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ISLAM 101

original (http://facingi slam.blogspot.in/p/islam-101.html)

One of the best primers on I s lam.. . Get up to speed quickly.

ISLAM 1 01

by Gr eg or y M. Da v is

Islam 1 01 is meant t o help people becom e better educated about th e fundam entals of Islam a nd to help the

more knowledgeable better conv ey the facts to others. Similarly , m y book and docum entary are m eant to

serv e as concise explanations of the m ajor m ov ing par ts of Islam a nd their im plications for Western society .

Islam 1 01 is a condensation of the book and docum entar y wit h th e aim of lending clar ity to the public

un derstan ding of Islam a nd of exposing th e inadequacy of prev ailing v iews. All should feel free to distribute

and/or reproduce it.

Table of Content s

1 ) T h e B a s ic s

a) Th e Five Pilla rs of Islam

b) The Quran -- the Book of Allah

c) The Sunn ah -- the "Way " of the Prophet Muha m m ad

i. Bat tle of Badr

ii. Batt le of Uhu d

iii. Battle of Medina

iv . Conquest of Mecca

d) Shar ia Law

2 ) J i h a d a n d Dh i m m i t u d e

a) What does "jihad" mean?

b) Mu slim Sch olar Hasan Al-Ban na on jihad

c) Dar al-Islam and dar al-har b: the House of Islam and t he House of War

i) Taqiy y a -- Religious Deception

d) Jihad Thr ough History

i) The First Major Wav e of Jihad: the Ara bs, 62 2-75 0 AD

ii) The Second Major Wav e of Jihad: the Turks, 1 07 1 -1 68 3 A D

e) The Dhimm a

f) Jihad in t he Modern Era

3) Conclus ion

4 ) F r e q u e n t l y A s k e d Q u e st i o n s

a) What about the Cru sades?

b) If Islam is v iolen t, why ar e so many Muslim s peaceful?c) What about th e v iolent passages in th e Bible?
http://facingislam.blogspot.in/p/islam-101.htmlhttp://facingislam.blogspot.in/p/islam-101.htmlhttp://facingislam.blogspot.in/p/islam-101.html


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d) Could an Islam ic "Reform at ion" pacify Islam ?

e) What a bout t he history of Western colonialism in th e Islamic w orld?

f) How ca n a v iolent political ideology be the second-lar gest and fastest-growing religion on earth ?

g) Is it fair to paint a ll Islam ic schools of though t a s v iolent?

h) What about the gr eat ach ievem ents of Islam ic civ ilization?

5 ) G l o ss a r y of T e r m s

6 ) F u r t h e r Re sou r c e s

1 . T h e B a s ic s

a . T he Fiv e Pi l la rs of Is lam

The fiv e pillars of Islam constitut e the m ost basic tenets of the religion. Th ey ar e:

1 . Faith (im an) in th e oneness of Allah a nd the finality of the propheth ood of Muh am m ad (indicated by

th e declara tion [the Shah adah] th at, "There is no God but A llah and Muham m ad is the m essenger of

Al la h").

2. Keeping of th e fiv e scheduled daily pray ers (salah).

3. Almsgiving (zakat).

4. Fasting (sawm ).

5. Pilgrim age (ha jj) to Mecca for t hose who are able.

The fiv e pillars in an d of them selv es do not tell us a lot about t he faith or w ha t a Muslim is supposed to

believ e or how h e should act . Th e second throug h fift h pil la rs -- pray er , a lm sgiv ing, fast ing, pilgr im ag e --

ar e aspects shared by m any religions. The finalit y of the prophethood of Muh am m ad, howev er, is un ique to

Islam . To understand Islam and wh at it means to be a Muslim, we m ust come t o understand Muhamm ad as

well as th e rev ela tions giv en th roug h him by Al la h, which make u p the Quran.

b . T h e Qu r a n -- t h e Book of A l l a h

Ac cording to Islam ic teach ing, th e Quran ca me down as a series of r ev ela tions fr om Al lah throug h th e

Ar ch ang el Gabriel to t he Prophet Muh am m ad, who th en dicta ted it to his followers. Mu ham m ad'scompanions mem orized fragm ents of the Quran a nd wrote them down on w hatev er wa s at hand, w hich w ere

later compiled into book form under the rule of the third Caliph, Uthman, some years after Muhammad's

death.

The Qura n is about a s long a s the Christian New Testam ent. It com prises 1 1 4 sur as (not to be confused wit h

the Sira, which refers to the life of the Prophet) of v ary ing length s, which ma y be considered chapters.

Ac cording to Islam ic doctrine, it was a round 61 0 A D in a cav e near th e city of Mecca (now in southwest

Saudi Arabia) that Muham ma d receiv ed the first rev elation from Alla h by way of the Archang el Gabriel.

The rev elation mer ely comm anded Muh am m ad to "recite" or "read" (Sura 96 ); the words he wa s instru cted

to utter w ere not his own but Allah 's. Ov er the next twelv e or so y ears in Mecca, other r evelations cam e to

Muhamm ad that constituted a message to the inhabitant s of the city to forsake their pagan w ay s and turn

in w orship to the one Alla h.

While in Mecca, thoug h he condem ned paga nism (for th e m ost pa rt), Muh am mad show ed great respect for

th e monotheism of the Chr istian and Jewish inh abitan ts. Indeed, th e Allah of the Quran cl aim ed to be the

same God worshipped by Jews and Chr istians, who now rev ealed himself to the A rab people thr oug h h is

chosen m essenger, Muhamm ad. It is the Qura nic rev elations that cam e later in Muhamm ad's career, after

he and th e first Muslim s left Mecca for th e city of Medina, th at t ra nsform ed Islam from a r elativ ely benign

form of monoth eism in to an expansionar y , m ilitar y -political ideology t hat persists to this day .

Orth odox Islam does not accept th at a rendering of the Qura n int o another lang ua ge is a "tra nslation" in th e

way that , sa y , t he King Ja m es Bible i s a t ran slation of the orig inal Hebrew an d Gr eek Scr ipt ures. A point

often m ade by Islamic apologists to defang cr iticism is tha t only Ara bic readers m ay un derstan d the Qur an.


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But Ar abic is a lan gu age like any oth er and fully capable of tran slation. Indeed, m ost Muslims are not

Ar abic readers. In t he below a na ly sis, w e use a tr an slation of the Quran by tw o Muslim scholars, w hich m ay

be found here. Al l par enth etical expla nat ions in the text ar e those of th e tran slators sav e for my

inter jections in braces, { }.

Those Western ers who ma nag e to pick up a tr anslation of the Quran ar e often left bewildered as to its

meaning than ks to ignorance of a critically importan t principle of Quranic interpretation known as

"abrogation." The principle of abrogation -- al-naskh w a al -m ansukh (the a brogating and th e abrogated) --

directs that v erses rev ealed later in Muh am ma d's career "abrogat e" -- i.e., can cel and replace -- earlier ones

whose instr uct ions th ey may contradict. Th us, pa ssages rev ealed la ter in Muh am m ad's ca reer , in Medina,

over ru le passages rev ealed ear lier, in Mecca. The Qura n itself lay s out t he principle of abrogat ion:

2:106. Whatever a Verse (revelation) do We {Allah} abrogate or cause to be forgotten, We bring a better one

or similar to it. Know you not that Allah is able to do all things?

