Gatestone in Sunday's New York Times: "Beautifying Islam"

Sir Winston Churchill on Muslims. Still true over 100 years later...
"How dreadful are the curses which Mohammedanism lays on its votaries!
Besides the fanatical frenzy, which is as dangerous in a man as hydrophobia in a dog, there is this fearful fatalistic apathy.

The effects are apparent in many countries. Improvident habits, slovenly systems of agriculture, sluggish methods of commerce, and insecurity of property exist wherever the followers of the Prophet rule or live.

A degraded sensualism deprives this life of its grace and refinement; the next of its dignity and sanctity. The fact that in Mohammedan law every woman must belong to some man as his absolute property, either as a child, a wife, or a concubine, must delay the final extinction of slavery until the faith of Islam has ceased to be a great power among men.

Individual Moslems may show splendid qualities, but the influence of the religion paralyses the social development of those who follow it.

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 civilization of modern Europe might fall, as fell the civilization of ancient Rome."
He really was ahead of his time in regard to the the "Religion of Peace".

In Saudi Arabia, birthplace of Islam, the top clerics still refuse to acknowledge Shi'ites as being Muslims, or to repudiate the teachings of earlier Wahhabi thinkers who argued for permanent jihad against heretics and infidels. No wonder that Muslim clerics today summon followers to a pitiless jihad against Shi'ite heretics, Christian crusaders, Jewish infidels, and Kurdish atheists. While they berate Arab despots for defiling the honor of Sunni Islam. These Muslim jihadis consider themselves to be on a divine mission to redeem a fallen Arab world by fire and the sword. ISIS alone, is estimated to have 40,000 fighters and 60,000 supporters. When looking at the actions of the dozens of other Islamist groups and their worldwide (Muslim) logistical support, can anyone dispute the aim of Dar al-Harb (دار الحرب "house of war") is to impose their authority, with blood, with the sword?
Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi ISIS leader, claims his leadership of Muslims -- based on descent from the Prophet Mohammad through his Quraishi tribe. On May 14 he said: "Islam was never for a day the religion of peace; Islam is the religion of war." He added his followers around the Middle East will ""make the Crusaders bleed and strengthen the pillars of the Caliphate".

The above comment from the Jewish text, Pirket Avot (Sayings of the Fathers), admonishes us to know more about our opponent's point of view. This, then, enables us to engage in honest and civil argument.

Sadly, the overwhelming majority of non-Muslim residents of the United States specifically, and the West in general, have little if any knowledge of what Islam is, its history and moral imperatives.

I posit that it is incumbent upon the modern intellectual Muslim community to create and teach instructive classes for Christians and Jews -- certainly not for conversion.

You cannot change Islam. Islam is Islam and has to follow the dictates of its prophet. Go read your Koran and carry out what it commands you and stop all this wishful thinking.

Good luck with your petition. something needs to change in the Muslim world. The current daily body count is past horrific, and demands moderates make a stand.

I have always been a "live and let live" person. Accepting and tolerant, but greatly dismayed by the demands of Islamic individuals. Muslims have moved into Europe and America for many reasons. They chose to immigrate knowing that these countries are not under Sharia law and love dogs as pets. If Muslims prefer not to live under Western values, they should be happy to return to their home countries and exist under Sharia there. They need to assimilate with Western culture, including dogs, and not expect us to adjust to their demands. I have no intention of moving to a country with Sharia and would not expect my home country to change to adjust to immigrant demands. No one makes them stay in countries with dogs. They don't like it here? I assume that they would prefer to be back in their own country and should be willing to return to them.

Considering that all, or most, of the peaceful verses in the Koran are basically lifted from the Old and New testaments of the Bible, with some changes which tends to show lack of understanding of the original texts rather than any new enlightenment, removal of the new material which is mainly violent or promoting violence to the " kuffir" or threatening violence and torture in this life and the next, would leave very little worthy of being called a "revelation" at all.

All that would be left would be a profoundly heretical version of Christianity. Such a religion would of course be rejected, probably with extreme violence, by Muslims and be as insulting to Christians and Jews as the current Koran. In short, Islam would cease to exist; a lot of people would welcome this but I don't think such a revision would get any support from Muslims.

So meaningful revision of the Koran is not only virtually impossible,without a new revelation, but extremely dangerous for the reformers.

