Holy War or Self-Defense? David Wood Dissects the Quran — Transcript

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1. 0:00[Music]
2. 0:17Welcome back to Unveiling Islam. I'm
3. 0:20David Wood here with Brother Rasheed.
4. 0:23I don't know if you've noticed, brother
5. 0:25Rasheed, but there have been a lot of
6. 0:27terrorist attacks uh over the years,
7. 0:31even since 9/11, there have been tens of
8. 0:33thousands of Islamic terrorist attacks
9. 0:37against non-Muslims or even against
10. 0:39rival Muslim groups. And one of the
11. 0:42things that I've heard over and over and
12. 0:45over again from journalists and from
13. 0:49politicians is this really has nothing
14. 0:53to do with Islam because as we know and
15. 0:56the the two most common verses I've seen
16. 0:59over and over again it's surah 2 verse
17. 1:01256 there's no compulsion in religion.
18. 1:04So anyone who's trying to use compulsion
19. 1:06for religion uh can't actually must not
20. 1:09be a Muslim or must be uh some sort of
21. 1:12some sort of heretic or something like
22. 1:14that. And then of course we have uh that
23. 1:17according to the Quran if anyone kills a
24. 1:20man it's as if he's killed all mankind.
25. 1:22Oh my goodness. And therefore any
26. 1:25terrorist who's killing other people is
27. 1:27completely violating the teachings of
28. 1:31Islam. problem is when I look up these
29. 1:33passages, they don't help. And the other
30. 1:34problem is uh the Quran has a lot more
31. 1:37to say about dealing with with
32. 1:39unbelievers. First of all, no compulsion
33. 1:41in religion that if you read the
34. 1:44background why it was written, it has
35. 1:46nothing to do with giving people uh
36. 1:48freedom of religion or anything. Yeah.
37. 1:50And the the commentaries they'll give uh
38. 1:52uh like in Corte gives I think over a
39. 1:55dozen interpretations and none of them
40. 1:57say what what they say today. It just
41. 1:59says like some some kids of the uh of
42. 2:01the people in Medina, they their their
43. 2:04uh dads and moms they vowed if they had
44. 2:07kids they will be Jews. Mhm. And then
45. 2:10when Muhammad went there they wanted to
46. 2:12convert by force their kids and he said
47. 2:15no compulsion in religion. And that
48. 2:18wasn't the beginning of his stay in
49. 2:20Medina. He changed after. That's why we
50. 2:23had chapter 9. Mhm. So if you are
51. 2:25quoting chapter two that's the beginning
52. 2:27of Medina things changed a lot and they
53. 2:30can't even agree that's that's one of
54. 2:32the interpretation I've seen people just
55. 2:34say just say well it was abregated and
56. 2:36then of course some some people say it
57. 2:38only applies to Jews and Christians if
58. 2:40they pay the Jiza they can't even agree
59. 2:41on what it means. Yeah I I want to
60. 2:44comment on the other verse you mentioned
61. 2:45which mentions if you kill one soul you
62. 2:48kill all all the world actually the
63. 2:51context doesn't talk about that. It
64. 2:53talks about Jews. Yeah. It says this was
65. 2:55revealed to the Jews. To the Jews to
66. 2:57sons of Israel. That's a quote from
67. 2:58that's a quote from the Talmet. Yes. So
68. 3:01he he's basically saying well the
69. 3:03scriptures of the Jews if you kill one
70. 3:05man you kill the whole world. So
71. 3:08so that's not about the Quran. Yeah.
72. 3:11Anyway, and by the way the very next
73. 3:13verse. So that's surah 5:32. The very
74. 3:16next verse. Surah 5:33. Put their hands
75. 3:18and their feet
76. 3:20tell Muslims to go on a killing spree.
77. 3:21Yeah. Um, let's talk about chapter nine,
78. 3:26which was the last revelation to
79. 3:31Muhammad concerning violence. So, you're
80. 3:34you're talking about like the final
81. 3:36marching orders. In other words, if you
82. 3:37if you open up the Quran, you find all
83. 3:39sorts of teachings from different
84. 3:41context. But then you get to surah surah
85. 3:449 and this is all right. These are your
86. 3:46final marching orders. Yeah. These can
87. 3:49cancel things that happened earlier.
