While representative Ilhan Omar was speaking at an event, some crazy lunatic guy just got up, went up to her, and sprayed her with a substance from a syringe.

This is an outrage! An outrage, I say! And this calls for an immediate and thorough investigation.

Hold nothing back. Leave no stone unturned. We need to get to the bottom of this entire incident.

If Ilhan Omar getting sprayed was legit, why didn't she care what was sprayed on her?

Why did she just go back to speaking?

Everyone else in the world would be running out of there & ripping their clothes off, taking a shower, scrubbing.

How did she know it wasn't harmful? pic.twitter.com/XkCcgekrfF

— Mila Joy (@Milajoy) January 28, 2026

For example, I want to know more about the assailant. There seems to be something fishy about the guy. And I’m not the only one who thinks so. After all, the cameraman who focused on him while he was sitting in the front row probably determined that there was something off about him.

I want to know just what it was about ICE and Kristi Noem which sets him off, and made him finally decide to get up, rush at Ilhan Omar, and spray her with the syringe that he brought with him.

By the way, the very fact that he brought the syringe indicates premeditation. He was clearly planning on it. But why apple cider vinegar? Why that choice of substance to spray, when there are far more harmful substances that he could have gone with, instead?

I say that we get the answers from the suspect. Him and anyone else who could have been in on this!

But let’s hear it for the bravery and perseverance of Ilhan Omar, who, when some crazy guy with a syringe came rushing at her, immediately went right up to him! Nuts to self-preservation!

I don’t know about you, but I’d have probably hauled ass away from that madman. But not Ilhan Omar! She was not afraid of the possibility of some chemical or biological weapon!

Not only that, but immediately after the attack, she insisted on continuing her speech. No immediate trip to the hospital for her! Her perseverance was reminiscent of Theodore Roosevelt, who delivered a speech with a fresh, undressed bullet wound in his chest! It’s like she knew that that substance from that syringe was no match for her!

But regardless of Ilhan Omar coming out of this with superman optics, I say that this matter should be thoroughly investigated. We the public have a desire to know everything about the crime committed against a left-wing exemplar of courage and virtue! We want to know!

Sarcasm aside, I think that this matter should be looked into. I’m far from the only one who’s saying that the whole affair seems suspicious. It comes off as some kind of sub-70-IQ attempt at a scam reminiscent of Jussie Smollet.

In fact, the apple cider vinegar attack was so fishy, it’s actually more reasonable to suspect that Ilhan Omar paid off some rando junkie to stage the attack in an attempt to hack up some victim points.

But the way to disprove that idea is the same way that one would go about proving it. So, the results of a thorough investigation into the matter are something that we should all find interesting.

Muslims are taking to Christmas markets and social media with the claim that Christmas is a pagan holiday. This was a claim that has been made by some evangelicals in the hopes that Christianity would take a form that they imagine is closer to what was observed by early Christianity. However, Muslims have a different motive, and that’s that they’d get more people breaking the second commandment by bowing to an idol five times a day.

But they messed up. Hard. And I’ll explain why.

To get right to it, it’s because I actually believed that. For years. You’d have to mess up pretty hard when the argument you make results in dissuading someone who initially believed the claim. All they really had to do was keep their mouths shut, but instead they rolled the dice, and got a critical miss.

While I could get into why I believed that Christmas is a religion with pagan origins, what it basically came down to was accepting a claim that was made without researching the matter as well as I might have guessed. I was wrong. But on the bright side, my desire for understanding the truth of the matter would eventually lead to me finding it.

I’m guessing that, for many people, part of the appeal to believing such a thing would be similar to what gave gnosticism it’s appeal. Basically, it’s the belief a person would have that they’re special for accepting certain special knowledge that most people don’t seem aware of, and that being closer to a perceived truth makes one better off than other people. Also, there’s the edge that comes with the idea that an established church is hiding a tremendous scandalous secret, coupled with how special one feels when they learn something by using the internet.

But for me, I was mainly motivated by a desire to know the truth. And I can admit that I was wrong because I don’t take myself too seriously.

The main claim made by those saying that Christmas is a pagan holiday is that Christmas falls on the same day as at least one pagan holiday, such as Saturnalia and Sol Invictus. Some also try to point to similarities between how Christmas is observed and how those pagan holidays were observed.

(Note: The correct name of one of these pagan holidays is “Day of Sol Invictus”, and is often incorrectly shortened to “Sol Invictus”, the name and title of the deity of the cult of Sol. If this article uses the term “Sol Invictus” to refer to an observance, it’s for convenience, and because that’s a popular use of the term, not because I think it’s correct.)

The problem is that the people who say these things are big on claims, but short on verifiable and extant historical sources. A lot of what they have to say sounds like it would make a great comic book, though.

For example, if you were to ask 20 different such people for an account about Nimrod, you’d get 30 different accounts. As much as I want to believe that Shem tore Nimrod to pieces and sent a different chunk of him to a different city in the ancient world, the truth of the matter is probably nowhere close to as metal.

For historical claims, it’s generally better to look for impartial historical sources. People tend to trust church websites, particularly members of the church that made a website, because they tend to be less critical of claims made by their own church. Many such websites have already decided on a conclusion, and what they present tends to be post-hoc justification.

Before going further, it helps to accept that there’s such a thing as a coincidence. Pagans had numerous holidays throughout the year. For one of them to be observed on the same day as Christians observe something is not definitive proof of appropriation of a pagan holiday in some effort to make Christianity more appealing to pagan Europe. Considering that most people perceive coincidences which they understand to be meaningless all the time, we should be able to comprehend this.

First, let’s talk about how the date of December 25th was decided upon as the likely date of Christ’s birth. It was due to a belief shared among early Christians that prophets died on the same month and day as they were conceived. They also believed that Christ was crucified on March 25th. Nine months after that would be December 25th.

At worst, that would just be an incorrect guess. I’ve actually heard the case made for Christ being born early in the Autumn.

By the way, the idea that prophets died on the same month and day as they were conceived originated with Rabbinic Judaism. So if you like celebrating Christmas on December 25th, thank a Jew.

Now for the idea that Saturnalia was on December 25th. It’s wrong. Simply wrong.

Every historical writing going back to around the time of the 1st century which gave a date for Saturnalia gave the date as December 17th. Not the 25th, the 17th. Saturnalia was often celebrated as one day, but was sometimes extended to multiple days. At its longest, Saturnalia was observed for 7 days. In which case, the latest that Saturnalia ended was the 23rd.

Saturnalia was never observed on December 25th. And considering that this is the main claim made by those insisting that Christmas is a pagan holiday, they’re off to a bad start.

Next is the claim that Christmas was observed on the same day as “Sol Invictus”. While it’s true that it was, the oldest record indicating an observance of Christmas by Christians predated any observance of Sol Invictus. The cult of Sol Invictus arrived on the scene after Christianity did, as evidenced by the fact that Christianity has far older writings. If any of the two parties had plagiarized the other, then it was the cult of Sol Invictus which stole ideas from Christianity. It would seem as though much of the cult was a blatant knock-off of Christianity.

The claim is also sometimes made that Christmas has similarities to Saturnalia. Many such claims seems to come from the imaginations of the people making them, or are just regurgitated from those whom they mistakenly trusted.

Saturnalia was observed by turning social norms on their head, such as by placing slaves in the seat of the head of household, and were waited on by the master of the house, and people typically reveled while drunk. Sound like Christmas? No? That’s because it wasn’t Christmas.

Oftentimes, the trappings associated with Christmas are said to be of pagan origin. Many such claims have no historical backing. But in many cases, the trappings originated in European folk customs which which probably never had anything to do with honoring any pagan deity.

The biggest potential issue as I see it would seem to be Santa Claus. But mainly because I see him as a figure of Catholic origin, and I’m not Catholic. Much of how he’s used today is pretty ridiculous, what with the sleigh pulled by reindeer, and the workshop staffed by elves. But it’s not pagan.

If someone wants to try to make Christmas out to be a holiday with pagan origins, they tend to be heavy on claims and light on historical connections. In the case of the odd Muslim who insists that Christmas is a pagan holiday, it could be that they actually believe that, even if wrongly. But there’s a likelihood that what they’re doing is engaging in a cynical attempt to destroy a religion that’s different from their own, and bring other people into their performative ritualistic misery.

