Does the Quran Promote Violence?
Dr. Muzammil H. Siddiqi, Islamic Horizons, Nov/Dec 2001
Unfortunately, the charged atmosphere engendered by the Sept. 11
tragedy has prompted
media opinions, based on some Qur'anic verses that are misquoted and taken
out of context, that
the Qur'an promotes violence.
Cal Thomas, a columnist for the Wa****ngton [DC] Times, did just this
in his Oct. 3rd
article "Can we be fooled twice?" For example, he presents only part of
5:85: "among those most
hostile to the Believers you will find Jews and Pagans. . . " One wonders
why he does not
complete it: ". . . and nearest among them in love to the Believers you
will find those who
say: 'We are Christians,' because among them you find men devoted to
learning, men who have
renounced the world, and they are not arrogant."
Thomas quotes part of 9:5: ". . . then fight and slay the Pagans
wherever find them. Seize
them, besiege them, and lie in wait for them." However, when read in its
full context, verses
1-5, the meaning is quite different.
Islam does not allow or sanctify the killing any innocent person
regardless of his or her
religion. According to the Qur'an and Hadith (sayings of Prophet Muhammad)
life is sacrosanct.
We read in the Qur'an: ". . . Do not take life, which Allah has made
sacred, except
through justice and the law. He orders this so that you may acquire
wisdom" (6:151) and, "Do
not take life, which Allah has made sacred, except for a just cause. If
anyone is killed
unjustly, We allow his heir (to seek justice) but do not allow him to
exceed bounds when it
comes to taking life, for he is helped (by the law)" (17:33). According to
the Qur'an, killing
a person unjustly is the same as killing all of humanity, and saving a
person is the same as
saving all humanity. (See 5:32.)
Other critics of Islam found: "Kill them wherever you catch them. . .
" (2:191), ". . .
But if they turn away, seize them and kill them wherever you find them.
(In any case) take no
friends or helpers from their ranks." (4:89), and similar verses.
When placed within their textual and historical contexts, however,
their true meanings emerge:
"Fight in the cause of Allah those who fight you, but do not
transgress limits, for Allah
does not love transgressors. Kill them wherever you catch them, and turn
them out from where
they have turned you out, for tumult and oppression are worse than
slaughter. But do not fight
them at the Sacred Mosque, unless they (first) fight you there. If they
fight you, kill them.
Such is the reward of those who reject faith. But if they cease, Allah is
Oft-Forgiving, Most
Merciful. Fight them until there is no more tumult or oppression and
justice and faith in Allah
prevail. If they cease, engage in hostility only against those who
practice oppression. There
is the law of equality of for the prohibited months, and so for all things
prohibited. If any
one transgresses the prohibition against you, transgress likewise against
him. But be conscious
of Allah and know that He is with those who restrain themselves"
(2:190-194).
The other verses read: "They hope that you will reject faith, as they
do, and thus be on
the same footing (as they). So do not take friends from their ranks until
they flee in the way
of Allah (from what is forbidden). If they become renegades, seize them
and kill them wherever
you find them. (In any case) take no friends or helpers from their ranks,
except for those who
join a group with whom you have a (peace) treaty or those who approach you
with hearts calling
upon them to be neutral. If Allah had pleased, He could have given them
power over you and they
would have fought you. So if they withdraw from you and do not fight you,
and (instead) send
you (guarantees of) peace, then Allah has opened no way for you (to fight
them). You will find
others who wish to gain your confidence as well as that of their people.
Every time they are
sent back to temptation they suc***b to it. If they do not withdraw from
you or give you
(guarantees) of peace besides restraining their hands, seize them and kill
them wherever you
find them. In their case, We have provided you with a clear argument
against them" (4:89-91).
Nowhere do these verses give general permission to kill any one. They
were revealed to
Prophet Muhammad at the time when the nonbelievers were attacking Makkah's
Muslims and
threatening those in Madinah. In contem****ary jargon we may say that as
the Muslims were
subject to constant terrorist attacks on Madinah, Allah allowed them to
defend themselves.
These verses do not allow Muslims to engage in terrorism; rather, they are
warnings against
terrorism, but they also contain clear calls for restraint and care.
Religious texts, if not read within their proper textual and
historical contexts, are
easily manipulated and distorted. Let us look at the Bible and apply the
standards applied above.
In Deuteronomy, the fifth book of the Torah, Moses shares this
message from God as the
Israelites prepare to enter the Promised Land: "I will make my arrows
drunk with blood, and my
sword shall devour flesh; with the blood of the slain and of the captives,
from the long-haired
heads of the enemy." (Deut. 32:42)
"When the Lord, your God, brings you into the land that you are
entering to possess, and
clears away many nations before you, the Hittites, the Girga****es, the
Amorites, the
Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations
greater and stronger
than you. And when the Lord, your God, delivers them before you and you
defeat them, destroy
them utterly. Make no covenant with them and show no mercy to them"
(Deuteronomy 7:1-2).
"When your brother, the son of your mother, or your son or your
daughter, or the wife of
your bosom, or your friend who is as your own soul, entices you secretly,
saying 'Let us go and
serve other gods,' . . . you shall kill him, your hand shall be first
against him to put him to
death, and afterwards the hand of all the people. You shall stone him to
death with stones,
because he sought to draw you away from the Lord your God. . . "
(Deuteronomy 13: 6-10)
"When you approach a city to fight it, offer it terms of peace. If it
agrees to make peace
with you and opens to you, all the people found in it shall become your
forced labor and shall
serve you. However, if it does not make peace with you, but makes war
against you, besiege it.
When the Lord your God gives it into your hand, kill all the men in it.
Take as booty only the
women, children, animals, and all that is in the city, all its spoils. Use
the spoils of your
enemies which the Lord your God has given you. . . Only in the cities of
these peoples that the
Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance. Do not leave alive anything
that breathes"
(Deuteronomy 20:10-17).
"Kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman who has
known man intimately.
But spare for yourselves all virgin maidens" (Numbers 31:17-18).
"I will send my terror in front of you. . . you shall utterly
demolish them and break
their pillars in pieces" (Exodus 23: 23-24, 27).
The New Testament attributes the following statements to Jesus:
"Do not think that I have come to send peace on Earth. I did not come
to send peace, but a
sword. I am sent to set a man against his father, a daughter against her
mother, and a
daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law" (Mathew 10:34-35).
"I say to you that to everyone who has, more shall be given, but from
the one who does not
have, even what he does have shall be taken away. As for my enemies who do
not want me to reign
over them, bring them here and kill them in my presence" (Luke 19:26-27).
There are dozens of other verses that, if taken out from their
historical context, seem to
favor violence. Some violent Muslim groups misuse the Qur'anic verses just
as various violent
Jewish and Christian groups have used them to justify their causes. The
Crusaders used them
against Muslims and Jews. The Nazis used them against Jews. Serbian
Christians used them
against Bosnian Muslims, and Zionists regularly use them against
Palestinians. David Koresh,
Jim Jones, and Baruch Goldstein all relied on religious texts to justify
their violence.
Muslims believe in all Prophets sent by Allah, and so do not misuse
or misinterpret the
religious texts of other faiths in order to defame them. Even in recent
times, Muslims have and
are facing genocidal campaigns in Bosnia, Kosova, Chechnia, Kashmir, and
PalestineÑbut they
have not questioned Judaism and Christianity. Such a spirit needs to be
reciprocated.
[Dr. Siddiqi has a doctoral degree from Harvard, and is the former
president of the
Islamic Society of North America, a member of the Fiqh Council, and
adjunct professor of
comparative religion at California State University - Fullerton]
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