Until the advent of materialism and 19th c. dogma, Western Civilisation was superior to anything Islam had developed. Islam has not aided in the development of the modern world; in fact civilisation has only been created in spite of Islam. Proof of this resides in the 'modern' world and the unending political-economic and spiritual poverty of Muslim states and regions. Squatting on richer civilisations is not 'progress'. Islam is pagan, totalitarian, and irrational.
The slaves of Allah. A common theme in Koranic-Moslem liturgy is that the followers of Muhammad's cult are slaves of Allah. In fact the word 'slave' or 'slaves' appears 335 times in the Koran. Not all of these references pertain to the enslavement of Moslems within the Allah cult, but a vast majority do. In Sura 89 Allah promises heaven to his 'slaves'. Maybe the politically-correct Marxist-elitist caste within the Western world can 'redefine' slavery to actually mean 'freedom':
“(It will be said to the pious): "O (you) the one in (complete) rest and satisfaction!
"Come back to your Lord, Well-pleased (yourself) and well-pleasing unto Him!
"Enter you, then, among My honoured slaves,
"And enter you My Paradise!"
These are the last 4 lines of the Sura [27-30]. The word 'slaves' is rather clear, though a Phd in Apologia will argue that the 'context' of the word could mean freedom, free-will, responsibility and self-determination. We simply cannot 'know' what the word 'slaves' means, since in the Marxist lexicon of our times, Islam is not Submission, violence, repression or intolerance, but simply another form of cultural relativity and superiority, extolling virtues that Westerners will never comprehend. Virtues and concepts such as this which one finds in Sura 89 as well:
“Did you (O Muhammad (Peace be upon him)) not see (thought) how your Lord dealt with 'Ad (people)?
Who were very tall like lofty pillars,
The like of which were not created in the land?
And (with) Thamud (people), who cut (hewed) out rocks in the valley (to make dwellings)?
And (with) Fir'aun (Pharaoh), who had pegs (who used to torture men by binding them to pegs)?
Who did transgress beyond bounds in the lands (in the disobedience of Allah).
And made therein much mischief.
So your Lord poured on them different kinds of severe torment.”
The pagan Arab tribes the 'Ad and Thamud, whose cultures predate those of the Muhammadan cult were destroyed by Allah due to their intransigence in rejecting his rule on earth. The Thamud were apparently the successors to the 'Ad and their civilisation was destroyed by natural events including earthquakes:
The people of Thamud were the successors to the culture and civilization of 'Ad. Tradition has it that they were a younger branch of the same tribe and lived in the same regions of the Arabian peninsula. Thamud himself is also said to be a descendant of Noah. The people of Thamud were skilful in carving stone. They are reputed to have made buildings out of solid rock. Like the people of 'Ad, they were idolators. According to the Qur'án, God had bestowed upon them skills: they had plenty of cornfields and date farms, but they were unholy, oppressive and unkind to the poor.
So 'God' or in the Koran the moon deity Al-Lah destroyed the 'unholy' people of 'Ad and Thamud. This was hundreds of years before Muhammad was even born. The same is also true of Pharaoh Ramses II who tormented the supposedly Moslem prophet Moses some 1900 years before Muhammad was born and before Islam was invented. Islam tries hard to conflate the tribal moon deity of the Quraysh or El-Lah with a general idea of 'God', especially the Yahweh of the Torah, or the Trinity of the New Testament. The reason is simple. Islam is the last in the line of monotheisms and replaces all former ideals about 'God'. Ergo, all past references to 'Gods' and their deeds are now supplanted by the God of the moon cult or the Allah-thing.
This Sura is one of the few in the entire Koran which does preach a form of religious conduct. But the reader should beware of what he is reading. In the Koran and within Islam, Moslems must be merciful to other Moslems and severe with apostates, Unbelievers or Munafiqun or those Moslems who are not pious enough – as expressed in the last 4 sentences of this Sura. Pious in Islam means to follow Allah and the Koran. It is a subjective standard.
“Nay! But you treat not the orphans with kindness and generosity (i.e. you neither treat them well, nor give them their exact right of inheritance)!
And urge not on the feeding of Al-Miskin (the poor)!
And you devour inheritance all with greed,
And you love wealth with much love!”
The above is clear but also obvious as a social program. Moslems will help only Moslems. The Zakat or welfare tax is for Moslems alone. Infidels are not given welfare or succor by Moslems. Koranic theology is very clear on this. Thus the cult is walled off from the 'unjust' and 'unclean' non-believer. This is different than other expressions of human existential angst. Every spiritual exercise in the history of man has expressed concern for the poor, the old, the sick, and the dispossessed – and usually without regard if they are inside or outside the cult. Christianity is the greatest example of this. Islam is the only cult parading as a religion in which the Infidels are targeted for ultimate destruction. In the above lines as well we see that wealth is viewed with some degree of scepticism, though hypocritically Muhammad and his cult leadership became incredibly rich due to plunder, pillage, war and slave-trading. This anomaly escapes most Moslems but it should not evade the careful reader of Moslem exegesis. Islam on this and most theologically important ideals, is not only hypocritical, but shamefully dissembling.
[Note: This sura is taken from 'The Holy Quran', translated by Abdullah Yusuf Ali, reprinted in 1995, Goodword Books. Regarded as one of the best translations from Arabic to English of the Koran.]