Still Haunted by The Same Syndrome

Printer-friendly versionSend to friendPDF versionThe root of what is today still haunting us, is to be found in Mecca and Medina almost 1400 years ago. How could that be, you may ask? Well, I will try to explain.

Two factors are particularly important for the foundation of Islam. They are Muhammad’s early childhood and the environment in which he grew up and spent most of his life.

Muhammad was born as a fatherless child in a family belonging to the Quraish tribe in Mecca. Already as a very young child he was handed over to a wandering Bedouin woman to be raised together with her own child of the same age. He was returned to his own mother at the age of five. Shortly afterwards she brought him to Medina to visit relatives in Khazraj tribe. His mother died unfortunately on the way back when Muhammad was still 5 years old. He was raised as an orphan by his grandfather and later by his uncle Abu Talib. He experienced neglect in his new family and at a tender age spent times alone grazing animals for his grandfather and uncle.

It is obvious from later events that this traumatic early childhood had a conclusive impact on his personality. His acting during the Medina period and his way to come up with new ‘revelations’, becoming part of the Quran, as support for his ‘actions’ when he was criticized show all the symptoms of a very disturbed, narcissistic psychopath lacking any empathy.

The Arabian Peninsula at the time of Muhammad provided a harsh environment for its inhabitants. Despite some caravan trade large parts of the region was insulated from cultural influence from Europe and other parts of the Middle East which enjoyed some technical and cultural renaissance. Obligations and loyalties were not beyond one’s tribe and the tribal chief. Most people worshipped a variety pagan gods including Kaaba.

According to available sources Muhammad, the prophet of Islam, used to follow pagan rituals until his marriage to his first wife, Khadija. She had a cousin named Nofal, who had changed from his pagan religion to Judaism and finally to Christianity.

After his interactions with Khadija and Nofal Muhammad himself became interested in Jewish and Christian theology. It is learned that Muhammad trough Nafal’s connections used to meet Jewish rabbis and Christian priests frequently. It is understood that Muhammad was trained in Jewish and Christian scriptures during these years.

There was however a significant problem. While the Jews and the Christians had their scriptures and were able to refer to them, Muhammad being an illiterate had to memorize the Torah and the Bible. Muhammad was obviously fully aware of this as he later often mentioned their scriptures and referred to Jews and Christians as “People of the Book”

After about 15 years of these preparations Muhammad started to reveal alleged messages from God, initially for friends and relatives and later going public. These revelations came later to constitute the Quran. He soon demanded that Kaaba was actually the house of his own god (Allah). This did not go down to well with the people of Mecca for two main reasons. First, he wanted to stick to their own pagan gods, and second, but not least important, Kaaba was a centre for pilgrimage attracting many pagan tribes yearly for worshipping and bringing considerable income to the Meccans. However, even if they did not like this new religion they were tolerant enough to let Muhammad and his followers say prayers inside the Kaaba every day.

After more than 12 years of preaching in Mecca he had only succeeded in converting a handful of followers (some sources say about 70, another around 200). The majority of the population was less than impressed.

The vast majority of the dominating tribe in Mecca, the Quraish Muhammad’s own tribe, were pagan polytheists. Consequently they had limited knowledge of the Jewish and Christian scriptures. However, there were some so called poets with knowledge enough to criticise Muhammad when he got things mixed up. And that is exactly what happened frequently.

Several modern textual analyses (Prophet of Doom to mention one) comparing the Bible and the Quran demonstrate convincingly that Muhammad’s misconceptions of leading characters and events in the Torah and the Bible were abundant as shown in the Quran.

Being the person he was he could not take any form of criticism. It is obvious that from this kind of situations stems the Islamic doctrine that the Torah and the Bible are distorted by men while the Quran is the only true direct revelation from God/Allah. This is how dogma overrides knowledge and reason.

However, in Mecca the problem of theological criticism could be handled as only a limited number of people had a thorough understanding of the Bible. This all changed when in 622 AD Muhammad and his followers moved to Medina where the demographic situation was different. The dominating tribe, Khazraj, was Arabic and distantly related to Muhammad. However, there were also three significant Jewish tribes well established since many generations. And these Jewish tribes had access to their scriptures. That is, they had documented knowledge about some issues which Muhammad soon started to preach.

