Viral French Imam video: ‘Music is a creature of the Devil’

Viral French Imam video: ‘Music is a creature of the Devil’

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norman lebrecht

November 16, 2015

This is a lesson with Rachid Abou Houdeyfa, imam of a Sunni mosque in Brest, northwest France. The young imam – energetic, articulate and charismatic, dressed in conteporary gear – calls his lesson ‘music, as explained to children’.

He asks first which of the children like music. A host of little hands shoot up. The imam tells them: ‘that is a grave sin… Allah does not like music because that’s what the devil likes.’

He continues: ‘People who sing, the prophet said they will be swallowed up by the earth. They will be transformed into monkeys and pigs. Who of you still loves music?’

He goes on to forbid parents from letting their children learn to play instruments.

This is what France is fighting in 2015, all too ineffectually it seems.

Watch the imam’s lesson here, in perfect French.

brest imam

In a subsequent press interview, the imam says he does not indoctrinate children. He just teaches.

Comments

  • Ann Goldberg says:

    And who better knows the devil than this creature?

  • Seeker64 says:

    The worst is at the very end: «Between Allah and music you must choose your camp». The rest is already history and there is unfortunately no doubt that it will keep repeating itself…

    • John Borstlap says:

      Insane that this sort of thing has been allowed to florish all those years. PC culture and a wrong idea of multiculturalism are much to blame. Immigrants, including muslems, should Europeanize – if they can’t or won’t, shipped-off to the areas where they would be happier.

  • John Borstlap says:

    This man should attend an IRCAM concert, where he can hear the real stuff, maybe afterwards he would completely change his mind about what children like to hear.

    • Alvaro says:

      Now that you mention IRCAM, maybe that was precisely the origins of his hatred for music. Damn that thing is scary.

      Maybe he even got to listen one of your works, in which case I could almost begin to understand those statements. You might be in part responsible for this…..how can you live with yourself ;).

      • John Borstlap says:

        Quite possible. On my last première in a small hall in Barcelona, half of the audience left during my piece and presented itself into the church next door to be baptized. Since the piece was called ‘Kyrie’ I don’t know whether this was the result of moral disgust and longing for orthodoxy, or the opposite, a communal act of repentance inspired by the music. These things can be very hard to assess.

    • Pianofortissimo says:

      No jokes, please. Those ideas may be ridiculous according to our cultural references, but people like that Iman are deadly serious.

      • jaypee says:

        John Borstlap with his childish hatred for Pierre Boulez and everything related to him *is* ridiculous.

        • John Borstlap says:

          Before stating such silly things, it is to be recommended to read ALL my comments upon the subject. Then it would be obvious that I did not criticize Boulezbianism itself, the Ding an sIch, but the claims made about it.

  • Holger H. says:

    The most pressing question is: why are – apparently – so many people attracted to the lectures of these criminal/hateful/uneducated/lowlife creatures?

    What gives this particular person in the picture power over other people’s mind?

    If you can answer THAT question, the solution to the problem is very close by.

    • John Borstlap says:

      Agreed. Although there are many explanations; being unemployed, feeling excluded and discriminated against, envy for the white people having enough money for a good time on the expensive Parisian terrasses and cosy restaurants, but a mystery remains. But calvinism had similar traits, not to speak of strikt catholicism which at some time conducted the inquisition to keep people on the rails. And Plato already warned against certain types of music which he deemed morally dangerous.

  • Holger H. says:

    At the end of the day, do we need to be concerned too much?
    Do these brainfarts really want a world of their own choosing, without good cars, without most of the technology the west invented, without all the health care and medicine the west gives them?
    What would the ISIS be without Japanese engineering (of their Toyota pickup trucks)?
    These mentally handicapped creatures can’t barely sit upright, how could they maintain a civilization after they have converted all of us?

    • John Borstlap says:

      Indeed…. The combination of arrogant stupidity and plain evil is staggering.

