Nothing To Do With Islam?

By Peter Townsend

One of the most depressing realities of modern life is the regularity with which deadly attacks are carried out in the name of Islam. Almost as depressing are the invariable reassurances by Western political leaders and media elites that these acts of violence had "nothing to do with Islam". As part of these reassurances we will also regularly hear the terms Radical Islam, Islamism, Militant Islam, 'so-called' Islamic State (ISIS) and Jihadist bandied about as if people who act violently on behalf of Islam are somehow perverting the pristine teachings of the Muslim religion. Yet, niggling doubts remain. Why, if Islam is indeed a "religion of peace", do these attacks keep coming? Why are the vast majority of acts of terror in our world today carried out by people steeped in the teachings of the Qur'an? With his new book, "Nothing to do with Islam"? - Investigating the West's Most Dangerous Blind Spot, Peter Townsend (author of the highly acclaimed Questioning Islam - Tough Questions and Honest Answers about the Muslim Religion) examines the evidence as far as the possible link between Islam and violence is concerned. He does this by carefully analyzing the foundational texts of Islam (most notably the Qur'an and traditions), as well as the canonical set of stock responses whenever such a link is asserted. The question whether Islam promotes violence could very well be one of the most important questions ever faced by Western civilization. It deserves more attention and analysis than a few glib sound bites. Nothing to do with Islam? provides you with the opportunity to examine this question from all angles and come to your own conclusions.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Peter Townsend
• Release date: Feb 6, 2018
• ISBN: 9781386127321

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Copyright © Peter Townsend 2016 ((Updated October 2019))

All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

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PRINT ISBN-13: 978-1-5333360-0-2

PRINT ISBN-10: 1533336008

Contents

1. Introduction

2. Why Is The Nothing to do with Islam Position So Popular?

2.1. Ignorance

2.2. Statements by Muslim groups

2.3. Islam’s Status as a Religion

2.4. Secular Non-Comprehension of Religious Motives

2.5. Wishful Thinking

2.6. Political Correctness

2.7. Fear

2.8. Muslim Political Pressure

2.9. Perceived Lack of Options

2.10. Critical Mass

3. The Qur’an, Hadiths and Sharia on Muslim Responses to Unbelief

3.1. Basic Points of Departure in Interpreting the Qur’an

3.2. Deeply Loathed by Allah: The Qur’an on Unbelievers

3.3. The People of the Book – Not Quite as Bad?

3.4. Jihad – Struggling in the Cause of Allah

3.5. Muhammad: The Conduct of the Excellent Example

3.6. Calls for Violence Against Apostates

3.7. Deception for the Sake of Allah – The Doctrine of Taqiyya

3.8. Sharia: The Legal Dimension of Islamic Supremacism

3.9. Are the Qur’anic Verses of Violence Dead Letters?

3.10. Islam’s Stark Division of the World

3.11. Migration for the Sake of Allah

3.12. An Islamic State that has Nothing to do with Islam? – A Case Study

4. Right of Reply: Responding to Possible Objections

4.1. The Out of Context Canard

4.2. Should There, Indeed, be No Compulsion in Religion?

4.3. Is Jihad Against the Self the Most Important Form of Jihad?

4.4. To Kill One is to Kill All Mankind – The Troubling Message of the Most Peaceful Verse in the Qur’an.

4.5. Other Religious Texts Are Just as Violent

4.6. Only a Tiny Minority of Extremists Engage in Violence

4.7. We Regularly Hear Muslim Leaders Condemning Violence

4.8. So-Called Radical Muslims Misunderstand and Pervert Islam

4.9. I Have Many Non-Violent Muslim Friends

4.10. Those Who Assert a Link between Islam and Violence Are Hateful and Bigoted

4.11. Pointing Out the Violent Teachings of Islam is Islamophobic

4.12. Asserting a Link Between Islam and Violence is Racist

4.13. The Text of the Qur’an is Irrelevant as Muslims are Free to Believe What They Want

4.14. Islamic Violence is the Result of Western Foreign Policy and/or the Crusades

5. What Can Be Done?

5.1. Undermine Belief in Islam

5.2. Support Apostates from Islam

5.3. Challenge Cultural Relativism

5.4. Examine Islamic Institutions in Your Community

5.5. Resist Efforts at Islamization

5.6. Counter Outreach Efforts

5.7. Publicize the Plight of Victims of Islamic Intolerance

5.8. Resist Online Recruitment

6. Conclusion

Please Keep in Touch

More from Peter Townsend

Notes

1.

