How Circumstance Dictates Islamic Behavior

January 20, 2012 By 10 Comments

Has there ever been a time when one group of people openly exposes its animosity for another group of people—even as this second group not only ignores the animosity, but speaks well, enables, and legitimizes the first group?

Welcome to the 21st century, where Western politicians empower those Muslims who are otherwise constantly and openly denouncing all non-Muslims as enemies to be fought and subjugated.

Consider this video of Sheikh Yassir al-Burhami, a top-ranked figure in Egypt’s Salafi movement which won some 25% of the votes in recent elections.  He makes clear a point that, in a different era, would be thoroughly eye-opening: that all notions of peace with non-Muslims are based on circumstance.  When Muslims are weak, they should be peaceful; when strong, they should go on the offensive.

Discussing “the analogy between Egypt’s Christians and the Jews of Medina,” Burhami pointed out that Muslims may make temporary peace with infidels, when circumstance calls for it:

The Jews of Medina represent a paradigm—laid by the prophet [Muhammad]—that shows how Muslims should deal with infidels. The prophet’s methods of dealing with infidels are available for Muslims to replicate depending on their situation and their capabilities. The Prophet in Mecca dealt with the infidels in a certain way, so whenever Muslims are vulnerable they should deal with the infidels in this same manner.

Burhami is referring to the famous Mecca/Medina division: when Muhammad was weak and outnumbered in his early Mecca period, he preached peace and made pacts with infidels; when he became strong in the Medina period, he preached war and went on the offensive.  This dichotomy—preach peace when weak, wage war when strong—has been instructive to Muslims for ages.

After quoting Koran 4:77, “Refrain from action, uphold prayers, and pay your zakat,” Burhami continues:

In many infidel countries, such as occupied Palestine, we instruct Muslims to do just that [follow Koran 4:77]. Today in Gaza, we do not tell Muslims to launch rockets everyday and so destroy the country, but we tell them “Refrain from action and respect the truce.” When the Prophet first arrived in Medina, he made conciliation with the Jews, conciliation without jizya [i.e., equal-term conciliation without forcing Jews to pay tribute and live as second-class dhimmis]—this is a pattern that can be followed whenever circumstances dictate. However, when they breached the covenant he fought them and ultimately imposed jizya on the People of the Book [Jews and Christians]. Nor is this Sura [Koran 9:29] abrogated; it is acknowledged and agreed upon.

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Filed Under: Daily Mailer, FrontPage
About

Raymond Ibrahim, a Shillman Fellow at the DHFC, is a Middle East and Islam expert, author of the new book, Crucified Again: Exposing Islam’s New War on Christians (Regnery, 2013), and an Associate Fellow at the Middle East Forum. Join him as he explores the "Intersection"—the pivotal but ignored point where Islam and Christianity meet—including by examining the latest on Christian persecution, translating important Arabic news that never reaches the West, and much more.

  • kafir

    You can tell he's a pious muslim, who only wants the best for the ummah, by the size of his allah bump. He's got a good one!!! Allah protects muslims from brain damage from smacking their heads on the ground by not putting any brain matter in their heads. It's more of a small nerve cluster that dictates the muslims behavior. The dinosaurs, from a brain size / intelligence perspective were the closest to muslim "brains" in today's moon god worshippers.

  • Rifleman

    Hey look, this jihadi comes with a bullseye.

  • john in cheshire

    We should use the muslim methods against them. Lie to them, bargain with them until you see a weakness and then destroy them. Tell them you love them until they lower their defenses them destroy them. If lies and deceit and cheating and treachery are acceptable for muslims to perpetrate against their enemies (which is just about everyone, by the way) then they can't be to upset when their enemies use the same policies against them.

    • R Eskola

      But of course they will be upset. That it is their very nature, to get upset from all things not muslim or perceived as things against 'umma'. The point is, whe should seek to upset them and take pleasure from it. To make the umma upset should be a moral value.

  • tanstaafl

    I bet squirrels could nest in his beard.

    So want is the point in negotiating with jihadis? If we infidels were smart, we would negotiate with the jihad, sign a treaty and then attack with everything we have.

  • ObamaYoMoma

    According to the US government, the Republican Party, the Dhimmicrat Party, and the news media, Islam is a Religion of Peace™ being hijacked by a tiny minority of extremists, and the vast overwhelming majority of Muslims in the world are moderate and peace loving Muslims.

    Here's the reality, per the sixth and most important pillar of Islam, every Muslim on earth is obligated to fight jihad in the cause of Allah against non-Muslim unbelievers to make Islam supreme. Hence, ALL MAINSTREAM ORTHODOX MUSLIMS ON EARTH are jihadists. A tiny minority of them are violent jihadists, while the vast overwhelming majority of them are non-violent stealth and deceptive jihadists, and the few that are not jihadists are not Muslims at all, but instead blasphemous apostates that per the dictates of MAINSTREAM ORTHODOX ISLAM must be executed.

    Indeed, there is quite a gap between what our US government, the Republican Party, the Dhimmicrat Party, and the news media all believe and reality.

    • curmudgeon

      its a really simple concept, but the rocket scientists who control the media, the stupican party, and criminocrat party cant grasp it. keep explaining it to them.

  • DrBukk

    A couple of years back I visited a monestary atop a mountain in Chios, a Greek island close to Turkey. They had a glass-fronted bookshelf full of skulls. There was a hand-lettered sign which said Chios had 188,000 people when invaded by Ottomans in the early 1820's. Only 1,800 were left afterwards. Muslims erase their bloody history this way and can wail about the Crusades… because they lived to tell it .
    On Wikipedia it says they were invaded by an army from another Greek island! After WW1 the Turks were thrown out and Greeks repopulated Chios.
    Mohammed established polygamy so Islam would always have an army of unmarried invaders seeking wives. When weak like they are now, they slaughter each other.

  • aspacia

    Most will not listen to the facts about what is facing us. They want to take their Prozac and not stress. The sword awaits.

  • Musa emmanuel

    The west is so enamoured with the world that they are blind to anything that will upsetthe applecart of enjoying worldly pleasures. Brilliant pple like obama& cameron are so stupid that they are trying to feed us new history & new realities. Indeed the sword awaits!