A friend of mine, Phil, was in town to promote his new book. We went out to lunch with another friend of ours from this area, Stan, a man who runs a multi-station radio conglomerate. We were talking about this and that when Phil mentioned an experience he had in a church in the Midwest.
Phil goes to church every week. And for awhile the church had speakers from various religions come to speak to them. One week they had a Hindu teacher come speak to the congregation, and the next week it was a Buddhist priest (this is a very open-minded church), and the third week it was a Muslim imam.
Phil said, "I couldn't believe the imam. He scared the old ladies. Every other thing he said was about cutting off someone's head." Phil looked surprised.
Now I hadn't seen either of these guys for awhile and in the meantime I had learned a lot about Islam and I hadn't really talked to many people about what I was learning. I said, "Awhile back I read the Qur'an because I wondered about Islam."
"Wondered?" asked Stan. "What do you mean?"
"Well, I've heard terrorists like Osama bin Laden quoting the Qur'an, talking about the obligation of all Muslims to subjugate the infidel and their responsibility to wage jihad, and then I've heard people like George Bush quoting peaceful passages from the Qur'an and saying Islam is a religion of peace, and I just wanted to know what the real story was. So read the Qur'an cover to cover.
"It's been a real eye-opener," I said. "First of all, the copy I first started reading jumped around and it was hard to follow. Then I found out that the traditional way to print the book — the traditional order of the chapters — is simply from the longest to the shortest chapter. So I found a book (A Simple Koran) that prints it in the order it was actually written, in chronological order, and it is much easier to follow that way."
Stan looked puzzled. He has a curious, inquiring mind. "I wonder why they printed it that way? That seems like an odd order to print a book."
"Yes," I said. "A secretary for one of the caliphs, I think his name was Zayd, decided that's how to arrange the chapters. Even at the time, people criticized his strange arrangement. But he was the secretary and that's the way he wanted it. Now it's just traditional.
"But something is revealed by reading the book in chronological order that I don't think you would see in the traditional chapter order: You see a dramatic change in the kind of revelations Muhammad has over time."
"Muhammad is the main guy, right?"
"Yes, he's the prophet. He's the one who first recited the Qur'an."
"What changed?" Phil asked. "What do you mean?" They were both curious now. They leaned forward, interested.
Glad to be sharing something so important with two people I care about, I said, "The nature of the revelations changed. And the book I read (A Simple Koran) gives you some of the surrounding history too, so you can see why the revelations changed.
"Muhammad originally lived in Mecca and Muslims were a minority. Obviously when he first started, he and his wife were the only Muslims on earth. Everyone else in the city of Mecca already had their own religions. Muhammad went around preaching his new religion and criticizing everyone else's. People didn't like that."
My friends laughed. Of course people didn't like that. "So after about thirteen years of preaching," I went on, "Muhammad had gained 150 converts, but they were still a minority, and the Muslims' relations with leaders of other religions had become increasingly hostile over the years. It was getting pretty hot around there, so Muhammad moved to Medina, where he had some friends.
"And that's when the revelations really started changing," I said. "For the first three-fourths of the book, the revelations were mostly about heaven and hell and how if you are a good Muslim and follow the rules you'll go to heaven and if you don't follow the rules or if you doubt Muhammad is really the Prophet, you'll burn in hell and the only thing you'll have to drink is boiling water, etc.
"But the last fourth of the book is very different. Once Muhammad gets to Medina, his group starts raiding caravans that are going to Mecca."
"Muhammad did that?" Phil and Stan both looked surprised.
"Yes. Muhammad went on some raids himself, and sometimes he just sent some of his Muslim followers on raids. And they would sometimes kill the men and take the women as slaves, and of course take all the valuable goods in the caravan."
Again, both of them looked shocked. Astonished. Surprised. And yet, it looked as if years of accumulated confusion vanished in an instant. Stan said, "So that's where the terrorists got the idea." Stan has a great sense of humor and he was making a joke, and we all laughed, but that's the light bulb I could see go on in these guys' heads.
I went on. "So they started doing pretty well, financially. Muhammad kept a fifth of the booty from the raids and the rest of the Muslim raiders split up the four-fifths. Muhammad started getting more recruits because this was a pretty sweet gig. He started growing an army. And the revelations changed accordingly.
"Up until this time, Muhammad had been trying to get the Christians and Jews to admit that in their own scriptures, Muhammad's coming had been foretold. His arrival was prophesied in their holy books. He was sure of this, and he wanted the Jews and Christians to say so. He wanted them to validate his legitimate prophethood as one of a long line of prophets (Abraham, Moses, Jesus, etc.) but the Christians and the Jews wouldn't validate him.
"So in the first three-fourths of the Qur'an, the revelations are relatively tolerant of Christians and Jews. He was trying to curry their favor. But once Muhammad had an army, and once he realized they would never acknowledge him as a prophet, his revelations became less and less tolerant, and then they became violent.
"Now here's one of the strangest things," I said. "When the nature of the revelations changed, the Qur'an started accumulating contradictions. It had these tolerant passages earlier and then less tolerant passages later. But the Qur'an itself, conveniently enough, has a passage that tells Muslims what to do about this. In the Qur'an, Allah says, 'If something I say now contradicts something earlier in the Qur'an, the later revelation overwrites the earlier one. The earlier one is null and void, and the newer one is the better one.'
"The bad news is the tolerant passages are earlier and the intolerant, violent passages are later.
"So finally I realized how it was possible to have peaceful quotes and violent quotes, both from the Qur'an. The Qur'an is not like the Christian Bible. It isn't written by different people at different times. There are no vague analogies or symbolic passages given to multiple interpretations. It is written by one man and is very direct, straightforward writing. So how could it contain contradictions? Now I know."
"So, wait a minute." Phil looked concerned. "You're saying the peaceful passages don't count any more?"
"Right. They don't count. They have been overwritten by passages that say things like, 'Kill the unbelievers wherever you find them,' which is a passage from the very last revelation of Muhammad.
"Not only that," I said, my head now swimming with things I've discovered that these guys didn't know, "but they're supposed to follow Muhammad's example. It says in the Qur'an, and says it more than seventy times, that Muslims should follow Muhammad's example. He is the model. He's the one to imitate."
"That's not good," said Stan.
"No, that's not good. Muhammad didn't think well of 'monkery.' He didn't think it was a good thing for devoted religious people to seclude themselves in a monastery. He didn't believe in asceticism. He thought that was the lazy coward's way out. According to Allah, you show your devotion — you demonstrate your faith — in the real world by fighting in jihad, fighting for Allah, doing things you're afraid to do, fighting against the unbelievers, working to make sure all governments follow the law of Allah.
"Muhammad believed anyone could talk a good story or say a good prayer, but jihad is putting your money where your mouth is. Do you really believe? Prove it: Risk your life in combat. If you really believe what the Qur'an says then you know when you die in jihad you will go straight to Paradise without judgment, and all your sins will be instantly forgiven. If you are afraid of fighting, war, or death, it proves your unbelief.
"Fighting jihad is so highly valued by Allah that dying in jihad is the only way to guarantee your passage to heaven. You may have a chance to get into heaven if you do good works and do not sin. But if you die fighting against unbelievers, you are guaranteed passage to heaven."
"Wow," said Stan. They both looked amazed. Stunned, really. These are grown men. They read a lot. Both of them are educated, well-informed, successful people. Both are very bright, intelligent men. And they didn't know any of this.
These guys have known me for a long time, so they trusted what I said. They know I'm not a racist or a bigot, and they know I am not prone to fanatacism and I am not a hater. So they accepted what I said with open minds. And what I told them was accurate, as they assumed. But people who hear about it from someone they don't know well might easily dismiss this kind of information. So I recommend to everyone to just read the Koran themselves. That's really the only way to know for sure.
I'm sure I don't have to remind you that this is deadly serious business. It makes a huge difference what people know about Islam. The Jihadis don't want non-Muslims to be made aware this information (they can go about their Jihadi business with less interference if most people remain ignorant of the political goals of Islam) and they now have an "internet jihad" going on, hacking in and trying to shut down sites that alert people to their plans and methods.
Just the two pieces of information — that later passages overwrite earlier ones and that a good Jihadi will deliberately deceive non-Muslims — is enormously clarifying and damaging to their cause. But they can’t hack into your one-on-one conversations, and that’s really where the rubber meets the road.
So read the Koran and share what you learn. And share articles from this site. Let's have an informed population so we can figure out how to peacefully and effectively protect ourselves from the fundamentalist Muslims without being jerks to the peaceful Muslims. Let's stop listening to everyone's opinions and read the Koran ourselves.
Prevent Bigotry and Racism
We envision lynchings. We don't want to see racial profiling. We don't want interment camps like the Japanese suffered during WWII. Since we see the criticism as bigotry or racism, we can be reflexively opposed to a perfectly normal and legitimate activity in a free country: Political and religious criticism.
One of our most treasured guaranteed rights is the right to talk about, and even criticize, the doctrines of any political or religious group. The fact that it might be offensive to someone is exactly why free speech has to be protected (if it didn't bother anyone, there would be no need to protect it; read more about that here.)
Hopefully you are not a bigot or a racist, but whether you are or not, Islam is not a race or an ethnic group. There are Muslims of every race. There are more non-Arab Muslims than Arab Muslims.
This racial issue is an important reason for all of us to learn more about Islam as soon as possible. Many people who have already learned about some of Islam's most basic principles want to tell others what they've learned, but they find many people don't want to listen, and they've told me it'll take a dirty nuke going off in Chicago or Paris before people will be willing to listen.
But after a tragedy or a major attack, people are angry and afraid, and decisions under those circumstances aren't always the sanest decisions. In times like those, people can overreact. In times like those, they do things like put Japanese people into internment camps. That was a fear-based, ignorant reaction, and it was bigoted and racist.
We can avoid that kind of overreaction if we talk about Islam now, in calmer times. In other words, talking about Islamic teachings now can help prevent racism and bigotry by making sure everyone understands what Islamic teachings are about, and that Islam is a doctrine, not a race, and not all Muslims follow the doctrine.
If non-racist people think criticizing Islam is racist, it proves an important point. Namely: It is vital for more people to understand Islam.
To put it another way, if someone thinks criticizing Islam is racist, she is demonstrating that she doesn't understand what Islam is, and illustrating exactly why we need to talk about it and learn about it, because if someone so strongly against racism thinks Islam has something to do with race, then how are racist people going to react if a nuclear weapon goes off in downtown Houston and kills a million people?
The world needs to know about Islam — needs to know what it is and what it is not — and this needs to happen as quickly as possible.
Why Learn About Islam?
It is a sane, rational, sensible goal to know more about Islam. But why bother learning about it when you have no intention of becoming a Muslim? Here are twelve good reasons:
1. Your education will be more well-rounded. Most of us have some knowledge about Judaism, Christianity, Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism. We've heard quotes by their founders, we know some of what they teach, we know a little of their history, etc. But almost every Westerner is unfamiliar with the most basic teachings of Islam.
2. Learning about Islam is interesting. Do you know, for example, why Osama bin Laden chose September 11th as the day to attack America? Because the last high-water mark of Islam occurred in 1683 on September 11th.
Islam had expanded and conquered for centuries, and was finally stopped at the gates of Vienna when 40,000 soldiers arrived just in time to stop the Muslim siege of the city.
Islam's spread has been repressed by superior military force ever since then. Their dominance has been receding since that day, and almost all Muslims know this, and many resent it. But the new resurgence has set out to finish the goal (the application of Sharia law worldwide), so they chose September 11th to kick off the new era.
