The author, who was born in an Islamic country, is currently a scholar residing in Australia.
It is a challenge to all in leadership roles to understand the theological input to a Muslim’s personal identity and to recognize the enormous difference between this and the Christian theological input to a Christian’s identity. With this understanding, we will have a more thorough basis for interpreting Muslim activities in our community and for reaching Muslims with the wonders of the Christian gospel as well as in developing appropriate public policy.
Identity
Personal identity develops in a person over the years of growing up to adulthood, but continues to be modified and expanded throughout adult life. Among the various influences to this development are one’s gender, personal appearance (as amplified by comments from significant others and standards set by the media), family relationships, worldview (which includes religion, values, political views, and personal philosophy), social class and/or ethnicity (more obviously so when there are others around who are of a different social class or ethnicity), nationality, and group membership.
One’s identity is also influenced by the image that others help create for the self and is often called the “looking glass self.”1 Each person needs to establish a balance between self-perceived identity and the self-image reflected by the community. A strong and demanding community can force one to adopt some elements of identity so as to maintain a harmonious (and in some situations a favorable) acceptance by the community that is significant to the individual. In some settings, individuals seek to establish an identity that is in contrast to their parents’ identity or the expectations that parents or other leaders have of them.
As Erik Erikson has stated, “the individual must learn to be most himself [sic] where he means most to others—those others . . . who have come to mean most to him. The term ‘identity’ expresses such a mutual relation in that it connotes both a persistent sameness within oneself (self sameness) and a persistent sharing of some kind of essential character with others.”2 Thus, identity includes seeking to be a certain sort of person and maintaining solidarity with the community in which one wants to belong or at least to be favorably recognized.
Identity in Islam
The fundamental basis for identity as a Muslim is rooted in Shahada (the doctrine), the Sharia (the law), and the ummah (the community). As Abd al-Wahab el-Effendi3 noted, the difference between national identity and a Muslim’s identity is that the Muslim is accountable to Allah in all things.4
The Shahada5
“There is One Allah and Muhammad is his prophet.”6 The mere recitation of this declaration of faith in Arabic means that the person is submitting to Allah and to Muhammad his prophet. It is a declaration of one’s religious stance and, by implication, means an acceptance of all that Islam teaches (as known through the Qur’an, the hadiths,7 the Sharia, and in the life of Muhammad.) This Islamic creed is non-negotiable.8 Those who do not share this creed are despised as kafir (infidels).9 Thus, a Muslim will hold strongly to this creed and regard this as the foremost expression of one’s worldview. This fixed expression of the creed (fixed in word content and meaning) is the starting point of a slippery slide which leads to a less personal identity. The individual has no capacity to express her or his relationship with God in the way she or he may desire or think appropriate and helpful. One sees this expressed in the longing that many Muslims say they have of somehow getting closer to Allah. Or, in contrast, one sees this in Najib Mahfuz’s statement that “God does not relate to us and I cannot relate to him. There is nothing but dead silence between us.”10
The Sharia law
Since Allah is sovereign, his law, and his only, must be obeyed (which means, by definition, that human laws are invalid).11 Sharia law is the “unassailable word of Allah,” according to Muslims.12 When something is “unassailable,” it is then unchallengeable. The fundamental core of Western democracy is that laws may be challenged, as may political systems and jurisprudence. While some individual parts of Sharia law may mirror existing laws in Western countries, it is the “unassailable word of Allah” that is the irreconcilable difference. Within this law lies all the information one needs about the values, goals, and lifestyle of a Muslim. There are four schools of law within the Islamic community,13 which developed because of the difficulty in understanding some texts (and the theoretical rule that the Qur’an must not be interpreted, as one person’s interpretation could mean adding to or taking away from Allah’s revelation). Notwithstanding the fact of these four schools, the word of Allah is unassailable, and there must be total submission to this law—and, thus, there is a further slipping down the slide of minimizing individuality and personal identity.
The ummah
The worldwide community of Muslims is the primary focus of loyalty. This worldwide community is of great importance.14 All who confess faith in Allah as the only true God and the prophethood of Muhammad become part of the Islamic ummah. This is expressed clearly in the common prayers in the mosques and on the two main festival days—one at the end of the fasting month of Ramadan (Id-ul-Fitr). The other main festival (Id ul-Adha) includes the sacrifice of an animal in imitation of Abraham. This sense of a community united in submission to Allah is not only spiritual, but also social and political. It represents both the political as well as the religious dimensions of the community. The annihilation of individuality before Allah allows for the construction of a pillar of Islam, namely, equality.15 This equality is uniquely experienced at a Hajj (pilgrimage to Mecca) and gives rise to the intense “spiritual experience” to which Muslim writers who have been on a Hajj refer. The strength of this identification with the ummah and the awareness that, worldwide, it is the largest religious community after Christianity is one of the reasons why Muslims have self-confidence in projecting their identity as migrant Muslims in the country in which they have settled (e.g., this is particularly shown among women who wear a hijab, or head scarf, in a Western country and among men who wear the white cap as a person who has been on a Hajj). However, the identity of women does warrant special consideration, since the publicly voiced myth of gender equality is undermined by the Qur’an and the hadiths.
Islamic teaching on women16
There is positive and negative teaching about women in Islam. Islam accorded much more value and honor to women than was experienced in pre-Islamic Arabian society. As part of the progressive reforms Islam brought to seventh-century Arabia, Muhammad preached against female infanticide, the cruel treatment of women, and female prostitution. He also condemned and abolished the practice of forcing widows to be given to their deceased husband’s relatives. Respect and kindness toward parents in general, and mothers in particular, is emphasized in the Qur’an.17 Those who show kindness to their parents, especially to their mothers, are promised paradise, while woe is declared on those who mistreat their parents such that they cry for help from Allah (4:15–17). One famous tradition attributed to Muhammad is: “Paradise lies at the feet of the mother.”18 The Muslim woman’s role in the home is to seek the happiness of her husband, work toward the physical and spiritual development of her children, and maintain the honor of her family. It is related by Abdullah bin Omar that “[t]he Apostle of God said, ‘The whole world is valuable; but the most valuable thing in the world is a good woman.’”19 A well-known saying in Arabic—al-ummu madrasatun—meaning “the mother is a school,” conveys the importance of this role. Husbands are called upon to provide for their wives: “Men are maintainers of women” (Q4:34).
However, Islam retained some of the practices and attitudes toward women that prevailed in pre-Islamic Arabian society. For instance, polygamy is retained, and, after the death of Muhammad’s first wife, Khadija, he himself took twelve more wives, excluding concubines. He is said to have married his favorite wife, Aisha, when she was six and made love with her at the age of nine. The Qur’an sets the limit of the number of wives for believers at four at a time and gives men the right to divorce, a right denied to women under Islamic law. The practice of concubinage is also retained, and Muslim men are permitted to keep as many concubines as they desire. Wives, in the words of the Qur’an, are a tilth, or field, for men to use at will (Q2:223). Muhammad is alleged to have said, “If a man invites his wife to sleep with him and she refuses to come to him, the angels send their curses on her till morning.”20
The Qur’an declares that “men are a degree higher” than women (Q2:223) and accords Muslim men the right to beat their wives if they are rebellious (Q4:34). A tradition attributed to Muhammad advises Muslim men to “hang up your scourge in a place where your wife (or wives) can see it.” In another tradition, he is reported to have said, “If I were to order anyone to prostrate himself before [worship] another, I would order a woman to prostrate herself before her husband.”21 Women are regarded as inferior and deficient in intelligence and religious observance. A tradition to this effect reports Muhammad as having said to a woman: I have seen none lacking in intelligence and failing in religion but (at the same time) robbing the wisdom of the wise, besides you. Upon this the woman remarked: What is wrong with our intelligence and our religion? He (the Holy Prophet) observed: Your lack of intelligence (can be well judged from the fact) that the evidence of two women is equal to one man, that is a proof of the lack of intelligence, and you spend some nights (and days) in which you do not offer prayer and in the month of Ramadan (during the days) you do not observe fast, that is a failing in religion.22
Women are considered deficient as witnesses “because they are deficient in their mind.”23 This “deficiency” on the part of women is reflected in many areas in Islamic law. Menstruating women are forbidden from saying their five daily prayers. The Sharia prescribes two sheep to be slaughtered at the birth of a baby boy and one at the birth of a girl. In inheritance law, a daughter gets half the share of a son, while in an Islamic court the testimony of a woman has half the value of a man’s. Compensation for the murder or injury of a woman is also half that of a man’s.
