C H A P T E R V I
M U S L I M S A R E B E T T E R T H A N O T H E R P E O P L E
( D O G M A T I C D I S C R I M I N A T I O N)
It is normal that in some kinds of totalitarian systems the ruling group of people is said to be better quality people than all the others. In the Quran this is systemized to an extreme degree - only Muslims are worth much. The irony is that the Arabs for hundreds of years reconed themselves to be of even better quality than other Muslims, and demanded to be the tops - which made some noice from the other Muslims. (Irony: How would they be reckoned by the Nazi? - they are closely related to Jews.)
Year 611-614 AD (003):
001 68/35+36: “Shall We (Allah*) treat the people of Faith (Muslims*) like the People of Sin (non-Muslims*)? What is the matter with you? How judge you?”
Yes, “how judge ye” to believe non-Muslims can be of as good quality as Muslims?
Year 612-615 AD (025):
002 53/29: “- - - shun those who turn away from Our (Allah’s) Message - - -”. Shun the non-Muslims.
Year 614-615 AD (033):
003 25/44: “They (non-Muslims*) are only like cattle - nay, they are worse astray in the Path.” Non-Muslims less worth than cattle. Well, I have heard that in some madrasas (muslim religious schools*) they discuss if non-Muslims have half the value of Muslims or less. It may be true?
Year 614-615 AD (034):
004 35/8: “Is he, then, to whom the evil of his conduct is made alluring (non-Muslims*) - - - (equal to one who is rightly guided*)?” Of corse not - Muslims are much better, of course. This even though the famous Muslim al-Ghazali - perhaps the greatest Muslim after Muhammad, according to Islam - marked the end of any new thinking in any science in the eastern and central Muslim world with his book against philosophy in 1095 AD. For more than 900 years there have not come one single new thought or ida bringing humanity forward in any kind of science, humaiora included, from all the Muslim world, Mahgreb/Spain excluded. (There the ability and freedom to think yourself lasted another ca. 100 years - the death of Ibn Rushd (Averroes) in 1198 can arbitrary be said to mark the end there). Not one single new thought or new idea in over 900 years!!! Among now some 1,2 BILLION people!!! Yes, it has really to be said: It is difficult to match Muslims and Islam.
Actually new ideas some places for long times meant punishment or even death penalty, though after some time it was agreed on that new ideas building on the Quran and the Hadiths could be accepted, but all other ideas were “Bad new thoughts” and negative or punishable.
005 35/19: “The blind (non-Muslims*) and the seeing (Muslims*) are not alike - - -”. No, a blind man - like Stevie Wonder - has no value. Also see 35/8 just above.
006 35/20: “Nor (alike*) are the depths of Darkness (meaning non-Muslims*) and the Light (meaning Muslims*) - - -”. Logically very true like a number of other loose statements in the Quran.
And is a religion and a culture not bringing one single new thought or idea benefiting man in more than 900 years really representing the light?
007 35/21: “Nor (alike*) are the (chilly) shade (non-Muslims*) and the (genial) heath of the sun (Muslims*) - - -”. Is it here symbolic that in Paradise there is shade according to the Quran?
008 35/22: “Nor (alike*) are those who are living (Muslims*) and those that are dead (non-Muslims*).” In the stagnant civilasation of the intellectually living dead (see 35/8) that is likely to be true of course. (But there have been some small tendencies to new intellectual life the last some 60 years - though not enough to bring forth new ideas, only to question some of the old ones).
Is it symbolic that intellectual life in medieval Islam lasted longest in the West (Mahgreb/Spain?)?
But Muslims are best according to this verse and many more in the Quran.
Year 614-615 AD (037):
009 38/28 “Shall We (Allah*) treat those who believe and work deeds of righteousness (Muslims*) the same as those who do mischief on earth (non-Muslims*)?” Of course not - Muslims are best and deserves best treatment. Just like the Nazi in Germany, the Chinese in old China, the Serbs under Milochewich or communists under Pol Pot, to mention a few.
010 38/28: “Shall We (Allah*) treat those who guard against evil (Muslims*), the same as those who turn away from the right (non-Muslims*)?”
