The ISIS-is-not-Islamic canard

With ISIS' hold on Mosul and Raqqa finally over, Muslims continue to make the case that the terrorist group is not really Islamic.

The two big arguments against the bona fides of ISIS, according to these "experts" (Muslims and non-Muslims alike) are:

• Most of those killed by ISIS were Muslims;
• Most of those involved in fighting ISIS were Muslims;
• And, the most creative – that ISIS was disobeying a direct command of Muhammad himself by attacking and murdering Christians.

"The fall of Islamic State shows, once again, that extremism and intolerance have no place in Islam and will not be tolerated by Muslims," wrote Abdollah Vakily in Canada's Cornwall Standard Freeholder. "There was, however, another unfortunate consequence of the extremists' reign of terror. They showed an unprecedented hatred and violence towards non-Muslims, particularly Christians. This they claimed was their Islamic duty and their strategy to establish an Islamic society. Yet contrary to their claim, the hatred and violence against non-Muslims has no precedent in Islamic history."

No precedent for Muslims hating and killing non-Muslims?

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It happens all over the Islamic world – and has since the time of Muhammad. It's what characterizes Islam. It's why when the world sees acts of terrorism, the first thought is always, "Islam."

As proof of his assertion, Vakily writes: "The mere fact that in almost all Muslim countries there are Christians, and to a lesser degree Jews, living there and the fact that their places of worship are still operating and serving their communities indicates many Muslims have not regarded them as enemies."

In other words, since some Christians and Jews could not get out of Islamic countries, or accepted a life of second-class citizenship in a Muslim-dominated society, that proves there was no hatred or violence previous to the arrival of ISIS.

That such absurd statements are published in the free world without refutation is both cruel and irresponsible.

To make his case, Vakily cites a letter supposedly written by Muhammad himself found in the library of St. Catherine monastery at the foot of Mount Sinai in Egypt, which is the oldest functioning monastery in the world.

The letter, signed and sealed with "his handprint," supposedly "offers protection and religious freedom to Christians in all Islamic territories and at all times."

"This is a message from Muhammad ibn Abdullah, as a covenant to those who adopt Christianity, near and far, we are with them," the letter reads. "No compulsion is to be on them. Neither are their judges to be removed from their jobs, nor their monks from their monasteries. No one is to destroy a house of their religion, to damage it, or to carry anything from it to the Muslims' houses. Should anyone take any of these, he would spoil God's covenant and disobey His Prophet. Verily, they are my allies and have my secure charter against all that they hate. No one is to force them to travel or to oblige them to fight. The Muslims are to fight for them. If a female Christian is married to a Muslim, it is not to take place without her approval. She is not to be prevented from visiting her church to pray. Their churches are to be respected. They are neither to be prevented from repairing them nor the sacredness of their covenants. No one of the nation [i.e. Muslim] is to disobey this covenant till the Last Day (end of the world)."

Well, I guess that proves Vakily's case, right. There it is, in black and white. Muhammad had no beef with Christians – until the end of the world.

But there is a little problem with that.

If you read the Quran, you get a different picture. If you read the history of Islam, you get another story entirely.

I will cite only a handful of chapters, or suras, from the Quran:

[4.160] "Wherefore for the iniquity of those who are Jews did We disallow to them the good things which had been made lawful for them and for their hindering many (people) from Allah's way."

[5.51] "O you who believe! do not take the Jews and the Christians for friends; they are friends of each other; and whoever amongst you takes them for a friend, then surely he is one of them; surely Allah does not guide the unjust people."

[9:34] "O you who believe! Verily, there are many of the Jewish rabbis and the Christian monks who devour the wealth of mankind in falsehood, and hinder men from the Way of Allah. And those who hoard up gold and silver, and spend it not in the Way of Allah — announce unto them a painful torment."

[9:123] "O you who believe! Fight those of the disbelievers who are close to you, and let them find harshness in you, and know that Allah is with those who are the pious."

Islam's historical reality reflects perfectly this kind of venom. It is a religion spread by the sword – and spread rapidly and effectively throughout the Middle East, much of Africa, much of Europe and much of Asia. Indeed, it grew to be the largest empire in the history of the world and the longest lasting.

It has always prescribed for non-Muslims a dhimmi system of life, which permits them to live in conquered lands alive and without conversion only one way – by paying a burdensome ransom for the rest of their lives.

Yet, despite the wide swath of genocide historical Islam wrought in India, Africa, where it organized the international slave trade through systemic brutality and millions of kidnappings, the Middle East and Europe, today's Islamic propagandists tell a vastly different story – and many believe them.

But forget history. Let's look at the present. Name one Muslim country where Christians and Jews live at peace. It's not possible.

And, increasingly, Christians, Jews and others are no longer able to live in peace in non-Islamic nations because of frequent and often devastating terrorist attacks.

That's because Muslims are taught by their holy books to see the world divided this way – the world of Islamic domination, and the part of the world Islam has yet to conquer.

That's why Christians have fled the Middle East, the birthplace of the faith, in droves.

And that's why a third of the population of Israel today is comprised of Jews who fled, when they had a chance, from the nations of the Islamic Middle East.

By the way, about this ISIS-is-not-Islamic canard: We heard the same thing about al-Qaida. We heard the same thing about the Taliban. But the truth is that all of these groups were founded by Islamic clerics – genuine experts on the Quran and other so-called Muslim "holy books."

So where is the evidence of the following anywhere in the Islamic world?

• peace
• justice
• righteousness
• love
• human rights

Why is it that Islam is self-evidently not only in conflict with the entire non-Muslim world, but why is it a divided religion in conflict with itself?

Get Joseph Farah's latest book, "The Restitution of All Things: Israel, Christians, and the End of the Age," and learn about the Hebrew roots of the Christian faith and your future in God's Kingdom