I hope that Joel Richardson, who tries to portray Muslims as the army of the antichrist (dajjal) and those like him who base opposition to Islam on Christianity will have seen for themselves from recent events the kind of savagery they have prepared the way for.
Anders Breivik, who committed terrible slaughter in Norway last week, shared the same logic as certain Christians in terms of their ideas about Islam. Just like Joel Richardson’s book, his manifesto of independence was literally a declaration of war on Islam. And he imposed the same ideas and employed the same terrifying descriptions of Islam as Richardson and some Christians who portray aggression against Islam as religious devotion. Breivik, who murdered almost a hundred innocent people without batting an eyelid, knew that he was not alone in his ideas when he tried to portray anti-Muslim policies as the war against the antichrist (dajjal), may God forbid, in his 1500-page manifesto.
Some of the anti-Islamic ideas in that manifesto, which he put forward as the supposed ideological justification for the slaughter, shared with the Christians in question are as follows;
* The spread of Islam is described as a terrifying prospect and he maintains that precautions need to be taken in order to prevent the Muslim population from rising.
* He opposes the development of countries with large Muslim population and their membership of the EU.
* He particularly targets Turkey from the Islamic world that he declares to be the enemy. Because, just like Joel Richardson and other similar types, he regards Turkey, with its growing spiritual power, as a threat to Christianity.
* He maintains that Turkey must settle for just a small part of Anatolia, that its NATO membership should be rescinded and that there must be no consideration of EU membership.
* He maintains that Europe must be “purged” of Muslims with systematic deportations and that the entire region should be Christian. The same applies to Israel and the Middle East.
* Like the enemy of Islam and Turkey Joel Richardson and certain other Christians, the murderer Breivik tries to lay acts of violence and terror committed by irreligious people, materialists and bigots at the door of Islam. In this way he wishes to establish a pretext that will fill large numbers of people with hatred of Islam and set them into action against Muslims. Indeed, he puts forward the same supposed reasons for the killings of hundreds of thousands of Muslims in Iraq and Afghanistan under the name of the “war against terror.” On the other hand, many Muslims are being exposed to discrimination, contempt and exclusion by being treated as potential “terrorists.”
* Like those who share his ideas, the Norwegian killer is deaf to the words of Muslims saying that there is no room for terror and violence in Islam, despite explicit statements to that effect in verses of the Qur’an. He deliberately tries to depict all terrorists as Muslims and Islam as the source of terror.
* But it is really those few Christians represented by Joel Richardson who are responsible for bloodshed, murder and war; like those others, Breivik just takes and distorts a few verses to claim that Islam seeks to rule the world by capturing land through warfare.
* He states that people must not believe that all the battles of the Prophet Muhammed (saas) were defensive and that a Muslim’s struggle, or jihad, is that of striving for God, despite the verses of the Qur’an that prove this.
* Despite explicit rulings in the Qur’an, he maintains that Muslims can contravene the Qur’an under the name of takkiya, or justified lying. He ignores the fact that if someone behaves in a perverse manner by misusing the name of God, despite all the commandments of the Qur’an, then he is a pagan and a hypocrite, not a Muslim.
* He constantly refers to hadiths as supposed evidence in favor of his own hostility. Instead of evaluating these hadiths through analysis from true Muslims, filled with love and deep faith and possessing lofty intelligence and a sensitive conscience, he adopts either the interpretations of a bigot or else his own superficial, false and perverse opinions.
* He turns his back on the fact that, just as there have been efforts to include much superstition in Christianity, there are those who want to add it to Islam, for which reason, many things depicted as being part of Islam are in fact nothing to do with it.
* Just like Richardson, he regards Hazrat Mahdi (pbuh) who will come in the final days of the world as the antichrist (dajjal) and claims that the good deeds he will perform will actually be evil. In this way, he declares that Muslims and their supporters who emerge with good deeds, fine promises and hopes of happiness are actually satan.
No matter how much Joel Richardson denies that Breivik’s ideas are a reflection of Christianity, there is no difference between his opinions of Islam and what Breivik says in his manifesto. A great many of the claims in that manifesto are ideas that Joel Richardson and other Christians with the same mindset have been espousing for years. This is no secret; the individuals themselves can also clearly see the resemblance.
