Islam promotes lying and killing disbelievers

You started off by questioning the relevancy of the quote from Thomas Carlyle. The topic was deceit, and that’s why this quote was relevant. The Holy Prophet Muhammad is considered the best example of a Muslim and Aisha mentions that Muhammad is the living Quran. (Bukhari) Furthermore, you quoted Carlyle regarding the Quran. However, in the following few paragraphs he mentions that his knowledge is limited and the Arabs know better (meaning people with knowledge of the Arabic language). Then he continues to mention that he did not find any traces of deceit on Muhammad’s part. [1] Then you countered my argument of Islam being a growing religion. You say that the Islam is only growing because of higher birth rates and there is no net increase in Muslims based on conversion. You name the Pew Forum as a source. Many other sources however claim otherwise, namely that Islam does gain more converts than other religions, however, admitting numbers are hard to estimate. [2-4] Your next argument is based on several verses which you have referred to. I cannot quote all the verses’ translations due to the character limit, so I will only state my commentary. 3:54 – No reference to deceit in this verse. It says that Allah had his own plans (saving Jesus from death on the cross) to counter the plan of the Jews (crucifying Jesus). 7:99 – Again no reference to deception. The verse talks about disbelieving people that do not fear Allah (because he could punish them at any moment for their disbelief). 8:30 – This verse again (just like 3:54) refers to Allah’s plans regarding the protection of his prophet Muhammad against the plans of the Meccans. No deception involved. 10:21 – Another reference to the plans of god, not talking about deception. 13:42 – Reference to the omniscience of Allah. Men can scheme all they want, but Allah knows of these plans and they will not be able to stop Allah from reaching His goal: the ultimate victory of Islam. (by turning people’s hearts towards Islam) Nowhere in these listed verses there is reference to deceiving. Allah is the one that men are trying to deceive in most of these verses, but Allah says that their plans will not harm him at all. It also seems that you are confusing the word ‘to plan’ with ‘to deceive’. If I plan that I want to study and work at a certain place in a certain profession, this would not be deception. The same goes for God’s plans. Then you mention the crucifixion of Jesus. The verses are 4:157-158. The deception here comes not from Allah, but the Jews deceived themselves. They were so crazy in their happiness that they did not confirm his death, which would have proved that he was still alive. The translation literally mentions this: “they have no certain knowledge thereof, but only pursue a conjecture; and they did not arrive at a certainty concerning it.” (5) The events which are mentioned in verses 8:43-44 are a description of the Battle of Badr. Historical descriptions reveal that the Meccans hid part of their army to deceive the Muslims so that they would engage in battle and then the rest of the Meccans would reveal themselves (they hid so that the big army of the Meccans would not scare the Muslims off). Again, the deception comes not from Allah. (6) After this you mention some verses regarding the breaking of oaths: 2:226 – Allah says here that we will not be held accountable for certain oaths. If you read the verse preceding this one, it becomes clear which oaths. “And make not Allah a target for your oaths that you may thereby abstain from doing good and acting righteously and making peace between men.” (7) This means that if you take an oath to do something bad (for example committing murder) and then you break that oath, you will not be held accountable. 3:28 – In this verse it is mentioned that Muslims should prefer Muslim friends. It is obvious that one’s friends influence his or her behavior. That is why Muslims are taught to have Muslims as friends so they can have a good influence on each other. Then there is a warning that Muslims should watch out for deception from the disbelievers, who will try to break your faith. No permission to lie or deceive is given here, only a warning to be cautious. 