Critics of Islam, who feel aggrieved by the hostility of Muslims toward all non-Muslims, often point to many verses of the Quran as the underlying reason. A few such verses are listed below (taken from clearquran.com):
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2:216. Fighting is ordained for you, even though you dislike it. But it may be that you dislike something while it is good for you, and it may be that you like something while it is bad for you. God knows, and you do not know.
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3:141. So that God may prove those who believe, and eliminate the disbelievers.
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7:4. How many a town have We destroyed? Our might came upon them by night, or while they were napping.
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9:29. Fight those who do not believe in God, nor in the Last Day, nor forbid what God and His Messenger have forbidden, nor abide by the religion of truth—from among those who received the Scripture—until they pay the due tax, willingly or unwillingly.
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33:61. They are cursed; wherever they are found, they should be captured and killed outright.
Indeed, these verses incite the followers of the Quran to hatred, riot and terrorism against non-believers of the Quran. But apologetic Muslims claim that these verses are taken out of context, but they will never tell you what the right contexts are.
To understand the true message of the Quran, reading the Quran alone is not enough; one must read the Hadis (traditions), Sira (biography of Muhammad) and the Tafsir of the Quran as well. These books give the circumstances or contexts under which the verses of the Quran were revealed.
After reading and studying these books (Quran, Hadis and Sira), one would conclude that Islam is not a religion and the Quran is not the word of God. Instead, Islam is an ideology, purely a political movement. Anwar Shaikh said, Islam is an Arab imperialist movement.
For fuller understanding of Islam, one must first understand Judaism, which had tremendous impact on the religious conceptions of Muhammad. He was born and brought up as a polytheist, but was impressed by the monotheistic thoughts of Judaism and Christianity, which had penetrated the Arab world during his time.
Every chapter of the Quran has references to Judaism. If these references of Judaism are deleted from the Quran, the Muslim holy book will shrink to nearly a half. Both religions are alike, except that Judaism is a Hebrew religion and Islam is Arabic. When the two religion are compared, Islam appears to be Arabic Judaism. A Muslim can rightly called an Arabic Jew.
Judaism is about founding a nation, i.e. Israel. Monotheism came into being as a concept for establishing racial nations in the Middle East. Prophets were both the head of the religion and the state. Prophets were warlords for establishing nations under them. All prophets used faith so as to make the people believe and follow them.
Monotheism is conducive to establishing nation states, because all people joining that religion becomes of one culture, one faith and one tradition, while those of other faiths can be declare disbelievers (foreigners). Thus, believers become nationalists, and the rest foreigners. Disbelievers, being the other or outsider, can be exploited, oppressed, punished and even killed as situation demands. Monotheism killed humanity on basis of labeling them as nonbelievers.
The monotheism was invented by Moses, not by Abraham. Abram had not built a nation, he had brought no holy book, nor given orders or verses for killing the disbelievers. Moses wrote the Torah and established Israel. He treated all faiths other than Judaism as foreign. He was against idol-worship, because the concept of idol-worship always rejects prophethood.
Judaism and Islam are two like brothers and Jewish, as they both came through the descendents of the two sons of Jewish patriarch Abraham, namely Isaac and Ishmael. Issac was the legitimate son of Abraham, whom the Jews accepted disowning Ishmael, Abraham's illegitimate son born of Hagar, the bondwomen of his wife Sarah. As Isaac's children had brought Judaism, Muhammad declared himself Ishmael a descendent of Ishmael to take divine stand against the Jews. Muhammad, an Arab polytheist, connected himself with the Jewish legacy and became monotheist (an Arab Jew).
The following verses of the Quran clearly state that God has chosen the Arabs this time and sent a new religion in Arabic language.
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42:7: Thus We inspired you with an Arabic Quran, that you may warn the Central City and whoever is around it, and to warn of the Day of Assembly, of which there is no doubt; a group in the Garden, and a group in the Furnace.
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46:12: And before it was the Book of Moses, a model and a mercy. And this is a confirming Book, in the Arabic language, to warn those who do wrong—and good news for the doers of good.
These verses make it clear that Judaism in Arabic form became Islam, wich was imposed on the Arabs. Arab pagans had a liberal and pluralist culture. For them, Islam was a new ideology, like something from outside, such as Judaism and Christianity.
