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Timeline of Muhammad's Life
(A.D)
570 - Born in
Mecca
576 - Orphaned upon death of mother
595 - Marries Kadijah - older,
wealthy widow
610 - Reports first revelations from angel at age of 40
619
- Protector uncle dies
622 - Emigrates from Mecca to Medina (the
Hijra)
623 - Orders raids on Meccan caravans
624 - Battle of Badr
(victory)
624 - Evicts Qaynuqa Jews from Medina
624 - Orders the
assassination of Abu Afak
624 - Orders the assassination of Asma bint
Marwan
624 - Orders the assassination of Ka'b al-Ashraf
625 - Battle of
Uhud (defeat)
625 - Evicts Nadir Jews
627 - Battle of the Trench
(victory)
627 - Massacre of the Qurayza Jews
628 - Signing of the Treaty
of Hudaibiya with Mecca
628 - Destruction and subjugation of the Khaybar
Jews
629 - Orders first raid into Christian lands at Muta (defeat)
630 -
Conquers Mecca by surprise (along with other tribes)
631 - Leads second raid
into Christian territory at Tabuk (no battle)
632 - Dies
"Muhammad is a
narcissist, a pedophile, a mass murderer,
a terrorist, a misogynist, a
lecher, a cult leader, a madman
a rapist, a torturer, an assassin and a
looter."
Former Muslim Ali Sina offered $50,000 to anyone
who could
prove otherwise based on Islamic texts.
The reward has gone
unclaimed.
Introduction
What if a man you knew began telling
people that God was routinely speaking to him and only him - and that the
"revelations" he claimed to be receiving were mostly about him and his relative
importance to all other people? Say, for example, that this self-proclaimed
prophet insisted that God had declared him to be the 'perfect example' for
mankind and that others were therefore to accord him with special privilege,
unwavering obedience, wealth and earthly desires, including all of the slaves
and women that his lust could handle.
Such figures still arise from time to
time. Some of the more dynamic manage to develop a small group of followers so
taken with their leader's self assurance that they willingly offer their own
children to him for "marriage" or even kill on his behalf if
requested.
Would it really validate the message
of any such cult leader if his followers did successfully kill and seize the
property of anyone who dared disagree? What if they gradually expanded their
power and numbers in such fashion that eventually they were enough to be
recognized as a major world religion? Would that make the cult leader's claims
about himself true? Would it really change the fact that what they believe
ultimately sprang from the imagination of a narcissist?
In 610, an Arab salesman with a
commanding personality attracted a small cult of credulous fanatics by claiming
to be a prophet. Though his "revelations" were self-referential and
occasionally contradicting, he was successful in manipulating his followers with
promises of heavenly reward and threat of divine wrath. The god heard only by
him told them to lie and steal for him, to give their children to him for sexual
pleasure and, eventually, to gruesomely murder his detractors.
There are two ways to approach a
study of Muhammad. One is with reverence and the other is with skepticism.
Thinking persons choose the latter. They are not influenced by the number of
Muslim believers in the world today or by their force of belief because these
are meaningless for determining truth. They care only about fact.
The facts presented here about the
life of Muhammad and the origins of Islam are fully supported by the works of
early Muslim biographers upon which all later historians rely.
Origins
To understand Islam,
you must understand the harsh circumstances into which the religion was born.
The Arabian Peninsula at the time of Muhammad (b.570 AD) was a barren and
desolate region with scorching sun and oppressive heat by day, and chilling cold
at night. There was little vegetative growth, and the nomadic inhabitants lived
between jagged rocks and shifting sand dunes.
While Europe and much
of the Middle East was transitioning from the Roman to the Byzantine Empire,
with roads, irrigation canals, aqueducts, and a culture that included
philosophical discourse and theater, the Arabians lived short and brutal lives
in warring tribes with little to offer the rest of the world beyond their own
harsh existence.
This partly explains
Islam's inherent hostility to music and art, which some extremists, such as the
Taliban, take quite literally. Islam does not encourage the pursuit of
knowledge outside of itself. It is, as Oriana Fallaci puts it, it is “the
religion which has produced nothing but religion."
The inhospitable
climate protected the peninsula from conquest and cultural influence. No
foreign army felt that sheep and goats were worth taking from the desert
fighters, so the area was relatively isolated, with the exception of certain
trading routes. The renaissance of knowledge that the rest of the world had
been experiencing since the Greek revival was largely missed out on by the
Arabs, whose entire energies were devoted to daily survival against the ruthless
environment and other tribes.
