I idealized an Islam that conformed to my own humanistic values. My imaginary Islam was a beautiful religion. It was a religion of equality and peace. It was a religion that encouraged its followers to go after knowledge and to be inquisitive. It was a religion that was in harmony with science and reason.
Islam is influenced by Christianity and Judaism and shares many features with these religions. However, it has a dimension that these two faiths don’t and that is its political dimension. While Jesus was clear that his kingdom is not of this world, Muhammad’s main objective was to conquer the world and dominate it. This goal is so paramount that for its achievement morality and ethics can be sacrificed. Muslims are allowed and even encouraged to break the rules of ethics and fairness in order to make Islam dominant.
Muhammad said he did not know he was a prophet until Gabriel kicked him on the side, squeezed him and he fell to the ground. Then he was told to read in the name of his god. Even then he thought he had become demon possessed. It was his wife who convinced him that he had seen an angel and had become a prophet. Despite that when the hallucination did not repeat itself, on several occasions he attempted to commit suicide. He thought Allah had abandoned him.
