Hidden horrors of Islamic history

1. After the Jewish tribe of Banu Qurayza surrendered after a 25-day siege, a judgment was issued. The decision was that all adult men should be executed. As a verification method, the "Companions" stripped the boys and checked for pubic hair. If a boy had hair, he was taken to the trenches and beheaded. If he didn't, he was spared and sold into slavery along with the women.

Between 600 and 900 men were beheaded, many of them innocent teens. Muhammad is recorded as sitting nearby while the executions were carried out.

2. During the Apostasy Wars (fought after the Prophet’s death when many tribes stopped paying taxes) what could be seen as a political tax revolt was, instead, treated as treason. Under the general Khalid ibn al-Walid, the state carried out a ruthless crackdown in which entire tribes were massacred and people were burned alive. In the case of Malik ibn Nuwayrah, Khalid had him beheaded, used his head as a tripod for a cooking pot, and then slept with his wife that same evening.

3. Following the Battle of Hunayn, Muslims seized women whose husbands had just fled or been defeated, as they often did after battles. They wanted to have sex with them, but were concerned that impregnating the captives would reduce their value or make them harder to sell. When they asked the Prophet whether they should pull out to avoid spoiling the goods, he said it didn’t matter, effectively giving the green light for the rape of traumatized captives who had just seen their families and friends slaughtered.

4-After the fall of the Jewish oasis of Khaybar, the Prophet wanted the location of the tribe's hidden treasure. Kinana ibn al-Rabi, the tribal leader, refused to talk.

the Prophet ordered a fire to be lit on Kinana’s chest until he was "at the point of death" to make him reveal the gold. When he still wouldn't talk, he was handed over to a man whose brother had been killed in battle to be beheaded. Immediately after Kinana was killed, the Prophet took his widow, Safiyya, as his own wife that same night.

5-In Medina, several poets ridiculed the Prophet’s movement. As might be expected, they were assassinated at the request of the Prophet; the victims reportedly included a woman who was killed in her bed while nursing her children and a 120-year-old man murdered in his sleep. When the killers returned, they were praised.

Thoughts?