They don't make up crap like this. Crap like this starts like something much more mundane, and then evolves over time. Standard urban legend development: someone starts with a kernel -- might even be true -- and then subsequent retellers embellish and alter, sometimes not even intentionally, but usually heading toward a more shocking, humorous, or moving "true" story.
Last time I heard this one -- quite a while back -- the verse number wasn't 9:11, and the Eagle lost to the glorious armies of Allah. Some LGF-style nutjob was claiming it was a Koranic verse that motivated the jihadis to believe it was their destiny to fight us.
Why single out his myth? The internet is filled with myths. Someone emailed me the other day how mars would be extremely close to earth and look as big as the moon. I certainly would hope not.
"...entire section of the Koran is about how to deal with non-Muslims,"
Which entire section? The entire section is 9:Repentance and talks about much more than just how to deal with non-Muslims. For instance it tells you what to think of them in several places. Example:
9:28 O ye who believe! The idolaters only are unclean. So let them not come near the Inviolable Place of Worship after this their year. If ye fear poverty (from the loss of their merchandise) Allah shall preserve you of His bounty if He will. Lo! Allah is Knower, Wise.
It also makes all sorts of derogatory statements about non-Muslims like they are liars and evil.
9:23 O ye who believe! Choose not your fathers nor your brethren for friends if they take pleasure in disbelief rather than faith. Whoso of you taketh them for friends, such are wrong-doers.
9:28 O ye who believe! The idolaters only are unclean. So let them not come near the Inviolable Place of Worship after this their year. If ye fear poverty (from the loss of their merchandise) Allah shall preserve you of His bounty if He will. Lo! Allah is Knower, Wise.
9:125 But as for those in whose hearts is disease, it only addeth wickedness to their wickedness, and they die while they are disbelievers.
... and lies about disbelievers
in various places
9:26 Then Allah sent His peace of reassurance down upon His messenger and upon the believers, and sent down hosts ye could not see, and punished those who disbelieved. Such is the reward of disbelievers.
It also rambles on about Allah's punishment for nonbelievers, that Allah spies on everyone, how powerful he is over and over, gets all paranoid about Muslim hypocrites,
"and basically says that as long as unbelievers are honorable and keep their word and/or treaties with you you should leave them in peace and even offer them protection if they ask for it."
Pretty damn charitable interpretation on your part. It starts out with ...
9:1 Freedom from obligation (is proclaimed) from Allah and His messenger toward those of the idolaters with whom ye made a treaty.
That doesn't sound like it's advocating the honoring of treaties.
9:2 Travel freely in the land four months, and know that ye cannot escape Allah and that Allah will confound the disbelievers (in His Guidance).
That's referring to the four holy months.
9:3 And a proclamation from Allah and His messenger to all men on the day of the Greater Pilgrimage that Allah is free from obligation to the idolaters, and (so is) His messenger. So, if ye repent, it will be better for you; but if ye are averse, then know that ye cannot escape Allah. Give tidings (O Muhammad) of a painful doom to those who disbelieve,
Wow, more claiming that Muslims need not live by their treaties with non-Muslims.
9:4 Excepting those of the idolaters with whom ye (Muslims) have a treaty, and who have since abated nothing of your right nor have supported anyone against you. (As for these), fulfill their treaty to them till their term. Lo! Allah loveth those who keep their duty (unto Him).
Here it seems to indicate that they might have to obey some treaties but with some huge exceptions. Exceptions you could drive a truck through. After all what does "supporting anyone against you" mean. Seems it can merely mean taking sides on the issue of whether Mohammed is a real prophet or not. What does "abated nothing of your right" mean. Well this depends on what your rights are. Mohammed claims the right to worship at other peoples holy places. So it seems like if they were blocked from some other religious holy sites that would lead to a dissolving of the treaty.
9:5 Then, when the sacred months have passed, slay the idolaters wherever ye find them, and take them (captive), and besiege them, and prepare for them each ambush. But if they repent and establish worship and pay the poor-due, then leave their way free. Lo! Allah is Forgiving, Merciful.
Well this seems to indicate that once the four months are up well anything goes. Not just anything goes but Muslims are commanded to slaughter, with the exception if the "repent and establish worship". Of course this means that they convert to Islam, as is clear from many other places in the Qur’an. We must remember the context; this is the Qur’an, not a guide by Miss Manners.
Note the obscenity of this. There is no indication that they inform their former treaty partners that they intend to break the treaty. There is no real moral obligation to be fair here at all. Heck if one guy from the other side attacks someone, makes the slightest show of support for someone you don't like then, well, "Have at em".
9:6 And if anyone of the idolaters seeketh thy protection (O Muhammad), then protect him so that he may hear the Word of Allah, and afterward convey him to his place of safety. That is because they are a folk who know not.
How noble! What a protection racket! This just says to give refuge to traitors of the other side and then to indoctrinate them in Islam.
