While Tariq Ramadan is trying to take advantage of the Dalai Lama’s reputation to legitimize censoring the critics of the Muslim Brotherhood, Harun Yahya is busy telling Brotherhood’s supporters what they should really think about Buddhism.
On September 7, 2011, the Dalai Lama, Tariq Ramadan and other personalities took part to the Second Global Conference on World’s Religions after 9/11. It was organized in Montreal with the active cooperation of McGill University and the Université de Montréal.
During the conference a project of Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the World’s Religions was discussed. The article 12.4 of the Declaration claims that “Everyone has the right not to have one’s religion denigrated in the media or the academia.”
This push for censorship is part of a wider campaign led by the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation representing 56 Muslim-majority countries to silence those who criticize Islam.
While this is happening, several Muslim scholars including many endorsed by Tariq Ramadan and the Muslim Brotherhood describe non-Muslim doctrines in a very denigrating way. We do not suggest that these authors should be censored or banned. We bring up this contradiction to highlight the fact that radical Islamists want it both ways.
Syed Maududi and other renowned Muslim scholars have written that kafirs (derogatory word for non-Muslims) will go to hell. They have claimed that Christianity is a distorted religion. In an Islamic Studies course set up by two Muslim Brotherhood operatives for the Edmonton Public School Board, Yusuf Ali’s Qur’an is being used as a reference book. In this book, Jews are described as “apes and swine” (p. 1742). More examples of anti-Jewish stances found in the book are listed in a FrontPage article that was published after the Los Angeles school board decided to pull all its copies of Yusuf Ali’s Qur’an from the shelves of its libraries.
The depiction of Buddhism in Muslim Brotherhood-endorsed books destined to Muslim audiences is no more positive than that of Christianity and Judaism. In fact, it is worse. Harun Yahya’s book Islam and Buddhism is a good example to illustrate where the Muslim Brotherhood and Tariq Ramadan’s “understanding of Islam” leads.
Harun Yahya is a prolific author promoted by various organizations associated with the Muslim Brotherhood. Yahya is a Turkish national born in 1956 whose real name is Adnan Oktar.
Harun Yahya is a frequent contributor to OnIslam, a Muslim Brotherhood news portal closely associated with Youssef Qaradawi. In September 2010, Yahya was identified as a regular OnIslam staff. (GMBDR about OnIslam)
The semi-private library operated by the Muslim Students Association (MSA) at Concordia University in Montreal has 44 books (28 different titles) written by Harun Yahya. The MSA is one of the oldest Muslim Brotherhood organizations in North America. The MSA’s library at Concordia contains books that are endorsed by the Muslim Brotherhood. It has no formal link with the University’s own libraries (catalogue, etc.) but it is operated in Concordia University premises and funded by the Council of Student Life.
Another MSA chapter at Memorial University (St John’s, Newfoundland) promotes Harun Yahya’s books and movies at their regular booth on campus premises. (Video)
Muzammil Siddiqi, an important leader of the Muslim Brotherhood operating in the United States has specifically praised one of Harun Yahya’s books. (Letter)
Harun Yahya’s books are sold at conventions organized by Muslim Brotherhood organizations. (p. 8 – ISNA Booth 1002)
Point 4.18 of a 1991 Muslim Brotherhood internal memorandum stresses the importance of “role distribution” among the organization’s activists in order to achieve success. While Tariq Ramadan is trying to take advantage of the Dalai Lama’s reputation to legitimize censoring the critics of the Muslim Brotherhood, Harun Yahya is busy telling Brotherhood’s supporters what they should really think about Buddhism.
In 2004, Harun Yahya and his colleague Tariq Ramadan were the main speakers at a conference that Ramadan describes as the “largest Islamic event in Australia” on his website.
