Quotations on Islam from Notable Muslims

Abdur-Rahman Muhammad

Abdur-Rahman Muhammad is a Washington-based African-American Muslim writer who was once the Imam of a mosque where he taught 'radical' Muslim ideology.

This loathsome term [Islamophobia] is nothing more than a thought-terminating cliche conceived in the bowels of Muslim think tanks for the purpose of beating down critics.

Ali Abu Al-Hasan

Ali Abu Al-Hasan is an Egyptian cleric. Following are excerpts from a Friday sermon which aired on Al-Hekma TV (January 6, 2012).

With the [Muslim] emigration [to Europe], and the unwillingness to get married and have children [among the Europeans]… A hundred of people there are succeeded by eighty, and ten years later, those eighty will be succeeded by sixty, and those sixty will later be succeeded by forty, and those forty will become ten a decade later, and twenty years later, not a single one of them will be left!

Europe has realized this. After a while, Europe will become a single Islamic state, which will know nothing but "There is no god but Allah, and Muhammad is His Messenger." This will happen whether they like it or not. This is the decree of Allah. Islam is coming!

Asra Q. Nomani

Asra Q. Nomani is a writer for The Daily Beast and author of Standing Alone: An American Woman's Struggle for the Soul of Islam.

We use religion as a cover... We're saying that you can't go into our mosques, you can't look at our Muslim organizations, you can't even look at Muslims because that's to target us. But the truth is, we do have a problem in our Muslim community.

Let's get over the symbolic insult and deal with the very real issues of literal interpretations of the Quran that are used to sanction domestic violence, terrorism, militancy, and suicide bombings in the name of Islam.
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I believe the Qurans are being burnt because we, as Muslims, haven't dealt sincerely and intellectually with very serious issues that certain Quranic passages raise, particularly in the West. These include verses—when literally read—that say that disobedient wives can be beaten “lightly,” that Muslims can't be friends with the Jews and the Christians, and that it's OK to kill converts from Islam.

We, as Muslims, need to tear a few pages out of the Quran—symbolically, at least, by rejecting literal adherence to certain problematic verses.
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Look at one literal reading of the 34th verse of the fourth chapter of the Quran, An-Nisa, or Women. "[A]nd (as to) those on whose part you fear desertion, admonish them and leave them alone in the sleeping-places and beat them," reads one widely accepted translation. Based on a literal reading, Saudi scholar Abdul Rahman al-Sheha concludes that when dealing with a “disobedient wife,” a Muslim man has a number of options. First, he should remind her of “the importance of following the instructions of the husband in Islam.” If that doesn't work, he can “leave the wife's bed.” Finally, he may “beat” her, though it must be without “hurting, breaking a bone, leaving blue or black marks on the body and avoiding hitting the face, at any cost.”

Such appalling recommendations occur because we haven't yet universally drawn a line in the sand, as Muslims, and said that this verse may have been progressive for the seventh century when women were supposedly beaten indiscriminately, but it isn't compatible with the modern day, if read literally. Instead, we do something called the "4:34 dance," suggesting that the light beating be the result of everything from hitting a woman with noodles (yes, you read that right) to a traditional toothbrush, called a “miswak,” from the root of a plant.

Fouad Belkacem

Fouad Belkacem (alias Abu Imran) is the spokesman for Sharia4Belgium, a Belgian Muslim organization which denounces democracy and calls to reform Belgium into an Islamic state.

The Sharia will dominate. We believe Sharia will be implemented worldwide... Sharia is Islam, to be clear. There is no difference between Islam and Sharia, it's just a name. Democracy is the opposite of Sharia and Islam. We believe Allah is the legislator. Allah makes the laws. He decides what is allowed and what is forbidden.
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That's really funny when I hear someone say I was speaking to a 'democratic Muslim.' It's the same thing as saying I was speaking to Christian Jew, or a Jewish Muslim or something like that. It's impossible. How could you meet a Jewish Muslim or a Christian Jew? And the Muslim who says he's against Sharia, he's not a Muslim. It's impossible.

