Islam Under Scrutiny by Ex-Muslims

Islam: Cocooned in Lies

"The fact that an opinion has been widely held is no evidence whatever that it is not utterly absurd; indeed in view of the silliness of the majority of mankind, a widespread belief is more likely to be foolish than sensible." Bertrand Russell

--------

In every religion there is something good, something bad and something terribly ugly. The good is what is being preached, the bad is what is being practiced and the ugly is the outcome.

All religions preach honesty, modesty, detachment, kindness, justice and other virtues. These are of course our own spiritual heritage. We humans aspire to evolve spiritually and are attracted towards these qualities. Even those societies that have had no religion at all (in Americas and the Far East) have upheld these qualities. The societies that did not have the tradition of receiving messengers from an invisible god were not worse than those who had them.

But what religions practice is not what they preach. Unfortunately,  even the very founders of some of the religions often fail to live an ethical life. The Bible is full of stories of atrocities of Moses, his killings of innocent people all sanctioned by his unfair god. We know very little of Jesus. The Gospels were written 30 to 60 years after his death and cannot be relied as authentic. Yet there are indications in the New Testament that show if he had power, he would probably be as unfair as his predecessor (see `Luk 10:12-13, 19:27 and Rev 2:22-23 ) However we do have a lot of stories recorded from Muhammad. Many of them are considered  authentic (Sahih) that can give us a good glimpse into the mind of the man who claimed to be the prophet and the mercy of God to mankind. Yet the picture we get from this last prophet is anything but holy.

He massacred and exterminated all the Jews from Arabia and instigated hatred between his followers and the Jews that has lasted for over 1400 years and has cost millions of lives. Prior to him Arabs and Jews lived in harmony and were allies.

He sent assassins to kill his critics in the middle of the night, who committed no other crime than composing poetries ridiculing his holiness, even if they where old or mothers of several infants. (*)

He raped Jewish girls 40 years younger than him whom he captured in his raids in the same day that he killed their loved ones and their relatives.

He enriched himself by looting caravans, killing the men, usurping their properties and SELLING their wives and daughters as slaves.

After his affluent wife Khadija died and after he enriched himself with spoils of his wars on defenseless people, he invaded the boundaries of decency and performed sex with twenty women, some only 9 years old, some he married, some he captured in wars, some were his slaves and maid servants and some just 'offered' themselves to him. He did even lust after the beautiful wife of his own adopted son.

Muhammad founded a religion that has brought nothing but hatred and discord between his followers (among themselves) and his followers and the rest of mankind. So much war, so many killings that took place in the name of Islam and are taking place still in various corners of the world.

He heralded a misogynistic religion that has undermined the rights of women and subjected them to mistreatment and abuse. Contrary to the claims of the Islamic apologists Islam has actually took away the rights of women and women in Arabia were better off before Islam than after Islam. This is of course much more true in the case of other today's Islamic countries like Iran where in the life time of Muhammad a Queen reigned.

As I write these notes, a couple of Muslims are being prosecuted for blowing the Pan Am flight killing 280 innocent people and ruining the lives of 280 families. While the accused deny the charges and blame the Palestinians for this cowardice attack, we have to question ourselves, where these Islamic terrorist, that are now burgeoning from Philippines to Timor, from Indonesia to Afghanistan, from Iran to Libya, from Canada to US, got their inspiration to kill? Do you think that Islam has nothing to do with that? There are many verses of Quran that encourage the believers to kill the non-believers. In Islam the end justifies the means.

Modernist Muslims prefer to live in denial than come to terms with the fact that Quran is responsible for all these atrocities perpetrated by Muslims. They call for peace, tolerance and freedom of speech. They condemn the extremists and the fundamentalists for misinterpreting Quran. Yet they are the ones who are misinterpreting it, and are not willing to let go the book that promotes war, hatred and suffocation of thoughts.

It is time that we questioned ourselves, when we accept Islam as a legitimate religion, aren't we promoting a doctrine that rears terrorists? What we THINK Islam is, is irrelevant, what we WANT Islam to be is inconsequential. What Islam REALLY  is matters.

Islam is not a religion that promotes peace. It orders its believers to kill all those who do not accept its dogma, without mercy. It instructs its followers to subdue the Christians and the Jews and make them pay Jizyah (penalty tax).

Islam is not a religion that promotes equality of genders. Muhammad said women are 'deficient in intelligence', that majority of them go to hell because they are disobedient to their husbands, that they should be beaten if they fail to please their husbands.