Of course Richardson condemns Breivik’s ghastly slaughter, but he in fact is also awaiting a terrible slaughter for salvation. BY PORTRAYING HOSTILITY TOWARD ISLAM AS HEROISM AND MUSLIMS AS THE ARMY OF THE ANTICHRIST (DAJJAL), RICHARDSON AND THOSE LIKE HIM ARE THE ARCHITECTS OF THE MINDSET THAT LED BREIVIK TO PERPETRATE THOSE DREADFUL SLAYINGS. These people must think on that terrible event and regard it as a deterrent and learn from it. In the same way that murdering innocent people is a crime in the sight of God, so inciting hatred by encouraging conflict and enmity, engaging in one-sided aggressive propaganda and establishing artificial poles with the aim of provocation are also crimes in His sight. Those who portray people as one another’s enemies instead of friends. Who sow the seeds of hatred among them and who prepare the ideological foundation for slaughter bear the same responsibility as those who put those ideas into action.
The Commandments Regarding Killing in the Torah Are Interpreted Rationally by Muslims
Richardson and those who share his views, Christians who declare war on the Qur’an, are trying to relegate the massacres ruthlessly committed in the name of the Crusades in times past and today’s policy of hatred embodied in acts of terror, into the background. Because nobody use that bloodshed as a reason for making accusations against Christianity. Of course Muslims won't use that slaughter as a stick a weapon against Christians. Despite the horrifying dimensions of the slaughter and savagery perpetrated in the name of Christianity, Muslims never conclude that Christianity is a “religion of savagery.” They know that this stems from misinterpretation and weakness of faith.
Joel Richardson's depiction of Islam as the way of the antichrist that will fight against Christianity is an ideological foundation nourished by hatred that can lead to the appearance of murderers, as in the case of Breivik. This is a threat, not just to Muslims, but to all mankind. Because many people who think like Joel Richardson are currently anticipating a wide-ranging war and bloodshed to take place in the final age. Since they think that this conflict is necessary, many of them see nothing wrong in inciting war and are trying to disguise this as honesty, courage and heroism.
Like Breivik, Joel Richardson and those who share his views point to practices that have no place in Islam as evidence for their criticism of the faith. But this is a most biased and deceptive way of behaving. For example, the Holy Bible contains many explicit commandments regarding savagery and these are far more comprehensive than the accusations made against Islam. Some of these commandments read as follows:
And he that smiteth his father, or his mother, shall be surely put to death. (Exodus 21:15)
And he that stealeth a man, and selleth him, or if he be found in his hand, he shall surely be put to death. (Exodus 21:16)
And he that curseth his father, or his mother, shall surely be put to death. (Exodus 21:17)
...if the ox were wont to push with his horn in time past, and it hath been testified to his owner, and he hath not kept him in, but that he hath killed a man or a woman; the ox shall be stoned, and his owner also shall be put to death. (Exodus 21:29)
Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live. (Exodus 22:18)
Whosoever lieth with a beast shall surely be put to death. (Exodus 22:19)
He that sacrificeth unto any god, save unto the LORD only, he shall be utterly destroyed. (Exodus 22:20)
Six days may work be done; but in the seventh is the sabbath of rest, holy to the LORD: whosoever doeth any work in the sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death. (Exodus 31:15)
And while the children of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man that gathered sticks upon the sabbath day. And they that found him gathering sticks brought him unto Moses and Aaron, and unto all the congregation. And they put him in ward, because it was not declared what should be done to him. And the LORD said unto Moses, The man shall be surely put to death: all the congregation shall stone him with stones without the camp. And all the congregation brought him without the camp, and stoned him with stones, and he died; as the LORD commanded Moses. (Numbers 15:32-36)
And Moses was wroth with the officers of the host, with the captains over thousands, and captains over hundreds, which came from the battle. And Moses said unto them, Have ye saved all the women alive? Behold, these caused the children of Israel, through the counsel of Balaam, to commit trespass against the LORD in the matter of Peor, and there was a plague among the congregation of the LORD. Now therefore kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman that hath known man by lying with him. But all the women children, that have not known a man by lying with him, keep alive for yourselves. (Numbers 31:14-18)
