@Tim: Taqiyya is a minority position and not officially taught in sunni Islam as “taqiyya.” Remember that this guy in the video and most Muslims you encounter at work or on TV are going to be sunni. As a sunni Muslim, you will sometimes be taught that it is okay to lie about being a Muslim if someone is holding a gun to your head or something like that but that even then, it’s superior to tell the truth and die for it (and thus become a martyr!)

I don’t know why so many Muslims lie by omission when talking about Islam to non-Muslims (like this guy celebrates) — I certainly haven’t seen it written in a book for example, but in traveling to Muslim countries and being a Muslim for many many years, I noticed that there is a lot of lying by omission and bald faced lying done to save face or make other people feel good about themselves, even when the lie creates harm or inconvenience. I have written about this, just from a personal perspective. Sure, Islam teaches that you should always tell the truth, but the culture of Islam in reality, on the ground is something else.

As far as I know, the idea of “immanent harm” is the same one that shia have, but for all the complaints, some of them rightly aimed, that right wing pundits use the word “taqiyya” to discredit any Muslim, many sunni Muslims do the saem to the shia. I hope http://al-islam.org%3BL:http:/.....38;spell=1” rel=”nofollow”>this link works; it is the search results for taqiyya teachings on a shia website and there is an interesting three part article that will give you the majority 12er shia position.

The moment has no doubt passed, but if the author of the post happens to wander by here some day it would be great if he could shed some light on my questions – namely:

1. Is the wikipedia definition wrong and, if so, what is the source for the assertion that takiyya is about promoting Islam, rather than protecting oneself?

2. If it is true that this is a “well known tactic” among Muslims, can you provide some examples of it being employed? And did it work?!

Thanks!

I still come back to the idea, that since all ‘revelations’ by any ‘prophet’ are the result of either schizophrenia, drugs or out & out lies, the foundation of all religions are fundamentally unsound.

Also, I can imagine that the use of force would be effective, whereas my curiousity about takiyyah stems from my suspicion that simple deceit would not work so well at all – which is why I was surprised to read that it is a “well known tactic”, a phrase which suggests that it is actually used in practice as opposed to being a mere theological concept. (Of course, if takiyya is not a tool for “promoting Islam” at all, but is rather a special dispensation to save one’s hide in dangerous times, as suggested by wikipedia, then I can certainly imagine its use being relatively common – especially in today’s geo-political climate.)