This is your friendly neighborhood exmuslim. In this piece I’m going to be responding to a video called : “Responding to Nabeel Qureshi’s “Why I Stopped Believing Islam” by Adnan Rashid.” So I’m responding to a response. You’ve got to  love that. But Nabeel is gone, so someone needs to reply to this. I am not going to tackle the entire video but focus on the first part where he discusses Muhammad kicking out the non-Muslims from Arabia. He makes it sound like Muhammad was such a peaceful gentleman who nicely relocated the Jews who lived happily ever after in Palestine.

 

First off, Adnan starts by claiming that he is responding to false claims and misconceptions about Islam being spread by missionaries,  islamophobes, outright Islam haters, and extremist atheists – HEY THATS ME. EXTREMIST ATHEIST. You’ve got to love how he makes a full list here.  What does “extremist” atheist even mean? Outright Islam Haters – that’s a new one. Wouldn’t you just stick those under Islamophobes?

Adnan feigns to be unsure of why Nabeel came to the conclusions he had about Islam and ultimately leaving the religion and asks his viewers to decide whether it was misconceptions or deliberate lies or laziness or lack of willingness to do research. Okay Adnan. We’re going to judge you now based on this video where you are repeating misconceptions, deliberate lies, or you’re just being lazy or unwilling to do research. Got it? I love how he makes these supposedly comprehensive lists! Very comprehensive Adnan! Point for you.

Nabeel didn’t make up the hadith on Muhammad wanting to expel the Jews from the Arabian peninsular, its real, and it was actually implemented. Adnan can’t lie and say its not true, because as he said, it’s still being implemented TO THIS day.

Lets review the traditions:

It has been narrated by ‘Umar b. al-Khattab that he heard the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) say:
I will expel the Jews and Christians from the Arabian Peninsula and will not leave any but Muslim.

This is also repeated in Jami At-Tirmidhi, Musnad of Ahmad, and Bukhari.

And in Sahih Bukhari it said that Muhammad’s *dying wish* to expel the pagans from the Arabian Peninsula.

The Prophet (ﷺ) on his death-bed, gave three orders saying, “Expel the pagans from the Arabian Peninsula…”

We know that one by one the Arabian Jews were gradually expelled or killed. The Banu Nadir were expelled from Medina. Banu Qaynuqa were also expelled from Medina. Finally, Muhammad killed all of the men of Banu Qurayza including any boys who reached the age of puberty. Such a wonderful merciful man he was, made sure that the boys got the same treatment as the men.

Muhammad of course didn’t leave the polytheists alone either. The Quran says:

“Fight those who do not believe in Allah or in the Last Day and who do not consider unlawful what Allah and His Messenger have made unlawful and who do not adopt the religion of truth from those who were given the Scripture – [fight] until they give the jizya willingly while they are humbled.” (9:29)

So not only did he destroy the 360 idols at Makkah, He sent armies to neighboring towns to destroy their idols too. He wasn’t the tolerant type you see.

An-Nasa’i recorded that Abu At-Tufayl said,

“When the Messenger of Allah conquered Makkah, he sent Khalid bin Al-Walid to destroy the idol of Uzzah. The Prophet sent Al-Mughirah and Abu Sufyan to destroy Al-Lat. And he sent Jarir bin `Abdullah to Dhul-Khalasah and he destroyed it. He sent Ali to Fals and he destroyed it.

And even after Muhammad died, look what his right hand man Caliph Umar did. He continued in the same legacy. He heard that Muhammad said “Two deens (i.e. two religions) shall not co-exist in the Arabian Peninsula”. Lets read this hadith in Muwatta of Malik:

‘Umar ibn al-Khattab searched for information about this until he was *absolutely convinced* that the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, had said, ‘Two deens shall not co-exist in the Arabian Peninsula,’ and he therefore expelled the Jews from Khaybar.”

So the Jews at Khaybar who were paying jizya before this were expelled by Caliph Umar. Another unique nastiness in Islam. Non-Muslims pay a humiliating tax that comes from that Quranic Verse I quoted earlier.

In the video Adnan claims that the prophet had declared the Hijaz region as a sacred place for Muslims hence non-Muslims were not supposed to stay in the area. He attributes this to the basic etiquette of respecting religious spaces that is applicable to various religions. Okay, step back Adnan boy because this is a false equivalence issue. Yes, Hindu or Sikh temples are sacred spaces sure. But we are talking about a place WHERE NON MUSLIMS ALREADY LIVED. Where Jews had been living for thousands of years. You can’t compare an entire piece of land where people live to a Temple that is built for worship. The Jews in Arabia were there for centuries man. And Muhammad came along and within HIS LIFE he managed to get rid of ALL OF THEM from Arabia. That’s not right. You cant defend this.

