Non-Muslims Quotes
The distrust and perception by many Muslims of non-Muslims is a practical and ethical problem. To many fundamentalist Muslims, Jews, Christians, Buddhists, Animists—all non-Muslim Human Beings—are not only wrong but filthy and disgusting—in the same category as urine and feces. What is amazing however, that despite this paranoid view of ‘others’ Islamic nations have produced so many great physicians who compassionately have contact with impure non-believers every day. It also illustrates that most Muslims do not hold all the beliefs of their more fanatic co-religionists.
This sura illustrates why peace treaties between Islamic and non Islamic countries are difficult to negotiate and enforce. For some fundamentalist Muslims, even making a peace treaty with Israel would constitute a transgression of the word of God. Nonetheless, the first treaty that the United States ever made was with a Muslim nation—Tripoli.
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.
The “People of the Book” are the Jews and the Christians who believe in the Old Testament book of God which Muslims recognize. Others who would not accept Islam would be killed, but if Jews and Christians are submissive and fell so, they may pay a special additional tax, the Jizyah.
In his version of Islamic logic, since non-Muslims are heretics they should be subjected to capital punishment anyway so there is no such thing as an “innocent” Christian, Hindu, Bahai or Jew. This is an extreme position held by very few of the English Muslims but unfortunately held by radical Islamic extremists in many counties.
See {617157} for a similar legal opinion. The concern was that poor Muslims may desert their faith when they see how well housed the tolerated people, Christians and Jews, are. They might conclude that Christianity or Judaism is better at making people wealthy than was Islam. See {617162} for a Koranic support of the idea. The Western view of this is generally, that is what the marketplace of ideas is all about. In 21st century America, Jews and Mormons on the average were the wealthiest religious groups. The logic of al-Ramli is that Mormons and Jews—each only 6 percent of the population—should not be allowed to show their wealth, lest Roman Catholics for example—25 percent of the population—will convert from Catholicism to the other two religions. From a democratic point of view, the response should be, we so be it. That is their choice. But America is the living proof that the assumption of conversion and loss of faith is per se wrong. The Mormons and Jews are visibly more successful, yet there are very few Roman Catholics leaving their church and converting to the two wealthier religions. There are some, but not at any greater rate than people convert from “wealthier” religions.
The Muslim League was demanding that the Punjab become a part of Pakistan when independence was granted later. However, the Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, and Christians were all adamant that they would not live in a Muslim nation which would soon become a de facto theocracy if the British could not control them. The Punjab was divided between India and Pakistan, and hundreds of thousands died in Sikh-Muslim attacks and then Hindu-Muslim conflict in the Punjab.
