The Religion of Peace

Nov. 20, 2015

The following are facts related to Islam; make of them what you will.

- ISIS is an acronym for the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.

- ISIL, as the president and his staff like to name it, stands for the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. Over history the Levant has meant the eastern Mediterranean area, and could stretch as far as Greece and Italy. In 1998 it was described in the Egyptian Journal of Geology as also including western Asia, northeast Africa and all of the Arabian plate. The ISIL designation includes a larger region than just Iraq and Syria.

- The Muslim population in Europe grew from 4 percent in 1990 to 6 percent in 2010.

- In 2010 Europe was home for 13 million Muslim immigrants.

- Germany and France have the largest Muslim populations in the European Union. Muslims are 7.5 percent of France’s population.

- On Nov. 13, 2015, just hours before the terrorist attacks on several locations in Paris, there was a forum held in Bedford, near London. The event was titled "Quiz a Muslim: A unique opportunity for the general public to question a panel of experts on the most pressing topics relating to Islam and the Muslim Community." It featured a panel of seven bearded men. At the event there were two entrances. One was exclusively for men and the other was for women. The women were kept to one side, apart from the men. They were shrouded and did not speak publicly.

- One of the panelists at the forum, Taji Mustafah, stated that Islam is a "religion of war and peace, it governs every aspect of life and politics, including what you eat and wear."

- In Saudi Arabia, a country ruled by Muslim Sharia law, women are not allowed to drive.

- Under Sharia the crime of theft is punishable by amputation of the right hand.

- Homosexuals have been beheaded, hung and stoned in modern Saudi Arabia and Iran. Other Muslim countries also have the death penalty on their books for homosexual behavior.

- Jonathan AC Brown, the Alwaleed bin Talal chair of Islamic Civilization at Georgetown University, claims that Muslim marriage is "nothing more than – literally – a contract between a man and a woman in which the man provides the woman with financial support in return for exclusive sexual access. Since marriage is a contract premised on vaginal intercourse and financial obligation between a man and a woman, same-sex couples could not engage in one." He goes on to add, "But the Sharia does have a clear position on sexual acts. All sexual contact between unmarried men and women is forbidden."

- Under Sharia it is acceptable for a man to use physical punishment "a light beating" against his wife.

- It is generally agreed in most interpretations of Sharia that a man can divorce his wife by making a declaration in front of an Islamic judge irrespective of the woman’s consent. Even her presence is not required. For a woman to divorce a man, his consent is required.

- A Muslim who leaves the faith is subject to punishment up to and including death.

- Muslims are allowed to engage in Taquiyya, the practice of lying to non- Muslims for the purpose of advancing Islam.

- In a Sharia court the testimony of a woman is equal to half that of a man.

- Depending on interpretation of Sharia, women are required to wear a range modesty garments from a hijab (head and neck scarf) to a burqa (a full-body cloak with a rectangle of netting over the eyes). Failure to follow modesty laws sometimes elicits violence from police in places like Afghanistan and Sudan. In 2013 president Rouhani barred Iran’s morality police from arresting women for immodesty, but continued the country’s "Modesty Project," turning it over to the Ministry of Interior.

- Under strict interpretation of Shari,a a woman needs her husband’s permission to go to work or leave the house.

- The Muslim Brotherhood issued a statement condemning the UN support for equal rights for women and the UN campaign aimed at ending violence against women because it violated Sharia principles.

- Jizya is a tax that must be paid by non- Muslim subjects residing in a Muslim land. Jizya is required by the Quran. The majority of moderate Muslims reject the system that calls for Jizya, and it is only collected by rogue territorial fiefdoms today. There are Islamic activists including Abul A’la Maududi of Pakistan and Yusuf al-Qaradawi of Egypt who have said that Jizya should be re-imposed on non-Muslims in a Muslim nation. There are reports of Muslim gangs using Jizya in prisons as a way to extract payments, through intimidation and force, from those in the general prison population.

- The BBC reported that "at least 350,000" refugees have come into the EU between January and August 2015. That figure does not include those who came in undetected. These refugees are fleeing persecution, poverty, and chaos in their Muslim home countries.

- In a 2007 New York Times interview, Barack Obama described the Muslim call to prayer as "one of the prettiest sounds on Earth at sunset."

- Islam is often called "a religion of peace."

Thomas Kachadurian is a photographer, designer and author. He lives on Old Mission with his wife and two children. He is a member and past president of the Traverse Area District Library Board of Trustees.