NPR Propaganda Misrepresents Islam

While I was composing another post, NPR's Morning Edition was spewing the standard lies, denying the fatal facts of Islam and condemning FBI training materials which accurately describe Islamic doctrine & practice.  The printed word can not reproduce the arrogant condescension dripping from the narrator's lips as she condemned the training program without demonstrating fallacy or bias.  Lets start with the transcript, when Steve Inskeep introduces the subject.

 Material from FBI courses gives agents a particular view of Muslims in America. It suggests that even mainstream Muslim Americans could be suspect. Rather than being told that terrorists were the problem, some agents were apparently told that Muslims were the problem.

even mainstream Muslim Americans could be suspect

    Define "mainstream Muslim" and enumerate the distinguishing characteristics by which distinguish them from potential suspects.  Do they know and believe Allah's word; his threat and promise? Do they obey Allah and emulate Moe or not?  Can you tell by sight or smell?

terrorists were the problem

    Were the Magnificent 19 Muslims?  The confession of Khalid Sheikh Mohammad indicates that the plotters are Muslims and proud of what they did in Allah's name. The confession indicates that they acted in conformity to religious obligation: Allah's imperatives and Moe's exemplary conduct.

    Was Muhammad bin Abdullah a Muslim?   His bragging about being a terrorist: victory through casting terror, is recorded in two hadith in the collection of Sahih Bukhari: 1.7.331 & 4.52.220. Is mainstream Islam anything other than what he preached and practiced as recorded in the Qur'an [3:151, 8:12, 57, 60; 33:26, 27; 59:2, 13   & hadith?  Allah said that he would cast terror and that he did cast terror, resulting in the death of the men of a Jewish tribe and the enslavement of their widows and orphans. He said that the Jews were more afraid of Moe and his army than they were of him. He commanded Muslims to deal harshly with their victims to strike terror into "those behind them". He commanded them to maximize their military strenth to "strike terror".  But the self-annointed experts of NPR instruct us  that terrorism is not an element of mainstream Islam.  If Islam's canonical texts do not define Islam, what does?

Muslims were the problem

    Without Muslims, Islam would be nothing more than musty books on library shelves. It is Muslims who are the foot soldiers of  Islam. It is Muslims who, in obedience to Allah; in emulation of Moe, stage terror attacks all over the world.

And it came out recently in Wired magazine that a counterterrorism training session at the FBI training center in Quantico, Virginia was teaching agents that Islam was a violent religion and that basically if you are a Muslim and religious, you should be seen as suspect.

Islam was a violent religion

    Where did the instructors get that idea?  Could it be from the Qur'an? [2:216, 190, 8:39,67;  9:29, 111, 123, 47:4, 48:15-20]  Could it be from the hadith? [Riyad-us-Saliheen Book 11, Chapter 234] Could it be Islamic law? [Reliance of the Traveller, Book O, Chapter 9, Hedaya, Volume II, Book IX, Chapter 1] Could it be from Moe's biography? [The Sealed Nectar]

Muslim and religious: suspect

    Exactly why should we suspect anyone who is not a Muslim of plotting an act of Islamic terrorism?  Why should we not be suspicious of Muslims?  Who is more likely than a Muslim to obey Allah and emulate Moe by attempting to cast terror into the hearts of disbelievers?  When you hear hoof beats, do you look for horses or unicorns? 

[...] these were classes on Islamic doctrine that talked about the relationship between Islam and terrorism.

relationship between Islam and terrorism

    Apparently there is something wrong with teaching FBI agents about the relationship between Islam and terrorism. FBI agents must be kept ignorant of Allah's sanctification, imperative & Moe's example of casting terror into the hearts of disbelievers.  Of course, they have no need to know about it.

And let's be fair here, there are different interpretations of Islam, some of them certainly would seem to be violent interpretations of Islam, but most Muslims have argued that overwhelming majorities of Muslims are peaceful and that they have a peaceful religion. So did the training overstate what you can know about the different varieties of this religion?

different interpretations of Islam

    What is the difference between Sunni, Shi'ia & Sufi concerning jihad & terrorism?  Which mainstream school of Islamic law rejects offensive warfare against disbelievers and terrorism?  Al-Shafi'i had something to say about the obligation to perform jihad.Compare what he said to Reliance O9.1.

"The least that the imam must do is that he allow no year to pass without having organised a military expedition by himself, or by his raiding parties, according to the Muslims' interest, so that the jihad will only be stopped in a year for a (reasonable) excuse."

    How does that Shafi'ite fiqh differ from that of Al-Ghazali, a Sufi?

…one must go on jihad (i.e., warlike razzias or raids) at least once a year...

violent interpretations of Islam

    Is anyone better qualified to interpret the Qur'an than the man who first recited it?  How did he interpret it?

Sahih Bukhari Volume 1, Book 8, Number 387:
Narrated Anas bin Malik:
Allah's Apostle said, "I have been ordered to fight the people till they say: 'None has the right to be worshipped but Allah.' And if they say so, pray like our prayers, face our Qibla and slaughter as we slaughter, then their blood and property will be sacred to us and we will not interfere with them except legally and their reckoning will be with Allah." Narrated Maimun ibn Siyah that he asked Anas bin Malik, "O Abu Hamza! What makes the life and property of a person sacred?" He replied, "Whoever says, 'None has the right to be worshipped but Allah', faces our Qibla during the prayers, prays like us and eats our slaughtered animal, then he is a Muslim, and has got the same rights and obligations as other Muslims have."

