There is no moderate Muslim and there is no peaceful Islam if the prophet Mohammed is the ‘perfect Muslim’ to be emulated by all his followers. It’s a provocative statement to make in this age of tolerance where we are fed a false narrative on the nature of Islam unmoored from the historical record and the reality of the events around us.
Just as Christians are called to imitate the life of Jesus Christ, so too are Muslims called to imitate the life of their prophet, Mohammed. In order to fully understand Islam, one must have a working knowledge of three different sources: the Koran, the Hadith, and the life of Mohammed as recorded in the Sira. In his book, The Sira: The Life of Mohammed, Dr. Bill Warner gives us a look into the life of the first and “greatest of all Muslims” from the primary sources of his life. When we understand the life of Mohammed, how he lived and all that he did, it is then that we see a true picture of Islam.
Warner’s thesis can be identified early on and he spends the remainder of the book providing details from the life of Mohammed in order to show that Islam is more a political ideology than a religion.
“Islam is primarily a political ideology. No action or statement by Islam can be understood without understanding its origins in the Trilogy. Any analysis, statement, or opinion about Islam is incomplete without a reference to the Trilogy. The Trilogy is the source and basis of all Islamic politics, diplomacy, history, philosophy, religion, and culture.”
Warner further states:
“Islam is defined by the words of Allah in the Koran, and the words and actions of Mohammed, called the Sunna. The Sunna is found in two collections of texts–the Sira (Mohammed’s life) and the Hadith (event’s in Mohammed’s life). The Koran says 91 times that Mohammed’s words and actions are to be considered the divine pattern for humanity…So the Trilogy is the Koran, the Sira, and the Hadith..[This] is the foundation and totality of Islam.”
Throughout it’s history, Islam has been a political force that has advanced by the power of the sword. There has been no missionary movement or caring charity to those outside the faith, only a violent advance of its borders in emulation of their Prophet who advanced his cause politically through the use of force during his 9 years in Medina.
Warner shows through the use of the Koranic text that the Kafir (or unbeliever ie. non-Muslims) can be mocked, beheaded, plotted against, terrorized, cursed, and lied to, all to advance the cause of Islam and bring about the submission of all unbelievers. This is how Mohammed lived and advanced the cause of Islam, and we see this in the Islamic world today as it works to expand its borders. This jihad will not be complete until the entire world is under the submission of Islam.
Mohammed’s success depended on politics, not religion. The Sira, Mohammed’s biography, gives a highly detailed accounting of his rise to power. He preached the religion of Islam for 13 years in Mecca and garnered 150 followers. He was forced to move to Medina and became a politician and warrior. During the last 9 years of his life, he was involved in an event of violence on the average of every 6 weeks. When he died, every Arab was a Muslim. Mohammed succeeded through politics, not religion…Politics was almost a thousand times more effective than religion [in increasing the number of converts to Islam].
Mohammed created a political doctrine of domination covertly cloaked under religious guise. As a preacher of the religious doctrine Mohammed was a failure, but as a commander of a strong political ideology he was a force that controlled the Middle East and much of Europe. Warner writes,
In Mecca, Mohammed demonstrated the initial practice of jihad when Islam was weak: persuasion and conversion. When he moved to Medina, he demonstrated how jihad worked when Islam was strong: using immigration against inhabitants, creating political power by struggling against the host, dominating other religions, using violence, and establishing a government.
It is estimated that in the 1400 year history of Islam, 270 million Africans, Christians, Hindus, Buddhists, and Jews were the victims of violent Jihad. It does not have a history of tolerance and peace as modern apologists like to portray. To say that Islam is a religion of peace misses the point since the very heart of Islam is political power wielded against the unbelievers and not a peaceful religion trying to bring about good for all people.
To understand Islam, it is absolutely necessary to understand the life of Mohammed. Warner’s book, drawn from primary source texts, goes a long way in painting an accurate picture of the roots of Islam and the modern branches that have grown from it. It is paramount that we understand the life of Mohammed in light of modern Islam that is expanding rapidly into the West. If we want to remain peaceful and free it is necessary to reject Islam as compatible with Western civilization.