Now, if you want to know what really is pagan, look into the Islamic observances of the Hajj and Ramadan, which actually are observances that are pagan in origin. Pagans observed both these observances before Islam was an idea in Muhammad’s head. Just be warned that, if you look into it, you might have a really, really difficult time finding impartial sources. Islam by it’s nature inspires strong reaction, whether for or against. What’s more, in the current academic environment, researchers are strongly hesitant to publish anything that has any potential to get them thousands of death threats from irate Muslims.

Of course, when it comes to criticism of Muhammad and Islam, people are going to be far more interested in topics like his mass homicide of Jews, his encounter with the men of Al-Zutt, and the many, many passages throughout the official Islamic materials, such as the Quran, which advocate for things like violence, racism, slavery, and many other topics. Then there’s how suspicious it is that a man claimed to be a prophet who didn’t perform miracles.

But as for Muslims’ claim that Christmas is a pagan holiday, after trying to convince people that it’s the case, someone who believed that changed his mind, realizing that it’s not true. They goofed pretty hard.

Now, why isn’t old media covering this? I thought that they liked uprisings! I thought that they liked revolutions! For a long time, I was thinking that protesters doing stuff was what they were into! Why aren’t they interested, this time?

Things started popping off in Iran late in December. It’s been escalating since, and at this point, it seems as though the uprising is almost certain to be successful.

If your source of information is the Beavis and Butthead box, then you’re probably only just now hearing about this. And you were probably told that the motivation for the uprising is economic in nature. The people in old media are still in character. In their thinking, there’s nothing worse than not being rich. Of course that’s the sensibility that they’re going to project onto the people of Iran.

In reality, that’s only part of the motivation. In late December, months after the IRGC (Iran’s Islamist regime) failed war against Israel in which Israel dominated Iran’s air space, and months after their nuclear ambitions were destroyed by the US, Iran’s currency collapsed. It was so bad that if you had one American dollar, then you were a millionaire in Iran’s currency. Naturally, the merchants went out to protest.

But then, something interesting happened. Or, more like, something didn’t happen. The IRCG broke character. They didn’t immediately respond with a brutal crackdown. So, the protests continued the next day. And so on for days afterwards, except the protests got bigger. And still no answer from the IRGC.

As this was going on, the IRGC publicly declared their intention to war against Israel. Yeah, the same Israel that they couldn’t beat before. Except this time, while totally unable to keep a growing uprising under control.

As it so happens, the Iranian people had more problems with the IRCG than just that the currency collapsed. They wanted the Ayatollah gone. And they were sick of Islam. So much so that they started burning Mosques.

And now I think I have a guess as to why legacy news outlets don’t want to report on this. Being co-opted by leftism, they’ve staked their pride on Islam being a wonderful religion that no one could possibly refuse. Leftism has stupidly decided on Islam as what they’d prop up to maintain a veneer of tolerance, and now, every time that Islam acts like Islam, they have to do damage control. But now, after decades of experience with the Ayatollahs, Iranians have decided that they’ve had enough.

One thing to know about the Iranians is that they’ve been controlled by relatively few fanatics for decades. The Iranians are among the world’s most intelligent people, and Islamic fundamentalism is well outside the character of the typical Iranian. Even in recent years, Iranians have been shedding themselves of Islam. Just in the last couple decades, the number of Mosques in Iran has been reduced by about half. Currently, Christianity is the fastest growing religion in Iran, and it could be the country’s dominant religion by 2050.

It can also be pointed out that Iranians want the return of their king. The name of their crown prince, Pahlavi, was actually illegal to even mention under the Ayatollahs. The punishment for doing so was death.

Also, leading up to the riots, Iran has been running out of water. It was to the point that the capital had just about no water. I’m not sure how this issue will be handled after the IRGC is overthrown.

At this point, the protests are a nightly occurrence, and have engulfed every major Iranian city, including the capital, Tehran. It would seem as though the IRGC has completely lost control.

But that doesn’t mean that they aren’t trying. As of this writing, the internet in Iran is shut down, including for the IRGC. All that’s left is Elon Musk’s Starlink, which is in the hands of relatively few Iranians, and a limited intranet that’s mainly only used by the IRGC.

What’s more, the IRGC’s armed forces have begun opening fire on the protesters. This doesn’t seem to deter the protesters, who still have been showing up in massive numbers. There doesn’t seem to be any reliable counts for death toll, but I’ve heard numbers ranging from dozens to over a thousand.

IRGC leadership has announced their intention to execute anyone who has protested against them. Which is remarkably stupid. For one thing, because that’s an immense number of people. The logistics behind detaining huge percentages of the populations of entire cities would seem well beyond the means of a regime whose currency has just collapsed. But also because, in saying as much, they’ve given everyone who has protested so far another reason to dig their heels in.

Forgiveness isn’t just something that sounds nice, it gives someone an incentive to possibly come around to your own side. If someone were to tell me that I’d be their enemy forever, and nothing would change that, then what reason would I have to attempt to reconcile myself to them?

But it doesn’t seem like the IRGC will be able to carry out their threat against their own people. Not only are the protests so huge and so widespread that it seems nearly impossible for the regime to overcome them, the leadership, including the Ayatollah himself, is in hiding.

If the Ayatollah knows that his time is almost up, it might be that his heart is set on trying to cause as much damage as he can on the way out. Thus, his announced intention of going to war against Israel and the United States. It might be his intention to fire off one last volley of missiles before things end for him.

Here in the USA, we have a saying: Don’t let your mouth write checks that your ass can’t cash.

But, war or no war, it seems as though it’s over for the IRGC. The Ayatollah has already publicly announced his intention of leaving Iran, which doesn’t suggest that he has much under control. And as time goes on, he seems to be running out of opportunity to leave. It might even be that there’s currently no safe way for him to leave the country.

I think we’re seeing history being made. Not only are a people unshackling themselves of a despot, it’s an Islamic despot. Islam has some of the strictest mechanisms of control which have ever been developed. Since Islam’s inception in Muhammad’s diseased mind, there might not have been any nations which have succeeded in unshackling themselves of Islam without external intervention.

Which is why it would be awesome to see the Iranians pull it off without another country getting involved. Sure, I’d like to see the US get involved if that was necessary to guarantee the uprising’s success, and to prevent more bloodshed than necessary. If the Iranians accomplished it on their own, then the hope that many around the world could have in casting off the shackles of ancient Bedouin mysticism would be tremendous. But so would the knowledge that a strong ally might have your back. So, in either case, there’s something great to come away with.

If you’re interested in following developments with the Iranian uprising, you might like Tousi TV. He’s an Iranian living in the UK who wants to see the IRGC fall, and has been livestreaming with updates. He’s got his bias on the matter, but he’s honest about it.

What a decade it’s been so far this year!

If you love criticizing Islam to a pulp, Muhammad is the gift that just keeps right on giving. And today, we’re examining yet another story that Muslims are going to wish just wasn’t written into their official materials, so they wouldn’t have to do quite so much damage control for their false prophet.

If the name Muhammad rings a bell, you might remember him from such stories as the time he accepted the Quraysh bargain, selling out his own monotheistic god by attributing three daughters to him, then when he realized the blunder he made, he claimed that Satan made him say it, not knowing the optics of a prophet being made to say Satan’s words, or the time when he poopered a nine-year-old while he was in his fifties.

That Muhammad.

But before we get into today’s story, let’s first frame it with how Islam handles homosexuality. Relevance? Don’t worry, we’ll get to that.

“And Lot! (Remember) when he said unto his folk: Will ye commit abomination such as no creature ever did before you? Lo! ye come with lust unto men instead of women. Nay, but ye are wanton folk.”

-Quran 7:80-81

“WHEN A MAN MOUNTS ANOTHER MAN, THE THRONE OF ALLAH SHAKES”

-Hadith

“Do you approach the males of humanity, leaving the wives Allah has created for you? But you are a people who transgress”
-Quran 26:165-66

There are various Hadith which states, in addition to these things, that if males commit sodomy, they are to be put to death, both the one who commits the act and the one who passively allowed it to be committed upon him.

