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TheReligionofPeace.com Presents:
Muhammad was
Forced by Persecution The Truth: Both parts of this myth are wrong. Only Muhammad was in danger at Mecca and this was after he made a treaty of war against the local residents while living among them. After his influential uncle died, Muhammad was exposed to the wrath of the Meccans, whom he had been insulting free of penalty for so many years. Still, they did not seek to harm him, because they believed that his vulnerability following the death of his protector meant that he would finally stop stirring up trouble. They were wrong. Muhammad eventually made an alliance with another town, Medina, that included provisions of war against the Meccans. The parties to the treaty were asked “Do you realize to what you are committing yourselves in pledging your support to this man? It is to war against all and sundry” (Ibn Ishaq 299). The pledge to war is further confirmed in Ibn Ishaq 305. Therefore, it was only after Muhammad committed himself to armed revolution against the Meccans that the town’s leaders sought to have him either killed or evicted. The historical account also flatly contradicts the popular view that all Muslims had to flee Mecca following Muhammad’s declaration of war. In fact, it was only Muhammad himself whom the Meccans were interested in seizing. This is proven by the episode recounted in Ibn Ishaq (326-328) in which Muhammad's own son-in-law, Ali, sleeps in his bed to trick his enemies into thinking that they had cornered him on the night they came to seize him. Not only did the Meccans do no harm to Ali, even after finding out that he had fooled them, but he remained in the city for several days thereafter with Muhammad’s daughter in order to arrange the transfer of the family business to Medina. Muslim biographers provide the names of other Muslims who continued to live in Mecca following Muhammad’s departure and there is no record that they were persecuted. There is even some evidence that the Muslims in Medina were allowed to conduct pilgrimages to Mecca during the holy months (Ibn Ishaq 424 & Qur’an 2:196). It is important to note that Muhammad justified his own eviction from Mecca with his subsequent actions in Medina, where he began evicting the native Jewish tribes within just a few months of arriving. Apologists are fond of claiming that the eviction (and outright execution) of the Jews on the direct order of Muhammad was necessary because of their “enmity” towards him. Unfortunately for the Jews, the Muslims were far less patient and far more severe with them than the Meccans had been with Muhammad – but this is just one of the many grand hypocrisies of Islam. A supremacist ideology is always self-justifying. |
