True-Islam

In Search of the "True Islam"

Ever since the events of 9-11 brought the subject of Islam crashing to the forefront of Western consciousness, like a Tiger tank plowing through a quiet country cottage, we've been subjected to endless commentaries regarding the nature of "true Islam". For the well-informed anti-Islamist, these hackneyed words, "true Islam", have come to have the effect of fingernails on a chalk board. 'Cause you know what's coming: a fresh pile of steaming deception.

The goal of these commentaries is always the same -- to create, out of thin air, a peaceful, tolerant,

non-threatening version of Islam that is reassuring to jittery infidels. A thoroughly whitewashed vision of Islam that paints a complimentary picture of Muslims, depicting the vast majority of them as being virtually indistinguishable from the average Christian or Jew or secular humanist. Just regular folks!

In the saddest cases, these spiels are forlorn exercises in self-delusion, offered by moderate Muslims, who are desperate to believe the best about their hellish religion, in spite of all the damning evidence. We encounter these on TV news programs, in radio commentary, in newspapers and magazines, and in online journals. The mainstream media seems to have a huge appetite for this sort of drivel, considering that just a minimal amount of research on the part of a producer or editor would prove the central thesis to be total bullshit, or at best, wishful thinking. No doubt, in some cases, these moderate Muslims are simply ignorant about the actual tenets of their religion. Some of them have probably never read the Koran in a language they understand, because of the importance placed upon reading the holy book in the original Arabic, even if the only language you happen to understand is Farsi or Urdu, or whatever they speak in Indonesia. Apparently you don't need to "understand" what you're reading, in any sort of literal sense, because this book is a magic book; but only if you read it in Arabic, Allah's magic language. Also, many Muslims simply don't take their religion seriously enough to actually study it -- going through the motions of ritual and diet and prayer, but wearing their religion lightly, as merely an element of cultural identity. In the absence of actual facts regarding the core tenets of their religion, these limpid Muslims simply conjure up an illusory version that appeals to their Westernized sensibilities. Sensibilities shaped by the European and American Enlightenments, not by Mohammed's desert creed.

In other cases, we're lectured on the nature of "true Islam" by shifty-eyed Islamists with scruffy beards and forked tongues. These guys know exactly what their religion is all about, but are determined to keep us infidels in the dark, until it's too late to save ourselves. Some of these snakes in the grass wax eloquently about the Religion of Peace to non-Muslim audiences -- and describe something much darker, and more realistic, to Muslim audiences. When these deceptions take place in interviews, the clueless non-Muslim conducting the interview (at NPR or the BBC, for instance) generally does not ask any uncomfortable questions or present anything in the way of contradictory evidence -- thus giving the impression that the duplicitous Islamist's reassuring view of his religion actually passes muster.

However, anyone who knows anything about Islam expects Islamists to be duplicitous. (I cant let it go now!) Their prophet instructed them to be deceitful in the cause of Islam. And they just seem to have a knack for it. Like Swiss dudes and rifle-shooting. Or Comanches and horseback riding. You know.

But the really baffling cases are those saccharin commentaries by non-Muslims of the liberal milquetoast persuasion, who do the work for the Islamists, by lulling to sleep their fellow infidels with comforting platitudes that have no basis in reality. One of these was published in RUSE, an online magazine, back in 2009, by someone named Michael Hughes. The article was titled "In Search of the True Islam"; and it absolutely reeked of politically correct, multicultural bullshit. Because this magazine was promoted as

being bold and "edgy", I was especially put off by this bland piece of dhimmi journalism, which had all the "edginess" of a limp noodle; so I posted a snarky response that began with the lines:

Mr. Hughes' article should have been titled “In Search of a Non-Threatening, Mostly Illusory

Islam”. He obviously found it. Apparently his search took him no further than the writings of

a few Muslim apologists and propagandists. His description of Islam is completely at odds

with the reality of the religion, as it’s been practiced for fourteen hundred years.

This sort of deluded commentary is standard fare from Western liberals who are still convinced that "people are all basically the same" and "we all want the same things in life" and yada, yada, yada. They point to the fact that many Muslims manage to live peaceful lives; and they quote Muslims who assure us that theirs is an enlightened religion that is in no way incompatible with democracy or human rights. And that's enough for them. That's as far as their research takes them. This sort of shoddy journalism is an ill-conceived attempt to bring everyone together and build "community cohesion". Its aim is to chill out anxious infidels, to avoid "backlash" against Muslims. (Backlash that almost never occurs.) It may also represent an attempt to convince Muslims that their religion is peaceful and tolerant -- a very odd sort of modern-day missionary work. I think it also reflects an inability to imagine that many millions of people actually believe in childish superstitions, and organize their lives around ancient mythology. But on a basic level, it comes down to the sheer laziness of people who can't be bothered to do a little research before they commit something to print or to the airwaves.

In my opinion, there can be only one true Islam. That's the original Islam. Islam the way the Prophet Mohammed preached it. The way he himself lived it. The Islam of the Koran and the Hadiths.

Clearly, anything else is a bastardization of Islam. An amalgamation of Islam and something else. Islam diluted with modern secular humanist ideals is not the religion of the Prophet. And if you're not going to embrace the faith as it was revealed by Mohammed, and laid down in the Koran -- supposedly an exact copy of the original holy book, that has existed in Paradise since the beginning of time -- you have no business being a Muslim! Better to simply chuck the whole primitive, barbaric, superstition-laden ideology, and start thinking for yourself. Then get your dancin' and romancin' infidel groove on!

If you really want to find the "true Islam”, as it was preached by Mohammed, whose revelations are still considered perfect and complete by the majority of Muslims today, you need to go to the source. You need to read the Koran, which is absolutely loaded with commandments to despise, subjugate, and kill the infidel. A book totally at odds with humna rights, personal freedom, and the principles of democracy.

You need to read the Hadiths, which provide biographical accounts of Mohammed, the original jihadist, who spread his nascent religion via the sword, waging wars of conquest against neighboring tribes that had the bad manners to reject him as Allah’s final messenger. A merciless bandit and warlord, who beheaded helpless captives and "married" the widow of a man he had killed in battle earlier that day, consumating the "marriage" that same night. A pedophile who, while in his forties, married a six year-old girl, and consumated that marriage when the girl was nine. This is true Islam, because the Prophet Mohammed is held up to be the model of the perfect Muslim man, an example for all times.

The truth is, it's the "extremists", the "radicals" and the "fundamentalists" who understand what Islam is all about. The Taliban. The ayatollahs. Al Qaeda terrorists. The Wahhabi religious police of Saudi Arabia. These guys are the purists -- the True Believers, who are channeling the Prophet Mohammed's evil spirit, and practicing his religion the way it was meant to be practiced. And that's why these guys can always win a debate with moderate Muslims, who have no theological basis on which to support their claims of a warm, fuzzy, tolerant religion.

One of the key principles of war is the need to understand your enemy. We infidels in the West must stop deluding ourselves regarding the nature of "true Islam". We need to stop listening to deceitful (or self-deceived) Muslims. We need to look to the sources -- the Koran and the life of the Prophet -- to find the true Islam, and ignore the smoke-and-mirrors shows of conniving Islamists. This is the starting point. If we don't get this right, we'll have no idea what we're up against, in defending our more enlightened societies against the forces of Islam.

Knowledge is power! And those who refuse to learn the truth, however distasteful, will be at a serious disadvantage in the rough-and-tumble world being created by militant Islam.

Handbook for Infidels

The Candid Progressive's Guide

to Islam & its War on the West

Magic rock. Muslim pilgrims in Mecca, paying

their respects at the Kaaba.