The pamphlet was written by a prison chaplain (he gave his name) who quotes
from conversations that he had with Muslims and from the Koran.

But it obviously pressed the ‘I Don’t Tolerate Intolerance’ buttons on the
journalist and her ex-teacher friend. The newspaper article pressed my
buttons too, and this is what I wrote back to the journalist:

I’m not trying to say that the pamphlet that you wrote about in the Liberal
is the best way to educate people about the Islamic faith, but it is even
more ignorant to claim that the Koran only promotes peace. Islamic
terrorists find their doctrine and motivation in the Koran. Thankfully, most
Islamists, like most Christians, do not take their holy books seriously.
When they do, they find not only the verse you quoted, but quite a number of
others which leave no doubt that Mohammed at one time meant to establish
Islam by violence. Here is just one other example:

Sura 8:39. And fight them until there is no more Fitnah (disbelief i.e.
worshipping others besides Allah) and the religion will all be for Allah
alone (in the whole of the world). But if they cease (worshipping others
besides Allah), then certainly, Allah is All-Seer of what they do.

It is true that there are verses in the Koran that promote tolerance.
However, these were written early in Mohammed’s career, during the fourteen
years when he was an unpopular preacher of monotheism to the Arab tribes of
Mecca. Later, when he became ruler of the city of Medina and commanded an
army, he promoted Islam by the ruthless suppression of other religions –
Arab, Jewish and Christian.

The Koran is a difficult book to understand. The Suras are arranged in order
of length rather than chronologically, so one needs to understand the
history of Mohammed and the beginning of the Moslem conquest in order to
sort out the sayings as they fit into Mohammed’s career. The context is
important, but not in the way that your article rather clumsily states.
Like many famous people, Mohammed was a nicer person before he became a
success.

Mohammed’s history helps us understand what the sayings mean, but the key
principle of interpretation used by Islamic scholars is the Law of
Abrogation in Sura 2:106. There, according to Mohammed, Allah stipulates
that later Suras over-ride earlier revelations that conflict with them.
These later Suras, and indeed the other holy books of Islam (there are three
more), leave no doubt that Mohammed’s final position overrides the nice
things that he said earlier. Holy war against infidels is the fundamental
ideal for his serious and faithful followers.

I wonder how much of the Koran your history teacher friend has read. It
seems to me that he has clearly not understood the worldview of Islam. How
does he account for the repressive and intolerant regimes in most Moslem
nations? May I suggest that he takes his next vacation in Saudi Arabia and
packs a Christian Bible in his suitcase where it will be found at customs.
While he is being interrogated he might ask the way to a Christian church or
to a Jewish synagogue. He would then be able to speak at first hand about
the tolerance of Islam.

The world has seen again and again that ideas are dangerous. The Medieval
popes with their claim to be Christ’s vicar on earth; Hitler’s Nazi party
with its slogan of blood and soil; Stalin’s Communism with its dictatorship
of the proletariat; Mohammed and his claim to be Allah’s last prophet with a
mandate to conquer the world for Islam; you do not do a service to freedom
by denying the danger of an idea. And it is manifest ignorance to deny its
existence. Your source of information on Islam was a bad one.

That was my letter. It stirred me to see that a medieval religion still
promoting violence as an argument for truth was defended against Jesus’
claim to be God visiting our planet. I would like to give the last word to
the writer of the pamphlet quoted in the article. He asked a Moslem, “Would
you rather have your Allah who tells you to kill me in order to go to heaven
or my Jesus who tells me to love you because I am going to heaven..?”