Above I have commented the quotations - and will comment more. But read them alone and pretend you are a believing Muslim. Lots of such statements make an impression, and build up something inhuman inside a person who comes to believe it. (May be a reason why the humanitarian organisations mainly originate in the West, not f. ex. in Saudi Arabia? - a fundamental difference somewhere deep down?)
Year 615-617 AD (046):
011 39/9: “Is one (Muslim*) who worship devotedly during the hours of the night - (like one who does not (non-Muslim*)) - - -?” According to the Quran there is big difference. And who in a primitive or brain washed audience or in an audience WANTING to believe, understand they are manipulated?
012 39/9: “Are those equal, those who know (Muslims*) and those (non-Muslims*) who do not know?” Statements and questions like this is a psychological efficient way to build up a belief in “our” own superiority and the opponents’ inferiority and badness. Many dictators frequently use similar technique - be it countries or organisations. The not too intelligent and/or those with limited education mostly do not understand they are manipulated.
013 39/9: “It is those (Muslims*) who are endued with understanding that receives admonition”. This is another efficient way of manipulating: Flatter. Especially the ones not endued with too much understanding - moderate intelligens and/or education (and in this case religious education and other education that does not include education in critical thinking does not count) - easily like to believe things like this. It makes their self esteem swell. And if other groups in addition are said to be inferior to them, that surely does not hurt their self esteem either.
014 39/19: “Is, then, one against whom the decree of Punishment is justly due (non-Muslim*) (equal to one who eschews evil (Muslims*))”. Still another technik for manipulation, and in this case partly to induce really discrimination - “they” are bad people and cannot be compared to “us”. May be we even had better shun them - or worse?
015 39/22: “Is one whose heart Allah has opened to Islam (Muslims*) - - - (no better than one hardhearted (non-Muslim*))”. Of course Muslims are the best - at least according to the Quran. Good for the self esteem, at least for the ones needing a bost of their self-esteem - which often includes the rubble in a society.
016 39/24: “Is, then, one (non-Muslim*) who has to fear the brunt of the Penalty (Hell*) on the Day of Judgement - - - (like one (Muslim*) who guarded therefrom)?” Like 39/22.
017 39/29: “- - - most of them (non-Muslims*) have no knowledge.” But Muslims of course have, and are much better people. This included not one single new thought promoting the life of man in some 900 years in all the Muslim society. Actually there is a well-known Hadith saying something like ‘All new ideas (“bida” in Arab*) are heresy (“wrong teaching“*), all heresy is wrong, and everything that is wrong leads to hell’. Islam found a way to moderate it a little, though: If a new idea - a “bida” - is in accordance with the Quran, with all Hadiths (there are some thousands accepted ones) and all decitions made by consensus among the leading learned Muslims through the times (such decitions are called “ijma” in Arab*), the new idea may - may - be a good “bida”.’
Under such conditions it is not strange that few new ideas emerges - and none that is not meant to serve (or at least not conflict with) old ideas, not to mention with the religion.
Year 616-618 AD (048):
018 40/58: “Not equal are the blind (non-Muslim*) and those who (clearly) see (Muslims*). According til the Quran the answer is obvious - and the self-esteem of Muslims increased. There is a feeble feeling, though, that something is wrong. On the ones side a book relying only on the words of a somewhat special man, and a book containing lots and lots of the hallmarks of cheating, swindling and deceiving. On the other a culture that in spite of mistakes - f. ex. taking colonies like each and every empire and even smaller powers have done throughout all times, included Arabia and other Muslim states - has brought most humans a very much better life the last few hundred years - just in medicin the poor today often are better of than the richest king was just 100 years ago.
As far as I know not one single of those medicines originated in the Muslim world. Neither did one single of the other new ideas.
But in a society where only the next world (real or imagined or wrong? - as it is built on a book with lots of mistakes) really counts, the Muslims after all are the elite.
019 40/58: “- - - nor are (equal) those who believe and work deeds of rigthteousness (Muslims*) and those who do evil (non-Muslims*)”. This is obvious.