It seems that 2 :1 06 w as rev ealed in response to skepticism directed at Muha mm ad that A llah 's rev elations

were not en tir ely consistent ov er tim e. Muh am mad's rebu tta l w as t hat "Allah is able to do all th ings" -- ev en

chang e his mind. To confuse ma tters further, though th e Quran w as rev ealed to Muham ma d sequentially

ov er some t wenty y ears' time, it wa s not compiled in chr onological order. When the Qura n w as finally

collated into book form un der Caliph Uthm an, th e sur as were ordered from longest to shortest wit h no

connection wh atev er to the order in wh ich th ey were rev ealed or to their th ematic content. In order to find

out w hat the Quran say s on a giv en topic, it is necessary to exam ine the other Islam ic sources that giv e clues

as to wh en in Muham m ad's lifetime th e rev elations occur red. Upon such ex am inat ion, one discov ers that t he

Meccan suras, revealed at a tim e when th e Muslims were vu lnerable, are generally benign; the later

Medinan sura s, r ev ealed after Muham ma d had m ade himself the h ead of an ar my , ar e bellicose.

Let us take, for exam ple, 50:45 a nd Sura 1 09, both rev ealed in Mecca:

50:45. We know of best what they say; and y ou (O Muham ma d) are not a ty rant ov er them (to force

them to Belief). But w arn by the Qur'an, him w ho fears My Threat.

1 09:1 . Say (O Muha mm ad to these Mushrikun and Kafirun): "O Al-Kafirun (disbeliev ers in Allah, in

His Oneness, in His Ang els, in His Books, in His Messengers, in th e Day of Resur rect ion, an d in Al-Qadar

{div ine foreordainm ent and sustain ing of all th ings}, etc.)!

1 09:2. "I worship not th at w hich y ou w orship,

1 09:3 . "Nor will y ou w orship that w hich I worship.

1 09:4. "And I shall n ot w orship that w hich y ou ar e worshipping.

1 09:5. "Nor will y ou w orship that w hich I worship.

1 09 :6. "To y ou be y our religion, and to me my religion (Islamic Monotheism)."

Then th ere is th is passage rev ealed just after t he Muslim s reach ed Medina and wer e still v uln erable:

2:2 56 . There is no compulsion in religion. Ver ily , th e Right Path ha s becom e distinct from th e wrong

path. Whoever disbelieves in Taghu t {idolatry } an d believes in Allah, then h e has grasped the m ost

tru stworth y handhold that will nev er break. And Allah is All-Hearer, All-Knower.

In contra st, take 9 :5, comm only referred to as the "Verse of the Sword", r ev ealed toward th e end of

Muham m ad's life:

9:5. Then wh en the Sacred Months (the 1st, 7 th, 1 1 th, an d 12 th m onths of the Islam ic calendar) hav e

passed, then kill the Mushrikun {u nbeliev ers} w herev er y ou find them, and capture th em an d besiege

them , and prepare for th em each an d every am bush. But if they repent an d perform As-Salat (Iqamat -

as-Salat {the Islam ic ritual pray ers}), and give Zakat {alms}, then leav e their way free. Verily , Allah

is Oft-Forgiv ing , Most Mercifu l.


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Hav ing been rev ealed later in Muham ma d?s life than 50:45, 1 09, a nd 2:256 , the Verse of the Sword

abrogates their peaceful injunct ions in accordance with 2:1 06. Sura 8 , rev ealed shortly before Sura 9,

rev eals a similar th eme:

8:3 9. A nd fight t hem u ntil th ere is no m ore Fitnah (disbelief and poly th eism : i.e. worshipping others

besides Alla h) a nd th e religion (worship) will a ll be for Al la h Alone [ in th e w hole of the w orld]. But if

th ey cea se (worshipping other s besides Allah ), then cert ainly , Allah is All-Seer of what t hey do.

8:67 . It is not for a Prophet th at h e should hav e prisoners of war (a nd free them w ith r ansom) unt il he

ha d made a gr eat slaug ht er (am ong h is enem ies) in th e land. You desire th e good of this world (i.e. the

m oney of ransom for freeing the captiv es), but Alla h desires (for y ou) the Hereafter. And Alla h is All-

Mighty , All-Wise.9:29 . Fight a gainst those who believe n ot in Allah, nor in th e Last Day , nor forbid that which has been

forbidden by Alla h a nd His Messenger a nd th ose who acknowledge not the r eligion of tru th (i.e. Islam)

am ong th e people of the Scripture (Jews and Christians), un til they pay the Jizya with willing

submission, and feel th emselv es subdued.

9:3 3. It is He {Allah } Who has sent His Messenger (Muha m ma d) with gu idance and the r eligion of

tru th (Islam ), to make it superior ov er all religions even t hough t he Mushrikun (poly theists, pagans,

idolat ers, disbeliever s in th e Oneness of Allah ) ha te (it).

The Qura n's com m andm ents to Muslims to wa ge wa r in th e nam e of Allah a gain st non-Muslims are

unm istakable. They are, furth ermore, absolutely auth oritativ e as they w ere revealed late in the Prophet's

car eer and so cancel a nd replace earlier instru ctions to act peaceably . Without kn owledge of the principle ofabrogat ion, Westerners will continue t o misread the Qur an a nd misdiagnose Islam a s a "religion of peace."

c . T h e S u n n a h -- t h e "W a y " of t h e P r op h e t M u h a m m a d

In Islam , Muh am m ad is considered al-insan al-kamil(the "ideal ma n"). Muham m ad is in no way considered

div ine, nor is he worshipped (no im age of Muham m ad is perm itted lest it encoura ge idolatr y ), but he is the

m odel par excellence for all Muslims in how they should conduct t hem selv es. It is through Muham m ad's

personal t eachin gs and actions -- wh ich m ake up th e "wa y of the Prophet," the Sunna h -- th at Muslims

discern w hat is a good and holy life. Details about th e Prophet -- how he liv ed, wha t h e did, h is non-Qur anic

ut tera nces, his personal ha bits -- are indispensable knowledge for a ny faithfu l Muslim.

Knowledge of the Sunna h comes prim aril y from th e hadiths ("report s") about Muh am m ad's life, which w ere

passed down orally unt il codified in the eight h centu ry AD, som e hundred y ears after Muh am ma d's death.

The hadiths comprise the most im porta nt body of Islam ic texts after the Qura n; they are basically a

collection of anecdotes about Muham m ad's life believ ed to ha v e orig inat ed with th ose who knew h im

personall y . Ther e are th ousands upon th ousands of hadiths, som e run ning to mu ltiple pages, som e barely a

few lines in length. When t he hadiths were first compiled in the eighth century AD, it became obvious that

ma ny were inaut hentic. The early Muslim scholars of hadith spent trem endous labor t ry ing to determ ine

which hadiths were authoritat iv e and which were suspect .

