Countering Islamic Propaganda: 8:12

TheReligionofPeace

TROP is a non-political, fact-based site which examines the ideological threat that Islam poses to human dignity and freedom

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It's much easier to act as if critics of Islam have a problem with Muslims as people than it is to accept the uncomfortable truth that Islam is different

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What can we learn about
Islam from this woman?

"Discover the Truth's" Game

8:12
"I will Cast Terror into the Hearts of Those who Disbelieve. Therefore Strike Off Their Heads"

From Discover the Truth:

When we get to read the verses in its context, does it promote the killing of innocents? The answer is NO! Even when Muslims were being persecuted by the mighty army of Quraish
(September 29, 2014)

What the Quran Says

8:12. Your Lord inspired the angels: I will cast terror into the hearts of those who have disbelieved, so strike them over the necks, and smite over all their fingers and toes...

What the Apologists Want You to Believe

Since the verse encourages the beheading and mutliation of non-Muslims, DTT draws on textual context to argue that these acts were limited to the "battlefield". What's more, they assert, the historical context was an unprovoked battle in which the the Muslims were fighting to defend their city from being overrun by an aggressive hostile army.

How They Do It: 'Adding' to the Quran

It was highly inconvenient of Allah to define targets of violence as "those who have disbelieved", when he really meant "those who are attacking you in a battle you had nothing to do with starting." Turns out there's a reason why...

How They Do It: Citing Contemporary Apologists and Weak Hadith

In contradiction to nearly every other historical account, DTT finds a 20th century scholar who "discovered" that the Battle of Badr was really about the Quraish leaving Mecca to "attack Muslims," thus implying that the Muslims were fighting in self-defense.

How They Do It: Ignoring Reliable Sources

DTT's account of the events leading up to the Battle of Badr is so misleading that it is almost laughable. The truth, according to the Sahih Hadith and Sira is that Muhammad went out looking for a Quraish caravan to attack, and the Quraish simply came out to protect their caravan:

And the Prophet did not scold anyone who remained behind from Badr, because he only went out to look for the caravan. The Quraish came out to help their caravan (Tirmidhi 44:3102)

Ibn Kathir, Ibn Ishaq and Tabari have all supported this account with abundant detail that can be found in this article.

How They Do It: Sleight of Hand

Even the contemporary scholar used by DTT to "prove" that the Quraish left Mecca to "attack Muslims" doesn't claim that the intention was also to overrun Medina, so that part appears to be made up out of whole cloth by Discover the Truth.

Again, the sequence of events was that Muhammad led an armed attack against defenseless caravans. The Quraish simply sent a force out from Mecca to defend their goods. They had no intention of overrunning Medina, and explicitly bypassed the opportunity both before and after the Battle of Uhud.

Why They are Wrong

Without the context of defensive warfare, Discover the Truth's preferred interpretation of 8:12 begins to unravel, which is why the group brazenly distorts the events leading up to the Battle of Badr. Killing people who have come out to defend their property from theft is the same as killing innocent people.

Their real crime, according to the Quran, is that they "disbelieve" (v 8:12) and they are to be beheaded "because they defied and disobeyed Allah" (v. 8:13). This is a very strange way of saying that religion has nothing to do with it, as DTT contends. The command is far more open-ended than they care to admit

What's more, verse 8:12 was narrated after the battle, not during one. It was at a time when Muhammad was mocking his dead adversaries and having those who were taken hostage executed. In other words, the command to behead and mutilate disbelievers was narrated at a time when Muhammad was beheading captives and mutilating bodies. That's probably not a coincidence.

Finally, the full reading of verse 8:15, "when you meet the disbelievers in battle," is a self-contained directive. Lifting that fragment and inserting it in place of "those who disbelieved" is something that Allah was capable of - if that's what he meant. Apparently, his ways are more frustrating to the apologists than the skeptics.

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8:12 "I will Cast Terror into the Hearts of Those who Disbelieve. Therefore Strike Off Their Heads"