Islam is not a religion that promotes equality for all humanity. It clearly regards the non-Muslims as second-class citizens and for those who are not either Jews or Christians it prescribes death. It also allows slavery.

Islam is not a religion that promotes freedom of thought and speech. It curtails the right of all the non-Muslims to teach their religion, to congregate and to celebrate their belief. It instructs killing all those who decide to break rank and think freely and independently.

If what I write offends you, it is not because there is anything offensive in my writings. It is because we Muslims have been cocooned in lies for so long that now the light of truth is blinding us. Religion is compared to opium and we are so much intoxicated by it that any attempt to wean us from it will be faced with hostility and anger.

I am not attacking or insulting my fellow Muslim brothers and sisters. They are in my blood and I am in theirs. I am trying to wake them up, to shake them up, to bring them to their senses and show them the hidden and dark side of Islam. I don't do that because I want to hurt them, I do that because I love them. Because our peace and security, our prosperity and happiness, our unity and integration with the rest of our brothers and sisters in humanity cannot be achieved as long as we are cocooned in the lies of Islam and shackled in hate towards those who do not agree with us..

My writings are my gift of love to my fellow human beings. I do not profit from them nor I seek fame thereof. On the contrary I am being hated by the majority of my Muslim readers and if found I will be put to death. I am not a sadist and tormenting others does not give me pleasure. I feel the pain of every suffering person. I cry like a child when I see the atrocities that some of us inflict on the rest of us. I am at lost when I see the apathy and indifference of some for the misfortunes of others. I am a human, part of humanity, feeling the pain of humanity. It is our responsibility to make each other see the truth. No one will do that for us; no one can do that for us; and no one should do that for us.

I earnestly invite you to study the Quran and question it. Read this book and think with open mind. If you think I am mistaken, show me; I am open to change. Otherwise please join me in this spiritual undertaking. Let us wake up our brothers and sisters. Let us not look down at the unbelievers with disdain. Let us quench this hate that is burning in our hearts. Let us embrace all humanity as our kin. Let us demolish the walls that have separated us from the rest of mankind. Let us descend from this pedestal of self-righteousness. Let us regard women as equal, Let us forget what Muhammad said and listen to the voice of reason. And let us love humanity above any doctrine or deity. 


If you like this essay: Stumble it   Stumble Upon Toolbar digg it reddit

Ali Sina is the editor of Faithfreedom.org. He is has contributed in 'Beyond Jihad - Critical Voices from Inside Islam'.  His latest book is Understanding Muhammad: The Psychobiography of Allah???s Prophet.


Name:     closed
Comment:

Comments Notes: Keep comments short. Our system cannot separate paragraphs. Comments must be relevant to the topic of the article. Irrelevant comments, materials, adds of other websites, pasting external articles etc. are not allowed. We may ban the IP addresses of such nuisance posters.

Editor Note: Dear readers, we are opening the comments to auto-posting again as most of the recent comments have been in line with guidelines. It will reduce my workload. Please keep it that way.


Name: arjuna/monk-novice/india
Date: Saturday November 01, 2008
Time: 10:42:37 -0500

Comment

Extremely well researched book!!! Islam, maker of the muslim mind.


Name: To Ali Sina
Date: Saturday November 01, 2008
Time: 16:37:33 -0500

Comment

Editor: Folks, please concentrate your comments on this article.


Name: North
Date: Saturday November 01, 2008
Time: 17:32:13 -0500

Comment

Just a small comment about hadiths - even Al-Bukhari and Muslim: There are a lot of mistakes also in them. F. ex. the Quran proves that all the tales of miracles related to Muhammad in the hadiths, are made up. As for mistakes and more in the Quran: See www.1000mistakes.com.


Name: this asks for what should already be there
Date: Sunday November 02, 2008
Time: 00:09:38 -0500

Comment

And that is to look past the violent passages in the book that this cult follows and to evolve as other religions has to let ALL of us live together as human beings with thoughts and feelings. To be allowed to think for ourselves and not have a book to dictate to those that follow this cult as how to think and feel. Though I do have one question: if women were "diminished in intelligence" as this man claimed, why didn't he proclaim this while his FIRST wife (that this book and others books don't talk about) was alive? My feeling is that she would have divorced him and he knew it. Look past this book and become humans again.


Name: Islam is the cancer of mankind
Date: Sunday November 02, 2008
Time: 04:39:18 -0500

Comment

Islam is the cancer of mankind and Mohammad was the worst specimen ever produced by the human race. All rational thinking humans must do all legal means to defeat this global menace.


