The bold, oft-repeated threats of an afterlife filled with
fire, punishments and pain for those unwilling to “submit to Allah”, must
surely strike all but the most hopeless of adherents, as the desperate attempts
of a power hungry seducer using the only means at 'His' disposal: fear, threats
of violence, and eternal damnation to get what he wants.
Do they not appear as repugnant to the reader of this relatively enlightened epoch, as the threats
of an eternity of Hellfire propagated by the early Christian Church?
Again and again we are told in no uncertain terms about the
expected behaviour of the believers, and the fate (not pleasant) awaiting the
disbelievers, or even those considered hypocritical or “timorous”[2] about
joining the battle to take over Mecca, constant reminders to be thorough in our
dispensing with logic, critical thought, familial bonds[3] and any plans we may
have had for this world littering the text, alongside instructions for those
charged with dispensing these distasteful demands from the pulpit: “Say 'I
have been commanded to be the first of those who submit'; Say 'Of a truth, I
fear, If I disobey my Lord the punishment of an awful day'”[4]
Well, thankfully this petty tyrant, spawned of the brain of
the military General Muhammed, is no lord of mine, nor do those intercessors
claiming to bestow from on high, a message on behalf of him and his “all
knowing” 'God' have any purchase upon my soul, it is not fitting for a proud
Scotsman to prostrate himself before such obviously vexatious hobgoblins.
But what of those who are indoctrinated from a young age,
coerced into submission for being unfortunate enough to live under a brutal
regime such as the practice of this regressive ideology makes manifest?
As I undertake this task to express my uncensored thoughts on
the Quran in writing, as a citizen of a (relatively) free country, my heart is
bleeding for those born less fortunate who's stories I am confronted with via
my DAB Radio:
Raif Badani, a citizen of the brutal autocracy of
Saudi Arabia sentenced to endure 1000 lashes with the whip in batches of 50
every Friday after prayers, a man who's only crime was to dare to think, to
define himself as a liberal in an ultra-conservative Islamic regime, who did
little more than I am now: publishing his opinions, thoughts and hopes on the
internet, but whom, more than I casting these words from a safe distance[5],
had the courage to contravene the barbaric regime of the Saudi Arabian
Monarchy, and their religion where it counts, by merely expressing criticisms
no thinking person, being acquainted with love or liberty could possibly find
objectionable.
Nigeria, hundreds of miles away from Raif's place of
torture and imprisonment, only a few months after the horrific kidnapping of
hundreds of Schoolgirls who's only 'transgression' was to aspire to become
educated, empowered citizens with equal rights to boys and independence of
mind, we learn of Boko Haram's latest religiously motivated action, the
appalling torture and murder of as many as 2000 men, women and children in the north-east town of Baga .
Further exasperating my depression is news provided in our
print media of figures released by British Police this week, highlighting at
least 2800 cases of 'honour' violence committed against Muslim women and
children living in the United Kingdom, including the utterly abhorrent murder
of Rania Alayed after prolonged abuse, rape and violence at the hands of
her husband.
A charity called Karma Nirvana set up to help the
victims of 'honour' violence, report this problem is far more widespread than
currently acknowledged, being largely hidden from Police by religious communities in the hopes of retaining
tradition and custom intact, the organizations leader Jasminder Sanghera has
stated that around 800 cases are reported to their offices each week, she has
received death threats via Twitter for her troubles, and their offices have
been the target of bomb threats which are being investigated, forcing them to
move premises.
These are just three examples of the most extreme barbarity
spanning the globe in the name of Islam, but let us not forget the brutal
attacks planned by Al Qaeda in Yemen, against satirical magazine Charlie
Hebdo in France and freedom of speech in general, foiled terror plots in
Belgium, the ongoing bloodletting and crucifixion of Christian minorities,
abduction and enslavement of young women and children in Syria and Iraq by ISIL,
what is the objective observer to think of all these fruits of Islam?
Yet still we are subjected to the self congratulatory
platitudes spewed by religious apologists of all hues, who tie themselves in
knots trying to separate the actions of Muslims from their religion denying the
fact this is religiosity in action, specifically the enactment of Islamic
principles as defined in the Quran, for which one only has to read a hundred
pages of the book to find numerous congratulations and justifications.
Even the UK Prime Minister David Cameron, has suggested these
are merely “exceptions” trying to “pervert the mainstream Islamic religion” and
“not representative of one of the largest religions in the world”, we should
perhaps question why this particularly reactionary and self congratulatory
conservative, favours large numbers of people dwelling submissively in the mist
enveloped regions of the religious world, likewise his eternal superior HRH
Prince Charles who has yet to 'bless us' with his frequently espoused,
tragicomic Islamic apologia regarding any of these events.