88. 3:51revelations from earlier. So this is
89. 3:53what you're supposed to be aiming
90. 3:54towards. Now the first thing you notice,
91. 3:57this chapter has no beginning.
92. 4:01There is not the standard beginning
93. 4:05in the name of the most gracious and the
94. 4:07most merciful. It doesn't exist. When
95. 4:10you go and ask why, they say because it
96. 4:13has no mercy.
97. 4:15I shouldn't start with mercy.
98. 4:18the merciless
99. 4:20chapter in the Quran. Okay, that's a
100. 4:23good start. And just to be clear, every
101. 4:24other chapter of the Quran starts with
102. 4:26starts with this except this one because
103. 4:29it has no mercy. So the last revelation
104. 4:32of Allah is no mercy. That's that's
105. 4:36that's just we just started. And then
106. 4:39you go and you find each group has their
107. 4:42own orders how to deal with the
108. 4:46politist, how to deal with Christians
109. 4:49and Jews. 95 how to deal with politist.
110. 4:52He gave them three months and he said
111. 4:55after the three months just slaughter
112. 4:58them wherever you find them.
113. 5:01Jews and Christians give them the option
114. 5:03of paying money, bribing Allah to keep
115. 5:06your own religion. So basically this is
116. 5:09jihad. Coming back to what people say
117. 5:12when they say this is a twist of Islam,
118. 5:16hijacked Islam. This is what not what
119. 5:18Islam teaches. I have a few questions
120. 5:21for them. What is the common denominator
121. 5:25between all these guys? You find people
122. 5:28from Morocco joining ISIS. People from
123. 5:31Tunisia going joining ISIS, from Egypt,
124. 5:34from Saudi Arabia, from all these
125. 5:37places, from France, from Belgium, from
126. 5:39Canada, from the US, from Australia.
127. 5:42What is the common denominator between
128. 5:44these guys? A simple look,
129. 5:48is it because they are poor, less
130. 5:51educated?
131. 5:53the the the only thing I can find the
132. 5:55common between them is Islam. So it has
133. 5:58to do with Islam. A common sense anyone
134. 6:02who studies terrorism has to come to
135. 6:05this conclusion. It has to do with
136. 6:07religion. Some people they say no
137. 6:09because they were persecuted.
138. 6:12Islamic groups they were not allowed to
139. 6:14participate in politics because this
140. 6:17because of that. Look at Christians in
141. 6:19Egypt.
142. 6:20The cops, they were persecuted. They
143. 6:23were not given opportunity to
144. 6:25participate in politics. Did you see any
145. 6:28cop blowing himself in a mosque among
146. 6:30Muslims? Their churches were burned.
147. 6:34Their their their kids were converted by
148. 6:37force to Islam. They don't have rights
149. 6:41so many times. None of them he went
150. 6:44exploding himself. So you're telling me
151. 6:46religion has nothing to do with that?
152. 6:49Yeah. Same thing where wherever you go,
153. 6:50wherever you have uh I mean same thing
154. 6:53in Pakistan, right? You you've got
155. 6:55you've got a Christian minority that's
156. 6:57horribly oppressed, that's treated like
157. 6:58secondass citizens. And yet when I see
158. 7:01in the news when I see in the news uh
159. 7:04that a mosque has been blown up in
160. 7:05Pakistan or a mosque has been shot up,
161. 7:08you usually find it's another Muslim
162. 7:09group. Yeah. It's a blowing up a Shia
163. 7:12mosque. And you you pointed out
164. 7:14something important there when you say
165. 7:16that they come from all these different
166. 7:17countries and they all get the same
167. 7:18idea. Yeah, that's important because
168. 7:20when we point when we point out, hey,
169. 7:23look at this violence, we'll hear things
170. 7:25like sometimes they'll mention a group
171. 7:27like, you know, Westboro Baptist Church.