The hadiths here come exclusiv ely from the m ost r eliable and aut horitativ e collection, Sahih Al-Bukhari,

recognized as sound by all schools of Islamic scholarship, tr anslated by a Muslim scholar and w hich m ay befound here. Different translations of hadiths can vary in their breakdown of volume, book, and number, but

th e content is the sam e. For each h adith, t he classify ing informa tion is listed first, then t he nam e of the

originator of the ha dith (generally someone who knew Muham ma d personally ), and t hen th e content itself.

While the absolute authenticity of ev en a sound hadith is har dly assured, th ey ar e nonet heless accepted as

auth oritativ e within an Islam ic context.

Because Muh am m ad is him self the m easuring stick of moral ity , his actions are not judged according t o an

independent m oral stan dard but rat her establish wha t th e stan dard for Muslims properly is.

Volum e 7 , Book 62, N um ber 88 ; Nar rat ed Ursa: Th e Prophet wrote t he (m ar riage contrac t) with

Aisha while she w as six y ears old and consum m at ed h is m arriage with her while she w as n ine y earsold and she rem ained with h im for n ine y ears (i.e. till his death).


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Volum e 8, Book 82 , N um ber 7 95; Na rrated Ana s: Th e Prophet cu t off th e han ds an d feet of th e m en

belonging to t he tribe of Ura ina an d did n ot cau terise (t heir bleedin g lim bs) t ill t hey died.

Volum e 2 , Book 23, N um ber 41 3; Narrated Abdullah bin Umar : Th e Jews {of Medina } broug ht to th e

Prophet a m an and a woman from am ongst them w ho hav e comm itted (adultery ) illegal sexual

inter course. He ordered both of them to be stoned (to death), near the pla ce of offering t he fun eral

pray ers beside the m osque.

Volum e 9 , Book 84 , N um ber 57 ; Narrated Ikrim a: Some Zan adiqa (ath eists) w ere br oug ht to Ali { the

four th Caliph} and h e burn t th em. The new s of this ev ent, reach ed Ibn 'Abbas who said, "If I had been

in his place, I would not hav e burnt th em, a s Allah's Apostle forbade it, say ing, "Do not punish any body

with Al la h's punishm ent (fire). " I would hav e ki lled them according to th e statem ent of Alla h's Apostle,

"Whoev er cha nges his Islamic r eligion, then kill h im ."Volum e 1 , Book 2, N um ber 25; Na rrated Abu Huraira: Al la h's Apostle w as a sked, "What is the best

deed?" He replied, "To believ e in Allah and His Apostle (Muh am m ad). Th e questioner th en asked, "What

is the n ext (in g oodness)?" He replied, "To participat e in Jiha d (religious fightin g) in Allah 's Cause."

In Islam , th ere is no "nat ur al" sense of moralit y or ju stice that tr anscends th e specific exam ples and

injun ctions out lined in the Qura n and th e Sunnah . Because Muh am m ad is considered Alla h's final prophet

and the Quran the eternal, unaltera ble words of Allah h imself, there is also no evolv ing m orality that

perm its the modification or int egra tion of Islamic m ora lity wit h th at from other sour ces. The entir e Islamic

moral u niv erse devolv es solely from the life and teachings of Muha mm ad.

Al ong with the reliable hadiths, a furth er source of accepted kn owledge about Muh am mad com es from theSira (l ife) of the Prophet, composed by one of Islam's great scholars, Muh am m ad bin Ishaq, in t he eigh th

century AD.

Muham m ad's prophetic car eer is m eaning fully div ided into two segm ents: the first in Mecca, wh ere he

labored for fourteen y ears to make conv erts to Islam; an d later in t he city of Medina (The City of the Apostle

of God), wher e he became a powerful political an d milita ry leader. In Mecca, we see a qua si-Biblical figure,

preaching r epentance a nd charity , h arassed and rejected by t hose around him; la ter, in Medina, we see an

able com m ander an d str ategist w ho sy stemat ically conquered and killed th ose wh o opposed him. It is the

later y ears of Muham ma d's life, from 62 2 A D to his death in 63 2, t hat are ra rely broached in polite

company . In 6 22 , wh en the Prophet was better than fifty y ears old, he and his followers made the Hijra

(emig rat ion or flight ), from Mecca to the oasis of Yath rib -- later rena med Medina -- some 200 mil es to the

north . Muham m ad's new monoth eism h ad anger ed th e pagan leaders of Mecca, an d the flight to Medina was

precipitated by a probable att empt on Muham m ad's life. Muham m ad had sent em issar ies to Medina to

ensure his welcome. He w as accepted by t he Medinan tr ibes as the leader of the Muslims and as arbiter of

inter -tribal disputes.

Shortly before Muham ma d fled the hostility of Mecca, a n ew batch of Muslim conv erts pledged their loy alty

to him on a h ill outside Mecca called Aqaba. Ishaq h ere conv ey s in th e Sira th e significan ce of this event :

Sira, p208 : When God gav e permission to his Apostle to fight , th e second {oath of allegian ce at} Aqaba

contained conditions involv ing w ar w hich w ere not in t he first act of fealty . Now they {Muham ma d's

followers} bound th emselv es to wa r a gain st all an d sundr y for God and his Apostle, wh ile he promised

them for faithful service thus the reward of paradise.

That Muhamm ad's nascent religion u nderw ent a significant cha nge at this point is plain. The scholarly

Ishaq clearly intends to impress on h is (Muslim) r eaders that , w hile in its early y ears, Islam was a r elativ ely

tolerant creed that would "endure insult and forg iv e the ign orant, " Allah soon requir ed Muslims "to war

aga inst all an d sun dry for God and his Apostle." The Islamic ca lendar t estifies to the para m ounc y of the Hijra

by setting y ear one fr om the date of it s occu rrence. Th e y ear of th e Hij ra, 6 22 AD, is consider ed m ore

significant th an t he y ear of Muha mm ad's birth or death or that of the first Quranic rev elation because Islam

is first and foremost a political-militar y enterprise. It w as only when Muhamm ad left Mecca with his

param ilitary band that Islam achiev ed its proper political-militar y articu lation. The y ears of the Islam ic

calendar (wh ich em ploy s lun ar m onth s) are designa ted in English "AH" or "After Hijra. "


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i . T h e B a t t l e o f B a d r

The Batt le of Badr w as the first significant engag ement fough t by the Prophet. Upon establishing h imself in

Medina followin g th e Hijra, Muh am ma d began a series of razzias (raids) on ca rav ans of the Meccan Qur aish

tribe on th e route to Syr ia.

Volum e 5, Book 59 , N um ber 287 ; Nar rat ed Kab bin Malik: The Apostle had gone out to meet the

carav ans of Qura ish, but A llah cau sed them (i.e. Muslims) to meet their enemy unexpectedly (with n o

previous intention).

