Non-Muslim Perspectives on Islam

Amitabh Pal – Journalist and Author

“I have been interested in nonviolence since I heard about Mahatma Gandhi’s accomplishments as a child. In the aftermath of the September 11 attacks and the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan, I remembered about a Pashtun friend of Gandhi — Abdul Ghaffar Khan — who founded a remarkable movement dedicated to nonviolence and social reform. I did a profile of him for

The Progressive

I am worried about the negative social and political influence of the Saudi Arabian monarchy, in my view the most retrograde force in the Muslim world. The regime has crushed (for now) the democracy movement in Bahrain and complicated things in Yemen. Simultaneously, it is busy using its oil money to spread its regressive version of Islam throughout the planet.

The book has to date only been published in the United States. I do hope to get it published in India. It is sorely needed there, since most Indians have forgotten the contributions of giants such as Ghaffar Khan to the Indian independence struggle. If the book can contribute even a bit to clearing up misconceptions about Islam and its history in India, it will have more than fulfilled its mission.”

Prince Charles – Heir to the British Throne

“I feel that we in the West could be helped to rediscover the roots of our own understanding by an appreciation of the Islamic tradition’s deep respect for the timeless traditions of the natural order…. Modern materialism is unbalanced and increasingly damaging in its long-term consequences…. But during the past three centuries, in the Western world at least, a dangerous division has occurred in the way we perceive the world around us. Science has tried to assume a monopoly, even a tyranny, over our understanding. Religion and science have become separated… We are only now beginning to gauge the disastrous results…

Science has done the inestimable service of showing us a world much more complex than we ever imagined. But in its modern, materialist, one-dimensional form, it cannot explain everything…. This [materialist] view is quite contrary, for example, to the outlook of the Muslim craftsman or artist, who is never concerned with display for its own sake, nor with progressing ever forward in his own ingenuity, but is content to submit a man’s craft to God. That outlook reflects, I believe, the memorable passage in the Koran: ‘whithersoever you turn there is the face of God and God is all-Embracing, all-Knowing’….

There are many ways in which mutual understanding and appreciation can be built. Perhaps, for instance, we could begin by having more Muslim teachers in British schools, or by encouraging exchanges of teachers. Everywhere in the world people want to learn English. But in the West, in turn, we need to be taught by Islamic teachers how to learn with our hearts, as well as our heads.”

George Bernard Shaw – Playwright and Critic

“I have always held the religion of Muhammad in high estimation because of its wonderful vitality. It is the only religion which appears to me to possess that assimilating capacity to the changing phase of existence which can make itself appeal to every age. I have studied him the wonderful man and in my opinion far from being an Antichrist, he must be called the Saviour of Humanity. I believe that if a man like him were to assume the dictatorship of the modern world, he would succeed in solving its problems in a way that would bring it the much needed peace and happiness: I have prophesied about the faith of Muhammad that it would be acceptable to the Europe of tomorrow as it is beginning to be acceptable to the Europe of today.”

“Islam is the best religion with the worst followers.”

“If any religion had the chance of ruling over England, nay Europe within the next hundred years, it could be Islam.” –

The Genuine Islam

“People like Pasteur and Salk are leaders in the first sense. People like Gandhi and Confucius, on one hand, and Alexander, Caesar and Hitler on the other, are leaders in the second and perhaps the third sense. Jesus and Buddha belong in the third category alone. Perhaps the greatest leader of all times was Mohammed, who combined all three functions. To a lesser degree, Moses did the same.”

“By a fortune absolutely unique in history, Mohammed is a threefold founder of a nation, of an empire, and of a religion.”

Duncan Black MacDonald – Orientalist

“Fairness demands the admission that in the teaching of Islam, as of other religions, there is ‘a force working for good’: that a life lived in the spirit of Islam can be an ethically impeccable life, demanding compassion for all God’s creatures, honesty in one’s dealings, love, loyalty, the suppression of selfish impulses, and all other virtues that Islam derived from the religious whose prophets it acknowledges as its teachers. A true Muslim will lead a life that satisfies stringent ethical requirements.”

“To be sure, Islam is also a law; it requires from the believer the performance of ceremonial acts… [The] Qur’an… [teaches] that intention behind an act is the criterion of the religious value of the act, and that it is little worth to observe the letter of the law without accompanying acts of compassion and charity towards fellow men.”

