Islam Unveiled: Disturbing Questions about the World's Fastest-Growing Faith

by Robert Spencer

  4. "Mr. Robertson's Incitement," Washington Post, 23 February 2002, p. A2o.

  5. Alexander Stille, "Scholars Are Quietly Offering New Theories of the Koran," New York Times, z March 2oo2, p. At.

  6. Ibid.

  Chapter r: Is Islam a Religion of Peace?

  i. George W. Bush, Address to a Joint Session of Congress and the American People, White House Press Release, zo September zoos.

  2. Bill Clinton, Remarks by the President to the Opening Session of the 53rd United Nations General Assembly, White House Press Release, 21 September 1998.

  3. Islam has also inspired a few adherents of the "all religions are one" dogma, most notably the Sufi pantheist Ibn al-`Arabi (1165-1240).

  4. Karen Armstrong, Islam: A Short History (Modern Library, 2000), p. 8.

  5. Ibid., pp. 579-80.

  6. wwwcnn.com, 14 December zooi.

  7. Because of its association in the West with the notorious bounty that the Ayatollah Khomeini put on Salman Rushdie's head, the wordfatwa is often used as a synonym for a Mafia "contract"-a death sentence. But in fact it means simply a ruling by an imam on a disputed question. In Shia Islam, the dominant sect in Iran, religious teachers (mullahs) generally command even greater authority and respect than they do in Sunnism: they're not just interpreters of the law, but guides and exemplars in living it.

  8. "Shaykh Saalih al-Lehaydaan Says Deadly Attacks in USA Are a `Terrible Crime,"' www fatwa-online.com, 14 September 2001. As for law in Saudi Arabia: traffic laws and other minor statutes are not, of course, dictated by Islamic law, but all major law is based on Islamic religious tenets.

  9. "Shaykh Saalih as-Suhaymee Speaks about Current Affairs..." www.fatwa- online.com, i8 October zoos.

  to. "A Muslim Activist Questioning Sheikh Omar Regarding the Recent Attack on USA," www.almuhajiroun.com,15 December tool.

  11. Allah is the proper name of God in the Qur'an; it can be precisely rendered in English as something akin to "the God" or "the one God." Some translators-notably N. J. Dawood in his Penguin edition of the Qur'anrender it simply as "God." Many Muslims, however, use the Arabic word when speaking and writing English, and I have followed their lead.

  12. Osama bin Laden videotape, U.S. government transcript, trans. George Michael, Associated Press, 14 December 2001.

  13. "The Salafi Cult: The Modern Day Khawarij," www.wahhabi.info/.

  14. Stephen Schwartz, "Seeking Moderation," National Review Online, 25 October 2001. Schwartz is author of Kosovo: Background to a War.

  15. William J. Bennett, Why We Fight.- Moral Clarity and the War on Terrorism (Doubleday, zooz), p. 85.

  16. Capitalization as in the original.

  17. Sheikh Omar Bakri Muhammad, "Saudism END Wahhabism," 14 March 1997, wwwkavkaz.com/enews4.html.

  18. "Declaration of Press Conference Held by Members ofAl-Muhajiroun in Lahore Press Club, Pakistan," 21 September 2001, www.al-muhajiroun.com.

  19. Thomas Wagner, "British Islamist Issues Warning," Associated Press, 7 January 2002.

  20. Quoted in Jeff Jacoby, "Outspoken, Muslim-and Moderate," Boston Globe, 16 May 2002.

  21. Ibid.

  22. Jake Tapper, "Islam's Flawed Spokesmen," www salon.com, 26 September 2001.

  23. "Some Muslim Leaders Seen with Bush Expressed Support for Terrorist Groups," www.foxnews.com, i October 2001.

  24. Hanna Rosin and John Mintz, "Muslim Leaders Struggle with Mixed Messages," Washington Post, z October 2001, p. A16. Yusuf had been outspoken before. His friend Jamil al-Amin, an imam and convert to Islam who became notorious in the sixties as black militant H. Rap Brown, was recently convicted of murdering a sheriff's deputy who was trying to serve him with an arrest warrant. A few years ago Yusuf said of him: "He's a man who by necessity must speak the truth. That is a dangerous man.... Within this government are elements who will do anything to silence the truth. They'll assassinate either the person or the character." See "'6os Radical Gets Life in Prison for Murdering Deputy," www.cnn.com, 14 March 2002.

