An Inquiry Into Islam

Why We Created This Site

noreply@blogger.com (Citizen Warrior) — Fri, 19 May 2017 08:30:00 +0000

AFTER 9/11, lots of things were said about Islam, some of them contradictory, and many of them by people with believable credentials. My spouse and I didn't know what to think, so we started looking into it. We read lots of materials — pro-Islam books, anti-Islam books, and classic Islamic doctrines, like the Quran. We've been on an eight-year learning binge.

We have become disgusted by people whose criticisms of Islam are motivated by bigotry and racism. And we've also became frustrated by people who know nothing about Islam but are so vehemently against the racist bigots that they said and believed foolish things about Islam — things that anyone with even a smattering of knowledge would know is not true.

Islam is an active and vital religion, and it is growing. It is having an increasingly powerful influence on world affairs. And most people in the free world do not even know the most basic facts about it, and yet make the assumption that Islam must be similar to other religions they are familiar with. This widespread assumption could have unexpected consequences because Islam is different than all other religions in many important ways.

My spouse and I are not Christians or Buddhists or Jews or Hindus. We are not the members of any religion. I thought this was important to point out. We don't have a religious ax to grind.

The purpose of this site is to begin the education process for non-Muslims who don't know much about Islam but are curious about it. Once your interest has been piqued, your next step is to read the Quran yourself. Fortunately, reading the Quran has been made relatively easy. Learn more about that here: An Easier Way to Read the Quran.

Below is a table of contents for this site. You will find the same table of contents in the upper right sidebar of every page. The pages can be read in any order. Here they are:

Prevent Bigotry and Racism

What Makes Islam So Successful?

An Eight Minute Video About Islam

Islam and Women's Rights

Do You Know Much About Islam?

A Muslim Woman Speaks About Islam

Gentle Jihad

An Easier Way to Read the Quran

Critique of Pure Islam

Criticism of Islam Versus Bigotry

Why Know About Islam?

Do Islamic Texts Encourage Violence?

What is Taqiyya?

Perfectly Legal Jihad

The Allegory of Pleasantville

A Conversation About Islam

Pamphlet to Hand Out at Protests and Elsewhere

noreply@blogger.com (Citizen Warrior) — Sat, 15 Jun 2013 22:08:00 +0000

The protest in Manchester

The following is a pamphlet someone (who wishes to remain anonymous) wrote for the protest in Manchester, Tennessee. It is meant to be printed on both sides and folded in half. You have the author's permission to use it in any way you want.

Basics of Islam pamphlet (PDF document)

Hand it out at your next ACT! for America or Q Society or English Defense League meeting. Hand it out at protests. Hand it out to your friends and family, at your synagogue, temple or church.

For more leaflets, check this out. Also see these informative flyers by Civilus Defendus. And this brochure by Islam Monitor.

How Do You Get Someone to Take a Look?

noreply@blogger.com (Citizen Warrior) — Sat, 15 Jun 2013 09:39:00 +0000

I remember listening to a recording of a humorous speaker using the analogy of a guy who slowly loses his hair until he has only one hair left on his head. He shampoos that hair and combs it lovingly every day. But one morning when he wakes up, he looks down at his pillow and sees what was his last remaining hair sitting there on the pillow. And he cries out, "My God! I'm bald!"

When I look at all the information pouring in from Turkey to Bangladesh, from Britain to Australia, about the relentless encroachment of orthodox Islam, it seems that anyone should be able to easily see that Islam is a dangerous ideology and something should be done about it.

People who don't see this seem like the guy with one hair left, unwilling yet to recognize that he is going bald.

But then I realize that all this "information pouring in" is not being seen by those who are still u nacquainted with Islam. If the only thing you read was the Huffington Post and the New York Times, Time Magazine and Newsweek, and all you watched was CNN and MSNBC, you would feel that you had a very good grasp of what's going on in the world, and yet you would have a very different view than readers of Jihad Watch or Citizen Warrior. From that point of view, anyone who thinks Islam is the problem would appear much like the sexist, racist bigots of yesteryear, so you wouldn't listen to them, further cutting you off from your last remaining available source of the information that could potentially pour in.

How do we open this closed door? If you try forcing the door open, the person could respond by reinforcing the door.

It's possible the door cannot be opened from outside. Maybe it has to be opened from within.

What would motivate a person unacquainted with Islam to open the door to the hideous, frightening, enraging information waiting to pour in and forever shatter his innocence? That is the question we should all be pondering. That is what should be keeping us up at night.

I want to hear it. What can you say or do that will motivate an unacquainted person (a person who thinks Islam is a religion of peace) to open his door and look on the other side? Because we don't really have to convince people. Once someone sincerely tries to find out whether or not Islamic doctrines are peaceful, they will discover the disturbing nature of Islam.

We've heard from many people over the years telling us that they were tired of hearing a particular person in their lives speak "badly" about Islam, so they started reading up on it so they could prove the person wrong. But of course, they discovered the terrifying truth.

This makes our task easier, in a way. We don't have to convince people that we know what we're talking about. We only need to make them curious enough to look into it. The facts speak for themselves.

So again I'm asking you — how can this be done? What have you tried before that worked? What do you think might work? Leave your answer in the comments below or email it to me and I'll post it for you (anonymously unless you tell me to post your name), and later I'll compile these answers into a post that future newbies can use as a resource — because once they become acquainted with Islam, the first thing most people want to do is share their mind-blowing new understanding with their friends and family, most of whom will think they've lost their minds. They will need help. Let's give it to them.

An Unseen Error in the Multicultural Ethos

noreply@blogger.com (Citizen Warrior) — Mon, 10 Jun 2013 21:30:00 +0000

Defenders of indiscriminate multiculturalism see criticism of Islam as a kind of ethnocentrism, and therefore consider the criticism a moral crime and an error of cognitive simplemindedness. Ethnocentrism means judging another culture based on the values and standards of your own culture.

But committed multiculturalists fail to notice that these criticizers of Islam (or at least most of them) are not criticizing all other religions; but only Islam (and maybe Scientology). And they haven't noticed that Islamic texts are themselves extremely ethnocentric.

I came across a good summary of the ethnocentrism of Islam on the excellent blog, The Malsi-Tung Social Virus. I suggest you subscribe to it. The author doesn't post very often, but when he does, it is excellent reading. Here's his summary — information that would cause smoke to spew from the ears of most indiscriminate multiculturalists:

Cultural superiority:

Jahiliya is the doctrine that every culture preceding Islamisation is in a state of ignorance
The Bible and Torah are viewed as merely corrupted versions of the Koran and are full of error. Their only merit is that they point toward the coming of Muhammad
All forms of non-Muslim culture are inferior or evil: democracy, music, figurative art, free thought, drinking alcohol, mixing of the sexes etc.
Muhammad is the final messenger of God and what he teaches supercedes all other beliefs

Legitimacy of Islamic domination:

Warfare against non-Muslims is fully justified in order to bring (or force) the superior (and only true) way of life of Islam to them
Muslims in mixed societies are to be seen as superior to non-Muslims and they are justified in exploiting, deceiving, and plotting to overcome the non-Muslims
The dhimma pact underwrites the justified domination of Muslims viz a viz Jewish and Christian communities living under Muslim domination. The inferior status, absence of legal protection, and resumption of persecution following any (perceived) failure to uphold the dhimma pact are all justified because Muslims have both a right and a duty to dominate non-Muslims

Imposition of Islamic law upon all people is a moral duty:

Jihad is the sixth pillar of Islam. It is not simply defensive but a moral obligation upon all Muslims to replace all other culture and religion with Islam
Warfare against non-believers is to be understood as a gift to them as it brings them into contact with the only true religion of Islam

Internal controls:

To leave Islam is to challenge its truth and supremacy. This is an insult to Islam and anyone doing this is “no better” than a non-believer (kuffar) and hence deserves to be killed.
To question Islam or Muhammad is to be guilty of doubting the truth of Islam. This is an insult to Islam and warrants a death sentence.

If this is not ethnocentrism in its most virulent form, what is?

As the author, Greg Hamilton, writes, "There are real and profound differences between cultures...Anthropologists developed the concept of cultural relativism in order to help them gain more accurate insights into alien cultures." An ethnocentric anthropologist's observations probably wouldn't be as accurate as an open-minded, non-judgmental anthropologist's. But as Hamilton points out, cultural relativism "is obviously a useful and valid doctrine in the context of anthropology but where it has become extremely problematic is in the transfer to the political domain."

Yes. If you politically grant concessions to Islam because you don't want to appear ethnocentric, you have allowed an extremely ethnocentric culture to override your less ethnocentric culture — for the purpose of avoiding ethnocentrism!

Or, put another way, tolerance should not mean tolerating intolerance. It's a self-defeating proposition.

If you can get this message through to a committed multiculturalist, after the smoke has stopped spewing, she or he may look at the situation differently in the future. That's all we need.

Madonna the Stealth Counterjihadist

noreply@blogger.com (Citizen Warrior) — Fri, 07 Jun 2013 21:12:00 +0000

During a recent concert to raise money for women, Madonna spoke in favor of education for girls. Watch the video below and notice that this effort, this direction, this impetus accomplishes the goal of marginalizing, discrediting, and disempowering orthodox Islam without even mentioning the words "Islam" or "Muslim."

By doing it this way, she was able to reach a lot of people. She probably wouldn't be allowed to speak again at a major venue like this if she had mentioned Islam. That's not right, of course, but that's the way it is until far more people are acquainted with the disturbing nature of Islamic ideology.

