I can hardly believe how naive I was! I've just read over something I wrote 3 years ago - an open letter to all Muslims, saying: Give peace a chance.

That's not the naive part. In the letter, I said things like: if your prophet were here now, he'd condemn all the violence Muslims are committing.

A huge fuss was happening about a Danish cartoon of the Muslim prophet: his turban had been turned into a bomb. Millions of Muslims were outraged: theirs was a religion of peace. Sacrilege!

My answer - so naive - was: the cartoon is showing what is happening. The Muslim prophet is being used to justify violence. If he were here, he'd be furious.

How little I knew about the Muslim religion. I accepted what I was told. I didn't do research.

I drew on my own religious tradition - Christian - and assumed that, like Jesus outraged at the money changers in the temple, the Muslim prophet would be outraged at the violence committed in his name. I also assumed I was being told the truth, that Islam is a religion of peace.

What is Islam? As I said: I've learned a lot.

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First: the Muslim prophet did lots of violence - including breaking treaties and slaughtering those he'd tricked into coming to a supposed peace meeting.

He signed a 10-year treaty with the Meccans. This conveniently gave him access to their city - which he was secretly preparing to take over. Two years into the treaty, he broke it, conquered the city - and executed some of the very people who had trusted him. The justification: deceiving non-Muslims is just fine. (According to my source, see Qur'an 9:3.)

At other times he pretended to be seeking peace and slaughtered those who fell for his ploy. This happened to Ka'b bin al-Ashraf and also to Usayr ibn Zarim, a surviving leader of the Banu Nadir tribe, which had been thrown out of their home in Medina by the Muslims. Usayr ibn Zarim and his 30 companions were all massacred, despite a guarantee of safety (Ibn Ishaq 981).

Even people who had converted to Islam (to be safe from being slaughtered by the Muslims) weren't safe. The Jadhima, who had already converted, were promised that they were safe if they offered no resistance. So they put down their arms. The outcome: the unarmed men of the tribe were all summarily tied up and beheaded. (Ibn Ishaq 834 & 837).

As for poets, quite a few were on his hit list. Once again, murder was combined with deception - that made it easier for the murderers. So some Muslims who volunteered to assassinate the poet, Ka'b bin al-Ashraf, tricked him into believing they had left Islam, got access to him - and presto, slaughtered him, though he put up a good fight. (Bukhari 52:271)

The Muslim prophet does not come across as I had imagined. He certainly does not come across as someone in favor of a religion of peace. Islam religion of peace? This isn't even Islamic peace - meaning that Muslims are to be safe.

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There's lots of other awful stuff - like exhortations to hate and kill infidels. You can find a few sources here: facts about the Muslim religion. Also I've gotten evidence on the lack of the Golden Rule in the Islamic religion, more evidence of the total absence of a Golden Rule in the Islamic religion, and still more evidence of there being no Golden Rule in Islam. Instead there is a doctrine, taqiyya, according to which it's fine to deceive outsiders if this benefits Muslims - like their prophet's tricking and slaughtering people who wanted peace. Quite an eye opener for me.

A rude awakening.

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What is Islam?

I no longer imagine that the Muslim prophet would be against those doing violence in the name of the Muslim religion.

Instead I wonder: do those shouting that Islam is a religion of peace mean it - or are they using something else approved of by their religion - deceit toward infidels (the whole non-Muslim world - or at least the masses who are not Muslim, Christian or Jewish) in order to benefit Islam and encourage Islamic victory?

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My weakness: a common Western weakness. We imagine other religions favor values similar to ours. I often hear, "Oh, all religions are basically the same."

That's what I did, without even thinking about it. I knew they weren't totally the same - that there were major differences in what was thought to happen after death (reincarnation, nothing at all, heaven and hell, some vague spiritual afterlife, and so on). I didn't know how different the values could be. I knew that the beliefs of many Christians had changed enormously over the past century. I didn't know how different the Muslim religion was (according to its own religious texts).

So, again, I am no longer saying that the Muslim prophet would be outraged at the violence Muslims are committing in his name.