Women are disadvantaged in various ways by virtue of their gender. In many Islamic countries, women virtually have no identity of their own. They always have to have a male overseer: a husband, brother, etc. Until 2002, in Saudi Arabia, for instance, the only legal evidence of a woman’s existence was the appearance of her name on her husband’s card; if he was dead, then her brother’s; and where there was no brother, the card of her closest male relative, even if she scarcely knew him.
For a woman to prove rape in Islamic court in Pakistan, four adult males of “impeccable” character must bear witness to the act of penetration! “Honor killing” of women by husbands or male relatives (justified from Q4:15) for the suspicion of sexual indiscretion is widespread in Islamic countries. A man who kills his wife, mother, daughter, or sister for sexual indiscretion or for eloping—acts deemed as dishonorable to the family—is either lightly fined or immune from prosecution.24
Women are treated as objects of impurity, seduction, and outright evil. Segregation of sexes and veiling of women is justified on the grounds that women will tempt men with their bodies. A woman, an ass, and a dog are said to invalidate prayer by passing in front of the worshipper.25 Muhammad is alleged to have said, “I have not left after me any calamity more distressing to man than woman,”26 and, in another tradition, he said, “If there is evil omen in anything, it is in the house, the woman and the horse.”27 Finally, he is reported to have said, “O womenfolk, you should give charity and ask much forgiveness for I saw you in bulk amongst the dwellers of Hell.”28 Women who make it to heaven are there mainly to serve as rewards and for the pleasure of believing men who are promised numerous beautiful wives and concubines!
Women are like crooked ribs that cannot be straightened.29 As Ed Husain was taught, women are like the plague!30 Women should never leave their houses, since their sexuality becomes an attraction to the devil.31 An unveiled woman is so deeply sinful that she causes the angels to flee.32 It is this same argument that states that a woman must not pass by a man when he is praying; otherwise, his prayer becomes ineffective. The total impact of this attitude toward women is well described by Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the Somali immigrant to Holland and now living in the United States, who says, “If you are a Muslim girl, you disappear, until there is almost no you inside you.”33
Girls born into Muslim families are considered a liability. In relation to public policy issues, we need to note some cultural concepts that have profound implications for women. These include the need to maintain the honor of the family above all else.
Honor killings
Honor killings are a male gender-based form of violence that can be perpetrated by cousins, fathers, brothers, uncles, sons, or any male relative against a female member of the family. In Britain, while the prevailing Muslim culture favors honor killings, some Muslim leaders have spoken out against it, and the police did charge a man for murdering his daughter in an honor killing event.
Honor killings are rooted in the old patriarchal system and are as old as the history of Islam. They took place long before the modern-day clash of cultures. However, in the West, the trigger can be a clash of cultures between East and West, old and young. Many parents who come from strict religious backgrounds are scandalized by what they see as the uncontrollable behavior of their children. Threats, beatings, and the lurking possibility of the ultimate sanction are used as a means of control.
