A Critical Analysis of 'Real Islam'. Its People ... - Bukti dan Saksi

making them pay a ransom, for the most advantageous choice for the Muslims, and the wisest for Islam. The
ransom imposed upon them is not to consist either of gold, silver, or wares, but is only in exchange for Muslim
captives…" [37]
Ibn Abi Zayd Al_Qayrawani (d. 996), head of the North African Maliki school at Qairuan:
"There is no inconvenience to kill white non-Arabs who have been taken prisoner". [38]
The famous Syrian jurist Ibn Taymiyya (d. 1328) of the Hanbali school under the Mamluks:
"…If a male unbeliever is taken captive during warfare or otherwise, eg., as a result of a shipwreck, or because
he has lost his way, or as a result of a ruse, then the imam may do whatever he deems appropriate: killing him,
enslaving him, releasing him or setting him free for a ransom consisting in either property or people. This is the
view of most jurists and it is supported by the Koran and the Sunna…" [39]
These rulings had tangible consequences. For centuries, from the Iberian Peninsula to the Indian
subcontinent, jihad campaigns waged by Muslim armies against infidel Jews, Christians, Zoroastrians,
Buddhists and Hindus, were punctuated by massacres, including mass throat slittings and beheadings of
captives. Here are but a few examples. Non-Muslim (i.e., Christian) prisoners were beheaded, summarily,
during a jihad campaign against Tripoli in the mid-7th century, as chronicled by Ibn Khaldun in his,
History of the Berbers and the Moslem Dynasties of Northern Africa:
"Abd-Allah set siege to the city [Tripoli]; but later, unwilling to let himself be diverted from the goal that he had
in mind, he gave the order to break camp. While we were making our preparations, we spied some vessels that
had just landed on the shore; immediately we attacked them and threw into the water anyone who was aboard.
They put up some resistance, but then surrendered, and we tied their hands behind their backs. They were four
hundred in number. Abd-Allah then joined us, and he had their heads cut off." [40]
During the period of "enlightened" Muslim rule, the Christians of Iberian Toledo, who had first
submitted to their Arab Muslim invaders in 711 or 712, revolted in 713. In the harsh Muslim reprisal that
ensued, Toledo was pillaged, and all the Christian notables had their throats cut. On the Indian
subcontinent, Hindu combatants captured during jihad campaigns were killed in orgies of brutal violence,
on a simply staggering scale, as documented by Muslim chroniclers. After Muhammad bin Qasim took
the fort of Brahmanabad in Sindh following a 6-month siege, around 711-712 C.E.
"…When the plunder and the prisoners of war were brought before Qasim, and enquiries were made about
every captive, it was found that Ladi, the wife of Dahir, was in the fort with two daughters of his by his other
wives. Veils were put on their faces, and they were delivered to a servant to keep them apart. One-fifth of all the
prisoners were chosen and set aside; they were counted as amounting to twenty thousand in number, and the
rest were given to the soldiers…(Qasim) sat on the seat of cruelty, and put all those who had fought to the
sword. It is said that about six thousand fighting men were slain, but according to some, sixteen thousand were
killed…" [41]
And Amir Timur, during his jihad campaigns through Northern India (1397-99 C.E.) conducted what
may have been the greatest mass slaughter of prisoners ever chronicled:
"Next day, Friday the 3rd of the month. I left the fort of Loni and marched to a position opposite to Jahan-numa
where I encamped… I now held a Court… At this Court Amir Jahan Shah and Amir Sulaiman Shah and other
amirs of experience, brought to my notice that, from the time of entering Hindustan up to the present time, we
had taken more than 100,000 infidels and Hindus prisoners, and that they were all in my camp…I asked their
advice about the prisoners, and they said that on the great day of battle these 100,000 prisoners could not be left
with the baggage, and that it would be entirely opposed to the [Islamic] rules of war to set these idolaters and
foes of Islam at liberty. In fact, no other course remained but that of making them all food for the sword. When
I heard these words I found them in accordance with the rules of war, and I directly gave my command for the
tawachis [drumbeaters] to proclaim throughout the camp that every man who had infidel prisoners was to put
them to death…When this order became known to the ghazis of Islam, they drew their swords and put their
prisoners to death. 100,000 infidels, impious idolaters, were on that day slain. Maulana Nasiru-d-din ‘Umar, a
counselor and man of learning, who, in all his life, had never killed a sparrow, now, in execution of my order,
slew with his sword fifteen idolatrous Hindus, who were his captives…" [42]
Lastly, Babur (1483-1530), the founder of the Mughal Empire, who is revered as a paragon of
Muslim tolerance by modern revisionist historians, recorded the following in his autobiographical
"Baburnama", about infidel prisoners of a jihad campaign: