If Islam Is Violent, Why Are There So Many Good, Kind Muslims?
That question hangs in the air — urgent and trembling with emotion. On the one hand: loving, gracious Muslims who contribute in incalculable ways to the world. On the other: Islamic terrorism in country after country.
Many people worldwide echo the sentiments of then-President George W. Bush, when speaking in 2001 at the Islamic Center of Washington, D.C., not even a week after terrorists plunged hijacked planes into the World Trade Center:
“The face of terror is not the true faith of Islam. That's not what Islam is all about. Islam is peace.”
But what if that’s not the full story? Brother Rachid, former Muslim and now apologist for the Christian faith, carefully articulates another view. According to him, good Muslims are people who have allowed their humanity to overcome their religion.
“Kind Muslims are found everywhere in the world,” he writes in his book The Ideology Behind Islamic Terrorism. “But does their kindness mean that Islam does not enjoin them to hate Jews and Christians and to fight them? No, never.
“Therefore, I always differentiate between Islam and Muslims. Islam should be based and judged on its own texts, which include the violence inherent in the Qur’an.”
Duality of Islam
According to the U.S. Institute of Peace, we must look at the life of Islam’s own founding father, the prophet Muhammed.
According to Ayaan Hirsi Ali in the article “Islam Is a Religion of Violence,” while Mohammed was in Mecca, “he preached about charity and the conditions of widows and orphans. (This method of proselytizing or persuasion, called dawa in Arabic, remains an important component of Islam to this day.)"
Ali is a Somali-born Dutch-American author and activist whom Time magazine named one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2005.
“However," Ali's article continues, "during his time in Mecca, Mohammed and his small band of believers had little success in converting others to this new religion. So, a decade after Mohammed first began preaching, he fled to Medina. Over time he cobbled together a militia and began to wage wars.”
After this point, Ali writes, we see in the Qur’an what Islamic governments now look to, to enforce their laws. Passages such as:
• “Fight those who believe not in Allah nor the Last Day . . . nor acknowledge the religion of Truth, [even if they are] of the People of the Book, until they pay the Jizya with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued” (9:29).
- “Fight those who believe not in Allah nor the Last Day . . . nor acknowledge the religion of Truth, [even if they are] of the People of the Book, until they pay the Jizya with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued” (9:29).
- "We shall cast terror into the hearts of those who disbelieve [all non-Muslims] . . .” (3:151).
- "Then kill the disbelievers [non-Muslims] wherever you find them, capture them and besiege them, and lie in wait for them in each and every ambush . . .” (9:5).
Ali continues: “Mainstream Islamic jurisprudence continues to maintain that the so-called ‘sword verses’ (9:5 and 9:29) have ‘abrogated, canceled, and replaced’ those verses in the Quran that call for ‘tolerance, compassion, and peace.’”
Thus, the duality of Islam, the author claims.
In Mecca, Mohammed promoted Islam as a religion of peace. But his legacy in Medina, as espoused by the Islamic State, commands Muslim everywhere “to wage jihad until every human being on the planet accepts Islam or a state of subservience.”
Enforcing the Qur'an
Many, many who grew up as Muslims and who now follow Jesus would agree with author Ayaan Hirsi Ali. Especially those still living in Islamic cultures. Like Samir*, a new believer from Egypt, whose father and brother once beat him for his faith — right after returning from their worship at the mosque. And Ahmad*, a Syrian whose family members threatened to kill him for his faith. In both cases, Brother Rachid’s team helped the men find safety and Christian fellowship.
The violence is woven into Islamic cultures the world over. In a February 2022 news story out of Uganda, one convert to Christianity persisted in talking about his faith, so some of his relatives tied him up and prepared to burn him to death. A friend rescued him while his uncles looked for petrol to start the fire.
The young man, Malingumu Bruhan, 34, said about one of his uncles: “He accused me of being an infidel by converting to Christianity, and that Allah will reward them in Jannah [garden paradise] if they kill me.”
Your powerful prayers
Please join Brother Rachid in praying for new believers who fear for their lives. As well as for Muslims who are exploring what it means to follow Jesus. The cost is real. But so is the joy of knowing Christ and the assurance of spending eternity with Him.
As the apostle Paul wrote in Philippians 3:
“I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. . . . I want to know Christ — yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead” (3:8,10).
To learn more about Brother Rachid and how he offers truth to counter the false teaching of Islam, please visit our website.
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Sources: “’Islam Is Peace,’ Says President,” Sept. 17, 2001 press release, georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov; passage adapted with permission from The Ideology Behind Islamic Terrorism by Brother Rachid, copyright 2019; “Islam Is a Religion of Violence” by Ayaan Hirsi Ali, U.S. Institute of Peace, Nov. 19, 2015, usip.org. “Evangelist Beaten, Tied Up to Be Burned for Converting,” Morning Star News, Feb. 16, 2022.
* For security purposes, names are changed to protect identity. Arabic Media Ministries uses stock images.