Islam Professor Converts from Believer to Non-Believer
05 Oct, 2008
Passages that incite to violence, hatred, and
discrimination against women in the Koran and Sunnah must be
removed, or viewed in their historic context if Islam and Muslims
want to be accepted by the world community
The German media reported early September 2008 that the German
Professor Sven (Muhammad) Kalisch, a Muslim convert, who teaches
Islam theology at Münster University, Germany, doubts it very much
that Muhammad, the Prophet of Muslims “has ever existed.”
In a public lecture at Bielefeld University, Germany,
(27.7.2008), Kalisch laid out his latest position about Islam and
the Koran. He said that either Muhammad was a fictitious figure that
never existed, or someone like him had existed and later was
declared a prophet after his death.
It is good that an Islam expert has dared say that at a time when
everybody is intimidated to criticize Islam and its symbols. Almost
two years ago though, Kalisch thought and lectured differently. In
another public lecture also at Bielefeld University (16.3.2006) he
defended Al Shri’a as the law of God. As I confronted him with
atrocious passages from the Koran inciting to violence, hatred, and
discrimination against women (check
Islam
is a violent Faith), he started stuttering and did not know
what to say.
Obviously, Kalisch has drastically changed over the past two
years, from a dogmatic (convert) Muslim to a “liberal” one. What
happened? We do not know. But one thing is clear. Now for many
fanatic Muslims, Kalisch is a heretic and apostate. And most
certainly one of those grand muftis in the Muslim world will issue a
fatwa urging “pious” Muslims to kill Kalisch.
In an interview with the German daily taz (29.12.2004) Kalisch
was asked why he converted to Islam. He answered, “because
rationality prevails in Islam”. “Rationality”!? This is laughable.
The Koran and the Sunnah are replete with threats, fear, hatred,
violence, and discrimination against non-Muslims and women. The word
“Islam” means “submission”.
Kalisch’s students are also stunned how the man has changed. On condition of anonymity, one of those students told me,
“I don’t know what happened to Professor Kalisch. He used to defend every word in the Koran, even archaic and obsolete things. Now he is rejecting them, and demanding that Islam be reformed. He even said, Islam needs a Martin Luther.”
Kalisch’s students, who in one year will be released to teach
Islam at schools, are split between those who follow a moderate
course of Islam and those who follow a dogmatic one. Lamya Kaddor,
Kalisch’s assistant is still teaching a dogmatic course of Islam.
Ms. Kaddor is indeed popular among her Muslim students (the
majority of which are native Turks or Arabs) at the University of
Münster and at the Glückauf Pubic School in Western German city of
Dinslacken-Lohberg near Essen, as Speigel Online claims on March 14,
2008, and that is so for one simple reason, which Der Spiegel did
not mention. Kaddor repeats ad nausea in front of her students that
the whole world is afraid of Islam because it has the stronger
arguments, and sooner or later the Muslim Caliphate, the Muslim
empire is coming and will prevail all over the world. Therefore,
rejoice!
According to the Turkish daily Zaman, Kalisch rejected Kaddor’s
doctorate dissertation because it was full of plagiarism. Kalisch
also accuses his assistant of having peculated huge amounts of
research money.
A moderate student of Kalisch told me that the majority of his
colleagues would teach a dogmatic variety of Islam.
The Ministry of Education in NRW, the German federal state which
commissioned Kalisch to train Islam teachers for schools has been
presented a general outline of an Islam course at the NRW schools.
The details were left out.
Ayub Axel Köhler, the Chairman of the Central Council of Muslims
in Germany and some of Kalisch students insist that Islam teachers
at German schools must teach the Koran and the Sunnah as they
are: “They are word of Allah.”
Wolfgang Borgfeld, who after converting to Islam changed his name
to Muhammad Siddiq, established an association he called “The House
of Islam” in the south of Frankfurt. The “House”, which used to be a
hotel and harbors several halls for seminars and conferences, is
financed by the Saudis and Kuwaitis. It is, however, largely a Koran
school without any official control.
