Where in the Qur'an does it permit lying to nonbelievers?

Answer 1

This is a common trope online and the in the media that Muslims are consistently or maliciously lying to Nonbelievers about their beliefs and doctrines. For the most part, this is incorrect. The majority of Muslims are quite sincere about their beliefs, even and especially when they go against the common position in the societies that they live.

However, the claims of those who argue that the Qur'an permits lying to Nonbelievers are not entirely without merit. Most of the sentiment in this regard derives from Qur'an 3:28, which is cited at the bottom of this answer. The argument in this verse is that Muslims should be hesitant to accept the governance or protection from Nonbelievers and may be permitted to lie about the nature of their beliefs if they believe that they are under threats of violence from the Nonbeliever society. This practice of dissimulation to protect the Muslim from danger is commonly called "taqiya" after the word "taqwa" in this verse.

Historically, taqiya as actually practiced was usually done by Shiite Muslims and members of Post-Islamic Religions as a way of avoiding persecution by Sunni Muslims. The most prominent example of this is the way that Alawites, a Post-Islamic Religion in Syria, have used taqiya as regards their beliefs about Ali ibn AbuTalib in order to avoid offending the Sunni Muslims in their vicinity.

What is also common in the modern day is that leaders in the Islamic World, both politicians and imams, will change their message to one that is more conciliatory and less vile when they speak in Western languages from when they speak in Arabic, Farsi, or Urdu. Sites like MEMRI shine a light on this doublespeak. I would argue, however, that this is not taqiya per se, but rather a modern propagandistic movement in much the same vein as Communist propagandizing during the Cold War. It is only prominent among Muslim leadership because of the tangible benefits in terms of promulgating their message and receiving support that this method has provided, not because it is a religious mandate. This same sort of doublespeak did not exist prior to the 1960s and 1970s, which is when Muslim leaders discovered that aligning with in the Socialist Left and recasting their attempts to reinstate Authoritarian Traditionalism over Modern Secularism as a struggle of disadvantaged Non-Whites against Western Imperialism could achieve tangible benefits for them.

Qur'an 3:28: (Translation Muhsin Khan):

Let not the believers take the disbelievers as Auliya (supporters, helpers, etc.) instead of the believers, and whoever does that will never be helped by Allah in any way, except if you indeed fear a danger from them. And Allah warns you against Himself (His Punishment), and to Allah is the final return.