I am not a scholar of religion in general, or Islam specifically. I am a practitioner of Nichiren Buddhism for some thirty years, and prior to that a product of a more or less mainstream American Protestant Christian upbringing. I read voraciously and have always been interested in the subjects of religion and politics and history, so that's some of what I voraciously read. These, for what it's worth, are my credentials for writing the following.

In the introduction of the Penguin Classics edition (first edition 1956) of the Koran, N.J. Dawood said of that book:

"For Muslims it is the infallible Word of God, a transcript of a tablet preserved in heaven, revealed to the Prophet Muhammed by the Angel Gabriel. Except in the opening verses and some few passages in which the Prophet or the Angel speaks in the first person, the speaker throughout is God."

The Arabic name (Qu,an or Qu'ran) means "The Recital."

Of equal importance to Muslims are the various "hadith," which are teachings, prophecies, "recitals" and subsequent commentaries about Muhammed and the Koran, and Islam in general. Like Christianity and other religions, there is quite a volume of material, much of it probably apocryphal, and there's really no way of knowing what's "the right stuff," other than by faith which is, of course, an entirely subjective and unprovable commodity.

Why am I, a Buddhist libertarian, getting into this, here? Because I love Buddhism and I love liberty and I believe that Islam poses a threat to both (and 'cause it's my blog! >8^). I'll 'splain.

One web site about the hadith...

< http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/reference/searchhadith.html >

...says this:

"There are many early hadith scholars and teachers to whom we are indebted for introducing the critical science of collecting and evaluating ahadeeth. These teachers each collected many different ahadeeth. They did not allow students to quote from their collections until the students had actually come to them and learnt from them directly.

"Today, the situation is different. The collections of ahadeeth have for the most part stabilized, and with the advent of the printing press, the collections are easily mass-produced."

In (my) other words, there's a lot of stuff in there that may or may not contradict itself and/or be in conflict with other parts. Anyway, here's an item I found, the first thing that popped up when I did a search for "jihad."

From the hadith, Complete Sahih Bukhari, Volume 1, Book 2, Number 25:

--> Narrated Abu Huraira:

Allah's Apostle was asked, "What is the best deed?" He replied, "To believe in Allah and His Apostle (Muhammad). The questioner then asked, "What is the next (in goodness)? He replied, "To participate in Jihad (religious fighting) in Allah's Cause." The questioner again asked, "What is the next (in goodness)?" He replied, "To perform Hajj (Pilgrim age to Mecca) 'Mubrur, (which is accepted by Allah and is performed with the intention of seeking Allah's pleasure only and not to show off and without committing a sin and in accordance with the traditions of the Prophet)." <--

Then, from the same hadith,Volume 1, Book 2, Number 35, this:

--> Narrated Abu Huraira:

The Prophet said, "The person who participates in (Holy battles) in Allah's cause and nothing compels him to do so except belief in Allah and His Apostles, will be recompensed by Allah either with a reward, or booty (if he survives) or will be admitted to Paradise (if he is killed in the battle as a martyr). Had I not found it difficult for my followers, then I would not remain behind any sariya going for Jihad and I would have loved to be martyred in Allah's cause and then made alive, and then martyred and then made alive, and then again martyred in His cause." <--

Yes, there's lots and lots of material in the Koran and the various hadith that do not deal with jihad, violence, booty and such things. There's good material about morality and clean living and much more. That's all fine. What is of interest to me (and, in my opinion, should be of interest to all of us), is the nature of passages, such as these above, which do address these matters. While you will find accounts of violence and war, even commanded by God, in the Hebrew Bible (the Christian Old Testament), you won't find such activity put forth as a litmus test for faith, today, or referred to as being next best "in goodness," and you find that modern Jews and Christians have evolved their religious beliefs and texts, to a greater or lesser extent, and modified their behavior accordingly. The Crusades and the bloody Protestant Reformation are over.

No such evolution has taken place in Islam. Elsewhere you can find clear expressions of inequality in terms of the roles of women versus men, and of non-Muslims versus Muslims, with a further distinction between people "of the Book" -- Christians and Jews -- who may be tolerated (as lesser citizens) under Islamic rule, and those who are not -- Buddhists, Hindus, pagans, etc. -- who may be killed with impunity and, in some contexts, must be, if they do not accept Islam.

In some societies you can see these beliefs in practice. In strict Islamic nations women are absolutely second class citizens, in many cases not being allowed to drive or work for a living outside of the traditional household roles, forced to cover their faces, etc. I have done business in Saudi Arabia, and a condition of Western companies working there is that they may not allow women on their staffs, in country.

Chattel slavery, including children as sex slaves, is actively practiced today only in Islamic nations (Sudan and Mauratania, to be specific). It is allowed by Islamic law, based on the Koran and the hadith. (And, as an aside, where is the noble United Nations on this issue? Oh, yes, I forgot. Those nations are part of it, and rotate through such duties as membership on the U.N. Human Rights Commission. Silly me.)

Again, I am talking about degree and practice more than attitude and belief. Where a fundamentalist of a Christian group sincerely believes that his faith is true and correct and that the "unsaved" are doomed to hell for all eternity, he has no brief, anywhere in his written doctrine, to either force that on others by violence, or execute those who do not accept it. Muslims have exactly that. That many do not practice or actively promulgate their faith in this way does not take away from this very key difference between Islam and the other Judeo/Christian beliefs, or Buddhism and other world religions. Those who wish to descend (or ascend, I suppose, depending on your point of view) into Muslim fundamentalism will find justification in the sacred teachings of Islam for murder and subjugation and slavery, now, in this life.

We saw this on September 11, 2001, and we have seen more and more of it in the past quarter century or so. As access to information increases globally and the world shrinks and Islamic fundamentalists are forced into contact with the infidels, the hard core of Islam is finding its soul, and some neighborhoods of that soul can be ugly places, and their denizens mighty scary people. It's convenient and politically correct to identify such folks as aberrations; not really even "correct" Muslims, but that is to ignore the real issue, and the true danger.

Call me intolerant, but realize that I, like most of you, will happily share my neighborhood with radical fundamentalist Muslims (assuming they agree to my country's laws) in peace. They would not do they same for me, if they were in charge. Look at some of those Muslim nations: they don't. This is not speculation, and it's that simple.

Islam is the biggest threat to freedom and liberty, both religious and secular, in the world today. This is not to say it can't reform itself. As Christianity has over the centuries evolved away from justifications for Crusades, so can Islam, but it must be confronted and addressed. Its basic tenets include inequality, hierarchy, authoritarianism, violence and repression. One hopes that moderate Muslims will gain strength and work to bring about such reform, but to date, there is mostly silence in the Islamic world, where people are either quiet about these excesses (the majority) or actively engaged in carrying them out (the minority, but a dangerous and apparently growing one).

As a Nichiren Buddhist, I consider it central to my bodhisattva mission to refute erroneous teachings which are, as Nichiren pointed out, the root cause of suffering in the human condition. I can't think of any teachings more erroneous, and more responsible for suffering, than fundamentalist Islam.

We ignore it at our peril.