Click here to watch the video.

To those of us who have learned about Islam, Madonna was forcefully criticizing Islam in her speech. To everyone else, she was criticizing cruelty and injustice. The end result is essentially the same.

She was speaking at the Chime for Change concert, which raised more than four million dollars before it even took place. Imagine what would happen if we all got behind the goal of education for girls in places like Pakistan and Afghanistan. What would happen? Orthodox Muslims would try to stop it, of course. They are already trying, and their brutal hands are covered in the blood of innocent girls.

But in the context of this completely positive goal (educating girls) those brutal actions (motivated by orthodox Islam) outrage almost everyone. Think about what happened when Malala Yousafzai was shot by the Taliban for going to school. She was on the cover of Time Magazine! It made people aware of the situation — the kind of people we've had difficulty reaching — and motivated them to do something about it.

People will be outraged by the brutal actions of orthodox Muslims and demand some way to make sure those innocent girls are not killed or burned with acid for simply wanting to go to school! Now we have them on our side. They will be pushing for the same changes we are pushing for (enabling girls to get an education simultaneously marginalizes, discredits, and disempowers orthodox Islam).

When people don't like us talking about Islam, it's usually because they think of Muslims as persecuted minority underdogs. They don't like to see the weak trampled on by the strong. A great majority of people in the world have a strong revulsion to the powerful crushing the powerless. So when we cast the issue as weak girls being oppressed, injured and killed by armed fundamentalist Islamic men, we use that strong revulsion for good instead of evil. Think about it.

Thursday, June 6th, 2013 is "Speak Your Mind About Islam Day"

noreply@blogger.com (Citizen Warrior) — Wed, 05 Jun 2013 19:07:00 +0000

What would happen if this became a universal response to attempts to restrict freedom of speech? What if instead of newspapers being intimidated when Muslims riot over a cartoon, for example, if newspapers joined together and simultaneously reprinted anything that causes riots? It would probably eventually end the rioting, but for sure it would protect the individuals. There would not be a target; it would be happening everywhere at once.

British people wrote about Islam on Facebook and Twitter in response to the brutal beheading of Lee Rigby and were arrested for it. The right response for all of us is to write about Islam on Facebook and Twitter until the internet quakes. Let it rip. Freedom of speech is under attack by orthodox Islam, and freedom of speech must prevail.

Read more about "Speak Your Mind About Islam Day" here.

Here are some images you can share on Facebook:

How I Became Islamophobic

noreply@blogger.com (Citizen Warrior) — Fri, 31 May 2013 20:16:00 +0000

The following was written by a British college student. The original article is posted here.

My University in London used to be a Polytechnic. Before that, it was a parking lot. By gradients then, the same space has become progressively less functional over the ages, and it now blights the cultural life of an otherwise charming town.

In appearance, the main building resembles a very old-fashioned, inner-city high-school. The campus is tiny relative to normal universities. There is no green space nearby and we are surrounded on all sides by busy roads. The website calls it ‘cosy, modern and artful’. In reality it is compact, ugly and depressing.

I didn’t need to attend this place. I received very good A-level results. Warwick University was among the first institutions to offer me a place. I turned them and others down because I wanted to attend somewhere further away from the small, boring town in which my parents live. More specifically, I was determined to live and study in London.

What I had in mind was the London I saw on television; a stuffy, slightly upmarket New York in effect, with intelligent men and aspirant women supping cocktails and espresso, you know the kind of place. What I have become used to since I arrived here is a city of burkas, terrorism, homophobia, black-tar heroin, and prostitution; a magnificent metropolis half-destroyed by a single cultural minority.

You may think, dear general reader, that the panic and hysteria over Islam is unwarranted or driven by third-party interests (oil politics, Jewish Nationalism, Racism etc…). The ‘me’ just a day or two into freshers week would completely agree with you. The ‘me’ now wants you to listen carefully and without prejudice as to why this is not the case.

I realise now that the present epoch is a contest between two starkly different futures: One in which the West is Islamised and the other in which the West is restored. The first is a nightmare of which some of us already have a taste, and which we are fully prepared to fight to prevent.

I’ll give you three examples of the trend from personal experience…

During my first year of study, I was resident in a student halls with many other people, most of them Muslim, most of them British-born. Throughout this year I witnessed (and on occasion, suffered) cultural bullying of a type I never imagined existed. This was the bullying routinely talked about on racist websites, and which I had always assumed to be Islamophobic fiction.

Here’s a question for you: In what situation do you think it is appropriate to label a women you don’t know a ‘slag’? I’m sure, assuming you are a decent and rational person, that you would only imagine yourself using such language during a fit of rage over something like a terrible betrayal, or after being physically attacked by a female stranger…

Well, the non-Muslim women of my block grew used to hearing this word in retribution for such crimes as wearing shorts on their way to netball practice. They became used to hearing it when they went out in groups to local nightclubs and when they returned home in the early hours of the morning. They hardly blinked when such slurs were screamed out of windows, day-in and day-out, and it went unreported.

Here’s another question for you: In what situation do you think it is justified to spread lies about people you barely know?

Well, lies of the most serious and defamatory kind were routinely spread about non-Muslim students by Muslims that year, via intranet email, graffiti and loud insinuation. The women (the ‘slags’) were alleged to be infected with sexual diseases. The boys were alleged to be homosexual and/or riddled with AIDS. The ‘evidence’ for such slurs were the lifestyles of the Kaffir – their attending of parties, easy laughter and congregating with people of the opposite sex etc…

Here’s a second example…

On St. Valentine’s Day during the second year, the Student Union decided to propose a Valentine’s Day Singles Ball to which men would come wearing badges saying ‘single’ to meet women who would be identified likewise. It sounded quite silly I remember thinking, but if people enjoyed it, who cared?

You don’t need me to tell you who cared about it, and who eventually protested loudly enough for the Ball to be cancelled. It was the ****** University Islamic Society, a sprawling and powerful mafia with tentacles reaching into every aspect of student life. They thought the ball would encourage promiscuity and so they lobbied against it.

Again, nobody said a word.

A third and final example I’ll give of my awakening is the most serious. You might well dismiss what you’ve read so far as ‘anti-social’ behaviour and no worse than that of other social groups, but not this occasion:

I was sitting in class one day, near the back of the room. The lecturer had finished talking and now we were told to discuss amongst ourselves the things we’d heard. A group of Muslim men just across from me were apparently uninterested in the lecture that day as they commenced to discuss videos they’d been emailing each other instead. It took me a short while, but I came to understand that these were decapitation videos. After hearing words and descriptions that I never want to repeat, I nervously looked over at the faces of the men and saw sick, sadistic smiles curling up their bearded faces.

At the end of that year, I was a fully developed ‘Islamophobe’. I can’t and won’t deny what I witnessed and what I saw others go through. And more than this, I won’t help the taboo to survive which allowed for these abuses to go unreported.

If there is one thing my University made clear during Fresher’s Week, it was the ‘multi-faculty policy on discrimination’. In lengthy assemblies, we were told that no ‘discrimination’ of any kind was tolerated longer than it took for those responsible to be expelled.

A climate of fear, no less palpable than that of totalitarian dictatorship was cast over us all.

You’ll notice that I haven’t provided you with the name of my University. This is because I am currently studying there and do not wish to be beaten to a pulp by students. I wouldn’t trust the staff or security to help me in such a situation. This University is Islamic territory now.

The people I hope to reach are those who might have any illusions about the determination of the Muslims to enforce their way of life onto the rest of us. It is not a ‘Zionist fabrication’. It is not a ‘fantasy’ of White Nationalists. I am a perfectly liberal guy, and have a zero-tolerance policy for racism.

The threat is real.

Speak Your Mind About Islam Day: Thursday, June 6, 2013

noreply@blogger.com (Citizen Warrior) — Thu, 30 May 2013 08:57:00 +0000

The declaration below was written by a British citizen who wishes to remain anonymous. Let's show our solidarity with the British.

Just this past week we were shocked to witness, in broad daylight, on London streets, the ambush and barbaric murder of Lee Rigby, a British soldier, husband, and father of a young child. Lee was ambushed by two men, one of whom spoke directly to the camera afterwards. This man made it clear that his motivations were based upon Islam and the numerous verses in the Quran that call for violence against non-Muslims.

Afterward, individual citizens from the UK and around the world flooded social media with their sentiments about Islam, the false narrative that it is a “Religion of Peace” and the blatant falsehood put forth by Prime Minister Cameron that the teachings of Islam had nothing to do with this brutal assassination. Several citizens have since been arrested by the government of Great Britain for comments they made under the influence of grief and anger. These actions by the government are an attempt to suppress free speech and must not be tolerated. We ask that you stand with these persecuted individuals as a unified people.

In response to the British government’s attempts to suppress free speech, we wish to declare Thursday, June 6th, 2013 “Speak Your Mind About Islam Day”. June 6th is a day of great significance for the free peoples of the world.

In the 1940’s, American, Australian, Brit, Canadian, Frenchman, Indian, Russian, Christian, Jew, Hindu, Sikh and countless others were bound together by the common goal of eradicating forever the vile ideology of Nazism. On June 6th, 1944, segments of these diverse allied forces bound together and stormed Fortress Europe marking the beginning of the end of the ideology of Nazism as a force among men.

Let June 6th 2013 once again be that day for us.

