₦airaland Forum

striktlymi: Good afternoon Clown,

I am curious to know your motive for putting up this thread.

Christians should know these information, they should know that their fellow Christians in the Muslim dominated world are being oppressed and persecuted. For Muslims, so that they can know why the word "Islamophobia" is not just a product of propaganda. While Muslims live peacefully in Christian dominated countries and regions, people of other faiths can't. Lets be properly informed, for only then will Christians not live in deception and good Muslims give their voices against the evils perpetrated in the name of their religion.

watch for more of this kind of news.

Muslim Persecution of Christians: December, 2012

by Raymond Ibrahim on February 6, 2013 in Muslim Persecution of Christians





Published by Gatestone Institute

As usual, the month of Christmas saw an uptick in Christian persecution under Islam, in a variety of forms, from insults to murders. In Iran, Pastor Youssef Nadarkhani—after being imprisoned and tormented for years for converting to Christianity, then recently released thanks to international pressure—was rearrested again, on Christmas Day, to serve the remainder of his 45 days, which the court had earlier decreed could be served in the form of probation; in Syria, near Christmas, Islamic rebels beheaded Andrei Arbashe, a 38-year-old Christian man, and fed his body to the dogs; in Nigeria, Christmas mass celebrations in several churches, were, once again, turned into scenes of carnage; and in Pakistan, Christians spent yet another “Dark Christmas.”



There were also the usual fatwas [Islamic legal decrees], forbidding Muslims to acknowledge Christmas: in “moderate” Indonesia, the nation’s top Muslim clerical body said that Muslims should not offer Christians greetings such as “Merry Christmas,” and that Muslims are forbidden from attending any Christmas celebrations; in Egypt, the Committee for Rights and Reform issued a similar fatwa, forbidding Muslims to congratulate Christians during Christmas; even in the West, in Australia, the Lakemba Mosque issued a fatwa warning Muslims that it is a “sin” to wish people a Merry Christmas, because Christmas Day is among the “falsehoods that a Muslim should avoid … and therefore, a Muslim is neither allowed to celebrate the Christmas Day nor is he allowed to congratulate them [Christians].”

Categorized by theme, the rest of December’s batch of Muslim persecution of Christians around the world includes (but is not limited to) the following accounts, listed by theme and in country alphabetical order, not necessarily according to severity:

Church Attacks

Denmark: A gang of “youths” accosted the Holy Cross Church in the heart of Nørrebro in Copenhagen, which has a large Muslim population, telling Christian leaders that the church was “in their territory and therefore has to pay money.”

Indonesia: More than 200 Muslims threw rotten eggs at Christians for trying to hold a Christmas Mass in empty land outside Jakarta, after their church, the Philadelphia Batak Protestant Church, was illegally closed. According to a photographer, furious Muslims—men and women wearing the Islamic veil, and with small children in tow—physically blocked the road and hurled rotten eggs at the worshippers as they gathered. According to a pastor, “intolerant people” threw not only rotten eggs, but plastic bags filled with urine and cow dung: “Everything…happened while police were there. They were just watching without doing anything to stop them from harming us.” Separately, after a suspicious package found on the premises of a Catholic church in North Sumatra stirred panic among the congregation during Christmas mass, a police bomb-squad neutralized what turned out to be an amateur homemade bomb containing 500 grams of nails.

Libya: On Sunday, December 30, an explosion rocked a Coptic Christian church near the western city of Misrata, where U.S. backed rebels hold a major checkpoint. The explosion killed two people and wounded two others, all Egyptians.

Nigeria: Christmas was another occasion for Muslims to slaughter church-attending Christians. First, in two separate attacks, Islamic gunmen shot and killed 12 Christian worshippers, including the pastor, who had gathered for Christmas-Eve church services. In the words of a resident: “A group of gunmen came into the village at midnight and went straight to the church … they opened fire on them, killing the pastor and five worshippers. They then set fire to the church.” Six days later, on Sunday December 30, Muslims attacked another church during service, slaughtering 15 more worshippers; several had their throats slit. At least four more churches were torched and 10 Christians murdered when, according to the report, “the Islamic group members went on rampage [sic] and burned 20 houses and a church in the area,” as well as three more churches, all to cries of “Allahu Akbar!” [“Allah is Greater!”]. After the Islamic invaders torched the churches, they used guns and machetes to slaughter their victims.

Apostasy, Blasphemy, and Proselytism

Algeria: Back in May 2011, Muslim convert to Christianity Siaghi Krimo received the maximum five-year prison sentence and the maximum fine for sharing a Christian CD with a Muslim, who then deemed it blasphemous to the prophet Muhammad. During Siaghi’s most recent appeal hearing, according to the report, the Muslim merchant who brought the accusations against him had earlier “initiated a conversation on religion [with him]. Unhappy with Siaghi’s non-Muslim answers, the merchant tried to force him to pay homage to the Prophet and to recite the Muslim shehada: ‘There is no God but Allah and Muhammad is his Prophet.’ When Siaghi refused and said he was a Christian, the merchant filed a complaint that the convert had belittled the Prophet, and in the absence of further witnesses, charges were brought against him. The merchant was said to have seen Siaghi give a CD to someone, but never appeared in court to testify to that effect.”

Indonesia: One report tells of the Islamic organization “Mercy Mission,” based in London, and its sophisticated media campaign, which, since 2004, has raised millions of dollars to prevent Muslims from converting to Christianity. Dr. Tawfique Chowdhury, founder of Mercy Mission and leader of the campaign, and a student of Sharia [Islamic religious law, literally “The Way”], said, “Early in 2004 our team began to receive reports of huge numbers of people leaving Islam in Indonesia. At that time we were informed of findings showing that within our lifetime the rate of growth of Christianization was heading for a massive societal as well as geopolitical shift in the region.”

Kyrgyz: After a young Muslim girl known as Almas converted to Christianity, her parents beat her “until she fell unconscious.” Next, because she refused to renounce Christ, her parents trapped her in a cold room for days and later scorched her face on the stove. Because she still refused to return to the Islamic fold, she was sent off to a sewing workshop and has since lost all contact with her Christian friends and associates.

Pakistan: Birgitta Almby, a 70-year-old Bible school teacher from Sweden, was shot by two men in front of her home ; she died soon after. She had served in Pakistan for 38 years. Police said they could not find the assassins and could not unearth a motive, although Christians close to her have no doubt “Islamic extremists” murdered the elderly woman: “Who else would want to murder someone as apolitical and harmless as Almby, who had dedicated her life to serving humanity?” That service may have included sharing the Gospel with Muslims, an act strictly forbidden in Islam.

Somalia: 55-year-old Mursal Isse Siad, a convert to Christianity in 2000, who was receiving death threats for leaving Islam, was finally gunned down by two Islamic gunmen in front of his house. His wife and children subsequently fled the region. “Siad deserved to die because he was not committed to the Islamic religion,” said one resident.

Sudan: Two priests in the Coptic Orthodox Church in Sudan were arrested after a Muslim converted to Christianity. According to a Christian leader: “I understand there was someone from the Arab origin [that is, a Muslim] that accepted Christ and was baptized by them [priests];” the act led to their arrest days after. Later, a group affiliated with al-Qaeda issued a statement threatening violence against Copts unless the woman who converted and supposedly “kidnapped” by the Christians were returned. “Under the 23-year Islamist regime of President Omar al-Bashir, Sudan’s minority Copts have not experienced the violence suffered by their brethren in Egypt, where sectarian attacks surged after an uprising overthrew president Hosni Mubarak in February 2011 and saw Islamists rise to power,” the report concludes.

Sweden: A Muslim convert to Christianity from Iran who is seeking asylum in Sweden is facing deportation. According to his pastor, “If he is sent back to Iran, the convert, Reza Jebbari, could be imprisoned or even put to death for leaving Islam.” Jebbari’s lawyers are filing another appeal, but “are puzzled” at the government’s apparent determination to deport the Christian convert: “It would seem that we are in a tight spot again and, quite frankly, we’re at a loss as to why the Migration services are so determined to deport [him]. People with weaker cases get permission to stay in Sweden, but not him.” A few months earlier it was reported that Swedish officials were searching for “Maryam”—the Saudi woman who converted to Christianity and fled, eventually to Sweden—to return her to Saudi Arabia to face apostasy charges.

Dhimmitude

[General Abuse and Suppression of Non-Muslims as “Tolerated” Citizens]

Egypt: One week before the referendum on the Sharia-heavy constitution, some 50,000 Muslims marched through the provincial capital of Asyut, chanting that Egypt will be “Islamic, Islamic, despite the Christians.” At their head rode several bearded men on horseback with swords in scabbards on their hips, evoking images of early Muslims conquering Christian Egypt in the 7th Century. They traveled through mainly Christian districts, where residents, fearing attacks, shuttered down their stores and stayed in their homes. On voting day, Christian voting was minimal. Some of those few Christians who did try to go to polling stations were pelted by stones.