Volum e 5, Book 59 , N um ber 289 ; Nar rat ed Ibn A bbas: On th e day of th e ba tt le of Ba dr, t he Prophet

said, "O Allah ! I appeal to You (t o fulfill) Your Cov enant and Promise. O Allah ! If Your Will is tha t n one

should worship You (th en giv e v ictory to the pagans)." Then Abu Bakr took hold of him by the h and

and said, "This is sufficient for y ou." The Prophet cam e out say ing, "Their m ult itude will be put t o flight

and they will show t heir backs." (54:45)

Hav ing r eturned to Medina after t he battle, Muham ma d admonished the resident Jewish tribe of Qayn uqa

to accept Islam or face a similar fate as the Quraish (3:1 2-13 ). The Qay nuqa ag reed to leav e Medina if they

could retain th eir property , wh ich Muham ma d grant ed. Following the exile of the Bani Qay nuqa,

Muham m ad tur ned to indiv iduals in Medina he considered to hav e acted tr eacher ously . The Prophet

particular ly seems to hav e disliked the m any poets who ridiculed his new religion an d his claim to

prophethood -- a th eme ev ident today in th e v iolent r eactions of Muslims to any perceiv ed mockery of Islam.

In t aking act ion a gain st his opponents, "the ideal m an" set precedents for a ll tim e as to how Muslims shoulddeal with detr actors of their r eligion.

Sira, p36 7 : Then he { Kab bin al-Ashra f} composed amatory v erses of an insulting natu re about the

Muslim w omen. Th e Apostle said: "Who will r id me of Ibnul-Ashraf?" Muham m ad bin Maslama ,

broth er of th e Bani Abdu'l-Ashhal , sa id, "I will deal with him for y ou, O Apostle of God, I will kill him ."

He said, "Do so if y ou can." "All t ha t is incum bent upon y ou is th at y ou should try " {said the Prophet t o

Muham m ad bin Maslama }. He said, "O Apostle of God, we shal l ha v e to tell lies." He {th e Prophet}

answered, "Say wha t y ou like, for y ou ar e free in the m atter."

Volum e 4 , Book 52 , N um ber 27 0; Na rrated Ja bir bin 'Abdu llah: Th e Prophet said, "Who is ready to kill

Kab bin Al-Ashraf w ho has really hu rt Allah and His Apostle?" Muham ma d bin Maslama said, "O

Al la h's Apostle! Do y ou l ike m e to kil l h im ?" He replied in th e a ffir m at iv e. So, Mu ham m ad bin Maslam awent to h im (i. e. Kab) an d said, "This per son (i.e. th e Prophet) h as put us to task and asked u s for

cha rity ." Kab replied, "By Allah , y ou w ill get tir ed of him. " Muham m ad said to him , "We hav e followed

him , so we dislike to leav e him till w e see the end of his affair ." Muham ma d bin Maslam a w ent on

talking to him in this way till he got the chan ce to kill him.

A signific an t port ion of th e Sira is dev oted t o poetr y com posed by Muh amm ad's follower s an d his en em ies in

rh etorical duels th at m irr ored those in the field. There seem s to hav e been an informa l competit ion in

agg ra ndizing oneself, one's tr ibe, and one's God while r idiculing one's adver sary in eloquent and m emorable

way s. Kab bin Malik, one of the assassins of his broth er , Kab bin al -Ashraf, com posed th e following :

Sira, p3 68 : Kab bin Malik said: Of them Kab was left prostr ate th ere (After h is fall {t he Jewish t ribe of}al-Nadir w ere brought low). Sword in hand we cut him down By Muhamm ad's order when h e sent

secretly by nigh t Kab's brother to go to Kab. He beguiled him a nd brough t him down w ith g uile

Mahmud wa s trustworth y , bold.

i i . T h e B a t t l e o f U h u d

The Meccan Quraish reg rouped for an a tta ck on th e Muslims at Medina. Muh am m ad got w ind of the Meccan

force coming to atta ck him and encam ped his forces on a sma ll hillock north of Medina nam ed Uhu d, wh ere

th e ensuing battl e took place.

Volum e 5, Book 59 , N um ber 37 7 ; Nar rat ed Jabir bin Abdullah : On the day of th e battl e of Uhud, am an ca me t o th e Prophet and said, "Can y ou t ell me w here I will be if I should get m ar ty red?" The


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Prophet replied, "In Paradise." The m an t hr ew aw ay som e dates he wa s car ry ing in h is han d, and

fough t till he was mart y red.

Volum e 5, Book 59 , N um ber 37 5; Na rrat ed Al-Bara: when we faced t he enem y , t hey took t o th eir heel

till I saw their w omen r unning towards the m ounta in, lifting up th eir clothes from th eir legs,

rev ealing t heir leg-bangles. The Muslims started say ing, "The booty , th e booty !" Abdullah bin Jubair

said, "The Prophet h ad taken a firm promise from m e not to leav e this place." But h is com panions

refused (to stay ). So wh en they refused (to stay ther e), (Allah ) confused them so tha t th ey could not

know where t o go, and t hey suffered seventy casualties.

Though depriv ed of victory at Uhud, Muham ma d was by no means van quished. He continued making raids

that ma de being a Muslim n ot only v irtuous in the ey es of Allah but lucrat iv e as well. In an Islam icworldv iew , t here is n o inc ompatibility between wealt h, power, a nd holiness. Indeed, as a m em ber of th e true

faith, it is only logical th at one should also enjoy the m aterial bounty of Allah -- ev en if that means

plundering it from infidels.

As Mu ham mad had neutr al ized t he Jewish tribe of Ban i Qa y nu qa after Badr, h e now t urned to th e Bani

Nadir after Uhud. According to the Sira, Allah war ned Muham ma d of an att empt to assassinate him , and

th e Prophet ordered the Muslims to prepare for w ar a gain st the Bani Na dir. The Ban i Nadir ag reed to go into

exile if Muham ma d permitt ed them to retain their m ov able property . Muham ma d agreed to these terms

sav e that th ey leave behind their arm or.

i i i . The Batt le of Medina

In 62 7 AD, Muha mm ad faced the greatest challenge to his new commu nity . In that y ear, the Quraish of

Mecca m ade their m ost determ ined attack on th e Muslims at Medina itself. Muham ma d thought it adv isable

not to engag e them in a pitched battle as at Uhud but took shelter in Medina, protected as it wa s by lav a

flows on th ree sides. The Meccans would hav e to att ack from th e nort hw est in a v alley between th e flows,

and it w as there th at Muha mm ad ordered a trench dug for the city 's defense.

Volum e 4 , Book 52 , N um ber 208 ; Narrated Ana s: On th e day (of the battl e) of the Trench , t he Ansa r

{new conv erts to Islam } w ere saying, "We are those who hav e sworn allegiance to Muhamm ad for

Jiha d (for ev er) as long as we liv e." The Prophet r eplied to them , "O Allah ! There is no life except th e life

of the Hereafter. So honor the Ansar a nd emigr ant s {from Mecca} wit h Your Generosity ."An d Narrated Mujashi: My broth er an d I cam e to th e Prophet an d I requested him to t ake the pledge of

allegia nce from us for m igra tion. He said, "Migrat ion h as passed awa y wit h its people." I asked, "For

what will y ou t ak e the pledge of allegiance fr om us th en?" He said, "I wil l t ake (t he pledge) for Isla m

and Jihad."