Year 616-618 AD (049):
020 41/33: “Who is better in speech than one who calls (men) to Allah, works righteousness, and (is Muslim*)?” Of course “we” - the Muslims - are best. Muhammad did not know the word psychology, I think, but he understood people and how to pep them up.
021 41/40: “Which is better? - he (the non-Muslim*) that is cast into the Fire, or he (the Muslim*) that comes safe through - - -”. Does anyone feel a whisp the word “discrimination”?
Year 616-618 AD (053):
022 45/21: “What! Do those who seek after evil ways (non-Muslims*) think We (Allah*) shall hold them equal with those who believe (Muslims*) and do righteous deeds - - -?” Except for that there is a question whether it is a righteous deed for a thousand years to give their believers education only in Muslim sciences - all knowledge that was needed to study Islam, mainly religion and Arab and related knowledge - but block as many believers as possible from all “foreign sciences” = all other knowledge, which was the case at least from al-Ghazali at the end of the 10th century (in Spain about 100 years later) - except for things like that, may be the Quran is right: Muslims are the top of qualities.
Year 618-619 AD (054):
023 67/22: “Is then one who walks headlong, with face grovelling (non-Muslims*), better guided - or one who walkes evenly on a Stright Way (Muslim*)?” A rhetorical question with an obvious answer - Muslims of course are best. Especially when they obey Allah and make war or in other ways kill or suppress non-Muslims - they are the top of the social and moral pyramide.
Year 621 AD (063):
024 6/21: “Who doth more wrong than he (non-Muslim*) who invented a lie (said something else than Muhammad*) against Allah and His Signs (none of whome is logically valid proofs?*) No, it is not possible to be more wrong than the non-Muslims. “We” (the Muslims) are morally and in other ways far superior. But: Do Islam really have a moral or ethical philosophy? - in that case I have never met it. They have some commandments from Muhammad - and some of them are horrible - and that is all I have found.
Year 621 AD (064):
025 28/61: “ Are (these two) alike? - one to whom We (Allah*) have made a goodly promise (Muslim*) - - - and one (non-Muslim*) who We have given the good things of this life, but who (will go to Hell*)?” Another rhetoric question with an obvious answer enlarging “our” self-esteem and feeling of righteousness. But with an addition: Many religions have a problem with non-believers or believers who are not really good people who have a good life in this world. So also Islam. But the Quran explains it very simple - like some other religions: It is Allah who in his unfathomable wisdom has desided it like that -to try the bad person or for some other reason only Allah understands - but Allah is going to punish him in the next life. A fulfilling explanation that leaves my envy half satisfied, and my gloating also half satisfied - and my self esteem at least on par or a little in pluss.
You find this argument in variations time and again and again in the Quran.
Year 621 AD - verses 12, 17, and 113 may be from the Medina period (067):
026 11/17 (= Medina?): “Can they (non-Muslims*) be like those (Muslims*) who accepted a Clear (Sign) (there are many signs mentioned in the Quran, but not one single one is a valid proof of Allah, as it is nowhere proved that they are initiated by Allah*) from their Lord (Allah*)?” For building up his followers’ feeling of being superior to “the masses”, this is good psychology. This even more so if you want your followers to become a separate group, felling distance to other people or groups.
Year 612-622 AD (074)
027 32/18: “Is then the man who believes (Muslim*) no better than the man who is rebellious and wicked? Not equal are they.” This really is an obvious answer that gives itself. Do you not agree?
Year 622 AD Mecca (078):
028 16/75: “Allah sets for thee a Parable (of two men: one) a slave (non-Muslim*) under the dominion of another (a Muslim*); he has no power of any sort; and (the other) a man on whom We (Allah*) have bestowed goodly favours from Ourselves, and he spends thereof (freely), privately and publicly: are the two equal? (By no means;) praise be to Allah.” This verse speaks not volumes or books, but gigabytes about how Muslims - the superior class and the superior religion - look down on non-Muslims: Even their holy book tells them that non-Muslims are like slaves to them - praise be to Allah. See also 16/76 just below.