On Thursday, June 6th, 2013 we ask that you flood social media with your thoughts on and knowledge of Islam as a clear and unmistakable message to our governments around the world that we will NOT be silenced by blasphemy laws, statutes on “community cohesion”, or threats and acts of intimidation carried out by our governments in an attempt to silence us on the issue of Islam and its undeniable ties to religiously motivated acts of terror around the world. Our overwhelming numbers and unified voice must make it clear that we will become increasingly UNGOVERNABLE, without becoming violent, on the issue of Islamic terror. An assault on one will be treated as an assault upon us all; we will stand together as one voice. Political careers will pay a price at the polls for the condescending act of telling us that Islam is what we all know it is not.

Rules of Conduct:

Keep it civilized — nothing positive comes from mob-like behavior.
Focus on the ideology of Islam, not individuals.
No profanity or ad hominem attacks — they cause people to tune out the message because of the messenger.
The goal is to unite us, garner group support for the cause, and put our governments on notice that we will not be silenced.

Please share this now with every blogger and social media group you know about.

What is Our Goal in the Counterjihad Movement?

noreply@blogger.com (Citizen Warrior) — Sat, 25 May 2013 07:28:00 +0000

Clearly something is wrong. Orthodox Islam is spreading, and great numbers of non-Muslims around the world are ignorant, confused, or blinded by an indiscriminate multiculturalism, which is allowing orthodox Islam to spread relatively unimpeded.

Those of us who have discovered the disturbing nature of Islamic doctrine (and the growing threat of its spread) want to do something about it. But what? The emotions provoked by this are intense, of course. Many of us are frightened or horrified or angry or frustrated — and some of us feel all of these and feel them strongly. We want to stop this madness we see spreading over the world. But what can we do? What should we aim at? What is our goal?

We've been at this a long time. We started Citizen Warrior about a month after 9/11. Our comments on this site are "moderated," which means we read every comment before publishing it, and we've been doing so since the beginning. We also have a Facebook page, and we read every comment there, too. So we've heard many emotionally aroused counterjihadists saying things like "we should nuke the Middle East" or "send them all back where they came from" or "ban Islam." Understandably upset, people want to do something about Islam's growing threat. But of course, nuking the Middle East is irrational, morally unacceptable, and wouldn't solve the problem anyway. You can't nuke an ideology. Many of the Muslims now living in the Middle East would defect from Islam if they had a chance. Millions are children. Nuking the Middle East is a ridiculous proposition arising out of intense feelings of helplessness. We can't "send them back" either because many of them were born in our countries. These kinds of solutions are impotent; full of sound and fury, signifying nothing but frustration.

What kind of language should we use to describe the counterjihadist's goal? On Citizen Warrior here we have characterized it a number of ways over the years: Defeating the third jihad, thwarting Islam's prime directive, stopping orthodox Islam's relentless encroachment, reversing jihad, etc. None of these are really adequate either.

After thinking about it for awhile, we've come up with the language we'd like to use, and we want to know what you think of it. Either email us or leave it as a comment below. This is our goal:

To marginalize, discredit, and disempower
orthodox Islam.

We can't really get rid of Islam. But we can make it so weak and maligned, so cut off from resources and shunned that it no longer poses a serious threat to the free world.

The Ku Klux Klan was once a growing movement in the U.S. They had millions of members, some of whom were in high places. They had a massive demonstration in Washington DC in 1925. Fifty thousand Klansmen were in the parade, dressed in their white robes. Just as an aside, did you know the Klan had a Kloran? I kid you not. Here's a PDF version of it.

What happened to the KKK? Why didn't they grow into a national party or take over the country? They were marginalized, discredited, and disempowered, and remain so to this day. They are still around. It's an ideology. You can't really get rid of an ideology. But you can make it something that few people want to be associated with.

How can we do that with orthodox Islam? There are many ways:

1. The first and most important is getting more people to understand that Islam is unlike other religions in important ways and that the "extremists" are not doing anything but following the written creeds of their religion. They're not "picking and choosing" passages from their texts to justify what they're doing. They're not "taking things out of context" or "misunderstanding" the Koran. It is the Koran itself and the example of Muhammad that is incompatible with modern society. We need to effectively reach people. Once enough people understand the situation accurately, the rest of this list will be relatively easy.

2. Cut off oil money to OPEC, which is the main power behind Islam's current expansion in the world.

3. Stop the oppression of women in Muslim lands (and everywhere else, including Muslim enclaves in free nations). The more power and freedom and rights women have in Muslim countries, the less orthodox those Muslims will become.

4. Prevent Sharia law from worming its way into our legal system — passing legislation that explicitly forbids it.

5. Stop Muslim immigration into free societies, or at least limit it for Muslims, limit it from Muslim countries, test Muslim immigrants for their level of orthodoxy, or something along these lines.

6. Prevent the construction of mosques inside our borders.

You've learned about the terrifying brilliance of Islam and you want to do something about it. Excellent. Here's what to aim for: To marginalize, discredit, and disempower orthodox Islam everywhere in the world. Each one of the actions on the list has a link. Follow the link to find out how you can begin to make this goal a reality.

New Leaflet: Wanted For Crimes Against Humanity

noreply@blogger.com (Citizen Warrior) — Sat, 18 May 2013 21:45:00 +0000

A fourth leaflet has been created by an excellent writer who wishes to remain anonymous. You can read about how he uses these leaflets to educate the public by clicking here. The new leaflet is entitled: "Wanted For Crimes Against Humanity." You can download the PDF here:

PDF of Wanted For Crimes Against Humanity

Print it out and use it freely. Ideally you would print on both sides of the paper and cut it in half, giving you two small leaflets per page. The front has the picture shown here (wanted poster) and this is what it says on the back side:

In March 627 AD, the tribe known as the Banu Qurayzah were besieged and isolated by their Muslim attackers led by Muhammad. They twice offered to leave their stronghold but Muhammad refused their request. He insisted they surrender unconditionally and subject themselves to his judgment. Compelled to surrender, the Qurayzah were led to Medina. A third (and final) appeal for leniency was made to Muhammad by their tribal allies, the Aus. Again Muhammad refused. Instead he orchestrated a sentence of death to be placed on the Banu Qurayzah by appointing a man with a grudge against them to pass judgement.

About 800 men were led to trenches dug in the Market of Medina and there they were beheaded, their decapitated bodies buried in the trenches while Muhammad watched. Male youths who had not reached puberty were spared. Women and children were sold into slavery, some being distributed as gifts among Muhammad’s companions. Muhammad himself took the most beautiful as his sex slave.

These actions are shocking enough in themselves but that Muslims should revere this man as their prophet is truly chilling. It goes a long way to explaining the typically awful treatment of non-Muslims by Muslims around the world today and ever since the dark dawn of Muhammad’s religion, Islam.

Nor was this the only atrocity carried out by Muhammad and his followers. Opponents and critics were assassinated, tortured, and torn limb from limb by camels. Yet even today, Muhammad’s example of conduct is viewed by Muslims as the one that should be followed by all Muslims. How scary is that!

Here’s a little challenge for you, do something brave today: look up the Banu Qurayzah on Google and read about what happened. Look up Muslim persecution of Christians. This is persecution of some of the most defenseless people in the world today; small communities living in a sea of Muslim hostility, in places like Pakistan, Yemen, Nigeria, Egypt, Iraq, Somalia. Places where non-Muslims show enormous courage. Out of respect for their courage show a little of your own.

Informed and Determined

noreply@blogger.com (Citizen Warrior) — Thu, 16 May 2013 07:17:00 +0000

I'm re-reading the book, Terrorist Hunter by Rita Katz, a Jewish woman who grew up in Iraq (and speaks fluent Arabic) and became a researcher for The Investigative Project, dressing like a Muslim woman to infiltrate orthodox Islamic groups operating in America. You can read more about her fascinating story here.

A passage from the book illustrates both the blatant boldness of Islamic groups in the West and the pathetic ignorance of Western media about basic Islamic principles and history. Katz was participating in a rally (dressed as a Muslim) in front of the Israeli embassy in Washington, DC. Two thousand protesters showed up. Journalists showed up too, of course.

Katz listened to hate speeches and "exhortations to violence against Jews." Not Israelis, mind you. Jews. One of the speakers at the rally was Dr. Ayman Sirajuldeen, a member of the Muslim American Society, who led the crowd in chanting, "Death to Jews!" and "Khaibar, Khaibar!"

"Did the journalists gathered here know how chilling this was?" asks Katz in her book. "Obviously not," she answers. "In the next day's papers it got written up as a 'peaceful pro-Palestinian rally.'"

"Kaibar, Khaibar" was chanted at that rally and "many others," writes Katz. "It echoed all over the country, as Israeli flags burned in the background, from Florida to Texas, New York to California, and back to Washington, DC. To an outsider, this chant, 'Khaibar, Khaibar, Ya Yahud, Jaish Muhammad Safayood,' sounded perhaps like a cheerful freedom song. Many journalists told me that this was what they thought they were hearing. But its meaning is somewhat different: 'Khaibar, Khaibar, O Jews, the army of Muhammad is coming for you.' This song originates in a tale from the days of the Prophet Muhammad. As part of his campaign to conquer the Arabian peninsula, Muhammad laid siege to the city of Khaibar, which was inhabited by Jews. After losing several battles to the city's powerful army, Muhammad decided to try a new tactic. He sent emissaries to Khaibar's leaders with a message of peace. As soon as a peace treaty was signed and the gates of the city were opened, Jaish Muhammad, Muhammad's army, stormed the city and butchered every last one of its inhabitants. 'Khaibar, Khaibar' means, 'Let's trick the Jews into making peace with us, and when they accept our offer, let's go ahead and kill them all.'"

