Frontpage Interview’s guest
today is Bill Warner, the director of the
Center for the Study of Political Islam (CSPI) and spokesman
for
PoliticalIslam.com.
FP:
Bill Warner, welcome to Frontpage Interview.
Warner: Thank you Jamie.
FP: I’d like to talk to you today about how many of
the names, words and phrases we use about Islam are muddled and
incorrect. Many non-Muslims create certain terms about Islam to
try to make the world seem safer and to feel good about
themselves. But many of these terms have no actual basis in
Islamic theology or culture and have no real meaning in an
Islamic context.
I think the best way to start this discussion is to begin
with the term “moderate Muslim."
Warner: “Moderate Muslim” is a perfect example of the
muddle and incorrect terminology that kafirs (unbelievers) use.
This term is intended to describe a Muslim who doesn’t seem
dangerous or advocate violence. But “moderate Muslim” is a
non-Muslim name, one that kafirs made up.
The doctrine of Islam does talk about the different kinds of
Muslims. The measure of a Muslim is the Koran and the Sunna.
Anyone who follows these teachings is a moderate Muslim, by
definition.
Islamic doctrine defines what is moderate and not moderate.
Since we are dealing with Islam, we need to know that the
doctrine is dualistic. Islam can have two doctrines about any
issue. This follows from the Koran. The early Koran, which was
written in Mecca is generally religious. The Koran written in
Medina is very political and includes jihad. The two Korans are
not only very different, but they also contradict each other in
major ways.
So we have the possibility of two kinds of moderate Muslims,
since we have two doctrines. Osama bin Laden is a moderate
Muslim, who follows the Koran of Medina, the Koran of jihad.
Kafirs call him an extremist or radical Muslim. Actually, Osama
obeys the Koran of Medina and the Sunna of Mohammed, so he is a
moderate, pious Medinan Muslim.
The jihadists on September 11, 2001 were all moderate Medinan
Muslims. They were not extremists or radicals.
The other kind of moderate Muslim follows the Koran of Mecca
and he is more generally what kafirs mean when they say
“moderate Muslim”. But how moderate is a Meccan Muslim? A
moderate Muslim thinks that you are a kafir, but he isn’t
violent, just antagonistic.
FP: So tell us exactly what “kafir” means. We take it to
mean unbeliever but I presume it is more complicated than that.
Warner: The usual translation of this Arabic word is
unbeliever, but unbeliever is only a very small part of its
meaning. It is the Koran that defines the word “kafir” and it
says the most terrible things can happen to them. The Koranic
doctrine about kafirs says they are hated and are Satan’s
friends. Kafirs can be robbed, killed, tortured, raped, mocked,
cursed, condemned and plotted against. The Koran does not have
one good thing to say about kafirs. (There are some psuedo-good
words, but more about them later.)
For over the last 1400 years, 270 million kafirs have died as
a result of the political doctrine of Islam. It is the biggest
single source of suffering in the history of the world.
The word kafir is the worst word in the human language. It is
far worse than the n-word, because the n-word is a personal
opinion, whereas, kafir is Allah’s decree. Nearly two thirds of
the Koran is devoted to the kafir. Islam is fixated on the kafir
and the moderate Muslim thinks that you are a kafir. How
moderate is that?
FP: I guess not very moderate.
Warner: Well the moderation does not stop there. A
moderate Muslim follows Islamic ethics. Not only is the Koran a
dualistic document, but also Islamic ethics are dualistic. Islam
has one set of rules for Muslims and another set of rules for
the kafirs. A Muslim does not lie, cheat, kill, or harm another
Muslim. But, if it will advance Islam, a kafir may be cheated,
deceived, murdered, tortured and raped. Or a Muslim may treat a
kafir like a brother.
It is the dualism of Islam that gives it such power. It has
the entire good cop/bad cop psychology built into its very DNA.
There have been other groups with dualistic ethics, the KKK for
instance. But a member of the KKK hates all blacks all the time.
There is a certain bald-faced honesty in the hatred of the KKK.
But Islam has the good cop face to the world most of the time.
The bad cop is held in reserve the same way that a police
detective carries a hidden weapon.
The ethical dualism means that Islam does not take part in
the shared reciprocity of altruism. As an example, Islam is very
big on charity, but Islamic charity only goes to Muslims. When
Saudi Arabia sent money to New Orleans after hurricane Katrina,
the money only went to Muslims, not to suffering kafirs.
FP: Can you expand a bit on reciprocity of altruism?
Warner: Reciprocity of altruism[1]
is the very basis of civilization. Islam does not share this
trait. This is one of the reasons that Islam is not a part, nor
can it be, of kafir civilization. Islam is built on different
ethics and logic than the kafirs. Islam’s dualistic ethics
prohibit reciprocity of altruism. Islamic civilization and kafir
civilization do not share similar values.
