Muslims Will Have To Concede That Islam Is A Violent Faith

By Sumit Paul, New Age Islam 2 October 2023 What happened at a mosque in Balochistan on Muhammad's Birth Anniversary has again raised an often-asked question: Is Islam intrinsically violent? Sad to say, it is. Nearly sixty poor and innocent Muslims were killed at a mosque offering Namaz on the day of the Birth Anniversary of Islam's founder. This is sad and unfortunate. Bomb blasts have been taking place at regular intervals in the Islamic countries like Pakistan (always the Numero Uno on this count), Tanzania, Nigeria, Sudan, Somalia, among others. Muslims have been killing Muslims. There seems to be no solution to Islamic militancy and terrorism. A few years ago, in the wake of the terrorist attack in Manchester, UK, in which a suicide bomber blew himself up as thousands of fans were exiting Ariana Grande’s pop concert, killing 22 people and injuring 59, the question arose: Is Islam violent? TOI invited yours truly and Maulana Wahiduddin Khan's views on this issue. I categorically called Islam a violent faith and Maulana defended Islam with his feeble arguments. -------- Islam: Violent Or Peaceful? Following are my views: ‘Inherently Violent’ SUMIT PAUL Is Islam inherently violent or are fringe elements besmirching its image? As a student of Islamic theology and a complete non-believer, I’ve always felt that Islam is inherently and intrinsically violent. Islam is the youngest of the three Semitic faiths, namely, Judaism, Christianity and Islam. History of Halaal Despite Judaism and Islam being at loggerheads with each other right from Islam’s inception, some 1400 years ago, there’re so many ritualistic legacies of Judaism borrowed by Islam. The kosher of Judaism became Halaal in Islam. Not eating pork and circumcision are common in both the faiths. There’re 21 other major and minor rituals in both faiths that are common and Islam borrowed them from Judaism, the oldest existing organised faith in the world. Religio-ethnically, Islam is a tribal religion, with its origin is the desert of Arabia. There were many warring tribes here, fighting and killing among themselves. Professor Hamilton Gibb, renowned western authority on Islam, wrote that the pre-Islamic shambolic scenario percolated down to the fabric of Islam and therefore Islam could never part with its violent, pagan past. The ‘tribal troglodytism’, a phrase coined by Samuel Huntington in his seminal essay ‘The clash of civilizations’ (1963), explains the intrinsic violent streak of Islam. As an efficient leader of those tribal people, Muhammad integrated the constantly embattled tribes into a cohesive unit and Islam came into being. That he had visions and verses descending upon him for 23 years are purely theological issues. The then socio- ethnic issues formed the axis of the neophyte Islam which had before it, two already great and established faiths, Judaism and Christianity. Islam needed to establish itself as a religious group competing with Judaism and Christianity, and so its advocates took a ruthless stance. Late Professor Bernard Lewis of Princeton University, said, “ The violent measures that the founder/s of Islam resorted to for establishing its supremacy over two existing religions (Judaism and Christianity) became integral to the consciousness of Islam and it could never give up violence.” He further stated that ‘violence is Islam’s structural essence’. It’s Islam’s leit motif. It’s not always the greatness of Islam’s holy book Quran and its seemingly simple teachings that inspired heathens, pagans and idol-worshippers to embrace Islam, but often the violent measures which compelled them to do so. Most of today’s subcontinental Muslims rooting for Islam had unwilling ancestors, who had to accept it because they had no other option. French scholar Francois Gautier has stated this fact time and again in his books on the spread of Islam in the subcontinent. The history of Islam is fraught with violent conversions. Algeria-born French existentialist Albert Camus got so disgusted with radical Islam that when he grew up, he left all manmade faiths and he wrote to his daughter and to fellow existentialist Jean Paul Sartre, “I should be ‘thankful’ to Islam that I could see its naked reality and the extended nakedness of all useless religions.” During my postdoctoral research at Columbia University, I came across unambiguously violent verses in the Quran. Many sane and sensible minds have begun to question the very need of any religion and its by-product, god. It’s high time, we discarded not just Islam but all man-made religions that have outgrown their utility and become a veritable nuisance to humankind. ¦ Sumit Paul extensively researched Islam at Cairo and Columbia University Post your comments at speakingtree.in ------- Islam needs a thorough revamp. Instead of finding fault with other faiths and condemning them for theological deviations, it's time for the Muslims across the globe to introspect and find the causes that have tarnished the image of their religion. They must also ask themselves as to why the whole world criticizes Islam. There's no smoke without fire. Instead of defining and defending violent verses in the Quran, it's better if they're removed permanently. Didn't Christians and Jewish make corrections in the Bible and Torah to make the Books in sync with modern times? You cannot dictate your life by a 7th-Century book scribed by desert yokels in ambiguous and incorrect Arabic. Strip the Quran of its violent spirit and make it a benign book not just for Muslims but for the whole of humanity. A book with repeatedly threatening passages and a punitive Allah cannot be called a pleasant screed. Muslims must embrace the modern values and ethos of a civilized world instead of sticking to their primitive faith the way a toddler refuses to part with his toy. They must stop pontificating and calling others Kafir or infidels. Let others worship the way they want to. If Ahmadiyas believe in some other person and revere him, what's your problem? Sublimate your obsession with Allah, Quran and Muhammad into a passion. So long as mad and marauding Muslims remain obsessed with these three pillars of their faith, they'll continue to indulge in massacres and mayhem all over the world. In fine, Islam is sick. It, therefore, has to be medicated, treated in an organised manner such as mass vaccination, etc. in a military type discipline. ------ A regular columnist for New Age Islam, Sumit Paul is a researcher in comparative religions, with special reference to Islam. He has contributed articles to the world's premier publications in several languages including Persian. URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-politics/muslims-concede-violent-faith/d/130800 New Age Islam, Islam Online, Islamic Website, African Muslim News, Arab World News, South Asia News, Indian Muslim News, World Muslim News, Women in Islam, Islamic Feminism, Arab Women, Women In Arab, Islamophobia in America, Muslim Women in West, Islam Women and Feminism