About Islam

Often, we hear an Islamic Scholar tell us that the term "Islam" means "peace." Nothing is further from the truth than such a statement. This writer studied Law in Egypt, which requires the highest understanding of Arabic. "Peace" in Arabic is salam, not Islam. The term "Islam" means "surrender."

Just by attributing the term "surrender" to an ideology, it tarnishes all the ideas of the ideology and invalidates it. Hence, Islam is an invalid and fallacious ideology. No religion in the history of mankind forces others to surrender and adapt to the religion. That is why this writer does not consider Islam a religion.

Additionally, no religion calls for the evil doing for which Islam calls, condones, and encourages. For example, Q4:95 states, "Allah hath granted a grade higher to those who strive and fight with their goods and persons than to those who sit (at home)." Q8:60 advises Muslims "to strike terror into (the hearts of) the enemies, of Allah and your enemies, and others besides, whom ye may not know, but whom Allah doth know."

Numerous scholars explain Quranic phrases on violence to be only in the context of a defensive response to oppression. This interpretation, however, requires selective reading and ignores the broader context of Islamic expansion throughout history, which was frequently accomplished through conquest rather than peaceful persuasion.

This analysis is not an attack on individual Muslims, the vast majority of whom are peaceful people seeking to live good lives. It is a critique of an ideology — the political and theological system of Islam — that contains within it elements incompatible with the values of a free, pluralistic, democratic society.

The distinction between critiquing an ideology and attacking its adherents is crucial. Every ideology, religious or secular, must be open to examination and criticism. The inability to criticize Islam without being labeled Islamophobic has created a dangerous intellectual climate in which legitimate concerns cannot be voiced.

A truly free society must be able to examine all ideologies — including religious ones — with the same critical rigor it applies to political philosophies. This is not hostility to religion; it is the foundation of intellectual honesty.