Harun Yahya claims that Buddhists are guilty of “association” and that their accomplishments are “destined for destruction”
In his book Islam and Buddhism, Harun Yahya concludes that Buddhists’ accomplishments are purposeless and that they are “destined for destruction” because their understanding of God and religion is incompatible with Islam. Harun Yahya accuses Buddhists of “associating” false gods with the real one:
To deny the supremacy of God and worship the idols of an ordinary person, as the Buddhists do, is described in the Qur’an as to “associate something with God.” In hundreds of places in the Qur’an, God reminds us that this “association” is a very serious sin. For example: “(Qur’an, 4:48) God does not forgive anything being associated with Him, but He forgives whoever He wills for anything other than that. Anyone who associates something with God has committed a terrible crime.
(…) To bow before these invented gods is a terrible crime against God. As stated in the Qur’an (4: 48), God may forgive those who commit every other sin and error, but never one who associates His creatures with Him. (Islam and Buddhism – Chapter 1)
Historically, this so-called crime of “association” has been the pretext invoked by Muslim scholars to justify the destruction and the eradication of the Buddhist civilization from India, Afghanistan and many other parts of Asia.
Ibn Khaldun (1332 – 1406) is one of many scholars endorsed by Tariq Ramadan. In his classic Muqaddimah, Ibn Khaldun explains why resorting to coercion and violence against Buddhists and non-Muslims in general is justified:
In his book What I believe (New York, Oxford University Press, 2010, pp. 83-84), Tariq Ramadan rates Ibn Khaldun’s intellectual contribution as “decisive” not only for Islam but for Europe and the West in general.
Point de Bascule has quoted other advocates of jihad and conquests endorsed by Ramadan in a previous article entitled Tariq Ramadan, His Scholars, and His Jihad.
When they destroyed the Buddhist civilization in India, Afghanistan and many other parts of Asia, Muslim leaders followed the very principle explained by Ibn Khaldun.
Mathieu Ricard is a French convert to Buddhism who frequently collaborates with the Dalai Lama. On his personal blog, he describes acts of destructions perpetrated in the past by Muslim invaders against Buddhists and their institutions:
12th century – Waves of Muslim invaders wiped out Buddhism in India
The emperor Ashoka is thought to have built the first monument commemorating the Buddha’s Enlightenment near the Bodhi tree in around the 3rd century B.C. According to detailed accounts by Hieun Tsang, the renowned Chinese pilgrim and scholar, a larger building was erected in the 7th century. A community of several thousand monks was founded near the monument. The waves of Muslim invaders in the 12th century wiped out Buddhism in India and the building was also destroyed.
Bodhgaya, The Diamond Throne of India
April 24, 2011 http://www.matthieuricard.org/en/index.php/archives/2011/04/
1193 – The library of Nalanda set aflame by Muslim invaders
The library of Nalanda, known as Dharma Gunj (Mountain of Truth) or Dharmagañja (Treasury of Truth), was the most renowned repository of Buddhist knowledge in the world. Its collection was said to comprise hundreds of thousands of volumes, so extensive that it burned for months when set aflame by Muslim invaders led by the Turk Bakhtiar Khilji in 1193. Thousand of monks were burned alive or killed.
Nalanda University
April 2, 2011 http://www.matthieuricard.org/en/index.php/blog/140_nalanda_university/
Matthieu Ricard has also commented about Buddhism, Islam and the meaning of life during in exchange with his father Jean-François Revel that has been reproduced in a book entitled The Monk and the Philosopher, New York, Schocken Books, 1999.
Harun Yahya’s Conclusions about Buddhism
In his book Islam and Buddhism, Harun Yahya has come up with many conclusions regarding Buddhism. We have listed them in a concise way. Below, we reproduced the excerpts out of which these conclusions were drawn.
– What Buddhists are doing is destined for destruction.
– Those who adopt Buddhism simply want to show off.
– Buddhism is contrary to logic and intelligence.
– Buddhists deny the supremacy of God and commit a crime that cannot be forgiven.
– Buddhism is not relying on written texts and is distorted.
– Buddhists are destined to Hell.
– Harun Yahya describes Buddhists’ suffering in Hell.
– Good deeds done by Buddhists may have no value.
– Buddhism became a fad for those looking to be more “original”.
– Buddhism has degenerated much more than Judaism or Christianity.
