[Moderator's note: This is the letter came to us from  Faith Freedom Foundation (FFF) , the counsil of Humanists and freethinkers of Islamic Origin. ]

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A Call from FFF To Muslims of the World

Dear friends,

The tragedy of the Sep 11 has shocked the world. It is unthinkable how anyone could be so full of hate to commit such heinous act and kill so many innocent people. We peoples of Muslim origin are as much shaken as the rest of the world and yet we find ourselves looked upon with suspicion and distrust by our neighbors and fellow citizens. We want to cry out and announce that we are not terrorists, that those who perpetrate such despicable acts are murderers and are not part of us. But, in reality, because of our Muslim origin we just can not erase the "stigma of Islamic Terrorists" from our identity!

Average Muslims say: "Islam would never support killing innocent people. Allah of Holy Quran never advocated killings. This is all the work of a few misguided individuals. The real Islam is sanctified from violence. We denounce all violence. Islam means peace. Islam means tolerance."

This is what most Muslims think. But is it true? Does really Islam preach peace, tolerance and non-violence? Those Muslims who perpetrate crimes think differently. They believe that what they do is Jihad (holy war). They say that killing the unbelievers is mandatory for every Muslim. They do not kill because they break the laws of Islam but because they think this is what a true Muslim should do. Those who blow-up their own bodies to kill more innocent people do so because they think they will be rewarded in Paradise. They hope to be blessed by Allah, eat celestial food, drink pure wine and enjoy the company of divine consorts.

Are they completely misguided? Where did they get this distorted idea? How they came to believe that killing innocent people pleases God? Or is it that we are misguided? Does really Islam preach violence? Does it call upon its believers to kill the non-believers? We denounce those who commit acts of violence and call them extremists. But are they really extremists or are they following what the Holy book of Quran tells them to do? What really Quran teaches? Have we read the Quran? Do we know what kind of teachings are there? Let us go through some of them and take a closer look at what Allah says:

This is what Qur'an Teaches:

2: 193.
Fight against them until idolatry is no more and Allah’s religion reigns supreme.

2: 216.
Fighting is obligatory for you, much as you dislike it. But you may hate a thing although it is good for you, and love a thing although it is bad for you. Allah knows, but you do not.

9: 41.
Whether unarmed or well-equipped, march on and fight for the cause of Allah, with your wealth and your persons. This will be best for you, if you but knew it,

9: 123.
Believers! make war on the infidels who dwell around you. Let them find harshness in you.

66: 9.
O Prophet! make war on the unbelievers and the hypocrites and deal sternly with them. Hell shall be their home, evil their fate.

9: 73.
O Prophet! Make war on the unbelievers and the hypocrites. Be harsh with them. Their ultimate abode is Hell, a hapless journey’s end.

8: 65.
O Prophet! Exhort the believers to fight. If there are twenty steadfast men among you, they shall vanquish two hundred; and if there are a hundred, they shall rout a thousand unbelievers, for they are devoid of understanding.

8: 12.
I shall cast terror into the hearts of the infidels. Strike off their heads, maim them in every limb.

69: 30-33.
We shall say, ‘Lay hold of him and bind him. Bum him in the fire of Hell, then fasten him with a chain seventy cubits long. For he did not believe in Allah, the Most High.

9: 39.
If you do not fight He will punish you sternly and replace you by other men…

4: 100.
He that leaves his dwelling to fight for Allah and His apostle and is then overtaken by death, shall be rewarded by Allah. Allah is forgiving and merciful.

48: 29.
Muhammad is Allah’s apostle. Those who follow him are ruthless to the unbelievers but merciful to one another… Through them Allah seeks to enrage the unbelievers.

49: 15.
The true believers are those that have faith in Allah and His apostle and never doubt; and who fight for His cause with their wealth and persons. Such are those whose faith is true.

8: 59-60.
Let the unbelievers not think that they will escape Us. They have not the power to do so. Muster against them all the men and cavalry at your disposal, so that you may strike terror into the enemies of Allah and the faithful, and others besides them. All that you give for the cause of Allah shall be repaid you. You shall not be wronged.

9: 2-3.
…Allah will humble the unbelievers… Allah and His apostle are free from obligation to the idol-worshippers… Proclaim a woeful punishment to the unbelievers.

9: 29.
Fight against such of those to whom the Scriptures were given (Christians and Jews) and believe neither in Allah nor the Last Day, who do not forbid what Allah and His apostle have forbidden, and do not embrace the true faith, until they pay tribute out of hand and are utterly subdued.

