The spoils of the Battle of Badr were divided up with
Mohammed taking his usual twenty percent cut. This was, and of course remains,
the basis for dividing the spoils of Jihad (the spiritual leader gets twenty
percent). Mohammed's followers now began to acquire both wealth and power. This
made his religion far more attractive to the desert Arabs. They now began to
swell the ranks of his followers even more.
After the Battle of Badr, Mohammed made a few armed
raids on tribes allied to the Meccans. He then turned his attention to one of
the Jewish tribes of Medina.
THE AFFAIR OF THE JEWS OF
QAYNUQA
I545 there were three
tribes of Jews in medina. The Banu Qaynuqa were Goldsmiths and lived in a
stronghold. Mohammed said they had broken the treaty signed when Mohammed came
to Medina. How they did this is unclear.
I545 Mohammed assembled the
Jews in their market and said, “O Jews, be careful that Allah does not bring
vengeance upon you the way he did to the Quraysh. Become Muslims. You know that
I am the prophet that was sent to you. You will find that in your scriptures.”
I545 they replied, “Oh Mohammed, you seem to think that we are your people.
Don’t fool yourself. You may have killed a few merchants of the Quraysh, but we
are men of war and real men.”
I545 the response of The
Koran:
3:12 say to the Kaffirs, “Soon you will be defeated and
thrown into hell, a wretched home!” Truly, there has been a sign for you in the
two armies which met in battle. One army fought for Allah’s cause, and the
other Army was a group of Kaffirs, and the Kaffirs saw with their own eyes that
their enemy was twice its actual size. Allah gives help to whom he pleases.
Certainly there is a lesson to be learned in this for those who recognize it.
I546 a little later,
Mohammed besieged the Jewish tribe of Banu Qaynuqa in their quarters. Neither
of the other two Jewish tribes came to their support. Finally, the Jews
surrendered and expected to be slaughtered after their capture.
I546 an Arab ally, bound to
them by a client relationship, approached Mohammed and said, “O Mohammed, deal
kindly with my clients.” Mohammed ignored him. The ally repeated the request
and Mohammed still ignored him. The ally grabbed Mohammed by the robe and
enraged Mohammed, Who said, “let me go!” The ally said, “No, you must deal
kindly with my clients. They have protected me and now you would kill them all?
I fear these changes.”
The response by The Koran:
5:57O, you who believe, do not take those who have
received the Scriptures [Jews and Christians] before you, who have scoffed and
jested at your religion, or who are Kaffirs for your friends. Fear Allah if you
are true believers. When you call to prayer, they make it a mockery and a joke.
This is because they are a people who do not understand
Author’s Comments:
It is a core belief of Islam that the Koran is the
perfect word of Allah. The Koran instructs Muslims very clearly, not to take
non-Muslims as their friends. They may be friendly towards Kaffirs,
particularly in order to gain an advantage for Islam. However, the extent to
which a Muslim is a true friend of a Kaffir is the extent to which he is not a
Muslim.
When you are trying to motivate a group of people to
commit violent acts against another group, it is important to break ties
between them. Any military commander would understand this concept.
During the first Christmas of WW1, the English and
German soldiers came out of the trenches, sang carols and shared cigarettes and
food.
The powers that be, made sure that this never happened again. To motivate
people to violence; it is important to demonize and de-humanize your opponents
and Mohammed did this constantly. He never referred to human beings as a whole
but divided the world into Muslims and Kaffirs. Kaffirs are described as the
worst kind of creature and any action against them is justified.
The Sira goes on to describe how at this time, Mohammed encouraged his
followers to assassinate his enemies and critics. He allowed and even
encouraged, them to use deceit in order to achieve their aims. Often, they
would gain the trust of their enemies in order to murder them.
From The Sira:
I554 The Apostle of Allah
said, “Kill any Jew who falls into your power.” Hearing this, Muhayyisa fell
upon a Jewish merchant who was a business associate and killed him. Muhayyisa’s
brother was not a Muslim and asked how Muhayyisa could kill a man who had been
his friend and partner in many business deals.
The Muslim said that if Mohammed
had asked him to kill his brother he would have done it immediately. His
brother said “You mean that if Mohammed said to cut off my head you would do
it?” “Yes,” was the reply. The older brother then said, “By Allah, any religion
that brings you to this is marvellous.” And he decided then and there to become
a Muslim.
It is surprising what most people are capable of. In
experiment after experiment, psychologists have found that when a group deems
behaviour to be acceptable, the vast majority will go along with things which
“civilized” people might consider “inhuman”.
How many Japanese people would think twice before
eating whale? How many Vietnamese people would think it wrong to kill and eat a
dog? In the early nineties half a million Rwandans were brutally hacked to death
with machetes by their compatriots. In the forties six million Jews were wiped
out in Europe, mostly by ordinary German folk. Closer to home, in my
grandmothers day, children of five or six were being sent up chimneys to clean
them, many would never return.
To a modern Western mind these things are abhorrent and
yet people just like us are quite capable of doing them. Religions have an especially
powerful influence on societies. When people believe they have authority from a
divine ruler, they are capable of overriding normal human feelings of
revulsion.
When “everyone else is doing it too,” even the most extreme
behaviour becomes easy to justify.
Mohammed was not only a religious leader. The acts
which he carried out from here until his death are almost all of a political
nature. Through Jihad he became king of all Arabia within just nine years.
The political aspects of Islam bear many similarities
with the political aspects of communism or fascism. Such ideologies are very
dangerous. Small but fanatical groups which number little more than 5% of the
population can seize power with devastating consequences. Once they have power
it is often impossible to prize it from them without outside assistance.
Communism lasted around 70 years, Fascism barely a decade
but Islam has been around for 1400 years and today is stronger than ever.
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