THERE WAS ONLY WAR OF SELF-DEFENSE IN THE TIME OF PROPHET MOHAMMED (PBUH)

(From Mr. Adnan Oktar's live interview on Kanal 9 TV and Kral Karadeniz TV, January 9^th, 2009)

Presenter: A few days ago 6 Coptic Christians were killed in Egypt in a drive-by shooting while leaving the church. All the media in the West started to cover this story in a negative way since the incident took place in a Muslim country. The Egyptian government does not make a declaration about the issue. What do you think about this subject?

Adnan Oktar: Recently some of our Christian friends, brothers are keen to show Muslims in the history and also today as blood shedders, cruel people who cause trouble, who flout the laws, rights and democracy. They are giving examples from the wars in history. If we were to give examples from the wars in the past—especially our American Protestant brothers, Evangelicals speak so—they murdered tens of thousands of people in Hiroshima in an instant. They killed tens of thousands of people in Nagasaki in an instant. There were also Muslims, Christians there. People from all religions. So in accordance which law was this carried out? Right? They shed blood in numerous countries. They shed blood in Afghanistan and Iraq. With which law were those done? Right?

No Muslim interpreted these incidents as; “This is how those abiding by the Gospel are, they are blood shedders.” We said, “This is the spirit of freemasonry, a requisite of being a mason. Those disbelievers who are neither Muslims nor Christians committed it.” In no way did we attribute it to Christianity. Let me correct the word “attribute it”, may Allah forgive me, let me say, “We did not hold Christianity responsible for it.” Consequently, it would be erroneous for our Christian friends to hold Islam responsible when an incident happens; they have to abandon that habit.

Alright, there is war in the Qur’an, but it is as a self defense, when you, your possessions, security and honor is under attack. That is to say, someone has entered one’s house, there is a raid with weapons, rifles. They had knocked the glasses-frames down and fired bullets. What can a man do in such case? Shall he bring them into court? What should he do? If he attempted to escape, he would fail. Right? What should be the action? To save one’s life, defending one’s self. There are things to do while defending one’s self; for instance, people first open fire to the air, they threaten, open fire to the air, if these measures prove to be ineffective, they try to stop the perpetrator by injuring him but in a way not to cause suffering or killing him. This is self-defense. Is there any other way of doing it? Is there any other way in the case of a sudden attack? Since he can not escape. So what is to blame or to see as a fault here?

In those periods, Muslims were under enormous pressure, under great cruelty. They were being put in pits and burnt with petrol. What should be done? What should he do? There is a mid-night raid. They come with swords, maces and spears. Were they to say ;  “Welcome, let us serve you some tea? ” What should they tell? Of course they defend themselves. Meanwhile, there may be loss of lives during this defense. This is not something abnormal because the other party has already come to take your life. It is very difficult to defend oneself without harming the other side at that moment, during a mass attack. You can not say, “Let me just make him faint and deactivate him.” In the conditions of the time, there wasn’t a mean to knock someone out anyway. What can they do? Consequently, it is very erroneous to blame and criticize Muslims. They should criticize themselves. There is not the slightest error in what is done in the time of our Prophet (pbuh). None of them are wars of attack.

Oktar Babuna: As you know better insha’Allah, there is also a disproportion in the numbers [of the armies].

Adnan Oktar: And everything is aimed at forgiving. For instance All-Mighty Allah says, “but do not go beyond the limits”, “if they stop, you also stop”, “release the captives, behave well to the captives.” What a perfect explanation. What a humanistic interpretation. In case of a murder, for instance, notice that this is a murder, Allah says that there is the right for retaliation. Normally the penalty for murder is execution. However Allah says, “It is more auspicious for you if you forgive”. Since a Muslim would always choose to forgive, which is more auspicious, so what? Don’t we see here the highest form of compassion, love and mercy? What is the meaning of forgiving an enormous cruelty such as murder? Allah relates, “It is more auspicious for you if you forgive.” Consequently Islam is a religion of love, mercy and compassion. But this also holds true for Gospel and Torah. Even in its distorted form, it has preserved these beautiful features.

Consequently they will abandon trying to provoke Muslims, murdering, acting despotically and attributing an incident perpetrated by a few psychopaths to Muslims. This is very erroneous.

Besides when we look at the murderers, we see that they were educated either in Britain or America and undergone Darwinist and materialist education. Someone with a sufistic manner, someone sensible, or let us think about a follower of Risale-i Nur, has anyone seen a follower of Risale-i Nur whose name has been involved in a murder in any corner of the world?

Oktar Babuna : No one has seen, insha’Allah.

Adnan Oktar: Let alone murder, has anyone seen such a person injuring someone? There are millions of followers of Risale-i Nur, and they, in no way, commit it. For instance a Sufi, a member of a religious order; there are, for instance, Shazinis and Nakhshibendis abroad. Do we ever see them committing such an act? Or a Fiqh scholar, a scholar who has undergone an Ahl al-Sunnah education. Have we ever seen such a scholar committing such an act? In no way. Who are the people that we see committing such acts? Those followers of Ibn Miskhawayh, those Darwinists, materialists, advocates of evolution who have sympathy for socialism, admirers of Che, Ho Shi Minh, those trying to reconcile the views of Lenin with Islam, those people suffering from inferiority complex. Consequently they need to discriminate between them. We mean the genuine Muslims. A genuine Muslim is always full of compassion, mercy and love.