"Let there be no compulsion in religion....." - Quran 2.256
A few years back you could hardly find a Western Muslim that wasn't parroting that verse snippet from the Quran, in vain efforts to advance the wishful Western fantasy that Islam is a "religion of peace". Certainly you don't find a misconception like that gaining any traction in the Middle East cradle of Islam.
http://www.falseprophetmuhammad.com/islam_and_jews.htmDon't expect to find it promoted by the #1 most prestigious Islamic University - Egypt's Al Azhar University - that refuses to renounce The Islamic State as being "unIslamic":
"It can't [condemn the Islamic State as un-Islamic]. The Islamic State is a byproduct of Al Azhar's programs. So can Al Azhar denounce itself as un-Islamic?"
http://www.islamchristianforum.com/index.php?topic=5087.0When actual orthodox Muslims claim Islam is a religion of peace they are referring to what would be a future when everyone is a Muslim (as previewed by the Muslim on Muslim murder, mayhem and misery perpetrated within and between essentially 100% Islamic countries), or historical periods after Islam had conquered and subjugated non-Muslims to the second class status and slow bleed of dhimmitude under their Muslim masters.
http://www.falseprophetmuhammad.com/islamic_slavery_dhimmitude.htm#dhimmitudeHowever these days it would seem that only those new to the conversation or someone living in a state of abject ignorance would be foolish enough to parrot Surah 2.256, as most are aware that they will be schooled and embarrassed even by non-Muslims that understand the verse has been nullified, as so plainly and thoroughly exposed by Islam itself both through Islamic history as well as through true orthodox followers of Muhammad such as those engaged in the Jihad of the Islamic State.
http://www.falseprophetmuhammad.com/the_islamic_state.htmMost of us that have been engaged in this discussion have learned that even Muhammad recognized that the (what he must have lamented as regrettable) drivel of his early Mecca days was hopelessly contradicted by his later Medina "revelations" that call his followers to violence against and conquest and subjugation of non-Muslims, and so in order to explain away the contradictions in the Quran Muhammad said it was "revealed" in "stages" and as a result, the verses that were "revealed" earlier are nullified and replaced by the later verses that contradict them. This is what most refer to as the Quran's doctrine of abrogation.
http://www.falseprophetmuhammad.com/jihad_islamic_terrorism.htmSurah 2:106 (Asad)
Any message which, We annul or consign to oblivion We replace with a better or a similar one. Dost thou not know that God has the power to will anything?Even the largely illiterate Quraish were able to conclude that no true God could contradict himself so massively and repeatedly over the short span of just 23 years and so they considered Muhammad a "forger":
Surah 16:101
When We substitute one revelation for another, and Allah knows best what He reveals (in stages), they say, "Thou art but a forger": but most of them understand not.And thus Muhammad's later surahs from Medina that call for conquest and subjugation of all non-Muslims to Muhammad's followers like "
I will instill terror into the hearts of the unbelievers: smite ye above their necks and smite all their finger-tips off them", "annul" and "consign to oblivion" Muhammad's earlier more peaceful Mecca drivel, like "Let there be no compulsion in religion.....".
More on Muhammad's doctrine of abrogation.
http://www.islamchristianforum.com/index.php?topic=116.0Today if you come across a Muslim apologist that is still parroting that tired old lie, you can pretty well bank on it not being born of ignorance, but rather because they are engaging in "taqiyyah" or lying the way of "Allah".
http://www.falseprophetmuhammad.com/global_war_against_truth.htm#dissimulationThe following quoted is an explanation of taqiyya according to Sunni Muslim theologian Abu Ha-med Mohammad ibn Mohammad al-Ghazzali, who is one of the most highly respected theologians in the history of Islamic jurisprudence who ".....has been referred to by some historians as the single most influential Muslim after the Islamic prophet Muhammad.":
“Speaking is a means to achieve objectives. If a praiseworthy aim is attainable through both telling the truth and lying, it is unlawful to accomplish it through lying because there is no need for it.
When it is possible to achieve such an aim by lying but not by telling the truth, it is permissible to lie if attaining the goal is permissible..., and obligatory to lie if the goal is obligatory. ...One should compare the bad consequences entailed by lying to those entailed by telling the truth, and if the consequences of telling the truth are more damaging, one is entitled to lie…â€
Here's an example of an "obligatory" "goal" in Islam: "Da'wah is recognized by the majority of scholars as being obligatory upon every Muslim."
Da'wah is proselytizing for the Islamic faith, so when it is not possible to achieve this goal by telling the truth (in an interfaith dialogue for example), Muslims are under obligation to lie while proselytizing. Examples of lying in "Allah's" cause would be when a Muslim wittingly (or unwittingly through abject ignorance), parrots the preposterously false denial that "
Islam is not antichrist". Or when a Muslim tries to advance Islamic so-called "tradition" regarding a history of Mecca prior to the 4th century AD, when there is not a shred of historical or archaeological evidence that supports that unhistorical, counter-scriptural, geographically and demographically impossible fictional "tradition".
However I have no doubt that we underestimate the power of the spirit of antichrist that fills Muhammad's followers hearts, in being capable of removing much if not all of a person's capacity for critical thought to such an extent, that many may not even realize they are lying through their teeth when they in fact are. This is because Muhammadans follow the "father of lies" himself.
http://www.falseprophetmuhammad.comTo forum members it may seem a bit late for this topic since it was posted some years ago, but I noticed we didn't have a thread
title that quotes that surah, to make the coverage in our forum more accessible to an internet search. I challenge any of the Islamic so-called scholars, Imams, Muftis or any other Muslims of any stripe (except obscure cultists), to show us on what basis we are supposed to recognize Islam is a religion of peace, because it sure can't be born out through its 1400 year history or present day reality.