      I try to get my head round the image of a ‘brain fart’.

  • Greg says:

    We can say that according to one impeachable authority (J. S. Bach, all blessing be upon him) music is definitely not haram. Right? I mean, with confidence? . . . Europe? . . . I’m looking at you . . .

  • Olaugh Turchev says:

    Look at these wonderful kids, willing to learn… Someone should take them and tell them it had been a bad joke, that he did not meant it and then ask them to show how they play drums…
    As for the adult in this scene, he should be taken out and never have a chance to interact with kids again. I would also question parents who must hear some feedback from the kids and who keep sending their children to this brain washer.

  • T. Manor says:

    Singers swallowed up by the earth? I have no problem with that.

    But seriously, has this putz ever heard the Muslim Call to Prayer? lol…

  • Eric says:

    The problem began when they let these goatfu@&ers into the country!

    The ONLY way we will ever be rid of these fanatical maniacs is to remove them physically from the face of the earth by whatever means necessary!

    • Matthew says:

      It’s hard to believe that this vile comment was seen fit to print, such is the censorious nature of the moderation on this site. Heavy shame on both of you, Eric and Norman.

    • Holger H. says:

      Define “fanatical maniac”. Precisely. So those who are not will live, and those who are, will die. Go ahead.
      I can predict what the result will be: “One side’s fanatical maniacs are the other side’s glorious heroes”.
      Take for instance a person like Dick Cheney, or Paul Wolfowitz, or Zbigniew Brzezinski. All textbook “fanatical maniacs”. The goat reference is not the decisive parameter. 😉

  • Danish says:

    Speaking as a Muslim, nowhere in the Qu’ran is music prohibited or listed as a sin. There are some questionable Hadith (reported sayings of the Prophet Muhammad), that prohibit certain types of music (songs promoting sex, drugs, violence, etc.), but I haven’t heard one that singing will transform you into pigs and monkeys…It’s also interesting to note that the most conservative Islamic country, Saudi Arabia, has no such ban on music. So I don’t know where this charlatan is getting his divine knowledge from. People like him give us Muslims (and Islam) a bad name.

  • Dave T says:

    We need to see more of these types of videos. Expose these divisive, dangerous, backward looking, hate mongers to the light of day. We need more understanding of the minds of them and their followers.

    Media: replace some of the stories of people lighting candles at memorials with stories like this.

  • Eric Koenig says:

    This man’s an idiot and a bigot to boot. I’m a Muslim and a composer of Classical music and I can tell you that music is NOT prohibited by Islamic law. Rather what the Prophet Muhammad said was “Whatever is bi’dah (innovation as in adding new laws to existing ones) is not of our faith.” That in and of itself should indicate that, as the Qur-‘an does not prohibit music and Muhammad never said it was prohibited, to suddenly teach people that music is “un-Islamic” is wrong. Music, to me, has always been a gift from God. Why throw it away?

    • John Borstlap says:

      In the middle Ages, the Islamitic civilization was the most developed and modern of the known world, and that was the result of loosening bonds with the more orthodox interpretations of the Koran. The flowering of that era stimulated the Italian Renaissance upon which our modern world is built. Islamitic culture sank when orthodox interpretations got the upper hand, stamping-out all the creative and explorative and aspirational products of the mind and the spirit. Religion is good, if an inspiring force for a broad palette of life experiences; if it becomes a cage, it becomes the opposite of religion. The human mind is a very strange thing.

  • Olga says:

    This imam is really guilty of a form of indoctrination which is tantamount to child abuse. I cannot understand why this sort of thing which takes place in mosques on French soil is tolerated. I am certain that similar abuses take place in mosques (and muslim schools) in Britain too. Why is no-one concerned by this outrageous behaviour? It is odd that an elderly male musician only has to look at a female music student these days and he is sure to be sent to jail but shocking violations of human rights, women’s rights and vile treatment of gays take place in the name of Islam and no-one apparently raises an eyebrow. In fact, I rather get the impression that they look the other way.