Piety (birr) is not the turning your faces east & west. He is pious who believes in Allah and the Last Day and the angels and the Book & the prophets, who for love of Him (ala hubbihi) give his wealth to (poor) relatives, to the orphans, and the needy, to travellers and supplicants, and to set captives free; who observe prayer services and pay the levy for the poor; and those who keep their treaty if they conclude one; who are patient in suffering, adversity, and time of fearfulness. Such are those who are sincere; such are those who fear God.

When the Qur’an speaks of the rites of the pilgrimage that it institutes:

‘We (Allah) have established sacrificial rites for every nation so that they may remember the name of Allah over the sustenance He has granted them.’

‘Their flesh and blood do not come to Allah; your fear of God comes to Him’

The highest value is ascribed to

• ikhlas
• taqwa al-qulub
• qulb salim
• lebh shalem

They are extended over the entire range of religious life by the doctrine of niyyah

Encyclopaedia Britannica – Islam Overview

“Islam, major world religion promulgated by the Prophet Muhammad in Arabia in the 7th century. The Arabic term Islām, literally ‘surrender,’ illuminates the fundamental religious idea of Islam — that the believer (called a Muslim, from the active particle of Islām) accepts surrender to the will of Allah (in Arabic, Allāh: God). Allah is viewed as the sole God — creator, sustainer, and restorer of the world. The will of Allah, to which human beings must submit, is made known through the sacred scriptures, the Qur’ān (often spelled Koran in English), which Allah revealed to His messenger, Muhammad.

In Islam Muhammad is considered the last of a series of prophets (including Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and also David, Solomon, and others), and his message simultaneously consummates and completes the ‘revelations’ attributed to earlier prophets.

From the very beginning of Islam, Muhammad had inculcated a sense of brotherhood and a bond of faith among his followers, both of which helped to develop among them a feeling of close relationship that was accentuated by their experiences of persecution as a nascent community in Mecca. The strong attachment to the tenets of the Qur’ānic revelation and the conspicuous socioeconomic content of Islamic religious practices cemented this bond of faith. In 622, when the Prophet migrated to Medina, his preaching was soon accepted, and the community-state of Islam emerged.

During this early period, Islam acquired its characteristic ethos as a religion uniting in itself both the spiritual and temporal aspects of life and seeking to regulate not only the individual’s relationship to God (through conscience) but human relationships in a social setting as well. Thus, there is not only an Islamic religious institution but also an Islamic law, state, and other institutions governing society.”

Michael H. Hart – Historian

“My choice of Muhammad to lead the list of the world’s most influential persons may surprise some readers and may be questioned by others, but he was the only man in history who was supremely successful on both the religious and secular level.” (1978)

“Of humble origins, Muhammad founded and promulgated one of the world’s great religions, and became an immensely effective political leader. Today, thirteen centuries after his death, his influence is still powerful and pervasive… Furthermore, Muhammad (unlike Jesus) was a secular as well as a religious leader. In fact, as the driving force behind the Arab conquests, he may well rank as the most influential political leader of all time.

We see, then, that the Arab conquests of the seventh century have continued to play an important role in human history, down to the present day. It is this unparalleled combination of secular and religious influence which I feel entitles Muhammad to be considered the most influential single figure in human history.”

Mahatma Gandhi – Leader of Indian Independence

“I became more than ever convinced that it was not the sword that won a place for Islam in those days in the scheme of life. It was the rigid simplicity, the utter self-effacement of the Prophet, the scrupulous regard for pledges, his intense devotion to his friends and followers, his intrepidity, his fearlessness, his absolute trust in God and in his own mission.”

“Someone has said that Europeans in South Africa dread the advent of Islam — Islam that civilized Spain — Islam that took the torch of light to Morocco and preached to the world the Gospel of brotherhood. The Europeans of South Africa dread the advent of Islam, as they may claim equality with the white races. They may well dread it. If brotherhood is a sin, if it is equality of colored races that they dread, then their dread is well founded.”