So a moderate non-violent Muslim thinks that you are a kafir
and that a kafir does not have to be treated the same as another
Muslim. The moderate Muslim (Islamic meaning) thinks that you
are Allah’s scum and you can be treated like trash. Or not
(dualism always has options).
How can such a person be a true friend, if he believes the
Koran. In some 14 verses, the Koran says that the Muslim is not
the friend of a kafir. But what if the person actually is your
friend? We can deal with this very important question if you
wish.
In any case, the term moderate Muslim has two totally
different meanings. The kafir meaning is warm, fuzzy and
incorrect. The Islamic meaning is cruel, precise and correct.
FP: What are some other false kafir names?
Warner: Radical Muslim. Extremist Muslim. Reformed
Islam.
What is a radical Muslim? A radical Muslim is capable of
harming kafirs. A radical Muslim is a Medinan Muslim, but a
Medinan Muslim follows Mohammed’s actions. So killing kafirs is
not radical. Harming kafirs follows Mohammed’s example and is
pure Islam, not a radical interpretation.
FP: So, overall, what is the real issue here?
Warner: Islam.
These false names used by kafirs are an attempt to humanize
Islam. The kafirized naming tries to put the violence (radical,
extremist) outside of Islam or suggest that violence is a
bizarre interpretation of Islamic doctrine. But Mohammed was
involved in a violent episode on the average of every six weeks
for his last nine years. Again, Mohammed defines moderation, and
the violence is integral to Islam.
The doctrine of both religious and political Islam is based
on dualism and submission. The religious doctrine is of no
concern to a kafir. It is the politics that concerns kafirs.
Political Islam is based upon dualism and submission. All of
humanity is divided into kafirs and Muslims, with not one good
word for the kafirs.
Names like “moderate” and “good” are an attempt to link
goodness and Islam. But there is no goodness in Islam for the
kafir, only for another Muslim. This is extremely harsh, but it
is a consequence of the doctrine of political Islam.
If you are well-read in the Islamic political doctrine, you
may jump in and say that the Korans says a positive things about
Christians and Jews. These few good things are a very few
sentences. It is sad to see how Muslims and apologists drag the
pitiful few sentences out of the Koran to show the good in Islam
for the kafirs. First, compared to the massive amount of
hateful, hurtful and evil things said about the kafirs, the few
good sentences are statistically insignificant.
But worst of all is that the good verses are contradicted by
later doctrine. This is another aspect of dualism.
The doctrine of Islam is not static since it is based upon
the life of Mohammed. The doctrine describes a process. The
conclusion of that process was annihilation of the native Arab
culture with not a single enemy of Mohammed left standing. In
the end, there is no good in Islam for the kafir, nothing. That
is the conclusion to the process of political Islam. Those
“nice, tolerant” verses are temporary tactics to be used while
Islam is weak.
Most kafirs treat the doctrine of Islam like a box of those
magnetic words you can put on the refrigerator. By choosing the
right words, they can make any sentence and any thought. But the
doctrine of Islam is a very coherent story. It has a beginning,
middle and an end. Islamic doctrine is taken from the life of
Mohammed, not from a dictionary of unrelated facts. Indeed, the
remarkable thing about Islamic doctrine is how systematic and
logical it is. You can’t just reach in and take a sentence or
verse here and there.
What is the most important thing about a story is its
conclusion.
FP: And the conclusion is?
Warner: The conclusion is that political Islam is
always bad for the kafir. In the end, all Christians and Jews
must submit to Islam. That is the goodness of Islam for kafirs.
As long as the kafirs submit to Islam’s demands, then Islam is
good to them.
Dualism is the key to understanding Islam. On the surface
many parts of the Koran contradict each other. The usual
explanation is that the older, nicer verses are abrogated by the
later verses. But in reality all of the Koran is true since it
comes from the only god, Allah. Allah is perfection, and
therefore, the contradictory statements in the Koran are all
true. This violates Aristotelian kafir logic, but it defines the
Islamic dualistic logic. In Islam two contradictory things can
both be true at the same time. So for every one of those
statistically insignificant “good” verses, each one is weak, and
the stronger harsh and violent verses are stronger.
Contradictions are integral to Islamic logic.
To put a fine point on the previous claim—the only good for
kafirs in the doctrine of political Islam is negated somewhere
else.
FP: So what is the good of Islam?
Warner: Islam is the cause; Muslims are the effect. So
if there is no good in Islam for a kafir, how is there any good
in a Muslim for a kafir? There is not any good in a Muslim for
kafirs. Cause and effect. But there can be good in people who
call themselves Muslims.
