Prophet Muhammad Quotes
“Musselman” was then a term for Muslims used by Europeans. The Arabs then, as many terrorists still do, commonly captured American and European ships enslaving the crews and passengers or holding them for ransom. Jefferson and Adams explained that if this could not be stopped and resolved it might mean war. The Americans could not understand why they were attacked when American had done nothing to offend the Arab Counties. The Arab envoy explained their “duty” and “right” to attack Americans and why war was not a serious deterrent to Islamic nations. Ironically, the same explanations were given by Arab leaders in the early 21st century to illustrate why the Arab countries could not be intimidated.
Voltaire had little respect for any organized religion, but found Islam particularly barbaric and absurd. However he was also very negative about Christianity. See {621191} . The Ottoman Empire, centered in Turkey, then controlled all the Islamic countries of the Middle East. Europeans then often referred to all Muslims as “Turks.”
Historically, this quotation shows that the negative relationship between the West and Islam and negative views of Islam was not a new phenomenon at the beginning of the 21st century. It existed long before, and as with the 21st century concerns, violence and war were the major concerns.
This is actually a very widespread belief amongst many Muslims. Even sophisticated national leaders do not appreciate that other religions have adherents who feel just as passionately about their own religion. See {588668} for another example where Muslim leaders believe that if Jewish Kings David and Solomon came back to life they would worship Islam.
Most political cartoons offend. The problem for the Yale Press was that if they did not print the cartoons, the violence and intimidation of the most extreme Muslims will have been rewarded as a strategy. If they printed, some people will be injured and killed in the likely rioting. If rioting did not occur spontaneously, it would be whipped up by the extremists. A Hobsen’s choice for publishers the world over that is exactly what the most extreme Muslims have planned.
Although this verse illustrates the particular enmity that some orthodox Muslims have for Christians and Jews, philosophically the hostility it not unlike that some orthodox Christians had (and still have) for Jews. The theory was that among the more primitive people a certain “ignorance” was tolerable, but “People of the Book” were not ignorant but actually rejected the word of Muhammed or in the case of the Jews vis a vis the Christians, they rejected the word of Christ. The hate message is preached within some Christian circles about Jews and Muslims today, but the overt, visible, statement in the midst of the holiest of Scripture makes the Koranic version even more socially and ethically difficult in a pluralistic society.
