THE KORAN AND THE KAFIR - A. GHOSH - PREFACE This book is intended for non-Moslems in general and Hindus, Buddhists, Jains, Parsees and Sikhs in particular. It is common knowledge that as a rule non-Moslems are quite ignorant of the contents of the Koran and the Hadis, the holy books of Islam. These books are the fountain springs of Islamic thought. The injunctions contained in these holy books direct the code of conduct of the Moslems, their social system and their notions of right and wrong, in short the main ingredients that go into the making of the Moslem psyche. It is a compilation of information taken from already existing works by renowned scholars. The bibliography at the end indicates the sources. It is hoped that the book will generate enough interest among its readers so that they would get to the source material themselves and do some thinking of their own. In the not so hoary past, the Moslems wielded their swords to weed out Christianity, Judaism and polytheism, to dethrone the gods of their neighbors and to install in their place their own godling, Allah. The recourse to imperialism under the garb of iconoclasm, slavery and slaughter, loot and raid, arson and murder that followed to establish an empire in the process, was another matter. These were incidental terrestrial rewards for disinterested celestial pursuits. a) ISLAMIC REVIVAL Thanks to the new found oil-riches, the old mission is being revived. A kind of Islamic Cominform is taking shape in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The 'nouveau riche' Arab is assuming responsibility for Moslems everywhere, looking after their spiritual needs as well as their more temporal interests. Their wealth is active whether it is in Pakistan, the Philippines, Bangladesh, Indonesia or Malaysia. Arabs are still weak in arms and dependent on the West but the full fury of their interference is to be seen in the countries of Asia and Africa which are economically poor and ideologically weak. Here Islam works from the bottom as well as from the top. Local politicians and members of the news media are bought. The conversion into Islam of the President of Gabon and the Emperor of the Central African Empire is a case in point. The Arabs have adopted the Moslem minorities of 'darul-Harb' (infidel countries that have not yet been subdued by Islam). The non-Moslem minorities of these countries are being tempted to accept Islam and thus gradually change these countries into 'darul- Islam' (countries where Islam reigns supreme in all walks of life). b) PROBLEM OF MOSLEM MINORITY Even as it is, Moslem minorities are difficult to assimilate in the national mainstream of a country. The Arab financial and ideological support has made the task still more difficult. In India for instance, the Moslems were not the first foreigners to come and settle down in the country. In earlier times, the Greeks, the Scythians, the Kushans and the Huns had also come to India as invaders. By the time the Moslem invaders arrived, all these erstwhile foreigners had been fully assimilated in the native population and their cultures synthesized with the indigenous culture of India. There never was a Greek or Scythian or Kushan or Hun minority problem in India. On the other hand, the Zoroastrians or Parsees came to seek refuge in India when the Moslem invaders attacked Persia and started wide-spread loot, arson and murder. The whole of Persia was forcibly Islamised and only those who could escape such as the ancestors of present-day Parsees of India, survived. The Parsees have remained a distinct minority group with their own characteristic culture. The Jewish minority of India had kept its racial and cultural identity intact for nearly two thousand years. There never was any problem between these groups and the native population of India, the Hindus. It is not necessary therefore for different racial groups to get assimilated or for different cultures to get synthesised before they can live in peaceful coexistence. It is only when a culture is intolerant, exclusive and aggressive that peaceful coexistence becomes impossible. It is not in India alone that the indigenous population has found it well-nigh impossible to coexist peacefully with the Moslems. Greece had the same problem till it expelled its Moslem population. Yugoslavia and Cyprus in the West and the Philippines in the East have an unsolved Moslem problem till today. Spain has no Moslem problem because it did not allow any Moslems to remain within its borders after it defeated the invaders in a struggle spread over seven centuries. Russia and China have solved their Moslem problem for the time being in quite another way - by massive terror and ruthless suppression. One wonders how long the experiment would succeed. On the other hand, no country where Islam has attained unrivalled power, has allowed any non- Islamic minority to survive. The Jews and the Christians were given the status of 'zimmis' by the prophet himself. But what has happened to them in the lands of their birth? The Jews have been finally cleaned up from all Islamic countries. The Christian minorities that managed to survive in Egypt and Lebanon are having a very hard time at the hands of the latest wave of Islamic fundamentalists supported by the oil-wealth. There are no Zoroastrians in Iran any more. The Baha'is are being butchered openly