The Meccans wer e foiled by the tr ench an d only able to send sm all r aiding part ies acr oss it. After sev eral

day s, th ey tur ned back for Mecca. Following h is victory , Muham ma d turned to the third Jewish tribe at

Medina, t he Bani Qura iza. While the Bani Qay nu qa and Bani Nadir h ad suffered exile, th e fate of the Bani

Qura iza would be considera bly m ore dire.

Sira, p4 63 -4: Then t hey {th e tribe of Qur aiza} surr endered, and the apostle confined them in Medinain th e quarter of d. al-Harith, a w oma n of Bani al-Najjar. Th en the a postle went out to the m arket of

Medina an d dug t rench es in it. Th en he sent for t hem and stru ck off their hea ds in th ose trench es as

they were brought out to him in batches. Am ong them was the enemy of Allah Huyay y bin Akhtab

and Kab bin Asad their chief. There w ere 600 or 7 00 in all, though some put the figure as high as 800

or 9 00. As they were being taken out in batches to the Apostle they asked Kab wha t he th ough t w ould

be done w ith them . He r eplied, "Will y ou n ev er understa nd? Don't y ou see th at th e sum moner nev er

stops and th ose wh o ar e taken aw ay do not retu rn? By Alla h it is death!" This went on un til th e Apostle

m ade an end of them .

Thu s do we find the clear precedent t ha t explains th e peculiar pench ant of Islamic t errorists to behead their

v ictim s: it is m erely an oth er precedent bestowed by th eir Proph et.


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Following y et another of the Muslims' ra ids, th is time on a place called Khaibar , "The women of Kha ibar w ere

distributed among th e Muslims" as was usual practice. (Sira, p51 1 ) The ra id at Khaibar ha d been against th e

Bani Nadir, w hom Muham ma d had earlier exiled from Medina.

Sira, p51 5: Kinan a bin al-Rabi, wh o ha d the custody of the treasur e of Bani al -Nadir, w as broug ht t o

th e Apostle who asked him about it. He denied that h e knew wh ere it wa s. A Jew cam e to the Apostle

and said that h e had seen Kinana going round a certain ruin ev ery morning early . When the Apostle

said to Kinan a, "Do y ou know t hat if we find you ha v e it I shall kill y ou?" he said, Yes. The Apostle ga v e

orders tha t th e ruin wa s to be excav ated and som e of the tr easure wa s found. Wh en he asked him about

th e rest he refused to produce it, so th e Apostle gav e orders to al-Zubay r bin al-Aw wa m , "Tort ur e him

until y ou extr act w hat he ha s," so he kindled a fire with flint and steel on his chest u ntil he w as nearlydead. Then the Apostle deliver ed him to Muh am m ad bin Maslam a and he stru ck off his head, in

rev enge for h is brother Mahmu d.

i v . T h e Con q u e s t o f Me c c a

Muham m ad's grea test v ictory cam e in 63 2 AD, ten y ears after he an d his followers had been forced to flee to

Medina. In t hat y ear, he assembled a force of som e ten t housand Muslim s and allied tr ibes and descended on

Mecca. "The Apostle had instru cted his comm anders when t hey entered Mecca only to fight th ose wh o

resisted them, except a small nu mber w ho were to be killed ev en if they were found beneath th e curt ains of

th e Kaba." (Sira, p550)

Volum e 3 , Book 29, N um ber 7 2; Nar rat ed Ana s bin Malik: Allah 's Apostle en tered Mecca in th e y ear of

its Conquest wear ing an Ar abian h elmet on his head and w hen t he Prophet took it off, a person cam e

and said, "Ibn Khata l is holding t he cov ering of the Kaba (ta king r efuge in th e Kaba)." The Prophet said,

"Kill him ."

Following t he conquest of Mecca, Muha m ma d outl ined the fut ur e of his religion.

Volum e 4 , Book 52 , N um ber 1 7 7 ; Nar rat ed Abu Hurair a: Al la h's Apostle said, "Th e Hour {of th e Last

Judgment} will not be established until y ou fight w ith t he Jews, and the stone behind which a Jew will

be h idin g will say . "O Muslim ! Th ere is a Jew hidin g behind m e, so kill him ."

Volum e 1 , Book 2, N um ber 24; Nar rat ed Ibn Um ar : A llah 's Apostle said: "I hav e been order ed (by

Al la h) to fight aga inst t he people unt il th ey testi fy that none has th e r ight to be worshipped but Al la h

and tha t Muham ma d is Allah's Apostle, and offer t he pray ers perfectly and giv e the obligatory

charity , so if they perform that , then t hey save th eir lives and property from m e except for Islamic

laws and th en their reckoning (accounts) will be done by Allah."

It is from such w ar like pronounc ement s as th ese tha t Islam ic scholar ship div ides the w orld into dar al-Islam

(the House of Islam, i.e., t hose nat ions who ha v e subm itted to Allah ) and dar al-har b (the House of War, i. e.,

those who hav e not). It is this dispensation th at the w orld liv ed under in Muha mm ad's time and th at it liv es

un der today . Then a s now, Islam 's message to the u nbeliev ing w orld is the same: submit or be conquer ed.

d . S h a r i a L a w

Unlike man y religions, Islam inclu des a m andat ory and high ly specific legal an d political plan for society

called Shar ia (pronounced "sha-re-uh"), w hich tra nslates approxim ately as "wa y " or "path ." The precepts

of Sharia ar e deriv ed from th e comm andments of the Quran and the Sunna h (th e teachings and precedents

of Muham ma d as found in t he reliable hadiths and the Sira). Together, the Qura n an d the Sunna h establish

th e dictat es of Sharia , wh ich is the blueprint for the good Islamic society . Because Sha ria origina tes with t he

Qura n and th e Sunnah , it is not optional. Sha ria is the legal code ordained by A llah for all m ankin d. To

v iola te Sh ar ia or n ot t o accept its au th ority is to commit rebel lion a ga inst A llah , which Allah 's fait hful a re

requir ed to combat.


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There is no separa tion between th e religious and the political in Islam; r ath er Islam a nd Shar ia constitu te a

comprehensiv e mean s of ordering society at ev ery lev el. While it is in theory possible for an Islamic society

to hav e different outwar d form s -- an electiv e sy stem of gov ernment, a h ereditary monarchy , etc. --

whatev er the out war d str uct ure of the gov ernm ent, Shar ia is the pr escr ibed content . It is this fact th at puts

Sharia into conflict with form s of gov ernm ent based on any thing other t han t he Quran a nd the Sunnah.