Iraq: On live TV, Shiite Ayatollah Ahmad al-Hassani al-Baghdadi issued a fatwa targeting Iraq’s Christians. Demonizing them as “polytheists” and “friends of the Zionists,” he stressed that they must choose between Islam and death and that “their women and girls may legitimately be regarded as wives [concubines] of Muslims.” Al-Baghdadi, who incited Muslims against Americans in the past, currently lives in Syria, where he—and the U.S. administration—are supporting the armed opposition. Also, some Muslim teachers in elementary and high schools throughout the city of Mosul scheduled exams on December 25, thereby forcing Christian students to attend school on Christmas day and miss Christmas Mass. According to the report, “students say they are forced to accede to the teacher’s demands in scheduling the tests even though the authorities identified the 25th of December as an official holiday for Christians.”

Saudi Arabia: Religious police stormed a house in the province of al-Jouf, detaining more than 41 guests for, in the words of the police statement, “plotting to celebrate Christmas.” Meanwhile, despite Saudi Arabia being well documented for its religious hostility to all non-Muslims—the Grand Mufti himself recently called for the destruction of all churches in the Peninsula— just as a new “interreligious dialogue and tolerance,” funded by Saudi Arabia, was opened in Vienna. Sheikh Abdul Rahman al-Sudais, the imam of Mecca’s Grand Mosque, boasted: “The formation of this centre in the West with King Abdullah’s support gives a strong message that Islam is a religion of dialogue and understanding and not a religion of enmity, fanaticism and violence.” Yet Sudais himself has previously referred to Jews as “monkeys and pigs” and the “rats of the world,” and to Christians as “cross worshippers” and “those influenced by the rottenness of their ideas.”

Sudan: Christians in the Nuba Mountains said they felt abandoned by the world, after Sudanese air forces killed at least another 11 of them in bombings before and after Christmas: “We are surprised why the international community is so silent about the killing in South Kordofan [region of repeated raids]” said one church leader, who requested anonymity.



Syria: A Western reporter who was granted the opportunity to interview six jihadi rebel fighters captured by the army, had what he called a “surreal” conversation with them, in which he was informed that Syria’s Christians must either pay jizya, convert to Islam, or die; the “prisoners” even tried pressuring the reporter to say the shehada and become a Muslim.

Zanzibar: On Christmas Day, December 2012, the Rev. Ambrose Mkenda, a Roman Catholic priest, was shot by two motorcyclists “through his cheeks” and seriously wounded. Members of the Association for Islamic Mobilization and Propagation, also known as the “Awakening,” are believed to be responsible; they had earlier threatened local Christians after a Koran was allegedly desecrated. As of December 27, the Rev. Mkenda was in intensive care; his health had worsened.

About this Series

Because the persecution of Christians in the Islamic world is on its way to reaching pandemic proportions, “Muslim Persecution of Christians” was developed to collate some—by no means all—of the instances of persecution that surface each month. It serves two purposes:

Intrinsically, to document that which the mainstream media does not: the habitual, if not chronic, Muslim persecution of Christians.
Instrumentally, to show that such persecution is not “random,” but systematic and interrelated—that it is rooted in a worldview inspired by Sharia.
Accordingly, whatever the anecdote of persecution, it typically fits under a specific theme, including hatred for churches and other Christian symbols; apostasy and blasphemy laws; sexual abuse of Christian women; forced conversions to Islam; theft and plunder in lieu of jizya (tribute); overall expectations for Christians to behave like cowed “dhimmis” (barely tolerated citizens); and simple violence and murder. Oftentimes it is a combination thereof.

Because these accounts of persecution span different ethnicities, languages, and locales—from Morocco in the west, to India in the east, and throughout the West, wherever there are Muslims—it should be clear that one thing alone binds them: Islam—whether the strict application of Islamic Sharia law, or the supremacist culture born of it.

@ op I put it to you that you are not a Catholic.

That haven been said, if you don't like the Church stay out. We understand our worship and we like it like that. All these arguments would lead nowhere because in the first place you've made up your mind what you want to blive.

OP
Have you read about Ganga Zhumba or Zumbi, the palmares and the Haitian revolution? Even in that same US, the was a case of Nat Turner and a black revolution nearly started by a man called James Smith. It bothers me when the whiteman calls us inferior and then we turn about and call ourselves inferior also, searching for non-existent proofs. Read about the battle of insaldwana where the Zulu forces anihilated the the british forces with all their sophisticated weaponry, the tactics used by the Zulus is still studied today. Read about the resistance of Nigerian Kings like King Jaja, Oba Ova(something) and Attah Ayegba Om'Idoko who hung himself to slight the white man and prevent himself from being humiliated. We are people with spirit, take a second look at situations the situations that made blacks look submisive again.

Muhammed isn't and never was a prophet of God!

This topic has been overflogged times without number. We will explain, give evidences, talk and but their hearts are conditioned by their indoctrination. To everyone his ways! I am a Catholic and I've never worshiped anyone but God, that is my conviction and consolation.

Enough please, do not waste your time answering this post, it would yield nothing.

The middle belt is the most marginalized! A distinct region of its own but shackled to the north to be used as puppet, get nothing good from the them. The road network of this country shows glaringly how the middle belt belongs nowhere. From Lagos towards the Middle belt the road is dual carriage but the moment you approach the Middle it becomes single lane. From port Harcourt the road is dual carriage but the moment you get close to the middle it becomes single. From Katsina through Kaduna the road is dual carriage but the moment you get to Zuba it becomes single. That is just an example.

This Somali fool has very low self esteem and has come here to heighten it a bit, please ignore him, just ignore him. If you notice, right from the first day he appeared here from the blues, it has been "somalis are not blacks" "Black are ugly" "blacks look demonic" this and that. Just monolocution, nothing more. If I see a post by the fool, I know exactly what to expect and I'm never wrong. Just ignore him and his low self esteem!

And after being baptized, Jesus went up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove, and coming upon Him, and behold, a voice out of the heavens, saying, "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased." (Matt. 3:16-17)

"Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit." (Matt. 28:19)

Jesus said: "I and the Father are one." (John 10:30)

"He who has seen Me has seen the Father." (John 14:9)

Jesus is God, it beats your imaginations but its true!
"He who beholds Me beholds the One who sent Me." (John 12:45)

If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him. (Rom. 8:9)

"Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife; for that which has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit." (Matt. 1:20)

And the angel answered and said to her [Mary], "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; and for that reason the holy offspring shall be called the Son of God." (Luke 1:35)

[Jesus speaking to His disciples] "And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not behold Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you, and will be in you." ... "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him, and make Our abode with him." (John 14:16-17, 23)

Adieu Course mate.

WHY DO SOMALIS HAVE NOTHING TO BE PROUD OF EXCEPT THEIR LOOKS AND RELIGION? THIS MAKE THEM REALLY SHALLOW AND EVER FOOLISH!
AND YOU, THE DOG THAT GOES BY THE NAME 'SOMALI', YOU ARE A TRUE EXAMPLE OF WHO SOMALIS ARE; REFUGEES IN FOREIGN LANDS, CAN'T LIVE PEACEFULLY IN THEIR'S, ARROGANTLY AND BLINDLY PROUD OF NOTHING SUBSTANTIAL EXCEPT HOW THEY LOOK, INVADING A COMMUNITY'S WEBSITE AND THEN INSULTING THEM EACH TIME THEY OPEN THEIR STINKING MOUTH. YOU HAVE DEMONSTRATED HERE HOW HATE FILLED AND SHALLOW MINDED A SOMALI CAN BE! DO YOURSELF A FAVOUR AND TAKE YOUR GLARING FOOLISHNESS AWAY FROM THIS WEB SITE, YOU ARE EMBARRASSING THE FEW SOMALIS WITH SOMETHING HAVING THE DESCRIPTION OF A BRAIN IN THEIR SKULLS.

By Raymond Ibrahim – “According to several reports in the Arabic media, prominent Muslim clerics have begun to call for the demolition of Egypt’s Great Pyramids—or, in the words of Saudi Sheikh Ali bin Said al-Rabi‘i, those ‘symbols of paganism,’ which Egypt’s Salafi party has long planned to cover with wax. Most recently, Bahrain’s ‘Sheikh of Sunni Sheikhs’ and President of National Unity, Abd al-Latif al-Mahmoud, called on Egypt’s new president, Muhammad Morsi, to ‘destroy the Pyramids and accomplish what the Sahabi Amr bin al-As could not.’

This is a reference to the Muslim Prophet Muhammad’s companion, Amr bin al-As and his Arabian tribesmen, who invaded and conquered Egypt circa 641. Under al-As and subsequent Muslim rule, many Egyptian antiquities were destroyed as relics of infidelity. While most Western academics argue otherwise, according to early Muslim writers, the great Library of Alexandria itself—deemed a repository of pagan knowledge contradicting the Koran—was destroyed under bin al-As’s reign and in compliance with Caliph Omar’s command.

