The Peace FAQ:

Muhammad, Mohammad, Mohammed

Frequently Asked Questions:

What made Muhammad such a great leader?
Wasn't Muhammad a strong family man, having a special affinity for children?
Why has Muhammad occasionally fallen victim to porcine metaphors?
Why blame Muhammad for only the beheading of those 800 Jews?
Other than the 800 Jews beheaded in Medina, how has Muhammad set the example for Islam's relationship with the Jewish People?
What effect did Muhammad have on the ethics of his followers?

What made Muhammad such a great leader?

There is a stack of evidence available to demonstrate that Muhammad was a great national leader because he believed in the racial superiority of the Arabs, and he used the device of Prophethood to achieve this goal. Yet the Muslims insist that Muhammad had nothing to do with nationalism, and his message is based on human love and international brotherhood.
- from ISLAM: The Arab Imperialism, by Anwar Shaikh

Wasn't Muhammad a strong family man, having a special affinity for children?

Already, when Aisha (the daughter of Abu Bakr, Mohammad's closest friend and unquestioning ally) was about 4-5 years old Muhammad started dreaming of a union with her [Ref: SAHIH BUKHARI, 5:235] and he wasted no time in realizing his dreams, inspite of the fact that object of his dreams was a mere child. Perhaps you want to assume that it is "normal" for a 50+ year old man to dream of marrying a 4-5 old child, and then ACTUALLY ask for her hand at 6?
Is it normal for an oversexed old man (Muhammad had over 9 wives and concubines) to dream of a union with a 4-5 year old girl?
Muhammad ( SAW ) was basically oversexed, his sexual relationship with Aisha is a special case, which fits his strong need for a larger latitude to satisfy his sexual urge, as is witnessed by:
"The Prophet used to visit all his wives in a round, during the day and night and they were eleven in number." I asked Anas, "Had the Prophet the strength for it?" Anas replied, "We used to say that the Prophet was given the strength of thirty (men)." And Sa'id said on the authority of Qatada that Anas had told him about nine wives only (not eleven)." [Bukhari.1:268]
When she was 6, Muhammad asked Abu Bakr, Aisha's father, for her hand. Abu Bakr thought it was improper, because, as he said "I am your brother"; Muhammad brushed aside Abu Bakr's reservation by saying that it was perfectly lawful for him to marry Aisha [ Ref: SAHIH BUKHAR I7:18].
...So, Aisha was betrothed to Muhammad, and 3 years later, i.e. when Aisha was 9, the marriage was consummated. And Muhammad was 53 then [SAHIH BUKHARI 5:236,7:64,7:65,7:88] .
The 3 year waiting period probably had to do with the fact that at that time Aisha had contracted some disease, whereby she, temporarily lost her hair. Aisha was then socially and psychologically still a child as is evidenced by the fact that she was still given to her toys, she was unaware of what was happening around her, and her playmates behave as would the children at present times [Sahih Bukhari 8:151,5:234].
Aisha became Muhammad's favourite wife. And the sexuality in the relationship was predominant [ SAHIH BUKHARI .1.270, 3:36, 7:6, 3:148, 3:149, 3:150, 7:142, IbnSa'd 1pg165 ]. Later, Aisha was to be called the "mother of believers".
REFERENCES:
(1) Les femmes du Prophete, Prof.Magali Morsi, Professor of History, University of Muhammed V, Rabat, Morocco.
(2) Shahih Bukhari: [1.229] [1.230] [1.231] [1.232] [1.233] [1.258] [1.263] [1.267] [1.270] [1.294] [1.296] [1.298] [1.299] [3.148] [3.149] [3.150] [3.853] [4.736] [5.235] [5.236] [5.731] [7.14] [7.15] [7.57] [7.48] [7.57] [7.64] [7.65] [7.86] [7.88] [7.90] [7.144] [7.163] [8.151] [9.139] [9.140]
- from The Darabi Foundation

Why has Muhammad occasionally fallen victim to porcine metaphors?

While I am not an expert on swine, I usually can directly read the character of behavior and events to see the pig for what he is, freeing my view from the distortions of ideology -- a grasp of reality that Jewish leftists driven by their distorting doctrinal obsessions find impossible.
As one Jewish sage observed, "pigs are fine but the Most Holy Blessed Be He has forbidden them to Jews." The fact is that harmless pigs do get a bad press because they can be characteristically seen to happily wallow in abominable conditions -- like in feces riddled mud with its offensive odors -- hence the useful use of "pig" as metaphor.
The Koran tells how Mohammed made a peace treaty with the Jews of a certain city in the Arabian peninsula. But within two years, he found a pretext to suddenly break the treaty, attack his surprised victims, and then behead all the Jewish men in the public square. Mohammed's tactic is held up by the Muslim Arabs as a hallowed model. It is enshrined in Muslim legal practice which has it that Muslims are not obligated for long to honor peace treaties with non Muslims -- infidels.
- David Basch

Why blame Muhammad for only the beheading of those 800 Jews?

