islam-related-controversies

"Praise be to Allah who revealed the verse of the Sword to his servant and messenger, in order to establish truth and abolish falsehood."

"When the sacred months¹ are over kill the idolaters wherever you find them. Arrest them, besiege them, and lie in ambush everywhere for them. If they repent and take to prayer and render the alms levy, allow them to go their way. God is forgiving and compassionate"

"Ibn Hazm commented: “And the statements of Allah: ‘(9.5)’. And: (9.29)... are indicative of Allah the Exalted not acknowledging and nullifying every treaty, therefore leaving the polytheists no course but to accept Islam, or be fought. While the opportunity to pay the Jizyah in a state of humiliation, is specifically for the People of the Book."

"These Ayat [verses] allowed fighting people unless, and until, they embrace Islam and implement its rulings and obligations."

"But when the forbidden months are past, then fight and slay the Pagans wherever ye find them, an seize them, beleaguer them, and lie in wait for them in every stratagem (of war); but if they repent, and establish regular prayers and practise regular charity, then open the way for them: for Allah is Oft-forgiving, Most Merciful"

"It was these hardened polytheists in Arabia, who would accept nothing other than the expulsion of the Muslims or their reversion to paganism, and who repeatedly broke their treaties, that the Muslims were ordered to treat in the same way – to fight them or expel them. Even with such an enemy Muslims were not simply ordered to pounce on them and reciprocate by breaking the treaty themselves; instead, an ultimatum was issued, giving the enemy notice, that after the four sacred months mentioned in 9:5 above, the Muslims would wage war on them. The main clause of the sentence ‘kill the polytheists’ is singled out by some Western scholars to represent the Islamic attitude to war; even some Muslims take this view and allege that this verse abrogated other verses on war. This is pure fantasy, isolating and decontextualizing a small part of a sentence. The full picture is given in 9:1–15, which gives many reasons for the order to fight such polytheists. They continuously broke their agreements and aided others against the Muslims, they started hostilities against the Muslims, barred others from becoming Muslims, expelled Muslims from the Holy Mosque and even from their own homes. At least eight times the passage mentions their misdeeds against the Muslims. Consistent with restrictions on war elsewhere in the Quran, the immediate context of this ‘Sword Verse’ exempts such polytheists as do not break their agreements and who keep the peace with the Muslims (9:7). It orders that those enemies seeking safe-conduct should be protected and delivered to the place of safety they seek (9:6). The whole of this context to v.5, with all its restrictions, is ignored by those who simply isolate one part of a sentence to build their theory of war in Islam on what is termed ‘The Sword Verse’ even when the word ‘sword’ does not occur anywhere in the Quran."

"And so, when the sacred months are over, slay those who ascribe divinity to aught beside God wherever you may come upon them, and take them captive, and besiege them, and lie in wait for them at every conceivable place! Yet if they repent, and take to prayer, and render the purifying dues, let them go their way: for, behold, God is much forgiving, a dispenser of grace"

"If they repent of their unbelief, and establish the prayer and pay the zakat, let them go on their way and do not interfere with them."

"Al shafi’i commented: Allah protected blood and restricted the taking of wealth, except for a lawful reason, by belief in Allah and in His Messenger or through a covenant given by the believers, based on the law of Allah and His Messenger, to the People of the Book. He allowed shedding the blood of Mature Men who abstain from belief and who do not possess a Covenant as Allah said: ...(9:5)"

"Abu Bakr As-Siddiq [according to Islamic tradition, the first caliph of the Muslims after Muhammad’s death] used this and other honorable Ayat as proof for fighting those who refrained from paying the Zakah."

"The Tafsir al-Jalalayn says that the Muslims must “kill the idolaters wherever you find them” and “seize them by capture and besiege them in citadels and fortresses until they either fight or become Muslim.”"

"Then, when the sacred months are drawn away, slay the idolaters wherever you find them, and take them, and confine them, and lie in wait for them at every place of ambush. But if they repent, and perform the prayer, and pay the alms, then let them go their way; God is All-forgiving, All-compassionate"

"And when the months wherein ye are not allowed to attack them shall be past, kill the idolaters wheresoever ye shall find them, and take them prisoners, and besiege them, and lay wait for them in every convenient place. But if they shall repent, and observe the appointed times of prayer, and pay the legal alms, dismiss them freely; for God is gracious and merciful"

"And when the sacred months are passed, kill those who join other gods with God wherever ye shall find them; and seize them, besiege them, and lay wait for them with every kind of ambush: but if they shall convert, and observe prayer, and pay the obligatory alms, then let them go their way, for God is Gracious, Merciful"

"When Allah revealed Surah bara’ah and commanded the Prophet to end the indefinite truces, he could no longer make truces as he used to do. Rather he was obligated to Wage Jihad against everyone, as Allah says in the verse..(9:5)"

"Then, when the sacred months have passed, slay the idolaters wherever ye find them, and take them (captive), and besiege them, and prepare for them each ambush. But if they repent and establish worship and pay the poor-due, then leave their way free. Lo! Allah is Forgiving, Merciful"

"The summer is already far advanced in this part of the world; and, for some miles round Adrianople, the whole ground is laid out in gardens, and the banks of the rivers are set with rows of fruit trees, under which all the most considerable Turks divert themselves every evening; not with walking, that is not one of their pleasures, but a set party of them choose out a green spot, where the shade is very thick, and there they spread a carpet, on which they sit drinking their coffee, and are generally attended by some slave with a fine voice, or that plays on some instrument."

