The heartbreaking photos of Muslim refugees trying to reach Europe have intensified a controversial and urgent issue: The issue of Muslim immigration and how the world should handle it.
“There are 20 million refugees waiting at the doorstep of Europe,” said Johannes Hahn, EU Commissioner for European Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations.
Many claim that Europe, facing the crisis produced by the huge influx of Muslim migrants and refugees fleeing mainly Syria and Iraq, should open its doors. But given the realities in Europe and the Muslim world, this suggestion may well be harmful to both the West and to the Muslim world.
One of the most common arguments is that Europe is not doing enough for the Muslim refugees and is actually responsible for the turmoil in Syria as well as the rest of the Muslim world.
The current wars in the Middle East, however, are not the fault of the West. Obviously, the Obama administration and European governments must do more to stop the bloodbath in the Muslim world, but to say that the wars in the region are the product of Western intervention or some other Western “plots” just shows how clueless and ignorant the people who make such claims are about the history of Islam.
Islamic scriptures call on Muslims to wage war on other religions to bring them under submission to Islam. Muhammad, the founder of Islam, said that he was “ordered by Allah to fight men until they testify that there is no god but Allah and that Muhammad is his messenger.”
In Mecca, Muhammad advocated “la iqra fiddin” — “[there should be] no compulsion in religion.” But when his gift of Islam was not readily accepted, he began to dismiss peaceful co-existence, his message became increasingly intolerant and he resorted to militancy.
When Muhammad moved to Medina, after a more benign life in Mecca, Islam was turned into a military force that apparently intended to rule all aspects of society, including practices such as sex slavery, child marriages, forced conversions, wife beating and commands to kill “the unbelievers.” Especially in the later parts of the Quran, Mohammad fully encourages violence against non-Muslims, and their eternal damnation.
Sadly, the founder of Islam did not leave behind a humanitarian message to respect people of other faiths and to be on equal footing with them. By the time Muhammad lived in Medina, his new religion openly advocated dominating others through subjugation, rape, murder and forced conversion. People who followed his teachings first became violent toward peaceful communities and then toward other people around.
When Muhammad failed to leave a clear successor, the omission quickly turned out to provoke violence. For the first few years after his death, members of his own family went to war with each other. In a battle between Aisha, one of Muhammad’s several wives, and Ali, his adopted son, thousands of Muslims were killed fighting to the death. So anyone who knows about the history of Islam should not be shocked by the current Muslim-on-Muslim violence.
Uzay Bulut, born and raised a Muslim, is a Turkish journalist based in Ankara.
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