Wednesday, March 15, is the United Nations’ “International Day to Combat Islamophobia,” and while my family is planning just a quiet celebration at home, at the UN they’re going all-out with the festivities. Secretary-General António Guterres kicked things off in style with a fawning address in which he lauded the multifaceted beauty of Islam that has so richly nourished the human spirit for fourteen centuries now. When is the UN day to combat dislike of Christianity? Of Judaism? Of Hinduism or Buddhism? Don’t ask questions like that, you Islamophobe.
Guterres noted that “we are just days away from the beginning of Ramadan.” The Islamic month of fasting all day and feasting all night, during which believers redouble their efforts to conform their lives to the will of Allah, starts on Wednesday of next week. Guterres then dived headlong into the realm of fantasy and wishful thinking, saying, “For well over a millennium, Islam’s message of peace, compassion and grace has inspired people the world over. The very word Islam derives from the same root word — salam/peace.”
Well, yes. The word “Islam” does derive from the same root word as the word for “peace,” but Islam doesn’t mean “peace,” as is often claimed; it means “submission,” and while some might argue that the fullest peace comes from submission to God, that is not all that is meant in Islam. Islam means the submission of the Muslim (the “submitter”) to Allah, but also the submission of non-Muslims to Muslims, and the submission of women to men. In Islam, submission is the ordering principle of virtually every relationship.
The imperative to compel unbelievers to submit to believers, and to do so by force of arms, is made abundantly clear in numerous passages in the Qur’an (see 2:190-193, 4:89, 8:39, 9:5, 9:29, 9:73, 9:123, and 47:4, to name just a few). It is also a constant of Islamic history, as The History of Jihad demonstrates in detail. Ever since Islam began, the warriors of Allah have waged war against unbelievers of all religions and no religion at all, and have conquered and Islamized numerous lands in the process. In fourteen centuries of spreading what Guterres calls “Islam’s message of peace,” there has never been a century that was untouched by Islam’s war against non-Muslims, nor any Islamic sect or school of jurisprudence that ever renounced the imperative of jihad against unbelievers.
Neither Guterres nor anyone else at the UN would ever admit it, but that’s why there is any “Islamophobia” in the first place, in the sense of a negative view of Islam. Rational people who dislike Islam don’t do so out of “racism” or “prejudice,” but because of the jihad imperative and mission to force the submission of unbelievers, which remains to this day. If the UN really wants to combat “Islamophobia,” it should devote its efforts to trying to convince Muslim leaders to endorse the idea that Muslims and non-Muslims should live as equals in peace with one another, without the Muslims trying to gain dominance over the non-Muslims. Were that ever to happen, and be accepted by large numbers of Muslims worldwide, “Islamophobia” would begin to recede.
Instead, Guterres noted a Qur’an verse enjoining kind treatment of unbelievers: “And if anyone seeks your protection, then grant him protection so that he can hear the words of God. Then escort him where he can be secure.” (9:6) It would have been refreshing if Guterres had read out a bit more the same chapter of the Qur’an, such as this verse: “Then, when the sacred months have passed, kill the idolaters wherever you find them, and take them, and besiege them, and prepare for them every ambush.” (9:5) And: “Fight against those do not believe in Allah or the last day, and do not forbid what Allah and his messenger have forbidden, and do not follow the religion of truth, even if they are among the people of the book, until they pay the jizya with willing submission and feel themselves subdued.” (9:29)
Or this one: “O prophet, wage jihad against the unbelievers and the hypocrites. Be harsh with them. Their ultimate dwelling place is Gehenna, an evil destination.” (9:73) This one would do as well: “O you who believe, fight those of the unbelievers who are near to you, and let them find harshness in you, and know that Allah is with those who keep their duty.” (9:123)
To have read out such passages, however, would have required a realism and courage that we are never going to get from António Guterres.
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