Statutory Warning: All Religions are Equally Stupid

One of the striking things about the Quran is the flexibility of God (Allah) in some minor respects and an unyielding inflexibility in other major aspects.

Take for instance pork.

Many of us are led to believe that God (Allah) imposes strict prohibitions in dietary matters, particularly in consuming pig’s meat and that under no circumstance must a Muslim eat pork.

Not so. Not so.

Unlike the semi-literate mullahs or the illiterate Muslims who tend to favor a blanket ban on pork, Allah is flexible when it comes to consuming pork.

No, we are not making this bit up about Allah’s flexibility on porcine edibles.

Schmucks, it’s right there in the Quran:

You are forbidden to eat carrion; blood; pig’s meat; any animal over which any name other than God’s has been invoked; any animal strangled, or victim of a violent blow or fall, or gored or savaged by a beast of prey….but if any of you is forced by hunger to eat forbidden food, with no intention of doing wrong, then God is most forgiving and merciful.  (emphasis added, Sura 5, Aya 3)

Lest there be lingering doubt in the devout, God (Allah) repeats this point in Sura 6:

So [believers] eat any [animal] over which God’s name has been pronounced, if you believe in His revelations. Why should you not eat such animals when God has already fully explained what He has forbidden you, except when forced by hunger? (Sura 6, Aya 118 and 119)

So My Name is Khan, next time you find yourself very hungry and in a place where Pork Fried Rice is the only dish on the menu, go right ahead and dig into your swine with gusto.

After all, Allah is forgiving and merciful when it comes to pork.

Creating Discord
Alas, when it comes to Christians or Jews, the well of Allah’s compassion dries up and his inflexible attitude rears up.

And as long as the Quran continues to be the vade mecum of Muslims everywhere, the enmity between Islam and those of other faiths will endure because of verses like the below one:

You who believe, do not take the Jews and Christians as allies; they are allies only to each other. Anyone who takes them as an ally becomes one of them — God does not guide such wrongdoers– yet you [Prophet] will see the perverse at heart rushing to them for protection, saying, ‘We are afraid fortune may turn against us.’ But God may well bring about a triumph or some other event of His own making: then they will rue the secrets they harboured in their hearts, (Sura 5 Aya 51& 52)

Again and again, the Quran strives to disparage Christians and Jews and exalt the status of Allah.

Those who say, ‘God is the Messiah, son of Mary, ‘have defied God. The Messiah himself said, ‘Children of Israel, worship God, my Lord and your Lord.’ (Sura 5 Aya 72)

Those who say, ‘God is the Messiah, the son of Mary,’ are defying the truth. Say, ‘If it had been God’s will, could anyone have prevented Him from destroying the Messiah, son of Mary, together with his mother and everyone else on earth? Control of the heavens and earth and all that is between them belongs to God: He creates whatever He will. God has power over everything.’ (Sura 5 Aya 17)

With such strident verses like the ones below, is it any surprise then Islam is set on an death to the end fight against Christians and Jews.

Say [Prophet], ‘People of the Book, do you resent us for any reason other than the fact that we believe in God, in what has been sent down to us, and in what was sent before us, while most of you are disobedient? (Sura 5 Aya 59)

You [Prophet] see many of them rushing into sin and hostility and consuming what is unlawful. How evil their practices are! Why do their rabbis and scholars not forbid them to speak sinfully and consume what is unlawful? How evil their deeds are! (Sura 5 Aya 62 and 63)

As Allah’s pronouncements filter down second-hand to the unwashed masses, the stridency and insensitivity in the Quran vis-a-vis those of other faiths is amplified by the fiery, hate-filled rhetoric of the mullahs.

Also, the punishment is severe for those equating other gods with Allah:

If anyone associates others with God, God will forbid him from the Garden, and Hell will be his home. No one will help such evildoers. (Sura 5 Aya 72)

Those people who say that God is the third of three are defying [the truth]: there is only One God. If they persist in what they are saying, a painful punishment will afflict those of them who persist. (Sura 5 Aya 73)

The fifth Sura devotes considerable space to the Christians and Jews, a lot of it none too flattering to the two religions Christianity and Judaism:

Those  who wage war against God and his Messenger and strive to spread corruption in the land should be punished by death, crucifixion, the amputation of an alternate hand and foot or banishment from the land: a disgrace for them in this world, and then a terrible punishment in the Hereafter, (Sura 5 Aya 33)

The Messiah, son of Mary, was only a messenger; other messengers had come and gone before him; his mother was a virtuous woman; both ate food [like other mortals]. See how clear We make those signs for them; see how deluded they are. (Sura 5 Aya 75)

Say, ‘People of the Book, you have no true basis [for your religion] unless you uphold the Torah, the Gospel, and that which has been sent down to you from your Lord,’ but what has been sent down to you [Prophet] from your Lord is sure to increase many of them in their insolence and defiance: do not worry about those who defy [God]. (Sura 5 Aya 68)

Folks, of one thing you can be certain.

Until a new prophet is born in the sandy deserts of Arabia and receives an edited, updated and less confrontational version of the Quran from Allah (via his angel Gabriel), detente between Islam and other faiths will remain but a mirage.

Some Keywords
God – Allah
Sura – Section
Aya – Verse

To be Continued Tomorrow

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