    It is hard to understand why anyone who is not mentally deranged would subscribe to such a primitive and impoverished religion.

    • Holger H. says:

      it’s all taking place under the umbrella of so called “religious freedom” and if we were serious in the western countries with the movement of enlightenment and secularism we started over 200 years ago, we should have uprooted any protection of religion above the general rule of law and constitution by now.
      We must eradicate religion as a protected space for indoctrination and lawlessness.
      Religion is private, period. What this man does, should be illegal. It probably is, but nobody enforces the law.

  • Robin O'Neill says:

    Shame – that’s curtains for the muezzin…

  • L.F. says:

    On this blog there were some discussions about Thielemann when he said that citizens of the PEGIDA movement (Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the Occident) should perhaps be taken seriously (They weren’t).

    This year 1000000 to 1500000 mostly Muslim young men arriving in Germany. If the ones who can stay (50%?) bring on their families (4-6 people per migrant) this makes a total of perhaps 3-4 Millions.

    Continue this for ten years (as Mrs Merkel seems to intend) and you have 30-40 Mio Muslim Immigrants. These will double in about 30 years by births making 60-80 Mio by mid century. Add to this the 4-5 Mio Muslims already there, also doubling and those who will come in the later twenty years and you will have about a majority of Muslims in Germany by about 2040.

    Now one can speculate how long will it take until:

    there will be a presidential German sultan à la Erdogan?
    the Scharia will be introduced?
    music and musical instruments will be prohibited?

    Much of this was predicted five years ago by Thilo Sarrazin for the end of our century. He was ostracised. He was wrong. It will go much faster.

    Of course there will still be some who pretend that Thielemann is a Nazi, but then they are probably missing some elephant in the room…

    • Holger H. says:

      Get real. First of all many if not most of the immigrants from Syria are of secular background and academically relatively well educated. Syria was a secular country after all. Too bad the US of A fore the last 50 years did not like secular leaders in the Middle East and preferred the most backward religious fanatics as their useful idiots. Such idiotic foreign “policy” by the clueless Yankees, in alliance with the nostalgia of the Empire lossy Brits, reaps now its mutated shitty fruits.
      Your (immigrant) math is unreal. 30-40 mio. muslim immigrants in Germany within 10 years? That’s just silly. Don’t be so afraid.

      • L.F. says:

        Its really simple maths: At least 1,2 Mio coming this year. Say 500’000 get asylum. According to current law they have the right to bring their families. According to official estimates these families have 4-8 persons, lets say 5. So 500’000 asylum seekers bring another 2,5 Mio, total 3 Mio. Of course the other 700’000 not receiving asylum will also stay, makes 3,7 Mio for 2015 alone. Repeat that for 10 years and you have 37 Mio. Whats irreal with that?

        Heinz Buschkowsky, leading German expert on immigration expects at least 10 Mio immigrants until 2020, but only if the inflow is limited (it is not, so he admits that this estimate is too low). By any estimate you have a Muslim majority by mid-century.

        The Lebanese clans terrorizing certain German neigbourhoods were also war fugitives. The Turkish communities in Germany are largely unintegrated, have a look in Berlin or Cologne. I agree, that the idea of a Muslim majority in Germany is of no concern if you are living in London. If you are living in Germany it can perhaps give rise to some concern, e.g. in relation to German music.

        • Alvaro says:

          This is precisely what these mentalfucks want: that you become paranoic and start making outlandish multiplications to convince yourself that your fears are warranted.

          In short: you are stupid for caving in the fear tactics that the very people you condemn want you to fall into.

          Lets do some math – if the worldwide population growth continues at the same rate it has had over the past 50 years…by the end of the century we will have almost 1 human being per square meter in the face of the earth. Do you think that will ever happen? Its retarded.