Judaism and Christianity had unsuccessfully tried for many centuries tried to destroy the pagan culture of the Arabs. For example, the chapter of Elephant in the Quran talks of a story of a Christian King, who had sent an elephants mounted force to destroy the idol-temple of Kaaba, but he failed. The pagan Arabs defeated the invading Christian force and expelled them from Arabia, thus preserving their idol-worshiping tolerant and pluralistic culture.
Muhammad wanted power and wealth. He found the nationalistic and militant Jewish and Christian ideologies to be a useful tool for uniting the Arabs under him for destroying all competing powers and faiths. Hence, Muhammad established Arab monotheism in the form of Islam, incorporating Jewish-like militancy and destroyed the tolerant and divisive idol-worship. Indirectly it was Muhammad's arabized Jewish cult that succeeded in destroying idol-worship from the Arab land. So we hear Jewish philosopher Maimonides writing that it was the planning of God (Yehweh) to establish and spread Islam to wipe out idol-worship from the face of the earth.
The following verses from the Jewish holy book, Torah, show similarity between Judaism and Islam, especially their hatred against Idol-worship, although Islam would appear somewhat like idolatry in a few of them
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Not to lay down a stone for worship (Lev. 26:1). (Islam laid stone at kaaba)
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Not to make a graven image; neither to make it oneself nor to have it made by others (Ex. 20:4).
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Not to make idols even for others (Ex. 34:17; Lev. 19:4).
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Not to drink wine of idolaters (Deut. 32:38)
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Not to worship an idol in the way in which it is usually worshiped (Ex. 20:5).
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Not to bow to idols, even if that is not its mode of worship (Ex. 20:5). (although Muslims bow toward Kaaba and its Blackstone)
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Not to prophesy in the name of an idol (Ex. 23:13; Deut. 18:20).
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Not to lead the children of Israel astray to idolatry (Ex. 23:13).
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Not to entice an Israelite to idolatry (Deut. 13:12).
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To destroy idolatry and its appurtenances (Deut. 12:2-3) .
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Not to love the enticer to idolatry (Deut. 13:9)
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Not to give up hating the enticer to idolatry (Deut. 13:9)
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Not to save the enticer from capital punishment, but to stand by at his execution (Deut. 13:9)
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Not to swear by an idol to its worshipers, nor cause them to swear by it (Ex. 23:13).
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Not to turn one's attention to idolatry (Lev. 19:4).
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Not to adopt the institutions of idolaters nor their customs (Lev. 18:3; Lev. 20:23) .
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Not to plant a tree for worship (Deut. 16:21).
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Not to set up a pillar (for worship) (Deut. 16:22). (Islam erected pillar for pelting stone at satan.)
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Not to show favor to idolaters (Deut. 7:2)
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Not to settle idolaters in our land (Ex. 23:33)
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Not to rebuild a city that has been led astray to idolatry (Deut. 13:17) .
We clearly see that Judaism shows intense hatred toward idolatry. Muhammad copied the same hatred of idolatry into Islam. The reason is:
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Idol-worship promotes polytheism and pluralism, which cannot take a united stand against any tribe/community on basis of faith. They cannot killed/expel any community on basis of faith.
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In idol-worship people remain divided in their ideas and faiths, which acts as counter to national unity. Monotheism offers a solution to that for power hungry people to united the masses for amassing power.
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Democratic system did not exist in those days, and monotheism under a prophet was only option for establishing nation state.
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Idol-worshipers think that God establishes relationship with all people, unlike in monotheism, in which God only talks to one person. So, in idol-worship, it is impossible for power-hungry individuals to deceive the masses by claiming exclusive relationship and access to God on his way to become the center of power.
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Idol-worshipers generally cannot be militant against other of different faith and ideology because of its inherent pluralistic and tolerant ethos.
Prophets of monotheistic creeds organized prayers at specific times for gathering and organizing their followers. They give weekly sermons to motivate/incite their followers. They form parties and mobilize them. This continues to this day among the followers of monotheistic creeds. This is main bone of their religion.
Prophetism is about founding states based on faith. All prophetic theology is about religion-based states.
Muhammad said, al Islamo deenun va dawlah – that is, Islam is religion and state. Hence, Islam is a religion as well as a state. Their prayers and Islamic festivals can be considered religion, while Jihad, Sharia (constitution), Burqa (women uniform), cap (like soldier’s cap), marriage, divorce, zakaat, taxes etc. are matters of the state.
In origin, Judaism, Christianity and Islam were all religions as well as state. Today, Judaism and Christianity have accepted Secularism with the separation of religion from state so as to embrace pluralism and freedom of faith to all, but Islam hasn't.
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