Nearly every single Islamic scholar has stated, in no uncertain terms, that homosexual acts are unIslamic, and affirm the penalty of death for those who commit them.

Now, with that framing out of the way, let’s move on to Islam’s new most embarrassing story, the encounter with the men of Al-Zutt.

The following is the full account. I’ll offer a synopsis afterwards.

Ibn Mas’ūd narrated :

The Messenger of Allāh (ﷺ) performed ‘Ishā, then he turned and asked for me. He took my hand and we set out until I came to the wide valley of Makkah. He drew a line for me and said to me: ‘Stay within this line, and do not cross it, for indeed there shall come some men to you, but do not speak to them for they shall not speak to you, and if you cross (the line), you will perish. ‘ So I stayed within it. So the Messenger of Allāh (ﷺ) went on a little, as far as one could throw a stone or a little further.

While I was sitting within the line, some men/shapes of figures [i.e. jinn] came to me that appeared as if they were black people (i.e. dark people, like from North Africa or India), both their hair and bodies. They were not wearing any clothes but I could not see their private parts, and they were tall and they had little flesh (i.e. slim).

Then they returned towards Allāh’s Messenger (ﷺ) and began towering on top of the Messenger of Allāh (ﷺ). The Prophet of Allāh (ﷺ) began to recite the Qur’ān to them. And they started coming to me and surrounding me, and getting in my way. I was extremely scared of them, so I sat down – or words to that effect.

When dawn entered, they started to leave. Then the Messenger of Allāh came and entered into the line with me, looking heavy and in pain, or almost like he was in pain from their towering over him. He (ﷺ) said:’I find myself tired’ – or words to that effect. So the Messenger of Allāh (ﷺ) placed his head on my lap to sleep. And the Messenger of Allāh (ﷺ) would snore when he slept.

While I was sitting there, after a while, these men came, wearing long white garments, and Allāh knows best how handsome they were. The Messenger of Allāh (ﷺ) had gone to sleep. They came towards me – I was more afraid than I was the first time – a group of them sat at the head of the Messenger of Allāh (ﷺ) and a group at his feet. So some of them said to each other: This servant has been given good, his eyes are asleep, but his heart is awake.

Some of them said to one another: Come, let us give him a parable. Some of them said to one another: You coin for him a parable, and we will interpret it, or we will coin for him a parable and you will interpret it.

So some of them said to each other: His parable is that of a leader who built a fortified fort, then he placed a table-spread in it and he invites people to eat and drink. So whoever answers his invitation, he eats from his food and drinks from his drink. And whoever does not come and eat his food, or who does not answer his invitation, he will punish him with a severe punishment.

The others said: As for the leader, he is the Lord of the worlds, and as for the fort, it is Islām, and the food is Paradise, and he (the prophet) is the one who invites, so whoever follows him will be in Paradise. And whoever does not follow him will be punished.

Then the Messenger of Allāh (ﷺ) woke up and said: ‘What did you see, Oh Ibn Umm ‘Abd?’ ‘Abdullāh said: I saw such-and-such. The Prophet (ﷺ) said: ‘Nothing of what they said was hidden from me.’ The Prophet of Allāh (ﷺ) said:’ They are a group of the angels.’ Or he said:’ They are the angels.’

Musnad Ahmad 3788

Muhammad and Ibn Masud went to a remote area, just the two of them. Muhammad drew a circle around Ibn Masud, telling him to stay within to avoid death. Then, a group of black men appeared (the men of Al-Zutt). They were tall, skinny, and naked, though Ibn Masud couldn’t see their genitals. They began “towering” over Muhammad, and Muhammad began reciting the Quran. When their attention turned towards Ibn Masud, he responded by sitting down.

After the men left, Muhammad returned to Ibn Masud weary and in pain by reason of what they had done to him (their “towering” over him). Muhammad fell asleep on his lap. The men briefly appeared in white clothes again, spoke to Ibn Masud (even though Muhammad had said that they would not), then they left again.

This account does bear dissecting, as it has faced some slight attempt to revise, probably because Muslims have come to understand just how embarrassing this account is, or at least it’s potential to be interpreted in an embarrassing manner.

For one thing, you might have noticed the word “jinn” in brackets. The brackets indicate an addition to attempt to either revise or to attempt to add clarity. One way or another, it contains an assumption that the revisionist wants you to come to. The popular interpretation is that these men were actually Jinn, as the interpretation of them as humans has a high potential to be interpreted in a manner that’s very embarrassing to Islam.

Yet, this interpretation is defeated by a simple observation: Jinn are supposed to be invisible. If the men were jinn, Ibn Masud should not have been able to see them. What’s more, because jinn are supposed to be demons, they should not have been able to directly interact with the natural world. From a Biblical perspective, the most that demons could do is mess with people’s minds.

And yet, not only were these men able to physically interact with Muhammad, whatever they did to him left him tired and in pain.

Now, let’s get to that. According to this translation, the men were “towering on top” of Muhammad. It was to the point that “he was in pain from their towering over him.” So, whatever it was they were doing, it involved physical contact, and was not just standing near him menacingly while being taller than him.

The “towering” comes from a word that could instead be translated “rode” or “mounted”. This is interesting, because like the latter two English equivalents, they could be interpreted to mean getting on top of someone to be carried by them, like a piggyback ride, or they could be interpreted as meaning a person attached themselves to someone else in a sexual sense.

Yeah, that could be very embarrassing for Muhammad, Islam, and many Muslims around the world.

If it weren’t already evident that the revisors are trying to hide something, the original was actually more specific than referring to the men as “black people”. They were “men of Al-Zutt”. While this phrase could refer to men of African ancestry, it was more commonly known to refer to men from North Indian and Pakistani origin.

The men of Al-Zutt were famed, not just for their dark skin, but also for their libidos. They were said to have immense sexual appetites and persistent erections. And these men were the ones who met with Muhammad. If not, then the original texts wouldn’t have told us as much. But they did, and now we see the Islamic world going into damage control.

Again.

Interestingly, when Ibn Masud felt intimidated by the men, he responded by planting his butt down on the ground.

As more and more about Muhammad comes to light, it’s becoming more and more difficult for a person to be a Muslim, because there’s more and more about Islam and Muhammad for non-Muslims to laugh at.

Muslims themselves have to start asking themselves just what it is that they’re clinging to. I mean, do they really believe this stuff?

Again, just what is it that Muslims are clinging to?

Islam has one prophet, and only one. He claimed to be the greatest and final prophet, though no Biblical prophet foretold him. He wallowed in decadence, and the violence he committed funded his lavish lifestyle. He performed no miracles. None of them. Absolutely none. Not only that, he said as much.

He made prophecies which failed to come true, including his famous Day of Doom prophecy, which was supposed to involve huge, dramatic events which would lead to the deaths of all non-Muslims. He stated that this was to occur within 500 years of his own lifetime. It’s been over 1400 years since, and Muhammad’s biggest and most important prophecy was just a big nothing burger.

He sold out his own monotheistic religion for the wealth offered by the Quraysh, then said that Satan made him accept after he realized the blunder he had made. He made claims about the beliefs of Christians and Jews, attributing these claims to his god, which Christians and Jews didn’t actually believe in. Jews don’t call Ezra the Messiah. Muhammad was dead wrong.

He claimed to receive a revelation affirming that he could be pleasured by his sex slaves if he wanted, even if his wives wanted attention, with Muslims having that detail of his life to study for ages to come. When he was in his fifties, he consummated a marriage with a girl whose age consisted of a single digit.

He didn’t know what the Scriptures said, because he couldn’t read. After someone read them to him, he repeated them back wrong. And after he was called out for it, he claimed that the Scriptures were all edited in a widespread and conspiratorial manner, including the ones he insisted were right immediately after they were read to him.

By saying that the Christian Gospels were the source of all wisdom, he inadvertently called his own Quran completely unnecessary. He claimed that if he was lying while serving in a prophetic capacity, then his aorta would be severed. Which is interesting, because he described the pain of his own death with the same language.

