Wednesday, October 15, 2014

Reza Aslan Invites ISIS Jihadists to Kill Apostates and Take Captives (but Probably Doesn't Even Realize It!)

Reza Aslan recently invited Islamic State jihadists to follow the "rules of war" laid down by Abu Bakr (Muhammad's closest companion and the first of the "rightly-guided" caliphs). Here's Aslan's tweet:


Perhaps Aslan would like to share the context of these "rules" with his readers (and to show us which of the rules, properly understood, ISIS is violating), along with the source. In the meantime, let me give some further guidelines from Abu Bakr. After Muhammad died, many Muslims left Islam, to varying degrees. Some fully renounced Islam or returned to their former religions, while others abandoned certain prescribed practices (such as paying zakat to the central Muslim authority). Abu Bakr decided to fight all of them until they returned to orthodox Islam.

Here are some portions of a lengthy letter Abu Bakr sent (along with an army) to the apostates and rebels. Unlike Aslan, I'll actually document the source so that people can take a closer look if they like.
In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful. From Abu Bakr, caliph of the Apostle of God, to whomever this letter of mine may reach among the commoners and notables who has stood fast in his Islam or who has turned back from it: Peace upon those who follow the [true] guidance and who have not turned back to error and blindness after [having received] the [true] guidance. Verily I praise to you God, other than Whom there is no god. I bear witness that there is no god but God alone, Who has no associate, and that Muhammad is His Servant and His Apostle; we affirm that which he brought, and that which he denied we declare to be unbelief and strive against it. Now then: Verily God, may He be exalted, sent Muhammad with His truth to His creation as a bearer of good tidings and as a warner and as one calling [others] to God, with His permission, and as a light-bringing lamp, so that he might warn [all] who live, and so that the saying against the unbelievers might be fulfilled. So God guided with the truth whoever responded to Him, and the Apostle of God, with His permission, struck whoever turned his back to Him until he came to Islam, willingly or grudgingly. Then God took His Apostle to Him, he having carried out God's command . . .

I have learned that some of you have turned back from your religion after you had acknowledged Islam and labored in it, out of negligence of God and ignorance of His command, and in compliance with the devil. . . . I have sent to you someone at the head of an army of the Muhajirun and the Ansar and those who follow [them] in good works. I ordered him not to fight anyone or to kill anyone until he has called him to the cause of God; so that those who respond to him and acknowledge [Him] and renounce [unbelief] and do good works, [my envoy] shall accept him and help him to [do right], but I have ordered him to fight those who deny [Him] for that reason. So he will not spare any one of them he can gain mastery over, [but may] burn them with fire, slaughter them by any means, and take women and children captive; nor shall he accept from anyone anything except Islam. So whoever follows him, it is better for him; but whoever leaves him, will not weaken God. . . .
(The History of al-Tabari, Volume X, State University of New York Press, 1993, pp. 55-57)
Here are five takeaways from the underlined portions:

(1) According to Abu Bakr, Muhammad "struck whoever turned his back to" Allah "until he came to Islam, willingly or grudgingly." Does Aslan agree with Abu Bakr that Muhammad compelled people to convert to Islam, whether they wanted to become Muslims or not?

(2) Abu Bakr sends the letter with an army, and the army is instructed "not to fight anyone or to kill anyone until he has called him to the cause of God." Those who returned to Islam were to be left alone, while those who refused to return to Islam were to be fought.

(3) Khalid bin al-Walid (the commander of the army) was ordered not to "spare any one of them he can gain mastery over."

(4) The penalties for refusing to submit to Islam included "burning them with fire" and "slaughtering them by any means."

(5) Women and children were to be taken captive.

As you can see, the Islamic State is following Abu Bakr's guidelines to the letter. Yet Reza Aslan invites Islamic State jihadists to follow Abu Bakr's guidelines. By telling jihadists to obey Abu Bakr, Aslan is telling them to (1) invite people to Islam, (2) slaughter those who refuse to submit, and (3) take women and children captive.

This is what happens when clueless Western apologists for Islam start sharing what they learned about Islam from their American professors. They toss around quotes that they copied from the internet, mocking people like Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi (someone who didn't get his information about Islam filtered through Western universities). Such tweets help sedate the ignorant, but do nothing to stop those who actually carry out the commands of Islam.

For more on Islam and ISIS, watch this:


And here's my tweet to Aslan:


Aslan's response was to delete my comment. This means that he now knows that his selective quote is thoroughly misleading and deceptive, and that he simply doesn't care.

21 comments:

smalltallest88 said...

Great work Dr. David. Wish I have little of your knowledge about this so called religion of peace (religion of destructions). May God keep you and your household. Amen

MillsMusicEnt said...

LOL ISLAM IS EVIL! ABOLISH IT

Dacritic said...

David, again...what is Aslan's reply? ;D :P

David Wood said...

His reply was to block my comment.

Radical Moderate said...

David Wood, I just had a great idea. It happens sometimes.

Anyway if you or anyone in your circle has any contacts in the media. Have them interview Reza and praise him for this comment.

Then blast him with the rest of what Abu Barkr said.

m s said...

You're being too kind with Asslan. He is not naive nor has been misled by professors. He's a paid and bought member of a pro-iran lobby group. He knows the truth but lies about it all the time. Sam Harris used to be in good terms with Asslan until he tried to recruit him to get support for Ayaan Hirsi Ali. Now Sam Harris has realized Asslan has nefarious goals and in

http://www.samharris.org/blog/item/can-liberalism-be-saved-from-itself

says

"On the topic of Islam, however, Aslan has begun to seem more sinister. He cannot possibly believe what he says, because nearly everything he says is a lie or a half-truth calibrated to mislead a liberal audience. If he claims something isn’t in the Koran, it probably is. I don’t know what his agenda is, beyond riding a jet stream of white guilt from interview to interview, but he is manipulating liberal biases for the purpose of shutting down conversation on important topics. Given what he surely knows about the contents of the Koran and the hadith, the state of public opinion in the Muslim world, the suffering of women and other disempowered groups, and the real-world effects of deeply held religious beliefs, I find his deception on these issues unconscionable."

paraphrasing Harris, if Asslan says that it isn't in the writings of Abu Bakr, it probably is.

