5 Feet of Fury

‘Islam, Islamism and Moderation: what, exactly, is the difference?’

David Solway writes:

In asserting the peaceful nature of Islam against all the evidence to the contrary, many Muslims and their enablers will often bring up Surah 2:256, the famous “There is no compulsion in religion” dictum, which has been violated since time immemorial and is contradicted by innumerable other passages in the Koran.

Surah 9:29, for example, is unambiguous: “Fight those of the People of the Book who do not truly believe in God and the Last Day, who do not forbid what God and his Messenger have forbidden, who do not obey the rule of justice, until they pay the tax and agree to submit.”

Surah 9:5 enjoins the believer to “Fight and slay the Pagans wherever you may find them.”

Surah 4:89 does not temporize with apostates: “If they desert you, seize them and put them to death wherever you find them.”