He failed to foresee his own poisoning by a Jewish woman, leading to his own slow, agonizing, miserable death by reason of the complications in the years to come. He attempted sorcery to try to keep himself from dying. He claimed to receive a revelation telling him that he would live, then died shortly afterwards. And because he failed to appoint a successor, the resulting infighting among those lusting for control over the empire resulted in a divide which continues to this day.

And on top of all this, Muhammad went to meet men of Al-Zutt, to be “mounted” by them to the point that he’d be exhausted and in pain. And he was a willing party to it, as evidenced by the fact that he went to that spot, suggesting that he knew what was coming.

For Muslims, this account of the men of Al-Zutt has to be like a bad memory, and a pain in the backside to explain. Because, what exactly are we supposed to come away from with this story? If we’re to accept that the men were demons, the implication that they’d have anything positive to say about the religion of Islam doesn’t make Islam or Muhammad look any better. Seriously, what kind of selling point is it that demons think your religion is great?

But if we were to take the account at face value, that Muhammad was “rode” by men famous for their sexual appetites, doesn’t that mean that Muhammad is condemned to death by his own religion?

Christians don’t have to deal with this kind of thing, because no account like this is anywhere in the Bible. So, how come it’s Islam that frequently finds itself going into damage control? After spending hours and hours researching different ways to translate and interpret different passages so they don’t look nearly as incriminating for Muhammad and Islam, one would think that Muslims would come to the conclusion that their prophet wasn’t worth believing in.

But now, here we are, with Muslims trying to explain away that their own prophet, the central prophet of their religion, might have actually willingly engaged in group sex with other men.

Score one more for those who think that the official Islamic materials were authored by hostile sources.

Muhammad died slowly, painfully, and miserably.

Also, ironically.

When you think of groups of people who Muhammad disserviced the most, two groups come to mind: women, and the Jewish people. They’d both get their revenge.

Muhammad had committed genocide against multiple Jewish tribes and settlements. Many men were killed, children enslaved, and women became sex slaves.

One female Jewish survivor was tasked with preparing a meal for Muhammad.

I’m going to admit that being a megalomaniac is outside my area of expertise. But I think it’s pretty obvious that you’re not supposed to trust your professed enemies to prepare food for you, especially after you give them plenty of reason to hate your guts.

Because bad things could happen to your guts. Bad things.

Also, I think that that thought goes together well with the common sense advice that you don’t upset the person who cooks for you.

So, a Jewish woman who saw her community ravaged, her husband probably killed, and her children probably taken away from her, has a poison on hand, and an opportunity to prepare a meal for the person who destroyed her entire life. And she knows just what cut of lamb that he likes best.

And it’s an opportunity that she took.

Muhammad and his friends began feasting. One of them didn’t begin until he saw Muhammad begin, because he trusted him. As with so many others, his trust was misplaced.

When Muhammad tasted something funny, he demanded that everyone stop eating, saying that the food told him that it was poisoned.

This would have been more impressive if the food would have told him that before he started eating it.

Muhammad had the chef called in, and asked her to explain herself. Her explanation was that, if he were a prophet, the poison would have killed him, but if he were a king, then her people would have been rid of him.

Ready for a surprise? Muhammad forgave her. Yes, really. Except, not really. When one of Muhammad’s men, who also ate from the same meal, had died, Muhammad rescinded his forgiveness, and had the woman put to death.

But ultimately, the poison would kill Muhammad. But it took years for it to happen. And as the poison worked away at Muhammad’s system, he was in worsening pain by reason of the complications.

Some might point out that it probably wasn’t the poison that killed him. Some attribute his death to a fever. But Muhammad himself attributed his worsening condition to the poison.

It’s the inclination of Muslims to believe their prophet. But if they do that, they admit that their prophet was killed by a Jewish woman. Or they can decide not to, but why stop there when they can disbelieve many of his other ridiculous claims?

In the ancient world, it was considered humiliating for a man to be killed by a woman. Because of this, it might be difficult for Muslims to accept the way that their own prophet died. But would they disbelieve the claim made by their own prophet?

Because of this, Muhammad’s death puts Muslims in a difficult spot. They could accept the humiliating way Muhammad died because he said that that’s how he died, accepting this humiliation as an indelible feature of their religion, or they could disbelieve him, and risk losing their status as Muslims.

Over the course of years, Muhammad’s condition got worse. He was in such pain that he required the help of two men to carry him about.

Speaking of his pain, Muhammad complained that it felt like his aorta had been severed. This is interesting, because Muhammad had previously said that if he was lying, then his aorta would be severed. While it’s possible that he meant this as a colloquialism for a great amount of pain, there’s still a lot of potential in that phrase to be interpreted in a way that’s disfavorable to Muhammad.

But is that really needed considering that he was a false prophet, traitor, oath breaker, rapist, child molester, torturer, and on, and on…

Muhammad turned to folk remedies, such as cumin, to no avail.

In his desperation, Muhammad turned to blowing on knots. This was a form of sorcery where a knot was formed which represented one’s illness, and the act of undoing it by blowing it undone has been said by practitioners to cure the illness. As you might expect, it didn’t work.

Practicing sorcery is a huge no-no. It’s been forbidden by Abrahamic religions. Even Islam forbids it. But Muhammad practiced sorcery by blowing on knots. He was supposed to be Islam’s greatest prophet (an easy hurtle to clear, considering that he was Islam’s only prophet). Was he disqualified by his own religion? More than he already was?

But then, Muhammad claimed to have another visit from the angel, Gabriel. According to Muhammad, Gabriel told him that he wouldn’t die. We know how reliable Muhammad’s visions are, don’t we?

Muhammad would die days later. At his request, he would die in the company of his favorite wife, Aisha.

Muhammad didn’t anticipate his death, so he didn’t appoint a successor. He likely realized that if he did, the successor would have a motivation to assassinate him. And Muhammad probably didn’t care what would become of his empire after his own death.

In the days to come, those close to Muhammad would jockey for control of the caliphate, a battle that would continue in the centuries to come in the form of the Sunni/Shia divide. It’s a divide that’s so bitter that some Muslims consider one another infidels. Part of the reason why Islam hasn’t spread further than it could have is because Muslims have been divided against themselves.

One might imagine that Muhammad would go to heaven in his own religion. But in reality, Muhammad was unsure of his own salvation. And he didn’t die in battle, meaning that he wouldn’t have gotten the special 72 virgins treatment.

This is the reason why Muslims frequently append Muhammad’s name with the phrase “peace be upon him”. Even though he was supposed to be his religion’s greatest (actually, only) prophet, his religion might have still condemned him to hell.

In Christianity, there’s more than one kind of salvation, and they are provided for mankind. One is a spiritual salvation, preserving us from the eternal punishment for our sins, and another is a physical salvation, where the Messiah intervenes in a future time to prevent humanity from destroying itself. Both forms of salvation are undeserved. And considering the kinds of ideologies, including religions, that humans have invented, we definitely need a savior.

The legacy of Muhammad has been a legacy of terror, violence, and bloodshed, overlaid with suffocating legalism and mind-numbing ritual. If you’ve learned a few things about Muhammad, you’ve learned that he’s not worth believing in, and that the religion that he invented is the way it is because of him.

Muhammad was truly one of history’s worst people.

Back to Part 6

Before getting to how Muhammad died, let’s briefly get into how he lived.

When it comes to the religion that he taught, imagine rules that eliminate the graces of human life, alongside rituals and superstitions that sound like they were born from the mind of the worst case of OCD in the universe. Then, you’d have the general idea.

While the prohibition on pork was an idea that he took from the Jews, what’s really unusual is his prohibition on music, dogs, alcoholic beverages, and much more.

He also prohibited playing chess, comparing playing chess to dipping one’s own hand in pigs blood. I suspect that he’s not a huge fan of games of strategy.

Muhammad also practiced many superstitions. Among these was the belief that if a person has a bad dream, it won’t harm them if they spit on one side of the bed. Another is the belief that Satan might steal silverware if it’s not covered up at night.

They’re not all hokey folk practices, though. Some of them are bad health advice. For example, Muhammad taught that water cannot be contaminated. Using this as an excuse, Muhammad and his men drank from a pool of water that he knew had the corpse of a donkey in it.

