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A religion of peace?

Reader comment on item: "How Dare You Defame Islam"
in response to reader comment: Militant Islam

Submitted by Largely4 (United States), Jan 18, 2008 at 07:13

In 1786 Thomas Jefferson reported what Ambassador Adja said to justify the capture of American ships, enslaving both crew and passengers: "Islam was founded on the Laws of their Prophet, that it was written in their Quran, that all nations who should not have acknowledged their authority were sinners, that it was their right and duty to make war upon them wherever they could be found and that every Muslim slain in these battles was sure to go to Paradise."

Winston Churchill, 1899:

No stronger retrograde force exists in the world. Far from being moribund, Mohammedanism is a militant and proselytizing faith. It has already spread throughout Central Africa, raising fearless warriors at every step; and were it not that Christianity is sheltered in the strong arms of science, the science against which it had vainly struggled, the civilization of modern Europe might fall, as fell the civilization of ancient Rome." Those "fearless warriors" who once formed armies now hide their faces and do their warring in the shadows.

Alexis de Tocqueville: "I studied the Kuran a great deal. I came away from that study with the conviction that by and large there have been few religions in the world as deadly to men as that of Muhammad..."

And this was before Israel's creation as a nation by the UN! What was islam's excuse then?


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Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".

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