The tide may be turning.

by Ohmyrus 

2006/02/08

In the past two week, two events involving the Muslim world created disturbing images on TV. The first was the Mohammed cartoon controversy and the second was the HAMAS elections victory.

Why were there riots, death threats, boycotts from Muslims just because of some cartoons? Why did HAMAS win the elections? Both have the answer in the words and deeds of the founder of Islam, Prophet Mohammed.
In the case of the cartoons, the illustrators certainly did not expect such a violent reaction. Many of them are now in hiding, fearing for their lives. My guess is that when they drew the cartoons, they felt prey to the politically correct nonsense that Islam is a religion of peace and they assumed that peaceful people will not want to kill them just because of some silly cartoons. They were wrong.

The violent reaction form the Muslim world is precisely due to Prophet Mohammed's behavior in the 7th century. On the orders of the Prophet, Abu Afak, a 120 year old man was killed for speaking against the Prophet. When Asma bint Marwan, a poetess spoke out against it, she too was killed in front of her children. [1]

To be fair, there was no freedom of speech in the 7th century in many parts of the world. If you say things that offend any medieval ruler, you are risking your life. Therefore Mohammed's behavior was not unusual in his day. However, he is the founder of a faith and his actions are recorded in the hadiths and are now forever part of Islamic scriptures. Muslims regard their beloved prophet as the role model and seek to imitate him.

Those believing that Islam can be reformed will be disappointed. Since Islam's founder killed his critics, it follows that his followers, even in the twenty-first century must do the same. Apologists of Islam sometime claim that those hadiths showing Prophet Mohammed ordering his men to kill his critics do not have reliable isnads (chain of narration) and therefore must be rejected. If this is true, then somebody forgot to tell Mohammed Bouyeri who murdered Theo Van Gogh or the rioting Muslims offended by some silly Danish cartoons.

Next, we turn to why the Palestinians elected HAMAS. Why did the Palestinians give HAMAS a landslide victory? Most western newspapers simply say that the voters are tired of the corrupt, inept Fatah party. Even so, why did the voters prefer a party that promised to wage war with terrorist attacks to a party that promises to negotiate peace?
Corruption and incompetence in the Fatah party obviously contributed to their defeat. But the newspapers missed the most important reason. They have failed to examine how religious beliefs affected their votes. Just as Christian voters in America prefer Republican Bush to Democrat Kerry, religious Muslims prefer Islamist HAMAS to secular Fatah.

AMAS promises jihad against the Jews and jihad is an important part of Islam. According to Islam, once a territory becomes Muslim, it must forever be Muslim. Thus if the land is subsequently lost, it must be recovered by jihad. See this excerpt from the HAMAS charter [2]

The Islamic Resistance Movement believes that the land of Palestine has been an Islamic Waqf throughout the generations and until the Day of Resurrection, no one can renounce it or part of it, or abandon it or part of it. ... This is the status [of the land] in Islamic Shari’a, and it is similar to all lands conquered by Islam by force, and made thereby Waqf lands upon their conquest, for all generations of Muslims until the Day of Resurrection.
The establishment of a non-Muslim state on previously Muslim land thus is an affront to fundamentalist Muslims. What makes it worse is that the land was taken over by the Jews. In Islam, Jews being People of the Book may be tolerated once they are subjugated. But the Jews are portrayed as eternal enemies of Allah who will be massacred in Islam's version of the End Times. This is clearly mentioned in HAMAS' charter [3] in which Sahih Bukhari was quoted:

Abu Huraira reported Allah's Messenger (may peace be upon him) as saying: The last hour would not come unless the Muslims will fight against the Jews and the Muslims would kill them until the Jews would hide themselves behind a stone or a tree and a stone or a tree would say: Muslim, or the servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me; come and kill him; but the tree Gharqad would not say, for it is the tree of the Jews. [4]

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