16:106 – The fact that you mention this verse, suggests you haven’t even read my argument. I mentioned this verse explicitly*. To summarize, it is said that the punishment for this lie will be postponed and forgiven if the people who lied migrate away to a safe(r) place. (In verse 16:111) There is no permission given to lie and deceive in general. Pro also mentions some hadith which mention Muhammad saying: “War is deceit.” The Arabic words mention that war itself is deceit, not that deception is used in war. Furthermore even if this is to be taken literally, the ‘deception’ comes from surprise attacks and ambushes (killing only those who fight). Hadith mention that deception as luring the enemy in as if one is surrendering and then proceeding to kill, is not allowed. So it is clear that this ‘deception’ is strictly limited to tactics of war, and does not apply to conduct. (8) Pro proceeds to mention that al-Fitnah is considered aggression in Islam. When we look up the meaning of fitnah in Lane it says that the meaning is ‘to burn’ and extends this to a metaphorical meaning ‘to enter into fire’, ‘to enter in a state of punishment’ or ‘to be put to a trial’. (9) So Fitnah refers to any challenge that a Muslim faces, not disbelief. And Islam tells us to do Jihad in this case. And as I have already explained this is self-reformation (successfully completing the trial) and propagating Islam (by being an example for everyone else). Fitnah is therefore not seen as a form of aggression, but as a test, which Muslims need to pass by staying strong in their belief. The next example that is mentioned is that of the assassination of Ka’b bin Ashraf. This individual was a big and influential enemy of Islam. Religious opposition was no problem and was allowed, and he used this right of his for many years. But after Islam had grown so much and had even beaten the Quraish and conquered Mecca, he started to incite people to wage war and create disorder. He even planned to assassinate Muhammad which failed. Eventually after much counselling Muhammad agreed to have Ka’b executed on charges of infraction of treaty, rebellion, inciting war, sedition, use of foul language and conspiracy to assassinate Muhammad. To do this publicly would cause much disorder and unrest, which is after more counseling Muhammad agreed to a plan which involved Ka’b being lured away and killed. (10) This situation was very complicated and required special measures, since the stability of the state was involved. Pro proceeds to mention ‘assassinations’ ordered by Muhammad. He was the democratically chosen leader of Medina. People also appointed him as judge. These ‘assassinations’ were verdicts of court and were for crimes that these individuals had committed. Pro also mentions some hadith that apparently permit lying to trick a woman into marriage. The hadith mentioned nowhere that lying is permissible. They merely mentioned that the two witnesses lie. The judge cannot look into people’s minds and know that they are lying, so he has to order the marriage to be valid. It is obvious that by lying these people are committing sins which they will be held accountable for on the Day of Judgment. (11) Then Pro quotes the ‘verdict’ of some scholars who mention that lying is permissible. These scholars are not God. The Quran is the word of God and cannot be superseded by these scholars. This ‘verdict’ of these scholars causes many contradictions (for example with the verses I have provided in round 2) and cannot be correct. The verses that I have quoted mention that one should always act with justice, even when it comes to enemies. Therefore, the conclusion is that this ‘body of evidence’ is very weak and pulled out of context as I have explained above. The final paragraph is all about one individual who is supposed to have practiced this doctrine of ‘Taqiyyah’. The fact that he turned out to be associated with terrorist groups points that the character of this man is bad. That being said, many of the so called ‘scholars’ or mullahs nowadays are extremists and terrorists and are prime examples of hypocrites (Munafikuun). They say one thing, but do another. They are clearly not the believers, since their actions are contradicting the Quran in countless places. They cannot be considered the example of a Muslim. The Quran and the example of the Holy Prophet Muhammad is the basis of Islam and that is what Muslims are supposed to follow, not the example of some extremist Mullah. References: 1. https://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au... 2. Guinness Book of World Records 2003 3. http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org... 4. http://www.economist.com... 5. http://www.alislam.org... 6. http://www.alislam.org... 7. http://www.alislam.org... 8. http://www.alislam.org... (pages 307-311) 9. http://www.tyndalearchive.com... 10. pages 297-307 of no. 8 11. http://sunnah.com... * There is a difference of numbering in verses in the source that I have used. This is because the opening verse (bismillah…) has been counted as the first verse of every chapter except surat al-taubah, which does not start with this verse. Therefore subtract 1 from the number of the verse.