Before I started learning about Islam, I didn't know about the gates of Vienna. I didn't know why the Crusades happened. I didn't know why Middle Eastern countries have seemed so dead-set on destroying Israel. I didn't know what the hijacking of planes and the holding of hostages and the bombings and assassinations was all about when I was a kid. I have learned so much, and a lot of it has been very interesting.
3. Knowledge can prevent harm. Have you ever gotten what looks like an official email from Amazon or PayPal or Gmail, asking you for account information? For those who don't know this kind of thing can happen, they are vulnerable to giving away their personal account information to a criminal.
The email usually says something like, "There has been a problem with your account and we need you to update your account information." And they provide a link. When you follow the link, it looks every bit like the official web site. If you give your information, you just gave it to a scam artist.
If you've heard of the scam, you are not fooled by it. If you want to check it out just in case, you will not use their link. You will type in "amazon.com" or "paypal.com" into your browser and go check your account to see if anything is really wrong.
With that little bit of knowledge, you avoided harm. Knowledge makes the difference.
It is exactly the same with knowing about Islam. Once you have a pretty good grasp of what's going on, you are less afraid, less paranoid, and less vulnerable to what is called "religious deception" (taqiyya).
4. You'll be ahead of your time. In the future, everyone will know about Islam. It is a quickly-growing faith with more and more influence on world affairs. By learning about it now, you will be among the vanguard of a new era.
5. You can help your fellow non-Muslims understand. This is a nice benefit of learning about Islam. Your understanding can help you shed some light and help eliminate the confusion you see in the people you know. It is a valuable service you can provide your family and friends.
6. Confusing current events will become understandable. Once you learn what's really going on, the scary terrorist events that make you think, "Why are they doing this?!" are suddenly illuminated, and you'll know exactly why they're doing it.
Learning about Islam makes world events less upsetting. You will no longer feel as exasperated or wonder what is happening to this crazy world. You will finally understand.
Of all the benefits of learning about Islam, this had the most impact on me. Political events that have been happening since I can remember — the hostage situations and hijacked planes and bombings — all seemed so unnecessary and confusing. And you can watch the news all day long and get no clarity whatsoever about why these things are happening and what they all have to do with each other. It's a relief to finally comprehend the bigger picture.
7. Orthodox Muslims are immigrating to Western democracies. From within those democracies, including the one we are living in, some of these super-devout Muslims are setting up terrorist cells right now. Their spokesmen are delivering fiery tirades at mosques in our own country, calling the faithful Muslims to rise up against the infidels (you and me), telling the Muslims in their congregation (called an ummah) it is their holy duty to work toward the establishment of Sharia law as the law of the land. They are recruiting native-born Westerners into groups working toward these goals. And it is becoming more common.
Not all Muslims follow these Islamic teachings (find out what the basic teachings are by clicking here). But some do, and they are in free countries now, preaching hatred. And most Western democracies allow more in all the time. Why? Because most Westerners don't know much about Islam.
8. Some of the orthodox Muslims will try to change our laws, from within and from without. They have already done so throughout Europe and parts of the United States. Islam is partly a political ideology. If Westerners knew what was going on, we would surely find a peaceful way to prevent it. But our ignorance makes their job easy for now, and violence more likely to be necessary in the future.
9. They are having more children than most of us. There are many ways to wage jihad and establish Sharia law. One is through violence. Another is through sheer reproductive superiority.
Orthodox, extremely devout Muslims are immigrating into Western democracies, having as many children as they can, and teaching them to be devout Muslims.
If they are strictly following Islam, Muslims will try to turn any country they live in into an Islamic state, no matter how long it takes. They have to. It is their religious duty to do so, whether they want to or not. The main method many are using in the West is to gain small concessions to Sharia law by gentle means and others do it with violence.
10. The teenage children of heterodox Muslims are vulnerable to being persuaded by terrorist recruiters. Even though many (probably most) of the Muslims who immigrate into Western democracies are heterodox (ignore many Islamic teachings), their children will be vulnerable as the recruiters help these young, idealistic Muslims see through the hypocrisy of their parents' incomplete worship.
The children of Muslims have heard all their lives from everyone in authority that the Quran is a direct message from the Almighty Himself. As teens, if they hear a recruiter tell them what's actually in the Quran, they might be surprised. Being young and idealistic, they may become dedicated to the foundational principles of Islam. The Quran contains clear instructions to work toward the goal of creating a world that follows Sharia law. It is the primary goal of Islam. And it is the primary religious duty — the primary religious practice — of a devout Muslim to strive toward this goal with his money and his life.
The teens will look at their parents and feel disgusted. Their parents — the ones who have told them repeatedly that the Quran is the perfect word of Allah — ignore much of the book. A study in Britain found that the children of Muslim immigrants are more likely to be "radical" (follow Islamic teachings strictly) than their parents.
Plus, we cannot ignore the added benefit of dying while slaying infidels: You go straight to Paradise, and have 72 beautiful wives ready to do your bidding. Critics of Islam did not make that up. What 15 year-old boy wouldn't find a harem of beauties an attractive proposition?
If he reads the Quran, he will discover the recruiters are right: It says quite clearly he is supposed to fight non-Muslims. He will discover that mainstream Islamic scholars agree that if he dies while killing infidels he will go straight to Paradise without having to be judged, and because he's done such a fine thing, he will be empowered to bring many of his family members to Paradise too.
11. Your vote on this issue is important. If you vote, you are helping to elect representatives and leaders who make legal and political decisions (like what kind of immigration policies we should employ, or whether an imam who encourages his followers to overthrow the government should be charged with sedition). When you understand more about Islam, you will be able to know which leaders have a grasp on this subject and which do not, and vote accordingly.
12. Our survival as a free society is at stake. I know that sounds very dramatic and rabble-rousing, but it is quite literally true. All the different orthodox Islamic groups have a single goal in mind: The establishment of Sharia law in every country. They didn't make this up. They didn't "interpret" their holy book that way. They didn't have to guess. That is what it says, directly and clearly.
These people are not joking. This is not a casual hobby for them. They have dedicated their lives to it. And oil-rich Islamic governments are pouring money into the project.
This struggle has gone on for 1400 years, and as far as the devout ones are concerned, it will go on for another 1400 years, or as long as it takes to win. They are acquiring the advantages of new technologies. And they are well-funded.
I don't know how the West will ultimately deal with it, but I know this: Until enough of us face and understand what we're up against, we don't have a chance. Cheerful obliviousness will always be easily defeated by grim determination. Already one aspect of Sharia law has been effectively imposed worldwide by force and intimidation — limiting free speech about Islam.
Those are the twelve most important reasons you should want to know about Islam. Most Westerners make the assumption that all religions are basically alike. And we have a deep-seated respect for other cultures and the right of everyone to believe what they want. We have a profound distrust of any hint of arrogance or any feelings of superiority of our own culture. It is almost at the level of a taboo.
This distrust is almost entirely a good thing. It's one of the reasons we are able to have such a rich, diverse society with people of all kinds getting along with each other.
But Islam is unique. Its doctrines do not encourage its followers to reciprocate tolerance. We should learn more about it. A good place to start is to stop relying on second-hand sources, and read the Koran yourself.
1. Your education will be more well-rounded. Most of us have some knowledge about Judaism, Christianity, Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism. We've heard quotes by their founders, we know some of what they teach, we know a little of their history, etc. But almost every Westerner is unfamiliar with the most basic teachings of Islam.
2. Learning about Islam is interesting. Do you know, for example, why Osama bin Laden chose September 11th as the day to attack America? Because the last high-water mark of Islam occurred in 1683 on September 11th.
Islam had expanded and conquered for centuries, and was finally stopped at the gates of Vienna when 40,000 soldiers arrived just in time to stop the Muslim siege of the city.
Islam's spread has been repressed by superior military force ever since then. Their dominance has been receding since that day, and almost all Muslims know this, and many resent it. But the new resurgence has set out to finish the goal (the application of Sharia law worldwide), so they chose September 11th to kick off the new era.
Before I started learning about Islam, I didn't know about the gates of Vienna. I didn't know why the Crusades happened. I didn't know why Middle Eastern countries have seemed so dead-set on destroying Israel. I didn't know what the hijacking of planes and the holding of hostages and the bombings and assassinations was all about when I was a kid. I have learned so much, and a lot of it has been very interesting.
3. Knowledge can prevent harm. Have you ever gotten what looks like an official email from Amazon or PayPal or Gmail, asking you for account information? For those who don't know this kind of thing can happen, they are vulnerable to giving away their personal account information to a criminal.
The email usually says something like, "There has been a problem with your account and we need you to update your account information." And they provide a link. When you follow the link, it looks every bit like the official web site. If you give your information, you just gave it to a scam artist.
If you've heard of the scam, you are not fooled by it. If you want to check it out just in case, you will not use their link. You will type in "amazon.com" or "paypal.com" into your browser and go check your account to see if anything is really wrong.
With that little bit of knowledge, you avoided harm. Knowledge makes the difference.
It is exactly the same with knowing about Islam. Once you have a pretty good grasp of what's going on, you are less afraid, less paranoid, and less vulnerable to what is called "religious deception" (taqiyya).
4. You'll be ahead of your time. In the future, everyone will know about Islam. It is a quickly-growing faith with more and more influence on world affairs. By learning about it now, you will be among the vanguard of a new era.
5. You can help your fellow non-Muslims understand. This is a nice benefit of learning about Islam. Your understanding can help you shed some light and help eliminate the confusion you see in the people you know. It is a valuable service you can provide your family and friends.
6. Confusing current events will become understandable. Once you learn what's really going on, the scary terrorist events that make you think, "Why are they doing this?!" are suddenly illuminated, and you'll know exactly why they're doing it.
Learning about Islam makes world events less upsetting. You will no longer feel as exasperated or wonder what is happening to this crazy world. You will finally understand.
Of all the benefits of learning about Islam, this had the most impact on me. Political events that have been happening since I can remember — the hostage situations and hijacked planes and bombings — all seemed so unnecessary and confusing. And you can watch the news all day long and get no clarity whatsoever about why these things are happening and what they all have to do with each other. It's a relief to finally comprehend the bigger picture.
7. Orthodox Muslims are immigrating to Western democracies. From within those democracies, including the one we are living in, some of these super-devout Muslims are setting up terrorist cells right now. Their spokesmen are delivering fiery tirades at mosques in our own country, calling the faithful Muslims to rise up against the infidels (you and me), telling the Muslims in their congregation (called an ummah) it is their holy duty to work toward the establishment of Sharia law as the law of the land. They are recruiting native-born Westerners into groups working toward these goals. And it is becoming more common.
Not all Muslims follow these Islamic teachings (find out what the basic teachings are by clicking here). But some do, and they are in free countries now, preaching hatred. And most Western democracies allow more in all the time. Why? Because most Westerners don't know much about Islam.
8. Some of the orthodox Muslims will try to change our laws, from within and from without. They have already done so throughout Europe and parts of the United States. Islam is partly a political ideology. If Westerners knew what was going on, we would surely find a peaceful way to prevent it. But our ignorance makes their job easy for now, and violence more likely to be necessary in the future.
9. They are having more children than most of us. There are many ways to wage jihad and establish Sharia law. One is through violence. Another is through sheer reproductive superiority.
Orthodox, extremely devout Muslims are immigrating into Western democracies, having as many children as they can, and teaching them to be devout Muslims.
If they are strictly following Islam, Muslims will try to turn any country they live in into an Islamic state, no matter how long it takes. They have to. It is their religious duty to do so, whether they want to or not. The main method many are using in the West is to gain small concessions to Sharia law by gentle means and others do it with violence.
10. The teenage children of heterodox Muslims are vulnerable to being persuaded by terrorist recruiters. Even though many (probably most) of the Muslims who immigrate into Western democracies are heterodox (ignore many Islamic teachings), their children will be vulnerable as the recruiters help these young, idealistic Muslims see through the hypocrisy of their parents' incomplete worship.
