No stronger retrograde force exists in the world. Far from being moribund, Mohammedanism is a militant and proselytizing faith. It has already spread throughout Central Africa, raising fearless warriors at every step; and were it not that Christianity is sheltered in the strong arms of science, the science against which it had vainly struggled, the civilisation of modern Europe might fall, as fell the civilisation of ancient Rome. Winston S Churchill, The River War
But the Mahommedan religion increases, instead of lessening, the fury of intolerance. It was originally propagated by the sword, and ever since, its votaries have been subject, above the people of all other creeds, to this form of madness. In a moment the fruits of patient toil, the prospects of material prosperity, the fear of death itself, are flung aside. The more emotional Pathans are powerless to resist. All rational considerations are forgotten. Seizing their weapons, they become Ghazis – as dangerous and as sensible as mad dogs: fit only to be treated as such. While the more generous spirits among the tribesmen become convulsed in an ecstasy of religious bloodthirstiness, poorer and more material souls derive additional impulses from the influence of others, the hopes of plunder and the joy of fighting. Thus whole nations are roused to arms. Thus the Turks repel their enemies, the Arabs of the Soudan break the British squares, and the rising on the Indian frontier spreads far and wide. In each case civilisation is confronted with militant Mahommedanism. The forces of progress clash with those of reaction. The religion of blood and war is face to face with that of peace. Winston S Churchill, The Story of the Malakand Field Force
Declare your jihad on thirteen enemies you cannot see – egoism, arrogance, conceit, selfishness, greed, lust, intolerance, anger, lying, cheating, gossiping and slandering. If you can master and destroy them, then you will be read to fight the enemy you can see. Abu Hamid al-Ghazali
I’m a fundamentalist in the true sense. That is to say, I follow the fundamentals of religion ... But for over 1,400 years people have been interpreting and re-interpreting the religion to suit their own purpose! ... These are not Islamic fundamentals any more than the Christians who burned people at the stake are fundamentalist. They are actually deviating from the teachings of the religion! Mahathir Mohamad
6There are many lay people and scholars alike, both with and without the Muslim community, who feel that the pure orthodox Islam of the fundamentalists could never survive outside the context of its seventh-century Arabian origins. Apply twenty-first-century science, logic, or humanistic reasoning to it and it falls apart.
They believe this is why Islam has always relied so heavily on the threat of death. Question Islam, malign Islam, or leave Islam and you will be killed. It is a totalitarian modus operandi that silences all dissent and examination, thereby protecting the faith from ever having to defend itself. Brad Thor, The Last Patriot
I think there is a massive gulf in the understanding and knowledge between Muslims and non-Muslims – I mean particularly the West and the Islamic world. What we are talking about in reality is a strong minority of people committed to their own particular interpretation of Islam, who seek to impose it on others. I do not believe that the totality of the Islamic world recognizes the Taliban interpretation of the faith as being representative of its own view. There is no unanimity in Islam with regard to this interpretation. Generally you will see as much diversity in the Islam as you do in the Christian world today. But the West does not really understand the pluralism of the Islamic world. Aga Khan IV
If there is much misunderstanding in the West about the nature of Islam, there is also much ignorance about the debt our own culture and civilization owe to the Islamic world. It is a failure, which stems, I think, from the straitjacket of history, which we have inherited. The medieval Islamic world, from central Asia to the shores of the Atlantic, was a world where scholars and men of learning flourished. But because we have tended to see Islam as the enemy of the West, as an alien culture, society, and system of belief, we have tended to ignore or erase its great relevance to our own history. Prince Charles
There is in Islam a paradox which is perhaps a permanent menace. The great creed born in the desert creates a kind of ecstasy of the very emptiness of its own land, and even, one may say, out of the emptiness of its own theology ... A void is made in the heart of Islam which has to be filled up again and again by a mere repetition of the revolution that founded it. There are no sacraments; the only thing that can happen is a sort of apocalypse, as unique as the end of the world; so the apocalypse can only be repeated and the world end again and again. There are no priests; and yet this equality can only breed a multitude if lawless prophets almost as numerous as priests. The very dogma that there is only one Mahomet produces an endless procession of Mahomets. G K Chesterton
I’m tired of being told that Islam is a ‘Religion of Peace’, when every day I can read dozens of stories of Muslim men killing their sisters, wives and daughters for their family ‘honour’; of Muslims rioting over some slight offense; of Muslims murdering Christian and Jews because they aren’t ‘believers’; of Muslims burning schools for girls; of Muslims stoning teenage rape victims to death for ‘adultery’; of Muslims mutilating the genitals of little girls; all in the name of Allah, because the Qur’an and Shari’a law tells them to. I’m tired of being told that out of ‘tolerance for other cultures’ we must let Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries use our oil money to fund mosques and mandrassa Islamic schools to preach hate in Australia, New Zealand, UK, America and Canada, while no one from these countries are allowed to fund a church, synagogue or religious school in Saudi Arabia or any other Arab country to teach love and tolerance. Bill Cosby
All too many Muslims fail to grasp Islam, which teaches one to be lenient towards others and to understand their value systems, knowing that these are tolerated by Islam as a religion. Abdurrahman Wahid
An ideology of bigotry and intolerance spreading through Britain with its roots in Saudi Arabia. Dispatches: Undercover Mosque
A Dispatches investigation has uncovered a fundamentalist message spreading from the Saudi Arabian religious establishment through Mosques run by major UK organisations. ibid.