However, while book-burning was an easy activity in the 7th century, destroying the mountain-like pyramids and their guardian Sphinx was not—even if Egypt’s Medieval Mamluk rulers ‘de-nosed’ the latter during target practice.

Now, however, as Bahrain’s ‘Sheikh of Sheikhs’ observes, and thanks to modern technology, the pyramids can be destroyed. The only question left is whether the Muslim Brotherhood president of Egypt is ‘pious’ enough—if he is willing to complete the Islamization process that started under the hands of Egypt’s first Islamic conqueror.”

A Sindhi Saga:
The Abduction of Our Daughters
Viju Sidhwani

Hindus have remained a minority in Pakistan since the creation of the country in 1947 when India was partitioned into two separate countries: a new India and Pakistan. Since its inception Pakistan has struggled with supporting a democratic government from being overtaken by a military dictatorship, sectarian violence, and harsh treatment of its minorities including Hindus, Shias, Christians, Sikhs, and several other communities.

In particular Hindus in Pakistan have experienced harsh and severely inhumane living conditions. Kidnappings, physical and psychological torture, rapes, forced conversions to Islam, forced marriages of young Hindu girls to Muslim men, lack of police protection, bonded labor, and religious-based discrimination have become the norm for Hindus who involuntarily became citizens of the newly created Islamic Republic in 1947. Of late the rise in Islamic fundamentalism throughout Pakistan has created a viciously hostile environment, choking Hindus and other minorities of their basic rights to live in the land of their forefathers.

A quintessential case of this scenario is that of Rinkel Kumari, a 17-year old Sindhi Hindu girl from the town of Mirpur Mathelo who was kidnapped at gunpoint on February 24, 2012. Rinkel’s case has gained tremendous media attention in Pakistan and around the world – not because it is shockingly rare – but because it is one of several recent cases in which young Hindu girls were kidnapped, tortured, forcibly converted to Islam under the mandate of a Mullah (a religious cleric), and immediately forced to marry a Muslim man. While cases like this are common in Pakistan, their intensified frequency and the subsequent reactions elicited by the Hindu community are now unparalleled to similar events in the past.

Notably, the man behind Rinkel’s abduction, Mian Abdul Haq, is a Member of the National Assembly (MNA) of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP). Her abduction by a MNA of the ruling political party in Pakistan clearly highlights a case of state-sponsored terrorism. That too, by another Sindhi. The difference is that Mian Abdul Haq is a Muslim Sindhi not a Hindu Sindhi.

Moreover, the same week Rinkel was kidnapped three other Hindu girls were kidnapped and underwent the same harassment, conversion, and forced marriage including a physician who worked at a prestigious hospital in Karachi. Since Rinkel was kidnapped four months ago over one hundred other Hindu girls in Sindh have been either kidnapped and converted or are reported missing.

Rinkel Kumari was kidnapped from her home at approximately 4:00 AM on February 24, 2012 by some neighbors and brought to the Dargah Alia Qadria Bharchundi Sharif, an Islamic seminary. After Rinkel was kidnapped she was held by her abductors at the Bharchundi Sharif Darghah and the following day she was brought to a provincial court in Ghotki, the district of Sindh where she lived. Her abductors stated that she willingly converted to Islam and married a Muslim man by choice. She, on the other hand, stated that she was kidnapped and wished to return back to her family. After delivering her statement to the judge she was slapped in the face by one of her abductors and the court was adjourned until two days later. During this time she remained in the legal custody of the police, but her abductors had easy access to her while her family did not. While in police custody Rinkel was threatened and abused into changing her testimony which she eventually did.

Two days later when the court reconvened Rinkel stated she willingly converted to Islam and married her neighbor Naveed Shah by choice. She left the court in tears and her conversion to Islam was immediately celebrated by several hundred to a thousand armed men outside the court who aggressively surrounded her and her new husband. Many of the men were armed with kalashnikovs and violently fired bullets in the air during the boisterous parade that followed. The actual video footage of this apocalyptic circus and the celebration of an Islamic victory over the Hindu minority can be found on YouTube.

Notably Rinkel’s family was never allowed inside the court building and was deliberately misguided by the local police force. Ironically the police had blocked off the main roads that lead to the provincial court the day of Rinkel’s hearing. Only those who were aware of the complicated detour were able to make it to the court. Somehow Mian Abdul Haq and his followers were aware of this esoteric information.

Likewise the timing of Rinkel’s second hearing in the provincial court in Ghotki was moved up by over two hours to intentionally avoid her family’s presence. By the time her family showed up to the court the hearing was complete and she had already been declared a married woman. While her actual age on this date was 17, the marriage certificate stated 22 to avoid the involvement of her parents given that she was still a minor and needed their permission to legally marry according to Pakistani law.

Rinkel’s family subsequently petitioned the Sindh High Court in Karachi at which time she was brought before the judge and sent to Dar-ul-Aman, a women’s shelter in Islamabad until the case would be further examined in the Supreme Court a few weeks later.

Since the day Rinkel was kidnapped she has not been allowed to interact with her family. However, her abductors including Mian Abdul Haq alias Mian Mitho, her husband Naveed Shah, and other men of their family have been allowed to sexually abuse her and subject her to violent physical and psychological torture at the Bharchundi Sharif Dargah. Even after her family filed a formal case with the police and she was taken into police custody and then to a women’s shelter her abuse continued. Throughout all previous court hearings and those that followed Rinkel was even accompanied by Mian Abdul Haq and his followers, but she was never allowed to meet with or speak to her family.

On March 26, 2012 Rinkel’s case was heard by the Supreme Court Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry for the first time. Rinkel stated verbally and in writing that she was kidnapped and wanted to return to her parents. Her outcry and wish that she would rather be killed than return to a shelter was recorded by numerous media sources who were present. However, given the mounting pressure of Mian Abdul Haq’s armed supporters outside the courtroom Rinkel was forcefully sent to a government-run women’s shelter in Karachi where Mian Abdul Haq and his supporters are known to openly exert their influence. Additionally, the security guard assigned to monitor the shelter during this time was specifically transferred from Ghotki, the local district that is represented by Mian Abdul Haq in parliament. Rinkel stayed here for three more weeks before the case was re-examined by the Supreme Court in Islamabad.

During her time at the women’s shelter in Karachi Rinkel was routinely visited by armed police officers, her so-called husband, and family members and devout followers of Mian Abdul Haq. Here she was further tortured and intimidated to state in court that she willingly accepted Islam, married Naveed Shah by choice, and does not want to return back to her parents. Mian Abdul Haq had even made public statements during this three week period that Rinkel’s maternal uncle, Mr. Raj Kumar Wanjara should be violently tortured and killed for filing a case against a Muslim cleric who speaks the word of God.

Three weeks later Rinkel was transferred from the shelter in Karachi back to Islamabad for the second Supreme Court hearing. In Islamabad she was allowed to meet Comrade Amar Lal, a community activist who worked with her counsel. Comrade Amar Lal is also a former Federal Minister and Special Assistant to the Prime Minister and is currently the Chairman of the Minority Commission of Pakistan, a non-governmental organization. Rinkel discussed with him in detail how she was repeatedly raped, beaten, and humiliated by her so called husband as well as close family members of Mian Abdul Haq. She was openly told that if she spoke the truth in court she would be killed along with her entire family and 2,000 other Hindus residing in Ghotki, the district where she lived. She was specifically told that her family would be butchered and fed to dogs. Rinkel’s grandfather was even shot at, but luckily survived. As a result Rinkel’s family fled their town in Ghotki for the Nankana Sahib Gurudwara in Lahore, Punjab that provided a safe haven for them.

On the date of her second Supreme Court hearing in Islamabad Rinkel required the need to hold on to a female police officer due to a fractured leg she suffered from being tortured at the women’s shelter. She was never asked why she required someone’s assistance to walk when she previously walked independently. Other evidence of physical torture was concealed under the head-to-toe burqa that she has been forced to wear since her abduction. Moreover, she was never deposed or asked about her treatment by her abductors, the police force, or at the women’s shelters where she stayed. Neither was she allowed to make any statement directly to the court. Rather, Rinkel and the two other girls who were also tried in the same case gave a written statement to the registrar of the court after the case was adjourned, a process that is considered illegal and unconstitutional in Pakistan and is being appealed by her attorneys.

All three girls were kidnapped by followers of Mian Abdul Haq and, immediately after, were forcibly converted to Islam and married to Muslim men. The girls’ statements were written for them by their abductors and all three girls walked into the courtroom with these written statements. Rinkel clearly stated that she was even under the influence of sedatives and behavior-controlling drugs on the day of her Supreme Court hearing. Due to the death threats they received from Mian Abdul Haq and his supporters all three girls provided written statements to the court registrar of choosing to live with their new husbands.

Moreover, the family of Asha, one of the other two girls in this case, had received several requests for ransom from the police after a case of kidnapping was registered with them. The amount of ransom increased each time the family desperately asked the police to help locate their daughter until it reached an amount that her family could not afford to pay. Asha is only 15, yet the age listed on her marriage certificate was several years older.