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I still say, Muslims, all of you - over a billion of you - I am sure the vast majority of you favor peace, no matter what is written in your old religious texts. If you are in a place with any safety (because I'd rather you didn't get slaughtered), stand up for peace loud and clear. Make it clear that you are against the violence being done in the name of the Muslim religion.

My own guess is that, just as the hold of the Christian religion over most Christians shattered over the past half century, so too the hold of the Muslim religion will break as more and more people come to listen to what they know is right in a deep, often buried, part within themselves - empathy, caring, peace.

And anyone reading this, I suggest: do more research than I did (and probably more than I have done!) - not always easy in the face of the insistence on Islam is a religion of peace.

What is Islam? The history of Islam cannot change. Islamic history will continue to be what it is. The Muslim prophet will always have tricked people who wanted peace and beheaded them. That's ancient Islam. And present-day violence done in the name of the Muslim religion, backed by Muslim beliefs, cannot be erased.

What is Islam? The future of Islam has yet to be created. Some other world religions have changed tremendously - I think of branches of Christianity and Judaism. I know that there are many Muslims who want to be part of a religion of peace.

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I still stand by the deepest part of what I said 3 years ago:

Give peace a chance.

I no longer believe the Muslim prophet would favor it. But

"Morality is doing what is right, regardless what we are told.
Religious dogma is doing what we are told, no matter what is right."
- Elka Enola

I found this quote on the Facebook page of Tarek Fatah, founder of the Muslim Canadian Congress.

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Personally, ethics are what count. I judge a religion by its ethics. If a religion favors deceit, lying, slaughter of those who have been promised safety - as long as it's done to those outside the religion - .... I do not need to tell you how I judge that religion.

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I am still as strongly in favor of peace as ever. And so once again I say,

Give peace a chance.

signed,

Elsa
August 2, 2009
copyright Elsa Schieder, 2009 - all rights reserved

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posted by Vince Lombardo, August 3, 2009:

You write: "I am sure the vast majority of you (Muslims) favor peace, no matter what is written in your old religious texts.”...

It profits us little to conjecture about the peaceful intentions of Muslims when they have declared themselves. What is Islam? What are facts about Muslims?

* Fully one-third of pilgrims (to Mecca) approve of Osama bin Laden and his methods. Only 21 percent distance themselves from his terrorist methods, and only 13 percent reject his goals.

* For the non-pilgrims (to Mecca), the numbers who distance themselves from Osama bin Laden and his methods are even lower: only 16 distance themselves and only 7 percent reject his goals....

Click here for the full comment regarding facts about Muslims.

Elsa's reply, August 3, 2009:

I feel like I've landed on another planet....

Two things come to mind:

* one, being a Jew in Nazi Germany, and not being able to believe what the Nazis were saying about Jews;

* two, being a woman at the start of the current women's rights movement, and hearing all the awful things about the situation of women, and just not being able to believe (or it could be a non-politicized black at the start of the civil rights movement - or a non-politicized gay or lesbian as the start of the gay rights movement).

I was one of those women....

Click here for the full comment regarding the shock of finding out facts about Islam.

posted by Brian, October 28, 2009:

What is Islam? The short answer is obvious. It is a religion ... It is harsher and more violent sounding than the Bible, but it is fundamentally the same book.... [W]hile most Muslims are peaceful people, the Imams still preach a fire and brimstone religion that belongs to the Dark Ages. Unless and until this changes the civilized world in under a very real threat. The answer is clear to me ...

Click here for the full comment on what Islam is about and what needs to happen.

Click here to go from What is Islam
to the piece that sparked this writing,
Islam and Peace: An Open Letter to Muslims.

To learn more about What Is Islam,
click here for more facts about the Muslim religion.


For my very first piece on what I saw happening
between Islam and the West,
click here.


Click here to go from Muslim beliefs and Islamic history
to all the issues explored at
The Idea Emporium,
from animal rights, to Islam, to gambling, to the ultimate reality.

I had it all wrong. I learned:
What Is Islam? Is Islam a Religion Of Peace?
What is Islamic History, the History Of Islam? What are Muslim Beliefs?