  25. Quoted in Bennett, Why We Fight, p. 90.

  26. Tapper, "Islam's Flawed Spokesmen."

  27. V. S. Naipaul, Among the Believers: An Islamic Journey (Vintage Books, 1982), p. 103.

  28. Seyyed Hossein Nasr, A Young Muslim's Guide to the Modern World (Kazi Publications, 1994), p. 15.

  29. Badr ad Din az-Zurkashi: al-Burhan fz 'ulum al-qu'ran, quoted in Tilman Nagel, The History oflslamic Theology from Muhammad to the Present, trans. Thomas Thornton (Markus Wiener Publishers, 2000), p. 1.

  30. Caesar E. Farah, Islam, 6th ed. (Barrons, 2000), p. 77.

  P. Mohammed Marmaduke Pickthall, The Meaning of the Glorious Koran (New American Library, 1991).

  32. Islam put a stop to the pre-Islamic practice in Arabia of killing infant girls, who were regarded as a financial liability.

  33. John L. Esposito, Islam: The Straight Path, 3rd ed. (Oxford University Press, 1998), p. 20.

  34. All Qur'anic quotations in this book, except where noted, are taken from the translation by N. J. Dawood, The Koran (Penguin Books, 1990). One popular English translation of the Qur'an renders this verse "strive hard against The Unbelievers": The Meaning of the Holy Qur'an, trans. and with commentary by'Abdullah Yusuf'Ali, loth ed. (Amana Publications, 1999).

  35. Amatul Rahman Omar and Abdul Mannan Omar, "Introduction to the Study of the Holy Qur'an," in The Holy Qur'an: Arabic Text-English Translation (Noor Foundation International, 1990), p. 37A.

  36. Ahmed ibn Naqib al-Misri, Reliance of the Traveller. A Classic Manual of Islamic Sacred Law, trans. Nuh Ha Mim Keller (Amana Publications, 1999), 09.0.

  37. Quoted in Aid to the Church in Need, "Religious Freedom in the Majority Islamic Countries 1998 Report: Afghanistan," www.alleanzacattolica. org/acs/index.htm.

  38. Quoted in Naipaul, Among the Believers, p. 139.

  39. Farid ud-Din Attar, The Conference of the Birds, trans. Afkham Darbandi and Dick Davis (Penguin Books, 1984), p. 68.

  40. "Yusuf Islam Calls for Journalist's Release," wwwcnn.com, 3 February 2002.

  41. "Boxing Legend Ali Asks for Reporter's Release," wwwcnn.com, 31 January 2002.

  42. Could Yusuf Islam and Muhammad Ali have imported their ideas of a merciful God from their former religion?

  43. "U.S. Evangelist Warns of Violence in Islam," Reuters, 24 February 2002.

  44. Kenneth L. Woodward, "In the Beginning, There Were the Holy Books," Newsweek, ii February 2002, p. 53.

  45. Ahmad Von Denffer, `Ulum al-Qur'an: An Introduction to the Sciences of the Qur'an (The Islamic Foundation, 1994), p. 17.

  46. That is, except those that are qualified in the text itself. For example, the Qur'an acknowledges that alcohol and gambling "have some benefit for men," although "their harm is far greater than their benefit" (Sura 2:219). But elsewhere it says that "wine and games of chance ... are abominations devised by Satan" (Sura 5:90). If Satan devised them, they can have no benefits. Most Muslims consider the gentle warning of Sura 2:219 to be, in effect, superseded by the absolute prohibition of Sura 5:9o.

  47. Farah, Islam, p. 79-

  48. Irshad Manji, "A Muslim Plea for Introspection," Jewish World Review, 2 April 2002.

  49. The caliph was considered the successor of Muhammad as the political and spiritual leader of the entire Muslim community. Caliphs reigned in Islam most recently as sultans of the Ottoman Empire. That empire fell in the early twenties, and the caliphate was soon abolished by the new secular state of Turkey. Osama bin Laden has referred to this as a great outrage that must be redressed: the caliphate must be restored. Then, presumably, Islam will unite under the caliph and recover its former glory.

  50. Harun Yahya, "Islam Is Not the Source of Terrorism, but Its Solution," www.islamdenouncesterrorism.com.

  51. Quoted in Bennett, Why We Fight, p. 122.

  52. "The Islamic Ruling on the Permissibility of Martyrdom Operations," www.al-muhajiroun.com, 1 November 2001.

  53. Quoted in Yotam Feldner, "72 Black-Eyed Vi
rgins?" Claremont Review of Books, Fall 2001, p. 17. The "son of pigs and monkeys" epithet may be derived from the Qur'an. Speaking of the Jews, Allah says, "You have heard of those of you that broke the Sabbath. We said to them: `You shall be changed into detested apes."' (Sura 2:65; cf. Sura 7:166).

  54. Harun Yahya, "Islam Is Not the Source of Terrorism."

  55• John Walker Lindh (doodoo@hooked.net), "Re: Are Shi'a Muslims?" soc.religion.islam, 6 June 1997.

  56. Mohamed Azad and Bibi Amina, Islam Will Conquer All Other Religions and American Power Will Diminish (Bell Six Publishing, 2ooI), p. 33.

  57. Reliance of the Traveller, 08.7 (10).

  58. Ibid., p. vii.

  59. Ibid., p. xx.

  6o. Woodward, "In the Beginning, There Were the Holy Books," p. 53.

  61. In this he anticipated the English King Henry II's notorious question about the archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas a Becket: "Will no one rid me of this meddlesome priest?" But Henry was merely a king, not a prophet of God.

  62. Maxime Rodinson, Muhammad, trans. Anne Carter (Pantheon Books, 1980), pp. 157,171-72.

  63. The payment of the tax on infidels, the jizya, was accompanied by a ritual blow on the back of the head, administered by a Muslim magistrate.

  64. This practice dates chiefly from the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.

  65. Bat Ye'or, The Decline of Eastern Christianity under Islam: From Jihad to Dhimmitude (Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1996), p. 81.

  66. Reliance of the Traveller, 024.2(e).

  67. World Evangelical Alliance, "Religious Liberty Prayer List-No. 13o-Tue. 21 Aug. 2001," www.worldevangelical.org.

  68. Cartoon by Tony Auth, National Catholic Reporter, 8 March 2002, p. 28.

  69. Samuel D. Bradley, "September ii and God," Common Sense Online: The Intercollegiate Journal of Humanism and Freethought, www.cs-journal.org.

  70. Kenneth L. Woodward, "In the Beginning, There Were the Holy Books."

  71. Bennett, Why We Fight.

  72. Quoted in Amir Taheri, Holy Terror: Inside the World of Islamic Terrorism (Adler & Adler, 1987), Pp. 241-43. The Ayatollah's statement, "Whatever good there is exists thanks to the sword and in the shadow of the sword!" is an intriguing echo of Jesus' words in Matthew 26:42: "He who lives by the sword will die by the sword."

  73. "The Al Qaeda Manual," U.S. Department of justice translation, www.usdoj.gov/ag/trainingmanual.htm.

  74. Taheri, Holy Terror, p. 1r.

  75. Daniel Pipes, "Who Is the Enemy?" Commentar. s January 2002. Reprinted at www.danielpipes.org.

  76. Quoted in David Pryce-Jones, The Closed Circle: An Interpretation of the Arabs (Ivan R. Dee, 2002), pp. 31-32.

  77. Farrukh Dhondy, "An Islamic Fifth Column: Muslim Americans and Englishmen Join the Jihad," Opinion journal, 26 December 2001, www. opinionjournal.com.

  78. Amir Taheri, "Islam Can't Escape Blame for Sept. 11," Wall Street journal, 24 October 2001.

  Chapter 2: Does Islam Promote and Safeguard Sound Moral Values?

  1. Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Ideals and Realities oflslam (ABC International Group, 2000), p. 82.