Syed Maududi’s Conclusions about Buddhism
In his book Western Muslims and the Future of Islam (p. 26), Tariq Ramadan identifies Syed Maududi (1903-1979), a Pakistani scholar founder of the organization Jamaat-e-Islami, as one of the main representatives of the so-called “reformist salafist” trend of Islam to which he belongs. In a message honouring his father (posted on August 4, 2011), Tariq Ramadan mentioned that Maududi credited Said Ramadan “for having awakened him from his unconsciousness”. (Archives PdeB)
Here are two conclusions drawn by Maududi about Buddhism. The full excerpts are available below.
– The life of Muslims living in India is vitiated by Hinduism and Buddhism.
– Christian doctors (scholars) distorted their religion by introducing monasticism under the influence of Buddhism and other doctrines.
Fatwas of interest regarding Buddhism
YOGA
In 2008, The National Fatwa council of Malaysia declared that the yoga practice which involves three elements of physical movements, worshipping and chanting is haram (prohibited) in Islam.
According to The Star Online, the Council’s chairman Dr Abdul Shukor Husin added that “although merely doing the physical movements of yoga minus the worshipping and chanting might not be wrong in the eyes of the religion, it should be avoided as ‘doing one would lead to another’.”
ENERGY THERAPY (REIKI)
In 2004, a Muslim woman asked the following question:
A TV program hosted a specialist in the field of energy therapy. In the program, the specialist said that energy therapy is a Japanese exercise called (Reiki Jin-Kei-Do). According to her, it is not a new science, as it is practiced in Islam under the name of ruqyah, which can be considered a variety of energy therapy. The concept of energy therapy revolves around treating the electromagnetic field of the body. She also gave the address of a Web site that gives more information on this. How do you view this type of treatment?
The answer given to this woman is published on the website OnIslam:
This kind of therapy involves daily tasks that include practicing yoga exercises, reading Buddhist books, and repeating the oath of allegiance. Such acts, in fact, are kufr (disbelief in Allah), which must be denounced and rejected no matter what title or name they come under. The world today witnesses a wave of calls for Buddhism, especially in the areas of medication and sports. Thus, Muslims must be on the alert.
To claim that such therapy is known in Islam under the name of ruqyah is brazen lying. In Islam, ruqyah means reciting parts of the Qur’an or some supplications mentioned by the Prophet. (…) They are based on belief in the Oneness of Allah, not in Buddha and his teachings. This fact draws a demarcation line between monotheism and polytheism, belief and disbelief.
So, we warn Muslims against such programs and new polytheist calls that corrupt the faith and damage Muslims creeds.
GMBDR exposes the links between OnIslam, Youssef Qaradawi and the Muslim Brotherhood HERE.
MEDITATION
In 2006, a Muslim woman asked the following question to a group of Muslim scholars:
Sometimes when I get very stressed I like to meditate to calm myself down. Basically, all I do is some breathing exercises that come from Buddhist techniques. Do you find anything wrong with doing these exercises as it comes from Buddhism?
Ahmad Kutty, a Toronto-based imam associated with the Muslim Brotherhood, answered the question:
Islam does not forbid such things; rather it encourages all trusted methods of emotional, spiritual, and physical healing provided they do not contain pagan elements contrary to the concept of tawhid (Oneness of Allah).
Having said this, however, I must rush to add that while meditating, you should strictly repeat the words of dhikr (invocation) as taught by the Qur’an and Hadith rather than the typical mantras as taught by Buddhism or Hinduism.
EXCERPTS
Harun Yahya: What Buddhists are doing is destined for destruction
Those who believe that Buddha is a god (God is surely beyond that!) who sees and hears all things, gives strength, gets angry and forebears, must change their minds and abandon their perverse understanding. And those who are caught up in the unfounded idea of karma and reject the existence the everlasting afterlife, must use their intelligence to save themselves from this error, because “What these people are doing is destined for destruction. What they are doing is purposeless.” (Qur’an, 7:139)
Harun Yahya, Islam and Buddhism (Conclusion)
http://www.harunyahya.com/buddhism06.php
Harun Yahya: Those who adopt Buddhism simply want to show off
Generally, those who adopt Buddhism do so not because they believe in the logic of its philosophy, but because they’re attracted by its “mystical” atmosphere, drawn to this superstition because it is presented to them as far more different and awesome than any other philosophy they encounter in their normal lives. (…) Buddhist priests are presented as possessors of secret, arcane knowledge. They fascinate Westerners with their exotic robes, shaved heads, style of worship, elaborate ceremonies, dwelling places, meditation, yoga and other such strange practices.