For these people,
morality was dictated merely by necessity, and obligations did not extend beyond
one’s tribe. This is a critical basis for the development of the Islamic
attitude toward those outside the faith, including the moral principle that the
ethics of any act are determined only by whether or not it benefits
Muslims.
There were pagan
religious traditions in Arabia, particularly among those based in the trading
centers such as Muhammad's birthplace of Mecca. Some of these towns had Kaabas
- cube-like structures that would attract pilgrims during holy months. The
Kaaba at Mecca housed various idols, including the black meteorite that remains
to this day.
In addition to the black rock,
Muhammad's Quraish tribe worshipped a moon god called Allah. Other gods were
recognized as well. In fact, the town of Mecca was renowned for religious
tolerance, where people of all faiths could come and pray at the Kaaba.
(This would later change once
Muhammad gained the power to establish his authority by force).
Islam was created both
from these crude pagan practices and from the basic theological elements of
Christianity and Judaism as Muhammad [often erroneously] understood them (his
inaccurate interpretation of Christianity, for example, is often attributed to
an early experience with fringe cults in the Palestinian region, then known as
Syria).
Early Life at
Mecca
Muhammad was born
around 570 AD to a widowed mother who died just six years later. He grew up
poor and orphaned on the margins of society, which was controlled by tribal
chiefs and trading merchants. He worked for his uncle, Abu Talib, as a camel
herder. Although his uncle had some standing in the community, Muhammad himself
did not rise above his lowly station until he was 25, when he met and married a
wealthy widow, Khadija, who was 15 years older.
His wife's trading
business not only nurtured Muhammad's natural talents of persuasion, but it also
gave the successful salesman an opportunity to travel and acquire knowledge that
was not as accessible to the local population. He would later use this to his
advantage by incorporating the stories that he had come across into his
"revelations" from Allah, particularly the tales from the earlier religions,
Judaism and Christianity.
Having attained a
comfortable lifestyle and the idle time that wealth affords, Muhammad would
wander off occasionally for periods of meditation and contemplation. It is
quite likely that he was experiencing the symptoms of a midlife crisis,
including a desire for personal accomplishment and meaning.
One day, at the age of
40, he told his wife that he had been visited by the angel Gabriel in a dream.
Thus began a series of "revelations" which lasted almost until his death 23
years later. The Qur’an is a collection of words that Muhammad
attributed to Allah. The Hadith is a collection of narrations of the
life and deeds of Muhammad. The Sira is his recorded biography. The
Sunnah is said to be Muhammad's way of life, on which Islamic law
(Sharia) is based.
With his wife’s
influence and support, Muhammad proclaimed himself a prophet in same "lineage"
as that of Abraham and Jesus, and began trying to convert those around him to
his new religion. He narrated the Quran to those who believed him, telling them
that it was the word of Allah (heard only by himself, of course).
Muhammad's Quran did not contain a
single original moral value and it contributed only one new idea to world
religion - that Muhammad is Allah's prophet. In fact, Muhammad's "Allah" seemed oddly preoccupied with making
sure Muslims knew to obey Muhammad's every earthly wish, as this mandate is
repeated at least twenty times in the narration of the Quran.
In the beginning,
Muhammad did his best to compromise his teachings with the predominant beliefs
of the community’s elders, such as combining all 300 of their idols under the
name “Allah.” His amalgamation of Judeo-Christian theology and pagan
tradition grew more sophisticated over time. He also used his "revelations
from Allah" to repeatedly affirm his own position. Even if he did not remember
the Biblical stories correctly, for example, each one was conspicuously modified
to incorporate a common theme: "Believe in the Messenger (Muhammad) or suffer
the consequences."
Preaching and Persecution at
Mecca
According to early
Muslim historians, the Meccans did not mind Muhammad practicing
his religion, nor did they feel threatened by his promotion of it. This changed
only after the self-proclaimed prophet began attacking
their religion, including the customs and ancestors of the people (Ibn
Ishaq/Hisham 167). This was enough to stir up the resentment of the influential
leaders of Mecca, who then mocked his humble background against his pretentious
claims. (See also MYTH: Muhammad was Persecuted
for Preaching Islam)
Still, Mecca at the
time was a remarkably tolerant society. Muhammad was allowed to attack the
local customs for thirteen years, even though the town's economy depended
on the annual pilgrimage attended by visiting pagans, whose religion he actively
disparaged.
At first, Muhammad was
only successful with friends and family. After thirteen years, “the street
preacher” could boast of only about a hundred determined followers, who called
themselves Muslims. Outside of his wife, his first convert was his young cousin
Ali (who would later become his son-in-law and the fourth caliph of Islam).
Another early convert was Abu Bakr, a wealthy merchant whose money and credulous acceptance of Muhammad
can be credited with the survival of the fledgling cult. (Muhammad would later
"marry" Abu Bakr's 6-year-old daughter).
Relations with the
Meccans turned particularly sour after an episode known as "the Satanic Verses"
in which Muhammad agreed to recognize the local gods in addition to Allah. This
delighted the Meccans, who generously extended their welcome. But Muhammad soon
changed his mind after his own people began to lose faith in him. He claimed
that Satan had spoken through him, and he rescinded recognition of the Meccan
gods (Tabari 1192, Quran 22:52 & 53:19-26).
The locals intensified
their mockery of Muslims and made life particularly difficult for some of them.
Although Muslims today often use the word "persecution" to describe this ordeal
(justifiably, in some cases), it is important to note that the earliest and most
reliable biographers (Ibn Ishaq and al-Tabari) record the death of only one
Muslim during this period, an older woman who died from stress.
To deal with this unpleasant truth,
sympathetic narratives of the early
Meccan years usually exaggerate the struggle of the Muslims with claims that
they were "under constant torture." They may also include apocryphal accounts
that are unsupported by earliest and most reliable historians (see MYTH:
Persecution of Muslims at Mecca - Many Deaths).
Modern storytellers and
filmmakers (such as those behind 1976's The Message) have even been known
to invent fictional victims of Meccan murder, either to dramatize their own tale
or to provide justification for the "revenge killings" that followed. But, in
fact, the only Muslim whose life was truly in danger was that of Muhammad -
after 13 years of being allowed to mock the local religion. (See also MYTH:
Muhammad was Tortured at Mecca).
The Hijra - Flight from Mecca
to Medina
The death of his uncle,
Abu Talib, in 619 left Muhammad without a protector against the Meccan
leadership, which was gradually losing patience with him. The true agitator in
this situation, however, is quite clearly Muhammad himself, as even Muslim
historians note. Consider this account of what happened at Abu Talib's
deathbed, as the Meccans implored him a final time for peace with his
nephew:
[Muhammad's chief
adversary] Abu Sufyan, with other sundry notables, went to Abu Talib and
said: "You know the trouble that exists between us and your nephew, so call him
and let us make an agreement that he will leave us alone and we will leave him
alone; let him have his religion and we will have ours." (Ibn Ishaq
278)
Muhammad rejected the
offer of peaceful co-existence. His new religion was obviously intended to
dominate the others, not be on equal standing with them. Meanwhile, the Muslims
were beginning to become violent with the people around
them.
Muhammad's search for
political alliance led him to make a treaty of war against the Meccans
with the people of Medina, another Arab town far to the north (Ibn Ishaq
299-301). This was the last straw for the Meccans, who finally decided to
capture Muhammad and put him to death. (see also MYTH: Muhammad and his Muslims Fled Mecca
because of Persecution)
Although this sounds
harsh against Western standards, it is important to note the contrast between
the Meccan reaction and that of Muhammad when he had the opportunity to deal
with perceived treachery in Medina at a later date on the part of those who
hadn't even harmed anyone.
The Meccans limited
their deadly aggression to Muhammad himself. This is quite clear from the
episode in which Muhammad escapes his home by using his son-in-law, Ali, to
trick his would-be assassins into thinking that they had him trapped (Ibn Ishaq
326). No harm was done to Ali or his wife, both of whom subsequently remained
in the city for several days to complete the transfer of Muhammad's family
business to Medina.
Compare this to the
episode of the Banu Qurayza
(below), in which Muhammad slaughtered an entire tribe of people based on their
leader having switched loyalties in a conflict in which none of them even
participated.
The year that Muhammad
fled Mecca for Medina was 622, which marks the beginning of the Muslim
calendar.
Medina and the Origin of
Jihad
Stinging from the
rejection of his own town and tribe, Muhammad's message quickly become more
intolerant and ruthless - particularly as he gained power. Islam's holiest book
clearly reflects this contrast, with the later parts of the Quran adding
violence and earthly defeats at the hands of Muslims to the woes of eternal
damnation that the earlier parts of the book promises those who will not believe
in Muhammad.
It was at Medina that Islam evolved
from a relatively peaceful religion borrowed from others and into a military
force that was intended to govern all aspects of society. During these last ten
years of Muhammad's life, infidels were evicted or enslaved, converted upon
point of death and even rounded up and slaughtered depending on
expediency.