Actually the verse also tells a lot about how Muslims looked (looks?) on slaves. And they do right, “prise be to Allah”. (These last words really give insight in a way of thinking).
029 16/76: “Allah sets forth (another) Parabel of two men: one of them (non-Muslim*) dumb, with no power of any sort; a wearisome burden is he to his master (Allah*) - - - is such a man equal with one (Muslim*) who commands justice, and is on a Straight Way?” If possible this strengthens the comments about 16/75 just above.
Now we are at the flight from Mecca to Yathrib/Medina in 622 AD. There are 80 surahs that quite surely + 6 that likely belong to the Mecca periode. In addition there are 22 surahs that quite surely belongs to the Medina periode, and finally 6 where the age has not been possible to find out or guess - 114 all together. (One reservation: My list is not a cannonized one - if I find a better one, I will correct mistakes, if any. But as the huge divide and the huge change of the religion appears when Muhammad fled from Mecca to Yathrib/Medina in 622 AD, and as one knows the period (Mecca or Medina) for nearly all surahs, such corrections will have little consequences for the comparison of Islam before 622 AD and Islam after 622 AD, and also for the enormous questions: Why this change? - did the omniscient god change his mind and want a much more bloody religion all of a sudden? - or did Muhammad suddenly need warriors/highwaymen to survive with his followers - he and his group survived on robbery/thieving and extortion for several years after 622 AD. And: Who made these deep changes in a teaching that originally and for 12 years had been quite peaceful? Allah or Muhammad?
As you see, when it comes to “we are the best”, there is not such a striking difference between 124 before and after 622 AD, as it is for murder and blood and war and hate and suppression in chapter III. This is entirely like expected. Any “normal” new sect or religion has a need to mark the difference between “us” and “them” - and preferably in a way that makes “us” better than “them”. It is when one comes to the more abnormal sides for new sects or religions Islam markes itself in a very “inhuman” and inhuman way - and to a most striking extent - from 622 AD onwards.
The comparison between effects of “normal” wishes for marking oneselves and for wishes for power, compared to the abnormal glorifications of murder, robbery, rape, suppression, hate and killing, is in this religion very striking. The same goes for how fast and how totally the religion was changed in and shortly after 622 AD - it sticks out like a sore thumb.
Year 622 Medina - most likely parts of surah 47 were the first ones in Medina. (087):
030 47/14: “Is then one (Muslim*) who is on a clear (Path) from his Lord, no better than one (non-Muslim*) to whom the evil of his conduct seems pleasing - - -”. Like more or less all such questions in the Quran, this is rhetorical and with seemingly one possible logical answer only - one that is pleasing and flattering for all believers - - - and seemingly sobering for all proselytes.
031 47/15: “(Can those (Muslims*) in such Bliss) be compared to such (non-Muslims*) as shall dwell for ever in the fire - - -”. See 47/14 just above.
Year 622 Medina - likely to be the first complete surah from Medina. (088):
032 2/99: “- - - none (no Muslim*) reject them (the signs of Allah - though not a single one of them are logically valied proofs for Allah, as there nowhere is proved that Allah is behind them*) but those (non-Muslims*) who are perverse”. The distance between the good Muslims and the bad non-Muslims grows - the latter ones even are perverse!!! (Not to mention the situation if they do not even belong to the People of the Book - Jews, Christians and Sabeans (Saba was a Christian country in South Yemen - they had become Christians via East Africa, and perhaps a little different from the Greek Chatolic the Arabs met other plases - Islam often uses other explanations for the Sabeans).
There is little reason not to suppress or rob or rape or kill perverted “animals”!!??
034 2/254: “ Those (non-Muslims*) who rejects Faith (Islam*) - they are the wrongdoers”. If you read the Quran, you many, many times will find the non-Muslims called wrongdoers. No comment necessary. Except that it builds up under an enemy picture - an enemy often so base, that he is vermine better killed.
035 2/257: “Of those who reject faith (non-Muslims*) the patrons are the Evil Ones (the Devil and his helpers*)”. Can human vermine be worse?
