A Clash of Definitions

This letter to the editor of an Indiana newspaper offers the pithiest explanation on this topic I have yet read:

...When the Islamic world refers to the “establishment of justice,” it means the “the establishment of Sharia.” Sharia is Islamic law which mandates the subjugation, oppression and exploitation of non-Muslims and women; hardly something that the free world would term “justice.” Islamic law institutionalizes male Islamic supremacism, to the detriment of non-Muslims and women. Thus “Islamic justice” constitutes “injustice” for non-Muslims and women.

When Sayyid Qutb, the guiding light of the Muslim Brotherhood, affirmed that “Islam is a Religion of Peace” in his book “Islam and Universal Peace,” what he meant was this: “Islam seeks the subjugation of the whole world under Sharia. When Sharia becomes universally triumphant, peace will reign; therefore Islam is a Religion of Peace.” Thus the “peace” of Islam can only be achieved after non-Muslim civilization has been destroyed.

Islamic virtues such as “mercy,” “forgiveness,” “kindness,” etc. apply toward other Muslims, not to mankind in general. In fact, being unfriendly to non-Muslims is considered a virtue in Islam. (The Koran, Surah 5 Verse 51: “Believers, take neither the Jews nor the Christians for your friends”). Thus “virtue” in Islam is what would be considered “rude behavior” in the West.

Islam forbids suicide, but in Surah 9 Verse 111, The Koran promises paradise to those who “kill (non-Muslims) and are killed” in the cause of Allah. Thus while suicide is forbidden by Islam, it becomes a virtue in “suicide bombings,” if it results in the killing of non-Muslims.

Both Western society and Islam forbid rape, but “rape” means very different things in the two societies.

In the West, rape is any form of nonconsensual sexual intercourse. However, in Islam, consent is not required of “those women whom one’s right hand possesses,” that is, non-Muslim women captured during jihad (The Koran, Surah 33, Verse 52). Thus non-consensual sexual intercourse with non-Muslim women captured during jihad is lawful under Islamic Law. Thus what would be considered rape in the West is a lawful act in Islamic Law.

Indeed, language is an impediment in understanding Islam.

Indeed. The other huge impediment is our assumption--a function both of the multiculti cult and our own Forrest Gump-like guilelessness--that words mean the same thing to different people.