Introduction

It is as though they are working from a carefully crafted script.

After every single high-profile Islamic terror attack, Western political leaders rush to find a microphone that they can use to declare that, despite appearances to the contrary, the event had nothing to do with Islam. This statement is also endlessly repeated in discussions of activities linked with groups that quite explicitly base their identity on the Islamic faith of their adherents (e.g., Al-Qaeda, ISIS, Boko Haram, Al Shabab, etc.). The nothing to do with Islam claim is often made in such a soothing, not to mention condescending, tone that we are left with the distinct impression that any assertion of a link between Islam and violence is the height of folly.

The scale and scope of this effort to get Islam off the hook for violence committed in its name is quite astounding. In fact, it seems that there is hardly a Western leader who is not getting in on the act. A few examples:

• The face of terror is not the true faith of Islam. That’s not what Islam is all about. Islam is peace. These terrorists don’t represent peace. They represent evil and war. U.S. President George W. Bush in a speech at the Islamic Center of America in the aftermath of the September 11 terror attacks¹.

• Islam is a peaceful and tolerant identifying element of many countries and many peoples. J.L. Rodriguez Zapatero, Spanish Prime Minister on the anniversary of the Madrid train bombings (11 March 2004) which killed 191 people².

• "In the end, it is by the power of argument, debate, true religious faith and true legitimate politics that we will defeat this threat. That means not just arguing against their terrorism, but their politics and their perversion of religious faith. U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair in a keynote speech delivered in response to the 7/7 Bombings" (7 July 2005) in London³.

• The enduring faith of over a billion people is so much bigger than the narrow hatred of a few. Islam is not part of the problem in combating violent extremism – it is an important part of promoting peace. U.S. President Barack Obama in his Cairo Speech to the Muslim World (4 June 2009)⁴.

• They boast of their brutality. They claim to do this in the name of Islam. That is nonsense. Islam is a religion of peace. They are not Muslims. They are monsters. U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron responding to the killing by ISIS of aid worker David Haines (14 September 2014)⁵.

• [It is the assumption of] being allowed to act, punish, kill on God’s behalf… But for me, this is nothing but blasphemy. German Chancellor Angela Merkel (15 January 2015)⁶.

• Not to be divided means we must not make any confusion concerning these terrorists and fanatics that have nothing to do with the Muslim religion. French President François Hollande speaking after a deadly jihadist attack on the Paris offices of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo and a Kosher deli (7 January 2015)⁷.

• I have discussed recent developments with world leaders and all are united in our condemnation of this terrorism. We are united in our steadfast commitment to defeating those who carry out these terrorist acts. The leaders of the Muslim nations with whom I have met in the last week…have all said loudly that ISIL’s deeds and ideology defame and blaspheme Islam and are utterly contrary to the precepts of authentic Islam. Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull in a statement to parliament following the 13 November 2015 Paris terror attacks⁸.

• Let’s be clear: Islam is not our adversary. Muslims are peaceful and tolerant people and have nothing whatsoever to do with terrorism. Former US Presidential Candidate Hillary Clinton in a tweet sent out in the aftermath of the 13 November 2015 Paris terror attacks.⁹.

• It is wrong to describe this as Islamic terrorism. It is Islamist terrorism. It is a perversion of a great faith. This act of terror was not an act of faith. It was a perversion; a warped ideology, which leads to an act of terrorism like that and it will not prevail. UK Prime Minister Theresa May in the aftermath of the 22 March 2017 terror attack in Westminster which killed 6 people and injured 49 others.