8: 67.
It is not for any Prophet to have captives until he has made slaughter in the land…

29: 6.
He that fights for Allah’s cause fights for himself…

29: 69.
Those that fight for Our cause We will surely guide to our own paths. Allah is with the righteous.

61: 9-13.
It is He who has sent His messenger with the guidance and the Religion of Truth, so that He may make it the conqueror of all religions, much as the idol-worshippers may dislike it.

[ More verses from Quran at the end of this message.]

Dear fellow Muslims: Is this the Islam you believe in? Is this your Most Merciful, Most Compassionate Allah whom you worship daily? Could Allah incite us to kill other peoples? Are these verses taken out of the context? Please tell us what is the right context? The whole Quran is full of verses like these. Please understand that there is no terrorist gene but there could be a terrorist mindset. That mindset finds its most fertile ground in the tenets of Islam. Denying it and presenting Islam as a religion of peace similar to Buddhism to the lay public is suppression of truth. The history of Islam between 7th and 14th century is riddled with violence, fratricide and wars of aggression, starting right from the rise of Muhammad to power and during the so-called 'pure' or orthodox caliphate. How can we deny the entire history? The behavior of our Holy Prophet as recorded in authentic Islamic sources is quite questionable from a modern viewpoint. The Prophet
was a charismatic man but he had few virtues. Imitating him in all aspects of life (following Sunnah) is number one impossible and number two dangerous in 21st century. Why are we so helplessly in denial on this simple issue?

When the Prophet was in Mecca and still not powerful enough he called for tolerance. He said "To you be your religion, and to me my religion" (109:6).

This famous quote is often misused to show that the general principle of Quran is tolerance. He advised his follower to speak good to their enemies (2: 83), exhorted them to be patient (20:103) and said that "there is no compulsion in religion" (2:256).

But all that did change drastically when he came to power. Then killing and slaying the unbelievers was justified in innumerable verses with harshness and without mercy. The verses quoted to prove Islam's tolerance ignore many other verses that bear to trace of tolerance or forgiveness. Where is tolerance in the above quoted verses? Is it normal that a book revealed by God should have so many serious contradictions?

The Prophet himself set the example of unleashing violence by

Invading the Jewish settlements breaking the treaties he had signed with them banishing some of them after confiscating their belongings, massacring others and taking their wives and children as slaves. He inspected the youngsters and massacred all those who had pubic hair along with adults and those who were younger he kept as slaves. He distributed the women captured in his raids among his soldiers keeping the prettiest for himself (33:50). He made sexual advances on Safiyah a Jewish girl in the same day he captured her town Kheibar and killed her father, husband and many of her relatives. Reyhana was another Jewish girl of Bani Quriza whom he used as sex slave after killing all her male relatives. In the last ten years of his life he accumulated a score of wives, concubines and sex slaves including the 9 year old Ayesha.

These are not stories but records from authentic Islamic history and the Hadiths. It can be argued that these behaviors were not unknown or unusual for the conquerors and leaders of the mediaeval world but these are not the activities befitting of a peaceful saint and certainly not of someone who claimed to be the Mercy of God for all the creation.

The very Islamic traditions recount tales of assassinations perpetrated at the behest of the Prophet. Among them there was a 120 year old Jewish man called Abu 'Afak whose only crime was to compose a lyric satirical of the Prophet. (Kitab al Tabaqat al Kabir, Volume 2, by Bin Sa'd, page 32) Then when a poetess, a mother of 5 small children 'Asma' Bint Marwan enraged by this killing wrote a poetry cursing the Arabs for letting Muhammad assassinate an old man, our Holy Prophet ordered her to be assassinated too in the middle of the night while her youngest child was suckling from her breast. (Sirat Rasul Allah (A. Guilaume's translation "The Life of Muhammad") page 675, 676).

Dear conscientious Muslims: Question yourselves- isn't this compulsive dogma of following a man who lived 1400 years ago, leading us to doom in this changing world? Who are we deceiving but ourselves? Dear brothers and sisters, see how our Umma (people) has sank into poverty and how it lags behind the rest of the world? Isn't it because we are following a religion that is outdated and impractical? In this crucial moment of history, when a great catastrophe has befallen to us and a much bigger one is lying ahead, should not we wake up from our 1400 years of slumber and see where things have gone wrong?

The hatred has filled the air and the world is bracing itself for its doomsday. Should we not ask ourselves whether we have contributed, wittingly or unwittingly, to this tragedy and whether we can stop The Great Disaster
from happening?