The children of Muslims have heard all their lives from everyone in authority that the Quran is a direct message from the Almighty Himself. As teens, if they hear a recruiter tell them what's actually in the Quran, they might be surprised. Being young and idealistic, they may become dedicated to the foundational principles of Islam. The Quran contains clear instructions to work toward the goal of creating a world that follows Sharia law. It is the primary goal of Islam. And it is the primary religious duty — the primary religious practice — of a devout Muslim to strive toward this goal with his money and his life.
The teens will look at their parents and feel disgusted. Their parents — the ones who have told them repeatedly that the Quran is the perfect word of Allah — ignore much of the book. A study in Britain found that the children of Muslim immigrants are more likely to be "radical" (follow Islamic teachings strictly) than their parents.
Plus, we cannot ignore the added benefit of dying while slaying infidels: You go straight to Paradise, and have 72 beautiful wives ready to do your bidding. Critics of Islam did not make that up. What 15 year-old boy wouldn't find a harem of beauties an attractive proposition?
If he reads the Quran, he will discover the recruiters are right: It says quite clearly he is supposed to fight non-Muslims. He will discover that mainstream Islamic scholars agree that if he dies while killing infidels he will go straight to Paradise without having to be judged, and because he's done such a fine thing, he will be empowered to bring many of his family members to Paradise too.
11. Your vote on this issue is important. If you vote, you are helping to elect representatives and leaders who make legal and political decisions (like what kind of immigration policies we should employ, or whether an imam who encourages his followers to overthrow the government should be charged with sedition). When you understand more about Islam, you will be able to know which leaders have a grasp on this subject and which do not, and vote accordingly.
12. Our survival as a free society is at stake. I know that sounds very dramatic and rabble-rousing, but it is quite literally true. All the different orthodox Islamic groups have a single goal in mind: The establishment of Sharia law in every country. They didn't make this up. They didn't "interpret" their holy book that way. They didn't have to guess. That is what it says, directly and clearly.
These people are not joking. This is not a casual hobby for them. They have dedicated their lives to it. And oil-rich Islamic governments are pouring money into the project.
This struggle has gone on for 1400 years, and as far as the devout ones are concerned, it will go on for another 1400 years, or as long as it takes to win. They are acquiring the advantages of new technologies. And they are well-funded.
I don't know how the West will ultimately deal with it, but I know this: Until enough of us face and understand what we're up against, we don't have a chance. Cheerful obliviousness will always be easily defeated by grim determination. Already one aspect of Sharia law has been effectively imposed worldwide by force and intimidation — limiting free speech about Islam.
Those are the twelve most important reasons you should want to know about Islam. Most Westerners make the assumption that all religions are basically alike. And we have a deep-seated respect for other cultures and the right of everyone to believe what they want. We have a profound distrust of any hint of arrogance or any feelings of superiority of our own culture. It is almost at the level of a taboo.
This distrust is almost entirely a good thing. It's one of the reasons we are able to have such a rich, diverse society with people of all kinds getting along with each other.
But Islam is unique. Its doctrines do not encourage its followers to reciprocate tolerance. We should learn more about it. A good place to start is to stop relying on second-hand sources, and read the Koran yourself.
Critique of Pure Islam
When someone says that some of the passages of the Quran are violent, and that Islam itself is political, what do you call that? It's an important question. Strangely enough, I've heard it called "racist," which seems very odd. Islam is not a race.
I've also heard it called "Islamophobia," which is also strange, because it's not a phobia.
It is religious criticism. But it's more than that, because Islam is not merely a religion. Islam is also a political system with political goals. So instead of racism or Islamophobia, we could call it religious or political criticism.
But if you call it that, there doesn't seem to be anything wrong with it. In a free society, it is a perfectly legitimate activity to criticize religious doctrines and political systems. It's perfectly all right, for example, to point out that the Catholic church frowns upon birth control, or that communism and free enterprise are incompatible.
So when someone explains the political ideology contained in the Quran, it is a completely legitimate activity, and anyone who calls it racism or Islamophobia either doesn't understand what they're saying, or, more likely, they are trying to censor the person. That kind of censorship is out of line in a free society.
The fact that exponents of pure Islam (let's call them "orthodox Muslims") will not tolerate criticism of Islam is one of the main criticisms of Islam. The fact that the Quran itself is adamant about disallowing any criticism of the Quran (and calls for a death sentence for doing so) is one of the most egregious things to criticize about the Quran.
If someone doesn't hire a Muslim simply because the applicant is a Muslim, that is discrimination, and that's a different issue. If someone beats up a Muslim because he's a Muslim, that is a hate crime and is illegal, immoral, and should be punished.
But criticism of Islamic doctrine? It can and should be done. Period. Anyone who tries to shut down the discussion with accusations of racism or Islamophobia is out of line.
I've also heard it called "Islamophobia," which is also strange, because it's not a phobia.
It is religious criticism. But it's more than that, because Islam is not merely a religion. Islam is also a political system with political goals. So instead of racism or Islamophobia, we could call it religious or political criticism.
But if you call it that, there doesn't seem to be anything wrong with it. In a free society, it is a perfectly legitimate activity to criticize religious doctrines and political systems. It's perfectly all right, for example, to point out that the Catholic church frowns upon birth control, or that communism and free enterprise are incompatible.
So when someone explains the political ideology contained in the Quran, it is a completely legitimate activity, and anyone who calls it racism or Islamophobia either doesn't understand what they're saying, or, more likely, they are trying to censor the person. That kind of censorship is out of line in a free society.
The fact that exponents of pure Islam (let's call them "orthodox Muslims") will not tolerate criticism of Islam is one of the main criticisms of Islam. The fact that the Quran itself is adamant about disallowing any criticism of the Quran (and calls for a death sentence for doing so) is one of the most egregious things to criticize about the Quran.
If someone doesn't hire a Muslim simply because the applicant is a Muslim, that is discrimination, and that's a different issue. If someone beats up a Muslim because he's a Muslim, that is a hate crime and is illegal, immoral, and should be punished.
But criticism of Islamic doctrine? It can and should be done. Period. Anyone who tries to shut down the discussion with accusations of racism or Islamophobia is out of line.
Helping Girls Will Weaken the Influence of Orthodox Islam
THERE ARE a lot of problems in the world. But you can do one simple thing to help solve most of them: Support the Girl Effect.When you help a girl, you help produce a cascade of positive side-effects, but pertinent to our purposes here, it also helps curb Islam's relentless expansion. For girls to gain and retain equal rights, Islam's doctrine cannot be fully expressed. So fighting for women's rights is effectively fighting against Islam's ultimate goal of world domination. Even in free countries, the most effective tool against Islamic encroachment is the application of already-existing rights for women.
Watch the Girl Effect video (below) and share it with your friends (it is two minutes long):
Your friends don't need to know their efforts to help girls will accomplish the goal of curbing the spread of jihad. But it will. The Pentagon has discovered that the level of violence in a town can be predicted by simply looking at the number of girls who go to school in that town. No kidding. Girls are the key.
And the key to helping girls is helping their mothers. To whatever degree you empower women by giving them legal rights, to that degree Islam's relentless repression of women is necessarily weakened.
This is a positive, life-affirming, inspiring way to defeat Islam's relentless encroachment. Go to the Girl Effect website and get involved. Recruit your friends and family into the cause. This is a purpose we can all get behind. Join the Girl Effect on FaceBook to get updates.
Your friends and family need never know why you're promoting the Girl Effect, or that it has anything to do with Islam, and it doesn't matter — the work needs to be done and in the end we will all be better off.
Read more about how helping girls can save the world in the book, Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide.
Let's do this.
Criticism of Islam Versus Bigotry
If the group to which you are partial is your race, then bigotry is the same as racism. There are definitely people trying to stop Islam's relentless encroachment who are motivated by bigotry. But criticism of Islamic doctrine is not bigotry.
Criticism of Islamic teachings is simply religious criticism, which is a perfectly legitimate and worthwhile thing to do in a free country. If I told you that in Buddhism they believe the source of human suffering is the grasping nature of the mind, is that bigotry? Even if I said I think that might be too simplistic and that there may be other causes of suffering, is that bigotry?
No, that's simply discussing religious texts.
And if I say the Quran says (91 times) that Mohammad is a good example of human behavior, is that bigotry? No. Even if I say I don't like that because the historical records of Mohammad's actions aren't something I want to see emulated, is that bigotry? No. We're just talking about a religious text and history.
And if a Muslim says he believes Jews are evil and should be destroyed, is that bigotry? Yes, it is. But what if he says "it must be true, it says so in the Quran," is it still bigotry? Yes. And if I say I don't like that about the Quran, is that bigotry? No. What if I say all Muslims are evil, is that bigotry? Yes. Get the difference?
The reason it seems to many people that anyone criticizing Islam is a bigot is because some bigots have, in fact, criticized Islam. But criticizing Islam, or any religion, does not make anyone a bigot.
Learning more about Islam can help prevent bigotry and racism. Here's how that works: Prevent Bigotry and Racism.
Gentle Jihad
But first you should know I'm not talking about your neighbor. Most Muslims are not actively involved in jihad. But enough are participating to merit a closer look.
We have no need to try to guess the purposes of the really devout Muslims — they state their goals openly and fervently, and they have one primary goal. It's a goal Allah gave to all Muslims: The establishment of the law of Allah throughout the world.
Islam makes the attainment of this political goal a religious duty.
Allah said (through Mohammad, and written in the Quran) he does not want his followers sitting around meditating or spending their lives in a monastery. Allah expects good Muslims to demonstrate their devotion and faith by working toward a time when the whole world comes under the rule of divine law.
There is no more important goal in Islam, and everyone has a part to play. Please do not take my word for it, even though I have dedicated many years to learning about it with an open mind. Read the Quran for yourself.
Many devout Muslims are not in a position to participate in a violent jihad, and many devout Muslims consider violence at this point to be tactically foolish against much stronger countries. But the Quran says every Muslim must do what they can. For example, Muslim women can give birth to as many healthy children as possible (helping to gain a numerical superiority) and raise them to be devout Muslims; the imams can keep their listeners motivated and donating money to the mosque to fund outreach programs; wealthy Muslims can support jihad financially; Muslim lawyers can sue people who criticize Islam, hackers can shut down web sites that try to educate non-Muslims about Islamic teachings, and Muslims with charisma can help get people to convert to the faith.
There is no better way to show Allah your devotion than jihad, according to the Quran. As far as Allah is concerned, actions speak louder than words. It doesn't matter how you feel. It doesn't matter if you'd rather just live a good life. Allah expects you to fight for Islam wherever you are and even if you don't feel like it, and to fight in whatever way you can. We should consider ourselves lucky that so many Muslims try to ignore these teachings, even though it says in the Quran the consequences of ignoring them are dire.
When the devout, Quran-following Muslims do not have the political power to impose their will, they are charged with the task of gaining that power. In democratic countries, the task then becomes to exert a constant pressure to gain concessions to Islam. Each concession moves the society a little closer to following Sharia law.
Each concession may seem small, but they are adding up. Meanwhile, the Muslim population is growing in democratic countries.
Do Islamic Texts Encourage Violence?
This is a chapter. I chose it randomly. Now keep in mind this is an Islamic-promotion web site rather than an anti-Islamic web site. Here are some of the passages from that chapter:
57. So if you gain the mastery over them in war, punish them severely in order to disperse those who are behind them, so that they may learn a lesson.
59. And let not those who disbelieve think that they can escape from the punishment. Verily, they will never be able to save themselves from Allâh's Punishment.
