What Islam's sources say about violence and jihad
How modern groups use these texts
Jihadist groups quote Q 9:5, 9:29 and the sahih hadith to justify their wars. Most Muslims and their leading scholars reject those readings. Both facts are on the record.
The record
The 1998 World Islamic Front statement signed by Osama bin Laden and others quoted Q 9:5 to justify attacks. The Islamic State's publications cited Surah 9, the war hadith and the classical law books for its conquests, enslavement and executions of apostates.
Muslim scholars answered: the 2004 Amman Message and the 2014 Open Letter to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, signed by more than 120 scholars, rejected those readings. The great majority of Muslims never act on them.
Our point
Not that every Muslim is violent: they are not. The point is that the texts are there, in the Quran and the most trusted hadith, and that they have been read this way by classical law and by modern militants. Jesus' words cannot be read that way.
36Jesus answered, “My Kingdom is not of this world. If my Kingdom were of this world, then my servants would fight, that I wouldn’t be delivered to the Jews. But now my Kingdom is not from here.”
John 18:36 (WEB) · context
Sources
- Earliest source World Islamic Front, Jihad against Jews and Crusaders (statement of 23 February 1998), English translation published by the Federation of American Scientists.
- Open Letter to Dr. Ibrahim Awwad Al-Badri (al-Baghdadi), September 2014 (lettertobaghdadi.com).
- The Amman Message (2004), ammanmessage.com.