Islam Under Siege: Rescuing Islam from Islamism

The teachings of the previous revelations were tainted by tampering. Unwarranted accretions crept in. Is it reasonable to expect that the knowledge of the Book of Allah would be "protected" when the knowledge of the books of the earlier revelations, and even the books themselves were not? Allah promised to "protect" the Reminder. But does that encompass protecting the knowledge of the Reminder? While the Reminder was protected, the knowledge of the Reminder was corrupted. This is plain in criminal law, where traditions were permitted to "abrogate" and "replace" parts of the Book of Allah, in a defiance of the teaching of the Book of Allah. Further evidence of corruption is encountered in the embedding of extreme punishments in the law, for which no basis is found in the Book of Allah. These include the death penalties for adultery, blasphemy and apostasy. By permitting tradition to "abrogate" and "replace" revelation, jurists fell into shirk. For they treated the transmitters of tradition rather than Allah as "lawgivers." Embedding harsh punishments in the law resulted from the politicization of religion assisted by the repression of reason. Extreme punishments tarnish people's perception of Islam, which is perceived as violent. Thereby they prevent potential reverts from entering Islam and encourage Muslims to dissociate themselves from Islam, in some cases by abandoning what they perceive as a religion of violence rather than mercy and compassion. In this way, the harshness of the law also contributes to Islamophobia. Antirationalism resulted in a corruption of knowledge. What were among the reasons for the tampering with the knowledge of revelation? The chief "suspect" is politics. For hawkish rulers endeavoured to sponsor renditions of revelation that would increase their power, harm enemies, and justify their expansionary agenda. These renditions were supplied by: "opportunist fuqaha who unashamedly wanted to please their masters by providing them with a legal cover for their despotic rule that required an ideology of political quietism and absolute obedience to a ruling tyrant." (M. Shahrur, The Qur'an, Morality and Critical Reason, Brill, 2009, p. 472) The rulers required a "religious" justification of waging unlawful wars of aggression to enlarge their empires. But such wars are prohibited in the Book of Allah, which permits fighting only in self-defence or against persecution. Circumventing the prohibition of aggression required rendering what is haram into what is halal. The ulama did it by recourse to the teaching of abrogation. The teaching of abrogation requires doubting the perfection of revelation, by asserting that it features many "contradictions." These are the verses that teach about reconciliation and fighting. The alleged "contradictions" would be resolved by "abrogating" verses revealed earlier, especially verses that teach reconciliation, by particular verses revealed afterwards, which refer to fighting. In this way, militant ulama re-invented Islam as a religion of war and thereby justified the enlargement of the empire by force. The alleged "clash" between the realm of peace and the realm of unbelief, the dar al-Islam and the dar al kufr was used to bolster the stance of militant rulers. The ulama and hawkish rulers plunged into a plethora of wars endorsed by their version of the "clash of civilizations" thesis, endeavouring to realize their vision of Manifest Destiny, bringing all persons to Islam by word and, if necessary, by the sword. Neglected in this grandiose project was the fact that the Book of Allah prohibits recourse to force in the propagation of religion. By endorsing the use of force in the propagation of religion, the ulama and the rulers they worked for transgressed the boundaries (hudud) of Allah. They justified absolutism. They endeavoured to do "something praiseworthy" through unlawful means, a truly Machiavellian approach.

• | Author: Leslie Terebessy
• | Publisher: Independently Published
• | Publication Date: Aug 04, 2025
• | Number of Pages: 158 pages
• | Binding: Paperback or Softback
• | ISBN-13: 9798296583734