Do the journalists know this bit of Islamic history? Do they know that it says 91 times in the Koran that Muslims are required to follow Muhammad's example in every particular? I doubt if one in a thousand knows even that much.

Those of us who have been awakened to the terrifying brilliance of Islam need to step up our game. Our educational campaign needs to be effective and unrelenting. We're in a race against time. Orthodox Muslims are infiltrating and multiplying. The only thing that can put a stop to them is an informed and determined population of non-Muslims. And the only way our fellow non-Muslims are going to be informed is by hearing it from those who already know. That's us. They're not going to hear it at school, in the media, or from politicians. It's just us.

But we've got to be smart about this, not simply passionate. We have to think in terms of small bits and long campaigns. We have to gain and maintain rapport. And we should use the effective tools we have at our disposal. If we do this, we can win.

To Follow Religious Teachings

noreply@blogger.com (Citizen Warrior) — Thu, 09 May 2013 22:28:00 +0000

Young Mohandas Gandhi

Gandhi read the Sermon on the Mount while he was in England studying law, and he was profoundly impressed by it. Gandhi was a Hindu and they don't have anything like it in the Hindu texts. Gandhi talked to Christians about the sermon because he was inspired by its implications, but many of the Christians gave him a lukewarm response. They seemed to feel that the idea of turning the other cheek or forgiving enemies wasn't something to be applied in "the real world."

Gandhi thought otherwise. He applied it and made history. Gandhi took that principle and made it the cornerstone of his successful nonviolent resistance movement in South Africa and then in India. And when women in America were struggling to get the vote, they followed Gandhi's example and succeeded too. Martin Luther King was also inspired by Gandhi's example.

Gandhi's earnest endorsement of the religious teachings found in a religious text and then sharing it with believers of the religion is similar to what is happening all over the Muslim world today. Muslims are reading the Koran and going to their fellow Muslims saying, "Did you know we're supposed to be covering our women, striving to seize political power, deceiving and terrorizing infidels, and waging war against them until the whole world follows the law of Allah?"

Often (fortunately), they also get a lukewarm response. But, of course, many of them are reading and following those teachings, and they, too, are making history. More people now die annually in the name of Islam than died in the 350 years of the Inquisition (source). More people have been killed in the name of Islam than have been killed by any other ideology or religion by far (source).

Like Gandhi, these enthusiastic Muslims are following the teachings of a religious book but, of course, the teachings of each religion can be quite different. A devout Jain doesn't eat meat. A devout Buddhist follows the Five Precepts (abstains from killing, lying, stealing, sexual misconduct, and becoming intoxicated). A devout Christian forgives enemies. A devout Muslim tries to make Islam the dominant religion on earth, by peaceful means if possible, by force if necessary.

I don't see how this problem will ever go away. I hope I'm wrong, but it doesn't seem possible to eradicate all Korans and Hadiths from the face of the earth. And as long as these texts exist, it seems likely that somebody will find them and follow them.

But the destructive impact of Islamic teachings can certainly be restricted and restrained. And you can help. The more of us involved, the more successful we will be. Here are thirty things an ordinary non-Muslim citizen can do to help contain the embedded danger in Islamic texts: What Non-Muslims Can Do About Islam.

Islam Coexists?

noreply@blogger.com (Citizen Warrior) — Wed, 08 May 2013 20:23:00 +0000

There is an enormous irony contained in the Boston Marathon bombing. When the jihadi Tsarnaev brothers car jacked a Mercedes, it had a "Coexist" bumper sticker.

The Coexist bumper sticker is the religious symbol of the multicultural crowd — you know — all religions are the same. Well, the leading symbol of those who want to Coexist is the star and crescent Islam. And exactly how well has Islam coexisted with all of the others? What kind of neighbor has Islam been over history?

Start with Mohammed. We know an enormous amount about Mohammed as a neighbor to Kafirs (non-Muslims), pagans, Jews and Christians.

When Mohammed was in Mecca before he became a Muslim, he was a good neighbor who was prosperous and helped to settle disputes. But, that all changed when he became the prophet of Allah. Once he became a public preacher of Islam, he became an irritant to his neighbors. You see, not only did Mohammed know what was right, he demanded that everybody do everything his way, Allah’s way. He was a neighbor who was always right and you were always wrong. Not only were you wrong, but your parents and grandparents were wrong. Mohammed no longer settled arguments; he created arguments. After 13 years of this, the Meccans told Mohammed to leave Mecca.

So he went to the town of Medina, which was half Jewish. And what kind of neighbor was Mohammed to the Jews? Put briefly, two years later, Medina was Judenrein (cleansed of Jews). When he arrived, there were three tribes of Jews. In rapid order, the first tribe was driven out of town, bereft of their goods. Then the second tribe of Jews was exiled. They were lucky. The last of the Jewish tribes suffered the most. The women were enslaved and sold wholesale for money to purchase horses and arms for jihad. For the rest of his life, Mohammed used slavery to help finance his jihad. The children were kidnapped and adopted into Muslim families to be raised as Muslims. Then the 800 male Jews were all beheaded.

But wait. Mohammed was not through coexisting with the Jews. Later he left Medina and went to Khaybar and attacked them. Mohammed crushed them, took their wealth and put them to work under the Sharia to work as dhimmis and give him half of what they earned.

That was how Mohammed coexisted with the Jews.

But Mohammed was not through with coexisting with the Arabians. He attacked the Meccan caravans. His jihadists killed, kidnapped, stole, assassinated and fought the pagan Arabs at every turn. Mohammed’s coexistence policy with the Arabs was jihad. This went on until every Arab became a Muslim.

After Mohammed has made every soul in Arabia convert to Islam, he turned his coexistence policy to the Christians north of Arabia in Syria. He attacked the Christians the losers became dhimmis just like the Jews.

Dhimmis are the way that the Sharia allows Kafirs to coexist within a Muslim society. The dhimmi is a third class non-citizen who pays special taxes and has no real civil rights. A dhimmi could not testify against a Muslim in court, for instance.

Look at how Islam coexisted with Africa. A coexistence clue is that Arabic has one word, “abd”, that means both black slave and African. Context must supply which meaning is used. Islam ran the slave trade on the West coast, East coast and Mediterranean coasts of Africa. Islam sold every slave that was brought to the Americas. Conservative estimates are that 120 million Africans were killed in the jihad that produced all of the slaves in Africa.

How did Islam coexist with the Buddhists in what is now Afghanistan? Jihad annihilated every single Buddhist and their libraries and monasteries.

There is a massive data base of the coexistence between Islam and the rest of the world at thereligionofpeace.com. It catalogs more than 20,000 jihad attacks around the world since 9/11 2001. Here is a chart of the data of the top 4 nations as victims of jihad:

Put another way, this is how Islam coexists today with Jews, Buddhists, Christians and Hindus. It practices jihad against all non-Muslims, Kafirs.

The idea of coexist has a social ring to it, we’re all one big happy family. But how do we talk about all religions and not get into which one is right or best? Well, there is an easy way to do it. If you are not a member of a religion, the only thing you care about is how you are treated by those who belong to that religion. In short, you only care about the ethics and character of the adherent.

All of the world’s religions have an ethical code that is rooted in the Golden Rule. Islam does not have a Golden Rule. Mohammed’s life is the perfect example of how not to be a good neighbor. How do you coexist with a neighbor who has the ethical choice of jihad of murder and deceit?

What do religious leaders in American think about coexisting with Islam? They love it. Coexist is the mental mush that fills the heads of the useful idiots that go to the Family of Abraham religious dialogues. The ministers and rabbis who go to these dialogs know as much about Islam as what is found on the Coexist bumper sticker. Really, their ignorance is astounding. They are there to coexist and the imam is there to dominate. Dhimmi Christians and Jews want to tie, the Muslim wants to win.

But the mental mush of coexistence is not just in the heads of the dhimmi religious leaders, it also fills the heads of law enforcement and military. Under Bush and Obama, all of those who actually know something about Islam inside the military and law enforcement have been eliminated. FBI and military training files have been purged to satisfy the Muslim Brotherhood. So our protectors are forbidden to study the war doctrine of political Islam. They are prevented from naming the enemy and studying them.

There is only one way to coexist with Islam over time. Islam must submit to Kafir civilization and we must never submit to Islam, not even in the smallest detail. This means we must all know the smallest details of Islam and that begins with the knowledge of Mohammed and his wars against all Kafirs.

First published in American Thinker:
http://www.americanthinker.com/2013/04/islam_coexists.html

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Bill Warner, Director, Center for the Study of Political Islam
Permalink: http://www.politicalislam.com/blog/islam-coexists/
copyright (c) CBSX, LLC, politicalislam.com
Use as needed, just give credit and do not edit.
www.politicalislam.com

Why Orthodox Muslims Kill Non-Muslims So Regularly

noreply@blogger.com (Citizen Warrior) — Sat, 27 Apr 2013 00:58:00 +0000

The more orthodox the Muslim — that is, the more devout, the more committed to the teachings of the Koran and Hadith and the example of Muhammad — the more motivated the Muslim will be to kill non-Muslims. Why?

