Muhammad Quotes

This is a common perception of many Islamic authorities—that the ancient Jews and early Christians would have clearly become Muslims had they but been exposed to the teaching of the Prophet. As egocentric as this sounds, Martin Luther believed that all reasonable Jews would become Christians.

This sura is used by moderate Muslims showing that The Prophet was somewhat tolerant of those who even mock the word of Allah. Nonetheless, most fundamentalist Muslims believe that anyone who mocks the word of Allah or His Prophet should be killed. Muhammad said not to sit with them—his modern followers too often call it heresy and want to kill them.

See {586039} for a quotation that goes further and seeks to punish and humiliate the non believers. This sura is often used by those wishing to illustrate the intolerance of Islam—especially of other religions. They fail to put this into the context of the Old Testament which proscribed death for heretics or the history of Christianity regarding the murder of nonbelievers. The difference is however, that a very small proportion of Jews or Christians today believe in following Biblical instructions in this respect while the proportion of Muslims who believe in the literal interpretation of scripture on these points is much larger. However there are Islamic modernists and moderates throughout the world who reject this notion of warring on all other religions and there is a struggle going on within Islam itself.

This is actually a very widespread belief amongst many Muslims. Even sophisticated national leaders do not appreciate that other religions have adherents who feel just as passionately about their own religion. See {588668} for another example where Muslim leaders believe that if Jewish Kings David and Solomon came back to life they would worship Islam.

This verse has been one of the bases of Muslim theocratic states like Iran’s claim to legitimacy.

al-Mansur Abu Ali

al-Mansur Abu Ali. Even though the Caliph was trying to return to Muslim Fundamentalism, there was a general tolerance that was far in advance of Christian societies at the time. It is dramatically at variance with many of the more rigorous Islamic countries today.

In some countries political candidates run on religious platforms to convert the part of the population that is not of their religion and turn the nation into a theocracy.

Al-Maarri’s quotations are not only meaningful in their own right, but they illustrate the openness and free thinking that was allowed in the early days of Islam before about 1100. If anyone wrote such things today in most Islamic countries he would at least be jailed if not executed for blasphemy. And if any Christian in Europe made the same statement, he would have been excommunicated at least if not tortured and murdered.

Note that this point of view is somewhat anti-scientific. However, Mormonism is not monolithic. See {625544} .

These suras are ones that for some fundamentalist extremists justified the killing of Iraqis Muslims who worked with the British, Americans or other Coalition forces in the Iraq war or even politicians who cooperated with the coalition.

Christian sentiments like this were common during The Crusades where God would cause Christianity to prevail. However, with the Reformation, the enlightenment, the industrial revolution, and modernity, most Christians became more tolerant of other religions and accepting of the fact that there are other religions, which while not valid, would co-exist with Christianity. Islam backward and left out of the forces that modernized Christian nations entered the 21st century with large numbers of Muslims who believe in the literal truth of this sura and its desirability and their personal duty to help make it happen.