Tuesday, February 07, 2006

The Prosecution's Case Against Islam

When you are making your case against Islam to an ignorant infidel or even a liberal (if you must as Ann Coulter says), it won't do to say "Read the Quran. It's all in there." Let's face it, reading the Quran is tedious and monotonous, and you need background to its structure (it's out of sequential order for one thing!) and the context of sections of verses when given by Mohammed to his believers. All this of course just makes it more offputting. One of the ways to make this easier is a not too long, not too complex and well written analysis and proof of the problem with Islam. No more than 20 pages, and preferably less should be the first resource you can print and provide to this person, or email them a link.

I am thinking of building a new blog page of links for articles of 5 to 20 pages (printed equivalent) for the ignorant infidel who wants to learn more, but not bother with reading and understanding the Quran. Of course, books by Spencer, Ye'or or Bostom are great, but books require a lot more time and effort than a 10 to 20 page document. If you have a particular article that you believe is an incisive summation of Islam and the problem it presents to the West, email me johnsobieski@Hotmail.com or just post the link in the comments and I will check it out.

Recently I came across such a document among others I have bookmarked.

In this fine article, Amber Pawlik, presents her case.

Islam on Trial: The Prosecution’s Case against Islam
By Amber Pawlik

Towards the end, Ms. Pawlik presents the findings of her sampling of verses from the Qur'an. It's quite fascinating to get these statistics, because now you can say over 50% of the Qur'an expresses hatred of infidels, and you have the facts to back it up. Just point them Ms. Pawlik's way.

....
Here are the results of my larger study:

106/201 (52.7%) is hatred aimed at infidels, defined as
*Threats towards infidels either in the after life or this life
*Degrading infidels by calling them evil, stupid, blind, deaf, liars, thankless, etc.

*Calls to fight against them.
*Verses that say "except the believers" when wishing death on nonbelievers were counted as hatred since avoiding death is not a positive to believers
*The threat or insult can be aimed at infidels in general or any specific infidel.

50/201 (24.9%) Deals with believers, defined as
*Mentioning them
*Saying they are righteous
*Saying they will get good things
*Any mentions of one of the prophets was snuck into this category too

23/201 (11.4%) deal with Allah,
*Who he is
*That he is almighty
*Any of his creations

10/201 (5%) deal with the Day of Doom or the Day of Judgment
*Either the Day of Doom when destruction is sent on the earth or
*Day of Judgment when all are judged before Allah
*Any message pertaining to how God records what men do was assigned this category

4/201 (2%) are anti-woman
*That it’s OK to beat a woman
*Women and slaves get married off but have no choice in the matter and is very self-serving to Muhammad or men in general.

4/201 (2%) deal with giving to the poor in some way

2/201 (1%) deal with some kind of Muslim custom or etiquette, for instance
*How to divorce your wife

1/201 (0.5%)disapproves of a man who murdered someone, but only because it was for the wrong reason to kill someone.

1/201 (0.5%) actually says it is OK for people to have their religion while Muslims have theirs


Over 50% of the Koran deals with nothing but hatred aimed at infidels. You will notice Allah is mentioned a lot, as well as the goodness of believers and the Day of Doom/Judgment, the former being a day when the Koran gleefully exclaims that Allah will send destruction to the earth and destroy the infidels. Notice how much of the Koran that deals with not just infidels but with the theme of believers verses nonbelievers, setting up believers as holy, righteous, almost perfect human beings and nonbelievers not just as wrong but as wretched scum. If you add up the number of verses that deal with infidels, believers, Allah, and the Day of Judgment/Doom, that percentage is a full 94%. This is really the only thing in the Koran as the Koran itself readily admits: "... This book is no other than a warning and a clear Koran, To warn whoever liveth; and, that against the Infidels sentence may be justly given." Sura 36:69-70

You may notice that details outlining Muslim customs and etiquette do not take up much room in the Koran. In fact, Ramadan, from what I can tell, is only mentioned once in the Koran. You can see how seriously Muslims take Ramadan. Now imagine how seriously they take the rest of the 94% of the Koran.

There is no moral system outlined in the Koran - with the exception of allowing men to beat their wives, sleep with their slaves, and there is an occasional, “give to the poor.” There certainly is no unequivocal “Do not kill”; “Do not steal”; or “Do not lie,” let alone any other insight into how to behave properly as a human being. Most of the “moral” guidance given in the Koran is not a restraint on humans but permission to do what they want - mostly for men to do what they want.

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4 comments:

von Schlichtningen said...

Is this the book called the "Book of Peace"?

We need to be worried about all that read the Quaran literally and that seems to be the common idea of Muslims as suppossedly the Quaran literally are the words of God.

Jason Pappas said...

I’m glad you found her article. I wrote about it in one of my first blog posts but one of the problems with a blog is that old posts are essentially lost as most people don’t go past the most recent few. Amber is a gutsy young gal who doesn’t mince words (you can find her archive on faithfreedom.org)

Your point is well taken. Most people will not read the Koran and if they read excerpts they will get different passages depending on the person who’s trying to make a point. As I point out in my article, how many of us read Das Kapital? Did we have to? We understood communism without becoming experts in Marx. Islam is easier that Marxism. There’s just not that much to Islam. The salient facts, like with communism, are bad enough. Most people think Islam is an involved esoteric doctrine.

If you write an intro to Islam, stick with the main elements that everyone should know.

von Schlichtningen said...

Hello Jason. I read your blog articles from february 2005. They are good.

I have tried to read to Quran, but I got bored while reading. Must have been, because it was not the classical Arab version :) I have read many articles on it though.

Jason Pappas said...

It is a bore. As Amber said, it constantly damns the infidel. It’s like war propaganda.

Amber’s sampling method is good. Of course, since the latter Suras abrogate the earlier Suras, one only has to know what the last few Suras are. Sura 9 is the last or second to last. Thus, it counts most.