Answering Tommy Robinson’s Lies About the Quran

Last updated on: June 28, 2017 at 6:19 pm by Farouk A. Peru

Answering Tommy Robinson’s Lies About the Quran 2017-06-28T18:19:08+00:00 Farouk A. Peru

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Dear Mr Piers Morgan and Ms Susanna Reid,

Thank you very much for defending the Quran against the obnoxious Tommy Robinson on your program today. While I did not catch it on TV (I was at work, not watching BBC Breakfast, I swear!), I did catch it on social media and am very touched by your defence.

People like Tommy Robinson get away with their diatribe for one reason only – they are not challenged in an open dialogue. You notice how he said there are ‘a hundred verses’ in the Quran instructing Muslims to kill unbelievers and claimed he would be killed as well? That was not only a gross exaggeration, it was a bald faced lie to boot!

Instructions in the Quran number about – with a generous estimate – a hundred verses out of 6236 which is less than two percent. The rules of marriage, divorce, adoption, charity, inheritance and conflict altogether total to that figure. So before we even discuss the so-called ‘war verses’, Mr Robinson has already erred.

In order to understand the rules of conflict as per the Quran, there are a few factors we need to consider:

The Quran does not preach about a religious tribe called ‘Islam’ which you see in the world today. Rather it sees islam as a universal principle which nature itself operates on (Chapter 3 Verse 83). It acknowledges that various other paths can also attain salvation (2/62, 5/69) as long as they believe and do good. It also admits there are a multiplicity of paths under God’s aegis (29/69). The famous word ‘kafir’ or ‘unbeliever’ but literally means ‘one who conceals’ is a very contextually sensitive word. One can be a ‘kafir’ for concealing peace, for example. The Quran therefore is not about ‘Muslims vs Non-Muslims’. Rather it is about the system of peace and justice vs the system of oppression. You may be surprised to find that Western nations are more in line with Quranic values than so-called Muslim nations. This is a particularly interesting article to that effect.

The Quran is replete with self-reference, instructing us how to read it. One of its instructions is to not read it in pieces (15/91) meaning we should take it as a whole. Mr Robinson, ironically just like the Islamic hate preachers he condemns, read the Quran in pieces. If he were to fit whatever he read (or indeed, if he read anything at all!) then he must know that the conditions of war always come within a larger framework for peace. In short, the Quran instructs Muslims to fight for the sake of peace. It never ever instructs Muslims to fight to spread the religion or to defend Prophet Muhammad. Indeed Prophet Muhammad himself was told to be patient with what his enemies said (73/10).

The instructions of the Quran for fighting always come within the framework of a political system enshrined in the contexts in which they are mentioned. For example, in chapter 2, they are mentioned for the defence of a nation which is facing an existential threat. In chapter 4, they are for a nation to liberate those who are under threat. In chapter 8 and 9, they are for those who renege on treaties of peace, that is to start wars. At no point does the Quran instruct individuals to take up arms against innocent people. Anyone who does so must be stopped and Muslims themselves have a duty to stop him. In short, the Quran’s outlook on fighting is no different from the ideal British values. We extol the sacrifice of the greatest generation who defended our nation which is exactly the very purpose of the Quranic rules of conflict.

People like Tommy Robinson can make their point only when they are not challenged to prove their case. Once they are questioned, you will find they would simply fold because their gross generalization have no basis in fact. I have been debating both Islamophobes and Islamofascists (people who use Islam as an instrument of oppression like Anjem Choudhury) and I can confidently tell you, neither group care to actually read the entire Quran. Half a verse is probably as far as they get.

Thank you once again for defending the Quran and Muslims. If you care to see how we should read the Quran as a holistic text, please watch my video series:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLKUazpgc73hRMO20qHucd2e9rH6686OH2

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