Now we get to our central problem. There are some nice people
who are Muslims, how do we explain this?
The doctrinal problem here is that a Muslim cannot be the
friend of a kafir. The Koran says this 14 times. So if a friend
is a Muslim, then that friendship has to be based on something
other than Islam.
Notice that Islam has a strong core doctrine of mutual
Muslims friendship; indeed the Koran says that Muslims are
brothers and sisters to each other. And why can Muslims be
friends? Because they are equal.
But a Muslim is not the political equal to a kafir because
the Koran says that a Muslim is superior. So where does the good
person who is a Muslim get his basis for friendship? The same
place as everyone else does—from equality, the same equality
that is inferred from the Golden Rule.
Treat others as you want to be treated.
Which others? All others, without exception. The Golden Rule
implies the unity of humanity. There are no limits to its
application.
The Golden Rule does not apply to Islam. Indeed, Islam denies
the truth of the Golden Rule. The duality of Islam divides all
humanity into Muslims and kafirs. There are no two groups more
unequal than kafirs and Muslims.
FP: So what do we call the Muslim that is a friend of a
non-believer?
Warner: The goodness in your Muslim friend comes from
the kafir civilization, not Islam. Your friend is a kafirized
Muslim, but he is not a good or a moderate Muslim. Remember,
Osama bin Laden is a good and moderate Muslim.
FP: A kafirized Muslim. This is interesting. Expand
for us please.
Warner: A kafirized Muslim is a new naming, but an old
reality. For some reason, every analysis of Muslims assumes that
they are completely Muslim, without any kafir in them. But Islam
does not drive all Muslims in all aspects of their life. Kafir
culture has some very appealing ideals and people who call
themselves Muslims are attracted to the benevolence in it. A
true Muslim has absolutely no attraction to any aspect of kafir
culture. The Koran and Sunna condemn 100% of kafir culture, so
no Muslim has any desire to emulate kafirs. As soon as a person
has any attraction to any aspect of kafir culture, they cease to
be a Muslim and become kafir. That is the way the doctrine of
Islam works.
The name kafirized Muslim is analytic and fits the data. But
kafirized Muslim is more than a name; it is a new concept with
some very profound consequences.
What are its advantages? It is better than any of the
alternatives such as a “good Muslim”, a “moderate Muslim” or my
“Muslim friend”. All of these names are an attempt to bring some
good out of Islam. But, there is no good in Islam for kafirs,
only for Muslims.
The name kafirized Muslim acknowledges a bridge between Islam
and kafirs. It is bigoted to assume that every Muslim has all of
their behavior based upon Islam. Islam may demand that a person
be 100% governed by Islam, but the truth is that Muslims are
people and as people they are capable of picking and choosing.
What is wrong with acknowledging that Muslims can be part kafir?
What is wrong by acknowledging that the Golden Rule attracts
Muslims?
The word “Muslim” entraps a person into a small box. What we
need to be able to do is recognize the person, not the Muslim.
We live in a multicultural age where the majority culture is
defined as oppressive. In order to distinguish yourself, you
should be separated from the main body. Hence, a name like
African-American exists. But these names come with a box. If you
are African-American, you are supposed to have certain political
and social views. Similarly, the name Muslim can become a narrow
category for a person. A Muslim should only have certain views,
or you are not a “real” Muslim.
The name kafirized Muslim acknowledges that we are dealing
with a person, not a category.
The usual names, (good Muslim, moderate Muslim), attempt to
credit the good found in Muslims to the doctrine of Islam. The
term kafirized Muslim clearly states that the good comes from
the kafirs, not Islam.
Now we get to the crux of the politics of the made-up naming.
These names represent a desperate attempt to deal with the
problem of Islamic threats, violence and destruction of kafir
civilization. Very few people know much about either the
doctrine or history of political Islam. So they think of Islam
as only a religion and believe since Islam has so many members,
it must be one of the great religions. And all religions are
good, so Islam must be good. But there is a nagging dark feeling
about the violence in Islam. Since Islam has been defined good,
there must be an explanation. Those Muslims who kill must be
“extremist” Muslims. That leaves Islam as good with a few rotten
apples.
In Islam, Mohammed, Ali, Umar, Abu Bakr and all of the rest
of the founding Muslims were “extremist” Muslims since they were
killers over and over again. What kafirs call extremism is only
Islam.
FP: In the context of everything you are saying, what is
the hope, or point, of trying to “reform” Islam?
Warner: Some come up with the thinking that if Islam
has nothing good for kafirs, then why not reform it? This idea
comes from making an analogy to Christianity. However, Islam’s
claims aside, there are almost no points of comparison between
Islam and Christianity. On the issue of ethics, for instance,
there is absolutely no analogy.
