The above verse snippet is use often by a lot of people , generally non muslims to justify that islam is a religion of violence, to justify the ever popular phrase “Islam spread by the sword”. A friend of mine just asked me how to answer it and i decided to look up the context. No doubt this has been discussed here before and probably a lot of you already know the answer, but i still thought it may give a few people the answer.
All we need to do is to actually look at the context. An easy way to do that is to read a few verses before and after the verse in question. If we do that a few times the meaning becomes clear.
Here is the transliteration by Pickthall…
To me it is clear that Allah is talking about the oppressors and aggressors who may be cause you harm or mischief, fight battles against you or take over your land. It is NOT talking about non muslims in general. It does not instruct us to go about killing anyone who doesnt profess Tauheed.
Re: 002:191 - "And kill them wherever you find them..."
That makes sense and consistent as a message you'd expect from a holy book. Unfortunately it appears the holy men of islam have done a terrible job of communicating this kind of thing with disastrous results for muslims and non-muslims alike
Re: 002:191 - "And kill them wherever you find them..."
Not really, its the unholy men who claim to be Muslim and go about their political business using this verse, or the non-Muslims who just want to criticize for the sake of it pick this worse and put it under spotlight.
Re: 002:191 - "And kill them wherever you find them..."
Basically...ensure that you have enough knowledge in religion to distinguish between those who are genuine and those who have ulterior motives.
Every person has the tendency to add in his or her own interpretation to what they see, hear or read. Thus its better to investigate matters oneself and come to a conclusion onself. Facts that you know to be true yourself via study of Quran and Hadith are better then things you hear from others.
Most things in islam are easily investigable oneself. Just read the Quran and Sunnah and you`ll find enough examples of most anything in life.
Re: 002:191 - “And kill them wherever you find them…”
Thanks for sharing, I’ve been getting many idiotic comments like a former boss would tell me; ‘You should give up Islam and instead become a Buddhist, because Islam is too violent.’
Re: 002:191 - "And kill them wherever you find them..."
And why such conception has taken grounds among masses that Islam is spread thru sword? Can you explore the reasons?
1) There are millions of christians and Jews in middle east. Example:
Spain - After liberating, Muslims did not go about killing/converting by force/or remove non-muslims.
2) it is a misconception, triggered by non-muslims (unable to back it with evidence).
Re: 002:191 - “And kill them wherever you find them…”
1- Keep in mind religion and its followers are not always the same. Sure, there have been plenty of misguided muslims who’ve done plenty of misguided stuff, perhaps including displaying non muslims from their lands forcefully and so on. No im not proud of them, but i am proud of what my religion teaches. It is a peaceful way of life.
2- Well its not really hard to figure out why. One can call it misinformation or what not but all you really need to do is study the history of islam. Islam started out in Meccah and the muslims were forced to evacuate first to ethiopia (i think ?) and then to Madina. Once in Madina they were constantly under attack by the tribes surrounding them. So naturally they did what they had to inorder to survive, they fought back, they took over the lands around them and soon a point came when they took back Meccah also. So did it spread by the sword ? Sure i guess you could say the landmass muslims held constantly expanded because they took over more lands after battle
However PEOPLE were not forced to convert to islam by the way of the sword. The Prophet Sallallah Alaih Wasalam strictly enforced the ‘There is no compulsion in religion’ law.
Self defence & self preservation is a universal doctrine, however muslims did it strictly under the banner of islam atleast in the early days when they were guided by the Prophet and his companions. They adhered to rules of islam which are not inhumane in any sense.
Re: 002:191 - “And kill them wherever you find them…”
Religions are nothing but tools to justify voilence done by those who are completely ignorant of human values. those who think they can control nature and make it work for them for instance, women can cover themselves IF they want to but if you force women to cover from head to toe, now that is unnatural and ignorant, that is a voilation of natural law. whether or not Quran teaches voilence, sure as hell many muslims justfy thier evil deeds by refering to Quran and other religious sourses.