The precepts of Shar ia m ay be div ided into two parts:

1 . Act s of worship (al-ibadat), w hich inclu des:

Ritu al Purification (Wudu)

Pray ers (Salah)

Fasts (Sawm and Ramadan)

Charity (Zakat)

Pilgrim age to Mecca (Hajj)

2. Hum an interaction (al-mu am alat), wh ich includes:

Financial tran sactions

Endowments

Laws of inherita nce

Marriage, divorce, and child care

Food and drink (including ritua l slaughtering and hu nting)

Penal punishm entsWar and peace

Judicial m att ers (including w itnesses and form s of evidence)

As one m ay see, there are few aspects of life that Shar ia does not specifical ly gov ern. Ev ery th ing from

washing one's han ds to child-rear ing to t ax ation to milit ar y policy fall under its dict at es. Beca use Shar ia is

deriv ate of th e Qur an an d the Sunna h, it a ffords some room for interpr etation. But u pon exam inat ion of th e

Islamic sour ces (see abov e), it is apparent t hat any m eaning ful application of Shar ia is going t o look v ery

different fr om any th ing r esembling a free or open society in th e Western sense. The stoning of adult erers,

execution of apostates and blasphem ers, repression of oth er r eligions, an d a m andat ory hostility towar d non-

Islamic nations punctuated by regular warfare will be the norm. It seems fair then to classify Islam and its

Shar ia code as a form of totalitar ianism.

2 . J i h a d a n d Dh i m m i t u d e

a . Wh at does "j iha d" m ean ?

Jiha d literally tr anslates as "strug gle." Strict ly speaking, jihad does not mean "holy wa r" as Muslim

apologists often point out. Howev er, t he question r ema ins as to wh at sort of "strug gle" is meant : an in ner,

spiritual stru ggle ag ainst the passions, or an outw ard, phy sical strugg le.

As in an y ca se of tr y ing to det erm ine Islam ic teaching on a particula r m at ter , one m ust l ook t o th e Quran

and th e Sunna h. From t hose sources (see abov e) it is ev ident tha t a Muslim is required to str ugg le again st av ariet y of th ings: la ziness in pray er , n eglecting to giv e zakat (a lm s), etc. But is it al so plain that a Muslim is

comm anded to struggle in phy sical combat against th e infidel as well. Muham ma d's impressiv e militar y

career attests to the centra l role that militar y action play s in Islam .

b . Ha sa n A l -B a n n a on j i h a d

Below a re excerpt s from Hasan A l-Bann a's trea tise,Jihad. In 1 92 8, Al-Banna founded the Muslim

Brotherh ood, which t oday is th e most power ful org anization in Egy pt after th e gov ernm ent itself. In this

treatise, Al-Banna cogently argu es that Muslims m ust take up a rm s against unbeliev ers. As he say s, "The

v erses of th e Qu r'an an d the Su nn ah sum m on people in general (with the m ost eloquent expression a nd th e

clearest exposition) to jihad, t o wa rfar e, to the ar m ed forces, and all m eans of land and sea fight ing."


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fulfill th e responsibility of Da'wa h t hat is on th eir shoulders. Hence in t his situa tion it becom es th e

duty of each and ev ery Muslim t o make jihad. He should prepare him self mentally and phy sically

such th at w hen comes the decision of Allah , he will be ready .

I should not finish th is discussion wit hout m entioning to y ou that the Muslims, thr oughout ev ery

period of their history (before the pr esent period of oppression in wh ich t heir dignity ha s been lost)

hav e nev er abandoned jihad nor did they ever become negligent in its perform ance, not even t heir

religious auth orities, m y stics, craftsmen, etc. They were all alw ay s ready and prepared. For exam ple,

Abdullah ibn al Mubar ak, a v ery lea rned and pious man , w as a v olunt eer in jih ad for m ost of his li fe,

and 'Abdulwahid bin Zay d, a sufi and a dev out m an, w as the same. And in his time, Shaqiq al Balkhi,

th e sha y kh of the sufis encourag ed his pupils towards jihad.

Associat ed Matt ers Concerning Jihad

Many Muslims today mistakenly believe th at fighting t he enemy is jihad asghar (a lesser jihad) and

th at figh ting one's ego is jihad akbar (a gr eater jih ad). The following na rr ation [ath ar ] is quoted as

proof: "We hav e retu rned from th e lesser jih ad to em bark on the g reat er jiha d." They said: "What is th e

gr eater jihad?" He said: "The jih ad of the hear t, or t he jih ad ag ainst one's ego."

This nar ra tion is used by some t o lessen th e importan ce of figh ting , to discourag e any prepara tion for

combat, a nd to deter any offering of jihad in Allah 's wa y . This narr ation is not a sah eeh (sound)

tr adition: The prom inent m uh addith Al Hafiz ibn Hajar al-Asqalan i said in th e Tasdid al-Qaws:

'It is well known and often repeated, and w as a say ing of Ibrah im ibn 'Abla.'

Al Hafiz Al Iraqi sa id in th e Ta kh rij Ah adi th al-Ahy a':

'Al Bay haqi tran smitted it with a weak cha in of narra tors on th e authority of Jabir, and Al Khatib

tran smitted it in his history on th e auth ority of Jabir.'

Nev ertheless, ev en if it were a sound tr adition, it would never war rant abandoning jihad or preparing

for it in order to rescue the ter rit ories of the Muslims and repel th e att acks of the disbeliev ers. Let it be

known th at t his narr ation simply emph asises th e importanc e of str ugg ling a gain st one's ego so th at

Al la h will be the sole pu rpose of ev ery one of our act ions.

Other a ssociated m att ers concern ing jih ad include comm anding t he good and forbidding the ev il. It is

said in th e Hadeeth: "One of the g reat est forms of jihad is to ut ter a w ord of trut h in th e presence of a

ty rann ical ruler." But n othing compares to the honour of shah adah kubra (th e supreme m arty rdom)

or th e rewar d that is waiting for t he Mujahideen.

Epilogue

My brothers! The umm ah that knows how to die a noble and honourable death is gran ted an exalted

life in this world and eterna l felicity in th e next. Degra dation and dishonour ar e the results of the lov e

of this w orld and th e fear of death . Th erefore prepar e for jih ad an d be the lov ers of death. Life itself

shall come searching after y ou.

My brothers, y ou should know t hat one day y ou w ill face death an d this ominous ev ent can only occur

once. If y ou suffer on th is occasion in th e way of Allah , it w ill be to y our benefit in this world and y our

rewar d in the next. A nd remem ber brother t hat nothing can ha ppen with out t he Will of Allah: ponder

well what Al lah, t he Blessed, th e Alm ighty , has sa id:

'Then a fter th e distress, He sent down security for y ou. Slum ber ov ertook a party of y ou, w hile

another party wa s thinking about them selv es (as to how to sav e themselves, ignoring t he others

and the Prophet) and thought w rongly of Allah - the thought of ignoran ce. They said, "Hav e we

any part in th e affair?" Say y ou (O Muh am m ad): "Indeed the affair belongs w holly to Allah." They

hide within them selv es wh at they dare not rev eal to y ou, say ing: "If we had any thing t o do with

the affair, none of us would ha v e been kil led here." Say : "Ev en if y ou h ad rem ained in y our

homes, those for w hom death w as decreed would certa inly hav e gone forth to the place of their

death: but that A l lah m ight test wh at is in y our h earts; and to purify that w hich w as in y our

heart s (sins), and Allah is All-Knower of wha t is in (your) h earts."' {Sura 3:1 5 4}

c . Dar a l-Is lam an d dar a l-ha rb: th e House of Is lam an d the House of War