It is not the 800 Jews of Medina [slaughtered by Mohammed in 627 AD], but millions of infidels slaughtered in subsequent centuries that should make us pause and reflect. Not only that. Those who defend the Prophet [Mohammed] should reflect on the fate of the millions of infidels for whose heads the mujahid's knife is being sharpened in all Islamic countries right at this moment.
Professor Suhas Majumbar
Jihad: The Islamic Concept of Permanent War
(Voice of India, New Delhi, 1994)

Other than the 800 Jews beheaded in Medina, how has Muhammad set the example for Islam's relationship with the Jewish People?

The angel Gabriel came to the Prophet to tell him that the Jewish tribe of Nadir was plotting to kill him. The Prophet told the Jews: "Leave your land and take all that your camels can carry, except your arms and your armour.
"And had it not been that Allah had decreed Banishment for them, He certainly would have Punished them in this world: and in the Here-after They shall have the Punishment of the Fire." (59:3) Allah revealed that, as it had been a bloodless victory, all that the Jews had left behind belonged to the Prophet and that he was to share it with the poor. Now the Emigrants were financially independent of the Helpers.
The Jews made their way to Khaybar further north in the Hejaz and determined to get back their homes. To show that his influence could reach as far as Khaybar, Muhammad sent some men there to kill the aged Jew Atu Rafi. They struck him in his bed.
One night the army of the Confederates melted away. At noon on the same day, Gabriel came to the Prophet telling him: "O Messenger of God. The Angels have not laid down their arms, and return from pursuing the foe. God... commandeth thee to go against the Qurayzah..."26
A thousand Muslims besieged the fortress of the Bani Qurayzah for 25 days when the Jews eventually opened their gates and threw themselves on Muhammad's mercy. They agreed to a chieftain of a Medinan tribe, Sa'd ibn Muadh, judging them for their treachery to the young Islamic state. The Mosaic law applied to the Jews and their punishment should have been total extermination: "thou shalt save alive nothing that breatheth" (Deuteronomy 20, 16). Allah was more merciful than Jehovah however (33:26) and Sa'd's adjudication was to slay the men and take the women and children into captivity. The Prophet was pleased and replied to Sa'd: "Thou hast judged with the judgement of God from above the seven heavens."
In the morning Muhammad ordered long, deep and narrow trenches to be dug in the market place. The seven hundred or so men from Bani Qurayzah were brought in small groups to kneel beside the trench. Then the younger and stronger believers cut off the Jews' heads each with a stroke of a sword. The last to die were beheaded by torchlight.
The women, children and property were divided amongst those who had taken part in the siege. The Bani Nadir ransomed many of their kin but Muhammad kept for himself, as concubine, a beautiful Jewess named Rayhanah.
"And He made you heirs of their lands, their houses and their goods, and of a land which ye had not frequented before, And Allah has power over all things." (33:27)
With their south secure, the Muslims decided to march on the Jewish fortresses of Khaybar. The Muslim force was only sixteen hundred men and the Jews totalled fourteen thousand. The Prophet decided to tackle the smallest fortress first and the other Jews did not come to its aid. The Muslims were in luck as inside they found machines for scaling and breaching the walls of fortresses.
The Prophet agreed to kill none of the Jews provided that they vacated Khaybar leaving all possessions behind. For concealing treasure two Jews, Kinana and his cousin were executed. Kinana's beautiftil seventeen year old widow, Safflyah was attractive to Muhammad and he married her. "He was as twenty men."27
The whole of Khaybar became the property of Islam and Muhammad allowed some of the Jews to remain behind and pay a rent of half their farm produce. On the same terms, the Prophet became landlord of the Jewish settlements of Fadah and Wadi 1-Qura. Now that his tenants had handed over their weapons, the Prophet had to protect them from marauding Bedoums.
Muhammad was still hoping to secure the Jews as allies if not as Believers and an agreement was drawn up with them. The Qur'an shows a positive attitude towards them: "Dispute not, unless in kindly sort, with the people of the Book; save with such of them as have dealt wrongfully with you: And say ye, "We believe in what hath been sent down to you. Our God and your God is one, and to him are we self-surrendered." (Muslims) (29:46)
But the Jewish hearts hardened and hardly any converts were plucked from their midst. The Qur'an reflects a new attitude: "Desire ye them that for your sakes the Jews should believe? Yet a part of them heard the word of God, and then,... perverted it." (2:70)
Soon Allah revealed a verse forbidding any contact with the Jews:
"Contract no friendships except among your own number. Others would certainly corrupt you. They desire your humiliation: their hatred is clear enough in what they say, but what their hearts conceal is even worse. . ." (3:118)
Seventeen months after the Prophet arrived in Medina, the qiblah (the direction in which Muhamrnad and his followers faced during prayers) was changed from Jerusalem to Mecca.
In December 626 CE at the well of Muraysi the Muslims surprised the army of the Banu l-Mustaliq. The Muslims lost one man dead and the unbelievers ten. The booty was excellent: two thousand camels, five thousand sheep and goats and two hundred women. A very beautiful captive was Juwayriyya, daughter of the chieftain. Muhammad saw her and she became wife number six.
The victors wanted to have sex with their captives but the women were to be ransomed and not kept as slaves. Muhammad agreed that his men could use azl, that is to go into the women but withdraw before ejaculation. When a Jew called coitus interruptus ~the lesser child-murder" the Prophet said: "The Jews lie."25
- Waqidi, Vol 1, P413.
The victory at Badr had increased the Prophet's standing: the Bedoums, in particular, showed him much more respect. However, not one Jew had volunteered for Allah's army, indeed they became more passively and actively hostile. When Muhammad demanded tribute in the name of God from one tribe of Jews, the Banu Qaynuka, they sarcastically replied: "Aye, God is poor and we are rich"... "Taste ye the torment of burning." (3:177) The Prophet considered revoking the covenant between them: he received a command from Allah:
"If thou fearest treachery from any group throw back their covenant to them: For Allah loveth not the treacherous." (8:58)
The Qaynuka withdrew inside their fort hoping that the affair would blow over. For two weeks the Jews were besieged in their fort. The other Jewish tribes did not come to their assistance. When the Qaynuka surrendered, Muhammad wanted to put them all to death. However, Ibn Ubayy, a pagan Medinan whom he did not yet wish to fight, persuaded him otherwise.
But Allah had decreed: "If thou overcomest them in war, then make of them an example, to strike fear into those that are behind them, that may take heed."(8:57)
The decision was that the Jews should leave their homes and all their possessions behind them. Eventually the Qaynuka reached exile near Syria. The booty the Muslims received was enormous and the Prophet and his state received a fifth share.

