Louis Palme / Oct 23, 2014

Once again, twenty-five mosques in the Southern California area participated last weekend in an annual Open House to encourage non-Muslims to learn more about Islam and the activities of Muslims in their neighborhood. I have visited several of these mosques and written reports on the findings reported by other visitors. As the title of last year’s report indicated, many visitors were not impressed: “Open Mosque Day – Muslims Serve Up Tea and Taquiyya.” (See: http://annaqed.com/en/muslims-under-the-microscope/open-mosque-%E2%80%93-muslims-serve-up-tea-and-taqiyah ) Instead of striving for more honesty and clarity about their religious beliefs and practices, the hosts of these open mosques seem to be doubling down on deception and distortion. From a public relations point of view, it is dumb to put the Islamic falsehoods on display. It is even dumber to assume that visitors won’t “fact check” the assertions.

The images below are of displays at the Islamic Institute of Orange County Mosque in Anaheim, followed by factual clarifications:

The quotation above from Surah 5:32 is only a partial quotation, and it applied only to Jews. The full statement in the Quran is, “That is why We [Allah] laid it down for the Israelites that whoever killed a human being, except as a punishment for murder or other villainy in the land, shall be looked upon as though he had killed all mankind; and whoever saved a human life shall be regarded as though he had saved all mankind.” Muslims, on the other hand, have no such restriction: “Those that make war against Allah and His apostle [Muhammad] and spread disorder in the land shall be put to death or crucified or have their hands and feet cut off on alternate sides, or be banished from the country.” (Surah 5:35) This is exactly what ISIS is doing today:

The full quotation of Muhammad in his farewell sermon was, “Treat your women well, for they are [like] domestic animals with you and do not possess anything for themselves.” According to the Quran, women may be beaten (Surah 4:34), married off before puberty (Surah 65:4), and locked up until death for fornication (Surah 4:15). Women do not have equal rights in inheritance (Surah 4:11) or before the courts (Surah 2:282).

While the human rights described in this display are impressive, they apply ONLY to Muslims. Non-Muslims do not enjoy any of these rights. As Muslims conquered previously-Christian regions in the 7th and 8th Centuries, non-Muslims were subjected to the “Pact of Umar” which is still a part of Sharia Law (Reliance of the Traveler, Section o11). Some of the provisions are spelled out below:

1. Protection of livelihood: Non-Muslims must pay a poll tax (jizyiah) equivalent to 4.235 grams of gold each year per person, or $170. This burdensome tax forced many subjects of Islamic rule to convert to Islam out of necessity, not conviction.

2. Protection of privacy: Non-Muslims may not dress like Muslims. They are also restricted in travel, speech, and religious practices.

3. Protection of property: The original Pact of Umar contained this provision: “[Non-Muslims] shall keep our gates wide open for passersby and travelers. We shall give board and lodging to all Muslims who pass our way for three days.” (See: http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/pact-umar.asp )

4. Protection of one’s honor: Non-Muslims must walk to the side of the street, giving way to Muslims. If a married non-Muslim woman is taken captive in warfare, she becomes a slave and her former marriage is immediately annulled (Section o9.13).

5. Equal Justice: Muslims are given preference over non-Muslims in court. (Section o22.12) The indemnity for killing a woman is one-half that of a man. The indemnity for killing a Jew or a Christian is one-third that of a Muslim, and the indemnity for killing a Zoroastrian is one-fifteenth that of a Muslim (Section o4.9).

