Turkey under Recep Tayyip Erdogan has become an enemy of the non-Muslim West, though he is not above calling on support for NATO in his current clashes in Idlib with Syrian and, very likely, Russian forces. Turkey has been one of the countries President Macron is worried about, for half of the “detached imams” who have been moving about Muslim communities in France have come from Turkey. And Erdogan is angry at Macron for a number of things. He was furious when Macron met with Syrian Kurds. He was angry when Macron criticized the sending of Turkish warships and mercenaries to help the Libyan government based in Tripoli withstand the assault by General Khalifa Haftar. He also suspects that France is one of the countries most intent in keeping Turkey out of the E.U., a suspicion that may well be true.
Erdogan is maddening in almost everything he says or does. His plan to create a pan-Islamic military force to destroy Israel, his foreseeing a war “between the crescent and the cross,” his denunciation of Germans as “Nazis” and the Dutch as “Nazi remnants” because both Germany and the Netherlands refused to allow any electioneering by his party among the Turks living in both countries, his constant threat to “let loose” onto Europe millions of Syrian refugees, his berating the American government for refusing to extradite Fethulleh Gulen, his imprisonment on trumped-up charges of Pastor Andrew Brunson, in a transparent attempt to trade him for Gulen (the attempt failed, and he eventually had to let Brunson go), his flouting of the United States and NATO in agreeing to buy the S-400 missile defense system from Russia, his attempt to inveigle NATO into backing him militarily in Idlib. Province, even though NATO is an alliance to defend fellow members when they have been victims of aggression, and it is Turkey that in this case is the aggressor, by sending thousands of its troops to invade northern Syria, and much – all this rightly infuriates the West.
But Macron, for very different reasons from those that make Erdogan so disliked throughout Europe, also leaves much to be desired. Suave, well-educated at all the right “grandes ecoles,” an investment banker before entering politics, Macron symbolizes the failure of the political and media elites in Europe to confront head-on the dangers posed by millions of Muslims now living in their midst. His plan to ban foreign imams is a feeble response, though some reporters have hailed the measure as demonstrating his willingness to take on the “Islamists.” It is actually the bare minimum he could have done. Worse still, it makes people thing that something important and useful is being done when it is not. His confused attempt to create an “Islam of France” – something he has been talking about for several years – in reality will solve nothing. There is no such thing as an “Islam for France” that is different from an “Islam for Turkey” or an “Islam for Algeria” or an “Islam for Somalia.” Islam, normative Islam, the texts and teachings of Islam, do not vary. What varies is the degree to which Believers are ready to act on those texts and teachings. Those who belongs to Al Qaeda, or Hamas, or Boko Haram or Abu Sayyaf, do not read a different Qur’an from that read by millions of peaceful Muslims; the difference is that the terrorists and their supporters take what they read to heart and behave accordingly. Some Muslims are willing to engage in terrorism, just as the Qur’an commands when it tells Believers to “strike terror in the hearts” of Unbelievers. Others may not take part in terrorism, but nonetheless support, financially, politically, and in other ways, those who do engage in that terrorism. Still others do not approve of terrorism, having convinced themselves, despite all the textual evidence to the contrary, that it is not required of Believers. What does vary is the desire of Muslims not just to believe in Islam, but to put its commands into practice. The Muslim who wants to engage in terrorism is a True Believer, more committed to the cause; he does not embrace some kind of strange interpretation of the faith.
Here are some of the Qur’anic verses that Macron, and every Western leader facing the same problems, should read and reread, and make sure that the public for its own safety reads these verses too:
“And kill them wherever you find them, and drive them out from where they drove you out; persecution is worse than slaughter. But fight them not by the Holy Mosque until they should fight you there; then, if they fight you, kill them — such is the recompense of unbelievers, but if they give over, surely Allah is all-forgiving, all-compassionate. Fight them until there is no persecution and the religion is Allah’s; then if they give over, there shall be no enmity save for evildoers.” (Qur’an 2:191-193)– “We will cast terror into the hearts of those who disbelieve for what they have associated with Allah of which He had not sent down authority. And their refuge will be the Fire, and wretched is the residence of the wrongdoers.” (Qur’an 3:151)
– “They wish that you should disbelieve as they disbelieve, and then you would be equal; therefore do not take friends from among them, until they emigrate in the way of Allah; then, if they turn their backs, seize them and kill them wherever you find them; do not take for yourselves any one of them as friend or helper.” (Qur’an 4:89)
– “This is the recompense of those who fight against Allah and His Messenger, and hasten about the earth to do corruption there: they shall be killed, or crucified, or their hands and feet shall be struck off on opposite sides; or they shall be exiled from the land. That is a degradation for them in this world; and in the world to come awaits them a mighty chastisement.” (Qur’an 5:33)
– “When your Lord was revealing to the angels, ‘I am with you; so confirm the believers. I shall cast terror into the hearts of the unbelievers; so strike the necks, and strike every finger of them!” (Qur’an 8:12)
– “Fight them, till there is no persecution and religion is all for Allah; then if they give over, surely Allah sees the things they do.” (Qur’an 8:39)