The case of Rinkel, Asha, and Dr. Lata has gained a significant amount of media attention because it highlights the colossal problem of abduction, torture, and conversion of Hindu and other minority girls in Pakistan. Young girls like Rinkel are regularly kidnapped and made to work in brothels as sex slaves. Usually these girls disappear within months of their abduction because they are sold, sometimes several times over, or killed.

Recent reports by Comrade Amar Lal, her family, and others who are familiar with Rinkel’s case have highlighted further torture including forceful removal of her finger nails and an abdominal injury requiring hospitalization. Rinkel’s family is still frantically requesting a meeting with her and has involved other politicians including former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. They have also appealed to the United Nations Human Rights Commission and Amnesty International. So far, there has been no sign of hope that Rinkel will be allowed to meet them and be free of torture and death threats.

Throughout the hearings of Rinkel’s case two US-based organizations, the Hindu American Foundation and the Pakistan Hindu Post, petitioned Mrs. Hillary Clinton and the United States Department of State to exert necessary and appropriate pressure on the Pakistani government with respect to this case. The petition has received support from over 7,000 people so far. Unmistakably this case is not over and the appeals process is still under way. Your signature will lend support to the subdued voices of Sindhi ‘nyanis’ (young girls) and amplify the details of their vicious torture. Below is a link to this petition:

http://www.change.org/petitions/honorable-secretary-of-state-ms-clinton-our-life-is-a-living-hell

Believe me, this was happening (and might still be happening) in the Nigeria in the eighties and early nineties. Igbo girls were routinely kidnapped, converted to Islam and quickly married off. Their parents would look for them for days only to discover that they were in one madrassah or locked up in one compound or in one village, already married and sometimes with children. This is true, I tell you!

Six Wise Men of Hindustan

There were six men of Hindustan,
to learning much inclined,
Who went to see an elephant,
though all of them were blind,
That each by observation
might satisfy his mind.

The first approached the elephant,
and happening to fall
Against his broad and sturdy side,
at once began to bawl,
"This mystery of an elephant
is very like a wall."

The second, feeling of the tusk,
cried, "Ho, what have we here,
So very round and smooth and sharp?
To me 'tis mighty clear,
This wonder of an elephant
is very like a spear."

The third approached the elephant,
and happening to take
The squirming trunk within his hands,
thus boldly up and spake,
"I see," quoth he,
"the elephant is very like a snake."

The fourth reached out an eager hand,
and felt above the knee,
"What this most wondrous beast
is like is very plain" said he,
"'Tis clear enough the elephant
is very like a tree."

The fifth who chanced to touch the ear
said, "E'en the blindest man
Can tell what this resembles most;
deny the fact who can;
This marvel of an elephant
is very like a fan."

The sixth no sooner had begun
about the beast to grope,
Than seizing on the swinging tail
that fell within his scope;
"I see," said he, "the elephant
is very like a rope."

So six blind men of Hindustan
disputed loud and long,
Each in his own opinion
exceeding stiff and strong;
Though each was partly in the right,
they all were in the wrong!

Have you asked yourself this question, Why is it only Islam against every other religion? Why does every religion seem to agree that there is inherent violence in Islam? Why do muslims seem to fight with other religions around the world, be it Christianity, Buddhism, HInduism, or even peganism?

Muslims please sit down and contemplate this.

I grew up in a predominatly muslim environment. A cousin of mine, younger than I am once told me bluntly after making effort to get me to convert to Islam that "As we keep telling you and you keep refusing, if it starts, we would not recognize brother oh!" We were both young then and when I reported him his father, he was beaten terribly but this is my own cousin, young as we were then, telling me this.

I didn't need my cousin though to understand my environment then. We, the few Christians in the little town were treated with disdain at the slightest opportunity. There was an incidence that happened then. There was a year that Easter coincided with Id el fitr. The Id mosque was close to the church and while we were inside the church worshiping (Village beating of drums and the rest)the Muslims came also for their Id prayer. All of a sudden, they breezed into the church, we were all shocked, watching them quietly (ofcourse all the celebration stopped). They siezed the drum from the beaters and broke them, broke the other breakable musical instruments and disfigured the gong and others. All after, they made to attack us but restrained themselves, some of them audibly saying "Lets leave them, if we kill them we would be the same people that would bury them." and then left. The prayer leader hurriedly concluded the prayer and we left. In school the next week (primary school then) my mate were making jest of us Christians, childishly portraying Islam to be a religion of the strong.

Now an adult, I have so many muslim friends and very good one also. I once went for studies in India. There in the same class with me, among other people of different nationalities and religion were Indonesians, Malaysians and Bangladeshis who were all Muslims. I initially flowed so well with them, maybe because they thought I was a muslim (I have a Muslim Surname, typical of middle belters). One day, one of them came to my room to invite for a stroll, at about muslim evening prayer time. I gladly followed them and we all rode out on our bicycles. We went through winding streets, unfamilier to me and then appeared at a mosque. They all parked their bicycles and entered into the mosque. They expected me to follow but I instead waited for them outside the mosque. That was test to find out if I was a muslim or not. When they finished and came, they started asking some question that pointed to the fact that they believed I was a converted muslim. I tried to explain that I was never a muslim and that in Nigeria, the name you bear doesn't ultimately indicate your religion at birth but somehow, I only succeded in making them angry. From that day on, all but one Malaysian treated me like I was a thing to be tolerated. The one Malaysian treated me with open animousity and antagonism. I could see the anger in him towards me and I know without doubt that he wouldn't hesitate to kill me if given the opprtunity. It was so bad that even the school authority got a wind of it. And I asked myself, even Malaysia? Yet we had Budhists, Hindus, and an atheist in the class and my religious affiliation meant nothing to them. He later apologised to me just before we passed out and I readily forgave him but the experience would never be forgotten. He actually made my stay in India hell and I cannot remember India without remembering him.

These and more are my experiences, not another person's own.

If Islam is a peaceful and tolerant religion, then Muslims should make efforts to make it actually look so.

When the righteous prosper, the city rejoices, when the wicked perish there are shouts of joy.

April 2nd

This thread still dey?

The God of the Old Testament is known as YHWH ()or, when pointed with the correct vowels, Yahweh. This translates as "The Self-Existent One", being derived from the Hebrew háwáh, meaning "to exist". As Allah is the name of God on the Muslim Holy Scriptures, the Koran (or Quran), so Yahweh is the Name of God in the Hebrew Scriptures, the Bible. What is particularly interesting and significant is the fact that Yahweh never appears as the name of of any deity outside the Bible. There is no record anywhere of any other tribe or religion which worshipped Yahweh. The Hebrew Name of God is unique to the Bible and its chosen people. From this alone we may deduce that the Name "Yahweh" was not borrowed from some other culture or religion. It emerged unquely within the Bible revelation.

The word "Allah" comes from the compound Arabic word, al-ilah. Al is the definite article "the" and ilah is an Arabic word for "god", i.e. the god. We see immediately that (a) this is not a proper name but a generic name rather like the Hebrew El (which as we have seen was used of any deity; and (b) that Allah is not a foreign word (as it would have been if it had been borrowed from the Hebrew Bible) but a purely Arabic one. It would also be wrong to compare "Allah" with the Hebrew or Greek for God (El and Theos, respectively), because "Allah" is purely an Arabic term used exclusively in reference to an Arabic deity.

The Encyclopedia of Religion says: "'Allah' is a pre-Islamic name ... corresponding to the Baylonian Bel" (ed. James Hastings, Edinburgh, T. & T. Clark, 1908, I:326).

I know that Muslims will find this hard to believe so I am now going to make many citations and present the archaeological evidence to prove conclusively that is true. Though this data will be painful for many of our readers, it is necessary to face the truth. Facts are facts, and unless you are willing to desert all logic, reason and common sense, and the evidence of your eyes, they must be faced.

