An Account by Fr. Zakaria Botros Danish; Indonesian Part 1 Father Zakaria Botros recently ran a show dedicated to discussing the question of morality and how it is—or should be—one of the hallmarks of "prophethood." At the start, he posed the focal question of the show: "Was Muhammad the prophet a moral man—the most upright man, worthy of being emulated by the world?" He … [Read more...]
Debating the ‘Mind of Jihad’
Jihad Watch Some time back, I wrote a book review for The Mind of Jihad by Laurent Murawiec for the Weekly Standard. Soon thereafter, Mr. Murawiec wrote something of an angry rebuttal -- accusing me of having an "agenda" and "disfiguring" his book -- which was to be published in a forthcoming Weekly Standard issue. The editors were kind enough to have asked me to respond to … [Read more...]
Conflating History with Theology
Judeo-Christian Violence vs. Islamic Violence Jihad Watch Especially after the terrorist strikes of 9/11, Islam has often been accused of being intrinsically violent. Many point to the Koran and other Islamic scriptures and texts as proof that violence and intolerance vis-à-vis non-Muslims is inherent to Islam. In response, a number of apologetics have been offered. The … [Read more...]
Jihad, Martyrdom, and the Torments of the Grave
Pajamas Media Why do some Muslims become suicide bombers or "martyrs"? In fact, these two near antithetic words — on the one hand, broken, desperate suicides, on the other, heroic martyrs — intrinsically demonstrate the radically different epistemologies the average Westerner and Muslim will articulate their answer through. In other words, that Westerners consider them … [Read more...]
Taqiyya Revisited: A Response to the Critics
Having written at length on various aspects of Islam, it is always my writings concerning doctrinal deceit that elicit (sometimes irate) responses. As such, the purpose of this article is to revisit the issue of deceit and taqiyya in Islam, and address the many ostensibly plausible rebuttals made by both Muslims and non-Muslims. The earliest rebuttal I received appeared last … [Read more...]