Violence against critics of Islam

Violence against critics of Islam has existed since the early days of the Muslim faith.

Causes

This violence is a form of retaliation against someone who, by criticizing Islam, has thereby attacked it. It can be a religious duty to retaliate in this way, since, by attacking Islam, the offender is also held to be attacking God. Islam, as revealed in the Quran, is believed by Muslims to be the perfect word of God, and is therefore said to be beyond criticism. Individual Muslims and their personal practices are agreed to be far from perfect, and they can be criticized. The religion can also be analyzed and interpreted by Islamic scholars provided the purpose is to extract its original meaning, not to change its meaning.

In severe cases of criticism of Islam, the penalty is death. According to the relevant Islamic laws, non-Muslim critics of Islam may be given a chance to save their lives by sincerely converting.

The violence is also a form of social intimidation to prevent others from criticizing Islam. Most such violence occurs in Islamic countries, but it has become increasingly common in the West, as large Muslim immigrant communities have become established there since World War II. Such violence is usually carried out by Islamists, but it can also be perpetrated by left-wing and far-left sympathizers of multiculturalism, as in the assassination of Pim Fortuyn by Volkert van der Graaf, which was partially inspired by Fortuyn's criticism of Islam.

Muslims in the West also try to change the laws on blasphemy to restrict the permitted scope of criticism of Islam.

Examples (Western World)

• The killing of Theo van Gogh by Mohammed Bouyeri in 2004.

• 2010 Copenhagen terror plot

• The Charlie Hebdo shooting in 2015.

• Copenhagen attack against Jyllands-Posten contributors in 2015.

• The Curtis Culwell Center attack in 2015.