Recently I visited “The House of Islam” and Mr. Siddiq was
delighted to show me his school and meet his students. I was curious
and wanted to know what the students (8 – 18 years old) have
learned. I asked a 16 year old girl why she was wearing a headscarf
. She said she was proud of it because with it she is fulfilling the
commandment of Allah. I asked a 15 year old student what Jihad
meant. His answer: “It is fighting for Islam to prevail.” I asked
further, also with weapons? “If need be, yes.” He heftily replied.
Siddiq’s House has around 60 students. One third of them are converts. And they are quite zealous about Islam. Uta Rasche wrote in the Frankfurter Allgemeine (September 1, 2004),
“The number of those who converted to Islam (in Germany) is between 13,000 and 60,000, according to estimates. In any case, they make up only a small share of Germany’s more than 3 million Muslims. But many converts have a very special story. Often they are extremely attached to their religion—and sometimes, they are particularly dangerous. They want to prove to themselves and their new fellow worshipers that they take their conversion seriously and therefore have a strong desire to demonstrate their religious commitment.”
Rasche also says:
“Certainly, not every visit to an Islamic school produces an extremist, and naturally, not every convert becomes a terrorist. But when Islamic fundamentalists are looking for people in Germany whom they can use for their purposes, young converts have proven to be an ideal target group: They are enthusiastic, want to prove themselves, have severed all their ties and left their western circle of friends behind for the sake of the Muslim community. And there are decisive practical advantages: They have a German passport, can travel without restrictions within Europe, often speak good English and do not look suspicious at all.”
Gudrun Krämer, an Islam Professor at Berlin University (FU)
rushed all of a sudden to support Professor Kalisch that the Muslim
leader, Muhammad “maybe never existed”. She claimed that she had
thought of that and came to the same conclusion. If that were the
case, why did she then defend the fictitious Koran in most of her
published articles and books? For instance, she tries to justify the
Koran discriminating against women as witnesses. She argues that the
testimony of a woman is half as valid as that of a man, according to
the Koran, because when women get their menstruation they do not
think and remember clearly. Besides, she added, women were
illiterate. The truth of the matter is the vast majority of men were
also illiterate during the rise of Islam.
In fact, Krämer is not the only relativist among Islam experts in
the West. So far, none of these experts has had the courage to
criticize the Koran and the Sunnah which preach violence, hatred,
and discrimination against women and followers of other faiths.
George Stauth, another Islam relativist, defends Islamism as a
reaction to Western colonialism and modern consumerism. Stauth adds,
Islamism is a “protest movement” against corruption and despotism in
the Muslim world.
This might be the case, but the Islamists, who are inciting to
violence, hatred, and discrimination against women inspired by the
Koran and Sunnah, are the least qualified to change the status quo
situation. If Islamists took over, they would replace the evil by a
worse one. They simply reject political and religious pluralism.
They reject the others completely.
In any case, we Muslims have the right to practice our religion
like followers of other faiths do. But at same time we must skip all
those passages in the Koran and Sunnah which preach commandments
against human rights, freeze them, or discuss them in their own
historic context. Followers of other religions have already done
that; the Christians, the Jews, and the others.
Whether the Prophet Muhammad existed or not is insignificant.
Islam, however, is a fact of life. But if we, Muslims want to be
accepted by the world community, then we must renounce violence,
hatred and discrimination against women. We must accept the other
faiths as they accept us.
The way up to all that seems to be quite long and thorny. Both peace-loving Westerners and Muslims must work on reaching that aim. Preaching relativism and being fearful to spell out the bitter truth would only strengthen the Islamists and their destructive ideology. There must the fight against extremism and fanaticism begin.
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Dr. Sami Alrabaa is a sociology professor and an Arab/Muslim culture specialist. Before moving to Germany he taught at Kuwait University, King Saud University, and Michigan State University.