          Not everybody will bring their families because most likely those families are DEAD, which is KIND OF what persuaded these people to walk an entire continent to escape a civil war. But your paranoic mind cannot even conceive this option.

          All religions are a toxic byproduct of mass brainwashing – the muslim religion is just another flavor undergoing crazy years, not unlike the marvelous Christians who tortured, enslaved and robbed Latin America and many other parts of the world because of ‘evangelization’ for 500 years.

          The culprit in all of this is DOGMA, and not just in religion, but in everything – including the dogma of thinking that Beethoven is better than Ravi Shankar.

          Any ideology that creates an “us vs. them” or a “we are better and you are worst’ will result in a small radical group…….

          ……many commentators in this blog belong to such radical group in the ‘musical religion’ that they profess.

    • John Borstlap says:

      With all due respect, but this comment should be taken-up with pincers as an anthropological finding of incredibly stupid thinking. Namely, an overwhelming majority of immigrants from muslem background, Europeanize (dictionary: ‘becoming European, i.e. accepting European values of civil society and living according to these’). After some time, 1 or 2 generations, we can no longer speak of culturally non-Europeans. Wearing head scarfs or attending mosque has no influene on this process. The more Europe supports Europeanization, and that is something else from multiculturalism, the better integration will succeed. Paralel societies are the result of misconceived PC ideas of considering immigrants foremost as a group and not as individuals, thereby hindering their assimilation. An Euro-Islam will greatly help with the process of integration. The German academic Bassam Tibi has already explained the process years ago, and warned against multiculti approaches which underplay European values.

      Almost ALL immigrants WANT to live in European society because of its values… in spite of a minority who have no understanding of these. So, in 2040 the only difference will be that there will be more brownish faces in the streets – and they will be of European people. Unless the stubborn stupidity of the mentioned comment will be institutionalized by the likes of Wilder, Le Pen etc., which would create a self-fulfilling prophecy of much more sharp and dangerous divisions in society than are already visible today.

  • Michael B. says:

    What is bizarre about this ban is that two of the most significant instruments of western music, the violin and the guitar, have Arabic/Muslim origins. The violin is descended from the rabab, and the lute, guitar and related instruments are descended from the ‘ud (the term “lute” itself is derived from the Arabic “al ‘ud”).

  • William Safford says:

    There is nothing unique about this. One often finds such reactions in religious fundamentalists of all sorts of backgrounds. There have been Christian religious sects that have decried or even banned music. I am not familiar with any Jewish sects that have done so; perhaps someone more knowledgeable than I can come up with an example. Etc.

    As someone else pointed out, even Plato spoke about the putative dangers of music.

    Today is just a few days after the 20th anniversary of the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin. He was assassinated by a Jewish extremist who wanted to disrupt the Palestinian peace process. The assassin succeeded. Food for thought.

  • Kontrabass says:

    He is about as mad as Savonarola was in the fifteenth century, but then we are dealing with fanatics who are six hundred years behind the times, so what else should we expect?

  • Alexander Brown says:

    Talking of Christian sects that banned music: one might also cite the Byzantine popes who banned the painting of religious icons, ordering them to be destroyed (hence the word ‘iconoclasts’). Any artist found painting one would have his hand cut off – but such was the love of those Christians to see a representation of the face of Christ or his mother (and other ‘saints’) that some artists continued to paint icons in secret, with the result that, after being reported by zealot spies, they had their other hand cut off. Of course, you might say that was a long time ago – yet that very catholic church allows its priests to spout anti-homosexual vitriol from its pulpits today! The State should forbid such preaching, since at least in the European Union and other reasonably ‘enlightened’ countries preaching such hatred is forbidden by law. We have the means to stop it, so let us do so!