Of course [it's just a matter of time before Muslims are the majority in Belgium]. Even the disbelievers themselves -- they say in 2030 something like that -- there will be a majority of Muslims here in Belgium. Here in Antwerp in the schools, 40 percent of the children are Muslim, so no problem. If they want to push us back or something, I don't know, maybe they can start by marrying four wives and have a lot of children. Start with that and they will have a chance, but I don't think so. I don't think we're very far away. The victory of Allah is very near. So, I think the West and Europe needs to prepare itself for a wave of Sharia and Islam.

Haj Amin al-Husseini

Haj Mohammed Effendi Amin el-Husseini (1897 – 1974) was a Palestinian Arab nationalist and Muslim leader in Mandatory Palestine. He was also a Nazi ally personally acquainted with Adolf Hitler. While speaking on German Nazi radio (March 1, 1944):

Kill the Jews wherever you find them. This pleases God, history, and religion. This saves your honor. God is with you.

Muhammad Yousef Al-Mlaifi

Muhammad Yousef Al-Mlaifi, is director of the Kuwaiti Ministry of Endowment's research center. In reaction to Hurricane Katrina which hit the US and left 1,833 dead, he wrote an article titled "The Terrorist Katrina is One of the Soldiers of Allah, But Not an Adherent of Al-Qaeda."

When the satellite channels reported on the scope of the terrifying destruction in America [caused by] this wind, I was reminded of the words of [Prophet Muhammad]: 'The wind sends torment to one group of people, and sends mercy to others.' I do not think – and only Allah [really] knows – that this wind, which completely wiped out American cities in these days, is a wind of mercy and blessing. It is almost certain that this is a wind of torment and evil that Allah has sent to this American empire. Out of my absolute belief in the truth of the words of the Prophet Muhammad, this wind is the fruit of the planning [of Allah], as is stated in the text of the Hadith of the Prophet... how strange it is that after all the tremendous American achievements for the sake of humanity, these mighty winds come and evilly rip [America's] cities to shreds? Have the storms have joined the Al-Qaeda terrorist organization? ... Oh honored gentlemen, I began to read about these winds, and I was surprised to discover that the American websites that are translated [into Arabic] are talking about the fact that that the storm Katrina is the fifth equatorial storm to strike Florida this year… and that a large part of the U.S. is subject every year to many storms that extract [a price of] dead, and completely destroy property. I said, Allah be praised, until when will these successive catastrophes strike them? But before I went to sleep, I opened the Koran and began to read in Surat Al-R'ad ['The Thunder' chapter], and stopped at these words [of Allah]: 'The disaster will keep striking the unbelievers for what they have done, or it will strike areas close to their territory, until the promise of Allah comes to pass, for, verily, Allah will not fail in His promise. ' [Koran 13:31].

Naseem Hamed

Naseem Hamed (also known as Prince Naseem; born 12 February 1974) is an English former professional boxer. He is the former WBO, WBC, IBF, and Lineal featherweight champion, and European bantamweight champion.

Even if there was a billion dollars on the line – I would never get in the ring with another Muslim. It is against my principles.

Omar M. Ahmad

Omar M. Ahmad is the co-founder of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), an organization that was named by U.S. Federal prosecutors in 2007 as an un-indicted co-conspirator in a Hamas funding case involving the Holy Land Foundation.

If you choose to live here you have a responsibility to deliver the message of Islam... Islam isn't in America to be equal to any other faith but to become dominant. The Koran, the Muslim book of scripture, should be the highest authority in America, and Islam the only accepted religion on Earth.

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (born February 26, 1954) is the Prime Minister of Turkey and chairman of the ruling Justice and Development Party. Erdoğan served as Mayor of Istanbul from 1994 to 1998. His political origins are with the radical and political Islamist movement Milli Gorus.

These descriptions [the term “moderate Islam”] are very ugly, it is offensive and an insult to our religion. There is no moderate or immoderate Islam. Islam is Islam and that’s it.

"If the people want it, of course secularism will go away. You cannot rule this people by force; you don't have the power to do that. This [i.e. secularism] cannot work in spite of the people.

"And anyway, for the love of Allah, what is this secularism? You ask them to define it. They can't. They say that it varies from place to place. So what sort of a strange thing is this [secularism]?

