Islam's paganism – an untold story.

Islam is pagan. Paganism which is derived from the latin word 'pagus' or roughly 'country hick', is defined as: “1. An adherent of a polytheistic religion in antiquity...”. Islam markets itself as a monotheism but it is not. The Al-Lah, El-Lah, ilah idol or 'god', is not a god in the Western sense, but simply the male moon deity of Mecca and northern Arabia, one who was called Al-Rahman in southern Arabia. Ascribing 'god' status to Al-Lah would be akin to conflating the animism of central Africa with Christianity, or calling Chinghis Khan's sky god a Christian 'god'. The two concepts have zero in commonality.

"...The religion most widely prevalent in Arabia, when Muhammad began life, was a species of heathenism or idol-worship, which had its local center in Mecca and its temple... ... this temple had been sourceally connected with the ancient worship of the sun, moon and stars, and its circumambulation by the worshippers had a symbolical reference to the rotation of the heavenly bodies. Within its precincts and in its neighborhood there were found many idols, such as Hubal, Lat, Ozza, Manah, Wadd, Sawa, Yaghut, Nasr, Isaf, Naila, etc. A black stone in the temple wall was regarded with superstitious awe as eminently sacred...[ Muhammad and Muhammadanims, Koelle, 1889, p. 17]

The great Arab-Moslem historican Koelle has it perfectly right. Hubal or Baal was the thunder god or perhaps in Arabia a sky god. Lat, Ozza, Manah and Allah were all moon deities. The fact that Muhammad took his family idol, the Allah moon deity, and conflated it with the Judaic ideal of an anthropomorphic being does not make it the same as the Judeo-Christian ideal of a divine power, nor does it make the worship of a moon idol a monotheism.

The attempt of the Mussulmans to derive it [the Kabaa] direct from a stone altar or pillar, erected by Abraham and his son Ishmael, in that identical locality, is altogether unsupported by history, and, in fact, flagrantly contrary to the Biblical record of the life of Abraham and his son. The pagan character of the temple is sufficiently marked by the statement of Muhammadan writers that before its purification by their Prophet, it contained no less than 360 idols, as many as there were days in their year; and that on its walls were painted the figures of angels, prophets, saints, including those of Abraham and Ishmael, and even of the Virgin Mary with her infant Son...Muhammad, with great practical insight and shrewdness, seized on this advantage and retained the heathen shrine of his native city as the local center of Islam. He sanctioned it by his own example as a place of religious pilgrimage for all his followers. [ibid].

The Kabaa shrine and the Hajj or pilgrimage to Mecca was entirely pagan. Muhammad took the pagan rites and in order to gain the support of the pagan Arab tribes simply declared that these were holy and to be done on the order of the Al-Lah thing. His popularity soared. Compliance through the fusion of Arab paganism with the worship of the Al-Lah thing was guaranteed. Making the Kabaa which was a pagan shrine, a Moslem local of prostration was an astute political move.

Ramadan or the Moslem 'holy' month[s] is of course another pagan custom adopted by Muhammad for political reasons.

"In Bulugh al-'Arab fi Ahwal al-'Arab, we read, 'The four sacred months, Rajab, Dhu al-Qa'da, Dhu al-Hijja and Muharram, had been considered sacred during the pre-Islamic period [Jahiliya]. Raids, taking revenge, war, fighting and disputes were forbidden during them. If a man were to meet his enemy who killed his father or brother during these months, he would not quarrel with him... During the sacred months, [the people] were under restriction not to fight or make raids, and had to remove [their] spearheads as a sign that they would avoid fighting at all costs.' Obviously, Islam borrowed the hallowing of these months from Pre-Islamic Arabs and introduced nothing new into the world." [Is the Quran Infallible ?'Abdallah 'Abd al-Fadi, p. 127]

Muhammad of course broke this covenant many times when he raided Meccan caravans from his military base at Medinah or Yahtrib which was in the main a Jewish Oasis [the irony is hard to miss]. Muhammad led countless raids during the sacred months of the pagan Arab calendar, killing, butchering, raping and stealing. He justified it all with 'revelations' from the Allah thing. The moon idol conveniently sanctioned Muhammad's actions saying that anything done for Islam and the expansion of the moon cult was fine.

"They ask you concerning fighting in the sacred months (i.e. 1st, 7th, 11th and 12th months of the Islamic calendar). Say, ‘Fighting therein is a great (transgression) but a greater (transgression) with Allâh is to prevent mankind from following the way of Allâh, to disbelieve in Him, to prevent access to Al-Masjid-Al-Harâm (at Makkah), and to drive out its inhabitants, and Al-Fitnah is worse than killing." [Koran 2:217]

Ah, how nice and charitable of the Al-lah. Maybe the Allah is really the Muhammad too ? Muhammad's paganism is plain to see. Moon idol worship. The keeping of all of the important pagan Arab rites including animal sacrifice, rock worship, stone-throwing and mindless ritualized prostration imbue Muhammadanism with tenacity premised on irrationality, which any other cult would find difficult to imitate. Islam's antecedents and rituals are polytheistic. The Allah is simply a cover for the veneration of Muhammad. One should view the Allah idol and Muhammad as being one and the same.