What Islam needs is an introspective leadership, a leadership which is prepared to have a fresh look at its traditional doctrines and approach. It must give up its religious arrogance and its fundamentalism, its basic categories of believers and infidels, its imperialist theories of Zimmis and Jazia, its belief that it has appeared with a divine mission to replace all other religions and modes of worship.

                                            - Ram Swarup (Indian Express, 2.1.91)

The question, however, is : how long are the Muslims going to hold our secular state to ransom with their seasonal riots and murders over trifling issues? In granting Pakistan, we have already paid a terrific price. After granting Pakistan, Muslim blackmail ought to have ended and we should have been left in peace to work out our destiny as a secular nation with the help of our Muslim brothers. Seeing that the Muslims are happier in India than in Pakistan, why do our Muslims want to destroy our peace and secularity and ruin our nation?

If the Muslims won't answer this question, the State must do so because no one can expect a population of 800 million Hindus to be indifferent. While our peaceful Muslim citizens must get all the benefits of a secular democratic state, nothing less and nothing more than anyone else, we must also erect a few fences around the communal goondas and stop them in time from sabotaging our nation.

Nothing, be it a religion or a political ideology, will survive long if it is charged with fanaticism and thrust upon the people with murder and violence. Fascism, imperialism, Hitlerism and Communism died ignoble deaths. And so will fanatic Islam.

Is Islam a Religion of Peace?

We present herewith ten commandments of Islam which have been compiled by a responsible scholar, Prof.G.C.Asnani on the basis of authoritative translations of Quran.

Ten commandments of the Holy Quran :

1. There is one and only one God (Allah); Mohammed (The Holy Prophet) is the last Messenger of Allah, the last and the best amongst Allah's Messengers. Whatever was said by the Holy Prophet Mohammed through the Holy Quran is the Final word of God, Islam, superseding the word of all earlier Prophets; whatever Prophet Mohammed did is an illustration for the human race to see the command of God in practice and in action.

2. Quran provides perfect guidance for the whole human race for all problems of life, for all times to come. If you know Holy Quran, you do not have to know anything else on this earth. Do not deviate from the guidance given by God through the Holy Quran and through the life of the Holy Prophet Mohammed.

3. It is incumbent on the followers of Holy Prophet Mohammed not only to practice Islam in their daily life, but also to spread it out and to conquer other lands for Islam, to ensure that the whole human race accepts the holy religion of Islam. Hold on fast to the land where Islam prevails; exert yourself to the utmost, to spread out and conquer more and more lands for Islam; there is to be no relaxation in this effort.

4. In new places where people do not immediately accept Islam as their religion, approach them through the following three processes :-

   Persuasion, presenting Islam as Message of Peace, Love and Justice. Terrorism, to frighten and confuse the minds of non-Muslims completely. Military war, followed by widespread slaughter, plunder and forced conversion. If forced conversion is not immediately possible, keep the non-Muslims as Dhimmis - second class citizens, who shall not renovate old places of worship or construct new places for their worship; Dhimmis shall bow down before Muslims and humbly pay Jaziya tax for permission to follow their earlier religion; these disabilities for non-Muslims will be lifted only when they convert to Islam.

   These three processes may be followed by leaders of Islam in whichever sequence they consider appropriate under prevailing circumstances. These three processes are the components of the "Holy War" (Jihad).

5. Jihad is a compulsory religious duty for every Muslim, irrespective of age, sex or profession - civilian or military. This Jihad is the path prescribed by Allah. All Muslims everywhere in the world have the divine right to practice their religion, no one on this Earth has any legitimate right to oppose Muslims in the observance of their religion. Any opposition from non-Muslims has to be firmly resisted, by war if necessary; non-Muslims shall surely get defeated in war against the Muslims, because it will be a war against Allah. If circumstances demand, temporarily withdraw, but come back to fight with greater force. Those believers who survive this Holy War shall share and enjoy all property of the defeated ones including their women folk. Those believers who die in this Holy War shall enjoy infinite pleasures of food and drink, physical comfort and sex with handsome maidens (hoories) and even handsome boys in Heaven, far more enjoyment than they could have had while living on this earth. If they kill non-believers in this Holy War, they become the heroes of war (Ghazis); if they get killed, they become the  martyrs of Islam, to enjoy the pleasures of paradise for all time to come.

6. Let not the Believers take Non-Believers for their friends. Take not Christians, Jews or idolaters as your friends; they will deceive the Believers in due course of time. The Christians claim that God has a son; this is not correct; it is not proper to say that God has chosen a son.