  • Erwin Poelstra says:

    If this Imam is an idiot, a bigot and a charlatan as some Muslims claim here in the comment section, how come that this man is “président de la Mosquée Sunna de Brest” since 2009?
    Why is that Muslims always seem to interpret their Quran differently — whether it is about music, women, law, whatever. One group of Muslims use these texts to justify extreme, inhuman violence (starting a worldwide caliphate), others call it the “religion of peace”…

    • Danish says:

      “Why is that Muslims always seem to interpret their Quran differently…”

      You can replace Muslims and Quran with any other religious affiliation and sacred text, and still not get a perfect answer. As there are many sects of Christianity and Judaism, there are many different sects of Islam, each with its unique interpretation of the scriptures. It has been proven that most of the terrorists recruited are uneducated, illiterate folk who are impressionable to charismatic leaders.

      Also, Donald Trump is an idiot and a bigot, and he may very well become the president of the United States of America….doesn’t mean anything really.

    • William Safford says:

      Why do different Christian groups (denominations, sects, even cults) always seem to interpret the Bible differently — whether it is about music, women, law, whatever.

      One group of Christians use these texts to justify extreme inhuman violence (the Inquisition, anyone? The office still exists!), others call it a religion of peace.

      Why do Christian groups interpret the Old Testament differently from the Jews, whose Bible it originally was? (The comedian Lewis Black has a funny riff on this in one of his live shows.)

      • Erwin Poelstra says:

        “Danish” and William, you are both right of course. However, in this modern world, anno 2015, the lion’s share of all violence and “terror” worldwide is linked with ONE particular religion — you probably know which one.

      • John Borstlap says:

        Any religion or well-meaning philosophy can lead to death and destruction, and in fact some elements in Christianity advocate suicide. Even Bhuddism can be dangerous…. the French pianist/composer Alkan died of it: when climbing on a high ladder to take a heavvy tome on this most peaceful religion, he fell down and the book landed on his head, killing him instantly.

        • Herbert Pauls says:

          …although the legend of the falling bookcase has never been confirmed according to the Alkan literature. Either way, Alkan was a devout Jew, and the volume he was supposed to have been reaching for was a Hebrew religious book of some kind. In any case, his music is fantastic!

        • Erwin Poelstra says:

          You can relativize it as much as you want, but when you do a “reality check” and follow the world news regularly, you will find that almost every day people are tortured, wounded or killed in the name of ALLAH, not in the name of Buddha or a Christian God.
          Here’s site that gathers all these reports:
          http://www.thereligionofpeace.com/

          • William Safford says:

            Is your comment an observation of the dominance of violence in the name of Allah, or is it commentary about the priorities of the news organizations, or is it reflective of your personal biases?

            Terrible things have been done in the name of religion. For example, both the United States and South Africa had white supremacy regimes that tortured and killed countless thousands of black people, often in the name of God and with the full support of their churches. In the case of the U.S., millions of black people were enslaved. This slavery was justified in part by passages in the Old Testament.

            Do these facts indict Christianity as a whole? How about how the media chose to report on these facts? (Granted, the media have changed tremendously since those days.) What about those Christians who looked the other way while these abominations were prevalent?

            There is no question but that horrific things are being done by terrorists, that many of them ascribe their motivations to serving their twisted versions of Islam, and that there are religious leaders who welcome and support this.

            But does this indict Islam as a whole, and all muslims?

            What other atrocities are not being reported in the news, that may not be related to Islam yet are still happening?

            And why isn’t Muslim-on-Muslim violence reported more often in the news, and why isn’t it emphasized?

  • william osborne says:

    It is saddening to see how much anti-Arabic hatred is expressed in these comments. One need only watch a bit of most Arabic TV to see that the Iman’s view is only that of a tiny minority. As an example here is the Lebanese singer Haifa Wehbe performing on television:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1mebNNtuF7c

    I can understand how she might give the Iman impure thoughts. She does me. We might also consider the extraordinary beauty and sophistication of traditional, classical Arabic music.

