Common Core Islamic Vocab

Apparently there is a vocabulary exercise in Common Core that also promises understanding of Islam.  Students learn vocabulary while coming to appreciate Islam.  I would like to add a few lessons myself.  Read this and see if you think a child would learn anything.

Abrogation.  The holy (i.e. “perfect”) Koran has contradictory passages which are fixed by the doctrine of abrogation.  The later passage (i.e. revealed to Mohammad) is the correct one and the abrogated early passage is said to be a Satanic Verse (i.e. influenced by Satan).  But since the Suras are not arranged chronologically and different sects of Islam think different sequences of Suras took place, it takes a Muslim scholar to tell you which is a Satanic verse and which isn’t.  In general, the latter revelations are more warlike so the peaceful, inclusive passages are Satanic, but these are still valuable since they allow Muslims to quote them to infidels and hide their true intentions

Holy Books The Koran (Quran) is holy to all Muslims as are the Haditha, stories about the prophet Mohammad.  But different sects have different Haditha.  Hence Islamic law or Sharia (Islam is both a religion and a political system) differs with each different sect. Hence the sects distrust and kill each other with impunity.

Tahrif Muslims believe the Bible has become corrupted or tahrif. So in the Koran, Mary is the mother of Jesus but also the sister of Moses.  Jonah and Samson are placed after Christ.  And  Jesus didn’t die on the cross.  He passed out and Roman soldiers couldn’t tell a dead man from an unconscious one, so they entombed him.  When he woke on the third day, he evidently managed to roll away the several ton stone and overpower the guards. 

Jihad.  Jihad simply means an act to further the faith.  Some jihads are non-violent, some are not.  But if you are killed in jihad (martyred) that guarantees heaven.  This is why most suicide bombers and other violent jihadists are not dregs of society, who worry about getting daily sustenance, but rich and accomplished men who lack nothing but assurance of heaven. This is important because of …

Hell Hell is where everyone goes, Muslims and infidels and pagans. Some Muslims are purified in hell’s torture but others stay there forever, along with infidels and pagans.

Infidels Infidels are ‘unfaithfuls’—Christians and Jews who God tried to reach before Mohammad.  They didn’t write his words or obey his submission, however, and have bastardized scriptures.  But infidels are a category different from pagans who are to be simply exterminated. In the Haditha, Mohammad pronounced that Jews were descended from pigs and Christians from apes.  It is not clear if one converts, does your DNA change?

Dhimmitude  Dhimmis are Christians and Jews living under Muslim Sharia law.  They are to pay a tax of 20%.  What usually happened historically to those under Dhimmitude was that they went bankrupt and were sold into slavery. 

Andalusia  Andalusia was the Muslim kingdom which is now Spain during the Middle Ages.  Western scholars admire the buildings and for a time in the early twentieth century thought that a peaceful and prosperous regime ruled the country.  (It is now realized that Dhimmitude essentially made others a lower caste, hence the state rotted from within.)   So one form of jihad is “to promote the myth of Andalusia” as a deception of infidels.

Wife-beating.  Wife-beating is prescribed in the noble Koran in 4 places.  In the Haditha, it is clear that Mohammad blamed women for every sexual sin, since they “tempted” men. Thus the holy books prescribe head coverings and there are lots of traditions among Muslims, like genital mutilation.  Today most Muslims are monogamous.  Only in the Persian Gulf is polygamy common.  The Koran allowed up to 4 wives but Mohammad had 9, the youngest he married at age 6.

Arabic Khadijeh, Mohammad’s first wife, who was a Jew, wrote down his revelations because he couldn’t read or write.  But the revelations were in ancient Arabic, which Mohammad said was the sacred language of God. And only in that language is the Koran valid.  That is why fewer than ½% of Muslims today have actually read the Koran because they don’t know ancient Arabic.  So most Islam is ‘cultural’-- learned through traditions and word of mouth.  Thus many think Mohammad was sinless, but in one Hadith, Mohammad tells Khadijeh he wasn’t sure if even he was destined to heaven.

Allah  Allah is just the Arabic word for God, but it has other implications.  The Arabs before Mohammad worshipped the moon god Allah who was originally Ba’al of ancient Israel and Bel of Babylon. Allah followers were renowned for fanaticism, cruelty and bloody violence.  In 622 Mohammad’s wife and her supportive uncle died and Mohammad was run out of Mecca by the other Jews.  He went to Medina, converted and allied with a tribe of Allah worshippers and 8 years later attacked Mecca and massacred all the Jews.