Learning to discriminate between Muslim friends and Muslim enemies

I am a Libertarian. For me, that means leaving others alone to live their lives as they see fit. I am 72 years old and this is the first time I have ever suggested scrutinizing the way other Americans live their lives.

Islamic terrorism has caused me to go against a lifelong habit.

We know some things. Osama bin Laden, Major Nidal Hasan and many other Muslims, American citizens and otherwise, are a danger to us. There are many other Muslims, Dr. M. Zuhdi Jasser of AIFD for example, who are not.

We also know that the body of religious law that defines Islam is neither monolithic nor consistent and that this causes substantial disagreements between Muslims on what should be the proper attitude toward non-Muslims.

How can we learn to distinguish Muslim friends from Muslim enemies?

One way is to ask Muslims to declare what they believe and which part of Islam they are allied with by asking questions, such as:

Who provided the money to start your mosque?

Who holds the title to your mosque building and the land it is on?

Who pays the salary of your imam and any other mosque employees?

From what theological school did your imam graduate?

What is the relationship between you and/or your mosque and any organizations affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood (the Council on American Islamic Relations, the Islamic Society of North America and the North American Islamic Trust especially)?

Which school of Islamic jurisprudence do you consider to be authoritative in your practice of Islam?

What are that school’s rulings on the desired status of Islamic law in non-Muslim countries?

Do you believe that Islamic law should be the highest law of the land, no matter where you live?

Does Islamic law allow the use of force to spread Islam?

Does your school of Islamic law support separation of religion and state?

Does your version of Islamic law require that your first allegiance should be to the Islamic Umma and not to the American (or any other non-Muslim) nation? Are Muslims who have moved to America immigrants or colonizers? Can you explain the Hijra as a model for Islamic immigration to non-Muslim countries?

Can you explain the meaning of the terms Dar al Islam and Dar al Harb and the doctrine of Al Wala wal Bara (Loyalty and Enmity, Koran 60:4)?

Do you support the three options allowed by Islamic law to non-Muslims when they are defeated in war by Muslims? (Conversion, payment of jizya to indicate submission or death)

What punishment does Islamic law prescribe for Muslims who leave Islam?

In Islamic law, are unbelievers considered to be unclean?

In Islamic law, what is the punishment for blasphemy? Do you support the death penalty fatwa against Salman Rushdie for writing The Satanic Verses? Do you support the calls for punishment of critics of Islam such as Trey Parker, Matt Stone, Geert Wilders, Kurt Westergaard and Lars Vilks? Was the killing of Theo Van Gogh justified in Islamic law?

According to your version of Islamic law, do women have rights equal to men and is polygny allowed? Is wife beating allowed?

What does Islamic law prescribe as punishment for homosexuality?

According to your school of Islamic law, what limitations should be placed on artistic expression?

Can you explain the doctrine of abrogation in Islamic law and its relationship to the two stages (Meccan and Medinan) in which the Koran was revealed to Mohammed?

Can you explain why no Muslim-majority country subscribes to the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights?

Are Hamas and Hizballah terrorist organizations according to Islamic law?

Have you or has your mosque given zakat to any charity (such as the Holy Land Foundation) that supports jihad (violence against infidels) with the funds?

Does your school of Islamic law allow jihad to be waged “to rid the land of unbelief”?

Do you believe that any of these Islamic legal positions need to be reformed and why?

I have one final question.

Robert Spencer, a prominent critic of Islam, says this:

The one thing that Western non-Muslims assume exists and is widely accepted, an Islamic theological and legal argument against jihad warfare and Islamic supremacism in general, establishing the principle that Muslims should live as equals with non-believers in a non-Sharia society on an indefinite basis, has never actually been produced, except in the non-traditional presentations of individual scholars who have no significant following in the Islamic world.

Can you supply rulings by jurists from any of the recognized Sunni or Shi’ite madhahib, declaring that jihad is not to be waged against unbelievers in order to bring them under the authority of Sharia, but rather that non-Muslims and Muslims are to coexist peacefully as equals under the law on an indefinite basis, even when the law of the land is not Sharia. Can you show evidence of any orthodox sect or school of jurisprudence that teaches this?


http://www.jihadwatch.org/2009/12/it-is-not-the-role-of-the-west-to-tell-muslims-what-is-islam-and-what-is-not-islam.html