What is Taqiyya?

From An Inquiry Into Islam
 
IN SEVERAL Quranic passages as well as the example of Mohammad, Muslims are encouraged to deceive non-Muslims when it will help protect Islam. It is known as the principle of “taqiyya” or “religious deception.”

This is less surprising if you first understand that in mainstream Islamic teachings, the world is divided into “the house of Islam” and “the house of war.” That is, part of the world is Islamic and the other part has yet to brought into the light with Allah’s holy law (Sharia).

And since relations with the non-Islamic part of the world exists in a state of war, then deceit is an appropriate strategy, used by all military commanders since the beginning of warfare.

As Raymond Ibrahim wrote, the Quranic verses 3:28 and 16:106, as well as Muhammad’s famous assertion, “War is deceit,” have all led to the formulation of a number of doctrines of “taqiyya.” And this is not an obscure point of theology. It is being practiced today by devout Muslims. See some examples of taqiyya caught on tape.
What is Taqiyya?

In the book, Terrorist Hunter: The Extraordinary Story of a Woman Who Went Undercover to Infiltrate the Radical Islamic Groups Operating in America, Rita Katz wrote about being at an IAP conference in Chicago. IAP is the Islamic Association for Palestine. There were lots of booths at the conference for “charitable” organizations, and at one of these booths, Katz met a man she already knew about: Muhammad Salah. She pretended she didn’t know who he was, and he introduced himself as a “Muslim human rights activist.”

Katz, a non-Muslim woman dressed as a Muslim, wrote, “He was small, thin, nearly bald. Totally harmless looking.” He told her these conferences were so important because “we can teach you about the oppression and sufferings of Muslims in America and all over the world.”

Then he told Katz his story. He had been a Palestinian with an American citizenship, a used-car salesman, working in Chicago when he went to Israel to “visit family and friends.” But in Israel he was arrested by the Israeli authorities and thrown into prison for five years!

Katz looked appropriately appalled and asked why in heaven’s name would they put him in prison? “Because the Israelis oppress innocent Palestinians,” he said. “And do you know what is the most shocking part? When I returned to the U.S., after I was tortured and I thought I was going to die in that prison, the Americans placed me under investigation and froze my assets! Me, an innocent citizen, a car dealer, a family man, father of five!”
 
Continue reading
 
http://www.inquiryintoislam.com/2010/06/what-is-taqiyya.html
 
Also see

• Myths of Islam
• Qur’an, Hadith and Scholars: Lying and Deception
• Islam is NOT a Religion of Peace
• The Two Faces of Islam
• Islam 101
• Some Islamic Doctrines
• Pagan Origins of Islam