What do those who would seek to set themselves ahead of all
as an alienated hierarchy, stand to gain from the benighted submissiveness of a
populace they feel entitled to govern, surely something, otherwise why
encourage it?
Although it cannot be confirmed as I write this short essay,
it is likely that not a year has passed since Muhammad took off towards Medina,
around 622ad[6], in which actions similar to those described above have not
been conducted in the name of Allah and spreading 'His' “Religion of Peace”,
granted there was a truce called around 630ad, between the rulers of Mecca and
the band of Muslims roving about the periphery of the great and ancient city,
allowing them passage within to conduct Taqiyah, establish the new and subvert
established forms of worship, but this merely enabled the Apostle of Allah to
concentrate his attentions towards the tribes of Jews and “desert Arabs”
elsewhere in the Arabian peninsula, as the Quran says in 9.97: “Arabs of the
desert are the worst in disbelief and hypocrisy, and most apt not to know the
the ordinances of the Revelation which Allah has sent down” and 9.101: “...We
will punish them twice; then shall they be given over to a great punishment”.
Yes it is clear the book so far takes place within a very
specific historical context, during the founding of this imperialist,
totalitarian system, but it doesn't take much to make relevant the messages
utilized to enthuse a people to murder, in order to establish this religion in
Muhammad’s time to a similarly stupefied people today.
I also accept there are some good innovations on the
pre-existant culture he opposed, for instance 6.152 instructs us that it is
wrong to kill children, though whoever needed to be told that so explicitly is
unlikely to be the kind of material one would choose to build a state out of;
9.60 informs us that alms are only for the poor and needy, for the freeing of
slaves and those in debt, alms being a pillar of the Totalitarian system he
sought to fashion “from the offspring of other people”[7], but these
improvements, these logical imperatives are few and far between in the first 10
Chapters, drowned out by the calls to War, instructions to murder, the
distribution of the “spoils of war” for those who do, and expounding of
punishments for those who refuse to, or merely show unsatisfactory zeal while
going about it.
Moderate or “timorous” Muslims today want the best of both
worlds, they want respect and admiration for their blind faith amongst the
worldly and unencumbered by religion, as well as the rewards of a pleasure
filled afterlife with Allah, rewards for their adherence to 'bit's and pieces'
of the religion they espouse and make such a show of believing, which were they
not educated in liberalism, democracy and enlightenment values they would no
doubt adhere to absolutely and uncritically.
They want to live in societies more or less free from the
arbitrary dictums of divine authorities,
benefiting greatly from that absence developing themselves in ways
inconceivable to the authors of the Quran, while retaining the sense of
superiority they must derive from a 'Holy' book that seeks to impart that very
thing upon the 'true believers', the chosen of Allah, like the modern
Christian, Hindu or Buddhist, the world we all inhabit can be a part time
pursuit or 'sport', a mere passing the time before the main event, problems
encountered there, ignored or attributed to a supernatural power, the solutions
left up to a divine commander in chief, facilitating their non-participation as
an addiction to strong pain-killers or narcotics may do.
They may say “we wish to retain our culture”, but there is
nothing in the message of the Prophet, no order from Allah to allow his victims
in Medina, Mecca and surrounding area to do the same, there is no imperative
stating: “Allow the Meccan's to retain the worship of Al-Lat or Al-Uzza, for
verily it be their cultural heritage”, quite the contrary infact, the
reader is encouraged to put them to the sword, to punish them twice before
sending them to a fiery afterlife of torment and pain, and for this they will
be rewarded.
There must be a very clear explanation -hopefully one may be
forthcoming in response to this preliminary investigation into the basis of
Islamic religion-, as to what exactly is retained 1400 or so years later by the
faithful, particularly mentioning, if anything is, why.
The absence of literature from an Islamic perspective, which
is critical of the stories in the first 10 Chapters strikes me as suspicious,
perhaps many Muslims feel the Apostle of Allah was right to use any means at
his disposal to found this totalitarian political and ideological system,
perhaps they feel by doing so Muhammad helped deliver them from ignorance as to
God's word?
If that is so there is little they wouldn't have got by
reading the Old Testament story in the Bible, being as the Quran is clearly
based on and borrowed from it, this couldn't be any clearer than in Chapter 7,
which throughout is merely reproductions of parts of the Judeo Christian
tradition wherein terrible punishments are illustrated in story form, such as
to Pharoah and his people; drowned “for they were all wrongdoers”, the story of
Lot in Sodom and Gomorrah, the story of Noah, of Adam and Eve and similarly so
-in line with the principles of conditioning through repetition- in Chapter 10
“Yunus”.
