Preface: The Misunderstood Islam

"Adopt my faith, or die!" That is the slogan of the fanatics. There is no such concept as democracy, freedom of ideas, love, respect, affection, friendship, altruism, appreciating women, scientific progress or making the world a better place in fanaticism. Some people imagine that fanaticism, and its offshoot radicalism, can settle inside a true faith. Yet fanaticism is itself a religion; there are representatives of this false religion inside every idea. There are fanatics in Islam, in Judaism and in Christianity, just as there are in Marxism, fascism and atheism. They all espouse the same false faith; "I don't like your ideas! Either go along with my ideas, or die!"

TRANSLATION OF THE HOLY QUR'AN

Especially in recent years, fanaticism has been largely associated with Islam. Indeed, certain groups began to wrongly call this religion of fanaticism Islam, and made it the target of their misplaced fears. So much so, for some people the religion of Islam has come to stand for "fear." Islamophobia is talked about all over the world. People are unaware that their fears stem, not from Islam, but from fanaticism. They fail to see that the fanatical faith produced by peddlers of superstition has appeared in the name of Islam; nobody has ever told them that this is not Islam. Neither the radicals who emerge in the name of Islam nor the Islamophobes who fear those radicals have been shown that Islam has nothing to do with this fanatical, terrifying, loveless and hate-filled faith. The radicals of Islam have begun harming the entire world, but Muslims most of all.

The phrase "moderate Islam" was invented for that reason. As if there were such things as a savage Islam on one hand and a moderate model of Islam on the other, Muslims opposed to the savagery of the radicals began being referred to as "moderate Muslims." Voices opposed to Islam praised the advocates of moderate Islam. The truth was, many of the so-called "moderate Muslims" were also strangers to genuine Islam, and consequently, reason, integrity, rationalism, honesty, compassion and love. Some people wrongly believed that these so-called moderate Muslims were trying to soften an otherwise savage religion (surely Islam is above such claims). They even called this narrative "a reform in Islam," and referred to the advocates of moderate Islam as "reformists." However, there was no need for a reform. The only thing that had to be done was to return to the essence of Islam; the real Islam as described in the Qur'an. Muslims preaching the real Islam and advocating peace, on the other hand, are not trying to soften, reform or moderate Islam.

One of the main causes of Islamophobia is radicalism. Those who imagine that radicalism is Islam are in fact making the gravest error by opposing Islam and are fighting against the only possible solution to radicalism.

As peace-loving Muslims, our main goal is to intellectually eliminate a falsehood that has been propagated under the name of Islam for many years. It is to eliminate the radicalism, fanaticism and bigotry displayed for years under the name of Islam and to eradicate that nonsensical faith that has nothing to do with the true Islam, and to describe the truth of Islam with evidence from the Qur'an. It is to put an end to the worst defamation of Islam being done by the fanatics up until now.

This book responds to the claims made by certain Western opponents of Islam who have actually come to prominence through their criticism of radicalism, and to the terrifying way of thinking of the fanatics. It reveals, with examples from the Qur'an, the invalidity of the claims made in various sources of the false, fanatical religion which they are trying to make part of Islam. The particular reason for producing a work responding to these claims is that all the criticisms made of Islam take similar directions and that people confuse the religion of radicalism with the true Islam. The objective, therefore, is to provide those people who are wrongly acquainted with the true Islam due to the groundless accusations made against it, with evidence from the Qur'an rebutting those claims.

The fanatics' problem is that they learn their faith from specious superstition. However, those who criticize those fanatics are sometimes just as radical and believe in the accuracy of that same superstition. The more we produce evidence from the Qur'an, the more they try to produce their own from the superstition subscribed to by the fanatics. That is where they make their gravest mistake. If they want to know the true Islam and find a solution to fanaticism, they must heed the true faith described here. Unless they do that, radicalism will continue to plague the world.

Therefore, one of the goals of this book is to inform not only the Western world but also a major part of the Islamic world that do not know how to save itself from the darkness of bigotry. This book also calls to the bright world of the true Islam as described in the Qur'an those people who have remained somewhat under the influence of bigotry, and thus live surrounded by a wrong conception of Islam, laden with superstitions, those who are estranged to the Qur'an, those who shun seeking the truth, fearing that abandoning superstitions amounts to violating Islamic rules. By the grace of God, this cultural effort will be instrumental in defusing the darkness of bigotry by means of the holy light of the Qur'an, and freedom, love, democracy, joy and quality will spread all around the world.