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The v iolent inju nctions of the Quran and th e v iolent precedents set by Muham m ad set th e tone for th e

Islamic v iew of politics and of world history . Islam ic scholarship div ides th e world int o two spheres of

influence, th e House of Islam (dar a l-Islam) and t he House of War (dar a l-harb). Islam m eans submission,

and so th e House of Islam in cludes those nat ions tha t h av e submitt ed to Islamic r ule, w hich is to say th ose

nat ions ruled by Sha ria la w. Th e rest of th e world, which has not accepted Shar ia law and so is not in a state

of submission, exists in a stat e of rebellion or wa r w ith the w ill of Alla h. It is incum bent on dar al-Islam t o

ma ke war u pon dar al-harb until such tim e that a ll nations submit to the will of Allah and accept Sharia

law . Islam's m essage to th e non-Muslim w orld is th e sam e now as it was in th e tim e of Muh am m ad and

th rough out history : subm it or be conquered. The only tim es since Muham ma d wh en dar al-Islam w as not

activ ely at w ar w ith dar al-harb were wh en the Muslim w orld was too weak or div ided to ma ke war

effectively.

But t he lu lls in th e ongoing w ar tha t th e House of Islam h as declar ed against t he House of War do not

indicate a forsaking of jihad as a prin ciple but r eflect a cha nge in strat egic factors. It is acceptable for Muslim

nat ions to declare hu dna, or tr uce, at tim es wh en th e infidel nat ions are too power ful for open w arfar e to

m ake sense. Jihad is not a collectiv e suicide pact ev en wh ile "killing a nd being killed" (Sura 9 :1 1 1 ) is

encourag ed on an in div idual lev el. For th e past few hu ndred y ears, the Muslim world has been too politicall y

fragm ented and technologically inferior to pose a m ajor t hreat to the West. But that is changing.

i . Taqiy y a -- Rel ig ious Deception

Due to th e stat e of war betw een dar a l-Islam an d dar a l-harb, r euses de guerre, i.e., sy stemat ic ly ing to theinfidel, mu st be considered part a nd parcel of Islamic t actics. The par roting by Muslim org anizations

th rough out dar al-har b tha t "Islam is a religion of peace," or th at t he origins of Muslim v iolence lie in the

un balanc ed psych es of particu lar indiv idual "fana tics," m ust be considered as disinform ation inten ded to

induce the infidel world to let down its guard. Of course, individual Muslims may genuinely regard their

religion as "peaceful" -- but only insofar a s they are ig norant of its tru e teachin gs, or in th e sense of the

Egy ptian th eorist Say y id Qutb, w ho posited in his Islam and Universal Peace tha t tr ue peace would preva il

in t he w orld just as soon as Islam h ad conquered it.

A tell ing point is that , while Muslim s who present th eir religion a s peacefu l a boun d throug hout dar al -ha rb,

th ey ar e nearly non-existent in dar a l-Islam. A Muslim apostat e once suggested to m e a litm us test for

Westerners who believ e that Isla m is a religion of "peace" and "toler an ce": try m aking th at point on a str eetcorner in Ramallah, or Riya dh, or Islam abad, or a ny wh ere in the Muslim w orld. He assured me y ou

wouldn't liv e fiv e m inutes.

{A} problem concernin g law and order {w ith r espect to Muslim s in dar al-har b} arises from an an cient

Islamic lega l principle -- th at of taqiy y a, a w ord th e root m eaning of which is "to rema in faithfu l" but

which in effect m eans "dissim ulation. " It has fu ll Quranic a uth ority (3 :2 8 a nd 1 6:1 06 ) a nd al lows th e

Muslim to conform outwa rdly to th e requirem ents of unislamic or non-Islamic gov ernm ent, w hile

inwar dly "rema ining faithful" to wha tev er he conceiv es to be proper Islam , w hile waiting for t he tide to

tur n. (Hiskett,Some to Mecca Turn to Pray,101 .)

Volum e 4 , Book 52 , N um ber 269; Narrated Ja bir bin 'Abdu llah: Th e Prophet said, "War is deceit ."

Historically , exa m ples of taqiy y a in clude perm ission t o renounc e Islam itself in order t o sav e one's neck or

ingrat iate oneself with a n enemy . It is not h ard to see that the im plications of taqiy y a a re insidious in the

extr eme: they essentia lly render negotiated settlem ent -- and, indeed, all v eracious comm unica tion between

dar al -Islam a nd dar al-har b -- im possible. It should not, h owev er, be surprising th at a part y to a war should

seek to mislead th e oth er about its mean s and intentions. Jihad Watch 's own Hugh Fitzgera ld sum s up

taqiy y a an d kitman, a r elated form of deception.

"Taqiy y a" is the r eligiously -sanctioned doctr ine, w ith its orig ins in Shi'a Islam bu t n ow pr act iced by

non-Shi'a as well, of deliberat e dissim ula tion about r eligious ma tter s tha t m ay be undertaken t o

protect Islam, and th e Believ ers. A relat ed term, of broader application, is "kitm an, " wh ich is defined as

"m ental reserv ation." An exam ple of "Taqiy y a" would be th e insistence of a Muslim apologist th at "of

course" ther e is freedom of conscience in Islam , an d then quoting t hat Qur'anic v erse -- "Ther e shall be


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no com pulsion in r eligion." {2 :256 } But th e impression giv en will be false, for t here h as been no

m ention of the Muslim doctr ine of abrogat ion, or naskh, wh ereby such an ear ly v erse as that a bout "no

compulsion in relig ion" has been cancelled out by l ater , far m ore intoleran t an d malev olent v erses. In

any case, history shows tha t w ithin Islam t here is, and alw ay s has been, "compulsion in r eligion" for

Muslims, and for non-Muslims.

"Kitman " is close to "taqiy y a," but r ath er th an outr ight dissimula tion, it consists in telling only a part

of the tr ut h, w ith "menta l reserv ation" justify ing th e om ission of th e rest. One exam ple m ay suffice.

When a Muslim m aint ains th at "jihad" really means "a spiritual str ugg le, " and fails to add that th is

definition is a recent one in Islam (litt le more tha n a centu ry old), he m isleads by holding back, and is

pract icing "kitma n." When h e adduces, in support of this doubtful pr oposition, t he ha dith in wh ich

Muhammad, returning home from one of his many battles, is reported to have said (as known from acha in of tr ansm itter s, or isnad), tha t he ha d retur ned from "the Lesser Jih ad to th e Greater Jih ad" and

does not add wha t h e also knows to be tru e, th at t his is a "weak" hadith , r egar ded by the m ost-respected

mu haddithin as of doubtful aut henticity , he is furt her pract icing "kitman ."

In tim es when the gr eater strength of dar al-harb necessitates that the jihad ta ke an indirect approach, the

nat ur al a ttit ude of a Muslim to th e infidel world m ust be one of deception and omission. Rev ealing frank ly

the u ltima te goal of dar al-Islam to conquer and plunder dar al-har b when the lat ter h olds the m ilitary

tr um p cards would be str ateg ic idiocy . Fort un ately for t he jihadists, most infidels do not understan d how one

is to read the Quran, nor do they trouble themselv es to find out w hat Muha mm ad actually did and taug ht,

which m akes it easy to g iv e the im pression t hroug h selectiv e qu otations and omissions t hat "Islam is a

religion of peace." Any infidel wh o wa nts to believe such fiction will ha ppily persist in his mistake h av ing

been cited a han dful of Mecca n v erses an d told that Muh amm ad was a m an of gr eat piet y an d ch ar ity .

