Michael Abrahams | Is Islam a religion of peace?

The year was 1988. British Indian author Salman Rushdie had published the The Satanic Verses in the United Kingdom and Muslims were not pleased. The book was a work of fiction, and the title refers to verses that were supposedly spoken to the Prophet Muhammad as part of the Qur’an (Islam’s holy book), but subsequently withdrawn because they were sent to him by Satan, in an attempt to deceive him into thinking they were from God.

Following the release of the book in the United States in 1989, Muslim uproar intensified, leading to worldwide protests and threats, this despite the fact that the book was written in English, and not in other languages that are the mother tongue of the majority of Muslims, and was never published or sold in countries where most Muslims live.

The threats were not idle. The FBI was notified of 78 threats to bookstores in the United States in March 1989, and two stores in California and the office of a newspaper in New York were bombed. The situation was even worse in the UK where at least six bombings took place, and unexploded devices were found at three bookstores. Rushdie was forced to into hiding, especially after Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the Supreme Leader of Iran, issued a fatwa (religious order) calling for Rushdie and his publishers to be executed.

Depictions of the Prophet Muhammad are also forbidden in Islam. In 2011, the offices of Charlie Hebdo, a French publication specialising in satirising political and religious figures, were firebombed after a caricature of Muhammad was published on the cover of one of its magazines. In 2012, after the magazine again published caricatures of Muhammad, France temporarily closed embassies and schools in more than 20 countries, fearing reprisals. In 2015, two Muslim brothers visited the magazine’s offices and shot and killed 12 people and injured 11 others after being offended by depictions of the Prophet. And this year, a middle school teacher in Paris was beheaded after he showed students Charlie Hebdo cartoons of Muhammad.

NOT TOLERANT

Muslims insist their religion is one of peace. But is it really? When the concept of Islam being a religion of peace is refuted, defenders of the faith often assume that declaring it is not one of peace implies that it is being labelled as a violent religion. But this is not necessarily so. What is apparent, however, is that Islam is not a tolerant religion, and intolerance and peace are incompatible.

For example, there are 13 countries where being openly atheist is punishable by death, and 12 are Muslim countries. The other is Nigeria, home to the world’s fifth-largest Muslim population (90 million) where 48.8% of people there belong to the faith, and where Sharia law exists in parts of the country. There are also a dozen countries where there is a death penalty for homosexuality. Again, Nigeria is the only country on this list that is not majority Muslim.

Regarding Sharia law, the law forming part of the Islamic tradition, according to a 2017 Pew Research Center report, Muslims in 24 of 39 countries surveyed support it being the law of the land. There are some aspects of Sharia law, however, that are violent and cruel, but are accepted by many Muslims. For example, another Pew Research Center survey from 2013 found that among Muslims who want Sharia to be the law of the land, in 10 of 20 countries, at least half of those surveyed said they support penalties such as whippings or cutting off the hands of thieves and robbers, including over 80 per cent of those interviewed in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Regarding adultery, again, in 10 of 20 countries at least 50 per cent of those in favour of making Sharia the law of the land also support stoning unfaithful spouses. In Pakistan, Afghanistan, the Palestinian territories, and Egypt, over 80 per cent support hurling rocks and stones at people who commit adultery. Regarding leaving Islam and converting to another faith, of those who support Sharia being the law of the land, more than half of Muslims in six of 20 countries surveyed support the death penalty for leaving Islam and joining another faith, with over 80 per cent of respondents in Egypt and Jordan agreeing to this.

Indeed, Islam’s revered Prophet was not a peacemaker, but a warrior. According to historian Richard A. Gabriel, “In the space of a single decade he fought eight major battles, led eighteen raids, and planned another thirty-eight military operations” and was “The inventor of insurgency warfare and history’s first successful practitioner”. Does this make Muhammad a wicked person? Not necessarily. Sometimes warriors are needed to defend their people and to fight for justice. But warriors are not associated with peace. It is therefore not surprising that, according to thereligionofpeace.com, there have been over 38,000 deadly attacks by persons identifying themselves as followers of Islam since 9/11.

If it is unfair to label Islam as a violent religion, it is not also disingenuous to refer to it as a religion of peace?

Michael Abrahams is an obstetrician and gynaecologist, social commentator, and human-rights advocate. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and michabe_1999@hotmail.com, or tweet @mikeyabrahams.