- W. Montgomery Watt, Bellʼs Introduction to the Qurʼan, Edinburgh,
1970, pp.205-213. For a general readership, rather than worry about the
vagaries of when to use “kafirs” and “kuffar”, we prefer to use just a
single term throughout this book. For us the word “Kuffar” means “the
individual unbeliever” or “a group of unbelievers”. Also we use the word
“Kuffar” to mean “any and all of those beliefs which are opposed by
Islam”. This is because the single most important lesson the non-Muslim
can learn (be he Buddhist, atheist, Christian, Jew, Hindu, nationalist or
Communist) is that Islam is violently opposed to him, simply on the basis
that his beliefs as a non-Muslim are not Islamic. Thus we group all these
belief systems and any associated identities under the word “Kuffar”
(Islam groups all unbelievers together into a world of unbelief). It is
immaterial to us whether or not Muslims or Arabic speakers tell us this is
inaccurate. Combatting the idea that Islam is peaceful and tolerant is the
single most vital lesson for all non-Muslims to learn, and this is an idea
which almost the entire infrastructure of our own society is committed to
concealing from the public. ↵
dana p.
(Dana P.)
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