And here you were thinking that we elect our leaders based on their competence in managing the economy. Turns out, their area of expertise is Islamic theology! Jokes aside, have you ever stopped to think about how utterly absurd this state of affairs is?

On the one hand, we have a constant stream of people committing acts of violence while invoking the Qur’an and their faith in Islam as justification for their deeds. We’re doing this for Islam! they declare. Oh no, you’re not! comes the swift reply from our politicians and media. So, we are essentially left with a group of non-Muslims, most of whom have probably never read the Qur’an before, telling some of the most devout Muslims on the planet that they completely misunderstand their own faith.

Absurd it may be, but the confident pronouncements of our politicians and media elites about true Islam has become so deeply embedded in Western consciousness that even the most carefully phrased questioning of the Islam is a religion of peace mantra is liable to get the questioner labelled as a hateful and ignorant caveman.

There are, of course, several problems with this scenario. The first, and most obvious, has already been identified. Those who make such confident pronouncements about the true nature of Islam often operate from a very limited understanding of the teachings of the faith. They may sincerely believe that Islam is a religion of peace, but will almost certainly be unable to defend this position by referencing key Islamic texts to back up their positions. Their arguments are, therefore, essentially arguments from ignorance. This is deeply ironic given the fact that critics of Islam (who in many cases make their arguments based on a careful reading of the Qur’an and traditions) are regularly labelled as ignorant by those pushing the Islam is peace doctrine.

The second major problem with the constant parroting of the nothing to do with Islam line is that it is deeply condescending and patronizing towards the many devout Muslims who honestly believe that their faith commands them to wage war against unbelievers. We obviously do not have to agree that war for the sake of Allah is a good idea, but we should, at the very least, meet those who hold such views on their own terms by recognizing that they hold their views sincerely and that they see their beliefs as a legitimate expression of their Islamic faith.

The state of affairs described above is quite unique in the history of human conflict. Not only are many in the West in complete denial over the fact that a conflict even exists (we are constantly told that We are not at war with Islam)¹⁰, they go further by attempting to ignore the explicit declarations of countless groups and individuals in the Muslim world stating that they are, indeed, at war with us¹¹ and that the reason behind this state of war is the fact that most Westerners are non-Muslims. To add insult to injury, our leaders and media then proceed to declare that these enemies cannot simply mean their declarations of war as it is supposedly at odds with a Western understanding of what Islam should truly be.

This kind of denial is not only ridiculous; it is also dangerous. It does not take a genius to work out that a declaration of war should always be taken seriously. This includes coming to terms with the ideological underpinning of such declarations. During the Cold War, some of the brightest minds in the West were co-opted into the struggle to help our leaders understand and defeat Communism. Today we are, once again, engaged in a struggle that poses an existential threat to our civilization. This time, however, the highest priority of most of our leaders seems to be to pretend that it is not happening. The mind boggles.

The worst aspect of the denialism that reaches to the very top echelons of Western political leadership is the fact that the refusal to face reality on the true nature of Islam is not merely confined to the personal opinions of our leaders. It has been translated into very definite policy initiatives. These range from the freezing out (or in extreme cases criminalization)¹² of statements that are critical of Islam’s political aims, to the abandonment of anti-terror surveillance programs aimed at Muslim communities¹³. Why, after-all, should law enforcement agencies pay special attention to the followers of a supposedly peaceful religion? In light of the above, it could plausibly be argued that the refusal to critically evaluate widely held beliefs about Islam (and to instinctively tar those who do with slurs like Islamophobe and hater) is more than a bit of forgivable intellectual laziness – it is putting lives in danger.

