A Message to the Muslim World.

A Message to the Muslim World
by Tawfik Hamid
www.tawfikhamid.com
Many in the Muslim world repeatedly express anger when Islam and its founder are
criticized. This anger could be fully understandable, especially when we take into
consideration the sensitivity of talking about religious issues. However, it is vital that the
Muslim world realize that most-if not all- the criticism of Islam and of the prophet is
based on what traditional and mainstream Islamic books teach. In other words, it is
unfair to say that criticism of Islam was merely based on or motivated by bias against
the religion, especially when we see thousands of Mosques and Islamic schools built in
and sometimes supported by Western countries. We have actually seen much more
limitations placed on the rights of minorities to build their religious temples or to
practice their religion freely in Muslim countries than in the West. For example,
Christians are not permitted to have their bibles with them in Saudi Arabia while
Muslims have complete freedom to have the Quran in the US and European countries.
Muslims MUST ask themselves who actually discriminates against the other, is it the
West who is discriminating against Islam or is it that the Muslim world is discriminating
against people of other faiths? Who needs to change and show more tolerance for
religious minorities, the West or the Muslim world?
In addition, when the Taliban destroyed the historical Buddha statues the Muslim
world was virtually silent, which may indicate a form of acceptance for this barbaric act.
The Muslims MUST ask themselves, what would they have felt if the Buddhists- for
example- destroyed the Muslim Holy mosque in Mecca?
Furthermore, Muslims enjoy full freedom in the West to preach to non-Muslims and to
convert them to Islam. On the contrary, Muslims-in general- become very furious if they
discover that non-Muslims are proselytizing to Muslims to convert them to other faiths.
In fact, proselytizing to Muslims is illegal in many Islamic countries. The Muslim world
needs to question itself. Again, is it the West discriminating against them, or is it the
Muslims discriminating against the others.
The Muslim world needs to realize that the negative image of Islam in the West has been
created by the Muslims themselves.
When mainstream Islamic books of Sira (Biography of Prophet Mohamed that was
essentially written by Muslims) teach that prophet Mohamed took a woman as booty in
the war after forcing her to see her father and brother decapitated
(1)....Do Muslims expect the world to tell them that.... Wow, this is a wonderful model
for tolerance!
When we teach in several Islamic books including Sahih (accurate) Hadith that prophet
Mohamed said that he was ordered by Allah to fight the entire world until they
subjugate to Islam (2) and when we teach in current approved Sharia books that
Muslims have to wage wars against Non-Muslims and offer them to choose one of the
following options: to convert to Islam, to pay humiliating tax (Jizzia), or to be
killed........Do we expect others to tell us that Islam is the religion of peace? I wonder if
non -Muslims declared war against Muslims to spread their religion and offered
Muslims to convert out of Islam (to the new religion), to pay a humiliating tax to the
invaders, or to be killed.......Will Muslims consider this to be a peaceful act?
When our traditional Islamic books mention that prophet Mohamed ordered his
followers to torture other human beings (3).....Does the Muslim world expect that the
world will tell us that the prophet of Islam was sent as a mercy for mankind?
When we teach in Al-Buchary [mainstream Hadith book for Sunni Muslims] that
prophet Mohamed married and had sex with a 9 year old child (4) and used to bring
dolls for her so that she can play with them (5) or that the prophet used to have sex with
his 9 wives in one night (6), Do we expect the world to tell us that the prophet was a role
model for mankind? If mentioning these stories is considered an insult to Islam then Al-
Buchary -not the West-should take responsibility for insulting the religion.
When non-Muslims realize that Muslims who convert away from Islam must be killed
by Redda Law (killing the apostates) and that this law is approved by ALL schools of
Islamic jurisprudence based on Hadith of prophet Mohamed (7)....Shall we expect them
after this to sing praises for how Islam respects the value of religious freedom?
When non-Muslims read in our mainstream books that stoning of adulterous women is
acceptable in our modern times (8), and that it is permissible for a man to beat his wife
to discipline her (9), and that polygamy is permissible for men up to four wives ........Do
