The Awakening.
I am often asked how I became interested in the subject of Islam and generally share an abbreviated story about a long ago personal experience. But the reason why that one experience would have developed into a full time occupation by someone who’s plans for life would ordinarily have veered in an entirely different direction — might be of interest to a few people and so here goes.
It began in 1983 when I shared a house over Christmas with a Baha’i refugee from the Iranian revolution and learned how they were persecuted, tortured and killed simply because they were Baha’i. Having been raised with numerous foster brothers and sisters of every persuasion who always managed to get along, the idea of such intolerance was very shocking.
At first, I thought it was just another bad government but then spoke to, and read about other people with similar experiences — women, apostates and religious minorities — eventually realizing that what happened to them is because of Islam itself.
Then I started studying the doctrine.
The easiest way to understand Islam is to know the life of Mohammed and realize that the stories and traditions about him provide the example that Muslims are supposed to follow. However, Mohammed’s life (and consequently the doctrine) is dualistic. His early preaching in Mecca, reflected in both the Koran and Hadith, is intolerant but there is no violence — and neither did Islam grow very much, only 150 followers in 13 years.
After Mohammed’s migration to Medina — so significant an event that this marks the beginning of the Islamic calendar — he adopted jihad. Both the Koran and Hadith also changed and become violent towards those who do not accept Mohammed as ‘prophet’ and obey sharia.
This is when Islam grew, through conquest, to encompass the entire Arabian peninsula and beyond. In actual practice, the later verses are considered the better verses but all are true because they are from Allah and Mohammed. So when Islam is weak, it is the softer verses or those intended only for Muslims that are heard in the public square, when it is strong, we witness the violent ones.
That is why knowing the life of Mohammed is necessary to understand when ‘revelations’ occurred and under what circumstances.
Once the mass immigration began with mosques popping up everywhere I realized that I had to try and share what I know with others. The first thing Mohammed did when he migrated to Medina was to erect a mosque — which was also used for planning jihad, to store weapons, as a court etc.
Within 5 years of his migration the 3 Jewish tribes of Medina had either been exiled or killed. This pattern has been repeated for centuries. Islam arrives as a supplicant — gains strength and starts making demands — gains more strength and violence begins. Eventually the country becomes Islamic.
In 2019 I was seated next to a woman at a meeting and during a break, I was speaking to her about Islam, the life of Mohammed and what the doctrine says about unbelievers, apostates and women — then suddenly, from over my head, I heard a man’s voice says ‘I am a Muslim’. I turned to look up at him and asked, ‘am I right?’. He said ‘Yes, you are’ and then told us about his experience in Saudi Arabia. He had been a student of Islamic doctrine but couldn’t accept what it teaches and knew it would not be safe for him to remain there so he came to Canada.
There are many people who tell stories like this and some of their books can be found on the ‘resources’ page of my website. The ‘homepage’ includes all the Islamic doctrine and a tutorial showing how to search it. In this way each page confirms what is found on the other: https://www.poi-nps.com/resources
Typically, information about Islam is unnecessarily complicated and confuses people rather than informs. This approach does not facilitate learning. For example, the Koran is not in chronological order but rather the ‘Fatiha’ (prayed 17 times per day by devout Muslims) is first but is short, and then the rest of the chapters are in order of length — longest to shortest — not exact but close. Imagine doing that to a novel you’re reading….
Consequently, I joined a European think tank — mostly research and writing — that focuses on the Koran and the life of Mohammed as found in the earliest authentic writings and confirmed by the doctrine itself. This is an important distinction because today, propaganda proliferates as a tool of Islamic expansion — this includes ‘Dawa’ or ‘Common Word’ events used to incline people towards Islam [1] even though the doctrine frequently and specifically warns Muslims against taking ‘unbelievers’ as friends.
Having heard about these Dawa events from a friend and what she had experienced there I attended one myself a few years ago hosted by a Canadian mosque.
It began with a Christian saying ‘The Lord’s Prayer’ in English followed by an Imam reciting ‘Al Fatiha’ in Arabic. Everyone in the room smiled and nodded thinking they had just been blessed when in fact, the opposite was true. Translated, ‘Al Fatiha’ ends with the verses ‘Guide us to the straight way. The Way of those on whom You have bestowed your Grace, not (the way) of those who earned Your Anger (such as the Jews), nor of those who went astray (such as the Christians)[2].