9:7 How can there be a treaty with Allah and with His messenger for the idolaters save those with whom ye made a treaty at the Inviolable Place of Worship ? So long as they are true to you, be true to them. Lo! Allah loveth those who keep their duty.
Muslims don't have to honor treaties that you didn't happen to make in a place of worship. I wonder if they still expect the other side to honor them. I also wonder whether only Muslim places of worship count.
More easily avoided claptrap about being true to the treaty if the other side is true. Given all the exceptions and caveats it's easy to see the non-Muslim side with suspicion. In fact this surah just spent two sentences spreading needless suspicion on the non-believer.
9:8 How (can there be any treaty for the others) when, if they have the upper hand of you, they regard not pact nor honor in respect of you ? They satisfy you with their mouths the while their hearts refuse. And most of them are wrongdoers.
More suspicion. This is a howler. How can you trust those damn non-Muslims to honor a treaty if you don't have your foot on their throat.
What kind of a twisted mind comes up with this kind of stuff?
9:9 They have purchased with the revelations of Allah a little gain, so they debar (men) from His way. Lo! evil is that which they are wont to do.
9:10 And they observe toward a believer neither pact nor honour. These are they who are transgressors.
More lies about non-Muslims. Derogatory lies that would tend to influence someone to violate their treaties.
9:11 But if they repent and establish worship and pay the poor-due, then are they your brethren in religion. We detail Our revelations for a people who have knowledge.
This merciful sounding part doesn't even apply to non-Muslims. After all if they repent and establish worship then they aren't non-believers anymore are they?
9:12 And if they break their pledges after their treaty (hath been made with you) and assail your religion, then fight the heads of disbelief - Lo! they have no binding oaths - in order that they may desist.
Wow. This tends to indicate that these "treaties" contained blaspheme clauses. Thus treaty violation could consist merely of saying "Hey, that Mohammed prophet guys a fake so I don't worship his Allah". Tends to support that 9:4 was indeed a very low bar to meet before you can violate treaties. Seems quite one sided. Mohammed can go around deriding the polytheist deities and invade their places of worship as he pleases with his blaspheme and if anyone object well then they are treaty breakers and must die.
9:13 Will ye not fight a folk who broke their solemn pledges, and purposed to drive out the messenger and did attack you first ? What! Fear ye them ? Now Allah hath more right that ye should fear Him, if ye are believers
Hardly likely! Mohammed was almost always the first to attack.
I could go on this way but let me skip around a little to make some points.
9:28 O ye who believe! The idolaters only are unclean. So let them not come near the Inviolable Place of Worship after this their year. If ye fear poverty (from the loss of their merchandise) Allah shall preserve you of His bounty if He will. Lo! Allah is Knower, Wise.
9:29 Fight against such of those who have been given the Scripture as believe not in Allah nor the Last Day, and forbid not that which Allah hath forbidden by His messenger, and follow not the Religion of Truth, until they pay the tribute readily, being brought low.
That certainly does not indicate any form of tolerance, although I agree it does sound like providing "protection". Protection in the sense of a Mafia racket. "You sure have some nice merchandise here. You wouldn't want anything to happen to it" kind of protection.
9:30 And the Jews say: Ezra is the son of Allah, and the Christians say: The Messiah is the son of Allah. That is their saying with their mouths. They imitate the saying of those who disbelieved of old. Allah (Himself) fighteth against them. How perverse are they!
9:31 They have taken as lords beside Allah their rabbis and their monks and the Messiah son of Mary, when they were bidden to worship only One God. There is no God save Him. Be He Glorified from all that they ascribe as partner (unto Him)!
Dean you seem to have forgotten to mention this part. Apparently, Christians and Jews are little more than idolaters, hypocritical ones at that, polytheists in monotheist clothing. Well all those nasty things that are laid out for idolaters might just also apply to them; depending on the mood of the Muslim.
9:36 Lo! The number of the months with Allah is twelve months by Allah's ordinance in the day that He created the heavens and the earth. Four of them are sacred: that is the right religion. So wrong not yourselves in them. And wage war on all of the idolaters as they are waging war on all of you. And know that Allah is with those who keep their duty (unto Him).
Wage war on all idolaters! Immediately after claiming that they also include Jews and Christians! That only three passages back and lest you think this is unrelated consider that two of the intervening passages being slurs against Jews and Christians, and the last a claim that Islam will prevail over all religion.
That certainly doesn't seem like sage advice, nor does it seem a recommendation for reasonable behavior. Must they war against all? In fact it seems like an insane over generalization worthy of the worse crazed Internet flamer.
Let's repeat that to let it sink in.
And wage war on all of the idolaters as they are waging war on all of you.
That's the mindset of this book the Qur’an. One guy on the other side or a few oppose you and therefore it's the whole world against the Muslims in a bloody war. That meshes just nicely with the conditions for violating treaties. Muslims are not bound to treaties if the other side attacks. Since everyone is at war against them then, apparently, treaties don’t bind Muslims at all, according to the Qu’ran.