60. And make ready against them all you can of power, including steeds of war (tanks, planes, missiles, artillery, etc.) to threaten the enemy of Allâh and your enemy, and others besides whom, you may not know but whom Allâh does know.
65. O Prophet (Muhammad)! Urge the believers to fight. If there are twenty steadfast persons amongst you, they will overcome two hundred, and if there be a hundred steadfast persons they will overcome a thousand of those who disbelieve, because they (the disbelievers) are people who do not understand.
67. It is not for a Prophet that he should have prisoners of war until he had made a great slaughter among his enemies in the land. You desire the good of this world (i.e. the money of ransom for freeing the captives), but Allâh desires for you the Hereafter. And Allâh is All-Mighty, All-Wise.
On the other side, I did see a hopeful passage in that chapter:
61. But if they incline to peace, you also incline to it, and put your trust in Allâh. Verily, He is the All-Hearer, the All-Knower.
But the downside is that this quote is within the context of having defeated non-Muslims in battle. And the peace has lots of stipulations, including a choice of conversion to Islam or death, or for Christians and Jews, a heavy tax and fewer rights.
None of this is very encouraging. But it is better to deal with reality than make decisions based on false assumptions. I think the best thing any of us can do before we learn anything else about Islam is to read the Koran ourselves.
I have found a very readable version of the Koran. Read a review of it here: A Simple Koran. It is made to be easily understood by the English-speaking reader.
The chapter chosen above is not the worst by far. The worst is probably Sura 9 (Chapter 9). Read more about that chapter here: The Quran's Last Word on Non-Muslims.
What is Taqiyya?
In several Quranic passages as well as the example of Muhammad, Muslims are encouraged to deceive non-Muslims when it will help protect Islam. It is known as the principle of "taqiyya" or "religious deception."
This is less surprising if you first understand that in mainstream Islamic teachings, the world is divided into "the house of Islam" and "the house of war." That is, part of the world is Islamic and the other part has yet to brought into the light with Allah's holy law (Sharia).
And since relations with the non-Islamic part of the world exists in a state of war, then deceit is an appropriate strategy, used by all military commanders since the beginning of warfare.
As Raymond Ibrahim wrote, the Quranic verses 3:28 and 16:106, as well as Muhammad’s famous assertion, “War is deceit,” have all led to the formulation of a number of doctrines of "taqiyya.” And this is not an obscure point of theology. It is being practiced today by devout Muslims. See some examples of taqiyya caught on tape.
In the book, Terrorist Hunter: The Extraordinary Story of a Woman Who Went Undercover to Infiltrate the Radical Islamic Groups Operating in America, Rita Katz wrote about being at an IAP conference in Chicago. IAP is the Islamic Association for Palestine. There were lots of booths at the conference for "charitable" organizations, and at one of these booths, Katz met a man she already knew about: Muhammad Salah. She pretended she didn't know who he was, and he introduced himself as a "Muslim human rights activist."
Katz, a non-Muslim woman dressed as a Muslim, wrote, "He was small, thin, nearly bald. Totally harmless looking." He told her these conferences were so important because "we can teach you about the oppression and sufferings of Muslims in America and all over the world."
Then he told Katz his story. He had been a Palestinian with an American citizenship, a used-car salesman, working in Chicago when he went to Israel to "visit family and friends." But in Israel he was arrested by the Israeli authorities and thrown into prison for five years!
Katz looked appropriately appalled and asked why in heaven's name would they put him in prison? "Because the Israelis oppress innocent Palestinians," he said. "And do you know what is the most shocking part? When I returned to the U.S., after I was tortured and I thought I was going to die in that prison, the Americans placed me under investigation and froze my assets! Me, an innocent citizen, a car dealer, a family man, father of five!"
To any other kafir this probably would have been a convincing story. The poor, oppressed Muslim! It's just wrong to treat people that way. Those Israelis must be very cruel. Those Americans are so oppressive to Muslims!
But Katz was not an ordinary kafir. She researched people like Salah for a living. She knew all about him. This frail, innocent-looking man was the leader of the worldwide military wing of Hamas, a brutal terrorist organization! When he was arrested in Israel he had a hundred thousand dollars in cash on him. In his testimony, he admitted the money was supposed to go to "members of Hamas's military wing." He displayed detailed inside knowledge of Hamas's structure and funding, and his testimony was later used as evidence in the New York trial of Musa Abu Marzook, the leader of the political bureau of Hamas (and the man who had appointed Salah to his position as leader of the military wing). Katz writes:
When Nasser Hidmi was caught trying to detonate a bomb in Israel, he said he had been chosen by none other than the poor, innocent, abused, oppressed Muslim, Muhammad Salah.
This is an example of the principle of religious deception in action.
The use of taqiyya is the main reason most non-Muslims are so confused about the real nature of Islam — they are constantly being intentionally deceived by orthodox Muslims. But once you know about it, the jig is up. You are much less easily deceived.
This is less surprising if you first understand that in mainstream Islamic teachings, the world is divided into "the house of Islam" and "the house of war." That is, part of the world is Islamic and the other part has yet to brought into the light with Allah's holy law (Sharia).
And since relations with the non-Islamic part of the world exists in a state of war, then deceit is an appropriate strategy, used by all military commanders since the beginning of warfare.
As Raymond Ibrahim wrote, the Quranic verses 3:28 and 16:106, as well as Muhammad’s famous assertion, “War is deceit,” have all led to the formulation of a number of doctrines of "taqiyya.” And this is not an obscure point of theology. It is being practiced today by devout Muslims. See some examples of taqiyya caught on tape.
In the book, Terrorist Hunter: The Extraordinary Story of a Woman Who Went Undercover to Infiltrate the Radical Islamic Groups Operating in America, Rita Katz wrote about being at an IAP conference in Chicago. IAP is the Islamic Association for Palestine. There were lots of booths at the conference for "charitable" organizations, and at one of these booths, Katz met a man she already knew about: Muhammad Salah. She pretended she didn't know who he was, and he introduced himself as a "Muslim human rights activist."
Katz, a non-Muslim woman dressed as a Muslim, wrote, "He was small, thin, nearly bald. Totally harmless looking." He told her these conferences were so important because "we can teach you about the oppression and sufferings of Muslims in America and all over the world."
Then he told Katz his story. He had been a Palestinian with an American citizenship, a used-car salesman, working in Chicago when he went to Israel to "visit family and friends." But in Israel he was arrested by the Israeli authorities and thrown into prison for five years!
Katz looked appropriately appalled and asked why in heaven's name would they put him in prison? "Because the Israelis oppress innocent Palestinians," he said. "And do you know what is the most shocking part? When I returned to the U.S., after I was tortured and I thought I was going to die in that prison, the Americans placed me under investigation and froze my assets! Me, an innocent citizen, a car dealer, a family man, father of five!"
To any other kafir this probably would have been a convincing story. The poor, oppressed Muslim! It's just wrong to treat people that way. Those Israelis must be very cruel. Those Americans are so oppressive to Muslims!
But Katz was not an ordinary kafir. She researched people like Salah for a living. She knew all about him. This frail, innocent-looking man was the leader of the worldwide military wing of Hamas, a brutal terrorist organization! When he was arrested in Israel he had a hundred thousand dollars in cash on him. In his testimony, he admitted the money was supposed to go to "members of Hamas's military wing." He displayed detailed inside knowledge of Hamas's structure and funding, and his testimony was later used as evidence in the New York trial of Musa Abu Marzook, the leader of the political bureau of Hamas (and the man who had appointed Salah to his position as leader of the military wing). Katz writes:
"Salah disclosed (in his testimony) that he'd been authorized by Marzook to recruit individuals for training in the uses of explosives to fight in the 'holy war.' In the United States, Salah began training ten such recruits, three of whom were chosen to carry out attacks. In addition to supervising the building of bombs, explosives, and remote detonation devices, Salah was instructed by Marzook to develop biological and chemical weapons for Hamas."
When Nasser Hidmi was caught trying to detonate a bomb in Israel, he said he had been chosen by none other than the poor, innocent, abused, oppressed Muslim, Muhammad Salah.
This is an example of the principle of religious deception in action.
The use of taqiyya is the main reason most non-Muslims are so confused about the real nature of Islam — they are constantly being intentionally deceived by orthodox Muslims. But once you know about it, the jig is up. You are much less easily deceived.
An Easier Way to Read the Quran
You have heard Islamic terrorists quoting violent passages from the Koran (also spelled Quran), justifying their actions. And you've heard other Muslims saying the terrorists have it all wrong, and quoting peaceful passages.How do you know what is really in that book? Anyone talking about the Koran may have an agenda, may be biased, and may be deliberately distorting the contents. The only way to really know for sure what's going on is to read it yourself.
But if you've ever tried to read the Koran, you know it is difficult. Most English translations use words like "thee" and "thou" as it does in the King James version of the Christian Bible. The Koran also repeats itself many times, making it difficult to stay focused while you read it. The chapters are arranged in order from the longest to the shortest chapter, rather than in chronological order, so it seems to jump around, which is confusing. And sometimes, because of the way the Koran is written, it's difficult to know who is speaking to who.
In addition, the Koran makes references to events in Mohammad's life, and of course, unless you know a lot about Mohammad, you won't know what these events refer to.
A version of the Koran fixes these problems. A Simple Koran puts the passages in chronological order and translates them into modern, readable English.
It also includes explanations of the events in Mohammad's life the Koran refers to, and makes it perfectly clear who is speaking to who.
An interesting thing comes to light in reading this version. Because the chapters are laid out in chronological order, you can clearly see the progression from tolerance at first — tolerance of the Jews, and even seeking the approval of the Jews — to rejection of them and their "evil ways," to outright hatred, condemnation, and urging war against them.
The way the Koran is normally laid out, you would never notice this progression as the revelations changed.
But wait a minute, you might be thinking, the fact that the revelations changed means there are conflicting passage in the Koran, right? So can't believers pick and choose what they want?
Unfortunately, the Koran itself tells the believer how to handle its own contradictions. It says if a revelation contradicts one that came before it, the newer one overwrites the older one. This is the principle known as "abrogation." The bad news for non-Muslims is that all the intolerant and violent passages abrogate the earlier tolerant and peaceful ones.
The first three-fourths of the book is difficult to read because it is uninteresting. But then the book completely changes its tune. So when you're reading, just keep going.
The reason it becomes interesting for non-Muslims is because the nature of Mohammad's revelations totally changed once he gained military power. When he first started out (when Islam was a small minority) Mohammad preached peace and tolerance. But once he gained enough followers, started raiding caravans, and gained military and financial power (from the booty he gained from the caravans), he stopped trying to curry favor with the Jews and Christians and his revelations became intolerant and then downright hateful. Don't take my word for it. Don't take anybody's word for it! Find out for yourself.
UPDATE: I have found an even better version of the Koran called An Abridged Koran. It's exactly the same as A Simple Koran and published by the same people (CSPI Publishing), except it consolidates all the repetition. The Koran is very repetitive. For example, the story of Moses and the Pharaoh is told in the original Qur'an 39 times! In An Abridged Koran, the story is only told once.
The Koran is not a very big book once you take out all the repetition. Only 203 pages. Get this book and read it. Take the pledge: Read the Quran.
But in the meantime, you can learn some of the basic teachings of Islam right now: Why is Islam so Successful?
Read more about why the standard versions of the Quran are so difficult to decipher.
What Can You Do About It?
NOW THAT YOU understand what orthodox Muslims are supposed to do according to their teachings, what can you do about it? Most important is for other non-Muslims to learn some basic information about Islam. Most people know very little about Islam. In fact, most people know even less than they think they know because of the excessive application of taqiyya (religious deception).Once enough of us are educated, we can vote people into office who understand the situation. We'll know enough to know who is knowledgeable and who is not. And we can push for initiatives and policies appropriate to our new understanding.