There are several reasons. The selfish one is because it's the only way to guarantee passage to Paradise. A Muslim can be devout, pray five times a day, make the pilgrimage to Mecca, etc., and still have to face judgment (with a chance of not making it to Paradise). But if he or she dies while killing non-Muslims, there is no judgment. The Muslim who dies in jihad goes straight to Paradise.

Another (less selfish) reason is that any Muslim who dies in jihad gets to intercede with Allah on behalf of 70 of his relatives. That's a big motivation for a would-be Muslim martyr. He will be able to help his mother, father, brothers, etc., get into Paradise. This also at least partly explains the assistance jihadis get from their less-courageous relatives.

The goal of orthodox Islam is to bring the whole world under the rule of the law of Allah, by peaceful means if possible, but by war if necessary. The Islamic system of law is so abhorrent to anyone not raised with it, it has become clear down through the centuries that war is necessary for the goal to be accomplished.

By blowing up civilians, the jihadi has created a double-bind. It is a no-lose situation for an orthodox Muslim — some non-Muslims were killed and that's a good thing, and if the jihadi dies doing it, that's fine too. If the non-Muslims don't do anything in response, it will encourage other Muslims to become jihadis because no consequences followed. If the non-Muslims make a strong response, at least some other Muslims will see this as "war against Islam" and will take up arms to join their brothers in the fight.

With all this in its favor, why not blow people up?

Losing Our Sons, the Film

noreply@blogger.com (Citizen Warrior) — Fri, 05 Apr 2013 19:48:00 +0000

The following was written by Bill Warner, Director of the Center for the Study of Political Islam. We couldn't agree more with him about the DVD, Losing Our Sons.

the fathers of the sons

There is a marvelous film — a true story about real people that can awaken our friends and neighbors to the reality we all face in a most dramatic, convincing way. It's an excellent teaching tool.

Losing Our Sons is a personal story of two fathers: Melvin Bledsoe is a small business owner from Memphis, Tennessee, whose son, Carlos, converted to Islam and murdered US Army Recruiter Andy Long in Little Rock in 2009. Daris Long, a retired Marine from Conway, Arkansas, is Andy's father. Both fathers, as you can see from the two minute trailer, are extraordinarily powerful, eloquent men.

Take a look at the trailer at www.losingoursons.com and then consider buying the film. This is a good, quick and effective way to convince Americans that we indeed have a problem in this country that urgently needs to be addressed.

Here's what the experts say about Losing Our Sons:

"Riveting, powerful, educational and a must see for every American"
BRIGITTE GABRIEL, Founder President of ACT! For America

"The film stands as a warning to Americans about the consequences of a failing civic leadership."
DANIEL PIPES, Founder and director of the Middle East Forum

"A must watch for Washington policy makers, too many of whom refuse to acknowledge the obvious threats"
FRANK J. GAFFNEY, JR. Reagan Pentagon official, President, Center for Security Policy

"A wrenching wake-up call."
ANDREW C. MCCARTHY, Former Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York

Losing Our Sons was produced by Americans for Peace and Tolerance, a Boston-based organization that exposes Islamic extremists across the country and empowers local citizens to fight radical Islam in their own communities. You can see their work and sign up to receive their updates at www.peaceandtolerance.org.

Cadbury Goes Halal

noreply@blogger.com (Citizen Warrior) — Fri, 29 Mar 2013 17:23:00 +0000

Kraft now certifies its Cadbury products to be halal. This means that the candy is certified to be manufactured according to Islamic dietary standards. This is one more way products that conform to Sharia law are inserted into our stores. All the lamb from Australia and New Zealand sold in Costco stores is halal. It is a stealthy compliance with Sharia law.

Sharia law's prime directive is that Islamic norms dominate all other cultures. Sharia law aims to be the sole law governing all human beings on earth.

Below is a list of the products, directly from Cadbury’s web page, that comply with Sharia’s halal practice.

Halal Products at Cadbury

Orthodox Muslims don’t even recognize Easter or Christmas. If you buy Cadbury products, you will be supporting the creeping insertion of Sharia law. Islam is a ratchet. It only goes one way.

Read more:

Concessions to Orthodox Islam are the Establishment of Sharia Law

Eleven Reasons to Reject Sharia Law in Any Form

Waging Jihad By Gaining Concessions

The Universal Imprisonment of Women in Saudi Arabia

noreply@blogger.com (Citizen Warrior) — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 20:37:00 +0000

Rebel with a cause.

Please read and share the following Wall Street Journal article about a woman who dared to drive in Saudi Arabia. Her story illustrates Islamic fundamentals in a low-key and mainstream way — in a way that is shareable with just about anybody.

And her story also demonstrates that the power to keep every woman in Saudi Arabia under house arrest is held in place by oil money. This is something everyone in the free world needs to grasp.

We can undermine the power bestowed on Islamic fundamentalists by oil money and simultaneously strengthen the free world's economy and national security by introducing fuel competition.

The article: The Woman Who Dared to Drive.

How to Stop the Modern Rise of Islamic Fundamentalism

noreply@blogger.com (Citizen Warrior) — Sat, 23 Mar 2013 21:20:00 +0000

War requires money. The rise of Islamic fundamentalism is being funded by OPEC oil money — the Muslim Brotherhood is funded by Saudi oil money, the Muslim Students Association is funded by Saudi oil money, the Taliban is funded by Saudi oil money, the OIC (Organization of Islamic Cooperation) is funded by Saudi oil money, etc.

The members of the worldwide army of Islamic fundamentalists are able to work full time advancing the orthodox Islamic agenda while you and I have to go to work and can only defend ourselves part time. Their bills are paid by Saudi oil money, so they can devote themselves to it and they have all the resources they need to push it forward.

Saudi Arabia is the most influential member of OPEC, and OPEC keeps raising the world price of oil, reaping the Saudi princes excessive profits. Saudi Arabia produces more oil per year than any other country.

And they're using their oil revenue to help Islamic fundamentalism take over the Muslim institutions of the world. With less than two percent of the Muslim population, the Saudis own or control ninety percent of all Islamic institutions of the world. The Saudis are Wahhabis, which is an Islamic "back to the texts" movement. They are believers in the terrifying brilliance of Islamic texts and are working to make the principles universal. They intend to achieve the Islamic texts' prime directive — the spread of Islam to every corner of the earth by any means necessary.

The Saudi Wahhabis are building or taking over mosques all over the world. They do it with oil money. And they've built an estimated 20,000 madrassas worldwide with oil money — schools that teach Muslim boys only Islamic fundamentalism.

CUTTING OFF JIHAD AT THE SOURCE

War is expensive. The first two jihads were paid for with jizya since most of the conquered lands were occupied by Jews and Christians, many of whom did not give up their religion and paid the jizya tax instead.

When that source of money dried up (as the Jews and Christians were killed, converted or fled), Islam went into a kind of dormancy because jihad requires money and backward Islamic countries didn't have much money.

With the creation of OPEC, we have seen an escalating increase in Islamic jihad around the world. Saudi Arabia saw their income climb dramatically as oil prices have risen since OPEC first flexed its power in the 1973 oil embargo. Nine of the twelve OPEC nations are Islamic, including Iran, which has the money to pursue nuclear weapons and plenty left over to support insurgencies in Syria, Palestine, and Iraq.

The free world is being infiltrated and attacked in many different ways: Textbooks, campus influence, dismantling free speech, building mosques and madrassas, printing and distributing fundamentalist literature, influencing the media, sleeper cells, lobbyists in Washington, DC (Saudi Arabia has 100 lobbyists), the OIC's influence over the United Nations, and the list goes on and on.

This is all being paid for with oil money.

Obviously, we need to do something about this. We need to curtail the flow of money to OPEC countries. Drilling more oil in our own countries cannot solve it (here's why). Using less oil can't solve it either (for the same reason: OPEC responds by reducing its output and thus raising the world price of oil). Something much bigger and bolder is needed.

We need to strip oil of its strategic status.

Orthodox Muslims may be spending more money on this war than we are, but many times in history a weaker force defeated a stronger force by concentrating its forces at the decisive point. There are many places to concentrate our forces, many places orthodox Islam is infiltrating and undermining. But there is only one decisive point; only one place that can cause the rest to collapse: Oil money.

Oil's strategic status is held in place by its monopoly on transportation fuel. Its singular status as the most important commodity on earth could be lost if the fuel market gained real competition. And the only way to do that is to make the cars themselves capable of burning multiple fuels, which fortunately is easy to do from an engineering standpoint. In fact, according to Robert Zubrin, it doesn't require any more engineering at all; the cars are already capable. They only need the fuels to be legalized as fuel (in the case of methanol), which the Fuel Freedom Foundation is working on. Or the cars need to be warranted to burn those fuels, which the Open Fuel Standard Coalition is working on.

What we can do as citizen warriors is what we do best — educate our fellow citizens of the vital necessity and urgency of this goal: To create a condition where fuels can compete with each other in an open market. When that happens, it will force oil prices down to compete, cutting off money to OPEC and drying up the power behind the third jihad.

A Conversation About Islam

noreply@blogger.com (Citizen Warrior) — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 04:00:00 +0000

A FRIEND of mine, Phil, was in town to promote his new book. We went out to lunch with another friend of ours from this area, Stan, a man who runs a multi-station radio conglomerate. We were talking about this and that when Phil mentioned an experience he had in a church in the Midwest.

