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.
Running totals from Sura 2 to 81:
Total number of verses from Sura 2 to 81: 5554
Total number of verses in 2-81, which preach violence against non-Moslems: 1447
Violent verses as a % of total from Sura 2 to 81: 26 %
Sura 2 to 81 as a % of the 6236 verses in the Koran: 88%
Islam is of course the merger of church and state, into the power of Muhammad. Muhammadanism which is the right name for Islam, and which so offends the Marxists, is the admixture of politics with the spiritual under totalitarian centralized control. This is obvious to anyone who has studied Islamic and Moslem development. This theme of merging the church and state is the mainspring of this Sura 'The Folding up' which defends Muhammad against various allegations of being insane, and psychologically deranged.
“Verily this is the word of a most honorable Messenger, Endued with Power, with rank before the Lord of the Throne, With authority there, (and) faithful to his trust. And (O People!) your Companion is not one possessed; And without doubt he saw him in the clear horizon. Neither does he withhold grudgingly a knowledge of the Unseen. Nor is it the word of an evil spirit accursed.” [81:19-25]
Muhammad's own tribe the Quraysh of Mecca, which ran the reasonably impoverished and socially dislocated city-state, mocked him and eventual drove him to the Jewish town of Yathrib, renamed by Muslims as Medina. Mohammed had picked up fragments of the Old and New Testaments, Arab poetry and celestial-pagan worship; and created such a mish-mash of incorrect and frankly ridiculous interpretations of plagiarized commentary that he was simply laughed at by the pagans, Jews and Christians, especially when he maintained that he was a 'prophet' in their own traditions. Mohammed's conflation of the moon idol El or Al-Lah with the Judeo-Christian 'God' was another laughingstock which did not pass unnoticed by non-Muslims. It is clear from the real history of Mohammed that he was a mental degenerate who according to the hadiths went insane at age 40, when he began to have dreams, visions and visitations from Gabriel:
“...you will discover that the prophet's "ministry" in Mecca was filled with troubling episodes. Following his first Qur'anic revelation, Muhammad claimed to have been demon possessed. By his own admission, he tried to commit suicide. Those who knew him best, his family and neighbors, said that he had gone mad. "He is a demon-possessed sorcerer fabricating scripture," they said, accusing him of plagiarism and of having purely selfish motives. They mocked his prophetic claims, ridiculed his Qur'an, and said that his preposterous notion of turning many pagan idols into the one God was insane. As a result of this verbal abuse, all chronicled in the Qur'an, Muhammad pledged to slaughter his kin.”
Muhammad's insanity would explain a lot of Koranic theology and the early development of his cult and the opposition to it. When he died the Ridda or Wars of Apostasy raged, pitting pagan Arabs who rejected Muhammadanism against Moslemized Mecca and Medina. It was a savage affair and proves that without war and violence Islam never would have spread beyond Muhammad's small group of initial acolytes. Nor would it have irrupted into a world-wide empire, premised on Koranic theological imperialism.
Violence informs Islam. In this Sura for instance, out of 29 verses, only 8 threaten those who do not follow the Koran. The crux of the Sura is the following and can be read with verses 6,12, and 19 as a series of clear warnings to follow Muhammad no matter what:
And it (the Qur'an) is not the word of the outcast Shaitan (Satan). |
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Then where are you going? |
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Verily, this (the Qur'an) is no less than a Reminder to (all) the 'Alamin (mankind and jinns). |
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To whomsoever among you who wills to walk straight, |
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And you will not, unless (it be) that Allah wills, the Lord of the 'Alamin (mankind, jinns and all that exists). |
On Judgement Day the Al-Lah thing will open the fires of Hell for those who reject Muhammad or deem him to be mad:
And when Hell-fire shall be kindled to fierce ablaze. |
Hell is a seminal preoccupation within Muhammadism. This Sura is not as violent as preceding Sura's or the longer rants in chapters 2,5 and 9. But it is nonetheless significant that the writers of the Koran thought it necessary to disavow Muhammad's insanity and delink him from Satanic or demonic influences. This clearly shows that many viewed Muhammad as just another delusional madman, making up stories, and interested in power and might, not in spiritual enlightenment.