The main thrust of this book will be to argue for the very position that our leaders and mainstream media shy away from, ridicule and deny – that there is indeed a direct and indisputable link between the teachings of Islam and acts of violence against non-Muslims. I will do this by analyzing key Islamic texts, most notably the Qur’an and the traditions (aḥādīth), but also later historical documents.

Why do this? Would it not be simpler and easier to ignore the troubling aspects of Islamic teaching and attempt to foster peaceful coexistence based on an appeal to common humanity? This may be a very laudable goal, but the problem is that there will always be Muslims wishing to return to what they perceive as the pristine purity of their faith, and when they do, they are likely to encounter texts containing strident calls to hate and subjugate those outside of Islam.

I realize many readers will immediately find certain objections forming in their minds upon being told that the key texts of Islam harbor many statements of hatred and incitements to violence. Such objections will be dealt with in full in Chapter 4, but allow me, for the moment, to briefly lay to rest what are likely to be some of the most pressing concerns:

• Pointing out some of the hateful aspects of the teachings of the Qur’an is not the same thing as hating Muslims. In any civilized debate, it should be possible to critique an ideology without immediately being accused of nursing a burning hatred towards those who hold to that ideology. Ideas and people are separate things. What follows should, therefore, be read as an indictment of the teachings of orthodox Islam and should certainly not be seen as an expression of ill will towards individual Muslims.

• Following on from the above, it is important to note that I believe we are engaged in an ideological struggle with orthodox Islam. This means that victory can only be achieved through ideological means. In other words, what I have in mind is a battle of ideas rather than a physical struggle. This theme will be developed much more in the final chapter, but I think it is important to state very clearly from the outset that nothing in these pages should be construed as an appeal to violent action against individual Muslims or Muslim communities. This would, in fact, be hugely counter-productive as it is virtually impossible to win the heart of anyone through hurting his body. Furthermore, war talk plays directly into the narrative that sustains the jihadists (i.e., that they are engaged in a life or death struggle with unbelievers). It is far better, in my view, to undermine the very ideology that planted this notion in their hearts.

• Critics of Islam are often accused of quoting the Qur’an out of context. This charge is deeply ironic, as will be pointed out in Section 4.1. For the moment, it is sufficient to state that special care will be taken to quote passages from the Qur’an with due recognition of their literary, linguistic and historical context. Whether this goal is achieved can be ascertained by consulting the notes at the end of the book. Links to online versions of all Qur’anic verses and hadiths quoted will be provided. In the case of Qur’anic verses, readers will be able to consult six different respected English translations (all produced by reputable Muslim scholars) by following these links. For those requiring an even deeper level of analysis, please consult the Qur’anic Arabic Corpus¹⁴ for the verse in question. This will allow readers to access a word-for-word linguistic analysis of the texts quoted. I strongly urge readers to make use of these tools before making any out of context claims.

The material in this book will be presented in four distinct parts. This introduction will be followed by an attempt to come to grips with the nothing to do with Islam phenomenon by inquiring into some of the reasons why it seems to exert such a powerful influence over so many influential people in Western public life (Chapter 2). This will be followed by a comprehensive discussion of some of the key texts of Islam to show how they can, and are, used to justify violence against unbelievers (Chapter 3). The focus of Chapter 4 will be on some of the most common objections that are raised when a link between Islam and violence is asserted. The book ends with a section entitled What can be done? (Chapter 5), in which I will suggest some possible individual responses to the existential threat that orthodox Islam poses to the non-Muslim people of the world.

I have stated that I recognize from the outset that many of the points that I will be making throughout this work will make many readers profoundly uncomfortable, especially since I will be challenging some of the most cherished convictions about Islam in our society head-on. I trust that any discomfort will not come from my style or approach and I will do my best to keep the discussion as respectful and even-handed as possible. If, however, the discomfort arises from being challenged to critically examine the evidence for one of the most fiercely protected sacred cows in our culture, then I would have succeeded in my goal. Therefore, I encourage you to read Nothing to do with Islam? with an open mind. Please see it as an opportunity to carefully consider whether the politically correct assessment of Islam is, in fact, correct. If I do not succeed in convincing you, then you will, at the very least, be able to state that you do not hold the Islam is peace dogma blindly, but that you have also carefully considered the opposite viewpoint.