Name: how can present day muslims can still believe Quron
Date: Sunday November 02, 2008
Time: 09:21:07 -0500

Comment

how can present day muslims can still believe Quron which is full of absurdities. Ok all religions have some mistakes but islamic quron has hate and irrationalites in it which are dangerous to entire humanity.


Name: To the Author of the Article --- No Censorship pelase!!!
Date: Sunday November 02, 2008
Time: 10:42:09 -0500

Comment

Why is it out of topic if I raise questions concerning the credibility of the author? Here http://www.faithfreedom.org/obama.html you can see that Ali Sina is comparing Barack Obama with Hitler! Obama is described as Narcissist, as Traitor and as a sick man! Does he deserve this? This us unfair!!!


Name:
Date: Monday November 03, 2008
Time: 16:18:14 -0500

Comment

Ali Sina is not the problem in the world, Quran is


Name: ExMuslim
Date: Monday November 03, 2008
Time: 21:40:11 -0500

Comment

Obama's style of talking is somewhat like that of a messiah for America and the world. Muhammad, Hitler amongst others were such idealists. We do not know how he would lead. Ali Sina is within his right of freedom of expression to make an analysis of Obama's ideas and make his conclusions. As for me, I would hope, Obama would part his company with Islamic, Communist and Black extremists (Jeremia, Farrakhan etc) when he becomes the president. Else, he could become the nemesis of Democratic Party's future political fortunes.


Name: Obama, Hitler and Ali Sina
Date: Tuesday November 04, 2008
Time: 11:56:04 -0500

Comment

Do you know that Hitler liked cake very much? According to historians, he was capable to eat incredible amounts of cake when he had tea or coffee time. So would anybody conclude that someone who likes cake is like Hitler?


Name: TO: Ali Sina
Date: Tuesday November 11, 2008
Time: 05:51:54 -0500

Comment

I frequently find that Muslims, whether practicing or apostate, misquote the Bible. This is what you did by trying to inject a meaning into Luke 10 that is not there. Jesus in no way implied that he would retaliate against towns that did not accept his disciples. He was referring to God's judgement on the final day. Rev. 2 contains esoteric prophecies by a follower of Jesus who had been exiled on an island for his beliefs. The reference to Jezebel may be both physical and spiritual; the death of the "children" may refer to the falling away of her followers and the end of her false prophecies. The bed of suffering may refer to sexual disease, which wouldn't be surprising since sexual excess seemed to comprise a major part of her dogma. Did you know there is an abundance of ancient New Testament manuscripts and nothing has been lost through the transmission of the texts? "There is more evidence for the reliability of the N.T. text as an accurate reflection of what was originally written than there is for any 30 pieces of classical literature put together--including William Shakespeare's 37 plays written in the 17th century after printing--all of which include huge gaps in the printed text and which we still have no idea of what was originally written." "The first complete copy of the 'Odyssey' by Homer dates 2,200 years after it was written." We know more about the life of Jesus than just about any other figure in the ancient world. Roman and Jewish historians wrote about him (the latter, Josephus, was born A.D. 37). Early Christians and pagans referred to him in their letters and commentaries and quoted Biblical texts. In summary, the New Testament documents were not written long after the events but within close proximity to them. And they were written by people during the period when many who were acquainted with the facts or were eyewitnesses to them were still living. I encourage you to read Josh McDowell's "Answers to Tough Questions" and his "Reasons Skeptics Should Consider Christianity." C.E. Chambers


Name: To Ali Sina
Date: Tuesday November 11, 2008
Time: 13:01:02 -0500

Comment

The atrocities you believed committed by Moses was an isolated event that did not summarizes the whole essence of the Bible: God's love. In fact Moses was not permitted to enter the Promised Land.


Name: "Peaceful" my butt!!!
Date: Saturday November 15, 2008
Time: 00:14:27 -0500

Comment

Islam is cocooned in lies! And, the next time you hear of islamists saying they are "peaceful" just wait until the next "peaceful" protests they have in the street! "Be prepared for the real holocost", "Europe you will pay. 9/11 is on it's way", are just a small sample of the horrid banners they have carried during their "peace" protests! Truth is, Islam is a scourge and should be wiped off the face of the earth! Let them be a small minority and they will cry, "intolerance." Let them be bigger and they will impose shariah law. Let the be the majority and you can kiss your rights "goodbye!" After all, another banner was carried by a islamofacist which said, "Freedom can go to hell!" There is no reasoning with these animals! The ONLY language they respect and understand is retaliation, after all, Mohammed was a brutal murderer, kidnapper, raper, etc., why should they be any different?!


 
Hit Counter