On another occasion, after washing in a small pool of water, he was informed that a woman washed involving menstrual fluid in it, and he insisted that it was fine.

Again, Muhammad taught that water cannot be contaminated.

He also believed that if a fly fell into your drink, you should push it until it’s completely submerged, reasoning that one of it’s wings contains a disease, and the other one the antidote for it.

Muhammad seemed to like entertaining his men with tall tales involving historical figures, whether or not he understood them. Sometimes, this would involve persons in the Judeo-Christian Scriptures.

Among these was King Saul, who he portrayed in a positive light, even though the Scriptures portrayed him mostly negatively. Famously, Saul mistreated David before David  became King.

He also told stories about Jesus, though it’s evident that he lifted stories from the gnostic gospels. And he told a story about Nimrod, saying that he strengthened a couple eagles by making them drink beer, then used them to fly into the sky.

There’s a reason why you want to be familiar with the Scriptures: there’s no telling when you might encounter a madman who calls himself a prophet mentioned in the Scriptures, though he himself hasn’t read a word of it.

Outside the Scriptures, Muhammad said that Alexander the Great was a Muslim, and he ventured so far to the west that he found the place where the sun set, in a giant mud pit surrounded by a city inhabited by extraterrestrials.

Now’s not a bad time to point out that Muhammad didn’t have a strong understanding of cosmology. For example, he said that the “smudges” on the moon were the result of Satan dragging his wings across it. I guess if he were here today, he might have claimed that Nimrod was on an Apollo mission.

The hadiths get into unnecessary detail about Muhammad’s married life. He had many wives and sex slaves at a time, and there was only one of him, so one could only imagine the adventures that were his home life.

In one instance, a couple of his wives pleaded with him for intimate attention, rather than the sex slave he wanted to give attention to. This resulted in a convenient revelation which, to the surprise of precisely no one, favored Muhammad and what he wanted to do.

Muhammad also had relations with a servant of one of his wives. That wife caught him, and afterwards, he promised not to have relations with the same servant again. But he did, with a revelation that, once again, favored him and what he wanted to do.

Muhammad discovered that his wives had a tradition of giving gifts to the one whose turn it was with Muhammad. Muhammad then discovered that Aisha, his child bride, got the most of any of them. Knowing this, Muhammad decided to take turns with Aisha more often.

Speaking of, Aisha liked to take dolls with her when it was her turn. Being that she was a child, it’s understandable that she’d have those. But in Muhammad’s legalistic mind, dolls were a form of idolatry. In spite of this, Muhammad allowed her to bring those with her.

Well, whaddaya know? He actually does have a soft spot.

Muhammad also had ideas on how to run a society. He taught that one’s children should receive an equal inheritance, except for females, who would receive half as much. That one caveat aside, this sounds egalitarian, so it might appeal to people who don’t understand second order consequences. But there’s a problem with this.

In Sharia, upon the death of a business owner, the business would have to be liquidated, laying off the entire staff in the process, and the contributions of the large business to the economy would be no more. Worse yet, large businesses tend to be owned by high status men with lots of children, making it less realistic that the children would pool the liquidated assets together to restart the business.

In most non-Sharia societies, the business could just be passed on to another person, often the owner’s firstborn, so its operations and its contributions to the economy could continue. This avoids the problems that would be caused by Muhammad’s silly approach.

Muhammad also taught that the testimony of a woman is less than the testimony of a man in a court of law. Depending on the verse, it could take the testimony of two or four women to equal a man’s testimony.

One of Muhammad’s favorite teachings is his famous “Day of Doom” prophecy, in which numerous cataclysms would take place, which he said would be bad news for non-Muslims specifically.

Muhammad claimed that the Day of Doom would occur within 500 years of his own life. For him, this probably seemed safe. After all, he knew he would not live to see his own prophecy’s failure. Therefore, by the time anyone might have otherwise called him out on it, he’ll have already died rich.

But for Muslims today, there’s a huge problem. Muhammad died in the year 632 AD. More than 500 years have passed since then, and Muhammad’s Day of Doom never happened. This is true whether we’re talking about solar years, used by most of the world, or lunar years without intercalary months, as the Islamic world does.

Muhammad was a failure in many ways. But in failing in his biggest prophecy, Muhammad would fail his own followers in the far future. Considering the nature of his failure, it’s a wonder why Islam still has any followers.

Also of note was the fact that Muhammad believed that he had sorcery cast upon him. This sorcery, according to Muhammad, was the reason why he sometimes thought he did something, such as having relations with one of his wives, when he didn’t. Realistically, such a delusion is consistent with dementia.

That Muhammad would have been affected by sorcery at all would cast doubts on his claim to be a prophet. Even if sorcery was something that would really work, I’d have imagined that a prophet would have a protection from it. Yet, Muhammad claimed to be the greatest prophet. And he blamed sorcery for his memory issues.

If Muhammad was a prophet, one might ask whether he performed miracles. If he was the greatest prophet, as he claimed, then one might think that he performed some great miracles.

He didn’t. Not only did Muhammad not perform miracles, he informed people that he wouldn’t perform miracles. He didn’t heal people, and he didn’t raise the dead. His men did the opposite of these things, with physical means.

He claimed to receive revelations and see visions, then demanded that other people take his word for it, but didn’t perform miracles.

Among these professed visions was Muhammad’s so-called “night vision”. Muhammad claimed to have literally visited the Temple in Jerusalem during the night, then ascended into heaven to meet people mentioned in the Bible.

It’s obvious that he made the whole thing up. But he didn’t seem aware that, at the time, there was no temple in Jerusalem, and there hasn’t been one there since the first century AD.

Aisha, being more wise than Muhammad, begged him to not share his “night vision”. Which is understandable, but she night have been shocked at how many Muslims have believed it.

Muhammad’s bogus night vision is the justification that Muslims today use for claiming the Temple Mount for their Dome of the Rock.

While Muhammad’s life had many examples of foolishness, it’s not a life that would go on forever. Death would come for him, and while he fought to resist, it was a fight that he couldn’t possibly win.

Back to Part 5

To Part 7

If all land belongs to Allah, as Muslims claim, why does he need humans to do his dirty work to claim it?

The answer is obvious: Allah is just a rock idol in the middle of the desert. He can’t even act as a paperweight unless someone were to first lift him up.

As stupid as Muhammad was, he did comprehend Allah’s impotence. Thus, he knew that he wouldn’t get very far with his religion unless he could motivate men to fanaticism.

Thus, Muhammad developed a two-pronged approach. First, if his men conquered, his men got spoils of war, with Muhammad usually claiming one-fifth for himself. But if his men died while in battle to further Islam, they would be granted an express ticket into heaven, and they’d be granted a heavenly brothel of 72 virgins in addition to the usual heavenly reward.

The Islamic heaven also has music and wine, which is interesting considering that those are among the many things that Muhammad’s religion forbids on earth. Kind of makes me wonder whether the Islamic heaven also has bacon and beer.

The Islamic heaven obviously sounds more carnal than spiritual, but it does motivate carnally-minded half-wits to go out to battle to further Islam. Though that Muslims themselves want a way out of their own religion’s suffocating strictures, mind-numbing ritual, and ridiculous legalism probably has something to do with it.

When you understand this, you know why Muslims are so fanatical about spreading their religion. As they see it, they get something even if they die trying.

And so it was with the first Muslims. With Medina now under Muhammad’s control, Islam’s expansionist push can gain serious traction.

Basically, any nearby city that Muhammad could conquer, he did. And he considered caravans to be fair game.

Interestingly, he would make a peace treaty with the Meccans, a few years after his flight from there. But it was a treaty that he would eventually break. As part of the treaty, Muhammad would put aside his prophet status in his dealings with the town. As we’ve already seen with the Satanic Verses incident, Muhammad was certainly willing to put aside significant aspects of his identity if it meant he stood to benefit.

One of the towns that he did attack was Khaybar, which was not at war with the Muslims. The Muslims snuck up on them and took the town by surprise. Like with the Banu Qurayza, many of the men were slaughtered and women, boys and girls were taken as slaves. However, Muhammad allowed some of them to live as long as they payed tribute.

And I’m sure that many Muslims today claim that they were done a favor, just by being kept alive.

