Is Al Qaeda Following Muhammad And Allah? Series

This teaching of violence is also seen in the Quran, which was given by Muhammad. The Quran teaches in many places (as I showed earlier) about peace with enemies and displaying patience towards enemies, but it also teaches that violence is acceptable in certain circumstances. The nature of the Quran changed during Muhammad’s lifetime from a focus on tolerance to one of intolerance (Davis 256). For example, the Quran says, “And when the sacred months have passed, then kill the polytheists wherever you find them and capture them and besiege them and sit in wait for them at every place of ambush” (The Quran, Sahih International Version 9:5). Another verse of “peace” from the Quran is “O Prophet, urge the believers to battle. If there are among you twenty [who are] steadfast, they will overcome two hundred” (The Quran, Sahih International Version 8:65). This does not sound like the internal struggle that modern scholars define jihad as. It sounds like “holy war.” These are only two verses out of the Quran. Multiple more could be shown.

The classical Islamic view which “radical” Muslims today use is that all of the world is divided into two camps, “the House of Islam, where the Muslim law and faith prevail, and the rest, known as the House of Unbelief or the House of War” (Lewis n.pag.). Lewis also makes the point that it is “it is the duty of Muslims ultimately to bring to Islam this “House of Unbelief” (n. pag.). How do they plan to do this? It seems through offensive jihad. This seems to be how Muslims after the death of Muhammad responded to Muhammad’s teachings. Records of the overview of Islam’s growth within a century after Muhammad’s death shows that he wanted an Arab Muslim empire; an empire that could only be gained by force (“Islam” n. pag.).2 At this time, pagans were “required to accept Islam or die” (“Islam” n. pag.). The earliest followers of Muhammad followed in his steps of violence in their conquests in Spain, Central Asia, and India (see fig. 1 above) (“Islam” n. pag.). At the year of Muhammad’s death (632AD), “Egypt, Palestine, Syria, Asia Minor, North Africa, Spain, France, Italy, and the islands of Sicily, Sardinia, and Corsica were all Christian territories” (Crawford n. pag.). By 732AD, “Christians had lost Egypt, Palestine, Syria, North Africa, Spain, most of Asia Minor, and southern France” because of Muslim expansion (Crawford n. pag.). This kind of Muslim expansion happened all the way up to the time of the Crusades.

Davis writes, “A favorite tactic of Islamic apologists when confronted with Islam’s violent nature is to change the subject” or to point out how other faiths can be violent at times instead of dealing with the questions about Islam’s history and beginnings (Davis 76). When they do this, they are showing that they do not have a defense of Islam’s beginnings. Nonetheless, Muslims mention the Crusades as an example of Christian violence. But is this really the case? Was this an example of Christianity being expanded by the sword? One Professor doesn’t believe so when he examines history: