 "You are the best of people, evolved for mankind"
Quran 3:110
Race, Racism
and Islam
"Islam is an ideology. It's not
a race."
Ibrahim Hooper, CAIR spokesperson
"Whoever resembles a people, he
is of them"
Muhammad, Prophet of Islam
"Call it racism or whatever you want,
but of course the blood of the Muslim
is superior.
This is not open to debate."
Sheikh Samir Hashish
This article points
out that Muslims are not a race, as is often
implied, but if they were, then it would
make Islam the world's most dangerous
race-based supremacist ideology.
Islam is Not a Race
Those openly critical of Islam are
sometimes dubiously slurred as racists,
regardless of what their true views on
race may be.
In fact, Islam is not a race.
Islam has nothing at all to do with
genetics, nor is it an innate
characteristic. It is an ideology – a
set of beliefs about individual behavior
and the rules of society.
People generally choose
their beliefs; they do not
choose their race.
Therefore Muslims are not a race of people.
In fact, there are Muslims of all races.
Does a person change their race by
adopting or leaving Islam?
Criticizing Islam is not
racism. There is no such thing as
"anti-Muslim racism" any more than there is
"anti-Christian racism," "anti-Republican
racism," or "anti-Capitalist racism."
So why would anyone claim differently?
It is because the battle over Islam is
being fought in the West, the only arena
in which it can still be
critically debated. It is also
here that repugnance toward racism is
strong and universal. From
politics to high-risk mortgages and illegal
immigration, fear of the race card is
one of the strongest influences on
public policy.
At the same time, it is nearly
impossible to defend Islam on its own
merits in the West in free and open debate.
According to its own texts, the religion was
founded in terror and bigotry. Its political and
social code is deeply incompatible with
liberal values.
Muslims societies usually rely on threat of violence to
suppress intellectual critique of Islam. The
freedom of other religions to fairly
compete, if allowed, would be the slow death of Islam. As such, its propagandists in the West have learned to rely on the race card. If they can paint any criticism of their
religion as "racist," then the massive
evidence against Islam can be dismissed
out of hand without having to contend with it.
Slinging the worst of all slurs
in compensation for deficiency of fact and
logic is not only weak but ironic, given that what is
being defended in such cheap fashion is
an ideology that is overtly
supremacist in nature. Muslims who parrot allegations of racism are not thinking that
far ahead...
What if It Really Is... a Race?
On the surfact, casting Islam (or Muslims as a race) would appear to protect to protect it from tough examination - particularly with regard to its social effects. But everything
is not as it seems.
If Muslims are a race because of Islam,
then it means that Islam is a racial
ideology. Therefore, what this ideology has
to say about its own and other “races”
becomes very important.
In fact, the Quran posits an enormous
qualitative distinction between Muslims
and non-Muslims that is hard to miss.
Believers are loved by God, whereas
infidels are hated to the extent that
they are tortured for eternity (3:32,
4:56) merely for not believing.
Muslims are told not to take unbelievers
as friends (3:28) and to shun them
(3:118). Those outside the circle
are called “helpers of
evil” (25:55), “wicked” (4:160), “fond
of lies” (5:42) and compared to the
worst of animals (8:55, 7:176, 7:179).
Muslims are told to be merciful
to each other, but ruthless to those
outside of the faith (48:29).
Violence is also sanctioned against
those who are obstinate against Islamic
rule (8:12-13, 9:5).
If Islam is a race, then Christianity
and Judaism are races as well, meaning
that if the Quran speaks of them as
inferior,
then it is a racist book. In
truth, the Quran does more than that.
In a stunning show of religious bigotry,
Muslims are ordered to fight Jews and
Christians "until they pay the Jizyah
with willing submission, and feel
themselves subdued" (9:29).
There is no reason given in the verse other than religious status for
bringing Jew and Christians under the
heel of Islamic rule.
Sharia, the canonical law of Islam, is openly
discriminatory toward non-Muslims. Clothes and eating utensils used
by non-Muslims are considered 'unclean'. They must keep to one
side of the street, accept a "lesser form of greeting," and are
not allowed to mix with Muslims at certain events. A Muslim cannot be
put to death for killing a non-Muslim.
No other religion filters perception
through group identity to the extent
that Islam does. Around the world
Christians, Jews and other individuals
are routinely brutalized merely because
they are a member of a non-Muslim group,
not because they have done anything to
personally deserve having their lives
taken, their children maimed or their
property torched. Meanwhile, Muslims elsewhere are generally indifferent to
this violence and reserve their true
outrage for circumstances involving
Muslim victims of non-Muslim acts,
however unintentional or relatively
slight.
So, if Muslims are a race, Islam would
not only be a racist ideology, but
arguably the most hateful and
destructive in history.
Consider the words of
Abul Ala Mawdudi, the founder of Jamaat-e-Islami party, and imagine that he is speaking about race (ie. substitute the word "white" for "Muslim" and "non-white" for "kufr"):
All those who are
born of Muslim lineage will be considered to be Muslim, they will be subject to all Islamic
laws, they will be compelled to perform the religious duties and obligations, and then
whoever steps outside the fold of Islam will be executed. Following this announcement
utmost effort should be made to save as many sons and daughters born of Muslims as possible
from the lap of kufr. Then whoever cannot be saved by any means should be cut off and
cast away, sadly but firmly, from his society forever. After this act of purification
a new life for Islamic society may
begin (source)
How much tolerance should there be for an ideology like that?
It is bad
enough that hundreds of millions of
people have been killed in the last
fourteen centuries by divinely
sanctioned Jihad and slavery, but to
retroactively supplant the stated motive
of religious supremacy with that of
racial superiority is hardly a step in
the right direction for a religion
seeking the acceptance of an
increasingly skeptical audience.
Conclusion
Race is an arbitrary label that has no
legitimacy. Therefore anything
based on race, including racism and
racial discrimination is unsound at best
and immoral and inhumane at worst.
Human beings are individuals and should
only be judged as such.
Islam is not a race. Muslims are
not a race. Islam is an ideology
that should be open to critical
examination. Muslims, however, are
individuals who should be protected from
harm or harassment in the same way and
for the same reasons as anyone else.
GR
Editor, IID
[Additional Note:
A Muslim is defined by solely orientation toward Islam -
as in being a proponent. If this qualifies as a "racial category,"
then so to does being a detractor of Islam. This means that any effort to
denounce critics or suppress criticism could also be called "racist."] |
