In the Name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Ever Merciful…

Controversial American preacher Yusuf Estes adds to his list of strange and offensive commentary of the Quran, explaining his understanding of the Verse of Soorah al-Baqarah (2:193), which means:

( And fight them until there is no more fitnah… )

While the scholars of Islam define the word “fitnah” in the Verse to mean “polytheism” and/or “disbelief”, and a proper reading of the Verse in its context would not allow for any other conclusion, Yusuf Estes, untrained and unqualified to provide commentary to the Book of Allah,  feels the need for a new explanation, that it means “terrorism”:

Now, in the Quran, Allah used that word – fitnah. And He said, “Fight them until there’s no more fitnah, because verily the fitnah is worse than fighting or killing these people.”

I wanna ask you something, and be honest: If you had the opportunity right now to kill these people who killed so many innocent lives, wouldn’t you?

Because that’s what Mr. Bush ordered. He ordered the troops to go out in combat and stomp these guys at whatever expense it takes.  And by the way, I don’t blame him for that. This is Islam.

Mr. Bush did not come up with anything new when he stood on the White House lawn, several days after 9/11.  They had a press conference. It was at night. And he stood there in front of the White House, and he said that this is not a war against Islam, which we appreciate that –  he’s telling the truth.  He said that this is a war on terrorism. But he is not the first one to say that.

Allah subhanahu wata’ala, God Almighty and Majestic, has already declared this war against terrorism 1,400 years ago. Its described using the word combat, “qital”, and it is referred to in the Arabic Language as “al-Jihad”.

Hijaa… he… hej… uh… “Jihad” here is a word which is understood as “struggle”.  Its a struggle on many levels, small level, medium level, and major level.  It’s a struggle. But when you are in combat with an enemy who commits terrorism, you’ve been commanded in the Quran to fight these people until you destroy them or they stop – one of the two.

Now there’s nothing wrong with that – that’s common sense.

Source: “Jihad in Islam”, part 2 of 3, at precisely 6:01 to 8:07, produced by Huda TV, from the series called “Lifting the Fog.” On YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QeR3aTJ9RDM&t=6m01s (uploaded on February 23, 2009).

Important Commentary

Before mentioning the severe distortions and perversions of the meanings, Yusuf Estes has misquoted the Verse itself.  He has erroneously meshed the meanings of two different Verses together and made them into one (2:193 and 2:191 respectively).

Secondly, we can see here that not only does Yusuf Estes grant himself the authority to change the meanings of the words of the Quran, like explaining the word “fitnah” as “terrorism”, he further explains the Quranic word according to the non-Muslim’s understanding of “terrorism”, and then proceeds to justify the American government’s illegal invasion of Afghanistan, declaring it a kind of jihad, ordered by Allah in the Quran!

Was George Bush, a Christian polytheist, obeying Allah’s order for jihad when he sent the American troops to invade Afghanistan?  This is indeed a strange understanding.  One could only wonder how these words could come out of the mouth of a Muslim who believes in Allah!

Conservative estimates of the Afghan civilian death toll resulting from the U.S. invasion are at around 20,000 direct casualties, and 50,000 including indirect casualties (died of untreated wounds, starvation, etc.). Only Allah knows just how many have died, and how many continue to live in constant chaos and social imbalance to this day as a result of the illegal American invasion and occupation of this Muslim land.

It’s absolutely shocking how a Muslim preacher could try to use the Quran to justify the illegal murder of so many multitudes of innocent civilians in a Muslim country, including women, children, and elderly.

Muslims everywhere are appalled at this TV personality, pretending to be qualified to offer tafseer (commentary) of the Quran, as he interprets Allah’s directive to the Muslims to partake in an established Muslim country’s military expeditions to defend and promote Islam as a non-Muslim army illegally invading a Muslim country, killing its citizens and destroying its civilization!

It appears that Shaykh ‘Ubayd al-Jaabiree (may Allah preserve him) spoke quite accurately when he described Yusuf Estes, saying:

He is either astray, leading others astray, or he has lost his mind.

Source: Yusuf Estes and the Quran (PDF), pp.38-39.