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What is the pattern? So, to me, you know, sometimes you hear people say, they're peaceful religious leaders at first. And then they gain power and use the military against you, right? Do you notice a pattern in how they capture territories Yes, yes. And it's actually based on the life of Muhammad and how the Quran was revealed to him. If you look at the Quran through the eyes of scholars, Muslim scholars, they divide it into-it's one Quran, of course, but they call it the Meccan Quran and the Medinan Quran. What they mean is that Muhammad's life mostly begins in Mecca. That's where he was born. And then he goes to Medina, understand? And there is a difference here. So, when he is in Mecca, in his early years, and he preaches Islam, he is weak, he is less,
he is mocked. He has very, very few followers. Most of them are just relatives and friends. And he has no political power. At that time, he begins to receive revelations from Allah, which are contained in the Quran. And that's where all these peaceful poems come from, okay? Nothing belligerent. These are the verses that Muslim apologists will constantly quote to you, okay? And there are very, very many of them. Then he goes to.and he also, you know, he even. some of the verses talk about not resisting. It sounds very Christian. Then he goes to Medina and becomes, in effect, a military leader. And this is the moment when he starts to become more powerful. And at this time he begins to receive a revelation that now, if you are attacked, you
can fight back. Then he becomes very powerful and begins to conquer various tribes. And then he gets a final revelation that says you must now go on the offensive. And he really goes on the offensive. So, even if someone doesn't attack him, you have to go and subdue them, okay? Based on this, the ulema, the scholars, have reached two views. One of them is called "an-naskh wal-mansuh" in Arabic, which means the abrogated and the abrogating, which means that when you look at the Quran, if you don't understand it, the verses contradict each other. Some poems sound like pure bloodshed and murder, calls for massacre. For example, 9:5 is known as the sword verse, and it simply means that when the pagans ambush you are to attack them,
kill them, take them into slavery. And then there are the peaceful poems I mentioned. Therefore, they concluded that the new revelations that appeared in Muhammad's life abrogated, that is, nullified, the old ones. So the final word on this matter is to go on the offensive, okay? Another view, very relevant today, is that the entire Quran is applicable depending on your situation. If you find yourself in Muhammad's situation when he was in Mecca, outnumbered and surrounded by infidels, yes, you can preach tolerant verses. If you find yourself in a position of strength, then you must go on the offensive and wage jihad, understood? And this, in fact, remains unchanged. I see this all the time. In Syria, I remember when ISIS appeared in Iraq, there were
many stories from Christians who said, "We lived side by side with our Muslim neighbors for generations. We know each other. We helped them and took care of them because they, the Muslims, were poor." And once ISIS came, they completely betrayed them, and, you know, they put "nun" like "N" for "Nasara" (Christians), they went around and marked houses to identify where the infidel Christians lived. And this is not just one case, it is a lot of evidence. This brings us back to another idea in Islam-circumstances. Circumstances dictate behavior. So, if you are weak and in the minority.I'll end with a funny story I've already told; This happened to me and my Muslim colleague when I worked at the Library of Congress 20 years ago. I studied
these things and told him about them, and he always pretended to be moderate, but I saw a radical streak in him. I knew better. And he told me.I asked him about the abrogation. How about this? The final word-you have to wage jihad and so on. Eventually he got irritated and I made my point. I said that the verses of Mecca are tolerant and the verses of Medina are not, and then he clapped his hands and replied, " Yes, but I'm in Mecca." So his point is that I am in the same circumstances as Muhammad was in Mecca, weak and in the minority. So, of course, I talk like that. I realized how interesting it was said. So, when you are in the minority, appear peaceful.
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