Radical Islam or Fundamental Islam?

Despite its violent history and its holy book that exhorts its followers to fight against all unbelievers, millions of folks throughout the world remain convinced that Islam is a religion of peace.

There are those who actually believe that Islam merely needs to undergo the same sort of reformation that Christianity experienced about 500 years ago when a Catholic monk named Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the door of a church in Wittenberg, Saxony.

However, the Protestant Reformation arose because the church had strayed far from the Bible into the realm of heresy and man-made traditions.

For example, the Catholic Church promoted (and still continues to promote) a very anti-biblical gospel of works that was never revealed by Jesus Christ nor taught by his disciples and apostles.

Luther decided that the church needed to be reformed by rejecting Rome's false gospel and getting back to the biblical gospel of salvation by faith in the crucified and resurrected Jesus Christ for the sins of the world.

How could Islam possibly be reformed? Is the increasing violence and terrorism committed in the name of Allah merely the result of Muslims who have strayed from the teachings of the Quran? Hardly.

The violence and terrorism committed in the name of Allah are done in obedience to the teachings of the Quran, rather than in opposition. There are over 100 war verses in the Quran that command Muslims to commit jihad against unbelievers or infidels until they either convert to Islam or they are killed.

Here are some examples: "Fight them, Allah will punish them by your hands and bring them to disgrace..."  (Quran 9:14) "O Prophet! strive hard against the unbelievers and the hypocrites and be unyielding to them; and their abode is hell, and evil is the destination." (Quran 9:73) "O Prophet! Strive against the disbelievers and the hypocrites, and be stern with them. Hell will be their home, a hapless journey's end." (Quran 66:9)  Allah's Apostle said, "I have been ordered to fight the people till they say: 'None has the right to be worshipped but Allah'.  And if they say so, pray like our prayers, face our Qibla and slaughter as we slaughter, then their blood and property will be sacred to us and we will not interfere with them except legally." (Bukhari 8:387)

And then there's this: "The person who participates in (Holy Battles) in Allah’s cause and nothing compels him do so except belief in Allah and His Apostle, will be recompensed by Allah either with a reward, or booty ( if he survives) or will be admitted to Paradise ( if he is killed)." (Bukhari 1:35)
 
Muslims who persecute non-Muslims and commit violence aren't radicals. They're fundamentalists. Fundamentalists are those who interpret the Quran literally. That's not radicalism.

The real radical Muslims are the ones who refuse their religion's call to wage jihad against the unbelievers. And thank goodness that the majority of the world's two billion Muslims are radicals rather than fundamentalists.

Because if they were fundamentalists, then what's going on in the Sunni Triangle, Gaza, Libya and Syria would be occurring all over the world.

And so, Islam can't be reformed. If the world truly wants peace, then it will have to eliminate this nemesis.