Adnan goes on to say “…Jewish communities were relocated to Palestine where they wanted to be.” “RELOCATED” ? Did he just say relocated? Adnan you did NOT use that word. Are you saying you are okay with the ‘forcible relocation’ of people? Say in .. uh. Palestine? According to the Jews, it’s a sacred space for them. Say we took your logic there. Shouldn’t you support the strategic expulsion (I mean “relocation”) of Palestinians? Because you just justified this very thing that Muhammad did. So you must be okay with it?

But honestly, you are a liar. I can’t give you credit and say you are mistaken. You know they were not RELOCATED. They were forcibly expelled or killed. This is not relocation. This is expulsion.

I’ll quote Yasir Qadhi from his Seerah lecture on Banu Nadir where he said:

“So the Banu Nadir packed their belongings and out of sheer spite they took axes at their own houses. And they hacked down their own beautiful structures. Khaybar had the most massive fortresses in the entire Arabian Peninsula. And they took an axe to everything they built with their own hands. And indeed this was a punishment for them from Allah. Ibn Ishaq mentions the amount of wealth they had hidden in these fortresses, the treasures, fabric, jewels etc. The Sahabas were just amazed. And indeed they took everything they could. And the whole tribe was walking, while all the camels are loaded to the absolute top. Many of them even took their own doors – they put the door on top of the camel! The few who converted to Islam were allowed to keep their houses.”

So as you see, this was not relocation. This was a “punishment from Allah”. This was them being allowed to take only what they could carry and go. And all the land and date palms and booty left behind belonged to the Muslims. So the benefited greatly from expelling the native Jews from their land.

Let’s read what the Quran says about this incident of Banu Nadir:

“It is He who expelled the ones who disbelieved among the People of the Scripture from their homes at the first gathering. You did not think they would leave, and they thought that their fortresses would protect them from Allah ; but [the decree of] Allah came upon them from where they had not expected, and He cast terror into their hearts [so] they destroyed their houses by their [own] hands and the hands of the believers. So take warning, O people of vision.” (59:2)

Does this sound like something they wanted to you Adnan? To be “relocated” back to Palestine? Allah describes that they had terror cast into their hearts and their fortresses were destroyed. So no. You’re lying. You’re whitewashing history to make Muhammad sound like some kind gentleman who lovingly sent the Jews back to their homeland.

As for your claim that “Oh they lived happily ever after” did they? Have you seen Palestine? That place does NOT ring of happily ever after. The religious and ethnic infighting has not ended until this day! There is no happily ever after. You are delusional to say that. The fact that Muslims and Jews both think its holy land and both continue to fight over is just making the situation worse if you ask me.

As for the Muslim period in Spain, who is to say it would not have been even better without the disgusting teachings of Dhimmitude, Jiyzah and Jihad? Whatever good things happened does not take away from what Muhammad did to the native Arab Jewish tribes who had lived there for centuries and had a good life in Arabia before this totalitarian religion came and took over the land.

What did Tabari say about this hadith? He ruled that Jews and Christians are to be expelled from all Muslim lands when there is no specific need for them. He understood the expulsion to be not just from Al-Hijaz but all Arabia. He believed that no dhimmis are allowed to live in Muslim cities unless there was an urgent need for them for agriculture commerce or some other purpose until the need was removed. As well as referencing the hadith to prove this, he mentions the actions of Umar and Ali. Umar let conquered people stay in captured lands but not in Najran and Khaybar where they weren’t needed. Ali let non-Muslims stay in Kufa but not in Muslim cities like Zurara or al-Hira.

So only 4 minutes into the Adnan’s video and we have covered SO MANY things wrong already. I will stop there for this article. Muhammad didn’t respect other people. His holy book is full of hostile teachings towards others. His dying orders were to kick out the non-Muslims from Arabia. His legacy is one of violence and hate. We can do much better without these trashy ancient values. We should move forward with a universal humanism that treats all people the same no matter if they are in the right religion or not. There is no right religion. All religious people should be treated the same. With dignity and respect.

If you liked this article, consider supporting me.  I’ll add you to my special mailing list, you’ll get early access to my videos and my eternal gratitude. Remember, guiding someone away from Islam is better than 10 red camels. You can quote me on that hadith. 

References

• Original video
• ‘Two deens shall not co-exist in the Arabian Peninsula,’ and he therefore expelled the Jews from Khaybar.” (Malik)
• It has been narrated by ‘Umar b. al-Khattib that he heard the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) say: I will expel the Jews and Christians from the Arabian Peninsula and will not leave any but Muslim. (Muslim)
• A fragment from an unknown work by al-ṬabarĪ on the tradition ‘Expel the Jews and Christians from the Arabian Peninsula (and the lands of Islam)’ (Cambridge Press)