If thy brother, the son of thy mother, or thy son, or thy daughter, or the wife of thy bosom, or thy friend, which is as thine own soul, entice thee secretly, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which thou hast not known, thou, nor thy fathers; Namely, of the gods of the people which are round about you, nigh unto thee, or far off from thee, from the one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth; Thou shalt not consent unto him, nor hearken unto him; neither shall thine eye pity him, neither shalt thou spare, neither shalt thou conceal him. But thou shalt surely kill him; thine hand shall be first upon him to put him to death, and afterwards the hand of all the people. And thou shalt stone him with stones, that he die; because he hath sought to thrust thee away from the LORD thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage. (Deuteronomy 13:6-10)
And if it will make no peace with thee, but will make war against thee, then thou shalt besiege it: And when the LORD thy God hath delivered it into thine hands, thou shalt smite every male thereof with the edge of the sword: But the women, and the little ones, and the cattle, and all that is in the city, even all the spoil thereof, shalt thou take unto thyself; and thou shalt eat the spoil of thine enemies, which the LORD thy God hath given thee. Thus shalt thou do unto all the cities which are very far off from thee, which are not of the cities of these nations. But of the cities of these people, which the LORD thy God doth give thee for an inheritance, thou shalt save alive nothing that breatheth: But thou shalt utterly destroy them; namely, the Hittites, and the Amorites, the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites; as the LORD thy God hath commanded thee. (Deuteronomy 20:12)
If a man have a stubborn and rebellious son, which will not obey the voice of his father, or the voice of his mother, and that, when they have chastened him, will not hearken unto them: Then shall his father and his mother lay hold on him, and bring him out unto the elders of his city, and unto the gate of his place; And they shall say unto the elders of his city, This our son is stubborn and rebellious, he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton, and a drunkard. And all the men of his city shall stone him with stones, that he die: so shalt thou put evil away from among you; and all Israel shall hear, and fear. (Deuteronomy 21:18-21)
But if this thing be true, and the tokens of virginity be not found for the damsel: Then they shall bring out the damsel to the door of her father's house, and the men of her city shall stone her with stones that she die: because she hath wrought folly in Israel, to play the whore in her father's house: so shalt thou put evil away from among you. (Deuteronomy 22:20-21)
If a man be found lying with a woman married to an husband, then they shall both of them die, both the man that lay with the woman, and the woman: so shalt thou put away evil from Israel. (Deuteronomy 22:22)
If a damsel that is a virgin be betrothed unto an husband, and a man find her in the city, and lie with her; Then ye shall bring them both out unto the gate of that city, and ye shall stone them with stones that they die; the damsel, because she cried not, being in the city; and the man, because he hath humbled his neighbour's wife: so thou shalt put away evil from among you. (Deuteronomy 22:23-24)
But if a man find a betrothed damsel in the field, and the man force her, and lie with her: then the man only that lay with her shall die. But unto the damsel thou shalt do nothing; there is in the damsel no sin worthy of death: for as when a man riseth against his neighbour, and slayeth him, even so is this matter. (Deuteronomy 22:25-26)
When men strive together one with another, and the wife of the one draweth near for to deliver her husband out of the hand of him that smiteth him, and putteth forth her hand, and taketh him by the secrets: Then thou shalt cut off her hand, thine eye shall not pity her. (Deuteronomy 25:11-12)
These are commandments from the Holy Bible, which Christians also regard as sacred. But there are no such commandments in Islam. Yet the people in question still seek to equate Islam with savagery. They point to the actions of certain irreligious fanatics. But Muslims evaluate these commandments in the Qur’an in a highly rational manner. They do not use them to stir up hostility toward Jews and Christians and produce no strange interpretations from them. If some Christians are able to use the Qur’an and the hadiths as supposed pretexts in their efforts to portray Islam as a warlike religion, then Muslims could easily point to the above commandments from the Torah to show that Judaism and Christianity are brutal religions, may God forbid. In addition, these commandments are not the kind that can be denied by any Jew or Christian. But Muslims do not adopt that perspective, because Muslims are well aware that our infinitely loving and merciful Lord would never create such a religion. Therefore, it is all a question of the interpretation, intention, wisdom and conscience of the person looking at that faith.
The monster Breivik based his perverse views on the words and bloody actions of a few fanatics. His perverse analysis supposedly justified his slaughter. It is therefore impossible to ascribe hypocrites who use religion to spread peculiar ideas of fanatics who spread their own perverse thoughts in the name of religion to the Divine faiths.