  2. Quoted in Annemarie Schimmel, And Muhammad Is His Messenger: The Veneration of the Prophet in Islamic Piety (University of North Carolina Press, 1985), P. 5•

  3. Akbar S. Ahmed, Islam Today: A Short Introduction to the Muslim World (I. B. Tauris Publishers, 2ooi), p. 28.

  4. Nasr, Ideals and Realities of Islam, p. 58.

  5. Ibid., p. 59-

  6. Maxime Rodinson, Muhammad, trans. Anne Carter (Pantheon Books, 1980), p. 205.

  7. Caesar E. Farah, Islam, 6th ed. (Barron, 2ooo), p. 67.

  8. Rodinson, Muhammad p. 207.

  9. Muhammed ibn Ismaiel al-Bukhari, Sahih al-Bukhari: The Translation of the Meanings, trans. Muhammad M. Khan (Darussalam, 1997), vol. 3, bk. 52, no. 2661.

  io. This al-Kindi is not to be confused with the early Muslim philosopher and theologian of the same name, though it is likely he was from the same large clan. He may have been at the court of Caliph al-Mamun, who favored the rationalistic and latitudinarian views of the Mu'tazilites; see chapter seven.

  ii. Nasr, Ideals and Realities of Islam, p. 6i.

  12. Rodinson, Muhammad, pp. 279-83.

  13. Other early Muslim traditions give the revelation of the passage a different cause, but one which also revolves around the mutual jealousy of Muhammad's wives. See Sahih al-Bukhari, vol. 7, bk. 68, nos. 5267 and 5268.

  14. Mohammed Nasir-ul-Deen al-Albani, "The Status of Sunnah in Islam," trans. A. R. M. Zerruque, www.orst.edu/groups/msa/books/sunnahi.html. Evidence of this article's accuracy in reflecting accepted Muslim views is its presence at many Muslim websites, including www.sultan.org, a Muslim apologetics and information site that calls readers to "Correct your information about Islam, The Misunderstood Religion."

  15. Wael B. Hallaq, A History oflslamic Legal Theories (Cambridge University Press, 1997), p. 6o. Hallaq refers to Muhammad ibn Idris al-Shafi'i (767-819), founder of the school that bears his name and an enormously important figure in Islamic jurisprudence as a whole.

  16. Abu Abdir Rahmaan, "The Sunnah: The Second Form of Revelation," Al- Haramain Online Newsletter, July 2000, http://alharamain.org/english/ newsletter/issue38/sunnah.htm.

  17. Ahmad Von Denffer, `Ulum al-Qur'an: An Introduction to the Sciences of the Qur'an (The Islamic Foundation, 1994), pp. 18-19.

  18. Ignaz Goldhizer, Muslim Studies, vol. 2 (George Allen & Unwin Ltd., 1970, P. 55, quoted in William Van Doodewaard, "Hadith Authenticity: A Survey of Perspectives," unpublished article, University of Western Ontario (London, Ontario, 1996).

  19. The Arabic plural of hadith is ahadith, and this is found in much Englishlanguage Muslim literature. However, to avoid confusing English-speaking readers I have used the English plural form.

  zo. John L. Esposito, Islam: The Straight Path, 3rd ed. (Oxford University Press, 1998), p. 81.

  21. Abdul Hamid Siddiqi, "Introduction to Imam Muslim," Sahih Muslim, trans. Abdul Hamid Siddiqi, rev. ed. (Kitab Bhavan, 2000), p. V.

  22. Dr. Muhammad Muhsin Khan, introduction to Sahih Bukhari, pp. 18-19.

  23. Sahih Bukhari, vol. 5, bk. 63, no. 3894.

  24. Rodinson, Muhammad, pp. 150-51.

  25. Sahih Bukhari, vol. 7, bk. 67, no. 5158.

  z6. Amir Taheri, The Spirit ofAllah: Khomeini and the Islamic Revolution (Adler & Adler, 1986), pp. 90-91.

  27. Ibid., p. 35-

  28. "Questions eligibility of daughter in marriage of woman he touched with lust," Fatwa No. 12552, Fatwa Center, www.islamweb.net/english/fatwa.

  29. "Child Marriage `Violates Rights,'" BBC News, 7 March 2001. United Nations Children's Fund, "UNICEF: Child Marriages Must Stop," 7 March 2001, www.unicef.org/newsline/oipr2i.htm.