“I wanted to know the best of the life of one who holds today an undisputed sway over the hearts of millions of mankind… I became more than ever convinced that it was not the sword that won a place for Islam in those days… These and not the sword carried everything before them and surmounted every obstacle. When I closed the second volume (of the Prophet’s biography), I was sorry there was not more for me to read of that great life.”

“My admiration for the noble sacrifice of Imam Hussein (AS) as a martyr abounds, because he accepted death and the torture of thirst for himself, for his sons, and for his whole family, but did not submit to unjust authorities.”

“I learnt from Hussain how to achieve victory while being oppressed.”

“My faith is that the progress of Islam does not depend on the use of sword by its believers, but the result of the supreme sacrifice of Hussain.”

“If India wants to be a successful country, it must follow in the footsteps of Imam Hussain (AS).”

“If I had an army like the 72 soldiers of Hussain, I would have won freedom for India in 24 hours.”

Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru – First Prime Minister of India

“…frequent intercourse [trade and cultural relations] led to Indians getting to know the religion, Islam. Missionaries also came to spread the new faith and they were welcomed. Mosques were built. There was no objection raised either by the state or the people, nor were there any religious conflicts.”

“It is thus wrong and misleading to think of a Moslem invasion of India… Islam did not invade India; it had come to India some centuries earlier.”

“North Africa was torn with internecine conflicts between rival Christian factions… The contrast between this and the general toleration of the Moslem Arabs… brought whole peoples, weary of Christian strife, to their side.”

“Perhaps the most striking example of Islam’s peaceful spread is Indonesia… Islam was spread by the example of traders.”

“There is a universal appeal in his martyrdom. Hazrat Imam Hussein (AS) sacrificed his all, but he refused to submit to a tyrannical government… This sacrifice is a beacon light of guidance for every community and every nation.”

“Imam Hussain’s sacrifice is for all groups and communities, an example of the path of righteousness.”

Bill Clinton – 42nd President of the United States

“Allah created nations and tribes that we might know one another, not that we might despise one another… Let me say, also, that there is much that the world can learn from Islam… Rededicate yourselves… to making sure that others in this country truly understand and appreciate the faith you embrace, its practices, its beliefs, its precepts and its inclusive humanity.”

“So now what are we going to do? … Replace the anti-Semitic prejudice with anti-Islamic prejudice?”

Napoleon Bonaparte – French Military and Political Leader

“The existence and unity of Allah… was announced by Muhammad (PBUH) to the entire world… Muhammad guided the Arabs to the right way, taught them that Allah is one, that He does not have a father or a son, and that worshiping several gods is an absurd custom.”

“Moses has revealed the existence of God to his nation. Jesus Christ to the Roman world, Muhammad to the old continent. Arabia was idolatrous when… Muhammad introduced the worship of the God of Abraham… I prefer the religion of Mohammed — it is less ridiculous than ours.”

Carly Fiorina – Former CEO of Hewlett Packard

“There was once a civilisation that was the greatest in the world… This civilization was driven more than anything, by invention… While modern Western civilization shares many of these traits, the civilization I am talking about was the Islamic world from the year 800 to 1600…”

“Although we are often unaware of our indebtedness to this other civilization, its gifts are very much a part of our heritage… Leaders like Suleiman contributed to our notions of tolerance and civic leadership… Leadership that nurtured culture, sustainability, diversity and courage — led to 800 years of invention and prosperity.”

US Government and Islam

“As the government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian Religion, — as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion or tranquility of Musselmen, — and as the said States never have entered into any war or act of hostility against any Mahomitan nation, it is declared by the parties that no pretext arising from religious opinions shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries.”

The Founding Fathers and Islam

“A Mahometan… he is afraid to commit murder, adultery and theft, lest he should be cast into hell, where he must drink scalding water and the scum of the damned.”

“…rather see the opinions of Confucius or Mohammed inculcated upon our youth than see them grow up wholly devoid of a system of religious principles.”

“Let Jews, Mehometans and Christians of every denomination enjoy religious liberty… thrust them not out now by establishing the Christian religion lest thereby we become our own enemies and weaken this infant state. It is men’s labour in our manufactories, their services by sea and land that aggrandize our country and not their creeds. Chain your citizens to the state by their interest. Let Jews, Mehometans, and Christians of every denomination find their advantage in living under your laws.”