UI – Part 184 – Muslim Justification for War

What Justifies?

What justifies a Muslim attacking others, apostates or non-believers? Islamists argue responding with the sword (using weapons) is only when they themselves are attacked.  Do you believe that?

After Muhammad died a civil war broke out.  Those in opposition to Muhammad and policies oppressive to their people and area felt the time was right to respond and reclaim their systems.  They wished to restore their foundation of belief and way of life prior to Muhammad and his Brotherhood.  Their presumed conversion was not sincere; it was to save lives, having been coerced into an ideological system not of their choosing.  They were never adherents of the Belief System of Muhammad. Their continued oppression to include instances of slavery, that of women and children, and the paying of a tax, at the hands of the successors to the Prophet, engendered despair and a want at restoration.  As a resistance to the Caliph and to the beliefs of Muhammad, as apostates and dissenters, they were labeled ‘rebels’ and the question that you must raise, easily answered,  is ‘what were they fighting for?’

If you fight to restore your ‘truth’, having been defeated prior and acquiesced in fear, are you now a persecutor of Islam.  Are you attacking Islam and stirring the cause of Islamic justification for Muhammad’s followers to fight and kill in the name of Allah – punishers for God? – or are you defending yourself?

Medina Jews Never Physical Towards Muhammad

When Muhammad was living the Jews in Medina never physically attacked Muhammad and his followers.  They came to resist his overtures and never declared him a Prophet. His methods, his taking of goods from unsuspecting caravans, his vengeful nature towards those in Mecca to include his family, and his military disposition towards those who would not accept his proclamations did not comport with the teachings and practices the Jews advocated historically.  The history of the Jews depict their experience with Prophets, all noted in Biblical accounts.  Muhammad never met their definition, their understanding, of Prophet.  Questioning the self-proclaimed status of Prophet upset Muhammad, which was enough to justify raids on Jewish sections of Medina forcing Jews to leave.  Muhammad’s men subsequently took possession of homes of Jews and anything contained therein for themselves, Allah and the apostle (Muhammad).

One Jewish Tribe, the Banu Qurayzah, stayed, never raised arms against Muhammad’s believers, only to be so upsetting to Muhammad, he felt persecuted by their resistance to his claims, they were gathered together and one-by-one beheaded while the Prophet watched.  Was such action justified?  Did it become an example of ‘What would Muhammad do?’ that today’s Islamists and the scholars of Islam apply to the responses from their constituency and justify?  Was this the initial fatwa against the Jews that constitutes the hatred and ongoing desire for the extirpation of the Jews by Muslims?  A fatwa that has never been lifted. I doubt any Jew today, or Christian for that matter, regards Muhammad as a Prophet.

If conversion to Islam occurs by force or fear, if those converted gain in strength, having been unprepared, surprised and weak prior, and take a stance against Islam (now prepared and ready to defend themselves), are they persecuting Islam, aggressing and creating the opportunity for the Islamist warriors for Allah to rise up with their swords, or modern-day weapons, to keep the now ‘apostates’ in line?  Is this justification for war?

Yamama

In Yamama the rebels intended to attack Medina just as they had been threatened and raided when the brothers of Muhammad as marauders took spoils for their god and king.  It was their opportunity to restore their honor and their personal system of belief.  Many were Christians.  Abu Bakr, the 1st Caliph, declared revenge for each and every Muslim life taken by these defenders of their faith (not Muhammad’s).  The prior persecution and aggression towards the rebels was dismissed and the actions being taken were now considered persecution of the Muslims, justifying they fight and declare war.  Who wins?  Who was the 1st aggressor?

Quran and War

There are hundreds of passages in the Quran that justify war and as Don Richardson notes in his book The Secrets of the Koran, “the Koran, in more than 100 verses promotes war, beheadings, slavery, and sexual exploitation of female slaves.” (1160/2248, Kindle edition)(http://www.amazon.com/The-Secrets-Koran-Revealing-Insights/dp/0830731237/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1344543684&sr=8-4&keywords=The+Secrets+of+the+Quran).

Before Muhammad there were no Muslims, only Arabs with many different belief systems, to include Judaic and Christian.  There were pagans as well. They were kufars, as non-believers in Islam, even though Islam did not exist.  After Muhammad, even Adam and Eve were Muslim, so declared.  ALL were Muslims since creation; a retrospective view.  How could there be jihad (war) against others all of whom were born ‘in the image of God’?