But until enough people understand, the policies and politicians will not have enough support to get anything done. So public education is vital. Really take this seriously. Read about how to talk to people. Learn about Islam. Read the Quran so you can speak with authority.
And find informative materials — books, online videos and articles, and DVDs — and buy them. Lend them out.
Also, get some good coaching on how to talk to people about Islam. Sign up for updates on Citizen Warrior:
I also recommend you join ACT! for America, or at the very least, sign up for their news updates. If you're not an American, the organization has chapters in other countries too. It is a grassroots organization devoted to a public awareness of the basic teachings of Islam.
One uplifting task you can pursue that indirectly weakens the influence of orthodox Islam is to help girls. Find out more about the "Girl Effect" here.
For more ideas about what to do, check out a page completely devoted to taking action on this issue: WhatYouCanDoAboutIslam.com.
What Makes Islam So Successful?
If you wanted to deliberately design a collection of ideas with the purpose of making one that might eventually out-compete every other religion or political system on earth, you would be hard-pressed to do better than Islam.
Let's look at some of the individual ideas within the collection, keeping in mind that many of the ideas enhance each other. In other words, adding one idea to the others can make the whole collection more effective because some ideas work synergistically.
Here are some of the key components of the package of ideas (or bundle of beliefs) known as Islam (you can see this same list as a linked outline here):
1. A standardized version of the idea-collection is written down. This is something basic to several religions and isn't an Islamic invention, but it is an important factor in the success of Islam.
Something only transmitted orally can change over time, but something written will be identical a thousand years from now, and with modern printing presses, can be reproduced in the millions, giving it an enormous advantage in spreading identical copies of the idea-collection.
2. The Quran includes instructions for its own spread. It tells believers they must spread Islam. It is their holy duty to bring Mohammad's warnings and Islamic law to every corner of the world. Read more about that.
3. The idea-collection includes instructions for its own preservation, protection, and duplication. The Quran, the most important of the Islamic holy books, directly tells its followers that they can never change or modify or "modernize" any of the teachings within the idea-collection. It is perfect as it is. It is a capital sin to try to change it. This idea ensures the preservation of the whole collection.
These first three ideas are pretty standard for several successful religions. But now it gets interesting...
4. Islam commands its followers to create a government that supports it. This may be one of the most ingenious ideas in the whole collection. Islam is the only religion that uses it. Other groups of religious people have had political aspirations, but no other major religious group orders its followers — as a religious duty — to create a government that follows its own system of law.
Islam has a system of law, called Sharia, and all Muslims are obligated to continually strive to make their government — wherever they are — follow it. Because of some of the other ideas added to Islam, you will see that this political addition to the idea-collection has significant consequences.
Many people are under the impression that the goal of Islam is to convert everyone to Islam. This is not so. The prime directive of Islam is to bring all people on earth under the rule of Islamic law. Read more about the political nature of the core doctrines of Islam.
5. Permission to spread the religion by war. This is another successful innovation (source). Although some other religions have spread themselves using force, they had very little justification from their own religious doctrines to do so.
Not so with Islam. Expanding by conquest is very much accepted and encouraged by the idea-collection. Islamic teachings present it this way: The non-Muslims need to be saved from the sin of following laws other than Allah's. If they won't voluntarily change their laws to Sharia, then it is a Muslim's duty to insist. The world cannot be at peace until every government on earth follows the laws of Allah.
Mohammad's own experience showed the example — an example, says the Quran 91 times, that every Muslim should follow. At first, Mohammad tried to spread Islam by peaceful means. After thirteen years he'd gained 150 converts.
But then he changed tactics and started using caravan raids, warfare, executions, ransoming captives, and assassination, and within ten years he converted tens of thousands. After he died, his followers used the same tactics and converted millions. And by now it is one and a half billion.
The use of warfare combines synergistically and powerfully with the instruction to create an Islamic state. So Islam spread quickly as their armies got bigger. They conquered and set up Islamic states, most of which have lasted to this day, and the laws within an Islamic state make Islam very difficult to dislodge. The laws also make it very advantageous to convert to Islam.
This is one of the most effective methods ever invented for getting an idea-collection followed by huge numbers of people. It's a method of control and indoctrination similar to those used successfully in communist and totalitarian states. But as you'll discover below, Islam makes unique use of the power of the law to enforce complete conversion to the religion.
Islam started under unique conditions. All other major religions were started within an already-existing state. Islam is an historical exception to this rule.
Any organized government will, of course, put a stop to violent uprisings of a rebellious political group — especially one that wants to wage war and apply its own system of law. Christianity arose within the Roman Empire, for example. If Christianity had been a militant or political uprising, Rome would probably have killed or imprisoned the followers. Probably many military or political religions did start up then, but we've never heard of them. They couldn't get off the ground.
But Islam arose in Arabia when there was no central ruling power. The whole area was comprised of individual tribes. Under those circumstances, conversion by war and the use of force was possible.
6. Lands must be conquered. Lands that Islam has lost must be reconquered (Spain and Israel, for example). The Islamic empire must continually expand. Contraction is bad; expansion is good. So if a land was once Islamic and now it is not, that's contraction, and must be remedied.
According to Islamic teachings, the earth is Allah's. If there are parts of the earth not following Islamic law, it is the duty of the faithful to gain control of that land and establish Sharia. It is a sin to let it be.
7. The idea-collection provides new soldiers by allowing polygamy. According to Sharia law, a Muslim man can marry up to four wives, and he can have sex with as many slave girls as he wishes.
The Quran especially encourages men to marry widows. This is an important idea to add if you are going to be losing a lot of soldiers in war. You need some way of replenishing your army. Otherwise the idea-collection could die out from a lack of offspring. Read more about this principle.
8. It is a punishable offense to criticize Islam. You can see why this one is a good supporting idea for the collection. It helps suppress any ideas that would reduce the authority of Islamic ideas. This idea is in the Quran, and Mohammad set a fierce example of punishing people who criticized him or Islam. Read more about this principle.
9. You can't leave Islam once you're in. This is an interesting one. It is actually illegal in Islamic states to convert out of Islam. This is a critical part of Sharia law. Someone who has rejected Islam who was once a Muslim is an "apostate." This is a crime and a sin, and the punishment for it is death (and eternal damnation in hell thereafter).
Obviously, you can see why this idea has been included in the collection, but this one has actually caused Islam a problem because those who are following Islam to the letter consider more "moderate" Muslims (those who want to ignore or alter the more violent passages of the Quran) to be apostates. Since the punishment for apostates is death, fundamentalist Muslims are fighting modernizing Muslims all over the world, and keeping many rebellious, modernizing Muslims from speaking up for fear of death.
Every time a group of Muslims decides that maybe Islam should be updated for the 21st century and maybe women should have some rights and maybe the government should be more democratic, the devout Muslims call them apostates and discredit them or even try to kill them.
In this and in many other ways, Islam protects its own fidelity (in other words, the original idea-collection cannot be altered).
Another idea in Sharia law says it's against the law for anyone to try to convert a Muslim to another religion.
10. Islam must be your first allegiance. You are a Muslim first, before any allegiance you give to your family, your tribe, or your country.
This does two things: It causes a unity of people across borders which allows the group to grow bigger than any other entity. In other words, the "Nation of Islam" can grow bigger than any country, no matter how large (which gives the group a massive numerical advantage).
11. Dying while fighting for Islam is the ONLY way to guarantee a man's entrance into Paradise. This belief creates fearless, enthusiastic warriors, especially given the Quran's vivid descriptions of the sensuous delights of Paradise.
A Muslim man has a chance of getting to Paradise if he is a good Muslim, but it is not guaranteed. However, if he dies while fighting for Islam, he is guaranteed to get in, and that's the only thing he can do to guarantee it.
12. You must read the Quran in Arabic. This unites believers by language, and language has a very powerful unifying influence. For added incentive to learn Arabic, another basic Islamic principle says you can't go to Paradise unless you pray in Arabic.
So Muslims all over the world share a language. This makes it easier to coordinate far-reaching campaigns of protest, political pressure, and war. Read more about this principle.
13. You must pray five times a day. This is one of the five "pillars" — that is, one of the five central practices — of Islam. Within an Islamic state, this practice is enforced by law. Every Muslim must pray five times a day. The practice helps Islam dominate a Muslim's life, filling his daily rhythm with Islam.
It would be impossible to forget anything you deliberately do so often. Five times a day, every day, a Muslim must bow down and pray to Allah.
Research has shown that the more effort a person expends for a cause, the more he is likely to believe in it and value it. So this is a good way to eventually make believers out of people who became Muslims through coercion.
Islam completely takes over every aspect of Muslims' lives. Not only are they required to pray five times a day, they have to go through a washing ritual beforehand. Islam dictates the laws, and the laws cover many public and private behaviors. In an Islamic state, it is impossible to be a casual Muslim.
14. The prayers involve moving together in time. When Muslims pray, they all face the same direction, they bow down, get on their hands and knees, and put their face on the mat, all in unison, and then rise back up. Again and again.
When people move together in time, whether dancing or marching or praying, it creates a physical and emotional bond between them. That's why all military training involves close-order drill (marching in unison), even though it has been a long time since military groups have actually marched into combat. There is no longer a need for the skill, but military training retained the practice because it is so effective at creating a strong feeling of unity between soldiers (read more about that).
The same is true of any physical movements people make in unison. So the method of prayer in Islam helps Muslims feel unified with each other.
15. A woman is in a thoroughly subordinate position. This idea really helps support other ideas in the collection. If women had too much influence, they'd try to curb the warring. Women in general don't like to send their husbands and sons off to war. But if women have no say in the matter, then the rest of the ideas can express themselves without interference. By subordinating women, the idea-collection prevents their effective vote against war, violence, and conquest.
The rules and laws within Islam that keep women subordinate are numerous. For example, she is not allowed to leave her house unless she is accompanied by a male relative. Under Islamic law, a woman is forbidden to be a head of state or a judge. She can only inherit half of what a man can inherit. In court, her testimony is only worth half of a man's. She is not allowed to choose where she will live or who she will marry. She is not allowed to marry a non-Muslim or divorce her husband. He, however, can divorce her with a wave of his hand. And according to Sharia, he can (and should) beat her if she disobeys him.
All of these ideas keep her subordinate, which helps keep the war machine going unimpeded by domestic rebellion. Read more about Islam's subordination of women.
16. The only way a woman can guarantee her passage into Paradise is if her husband is happy with her when she dies. When I read about this one, I thought, "Mohammad, you are a crafty one."
This idea obviously helps with the subjugation of women. It gives her a strong incentive to subordinate her wishes to her husband's, because while she might have a chance to get into Paradise if she's a good Muslim, the only way she can guarantee she will go to Paradise (and avoid eternal suffering in hell) is to make sure her husband is happy with her when she dies.
17. Allah gives Himself permission to edit his own work. This is an interesting one. It says in the Quran that if a passage written later contradicts an earlier passage, then the later one is the better one (read more about that). The Quran was written in sections (each section is one of Mohammad's revelations, known as a sura or chapter) over a period of 23 years. The circumstances of Mohammad's life and his religion changed quite a bit over those 23 years.
One of the ideas in the Quran is "this is the word of Allah." People had already memorized his earlier revelations, and it would seem a little strange for the all-knowing, infinitely wise Allah to change something He had already said. But with this idea that later revelations abrogated or overwrote earlier revelations when they contradicted, the newer ideas could be accepted. Allah could edit His work.