"Allah is found ... in Arabic inscriptions prior to Islam" (Encyclopedia Britannica, I:643)

"The Arabs, before the time of Mohammed, accepted and worshipped, after a fashion, a supreme god called allah" (Encyclopedia of Islam, eds. Houtsma, Arnold, Basset, Hartman; Leiden: E.J.Brill, 1913, I:302)

"Allah was known to the pre-Islamic Arabs; he was one of the Meccan deities" (Encyclopedia of Islam, ed. Gibb, I:406)

"Ilah ... appears in pre-Islamic poetry ... By frequency of usage, al-ilah was contracted to allah, frequently attested to in pre-Islamic poetry" (Encyclopedia of Islam, eds. Lewis, Menage, Pellat, Schacht; Leiden: E.J.Brill, 1971, III:1093)

"The name Allah goes back before Muhammed" (Encyclopedia of World Mythology and Legend, "The Facts on File", ed. Anthony Mercatante, New York, 1983, I:41)

The origin of this (Allah) goes back to pre-Muslim times. Allah is not a common name meaning "God" (or a "god", and the Muslim must use another word or form if he wishes to indicate any other than his own peculiar deity" (Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics, ed. James Hastings, Edinburgh: T & T Clark, 1908, I:326)

Scholar Henry Preserved Smith of Harvard University stated:

"Allah was already known by name to the Arabs" (The Bible and Islam: or, the Influence of the Old and New Testament on the Religion of Mohammed, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1897, p.102)

Dr. Kenneth Cragg, former editor of the prestigious scholarly journal Muslim World and an outstanding modern Western Islamic scholar, whose works were generally published by Oxford University, comments:

The name Allah is also evident in archaeological and literary remains of pre-Islamic Arabia" (The Call of the Minaret, New York: OUP, 1956, p.31)

Dr. W. Montgomery Watt, who was Professor of Arabic and Islamic Studies at Edinburgh University and Visiting Professor of Islamic Studies at College de France, georgetown University, and the University of Toronto, has done extensive work on the pre-Islamic concept of Allah. He concludes:

"In recent years I have become increasingly convinced that for an adequate understanding of the career of Muhammad and the origins of Islam great importance must be attached to the existence in Mecca of belief in Allah as a "high god". In a sense this is a form of paganism, but it is so different from paganism as commonly understood that it deserves separate treatment" (Mohammad's Mecca, p.vii. See also his article, "Belief in a High God in pre-Islamic Mecca", Journal of Scientific Semitic Studies, vol.16, 1971, pp.35-40)

Caesar Farah in his book on Islam concludes his discussion of the pre-Islamic meaning of Allah by saying:

"There is no reason, therefore, to accept the idea that Allah passed to the Muslims from the Christians and Jews" (Islam: Beliefs and Observations, New York: Barrons, 1987, p.28)

According to Middle East scholar E.M.Wherry, whose translation of the Koran is still used today, in pre-Islamic times Allah-worship, as well as the worship of Baal, were both astral religions in that they involved the worship of the sun, the moon, and the stars (A Comprehensive Commentary on the Quran, Osnabrück: Otto Zeller Verlag, 1973, p.36).

"In ancient Arabia, the sun-god was viewed as a female goddess and the moon as the male god. As has been pointed out by many scholars as Alfred Guilluame, the moon god was called by various names, one of which was Allah (op.cit., Islam, p.7)

"The name Allah was used as the personal name of the moon god, in addition to the other titles that could be given to him.

"Allah, the moon god, was married to the sun goddess. Together they produced three goddesses who were called 'the daughters of Allah'. These three goddesses were called Al-Lat, Al-Uzza, and Manat.

"The daughters of Allah, along with Allah and the sun goddess were viewed as "high" gods. That is, they were viewed as being at the top of the pantheon of Arabian deities" (Robert Morey, The Islamic Invasion, Eugene, Oregon, Harvest House Publishers, 1977, pp.50-51).

The Encyclopedia of World Mythology and Legend records:

"Along with Allah, however, they worshipped a host of lesser gods and "daughters of Allah" (op.cit., I:61).

It is a well known fact archaeologically speaking that the cresent moon was the symbol of worship of the moon god both in Arabia and throughout the Middle East in pre-Islamic times. Archaeologists have excavated numerous statues and hieroglyphic inscriptions in which a crescent moon was seated on the top of the head of the deity to symbolise the worship of the moon-god. Interestingly, whilst the moon was generally worshipped as a female deity in the Ancient Near East, the Arabs viewed it as a male deity.

"The Quraysh tribe into which Mohammad was born was particularly devoted to Allah, the moon god, and especially to Allah's three daughters who were viewed as intercessors between the people and Allah.

"The worship of the three goddesses, Al-Lat, Al-Uzza, and Manat, played a significant rôle in the worship at the Kabah in Mecca. The first two daughters of Allah had names which were feminine forms of Allah.

"The literal Arabic name of Muhammad's father was Abd-Allah. His uncle's name was Obied-Allah. These names reveal the personal devotion that Muhammad's pagan family had to the worship of Allah, the moon god" names they bore even long before Mohammed, the prophet of Islam was born (op.cit., Morey, p.51).

History proves conclusively that before Islam came into existence, the Sabbeans in Arabia worshipped the moon-god Allah who was married to the sun-goddess. We have also seen that it was a matter of common practice to use the name of the moon-god in personal names in Muhammad's tribe. That Allah was a pagan deity in pre-Islamic times is incontestible. And so we must ask ourselves the question: why was Muhammad's God named after a pagan deity in his own tribe?

It is an undeniable fact that an Allah idol was set up at the Kabah along with all the other idols of the time. The pagans prayed towards Mecca and the Kabah because that is where their gods were stationed. It made sense to them to face in the direction of their god and pray since that is where he was. Since the idol of their moon god, Allah, was at Mecca, they prayed towards Mecca. We can also understand that the use of the crescent moon as the symbol of Islam, and which appears on dozens of flags of Islamic nations in Asia and Africa, and surmounts minerets and mosque roofs, is a throwback to the days when Allah was worshipped as the moon-god in Mecca.

If there is one thing that has been abundantly clear is that Yahweh, the God of the Bible, is not Allah the god of the Koran, is not Vishnu the god of the Vedas, is not the god of the Buddhists, etc.

Muslims worship a deity called Allah and claim that the Allah in pre-Islamic times was the biblical God, Yahweh, of the patriarchs, prophets, and apostles.

Religious claims often come to grief as a result of solid scientific, archaeological evidence. So, instead of endlessly speculating about the past, we can look to science to see what the evidence reveals. As we shall see, the hard evidence demonstrates that the god Allah was a pagan deity. In fact, he was the moon-god who was married to the sun-goddess and the stars were his daughters.

SO IS ALLAH OF ISLAM THE SAME AS YAHWEH OF CHRISTIANITY? NO SIR!

Allah was an Idol, the Arabic god of the moon. Allah predates Mohammed, Mohammed only came to make it the only god worthy of worship, destroying other gods in the Ka'aba.

No time for senseless arguments. Arguments just for the sake of saying something. Let those who read judge, and you, tell yourself the truth, TELL YOURSELF THE TRUTH.

Vadexcool, One can't help but admire your zeal in defence of your religion. My advice for you is to examine your it closely and see the kind of evil it harbours and propagates. It would be pointless argueing with you as you surely can't see it. Or maybe you have even realised it but see it as an obligation to defend your religion. All i have to tell you is to open your eyes and tell yourself the truth. TELL YOURSELF THE TRUTH!

The Quran contains at least 109 verses that call Muslims to war with nonbelievers for the sake of Islamic rule. Some are quite graphic, with commands to chop off heads and fingers and kill infidels wherever they may be hiding. Muslims who do not join the fight are called 'hypocrites' and warned that Allah will send them to Hell if they do not join the slaughter.

Unlike nearly all of the Old Testament verses of violence, the verses of violence in the Quran are mostly open-ended, meaning that they are not restrained by the historical context of the surrounding text. They are part of the eternal, unchanging word of Allah, and just as relevant or subjective as anything else in the Quran.

Most of today's Muslims exercise a personal choice to interpret their holy book's many calls to violence according to what their own moral preconceptions find justificable. Apologists cater to their preferences with tenuous arguments that gloss over historical fact and generally do not stand up to scrutiny. Still, it is important to note that the problem is not bad people, but bad ideology.

Unfortunately, there are very few verses of tolerance and peace to abrogate or even balance out the many that call for nonbelievers to be fought and subdued until they either accept humiliation, convert to Islam, or are killed. Muhammad's own martial legacy - and that of his companions - along with the remarkable stress on violence found in the Quran have produced a trail of blood and tears across world history.


The Quran:

Quran (2:191-193) - "And slay them wherever ye find them, and drive them out of the places whence they drove you out, for persecution [of Muslims] is worse than slaughter [of non-believers]... but if they desist, then lo! Allah is forgiving and merciful. And fight them until persecution is no more, and religion is for Allah." The historical context of this passage is not defensive warfare, since Muhammad and his Muslims had just relocated to Medina and were not under attack by their Meccan adversaries. In fact, the verses urge offensive warfare, in that Muslims are to drive Meccans out of their own city (which they later did). The use of the word "persecution" by some Muslim translators is thus disingenuous (the actual Muslim words for persecution - "idtihad" - and oppression - a variation of "z-l-m" - do not appear in the verse). The actual Arabic comes from "fitna" which can mean disbelief, or the disorder that results from unbelief or temptation. Taken as a whole, the context makes clear that violence is being authorized until "religion is for Allah" - ie. unbelievers desist in their unbelief.



Quran (2:244) - "Then fight in the cause of Allah, and know that Allah Heareth and knoweth all things."



Quran (2:216) - "Fighting is prescribed for you, and ye dislike it. But it is possible that ye dislike a thing which is good for you, and that ye love a thing which is bad for you. But Allah knoweth, and ye know not." Not only does this verse establish that violence can be virtuous, but it also contradicts the myth that fighting is intended only in self-defense, since the audience was obviously not under attack at the time. From the Hadith, we know that this verse was narrated at a time that Muhammad was actually trying to motivate his people into raiding merchant caravans for loot.