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Name: AbduShaitan
Date: Saturday October 04, 2008
Time: 17:50:11 -0700
Comment
hi i read once that an islamic scholar once wrote that mohammed's name wasnt even mohammed it was qthem and that he chose mohammed as a title meaning the praised one which is opposite to qthem which means rottern food. he did that when he chose to become a prophet. does anybody have more info about that? because i cant find much
Name: Ibn Kammuna
Date: Saturday October 04, 2008
Time: 19:00:14 -0700
Comment
I applaud the author on attempting to freeze parts of the Qur'an and the Sunnah. But the fact is by doing that, he's already an apostate. The fact of the matter is the Qur'an is full of hate of the other and incitements against other people. If you take that out, you'll probably end up with just few early Meccan Suras. Thats about it. The plain truth is, if you reject any part of the Qur'an (freeze it!), you are rejecting Islam. In additon, I am sure the author is familiar with much of the research done by some of the greats like Ibn Warraq, Ali Sina, Abul Kasem, M A Khan, Robert Spencer,.. There are literaly thousands of valid objections to believing in Islam. In fact, if anything, one has to fight Islam, in a peaceful manner, using logical thinking. Finally, I finish my comments quoting the ever great human being Ali Sina: "Islam belongs to the dust bin of history."
Name: Snake Oil Baron
Date: Saturday October 04, 2008
Time: 19:15:52 -0700
Comment
As with theories about Jesus being fictional, I find it hard to believe that an entirely fictional character could become so widely accepted in a short time. I find the version where someone somewhat like the character existed and as the stories spread, certain people jumped at the chance to standardize the stories (though neglecting to remove all contradictions) and impose their own views on the narrative. I find it very strange that the founders of written Islam didn't clean up the story of this "prophet" and his sayings, deeds and revelation when it was in their power to do so. It is almost as if the Persians were trying to sabotage the religion they had been forcibly converted to by compiling it as an insane rambling of contradictory, hateful and seemingly demonic cluster of poetry verses complete with bad grammar and omitted words. It is interesting to see how many people leave Islam after being confronted with an objective analysis of its content. It does not even need to be a majority but as long as the number of apostates, Christian converts and new secularist Muslims exceeds the natural increase of Muslims by biological fertility the power of Islam will wane.
Name: vbv
Date: Saturday October 04, 2008
Time: 19:49:53 -0700
Comment
Interesting article. Some fools get carried away by the so-called revelations by some spooky character called Allah whom nobody has seen, even the founder of this cult Muhamad, who anyway was a super conman schemed to usurp absolute power to rule like a mad despot. I must admit that he has created a very enduring cult that muslims swear by his words even 1400 years after his death. This is some 'guinness record' that can never be beaten by anyone. He has made it foolproof by asking his zealots to kill anyone who leaves this cult. A murderous cult which endured because most muslims were kept illiterate , the rest of them brainwashed to the point of stunting their power to think rationally ,sensibly and humanely. Quran is bogus: it has usurped Biblical mythology to legitamise its amoral and criminal activities. But for the distortion of Biblical Tales ,it has nothing of value to offer to humanity, there is nothing spiritual or moral or even original in the Quran or in the saying of Muhamad. And Muhamad was no Jesus, or Buddha, Mahaveer Jain,or Krishna whose philosophies were humane, spiritual, highly moral and original. It legitamises the barbaric arabic practices, it promotes arab hegemony ( as Allah is supposed to have said that arabs are the best of his 'creations', especially the Quraish tribe to which Muhamad belongs). The ultimate objective is to make the whole world submit to the barbaric Arabian bedouins. It is yet another form of colonialism. Arabs are supposed to be closer to Allah and the Quran was "revealed" in arabic to a supposedly "illiterate" Muhamad by a Biblical 'angel' Gabriel! All this sounds hollow and exposes this whole Allah-Muhamad-Gabriel-Quran caper as the biggest political FRAUD in the history of humankind. You can find the echos of this vicious cultof islam in the preaching and practices of terrorist outfits like the LTTE,or in the communist idealogies of Stalin, Mao, PolPot,or in the fascism of Hitler and Mussolini, which are all totalitarian and despotic like islam.If educated "professors" like Kalisch,Kador ,mentioned in this article could be brainwashed, one can imagine the plight of a gullible layman who can be aneasy prey to this vicious cult called Islam!