As I pointed out earlier, in his first 13 years of peacefully preaching, Mohammad only managed to win 150 followers. But as a military leader and violent conqueror, he was able to subjugate all of Arabia to Islamic law in less than 10 years. The peaceful ways were slow. Conversion by conquering and establishing Sharia was faster and more efficient.
The bad news for non-Muslims is that the later, violent, intolerant verses abrogate the earlier peaceful, more tolerant passages. Read more about which passages were abrogated and what the last passages say.
18. The Quran uses the carrot and stick to reinforce behavior. Throughout the book are vivid descriptions of hell, where sinners and non-Muslims have to drink boiling, stinking water, are thrown face down into a raging fire, and have to be there for eternity, suffering endless torments in agony. Read more about this.
There are also vivid descriptions of Paradise. In Paradise, believers wear green silk robes and recline on plush couches. Trees shade them, fruit dangles nearby. Believers have tasty food and refreshing drinks served to them in silver goblets.
But to have a chance of reaching Paradise, they must be devout Muslims. To guarantee it, they must die in jihad (for men) or make sure their husbands are always happy with them (for women).
19. Islam provides a huge and inspiring goal. Leaders of countries, companies, and religions have all discovered that you can get the most motivation and enthusiasm from your followers if you provide them with an expansive vision — an enormous goal. In the Islamic idea-collection, the goal calls for a continuous effort to expand the domain of Islamic law until the entire world is subjugated to it.
Many religions have the goal of converting others to the faith, but Islam has a method available nobody else has: To expand by seizing and converting governments to Sharia, or using the method of gaining one small, incremental concession or accomodation after another until Sharia law is being followed.
Once the whole world is following Islamic law, peace will reign. That's why even terrorists can say with complete sincerity, "Islam is a religion of peace."
The Quran says it's better if non-believers accept Islam and become Muslims without force. But if they refuse, then you must do what you can to at least get them to live by the laws of Allah. Read more about this.
So Muslims have been given quite a mission: To create a one-world government. An Islamic world. World peace. It is an enormous and inspiring and motivating goal, and creates a strong unity of purpose.
20. Non-Muslims must pay a large tax. Once a country is following Sharia law, non-Muslims are given the choice between becoming Muslim or becoming a dhimmi. Dhimmis are allowed to practice their non-Muslim religion if they pay the jizya (a tax). If they convert to Islam, they no longer have to pay the jizya. This obviously creates a practical incentive to convert. Read more.
This is ingenious. The tax takes money away from non-Muslims and their competing religions and gives that money to support Islam. The income from these taxes (usually a 25% income tax) helped fund the Islamic conquests during the first two major jihads. They conquered vast lands, most of them already filled with Christians and Jews, many of whom did not convert at first, and their jizya poured huge sums of money into the Islamic war machine.
Eventually, the numbers of Christians and Jews in those countries dwindled down as they converted or escaped (or in some cases, were massacred), until now, in most Islamic countries, Jews and Christians are very small minorities.
The tax-the-non-Muslims idea helps the Islamic idea-collection make more copies of itself by suppressing competing religions and financially supporting Islam.
Several ideas within Sharia law extend this effect. For example, non-Muslims are not allowed to build any new houses of worship. They're not even allowed to repair already-existing churches or synagogues. This puts the houses of worship of any competing religion in a state of permanent decline.
Also, non-Islamic prayers cannot be spoken within earshot of a Muslim — again, preventing Muslims from being infected by a competing religion. No public displays of any symbols of another faith may be shown either.
All of this prevents the spread of any competing ideas, and makes competing religions die out over time. That's why today there are so many "Muslim countries." Almost every other country in the world is made up of different religions, but because of these principles, Islam tends to displace all other beliefs and cultures wherever it becomes established.
21. A Muslim is forbidden to make friends with a non-Muslim. A Muslim is allowed to pretend to be a friend, but in his heart he must never actually be a friend to a non-Muslim. This is one of the best protections Islam has against Muslims leaving the faith because conversions a new religion are usually made because a friend introduced it. Being forbidden to make friends with non-Muslims helps prevent that from happening. (See Quran quotes about this.)
22. The Quran counsels the use of deceit when dealing with non-Muslims. Mohammad instructed one of his followers to lie if he had to (in order to assassinate one of Mohammad's enemies). This set a precedent, and the principle was clear: If it helps Islam, it's okay to deceive non-Muslims. Read more about this principle here: Lying (Taqiyya and Kitman). And here.
This instruction in the Quran has served Islamic goals very well through history. And it serves those goals today. On the DVD, Obsession: Radical Islam's War Against the West, you can watch real-life examples of Islamic leaders saying one thing in English for the Western press, and saying something entirely different to their own followers in Arabic a few days later.
Deceiving the enemy is always useful in war, and throughout history generals have used it. Islamic teachings consider Islam to be in a permanent state of war with the non-Islamic world until the whole world follows Sharia law (read more about that here). All non-Muslims living in non-Islamic states are "enemies." So deceiving Westerners is totally acceptable because deceiving an enemy in a state of war is totally acceptable. It is encouraged if it can forward the goals of the spread of Islam.
And so we have the strange phenomenon covered by Steven Emerson in Terrorists Among Us, where organizations in America were ostensibly raising money for orphans, but really giving the money to terrorists. They deceived good-hearted Western non-Muslims into giving money to organizations that were actively killing Western non-Muslims.
As it says in the Quran, "War is deceit." This idea gives Islam a tremendous advantage over idea-collections that encourage indiscriminate truthfulness.
23. Islam must always be defended. This idea is a primary linchpin that gives justification for war with almost anybody, as you'll see in the idea below. After the enemy is defeated, of course, Muslims must establish an Islamic state.
24. Islamic writings teach the use of pretext to initiate hostilities. The Quran devotes a lot of time complaining about people who did not support Mohammad when he first started his religion, with Allah often condemning them to torment in hell in the hereafter. The Quran is intensely intolerant of non-Muslims (source).
Mohammad was somewhat pushy and insistent with his religion, and when others felt intruded upon and protested, Mohammad took that to mean they were trying to stop Allah's holy prophet from bringing the revealed word of Allah to the world, so he was justified to fight them and destroy them as Allah's enemies. This is a demonstration of the principle of pretext.
Non-Muslims of the world need urgently to become aware of this principle. Of all the ideas in the Islamic collection, this is the most dangerous to the West because it removes our natural self-preserving defenses. The use of pretext tends to make the West defenseless against Islamic encroachments. And it tends to make the West confused about how to respond to violent Muslim reactions.
The use of pretext means you need only the barest excuse to begin hostilities. It means actually looking for an excuse, and even trying to provoke others into striking the first blow ("starting" the hostilities).
If the only way to get to Paradise is dying while fighting for Islam, you need hostilities. And if it is your holy duty to make all governments use Sharia law, you need to conquer non-Islamic governments. But you don't really want to look like the aggressor. Appearances count. All throughout the Quran, Mohammad tries to justify his aggression as defending Islam.
The Quran repeats 91 times that followers of Islam should use Mohammad as a model and imitate him. So Muslims the world over try to find or create grievances, so they can recruit new warriors, so they can get a holy war started, so they can fight and die in Allah's cause.
And because of the rise of multiculturalism (respect for all other cultures) in the West, the use of pretext is very effective against people who are unfamiliar with Islam. Many Westerners are concerned that al Qaeda is angry at the West for having troops in Saudi Arabia, for example. That's merely a pretext. They want all non-Muslims out of the Middle East. Then they say they will cease hostilities. It is a ridiculous and impossible goal, so they are justified in permanent war against the West to "defend" Islam.
It's surprising that so many Westerners accept this particular pretext because it flies in the face of a fundamental Western principle: Equality. What Osama bin Laden is saying is, "infidels are so undeserving, their very presence somewhere in Arabia defiles the entire country." Wow. What does that say about the non-Muslims?
Why doesn't this kind of racism or prejudice or infidelphobia (or whatever you want to call it) outrage more Westerners? Instead, many think we ought to pull out of the Middle East so we stop offending these poor Muslims.
The principle of pretext means you try to provoke a hostile reaction and then use the hostile reaction as a reason to escalate hostilities. It's the same method schoolyard bullies have used for thousands of years.
25. The explicit use of double standards. Islam has one standard for Muslims, and a different standard for non-Muslims, which always gives the advantage to Muslims and within a Muslim country, it provides incentives to convert.
For example, Islam must be spread by its believers, wherever they are. But when others try to spread their religions, Muslims are supposed to see it as an aggression against Islam — an act of aggression that must be "defended." Islam must always be defended.
As another example, when Islam is defamed in any way, Muslims should violently defend it. Even in a cartoon. But Muslims can and should defame Jews and Christians in Muslim newspapers and television, and they should defame any infidel or enemy, as they defame the U.S. today.
Here's another example: The Islamic supremacists of Saudi Arabia are pouring money into building mosques all over the free world. But according to Sharia law, which is the law in Saudi Arabia, no non-Muslim religious structures are allowed to be built.
Yet Muslims all over the world protest loudly and violently when anyone in Europe or America resists the building of more mosques in their countries.
Islamic supremacists don't see the irony in it. They don't feel strange having such an obvious double standard. They are, after all, Allah's followers and everyone else is deluded. Fairness and equality with such unworthy infidels would seem very out of place. A double standard seems completely appropriate from that perspective.
The double standard principle is a key part of the idea-collection, and it has been a great advantage in the spread of Islam (and the suppression of competing religions).
Sixty-one percent of the Quran is about non-Muslims and how to deal with them. Not one verse in the Quran about non-Muslims is positive (source).
26. It is forbidden to kill a Muslim (except for a just cause). It is not forbidden to kill a non-Muslim. This causes a bond between Muslims, fear in non-Muslims, and motivation to become Muslim. This is also another example of an explicit Islamic double standard.
27. If Muslims drift away from Mohammed's teachings, Allah will end the world. That makes converting others and promoting Islam a matter of survival. It also motivates Muslims to prevent each other from losing faith.
28. The message in a standard Quran is difficult to decipher. Whether it was done intentionally or not, the Quran's message has been scrambled and in a sense, coded. This discourages almost all non-Muslims and a significant percentage of Muslims from understanding it.
In what way is the message scrambled? First, the chapters are published out of order in every standard Quran. Rather than printing them using the chronological order in which they were revealed, the 114 chapters (suras) of the Quran are arranged using a baffling method: They're arranged in order from the longest chapter to the shortest. That's the traditional order.
When you read a standard Quran straight through like a normal book, the message is disjointed and the story jumps around and seems contradictory. One very important consequence of this curious disorder is that it hides the clear progression from Mohammad's semi-tolerance of non-Muslims to his violent hatred toward them.
The disorder also prevents anyone from figuring out which passages are abrogated unless they know the chronological order of the Quran.
The second way the Quran has been put into code is by putting the key somewhere else. Much of the Quran cannot be understood without being familiar with the life of Mohammad (by reading the Sira and the Hadith). These are primarily about Mohammad — what he said and did.
In other words, the Quran — the source book, the single most important holy book in Islam — can't be understood without the key, and the key can only be found somewhere else, which is similar to one of the ways a message can be written in code: Put the key to understanding the message somewhere else besides including it in the message. This is enough to keep most non-Muslims from understanding the Quran, and also keeps most Muslims on a need-to-know basis. So the only ones who really know what's going on are the imams and the scholars. They call the shots. Everyone else is in the dark.
If the Quran wasn't put in code deliberately, it has been a tremendously fortuitous accident which has served the goals of Islam very well throughout history. Fortunately, someone has unscrambled the Quran for us. Read more about that here.
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What should we do with this information about Islam? That's a good question. For some, the solution is to hate Muslims, but that doesn't make any sense. Most Muslims had no choice in their religion, and many of them don't know as much about their own religion as you now do.