As Mohammed is the last "prophet" it would seem that what we have got is all we are going to get. The Koran is not the only problem, of course, because we have the sirra and the ahadith; these accounts and rulings of Muhammad and his deeds and words are the source of much violence and prejudice toward non Muslims and the basis of Sharia as well as being considered as binding and sacred as the Koran.

Most of us outside of Islam would love to see it's claws drawn but it would seem an impossible task as things stand.

Islam has always and likely will always be a violent religion. There have, of course, been brief periods of enlightenment within Islam. But I can think of no ideologies in human history, other than the brief episodes of Nazism and Communism, which have been more violent than Islam.

Attempts to "reclaim" Islam from violent extremists are, alas, unlikely to succeed.

I have a huge problem with this advertisement -- namely that all images have women with headscarves! Why can't you show Muslim women that refuse to wear the headscarf??? The hijab is part of the Islamist movement within Islam that regresses from modernism and is a symbol of the Islamism you at the Gatestone Institute speak of holding an exclusionary ideology. Muslim women in Iran never wore the headscarf before the Islamic revolution! Muslim women in Egypt in the 1950's never wore the headscarf! Muslim women in Afghanistan in the 70's didn't wear the headscarf. TELL MUSLIM WOMEN TO QUITE SEGREGATING THEMSELVES WITH THE HEADSCARF. They are not the Virgin Mary! Modern women don't like it, modern westerners don't like it! We want assimilation and we don't want someone's religion thrown in our face! Don't separate women by religion and gender from the rest of us.

Religion must be strictly personal. Religion which is not strictly personal is politics.

Interesting. Moderate Muslims are voicing their concern about "the monsters" that have hijacked the beautiful and peaceful religion known as Islam.

Great text - till you realize that the right to change one's religion, and more in particular the right to leave Islam, is not being mentioned. "Freedom of conscience" is, but without articulating the meaning of those three words they mean almost nothing.

So, if the ad is run again, please add:

- no one was ever born as a Muslim
- everyone is free to change their religion/philosophy of life, as often as they want, no matter what their age is, and to speak openly about their changes
- every child deserves to grow up in complete freedom of religion and philosophy of life

The prohibition of apostasy is the core problem of Islam. All the trouble mankind is having with Islam is flowing from that.

There is no religion in the world now that propagates their law into society except Islam. Every religion has laws yet we don't enforce it on anyone in any country.
But islam wants this and more... why?

What I've been waiting for all the time. People of the Islamic faith standing up and being counted for accepting responsibility for the reformation where necessary of their faith and the willingness to stamp out the radical and butcherous interpretation to justify primitive behaviours and practices, while the silent majority is too cowardly to do something about it by just claiming they are not responsible because they want to live peacefully. And may I say without due concern for the victims of people practicing fanaticism in the name of Islam. The parallels drawn between what happened in Nazi Germany and elsewhere in the world though out modern history are abundantly clear.
SO WHERE TO FROM HERE? People have to do more than just 'tut tut' and talk about it.

I live in the EU region and I unconditionally support your cause.
Thanks for a great effort and a great call to humanity.

and the silence is deafening! Come on, where are the moderate Muslims whom so often tell me that their religion is a force for good? Those who say that ISIS does not represent them? I challenge you to prove those words....

"Believers! Conduct yourselves with justice..." Islam's justice is very different to the justice of civilised peoples.

Muslims believe that the Koran is the perfect, eternal word of their god Allah. There is no higher source than the word of Allah for what Islam requires of Muslims. Muslims are told through the Koran to make war in order to spread Islam. They are told to hate, subjugate and kill non-Muslims and to not take any of them as friends. They are told to kill Jews. They are told that women are inherently inferior to men and that gays and apostates are to be killed. Muslim men are told that they can rape their wives and female slaves. In Islam, all of this is considered just.

Being the word of Allah, the Koran cannot be altered in any way. By Islamic justice, any Muslim who tries to change the word of Allah is an apostate who deserves to die and may be killed without fear of reprisal from other Muslims.

Islam cannot be sanitised. Accept it all or reject it all, no half-way position is possible.

"... bearing true witness before God..." If Muslims were to bear true witness they would admit all of the above. Fortunately for them and unfortunately for everyone else, there is the established practice of taqiyya which is lying to advance the cause of Islam.