The religion of Islam needs no reform. Who cares about how
Muslims worship? All kafirs must be concerned with Islamic
politics or how Islam defines them. The Koran, the Sira and the
Hadith determine the treatment of kafirs.
To reform the Koran, all of the hateful, cruel, and bigoted
references to kafirs would have to be removed. If the kafir
material is removed, then only 39% of the Koran remains. The
greatest part of the part of the Koran, 61%, is devoted to
negativity about kafirs.
The Sira (the life of Mohammed) has about 75% of its material
devoted to jihad.
The Hadith has 20% of its material devoted to jihad. There is
no one positive reference to kafirs.
If you delete 61% of the Koran, 75% of the Sira and 20% of
the Hadith, you will have reformed Islam. You will also have
destroyed it. There is a very good reason that Islam has never
been reformed. It is impossible.
Is it so hard to believe that a political system with the
name “submission” (that is what Islam means) is violent and
can't be reformed? To submit is a demand of force.
Why would Islam want to reform? It works. You don’t fix a
system that works.
The other objection to Islamic reform is that there is no
central hierarchy that makes decision for Muslims. Anyone can
read the doctrine and decide what to do. No one has the
authority to decide what every Muslim can do. In that way, Islam
is like the Internet; it is a distributed system with no central
doctrinal authority. Who speaks for Islam? Mohammed. Who
interprets Mohammed? Any Muslim.
You can have a kafirized Muslim, but there is no such thing
as kafirized Islam. Islam cannot be reformed. Hence, the name
reformed Islam is only a kafir dream.
FP: So we need to start using the right names and
terms.
Warner: Of course. The right names help to think right
thoughts. Muddled names lead to muddled thoughts. If we are
serious, we must start using the right names to describe Islam.
Our terms must be based upon Islam, not kafir dreams.
If we want to refer to the more peaceful Muslims, call them
Meccan Muslims. The jihadists are Medinan Muslims.
Wrong names include: moderate Muslim, extremist Muslim, good
Muslim, radical Muslim.
Right names include: Meccan Muslim, Medinan Muslim, kafirized
Muslim.
We must take control of the language. Incorrect names lead to
incorrect thinking. We have to use the right names to defeat
political Islam.
FP: So what point of view is your argument and outlook
based on?
Warner: All of this analysis is based upon a kafir-centric
view. There are three ways to examine Islam—believer, kafir and
dhimmi. The believer-centric view is the standard Islamic
viewpoint. For the believer, the Koran is the perfect word of
the only god of the universe and Mohammed is the prefect pattern
for all human life and all times.
Kafir-centric analysis looks at Islam from the viewpoint of
the kafir; how does this affect us?
Kafir-centric analysis is the view of the victim. As an
example, in the Sira, Mohammed’s triumph over the Meccan
polytheists is told as a wonderful victory. From the view of the
kafir, it represents the annihilation of a tolerant society and
the creation of the modern apartheid state of Arabia. As a
result of Islam, the Arabs went from being a tolerant people to
being the most bigoted and biased society on earth.
The kafir-centric school is skeptical and analytic.
The dhimmi-centric viewpoint is the academic school and is
neither fish nor fowl. It is marked by political correctness and
never refers to the deaths of the 270 million kafirs, never
talks about the suffering of the dhimmis. The dhimmi-centric
school is actually believer-centric lite. It rarely applies
skepticism. The dhimmi-centric school is the predominate school
in the universities, military, law enforcement, government and
the media. The dhimmi-centric school is very fond of using
modern political science to analyze Islam.
One of the marks of the dhimmi-centric school is to ignore
Islamic political theory. For instance, jihad is never used to
explain violence. Or Israel is seen only as a modern political
state and the Palestinians are just another political group.
Reading the Israelis news stories, you would never know that
Islam had a doctrine of war. But when you read the
communications of the Palestinian leaders, it is crystal clear
that it is jihad against the kafirs in Israel. From the
standpoint of Islam, if every Jew in Israel were a Hindu,
nothing would change.
Multiculturalism is all the rage these days. What is strange
is that only the believer-centric school and the kafir-centric
theory explain Islam by its doctrine. The dhimmi-centric
academic school avoids this at all costs. This is ironic since
it was the academics who created multiculturalism. So the dhimmi-centric
school is bigoted and euro-centric by its own standards of
multiculturalism.
FP: Bill Warner, thank you for this fascinating and
eye-opening discussion.
Warner: You are welcome Jamie.
Notes:
[1] Before the Dawn: Recovering the Lost History of Our
Ancestors, Chapter 8, Sociality, pgs. 130-180, Nicholas
Wade, Penguin Press, NY, 2006.