Phil goes to church every week. And for awhile the church had speakers from various religions come to speak to them. One week they had a Hindu teacher come speak to the congregation, and the next week it was a Buddhist priest (this is a very open-minded church), and the third week it was a Muslim imam.

Phil said, "I couldn't believe the imam. He scared the old ladies. Every other thing he said was about cutting off someone's head." Phil looked surprised.

Now I hadn't seen either of these guys for awhile and in the meantime I had learned a lot about Islam and I hadn't really talked to many people about what I was learning. I said, "Awhile back I read the Qur'an because I wondered about Islam."

"Wondered?" asked Stan. "What do you mean?"

"Well, I've heard terrorists like Osama bin Laden quoting the Qur'an, talking about the obligation of all Muslims to subjugate the infidel and their responsibility to wage jihad, and then I've heard people like George Bush quoting peaceful passages from the Qur'an and saying Islam is a religion of peace, and I just wanted to know what the real story was. So read the Qur'an cover to cover.

"It's been a real eye-opener," I said. "First of all, the copy I first started reading jumped around and it was hard to follow. Then I found out that the traditional way to print the book — the traditional order of the chapters — is simply from the longest to the shortest chapter. So I found a book (A Simple Koran) that prints it in the order it was actually written, in chronological order, and it is much easier to follow that way."

Stan looked puzzled. He has a curious, inquiring mind. "I wonder why they printed it that way? That seems like an odd order to print a book."

"Yes," I said. "A secretary for one of the caliphs, I think his name was Zayd, decided that's how to arrange the chapters. Even at the time, people criticized his strange arrangement. But he was the secretary and that's the way he wanted it. Now it's just traditional.

"But something is revealed by reading the book in chronological order that I don't think you would see in the traditional chapter order: You see a dramatic change in the kind of revelations Muhammad has over time."

"Muhammad is the main guy, right?"

"Yes, he's the prophet. He's the one who first recited the Qur'an."

"What changed?" Phil asked. "What do you mean?" They were both curious now. They leaned forward, interested.

Glad to be sharing something so important with two people I care about, I said, "The nature of the revelations changed. And the book I read (A Simple Koran) gives you some of the surrounding history too, so you can see why the revelations changed.

"Muhammad originally lived in Mecca and Muslims were a minority. Obviously when he first started, he and his wife were the only Muslims on earth. Everyone else in the city of Mecca already had their own religions. Muhammad went around preaching his new religion and criticizing everyone else's. People didn't like that."

My friends laughed. Of course people didn't like that. "So after about thirteen years of preaching," I went on, "Muhammad had gained 150 converts, but they were still a minority, and the Muslims' relations with leaders of other religions had become increasingly hostile over the years. It was getting pretty hot around there, so Muhammad moved to Medina, where he had some friends.

"And that's when the revelations really started changing," I said. "For the first three-fourths of the book, the revelations were mostly about heaven and hell and how if you are a good Muslim and follow the rules you'll go to heaven and if you don't follow the rules or if you doubt Muhammad is really the Prophet, you'll burn in hell and the only thing you'll have to drink is boiling water, etc.

"But the last fourth of the book is very different. Once Muhammad gets to Medina, his group starts raiding caravans that are going to Mecca."

"Muhammad did that?" Phil and Stan both looked surprised.

"Yes. Muhammad went on some raids himself, and sometimes he just sent some of his Muslim followers on raids. And they would sometimes kill the men and take the women as slaves, and of course take all the valuable goods in the caravan."

Again, both of them looked shocked. Astonished. Surprised. And yet, it looked as if years of accumulated confusion vanished in an instant. Stan said, "So that's where the terrorists got the idea." Stan has a great sense of humor and he was making a joke, and we all laughed, but that's the light bulb I could see go on in these guys' heads.

I went on. "So they started doing pretty well, financially. Muhammad kept a fifth of the booty from the raids and the rest of the Muslim raiders split up the four-fifths. Muhammad started getting more recruits because this was a pretty sweet gig. He started growing an army. And the revelations changed accordingly.

"Up until this time, Muhammad had been trying to get the Christians and Jews to admit that in their own scriptures, Muhammad's coming had been foretold. His arrival was prophesied in their holy books. He was sure of this, and he wanted the Jews and Christians to say so. He wanted them to validate his legitimate prophethood as one of a long line of prophets (Abraham, Moses, Jesus, etc.) but the Christians and the Jews wouldn't validate him.

"So in the first three-fourths of the Qur'an, the revelations are relatively tolerant of Christians and Jews. He was trying to curry their favor. But once Muhammad had an army, and once he realized they would never acknowledge him as a prophet, his revelations became less and less tolerant, and then they became violent.

"Now here's one of the strangest things," I said. "When the nature of the revelations changed, the Qur'an started accumulating contradictions. It had these tolerant passages earlier and then less tolerant passages later. But the Qur'an itself, conveniently enough, has a passage that tells Muslims what to do about this. In the Qur'an, Allah says, 'If something I say now contradicts something earlier in the Qur'an, the later revelation overwrites the earlier one. The earlier one is null and void, and the newer one is the better one.'

"The bad news is the tolerant passages are earlier and the intolerant, violent passages are later.

"So finally I realized how it was possible to have peaceful quotes and violent quotes, both from the Qur'an. The Qur'an is not like the Christian Bible. It isn't written by different people at different times. There are no vague analogies or symbolic passages given to multiple interpretations. It is written by one man and is very direct, straightforward writing. So how could it contain contradictions? Now I know."

"So, wait a minute." Phil looked concerned. "You're saying the peaceful passages don't count any more?"

"Right. They don't count. They have been overwritten by passages that say things like, 'Kill the unbelievers wherever you find them,' which is a passage from the very last revelation of Muhammad.

"Not only that," I said, my head now swimming with things I've discovered that these guys didn't know, "but they're supposed to follow Muhammad's example. It says in the Qur'an, and says it more than seventy times, that Muslims should follow Muhammad's example. He is the model. He's the one to imitate."

"That's not good," said Stan.

"No, that's not good. Muhammad didn't think well of 'monkery.' He didn't think it was a good thing for devoted religious people to seclude themselves in a monastery. He didn't believe in asceticism. He thought that was the lazy coward's way out. According to Allah, you show your devotion — you demonstrate your faith — in the real world by fighting in jihad, fighting for Allah, doing things you're afraid to do, fighting against the unbelievers, working to make sure all governments follow the law of Allah.

"Muhammad believed anyone could talk a good story or say a good prayer, but jihad is putting your money where your mouth is. Do you really believe? Prove it: Risk your life in combat. If you really believe what the Qur'an says then you know when you die in jihad you will go straight to Paradise without judgment, and all your sins will be instantly forgiven. If you are afraid of fighting, war, or death, it proves your unbelief.

"Fighting jihad is so highly valued by Allah that dying in jihad is the only way to guarantee your passage to heaven. You may have a chance to get into heaven if you do good works and do not sin. But if you die fighting against unbelievers, you are guaranteed passage to heaven."

"Wow," said Stan. They both looked amazed. Stunned, really. These are grown men. They read a lot. Both of them are educated, well-informed, successful people. Both are very bright, intelligent men. And they didn't know any of this.

These guys have known me for a long time, so they trusted what I said. They know I'm not a racist or a bigot, and they know I am not prone to fanatacism and I am not a hater. So they accepted what I said with open minds. And what I told them was accurate, as they assumed. But people who hear about it from someone they don't know well might easily dismiss this kind of information. So I recommend to everyone to just read the Koran themselves. That's really the only way to know for sure.

I'm sure I don't have to remind you that this is deadly serious business. It makes a huge difference what people know about Islam. The Jihadis don't want non-Muslims to be made aware this information (they can go about their Jihadi business with less interference if most people remain ignorant of the political goals of Islam) and they now have an "internet jihad" going on, hacking in and trying to shut down sites that alert people to their plans and methods.

Just the two pieces of information — that later passages overwrite earlier ones and that a good Jihadi will deliberately deceive non-Muslims — is enormously clarifying and damaging to their cause. But they can’t hack into your one-on-one conversations, and that’s really where the rubber meets the road.

So read the Koran and share what you learn. And share articles from this site. Let's have an informed population so we can figure out how to peacefully and effectively protect ourselves from the fundamentalist Muslims without being jerks to the peaceful Muslims. Let's stop listening to everyone's opinions and read the Koran ourselves.

If you'd like to do more, start here: What Can You Do About It?

Prevent Bigotry and Racism

noreply@blogger.com (Citizen Warrior) — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 03:33:00 +0000

WHENEVER WE HEAR something unflattering about Islam, most Westerners will tend to hear it through the filter of "racism" or "bigotry," and we have a natural, instinctive desire to protect Muslims from unjustified bias and hatred.

We envision lynchings. We don't want to see racial profiling. We don't want interment camps like the Japanese suffered during WWII. Since we see the criticism as bigotry or racism, we can be reflexively opposed to a perfectly normal and legitimate activity in a free country: Political and religious criticism.

One of our most treasured guaranteed rights is the right to talk about, and even criticize, the doctrines of any political or religious group. The fact that it might be offensive to someone is exactly why free speech has to be protected (if it didn't bother anyone, there would be no need to protect it; read more about that here.)

Hopefully you are not a bigot or a racist, but whether you are or not, Islam is not a race or an ethnic group. There are Muslims of every race. There are more non-Arab Muslims than Arab Muslims.