I think the best thing any of us can do is to simply help other non-Muslims learn about Islam. Because Islam is so successful, its teachings are becoming more and more influential on the world stage, and some of its built-in aggressiveness should be curbed. But the only way it can be curbed is if enough people know about it. The way we understand Islam will determine what policies we collectively endorse or reject about it.
So first, learn more about it. And then share what you know with others. And let them know what they can do about it too. To learn more, I suggest you first read the Quran. This is the version I recommend.
Learn more about the details of Islamic doctrine here.
If you'd like to do something more, start here: What Can You Do About It?
Let's look at some of the individual ideas within the collection, keeping in mind that many of the ideas enhance each other. In other words, adding one idea to the others can make the whole collection more effective because some ideas work synergistically.
Here are some of the key components of the package of ideas (or bundle of beliefs) known as Islam (you can see this same list as a linked outline here):
1. A standardized version of the idea-collection is written down. This is something basic to several religions and isn't an Islamic invention, but it is an important factor in the success of Islam.
Something only transmitted orally can change over time, but something written will be identical a thousand years from now, and with modern printing presses, can be reproduced in the millions, giving it an enormous advantage in spreading identical copies of the idea-collection.
2. The Quran includes instructions for its own spread. It tells believers they must spread Islam. It is their holy duty to bring Mohammad's warnings and Islamic law to every corner of the world. Read more about that.
3. The idea-collection includes instructions for its own preservation, protection, and duplication. The Quran, the most important of the Islamic holy books, directly tells its followers that they can never change or modify or "modernize" any of the teachings within the idea-collection. It is perfect as it is. It is a capital sin to try to change it. This idea ensures the preservation of the whole collection.
These first three ideas are pretty standard for several successful religions. But now it gets interesting...
4. Islam commands its followers to create a government that supports it. This may be one of the most ingenious ideas in the whole collection. Islam is the only religion that uses it. Other groups of religious people have had political aspirations, but no other major religious group orders its followers — as a religious duty — to create a government that follows its own system of law.
Islam has a system of law, called Sharia, and all Muslims are obligated to continually strive to make their government — wherever they are — follow it. Because of some of the other ideas added to Islam, you will see that this political addition to the idea-collection has significant consequences.
Many people are under the impression that the goal of Islam is to convert everyone to Islam. This is not so. The prime directive of Islam is to bring all people on earth under the rule of Islamic law. Read more about the political nature of the core doctrines of Islam.
5. Permission to spread the religion by war. This is another successful innovation (source). Although some other religions have spread themselves using force, they had very little justification from their own religious doctrines to do so.
Not so with Islam. Expanding by conquest is very much accepted and encouraged by the idea-collection. Islamic teachings present it this way: The non-Muslims need to be saved from the sin of following laws other than Allah's. If they won't voluntarily change their laws to Sharia, then it is a Muslim's duty to insist. The world cannot be at peace until every government on earth follows the laws of Allah.
Mohammad's own experience showed the example — an example, says the Quran 91 times, that every Muslim should follow. At first, Mohammad tried to spread Islam by peaceful means. After thirteen years he'd gained 150 converts.
But then he changed tactics and started using caravan raids, warfare, executions, ransoming captives, and assassination, and within ten years he converted tens of thousands. After he died, his followers used the same tactics and converted millions. And by now it is one and a half billion.
The use of warfare combines synergistically and powerfully with the instruction to create an Islamic state. So Islam spread quickly as their armies got bigger. They conquered and set up Islamic states, most of which have lasted to this day, and the laws within an Islamic state make Islam very difficult to dislodge. The laws also make it very advantageous to convert to Islam.
This is one of the most effective methods ever invented for getting an idea-collection followed by huge numbers of people. It's a method of control and indoctrination similar to those used successfully in communist and totalitarian states. But as you'll discover below, Islam makes unique use of the power of the law to enforce complete conversion to the religion.
Islam started under unique conditions. All other major religions were started within an already-existing state. Islam is an historical exception to this rule.
Any organized government will, of course, put a stop to violent uprisings of a rebellious political group — especially one that wants to wage war and apply its own system of law. Christianity arose within the Roman Empire, for example. If Christianity had been a militant or political uprising, Rome would probably have killed or imprisoned the followers. Probably many military or political religions did start up then, but we've never heard of them. They couldn't get off the ground.
But Islam arose in Arabia when there was no central ruling power. The whole area was comprised of individual tribes. Under those circumstances, conversion by war and the use of force was possible.
6. Lands must be conquered. Lands that Islam has lost must be reconquered (Spain and Israel, for example). The Islamic empire must continually expand. Contraction is bad; expansion is good. So if a land was once Islamic and now it is not, that's contraction, and must be remedied.
According to Islamic teachings, the earth is Allah's. If there are parts of the earth not following Islamic law, it is the duty of the faithful to gain control of that land and establish Sharia. It is a sin to let it be.
7. The idea-collection provides new soldiers by allowing polygamy. According to Sharia law, a Muslim man can marry up to four wives, and he can have sex with as many slave girls as he wishes.
The Quran especially encourages men to marry widows. This is an important idea to add if you are going to be losing a lot of soldiers in war. You need some way of replenishing your army. Otherwise the idea-collection could die out from a lack of offspring. Read more about this principle.
8. It is a punishable offense to criticize Islam. You can see why this one is a good supporting idea for the collection. It helps suppress any ideas that would reduce the authority of Islamic ideas. This idea is in the Quran, and Mohammad set a fierce example of punishing people who criticized him or Islam. Read more about this principle.
9. You can't leave Islam once you're in. This is an interesting one. It is actually illegal in Islamic states to convert out of Islam. This is a critical part of Sharia law. Someone who has rejected Islam who was once a Muslim is an "apostate." This is a crime and a sin, and the punishment for it is death (and eternal damnation in hell thereafter).
Obviously, you can see why this idea has been included in the collection, but this one has actually caused Islam a problem because those who are following Islam to the letter consider more "moderate" Muslims (those who want to ignore or alter the more violent passages of the Quran) to be apostates. Since the punishment for apostates is death, fundamentalist Muslims are fighting modernizing Muslims all over the world, and keeping many rebellious, modernizing Muslims from speaking up for fear of death.
Every time a group of Muslims decides that maybe Islam should be updated for the 21st century and maybe women should have some rights and maybe the government should be more democratic, the devout Muslims call them apostates and discredit them or even try to kill them.
In this and in many other ways, Islam protects its own fidelity (in other words, the original idea-collection cannot be altered).
Another idea in Sharia law says it's against the law for anyone to try to convert a Muslim to another religion.
10. Islam must be your first allegiance. You are a Muslim first, before any allegiance you give to your family, your tribe, or your country.
This does two things: It causes a unity of people across borders which allows the group to grow bigger than any other entity. In other words, the "Nation of Islam" can grow bigger than any country, no matter how large (which gives the group a massive numerical advantage).
11. Dying while fighting for Islam is the ONLY way to guarantee a man's entrance into Paradise. This belief creates fearless, enthusiastic warriors, especially given the Quran's vivid descriptions of the sensuous delights of Paradise.
A Muslim man has a chance of getting to Paradise if he is a good Muslim, but it is not guaranteed. However, if he dies while fighting for Islam, he is guaranteed to get in, and that's the only thing he can do to guarantee it.
12. You must read the Quran in Arabic. This unites believers by language, and language has a very powerful unifying influence. For added incentive to learn Arabic, another basic Islamic principle says you can't go to Paradise unless you pray in Arabic.
So Muslims all over the world share a language. This makes it easier to coordinate far-reaching campaigns of protest, political pressure, and war. Read more about this principle.
13. You must pray five times a day. This is one of the five "pillars" — that is, one of the five central practices — of Islam. Within an Islamic state, this practice is enforced by law. Every Muslim must pray five times a day. The practice helps Islam dominate a Muslim's life, filling his daily rhythm with Islam.
It would be impossible to forget anything you deliberately do so often. Five times a day, every day, a Muslim must bow down and pray to Allah.
Research has shown that the more effort a person expends for a cause, the more he is likely to believe in it and value it. So this is a good way to eventually make believers out of people who became Muslims through coercion.
Islam completely takes over every aspect of Muslims' lives. Not only are they required to pray five times a day, they have to go through a washing ritual beforehand. Islam dictates the laws, and the laws cover many public and private behaviors. In an Islamic state, it is impossible to be a casual Muslim.
14. The prayers involve moving together in time. When Muslims pray, they all face the same direction, they bow down, get on their hands and knees, and put their face on the mat, all in unison, and then rise back up. Again and again.
When people move together in time, whether dancing or marching or praying, it creates a physical and emotional bond between them. That's why all military training involves close-order drill (marching in unison), even though it has been a long time since military groups have actually marched into combat. There is no longer a need for the skill, but military training retained the practice because it is so effective at creating a strong feeling of unity between soldiers (read more about that).
The same is true of any physical movements people make in unison. So the method of prayer in Islam helps Muslims feel unified with each other.
15. A woman is in a thoroughly subordinate position. This idea really helps support other ideas in the collection. If women had too much influence, they'd try to curb the warring. Women in general don't like to send their husbands and sons off to war. But if women have no say in the matter, then the rest of the ideas can express themselves without interference. By subordinating women, the idea-collection prevents their effective vote against war, violence, and conquest.
The rules and laws within Islam that keep women subordinate are numerous. For example, she is not allowed to leave her house unless she is accompanied by a male relative. Under Islamic law, a woman is forbidden to be a head of state or a judge. She can only inherit half of what a man can inherit. In court, her testimony is only worth half of a man's. She is not allowed to choose where she will live or who she will marry. She is not allowed to marry a non-Muslim or divorce her husband. He, however, can divorce her with a wave of his hand. And according to Sharia, he can (and should) beat her if she disobeys him.
All of these ideas keep her subordinate, which helps keep the war machine going unimpeded by domestic rebellion. Read more about Islam's subordination of women.
16. The only way a woman can guarantee her passage into Paradise is if her husband is happy with her when she dies. When I read about this one, I thought, "Mohammad, you are a crafty one."
This idea obviously helps with the subjugation of women. It gives her a strong incentive to subordinate her wishes to her husband's, because while she might have a chance to get into Paradise if she's a good Muslim, the only way she can guarantee she will go to Paradise (and avoid eternal suffering in hell) is to make sure her husband is happy with her when she dies.
17. Allah gives Himself permission to edit his own work. This is an interesting one. It says in the Quran that if a passage written later contradicts an earlier passage, then the later one is the better one (read more about that). The Quran was written in sections (each section is one of Mohammad's revelations, known as a sura or chapter) over a period of 23 years. The circumstances of Mohammad's life and his religion changed quite a bit over those 23 years.
One of the ideas in the Quran is "this is the word of Allah." People had already memorized his earlier revelations, and it would seem a little strange for the all-knowing, infinitely wise Allah to change something He had already said. But with this idea that later revelations abrogated or overwrote earlier revelations when they contradicted, the newer ideas could be accepted. Allah could edit His work.
As I pointed out earlier, in his first 13 years of peacefully preaching, Mohammad only managed to win 150 followers. But as a military leader and violent conqueror, he was able to subjugate all of Arabia to Islamic law in less than 10 years. The peaceful ways were slow. Conversion by conquering and establishing Sharia was faster and more efficient.
The bad news for non-Muslims is that the later, violent, intolerant verses abrogate the earlier peaceful, more tolerant passages. Read more about which passages were abrogated and what the last passages say.
18. The Quran uses the carrot and stick to reinforce behavior. Throughout the book are vivid descriptions of hell, where sinners and non-Muslims have to drink boiling, stinking water, are thrown face down into a raging fire, and have to be there for eternity, suffering endless torments in agony. Read more about this.
