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Exaggerated claims, distorted truths and outright lies; these are the ingredients for the recipe of propaganda which drives people’s thoughts towards an ideology of submissiveness and totalitarianism. One of the most famous cases in modern history would be its use during World War II by the propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels in order to incite hatred, genocide and war. Today, a propaganda of another kind, much more dangerous on a long term, yet more subtle, a force to incite racism, sectarianism and propagate ignorance in many nations, I am pointing to the Islamic propaganda that is ravaging social networks and the internet and I’ll clarify some well-known despicable tactics, used to lure people to embrace or renew the faith:
1) Propagate imaginary scientific researches :
Many Islamic authorities and fanatics tend to share many pseudo-scientific researches, if not researches out of thin air, to give credential to their sacred texts as today science have gained tremendous respect. From the hadith of drinking camel urine and its alleged healing miracles, to dipping a fly in a cup of water if it accidently falls in it, all this charlatanism is supported by sacred texts highly regarded by Muslim theologians. With no surprise, it usually stuns the sophisticated Muslim upon hearing these hadiths and might shake their faith. Therefore, the rescue kit used by Islamic propaganda is to offer fictitious researches in order to prove that the statements made by the prophet ended up true. No peer reviewed paper, no mention of the research bodies and or departments, and in very few cases some scientists’ names are mentioned, but have absolutely no reputation in the scientific community.
2) Defame secularism and human rights:
Most Islamic nations are in collapse and turmoil in all fields, be it in science, art, economics or education. Moreover, sectarian wars ravaged many countries in the Middle East. A Muslim cannot avoid the contrast between the dire situation in the Islamic World and the prosperous Western World. A question would ultimately rise in their conscious, why the western nations are ranked the highest, by a large margin, in the human development index? Islamic propagandists would argue that it is the peoples’ distance vis-à-vis religion that caused the collapse of the Islamic world; they add that full human rights would lead to apostasy and homosexuality as if Islam is the only reason men are heterosexuals! As for secularism, they usually infuse hatred and fear among their followers against secularists for allegedly wanting to destroy Islam, and forbid Muslims from practicing their religion. It is astonishing that many of those Islamic scholars – Choyokh- speak freely against secularism and human rights from London, Brussels or Paris.
3) The theory of evolution is in its deathbed?!
This might be very familiar to the west, because not only the theory of evolution shatters the notion that the origin of humanity is from one couple, but also put the nail in the coffin by stating that all living things share a common ancestor, however, biblical evangelists do their best to distort scientific information. What Islamic propaganda does is take the exact arguments and allegations made by these evangelists while underlining the western names behind the articles to give it somehow a credential authority. That is to say to the faithful that the theory is disputed even in the west (among non-Muslims). We know the theory of evolution is a magnificent elegant undisputed scientific theory regarded as a fact today. It is taught in the most prestigious universities, and has an extremely wide approval among most scientists from different beliefs including Muslim scientists.
4) Scientific miracles in Islam:
There is no doubt that science today is the best if not the only reliable thought mechanism to understand our universe, and for that it gained a lot of respect from humankind. And when the common educated Muslim might notice some contradictions between the religious texts and science, e.g. that earth revolves around the sun and not the opposite, or that the sun never sets in a lake or goes under the god’s throne at each sunset or that the universe was not created in 6 days nor in 6 thousand years, there again the Islamic kit comes to the rescue. Forget the understanding of the verses by ancient theologians, to some contemporary theologians behind this movement such as Zaghloul Najjar, they are way off the mark. Instead he and many others would give new definitions to the well understood Arabic words, or give out of context explanations, or simply distort science to match the Islamic text. Millions of posts regarding scientific miracles in Islam are daily shared and it is unfortunate that even Muslim intellectuals fall into such scams. Let us not forget the humorous childish stories who usually go as follow: unknown western scientists (they should be Westerners or Asians) in an unknown university made a discovery, strikingly enough a Muslim scientist is either among the team or passes near them (do not wonder how), and as soon as he finds out about the discovery he proudly says that whatever you discovered is already written in the Quran or Hadith 1400 years ago! Right then, they all pronounce the Shahadah and become devoted Muslims. THE END!
5) Falsifying history and glorifying the first Muslims:
Islamic apologists strive to picture the first years of Islam as the best that humanity has ever known, under their governance there was justice, prosperity, and shared wealth. However, a quick look at the old Islamic books is enough to give a totally different picture. Most of the rulers fought each other to the death for power and a famous battle took few years after the prophet’s death between the prophet’s wife and her cousin, against Ali the fourth Caliph. Even the prophet’s nephews were savagely murdered by Muslims. Thousands of Muslims died during the war “Wakiaat Al Jamal”, and we can see the consequences in the form of sectarian wars between the Sunnis and Shiaa today. Many Caliphs and Sahabas have been murdered by Muslims themselves, Othman the third caliphs was murdered because, according to some narrations, he shared unjustly the loot (from the raids) and was accused of being biased to his relatives and tribe as well as burning copies of the Quran and leaving only one. It is staggering how history is falsified in order to indoctrinate children since primary school, forget the bloodshed, rape, slavery against the Amazigh or the Armenians or Copts, instead they state that no resistance was made and they have all embraced Islam willingly. One has to wonder how could Amazigh (Christians or polytheists back then) people, who did not understand Arabic let alone the Quran Arabic, understand and embrace Islam willingly. Fortunately, there are many historic texts that give us a much more reasonable picture.
As I have stated in the beginning of this article, Islamic propaganda is very dangerous and people should be aware of it. This is just a tip of the iceberg, from glorifying women rights in Islam, to justifying pedophilia or tempering with statistics in order to convey a message. I hope that even Muslims who strive for truth and reject these tactics to stand firmly against this evil machine who only spread extremism and ignorance. Stop the lies in the name of God.