This racial issue is an important reason for all of us to learn more about Islam as soon as possible. Many people who have already learned about some of Islam's most basic principles want to tell others what they've learned, but they find many people don't want to listen, and they've told me it'll take a dirty nuke going off in Chicago or Paris before people will be willing to listen.

But after a tragedy or a major attack, people are angry and afraid, and decisions under those circumstances aren't always the sanest decisions. In times like those, people can overreact. In times like those, they do things like put Japanese people into internment camps. That was a fear-based, ignorant reaction, and it was bigoted and racist.

We can avoid that kind of overreaction if we talk about Islam now, in calmer times. In other words, talking about Islamic teachings now can help prevent racism and bigotry by making sure everyone understands what Islamic teachings are about, and that Islam is a doctrine, not a race, and not all Muslims follow the doctrine.

If even non-racist people think criticizing Islam is racist, it proves an important point. Namely: It is vital for more people to understand Islam.

To put it another way, if someone thinks criticizing Islam is racist, she is demonstrating that she don't understand what Islam is, and illustrating exactly why we need to talk about it and learn about it, because if someone so strongly against racism thinks Islam has something to do with race, then how are racist people going to react if a nuclear weapon goes off in downtown Houston and kills a million people?

The world needs to know about Islam — needs to know what it is and what it is not — and this needs to happen as quickly as possible.

Why Know About Islam?

noreply@blogger.com (Citizen Warrior) — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 01:38:00 +0000

IT IS A SANE, rational, sensible goal to know more about Islam. Why? Why bother to learn about it when you have no intention of becoming a Muslim? Here are twelve good reasons:

1. Your education will be more well-rounded. Most of us have some knowledge about Judaism, Christianity, Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism. We've heard quotes by their founders, we know some of what they teach, we know a little of their history, etc. But almost every Westerner is unfamiliar with the most basic teachings of Islam.

2. It is interesting. Do you know, for example, why Osama bin Laden chose September 11th as the day to attack America? Because the last high-water mark of Islam occurred in 1683 on September 11th.

Islam had expanded and conquered for centuries, and was finally stopped at the gates of Vienna when 40,000 soldiers arrived just in time to stop the Muslim siege of the city.

Islam's spread has been repressed by superior military force ever since then. Their dominance has been receding since that day, and almost all Muslims know this, and many resent it. But the new resurgence has set out to finish the goal (worldwide Sharia law), so they chose September 11th to kick off the new era.

Before I started learning about Islam, I didn't know about the gates of Vienna. I didn't know why the Crusades happened. I didn't know why Middle Eastern countries have seemed so dead-set on destroying Israel. I didn't know what the hijacking of planes and the holding of hostages was all about when I was a kid. I have learned so much, and a lot of it has been very interesting.

3. Knowledge can immunize us. Have you ever gotten what looks like an official email from Amazon or PayPal or Gmail, asking you for account information? For those who don't know this kind of thing can happen, they are vulnerable to giving away their personal account information to a criminal.

The email usually says something like, "There has been a problem with your account and we need you to update your account information." And they provide a link. When you follow the link, it looks every bit like the official web site. If you give your information, you just gave it to a scam artist.

If you've heard of the scam, you are immune to it. If you want to check it out just in case, you will not use their link. You will type in "amazon.com" or "paypal.com" into your browser and go check your account to see if anything is really wrong.

With that little bit of knowledge, you avoided a potential catastrophe. Knowledge makes the difference.

It is exactly the same with knowing about Islam. Once you have a pretty good grasp of what's going on, you are less afraid, less paranoid, and less vulnerable to what is called "religious deception" (taqiyya ).

If you don't know about Islam, you will not be able to tell the difference between orthodox and heterodox Muslims, so you will have to either distrust them all (which isn't cool) or trust them all (which would be stupid). Educate yourself and you won't have this dilemma.

4. You'll be ahead of your time. In the future, everyone will know about Islam. It is a quickly-growing faith with more and more influence on world affairs. By learning about it now, you will be among the vanguard of a new era.

5. You can help your fellow non-Muslims understand. This is a nice benefit of learning about Islam. Your understanding can help you shed some light and help eliminate the confusion you see in the people you know. It is a valuable service you can provide your fellow citizens.

6. Confusing current events will become understandable. Once you learn what's really going on, the scary terrorist events that make you think, "Why are they doing this?!" are suddenly illuminated, and you know exactly why they're doing it.

Learning about Islam makes world events less upsetting. You will no longer feel as exasperated or wonder what is happening to this crazy world. You will finally understand.

Of all the benefits of learning about Islam, this had the most impact on me. Political events that have been happening since I can remember — the hostage situations and hijacked planes and bombings — all seemed so unnecessary and confusing. And you can watch the news all day long and get no clarity whatsoever about why these things are happening and what they all have to do with each other. It's a relief to finally comprehend the bigger picture.

7. Orthodox Muslims are immigrating to Western democracies. From within those democracies, including the one we are living in, some of these super-devout Muslims are setting up terrorist cells right now. Their spokesmen are delivering fiery tirades at mosques in our own country, calling the faithful Muslims to rise up against the infidels (you and me), telling the Muslims in their congregation (called an ummah) it is their holy duty to sabotage the government and establish Sharia law. They are recruiting native-born Westerners into groups working toward these goals, as I'm sure you've seen on the news. And it is becoming more common.

Not all Muslims follow these Islamic teachings (find out what the basic teachings are by clicking here). But some do, and they are in free countries now, preaching hatred. And most Western democracies allow more in all the time. Why? Because most Westerners don't know much about Islam.

8. Some of the orthodox Muslims will relentlessly try to change our laws, from within and from without. They have already done so throughout Europe and parts of the United States. Islam is partly a political ideology. It is the duty of orthodox Muslims to work toward making every government on earth follow Allah's law (Shari'a law).

If Westerners knew what was going on, we would surely find a peaceful way to prevent it. But our ignorance makes their job easy for now, and violence more likely in the future.

9. They are having more children than most of us. There are many ways to wage jihad and establish Sharia law. One is through violence. Another is through sheer reproductive superiority.

Orthodox, extremely devout Muslims are immigrating in large numbers into Western democracies, having as many children as they can, and teaching them to be devout Muslims.

If they are strictly following Islam, Muslims will try to turn any country they live in into an Islamic state, no matter how long it takes. They have to. It is their religious duty to do so, whether they want to or not. The main method many are using in the West is to gain small concessions to Sharia law.

10. The teenage children of heterodox Muslims are vulnerable to being persuaded by terrorist recruiters. Even though many (probably most) of the Muslims who immigrate into Western democracies are heterodox (ignore many Islamic teachings), their children will be vulnerable as the recruiters help these young, idealistic Muslims see through the hypocrisy of their parents' incomplete worship.

The children of Muslims have heard all their lives from everyone in authority that the Quran is a direct message from the Almighty Himself. As teens, if they hear a recruiter tell them what's actually in the Quran, they might be surprised. Being young and idealistic, they may become dedicated to the foundational principles of Islam. The Quran contains clear instructions to work toward the goal of creating a world that follows Sharia law. It is the primary goal of Islam. And it is the primary religious duty — the primary religious practice — of a devout Muslim to strive toward this goal with his money and his life.

The teens will look at their parents and feel disgusted. Their parents — the ones who have told them repeatedly that the Quran is the perfect word of Allah — ignore much of the book.

Plus, we cannot ignore the added benefit of dying while slaying infidels: You go straight to Paradise, and have 72 beautiful wives ready to do your bidding. Critics of Islam did not make that up. What 15 year-old boy wouldn't find a harem of beauties an attractive proposition?

If he reads the Quran, we'll discover the recruiters are right: It says quite clearly he is supposed to fight non-Muslims. He will discover that mainstream Islamic scholars agree that if he dies while killing infidels he will go straight to Paradise without having to be judged, and because he's done such a fine thing, he will be empowered to bring many of his family members to Paradise too.

11. Your vote on this issue is important. If you vote, you are helping to elect representatives and leaders who make legal and political decisions (like what kind of immigration policies we should employ, or whether an imam who encourages his followers to overthrow the government should be charged with sedition). When you understand more about Islam, you will be able to know which leaders have a grasp on this subject and which do not, and vote accordingly.

12. Our survival as a free society is at stake. I know that sounds very dramatic and rabble-rousing, but it is quite literally true. All the different orthodox Islamic groups have a single goal in mind: The establishment of Sharia law in every country. They didn't make this up. They didn't "interpret" their holy book that way. They didn't have to guess. That is what it says, directly and clearly.

These people are not joking. This is not a casual hobby for them. They have dedicated their lives to it. And oil-rich Islamic governments are pouring money into the project.

This struggle has gone on for 1400 years, and as far as the devout ones are concerned, it will go on for another 1400 years, or as long as it takes to win. They are acquiring the advantages of new technologies. And they are well-funded.

I don't know how the West will ultimately deal with it, but I know this: Until enough of us face and understand what we're up against, we don't have a chance. Cheerful obliviousness will always be easily defeated by grim determination.

THOSE ARE THE TWELVE most important reasons you should want to know about Islam. Most Westerners make the assumption that all religions are basically alike. And we have a deep-seated respect for other cultures and the right of everyone to believe what they want. We have a profound distrust of any hint of arrogance or any feelings of superiority of our own culture. It is almost at the level of a taboo.

This distrust is almost entirely a good thing. It's one of the reasons we are able to have such a rich, diverse society with people of all kinds getting along with each other.

