The Qur’an forbids Muslims to kill other Muslims (4:92), but of course Cherif Chekatt did not set out in Strasbourg to kill Muslims, but non-Muslims. Kamal Naghchband was, alas, collateral damage, but at his funeral, the imam Eyup Sahin seized the opportunity to enunciate some general principles: “Do you think that Allah allows us to kill someone? It is impossible! Islam is a religion of peace (which) no act of terrorism can represent. The Prophet says ‘he who kills a person, it is as if he had killed all humanity.’ The best human being is not ‘the one who is most helpful for Muslims, for Jews, Christians or atheists, but for all humanity.'”

That’s nice, but is it Islamic?

Sahin is wrong about “he who kills a person, it is as if he had killed all humanity.” That is not ascribed to Muhammad, but is in the Qur’an itself: “Because of that, We decreed upon the Children of Israel that whoever kills a soul unless for a soul or for corruption in the land — it is as if he had slain mankind entirely. And whoever saves one — it is as if he had saved mankind entirely. And our messengers had certainly come to them with clear proofs. Then indeed many of them, after that, throughout the land, were transgressors.” (5:32)

Note that this is not a general moral principle applying to everyone, but one only for the Children of Israel. Nor is it is not a general prohibition of killing: there are big exceptions for those who kill “for a soul or for corruption in the land.” And it concludes that even after this command was given, “many of them, after that … were transgressors” — so all it is really saying is that Allah gave a command to the Children of Israel and they transgressed against it. It isn’t anything more than yet another Qur’anic castigation of the Jews. Also, it is followed in the Qur’an by 5:33, which specifies the punishment for the corruption and transgressions of the Children of Israel: “Indeed, the penalty for those who wage war against Allah and His Messenger and strive upon earth corruption is none but that they be killed or crucified or that their hands and feet be cut off from opposite sides or that they be exiled from the land. That is for them a disgrace in this world; and for them in the Hereafter is a great punishment.”

Thus this passage is explaining what must be done with Jews who reject Muhammad, not dictating lofty moral principles. Ibn Warraq sums it up: “The supposedly noble sentiments are in fact a warning to Jews. ‘Behave, or else’ is the message. Far from abjuring violence, these verses aggressively point out that anyone opposing the Prophet will be killed, crucified, mutilated, and banished!”

And as for the “Islam is a religion of peace” business, they have to keep repeating this, because it is so contrary to fact and to the evidence of the daily headlines.

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Told in great part in the words of contemporary chroniclers themselves, both Muslim and non-Muslim, The History of Jihad shows that jihad warfare has been a constant of Islam from its very beginnings, and present-day jihad terrorism proceeds along exactly the same ideological and theological foundations as did the great Islamic warrior states and jihad commanders of the past.

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“Father who fled Afghanistan only to die in Strasbourg laid to rest,” AFP, December 15, 2018 (thanks to The Religion of Peace):