there today. The Hindus of Bangladesh are being herded and hounded out. The Sikhs, Hindus and Christians of Pakistan have already been reduced to microscopic minorities, well on their way to complete extinction. It is to be seen how long the Hindus and Buddhists of Bali in Indonesia and of Malaysia can survive the renewed offensive unleashed by petro-dollars. c) FALSE PRETENSE Islam pretends that it stands for universal brotherhood and democratic equality as contrasted with sectarian divisions and class hierarchies rampant in other societies. But in reality, Islam had never put forward this pretension before the rise of democracy and socialism in modern times. The old theologians of Islam were meticulous in placing multifarious people in their proper places. The 'momins' (believers) constituted the master class ('millet') entrusted with the holy mission of imposing the prophet's faith and the laws of Islam on all mankind. The kafirs were the scum of the earth who were to be consigned to eternal hellfire whenever they could not be decimated by the 'momins'. The 'zimmis' were people who accepted the supremacy of the Islamic state and agreed to live as second class citizens under severe disabilities. The slaves were mere merchandise who could be bought and sold in the bazaar or 'souk' and killed without compunction with or without reason. And the women ('zan') were personal property comparable to gold and silver ('zar') and land ('zamin') and to be kept veiled and hidden in the harem if they happened to be legal wives, and circulated as gifts amongst the aristocracy if they happened to be concubines. Within the 'millat' itself, the 'Qurayza' had primacy over the plain Arabs at the start of Arab imperialism. The civil list devised by Caliph Umar for monetary grants given to Arab families out of the booty obtained in the raids on infidels reflects this class hierarchy in Arab society. As the Arab empire expanded east and west, the non- Arabs everywhere were treated as inferior people, in law as well as in practice, even when the latter became 'momins' (believers) by renouncing their ancestral faith. Later on, the Turks took over the Arab legacy of being a master race. Pakistan tried the same game in erstwhile East Pakistan, now Bangladesh, but was not successful. Islam has never known any brotherhood or equality even within its 'millat'. A typical Moslem is patient, good-natured, but also volatile and excitable, naive and yet shrewd, married, with several children and sometimes several wives, supported by a deep trust in Allah as an unquestioning ally, possessed of a strong sexuality, not so educated and of an unthinking mind, proud of Islam's past glories achieved by the sword, devoted to relatives and yet prone to conflict, torn between traditions of the past and the new demands of today's world, proud of being a Moslem without a precise idea of what it really means, surrendering to any mullah without criticism, yearning for a life of leisure as depicted in Islamic folklore and hateful of the kafirs for his own inadequacies, and contemptuous of others' religions and ways of life. d) THE KAFIR'S LOT The great sage Swami Vivekananda, founder of the Rama Krishna Mission had said: 'Under the Mussulman rule, the king himself was the supreme priest; he was the chief guide in religious matters; and when he became the emperor, he cherished the hope of being the paramount leader in all matters over the whole Mussulman world. To the Mussulman, the Jews or the Christians are not objects of extreme detestation; they are, at the worst, men of little faith. But not so the Hindu. According to him, the Hindu is idolatrous, the hateful Kafir; hence in this life he deserves to be butchered; and in the next, eternal hell is in store for him. The utmost the Mussulman kings could do as a favor to the priestly class (meaning Hindu Brahmins)- was to allow them somehow to pass their life silently and wait for the last moment. This was again sometimes considered too much kindness! If the religious ardor of any king was a little more uncommon, there would immediately follow arrangements for a great Yajna [1] by way of Kafir- slaughter!' e) THE KORAN AND THE MEIN KAMPF Hitler had written his autobiography Mein Kampf many years before he became Germany's Chancellor. His philosophy and plans were clearly spelled out in his book in all seriousness. He did not hide the fact that his mortal enemy was France, that he desired to annihilate the entire Jewish people, that he wanted to expand the Reich or the German state by taking over Eastern Europe, that he considered the communists the scum of the earth. His objectives were not hidden from the public; anyone interested in finding out the true nature and the implications of Hitler's objectives was free to do so from his open book. But most did not even bother to read his book and thus remained ignorant of many facts concerning them. The few who did, were not heeded to. As a result, disaster after disaster followed; millions died before the world woke up. At terrible cost to humanity, Hitler was eventually overthrown. The Koran's exhortations to the believers to annihilate the kafirs, to confiscate their land and property, to enslave their women and children are for anyone who cares to read the book. The 'jihad' or the holy war is supposed to be waged incessantly until all the kafirs