Islam and Faith

Once again in August 2022, Islam rears its ugly head in the attempted murder of author Salman Rushdie because he dared (over 30 years ago) to criticize Islam. And now Harry Potter author JK Rowling is receiving threats for her support of him.

Evils committed in the name of Islam

The continuing terrors conducted by Islamic jihadists are a major concern in both America and the rest of the world. Today, we read about increased incidents of shootings, knife attacks, cars crashing into crowds, suicide bombers, female genital mutilation, and so on, all by Muslims following the dictates of Islam. Even the tragedy of 9/11 was not something new. And now, (updated October, 2023) we have the atrocities conducted by Hamas against Israel.

Over the past 1,400 years, conservative estimates put the number of people killed by Muslims following the tenets of Islam at over 250 million! These include 120 million Blacks in Africa, 80 million Hindus and 10 Million Buddhists in India and Southeast Asia, along with 60 million Christians. ^1,2,3 In addition there have been millions of female genital mutilations and untold millions of slaves from Africa. All this evil is at the core of the “religion of peace.” But “peace” to an Islamist means surrender to Islam and submission to Allah.

What is Islam, really?

It is time to call a spade a spade. This is no time to mince words or to hedge the truth. It is a time to call everything exactly what it is. Islam is a religion of war, conquest, enslavement, rape, misogyny, pedophilia, murder, bloodlust, and death worship. It is a religion of unspeakable evil. Muslims who take Islam seriously and thus seek to engage in such barbarism are evil for doing so. Those who whitewash and are apologists for these evils are evil for their part in advancing this god-awful nightmare. And keeping silent on the matter effectively whitewashes the whitewashers.

Islamic radicals cannot be reasoned with or dismissed. They cannot be appeased. Why is this? It is because they consider faith as a means of knowledge and they reject reason when it conflicts with their faith. They accept on faith that it is their duty to kill Jews, Christians, and other non-believers in Islam. They accept on faith that little girls should endure genital mutilation. They accept on faith that women should be treated as objects and property. And they accept on faith all the endless atrocities that their religion commands.

It’s not just the jihadists, it’s the religion itself

But it is a mistake to just focus on “radicals” as the jihadists are simply following their religion to the letter. One must focus on the entire religion, as Islam per se is to blame for the terrorism. The terrorists are not abusing Islam, but simply following its commands.

Faith versus Reason

The fundamental issue, then, is faith versus reason, and Islam explicitly considers faith as a means to knowledge. Faith is accepting an idea as true in the absence of evidence or proof, or in contradiction to the facts of reality. E.g. pigs can fly, women are the property of men, Allah exists. For each of these examples, ask “Where is the evidence? Where is the proof? How do you know?” The answer for each is that you can’t prove it, but you have to accept it as a matter of faith. Observe that Muslims accept on faith that whatever the Quran says is true, no matter how irrational, and whatever Mohammed did is the proper way to live and be emulated, no matter how irrational.

Faith and force are corollaries, as faith leads to the rule of brutality. The cause of it is contained in the very nature of faith. REASON is the only OBJECTIVE means of communication and of understanding among people. When people deal with one another by means of reason, reality is their objective standard and frame of reference. When they disagree, they discuss their differences within that frame of reference and reach some resolution. If one wants another to take some action, persuasion through communication is the means to get that action taken.

Faith leads to Force

But when people claim to possess supernatural means of knowledge, no persuasion, communication, or understanding is possible. In any disagreement, their frame of reference is their faith, which means there is no reality-based frame of reference. Answers to questions such as “Why? How do you know? What do you mean by that term?” cannot be given other than reference to faith. If one wants another to take some action, persuasion through communication in a rational manner is not possible, and force or threat of force, then, is the only means to get that action taken. E.g. “Submit to Allah.” You disagree and they are unable to persuade you, so they then threaten to use force and behead or enslave you and your family.

Because they can’t communicate in a rational manner, no other way of dealing with differences is open to them other than force. And THAT is the state to which faith, and in particular Islam, reduces mankind – a state where, in case of disagreement, people have no recourse except to physical violence.⁴

Islam and Faith

In order to truly defeat Islamic terrorism, the ideology itself must be addressed and the issue of faith versus reason as a means of knowledge must be front and center. By continually removing Islam from the discussion, we allow the religion, as a whole, the ability to ignore self-reflection and reform. We allow the overwhelming majority of (apparently) peaceful Muslims the excuse that it isn’t their religion, when it most assuredly is. And by not referring to Islam itself – by using euphemisms like “violent extremism” – we are ignoring the root cause of the issue because we’re worried about insulting an entire religion based on the actions of a few.

In summary, one must be honest regarding Islam. Call Islam what it is – a religion of unspeakable horrors, and that the inevitable resulting evils are primarily because Islam considers faith as a means of knowledge. And THIS is the notion that must be addressed head-on if we are ever to end over 1,400 years of senseless tragedy.

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1. Khan, M. A., Islamic Jihad: A Legacy of Forced Conversion, Imperialism, and Slavery, iUniverse 2009.

2. Konrad, Mike, The Greatest Murder Machine in History, The American Thinker May 31, 2014.

3. Spencer, Robert, The History of Jihad: From Mohammad to ISIS, Bombardier Books 2018.

4. Ideas in this and the preceding two paragraphs are adapted from Rand, Ayn, Faith and Force: The Destroyers of the Modern World, Philosophy: Who Needs It? New American Library 1985.

Photo credits

Muslims praying: matin firouzabadi on Unsplash

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As you are probably aware, many discussions on this topic are sometimes unfriendly and contain logical fallacies. If you decide to leave a comment, or even outside of this post, if you decide to have a discussion, public or private, you might find it helpful to follow the suggestions on my post How to have a successful discussion.