QuranIsCorrupt2 said...

I thought Reza was a Shia? I thought they hated Abu Bakr?

Unknown said...


We must differentiate between the doctrinal teachings of a religion and the actions of those who profess to be of that religion. I continuously read comments stating that Christianity has caused more harm and is responsible for more deaths and atrocities than Islam. But Christianity was not the culprit. It was people that labeled themselves Christians but did not follow the teachings of Christ. Whoever follows the teachings of Christ and emulates him has to be non-violent for Christ never committed a violent act. Christian communities changed when the general populace began to understand the true teachings of Christ and emulating his example as written in the New Testament. Even though the Old Testament does have many violent acts mandated by God, the example of Jesus, living a sinless, non-violent, and humble life resonates in all "true" Christians.
Islam—the Islamic ideology as found in the Quran and Hadith—has no hope to reform and will always be reactionary, and violent to women and the unbeliever. It has no hope to reform because to be Islamic is to live a life based on the teachings of what Allah through Mohammad prophesized in the Quran together with an attempt to live like Muhammad as he is portrayed in the Hadith. Muhammad committed horrible acts and took captive females. He constantly railed against the unbeliever and exhorted Muslims to struggle against them until they were subdued. Jesus on the other hand professed love:

"But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;"

That is the difference. To anyone wanting to understand why Christianity became what it became and why Islam is what it is, and will always be, you must look at the founders of both religions. For a pious member of any religion, the penultimate way of being is to be like its founder. If you are a true Muslim and believe in every word in the Quran and Hadith, your God mandates you to Jihad…to struggle against the unbeliever for as the Quran teaches, you are superior to the “people of the book” or any unbeliever. If you understand Islam--if you read the Quran and Hadith--you would know that the person that is emulating Muhammad the most today is Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of ISIS. Islam can never change because the Quran can never change and the Hadith is the actual acts and sayings of Muhammad. Therefore, they are set in stone and so is Islam.

Unknown said...

This how Abu Bakr reacted when a Rabbi told him like it was.

Ishaq :263 “Abu Bakr went into a Jewish school and found many pupils gathered around Finhas, a learned rabbi. Bakr told the Jews to fear Allah and submit. He told them that they would find that Muhammad was an Apostle written in the Torah and Gospels. “Finhas replied, ‘We are rich compared to Allah. We do not humble ourselves to Allah. He humbles himself to us. We are independent of him, while he needs us. Why does your god ask us to lend him money as your master pretends.’ Bakr was enraged and hit Finhas hard in the face. Were it not for the treaty between us I would cut off your head, you enemy of Allah. So Allah said, ‘They will taste Our punishment of burning.’”

This is the best reply Abu Bakr could think of. If it was not for a treaty Abu Bakr would have beheaded the learned Rabbi for giving him the facts. Even Allah did not know how to answer this one.

Quran 2:245 Who is he that will loan to Allah a beautiful loan, which Allah will double unto his credit and multiply many times? It is Allah that giveth (you) want or plenty, and to Him shall be your return.

Compare Deuteronomy 28:12 where lending is a blessing and borrowing is a curse "...and you will certainly lend to many nations (and to their gods!)while you yourself will not borrow.

It defies credibility that the same god revealed both verses. Two books revealed by the same deity cannot be contradictory to the point of being opposites.

FIWI said...

HAHAHAHAHAHA

THAT IS IT..... I VOTE DAVID WOOD
FOR PRESIDENT.

IMAGINE how different our 'islamic issue' problem would be then.

They WOULDN'T have gotten OFF THE GROUND.

Unknown said...

Christianity and islam can be defined in 3 words

Unknown said...

That was an expose. See, once he found out his taqqiyah has been exposed he ran away with his tail between his legs. This is common with muslims. These are the sort of guys being celebrated by the liberal western media.

Dacritic said...

Block your comment? I suppose nothing is new.

David Ford said...

"Aslan's response was to delete my comment."

Where can I find online, uncensored discussions occurring between Muslims and non-Muslims about Islam? I wish to participate.

Unknown said...

Brilliant, Sir.

Such are the people sought after by our infidel main stream media.

Of course, as far as arrogant Aslan, he will continue in his deceptions by presenting half truths and lies.

Unknown said...

It would be nice if you could just muzzle the clown.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/126142123@N07/15362821570/in/photostream/lightbox/

azblogtalk said...

HI you so called scholar David wood, mind if you give the Sanad and the chain of transmittion of Abu baker claim?

Unknown said...

Long time fan, first time commenter. I'm trying to figure out the context where Reza Aslan's quote does come from. I gather from google that it was part of the 10 rules of war Abu Bakr issued for the Muslim army. But is this where Abu Bakr then changed his mind later as to the conduct of war with the apostates? I can't get past google results that basically a lot of Islamic scholars point to this quote as their justification for defensive war and/or why ISIS is un-Islamic.

David Wood said...

I've only found one text that has this quotation from Abu Bakr. It's a modern text that lists its sources for other quotations, but not for this one. Pretty weak, especially when it contradicts everything else Abu Bakr said.

Brian Huggett said...

This is not a comment but a thank you for a most necessary ministry in our day. I give the link to your video on the Three Phases of Islam everywhere I think it applicable and more. A most timely piece of information for those of us who knew a little but needed more. Thank you David.

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