As a non-Muslim I sincerely wish the greatest success to Mr. Saifi and his “True Islam and the Extremists” campaign in convincing Muslims that the Quran does not sanction “any form of violence towards humanity.” Unfortunately he faces three huge barriers: 1) millions of past and present Muslims differ from his interpretation of the Quran; 2) scholars of all three Abrahamic religions throughout the ages have taught that their holy books command them to kill heretics and apostates; and 3) once one accepts the Quran or the Bible as God’s inerrant word, fundamentalists will insist on interpreting the violence commanded by that God literally! After all, who has appointed Mr. Saifi within the Muslim world to define a “true” Muslim or “THE TRUE interpretation” of the Quran and Hadiths?
Anyone even vaguely familiar with the holy books of Islam, Judaism, and Christianity should know that divinely commanded violence started with the Old Testament book of Deuteronomy (for example, chapters 2 and 3 where Moses reports God’s ordering Jews to slaughter “men, women, and babies). Judaism, Christianity, and Islam all make the identical assertion that their divinity gave a revelation to a specific person (Moses, Jesus, and Mohamed) and demand that everyone accept this assertion without evidence. (All, of course, use the circular argument that various alleged unbelievable miracles within their “revelations” prove their divine source.) Each demands that everyone accept their particular miracles and holy books “on faith.” Yet, as Mark Twain said: “Faith is believing what you know ain’t so.”
One key theological assertion unites Judaism, Christianity, and Islam: Their outsized respect for Abraham’s willingness for Abraham to murder his son! For his willingness to crucify his intellect, to sacrifice his son, to obey a voice in his head that ordered him to kill his son. The inevitable result is that as soon as one succumbs to the demand to accept these holy books, one cannot permit mere human reason to contradict or re-interpret the violence within them. That’s why Catholics and Protestants massacred each other for hundreds of years in Europe. That’s why ISIS acts as it does now. That’s why the Muslim state, Saudi Arabia, proscribes death to any Muslim citizen who leaves Islam. That’s because, as Mr. Saifi admits: “The Holy Quran, in essence, is a book of mercy for its followers,” (note the exclusion of non-followers) but threatens a Muslim version of eternal hell fire for all those who either 1) never accept Islam or 2) leave Islam.
For further documentation see the following English and French sources:
• The Oxford History of Islam by J. L. Esposito.
• Penser le Coran by M. Hussein.
• Ce que Le Coran ne dit pas by M. Hussein.
• L’Islam et Nous by D. Josse.
• What the Koran Really Says by I. Warraq.
This article appears in Mar 3-10, 2016.