If terror has no religion then how do you explain the violent verses in the quran that call for violence against Christians, Jews etc., how do you explain the actions of muhammad who himself killed people and practiced slavery?
And he has the position of prophet and role model in islam which means his actions will surely be repeated even today. The violent teachings are especially dangerous as islam has never been reformed to rid it of this and there is very little if any critical thought about muhammad and specifically inhumane things he did. He was afterall human and not without faults. Another example he and his followers would fight wars and capture women and rape them, enslave them etc. historically not anything unusual but today this would be a clear war crime and crime against humanity yet no muslim ever talks about this critically. Im not asking you to condemn muhammad what I am saying is can you admit that what he and the muslims did to innocent women was wrong and should not be followed by any muslim in todays world or by any human that reads the quran, hadith etc. and feels inspired to go out and be like a arabian of the 6century?
If we cannot agree that raping women is a terrible thing then we cannot agree on anything.
So today we see isis, boko haram and others claiming to be true muslims following this example of jihad war and conquest and quoting the quran and hadith to support their position that this vile and barbaric behaviour is islamic.
It is clear as a sunny day with blue skies that islam has a problem and it comes directly from the quran and the hadiths and only muslims can fix this problem, nobody else can do it for you. The problem with religion is that it refuses to change.
Remember this "Violent teachings result in violent actions".
Something really bad will happen if muslims don't fix this problem, maybe a nuclear war, mass genocide against muslims etc.
There will be a reaction at some point.
Humanism must prevail.
Dear friend thank you for your reply. For your post, it seems clear to me that what you know about islam or Quran or hadith are parts of what media told you. I admit I am not a scholar of Islam and I am continue to learn and strive to be better muslim everyday.
I will try to reply your questions as best as I could and If it doesn't´t satisfy you then it is my fault for not able to explain it properly so it is better for you to find a scholar afterwards
Here we go:
Islam is not a pacifist religion where it remained silenced when being oppressed. Quran allowed us to defend ourself against oppressors but that permission came only after years muslims were being discriminated, killed, oppressed but forbid them to transgress (QS:2-190). And reading a Quran by cherry picking some verses without understanding the context or without reading the verse before and after, can make someone misunderstood and thinks Islam condone violence. You have to know that Quran was not given to prophet Muhammad pbuh in form of a ready book, it was revealed piece by piece through Revelation and according to event that happened at that time. So all chapters and verses have stories and explanations behind it and the language used in Quran (which is Arabic) has a deeper meaning even for Arabs, that makes it difficult to really transfer its meaning. It is known as one of the miracles of Quran, which is it´s linguistic richness that are unparalleled from that time until now.
That is way there are scholars in Islam that committed themselves to interpret what the Quran says (it is called Tafsir). And I felt humbled if non-muslims thought that all muslims are perfect and understand islam completely inside out. We are not (sadly) but we strive to be better everyday.
First of all, Islam is the continuation of what Jews and Christians has taught. Many of of the prophets in Islam are the same with what Judaism and Christians have. We value prophet Abraham and Jesus as one of the greatest prophet. What islam teach is what other prophets in Judaism and Christianity has taught which is there is only One God and we have to follow Him and don´t worship Idols.
Quran never teach violence toward Jews and Christians but Quran criticised what the Scholars of Judaism and Christianity (rabbi and priests) that changed the contents of Taurat and Injil (the holy book of Jews and Christians) with their hand because they want to have power and money. At that time, many of the followers of Judaism and Christianity can´t read nor write so they rely completely on their rabbi and priests for the interpretation of their Holy Book. One example to prove that the scholars were changing their text was about Jesus being a God. It was in Nicea trough the council of Nicea (300 years after Jesus came), Christian priests gathered and discussed whether Jesus is God or not and they decided Jesus is God and all other text that mentioned it otherwise must be destroyed. How could men decide another man is God?
That was baseless claim that has been thrown out as a myth. To really understand the context read here: http://www.muhammadfactcheck.org/?muhammad=prophet-muhammad-sa-murdered-700-innocent-jews
4.Muhammad and his followers fight wars and enslaved them
That is another false claim. Prophet Muhammad pbuh and his followers went to wars to defend themselves because they were being oppressed for not able to practice Islam. And after the Prophet Muhammad passed away, the wars happened on other lands because at that time the Muslim armies were renown for their justice, bravery, humility, and truthfulness so that made them heroes among the people who were oppressed by their leaders and those people invited the army to free them from the oppression and dictatorship. And for slavery, at that time until now slavery exists. And in Islam we are being taught that no one is better than the others in the eye of God, we are all the same even if we have different skin color, wealth, and progeny. what made us different in Islam is who has the most faith and fear of God.
And for that tenet, Islam teaches us to free the slave whenever we could. If you read the Sirah of Muhammad (the biography of Muhammad), Muhammad freed all of his slaves but his slaves chose to continue to served him because they loved him. And there is one former slave that are famous in Islamic history named Bilal. He was a black slave that being bought and freed by one of the followers of Muhammad and Bilal became one of the most beloved companion and he was the first person who make the call for prayer (adhan) when Prophet Muhammad still alive.
That sentence really surprised me. Islam doesn't condone rape it is even against it! Islam is the religion that taught the followers to respect women, an entire chapter in Quran (Chapter Maryam or Mary mother of Jesus) spoke about women rights and what men must do to protect them. When islam came, baby girls were buried alive and women had no rights in inheritance, even women was seen as an object where they can be passed down as inheritance. And Islam stop all that.
What you said about rape perhaps its a verse in Quran reads: “Why did not those, who gave currency to this charge [of impropriety], bring four witnesses to prove it? Since they have not brought the required witnesses, they are indeed liars in the sight of Allah.”
That is a clear as day. This verse, like the preceding verse calling for four witnesses, protects women. If, for example, someone accuses a woman of adultery then he or she must produce four witnesses to corroborate the accusation. Failing that, the woman is innocent, and the accuser is a liar
5.Isis, boko haram, and others are true muslims
No they are not true muslims! many muslims and muslims scholars have screamed out loud to denounce them but that was not interesting enough for the mainstream media to broadcast it. Moreover, how do you judge someone is a true muslims or not? by their clothes?by their arabic language? no, you judge them by their manners. If they are indeed a true muslim, they will not do such horrible thing. And if you say thats because Islam teaches them to be violent, well there are more than 1 billion muslims on this earth who don´t behave like them..why is that? if you compared 1 billion muslims with those people who did violence in the name of islam, they are just 0.00001% of the whole muslim population.
And if you like to "paint all muslims with the same brush" , I can do the same to all religions and atheism too! Look at my example of Anders Breivik, he is a devout Christian, look at Stalin who was an atheist, look at Buddist monks in Myanmar right now that doing genocide to the Rohingya muslims, etc.
They are all doing violence under the name of religion or atheism, is that mean all of the people who practices those religions and atheism are bad (including you???) would you like to be labelled as a terrorist because one of your church members blew up a train station? I am surely not!
I hope that will explain a bit and if not then I am sorry I will not reply any longer if you are seeking for endless debate and it is better you find a muslim scholars who can explain it to you better.
thank you and peace be upon you