There are approximately 5,000 honor killings per year, and 91 percent of them occur in Muslim-majority countries. This practice is supported by both the Quran and Sharia Law. The justification in the Quran is an apocryphal story about Moses and one of Allah’s servants, who first sank a ship and drowned innocent passengers. Then he killed a young man. Moses said to him, “You have killed an innocent man who has done no harm. Surely you have done a wicked thing.” (Surah 18:74) Later the servant of Allah explained why he killed the young man: “As for the youth, his parents both are true believers, and we feared lest he should plague them with wickedness and unbelief. It was our wish that their Lord should grant them another in his place, a son more righteous and more filial. (Surah 18:80)

Sharia Law absolves parents and grandparents of killing their offspring or their children’s offspring: “The following are not subject to retaliation: . . . a Muslim for killing a non-Muslim [or someone who has left Islam], a father or mother (or their fathers or mothers) for killing their offspring, or offspring’s offspring . . . “ (Section o1.2) Furthermore, Section f1.3 states, “Someone raised among Muslims who denies the obligatoriness of the prayer, zakat, fasting Ramadan, the pilgrimage, or the unlawfulness of wine and adultery, or denies something else upon which there is scholarly consensus thereby becomes an unbeliever (kafir) and is executed for his unbelief.”

In most Muslim-majority countries, the sentences for people who have engaged in honor killing are either not imposed or are extremely lenient.

One visitor to the Anaheim mosque asked about the practice of Female Genital Mutilation. The female guide insisted that the practice was cultural, older than Islam, and practiced by Christians and others in certain regions. She said it was condemned and forbidden, but it is practically impossible to change centuries-old cultural practices in rural areas.

The fact is that FGM is mandated in Sharia Law (Reliance of the Traveler, para. e4.3.), which says, “Circumcision is obligatory for both men and women.” The translator of R of T, Nuh Ha Mim Keller, states that only the prepuce is cut, not the clitoris, but if you look up the Arabic word, bazr, it is specifically the clitoris. Beyond the horrific medical complications of FGM, it renders women incapable of enjoying sexual intercourse. Also, the facts do not support the guide‘s “rural” excuse. While Egypt is 43 percent urbanized, 91 percent of women have undergone FGM.

First of all, it is easily verified that October 21, 1492, was not a Monday, but rather a Friday. Furthermore, Columbus was describing the topography at the mouth of the San Salvador river in Cuba. He said there were two mountains, one like Pena de las Enamoradas (near Granada, Spain) and the other had a round summit “like a graceful mosque.” A mountain that has the shape of a mosque is not a mosque. The other “discoveries” of mosques and minarets are questionable as to their dates and authenticity. For example, if Muslims from Western Africa happened to reach the Eastern coasts Central and South America, it was by accident from being blown there by storms. No permanent Muslim settlements were ever established. (See: http://www.islam-watch.org/home/139-louis-palme/1172-did-muslims-discover-america-before-columbus.html )

What was completely missing from the mosque’s display about Christopher Columbus was the fact that his voyage was an attempt to find another route to the Far East which had been cut off from European travel and trade by the Muslim Ottoman Empire.

Apparently, the Anaheim mosque hoped to gain sympathy for Islam among African-Americans by reminding them that many of their ancestors arrived here as Muslims were forced to convert by their Christian slaveholders. In reality, the connection between Islam and Slavery is probably the most shameful historical and present reality facing Muslims. In the 17th and 18th Century slave trade, the principal agents were Arab Muslim warlords in Zanzibar. Slavery in Saudi Arabia wasn’t abolished until 1962, and today there are almost as many African slaves owned by Arab/Muslim slavers in Mauritania (600,000) than were ever brought to the United States (640,000). Currently, both Islamic terror groups, ISIS and Boko Haram, are actively capturing non-Muslim girls and women for sex slaves in accordance with Quran Surahs 33:50 and 16:70.

Without flagrant deception and distortion, the Open Mosque program will have a difficult time convincing American non-Muslims that there is anything in Islam that promotes women’s rights, human rights for non-Muslims, or offers positive response to some the darker pages of American history. The only hope for the dumb apologists for Islam is that a few in their audience may be even dumber. Perhaps that helps explain why, according to Muslim sources, 70 percent of American converts to Islam leave the faith within just a few years. (See: http://imamluqman.wordpress.com/2010/01/13/seven-out-of-every-ten-converts-leave-islam-by-imam-luqman-ahmad/ )

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