Can a Billion People be Wrong? - Let's Examine the Truth

by

       M. Richard Maxson

     The best way to get people to comply with the wishes of a leader is to inject religion as a basis for their loyalty. Man does not fear man but man will fear what they don't know and the most important thing that mankind does not know is what happens to the individule at the end of their life. Fear of the unknown is wired into human beings for self protection and survival and it is this fear that allows us to be duped by false ideas. The two major groups to take advantage of that fear are cults and organized religions. The two are similar but quite different and that's where men like Jim Jones, Sun Myung Moon, L. Ron Hubbard, and others take advantage. Today, we will examine what is a cult and what claims to be a religion - Islam. Islam is known as the second largest religion. The very fact that 1.2 billion people call themselves Muslims vests Islam with the mantel of legitimacy and confirms the claim that it is a religion. But is it? Let's examine the truth.

1. A cult is a religious group with extreme beliefs and practices - beliefs that are often contrary to science and logic but they are believed as "obvious" truth by the cult members.

• Islam claims to be a religion with strong devotion to Muhammad and a set of unsubstantiated doctrines presented by him. Monotheism is used as a pretext to exert absolute control over the believers, leaving them no chance to question or investigate alternative paths.

 2. The members of cults often isolate themselves from friends, family and society and use deceptive and unethical recruiting techniques.

• Muhammad forced his followers to leave their families (8:72) and gathered them in Yathrib. He said: “And those who believed but did not leave their homes, ye have no duty to protect them till they leave their homes”. He warned those who did not follow him, leaving behind their families, will be cursed by
  Allah and “their habitation will be hell”(4:97). Muhammad went as far as to order his followers to murder those Muslims who defected his barricade.(4:89) In Yathrib he banished and killed the Jews who did not believe in him, thus eliminating the chance of his followers coming in contact with outsiders and being influenced by anyone. In this way he exerted absolute control over the lives and the minds of his followers. Jim Jones did the same. He called his town "Jonestown". Muhammad changed the name of Yathirb to Madinatul Nabi (Prophet’s Town)

 3. Use manipulative methods to control the minds of followers.

• He used manipulative methods to control the minds of his followers. These methods ranged from threat of hellfire, and promises of paradise, to exhaustive rituals of prayers and fasts, devised to numb the thought, and threat of physical punishment including execution and constant warfare, keeping his followers in perpetual state of agitation.

 4. Venerate a human leader or leaders.

• He established himself as the sole authority among his followers and the only source of guidance to the extent that they looked up to him for every detail of their lives, including how to dress, how
  to shave, how to pray and even how to urinate and how to clean after bowl movement. Ostensibly the worship was to God but effectively he was the only object of veneration of his followers and the only authority. Nominally God was to be obeyed but he was God's proxy, thus assuming the authority of God.

 5. Recruiting work is performed by all of the members.

• All believers were asked to promote his cause through Jihad, propaganda or by giving generously from their wealth. 4:95, 9:20, 49:15, 61:11.

 6. People are not allowed to criticize the leader, the doctrine, or the organization, or read information that is critical of the cult.

• The criticism of Muhammad and Islam was totally prohibited and if anyone dared to question him or his decisions, Omar swiftly unshielded his sword and threatened to slash the throat of the intrepid questioner forcing him to apologize. The message was sent in a very clear tone that no one must question Muhammad and his authority. 1400 years later, the message remains the same. If you question Islam you will be killed.

 7. Members are trained to reject and disbelieve criticism of the cult as lies from Satan.

• Muslims are told to dismiss any criticism of Islam as coming from Satan and they often avoid reading critical views about their Faith. 

 8. Members spy on one another and report improper activities or comments to leaders.

• Muslims are encouraged to spy on each other and report any sign of dissent. Amr bil Maroof wa Nahi anil Munkir (Commanding to follow the religion and preventing from doing what is
  prohibited) is a tenet of Islam. Every Muslim is required to poke his nose in the private lives of others, spy on them and tell them what they should do and what they should not do. Every Muslim is an enforcer of religion and the moral police for others.