If you border anything Islamic, you have to stay alert. There’s an expression: The Islamic world has bloody borders.

If you have any doubt that Muhammad was motivated by money, consider that a Khaybar treasurer was tortured because he was suspected of hiding treasure from Muslims. Muslims set a fire on his chest until he confessed, and said where the treasure was hidden. He was then beheaded and his wife was raped by one of Muhammad’s men. Then the woman was immediately made to marry the monster himself.

Never lose a war against Muslims. Being killed by them is better than being captured by them, and to die is better than seeing the kind of world they want to bring about.

Muhammad played fast and loose with his treaty with the Meccans, especiallywhen he wanted a pretext to attack them. This came when a tribe allied with the Meccans attacked a tribe allied with the Medinans. So, in he marched, treating his hometown as he did others.

With Mecca under Muhammad’s control, he set out to destroy all the rock idols of the Kaaba, except for the black stone that represented his god. Because in Muhammad’s book, idolatry is bad, except for the idolatry he considered halal. Also, he would ban anyone who wasn’t Muslim from Mecca, a ban which Muslims honor to this day.

As Muhammad gained more power for himself, he required less justification for attacking neighboring towns and cities, and just attacked them to expand his growing empire. Many of those attacked simply converted in an effort to avoid Muhammad’s wrath.

Muhammad also had people assassinated if they criticized or satirized Muhammad. If there’s one thing a tyrant hates, it’s being satirized. That’s because that’s their weakness. A tyrant inspires fear in an effort to control people. If they are ridiculed, the fear goes away, and the control along with it. European kings understood this, which was why they preferred not to execute their own jesters, knowing the bad optics that could come from doing so, instead granting them permission to ridicule even the king, if desired.

One person who was assassinated had a nursing child pulled from her right before killing her. Another was killed by multiple Muslims, so Muhammad decided that the one who got the killing blow had to be the one whose blade still had traces of food the victim had previously consumed.

Muhammad reportedly laughed so hard at the account of one assassination that his back teeth could be easily seen, in case you wondered at the kind of thing that he found funny. It’s easy to see why he kept company with assassins rather than jesters.

However, Muhammad faced financial problems. It seems as though the funds raised from conquered non-Muslims, such as in Khaybar, were far greater than the relatively small tax collected from Muslims.

What would Muhammad do? Go out conquering, that’s what. But having become the undisputed king of Arabia in about a decade, where would he go?

Muhammad set his sights on the Byzantines and the Persians. He sent out notices that they convert to Islam, or else. They pretty much declined, so the Muslims attacked them.

One could almost pity them. It’s as though they had no idea what else they could do.

However, because the civilizations just outside Arabia were far more developed, they did a much better job at repeling the Islamic invaders. The invasions of the surrounding cultures would be measured in centuries, rather than days, weeks, or years.

Islam would provide a strategy: send wave after wave of young men, who would die in the meat grinder of war in all the time it would take to conquer.

That sounds like a bad strategy, and it is. But the Islamic world could feed into it.

Fecundism describes the practice of encouraging high birth rates, usually to the end of increasing political influence held by ethnic groups, but it can be used for other purposes.

The high birth rates among Muslims is due to a discouraging of birth control, and also due to polygamy.

Where polygamy is practiced, it heavily favors high-status males. In Islam, men are permitted up to four wives. Assuming the most affluent 25% of men marry 100% of women, that would mean that three-quarters of the men wouldn’t know a day of marriage.

But Islam tells them about a way out: die in battle furthering Islam, for 72 heavenly virgins. Considering that their religion doesn’t give them any earthly hope, this is quite a motivation.

And if 75% of the male population were to be wiped out in war, they’d be quickly replaced as the surviving 25% continually impregnate their multiple wives.

It’s been estimated that, due to the prevalence of polygamy, two-thirds of all men who have ever lived have never married. Not only would Islam have been a significant contributor to this statistic, it also means that many of those men lived brief, heavily-indoctrinated lives which ended in a violent and sustained push to expand the worst religion to have ever been imagined.

Back to Part 4

To Part 6

Though Muhammad was a traitor, the Meccans didn’t pursue him into Medina. Once he was out of town, they were no longer concerned with him. This was a mistake.

This was about the time that the themes of Muhammad’s religion became about warfare. The physical variety.

Muhammad’s exile was at about the time that Muhammad began referring to his god primarily as “Allah”, where he seemed to prefer “Al Rahman”, the name of the Hanif god, during his initial preaching in Mecca.

To aquire wealth, Muhammad would have his men raid Meccan caravans. These caravans were initially defenseless, so the raiders encountered little resistance. But in time, caravans started getting more evasive.

Eventually, the caravans would primarily run during the observance of Ramadan. The idea was that, because absolutely no violence was permitted during the month-long celebration, then caravans could pass by Medina without fear.

Except some of Muhammad’s raiders decided to attack a caravan anyway. However, Muhammad inquired of his god, and as his god often did, he provided a revelation that satisfied Muhammad’s personal desire: the booty was considered legit, meaning that raiding on Ramadan was allowed.

Muhammad had committed an immense cultural faux-pas. But as his means of violence increased, fewer people challenged him.

One of the most significant battles in Muhammad’s life was the Battle of Badr, in which Muslims emerged victorious against the Quraysh, damaged their trade routes, and established Muslims as a serious threat against the people who were once Muhammad’s friends and family. Muhammad had risen (descended?) from being a mere traitor to a significant adversary to the kin he had betrayed.

It can be interesting to see Muslims portray the Battle of Badr as glorious, when you know that it was a battle between pirates and merchants.

Medina had three Jewish tribes. Among them, Muhammad and his Muslims were in a minority. It was at Medina that Muhammad had established a pattern that would eventually be followed by Muslims the world over. While they were few in number, they would present themselves as peaceful and conciliatory. But they would also take opportunities to put pressures in place in an effort to make their own religion seem more attractive. As Muslims grew in number, they became increasingly belligerent in their demands. Eventually, enough power would consolidate around Muslims that they could go full mask-off, taking whatever influence and wealth they wanted by force.

Initially, Muhammad would change the qiblah, or direction of prayer, towards Jerusalem, rather than Mecca. He also taught that Christians and Jews could attain salvation by observing their own religions. These acts were intended to make other people less defensive around Muslims. But Muhammad had only said them when it was advantageous for him to do so. Once he had sufficient strength, all pretense of tolerance was discarded.

One of the problems that Muhammad ran into was that the Jews knew their own Scriptures better than he did. So when Muhammad made the claim to be a prophet, it didn’t hold up to scrutiny. There was even a point where Muhammad claimed to be the Jewish messiah. No points for correctly guessing how they responded to that.

Muhammad wasn’t very bright. He initially claimed that the Jewish Scriptures indicated that he was a prophet, and indicated his coming. When the Jews understandably rejected his claim, he then claimed that this teaching was erased from all Scriptures everywhere in the world in a conspiratorial fashion, all in an effort to hamper him.

Muhammad didn’t check his own brain to see whether this new statement contradicted his earlier claim that he was mentioned.

Like many half-wits who fail at reason, Muhammad would turn to threats and violence.

The first Medinan Jewish tribe that Muhammad threatened was the Qaynuqa, who were told to either convert or be driven into exile. After they refused to convert, Muhammad looked for a pretext to go to war with them. This was found when a Jew was accused of harassing a Muslim woman. The Jew was killed by a Muslim, and the Muslim was later killed by a Jew.

The Qaynuqa were forced into exile, leaving their properties in the hands of Muslims. This would greatly increase Muhammad’s influence.

The next tribe Muhammad would target would be the Nadir. But pay attention to how the conflict started, because it tells us a lot about how Muslims think.

First, on Muhammad’s order, some Muslims killed a Nadir Jew named Kaab Al-Ashraf. Muhammad then declared war on the whole Nadir clan, because he feared retaliation against him for the murder he ordered.

Even when a Muslim commits murder, they’ll still look for a way to make themselves the victim.

What’s more, Muhammad was such a fool that he didn’t seem to consider the possible consequences for his call for murder until it was already completed.

