June 26, 2024
Today (June 26) is the United Nations International Day in Support of Victims of Torture.
Since 2015, around 160,000 people have been killed in the name of Allah as per Mohammed's example. And yet, the barbaric murder of one man, Muath al-Kasasbeh, the Jordanian pilot who was burned to death in a cage by ISIS, is still one of the most unforgettable incident shown by the mainstream media.
Although violent Jihadists today still commit torture, it is not their primary tactic. Focusing solely on the prevalence of torture by these groups distracts from the most significant role of torture in the Islamic doctrine, which is to dehumanize the Kafir.
The Islamic scriptures seem to contain three types of references to violence and torture.
The first one is prescriptive violence, which is when a violent behavior is prescribed for the believer, usually towards the non-believer. There is an abundance of this type of violence, such as in Koran 5:33.
The second type is historic violence, such as the mutilation of the Urayna People (Sahih al-Bukhari 8:82:794). In most cases, this violence was supported by Mohammed, thus making these cases both historic and prescriptive.
But by far the most prevalent type of violence in the Islamic doctrine is a third type, which is when Allah is the one committing the violence and torture, either as a promise to be done later on in this life, or in the next.
Apologists often claim that if the violence is not prescriptive, then it’s not a problem; yet, it dehumanizes non-Muslims and incites violence against them. There are hundreds of such verses in the Koran, a book that is one-eighth the length of War and Peace, Les Misérables or Atlas Shrugged.
Allah's punishment for non-Muslims (Kafirs) who refuse to convert to Islam is portrayed in graphic ways such as to be given a drink of purulent water, to drink from a boiling spring, or to burn in fire. If Allah says this is what the Kafir deserves, how surprised should a Kafir be when members of the Islamic community see Kafirs as not worthy of dignity?
Mohammed is the key giving the context to the Koran, showing by his own example what Allah really meant. He is far more more than a historical figure. He was established as the perfect and eternal example for all humanity by Allah in the Koran on 89 occasions (1). Therefore, we can say that any type of violence aimed at non-Muslims (Kafirs) found in the Koran, Hadith (Mohammed's traditions) or Sira (Mohammed's biography) is to be considered as prescriptive. (2, 3)
Apologists can keep claiming that the Islamic doctrine is not one of violence, Jihadism, terrorism, that it does not say to kill innocent people, and that ISIS does not operate according to the Islamic doctrine. But we only have to open the Koran, Hadith or Sira ourselves to see how much incitement against non-Muslims is in those texts. This is Political Islam.
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📖 Doctrinal support
Koran 5:33 The only reward of those who make war upon Allah and His messenger and strive after corruption in the land will be that they will be killed or crucified, or have their hands and feet on alternate sides cut off, or will be expelled out of the land. Such will be their degradation in the world, and in the Hereafter theirs will be an awful doom
Sahih Bukhari Volume 8, Book 82, Number 794:
Narrated Anas: Some people from the tribe of 'Ukl came to the Prophet and embraced Islam. The climate of Medina did not suit them, so the Prophet ordered them to go to the (herd of milch) camels of charity and to drink, their milk and urine (as a medicine). They did so, and after they had recovered from their ailment (became healthy) they turned renegades (reverted from Islam) and killed the shepherd of the camels and took the camels away. The Prophet sent (some people) in their pursuit and so they were (caught and) brought, and the Prophets ordered that their hands and legs should be cut off and that their eyes should be branded with heated pieces of iron, and that their cut hands and legs should not be cauterized, till they die.
📚 Sources
Pickthall, Marmaduke. 1930. The Meaning of The Glorious Koran, An Explanatory Translation, New York: Alfred A. Knopf.
Khan, Muhammad M. 1997, The Translation of the Meanings of Sahih Al-Bukhari: Arabic-English. Riyadh: Darussalam.
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