 9. Members are taught to suppress anything which might reflect negatively to outsiders about the cult.

•  Muslims suppress anything that might present Islam in negative light. Preserving the image of Islam is of utmost importance and Muslims lie with clarity of conscience to misrepresent their religion and make it look good. For example women in Islam are treated like animals and are considered as deficient in intelligence. Every Muslim knows that including the women, who blame the men for it, but not the Islam. But the lie about the "elevated" status of women in Islam is the narrative. Jihad means aggressive war to expand Islam. Every Muslim knows that. Yet all of them lie and say Jihad means "self defense". A couple of years ago we received a very angry email from a Muslim who cursed me for revealing the fact that Muhammad had slept with a 9-year old child and at the end he said “the damage is already done” and I will be certainly punished for what I had done. The fact that Muhammad slept with a child did not bother this Muslim but what bothered him was revealing this fact.

 10. The doctrine is absolutist and the ideology is internalized as "the Truth."

• Islam is extremely absolutist and Muslims believe that it is the only true religion. This “truth” however is not self evident. It is "true" because Muhammad said so.

 11. Members are told to avoid contact with ex-members or critics, even their relatives.

• Muslims are told to shun the apostates and the critics of Islam. New converts are often circled and are isolated from their non- Muslim family and friends. They are showered with love and receive a lot of emotional support until the brainwashing is complete.

 12. Members are instilled with a deep fear about ever leaving the organization, and anyone who does depart is of the devil and sometimes severely punished.

• Muslims are instilled with the fear of leaving Islam. This fear comes in two forms. One is the fear of Hell and of eternal punishment and the other is the fear of being caught and put to death by fellow Muslims, including their best friends and family.

 13. Members are emotional controlled and warned of being caught and punished.

• Those who leave Islam must live in constant threat of being discovered and killed. In Muslims’ Comments section of this site you can see that Muslims often talk about this fear and say they
  pity me for having to look over my shoulders all the time and live in fear of being assassinated. The values are so distorted that they do not pity themselves for being the assassins but pity me
  for having to live in their fear.

 14. Disciplinary action is administered by group leaders, which may involve excommunication for such things as questioning organization policy or doctrine.

• In Islam disciplinary action includes beating, maiming, stoning, beheading, or jail. Excommunication is for minor offenses. The poet Ka’b and two others were excommunicated for fifty days and during that time no one spoke to them. Ka’b’s wife was told to leave him and wherever he went people ignored him as if he was invisible. All this, because he did not accompany Muhammad in the war of Tabutk.

 15. People are encouraged to sacrifice education, career and family interests to server the interests of the cult.

• Muslims are told to sacrifice their comfort, their wealth and including their lives to promote Islam. Young men are encouraged to leave their studies and work, wage Jihad, and commit suicide bombing to make Islam dominant. Family and even children are regarded as "tests" of the believers. To prove
  their loyalty to Allah, they must be able to forgo all these "worldly attachments" and get ready to sacrifice their lives in the cause of Islam. It is a suicide cult.

 16. Advocate socializing only with other members in the organization and avoiding outsiders.

• Muslims are discouraged to take friends from amongst the unbelievers even if these unbelievers are their kin. 3:28 They are told the unbelievers are najis (filthy) 9:28 and that the believers should not associate with them.

 17. The belief in apocalypse and Dooms Day.

• The belief in the Day of Judgment and the Dooms Day is one of the pillars of the Islamic Faith. 

      Based on fact and definition, Islam is a cult. It is the biggest and the most successful cult. It practically reunites every feature of cult. Other cults may not be cultic in some of the above points. But Islam is cultic in every way and it would be a gross mistake to number it among religions just because 1.2 billion benighted people call themselves Muslims.

      Can 1.2 billion people be wrong?  Truth cannot be established by the consensus of the majority. In fact throughout history many arguments have been proven to be false, even though everyone in the world once accepted them as true. For example, not until a few centuries ago everyone believed that the Earth is flat and is at the center of the universe. Despite that common belief both so-called truths were false. A false belief does not become true just because everyone thinks they are true. In conclusion, not only 1.2 billion people, but the entire mankind can be wrong by accepting that Islam is a religion - it is not.