172. 7:29They go around and protest uh protest
173. 7:31military funerals and things like that
174. 7:33and they're really mean. It's like, but
175. 7:35notice where do you see people from
176. 7:37around the world all saying, "Ah, we
177. 7:39need to go and join this movement." Or
178. 7:41people will point out, "Hey, Catholics
179. 7:42and Protestants were fighting in Ireland
180. 7:44and there were terrorists there." Where
181. 7:46do you see like the entire people from
182. 7:48the entire world saying, "Oh, we have
183. 7:49that exact same idea. We all need to go
184. 7:52there and join it. It's a you can have a
185. 7:55local group that gets some some some
186. 7:57strange ideas that don't line up very
187. 7:59well with the rest of Christianity, but
188. 8:01they remain local. You don't see the
189. 8:04entire world all uniting and going to do
190. 8:06that." But in Islam, you have someone
191. 8:07stand up, ah, we're the new caiphate or
192. 8:09something like that. And people start
193. 8:10flooding from around the world because
194. 8:12they already had the same idea from
195. 8:15somewhere. Let me tell you this.
196. 8:18When they say these guys misunderstood
197. 8:22the Quran,
198. 8:25what book in the world you misunderstand
199. 8:29it and you go kill people?
200. 8:32Did you ever hear about a book you
201. 8:34misunderstand and go kill people? And
202. 8:36they they misunderstand it in the exact
203. 8:39same way. wherever they're from. Yeah.
204. 8:41It's It's weird. I never read the
205. 8:43Stoski.
206. 8:45Somebody read the Stoski and and read it
207. 8:48wrong and went kill people. Yeah. Like
208. 8:50you read Crime and Punishment. Ah, he
209. 8:52killed a pond broker, so I'm going to
210. 8:53run out and start killing pawn brokers.
211. 8:55So, if there is a text that can be this
212. 8:59misunderstood by this much of people,
213. 9:02believe me, it's the problem is not in
214. 9:05the people. It's that in that book.
215. 9:07Yeah. So, so e even in other words, even
216. 9:10if we granted even if we granted for
217. 9:12argument's sake, yeah, that all these
218. 9:14people, all these different groups, the
219. 9:16the ISIS and the Taliban and al-Qaeda
220. 9:19and al-Shabaab and uh uh Boo Haram, even
221. 9:22if we granted all these groups are
222. 9:24misunderstanding it, we'd have to say,
223. 9:27why are they all misunderstanding the
224. 9:29same book that is that somehow they're
225. 9:31all misunderstanding as commanding them
226. 9:33to violently subjugate the entire world?
227. 9:36I need you to read 95 in English.
228. 9:39Whatever version you have, whatever
229. 9:42translation you have here. All right. So
230. 9:45this is the 95. This is surah 9 vers5.
231. 9:48This is the YF Ali translation. But when
232. 9:51the forbidden months are passed, then
233. 9:54fight and slay the pagans wherever you
234. 9:56find them and seize them, belleaguer
235. 9:58them, and lie and wait for them in every
236. 10:01strategy of war. Then it says, "But if
237. 10:04they repent and establish regular
238. 10:06prayers and practice regular charity, so
239. 10:08if they convert, yeah, "Then open the
240. 10:10way for them, for Allah is oft
241. 10:12forgiving, most merciful." So the
242. 10:14exception if they repent, if they
243. 10:16convert to Islam, but other than that,
244. 10:17the orders are um fight and slay the
245. 10:21pagans wherever you find them. How do
246. 10:22you misunderstand slay them wherever you
247. 10:25find them? Yeah, that's kind of a hard
248. 10:26one to to to misinterpret.
249. 10:29I mean was it something else and I got
250. 10:32it wrong. Slay them is slay them. If you
251. 10:36told me if you are going to tell me that
252. 10:38was just for the time of Muhammad that
253. 10:40wasn't
254. 10:42actually the Quran is good for all time
255. 10:47and there's there's nothing that comes
256. 10:48after this. If this had been early on
257. 10:50you could come up with something later
258. 10:52that that abregates the earlier one.
259. 10:54These are the final the final orders.
