AGGRESIVE MUSLIMS AND THE QURAN BY STEVE HINRICHS

There certainly is a trend amongst certain Muslims that is much more aggressive than other religious organizations. Such a difference could not be just a coincidence so there must be some explanation. I have not studied Muslim societies besides watching the news. However, I have read the Quran to try to better understand the sacred book of the Muslim religion to see if I could come up with some explanation of why there is quite a lot of aggressive leadership and attitudes amongst Muslims. I do not mean to say that most Muslims are aggressive, but there are things about the Quran that I think can promote an aggressive attitude which I discuss in this document.

1. SUMMARRY OF QURAN

Quran- The Quran, written by Islam’s prophet Muhammad (650AD), is the one main Holy book of the Muslim religion. It has 114 chapters or Surahs. The chapters are put in order of size, biggest to smallest. The majority of the Quran repeats over and over the importance in believing in and following the one God, Allah. The following typical Quran passage shows this pattern.

2:24 And if ye do it not - and ye can never do it - then guard yourselves against the Fire prepared for disbelievers, whose fuel is of men and stones.

2:25 And give glad tidings (O Muhammad) unto those who believe and do good works; that theirs are Gardens underneath which rivers flow; as often as they are regaled with food of the fruit thereof, they say: this is what was given us aforetime; and it is given to them in resemblance. There for them are pure companions; there for ever they abide.

2:26 Lo! Allah disdaineth not to coin the similitude even of a gnat. Those who believe know that it is the truth from their Lord; but those who disbelieve say: What doth Allah wish (to teach) by such a similitude ? He misleadeth many thereby, and He guideth many thereby; and He misleadeth thereby only miscreants;

2:27 Those who break the covenant of Allah after ratifying it, and sever that which Allah ordered to be joined, and (who) make mischief in the earth: Those are they who are the losers.

2:28 How disbelieve ye in Allah when ye were dead and He gave life to you! Then He will give you death, then life again, and then unto Him ye will return.

2:29 He it is Who created for you all that is in the earth. Then turned He to the heaven, and fashioned it as seven heavens. And He is knower of all things.

Allah according to Mohammed is the God of Abraham (6:61). Mohamed’s clear intent is to encourage people to follow and worship one God, Allah. Mohamed quite often uses the great faith heroes of the Old Testament such as Adam, Noah, Moses, Abraham, Isaac, Ishmael and Jacob to provide good examples of believing in Allah. Polytheism dominated Mohamed’s region and he wanted the people to change to monotheism. The Quran often mentions that polytheism is wrong. Mohamed often mentions the bad examples of the Jews when they worshipped other gods as mentioned in the Old Testament and complains about Christians being polytheist because they believe God is three. The Quran often mentions the common warning if one is good and believes in Allah they will go to Heaven and have rewards and if they are bad and not believe in Allah they will go to hell and be punished (9:68). The Quran repeats these basic ideas over and over again many times.

Section 1.1 contains a list of all known Quran verses that contain positive or good moral statements. There are just a few comments in the Quran about what is actually good or bad behavior or morals. Thus, there is actually very little guidance for a good personal attitude, character and morals. Anybody motivated to teach good morals after reading the Quran would know there is very little about good morals, so there would essentially be very little motivation from the Quran for them to be a Muslim or especially be a leader or cleric in the Muslim church. The motivation to be a Muslim would have to come from something outside of the Quran like personal values, community, government or family pressure or hope and faith that there is a God who cares about them and has a heaven prepared for them.

This may seem like a subtle point, but I suspect it to be a key factor in forming a significant amount of the Muslim leadership. The Quran does not provide a driving influence to direct the morally good people to the leadership. Also, Muslim societies often control and limit females in ways the oppresses them. Quran 4::3 allows a man to have up to four wives. A man having a controlling perspective of women is very bad for his character. With lack of moral content in the Quran and a controlling attitude amongst males promoted, the trend is for the more controlling type of men to be in positions of leadership in the Muslim organization just because they are the type that like to be in control. These types are typically the worse type to be in leadership and we often see this type in leadership in the Muslim world. History has shown that a combination of a strong belief in a religion that has an absence of morals is a bad combination. It creates a man with strong convictions, but no moral constraints. This allows a manipulative mentality to foster, resulting in a person who has great freedom to justify doing whatever he wants. The goal justifies any means of obtaining the goal. His goal is always right because he just thinks it is from god.