Wahhabism is opposed to the traditional tolerant beliefs of classical Islam. ibid.
This is how British children are being taught to read the Koran in a Muslim faith school in the north of England [teacher assaults pupils]. Dispatches: Lessons in Hate and Violence, undercover Durul Uloom, Birmingham, British Muslim faith school, Channel 4 2011
Dispatches investigates how some faith schools are operating behind closed doors ... Children being taught a hard line, intolerant and deeply antisocial brand of Islam. And pupils as young as six or seven being routinely hit and kicked. ibid.
Four years ago we investigated hard-line teaching in some of Britain’s mosques and filmed undercover in Birmingham in a mosque near the school. ibid.
We found evidence of the same kind of teaching being spread by teachers and graduates elsewhere in Britain. ibid.
The pinnacle ... of Islam is jihad. Sheikh Feiz
Put in their soft tender hearts the zeal of jihad and the love of martyrdom. Sheikh Feiz
The Muslims see the extension of jihad as a war liberating the infidels from their infidelity and a privilege for them. Bat Ye’or, author The Dhimmi: Jews and Christians Under Islam
Innocent white paper until black ink is applied. Storyville: Why Democracy? Bloody Cartoons, BBC 2007
On 30th September 2005 twelve cartoons of the prophet Muhammad are published in the Danish national newspaper Jyllands-Posten, a provocation that was just intended to show that you must be able to satirise religious figures in a modern democracy. ibid.
Danish flags and embassies were suddenly set on fire all over the world. ibid.
A Muslim is a person who has dedicated his worship exclusively to God ... Islam means making one’s religion and faith God’s alone. Ibn Arabi
It was the Sufi saints who first brought Islam and people of India together. Michael Wood: The Story of India V: The Meeting of Two Oceans BBC 2012
The world’s richest economy had begun to decline. ibid.
The quest for Hindu/Muslim unity has never been abandoned. ibid.
‘At least twelve people have been killed in Paris.’ Panorama: The Battle of British Islam, news report, BBC 2015
Why is it that some Muslims feel justified in killing their fellow citizens in the name of Islam? ibid.
‘He gave them hope single-handedly; in a space of 23 years he brought new peace and hope to Arabia and a new beacon to the world.’ Muhammad: Legacy of a Prophet, Karen Armstrong, PBS 2002
Islam, the religion Muhammad first brought to Arabia now claims 1.2 billion followers around the world. There are an estimated 7 million Muslims in America. ibid.
It was on one such retreat in the year 610 that Muhammad had an experience that would transform history. ibid.
He was to recite the words of the one true God. ibid.
Muhammad’s message slowly began to attract followers. ibid.
It gave the Muslims limited permission to take up arms in self-defence. ibid.
The prophet put that emphasis of inner development, Jihad, the constant struggle with yourself, to improve yourself and perfect your intent. ibid.
The Muslims set out on their perilous trip to Mecca crossing the vast desert without any arms to defend themselves. ibid.