Buddhism is seized upon as an important tool by people who want to demonstrate that they are different from others in their society.
Harun Yahya, Islam and Buddhism (Introduction)
http://www.harunyahya.com/buddhism01.php
Harun Yahya: Buddhism is contrary to logic and intelligence
As a belief, Buddhism is contrary to logic and intelligence. Countries where it has been adopted have mixed it with their own idolatrous ideas, traditions and local customs, joining it with myths and deviant ideas until it has evolved into a totally godless philosophy.
Those who believe in idolatrous religio(n)s like Buddhism should realize that they have been misguided:
That is God, your Lord, the Truth, and what is there after truth except misguidance? So how have you been distracted? (Qur’an, 10:32)
Harun Yahya, Islam and Buddhism (Introduction)
http://www.harunyahya.com/buddhism01.php
Harun Yahya: Buddhists deny the supremacy of God and commit a crime that cannot be forgiven
To deny the supremacy of God and worship the idols of an ordinary person, as the Buddhists do, is described in the Qur’an as to “associate something with God.” In hundreds of places in the Qur’an, God reminds us that this “association” is a very serious sin. For example:
God does not forgive anything being associated with Him, but He forgives whoever He wills for anything other than that. Anyone who associates something with God has committed a terrible crime. (Qur’an, 4:48)
The word “associate” or shirk, means partnership. The Qur’an uses it in the sense of associating His creatures with Him, as in treating any thing, person, or any idea as equal to or higher than God. The idolater reveres whatever image, relic, or object that he associates with God more highly than he does God Himself, directing toward it all his love and respect, interest and adoration. The Qur’an (15:96; 17:39; 51:51) refers to this perverse way of thinking as “setting up another god together with God.”
(Buddhists) fill their houses with (Buddha’s) statues, in front of which they perform acts of reverence. In this, they are acting contrary to intelligence and committing a grave sin.
Buddha was a powerless servant whom God created and tested in this world; he had no ability or will of his own to influence people.
Satan has made idolatrous religions seem valid and meaningful to people, to bar them from God’s Way.
To bow before these invented gods is a terrible crime against God. As stated in the Qur’an (4: 48), God may forgive those who commit every other sin and error, but never one who associates His creatures with Him.
The basis of Islam is the knowledge that God exists, and the understanding that there is no god but Him. In the Qur’an, the divine source of Islam, God tells us (2:163) that this is the greatest foundation of religion: “Your God is God Alone. There is no deity except Him, the All-Merciful, the Most Merciful.”
Harun Yahya, Islam and Buddhism (Chapter 1)
http://www.harunyahya.com/buddhism02.php
Harun Yahya: Buddhism is not relying on written texts and is distorted
Buddhism, not relying on any written texts, underwent many changes and distortions over the course of time, being considerably reshaped by additions and omissions.
Buddhism suffers from a very narrow vision that keeps
its believers from considering such basic questions as where they came from, or how the universe and all living things came to be. Indeed, it deters them from even thinking about these things and presses them into the narrow mold of their present earthly life.
Islam is a liberating religion that saves people from useless customs and prohibitions, social pressures
and worries about what other people may think.
All those who adopt the teachings of Islam are very sensitive to what goes on around them. They do not regard the world as Buddhism does, as chaos to avert the eyes from, but as a testing place – an arena in which they can put the high moral teachings of the Qur’an into practice. For this reason, Islamic history is full of just and successful leaders who ensured comfortable and happy lives for their people. In sharp contrast, Buddhism produces only wretched adherents who cause themselves suffering, drag themselves and others into passivity and poverty, and whose only solution to the problems they encounter is to immolate themselves. This is one of the biggest games that Satan plays with people.
