Have the
Muslims Sold Us a Bill of Goods?:
Moral Equivalency Applied to Islamic History
By Eric V. Snow
TABLE OF CONTENTS
HAVE MUSLIMS AND ACADEMIC LIBERALS WHITEWASHED ISLAMIC HISTORY? ……………………………………………………………………………….4
WERE MEDIEVAL MUSLIMS REALLY
TOLERANT WHEN JUDGED BY MODERN STANDARDS?
MEDIEVAL MUSLIM LEVELS OF RELIGIOUS
TOLERATION EXAGGERATED
CASES WHEN MEDIEVAL MUSLIMS
PERSECUTED THE JEWS
SPECIAL DISCRIMINATORY TAXES
IMPOSED ON NON-MUSLIMS BY MUSLIMS
TRADITIONAL CHRISTIANS SUFFERED
UNDER ISLAMIC RULE ALSO
THE MYTH OF ISLAMIC “TOLERANCE” FOR
RELIGIOUS MINORITIES
DID THE DHIMMIS IN CYPRUS LIVE
PEACEABLY UNDER TURKISH RULE?
IS THERE ISLAMIC TOLERANCE IN
AFGHANISTAN?
HOW FREE DO MODERATE MUSLIMS FEEL
ABOUT SPEAKING OUT?
DO MUSLIMS CONDEMN THEIR
EXTREMISTS’ ATROCITIES ENOUGH?
THE HISTORICAL
AND TEXUAL ORIGINS OF THE LITERAL DEFINITION OF “JIHAD”
DOES MUSLIM TEACHING ON JIHAD ONLY
GO BACK TO IBN TAYMIYA?
HOW MANY BATTLES DID MUHAMMAD
HIMSELF PARTICIPATE IN?
DOES THE OLD TESTAMENT’S WARFARE
EXCUSE JIHAD TODAY?
KHOMEINI CITES THE QURAN’S
PRO-JIHAD STATEMENTS
DOES THE MUSLIM DOCTRINE OF JIHAD
MAKE MUSLIM NATIONS LESS PEACEFUL?
EQUAL OPPORTUNITY IMPERIALISM,
CONQUEST AND EXCUSE-MAKING: WHY ARE
JIHADS GOOD, BUT CRUSADES EVIL?
IS MUSLIM AGGRESSION WRONG ALSO?
SHOULD MUSLIMS BE TOLD TO FORGET
PAST MISTREATMENT BY CHRISTIANS?
HAVE THE MUSLIMS ALWAYS BEEN
VICTIMS OF WESTERN AGGRESSION?
WESTERN IMPERALISM AS PAYBACK FOR
EARLIER JIHADS BY TURKS AND ARABS
MUSLIM ARMIES ALSO COMMITTED ATROCITIES
IS SOMEBODY’S IMPERIALISM OR CONQUEST
MORALLY SUPERIOR TO SOMEONE ELSE’S?
IS THERE A STATUTE OF LIMITATIONS
ON (REVERSING THE RESULTS OF)
IMPERIALISM?
WERE THE WESTERN IMPERIALISTS
REALLY LESS IGNORANT THAN THE MEDIEVAL MUSLIM JIHADISTS?
HOW AN IMPERIALIST POWER CAN
DESTROY FUTURE CRITICISMS OF ITS ACTIONS!
DOES IGNORANCE EXCUSE BOTH WESTERN
AND ISLAMIC CIVILIZATIONS?
THE WEST DISCOVERS SOLUTIONS TO ITS
COLLECTIVE SINS
ARGUMENTS THAT WHITEWASH ISLAMIC
CIVILIZATION’S SINS ALSO WOULD EXCUSE THE WEST’S
WHY A “CULTURAL” EXPLANATION
DOESN’T EXCUSE ISLAM AS A RELIGION FOR OPPRESSING WOMEN
CHAPTER 4
THE IDEOLOGICAL EXPLANATION FOR WHY ISLAMIC CIVILIZATION
PRODUCES DISPROPORTIONATELY MORE WAR AND TERRORISM COMPARED TO OTHER
CIVILIZATIONS
WHY ARE MISTREATED MUSLIMS MORE
VIOLENT ON AVERAGE THAN OTHER MISTREATED PEOPLE?
WHY DOES PALESTINE PRODUCE MORE
TERRORISM THAN TIBET?
WHY DOESN’T WESTERN MEDIA DECADENCE
CAUSE CHRISTIAN TERRORISM?
DO POVERTY, OPPRESSION, UNEQUAL
INCOMES, ETC., EXPLAIN WHY WESTERN MUSLIMS TURN VIOLENT?
THE GREATER IDEOLOGICAL SOURCES FOR
MUSLIM TERRORISM
THE IDEOLOGICAL REASONS WHY
AMERICAN TROOPS STATIONED IN SAUDI ARABIA SO PROVOKE MUSLIMS
INCONSISTENCIES IN PRACTICE DIFFER
FROM STRICTLY FOLLOWING IDEOLOGY
SAMUEL HUNTINGTON ON THE CLASH OF
CIVILIZATIONS: THE WEST VERSUS ISLAM
ARE ISLAMIC SOCIETIES MORE APT TO
GO TO WAR?