    • william osborne says:

      We might also remember that there are groups within Islam that specifically use music and dance as a means to achieve and express religious devotion, such as the Sufi Dervishes of the Mevlevi order. They refer to their dances and Sema rituals and feel that even watching them can “lead one to God’s love.” They describe it this way:

      “The semazen conveys God’s spiritual gift to those who are witnessing the Sema. Revolving from right to left around the heart, the semazen embraces all humanity with love. The human being has been created with love in order to love. Mevlâna Jalâluddîn Rumi says, ‘All loves are a bridge to Divine love. Yet, those who have not had a taste of it do not know!’”

      There is just as much singing and dancing in the Islamic world as anywhere else – a human impulse religion will never stop. And as the Sufis might suggest, it is exactly the concepts of love and compassion shared by the sister religions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam that will become the strongest force in defeating ISIL (and also the forms of extremism held by their opponents.)

    • Eddie Mars says:

      Two weeks before the Paris attacks, 230+ people returning from beach holidays in Sharm-el-Sheikh were blown out of the sky by radicalised lunatics, who planted a bomb aboard their plane. There were no survivors.

      Mysteriously those murdered in this atrocity have been afforded not the slightest comment or condolence. Save for being made the butt of cheap jokes in a filthy French piece of toilet-paper called Charlie Hebdo, may they rot in Hell.

    • William Safford says:

      That video is not available in the U.S. Perhaps you can recommend one that is?

    • John Borstlap says:

      In the 19th century, french artists and intellectuals regularly went to their Muslem colony, Algeria, to indulge in the voluptuous decadence with the locals which was prohibited, or in any case socially entirely unacceptable, in France, even in Paris. No orthodoxy there, at the time.

  • Erwin Poelstra says:

    Of course, every big religion in the world instigated violence and suppression of “non-believers”.
    And like any other important religion, the Islam had periods of enlightenment…and there are valuable cultural/mystical traditions within it.

    But just study the history of Islam (which is much more than only a belief system), and you will find a connection with extreme violence, aggression, unforgivingness and intolerance towards other religions from the very start, and it continues to be so until this very day. There is not a single religion in the world that is so constantly saturated with terror. It has been the bloodiest religion the world has ever known. And that is because its main prophet was a killer, a rapist, a child molester, a slave-owner, a thief and a liar. Compare that for example to the life & teachings of Jesus (I’m not a Christian, I just give facts!). As someone put it, “The problem with Christians is that they aren’t as good as Jesus. But thank God most Muslims are better than Muhammad.”

    These terrorists do NOT follow a “twisted version” of the Quran, on the contrary, they follow it *to the letter*. Just read the bloody book, it’s full of explicite (justification of) violence, especially the Medinan suras which are considered more important. In fact, we can be very glad that the majority of Muslims is still illiterate…

    I am not at all saying that all Muslims today are evil, stupid or uncivilized. Fortunately many of them in the West or elsewhere are integrated into more or less secular societies, they take the texts in their holy book with a grain of salt and focus on the positive elements, on wisdom. They want a normal, peaceful life.

    However there is an ever growing group of Muslim fundamentalists who take the Quran (too) literally. In their interpretation, Islam is absolutely incompatible with western democratic secular values and a fertile soil for terrorism, violence and extremism all over the world.

    As for Muslims committing bestial atrocities to each other, that is in the news all the time. I give just one example:
    http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/04/world/middleeast/surviving-isis-massacre-iraq-video.html?_r=1

    • William Safford says:

      I think you are finding what you are looking for, not the facts.

      The mere fact that you cited the biased “the religion of peace” website as a reference supports this.

      • Erwin Poelstra says:

        …And I think you are an Islam apologist. You asked me questions, I answered them (and that website is not at all the main source of my knowledge). Have you read the Quran? Go ahead, give us your version of “the facts”.

        • William Safford says:

          And you are attempting to use the term “Islamist apologist” to attack my character, rather than address the issues.

          The flaw is in your distorted world view.

          You start with certain false premises. You have built a world view based on them.