It should be noted that this book is focused on the question of the relationship between Islam and violence. It is not intended as a comprehensive analysis of the truth claims of the Muslim religion in general. For this, I ask readers to turn to my book Questioning Islam – Tough Questions and Honest Answers about the Muslim Religion available at http://www.qi-book.com. For a discussion of the early history of Islam, please see ‘The Mecca Mystery - Probing the Black Hole at the heart of Muslim History’. Available at: http://meccamystery.com

Please accept my thanks for taking the time to read my work and, more importantly, for being willing to devote time and energy to getting to the bottom of one of the most important questions facing Western civilization today: Is Islam indeed a religion of peace?

Peter Townsend

May 2016 (Updated October 2019)

2.

Why Is The Nothing to do with Islam Position So Popular?

The main purpose of this book is to challenge the idea that there is no link between Islam and acts of violence committed in its name. It is not, necessarily, to provide a detailed explanation of the reasons behind the popularity of nothing to do with Islam statements among our political leaders. Providing a comprehensive set of reasons would probably require a level of cultural analysis that falls beyond the scope of this book. It would, however, be helpful to briefly deal with this topic. In doing so, I will be suggesting some factors that contribute to the nothing to do with Islam phenomenon. It is, more than likely, inevitable that I will be treading on some toes along the way, but please understand that this chapter was not written as a means to score political hits, but as an attempt to come to terms with the topic under discussion.

With this in mind, I offer what I regard as the ten most significant reasons behind the impulse to deny any link whatsoever between Islam and violence committed in its name.

2.1. Ignorance

I recently had an interesting debate with someone who rejected with contempt my assertion that there is an indisputable connection between the teachings of Islam and violence against unbelievers. He quite confidently stated that only ignorant fools hold such views. I responded to this by asking him a series of questions: What verses of the Qur’an do you base your views on?, How would you reconcile Muhammad’s violent example with a message of peace?, Which sound hadiths (traditions) can you quote in support of your views? and Which books or articles have you read that question the view that Islam is essentially peaceful? As I expected, my debating partner could offer very little by way of adequate fact-based responses to these questions. This was particularly ironic given his claim that my position is supposedly based on ignorance.

The fact is that many people in the West are profoundly ignorant about Islam and would not be able to provide anything beyond the most basic information when it comes to the contents of the Qur’an and hadith collections. Sadly, at least some of these people are convinced that their sketchy hearsay knowledge about the tenets of Islam is a sufficient foundation for their views on the supposed peacefulness of the Muslim religion. It is as if the mere repetition of the phrase Islam is a religion of peace is all the evidence one could possibly need.

I think we can all agree that one of the most important questions facing the world today should be settled on the basis of a rigorous examination of the available evidence. Vague notions of what Islam is supposed to teach (or what we fervently hope it does) will not do. This is why I sincerely believe that an open-minded consideration of the material presented in this book is of the utmost importance.

2.2. Statements by Muslim groups

This point is very closely related to the previous one. Some Muslim people are obviously very aware of the potential damage to the reputation of Islam if the full extent of the exhortations to violence in the Qur’an and traditions become obvious. They are able to mitigate this by relying on the fact that the average Westerner has little knowledge of the Qur’an and will, therefore, not be able to challenge assertions that it teaches a certain doctrine. Many Muslim leaders make use of this fact by constantly making claims about the supposed peacefulness of Islam, especially after acts of violence committed by people quoting the Qur’an. These claims are, more often than not, based on the outright ignoring of problematic Qur’anic passages, out-of-context quotation of others and the very selective presentation of some favorable (but weak) traditions. Since most non-Muslims are not in a position to critically evaluate the merits of this whitewashed version of Islamic teaching on violence, it has become the accepted orthodoxy