Center for the Study of Political Islam International

What Does Islamic Doctrine Say about Christians?

September 11, 2025

Topic Christians

31% of Islamic doctrine is about jihad against Kafirs (non-Muslims). This also includes Christians and Jews, who are frequently referred to as The People of the Book, or those who have been given the Scripture but don’t follow Mohammed and Allah.

Allah commands Muslims to fight against Christians:

Koran 9:29
Fight against such of those who have been given the Scripture as believe not in Allah nor the Last Day…

Also, Mohammed made it his goal to ensure not a single Christian or Jew was left in Arabia:

Hadith, Muslim 1767a
(Mohammed): I will expel the Jews and Christians from the Arabian Peninsula and will not leave any but Muslim.

The attitude against Christians and Jews is so negative that Muslims are forbidden from ever befriending them. If they do, they risk becoming considered Kafirs by association:

Koran 5:51
O ye who believe! Take not the Jews and the Christians for friends. They are friends one to another. He among you who taketh them for friends is (one) of them. Lo! Allah guideth not wrongdoing folk.

What does this mean for Christians? The same as it means for all Kafirs – that Political Islam is in a state of perpetual war against them until they submit to Mohammed and Allah:

Hadith, Muslim 21b (also 21a)
(Mohammed): I have been commanded to fight against people, till they testify to the fact that there is no god but Allah, and believe in me (that) I am the messenger (from the Lord) and in all that I have brought…

📚 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.

Abul Husain Muslim bin al-Hajjaj al-Nisapuri. 2009. Mokhtaser Sahih Muslim. Translated by Abdul Hamid Siddiqui. 1st edition, edited by Mika’il al-Almany. The Vista Publishing House.

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