ISLAM IS NOT A 'RELIGION OF PEACE'

ISLAM IS NOT A 'RELIGION OF PEACE'

Muslims claim that Islam is a 'religion of peace'. Let them openly say then like Hindus do that all religions are valid paths to God, for to claim that Islam is the only perfect path to God and the very last religion to be revealed is itself a very unpeaceful attitude that Islam bears upon both the 'kaffirs' (infidels) and the momins (believers). Exclusiveness to such a degree is the seed of violence as is aggressive proselytism by persuasion or by the sword. The Islamic scriptural trilogy copiously contains violent verses which give the lie to the persistent claim of Muslim clerics that Islam is a religion of peace. 

The Islamic history of conquest, oppression and conversion dating right back to its inception and proceeding thereon till date does not make it a close cousin of that supremely peaceful religion that goes by the name of Jainism, a point to be noted. The very foundational texts of Islam are supremacist in their bearing and call for subjugation of non-Muslims till they are persuaded or coerced into conversion whereupon peaceful submission to the one and only true God may follow, other gods being in the eyes of Islam false after all for they are deemed heretical partners to the one true God of Islam. These doctrines cannot possibly allow Islam to be peaceful where the polytheists who are deemed the worst of infidels are either to convert or suffer death followed by damnation in Hell where their burning bodies will provide fuel for the infernal fire, a fire which is the recurring theme of almost every other Qur'anic verse. Thus, Islam surely is not a religion of peace beyond what semantics deems it to be.

Written by Sugata Bose