The United Nations states—and it is believed to be a great underestimate—that more than five thousand women are killed across the world every year by relatives who accuse them of bringing shame on their families. In Turkey over the past six years, an average of one or two women has died every week owing to honor killings and blood feuds. Honor killings take place predominantly within the Muslim community; occasionally, it happens within other communities. There is an increasing number of honor killings reported every year in the U.K. Scotland Yard has formed a task force to increase its understanding of honor killings to help them investigate the murders and better help those who may be at risk.34
Honor killings can take place for many reasons: refusing an arranged marriage, breaking off an engagement, having an affair, becoming pregnant before marriage, wanting a divorce, or sometimes even on the basis of a dream by her husband that his wife is having an affair. Samaira Nazir fell in love with an asylum seeker from what her family perceived to be an unsuitable caste. She had rejected all suitors lined up for her in Pakistan and, on returning home to Britain, was stabbed to death and had her throat cut by her brother and cousin in the presence of the brother’s two young children. She was killed to protect the family’s honor.35 A new twist is taking place in the West, namely, women and girls are being locked in their rooms by their families with a gun, poison, or a noose and are left there until they kill themselves; this is referred to as “forced suicide.”
Female genital mutilation (female circumcision)
The practice of female genital mutilation (FGM) is very common in the Muslim community in many parts of the world. Some Muslim leaders have spoken out to condemn the practice as un-Islamic and culturally bound, but many communities see it as Islamically sanctioned as well as being essential for preserving the woman’s chastity and family honor. An estimated seven thousand girls in Britain are at risk from this procedure at any given time. The law is being evaded by families who take the girls abroad where the procedure is carried out. In Britain, the Home Office recently introduced new legislation under which parents who take their daughters abroad to undergo FGM will face fourteen years in jail.
The lack of personal identity
How does such an oppressive self-identity come about? The startling consequence of an identity fully rooted in external factors is that those who find their identity in the Shahada, the Sharia, and the ummah have a sense of being part of a group and have what might be called a corporate identity, but any sense of a personal identity is limited to one’s name, clan, ethnicity, and birth language. The usual factors that contribute to the development of a personal identity—such as personal affirmation, the regard of personal capacities as significant, personal appearance, and family belongingness as something important to others as well as to oneself—are all overridden by the non-negotiable requirements of being a Muslim. Thus, the individual is deemed as having worth only in the context of being a member of the ummah. Infidels are non-persons.36 There is no specified relationship with Allah, and access to the seventh heaven (the best of all heavens) is gained by suicide bombing, not by personal integrity or a reconciled relationship with the Almighty.37 Participation in suicide bombing (the direct act of killing infidels) is supported both by the Qur’anic request to kill infidels38 and the support of the ummah—even the glorification of such acts by other members of the ummah.39 One can see why non-Muslims are the object of hatred: not only because the Qur’an states this, but also because individuals have no special worth before a fellow Muslim or, indeed, before Allah.40 This is further highlighted by the practice of honor killing just described. A family has honor as a member of the ummah, and, if one member of the family behaves in a way which is in contradistinction to Sharia, or, even worse, against the Shahada (i.e., becoming an apostate), then the family has lost its honor before the ummah. As the fundamentals of Muslim identity are non-negotiable, the only way forward is to kill the person who has brought dishonor and thus enable the family to regain its honor within the ummah.41
Muhammad’s attempt at identifying his religion with the Judeo-Christian faiths
Muhammad learned about the Judeo-Christian faiths from the Egyptian monks who were living in the desert between Syria and Mecca.42 His own religious context was the worship of a multiplicity of divine beings, all of whom were represented at the Ka’bah in the centre of the souk (marketplace) in Mecca. Each Bedouin tribe had its own divinity.43 Muhammad could see that, by having only one Divine Being, the division and the fighting among the tribes could be overcome, and a new sense of unity among all Arabic-speaking peoples could be established. He thus had a challenging message: there is only one God. To make logical sense of this proclamation, this One Divine Being had to pre-exist Muhammad. He had his answer in the Torah. God had revealed himself to the patriarchs and the prophets of old44 