  30. Andrew Bushell, "Child Marriage in Afghanistan and Pakistan," America, 11 March 2002, p. 12.

  P. Lisa Beyer, "The Women of Islam," Time, 25 November 2001. Reprinted at www.time.com/time/world/article/o,8599,i85647,oo.htmi.

  32. Bushell, "Child Marriage in Afghanistan and Pakistan."

  33. Sahih Bukhari, vol. 7, bk. 67, nos. 5117-5118.

  34. Sahih Bukhari, vol. 7, bk. 67, no. 5119.

  35. Sahih Bukhari, vol. 7, bk. 67, footnote r, p. 46.

  36. Sayyid Mujtaba Busavi Lari, "Temporary Marriages," Light of Islam, http://home.swipnet.se/islam/english.htm. See also "Temporary Marriage in Islam," Al Zahra Muslim Association, http://members.ozemail. com.au/-azma/.

  37. Ibid.

  38. In Shia Islam, the word Imam refers to the twelve (in the dominant Shi'ite sect) great leaders of the community following the Prophet Muhammad.

  39. See chapter ten.

  40. Quoted in Baqer Moin, Khomeini: Life of the Ayatollah (St. Martin's Press, 1999), p. 30.

  41. Taheri, Spirit ofAllah, pp. 86-87.

  42. Lari, "Temporary Marriages."

  43• Sahih Bukhari, vol. I, bk. 8, no. 371.

  44. Sahih Bukhari, vol. 5, bk. 64, no. 4213.<
br />
  45. Sahih Bukhari, vol. 9, bk. 97, no. 7409.

  46. Ibid.

  47. Sahih Bukhari, vol. 4, bk. 57, no. 3141.

  48. Sahih Bukhari, vol. 4, bk. 61, no. 3632.

  49. Sahih Bukhari, vol. 6, bk. 65, no. 4770.

  50. Sahih Muslim, vol. 1, bk. I, no. 406.

  51. Sahih Muslim, vol. 3, bk. 17, no. 4436.

  52. Sahih Bukhari, vol. 5, bk. 64, no. 4037.

  53. Sahih Bukhari, vol. 4, bk. 56, no. 3030.

  54. Sahih Bukhari, vol. 4, bk. 58, no. 3185. This incident is recounted in many other hadiths as well.

  55. Sahih Bukhari, vol. 5, bk. 64, no. 3960.

  56. Martin Lings, Muhammad: His Life Based on the Earliest Sources (Inner Traditions International, 1983), p. 232.

  Chapter 3: Does Islam Respect Human Rights?

  1. Amir Taheri, The Spirit ofAllah: Khomeini and the Islamic Revolution (Adler & Adler, 1986), pp. 20, 45.

  2. Ibid., p. 44.

  3. Allah in the Qur'an often speaks with the royal plural, although He is an absolute Unity in the firmly anti-Trinitarian Muslim scriptures.

  4. "Mullah Omar Warns AI against Criticizing Shariah," News Network International, 25 May 1998.

  5. Ahmed Rashid, Taliban: Militant Islam, Oil and Fundamentalism in Central Asia (Yale University Press, zooo), p. 118.

  6. Quoted in Aid to the Church in Need, "Religious Freedom in the Majority Islamic Countries 1998 Report: Afghanistan," www.alleanzacattolica. org/acs/index.htm.

  7. V. S. Naipaul, Among the Believers: An Islamic Journey (Vintage Books, 1982), p. 270.

  8. Reliance of the Traveller, 08.4.

  9. Amnesty International, "Egypt Report 2001," www.amnesty.org.

  1o. Mullah Marton Niazi, "Fatwa on the Hazaras," 1o August 1998, www. hazara.net.

  11. Human Rights Watch, "Massacres of the Hazaras in Afghanistan," vol. 13, no. 1C, February 2001, www.hrw.org.

  12. Amnesty International, "Defying World Trends-Saudi Arabia's Extensive Use of Capital Punishment," 11 January 2001, www.amnesty.org.

  13. Quoted in James M. Dorsey, "Ismaili Shiite Group Seeks an End to Saudi Religious Discrimination," Wall Street Journal, 9 January 2002.

  14. Stephen Schwartz, "Despotism in Saudi Arabia," Weekly Standard, 18 February 2002, p. 20.