STATISTICAL, EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE FOR
ISLAM’S “BLOODY BORDERS”
CHAPTER 5
IS THE WEST’S IMPERIALISM AND THE OPPRESSION OF MUSLIMS THE MAIN CAUSE OF ISLAMIST TERRORISM?
WHAT IS AMERICA HATED FOR? HER VIRTUES OR HER FLAWS?
DOES SWIFT AND SURE RETALIATION
DETER TERRORISM?
RELIGIOUS IDENTITY MORE IMPORTANT
FOR MUSLIMS THAN NATIONAL ONE
HOW MUCH TERRORISM DOES LATIN
AMERICA EXPORT TO AMERICA?
AMERICA IS CONDEMNED FOR BOTH
SUPPORTING AND OVERTHROWING MUSLIM DICTATORSHIPS
WHAT IS THE CORRECT DEFINITION OF
“TERRORISM”?
HOW MUSLIM THREATS VERSUS LIBERALS
PAY OFF
IS
SELF-DETERMINATION THE ULTIMATE POLITICAL VALUE?
CHAPTER 6
HOW LETTING THE PALESTINIAN ARABS
RESETTLE AMONG ARABS WOULD HAVE MOSTLY SOLVED THE PROBLEM
HOW A LACK OF FORGIVENESS HOLDS
BACK MUSLIMS, PALESTINIANS
DID THE JEWS INTENTIONALLY
ETHNICALLY CLEANSE THE ARABS?
DOES CURSING ISRAEL TODAY CAUSE
ARAB MUSLIMS TO BE CURSED?
MARK TWAIN’S DESCRIPTION OF A
DESOLATE HOLY LAND IN 1867
THE PROBLEM WITH THE
NATIVE-ILL-USE-OF-LAND ARGUMENT
DO THE OPPRESSED SIN BY REBELLING
AGAINST THEIR OPPRESSORS?
DOES GOD USE PEOPLE WHO SIN TO
ACCOMPLISH HIS OVERALL WILL?
TO FULFILL PROPHECY, SOME ARABS HAD
TO BE DISPLACED BY JEWS
CHAPTER 7
HOW TO AVOID USING UNSOUND ARGUMENTS ABOUT ISLAM’S ROLE IN CAUSING VIOLENCE HISTORICALLY AND PRESENTLY
THE ARGUMENT FROM AUTHORITY USED
AGAINST OPPONENTS OF ISLAM
AD HOMINEM ARGUMENTS THAT INSULT
OPPONENTS ARE ALSO UNSOUND
HOW HISTORICALLY ACCURATE IS WHY I
AM NOT A MUSLIM?
HOW RELIABLE IS THE TESTIMONY OF
MUSLIM FOREIGN STUDENTS?
IS CONDEMNING ISLAM EVER “RACIST”?
IS SELECTIVE RACIAL PROFILING OF
MUSLIM ARAB AMERICANS WRONG?
BRITISH PUBLIC OPINION POLLS
DOCUMENT MUSLIM RADICALISM
CAN ONE CIVILIZATION BE OBJECTIVELY SUPERIOR TO ANOTHER?
IF THE MEDIEVAL WEST WAS OBJECTIVELY INFERIOR TO THE ISLAMIC WORLD, IS IT OBJECTIVELY SUPERIOR TODAY? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .110
SHOULD HUMAN GOVERNMENTS GIVE
PEOPLE THE FREEDOM TO VIOLATE GOD’S LAW?
GOD’S POSSIBLE INTERVENTION IN ANY
NUMBER OF POSSIBLE TURNING POINTS IN OTHER CIVILIZATIONS
COULD HAVE THE MONGOLS SO EASILY
CONQUERED THE WEST?
SO CAN A DOUBLE STANDARD BE
DEFENDED AFTER ALL?
MORALLY JUDGING BY USING THE SAME
YARDSTICK
THE RATIONAL CASE AGAINST THE QURAN’S INSPIRATION
HAVE MUSLIMS AND ACADEMIC LIBERALS WHITEWASHED ISLAMIC
HISTORY?
Is
Islam is a religion of peace? It is
standard, politically correct rhetoric to claim so. But does Islamic history really bear this out? Do Muslims condemn (successful) acts of imperialism
in their own history as much as (say) liberal western intellectuals condemn
European and American imperialism in recent centuries? Or is Western imperialism singularly morally
condemned because it acted last (and most successfully)? Why does the American liberal and cultural
elite apparently fear (say) the American Religious Christian Right working
through normal democratic processes politically more than militant Islam’s
terrorism, even after 9-11? Why should
medieval Catholic Crusaders or Western Imperialists be more condemned than when
Arab and Turkish Muslims invaded and took over vast areas via jihads? Indeed, why are jihads good, but crusades
evil? Aren’t all holy wars really
equally unholy? Are Muslims
historically merely the passive victims of Western and Christian
imperialism? Or were they aggressors
once themselves, and later paid the price for their aggression? In this essay, the case will be made that many
intellectuals and historians have whitewashed Islam’s history while blackening
the Christian West’s by comparison when the same moral standards are applied to
both civilizations.
CHAPTER 1
WERE MEDIEVAL MUSLIMS REALLY
TOLERANT WHEN JUDGED BY MODERN STANDARDS?
MEDIEVAL MUSLIM VS. CATHOLIC RELIGIOUS TOLERATION