Muhammad provided his
people with convenient revelations "from Allah" which allowed them to murder
innocent drivers and steal their property (Ibn Ishaq/Hisham 426). The people
around him gradually developed a lust for things that could be taken in battle,
including material comforts and captured women and children. (See also MYTH:
Muhammad Raided Caravans to Retrieve Stolen Property).
Often the people
captured in battle would be brought before the self-proclaimed prophet, where
they would plead for their lives, arguing, for example, that they would never
have treated the Muslims that way. The traditions are quite clear in portraying
Muhammad as largely unmoved by their pleas, and ordering their deaths anyway,
often by horrible means. In one case, he orders a man slain, telling him that
“Hell” will take care of the poor fellow’s orphaned daughter (Ishaq 459). (See
also MYTH: Muhammad Never Killed
Captives)
The raids on caravans
preceded the first major battle involving a Muslim army, the Battle of Badr.
This was the spot where the Meccans had sent their own army to protect their
caravans from Muslim raiders. Although, Muslims today like to claim that
they only attack others in self-defense, this was clearly not the case in
Muhammad's time. In fact, he had to compel his reluctant warriors with promises
of paradise and assurances that their religion was more important than the lives
of others. (See also MYTH: The Battle of Badr was
Defensive).
The Consolidation of
Power
Muhammad defeated the
Meccan army at Badr, which emboldened him to begin dividing and conquering the
three local Jewish tribes at Medina. Their mistake was to accept the Muslim
presence, but reject Muhammad's claim that he was in the line of Jewish
prophets. His stories from the Torah simply did not agree with their own.
(Muhammad's recited version of Bible stories sounds more like fragmented fairy
tales with the same moral - believe in his personal claim to be a prophet or
else).
How these three tribes,
the Banu Qaynuqa, the Banu Nadir, and the Banu Quyrayza met their fate is
insightful into the Muslim mindset, which employs an inherent double standard in
its relations with those outside the faith.
First, to try and gain
their favor, Muhammad briefly preached that Christians and Jews could attain
salvation through their own faith. In fact, he changed his followers' direction
for prayer from Mecca to Jerusalem, which prompted the Jews' tolerance of him
while he worked surreptitiously for the power to evict them. These earlier
concessions and teachings were later revoked by Muhammad, since the Jews
ultimately refused his religion. The rare early verses of tolerance in the
Quran are abrogated by later verses such as 9:29.
The Jews' knowledge of
the Torah naturally threatened the Muslim leader's credibility, since it easily
refuted the claims that he made about himself as a prophet of God. They also
saw through the Biblical narrations that he had picked up from secondhand
sources and knew that these contradicted established revelation. Conveniently,
Allah stepped in to tell Muhammad that the Jews had deliberately corrupted their
own texts to hide the very evidence of his own prophethood that he had
previously insisted existed. (To this day, Muslims have never been able to
produce a copy of the "true" Torah or Gospel to which their own Quran refers).
While the Jews remained unconvinced
by such obvious gimmickry, Arab polytheists converted to Islam in large numbers, which soon gave
Muhammad the power to make his intentions clear that Islam would be imposed by
force:
While we were
in the Mosque, the Prophet came out and said, "Let us go to the Jews" We went
out till we reached Bait-ul-Midras. He said to them, "If you embrace Islam,
you will be safe. You should know that the earth belongs to Allah and His
Apostle, and I want to expel you from this land. So, if anyone amongst
you owns some property, he is permitted to sell it, otherwise you should know
that the Earth belongs to Allah and His Apostle." Bukhari
53:392
Since they chose
to hold on to their religion (and their property) Muhammad looked for reasons to
go to war against the Jews at Medina. According to some Muslims, the first
tribe, the Qaynuqa,
were driven from their homes and land on the pretext that
one of their own had harassed a Muslim woman. Although the offender was killed
prior to this by a Muslim, the Muslim was also killed by Jews in retaliation for
the first murder.
After laying siege to
the entire community and defeating the tribe, Muhammad wanted to put every male
member to death, but was talked out of it by an associate - something that Allah
later "rebuked" him for. The Qaynuqa were forced into exile and the Muslims
took their possessions and property, making it their own. Muhammad personally
reserved a fifth of the ill-gotten gain for himself (a rule that he was sure to
include in the Quran).
This episode helped
ingrain within Islam the immature principle of group identity, whereby any
member of a religion or social unit outside of Islam is just as guilty as any of
their peers who insult or harm a Muslim - and just as deserving of punishment.
(Muhammad's punishments usually did not fit the crime).