Unfortunately the answer to the first question is yes. Yes we have contributed to the rise of fundamentalism by merely claiming Islam is a religion of peace, by simply being a Muslim and by saying our shahada (testimony that Allah is the only God and Muhammad is his messenger). By our shahada we have recognized Muhammad as a true messenger of God and his book as the words of God. But as you saw above those words are anything but from God. They call for killing, they are prescriptions for hate and they foment intolerance. When the ignorant among us read those hate laden verses, they act on them and the result is the infamous September 11, the result is human bombs in Israel, massacres in East Timor and Bangladesh, kidnappings and killings in Philippines, slavery in Sudan, honor Killings in Pakistan and Jordan, torture in Iran, stoning and maiming in Afghanistan and Iran, violence in Algeria, terrorism in Palestine and misery and death in all Islamic countries. We are responsible because we endorsed Islam and hailed it as a religion of God. And we are as guilty as those who put into practice what Quran preaches and ironically we are the main victims too.

If we are not terrorists, if we love peace, if we cried with the rest of the word for what happened in NY, then why are we supporting Quran that preaches killing, that advocates holy war, that calls for murder of non-Muslims? It
is not the extremists who have misunderstood Islam. They do literally what Quran ask them to do. It is we who misunderstand Islam. We are the ones who are confused. We are the ones who wrongly assume that Islam is the religion of peace. Islam is not a religion of peace. In its so-called pure form it can very well be interpreted as a doctrine of hate. Terrorists are simply doing that and we the intellectual apologists of Islam are justifying it.

But we can stop this madness. Yes we can avert the disaster that is hovering over our heads. Yes we can denounce the doctrines that promote hate. Yes we can embrace the rest of humanity with love. Yes we can become part of a united world, members of one human family, flowers of one garden. We can dump the claim of infallibility of our Book and the questionable legacy of our Prophet. Dear friends, there is no time to waste. Let us put an end to this lie. Let us not fool ourselves. Islam is not a religion of peace, of tolerance, of equality or of unity of humankind. Let us read the Quran. Let us face the truth even if it is painful. As long as we keep this lie alive, as long as we hide our head in the sands of Arabia we are feeding terrorism. As long as you and I keep calling Quran the unchangeable book of God, we cannot blame those who follow the teachings therein. As long as we pay our Khums and Zakat our money goes to promote Islamic expansionism and that means terrorism, Jihad and war. Islam divides the world in two quarters. Darul Harb (land of war) and Darul Islam (land of Islam). Darul Harb is the land of the infidels, Muslims are required to infiltrate those lands, proselytize and procreate until their number increase and then start the war and fight and kill the people and impose the religion of Islam on them and convert that land into Darul Islam.

In all fairness we denounce this betrayal. This is abuse of the trust. How can we make war in the countries that have sheltered us? How can we kill those who have befriended us? Yet unwillingly we have become pawns in this
Islamic Imperialism. Let us see what great Islamic scholar have to say in this respect.

Dr. M. Khan the translator of Sahih Bukhari and the Quran into English wrote: "Allah revealed in Sura Bara'at (Repentance, IX) [the order to discard (all) obligations (covenants, etc), and commanded the Muslims to fight against all the Pagans as well as against the people of the Scriptures (Jews and Christians) if they do not embrace Islam, till they pay the Jizia (a tax levied on the Jews and Christians) with willing submission and feel themselves subdued (as it is revealed in 9:29). So the Muslims were not permitted to abandon "the fighting" against them (Pagans, Jews and Christians) and to reconcile with them and to suspend hostilities against them for an unlimited period while they are STRONG and have the ability to fight against them. So at first "the fighting" was forbidden, then it was permitted, and after that it was made obligatory "[Introduction to English translation of Sahih Bukhari, p.xxiv.]

Dr. Sobhy as-Saleh, a contemporary Islamic accademicician quoted Imam Suyuti the author of Itqan Fi 'Ulum al- Qur'an who wrote: ?The command to fight the infidels was DELAYED UNTIL THE MUSLIMS BECOME STRONG, but when they were weak they were commanded to endure and be patient. [ Sobhy as_Saleh,
Mabaheth Fi 'Ulum al- Qur'an, Dar al-'Ilm Lel-Malayeen, Beirut, 1983, p.269.]