Initially when arriving at Medina Muhammad had friendly or reasonable relations with the Jewish tribes, obviously hoping that they should accept his version of monotheism. Now, many of the Jews in Medina evidently had thorough knowledge of the Torah and several so called poets soon openly started to criticize and even mock Muhammad. For several reasons he could not tolerate this.

First, as a person he could never take any criticism or opposition. Second, he understood that they had real knowledge and written texts and that open criticism would undermine his authority. Third, and not least, the fact that they not only rejected him but that some mocked him and his preaching severely hurt his Arabic pride.

It is apparent that the Islamic animosity against Jews was rooted in this context after a relatively short time in Mecca. It has never been proven that the Jewish tribes of Medina ever harmed Muhammad and his followers in any other way. On the contrary they welcomed them and helped them.

As soon as Muhammad felt strong enough, i.e. in January 624 AD directly after the battle of Badr, he started suppressing all verbal opposition by means of terror (assassinations) and threat instead of refuting the critics intellectually. He ordered the assassination of several of the poets (see “Dead poets society”) when the Muslims were still a minority in Medina. But in the long run this was not good enough

In order to solve the problem of criticism Muhammad decided to get rid of the Jewish tribes first in Medina and later in all of the Arabian Peninsula one way or another. As is evidenced by how he soon begun to treat the Jewish tribes of Medina that animosity developed into a next to pathological hatred. This hatred is well documented in many verses in the Quran revealed during this period.

Here is the real reason why still today groups like Hamas and Hizbollah do not want any peace treaty with Israel. It has nothing to do with any particular border – it is all about Muhammad’s doctrine from 623 AD.

Many years later when Hassan al-Banna, the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, and his friends in the late 1920’s studied the Arabic/Muslim situation they saw a number of things which they did not like.

The Ottoman Empire had crumbled after the First World War and its power had in many ways been replaced by a Western military and economic domination of Egypt and other Muslim Nations. According to Al-Banna Islam had lost its dominance because most Muslims had been corrupted by Western influences. Thus he and his friends took a strict religious approach to the issue.

They must have noticed that the Western Powers had access to advanced science and technology far superior to that developed in Islamic countries over the last few centuries. They must have realized that the Muslim nations were completely dependent on Western technology and investments in order to utilize their own vast natural resources i.e. crude oil. They must have wondered why the Muslim world was, and still is, so backward despite the fact that the Muslims for so many centuries had full access to the alleged ‘final and complete guide for all aspects of human life’ – the Quran.

Sadly enough when they analysed this situation, they took the religious track. Thus they failed to appreciate that the West’s dominance as a result of an advantage in Science and technology was founded on reason and knowledge, not on religion. The fact is that science and technology over several hundred years had developed in the West despite sometimes severe resistance from religious institutions.

When the Muslim Brotherhood chooses the track of religious dogma, a return to an original Islam, they unfortunately took a step backwards instead of forwards.

It is remarkable that the Muslim World is so backward despite the fact that the Muslims have had full access all these years to the alleged “final and complete guide for all aspects of human life”, the Quran. Or is that the reason?
Now in the early 21st century the Brotherhood and ideologically related networks are spread all over the Western World. Some of them are thinly disguised as ‘moderate’ Muslims advising naïve politicians. Their thinking is founded in dogmas established almost 1400 years ago. While happily enjoying technical products resulting from Western science they despise the very culture that made them possible.

They do not accept any form of criticism of Islamic teachings or customs or of the Prophet. Any form of criticism is met, not by an intellectual refuting of the criticism but, with worldwide angry demonstrations, threats and open violence. The similarities with the situation in Medina 624 AD are striking. Reason and knowledge are met with threats, violence and terror.

The early Muslims gained strength by raiding caravans. Today the Islamic movement is financed with oil-money from the Middle East, money which to a large extent eminent from the West. If we are not very careful the West will end up contributing to its own demise.

As part of the War on Terror Western Democracies have started to dismantle some of the freedoms that we used to take for granted. To appease Muslim groups some ‘leaders’ tell us to show respect for religious sentiment, thus trying to censor freedom of opinion, one of the central pillars of democracy.

Islam is like a virus. If society can not conceal and control it or reject it the free Western Society as we know it may well be destroyed by Islamic theocracy. It will share the destiny as several great cultures in the past.

For how long must we tolerate this unreason?