran is a clear and easily understandable
book for anyone at all times, it is one of the most obscure,
jumbled, confusing, contradictory, repetitive and nonsensical book
existing on earth. If not given historical background, one will be
able to comprehend very little of the Koran. So, it becomes
indispensable to refer to the event of how the Prophet of Islam,
the excellent example to follow, used to deal a particular
situation in order to grasp the verdicts in various Koranic
verses. Genesis of Islam and modern parallels In the section above, it has been affirmed that without referring to the historical events of the days of Prophet Muhammad, it is impossible to make anything tangible out of the Koran, which Muslims claim to be a complete code of life. There is no way to determine how to say prayers, how many times a day and when. There is no way to know how to perform the rituals of the greater pilgrimage, Hajj. Let us now consider how this verse that deals with the infidels, Jews and Christians:
In this verse, Allah commands the Muslims as to how to deal with the infidels, Jews and Christians. Although this verse prescribes fighting against the infidels, Jews and Christians until they submit and pay Jiziya, but it is not clear to what extent Muslims have to confront these people and how much Jiziya is to be extracted etc. Hence, it becomes absolutely necessary to refer to the Prophet's life as to how he himself used to deal with the infidels, Jews and Christians. As the prophet of Islam had exterminated all the Jews from Medina, either through mass slaughter or sending them to exile, unless they converted to Islam - Muslims can safely follow that example and conduct themselves accordingly. And today's Jihadis are just trying to deal with the Jews and Christians in the same way. And this has been the root cause of today's Clash of Civilization. Indeed, taking lead from the actions of the Prophet, the first caliph Abu Bakar captured the Jewish and Christian holy land of Palestine in 635 AD, evicted the Jews and Christians from the Synagogues and Churches, subdued them limited their religious activities within the confines of their homes only. Abu Bakar also initiated the building of the al-Aqsa mosque at the place of most sacred Jewish temple. He also had evicted all the left-over Jews from Hezaj to complete the clean-up of the entire Southern Arabian of the Jews. When the Jews came back to reclaim a part of their land in Palestine through formation of the state of Israel in 1948 with the British help under a UN mandate, which the Muslims had captured from the Jews in 635 AD, the Muslim world launched war the next day. This is because Muslims cannot submit to the Jews as per the Koranic dicta and they have to keep fighting the Jews and Christians until the latter are subdued. The same thing happened in the Indian subcontinent. The Muslims army conquered India, massacred the indigenous people in great number (estimated 50-80 millions), converted the Hindus often at the point of swords and through imposition of Jiziya taxes and destroyed thousands of Hindu temples and replaced many of them with Muslim mosques according to the style followed by the Prophet. But when, by the help of the British, the Hindus sought to reclaim domination of their land in 1947, the Muslims fearing that they have to accept domination of the Hindus in a united India, demanded the creation of Pakistan. Unlike the Muslims, Hindus of India never sought to exterminate the Muslims from the newly created state of Pakistan. Even after the independence, the Muslim continued the Jihad prescribed in Islam by evicting and converting the Hindus in independent Bangladesh (formerly East Pakistan) and Pakistan. As a result the Hindu population has been reduced from 30% to 10% in Bangladesh and from 15% to 1% in Pakistan since 1947. On top of that, the Muslims have continued insurgent Jihad of reclaiming more lands from India starting with Kashmir. Islam does not approve Muslims to concede any bit of the land of entire India over which they once had the domination. Certain political parties like Jamat-e-Islami of the region are vying to reclaim domination over the entire Indian continent. Further modern-day parallels drawn from the actions of the Prophet of Islam are the today's certain Islamic assassination and beheadings. Criticizing or leaving Islam carries the ultimate punishment prescribed in the Koran. A couple of verses are listed here:
It's has been already mentioned that after capturing the city of Mecca, the Prophet had order execution of a number of Mecca people because they had left Islam after accepting it. Such a punishment is prescribed in Q 04:89. Regarding the punishment for criticizing Islam as per Q 05:33, Ali Dasti (23 YEARS: A STUDY OF THE PROPHETIC CAREER OF MOHAMMAD" p100) wrote: "Abu Afak, a man of great age (reputedly 120 years) was killed because he had lampooned Mohammad. The deed was done by Salem b. Omayr at the behest of the Prophet, who had asked, "Who will deal with this rascal for me?" The killing of such an old man moved a poetess, Asma b. Marwan, to compose disrespectful verses about the Prophet, and she too was assassinated." In modern days also, Muslims must deal with the cases of criticizing or abandoning Islam in accordance with the Prophet Muhammad's dealing with such cases. For example, when Salman Rushdie and Taslima Nasrin left Islam and started criticizing or ridiculing it, the Muslims ordered their execution through fatwas although they were saved by the Western protections. Dr. Humayun Azad, a renowned Bangladeshi professor, who had ridiculed Islam, was also severely wounded in an assassination attempt who later succumbed to death when on a sabbatical in Germany. Similarly, when non-Muslims Dutch director van Gogh ridiculed Islam through his movie "Submission" he was executed which is a parallel to what had happened to Jewish Poet Abu Afak upon the order of the Prophet. Many such death fatwas are hanging on the heads of many Muslim apostates and non-Muslim critiques of Islam including multiple politicians in Netherlands. Incidentally, Ali Dasti had questioned Prophet Muhammad's order for the execution of the Jewish Poet Afak as (p97): "What does it say about Muhammad that he would have a 120 year old man murdered because he urged his fellow citizens to doubt his message and not to follow him? 2) Yes, Abu Afak was a threat to Muhammad's credibility. But did he deserve to be murdered, in cold blood, in the night, secretly, while he was sleeping? Was his opinion that much of a threat to Muhammad? Didn't the angels help Muhammad at the Battle of Badr? If so, why was Muhammad afraid of a 120 year old man?" Because of his criticism of Prophet Muhammad, Ali Dasti too was executed after he was captured by the Mullahs following the Islamic revolution in Iran. In a nutshell, the History of the genesis of Islam and the actions and sayings of the prophet of Islam during those days are absolutely essential in conducting the life of the modern-day Muslims because of the obscure, contradictory, confusing and non-detailed nature of the Koranic dicta which Muslims consider as the perfect code of life. Given these parallels of the modern-day Muslims' actions with those of the Prophet of Islam in the 7th century as well as the overwhelming inspiration for such actions that comes from the life of the prophet, it is absolutely essential to put the history of Islam's genesis and the life and actions of the Prophet in perspective whilst dealing with the Clash of Civilization being waged by the Muslims against the West today.
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