260. 10:57How Muhammad understood the text, how
261. 11:00the companions understood the text, how
262. 11:02the first Islamic um understood the
263. 11:07text. That's what defines what the text
264. 11:09is. All of them. It's not defined by a
265. 11:12journalist for CNN today. It's Muhammad
266. 11:15practiced these verses on the ground. He
267. 11:19killed people. He went to them. He
268. 11:22slayed them. He did all these things. So
269. 11:25if somebody misunderstood the Quran, it
270. 11:28must be Muhammad because he did that.
271. 11:30Yeah. So Muhammad himself misunderstood
272. 11:33the Quran because he thought it called
273. 11:35for the violent subjugation of the
274. 11:38world. And so you you mentioned uh 95
275. 11:40and then of course we have 9 29 because
276. 11:43that's uh 95 is about is about the the
277. 11:46polytheist. And then 929 that's about
278. 11:49Jews and Christians. And we have fight
279. 11:51those who believe not in Allah, nor the
280. 11:54last day, nor hold that forbidden which
281. 11:55hath been forbidden by Allah and his
282. 11:57messenger, nor acknowledge the religion
283. 11:59of truth from among the people of the
284. 12:01book until they pay the Jiza with
285. 12:03willing submission and feel themselves
286. 12:05subdued. So this is talking about Jews
287. 12:07and Christians and saying we have to be
288. 12:10violently subjugated. People who say it
289. 12:13was for defense,
290. 12:17who went to North Africa,
291. 12:21they wanted to defend themselves in
292. 12:23Saudi Arabia and went all the way to
293. 12:25Spain and North Africa. Wow. I mean, who
294. 12:29went to the other?
295. 12:31Is that defense?
296. 12:33And and and plus, the verses do not talk
297. 12:36about defending yourself until they
298. 12:39repent. So, it's a religious thing. It's
299. 12:41not about defending yourself. Muhammad
300. 12:44did 83 war operation. 83.
301. 12:49One of them you can call it defense
302. 12:53which the trench because they came but
303. 12:56also that you can explain it as a
304. 12:58reaction to his raids. So at the end the
305. 13:0183 none of them is people attacking him.
306. 13:06It's the other way around.
307. 13:09How is that defense? And even even in
308. 13:12surah 9:29, it's notice it's it's not
309. 13:15fight people who are attacking you. No,
310. 13:17it's fight those who do not believe in
311. 13:19the true religion. And then the entire
312. 13:21you can go to the surrounding context.
313. 13:23It starts in uh it starts in the verse
314. 13:25before it. So uh sorry 9:28 and goes all
315. 13:27the way to verse 33. Yeah. And every
316. 13:30single criticism that justifies
317. 13:32violently subjugating Jews and
318. 13:34Christians is our religious beliefs and
319. 13:36practices. There's not one word in there
320. 13:39about Muslims being attacked and them
321. 13:41fighting in self-defense uh in this
322. 13:43passage. And so um notice there there
323. 13:47only two there are only two
324. 13:48possibilities here. There are only two
325. 13:49possibilities here. Either either the
326. 13:54Quran means what it says when it calls
327. 13:56for a violent subjugation. Either it
328. 13:58means what it says. Allah really means
329. 14:01that Muslims have to slaughter
330. 14:03polytheists and groups that are
331. 14:04polytheists. uh or and of course uh Jews
332. 14:07and Christians have to be subjugated.
333. 14:09Either Allah means that or Allah meant
334. 14:13something completely different but he
335. 14:16said it in such a way that everyone
336. 14:18who's reading the passage from around
337. 14:20the world thinks he's calling for the
338. 14:22violent subjugation of the world because
339. 14:24it's exactly including his prophet
340. 14:26including his prophet even his prophet
341. 14:28misunderstood it. Why? Because he says
342. 14:31he says fight those who do not believe
343. 14:32when he really means fight and
344. 14:34self-defense. So either Allah means what
345. 14:36he says which leads to a blood bath or
346. 14:39he meant something else but he said it
347. 14:41so horribly that people conclude it
348. 14:43means it calls for a violent blood bath.
349. 14:45Either way you get a violent blood bath.
350. 14:47And so I think we need to stop uh by by
351. 14:50pretending that jihad has nothing to do
352. 14:53with this religion.