Islam – like Judaism and Christianity, other religions based on divine revelation but that were later altered – has a very strong sense of social justice. But karma-based religions like Buddhism and Hinduism tolerate inequality and pose a great obstacle to social progress.
Harun Yahya, Islam and Buddhism (Chapter 2)
http://www.harunyahya.com/buddhism03.php
Harun Yahya: Buddhists are destined to Hell
Buddhism teaches that there is a kind of Paradise and Hell, as a reward and punishment for what a person has done. But because this belief does not stem from a revealed religion, it contains many contradictions and illogicalities. Above all, and contrary to what God has revealed in the Qur’an, Buddhism believes that Paradise and Hell are only transitory.
Using human reasoning to change what has come from God is a serious error. Those who get their heads full of half-baked ideas about the Buddhist way and, in their desire to imitate their favorite pop musicians or film stars, start to follow Buddhism as a fad, should consider this and free themselves from their mistake.
In the Qur’an, God reveals the state of those who say there in no afterlife:
As for those who denied Our Signs and the encounter of the hereafter, their actions will come to nothing. Will they be repaid except for what they did? (Qur’an, 7:147)
But as for those who did not believe and denied Our Signs and meeting in the hereafter, they will be summoned to the punishment (Qur’an, 30:16).
The “repayment” and “punishment” mentioned in these verses will begin at the moment of death. Those who realize what an error they had been living during their earthly lives will feel unrepentable sorrow
However much they may beg and ask for forgiveness, they will begin an afterlife full of agony from which there is no escape, much less a return.
Harun Yahya, Islam and Buddhism (Chapter 2)
http://www.harunyahya.com/buddhism03.php
Harun Yahya Describes Buddhists’ Suffering in Hell
– God will not allow them to speak, and their voices will be no louder than a whisper (Qur’an, 20:108);
– The people of Hell are “shackled together in chains” (Qur’an, 25:13);
– The people of Hell will be jammed into “a sealed vault of Fire” (Qur’an, 90:20) and live in the murk of thick black smoke;
– A scorching wind will burn their skin, which will be continually replaced to burn yet again. Qur’an 4:56: “Every time their skins are burned off, We will replace them with new skins”;
– They will be beaten with cudgels made of iron and bound in “a chain which is seventy cubits long” (Qur’an, 69:32);
– Their foreheads, sides and backs will be branded with the fire. Boiling water will be poured over their heads, and they will be wearing shirts of tar;
– They will have “no food except exuding pus” to eat – which people in this world can hardly stand (Qur’an, 69:36).
Harun Yahya, Islam and Buddhism (Chapter 2)
http://www.harunyahya.com/buddhism03.php
Harun Yahya: Good deeds done by Buddhists may have no value
Buddhism also recommends good deeds, of course, but they may have no value in the sight of God. What value lies in a person’s doing some good to those around him, if he is ungrateful to God, denying the existence of the One Who created him from nothing? In order for his deeds to have any value, they must be done with faith in God – with a view to gaining His approval, in awe of His glory, obedience, and with awareness of His power. For this reason, believers’ superior moral character does not rest on romanticism. Their worship is continual and uninterrupted.
Harun Yahya, Islam and Buddhism (Chapter 2)
http://www.harunyahya.com/buddhism03.php
Harun Yahya: Buddhism became a fad for those looking to be more “original”
One reason why Buddhism has come to the world’s attention is not because of its existence in the Far East – its traditional home – but thanks to propaganda spread in the West. The beginning of this propaganda goes back as far as the 19th century and attracted more interest in the second half of the 20th century when it became a fad for those looking to be more “original.”
The beginning of this fad dates from the pop-culture of the 1960’s when a large number of western youth and some western intellectuals turned away from traditional Christianity looking for something else and found what they were seeking in far-eastern religions. The main impetus for this search was the desire to attract interest by going against the established order. When the late George Harrison of the Beatles, who helped define the pop culture of the ’60s, stated that he had become a Hindu (a pagan religion that preceded Buddhism) and later recorded his own composition, “My Sweet Lord,” a song to Krishna, many Beatles’ fans followed suit. John Lennon used Buddhist mantras in his song entitled “Across the Universe.” Buddhist hymns, styles of dress, and artworks were very popular among hippies in the ’60s and ’70s.