Members of the
second tribe, the Banu Nadir, were
accused by Muhammad of plotting to kill him. What is most intriguing about this
episode is that it occurred after the Muslims had killed several
prominent Jews on Muhammad's order, including a leader of the Banu Nadir (named
Ka'b al-Ashraf). (See also MYTH: Muhammad Never Approved of
Murder)
When the prophet of
Islam learned that he might be targeted in retaliation (something that he
claimed was "revealed" to him by Allah), he promptly laid siege to the Banu
Nadir community. After forcing them to surrender, these original inhabitants of
Medina were then banished from their homes and land by the Muslim newcomers, who
again started to take as much as they could for themselves (Ibn Ishaq 653). (To
the disappointment of his people, this time Muhammad produced a revelation from Allah that allowed him to confiscate the
entire portion for himself).
In a critical example
of how deception is sanctioned under Islam, a surviving contingent of the Banu
Nadir (under Usayr ibn Zarim) was later tricked into leaving their fortress by
promise of peace talks. The contingent of Muslims sent by Muhammad to "escort"
them, however, easily slaughtered the victims once they let down their guard
(Ibn Ishaq 981). (See also MYTH: Muhammad always Disapproved of
Dishonesty).
The Qurayza
Massacre
By the time the Banu
Qurayza met their fate, Muhammad was wealthy and powerful from his defeat of the
other two tribes.
The Jews of the
Banu
Qurayza tasted Muhammad's wrath after their leader
half-heartedly sided with the Meccan army during a siege of Medina (the Battle
of the Trench). By then, Muhammad had evicted the other Jews and declared that
all land at Medina belonged to him, so the original constitution of the town was
no longer in effect. It is important to note that the Qurayza did
not attack the Muslims, even after switching loyalties (contrary
to another popular myth).
Although the Qurayza
surrendered peacefully to the Muslims, Muhammad determined to have every man of
the tribe executed, along with every boy that had reached the initial stages of
puberty (between the ages of 12 and 14). He ordered a ditch dug outside of the
town and had the victims brought to him in several groups. Each person would be
forced to kneel, and their head would be cut off and then dumped along with the
body into the trench.
Between 700 and 900 men
and boys were slaughtered by the Muslims after their surrender.
The surviving children
of the men became slaves of the Muslims, and their widows became sex slaves.
This included the Jewish girl, Rayhana, who became one of Muhammad's personal
concubines the very night that her husband was killed. The prophet of Islam
apparently "enjoyed her pleasures" (ie. raped her) even as the very execution of
her people was taking place.
In some ways, women
were much like any other possession taken in battle, to be done with however
their captors pleased. But Muslims found them useful in other ways as well. In
fact, one of the methods by which Islam owed its expansion down through the
centuries was through the reproductive capabilities of captured women. In
addition to four wives, a man was allowed an unlimited number of sex slaves,
with the only rule being that any resulting children would automatically be
Muslim.
Muhammad ordered that a
fifth of the women taken captive be reserved for him. Many were absorbed into
his personal stable of sex slaves that he maintained in addition to his eleven
wives. Others were doled out like party favors to others. (See MYTH:
Muhammad was an Abolitionist)
At one point
following a battle, Muhammad provided
instructions on how women should be raped after capture,
telling his men not to worry about coitus interruptus, since "Allah has written
whom he is going to create." (See also MYTH: Muhammad Never Approved of
Rape)
Following the battle
against the Hunain, late in his life, Muhammad's men were reluctant to rape the
captured women in front of their husbands (who were apparently still alive to
witness the abomination), but Allah came to the rescue with a handy "revelation"
that allowed the debauchery. (This is the origin of Sura 4:24 according to Abu
Dawud 2150).
The Origin of Islamic
Imperialism
From Medina, Muhammad waged a
campaign of terror, to which he openly attributed his success (Bukhari
52:220). His gang of robbers launched raids in which hapless communities
were savaged, looted, murdered and raped. The tribes around the Muslims began
to convert to Islam out of self-preservation.
The excuse for military
campaign began to shrink to the point that it hardly existed at all. Muhammad
told his followers that
Muslims were meant to rule over other people. Supremacist teachings became the
driving
force behind Jihad (see also MYTH: Muhammad Waged War Only in
Self-Defense) and Jihad became the driving force behind
Islam.
The brutal conquest of
the people of Khaybar, a peaceful farming community that was not at war with the
Muslims, is a striking example. Muhammad marched in secret, took them by
surprise and easily defeated them. He had many of the men killed, simply for
defending their town. He enslaved women and children and had surviving men live
on the land as virtual serfs, paying Muslims an ongoing share of their crops not
to attack them again.