"19 June 1866 – We passed a woman tied by the neck to a tree and dead, the people of the country explained that she had been unable to keep up with the other slaves in a gang, and her master had determined that she should not become anyone's property if she recovered."

"In Hindustan British rule has abolished slavery, but it nevertheless exists in noble families, where the slaves seem willingly to assent to their condition of bondage."

"In the heartlands of Islam, from Saudi mansions to ISIS dungeons, there are still slaves, laboring, beaten, bought, sold, raped and disposed of in Mohammed's name."

"And if my disclosures regarding the terrible Ujijian slavery should lead to the suppression of the East Coast slave trade, I shall regard that as a greater matter by far than the discovery of all the Nile sources together."

"26 June 1866 – ... We passed a slave woman shot or stabbed through the body and lying on the path: a group of men stood about a hundred yards off on one side, and another of the women on the other side, looking on; they said an Arab who passed early that morning had done it in anger at losing the price he had given for her, because she was unable to walk any longer."

"So what was abolitionism in such contexts? Can we at all use here this loaded, essentially foreign, term in a meaningful, historical sense ? Should we bother to ? True, some historians might find it worthwhile to study lone abolitionist voices in an otherwise solid anti-abolition discourse. But then, some historians would always insist that the unrepresentative is important in and of itself, regardless of its social and political significance. Even if we examine with good intentions the scant evidence that Clarence-Smith himself provides in his book, we cannot but conclude how very few and very far between such voices indeed were. Considered within the huge dimensions of the Islamic World and the extended period of time allowed by the author for these voices to have emerged, the phenomenon appears so marginal and ephemeral that it cannot possibly deserve to be called a "sentiment", let alone constitute a Subversive current' or be described as a Movement'. Why, then, we may ask, does Clarence-Smith insist on this unpromising line of investigation and rather forced research agenda.... Also, if scholars were to undertake, in earnest and honesty, extensive studies of anti-enslavement manifestations in Islamic societies, their work would most probably reinforce the kind of negative view of ' Islam' that Clarence-Smith is so eager to revise and reconstruct."

"27 June 1866 – To-day we came upon a man dead from starvation, as he was very thin. One of our men wandered and found many slaves with slave-sticks on, abandoned by their masters from want of food; they were too weak to be able to speak or say where they had come from; some were quite young."

"In one of the sad paradoxes of human history, it was the humanitarian reforms brought by Islam that resulted in a vast development of the slave trade inside, and still more outside, the Islamic empire."

"the pressure to abolish slavery generally came from some combination of European colonial powers and economic and demographic shifts. A few Muslim clerics, such as one writing in the mid-nineteenth-century Arabian peninsula, opposed abolition on the grounds that slavery was accepted in religious texts. Similarly, one scholar argues “that slavery enjoyed a high degree of legitimacy in Ottoman society. That legitimacy derived from Islamic sanction,” among other factors. Although abolition did eventually occur, there was not a strong internally developed critique of slaveholding based on religious principles."

"The Islamic doctrine of slavery was closely linked with the doctrine of the inescapable struggle between believers and unbelievers… and Pagans were routinely sold into slavery if they had the misfortune of being captured by Muslims."

"Polytheists and idolaters were seen primarily as sources of slaves, to be imported into the Islamic world and molded-in Islamic ways, and, since they possessed no religion of their own worth the mention, as natural recruits for Islam."

"To overdraw its evils is a simple impossibility ..."

"Meanwhile, the religious zeal of Christians and Moslems had helped to revive and spread a form of servitude once justified primarily by the ancient laws of war. Members of each faith looked upon the other as infidels, and hence each felt doubly entitled to make slaves of the other when taken as captives. Moors captured in North Africa and in the Spanish peninsula were held in bondage in Italy, Spain, Portugal, and France. Christian prisoners suffered the same fate in the lands of Islam. Christians and Moslems alike believed it just to hold heathens in servitude, and both found victims among the Negroes of Africa. Their operations were facilitated by the fact that slavery already existed among the Negro tribes and that native dealers were often willing participants in the trade in human flesh. The Christian purchasers liked to think of themselves as the agents of civilization and the true religion. The native traders were less philosophical about their business."