Dr. Sobhy, in a footnote, commends the opinion of a scholar named Zarkashi who said: "Allah the most high and wise revealed to Mohammad in his weak condition what suited the situation, because of his mercy to him and his
followers. For if He gave them the command to fight while they were weak it would have been embarrassing and most difficult, but when the most high made Islam victorious He commanded him with what suited the situation, that is asking the people of the Book to become Muslims or to pay the levied tax, and the infidels to become Muslims or face death. These two options, to fight or to have peace return according to the strength or the weakness of the Muslims." [ibid p. 270]

Other Islamic scholars (Ibn Hazm al-Andalusi, Ga'far ar-Razi, Rabi' Ibn 'Ons, 'Abil-'Aliyah, Abd ar-Rahman Ibn Zayd Ibn 'Aslam, etc.) agree that the verse "Slay the idolaters wherever you find them" (9:5) cancelled those
few earlier verses that called for tolerance in Quran and were revealed when Islam was weak.

Can you still say that Islam is the religion of peace?

Conclusion:
We know too well that it is not easy to denounce our faith as it means denouncing a part of ourselves. We are a group of freethinkers and humanists with Islamic roots. Discovering the truth and leaving the religion of our fathers and forefathers was a painful experience for us. But after learning what Islam stands for, we had no choice but to leave it. After becoming familiar with the Quran, the choice became clear: It is either Islam or it is the humanity. If Islam has to thrive, the humanity has to die. We decided to side with humanity. We are still Muslims culturally but we no more believe in Islam as the true religion of God. We are humanists. We love humanity. We endeavor for the unity of humankind. We work for equality between men and women. We strive for secularization of Islamic countries, for democracy and freedom of thoughts, beliefs and expressions We decided not to live anymore in self-deception but to embrace humanity, enter into the new millennium hand in hand with people or other cultures and beliefs in amity and in peace. We denounce violence that is eulogized in Quran as holy war (Jihad). We condemn killing in the name of God. We believe in sacredness of human life and not in inviolability of beliefs and religions. And we invite you to join us and the rest of the humanity and be part of the family of humankind with love, camaraderie and peace.

Faith Freedom Foundation (FFF)

is The Council of Humanists and Freethinkers of Islamic Origin


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More verses from Quran that promotes hate:

9: 5.
When the sacred months are over slay the idol-worshippers wherever you find them. Arrest them, besiege them, and lie in ambush everywhere for them. If they repent and take to prayer and pay the alms-tax, let them go their way. Allah is forgiving and merciful.

9: 14.
Fight them! Allah will chastise them at your hands, and He will lay them low and give you victory over them, and He will heal the breasts of folk who are believers.

4: 95-96.
The believers who stay at home - apart from those that suffer from a grave impediment - are not equal to those -who fight for the cause of Allah with their goods and their persons. Allah has given those that fight with their goods and their persons a higher rank than those who stay at home. He has promised all a good reward: but far richer is the recompense of those who
fight for Him: rank of His own bestowal, forgiveness, and mercy. Allah is forgiving and merciful.

3: 142.
Did you suppose that you would enter Paradise before Allah has proved the men who fought for Him and endured with fortitude?

60: 4.
…We renounce you (i.e. the idolaters): enmity and hate shall reign between us until you believe in Allah only…

58: 23.
You shall find no believers in Allah and the Last Day on friendly terms with those who oppose Allah and His apostle, even though they be their fathers, their sons, their brothers, or their nearest kindred...

8: 13-14.
Thus We punished them because they defied Allah and His apostle. He that defies Allah and His apostle shall be sternly punished. We said to them, ‘Feel Our scourge. Hell-fire awaits the unbelievers.’

8: 55.
The basest creatures in the sight of Allah are the faithless who will not believe…

25: 55.
Yet the unbelievers worship idols which can neither help nor harm them. Surely the unbeliever is his Lord’s enemy.

5: 72.
…He that worships other Gods besides Allah shall be forbidden Paradise and shall be cast into the fire of Hell. None shall help the evil-doers.

9: 23.
Believers! do not befriend your fathers or your brothers if they choose unbelief in preference to faith. Wrong-doers are those that befriend them.

9: 28.
Believers! know that the idolaters are unclean...

3: 28.
Let believers not make friends with infidels in preference to the faithful; he that does this has nothing to hope for from Allah - except in self-defence. Allah admonishes you to fear Him; for to Him you shall all return.

3: 118.
Believers! do not make friends with any men other than your own people. They will spare no pains to corrupt you. They desire nothing but your ruin. Their hatred is clear from what they say, but more violent is the hatred which their breasts conceal…

4 144.
Believers! do not choose the infidels rather than the faithful for your friends. Would you give Allah a clear proof against yourselves?