Muhammad
suspected that the town's treasurer was holding out and had his men barbarically
torture the poor fellow by building a fire on his chest until he revealed
the location of hidden treasure. (See also MYTH: Muhammad Never Approved
Torture).
Afterwards, the prophet
of Islam beheaded the man and "married" his widow on the same day (she first had
to pass through the hands of one of his lieutenants). Given that the woman's
father was also killed by Muhammad, it isn't much of a stretch to say that true
love had very little to do with this "marriage."
A Life of Hedonism and
Narcissism
Muhammad's personal
life became the picture of hedonism and excess, all justified by frequent
“revelations” from an increasingly arbitrary and capricious god In his later
years, he frequently used his influence for purely personal goals, including
sex, wealth and power. Allah's authority for him to pursue these earthly
ambitions is even immortalized in the Quran (suras 33 and 66,
particularly).
The same man who
earlier in his career had justified his claims as a prophet by saying
that he "asked for no reward" from others, reversed course
and began to demand a fifth or more of all booty taken from conquered tribes.
According to his biographers, he became fat
from living off this enormous share of ill-gotten gain.
(See also MYTH: Muhammad was a
Brave Warrior who Trusted in Allah to Protect him)
In the span of a
dozen years, he married eleven women and had access to an array of sex slaves
(see MYTH: Muhammad Married Multiple
Women as a Favor to them). When he wanted a woman, even if she were the
wife of another man, his own daughter-in-law, or a child as young as 6-years-old
(see MYTH:
Muhammad Condemned Pedophilia), Muhammad was able to justify his lust and
inevitable consummation with an appeal to Allah’s revealed will for his sex
life - which was then preserved forever in the Quran, to
be faithfully memorized by future generations for whom it has no possible
relevance.
The first verse of Sura 66 is a good
example of this. It was narrated by Muhammad to his wives shortly after two of
them pressured him into not visiting a favorite sex slave:
O Prophet! why do you forbid (yourself) that which Allah has made
lawful for you, seeking to please your wives? (Quran
66:1)
Allah (according to Muhammad) was so
upset with his prophet for denying himself an afternoon of pleasure with the
concubine that Allah had provided for him that it was a good thing for Muhammad
that Allah was a forgiving and merciful god! (For the Muslim faithful, it must surely be a source of embarrassment
that Allah evidently had more interest in Muhammad's personal sex life than he
did about tolerance or universal love. The god of Islam encourages sex with
slaves in several other places as well).
Muhammad used eternal paradise and
damnation to solicit strict obedience to his every command: "Allah’s Apostle
said, ‘Whoever obeys me will enter Paradise, and whoever disobeys me will not
enter it’” (Bukhari
92.384).
Islam became centered completely
around its founder. Of all the prophets, new converts are required to affirm
only the legitimacy of Muhammad. The Muslim leader even shares the
Shahada with Allah ("There is no god but Allah and Muhammad is his
messenger"). To this day, every Muslim must bow down five times a day
"toward" Muhammad's birthplace (Islam's "prophet" did not know the earth was
round).
The prophet of Islam
was also an extremely superstitious person, leaving many bizarre rules for
Muslims to follow, including which direction they should defecate and how many
stones they should wash their anus with afterwards (any odd number... for anyone
who's curious). (See also MYTH: Muhammad did Away with
Superstition). Sketchy hygiene apparently left him with an annoying lice
infection.
Not content with
waiting for Allah to act on his behalf, Muhammad had personal critics executed,
including poets. One of these was a mother of five children, who was stabbed to
death by Muhammad's envoy after a suckling infant was removed from her breast
(see MYTH:
Muhammad Never Killed Women). Other innocent people were killed merely
because they were of a different religion, sometimes including children (see MYTH:
Muhammad Never Killed Children).
The glaring double
standards of Islam were ingrained by the prophet of Islam during his lifetime.
This included commands to execute apostates (those who wish to leave Islam) and
evict people of other religions from their homes.
An elderly woman named Umm Qirfa once
ran afoul of Muhammad merely by fighting back when her tribe was targeted by Muslim raiders. Muhammad's adopted
son tied the woman's legs separately to two camels, then set the camels off in
opposite directions, tearing the woman's body in two. He also killed her two
sons - presumably in gruesome fashion - and made her daughter into a sex slave.
(See also MYTH: Muhammad Never Killed the
Elderly).