Year 625 AD (092):
036 3/110: “Ye (Muslims*) are the best of peoples, evolved for mankind - - -”. It is not possible to disbelieve that Muslims are the top of existing humans and human societies, as the Quran says so - and not one Muslim is aware of that words are cheap.
It also is strengthening the picture of non-Muslims as vermine or at least sub human.
037 3/110: “- - -most of them (non-Muslims*) are perverted transgressors”. Is it possible to add: ‘- that may deserve suppression and extermination - at least sometimes?’
038 3/156: “Oh ye who believe! Be not like the unbelievers - - -”. Unmistakeable order.
Year 625-626 (093):
039 61/9: “- - - he (Muhammad or Allah*) may proclaim it (Islam*) over all religion, even thought the Pagans (= not Muslim, not Jew, not Christian*) may detest (it)”. What the pagans mean, counts exactly nothing (and in spite of what the Quran says in 2/256 about no compulsion in religion, thousands and thousands of them have been murdered through the times only because they refuced to become Muslims - even pagan Arabs in the first years of expansion).
Year 626 (095):
040 4/92: “Never should a believer kill a believer - - -”. In the NT in the Bible the corresponding order is: “You shall not kill”. But non-Muslims of course count less and really do not matter.
Every inch of building up discrimination may count for the leader of highwaymen and warriors. Inferior beings it is not bad to kill. In this case the surah simply may have been meant what it says - though even then it tells a lot about the mentality of the god - or man - behind Islam. And of course about Islam itself. But an intelligent man like Muhammad may have intended the implications, too.
041 4/93: “If a man kills a believer intentionally, his recompence is Hell - - -”. Not a word is said about killing a non-Muslim. Compare NT. But then there is the difference that Muslims are valuable.
042 4/141: “And never will Allah grant to the unbelievers a way (to triumph) over the believers”. The Muslims always will win over non-Muslims, according to this verse. At least in the end.
Year 627-628 AD (098):
043 24/3: “Let no man guilty of adultery or fornification marry any but a woman similarly guilty, or an Unbeliever - - -”. An unbeliever can make up for a depraved Muslim. It tells the Muslims something about the difference between themselves and others.
Year 631 AD (105):
044 9/8: “- - - most of them (pagans*) are rebellious and wicked.” Of course - they are not even Jews, nor Christians, which are bad enough. Far below Muslim moral standard.
045 9/28: “Truly the Pagans are unclean - - -”. They are the lowest caste - even lower than Jews and Christians.
046 9/108: “Which then is best? - he (Muslim*) that layeth his foundation on piety to Allah - - - or he (non-Muslim*) that layeth his foundation on an undermined sand-cliff ready to crumble to pieces?” If there existed a small proof for Allah’s existence, there was no doubt about the answer.
P O S T S C R I P T U M F O R C H A P T E R V I
It may seem that the talk about Muslims being better than non-Muslims far from accelerated after 622 AD. But in addition to these verses there are the often far stronger verses in chapter III, so all the same there is not the slightest doubt that the building of intolerance accelerated in Medina. Muhammad - or Allah - turned to stronger words.
Remember also chapters IV and VII - and as mentioned; III.
Psycologically this is a pep talk and a systematic building up of a little megalomanic belief about oneself, and a lot of discrimination - and stronger - towards the inferior rubble named Jews and Christians, not to mention the at the bottom of the ladder, called Pagans.
For people that really believed the Quran spoke the truth - and for warriors going more for riches and women, and for terrorists today - it was and is sugar to hear they are the wise ones, they are the best ones, they do right, that stealing and enslaving and murder is “lawful and good“ - and the non-Muslims are somewhere between second class and vermin. If it had been a normal book, it had been prohibited in most countries for hate mongering and worse.
And it helped to give Muhammad and his successors strong armies.
And it often made - and make - Muslims forget 2/256: “Let there be no compulsion in religion” - a lot of pagans and sometimes others were forced to become Muslims at the point of a sword. Not to mention by the force of discrimination, social stigma or economical extortion/taxation.
Cairo, 5. Dec.07