Did Muhammad Teach Love?

On Facebook, someone asked this question: "Did Muhammad teach love but over the centuries people took his words out of context?"

Here was my answer: No, Muhammad didn't teach love. But over the centuries, because human beings are generally empathetic, many Muslims ignored Muhammad's teachings and treated non-Muslims kindly.

But times are changing. Saudi Arabia has been using its vast oil wealth to spread fundamentalism around the world, funding new mosques and madrasas by the thousands, all of them teaching straight, unadulterated Islam, which says that the law of Allah (Sharia) is the only legitimate law in the world, and the goal of Islam is to eventually bring all people under the rule of Sharia.

According to Islam, this mission is to be accomplished by first just inviting the unbelievers to embrace Islam, as Osama bin Laden did before he attacked America on 9/11. If the unbelievers don't embrace Islam, Muslims are ordered by Allah to make war against them if they have the strength to do it. Once victorious, they are to give the unbelievers one last chance to become a Muslim (or for Christians and Jews, become a dhimmi), or die.

This system has worked. Fifty-six countries in the world are ruled by Islamic law. The OIC (Organization of Islamic Cooperation) is the largest organization in the world other than the United Nations, and it is the largest voting bloc in the UN.

Muslims are now migrating to all non-Muslim nations. And they bring their ideology with them.

Someone then said, "I don't understand how people follow this. How hard is it to just accept other people? I don't get it. I enjoy being nice. It's rewarding."

This is how I answered him: Yes, being kind to people is enjoyable. But imagine a Muslim raised to believe the Koran is the word of the Almighty. And that Muhammad is the final prophet of the Almighty. And you know that Muhammad said that the law of Allah (Sharia law) is the only legitimate law. All other systems of law are man-made and therefore misguided and evil.

And imagine what it would be like if you thought Allah gave each Muslim a mission: Bring all people under the rule of Allah. And by the way, it's okay to use force because these unbelievers don't know what's good for them. They're going to suffer terrible torment in eternity anyway, so you might as well try to make them into believers, even against their will.

That's the way it is. And it has been causing problems for humanity for 1400 years. Is the solution simply to be nice to someone who believes such an ideology? What can be done about it? That's the question we should all be asking. What can we do about it that is compassionate and yet not foolish?

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