Quran (3:56) - "As to those who reject faith, I will punish them with terrible agony in this world and in the Hereafter, nor will they have anyone to help."



Quran (3:151) - "Soon shall We cast terror into the hearts of the Unbelievers, for that they joined companions with Allah, for which He had sent no authority". This speaks directly of polytheists, yet it also includes Christians, since they believe in the Trinity (ie. what Muhammad incorrectly believed to be 'joining companions to Allah').



Quran (4:74) - "Let those fight in the way of Allah who sell the life of this world for the other. Whoso fighteth in the way of Allah, be he slain or be he victorious, on him We shall bestow a vast reward." The martyrs of Islam are unlike the early Christians, led meekly to the slaughter. These Muslims are killed in battle, as they attempt to inflict death and destruction for the cause of Allah. Here is the theological basis for today's suicide bombers.



Quran (4:76) - "Those who believe fight in the cause of Allah…"



Quran (4:89) - "They but wish that ye should reject Faith, as they do, and thus be on the same footing (as they): But take not friends from their ranks until they flee in the way of Allah (From what is forbidden). But if they turn renegades, seize them and slay them wherever ye find them; and (in any case) take no friends or helpers from their ranks."



Quran (4:95) - "Not equal are those believers who sit (at home) and receive no hurt, and those who strive and fight in the cause of Allah with their goods and their persons. Allah hath granted a grade higher to those who strive and fight with their goods and persons than to those who sit (at home). Unto all (in Faith) Hath Allah promised good: But those who strive and fight Hath He distinguished above those who sit (at home) by a special reward,-" This passage criticizes "peaceful" Muslims who do not join in the violence, letting them know that they are less worthy in Allah's eyes. It also demolishes the modern myth that "Jihad" doesn't mean holy war in the Quran, but rather a spiritual struggle. Not only is the Arabic word used in this passage, but it is clearly not referring to anything spiritual, since the physically disabled are given exemption. (The Hadith reveals the context of the passage to be in response to a blind man's protest that he is unable to engage in Jihad and this is reflected in other translations of the verse).



Quran (4:104) - "And be not weak hearted in pursuit of the enemy; if you suffer pain, then surely they (too) suffer pain as you suffer pain..." Is pursuing an injured and retreating enemy really an act of self-defense?



Quran (5:33) - "The punishment of those who wage war against Allah and His messenger and strive to make mischief in the land is only this, that they should be murdered or crucified or their hands and their feet should be cut off on opposite sides or they should be imprisoned; this shall be as a disgrace for them in this world, and in the hereafter they shall have a grievous chastisement"



Quran (8:12) - "I will cast terror into the hearts of those who disbelieve. Therefore strike off their heads and strike off every fingertip of them" No reasonable person would interpret this to mean a spiritual struggle.



Quran (8:15) - "O ye who believe! When ye meet those who disbelieve in battle, turn not your backs to them. (16)Whoso on that day turneth his back to them, unless maneuvering for battle or intent to join a company, he truly hath incurred wrath from Allah, and his habitation will be hell, a hapless journey's end."



Quran (8:39) - "And fight with them until there is no more fitna (disorder, unbelief) and religion should be only for Allah" Some translations interpret "fitna" as "persecution", but the traditional understanding of this word is not supported by the historical context (See notes for 2:293, also). The Meccans were simply refusing Muhammad access to their city during Haj. Other Muslims were allowed to travel there - just not as an armed group, since Muhammad had declared war on Mecca prior to his eviction. The Meccans were also acting in defense of their religion, since it was Muhammad's intention to destroy their idols and establish Islam by force (which he later did). Hence the critical part of this verse is to fight until "religion is only for Allah", meaning that the true justification of violence was the unbelief of the opposition. According to the Sira (Ibn Ishaq/Hisham 324) Muhammad further explains that "Allah must have no rivals."



Quran (8:57) - "If thou comest on them in the war, deal with them so as to strike fear in those who are behind them, that haply they may remember."



Quran (8:59-60) - "And let not those who disbelieve suppose that they can outstrip (Allah's Purpose). Lo! they cannot escape. Make ready for them all thou canst of (armed) force and of horses tethered, that thereby ye may dismay the enemy of Allah and your enemy."



Quran (8:65) - "O Prophet, exhort the believers to fight..."



Quran (9:5) - "So when the sacred months have passed away, then slay the idolaters wherever you find them, and take them captives and besiege them and lie in wait for them in every ambush, then if they repent and keep up prayer and pay the poor-rate, leave their way free to them." According to this verse, the best way of staying safe from Muslim violence is to convert to Islam. Prayer (salat) and the poor tax (zakat) are among the religion's Five Pillars.



Quran (9:14) - "Fight them, Allah will punish them by your hands and bring them to disgrace..."



Quran (9:20) - "Those who believe, and have left their homes and striven with their wealth and their lives in Allah's way are of much greater worth in Allah's sight. These are they who are triumphant." The "striving" spoken of here is Jihad (Arabic).



Quran (9:29) - "Fight those who believe not in Allah nor the Last Day, nor hold that forbidden which hath been forbidden by Allah and His Messenger, nor acknowledge the religion of Truth, (even if they are) of the People of the Book, until they pay the Jizya with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued." "People of the Book" refers to Christians and Jews. This was one of the final "revelations" from Allah and it set in motion the tenacious military expansion, in which Muhammad's companions managed to conquer two-thirds of the Christian world in the next 100 years. Islam is intended to dominate all other people and faiths.


Quran (9:30) - "And the Jews say: Ezra is the son of Allah; and the Christians say: The Messiah is the son of Allah; these are the words of their mouths; they imitate the saying of those who disbelieved before; may Allah destroy them; how they are turned away!"



Quran (9:38-39) - "O ye who believe! what is the matter with you, that, when ye are asked to go forth in the cause of Allah, ye cling heavily to the earth? Do ye prefer the life of this world to the Hereafter? But little is the comfort of this life, as compared with the Hereafter. Unless ye go forth, He will punish you with a grievous penalty, and put others in your place." This is a warning to those who refuse to fight, that they will be punished with Hell.



Quran (9:41) - "Go forth, light-armed and heavy-armed, and strive with your wealth and your lives in the way of Allah! That is best for you if ye but knew." See also the verse that follows (9:42) - "If there had been immediate gain (in sight), and the journey easy, they would (all) without doubt have followed thee, but the distance was long, (and weighed) on them" This contradicts the myth that Muslims are to fight only in self-defense, since the wording implies that battle will be waged a long distance from home (in another country and on Christian soil, in this case, according to the historians).


Quran (9:73) - "O Prophet! strive hard against the unbelievers and the hypocrites and be unyielding to them; and their abode is hell, and evil is the destination." Dehumanizing those who reject Islam, by reminding Muslims that they are merely firewood for Hell, makes it easier to justify slaughter. It also explains why today's devout Muslims have little regard for those outside the faith.



Quran (9:88) - "But the Messenger, and those who believe with him, strive and fight with their wealth and their persons: for them are (all) good things: and it is they who will prosper."


Quran (9:111) - "Allah hath purchased of the believers their persons and their goods; for theirs (in return) is the garden (of Paradise): they fight in His cause, and slay and are slain: a promise binding on Him in truth, through the Law, the Gospel, and the Quran: and who is more faithful to his covenant than Allah? then rejoice in the bargain which ye have concluded: that is the achievement supreme."



Quran (9:123) - "O you who believe! fight those of the unbelievers who are near to you and let them find in you hardness."



Quran (17:16) - "And when We wish to destroy a town, We send Our commandment to the people of it who lead easy lives, but they transgress therein; thus the word proves true against it, so We destroy it with utter destruction." Note that the crime is moral transgression, and the punishment is "utter destruction." (Before ordering the 9/11 attacks, Osama bin Laden first issued Americans an invitation to Islam).



Quran (18:65-81) - This parable lays the theological groundwork for honor killings, in which a family member is murdered because they brought shame to the family, either through apostasy or perceived moral indiscretion. The story (which is not found in any Jewish or Christian source) tells of Moses encountering a man with "special knowledge" who does things which don't seem to make sense on the surface, but are then justified according to later explanation. One such action is to murder a youth for no apparent reason (74). However, the wise man later explains that it was feared that the boy would "grieve" his parents by "disobedience and ingratitude." He was killed so that Allah could provide them a 'better' son. (Note: This is one reason why honor killing is sanctioned by Sharia. Reliance of the Traveler (Umdat al-Saliq) says that punishment for murder is not applicable when a parent or grandparent kills their offspring (o.1.1-2).)



Quran (21:44) - "We gave the good things of this life to these men and their fathers until the period grew long for them; See they not that We gradually reduce the land (in their control) from its outlying borders? Is it then they who will win?"



