The following article by Dr C van Dam[i] shows how Muslims can tell blatant lies and do other things that appear to be contrary to their faith. It’s because for them the end justifies the means. Evidently anything is permissible as long as it promotes their own or their religion’s cause.
ISLAM AND DECEPTION
Islam teaches that a Muslim can deny his faith and commit acts that are blasphemous and illegal for Muslims if they are at risk of significant persecution or if it promotes the cause of Islam.[ii] Simply put it means that a Muslim can lie if that is advantageous to him and/or promotes the cause of Islam. In an interesting article on the Middle East Forum website (Sept. 24, 2015), Raymond Ibrahim, an Islam specialist, highlighted this doctrine of taqiyya. He noted that according to Sami Mukaram, one of the world’s best authoritities on this issue, this teaching is held by all branches of Islam.
Unfortunately, this reality is denied by mainline Western media. To be critical of Islam is not considered politically correct and one is soon accused of being Islamophobic. A case in point is the way the American presidential contender Ben Carson was attacked for suggesting that Muslims lie in order to achieve their goals. But Ibrahim notes that “There’s much to be said here. First, considering that the current U.S. president has expunged all reference to Islam in security documents and would have Americans believe that Islamic doctrine is more or less like Christianity, it is certainly refreshing to see a presidential candidate referencing a little known but critically important Muslim doctrine.”
Ibrahim gave several examples including this one from Turkey. A group of Muslims, including three women, pretended to be interested in Christianity, attended church, and even participated in baptism ceremonies. Why? In order to collect information about the pastor and his family, their home, as well as the church, in order to attack them. Two had attended the church for over a year. Indeed, the pastor said they were like family to them. Happily, this plot was thwarted by police and those involved were arrested. But it illustrates how far fanatic Muslims will go to kill Christians. Tellingly, they have the blessing of the Islamic faith for such deception.[iii]
Another example of such deception is from the time Ronald Reagan served as president. In an article on his own website (Oct 7, 2015), Raymond Ibrahim tells how Pakistan’s president admitted to deception. “Back in the 1980’s, Muhammad Zia ul Haq, the president of Pakistan, explained to Ronald Reagan how it was no problem for the Pakistanis to sign the Geneva agreements and yet continue supplying weapons to the Afghan jihadis (‘freedom fighters’) combating the Soviet Union. Why wasn’t it a problem? According to Zia, ‘We’ll just lie about it. That’s what we’ve been doing for eight years.’ He added, ‘Muslims have the right to lie in a good cause’.[iv]
This testimony from a Muslim president is more credible than that of an Islamic university professor in California, Abou El Fadl, who claimed that “there is no concept that would encourage a Muslim to lie to pursue a goal. That is a complete invention.” Ibrahim wryly noted that it apparently never occurred to the reporter using this testimony to discredit Carson that “El Fadl himself may have been exercising, in Zia’s words, his Muslim ‘right to lie in a good cause’ – in this case, to prevent Americans from every being suspicious of Muslim individuals and organizations in the U.S.”
If such a practice is embedded in Islam, honest discussion in the public square becomes very difficult. Only if Muslims who migrated to the West disown not only by word but also by deed Islamic deception and Shariah law in general will such public discourse for society’s common good be possible.
[i] Dr Cornelis Van Dam is Professor emeritus of Old Testament at the Canadian Reformed Theological Seminary in Hamilton, Ontario. This article is from Clarion, January 15th 2016, and is published here with his permission.
[ii] Relevant passages in the Qur’an include: 2:225; 3:28; 16:106; in the Hadith, e.g., Bukhari 49:857; 84:64-65
[iii] More on this subject can be found at http://www.raymondibrahim.com/islam/the threat of islamic betrayal/
[iv] From the Cold War to a New Era: The United States and the Soviet Union, 1983-1991, p 280