When I asked the Sheikh about it, he cautioned that 5:51 wasn’t a blanket statement. Rather, it applied to a very specific group of non-Muslims at a particular moment in Medina when certain Jewish tribes aligned with the pagan Quraysh against the young Muslim community. “That verse came down when they were in war conditions,” he explained. “That verse is for when unbelievers have all the power, and yet still they oppose the Muslims, and persecute them, and don’t give them freedom.”