we expect that the world will tell us that Islam is the religion that gave women their
rights?
When non-Muslims read in some Hadith books (sayings of prophet Mohamed) that
prophet have said that if the wife licked a wound pouring pus from her husband she
would (still) not have fulfilled his right (as a husband) (10) and when they hear Fatwas
from some of our leading scholars that drinking the urine of the prophet was a blessing
for the disciples of Mohamed (11)..........What do we expect their reaction to this form of
teaching? Shall we expect words of admiration or criticism?
When we teach in our approved Islamic books that early Muslims army invaded many
countries to spread Islam and that the agreement between the second Caliphate and non
Muslim minorities in these countries (Al-Uhda Al-Umareia) did not allow non-Muslims
to sit while Muslims were standing and did not allow non-Muslims to raise their voices
while crying when following their dead, do we expect that others to be speaking loudly
about the 'tolerance' of Islam?
It is important that the Muslim world realize that that they need to stop discrimination
against its non-Muslim minorities and that the negative image of Islam was not created
by the West but by Muslims themselves. Denying that the above teachings exist just
makes things worse as such teachings do exist in our Islamic books. The best way to stop
criticism of Islam is to admit that violent teachings exist and that Islamic scholars must
work on providing modern ways for interpreting and understanding their religion
instead of accusing those who expose the problem and raise valid questions of being
Islamophobes.
1-Tabari IX:137 "Allah granted Rayhanah of the [Jewish] Qurayza to His Messenger as
booty [but only after she had been forced to watch him decapitate her father and
brother, seen her mother hauled off to be raped, and her sisters sold into slavery]."
2-Bukhari:V4B52N196
3-Tabari VIII:122
Ishaq:515"The Prophet gave orders concerning Kinanah to Zubayr, saying, 'Torture him
until you root out and extract what he has. So Zubayr kindled a fire on Kinanah's chest,
twirling it with his firestick until Kinanah was near death. Then the Messenger gave him
to Maslamah, who beheaded him."
4- Sahih Al-Buchary Volume 7, Book 62, Number 64:
Narrated 'Aisha: that the Prophet married her when she was six years old and he
consummated his marriage when she was nine years old, and then she remained with
him for nine years (Note: according to Islamic books, Mohammed was above 50 years
old when he married this young child).
5- #Sahih Al-Buchary Volume 8, Book 73, Number 151:
Narrated 'Aisha:
I used to play with the dolls in the presence of the Prophet, and my girl friends also used
to play with me. When Allah's Apostle used to enter (my dwelling place) they used to
hide themselves, but the Prophet would call them to join and play with me. (The playing
with the dolls and similar images is forbidden, but it was allowed for 'Aisha at that time,
as she was a little girl, not yet reached the age of puberty.) (Fateh-al-Bari page 143,
Vol.13)
6- Narrated Anas: The Prophet used to go round (have sexual relations with) all his
wives in one night, and he had nine wives. (Hadith Sahih; Sahih Albuchary Volume 7,
Book 62, Number 14: Chapter of Marriage or Allnikah).
7 - Sahih Al-Bukhari (52:260) - "...The Prophet said, 'If somebody (a Muslim) discards
his religion, kill him.' "
8- See Minhaj Al-Muslim by Al Jaja'iry (Lecture at the Nobel prophetic Masjid) Part 2
Page 505 -Published by Darussalam Publications First Edition May 2001
9- Quran {4:34}: Men are superior to women because Allah has given them more
preference to women, and because they financially support them. Therefore the
righteous women are devoutly obedient, and guard in (the husband's) absence what
Allah would have them guard. As to those women on whose part you fear that they do
not obey you, admonish them, avoid making sex with them (as a form of punishment),
and beat them; but if they return to obedience, seek not against them Means (of
annoyance): For Allah is Most High, great (above you all).
10- Reported by Ahmad (3/159) and others. It's of narration is declared to be good by
al-Mundhiree in at-Targheeb wat-Tarheeb (3/75): The Messanger of Allaah (S.A.W.)
said, "It is not right that any human being should prostrate to another human being I
would have ordered the woman to prostrate to her husband due to the greatness of his
rights upon her. By Him in whose Hand is my soul, if from his foot to the crown of his
head there was a wound pouring forth pus, and she (the wife) came and licked that, then
she would (still) not have fulfilled his right."
11- http://sweetness-light.com/archive/uproar-over-fatwa-on-drinking-prophets-urine

Obama, convertis-toi !