Name: Islamic time bomb
Date: Saturday October 04, 2008
Time: 22:57:09 -0700
Comment
The Islamic time bomb is ticking in Europe.
Name: Zombie fried chicken
Date: Sunday October 05, 2008
Time: 01:00:12 -0700
Comment
The mohammad that most Muslims know, the one who was perfect, caring, and always did the right thing, likely did not exist. In fact one of the traditions, that of Mohammad showing compassion to the old jewish lady who made fun of him was likely referring to that founder of the Bahai faith (in the 19th century) and was adopted by Muslims. The Mohammad who directed raids and raped and pillaged and beheaded people was probably a real person. Why would anybody make up such a person.
Name: To Dr. Samir Al Rabaa
Date: Sunday October 05, 2008
Time: 05:59:15 -0700
Comment
Sir, You have said "But if we, Muslims want to be accepted by the world community, then we must renounce violence, hatred and discrimination against women. We must accept the other faiths as they accept us." It is not only discrimination against women that islam preaches but also discrimination against all non muslims. If muslims were to reject discrimination against women and non muslims they would have to reject almost all of the quran and muuhamed himself because the man practised and preached discrimination, murder, thievery against non muslims. heres proof Bukhari (8:387) - Allah's Apostle said, "I have been ordered to fight the people till they say: 'None has the right to be worshipped but Allah Bukhari (52:220) - Allah's Apostle said... 'I have been made victorious with terror' Sura (9:29) - "Fight those who believe not in Allah nor the Last Day, nor hold that forbidden which hath been forbidden by Allah and His Messenger, 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." Sura (9:5) - "So when the sacred months have passed away, then slay the idolaters wherever you find them, and take them captives and besiege them and lie in wait for them in every ambush, then if they repent and keep up prayer and pay the poor-rate, leave their way free to them." Islam cannot be reformed. It has to be rejected.
Name: menstruating women dont have good memory ?is it written in koran or did allah send gabriel to tell prof kramer ?
Date: Sunday October 05, 2008
Time: 06:01:27 -0700
Comment
menstruating women dont have good memory ?is it written in koran or did allah send gabriel to tell prof kramer ? there is no proof that menstruating women have less memory. beside this it raises a big question how can a perfect god make such a hugh mistake ? it only proves that allah is imaginary and evolution of man is responsible for menstruation and has nothing to do with memory, shame on prof kramer for debasing women, if this is what people think of muslims shame on them.
Name: Mumin Salih
Date: Sunday October 05, 2008
Time: 11:46:33 -0700
Comment
To Abdu Shaitan Your information may be correct, I also read it somewhere. Quethm was the original name of Mohammed, he changed it because it has a better meaning. He also changed the names of some of his followers, like Abu bakr. Unfortunately the sources are scant, and muslims will certainly say they are unreliable.
Name: Re: Ticking Time Bomb
Date: Sunday October 05, 2008
Time: 11:50:35 -0700
Comment
There is indeed a powerful time bomb in the making but not this way. I see in my crystal ball that there are some very interesting studies in the pipeline at a couple of international universities, that will reveal very revealing things about the quran and how it came into existence. How it was influenced by various historical and/or political incidents, and how the quran was rewritten several times until it became what we have now. This will shake the Ulemas really, because they are not prepared to react on the challenge, as well as to watch "their" holy, arabic quran being dissected by international scholars! This will reveal that all the arabo-islamic "scholars" are nothing but charlatans!
Name: To Ibn Kammuna
Date: Sunday October 05, 2008
Time: 13:28:28 -0700
Comment
You are correct, if Muslims were ever to be convinced to disregard the hate, violence, and subjugation of other faiths, all of which or repetitively encouraged in the Quran, then the end result would be a faith that is no longer Islamic. The reason there has never been any reformers in Islam is because it is a religion that can't be reformed, only consigned to the dust bin of history...where it belongs along with Nazism, the KKK, Saudi Arabian Wahabism, and the rest of the garbage.