What effect did Muhammad have on the ethics of his followers?

"Of any moralising or demoralising effect that Muhammad's teaching had upon his followers we cannot say with precision. When he was at the head of the Robber community, it is probable that the demoralising influence began to be felt; it was then that men who had never broken an oath learnt that they might evade their obligations, and that men to whom the blood of their clan had been as their own, began to shed it with impunity in the "cause of god". And that lying and treachery in the cause of Islam received divine approval. It was then too that Moslems became distinguished by the obscenity of their language. It was then too, that the coveting of goods and wives possessed by Non-muslims was avowed without discouragement from the Prophet...."
- D.S. Margoliouth in Muhammad and the rise of Islam

RELATED SECTIONS:
Islam, Arabs, War, Peace Treaties, Genocide, Expansionism, Slavery, Jihad, Edenism, Fear, Apostacy, Blasphemy, Dhimma
WWW RESOURCES:
Prophet Muhammad and Paedophilia
BOOKS & PRINTED MATERIAL:
- Prophet of Doom: Islam's Terrorist Dogma in Muhammad's Own Words, by Craig Winn [VIEW BOOK HERE]
- Mohammed and the Rise of Islam, by D. S. Margoliouth [VIEW BOOK HERE]
- The Quest for the Historical Muhammad, by Ibn Warraq [VIEW BOOK HERE]
- The Satanic Verses, by Salman Rushdie [VIEW BOOK HERE]
- The Sword of the Prophet: History, Theology, Impact on the World, by Srdja Trifkovic, Serge Trifkovic [VIEW BOOK HERE]
- The Dhimmi: Jews & Christians Under Islam, by Bat Ye'or, David Maisel [VIEW BOOK HERE]
- Leaving Islam: Apostates Speak Out, by Ibn Warraq [VIEW BOOK HERE]
- Why I Am Not a Muslim, by Ibn Warraq [VIEW BOOK HERE]

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