05 Relations with Non-Muslims

Relations with Non-Muslims

The Sources

The Theology

Who are non-Muslims? Islam means ‘submission.’ ‘In the religious sense, Islam means submission to the will of God and obedience to His law.’ A Muslim is one who submits. A non-Muslim is someone who refuses to submit and believe that ‘Allah is one and Muhammad is his messenger.’ (Source) The quotes above and elaborations below list some of the practical consequences of this refusal.

‘People of the Book’ are Jews and Christians. ‘To make mischief in the land’ is a wonderfully vague phrase. For many Muslims simply refusing to submit (i.e. becoming a Muslim) is making ‘mischief in the land’ and may justify the proscribed punishment mentioned above.

For those who leave Islam the proscribed punishment by Mohammed is death.

Jews are particularly targeted for Islamic venom. They are compared with ‘apes and swine.’ And it seems that nature herself hates them and will express such hatred by the fact that ‘in the last hour’ the very stones will say to Muslims, ‘There is a Jew hiding behind me, so kill him."

The choice presented to non-Muslims who are ‘People of the Book’ according to the Qur'an and Hadith is conversion, payment of the Jizya (poll tax) or war. As the Qur'an says the payment of the Jizya requires an attitude of submission (‘until they pay the Jizya with willing submission’); the payers must be made to ‘feel subdued.’ This makes them semi- or mini-Muslims; people who only partially submit. This ensures the superiority of Islam over all other beliefs.

Sharia law is the detailed application of the commands of the Qur'an and the examples of Mohammed. The right for non-Muslims to live in Muslim dominated lands is a prerogative of the Muslim majority; it is not a right in the same sense that Muslim have a right to live there. This attitude is consistent with the example of Mohammed who said, ‘If we wish to expel you we will expel you.’

For non-Muslims, who are not people of the book, e.g. atheists, polytheists, etc. the choice is conversion or war. This is why according to many historians the Muslim conquests of India were even more horrific than that of the lands where People of the Book lived. ‘The massacres perpetrated by Muslims in the India are unparalleled in history, bigger in sheer numbers than the [Nazi] Holocaust, or the massacre of the Armenians by the Turks; more extensive even than the slaughter of the South American native populations by the invading Spanish and Portuguese.’

Slavery in the Qur'an is mentioned in many places with different meanings, using words like ‘those whom your right hand possess’ (e.g. Qur'an 016.071)

‘All Muslim scholars acknowledge that Islam has retained the principle of slavery, though some of them claim that Islam encourages the liberation of slaves. Maybe some of Muhammad's sayings and a few Qur'anic verses indicate so, yet from a practical point of view, we realize that the liberation of slaves was a rare occurrence. The reason is well known… Neither Muhammad nor his wives or companions were a good example in this regard. Mohammad himself owned many slaves, some of whom he captured in wars of conquest and some he purchased. The names of forty slaves owned by Mohammad are recorded by Muslim chroniclers.’ ‘In his campaign against the children of Qurayza (the Jewish tribe), Muhammad killed all the males (700-900) in one day. Then, he divided the women and the children among his people.’ (S)

Qur'an 3.28 clearly warns against taking non-Muslims as friends/allies/protectors etc. Those Muslims who do will incur the wrath of Allah. ‘An infidel i.e. a person, who does not believe in Allah and His Oneness, is najis, i.e. unclean.’ (al-Sistani)

"Islamic law, which is conserved in the codes of family law of the various Muslim countries, does not consent to and therefore does not recognize this marriage [of a Muslim woman who marries a Catholic man], but exacts the conversion of the future husband to Islam." (S) (Q)