Quran (25:52) - "Therefore listen not to the Unbelievers, but strive against them with the utmost strenuousness..." "Strive against" is Jihad - obviously not in the personal context. It's also significant to point out that this is a Meccan verse.



Quran (33:60-62) - "If the hypocrites, and those in whose hearts is a disease, and the alarmists in the city do not cease, We verily shall urge thee on against them, then they will be your neighbors in it but a little while. Accursed, they will be seized wherever found and slain with a (fierce) slaughter." This passage sanctions the slaughter (rendered "merciless" and "horrible murder" in other translations) against three groups: Hypocrites (Muslims who refuse to "fight in the way of Allah" (3:167) and hence don't act as Muslims should), those with "diseased hearts" (which include Jews and Christians 5:51-52), and "alarmists" or "agitators who include those who merely speak out against Islam, according to Muhammad's biographers. It is worth noting that the victims are to be sought out by Muslims, which is what today's terrorists do. If this passage is meant merely to apply to the city of Medina, then it is unclear why it is included in Allah's eternal word to Muslim generations.



Quran (47:3-4) - "Those who reject Allah follow vanities, while those who believe follow the truth from their lord. Thus does Allah set forth form men their lessons by similitude. Therefore when you meet in battle those who disbelieve, then smite the necks until when you have overcome them, then make (them) prisoners," Those who reject Allah are to be subdued in battle. The verse goes on to say the only reason Allah doesn't do the dirty work himself is in order to to test the faithfulness of Muslims. Those who kill pass the test. "But if it had been Allah's Will, He could certainly have exacted retribution from them (Himself); but (He lets you fight) in order to test you, some with others. But those who are slain in the Way of Allah,- He will never let their deeds be lost."



Quran (47:35) - "Be not weary and faint-hearted, crying for peace, when ye should be uppermost (Shakir: "have the upper hand" for Allah is with you,"



Quran (48:17) - "There is no blame for the blind, nor is there blame for the lame, nor is there blame for the sick (that they go not forth to war). And whoso obeyeth Allah and His messenger, He will make him enter Gardens underneath which rivers flow; and whoso turneth back, him will He punish with a painful doom." Contemporary apologists sometimes claim that Jihad means 'spiritual struggle.' Is so, then why are the blind, lame and sick exempted? This verse also says that those who do not fight will suffer torment in hell.



Quran (48:29) - "Muhammad is the messenger of Allah. And those with him are hard (ruthless) against the disbelievers and merciful among themselves" Islam is not about treating everyone equally. There are two very distinct standards that are applied based on religious status. Also the word used for 'hard' or 'ruthless' in this verse shares the same root as the word translated as 'painful' or severe' in verse 16.



Quran (61:4) - "Surely Allah loves those who fight in His way" Religion of Peace, indeed! This is followed by (61:9): "He it is who has sent His Messenger (Mohammed) with guidance and the religion of truth (Islam) to make it victorious over all religions even though the infidels may resist."



Quran (61:10-12) - "O ye who believe! Shall I lead you to a bargain that will save you from a grievous Penalty?- That ye believe in Allah and His Messenger, and that ye strive (your utmost) in the Cause of Allah, with your property and your persons: That will be best for you, if ye but knew! He will forgive you your sins, and admit you to Gardens beneath which Rivers flow, and to beautiful mansions in Gardens of Eternity." This verse was given in battle. It uses the Arabic word, Jihad.



Quran (66:9) - "O Prophet! Strive against the disbelievers and the hypocrites, and be stern with them. Hell will be their home, a hapless journey's end." The root word of "Jihad" is used again here. The context is clearly holy war, and the scope of violence is broadened to include "hypocrites" - those who call themselves Muslims but do not act as such.


From the Hadith:



Bukhari (52:177) - Allah's Apostle said, "The Hour will not be established until you fight with the Jews, and the stone behind which a Jew will be hiding will say. "O Muslim! There is a Jew hiding behind me, so kill him."



Bukhari (52:256) - The Prophet... was asked whether it was permissible to attack the pagan warriors at night with the probability of exposing their women and children to danger. The Prophet replied, "They (i.e. women and children) are from them (i.e. pagans)." In this command, Muhammad establishes that it is permissible to kill non-combatants in the process of killing a perceived enemy. This provides justification for the many Islamic terror bombings.



Bukhari (52:220) - Allah's Apostle said... 'I have been made victorious with terror'



Abu Dawud (14:2526) - The Prophet (peace_be_upon_him) said: Three things are the roots of faith: to refrain from (killing) a person who utters, "There is no god but Allah" and not to declare him unbeliever whatever sin he commits, and not to excommunicate him from Islam for his any action; and jihad will be performed continuously since the day Allah sent me as a prophet until the day the last member of my community will fight with the Dajjal (Antichrist)



Abu Dawud (14:2527) - The Prophet said: Striving in the path of Allah (jihad) is incumbent on you along with every ruler, whether he is pious or impious



Muslim (1:33) - the Messenger of Allah said: I have been commanded to fight against people till they testify that there is no god but Allah, that Muhammad is the messenger of Allah



Bukhari (8:387) - Allah's Apostle said, "I have been ordered to fight the people till they say: 'None has the right to be worshipped but Allah'. And if they say so, pray like our prayers, face our Qibla and slaughter as we slaughter, then their blood and property will be sacred to us and we will not interfere with them except legally."



Muslim (1:30) - "The Messenger of Allah said: I have been commanded to fight against people so long as they do not declare that there is no god but Allah."



Muslim (1:149) - "Abu Dharr reported: I said: Messenger of Allah, which of the deeds is the best? He (the Holy Prophet) replied: Belief in Allah and Jihad in His cause..."



Muslim (20:4645) - "...He (the Messenger of Allah) did that and said: There is another act which elevates the position of a man in Paradise to a grade one hundred (higher), and the elevation between one grade and the other is equal to the height of the heaven from the earth. He (Abu Sa'id) said: What is that act? He replied: Jihad in the way of Allah! Jihad in the way of Allah!"



Muslim (20:4696) - "the Messenger of Allah (may peace be upon him) said: 'One who died but did not fight in the way of Allah nor did he express any desire (or determination) for Jihid died the death of a hypocrite.'"



Muslim (19:4321-4323) - Three separate hadith in which Muhammad shrugs over the news that innocent children were killed in a raid by his men against unbelievers. His response: "They are of them (meaning the enemy)."



Muslim (19:4294) - "When the Messenger of Allah (may peace be upon him) appointed anyone as leader of an army or detachment he would especially exhort him... He would say: Fight in the name of Allah and in the way of Allah. Fight against those who disbelieve in Allah. Make a holy war... When you meet your enemies who are polytheists, invite them to three courses of action. If they respond to any one of these, you also accept it and withhold yourself from doing them any harm. Invite them to (accept) Islam; if they respond to you, accept it from them and desist from fighting against them... If they refuse to accept Islam, demand from them the Jizya. If they agree to pay, accept it from them and hold off your hands. If they refuse to pay the tax, seek Allah's help and fight them.



Tabari 7:97 The morning after the murder of Ashraf, the Prophet declared, "Kill any Jew who falls under your power." Ashraf was a poet, killed by Muhammad's men because he insulted Islam. Here, Muhammad widens the scope of his orders to kill. An innocent Jewish businessman was then slain by his Muslim partner, merely for being non-Muslim.



Tabari 9:69 "Killing Unbelievers is a small matter to us" The words of Muhammad, prophet of Islam.



Tabari 17:187 "'By God, our religion (din) from which we have departed is better and more correct than that which these people follow. Their religion does not stop them from shedding blood, terrifying the roads, and seizing properties.' And they returned to their former religion." The words of a group of Christians who had converted to Islam, but realized their error after being shocked by the violence and looting committed in the name of Allah. The price of their decision to return to a religion of peace was that the men were beheaded and the woman and children enslaved by the caliph Ali.



Ibn Ishaq/Hisham 327: - “Allah said, ‘A prophet must slaughter before collecting captives. A slaughtered enemy is driven from the land. Muhammad, you craved the desires of this world, its goods and the ransom captives would bring. But Allah desires killing them to manifest the religion.’”



Ibn Ishaq/Hisham 990: - Lest anyone think that cutting off someone's head while screaming 'Allah Akbar!' is a modern creation, here is an account of that very practice under Muhammad, who seems to approve.



Ibn Ishaq/Hisham 992: - "Fight everyone in the way of Allah and kill those who disbelieve in Allah." Muhammad's instructions to his men prior to a military raid.




Additional Notes:

Other than the fact that Muslims haven't killed every non-Muslim under their domain, there is very little else that they can point to as proof that theirs is a peaceful, tolerant religion. Where Islam is dominant (as in the Middle East and Pakistan) religious minorities suffer brutal persecution with little resistance. Where Islam is in the minority (as in Thailand, the Philippines and Europe) there is the threat of violence if Muslim demands are not met. Either situation seems to provide a justification for religious terrorism, which is persistent and endemic to Islamic fundamentalism.



