RUTHFULLY YOURS

There is more bad news for moderate Muslims who deny any connection between Islam and terror and who insist on convincing the West that no one should interpret Quranic commandments to kill, behead, torture, terrorize, humiliate, belittle and never befriend the non-believer, as violent.

As I was watching an Arabic Aljazeerah TV show, which did not have a date, called “Sharia and Hayaa,” meaning Islamic law and life, the topic was “Dawaa Baina Al Tarhib Wal Targhib,” Arabic for “Preaching between Terror and Lure.” The word “dawaa” means preaching or spreading Islam. “Tarhib” is derived from the word “irhab” or terror, and “tarhib” means to instill terror. Incidentally, the Quran encourages Muslims to “instill terror through the hearts of unbelievers.” The word “targhib” means luring or making something attractive. I am sure Islamic apologists will dispute the interpretation since they never admit that the word “kill” in the Quran means “kill” anyway.

“Tarhib Wal TarghibI” is an Islamic doctrine that the West and many Muslims are unfamiliar with but that demonstrates yet another clear connection between Islam and terror. This doctrine promotes the use of two extreme tools to bring people and nations to submit to Islam. Such polar opposite and extreme techniques penetrate Islamic society from top to bottom; they are encouraged in child rearing, in the relationship between men and women, leaders and citizens, mosque preachers and the congregation, Arab media and the public, and even between Islamic nations and the West — the nations they wish to conquer or lure to Islam.

A Quranic verse (The Rock 49-50) was mentioned at the beginning of the show stating that Allah said: “tell my worshippers that I am the beneficent the merciful and my torture [Athab] is a painful one”; two opposite extreme descriptions of Allah, or more accurately Mohammed himself, that became the foundation of the contradictory doctrine of Islam.

It must be noted that Arabic Aljazeerah discusses Islam in a totally different light from English Aljazeerah, which is designed to lure Westerners to the idea that Islam is peaceful while defending terror as freedom fighting.

This doctrine is a summation of what the Quran is all about, terror and lure, and promotes such extremely but powerful and raw cultural attributes of Muslim society; shame and pride. Such a doctrine has also evolved from Mohammed’s character when he failed to peacefully evangelize through persuasion and “lure” and therefore had to flip tactics, going straight to pure terror. Thus his famous saying “I have been victorious through terror.”

The show’s questions were more interesting than the answers. The host, Othman Othman, was trying to bring the guest, Islamic Dawah “preaching” expert Dr. Salman Alawda, to state that Islam equally balances the two extreme tools of terror and peaceful teaching. These were some of his questions: Many say terror and bullying are necessary. How do we achieve balance regarding the names of Allah between punishment and forgiveness? Why is it that the agony side often prevails over the mercy side? Are hardship and pain required for their own sake when it comes to Islamic legislation? Why does the discussion of the torment of the grave, death and the afterlife turn into a terrifying discussion? Why are Salafis more inclined to use fear/terror factor regarding global advocacy? Some ask, shouldn’t we [Muslims] be judged as imperfect humans anyway?

The host, while exalting Islam, the Quran and Mohammed, was desperately trying to get a glimmer of hope with his questions to bring out any trace of joy and hope for Muslims who want to enjoy life right here on Earth, but are not getting such a message from Islamic teachings. Unfortunately the guest provided very little hope when he skillfully spinned that Islam does have a balance. But what failed the guest was the fact that values of joy, life, liberty, pursuit of happiness, and making the world a better place, do not exist in the Quran. The guest could not give the host the good news, when he asserted that seeking pleasure and happiness on earth is equal to death. The guest’s discussion of the good life for Muslims was narrowed down to the after life in the Islamic jannah, heaven. Thus the Islamic promise of virgins and carnal pleasure became the infamous lure Islam uses on the jihadis, pushing them into waging Allah’s war of terror on his enemies: the unbelievers.

The lesson America needs to learn and get united under is that we, the West, right now are under assault by the good old Islamic doctrine of Terror and Lure; two sides of the polar opposite and deceptive face of Islam.

If the West continues to believe that Islam is a religion of peace, then unfortunately for the West they will suffer irrevocable consequences.