– “Make ready for them whatever force and strings of horses you can, to strike terror into the enemy of Allah and your enemy, and others besides them that you know not; Allah knows them. And whatever you spend in the way of Allah shall be repaid you in full; you will not be wronged.” (Qur’an 8:60)
– “Then, when the sacred months are over, kill the idolaters wherever you find them, and take them, and confine them, and lie in wait for them at every place of ambush. But if they repent, and perform the prayer, and pay the alms, then let them go their way; Allah is All-forgiving, All-compassionate.” (Qur’an 9:5)
– “Fight those who believe not in Allah and the Last Day and do not forbid what Allah and His Messenger have forbidden, and do not practice the religion of truth, even if they are of the People of the Book — until they pay the jizya with willing submission and feel themselves subdued.” (Qur’an 9:29)
– “Allah has bought from the believers their selves and their possessions against the gift of Paradise; they fight in the way of Allah; they kill, and are killed; that is a promise binding upon Allah in the Torah, and the Gospel, and the Qur’an; and who fulfills his covenant truer than Allah? So rejoice in the bargain you have made with Him; that is the mighty triumph.” (Qur’an 9:111)
– “O believers, fight the unbelievers who are near to you; and let them find in you a harshness; and know that Allah is with the godfearing.” (Qur’an 9:123)
– “So do not weaken and call for peace while you are superior; and Allah is with you and will never deprive you of your deeds.” (Qur’an 47:35)
– “When you meet the unbelievers, strike their necks, then, when you have made wide slaughter among them, tie fast the bonds; then set them free, either by grace or ransom, till the war lays down its loads.” (Qur’an 47:4)
Macron recognizes that there is a problem with Islam – a recognition which is to be welcomed — but his prescription leaves much to be desired. The notion that Muslim “separatism” can be overcome by prohibiting foreign imams from coming to preach and teach in France is wrong. After all, only 300 imams arrive from abroad, while there are already many thousands of imams, “French” imams, working in France. The “separatism” most French Muslims try to practice can be explained not by the “foreignness” of some imams whom Macron now propose to ban, but in the Qur’an which Macron never – not once – has ever cited in all of his discussions about Islam.
As long as Muslims continue to read in the Qur’an that they should not take Christians or Jews as friends, “for they are friends only with each other,” as long as they read that non-Muslims are “the most vile of created beings,” while they, the Muslims, are “the best of peoples,”as long as they read the more than 100 verses commanding them to take part in violent Jihad, they will refuse to integrate into the societies of the Infidels.
Macron should now openly and intrepidly discuss the Qur’anic verses I have mentioned. He should quote them verbatim, let the French know what is in the Qur’an, in order to be properly informed about the danger of Islam. And let the Muslims in France know that they will no longer get away with hiding what is in the Qur’an, but will have to explain what they intend to do about such passages. This will infuriate many of them. That’s too bad. The French political and media elite have for years been afraid to tackle the most important domestic subject: what is in the immutable Qur’an that explains the hostile behavior of Muslims toward Unbelievers today, as for the last 1,400 years. The French people deserve to know.
Macron could give an address to the country in which he would ask the questions that most need to be asked, unapologetically:
What should we think, in France, when we learn that Muslims are told, in Qur’an 3:110, that they are the “best of peoples”? What should we think when, in Qur’an 98:6, non-Muslims are described as “the most vile of created beings”? Tell us, please, those in the Muslim community, how you think we should understand these crystal clear verses? Is there really nothing here for us to worry about? Do these verses have no effect on the six million Muslims in France? Or the tens of millions in Europe? Or the 1.5 billion Muslims all over the world?
And how should we react to that verse in Qur’an (3:151) which tells Muslims “not to take Christians or Jews as friends, for they are friends only with each other”? I admit that it worries me Am I wrong to be worried? What do you think?
But those are only part of what we need to discuss. We want to know if we are supposed to ignore those verses – more than 100 of them! – that tell Muslims to fight, to kill, to smite the necks of, to strike terror in the hearts of, Infidels. Tell us what we should make of all these verses, such as 2:191- 194, 3:110, 3:151, 4:89, 5:33, 5:51,8:12, 8:60, 9:5, 9:29, 47:4, 98:6? I hope everyone listening tonight will find those verses — they can all be found online — and ponder their significance. We cannot continue as before, pretending these verses do not exist or that they do not mean what they so clearly do.
And it is not just the Qur’an that needs to be examined. The hadith – those collections of the sayings and deeds of Muhammad – should not be overlooked. Muhammad says in one of them that “war is deceit,” and in another that “I have been made victorious through terror.” How should the French people understand these two hadith? What can Muslims do to relieve our fears?
We all know there is a serious problem and it goes far beyond “separatism.” It is not only here, in France. It is in Great Britain, in Belgium, in the Netherlands, in Italy, in Germany, in Denmark, in Sweden, in Norway, everywhere that in the last two decades has seen an unprecedented influx of Muslim migrants. We need to discuss what this has meant, without apologies on one side, and apologetics on the other. I have a duty as President to both protect and instruct the people of France. I realize that in speaking tonight, I have not been delicate and tactful. I have chosen instead to be indelicate and truthful.
That should shake things up. And France, and the Western world, need — when it comes to the subject of Islam — to shake things up.