Source: The Gazette

Both sides of the argument in the article, Jan. 17, “Is violence the true version of Islam?” by Joel Mathis and Ben Boychuk violate Albert Einstein’s maxim “Everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler,” which implies that oversimplification may lead to erroneous conclusions. Personally knowing some good nonviolent Muslims does not establish that all Muslims are good and nonviolent, while the existence of some evil violent Muslims does not establish that all Muslims are evil and violent or that Islam is the cause of their evil and violence.

Drug cartels and some large pharmaceutical companies would go out of business if converting to Islam could cure depression, delusions, paranoia, bipolar disorder and PTSD. Since it does not, then for those with serious mental and emotional problems, Islam is just another excuse to do something crazy.

Unlike the mayor of Philadelphia, one has to be prejudiced to believe that if a man with a stolen gun shoots a police officer, it is because he is a sane Muslim with great faith and scholarly knowledge, disregarding the facts that the man is a confused ignorant petty criminal claiming allegiance to ISIS, known to have mental problems and crazy enough to think that by his despicable actions he was following God. One has to be similarly prejudiced to believe that the persecution of the Yazidis by ISIS in the past few years represents true Islam, while the protection of the Yazidis under the Ottoman and other Muslim empires and sultanates for over a thousand years is because those Muslims did not know or practice true Islam.

There is confusion in the minds of some between pacifist and peaceful. Wars and violence have been the way of the world since the dawn of civilization, even world wars in Christian Europe as recently as the last century. Islam is not a pacifist religion; it is a peaceful militaristic religion with rational rules for war and peace; otherwise it would have ceased to exist long ago.

The early conquests of Islam and the Muslim empires were to fulfill the God’s promises given in the Book of Genesis (16:10-11, 21:18-20, 17:20-21) to Hagar and Abraham of great blessings for Ishmael: to make him a mighty nation, the father of 12 rulers, with descendants too numerous to count. Islam forbids forcible conversion, proof being the Catholics of Spain, the Greek Orthodox of Greece and the Hindus of India, who lived for centuries under Muslim rule without being forced to convert.

Just as the Constitution is misinterpreted by American militias to suit their agenda, as it was by Timothy McVeigh, just as the current conflict over interpretation of the Second Amendment is based on differing agendas, just as the Confederacy quoted the Bible in support of their right to possess slaves, so also the Quran is misinterpreted by those on either side of the mainstream of Islam, liberals and extremists to suit their agendas.

The problem is not with the Constitution or the Scriptures; the problem is that some people seek misinterpretations in support of their agendas and motives, regardless of the true intent of the Constitution and Scriptures. Personal prejudices and agendas also color some people’s perceptions, whether of Islam or of political opponents, regardless of the facts.

It is beyond the limited scope of this article to address all the other irreducibly complex set of factors and reasons why some individuals and groups perpetrate violence and atrocities, claiming to do so in the name of Islam, while violating the rules of Islam for jihad, war and peace, and for the sanctity of human life, which apply even to the Yazidis. Aside from those geniuses who can pontificate on Islam and Muslims after reading just a couple of books or articles on the Internet, I recommend the Comparative Religion and other courses at PPCC, UCCS and PILLAR, for objective knowledge about the basics of Islam and the history of Muslim empires.

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