Then the group broke into what were supposed to be mixed faith pods — it seemed to be mostly Christian because the group I was put into only had one Muslim and he immediately left the pod. So I messaged the chairperson and asked to be put into another pod. Again, only Christians, there had been a Muslim in the group but he had already left as well. Participants all went home happy, not realizing what Al Fatiha actually says or that their knowledge of Islam itself, as opposed to meeting a few nice people — had not been improved.
In 2023, I established the ‘Perspectives on Islam’ society in Canada to share information about Islamic doctrine more frequently and with a desire to make this information more readily available to the average person whoever and wherever they may be. From ‘Western’ politicians to Afghan women and everyone in between. My articles are published on Medium and Substack and sometimes carried by assorted newsletters.
Needless to say there have been obstacles, censoring accurate and verifiable information about Islam should not be permitted but it happens frequently, meanwhile beautiful lies circulate freely and are uncontested.
I started a YouTube channel which was growing nicely but on the twelfth video it was apparent that YT had done something to affect viewership. I know that some of my YT followers may not have wanted this information shared — the foundational doctrine is the Achilles heel of Islam which may be why the ‘Organization of Islamic Cooperation’ is publishing ‘Islamophobia’ reports every year that conflate criticism of Islam itself, the doctrine, with people. Or, it might simply have been an algorithm, in any event — there are twelve educational videos now on the site that cover the essential basics about Islamic doctrine for anyone who wants to learn more about it: https://www.youtube.com/@perspectivesonislam
Finally, last summer, I compiled my essays into a book that begins with the ABCs of Islam and ends with a short essay about the Muslim Brotherhood, a synopsis of sharia law and recommendations to resist/reverse Islamization of non Islamic countries. https://www.amazon.com/dp/1068876018
I have shared this book now with many politicians in 4 countries. I just hope a few of them will read it and realize that the Koran has a great deal to say about the unbeliever and that it’s not good news. Everyone should know what it says, not just the Imams and Islamic scholars that instruct the average Muslim, wield power in Islamic states, and sometimes act in an advisory capacity to non-Islamic authorities and educational institutions even though sharia is the antithesis of a free society.
I am retired now and have been working at this pretty much full time for 5 yrs. I love Canada and don’t want to see it become another Islamic state. For the U.K., it may be too late. I was speaking with a very knowledgeable gentleman in Madrid a few days ago who thinks Germany and France may fall to Islam within the next 10 years.
It is the very values we cherish that make non-Islamic countries vulnerable. I don’t want Jews afraid to walk down the street, little girls wrapped in burqas and women legally abused — subject to a doctrine that does not recognize all human beings as equal and does not allow freedom of religion. That’s enough reason to carry on and encourage others to do the same.
SOURCES:
[1] Dawa: Ali, Ayaan HIrsi “The Challenge of Dawa Political Islam as Ideology and Movement and How to Counter It” Hoover Institution Press, Stanford University 2017
[2] Koran 1:6–7 (Hilali/Khan translation) https://legacy.quran.com/1/6-7
RELEVANT DOCTRINE
Koran 2:106 https://legacy.quran.com/2/106
Koran 3:118 https://legacy.quran.com/3/118
Koran 4:102 https://legacy.quran.com/4/102
Hadith (Dawud 4474) https://sunnah.com/abudawud:4474
Hadith (Dawud 2071) https://sunnah.com/abudawud:2071
Hadith (Bukhari 5230) https://sunnah.com/bukhari:5230
Hadith (Bukhari 2783) https://sunnah.com/bukhari:2783
Hadith (Muslim 1917) https://sunnah.com/muslim:1917
Hadith (Muslim 2426b) https://sunnah.com/muslim:2426b
Reliance of the Traveller, A Classic Manual of Islamic Law (022.10, k30.2) Nuh Ha Mim Keller, Amana Publications 2015 (ROT) https://archive.org/details/relianceofthetravellertheclassicmanualofislamicsacredlaw
Sira: Guillaume, Alfred. ‘The Life of Muhammad: a Translation of Ibn Ishaq’s Sirat Rasul Allah’ [281, 363, 437, 461–66; 394–395. 933, 948, 952], Oxford University Press, 1967 https://archive.org/details/GuillaumeATheLifeOfMuhammad/page/n3/mode/2up
Photo Credit: Airam Dato-On