To paraphrase what some guy once said, "You can find justification to do anything between the pages of the Quran".
Last time I heard this one -- quite a while back -- the verse number wasn't 9:11, and the Eagle lost to the glorious armies of Allah. Some LGF-style nutjob was claiming it was a Koranic verse that motivated the jihadis to believe it was their destiny to fight us.
It has mutated in quite an unexpected direction!
Does the Koran even use "it is written"? I'd think that would be what people say when they are quoting the Koran, not out of the Koran itself.
Which entire section? The entire section is 9:Repentance and talks about much more than just how to deal with non-Muslims. For instance it tells you what to think of them in several places. Example:
It also makes all sorts of derogatory statements about non-Muslims like they are liars and evil.
... and lies about disbelievers
in various places
Pretty damn charitable interpretation on your part. It starts out with ...
That doesn't sound like it's advocating the honoring of treaties.
That's referring to the four holy months.
Wow, more claiming that Muslims need not live by their treaties with non-Muslims.
Here it seems to indicate that they might have to obey some treaties but with some huge exceptions. Exceptions you could drive a truck through. After all what does "supporting anyone against you" mean. Seems it can merely mean taking sides on the issue of whether Mohammed is a real prophet or not. What does "abated nothing of your right" mean. Well this depends on what your rights are. Mohammed claims the right to worship at other peoples holy places. So it seems like if they were blocked from some other religious holy sites that would lead to a dissolving of the treaty.
Well this seems to indicate that once the four months are up well anything goes. Not just anything goes but Muslims are commanded to slaughter, with the exception if the "repent and establish worship". Of course this means that they convert to Islam, as is clear from many other places in the Qur’an. We must remember the context; this is the Qur’an, not a guide by Miss Manners.
Note the obscenity of this. There is no indication that they inform their former treaty partners that they intend to break the treaty. There is no real moral obligation to be fair here at all. Heck if one guy from the other side attacks someone, makes the slightest show of support for someone you don't like then, well, "Have at em".
How noble! What a protection racket! This just says to give refuge to traitors of the other side and then to indoctrinate them in Islam.
Muslims don't have to honor treaties that you didn't happen to make in a place of worship. I wonder if they still expect the other side to honor them. I also wonder whether only Muslim places of worship count.
More easily avoided claptrap about being true to the treaty if the other side is true. Given all the exceptions and caveats it's easy to see the non-Muslim side with suspicion. In fact this surah just spent two sentences spreading needless suspicion on the non-believer.
More suspicion. This is a howler. How can you trust those damn non-Muslims to honor a treaty if you don't have your foot on their throat.
What kind of a twisted mind comes up with this kind of stuff?
More lies about non-Muslims. Derogatory lies that would tend to influence someone to violate their treaties.
This merciful sounding part doesn't even apply to non-Muslims. After all if they repent and establish worship then they aren't non-believers anymore are they?
Wow. This tends to indicate that these "treaties" contained blaspheme clauses. Thus treaty violation could consist merely of saying "Hey, that Mohammed prophet guys a fake so I don't worship his Allah". Tends to support that 9:4 was indeed a very low bar to meet before you can violate treaties. Seems quite one sided. Mohammed can go around deriding the polytheist deities and invade their places of worship as he pleases with his blaspheme and if anyone object well then they are treaty breakers and must die.
Hardly likely! Mohammed was almost always the first to attack.
I could go on this way but let me skip around a little to make some points.
That certainly does not indicate any form of tolerance, although I agree it does sound like providing "protection". Protection in the sense of a Mafia racket. "You sure have some nice merchandise here. You wouldn't want anything to happen to it" kind of protection.
Dean you seem to have forgotten to mention this part. Apparently, Christians and Jews are little more than idolaters, hypocritical ones at that, polytheists in monotheist clothing. Well all those nasty things that are laid out for idolaters might just also apply to them; depending on the mood of the Muslim.
Wage war on all idolaters! Immediately after claiming that they also include Jews and Christians! That only three passages back and lest you think this is unrelated consider that two of the intervening passages being slurs against Jews and Christians, and the last a claim that Islam will prevail over all religion.
That certainly doesn't seem like sage advice, nor does it seem a recommendation for reasonable behavior. Must they war against all? In fact it seems like an insane over generalization worthy of the worse crazed Internet flamer.
Let's repeat that to let it sink in.
That's the mindset of this book the Qur’an. One guy on the other side or a few oppose you and therefore it's the whole world against the Muslims in a bloody war. That meshes just nicely with the conditions for violating treaties. Muslims are not bound to treaties if the other side attacks. Since everyone is at war against them then, apparently, treaties don’t bind Muslims at all, according to the Qu’ran.
To paraphrase what some guy once said, "You can find justification to do anything between the pages of the Quran".