and had further revealed himself in Isa (Jesus, as recorded in the injil). Muhammad was now the final prophet as predicted by Isa (John 14:15ff) and hinted at by the priests and the Levites (John 1:21b).45 All the patriarchs, prophets, and Isa are described as being Muslims—after all, they all did submit to God. In Muhammad’s view, both he and Abraham received global responsibilities to proclaim the revelation of God.46 This link with Abraham has been used by some Christians to argue for a sense of belonging among the three “Abrahamic faiths.” But this has only developed ambiguity and confusion. It has not enhanced attempts at dialogue and has not been useful in attempts at evangelism. It has been used by Muslims to pacify Christians and to cause some to accept that there is little difference between the three faiths. However, the Qur’an rejects the deity of Jesus and his atoning work.47 The Qur’an has no concept of God’s covenant love, and, while forgiveness is available for those who turn to Allah and Muhammad as Allah’s prophet, there is no statement about forgiveness of sins and of reconciliation with God. Isa will return, according to a hadith, and will destroy all religions other than Islam.48 Isa will also “break the cross,” which means he will abolish the Christian faith, and Isa will be a “follower of Muhammad implementing Sharia law.”49 Certainly, Isa of the Qur’an is not Jesus of the New Testament. There are references to a Spirit in the Qur’an, but the references do not understand the Spirit to be God the Holy Spirit.50
The earlier revelations are deemed to have been corrupted (e.g., “they twist their tongues with the Book that you may suppose it part of the Book, yet it is not part of the Book and say it is from Allah, yet it is not from Allah” Q3:70–74).51 The People of the Book would finally be relieved of their ignorance when Allah recites the pages purified and, thus, provides the true book (Q98:1–4).52 In the meantime, the Muslim position is that Allah is the God of the Bible as the Bible was originally revealed (Q29:46; 3:110). Muslims say that we do not have this original revelation; what we do have is a corrupted edition. On this basis, Muslims press Christians to become obedient to the Qur’an and to Muhammad on the grounds that the Qur’anic revelation of Allah is the one true and final revelation of God. This is the first step in the Islamization of Christian thought. Allah is identified with YHWH, and Islam seeks to root its identity in the Old Testament and New Testament revelation. It considers itself to be the final and complete revelation of God. Thus, the attempt at identifying Allah with God and Isa with Jesus results in theological confusion, and untaught laypeople are vulnerable to Muslim dahwa (outreach) activity. The Islamization of biblical persons and the rewriting of some parts of biblical history (e.g., Isaac being replaced with Ishmael, and he going with Abraham to Mecca for the sacrifice) creates a challenge for Christians to know their biblical history, to understand the doctrines identified in the Nicene Creed, and to have assurance about the canon of Scripture. Those hoping for a useful dialogue will find themselves in total opposition to the teaching of a Muslim, with the result that the dialogue becomes adversarial. This is why dialogue never works. Or, the Christian who is looking for a basis for harmony may tend to give way on some historical detail in the hope of winning over some Muslims to a cooperative spirit. Yet, in doing so, they actually Islamicize their own theology.
There is one other area of identity in Islam to which I should make brief reference. It is in respect to Muslim youth migrants. Many are frustrated with the religious expression of their parents and the difficulty of integrating with non-Muslims in their country of residence. For many, there is a problem of limited education and limited capacity to gain satisfying jobs. Many live in ghettos and, so, reinforce attitudes among themselves and look for extreme expressions of behavior such that many join up with radical groups such as Hizb ut-Tahrir.53 They gain a different identity from their parents through association with other aggressive youth and with radical organizations.
The identity of a Muslim, rooted as it is in the Qur’an, has no connection with the identity of a Jew or a Christian. For all within the Judeo-Christian sphere of thought, there is the fundamental fact that we are created in the image of God, and that even God’s holiness is attributed to us through a sacrificial act. This theology provides us with the basis of knowing that every one of us individuals matters to God, and, so, each one of us is important to one another. Not only us as Christians or as Jews, but all human beings, are created by YHWH, and, thus, all are the object of God’s love. Our unity as a people is found in Christ, for only in him will there be a path to unity that transcends ethnicity, economics, social status, and class. Our true identity is found in our Creator, in whose image we are made and in whose love we can be reconciled to him and to one another.
Notes
- Charles Horton Cooley, Human Nature and the Social Order (New York, N.Y.: Scribner’s, 1902), 179–85.
