Once during my academic career, I attended a surgical conference in Atlanta, Georgia. Not finding rooms downtown near the convention center, I booked rooms at the Embassy Suites out in Buckhead for me and my family. I was happy to have the extra space, but did have the problem of how to get back and forth to the convention center morning and evening. It was either ride the subway or get a cab. I found a very friendly cabbie who agreed to be available for me at arranged times morning and evening. We struck up conversations on our trips to and from downtown, about our families and work. He told me to always change the oil in my car every 5000 miles, and to use Slick 50. He also told me that he had a teen age daughter who had fallen in love with a boy, and was threatening to move out of their house and into an apartment with this boy. As he finished that story, he then added, vehemently, “If she do that, I kill the bitch!” The anger in his voice and determination with which he said it convinced me that he would do just that, if his daughter moved out of the house and in with this boy. He was Muslim. It was my first real introduction to the violence of Islam.
That was twenty five years ago, and by now, all of us are acutely aware of the violence that is fostered by those who are strict adherents to the dictates of Islam. Americans went through a series of massive bomb attacks on our military barracks, on our embassies, on our ships, saw planes bombed, high jacked and flown into the sea, and finally, as the destruction and horror from 9/11/01 unfolded in front of our eyes, came to grips with the fact that Muslim extremists are determined to destroy us in any way they can do so. We have become rather acutely aware that this violence is not just directed toward us. It is also directed toward each other. Suicide bombers do not just target infidels. They also blow each other up, in a political power struggle between various sects of Islam. The Sunni, who claim their right to govern as coming directly from the ruling council that existed at the time of Muhammad’s death, recruit young men and women to destroy themselves and all others possible who do not share their faith. The Shiah, who claim their right to command as coming directly from the family of Muhammad, retaliate in kind, with bitter disregard for other human life that does not share their particular faith. This callous disregard for other life, coming through the dictates of Islam, is a horrific blight on the stability of our societies.
I initially thought that I fully understood this corruption of religious idealism at the hands of Muslim extremists. The Koran, which, according to the mythology of Muhammad, speaks the true words of the one and only commander of the universe, burgeons with commands to the faithful that they should torture and kill all others who do not share their faith:
5:33. Those that make wars against God and His apostle and spread disorder in the land shall be slain or crucified or have their hands and feet cut off on alternate sides, or be banished from the land.
2:90. God’s curse be upon the infidels! Evil is that for which they have bartered away their souls. To deny God’s own revelation, grudging that He should reveal His bounty to whom He chooses from among His servants! They have incurred God’s most inexorable wrath. Ignominious punishment awaits the unbelievers.
2:191 Slay them wherever you find them. Drive them out of the places from which they drove you. Idolatry is more grievous than bloodshed…if they attack you put them to the sword. Thus shall the unbelievers be rewarded:…
3:116. As for the unbelievers, neither their riches nor their children shall in the least protect them from God’s scourge. They are the heirs of the Fire, and there they shall remain forever.
7:40. For those who have denied and scorned Our revelations the gates of heaven shall not be opened; nor shall they enter Paradise until the camel shall pass through the eye of a needle. Thus shall We reward the guilty. Hell shall be their couch, and sheets of fire shall cover them.
9:73. Prophet, make war on the unbelievers and the hypocrites and deal vigorously with them. Hell shall be their home: an evil fate.
47:3. When you meet the unbelievers in the battlefield strike off their heads….
98:5 The unbelievers among the People of the Book [The Bible] and the pagans shall burn for- ever in the fire of Hell. They are the vilest of all creatures.
And these are just a small sample. For any objective observer, any reading of the Koran will produce a steady stream of violent exhortation, commanded by the prophet of this religion, and/or his God, however you interpret it, demanding that their true believers kill all other humans who do not share their particular mythology.
It has taken me a while to realize that this violence and destruction of human life which is done in the name of Islam is still greatly excessive, even though the Holy Book of Islam is full of Godly exhortation to do that killing. Our other religions also have their extremist sects who believe that all who do not share their faith should be killed. Judaism and Christianity have also fostered their share of unjust wars, aggrandizement, greed and violence directed toward other humans of other faiths. These other religions also share the blame for this callous disrespect for human life. The violence done in the name of these other religions, however, just does not appear to be as extreme, as that which comes out of Islam. There must be something else going on.
None of our religions exists by itself. Each of them is an integral part of the culture in which it exists. Islam is imbued in the Arab world. An absolute part of the Arab world is that women are subservient to men. This is also crystal clear when reading the Koran. When Arab nations decry the westernization of their cultures, it’s not the other stuff they are against. They all want clothes, cars, houses, shiny new buildings, cell phones and televisions. What they don’t want is for their women to be free. The last thing they want to lose is their sexual slaves. It all goes back to the Atlanta cabbie. It all goes back to male domination. Arab males are so eager to kill, in supposed defense of their religion, in order to continue their domination of women; or their political right to do so.