Page 83 - Bigotry: The Dark Danger

Adnan Oktar
(Harun Yahya)

Except for those who seek shelter with people with whom you
have a treaty, or who come to you greatly perturbed at the
prospect of fighting either you or their own people. If God had
willed, He could have given them the upper hand over you and

then they would have fought you. If they keep away from you
and do not fight you and submit to you, God has not given you
any way against such people. (Qur'an, 4:90)
It is clear that the verses regarding war relate only to the specific

conditions and circumstances of the time, which necessitated these
defensive wars. It is also clear that those wars were waged only
because this was the only option against those hostile, aggressive
pagans and hypocrites who initiated the attack and killed innocent

people. It is obvious that building and maintaining peace is always
the main goal. Furthermore, according to the Qur'an, a person or a
group cannot make a rash decision and start a war saying, "I pro-
nounce this country, this society or the members of this religion ene-

mies." Particularly, they can never assault civilians, the innocent who
have nothing to do with the wrongdoing. They cannot target places
of worship. In other words, the Qur'an has closed all the doors to

violence. The main reason why these verses are misinterpreted and
used for the hatred policies of the radicals is that hundreds of false
hadiths were added to Islam together with the false perspectives of
some analysts and certain societies' deep and entrenched cultures of

violence.

Yet the Qur'an needs to be read with a pure, clean and enlight-
ened mind, purged of all false hadiths, superstitions and erroneous
traditions added to Islam subsequently. Considered in the war-rid-
den context of the time, the meaning of the verses becomes extremely

clear.

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