Following are excerpts from an address delivered by Egyptian cleric Hassan Abu Al-Ashbal, which aired on Al-Nas TV on November 27, 2008.
Hassan Abu Al-Ashbal: Let me take this opportunity to address the leader of Europe, and the leader of America, who is the leader of the world, e recently-elected Obama, who is the leader of the Byzantines – he is like the Byzantine leaders in the days of Prophet Muhammad.
My message to him is three-fold. First, I invite him to convert to Islam. This is the call of the Prophet and of Allah. Oh Obama – convert to Islam, and you will be saved. I hope that Allah will reward you twice: Once for converting to Islam, and another reward for all those who will convert in your footsteps. If you want glory – you will find it in Islam. If you want honor – you will find it in Islam. In religions other than Islam there is utter humiliation, even if you are the president of the entire world.
[...]
You, Obama, are among those who have pledged before Allah – Allah who created you, sustained you, and brought you to this position – to be a Muslim who believes that Allah is the one God, especially since you have some kind of roots in Islam. Convert to Islam, and you will be saved. All glory and honor lie in following Allah and His messenger Muhammad. Know that the true religion is the religion of Islam, and all other religions are fabricated religions, which are null and void – religions that were abrogated by the shari’a of Muhammad.
If you refuse to return to your [Islamic] origins, to the way Allah created you, withdraw your huge armies and military bases from the lands of the Muslims. Know that all your predecessors have ended up in the garbage bin of history, and that America’s black and bleak history in the land of the Muslims and the Arabs constitutes an evil omen for you, your predecessors, and your successors. Know, Obama, that America, with all its size and might, will know no peace, as long as a single Muslim child lacks food, drink, medicine, or housing. If you refuse, Obama, and insist on remaining in Muslim lands, know that Allah still plants in [Muslims] obedience to Him, and they are willing to wait for Paradise, which is closer than their own shoelaces.
Know, Obama, that in the lands of Islam, there are people who seek death, and are eager for it, even more than you and your people are eager for life – any kind of life, even a life of humiliation.

"Changements climatiques"

January 26, 1989
U.S. Data Since 1895 Fail To Show Warming Trend
By PHILIP SHABECOFF, Special to the New York Times
Correction Appended
WASHINGTON, Jan. 25— After examining climate data extending back nearly 100 years, a team of Government scientists has concluded that there has been no significant change in average temperatures or rainfall in the United States over that entire period.

While the nation’s weather in individual years or even for periods of years has been hotter or cooler and drier or wetter than in other periods, the new study shows that over the last century there has been no trend in one direction or another.

The study, made by scientists for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration was published in the current issue of Geophysical Research Letters. It is based on temperature and precipitation readings taken at weather stations around the country from 1895 to 1987.



Mar 03, 2010
Arctic Ocean warming, icebergs growing scarce, Washington Post reports
By Kirk Myers, Seminole Country Environmental Examiner
�The Arctic Ocean is warming up, icebergs are growing scarcer and in some places the seals are finding the water too hot,” according to a Commerce Department report published by the Washington Post. Writes the Post: “Reports from fishermen, seal hunters and explorers. . . all point to a radical change in climate conditions and . . . unheard-of temperatures in the Arctic zone . . . Great masses of ice have been replaced by moraines of earth and stones . . . while at many points well-known glaciers have entirely disappeared.”
More evidence of human-caused global warming? Hardly.

The above report of runaway Arctic warming is from a Washington Post story published Nov. 2, 1922 and bears an uncanny resemblance to the tales of global warming splattered across the front pages of today’s newspapers. It is one of many historical accounts published during the past 140 years describing climate changes and often predicting catastrophic cooling or warming.