Today's Muslims inherit
this legacy of self-consumption and disregard for those outside the faith. They
may or may not agree with terrorist attacks on non-Muslims, but they are nearly
united in their belief that the victims have no right to strike back, even if it
is in self-defense.
The Quran distinguishes
Muslims from others, bestowing the highest praise for believers while heaping
the vilest condemnation on those outside the faith. Islam is a true supremacist
ideology. (See also Is the
Quran Hate Speech?)
The Taking of
Mecca
Though many of the Arab
and Jewish tribes were eliminated and absorbed through military victory and
forced conversion, the city of Mecca remained.
In 628, six years after
fleeing, Muhammad’s followers were allowed to re-enter the city under an
agreement whereby he set aside his title as “Prophet of Allah.” This was a
temporary ploy that enabled him to gain a political foothold in the city through
the same “fifth column” activities that are still used today by organizations
such as the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), which use their host’s
language of religious tolerance to disguise an ulterior agenda that includes
systematic discrimination against non-Muslims.
Many of his followers
were disappointed that Muhammad had made concessions to the Meccans, not
understanding how it actually fit perfectly with his ultimate agenda of
domination. It was during this time that he led the campaign against the
Khaybar, to assuage their lust for blood, women and loot.
Technically,
Muhammad was the first to break the treaty with the
Meccans when he violated the portion of it that restricted him from accepting
members of the other tribe into his camp. His own people also staged deadly
raids on Meccan caravans (see MYTH: The Meccans were the First to
Break the Treaty of Hudaibiya). Although he evidently had no personal
obligation to the treaty, the prophet of Islam held the other party to the
letter of the law, particularly after he amassed the power to conquer in
overwhelming fashion.
The excuse that
Muhammad eventually used to march his armies into Mecca was provided when a
tribe allied to the Meccans conducted a raid on a tribe allied with the
Medinans. Although a true man of peace would have heeded the fact that his
enemy did not want war, and used non-violent means to resolve the tension while
respecting sovereignty, Muhammad merely wanted power and vengeance. (See also
MYTH:
Muhammad always Chose Peace over War).
In just under a decade, Muhammad had
evolved from trying to sell himself as a Judeo-Christian prophet, seeking
followers, to an Arab warlord, seeking subjects, slaves and total dominance.
The early Quran (of Mecca) tells unbelievers to 'follow the example' of Muhammad
or suffer Hell. The later Quran (of Medina) tells unbelievers to 'obey'
Muhammad or suffer death.
Following Mecca's
surrender, Muhammad put to death those who had previously insulted him (see also
MYTH:
Muhammad was a Forgiving Man). One of the persons sentenced was his former
scribe, who had written revelations that Muhammad said were from Allah. The
scribe had previously recommended changes to the wording that Muhammad offered
(based on some of the bad grammar and ineloquent language of "Allah") and
Muhammad agreed. This caused the scribe to apostatize, based on his belief that
real revelations should have been immutable.
Although the scribe
escaped death by "converting to Islam" at the point of a sword, others weren't
so lucky. One was a slave girl who was executed on Muhammad's order because she
had written songs mocking him.
In what would also
become the model for future Muslim military conquests, those Meccans who would
not convert to Islam were required to accept third-class status. Not
surprisingly, almost the entire city - which had previously rejected his message
- immediately "converted" to Islam once Muhammad came back with a sword in this
hand. This included has adversary, Abu Sufyan, who was bluntly ordered to
"Submit and testify that there is no God but Allah and that Muhammad is the
apostle of Allah before you lose your head."
Those who would not
convert to Islam were banned from the city a few months later - again
underscoring the dual ethics of Islam. When Muhammad was previously banned from
Mecca, he described it as a "persecution" that justified his "slaughter" of
those who prevented him from performing the Haj. Yet, when he attained power,
he immediately chased anyone who would not convert to Islam from Mecca and
prevented them from performing the Haj.
To this day, people of
other religions are barred even from entering Mecca, the city where Muhammad was
free to preach in contradiction to the established religion. Islam is far less
tolerant even than the more primitive Arab religion that it supplanted. A
person preaching the original Arab polytheism on the streets of Mecca today
would be quickly executed.
Jihad and Jizya
Tellingly, some of the
most violent verses in the Quran were handed down following Muhammad's ascension
to power, when there was no threat to the Muslim people. The 9th Sura of the
Quran exhorts Muslims to Jihad and dominance over other religions:
"Fight those who do
not believe in Allah, nor in the latter day, nor do they prohibit what Allah and
His Messenger have prohibited, nor follow the religion of truth, out of those
who have been given the Book, until they pay the tax in acknowledgment of
superiority and they are in a state of subjection." (9:29)
The verse that follows
curses Christians and Jews by name and says "May Allah destroy them" (as
with other sections of the Quran, it is unclear whether it is Allah or Muhammad
speaking).