Taqiyya allows Muslims to lie about Islam without incurring the wrath of their god and the murderous intent of other Muslims. They can say what they need to so that non-Muslims are misled into believing, for example, that Islam is a religion of peace and that Islamic terrorism has nothing to do with Islam.

The statement headed "What Can Muslims Do To Reclaim Their "Beautiful Religion"?" is an invitation to Muslims to engage in taqiyya and make non-Muslims believe that Islam can be sanitised when it can't. The statement and it's signatories would suggest that it's possible to pick and choose which parts of Islam to follow when it isn't. Islam is all or nothing. Picking and choosing is not allowed.

The quoted verse, 4:135, appears about a fifth of the way through the Koran and is among the relatively civilised verses. Presented by itself it gives a false impression of Islam and that is of course why it's presented by itself.

Those who want a far more accurate impression of Islam should read all of the Koran and not a few select excerpts. The later verses get really nasty.

Know your enemy. Read the Koran.

Islam represents a backward, aggressive and violent force or more pointedly, "unmitigated horror, terror and violence" which is all part of the quran you cannot reform a religion/book which Muslims believe are the words of Allah...Mohammad set the example for that they are/were to do.

All religions have done terrible things, even slaughtered or burnt at the stake those who were not of the same faith. But unlike Islam, it is not written in the Bible or any other religious books.

For the ten years before he died, Mohammad went on over 70 raids into villages sometimes while they slept, killing, raping, taking women for sex slaves and booty (as Mohammad himself did) and that was not counting raids on caravans who had done nothing against him, but had much booty, this seemed to be the only way that they lived, they did not appear to work, letting us know that the command of Mohammad to "kill the infidels" was not just when people came against them, and besides most people were to scared to come against them.

The quran and others of their holy books are very explicit in what they are to do to those who will not submit. If it is a beautiful religion, why are so many Muslims/clerics/imams taking verses wrongly so that even today we have non-stop worldwide Muslim violence? People of course follow the example of their spiritual leader, where unlike Islam all other religions talk of peace, loving everyone, caring about people, and to live and let live those who do not think the same, where as Islam says to kill all who will not convert or upset you....Other religions are not taking verses out of context so what causes Muslims to do so...it couldn't be that that is what is written in their books could it.

Even though ALL religions have done terrible things even slaughtered or burnt at the stake those who were not of the same faith, but unlike Islam it is not written in the bible or in other religious books to do so, all other religious books teach to love, patience, care about others, to live and let live.

With the escalating news of Islamic terrorism rampant that alone shows that nothing can be done for Islam and it has never been a beautiful religion, as stated above, it is a war cult.

I think it is hypocritical for people to call themselves Muslims and then say they can love the rest of the world because if they read their scriptures its always about cursing non-Muslims, and do not take them as your friend and when the time is right if they will not submit, kill them.

Here is what you can and must do - call on ALL Muslims (around the world), who claim that they are moderate and are opposed to the evil crimes committed by their brothers and sisters world over TO START MASSIVE DEMONSTRATIONS IN EVERY COUNTRY AROUND THE WORLD. To these demonstrations bring along your CHILDREN - they (the children) need to learn right from wrong. As for American Muslims, the Washington mall is a great place for such a demonstration. Also, bring along signs that say "WE ARE ALL PEACEFUL CITIZENS OF THE WORLD". I believe that many non Muslims will join you.

Shukran.

I send my sincere hope and wishes for the best of luck to the Muslims who signed this pledge. You are going against millions of your co-religious brothers and sisters who have been brainwashed to believe otherwise so you will have a very large mountain to climb. All of us rational people of all religions will be here to help and cheer you on.

In Egypt, 84% of Muslims (80 million people) want the death penalty for those who leave Islam.
http://www.pewglobal.org/2010/12/02/muslims-around-the-world-divided-on-hamas-and-hezbollah/

According to a another Pew poll, 47% of Muslims in Bangladesh believe "suicide bombings can be often/sometimes justified against civilian targets in order to defend Islam from its enemies?"
http://www.pewglobal.org/2014/07/01/concerns-about-islamic-extremism-on-the-rise-in-middle-east/pg-2014-07-01-islamic-extremism-10/

That's 70 million Muslims in that country alone who justify blowing up civilians.

In Great Britain, 21% of its Muslim population justifies suicide bombings.
http://www.danielpipes.org/blog/2005/07/more-survey-research-from-a-british-islamist

That's 630,000 Muslims in GB who are okay will blowing up infidels.