Here are excerpts from a few of those accounts, appearing as early as 1870:
“The climate of New-York and the contiguous Atlantic seaboard has long been a study of great interest. We have just experienced a remarkable instance of its peculiarity. The Hudson River, by a singular freak of temperature, has thrown off its icy mantle and opened its waters to navigation.” - New York Times, Jan. 2, 1870

“Is our climate changing? The succession of temperate summers and open winters through several years, culminating last winter in the almost total failure of the ice crop throughout the valley of the Hudson, makes the question pertinent. The older inhabitants tell us that the winters are not as cold now as when they were young, and we have all observed a marked diminution of the average cold even in this last decade.” - New York Times, June 23, 1890

“The question is again being discussed whether recent and long-continued observations do not point to the advent of a second glacial period, when the countries now basking in the fostering warmth of a tropical sun will ultimately give way to the perennial frost and snow of the polar regions.” - New York Times, Feb. 24, 1895

Professor Gregory of Yale University stated that “another world ice-epoch is due.” He was the American representative to the Pan-Pacific Science Congress and warned that North America would disappear as far south as the Great Lakes, and huge parts of Asia and Europe would be “wiped out.” - Chicago Tribune, Aug. 9, 1923

“The discoveries of changes in the sun’s heat and southward advance of glaciers in recent years have given rise to the conjectures of the possible advent of a new ice age” - Time Magazine, Sept. 10, 1923

Headline: “America in Longest Warm Spell Since 1776; Temperature Line Records a 25-year Rise” - New York Times, March 27, 1933

“America is believed by Weather Bureau scientists to be on the verge of a change of climate, with a return to increasing rains and deeper snows and the colder winters of grandfather’s day."- Associated Press, Dec. 15, 1934

Warming Arctic Climate Melting Glaciers Faster, Raising Ocean Level, Scientist Says - “A mysterious warming of the climate is slowly manifesting itself in the Arctic, engendering a “serious international problem,” Dr. Hans Ahlmann, noted Swedish geophysicist, said today. - New York Times, May 30, 1937

“Greenland’s polar climate has moderated so consistntly that communities of hunters have evolved into fishing villages. Sea mammals, vanishing from the west coast, have been replaced by codfish and other fish species in the area’s southern waters.” - New York Times, Aug. 29, 1954

“An analysis of weather records from Little America shows a steady warming of climate over the last half century. The rise in average temperature at the Antarctic outpost has been about five degrees Fahrenheit.” - New York Times, May 31, 1958

“Several thousand scientists of many nations have recently been climbing mountains, digging tunnels in glaciers, journeying to the Antarctic, camping on floating Arctic ice. Their object has been to solve a fascinating riddle: what is happening to the world’s ice? - New York Times, Dec. 7, 1958

“After a week of discussions on the causes of climate change, an assembly of specialists from several continents seems to have reached unanimous agreement on only one point: it is getting colder.” - New York Times, Jan. 30, 1961

“Like an outrigger canoe riding before a huge comber, the earth with its inhabitants is caught on the downslope of an immense climatic wave that is plunging us toward another Ice Age.” - Los Angeles Times, Dec. 23, 1962

“Col. Bernt Balchen, polar explorer and flier, is circulating a paper among polar specialists proposing that the Arctic pack ice is thinning and that the ocean at the North Pole may become an open sea within a decade or two.” - New York Times, Feb. 20, 1969

“By 1985, air pollution will have reduced the amount of sunlight reaching earth by one half ...” - Life magazine, January 1970
“In ten years all important animal life in the sea will be extinct. Large areas of coastline will have to be evacuated because of the stench of dead fish.” - Paul Ehrlich, Earth Day, 1970

“Civilization will end within 15 or 30 years unless immediate action is taken against problems facing mankind. We are in an environmental crisis which threatens the survival of this nation, and of the world as a suitable place of human habitation.” - Barry Commoner (Washington University), Earth Day, 1970

Because of increased dust, cloud cover and water vapor, “the planet will cool, the water vapor will fall and freeze, and a new Ice Age will be born.” - Newsweek magazine, Jan. 26, 1970

“The United States and the Soviet Union are mounting large-scale investigations to determine why the Arctic climate is becoming more frigid, why parts of the Arctic sea ice have recently become ominously thicker and whether the extent of that ice cover contributes to the onset of ice ages.” - New York Times, July 18, 1970

“In the next 50 years, fine dust that humans discharge into the atmosphere by burning fossil fuel will screen out so much of the sun’s rays that the Earth’s average temperature could fall by six degrees. Sustained emissions over five to 10 years, could be sufficient to trigger an ice age.” - Washington Post, July 9, 1971