Before his death,
Muhammad ordered 30,000 men to march on Christian lands (which were Byzantine at
the time). It is possible that he believed false rumors of an army amassed
against him, but there is absolutely no evidence of such a force having been
assembled. Instead, Muhammad subjugated the local people and extorted
"protection" money from them - something that has come to be known as the
jizya (a tax that non-Muslims pay to Muslims).
Another episode from
this period that offers insight into the legacy of Muhammad is the forced
conversion of the al-Harith, one of the last Arab tribes to hold out against
Muslim hegemony. Muhammad gave the chief of the tribe three days to accept
Islam before sending his army to destroy them.
Not surprisingly, the
entire people immediately embraced the Religion of Peace!
Most Arab tribes recognized
Muhammad's quest for power and wisely pledged their political allegiance without
a fight. This quickly presented a problem for his core band of followers,
however, since they had become used to living off of what could be stolen from
others via raids and battle.
Since it was against the rules to
attack fellow Muslims, Muhammad began demanding tribute from his new "converts"
instead, but this proved to be less profitable than the jizya - not to
mention that it carried the risk of internal resentment and strife.
Khaybar, the remote Jewish city that
had been turned into a sharecropper state on behalf of its Muslim masters was a
more preferable economic model for a growing Islamic empire that had become
dependent on extortion justified by religious superiority.
Years before attacking Christian and
Persian lands, Muhammad wrote to governors in each, telling them, "embrace
Islam and you will be safe." There was no mention of oppression or
liberation cited as a justification. The only threat these people faced would
be from Muslim armies. (Only six years later, 4,000 peasants in the modern-day
Palestinian region would be slaughtered for defending their homes).
At the time, the wealth of other
nations was an open source of envy among Muhammad's followers, which he promised
to rectify. The subsequent military expansion that he set in motion may have
been sanctioned by Allah and powered by religious zealotry, but the underlying
motives of money, sex, slaves and power were no less worldly than any other
conqueror of the time.
The Legacy of Islamic
Imperialism
Muhammad died of a
fever in 632 at the age of 63, with his violent religion spread over most of
Arabia. His method of forcing others to convert under duress had several
negative consequences, beginning with the civil wars that were immediately
engaged in following his death. Many tribes wanted out of Islam and had to be
kept in the empire via horrific violence.
Abu Sufyan, the Meccan leader who was
literally forced to "embrace" Islam at the point of a sword actually had the
last laugh. He skillfully worked his own family into the line of succession and
his son, Muawiya, became the heir to Muhammad's empire at the expense of the
prophet's own family. In fact, Abu Sufyan almost lived to witness his son and
grandson kill off Muhammad's own grandchildren and assume control of the Islamic
empire.
Muhammad's failure to leave a clear
successor resulted in a deep schism that quickly devolved into violence and
persists to this day as the Sunni/Shia conflict. His own family fell apart and
literally went to war with each other in the first few years. Thousands of
Muslims were killed fighting each other in a battle between Muhammad's favorite
wife, Aisha, and his adopted son, Ali.
Infidels fared no
better. Through Muhammad's teachings and example, his followers viewed worldly
life as a constant physical battle between the House of Peace (Dar al-Salaam)
and the House of War (Dar al-Harb). Muslims are instructed to invite their
enemies to either embrace Islam, pay jizya
(protection money), or die.
Over the next fourteen
centuries, the bloody legacy of this extraordinary individual would be a
constant challenge to those living on the borders of the Islam’s political
power. The violence that Muslim armies would visit on people across North
Africa, the Middle East, Europe and into Asia as far as the Indian subcontinent
is a tribute to a founder who practiced and promoted subjugation, rape, murder
and forced conversion.
In Muhammad's
words: "I have been ordered to fight the people till they say: 'None has the
right to be worshipped but Allah.' And if they say so, pray like our prayers,
face our Qibla and slaughter as we slaughter, then their blood and property will
be sacred to us and we will not interfere with them..." (Bukhari
8:387)
It is certainly the
basis not just for modern day terror campaigns against Western infidels (and
Hindus and Buddhists) but also the broad apathy that Muslims across the world
have to the violence, which is an obvious enabler.
As Indonesian cleric,
Abu Bakar Bashir recently put it, "If the West wants to have peace, then they
have to accept Islamic rule."
Go back to
the List of Islamic Terrorist Attacks |
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