"The strangest disease I have seen in this country seems really to be broken-heartedness, and it attacks free men who have been captured and made slaves. ... Twenty one were unchained, as now safe; however all ran away at once; but eight with many others still in chains, died in three days after the crossing. They described their only pain in the heart, and placed the hand correctly on the spot, though many think the organ stands high up in the breast-bone."

"In the Orient slavery has never been regarded in the same way as in the West. Oriental slavery is such as one sees in the Holy Scriptures; the slave inherits from his master, he marries his daughter. Most of the pashas have been slaves; so also were a large number of grand viziers, all the Mamelukes, Ali-Bey and Mourad-Bey. They have begun by fulfilling the menial functions within their master's house, and have risen through their merit or by favour. In the West on the other hand, the slave was always beneath the domestic; his was the lowest rank."

"Taqiyya is a well-known term in the Islamic world. It means that muslims who do not live in a muslim country (yet) often don't say everything they really think. But at the moment that the Islamic culture gets stronger there will also be muslims, who are now being seen as moderate, who follow along in the compulsive strictness of the Koran and its ideology. The term comes from the muslim world itself and should therefore not be underestimated. Therefore it is too easy to say that there are enough muslims who participate in our society. It does not say anything about how they are going to behave once there are more muslims represented in The Netherlands... The more dominant the Islamic culture in The Netherlands will be, the more distant we will become from anything that has to do with freedom, tolerance and equality. Because the Islam – in contrast with other religions – will not accept anything else but the Islam. The society will change for the worse. It is no 'clash of civilisations', but a collision between culture and barbarism and retardedness."

"Islam is something we can't afford any more in the Netherlands. I want the fascist Koran banned. We need to stop the Islamisation of the Netherlands. That means no more mosques, no more Islamic schools, no more imams... Not all Muslims are terrorists, but almost all terrorists are Muslims."

"Europe will be part of the Arab West, the Maghreb. This is what migration will mean for demography. Europeans marry late and have little or no children. But it has strong immigration: Turks in Germany, Arabs in France and Pakistanis in England. They marry early and have many children. According to the current trends Europe will have Muslim majorities in the population at the end of the 21st century at the latest."

"Immigrants with a double nationality, who commit a crime, such as those many Moroccan street terrorists who are a hazard to the safety of large parts of The Netherlands, they have to hand in their Dutch passport and will leave the country."

"People are fed up with the criminality and the taxes they have to pay, which are the result of the islamisation of The Netherlands."

"I think you should have titled your conference the Protocols of the Wise of Brussels [...] I think it's a conspiracy theory."

"Europe becomes more and more a province of Islam, a colony of Islam. And Italy is an outpost of that province, a stronghold of that colony...In each of our cities lies a second city: a Muslim city, a city run by the Quran. A stage in the Islamic expansionism."

"Islam is the Trojan Horse in Europe. If we do not stop Islamification now, Eurabia and Netherabia will just be a matter of time. One century ago, there were approximately 50 Muslims in the Netherlands. Today, there are about 1 million Muslims in this country. Where will it end? We are heading for the end of European and Dutch civilisation as we know it."

"I've had enough of the Quran in The Netherlands: ban that fascist book."

"There is a quite deliberate exaggeration, as has often been pointed out—but the figures are still being cited."

"The analysis is clear, we have a great problem with Islam, in the Netherlands too. The solution is not so complicated; what is missing are political guts and a feeling of urgency. Immigration from Islamic countries should be forbidden. We must learn to be intolerant with the intolerant, in the street, in the mosque and in court. We must answer hatred and violence from terrorists with exclusion and intolerance and show who's the boss in The Netherlands."

"Europeans, prisoners of a Eurabian totalitarianism"

"the evidence suggests a third of all births [in France] are already Muslim."

"Eurabia : The Euro-Arab Axis partage certaines de ses certitudes avec l'extrême droite. L'ouvrage cède allègrement à la paranoïa du complot"

"According to current birthrate projections, France will be a majority Muslim country anyway in about 50 years [...] I get a lot of e-mails from Americans who think that Europeans are spineless. And I think they're right."

"Eurabia represents a geo-political reality [..] Western Europe [...] future is Eurabia. Period. [...] Generations grew up within this political framework; they were educated and conditioned to support it and go along with it."

"L'Europe est devenue le nouveau continent de la dhimmitude, où on ne livre pas bataille parce que l'on s'est déjà soumis sans se battre [...] Eurabia est à la fois un partenariat avec le monde arabo-musulman et une stratégie menée discrètement, en dehors des traités officiels [...] Les Arabes mirent plusieurs conditions à cette association : une politique européenne indépendante de celle de l'Amérique, la reconnaissance par l'Europe d'un État palestinien, le soutien à l'OLP, le retrait d'Israël sur les lignes d'armistice de 1949, la souveraineté arabe sur Jérusalem."

"the statistics cited in Eurabia literature for fertility rates, demographic trends and percentages of Muslims appear, without exception, to be seriously flawed."