The Iranian president, Ahmadinejad, is part of the Muslim government which only allowed hand picked people by the supreme council made up of Muslim clerics to be candidates in the Iranian election. They did this religious coup in 2004 when the more pro-western and pro-democratic Iranian political party was about to obtain parliament majority through free elections. These clerics and the president have the mix of being Muslim and in power. This Iranian president stated in 12/2005 that the WW2 Holocaust of the Jews is a myth. Making such an obviously false statement that even He knows is false shows the manipulative mentality of this Muslim in power for deceptive political motivation on his part. A person in power with a manipulative mentality and strong religious belief with quite limited moral constraints are dangerous. He can justify most anything for his personal interest because he can just think his goal is also God's goal so he is can think he is right regardless of how immoral his interest actually are.

The great danger of this manipulative mentality is evident in the significant amount of radical Muslims who promote terrorism. These terrorists usually do not think they are doing something wrong when they cause violence and pain randomly to innocent people. Such thinking requires a manipulative mentality to justify something as right that is obviously wrong. With a manipulative mentality, Radical Muslims can just call whatever they want to do a “Jihad” or “Holy War”. There is no strong positive morals in the Quran to counteract the hate and anger that drives their immoral manipulative thinking. This sort of thinking is reinforced by the Quran’s antagonistic view of non-Muslims (Infidels). The Quran often says Muslims should not associate with Infidels. The Quran encourages Muslims to set up communities with no infidels. Because of the content of the Quran, there will always be this propensity for these type of people to develop in Muslim communities.

1.1 List Positive Quran Verses

This section contains a list of all known Quran verses that contain positive or good moral statements. This list was compiled from the authors reading through the complete Quran and Ref. 1. This list is quite meager for a holy book containing almost a million letters. This list is much smaller than the extensive list of injustice, intolerance other negative stuff in the Quran documented in Ref. 1. Ref. 1 contains a quite comprehensive list of positive, negative and several other categories of verses for the Quran, Bible and Book of Mormon.

Don't confuse truth with falsehood or knowingly conceal the truth. 2:42

Pay the poor-due. 2:43, 83, 110, 277; 5:55; 7:156; 9:18; 9:71; 22:41; 22:78; 23:4; 24:37; 24:56; 31:4; 51:19; 58:13; 73:20; 98:5

Be good to parents, relatives, orphans, and the needy. 2:83; 4:36

Spend your money for good: to help your parents, your family, orphans, wayfarers, and the needy. Set a slave free. 2:177; 2:215; 5:89; 9:60; 17:26; 30:38; 90:13-17

Give to orphans and don't steal from them. 2:220; 4:2, 10; 6:152; 17:34; 93:9-10

It is good to help the poor and make peace. 4:114; 22:28

Value justice, for both poor and rich, even when it adversely affects you or your family's interests. 4:135

Don't hate other people. Treat everyone fairly. 5:8

Be kind and forgiving toward others. 7:199

Be kind to your relatives. 16:90

Be kind to your parents. 17:23; 29:8; 46:15

Be Fair 17:35

Don't lie. 22:30

Men and women should help each other with love and mercy. 30:21

Be loving and kind to your relatives. 42:23

It is wrong to oppress people. 42:42

Live peacefully with disbelievers. 43:88-89

Don't defame, insult, spy on, or backbite one another. 49:11-12

1.2 Miscellaneous

The Quran often mentions that there are clear proofs from God (Ref. Surah VII, The Elevated Places, verse 201, 203) but does not provide any reasoning. Mohammed did make prophecies that his army would win the battle they were about to enter (Ref. Surah LIV, The Cow, verse 45). His troops did win the battle. In order for this fulfilled prophecy to satisfy the criterion for supernatural evidence it needs to be conservatively shown that the probability for Mohammed’s troops to win this battle is low. In addition, even if a battle is expected to be lost, most always the general in charge still proclaims that the battle will be won.

2. REFERENCES

1. Skeptics Annotated Quran, http://www.skepticsannotatedbible.com/quran/index.htm

Pick for Skeptics Quran

Return to Steve Hinrichs home page