are decimated and the whole earth taken over by the followers of Islam. The methods have been amply illustrated throughout history. The Crusades, the annihilation of the Armenians, the Jews and the Bengali Hindus in East Pakistan are well-known. There is no reason to believe that the objectives of Islam have undergone any modification in recent years. Islam denies any means to its followers to purify itself. It is considered to be in a state of purification achieved by the prophet and all the measures of purification are already enunciated in the Koran and the Hadis, Islam's holy books. Thus Islam forbids any reformation of the prophet's religion. Reformers [2] are forbidden in Islam. The injunctions of the Koran are final and will remain valid for ever and the believers must surrender themselves to its dictates as explained by the mullah in power, Khomeini or anyone else. Power is the key word. f) PRECEPTS AND PRACTICES IT IS UP TO THE KAFIR TO MAKE HIMSELF AWARE OF THE MESSAGE OF THE KORAN. THE KORAN HAS A LOT TO SAY ABOUT HIM. This book highlights episodes from history both old and new, as examples of Islam in action. The excerpts from the Koran indicate the precepts of Islam. One is thus provided with the opportunity to reconcile the practice of Islam with the precepts. The precepts of Islam flow from the Koran, the recitation of the words of Allah and the practice is exemplified by Islam in action throughout history. The present book is in no way exhaustive. No doubt many readers will be able to cite more incidents than treated in this book, to prove the same point. The purpose is not to express contempt for the prophet's religion but to draw the attention of the non-Moslems, the kafirs and the 'zimmis' of the world, to a phenomenon very much in existence today but to which not much light has been shed. The contents of the book should therefore be judged primarily by the non-Moslems on the basis of their own perception of the phenomenon. It must be realised that Islam is imperialistic and politically motivated with religious overtones. As ignorance in any form is to be avoided for greater comprehension, there should not be any reluctance on the part of the non-Moslems to learn more about the prophet's life, deeds and precepts. The prophet's personal life is an important aspect of Islam. Of all ignorance, the self-inflicted type is the worst. The holy books of Islam and those on Islamic history are easily available in many languages and there is absolutely no reason for misunderstanding to persist in the minds of kafirs. Clearly, Islam is essentially hostile to other religions. The situation created by the new wave of Islamic fundamentalism not only in Islamic countries but in non-Islamic lands as well, is a phenomenon that demands close vigilance. This can only be achieved by learning the true nature of Islam. And learning the true nature of Islam can be very well done by the study of the Koran and accounts from world history. If the non-Islamic peoples must protect themselves from the onslaught of Islam, then they must pay more attention to what Islam really has in mind as far as the non-Moslems are concerned. The question is NOT how evil the Moslems are. They may have bad smell and beat their grandmothers and wives regularly. The question is: Can we keep them from beating OUR grandmothers and wives? The author has been inspired in great measure by the works of renowned scholars such as Ram Swarup, Sita Ram Goel and P.N. Oak of India. Many historical incidents have been taken from the famous works of Late Sir Jadu Nath Sarkar as mentioned in the Bibliography. Thanks are due to the publishers of Colin Maine's article 'The Dead Hand of Islam' of New South Wales, Australia. The author is indebted to John G. Runion, Sr. and Victor G. Templeton for their help in the preparation of some of the text. Footnotes 1. Yajna: Sanskrit word meaning 'great religious sacrifice'. 2. Very few Moslem intellectuals have dared to undertake any kind of reform of the prophet's creed to suit the changed circumstances. If they do, Islamic societies are sure to take revenge as happened in the trial of Sadiq Jalal al-Azm in recent years. Index Page Foreword >>> © 2001 Sword of Truth. All Rights Reserved. THE KORAN AND THE KAFIR - A. GHOSH - CHAPTER 1 OF KAFIRS AND ZIMMIS All non-Moslems are infidels. However, there are gradations. The people of the Book (meaning the Bible, both the old and the new testaments) are the Jews, the Christians and the Moslems. According to Islam, Mohammed was the last prophet and there would be no other future prophet or prophets. The Jews and Christians are considered as people of little faith by the followers of Islam. On the other hand, the Buddhists, the Hindus, the Jains, the Sikhs, the Zoroastrians, the Taoists, in fact, all other religions are considered as the religions of the kafirs. They are the worst of all and do not have the right to exist in this world unless of course they accept Islam unconditionally. All the infidels living in an Islamic state are supposed to pay a special tax called the 'jiziya' which signifies their acceptance of the superiority of Islam. Such people are called 'zimmis'. At one time the kafirs did not have the right of a 'zimmi', the second class citizen. He was to be slaughtered or forcibly converted into Islam. However, the Hanafi school of thought was in