Allah’s Disciple as Assassin

While the liberal Western intelligentsia and the main stream media continue to spew the tripe that Islam is a religion of peace, and that radical Islam has nothing to do with true Islam, the inconvenient truth of Islamic teaching and history keeps tripping them up.

The latest edition of al-Qaeda’s propaganda magazine, Inspire (issue 15), is devoted to the encouragement of professional assassinations of American business leaders and entrepreneurs by home-grown jihadis, in hopes of undermining the American economy. According to the magazine’s opening editorial sentence by Yahya Ibrahim, “Assassination is an effective tool in warfare.”

“Wait a minute!” howl the ivory tower thought police and the media minders. “That just makes our point. These bloodthirsty radicals have nothing to do with the peaceful religion taught and practiced by Muhammad — they are using religion as a pretext for their own violent agendas!”

We might be reassured by such confident assertions, were it not for the fact that Inspire‘s editor,Yahya Ibrahim, supports his claim with the statement, “The prophet ordered the killing of many criminal leaders using this method, which had a great impact in the balance of war between truth and falsehood. And here we are, following the footsteps of the prophet on how he dealt with his enemies and friends. His methodology will continue to be a guide for us in this path of truth.”

Indeed, the Hadith (= sacred reports about the actions and teachings of Muhammad, second only the the Qur’an in authority for Muslims) contain multiple examples of Muhammad commanding assassination of enemies. Here is only one, as reported by al-Bukhari (considered most reliable among all the Hadith collectors):

Narrated Jabir:

The Prophet  said, “Who is ready to kill Ka`b bin Ashraf (i.e. a Jew).” Muhammad bin Maslama replied, “Do you like me to kill him?” The Prophet replied in the affirmative. Muhammad bin Maslama said, “Then allow me to say what I like [i.e., to deceive him so as to get close enough to kill him].” The Prophet replied, “I do (i.e. allow you).

— Bukhari. Vol. 4, Book 52, Hadith 271.

 

Likewise, the earliest biography of Muhammad, written by Muslim historian Ibn Ishaq about 120 years after Muhammad’s death and preserved for posterity by Ibn Ishaq’s student Ibn Hisham, relates numerous assassination decrees by Muhammad. After one such assassination of a man named Abu ‘Afak, a non-Muslim woman named ‘Asma bint Marwan composed some derogatory verses concerning Muhammad and his followers. Ibn Ishaq reports:

When the apostle [Muhammad] heard what she had said, he said, “Who will rid me of Marwan’s daugther?” ‘Umayr bin ‘Adiy al-Khatami  who was with him heard him, and that very night he went to her house and killed her. In the morning he came to the apostle and told him what he had done and he [Muhammad] said, “You have helped God and His apostle, O ‘Umayr!” When he asked if he would have to bear any evil consequences, the apostle said, “Two goats won’t butt their heads about her” [i.e., her life was completely inconsequential], so ‘Umayr went back to his people.

— Ibn Ishaq,  The Life of Muhammad (Eng. trans., Alfred Guillaume), p. 676.

The preeminent goal of the radical Muslim world today is the same goal aspired to by Muhammad’s companions and the earliest generations of Islam: to emulate Muhammad [the ideal human being, according to the Qur’an] in all his practices so as to bring about the submission of all humanity to the ways of Allah. Assassination is one tool in the belt of jihadis, and to be used along with all other means of terror and warfare until the world bows before Islam and accepts the rule of Sharia’ law. Core Islam is committed to imitating Muhammad and “his methodology.”

Certainly, many Muslims today do not follow this imitatio Muhammad imperative and quietly voice their unhappiness with radicals like al-Qaeda, ISIS, al-Shabaab and the rest, but unfortunately they cannot truthfully deny that the Islam of the radicals is the Islam of Muhammad. Instead, they leave that up to the brainwashed Western academics and media talking-heads, who apparently don’t know any better, and appear sincere in their ignorance.

It’s time to wake up from our cozy 1400 year nap….