5: 14.
…Therefore, We stirred among them (i.e. the Christians) enmity and hatred, which shall endure till the Day of Resurrection, when Allah will declare to them all that they have done.

5: 64.
…That which Allah has revealed to you will surely increase the wickedness and unbelief of many of them (i.e. the Jews). We have stirred among them (i.e. the Jews) enmity and hatred, which will endure till the Day of Resurrection...

5: 18.
The Jews and the Christians say, ‘We are the children of Allah and His loved ones.’ Say: ‘Why then does He punish you for your sins?’…

5: 51.
Believers! take neither Jews nor Christians for your friends. They are friends with one another. Whoever of you seeks their friendship shall become one of their number. Allah does not guide the wrong-doers.

5: 17.
Unbelievers are those who declare: ‘Allah is the Messiah (i.e. Christ), the son of Mary.’ Say: ‘Who could prevent Allah from destroying the Messiah (i.e. Christ), the son of Mary, together with his mother and all the people
of the earth?’…

4: 157.
They denied the truth and uttered a monstrous falsehood against Mary. They declared: ‘We have put to death the Messiah Jesus, the son of Mary, the apostle of Allah.’ They did not kill him, nor did they crucify him, but they
thought they did.

98: 6.
The unbelievers among the people of the Book (i.e. Christians and Jews) and the pagans shall bum for ever in the fire of Hell. They are the vilest of all creatures.

22: 19-21.
…Garments of fire have been prepared for unbelievers. Scalding water shall be poured upon their heads, melting their skins and that which is in their bellies. They shall be lashed with red iron.

22: 56-57.
…Those that have embraced the true faith and done good works shall enter the gardens of delight, but the unbelievers who have denied Our revelations shall receive an ignominious punishment.

5: 36.
As for the unbelievers, if they offered all that the earth contains and as much besides to redeem themselves from the torment of the Day of Resurrection it shall not be accepted from them. Theirs shall be a woeful punishment.

15: 2.
The day will surely come when the unbelievers will wish that they were Muslims.

72: 14-15.
Some of us are Muslims and some are wrong-doers. Those that embrace Islam pursue the right path; but those that do wrong (of not embracing Islam) shall become the fuel of fire.

41: 33.
And who speaks better than he who calls others to the service of Allah, does what is right, and says: ‘I am a Muslim?’

4 125.
And who has a nobler religion than the man who surrenders himself to Allah?…

25: 27-29.
On that day the wrong-doer will bite his hands and say, ‘Would that I had walked in the Apostle’s path. Oh, would that I had never chosen so-and-so for my companion: It was he that made me disbelieve in Allah’s warning after
it had reached me.’ Satan is ever treacherous to man.

3: 85.
He that chooses a religion other than Islam, it will not be accepted from him and in the world to come he will be one of the lost.

8: 38.
Tell the unbelievers that if they mend their ways (i.e. embrace Islam) their past shall be forgiven: but if they persist in sin (i.e. idol-worshipping) let them reflect upon the fate of their forefathers.

31: 13.
Luqman admonished his son. ‘My son’, he said, ‘serve no other God instead of Allah, for idolatry is an abominable sin.’

37: 22-25.
But We shall say: ‘Call the sinners, their wives, and the idols which they worshipped besides Allah and lead them to the path of Hell. Keep them there for questioning - But what has come over you that you cannot help one another?’

37: 26-32.
On that day they will all submit to Allah. They will reproach each other, saying: ‘You have imposed upon us. It was you who would not be believers. We had no power over ‘ you; you were sinners all. Just is the verdict which our Lord has passed upon us, we shall surely taste His punishment. We
misled you, but we ourselves have been misled.’

6: 40-41.
Say: ‘When Allah’s scourge smites you and the Hour of Doom suddenly overtakes you, will you call on any but Allah to help you? Answer me, if you are men of truth: No, on Him alone you will call; and if He please, He will relieve your affliction. Then you will forget your idols.’

2: 221.
You shall not wed pagan women, unless they embrace the faith. A believing slave-girl is better than an idolatress, although she may please you. Nor shall you wed idolaters unless they embrace the faith. A believing slave is better than an idolater, although he may please you. These call you to Hell-fire, but Allah calls you, by His will, to paradise and to forgiveness.
He makes plain His revelations to mankind, so that they may take heed.

24: 3.
The adulterer may marry only an adulteress or an idolatress; and adulteress may marry only an adulterer or an idolater. True believers are forbidden such marriages.