To make his call for war seem more divine, Muhammad claimed that an angel appeared to him in a dream and warned him of the retaliation. Whether for lack of skepticism or for spoils of war, the Muslims went to war, bringing the Nadir Jews to surrender, and the survivors were exiled.

After that, there was just one Jewish tribe left in Medina, the Qurayza. And they were like, “We saw what happened to those other guys, and want none of that.” Then they just straight-up surrendered.

Pay attention and learn a valuable lesson: Never surrender to Muslims.

Ever. Their forgiveness is capricious, and their cruelty is legendary.

On the plus side, Muslims today are generally talentless at fighting. This is due in large part to the fact that their religion gives them a reason to die, not a reason to live.

But if you’re up for a reason to never surrender to Muslims, pay attention to what happened to the Qurayza.

Muhammad decided that every adult male in the tribe should be executed. And to divide the men from the boys, they checked each individual male to see whether public hair was growing in.

Yep. They peeked.

Muhammad then had a huge ditch dug, had the men beheaded, then dumped their remains into the ditch.

Everyone who survived became property. Boys were made into slaves. Girls and women were made into sex slaves. This includes widows, some of which were forced to have sex the very night their husbands were executed.

By the way, Muhammad ordered a fifth of the women captured to be added to his personal collection of sex slaves. And, as a reminder, he only had one child, a daughter, in his entire life.

With all opposition eliminated from Medina, Muhammad finally had a city that he fully controlled, to use as his base of operations. And yet, it wasn’t his home. Even his initial base of operations was obtained through invasion. Even at their starting point, Muslims were always the invaders.

There’s an irony that begs to be recognized: that though Muslims love to claim that all land in the world belongs to their god and their prophet, in reality, they can never be anything other than invaders, anywhere they go.

Back to Part 3

To Part 5

As Muhammad gained more followers, his story seemed less like that of a random rambler that you see at a bus station, and more like how matters would play out if that rambler had resources, connections, and a cadre of enablers.

In time, his story would go from concerning to horrifying, and escalate from there.

Though Muhammad gained followers, he was increasingly antagonized by his fellow Quraysh, whose ancestors he has disrespected. It got to the point that they openly antagonized him while he was praying at the Kaaba. Muhammad was so upset by this that he threatened them after he was done praying, then promptly left.

At that point, the Quraysh decided that matters were getting out of hand, so they discussed amongst themselves how they would deal with Muhammad.

What happened after that was an affair that made Muhammad look so bad that Muslims today deal with it by pretending that it didn’t actually happen. This would be the affair that has come to be known as “The Satanic Verses”.

The Quraysh presented Muhammad with a bargain: They would present him with influence, wives, wealth, and treatment for his demons if, and only if, Muhammad would revere Al Lat, Manat, and Al Uzza, the three goddesses that he had previously reviled, for only one year.

Accepting the offer would have amounted to compromising with his professed convictions, in exchange for worldly gain. This would have disqualified Muhammad as a prophet.

The expectation for a prophet would be to reject such a proposal outright. But interestingly, Muhammad thought about it. His hesitation was telling. And whatever his answer would have been, it would have been deliberate, by virtue of the consideration that went into it.

So, consider what it meant when he accepted it. Because he did. After all his talk about being monotheistic, he returned to polytheism, and expressly worshipped the three goddesses he previously described as clothing-challenged. Perhaps their outfits of choice were as Islamic as the burka?

The Quraysh were thrilled, because they wanted peace. However, some of Muhammad’s followers were alienated, because Muhammad went back on his monotheism, after years of being passionate about it. Then, and only then, did Muhammad realize the mistake that he made. So, he broke the treaty that he had previously agreed to.

His excuse was that Satan had cast a spell on his speaking that made him accept the bargain, and subsequently honor the three goddesses. While this is already a ridiculous claim, it has terrible implications for every other teaching that came out of Muhammad’s mouth.

How many prophets have ever made the claim that Satan made them say something? And how many of Muhammad’s other teachings were also Satanic?

Muslims today deal with this scandal by claiming that it was in an “unreliable hadith”, and therefore, they act like it probably didn’t happen. However, this is a very recent notion, in light of the populurization of a novel which brought attention to this incident. Prior to Salman Rushdie, that Muhammad accepted the Quraysh bargain was commonly accepted among Muslims.

But Muhammad actually disqualified himself even worse in light of Islamic teaching. Muhammad himself taught that it was an unforgivable sin to ascribe partners to his own god, Allah. When Muhammad worshipped Allah’s three daughters, he committed a sin that he himself would teach wouldn’t be forgiven. This means that if Islam is true, Muhammad had condemned himself to hell.

That anyone could notice this and still trust Muhammad’s teachings with their salvation is baffling.

In the year 619, Muhammad’s protective uncle, Abu Talib, would die. As he was dying, the Quraysh would approach him for one last attempt to form a treaty with Muhammad through him. The intention was peace. Muhammad would refuse.

Abu Talib protected Muhammad, in spite of all the trouble he caused, though Abu Talib himself wasn’t a Muslim. Muhammad and another Muslim was there as Abu Talib was dying. The Muslim claimed that he heard Abu Talib convert to Islam with his final whispered words. But Muhammad said that because he couldn’t make out what he had said, his conversion didn’t happen, therefore, Abu Talib went to hell.

Such was the respect Muhammad had for the person who did as much as he did to blunt the consequences for Muhammad’s disgraceful behavior.

But there’s a disturbing implication there for Muslims today. If Muhammad had to hear someone’s conversion for it to be accepted, what does that mean for Muslims today? Muhammad is dead, so he couldn’t hear them when they spoke the shahaddah, the expression which a person speaks with sincerity when converting to Islam. Is it impossible for anyone today to become a Muslim?

At around that time, tension was building between Mecca and the nearby city of Medina. With the passing of Abu Talib, Muhammad perceived himself as politically vulnerable.

In light of this, Muhammad decided to try to consolidate political power to himself. By making a treaty with Medina, against his own people, the Meccans. And it was a treaty of war.

Muhammad had committed treason against his own people. What a piece of shit.

When the Meccans discovered this, Muhammad decided that it was time to skip town. To be sure he got away, he left the first person he had converted, Ali, in his own bed as a decoy.

He could have used a bunch of stones as his decoy. But no, he instead used the first person converted by his preaching. Again, what a piece of shit.

Muhammad’s flight to Medina was in 622 AD, which was marked as the first year in the Islamic calendar.

Yep, the Islamic calendar began with despicable acts of treachery and cowardice. What a start that Muhammad’s religion was off to!

But Muhammad wasn’t done. There’s going to be a Part 4.

Back to Part 2

To Part 4

Khadija was certainly a very interesting woman. She was a wealthy businesswoman, which is already unusual for her time and place. But what’s more, she was the wealthiest businesswoman in Arabia during her time. So, it stands to reason that she’d know an opportunity when she saw one.

It would appear that the marriage between Muhammad and Khadija was a happy one, though there was an age difference between them. As Muhammad would demonstrate later, age was just a number to him.

Khadija was wealthy and supportive, a combination of attributes which likely played an important role in Muhammad’s influence in his early years claiming to be a prophet.

Prior to this, Muhammad frequently went to caves to pray, which was probably not unusual. But one day, things would change.

Muhammad had his first vision when he was 40. According to Muhammad, while he was praying in a cave, he was visited by an angel who wrestled him to the ground, sat on his chest, and forced him to read from a scroll. Problem was, Muhammad was illiterate, and therefore couldn’t read. This ordeal occurred two more times, before Muhammad got up and ran from the cave.

Now, does repeatedly wrestling a man to the ground and forcing him to do something that he didn’t know how to do seem angelic? Probably not, so it was understandable that Muhammad was terrified that he might have been demon possessed, and ran home scared out of his mind, and hid under sheets.

It seems obvious that Muhammad fell asleep while praying, and had a nightmare. It’s not unusual for dreams to have elements that are culturally significant to the dreamer, including dreams that are religious in nature for those who are religious. While dreams are not fully understood, they are generally considered to be subconscious representations of one’s subliminal fears and desires. What’s more, the theme of having one’s chest pressed upon is common in those experiencing night terrors.