In all examples there are interesting differences, whereas
Jesus states it is easier for a Camel to go through the eye of a needle than a
rich man to attain the heavenly realms, Islam being firmly rooted in a
mercantile culture and tradition[8] put's it in chapter 7.41:“Those who
reject Our Signs and turn away from the with disdain, the gates of the
spiritual firmament will not be opened for them, nor will they enter Heaven
until a camel goes through the eye of a needle.”; whereas the story of
creation in Genesis closes with Yahweh taking a rest, having worked for six
days creating the heavens, earth and all within them, Chapter 10.4 has Allah
assuming a more 'active' role, having “Settled Himself on the Throne; He
governs everything. There is no intercessor with Him save after His permission.”,
perhaps highlighting a divergence between the culture of the Hebrew Israelite
scribes and that which the 'new' Prophet of Allah sought to inspire.
While the Hebrew has a long tradition of debating the Laws
handed down by Moses in the Talmud, no such tradition has been forthcoming from
the Islamic religious culture, infact the idea that there could be is refuted
numerous times within the Quran, with sayings such as: “this is a book whose
verses have been made unchangeable”[10], compliance with this idea being
evident in many modern countries, by their adherence to 5.38's imperative to
chop off the hand of the thief, this being in Islamic thought “an exemplary
punishment from Allah”, whereas the Hebrew scriptures state: “Men do not
despise a thief if he steals to satisfy his hunger when he is starving. Yet if
he is caught, he must pay sevenfold”[11], the former of course may as well
be a death sentence, removing the man's ability to work, steal or even,
perchance receiving charity; literally feed himself in the future.
Also pre-existing the religion of Muhammad in the
Judeo-Christian traditions we have various warnings against revenge,
specifically against the concept of “an Eye for and Eye”[12], it seems God had
not mellowed in the 600 or so years since he gave 'His Son' as blood sacrifice
for the world's sins, indeed if the Quran is truly 'His' word revealed, 'He'
had infact regressed somewhat from the time of the book of Matthew, one imagines turning inwards in bitterness
over the death of “his only begotten son”, drinking heavily and growing
vengeful.
As though to illustrate the mode in which the author of the
Quran has plagiarized these earlier literary contributions, Chapter 12 is
simply a less detailed account of the story of Joseph as found in the book of
Genesis, after recounting the story in greatly diminished form; excluding the
names of the brothers with any overt description of the establishment of Israel
in the lands of Egypt, depriving the story of it's actual point, it is merely
used as yet another parable affirming the power of Muhammad's god, yet more
threats and orders against 'idolatry' or making equals with Allah.
The author leaves a subtle and very poetic clue as to this
methodology in the next chapter Al-Ra'd 13.18: “He sends down water from the
sky, so that valleys flow according to their measure, and the flood bears on
it's surface swelling foam. And from that which they heat in the fire, seeking
to make ornaments or utensils, comes out a foam similar to it. Thus does Allah
illustrate truth and falsehood. Now, as to the foam, it goes away as rubbish,
but as to that which benefits men, it stays on the earth. Thus does Allah set
forth parables.”
______
[1] In order to take Mecca from his Wife and Uncle's tribe the Quraysh
[2] 9.56[3] 9.23
[4] 6.15-16 redacted
[5] Maybe it is, or maybe the recent events throughout Western Europe show nowhere is safe any longer from the ideological delusions of religious zealots.
[6] The Hijra after having been ostracised by the established Meccan aristocracy, his tribe the Quraysh for rejecting their traditional, Pagan cultural values.
[7] 6.134
[8] Muhammad's first wife was a wealthy Merchant, and this was the primary means of making a living for Muhammad until “the spoils of war” began to flow into the coffers of Allah's apostle, as 8.2 makes clear, infact it was during a 'business trip' around age 25 that Muhammad and the slave travelling with him, were convinced by a Monk of the Christian religion that indeed he was a Prophet long foretold in the ancient tomes, that the Christian hermits learned in Aramaic and Syriac scripture had been hoarding and studying for centuries.
[9] An ironic term to use as the chapter it appears (11) is a complete reproduction of the Old Testament, and various pre-existant Arabian myths with minor alterations, those with eyes can't help but see the hypocrisy.
[10] 11.2
[11] Proverbs 6 verse 30-31
[12] Matthew 5 verse 38-48, it's quite apparent that the following Chapter is practically taken verbatim by the author of the Quran, covering subjects such as Alms giving, Prayer, Fasting and the proper ways of conducting oneself in these matters.