There are also vivid descriptions of Paradise. In Paradise, believers wear green silk robes and recline on plush couches. Trees shade them, fruit dangles nearby. Believers have tasty food and refreshing drinks served to them in silver goblets.
But to have a chance of reaching Paradise, they must be devout Muslims. To guarantee it, they must die in jihad (for men) or make sure their husbands are always happy with them (for women).
19. Islam provides a huge and inspiring goal. Leaders of countries, companies, and religions have all discovered that you can get the most motivation and enthusiasm from your followers if you provide them with an expansive vision — an enormous goal. In the Islamic idea-collection, the goal calls for a continuous effort to expand the domain of Islamic law until the entire world is subjugated to it.
Many religions have the goal of converting others to the faith, but Islam has a method available nobody else has: To expand by seizing and converting governments to Sharia, or using the method of gaining one small, incremental concession or accomodation after another until Sharia law is being followed.
Once the whole world is following Islamic law, peace will reign. That's why even terrorists can say with complete sincerity, "Islam is a religion of peace."
The Quran says it's better if non-believers accept Islam and become Muslims without force. But if they refuse, then you must do what you can to at least get them to live by the laws of Allah. Read more about this.
So Muslims have been given quite a mission: To create a one-world government. An Islamic world. World peace. It is an enormous and inspiring and motivating goal, and creates a strong unity of purpose.
20. Non-Muslims must pay a large tax. Once a country is following Sharia law, non-Muslims are given the choice between becoming Muslim or becoming a dhimmi. Dhimmis are allowed to practice their non-Muslim religion if they pay the jizya (a tax). If they convert to Islam, they no longer have to pay the jizya. This obviously creates a practical incentive to convert. Read more.
This is ingenious. The tax takes money away from non-Muslims and their competing religions and gives that money to support Islam. The income from these taxes (usually a 25% income tax) helped fund the Islamic conquests during the first two major jihads. They conquered vast lands, most of them already filled with Christians and Jews, many of whom did not convert at first, and their jizya poured huge sums of money into the Islamic war machine.
Eventually, the numbers of Christians and Jews in those countries dwindled down as they converted or escaped (or in some cases, were massacred), until now, in most Islamic countries, Jews and Christians are very small minorities.
The tax-the-non-Muslims idea helps the Islamic idea-collection make more copies of itself by suppressing competing religions and financially supporting Islam.
Several ideas within Sharia law extend this effect. For example, non-Muslims are not allowed to build any new houses of worship. They're not even allowed to repair already-existing churches or synagogues. This puts the houses of worship of any competing religion in a state of permanent decline.
Also, non-Islamic prayers cannot be spoken within earshot of a Muslim — again, preventing Muslims from being infected by a competing religion. No public displays of any symbols of another faith may be shown either.
All of this prevents the spread of any competing ideas, and makes competing religions die out over time. That's why today there are so many "Muslim countries." Almost every other country in the world is made up of different religions, but because of these principles, Islam tends to displace all other beliefs and cultures wherever it becomes established.
21. A Muslim is forbidden to make friends with a non-Muslim. A Muslim is allowed to pretend to be a friend, but in his heart he must never actually be a friend to a non-Muslim. This is one of the best protections Islam has against Muslims leaving the faith because conversions a new religion are usually made because a friend introduced it. Being forbidden to make friends with non-Muslims helps prevent that from happening. (See Quran quotes about this.)
22. The Quran counsels the use of deceit when dealing with non-Muslims. Mohammad instructed one of his followers to lie if he had to (in order to assassinate one of Mohammad's enemies). This set a precedent, and the principle was clear: If it helps Islam, it's okay to deceive non-Muslims. Read more about this principle here: Lying (Taqiyya and Kitman). And here.
This instruction in the Quran has served Islamic goals very well through history. And it serves those goals today. On the DVD, Obsession: Radical Islam's War Against the West, you can watch real-life examples of Islamic leaders saying one thing in English for the Western press, and saying something entirely different to their own followers in Arabic a few days later.
Deceiving the enemy is always useful in war, and throughout history generals have used it. Islamic teachings consider Islam to be in a permanent state of war with the non-Islamic world until the whole world follows Sharia law (read more about that here). All non-Muslims living in non-Islamic states are "enemies." So deceiving Westerners is totally acceptable because deceiving an enemy in a state of war is totally acceptable. It is encouraged if it can forward the goals of the spread of Islam.
And so we have the strange phenomenon covered by Steven Emerson in Terrorists Among Us, where organizations in America were ostensibly raising money for orphans, but really giving the money to terrorists. They deceived good-hearted Western non-Muslims into giving money to organizations that were actively killing Western non-Muslims.
As it says in the Quran, "War is deceit." This idea gives Islam a tremendous advantage over idea-collections that encourage indiscriminate truthfulness.
23. Islam must always be defended. This idea is a primary linchpin that gives justification for war with almost anybody, as you'll see in the idea below. After the enemy is defeated, of course, Muslims must establish an Islamic state.
24. Islamic writings teach the use of pretext to initiate hostilities. The Quran devotes a lot of time complaining about people who did not support Mohammad when he first started his religion, with Allah often condemning them to torment in hell in the hereafter. The Quran is intensely intolerant of non-Muslims (source).
Mohammad was somewhat pushy and insistent with his religion, and when others felt intruded upon and protested, Mohammad took that to mean they were trying to stop Allah's holy prophet from bringing the revealed word of Allah to the world, so he was justified to fight them and destroy them as Allah's enemies. This is a demonstration of the principle of pretext.
Non-Muslims of the world need urgently to become aware of this principle. Of all the ideas in the Islamic collection, this is the most dangerous to the West because it removes our natural self-preserving defenses. The use of pretext tends to make the West defenseless against Islamic encroachments. And it tends to make the West confused about how to respond to violent Muslim reactions.
The use of pretext means you need only the barest excuse to begin hostilities. It means actually looking for an excuse, and even trying to provoke others into striking the first blow ("starting" the hostilities).
If the only way to get to Paradise is dying while fighting for Islam, you need hostilities. And if it is your holy duty to make all governments use Sharia law, you need to conquer non-Islamic governments. But you don't really want to look like the aggressor. Appearances count. All throughout the Quran, Mohammad tries to justify his aggression as defending Islam.
The Quran repeats 91 times that followers of Islam should use Mohammad as a model and imitate him. So Muslims the world over try to find or create grievances, so they can recruit new warriors, so they can get a holy war started, so they can fight and die in Allah's cause.
And because of the rise of multiculturalism (respect for all other cultures) in the West, the use of pretext is very effective against people who are unfamiliar with Islam. Many Westerners are concerned that al Qaeda is angry at the West for having troops in Saudi Arabia, for example. That's merely a pretext. They want all non-Muslims out of the Middle East. Then they say they will cease hostilities. It is a ridiculous and impossible goal, so they are justified in permanent war against the West to "defend" Islam.
It's surprising that so many Westerners accept this particular pretext because it flies in the face of a fundamental Western principle: Equality. What Osama bin Laden is saying is, "infidels are so undeserving, their very presence somewhere in Arabia defiles the entire country." Wow. What does that say about the non-Muslims?
Why doesn't this kind of racism or prejudice or infidelphobia (or whatever you want to call it) outrage more Westerners? Instead, many think we ought to pull out of the Middle East so we stop offending these poor Muslims.
The principle of pretext means you try to provoke a hostile reaction and then use the hostile reaction as a reason to escalate hostilities. It's the same method schoolyard bullies have used for thousands of years.
25. The explicit use of double standards. Islam has one standard for Muslims, and a different standard for non-Muslims, which always gives the advantage to Muslims and within a Muslim country, it provides incentives to convert.
For example, Islam must be spread by its believers, wherever they are. But when others try to spread their religions, Muslims are supposed to see it as an aggression against Islam — an act of aggression that must be "defended." Islam must always be defended.
As another example, when Islam is defamed in any way, Muslims should violently defend it. Even in a cartoon. But Muslims can and should defame Jews and Christians in Muslim newspapers and television, and they should defame any infidel or enemy, as they defame the U.S. today.
Here's another example: The Islamic supremacists of Saudi Arabia are pouring money into building mosques all over the free world. But according to Sharia law, which is the law in Saudi Arabia, no non-Muslim religious structures are allowed to be built.
Yet Muslims all over the world protest loudly and violently when anyone in Europe or America resists the building of more mosques in their countries.
Islamic supremacists don't see the irony in it. They don't feel strange having such an obvious double standard. They are, after all, Allah's followers and everyone else is deluded. Fairness and equality with such unworthy infidels would seem very out of place. A double standard seems completely appropriate from that perspective.
The double standard principle is a key part of the idea-collection, and it has been a great advantage in the spread of Islam (and the suppression of competing religions).
Sixty-one percent of the Quran is about non-Muslims and how to deal with them. Not one verse in the Quran about non-Muslims is positive (source).
26. It is forbidden to kill a Muslim (except for a just cause). It is not forbidden to kill a non-Muslim. This causes a bond between Muslims, fear in non-Muslims, and motivation to become Muslim. This is also another example of an explicit Islamic double standard.
27. If Muslims drift away from Mohammed's teachings, Allah will end the world. That makes converting others and promoting Islam a matter of survival. It also motivates Muslims to prevent each other from losing faith.
28. The message in a standard Quran is difficult to decipher. Whether it was done intentionally or not, the Quran's message has been scrambled and in a sense, coded. This discourages almost all non-Muslims and a significant percentage of Muslims from understanding it.
In what way is the message scrambled? First, the chapters are published out of order in every standard Quran. Rather than printing them using the chronological order in which they were revealed, the 114 chapters (suras) of the Quran are arranged using a baffling method: They're arranged in order from the longest chapter to the shortest. That's the traditional order.
When you read a standard Quran straight through like a normal book, the message is disjointed and the story jumps around and seems contradictory. One very important consequence of this curious disorder is that it hides the clear progression from Mohammad's semi-tolerance of non-Muslims to his violent hatred toward them.
The disorder also prevents anyone from figuring out which passages are abrogated unless they know the chronological order of the Quran.
The second way the Quran has been put into code is by putting the key somewhere else. Much of the Quran cannot be understood without being familiar with the life of Mohammad (by reading the Sira and the Hadith). These are primarily about Mohammad — what he said and did.
In other words, the Quran — the source book, the single most important holy book in Islam — can't be understood without the key, and the key can only be found somewhere else, which is similar to one of the ways a message can be written in code: Put the key to understanding the message somewhere else besides including it in the message. This is enough to keep most non-Muslims from understanding the Quran, and also keeps most Muslims on a need-to-know basis. So the only ones who really know what's going on are the imams and the scholars. They call the shots. Everyone else is in the dark.
If the Quran wasn't put in code deliberately, it has been a tremendously fortuitous accident which has served the goals of Islam very well throughout history. Fortunately, someone has unscrambled the Quran for us. Read more about that here.
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What should we do with this information about Islam? That's a good question. For some, the solution is to hate Muslims, but that doesn't make any sense. Most Muslims had no choice in their religion, and many of them don't know as much about their own religion as you now do.
I think the best thing any of us can do is to simply help other non-Muslims learn about Islam. Because Islam is so successful, its teachings are becoming more and more influential on the world stage, and some of its built-in aggressiveness should be curbed. But the only way it can be curbed is if enough people know about it. The way we understand Islam will determine what policies we collectively endorse or reject about it.
So first, learn more about it. And then share what you know with others. And let them know what they can do about it too. To learn more, I suggest you first read the Quran. This is the version I recommend.
Learn more about the details of Islamic doctrine here.
If you'd like to do something more, start here: What Can You Do About It?
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