The reasons are obvious and begin with the Quran. Few verses of Islam's most sacred text can be construed to fit the contemporary virtues of religious tolerance and universal brotherhood. Those that do are earlier "Meccan" verses which are obviously abrogated by later ones. This is why Muslim apologists speak of the "risks" of trying to interpret the Quran without their "assistance" - even while claiming that it is a perfect book.



Far from being mere history or theological construct, the violent verses of the Quran have played a key role in very real massacre and genocide. This includes the brutal slaughter of tens of millions of Hindus for five centuries beginning around 1000 AD with Mahmud of Ghazni's bloody conquest. Both he and the later Tamerlane (Islam's Genghis Khan) slaughtered an untold number merely for defending their temples from destruction. Buddhism was very nearly wiped off the Indian subcontinent. Judaism and Christianity met the same fate (albeit more slowly) in areas conquered by Muslim armies, including the Middle East, North Africa and parts of Europe, including today's Turkey. Zoroastrianism, the ancient religion of a proud Persian people is despised by Muslims and barely survives in modern Iran.



So ingrained is violence in the religion that Islam has never really stopped being at war, either with other religions or with itself.



Muhammad was a military leader, laying siege to towns, massacring the men, raping their women, enslaving their children, and taking the property of others as his own. On several occasions he rejected offers of surrender from the besieged inhabitants and even butchered captives. He actually inspired his followers to battle when they did not feel it was right to fight, promising them slaves and booty if they did and threatening them with Hell if they did not. Muhammad allowed his men to rape traumatized women captured in battle, usually on the very day their husbands and family members were slaughtered.



It is important to emphasize that, for the most part, Muslim armies waged aggressive campaigns, and the religion's most dramatic military conquests were made by the actual companions of Muhammad in the decades following his death. The early Islamic principle of warfare was that the civilian population of a town was to be destroyed (ie. men executed, women and children taken as slaves) if they defended themselves. Although modern apologists often claim that Muslims are only supposed to attack in self-defense, this is an oxymoron that is flatly contradicted by the accounts of Islamic historians and others that go back to the time of Muhammad.



Consider the example of the Qurayza Jews, who were completely obliterated only five years after Muhammad arrived in Medina. Their leader opted to stay neutral when their town was besieged by a Meccan army that was sent to take revenge for Muhammad's deadly caravan raids. The tribe killed no one from either side and even surrendered peacefully to Muhammad after the Meccans had been turned back. Yet the prophet of Islam had every male member of the Qurayza beheaded, and every woman and child enslaved, even raping one of the captives himself (what Muslim apologists might refer to as "same day marriage".



One of Islam's most revered modern scholars, Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, openly sanctions offensive Jihad: "In the Jihad which you are seeking, you look for the enemy and invade him. This type of Jihad takes place only when the Islamic state is invading other [countries] in order to spread the word of Islam and to remove obstacles standing in its way." Elsewhere, he notes: "Islam has the right to take the initiative…this is God’s religion and it is for the whole world. It has the right to destroy all obstacles in the form of institutions and traditions … it attacks institutions and traditions to release human beings from their poisonous influences, which distort human nature and curtail human freedom. Those who say that Islamic Jihad was merely for the defense of the 'homeland of Islam' diminish the greatness of the Islamic way of life."



Muhammad's failure to leave a clear line of succession resulted in perpetual internal war following his death. Those who knew him best first fought to keep remote tribes from leaving Islam and reverting to their preferred religion (the Ridda or 'Apostasy wars'). Then, within the closer community, early Meccan converts battled later ones. Hostility developed between those immigrants who had traveled with Muhammad to Mecca and the Ansar at Medina who had helped them settle in. Finally there was a violent struggle within Muhammad's own family between his favorite wife and favorite daughter - a jagged schism that has left Shias and Sunnis at each others' throats to this day.



The strangest and most untrue thing that can be said about Islam is that it is a Religion of Peace. If every standard by which the West is judged and condemned (slavery, imperialism, intolerance, misogyny, sexual repression, warfare...) were applied equally to Islam, the verdict would be devastating. Islam never gives up what it conquers, be it religion, culture, language or life. Neither does it make apologies or any real effort at moral progress. It is the least open to dialogue and the most self-absorbed. It is convinced of its own perfection, yet brutally shuns self-examination and represses criticism.



This is what makes the Quran's verses of violence so dangerous. They are given the weight of divine command. While Muslim terrorists take them as literally as anything else in their holy book, and understand that Islam is incomplete without Jihad, moderates offer little to contradict them - outside of opinion. Indeed, what do they have? Speaking of peace and love may win over the ignorant, but when every twelfth verse of Islam's holiest book either speaks to Allah's hatred for non-Muslims or calls for their death, forced conversion, or subjugation, it's little wonder that sympathy for terrorism runs as deeply as it does in the broader community - even if most Muslims personally prefer not to interpret their religion in this way.



Although scholars like Ibn Khaldun, one of Islam's most respected philosophers, understood that "the holy war is a religious duty, because of the universalism of the Muslim mission and (the obligation to) convert everybody to Islam either by persuasion or by force", many other Muslims are either unaware or willfully ignorant of the Quran's near absence of verses that preach universal non-violence. Their understanding of Islam comes from what they are taught by others. In the West, it is typical for believers to think that their religion must be like Christianity - preaching the New Testament virtues of peace, love, and tolerance - because Muslims are taught that Islam is supposed to be superior in every way. They are somewhat surprised and embarrassed to learn that the evidence of the Quran and the bloody history of Islam are very much in contradiction to this.



Others simply accept the violence. In 1991, a Palestinian couple in America was convicted of stabbing their daughter to death for being too Westernized. A family friend came to their defense, excoriating the jury for not understanding the "culture", claiming that the father was merely following "the religion" and saying that the couple had to "discipline their daughter or lose respect." (source). In 2011, unrepentant Palestinian terrorists, responsible for the brutal murders of civilians, women and children explicitly in the name of Allah were treated to a luxurious "holy pilgrimage" to Mecca by the Saudi king - without a single Muslim voice raised in protest.



For their part, Western liberals would do well not to sacrifice critical thinking to the god of political correctness, or look for reasons to bring other religion down to the level of Islam merely to avoid the existential truth that this it is both different and dangerous.



There are just too many Muslims who take the Quran literally... and too many others who couldn't care less about the violence done in the name of Islam.

If the North thinks the Middle Belt is on their side, they are terribly making a mistake. A very big mistake. We with Nigeria, yet they kill us en mass, is it when we are left alone with them that they will not use us as suya? And listen that slowpoke called El-Rufai calling Boko Haram freedom fighters, so by entering into Churches and killing absolutely peaceful worshippers they are fighting for freedom? Yet this is an educated man, yet this an enlightened man, yet this is a person we call an elite. This tells you how a northerner thinks! The middle belt is no part of the north.

"He who kills one innocent man is like he who the whole mankind".

Prophet Mohammed killed Innocent Jews! What does that make him?

HYPOCRITES! JUST ONE POST AND THE THREAD IS CLOSED. PHARISEES OF OUR TIME.

Tafawa Balawa is no Hero of this country! I feel like digging up his bones and burning it.

Each I read everything about him, its always tribalistic and evil.

Talking of dipping the Quran into the Atlantic through Jihadist conquest
Talking of not allowing a christian rule Kaduna State etc.

He is definitely not a hero of this country, lets teach school children the truth!

This is an interesting post. I'm an Igala by tribe and to be sincere, the Idoma and Igala people are the closest people in everything except language. As I can speak both Igala and Idoma and have roots in both, I've come to understand that the core Igala traditional griot chant is a mixture of Igala and Idoma. Also, that of the Alekwu (to be specific) is also a mixture of Idoma and Igala. We share almost all our name with the Idomas and some core Igala villages, far away from the Benue border are coined from Idoma proverbs (eg Alagilani, Ochadamu). The Idoma culture is like the exact replication of the Igala culture, our traditional religions hold the same values, the same protocols, the same prohibitions, and the same ceremonies and festivals, the highest among the festivals in both tribes which is Ote Egwu for Igalas and Eje Alekwu for Idomas and each of these names in both languages translate to mean the same thing, 'wine for the ancestors'. I'm also aware of some village in Idoma land that claim direct dissent from one Attah/Onu or the other and still greet themselves using the traditional titles of those descended from such Attah or Onu. It a historical fact that the Oche of Adoka was hitherto beaded by the reigning Attah of Igala and in accordance with the Igala ceremonies. Even when we speak different languages, the structure are the same. ie, one can perfectly be translated to the other without losing meaning or portrayal of emotions as we share all proverbs, idioms and popular sayings. Because of all these, outside home, an Igala feels closest to an Idoma man than any other tribe. We are also easily confused by other tribes for each other.

sorry to bore you with all these...

Despite the above, I'm opposed to Igala and Idoma sharing a state. Now that we are found in two different states, we share solidarity and sympathy. Bring us together and we would become the worst of enemies.