- Erik H. Erikson, Identity and the Life Cycle (New York, N.Y.: Norton & Co, 1994), 120.
- Senior research fellow at the Center for the Study of Democracy, University of Westminster. See The Daily Star, 9 Feb. 2003. Cited 20 Oct. 2007. Quoted in www.aljazeerah.info.
- See Qur’an Sura 2 on Allah as Creator, but note there is no reference to Allah creating Adam in God’s image. Sura 4:1 refers to equality between men and women, but, again, no reference to being created in God’s image.
- Transliterated, the Arabic is “la ilaha illa’Llah Muhammad urrasulu’Llah.”
- Allah is the name the Qur’an gives to the divine person Q13:15–19. The word is a contraction of the Arabic expression al-ilah (a generic term for gods) and ilah comes from the Semitic root reflected in the Hebrew Elohim. It was also an Arabian deity known to the Meccans. See Mark Durie, Revelation (Brisbane: City Harvest, 2006), 79.
- For detail, see A. Guillaume, The Life of Muhammad (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1955), and for detail on the Hadiths see Maulana Muhammad Ali, The Religion of Islam (Columbus, Ohio: Ahmadiyya A. I. Islam, 1990), 44ff.
- See as an example Q49:15.
- M. M. Ali, The Religion of Islam, 93ff.
- Najib Mahfuz, God’s World, trans. Akef Abadir and Roger Allen (Minneapolis, Minn.: Bibliotheca Islamica, 1973), 3–17.
- This is stated by Abu al-Al Mawdudi, Islamic Law and Constitution (Lahore: Islamic Publications, 1960).
- Q2:2.
- The law schools developed in response to the need for a clear guide to behavior. The differences in emphasis in the schools of legal thought developed because of different evaluations of the validity of some of the hadiths. The four schools are the Hannafi, the Maliki, the Shafii, and the Hanbali Schools. Each is named after the original founder (all in the late eighth or ninth centuries). Reference to this in M. M. Ali, The Religion of Islam, 72ff.
- M. M. Ali in The Religion of Islam argues that this unity in Islam “is the greatest civilizing force the world has ever known,” 8.
- For my certainty about this annihilation, I refer to a Muslim writer in Morocco, Fatima Mernissi, Islam and Democracy: Fear of the Modern World, trans. Mary Jo Lakeland (New York, N.Y.: Addison-Wesley, 1992), 110. Note also Q2:13–14, which equalizes all followers of Islam.
- For a brilliant and balanced article on women in Islam, see “Lifting the Veil,” Time, 3 Dec. 2001, or see M. Mazheruddin Siddiqi, Women in Islam (Dehli: Adam Publishers, 1992).
- See some discussion of this in Robert Spencer, The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (Washington, D.C.: Regenry Pub., 2005), 65ff; and M. Mazheruddin Siddiqi, Women in Islam, 14ff.
- Traditions, or ahadith, in Islam are classified into the categories of sound or authentic traditions and weak or possibly fabricated traditions. All the traditions cited here are from the six collections of authentic sayings and doings of Muhammad, especially the volumes of Sahih Bukhari and Sahih Muslim.
- In Sahih Muslim, qtd. in William Goldsack, Selections from Muhammadan Traditions (Madras: The Christian Literature Society for India, 1923), 163.
- Mishkat al-Masabih Hadith 54 and in Bukhari Hadith 121.
- In the collection of Tirmidhi, qtd. in Goldsack, Muhammadan Traditions, 172.
- Sahih Muslim 1.142.
- Q2:282 and Hadith 3.48.826.
- See Robert Spencer, The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam, on rape and adultery, 76; and Ibn Warraq, Why I Am Not a Muslim (Amherst, N.Y.: Prometheus Books, 2003), 321ff.
- Warraq, Why I Am Not a Muslim, 301, and Ghassan Ascha, Du statut inferieur de la femme en Islam (Paris: L’Harmatan, 1987), 49ff.
- In Sahih Muslim and Bukhari, cited in Goldsack, Muhammadan Traditions, 162.
