Focusing On Issues We Find Offensive but Which Do Not Affect Non-Muslims Creates Confusion Concerning Aspects of Islam That Affect So-Called Infidels
What is — and isn’t — wrong with Islam? That is the question before us.
Since late 2001, when Islam became front page news, almost everything about it has been criticized: It’s been presented as hostile to progress, anti-democratic, theocratic, patriarchical, misogynistic, and draconian in its punishments.
There is no doubt that mainstream Islam advocates the separation of Muslims from non-Muslims, believers from infidels, clean from unclean.
Is that what’s wrong with Islam? I’m here to argue no — none of those are the reasons why non-Muslims should be wary of Islam.
Why? Because they are all things that Muslims do to and amongst each other. They do not involve non-Muslims. What do I care if Muslims agree among themselves to chop off the hands of thieves, whip adulterers, or strictly segregate the sexes?
Focusing on the many issues that we might find offensive but which do not affect the non-Muslim creates confusion concerning those truly problematic aspects of Islam that do affect the so-called infidel.
The Three Dark Pillars of Islam
Once we take a step back and distinguish between the (many) doctrines that affect Muslim society alone, and those that affect Western or non-Muslim peoples in general, three interrelated doctrines come into sharp focus.
They are:
1) hate for “the infidel,” that is, constant spiritual or metaphysical hostility against all non-Muslims; such hate naturally manifests itself as
2) jihad, that is, physical hostility against and attempts to subjugate the non-Muslim whenever and wherever possible. Successful jihads beget
3) dhimmitude, the degrading position that all non-Muslims who refuse to forfeit their religious freedom by converting to the victor’s creed must live under in an Islamic state.
Hatred for Non-Muslims
There is no doubt that mainstream Islam advocates the separation of Muslims from non-Muslims, believers from infidels, clean from unclean, in keeping with the doctrine of al-wala’ w’al bara (which can be translated as “loyalty and enmity,” or more simply, “love and hate”). Koran 5:51 warns Muslims against “taking the Jews and Christians as friends and allies … whoever among you takes them for friends and allies, he is surely one of them.” That is, he too becomes an infidel, or kafir, the worst human classification in Islam.
Such enmity for non-Muslims is fundamentally responsible for the metaphysical or “spiritual” clash between Islam and the West.
Koran 3:28, 4:89, 4:144, 5:54, 6:40, 9:23 all have the same divisive message; 58:22 simply states that true Muslims do not befriend non-Muslims — “even if they be their fathers, sons, brothers, or kin.”
But it gets worse; the Koran calls on Muslims to have enmity — hate — for non-Muslims: “We [Muslims] renounce you [non-Muslims]. Enmity and hate shall forever reign between us — till you believe in Allah alone” (Koran 60:4). As the Islamic State explained in an unambiguously titled article, “Why We Hate You & Why We Fight You,” “We hate you, first and foremost, because you are disbelievers.”
Such enmity for non-Muslims is fundamentally responsible for the metaphysical or “spiritual” clash between Islam and the West. Add to enmity the fact that Muslims are permitted to lie to non-Muslims — including by feigning loyalty or friendship — and the dangers of the doctrine of “love and hate” become apparent.
Warfare Against Non-Muslims
Jihad — war on non-Muslims for no less a reason than that they are non-Muslims — is the physical manifestation of the enmity Muslims should feel for “infidels.”
Not only is it natural to attack and seek to subjugate those whom one is bred to hate, but the doctrine of jihad, including to spread and enforce Sharia around the world, is part and parcel of Islam. It is no less codified than Islam’s Five Pillars, as reflected by many Koran verses, such as 9:29:
Jihad — war on non-Muslims for no less a reason than that they are non-Muslims — is the physical manifestation of the enmity Muslims should feel for “infidels.”
Jihad — war on non-Muslims for no less a reason than that they are non-Muslims — is the physical manifestation of the enmity Muslims should feel for “infidels.”
Not only is it natural to attack and seek to subjugate those whom one is bred to hate, but the doctrine of jihad, including to spread and enforce Sharia around the world, is part and parcel of Islam. It is no less codified than Islam’s Five Pillars, as reflected by many Koran verses, such as 9:29:
Fight those among the People of the Book [Christians and Jews] who do not believe in Allah nor the Last Day, nor forbid what Allah and his Messenger have forbidden, nor embrace the religion of truth [Islam], until they pay the jizya with willing submission and feel themselves subdued.
Koran 9:29
Or in the words of the Encyclopaedia of Islam’s entry for “jihad,” the
spread of Islam by arms is a religious duty upon Muslims in general … Jihad must continue to be done until the whole world is under the rule of Islam … Islam must completely be made over before the doctrine of jihad can be eliminated.
Slavery for Non-Muslims
But as infidels are to be hated per se and not merely in the context of jihad (which isn’t always possible) the hostility continues even after the cessation of successful jihads. Unlike other conquerors that generally permit the conquered to go on unmolested so long as they do not challenge the new order — some even try to appease and win over their new subjects — whenever and wherever Islam conquers, that old metaphysical hostility which fueled the jihad remains to mistreat its subject infidels. Thus, not only must the latter pay a special tax (jizya), embrace a subordinate position, and accept second-class citizen status — they must also be reminded and made to feel inferior and despised, including as a way to “inspire” them to convert to the “true” faith.
As the Islamic State explained in the aforementioned article, regardless of any and all appeasement offered by the non-Muslim:
[W]e would continue to hate you because our primary reason for hating you will not cease to exist until you embrace Islam. Even if you were to pay jizyah and live under the authority of Islam in humiliation, we would continue to hate you.
Either way, Islam wins: If the non-Muslim continues in his faith, Islamic society continues to prey on him; if the non-Muslim eventually “surrenders” to Islam, the umma gains a new recruit (with death as the penalty should he later entertain second thoughts and apostatize).
So there it is: the three — and I would argue only three — Islamic doctrines that non-Muslims should truly concern themselves over. They are, to reiterate, hate for, jihad against, and dhimmitude of non-Muslims. None of them are products of “interpretation.” They are unequivocally grounded in Islamic law, not open to debate, and the way Muslims have always done things (at least whenever circumstances permit).
It is these three doctrines that non-Muslims everywhere should be “dialoguing” with Muslims about.
