Elon Musk and Islam

For the sake of humanity and human dignity, our world needs to have an honest discussion about Islam and the consequences of following some of its teachings.

In an important development, billionaire Elon Musk recently began to pay close attention to Islam as a consequential ideology. That means looking at Islam’s teachings and the behavior of some of its followers.

This is crucial not only because Musk is a remarkably successful businessman who hasn’t presented himself as having much interest in religion in the past, but also because he has an impressive number of social media followers, especially on X, formerly known as Twitter. Whatever Musk writes eventually reaches more than 200 million people. Many in the West have been reluctant to question Islam publicly, in order not to be accused of so-called “Islamophobia.” However, Musk is willing to put his hands in the beehive.

What precisely drew Musk’s attention to Islam and Muslims, and why is this development important?

The triggering point for Musk appears to be the horrific reports about U.K. rape gangs, which are largely composed of Pakistani Muslims who target white British girls. Musk didn’t shy away from linking these gangs to Islam. In one post, Musk responded with two exclamation points to a report in which a former Labour MP described how the Labour Party wanted to cover up the gang scandal “to protect the Muslim block vote.” In another, Musk responded to a horrific report that British police found a young British girl naked and drunk with seven Pakistani men, but arrested the girl for being drunk. Musk commented that this was “state-sponsored evil.” Musk posted a photo of a court transcript of a Muslim man who was convicted of rape. Musk wrote, “For anyone doubting the severity and depravity of the mass gang rapes of little girls in Britain, go to the source material and read the court transcripts. I did. It is worse than you could possibly imagine.”

Clearly, Musk isn’t anti-Islam, anti-Muslim, or—wait for it—an Islamophobe, as some would label him. He is not interested in despising Islam or loathing Muslims, but he is concerned—as all of us should be—with the truth about these rape gangs and how Muslim adherents are led by the teachings of Islam to systemically exploit, abuse, rape, or murder young white British girls.

Musk’s curiosity should be viewed as a wake-up call to many in the West, where criticism of Islam has been off limits for decades. This must change. Everyone should be allowed to ask how Islam affects humanity wherever it prevails.

If conservative Christians state that homosexuality is wrong based on their biblical worldview, progressives will hammer them relentlessly. However, if a Muslim thinker conveys that same position, many progressives will give him a pass. And, if members of ISIS tell us they follow Islam’s teachings by throwing homosexuals off high buildings, many wouldn’t dare to question the religiously sanctioned action lest they be called Islamophobes.

When non-Muslims engage in evil actions against innocents, elite liberals will castigate them, but if Muslim terrorists rape Yazidis or massacre Christians and Jews while justifying their actions as following Islam’s precepts, the same elite liberals are deafeningly silent.

Then comes the rights of women and young girls. Just last week, Iraq’s parliament passed a law that would potentially legalize child marriage. The Iraqi Islamic logic is that if the prophet of Islam married a six-year-old girl and consummated the marriage when she was nine, then Iraqi men can follow course. And what about Islamic terrorism?

If Islam isn’t the driving force of self-identified Muslims marauding non-Muslim lands terrorizing innocents, why was there an estimate of over 48,000 Islamist terrorist attacks around the world between 1979 and 2021? These attacks killed over 210,000 people. If we consider that Muhammad, according to trusted Muslim texts, vowed he’d invade lands and empty them of Christians and Jews, then the world should be worried. The truth is that religious beliefs matter. We refer to Islamic terrorists as Islamic because they claim this for themselves.

Musk’s curiosity about the actions of Muslims should lead reasonable thinkers to evaluate Islam and its tenets openly and honestly.

Islam is an exclusive ideology, inherently anti-Christian and anti-Jewish. For over 14 centuries, we have a track record of Islam as applied by Muslims. The West considers it commendable to assess, criticize, or even insult all ideologies and religions. Fine, but then don’t exclude Islam. It’s about time.