7. Non-Muslims shall be exposed to fire. As often as their skins are consumed, we shall exchange them for fresh skins so that they may taste the torment. We shall cast terror into the hearts of those who disbelieve; they shall be crucified or killed or have their hands or feet on alternate sides cut off, or be expelled out of the land. Such will be the deprivation for disbelievers in this life; and after death also they will suffer awful doom forever. They will wish to come out from the fire, but they will not be allowed to come out of it.

8. In your warfare, Oh Believers, spring a surprise on the un-Believers; lay ambush for them and strike them while they are in sleep or at play. When the sacred months have passed, slay the idolaters wherever you find them. You may temporarily retreat, but come back and attack with greater force.

9. When we attacked a township of un-Believers, we first offered them conversion into Islam. When they did not agree, and chose to fight a war, then we destroyed the whole community and township utterly; when they cried out for help or escape, there was no longer time for escape. We ordered widespread slaughter in the conquered territories.

10. You Believers, amongst yourselves you are all kith and kin, just one community, transcending all man-made national barriers; you are a nation by yourself, recognizing only the unity of Islam and the authority of Allah, His Prophet and the Holy Quran. If there is an attack on any one of you, it is an attack on all of you; you join together and fight together. Do not fight amongst yourselves; help one another, through charity when necessary. Perform Holy Pilgrimage (Haj) to Holy Mecca at least once in your lifetime; also observe the prescribed fasting during the Holy Month of Ramzan. Offer prayers five times a day; on Fridays, assemble together and offer community prayers. 

Note : The above commandments are based on the following three independent translations of the Holy Quran. All the three translations say the same thing, almost identical, both in letter and spirit.

1. By E.H.Palmer; Clarendon Press, 1880, Edited by Prof. Max Muller (Sacred Books of the East).

2. By Arthur J.Arberry; Oxford University Press (The World's Classics), ISBN 0-19-2816-4, (1982), 674 pp.

3. By M.Pickthall; published by Nasrat Ali Nasri for Kitab Bhavan, (1982), 1214, Kalan Mahal, Darya Ganj, New Delhi - 110002. The publisher is a well-known Islamic Publication Centre in India. The book has original Arabic text on right-hand-side and English translation on left-hand-side of each page.

We would also like to draw attention to three other authoritative studies on Islam - "Islam-The Arab Imperialism", "Eternity" and "Faith and Deception" by Anwar Shaikh, published by the Principality Publishers, Cardiff, U.K.

Without disowning the profuse quotations from "Quran" and declaring that these views have no place in Islam, to claim that Islam is a tolerant and liberal religion will be like trying to paint a crow white to make it look like a dove.

All thoughts of pacifying Islam by assimilating it into the global democratic system must fall down before a simple, terrible fact: Jihad—holy war against all non-Muslims—does not represent a mere excess or defect of Islam, but its timeless core. According to Muslim scholar Bassam Tibi, "Muslims are religiously obliged to disseminate the Islamic faith throughout the world.... If non-Muslims submit to conversion or subjugation, this call can be pursued peacefully. If they do not, Muslims are obliged to wage war against them." World peace, according to Islamic teaching, "is reached only with the conversion or submission of all mankind to Islam."

Moreover, continues Tibi, when Muslims disseminate Islam through violent means, that is not war (harb), as that word only describes the use of force by non-Muslims. Islamic wars are acts of "opening" the world to Islam. "Those who resist Islam cause wars and are responsible for them."

In other words, simply by the act of existing, the entire non-Islamic world is equated with war. That is why Muslims call it the Dar al-Harb, the Realm of War. Yet when Muslims wage jihad, they are doing it to bring about the peace of universal Islam. So whatever Muslims do, is by definition peace, and whatever infidels do, is by definition war. This explains why "moderate" Muslims almost never admit that Muslim terrorists are terrorists. It is because jihad itself is not war, but a way of pursuing peace. By such manipulations of language and such massive double standards, Islam reveals itself as a closed system that precludes any critical thought about itself, as well as any fair and honest dealings with non-Muslims.

To read the views of eminent Indians on Islam go to:

EMINENT INDIANS ON ISLAM

To read Western media's views on Islam go to :

ISLAM IN THE EYES OF THE WEST

To read about the problems faced by those countries where Muslims live go to :

ISLAM AND THE WORLD

SURRENDER TO RELIGIOUS BIGOTRY:

ISLAM IN AN IMAGE TRAP

Ever since the fundamental questions concerning the character of our nationhood have been raised, the positive features of stirrings in the majority community seem to have been run down in the media.

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