But Islam is unique, doesn't reciprocate tolerance, and its influence is spreading. We should learn more about it. A good place to start is to stop relying on second-hand sources, and read the Koran yourself.

If you'd like to do something more, start here: What Can You Do About It?

Critique of Pure Islam

noreply@blogger.com (Citizen Warrior) — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 21:23:00 +0000

WHEN SOMEONE says that some of the passages of the Quran are violent, and that Islam itself is political, what do you call that? It's an important question. Strangely enough, I've heard it called "racist," which seems very odd. Islam is not a race.

I've also heard it called "Islamophobia," which is also strange, because it's not a phobia.

It is religious criticism. But it's more than that, because Islam is not merely a religion. Islam is also a political system with political goals. So instead of racism or Islamophobia, we could call it religious or political criticism.

But if you call it that, there doesn't seem to be anything wrong with it. In a free society, it is a perfectly legitimate activity to criticize religious doctrines and political systems. It's perfectly all right, for example, to point out that the Catholic church frowns upon birth control, or that communism and free enterprise are incompatible.

So when someone explains the political ideology contained in the Quran, it is a completely legitimate activity, and anyone who calls it racism or Islamophobia either doesn't understand what they're saying, or, more likely, they are trying to censor the person. That kind of censorship is out of line in a free society.

The fact that exponents of pure Islam (let's call them "orthodox Muslims") will not tolerate criticism of Islam is one of the main criticisms of Islam. The fact that the Quran itself is adamant about disallowing any criticism of the Quran (and calls for a death sentence for doing so) is one of the most egregious things to criticize about the Quran.

If someone doesn't hire a Muslim simply because the applicant is a Muslim, that is discrimination, and that's a different issue. If someone beats up a Muslim because he's a Muslim, that is a hate crime and is illegal, immoral, and should be punished.

But criticism of Islamic doctrine? It can and should be done. Period. Anyone who tries to shut down the discussion with accusations of racism or Islamophobia is out of line.

Helping Girls Will Weaken the Influence of Orthodox Islam

noreply@blogger.com (Citizen Warrior) — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 21:16:00 +0000

THERE ARE a lot of problems in the world. But you can do one simple thing to help solve most of them: Support the Girl Effect.

When you help a girl, you help produce a cascade of positive side-effects, but pertinent to our purposes here, it also helps curb Islam's relentless expansion. For girls to gain and retain equal rights, Islam's doctrine cannot be fully expressed. So fighting for women's rights is effectively fighting against Islam's ultimate goal of world domination. Even in free countries, the most effective tool against Islamic encroachment is the application of already-existing rights for women.

Watch the Girl Effect video (below) and share it with your friends (it is two minutes long):

Your friends don't need to know their efforts to help girls will accomplish the goal of curbing the spread of jihad. But it will. The Pentagon has discovered that the level of violence in a town can be predicted by simply looking at the number of girls who go to school in that town. No kidding. Girls are the key.

And the key to helping girls is helping their mothers. To whatever degree you empower women by giving them legal rights, to that degree Islam's relentless repression of women is necessarily weakened.

This is a positive, life-affirming, inspiring way to defeat Islam's relentless encroachment. Go to the Girl Effect website and get involved. Recruit your friends and family into the cause. This is a purpose we can all get behind. Join the Girl Effect on FaceBook to get updates.

Your friends and family need never know why you're promoting the Girl Effect, or that it has anything to do with Islam, and it doesn't matter — the work needs to be done and in the end we will all be better off.

Read more about how helping girls can save the world in the book, Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide.

Let's do this.

Islam and Women's Rights

noreply@blogger.com (Citizen Warrior) — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 21:12:00 +0000

AHMEDI BEGUM, a 50 year-old woman, was showing two young women a room she was renting out when police rushed in and arrested the two girls and Ahmedi's nephew, who happened to be standing nearby.

That afternoon, Ahmedi went to the police station to see what could be done to release her nephew and the two girls, when the police arrested Ahmedi too, confiscating her jewelry and throwing her into a room.

In a short time, the two girls, naked and bleeding were thrown into the room too. Then police officers raped the girls in front of Ahmedi. She tried to look away, but they forced her to watch.

Ahmedi herself was then stripped and raped by several officers, and then beaten, and worse. At some point she passed out, and when she woke up, she had been charged with illegal fornication.

The country is Pakistan. Islamic law, otherwise known as Sharia, has been applied more and more vigorously in Pakistan since the country was formed, but it's still not applied as strictly as it is in Saudi Arabia, Syria, and Iran.

Sharia law is set up in such a way that when a woman is raped, accusing her rapist is often considered an admission of fornication, for which she may be whipped or even stoned to death. This is but one example of the abuses women suffer today in many Islamic states.

Of course, women are abused by non-Muslims and for other than religious reasons. But the purpose of this site is inquiring into Islam, and Sharia law is a key element of mainstream Islamic teachings. Islam is not just a religion in the sense Westerners think of it. Islam is also a system of laws and government. Devout Muslims consider the practice of their religion to include more than praying. They must also follow the law of Allah.

Women's lack of freedom and outright abuse is a fundamental feature of Sharia, which is the system of law used by many Islamic governments. Shaykh Ghawhi, a well-known and well-respected (in Islamic universities and throughout the Islamic world) teacher of Islamic studies and Islamic law, says according to Sharia:

A woman must only leave her house if she has a real need to do so.
Her husband or guardian must authorize her leaving the house.
When she is out, she must be completely covered, including her face.
When she is out, she must not look left or right but keep her head bowed down as she walks.
She must not wear perfume in public.
She must never shake a man's hand.
Even if she is visiting a female friend and is inside her friend's house, she must not uncover herself in case a man is hiding somewhere in the house.

Criminals under house arrest in the U.S. have more freedom than this.

Women in the Muslim world have been fighting for their rights for a long time. They've won some victories, but they have also lost some freedoms they had once gained, because on the other side of women's push for greater freedom is the religious authority's push for stricter adherence to Sharia law.

Many countries following Sharia law have gone in cycles where they begin to allow some freedoms, but then crack down again, because modernization is strictly forbidden according to basic Islamic teachings.

In Sharia, a woman is forbidden to be a head of state or a judge. She can only inherit half of what a man can inherit. In court, her testimony is only worth half of a man's. She is not allowed to choose where she will live or who she will marry. She is not allowed to marry a non-Muslim or divorce her husband.

Her husband, however, can divorce her with a wave of his hand. And according to Sharia, he can and should beat her if she disobeys him. Read more about Sharia and women.

This is beyond abuse. This is legally-sanctioned abuse on a massive scale. Devout Muslims are trying to apply 7th-century law in the 21st century.

And they're not only doing it in Muslim countries, they're trying to impose their laws in the West, and they've been getting away with it because orthodox Muslims are exploiting a key moral strength of the Western democracies.

Honor killings are another heinous example of legally-sanctioned abuse. The word "abuse" isn't even strong enough. It is legally-sanctioned torture and murder. If a woman "dishonors" her family by falling in love with the wrong man or having an affair, her uncles and brothers are morally obligated to beat her to death. Here's a story of an honor killing in London. Read more about honor killings.

Acid attacks are another example. Read more about those here.

The religion of Islam is unique in the world. It is both a personal religion and a political system, and it is part of a Muslim's religious duty to constantly strive toward living in a country that applies Islamic law. They take this seriously. A growing number of Muslims are making a concerted effort to slowly make America and Europe follow Islamic law. Here are some of their recent victories.

If you'd like to do something about the abuse of women, help Amnesty International write letters to put political pressure on Sharia governments so they'll release unfairly imprisoned women. Their letter campaigns have a proven record of success. Here's an example of one of their campaigns.

You can support and promote groups working for women's rights, like Madre and the Girl Effect.

Let's help women gain basic human rights around the world.

Criticism of Islam Versus Bigotry

noreply@blogger.com (Citizen Warrior) — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 03:42:00 +0000

A BIGOT is "strongly partial to his own group, religion, race, or politics and is intolerant of those who differ." A Christian, for example, who is intolerant of anyone who is not a Christian, is a bigot. Or anyone who is Chinese and intolerant of anyone who is not Chinese, is a bigot.

If the group to which you are partial is your race, then bigotry is the same as racism. There are definitely people trying to stop Islam's relentless encroachment who are motivated by bigotry. But criticism of Islamic doctrine is not bigotry.

Criticism of Islamic teachings is simply religious criticism, which is a perfectly legitimate and worthwhile thing to do in a free country. If I told you that in Buddhism they believe the source of human suffering is the grasping nature of the mind, is that bigotry? Even if I said I think that might be too simplistic and that there may be other causes of suffering, is that bigotry?

No, that's simply discussing religious texts.

And if I say the Quran says (91 times) that Mohammad is a good example of human behavior, is that bigotry? No. Even if I say I don't like that because the historical records of Mohammad's actions aren't something I want to see emulated, is that bigotry? No. We're just talking about a religious text and history.

And if a Muslim says he believes Jews are evil and should be destroyed, is that bigotry? Yes, it is. But what if he says "it must be true, it says so in the Quran," is it still bigotry? Yes. And if I say I don't like that about the Quran, is that bigotry? No. What if I say all Muslims are evil, is that bigotry? Yes. Get the difference?

The reason it seems to many people that anyone criticizing Islam is a bigot is because some bigots have, in fact, criticized Islam. But criticizing Islam, or any religion, does not make anyone a bigot.