“It’s already getting colder. Some midsummer day, perhaps not too far in the future, a hard, killing frost will sweep down on the wheat fields of Saskatchewan, the Dakotas and the Russian steppes. . . .” - Los Angles Times, Oct. 24, 1971

“An international team of specialists has concluded from eight indexes of climate that there is no end in sight to the cooling trend of the last 30 years, at least in the Northern Hemisphere.” - New York Times, Jan. 5, 1978
“A poll of climate specialists in seven countries has found a consensus that there will be no catastrophic changes in the climate by the end of the century. But the specialists were almost equally divided on whether there would be a warming, a cooling or no change at all.” - New York Times, Feb. 18, 1978

“A global warming trend could bring heat waves, dust-dry farmland and disease, the experts said… Under this scenario, the resort town of Ocean City, Md., will lose 39 feet of shoreline by 2000 and a total of 85 feet within the next 25 years.” - San Jose Mercury News, June 11, 1986

“Global warming could force Americans to build 86 more power plants—at a cost of $110 billion—to keep all their air conditioners running 20 years from now, a new study says...Using computer models, researchers concluded that global warming would raise average annual temperatures nationwide two degrees by 2010, and the drain on power would require the building of 86 new midsize power plants - Associated Press, May 15, 1989

“New York will probably be like Florida 15 years from now.”—St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Sept. 17, 1989 (actually Florida was more like New York 20 years later)

“[By] 1995, the greenhouse effect would be desolating the heartlands of North America and Eurasia with horrific drought, causing crop failures and food riots . . . [By 1996] The Platte River of Nebraska would be dry, while a continent-wide black blizzard of prairie topsoil will stop traffic on interstates, strip paint from houses and shut down computers . . . The Mexican police will round up illegal American migrants surging into Mexico seeking work as field hands.” - “Dead Heat: The Race Against the Greenhouse Effect,” Michael Oppenheimer and Robert H. Boyle, 1990.

“It appears that we have a very good case for suggesting that the El Ninos are going to become more frequent, and they’re going to become more intense and in a few years, or a decade or so, we’ll go into a permanent El Nino. So instead of having cool water periods for a year or two, we’ll have El Nino upon El Nino, and that will become the norm. And you’ll have an El Nino, that instead of lasting 18 months, lasts 18 years,” according to Dr. Russ Schnell, a scientist doing atmospheric research at Mauna Loa Observatory. - BBC, Nov. 7, 1997 (followed immediately in late 1998 by three straight years of La Nina)

“Scientists are warning that some of the Himalayan glaciers could vanish within ten years because of global warming. A build-up of greenhouse gases is blamed for the meltdown, which could lead to drought and flooding in the region affecting millions of people.”—The Birmingham Post in England, July 26, 1999

“This year (2007) is likely to be the warmest year on record globally, beating the current record set in 1998.” - ScienceDaily, Jan. 5, 2007
Arctic warming has become so dramatic that the North Pole may melt this summer (2008), report scientists studying the effects of climate change in the field. “We’re actually projecting this year that the North Pole may be free of ice for the first time [in history],” David Barber, of the University of Manitoba, told National Geographic News aboard the C.C.G.S. Amundsen, a Canadian research icebreaker. - National Geographic News, June 20, 2008

“So the climate will continue to change, even if we make maximum effort to slow the growth of carbon dioxide. Arctic sea ice will melt away in the summer season within the next few decades. Mountain glaciers, providing fresh water for rivers that supply hundreds of millions of people, will disappear - practically all of the glaciers could be gone within 50 years. . . Clearly, if we burn all fossil fuels, we will destroy the planet we know . . . We would set the planet on a course to the ice-free state, with sea level 75 metres higher. Climatic disasters would occur continually.” Dr. James Hansen (NASA GISS), The Observer, Feb. 15, 2009.

Climate change? Yes, there has been plenty of that during the past 140 years. Despite warnings by “experts of the day” of approaching climate disasters, mankind somehow managed to survive. A decade or so from now, after earth’s climate changes once again, those who are old enough will recall with amusement the time, early in the 21st century, when the world went crazy over an imaginary threat called “global warming.”

Kirk Myers is one of the few environmental reporters who is bothering to look at actual data - not reading from the guidelines provided by the Society of Environmental Journalists. We applaud him for his boldness.