"Today, for every concept there is a definition in the dictionary. Every concept must have a definition […] The interior minister comes and says that the state can interfere with religion. What about the rest? Why don't you say the rest? No! He does not say that the religion can interfere with the state.

"Yesterday I was at the Bosphorus University; and some of the – probably impressionable – young people there asked me, 'Mr. Mayor, what do you think about secularism? There are concerns that secularism is disappearing. What will happen?'

"This is what I said to those young friends: 'In the West they say, Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s, and unto God the things that are God's. But this country's interior minister says that Caesar has rights but God does not!'

"But the fact is that 99% of the people of this country are Muslims. You cannot be both secular and a Muslim! You will either be a Muslim, or secular! When both are together, they create reverse magnetism [i.e. they repel one another]. For them to exist together is not a possibility! Therefore, it is not possible for a person who says 'I am a Muslim' to go on and say 'I am secular too.' And why is that? Because Allah, the creator of the Muslim, has absolute power and rule!"

"As for [the motto of Turkish democracy] 'Sovereignty belongs unconditionally to the people.' Now, look here. This is a lie! And it's a huge lie! We [former PM Erbakan's Islamist RP (Welfare) Party] suggested this to them for their constitution: We said 'Let's put brackets next to 'sovereignty belongs unconditionally to the people' and write within the brackets, 'once every five years.'

"They began to laugh. I asked them why they were laughing. Do the people have such a privilege, other than once every five years? Then what's-his-name says – and where does he say this? – it is in 1985 and we are having a discussion on the constitution in a meeting in the Marmara Hotel. He gets up and says 'No, this is not right.'

"At that moment, the former finance minister, who was completely drunk, also joins in to give advice. I told them that they must have prepared this constitution at the same table [at which they together consume alcohol]. Why? Because they do not prepare these constitutions with sober heads, but with drunken heads! That is why their constitutions last no more than two years.

"Now, this constitution is full of gaps and holes. Like a rag with patches. The other day journalists asked me what I think about this [constitution]. I said, Look, what do they say? That sovereignty belongs unconditionally to the people. You must think well. When [does the sovereignty belong to the people]? It is only when they go to the polls [every five years] that sovereignty belongs to the people. But both materially, and in essence, sovereignty unconditionally and always belongs to Allah!"

Salem Abu Al-Futuh

Salem Abu Al-Futuh is an Egyptian cleric. Following are excerpts from an interview with him which aired on Al-Nas TV on August 18, 2010.

The nation of Islam will return – despite our current crisis and despite the arrogance of the West. The West is bound to be destroyed. Just like Allah destroyed the Byzantine and Persian empires, He will destroy the West at the hands of the Muslims. This is an unequivocal promise. These countries will convert to Islam. Islam will reach these countries.
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By Allah, we will conquer Italy. By Allah, we will conquer Italy and move into [the rest] of Europe. Islam will enter that entire region. Even America, you ask? Yes, even America. North or south America? Both North and South America. We will enter all these countries, and people there will be joining Islam in droves.

Tawfik Hamid

Tawfik Hamid (born in 1961) is an Egyptian-born Muslim scholar and author opposed to Islamic fundamentalism.

Yes, 'imperialism,' ... The deliberate and determined expansion of militant Islam and its attempt to triumph not only in the Islamic world but in Europe and North America. Pure ideology. Muslim terrorists kill and slaughter not because of what they experience but because of what they believe... The first thing you have to understand is that it has nothing, absolutely nothing, to do with poverty or lack of education... I've heard this poverty nonsense time and time again from Western apologists for Islam, most of them not Muslim by the way... Salafist [fundamentalist] Islam is the dominant version of the religion and is taught in almost every Islamic university in the world. It is puritanical, extreme and does, yes, mean that women can be beaten, apostates killed and Jews called pigs and monkeys... But I can tell you what it is not about. Not about Israel, not about Iraq, not about Afghanistan. They are mere excuses... Why can't you realize that it has nothing to do with what you have done but with what they want.

See Also

• Quotations - A hub page that leads to other articles related to Quotations on Islam

External Links

• In the Name of Allah: Why terrorists do what they do... in their own words. - The Religion Of Peace