Basic Principles of Islam

The following is the article What Makes Islam So Successful? separated into a linked outline. I thought it might be useful to break each of the elements into separate posts. Here are some of the key components of the package of ideas (or bundle of beliefs) known as Islam:

1. A standardized version of the idea-collection is written down.

2. The Quran includes instructions for its own spread.

3. The idea-collection includes instructions for its own preservation, protection, and duplication.

4. Islamic doctrine commands its followers to create a government that supports it.

5. Permission to spread the religion by war.

6. Lands must be conquered.

7. The idea-collection provides new soldiers by allowing polygamy.

8. It is a punishable offense to criticize Islam.

9. You can't leave Islam once you're in.

10. Islam must be your first allegiance.

11. Dying while fighting for Islam is the ONLY way to guarantee a man's entrance into Paradise.

12. You must read the Quran in Arabic.

13. You must pray five times a day.

14. The prayers involve moving together in time.

15. A woman is in a thoroughly subordinate position.

16. The only way a woman can guarantee her passage into Paradise is if her husband is happy with her when she dies.

17. Allah gives Himself permission to edit His own work.

18. The Quran uses the carrot and stick to reinforce behavior.

19. Islam provides a huge and inspiring goal.

20. Non-Muslims must pay a large tax.

21. A Muslim is forbidden to make friends with a non-Muslim.

22. The Quran counsels the use of deceit when dealing with non-Muslims.

23. Islam must always be defended.

24. Islamic writings teach the use of pretext to initiate hostilities.

25. The explicit use of double standards.

26. It is forbidden to kill a Muslim (except for a just cause).

27. If Muslims drift away from Mohammed's teachings, Allah will end the world.

28. The message in a standard Quran is difficult to decipher.


What should we do with this information about Islam? That's a good question. For some, the solution is to hate Muslims, but that doesn't make any sense. Most Muslims had no choice in their religion, and many of them don't know as much about their own religion as you now do.

I think the best thing any of us can do is to simply help other non-Muslims learn about Islam. Because Islam is so successful, its teachings are becoming more and more influential on the world stage, and its built-in aggressiveness should be curbed. But the only way it can be curbed is if enough people know about it. The way we understand Islam determines what policies we collectively endorse or reject about it.

So first, learn more about it. And then share what you know with others. And let them know what they can do about it too. To learn more, I suggest you first read the Quran. This is the version I recommend.

Learn more about the details of Islamic doctrine here.

If you'd like to do something more, start here: What Can You Do About It?

28. The message in a standard Quran is difficult to decipher

Principle number 28 of Basic Elements of Islam: The message in a standard Quran is difficult to decipher. Whether it was done intentionally or not, the Quran's message has been scrambled and in a sense, coded. This discourages almost all non-Muslims and a significant percentage of Muslims from understanding it.

In what way is the message scrambled? First, the chapters are published out of order in every standard Quran. Rather than printing them using the chronological order in which they were revealed, the 114 chapters (suras) of the Quran are arranged using a baffling method: They're arranged in order from the longest chapter to the shortest. That's the traditional order.

When you read a standard Quran straight through like a normal book, the message is disjointed and the story jumps around and seems contradictory. One very important consequence of this curious disorder is that it hides the clear progression from Mohammad's semi-tolerance of non-Muslims to his violent hatred toward them.

The disorder also prevents anyone from figuring out which passages are abrogated unless they know the chronological order of the Quran.

The second way the Quran has been put into code is by putting the key somewhere else. Much of the Quran cannot be understood without being familiar with the life of Mohammad (by reading the Sira and the Hadith). These are primarily about Mohammad — what he said and did.

In other words, the Quran — the source book, the single most important holy book in Islam — can't be understood without the key, and the key can only be found somewhere else, which is similar to one of the ways a message can be written in code: Put the key to understanding the message somewhere else besides including it in the message. This is enough to keep most non-Muslims from understanding the Quran, and also keeps most Muslims on a need-to-know basis. So the only ones who really know what's going on are the imams and the scholars. They call the shots. Everyone else is in the dark.

If the Quran wasn't put in code deliberately, it has been a tremendously fortuitous accident which has served the goals of Islam very well throughout history. Fortunately, someone has unscrambled the Quran for us. Read more about that here.

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25. The explicit use of double standards

Principle number 25 of Basic Elements of Islam: The explicit use of double standards. Islam has one standard for Muslims, and a different standard for non-Muslims, which always gives the advantage to Muslims and within a Muslim country, it provides incentives to convert.

For example, Islam must be spread by its believers, wherever they are. But when others try to spread their religions, Muslims are supposed to see it as an aggression against Islam — an act of aggression that must be "defended." Islam must always be defended.

As another example, when Islam is defamed in any way, Muslims should violently defend it. Even in a cartoon. But Muslims can and should defame Jews and Christians in Muslim newspapers and television, and they should defame any infidel or enemy, as they defame the U.S. today.

Here's another example: The Islamic supremacists of Saudi Arabia are pouring money into building mosques all over the free world. But according to Sharia law, which is the law in Saudi Arabia, no non-Muslim religious structures are allowed to be built.

Yet Muslims all over the world protest loudly and violently when anyone in Europe or America resists the building of more mosques in their countries.

Islamic supremacists don't see the irony in it. They don't feel strange having such an obvious double standard. They are, after all, Allah's followers and everyone else is deluded. Fairness and equality with such unworthy infidels would seem very out of place. A double standard seems completely appropriate from that perspective.

The double standard principle is a key part of the idea-collection, and it has been a great advantage in the spread of Islam (and the suppression of competing religions).

Sixty-one percent of the Quran is about non-Muslims and how to deal with them. Not one verse in the Quran about non-Muslims is positive (source).

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26. It is forbidden to kill a Muslim

Principle number 26 of Basic Elements of Islam: It is forbidden to kill a Muslim (except for a just cause). It is not forbidden to kill a non-Muslim. This causes a bond between Muslims, fear in non-Muslims, and motivation to become Muslim. This is also another example of an explicit Islamic double standard.

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27. If Muslims drift away from Mohammed's teachings, Allah will end the world

Principle number 27 of Basic Elements of Islam: If Muslims drift away from Mohammed's teachings, Allah will end the world. That makes converting others and promoting Islam a matter of survival. It also motivates Muslims to prevent each other from losing faith.

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