Name: To have a man like this REALLY gives me hope
Date: Sunday October 05, 2008
Time: 14:28:27 -0700
Comment
And I hope/need it to continue for all our sakes. More and more learned people, like him in this cult, need to stand up and say "We need reform". He is right, a "Martin Luther" is needed, perhaps he can be one of many because that is what will be needed to end this cult of death.
Name: Ananda
Date: Sunday October 05, 2008
Time: 14:37:49 -0700
Comment
"Mohammad may be never existed" is truly absurd & childish. If Europe can't face the truth & hide their head in "sand" instead of facing the Islamic threat, then maybe they should become Muslims. As in any war, to defeat your opponent you have to be stronger than your opponent.
Name: concerned Canadian
Date: Sunday October 05, 2008
Time: 14:52:46 -0700
Comment
Islam will never be accepted by the increasingly secular world community - partly because it is highly irrational (as all major religions are), but also because it is filled with "violence, hatred and discrimination." It would take many centuries to purge Islam of these well-entrenched evils. In the mean time, the world will move so far beyond that Islam will never catch up. It, like other irrational, destructive superstitions is doomed to failure.
Name: Ali Siraj
Date: Sunday October 05, 2008
Time: 18:30:57 -0700
Comment
Kindly correct the Title word from None-believer to Non- Believer Regards,
Name: "George Stauth, another Islam relativist, defends Islamism as a reaction to Western colonialism and modern consumerism. "
Date: Sunday October 05, 2008
Time: 20:05:27 -0700
Comment
So it's the West's fault again! I'm sick of people blaming everything on the West and I'm not even a Westerner.
Name: allat
Date: Sunday October 05, 2008
Time: 20:06:39 -0700
Comment
There is evidence from several sources, in particular roman catholic whistleblowers, in the hierarchy, among these being jesuits, who are privy to secrets, who have left that order, that islam was started by by christians. In order to bring into the christian fold, the Arab Pagans. It sounds like the truth. and as you have noticed, the pope met in secret with the king of arabia. Why is that, I wonder?---------And why did the said king give a gold sword to the pope, I wonder? -------------Now, the creature (islam) has turned around and bitten its creators.--------what irony! The viper islam sinking its poisonous fangs into non-moslems, worldwide.
Name: ha ha ha .....
Date: Monday October 06, 2008
Time: 00:27:59 -0700
Comment
More and more educated people realize the dark side of Islam. It is a polished religion with a polished biography of their prophet Mohammad. Everything is polished like a pair of old shoes. Only un-educated or low-educated people will keep Islam as his/her religion, or, cheated people. No wonder, Islam always cheat others, ha ha ha .....
Name: Why allah in Quron made so many grammatical and scientific errors
Date: Monday October 06, 2008
Time: 04:00:53 -0700
Comment
Why allah in Quron made so many grammatical and scientific errors .If you read Quron impartially you will surely understand it is all stupid imagination of Mohammad. It has only desert trees like palm as the best tree. And many irrelevant amoral sex version. I don't know why allah is obsessed with sex and sexual parts.
Name: To allat
Date: Monday October 06, 2008
Time: 07:47:28 -0700
Comment
You are just propagating a myth. You better read your history books.
Name: Magnus
Date: Tuesday October 07, 2008
Time: 11:37:58 -0700
Comment
Dear Dr Sami Alrabaa, If you renounce the violent teachings of Islam, you are no longer a Muslim and you will according to the perfect word of Allah be punished: Koran 2:85 "[...] Believe ye in part of the Scripture and disbelieve ye in part thereof? And what is the reward of those who do so save ignominy in the life of the world, and on the Day of Resurrection they will be consigned to the most grievous doom. For Allah is not unaware of what ye do."