If non-Muslims were overtaken, vanquished, by the Saracen armies, forced to adopt the belief system claimed to be inspired by Allah, there was no allowance for response.  Rebels were anyone who resisted.  They were in the wrong – Allah was in the right – the conquerors were the mighty. Once considered a believer of Muhammad, even if not in fact the case, any revision or reversion in belief caused apostasy and although not punishable by death as per the Quran itself, the successors to Muhammad made it so, and the Hadiths used in Islamic (Sharia) Legal Matters could be utilized to locate what was useful to also make it so.  The Companions, the successors, the Caliphs and ulema (Scholars of Islam) were making the Laws.

The cycle might be, using a Christian as an example, capture and conversion, even if by coercion, from Christian to Muslim, now an apostate of Christianity, to be followed by a change of heart, or a heart for the true God such that saying no to Islam was the only option, repenting their disbelief and converting from Muslim to Christian – to then become an apostate of Islam.  So which is it? It is as a double negative.

Christian Apostates

However there is no earthly penalty for the Christian apostate.  God will continue to pursue them, the door to his Home, the Eternal Kingdom, open for their return.  God will continue to love them.  That is not the case for the Muslim apostate.  Punishment is cried out.  And that punishment is not left to Allah (even though the Ahmadi Muslims suggest that is the case – the judge alone is Allah), but to man, the Islamists, the ulema, the scholars of Islam that proclaim judgment and take up the sword to remove the head of the fallen Muslim.  Truth is not the issue here, it is dissent, independence, freedom that is to be stopped. Any callous act or punishment at the same time is to be an example, a warning to other Muslims not to waiver from their belief in the Quran and Allah or suffer consequences.

The reason Christians and Jews are attacked by Muslims worldwide, more so in Muslim controlled countries, with minimal reaction from the local police and court system, is as Muslims from creation, they are all apostates and thus need to be eradicated.  With Allah as the Creator the first man, Adam, was Muslim, as was Abraham, so sayeth the Quran.   Anyone who declared they were Jew or Christian, believing in God and/or Christ, were converts. That may be the miss-guided logic of the Islamist.  Anything to justify their terrorist actions.

As a Muslim having doubts, a believer in Isa (Jesus) as a Savior, you may live in fear of declaring you are not Muslim, but Christian, or a Messianic Islamist (if that is possible).  Know that you are loved by God; he does not seek retribution against you.  The door to the eternal kingdom is open.  His Mercy and Grace are for those who believe in the Risen Lord.  You may be a ‘rebel’ among the tribes of Islam, hidden in the shadows.  It takes courage to come into the light and declare the truth.

Moderate Muslims

The moderate Muslims, we can be thankful for the more rational, tend to live not in Islamic autocracies but in the Western world.  But as their numbers grow, their concentration increases, they are being infiltrated by the militant, the fundamentalist, and dragged into the cage of Islam and called to bring their Law, Sharia/Islamic Law, to their location.  It is happening in the UK, Sweden, Denmark, much of Europe, and in the USA.  Islamists do not adopt the Constitution of their Countries if it is not based on Sharia Law.  They are called upon to be patient and when the opportunity arises enter government, local politics, to be heard and to change the world where they live. Thus MultiCulturalism is often questioned as Muslims tend not to embrace the society in which they chose to be free.  Is their freedom in a free-world country temporary?

Wrong Thinking

Muslims claim, as in the Quran, Superiority over infidels.  It is not racial, ethnic, or sexist – if you are Muslim you are better.

That is just wrong.

The Bible tells us we are equal, all children of God, none better than another.  Sure there exist differences, but the Bible calls for everyone to be humble, to love God, to love neighbor, to put down your sword, to be a servant of God, to embrace our differences and to be a disciple to bring others to the Word so they may hear the Word and know God.  Disciples are not to carry weapons, but to have God as their protector, knowing too they will be persecuted, as Christ informed them. The Word and the Holy Spirit in them will be their ammunition to fight the good fight of informing others they have been saved.  They only need to understand Christ’s sacrifice, accept, be thankful and believe.  Their soul will become rich in the heritage of God as the Living Water will flow thru their veins.

Justified by Your Faith

Be Justified not in the war you commit, but be Justified in your faith in Jesus Christ.  Restore your soul by knowing that your life has meaning. Live life, not for yourself, not for today, but for eternity with God.  Live not to be at odds with others, but to be at peace.  Conflict only results in internal struggles between the warrior and God.  There is no rightful justification for war, not a Holy War by any means.

This is the Season that remembers the birth of the Savior Jesus Christ.  In less than one week it will be Christmas.  As life began for Christ and all Christians through the cross it will continue as you embrace this ultimate sacrifice and the incomprehensible miracle of the resurrection.  Take the time from now until Easter to study the life Jesus led for you and me.  Your eyes can open to the glory of what God has waiting.

Grace and Peace.