          For example, you wrote: “almost every day people are tortured, wounded or killed in the name of ALLAH, not in the name of Buddha or a Christian God.”

          Is this factual?

          For example, how many people did the U.S./British wars in Afghanistan and Iraq kill and maim?

          The U.S. tortured prisoners, which is a stain on our country.

          There are Buddhist monks doing just what you wrote they don’t:

          http://world.time.com/2013/06/20/extremist-buddhist-monks-fight-oppression-with-violence/

          There is violence throughout the world. Much of it we never hear about, because it is not reported on. An important part of it is in the name of Islamic extremism, but certainly not all or even most of it. It’s just grabbing the headlines right now.

          We have heard a great deal about the attacks in Paris — and rightfully so. But how much have we heard about the Beirut bombings that occurred just the day before?

          In the news, Paris is listed as a “city,” whereas Beirut is listed as a “war zone.” Note the semantics behind the respective choice of words. Why is that done?

          And finally, even with all the violence that is occurring in the name of Allah, are the people committing it true believers? Note that many of those who now make up ISIS are secular Baathists from the old regime.

          I am not a Muslim. But I could grab a bunch of headlines just by committing some terrorist act in the name of Allah. The news could ascribe Islamic extremist to me, but it would not make me Muslim.

          But I have done something that most of these terrorists have never done: I actually have read parts of the Qu’ran.

          And, as others have written, Islam does not ban music, just as Christianity doesn’t. It’s just certain practitioners who do.

          • Erwin Poelstra says:

            To William Safford. Finally I find some time to reply to you.

            You can call my world view distorted, but I question yours. You don’t convince me and you do sound like

            In general I think you need a bit more research.

            The role of the US and its allies in the Middle East is indeed questionable and has cost many innocent lives, but to think that these acts are all purely done in the name of a Christian God, as you seem to suggest, is nonsense. Main motive is money, oil.

            Great that you read part of the Quran, but before you can objectively make judgements and statements you should read the whole bloody book. By the way, how do you know that “most of these terrorists” have never read the Quran? Do you know them personally?

            Maybe what you need to do is to prove conclusively that an extremist version of Islam does NOT support the use of terror.​

            Of all the religious texts, the Quran is by far the most violent and intolerant towards other religions.
            If you study all the religious violence and conflicts in the 21st Century, you will find that the large majority is caused by Islamism and Islam fundamentalism. That is FACTUAL.

            The Sunni and Shia Muslims hate and slaughter each other even as they target other groups within Islam.

            Another habit that is linked with Islam: the treatment of women. Until this day it remains medieval and barbaric, far more so than the sexism leveled at women the world over. You may also want to know that stoning, polygamy and child marriage are still endorsed by large groups of Muslims. The death penalty is advocated for apostate Muslims and for those who insult their prophet or book. Observe that none of this is to be found in other religions of the world, especially in these times. Islam is also the only faith that justifies terror as an instrument of state policy and still uses medieval systems of ‘correction’ and execution. Iran and Pakistan are examples.

            Paris is civilized. Beirut has long since ceased to be the Paris of the Eastern Mediterranean. It is no longer what it was, thanks to the Islamists and their guiding theology.​

            As for the ISIS being mainly “secular”, I recommend you to read the following excellent article:
            http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2015/03/what-isis-really-wants/384980/
            I give you one quote:
            “The fighters of the Islamic State are authentic throwbacks to early Islam and are faithfully reproducing its norms of war. This behavior includes a number of practices that modern Muslims tend to prefer not to acknowledge as integral to their sacred texts. Slavery, crucifixion, and beheadings are not something that freakish [jihadists] are cherry-picking from the medieval tradition. Islamic State fighters ‘are smack in the middle of the medieval tradition and are bringing it wholesale into the present day.'”

    • Danish says:

      “Islam is absolutely incompatible with western democratic secular values”

      Do you have any concrete evidence to support that statement?

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