THE RELIGION OF PEACE STRIKES AGAIN 3: BISHOP MARI MARI
Another day, another country, another man stabbed by a kid screaming “Allahuakbar!” according to multiple eye witness accounts in the middle of his live streamed sermon. Under questioning the kid stated “If he did not attack my prophet and my religion, I would not be here”. A clear admission of motive by all accounts.
But once again, this has absolutely nothing to do with Islam right? This kid has misunderstood Islam.
There must come a time where we must sit down and ask ourselves, why is this the one religion different people from different backgrounds in different continents seem to misunderstand in the exact same way? Why is this the religion of Hamas, ISIS, Boko Haram, Al-Shabab, Al-Qaeda? Why is this the religion that gave us the murder of Samuel Paty and Theo Van Gogh? Why is this the religion that gave us the Israeli massacre of October 7th and 9/11 ? Why is it this religion that gives us the continuous attempted murders of Salmon Rushdie, Hatun Tash, Ayan Harsi Ali and now Bishop Mari Mari? Why is this an ideology that sees terror and terrorism as an acceptable way to advance its cause or deal with criticism levelled against it?
The motivation for terrorist attacks start from Muhammad himself who declared,
“The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said: I have been helped by terror (in the heart of the enemy)…”
(Sahih Muslim Book 5 Hadith 11)
“… I have been given words which are concise but comprehensive in meaning; I have been helped by terror (in the hearts of enemies)…”
(Sahih Muslim Book 5 Hadith 7)
“The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said: ‘I have been given five things that were not given to anyone before me: I have been supported with fear being struck into the hearts of my enemy for a distance of one month’s travel…”
(Sunan An-Nasai Book 4 Hadith 37)
Terror in the heart of the prophet’s enemies was a key element of his success. Allah in the Quran also sanctions the use of terror,
“And prepare against them whatever you are able of power and of steeds of war by which you may terrify the enemy of Allāh and your enemy and others besides them whom you do not know [but] whom Allāh knows.”
(Surah 8:60)
“When your Lord inspired to the angels, “I am with you, so strengthen those who have believed. I will cast terror into the hearts of those who disbelieved, so strike [them] upon the necks and strike from them every fingertip.”
(Surah 8:12)
Now, it is easy for somebody to argue, “It is Allah that strikes terror into the hearts” but consider this,
“Fight against them so that Allâh will punish them by your hands and disgrace them and give you victory over them and heal the breasts of a believing people”
(Surah 9:14)
And again,
“So, it is not you who killed them, but in fact Allah killed them. And you did not throw when you threw but Allah did throw, so that He might bless the believers with a good favour. Surely, Allah is All-Hearing, All-Knowing.”
(Surah 8:17)
So in the Islamic world view, it is Allah that punishes people the believers punish. So the believers striking terror into the hearts of unbelievers would equate to Allah striking terror into the hearts of the unbelievers.
That said, what is in it for adherents of Islam who put themselves out there to commit these terrorist acts?
“Narrated Zaid:
that he heard the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) saying: “Whoever is killed over his wealth then he is a martyr, and whoever is killed over his religion, then he is a martyr, and whoever is killed over his blood, then he is martyr, and whoever is killed over his family, then he is martyr.”
(Jami At-Tirmidhi Book 16 Hadith 38)
And again,
“It was narrated that Sa’eed bin Zaid said:
“The Messenger of Allah [SAW] said: ‘Whoever is killed protecting his wealth, he is a martyr. Whoever is killed protecting his family, he is a martyr. Whoever is killed protecting his religion, he is a martyr. Whoever is killed protecting himself, he is a martyr.’”
(Sunan an Nisai, Book 37 Hadith 130)
What is the reward of a martyr?
“It was narrated from Miqdam bin Ma’dikarib that the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said:
“The martyr has six things (in store) with Allah: He is forgiven from the first drop of his blood that is shed; he is shown his place in Paradise; he is spared the torment of the grave; he is kept safe from the Great Fright; he is adorned with a garment of faith; he is married to (wives) from among the wide-eyed houris; and he is permitted to intercede for seventy of his relatives.”
(Sunan Ibn Majah Book 24 Hadith 47)
And again,
“Narrated Al-Miqdam bin Ma’diykarib:
That the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said: “There are six things with Allah for the martyr. He is forgiven with the first flow of blood (he suffers), he is shown his place in Paradise, he is protected from punishment in the grave, secured from the greatest terror, the crown of dignity is placed upon his head — and its gems are better than the world and what is in it — he is married to seventy two wives along Al-Huril-’Ayn of Paradise, and he may intercede for seventy of his close relatives.”
(Jami At Tirmidhi, Book 22 Hadith 46)
Amongst other things, virgins! 72 of them apparently! To the people who carry out these acts, it is a win-win, if they kill people and strike terror in the hearts of unbelievers, they would be heroes here on earth and rewarded bountifully by Allah for letting him strike terror through them. If they are killed in the process, they go straight to the Islamic heaven and the loving embrace of their 72 virgins.
These are the sort of ridiculous ideas that inspire the terror attacks like the one on Bishop Mari Mari. The Bishop by the way, has only had mild words of criticism for Islam. He has only shown, by way of common sense, the flaws in the Quran (e.g. calling Mary the mother of Jesus the sister of Aaron) and the inexplicability (other than by way of “Allah Knows best”) of the uniqueness of Jesus Christ within the Islamic worldview. And this is what this kid called “an attack” on the religion.
Islam cannot handle criticism, It is a worldview that wants to dominate the world but wants the world to shut up about it. What is the solution though?
Normalising criticism of Islam would be a fantastic start. This idea of putting Islam in a special category of things “off limit” to criticise does nothing but encourage its adherents with terrorist inclinations that any criticism of Islam is an anomaly and needs to be “taken care of” by way of terror. If criticism of Islam is commonplace, its adherents have no choice but to be desensitised to it. Remember Islam is a religion that criticises other religions and preaches they should be subjugated for their beliefs,
“Fight against those who do not believe in Allāh or in the Last Day and who do not consider unlawful what Allāh and His Messenger have made unlawful and who do not adopt the religion of truth [i.e., Islām] from those who were given the Scripture — [fight] until they give the jizyah willingly while they are humbled.
The Jews say, “Ezra is the son of Allāh”; and the Christians say, “The Messiah is the son of Allāh.” That is their statement from their mouths; they imitate the saying of those who disbelieved before [them]. May Allāh destroy them; how are they deluded?:
(Surah 9:29–30)
These are definitely ideas that should be open to criticism.
Secondly, people need to educate themselves about Islam. The internet is a goldmine of information. All the Hadiths are available at Sunnah.com, The various tafsirs are all on the internet and there is google translate for the Arabic to confirm translations are not lying to you like they are prone to do (e.g. by translating “beat them” in respect of wives to “discipline them gently” in Surah 4:34 or translating Allah praying on Muhammad as “Allah sending Muhammad blessings”). Islam only thrives in an atmosphere of ignorance and people can become hard targets for its antics by educating themselves on it.
If the terrible ideas and laughable theology of Islam is exposed for what it is, people will take it less seriously and the less seriously people take it, the less seriously they take its promises of rewards for Jihad terror.
Again, as always, the target of this article is Islam- a religion where you get virgins for killing your fellow human beings, not Muslims, who this article is trying to help.
