It can apply to any people that have laws or scriptures that they follow. In the Quran it applies to Jews and Christians in alot of cases but it is not limited to them. Muslims in the old days used to consider Hindus people of the book as well as they have scriptures. The opposite of People of the book are lawless people.

Godbless,
Anwar

Al kitaab is universal law. In it there are clear SIGNS (ayaat), and some signs that are not as clear. The clear signs (laws) are the essence.

Quran 37

Transliteration Huwa allathee anzala AAalayka alkitaba minhu ayatun muhkamatun hunna ommu alkitabi waokharu mutashabihatun faamma allatheena fee quloobihim zayghun fayattabiAAoona ma tashabaha minhu ibtighaa alfitnati waibtighaa ta/weelihi wama yaAAlamu ta/weelahu illa Allahu waalrrasikhoona fee alAAilmi yaqooloona amanna bihi kullun min AAindi rabbina wama yaththakkaru illa oloo al-albabi

He is the One who sent down to you the Scripture, from which there are firm verses; they are the essence of the Scripture; and others which are similar to each other. As for those who have disease in their hearts, they will follow what is similar from it seeking to confuse, and seeking to derive an interpretation. But none know its interpretation except God and those who are well founded in knowledge, they Say "We believe in it, all is from our Lord." And none will remember except the people of understanding.

It's interesting. My two cents about your article, if you don't mind some constructive criticism
You're using human's label of "Muslim" and mixing it with God's definition of a Muslim in the same thought process which doesn't work. Yes, many people would like to call themselves Muslim. But this does not make them Muslim. In fact, if 2109 were referring to Muslims, it would be a contradiction. Muslims by God's standards do not wish to take others off the right path out of envy.

Peace.

I wasn't mixing God's defination of "muslim". Throughout my article, the word "Muslims" is refering to the people who have labeled themselves as such.

This would make the quran very confusing and problematic. Because then we have the issue of what to do with all the verses that actually have the word Muslim in it and how that would contradict with the ayat dealing with ahl el kitab. And if you're talking about Sunni or Shiite Muslims, the hard-core ones have abandoned the quran. So they would be ahl - elhadith not ahl el kitab ;D

They still have the Quran, but they interpret it with using the Hadiths i.e they dress the truth with falsehood.

It's interesting. My two cents about your article, if you don't mind some constructive criticism
You're using human's label of "Muslim" and mixing it with God's definition of a Muslim in the same thought process which doesn't work. Yes, many people would like to call themselves Muslim. But this does not make them Muslim. In fact, if 2109 were referring to Muslims, it would be a contradiction. Muslims by God's standards do not wish to take others off the right path out of envy.

This would make the quran very confusing and problematic. Because then we have the issue of what to do with all the verses that actually have the word Muslim in it and how that would contradict with the ayat dealing with ahl el kitab. And if you're talking about Sunni or Shiite Muslims, the hard-core ones have abandoned the quran. So they would be ahl - elhadith not ahl el kitab ;D

But it's an interesting take on it. It just doesn't fit into my own belief system.