- Sahih Bukhari 7.62.31.
- Sahih Muslim 1.0142.
- Sahih Bukhari 7.113.
- Ed Husain, The Islamist (London: Penguin Books, 2007), 134.
- Kanz-el-Ummal Hadith 22.858.
- Guillaume, The Life of Muhammad, 107.
- Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Infidel (London: Free Press, 2007), 94.
- B.B.C. News, “U.K. Muslims Condemn Honour Killings,” 30 Sept. 2003.
- Joanna Bale, “Killed for Loving the Wrong Man,” The Times, 15 July 2006, 5.
- Q4:89, 95; 8:12, 14–17, 59–60; 9:5, 29, 123; 47:4; 5:51, 57.
- Q4:89, 95; 9:110–14; 22:58–59; 44:45–59; 52:17–24.
- Q4:89: “Those who reject Islam must be killed. If they turn back [from Islam], take [hold of] them and kill them wherever you find them.” Q8:12: “I will instill terror into the hearts of the Unbelievers: smite ye above their necks and smite all their fingertips off them. This because they contended against Allah and His Messenger, Allah is strict in punishment.” Q9:5: “But when the forbidden months are past, then fight and slay the Pagans wherever ye find them, and seize them, beleaguer them, and lie in wait for them in every stratagem [of war]. But if they repent, and establish regular prayers and practice regular charity, then open the way for them: for Allah is Oft-forgiving, Most Merciful.” See also Q8:14–17, 59–60; 9:5, 29, 123; 47:4; 5:51, 57.
- The Qur’an promises a heaven full of wine and sex for those who faithfully kill infidels: Q56:10–22, 35–37; 2:25.
- See Bat Ye’or, Islam and Dhimmitude (Lancaster, UK: Gazelle Book Services, 2002), for an outline of the reduction of personal status of non-Muslims who agree to pay the tax (jizya) so as not to be killed or made a slave; also Q9:29.
- M. M. Ali in The Religion of Islam argues that the Qur’an does not require the death of an apostate and quotes the Mecca Q2:256: “There is no compulsion in religion” (439). But, the hadith, which is just as significant as the Qur’an, does declare the need to kill an apostate; see Sahih Bukhari 9.88.6922 and 4.56.3017. There are numerous examples of this penalty being carried out; see Robert Spencer, The Truth about Muhammad (Washington, D.C.: Regnery Publishing, 2006), 147ff.
- See Guillaume, The Life of Muhammad; Spencer, The Truth about Muhammad; and W. Montgomery Watt, The Majesty that Was Islam (New York, N.Y.: Praeger Publishers, 1974).
- Hadith 3.658 and 5.583.
- Q29:46–47.
- As Muslims assert; see Q3:15–19, 40–49 (the word in English, worship/submission, in Arabic is Islam); 5:45–49; 61:5–9.
- Abu al-Al Mawdudi, Islamic law and Constitution, trans. Khurshid Ahmed (Lahore: Islamic Publications, 1960), 202. See Q2:75–79, 125–35, 285–89; 3:60–64; 6:80–89.
- Q3:50–54; 4:115–19,165–69; 9:30–34; 10:66–74; 25:1–4.
- Sunan Abu Dawud, Book of Battles 37:4310. Cited 13 Oct. 2007. Online: www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/fundamentals/hadithsunnah/abudawud.
- Nuh Ha Mim Keller, The Reliance of the Traveller, rev. ed. (Beltsville, Md.: Amana Publications, 1994), 603.
- Q19:15–19; 78:35–39; 66:10–14.
- See also Q2:70–74; 3:70–74, 180–85; 6:90–94; 4:45–49. This is also expanded in Keller, Reliance of the Traveller, 811.
- See also Q4:50–54; 5:15–19; 57:25–29; 3:105–09, 195–99; 58:20–24; 98:5.
- Institute for the Study of Islam and Christianity, Islam in Britain (Pewsey: Isaac Publishing, 2005), 38ff; and Husain, The Islamist, 222.