But would a man in 7th century Arabia be expected to know that? In Muhammad’s case, no. So he thought that he had demons. At a later point, he would assert that it was an angel that he saw, when he claimed to be a prophet and therefore would have something to gain from presenting it as such.

Khadija, being supportive, tried reassuring Muhammad. She got creative about it. One of the things she did was she started stripping and sitting down close to Muhammad, reasoning that if the spirit that Muhammad saw gave the couple privacy, it would be an angel rather than a demon. Thus, as she progressively removed her clothing and drew close to Muhammad, she asked him whether he still saw the spirit. Eventually, at some point during her routine, he said that he no longer saw it.

However, the sight of the elderly woman’s striptease apparently didn’t reassure Muhammad. However, Khadija had one more trick up her sleeve. She would take Muhammad to the only Christian in town, a blind man named Waraqa, for a phony endorsement. Muhammad described his dream to Waraqa, after which, Waraqa told Muhammad that it meant that he would be a great prophet like Moses.

For those unfamiliar with the Bible: Waraqa lied.

I suspect that Khadija had paid or otherwise incentivized Waraqa into making the endorsement. But days after making it, Waraqa died.

There’s a reason why Khadija went to great lengths to reassure her husband: he was suicidal. Since the cave vision, Muhammad had considered suicide, and had nearly attempted it more than once.

It’s not an unusual belief that the Biblical prophets were hesitant about their callings. However, Muhammad really leaned into that. It would be years after the cave vision that he finally started preaching.

When he did, the themes were perdition in the form of hell fire, in an apparent effort to scare up some believers. He would go on and on about the kinds of graphically-described punishments that await those who didn’t become one of his followers.

But while Muhammad had numerous listeners, for a while, he was scant on followers. It was as though people showed up just to hear a schizophrenic man ramble about hell because it amused them.

But Muhammad did have one follower: his own wife, Khadija.

Khadija was likely aware that her husband’s prophethood was all a hoax. After all, it was her who tried to reassure her husband with a visit Waraqa, which may have been a collaborative ruse on their parts. Even if Muhammad’s prophethood originated from the imagination of Waraqa, Khadija likely just went along with it with the businesswoman side of herself seeing the potential profit from a prophet ploy. And because the towns pantheon was a scam that benefitted the Quraysh, it’s easy to see where she would’ve gotten the idea from.

Speaking of, the Quraysh didn’t object to Muhammad’s preaching, even as his monotheism challenged their own polytheism. Mecca was already visited by people from monotheistic religions, so they had an established history of tolerance. Besides, as they saw it, if Muhammad started preaching, that meant more religion in town, which they saw as the town’s main business.

After a while, Muhammad gained a convert, Ali. But his conversation didn’t inspire much confidence, as he was described as having the widest waist in town, and the skinniest legs. Comically unfit.

Initially, Muhammad won followers at a snail’s pace. Rather than appealing to a sense of purpose and value, like many leaders do, Muhammad tried to scare up some followers with graphic descriptions of hell. Normally, threatening people into your religion doesn’t work unless you have force to back it up. But let’s not read that far ahead, just yet.

The Quraysh didn’t like that Muhammad was regularly committing blasphemy against every god in their pantheon except one, but they didn’t seem upset enough to do anything about it. This was odd, considering that one might expect a people, particularly their priests, to get upset that someone was bad-mouthing their religion.

Among Muhammad’s claims was that the three daughters of the pantheon, Al Lat, Manat, and Al Uzza, were black girls. Because Muhammad was racist, he probably saw this as a way to bring them down. He also said that they were clothing-challenged. If he were to take a trip to Greece, he would’ve met a number of people who wouldn’t have cared.

What did upset the Quraysh was Muhammad’s claim that their ancestors were burning in hell because they weren’t Muslims, members of Muhammad’s religion. For the Quraysh, this was intolerable. To make the optics worse, Muhammad himself was Qurayshi. His own disregard for his own ancestors only made him look worse.

But as Muhammad gained more followers, he could afford to become more belligerent. And though his affluent uncle, Abu Talib, disagreed with much of what Muhammad taught, Muhammad nonetheless enjoyed the protection that came with association with him.

It all started with Khadija, an elderly wife who, in comforting her younger husband who had a nightmare, decided to take Muhammad to Waraqa, who gave him a fake endorsement of prophethood. She herself was a bit of an anomaly, a wealthy businesswoman in a male-dominated society. However, she was not long out of the grave, and would therefore not live to see just how many women would be shackled by reason of her own religion, a religion that some have gone as far as to say that she had converted her husband to.

There hasn’t been another woman like her.

Muhammad would certainly miss her. And by “miss”, I mean “replace”. Muhammad would remarry. But his second wife, Sauda, wouldn’t remain to Muhammad’s liking. She got fat. Which Muhammad eventually would too, which his increasing wealth would allow. But that didn’t matter as much to Muhammad as the fact that Sauda was fat.

Sauda agreed to surrender some of her marital privileges in exchange for allowing her to remain married. So yeah, Muhammad threatened to divorce one of his wives because she got fat.

To get a little into Muhammad’s family life, by the time Muhammad died, he had a total of 26 wives, with as many as 11 at a time. This is in excess of the Islamic limit of 4 wives per male, but Muhammad manufactured a special revelation granting himself, and only himself, an exception. This was in addition to the number of sex slaves Muhammad had, which he placed no limit on, for himself or other males.

One might imagine the sheer number of babies that Muhammad had. One. Just one. A daughter by the name of Fatima.

In the ancient world, some considered it an indignity to have only daughters. And worse for Muhammad, it was only one, after having a total of 26 wives.

Some of the indignity that was against Muhammad was self-inflicted, by reason of one of his teachings. While on a raid, Muhammad told his men not to worry about coitus-interruptus as they were going about raping, saying that Allah had already determined every human being who would ever be born. So, does this mean that Allah decided that his favorite prophet only got one child, a daughter?

It’s clear that the problem wasn’t on some collective infertility on the the parts of Muhammad’s wives. It seemed the problem was with Muhammad. He had impotence. And he was so insecure about it that he ordered his wives to wear full-body coverings, fearing that other men might take his wives away.

That’s right: the whole reason why Muslim women cover themselves all over as they go outside was because one insecure man had difficulty getting it up.

Returning to the point in the story where we left off, Sauda was not Muhammad’s favorite wife. That would be Aisha. The one who was 6 years old when Muhammad married her, and was 9 when the marriage was consummated. Because they used lunar years without intercalary months, she may have been slightly younger than that.

Not only did Muhammad enjoy his time with her, he claimed to have received revelations during that time. In which they were engaged in intimacy. That vomiting sound you just heard was probably you.

So far, this series has depicted Muhammad in such a negative light, that you might guess that much of it was made up. But the biographies of Muhammad confirm that he did these very things. But why would the official Islamic materials depict Muhammad so negatively?

Perhaps they were authored by hostile sources.

For centuries, the Islamic materials, including the Quran, were transmitted orally. It wasn’t until after Persia was conquered that they decided to collect all the verbal accounts that made up the life of Muhammad, and his Quran. The Persians were probably a little salty about having been conquered by Muslims, which would have motivated them to present Islam and Mohammed as negatively as they could get away with.

It is foolish to go centuries with the primary form of information retention and transmission being verbal and through memory. To illustrate this point, you might remember the children’s game of telephone. It has children sitting in a semi-circle. Something is whispered into the ear of the child on one end. That child then whispers what they heard into the ear of the next kid. This continues, until the kid on the other end has something whispered to them, after which, the child says what they heard.

Usually, what the child says is far different from what the first child had whispered to them.

Now, imagine that game being played over the course of centuries, over many miles, participated in by many different tribes, before the decision was made to finally compile what was being said in writing.

It’s quite possible that the Muhammad that really was was far different from the Muhammad that Islam teaches about, or simply didn’t exist. If that was the case, then Islam is wrong about Muhammad. But if the Islamic sources are right about Muhammad, then Muhammad was demented. Either one is not great for Islam.

So, who are we criticizing, today? Whether real or imagined, that would be the Muhammad that Muslims believe in. Because that’s the Muhammad whose religion is destroying the world today, and if not fought back against, it will wipe out humanity.

More to come.

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