Islamic Deception: Cherry Picking

Omar Sley, of Egypt posted a lengthy comment on the International Qur'an Petition. I have dissected the comment into its main points for the sake of legibility and to facilitate my responses.

• Islam = Peace and hormony [sic]

The literal meaning of Islam is submission. Submit to Allah and to us or we will attack you. This fact becomes clear when we read the extortion letters which Moe dictated to scribes and dispatched by private courier. Read his letter to the Chiefs of Aqaba, from which the following quote is taken.

I do not intend to wage war against you till you receive my written reason for it. It is better for you, either to accept Islam or agree to pay Jiziya and consent to remain obedient to Allah, His prophet and his messengers..

• ".....if any one slew a person - unless it be for murder or for spreading mischief in the land - it would be as if he slew the whole people: and if any one saved a life, it would be as if he saved the life of the whole people"

The quote is from 5:32, which Muslims love to quote. Why don't they continue the context by quoting 5:33, which prescribes hudud for "waging war against Allah" ?

The recompense of those who wage war against Allah and His Messenger and do mischief in the land is only that they shall be killed or crucified or their hands and their feet be cut off on the opposite sides, or be exiled from the land. ...

What is the meaning of "wage war against Allah"? Ibn Kathir's Tafsir answers this question " ...`Wage war' mentioned here means, oppose and contradict, and it includes disbelief, blocking roads and spreading fear in the fairways...". If you don't believe in Allah, Muslims are free to kill or mutilate you because you are waging war against Allah.

• Nor can goodness and Evil be equal. Repel (Evil) with what is better: Then will he between whom and thee was hatred become as it were thy friend and intimate! "

The quote is from 41:34. Omar wants us to assume that Islam operates by gentle persuasion, like Christianity. Nothing could be further from the truth, as proved by the extortion letter quoted above.

• Prophet Muhammad(pbuh) said : “Kindness is a mark of faith, and whoever is not kind has no faith.”

This diversion from Islamic violence is likely to succeed because most non-Muslims are unaware of Islamic duality. Islamic mercy, kindness & charity are for Muslims only.

• The Messenger of Allah (pbuh) said : "One who kills a non-Muslim person under protection (Arabic: dhimmi) will not even smell the fragrance of Paradise."

Those "under protection" were either conquered or intimidated by Moe's extortion letters. They lived a sub-human existence of humiliation and extortionate taxation, deprived of civil rights. If you are not living under Muslim rule, you are not protected, you are subject to open season.

• " Allah forbids you not, with regard to those who fight you not for (your) Faith nor drive you out of your homes, from dealing kindly and justly with them: for Allah loveth those who are just." 60:8

Keep reading, five more ayat to the contradiction..

60:13. O you who believe! Take not as friends the people who incurred the Wrath of Allâh (i.e. the Jews). Surely, they have been in despair to receive any good in the Hereafter, just as the disbelievers have been in despair about those (buried) in graves (that they will not be resurrected on the Day of Resurrection).

• Even during war he was teaching us to be civilized and merciful to the innocents : Muhammad, pbuh, has set a very well defined path for warriors to follow. During the sending off the Muslim army to a battle, the prophet issued the following ‘battle field code of conduct’: “You shall not break a promise you make, you shall not mutilate the dead”, and “You shall not kill an elder, a child or a woman”. He gave clear instructions not to kill the injured and unarmed enemy members (equivalent to army civilians, and non-combat support troops in modern times).

The rules of warfare were laid out in Sahih Muslim 19.4294. Omar wants us to assume that the proscription on killing women and children is moral. In fact, the proscription is economic, because the women and children are enslaved, they are property for Muslims; part of the booty. Ibn Kathir's Tafsir of 33:27 hints at this. "...(a group you killed, and a group you made captives.) Those who were killed were their warriors, and the prisoners were their children and women...."

Two provisions of Islamic law are crucial to comprehending the deception involved in Omar's cherry picking. These are from Reliance of The Traveller.[Emphasis added.]

O9.12

Whoever enters Islam before being captured may not be killed or his property confiscated, or his young children taken captive.

O9.13

When a child or a woman is taken captive, they become slaves by the fact of capture, and the woman's previous marriage is immediately annulled.

It was asserted that Moe was civilized and merciful to the innocents. Give a close and careful examination to the following hadith to discover the falsity of that assertion.

Sunan Abu Dawud Book 38, Number 4390:
Narrated Atiyyah al-Qurazi:
I was among the captives of Banu Qurayzah. They (the Companions) examined us, and those who had begun to grow hair (pubes) were killed, and those who had not were not killed. I was among those who had not grown hair.