    Allah said "fight them until" Moe said "I have been ordered to fight".  Exactly how can anyone dispute and disprove the obvious?  Would you prefer a second opinion? [Sahih Bukhari 9.84.89, Sunan Abu Dawud 14.2635 ]

majorities of Muslims are peaceful

    Have they not been called to fight yet [48:16, Sahih Bukhari 4.52.79] , or are they hypocrites [9:91...129]? How did the conquests of Syria, Yemen, Egypt, North Africa and India happen if most Muslims are peaceful?

they have a peaceful religion

    If they do, it ain't Islam!  Jihad is defined in Islamic law as "to war against non-Muslims". Islam is not a religion, it is a way of life: intra-species predation. Its religious component is jihad.

Sunan Abu Dawud Book 23, Number 3455:

Narrated Abdullah ibn Umar:

I heard the Apostle of Allah, (peace_be_upon_him) say: When you enter into the inah transaction, hold the tails of oxen, are pleased with agriculture, and give up conducting jihad (struggle in the way of Allah). Allah will make disgrace prevail over you, and will not withdraw it until you return to your original religion.

    Jihad, commerce and agriculture are viewed as alternative economic systems; jihad is preferred over the other two. It becomes clear that jihad is their "original religion".

    The outline below has some quotes from the article in the outer node and the reality in inner nodes.

• One email said that the Prophet Muhammad was being portrayed as a warring military leader.
  • Sahih Bukhari Volume 5, Book 59, Number 285:

    Narrated Abu Ishaq:

    Once, while I was sitting beside Zaid bin Al-Arqam, he was asked, "How many Ghazwat did the Prophet undertake?" Zaid replied, "Nineteen." [...]

  • This Wikepedia page contains a list of Moe's ghazwat & sariyas, paralleling the table of contents of Guillaume's The Life of Muhammad.
  • According to one calculation, Muhammad himself engaged in 78 battles, of which just one (the Battle of the Ditch) was defensive. 
•  It also cited an instructor as saying that a "true Muslim" had to support or take part in the killing of non-Muslims.
  
  • 3:140. If a wound (and killing) has touched you, be sure a similar wound (and killing) has touched the others. And so are the days (good and not so good), We give to men by turns, that Allâh may test those who believe, and that He may take martyrs from among you. And Allâh likes not the Zâlimûn (polytheists and wrong­doers).[Read the context through #186; testing the believers is one purpose of jihad.]
  • 9:111. Verily, Allâh has purchased of the believers their lives and their properties; for the price that theirs shall be the Paradise. They fight in Allâh's Cause, so they kill (others) and are killed. It is a promise in truth which is binding on Him in the Taurât (Torah) and the Injeel (Gospel) and the Qur'ân. And who is truer to his covenant than Allâh? Then rejoice in the bargain which you have concluded. That is the supreme success . 
  • Sunun Abu Dawud Book 14, Number 2497:

    Narrated AbuUmamah:

    The Prophet (peace_be_upon_him) said: He who does not join the warlike expedition (jihad), or equip, or looks well after a warrior's family when he is away, will be smitten by Allah with a sudden calamity. Yazid ibn Abdu Rabbihi said in his tradition: 'before the Day of Resurrection".  [See 9:38-39.]

  • Reliance of the Traveller, Book O, Chapter 9.1 [...]Jihad is a communal obligation (def: c3.2).  When enough people perform it to successfully accomplish it, it is no longer obligatory upon others [...] If none of those concerned perform jihad, and it does not happen at all, then everyone who is aware that it is obligatory is guilty of sin, if there was a possibility of having performed it. [...]  As for subsequent times, there are two possible states in respect to non-Muslims.  The first is when they are in their own countries, in which case jihad (def: o9.8) is a communal obligation, and this is what our author is speaking of when he says, "Jihad is a communal obligation," meaning upon the Muslims each year.[...]
• The instructor also told the class, according to a handful of attendees, that Muhammad was an epileptic and the Quran didn't come to him in a series of heavenly visions, but instead was actually part of an epileptic fit.
  • Sahih Muslim Book 007, Number 2654: [...] 'Umar lifted a corner of the cloth and I looked at him and he was emitting a sound of snorting. He (the narrator) said: I thought it was the sound of a camel. When he was relieved of this he said: Where is he who asked about Umra? [...]
  • Sahih Bukhari Volume 3, Book 48, Number 829: [...]By Allah, Allah's Apostle had not got up and nobody had left the house before the Divine Inspiration came to Allah's Apostle. So, there overtook him the same state which used to overtake him, (when he used to have, on being inspired divinely). He was sweating so much so that the drops of the sweat were dropping like pearls though it was a (cold) wintry day. When that state of Allah's Apostle was over, he was smiling and the first word he said, 'Aisha! Thank Allah, for Allah has declared your innocence.' [...] 
  • Sahih Muslim Book 030, Number 5765: [...] How does the the wahi (inspiration) come to you? He said: At times it comes to me like the ringing of a bell and that is most severe for me and when it is over I retain that (what I had received in the form of wahi), and at times an Angel in the form of a human being comes to me (and speaks) and I retain whatever he speaks.[...]
  • Sahih Bukhari Volume 5, Book 57, Number 119: [...] the Prophet said, "O Um Salama! Don't trouble me by harming 'Aisha, for by Allah, the Divine Inspiration never came to me while I was under the blanket of any woman amongst you except her."