Harun Yahya, Islam and Buddhism (Chapter 3)
http://www.harunyahya.com/buddhism04.php
Harun Yahya: Buddhism has degenerated much more than Judaism or Christianity
Buddhism could be one of the perverse, distorted beliefs that came to degenerate in the wake of the prophets. On the other hand, Buddhism’s set, conservative structure reminds one of the classic distortions that can occur during the degeneration of the true religion.
In the Qur’an, God says that Christians and Jews have fallen into the same trap and have smothered their religions with useless minutiae and prohibitions. For example, erroneous ideas in Buddhism about withdrawing from the world and subjecting one’s self to pain also arose in Christianity as it degenerated through the years. God speaks of this error in the Qur’an (57:27):
Then We sent Our Messengers following in their footsteps and sent Jesus son of Mary after them, giving him the Gospel. We put compassion and mercy in the hearts of those who followed him. They invented monasticism – We did not prescribe it for them – purely out of desire to gain the pleasure of God, but even so, they did not observe it as it should have been observed. To those of them who believed, We gave their reward, but many of them are deviators.
Buddhism may have been a true religion that was ruined after the development of a priesthood. It has certainly degenerated much more than Judaism or Christianity. However much these two religions have been distorted over the course of time, still they are devoted to God’s revelations and found their faiths upon Him. Even if the essence of Buddhism actually comes from a true source, it has completely departed from that essence and become smothered in superstitious ritual, with only a few true moral principles left.
Harun Yahya, Islam and Buddhism (Chapter 4)
http://www.harunyahya.com/buddhism05.php
Syed Maududi: The life of Muslims living in India is vitiated by Hinduism and Buddhism
The harmful effects of this grave deficiency in the education of Muslims during Muslim rule in India have persisted down to this day. The bulk of the Muslims of this country are still soaked in archaic superstition and shaked by rites and customs inherited from their pre-Islamic past. Their knowledge of Islam is poor and defective and their life is vitiated by persisting influences of Hinduism and Buddhism and various other influences rooted in their un-Islamic past. In other words our past still dogs our steps and vitiates our present.
Syed Maududi, Islam Today (The Second Phase – Lack of Proper Education)
http://www.witness-pioneer.org/vil/Books/M_IT/second_phase.htm#Lack of Proper Education
Syed Maududi: Christian doctors (scholars) distorted their religion by introducing monasticism under the influence of Buddhism and other doctrines
The Christian doctors went on permitting every kind of innovation to enter the religion partly under the influence of alien philosophies, customs and practices and partly under their personal preference and whim. Monasticism was one such innovation. Christian scholars and doctors of law took its philosophy and rules and practices from the Buddhist monks, Hindu Yogis and ascetics, Egyptian Anchorites, Iranian Manicheans, and the followers of Plato and Plotinus, and made the same the means ant methods of attaining self-purification, spiritual loftiness and nearness to Allah. Those who committed this error were not ordinary men. From the 3rd to the 7th century (i.e.. till about the time the Qur’an began to be revealed) the religious personalities who were recognized as the foremost scholars and religious guides and leaders of Christendom, both in the East and in the West, – St. Athanasius, St. Basil, St. Gregory of Bazianzus, St. Chrysostom, St. Ambrose, St. Jerome, St. Augustine St. Benedict, St. Gregory the Great – all were monks themselves and great upholders of monasticism. It was under their influence that monasticism became popular in the Church.
Syed Maududi, Tafsir 57:27
http://www.englishtafsir.com/Quran/57/index.html#sdfootnote54sym
Further reading
Dossier – Deuxième conférence sur les religions du monde (Montréal) 07 Septembre 2011
Media and Academe Targeted by a Project of Censorship that Will Be Discussed at a Conference on World’s Religion that Will Take Place in Montreal 06 Septembre 2011
url: https://pointdebasculecanada.ca/articles/10002455-the-muslim-brotherhood-and-buddhism.html
