Page 66 - Bigotry: The Dark Danger

Bigotry:
The Dark Danger

Another important element in the verses is revealed as fol-
lows: "Fitna [sedition, strife] is worse than killing." Inciting com-
munities, encouraging hatred, spreading hatred, anarchy and terror
by engaging in slander and outright falsehoods thereby producing
hostile masses of people is fitna, and the verse tells us that fitna is
worse than killing; thus, the communities that attack Muslims are

the ones that engage in actual, psychological and covert fitna and the
harm they do is very great. Muslims naturally defend themselves
when such aggression rears its head.

The way that some fanatics are taken in by hearsay or supersti-
tion and declare individuals, societies or faiths to be spreading fitna
and then seek supposed evidence for their perversions from verses
of the Qur'an is of course exceedingly pitiful. Fitna involves actions

that will lead to corruption, such as spreading division among Mus-
lims, leading them into loss and sin by inflicting all kinds of troubles
on them, then establishing the infrastructure for mass rebellions and
engaging in physical and verbal assaults on Muslims. Therefore, in

order to be able to accuse someone of fitna, they have to have com-
mitted one or more of these actions. Those who seek to accuse Jews
or Israel by branding them as engaging in fitna thus fly in the face of
this verse.

According to the Qur'an, it is a sin to accuse all Jews or Israel of
engaging in fitna. People who spread fitna may emerge from any
religion or country. Yet in the same way that it is impossible to brand

all Arabs, Turks or Muslims as spreaders of fitna simply because
there are some Arabs, Turks or Muslims who engage in fitna, there
is also no question of branding all Jews or all Israelis as spreaders of
fitna. According to the Qur'an, a Muslim can dine in the home of a
Jew, can be his guest and friend, and can even marry a Jewish (or
Christian) woman (This will be clarified in detail in another chapter).

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