Digging only slightly deeper is sufficient to dispel the fal sehood.

d . J i h a d T h r ou g h H i st o r y

In 62 2 AD (y ear one in the Islamic ca lendar, A H 1), Muh am m ad abandoned Mecca for th e city of Medina

(Yathrib) some 2 00 farth er north in th e Arabian peninsula. In Medina, Muham ma d established a

param ilitary organ ization that would spread his influence and that of his religion th roughout Ara bia.

Because there has nev er been a separat ion of th e political -m ilitar y and th e religious in Islam, t his

dev elopment w as entirely natu ral by Islam ic principles. By the tim e of his death in 63 2 AD, Muham ma d

ha d extended his control in a series of raids and battl es over m ost of sout hern Ara bia. The conquered

populat ions of these areas either ha d to submit t o Muslim ru le and pay a protection tax or conv ert t o Islam.

i . T h e F i r st M a j or W a v e of J i h a d : t h e A r a b s , 6 2 2 -7 5 0 A D

Near th e end of his life, Muham m ad sent let ters to the grea t em pires of the Middle East deman ding th eir

submission t o his auth orit y . Th is dispels any notion t ha t t he Prophet intended Islam's expansion t o stop with

Ar abia . Indeed, it is only logical t hat th e one true r eligion, rev ealed by the fin al a nd fullest prophet, sh ould

hav e univ ersal sway . Thu s, as Muha mm ad had fough t an d subdued the peoples of the Ar abian peninsula,

his successors Abu Bakr , Umar , Uthm an, and Ali (known as "the four rig htl y -guided Caliphs") and other

Caliphs foug ht and subdued the people of the Middle East, Africa , Asia, a nd Europe in the n am e of Allah .

Volum e 4 , Book 53 , N um ber 386 ; Narrated Ju bair bin Haiy a: Umar {th e second Ca liph} sent th e

Muslims to the great countr ies to fight the pagan s. ? When w e reached the land of the enemy , th e

representativ e of Khosrau { Persia} ca me out with forty -thousand w arr iors, and an interpreter got up

say ing, "Let one of y ou tal k to m e!" Al-Mug hir a r eplied, ? "Our Prophet, th e Messenger of our Lord, h as

ordered us to fight y ou till y ou worship Allah Alone or giv e Jizy a (i.e. tr ibute); and our Prophet ha s

inform ed us tha t our Lord say s: "Whoev er am ongst us is killed (i.e. m art y red), shall go to Paradise to

lead such a lu xur ious life as he has nev er seen, and w hoev er am ongst us rema in aliv e, shall become

y our m ast er ."

Unleashing upon the world the blitzkrieg of its day , Islam r apidly spread into the terr itories of Byzant ium ,

Persia, and Western Eu rope in th e decades after Muha m ma d's death. Th e creaking By zantine and Persian

powers, having battled each other into mutual decline, offered little resistance to this unanticipated


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onslau gh t. Th e Arab Muslim ar m ies cha rg ed into the Holy Land, conquered wh at is now Iraq and Ira n, th en

swept west across Nort h Africa , into Spain, a nd finally into Fran ce. The Muslim offensiv e was finally ha lted

in th e West at the Bat tle of Poitiers/Tour s, not far fr om Paris, in 7 32 AD. In th e east, the jiha d penetr ated

deep into Centra l Asia.

(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-u6jKrtGaRSg/Unekiy5SdFI/AAAAAAAAA6s/jpR_E80QlkI/s1600/Jihad1-Arab+Wav e.jpg)

As Mu ham mad had plu ndered h is foes, so his successors also str ipped the conqu ered areas -- incomparably

richer both ma terially and cultur ally than the desolate sands of Arabia -- of their wealth and ma npower.Al m ost ov ernigh t, t he m ore adv an ced civ ilizations of th e Middle Ea st, Nor th Africa, Persia, a nd Iberia saw

th eir agr icult ur e, nativ e religions, and populat ions destr oy ed or plundered. Sav e for a ha ndful of walled

cities that m ana ged to negotiate conditional sur renders, th e catastr ophes those lands suffered were v ery

nearly complete.

Bat Ye'or, th e leading scholar of Islam's expansion a nd its tr eatm ent of non-Muslims, h as provided an

inestima ble serv ice through the compilation a nd tra nslation of num erous primar y source docum ents

describing centu ries of Islamic conquest. She in cludes these docum ents in h er w orks on Islam ic history and

th e plight of non-Muslim s un der Islamic r ule. In the history of jihad, the slaugh ter of civ ilians, th e

desecrat ion of chu rch es, an d the plundering of th e coun tr y side are comm onplace. Here is Micha el the

Sy rian 's account of the Muslim inv asion of Cappodocia (south ern Tu rkey ) in 650 A D under Caliph Umar :

... wh en Muaw iy a {the Muslim comma nder} ar riv ed {in Euchaita in Arm enia} he ordered all the

inha bitant s to be put to the sword; he placed guar ds so th at n o one escaped. After ga th ering u p all th e

wealt h of th e town , t hey set to tortu ring th e leaders to m ak e them show th em things [treasur es] that

had been hidden. The Taiy ay e {Muslim A rabs} led ev ery one into slav ery -- men and women, boy s and

girls -- and they comm itted much debauchery in that u nfortu nate town: they wickedly comm itted

imm oralities inside churches. They retur ned to their countr y rejoicing. (Michael th e Syr ian, quoted in

Bat Ye'or, The Decline of Eastern Christianity under Islam, 27 6-7.)

The following description by th e Muslim h istorian , Ibn al-Athir (1 1 60-1 23 3 AD), of razzias (ra iding

expeditions) in North ern Spain and France in the eighth and ninth centuries AD, convey s nothing but

satisfaction at t he extent of the destruct ion wr ought u pon th e infidels, inclu ding noncom batan ts.

In 1 7 7 , Hisham , prince of Spain, sent a large arm y comm anded by A bd al-Malik b.

Abd al-Wahid b. Mug ith into enemy territory , a nd which m ade foray s as fa r as N arbonn e and Ja ran da

. This general first at tacked Jaranda wh ere there was an elite Frank garr ison; he killed the brav est,

destr oyed the w alls and towers of the town a nd alm ost m ana ged to seize it. He then m arc hed on to

Narbonne, where h e repeated the same actions, t hen, pushing forward, h e tra mpled underfoot t he lan d

of the Cerdagne {near Andorra in th e Py renees}. For several months he trav ersed this land in ev ery

direction, r aping w omen, killing war riors, destroy ing fortr esses, burning a nd pillaging ev ery thing,

driv ing back th e enemy wh o fled in disorder. He retur ned safe and sound, draggin g behind him God

alone knows how m uch booty . Th is is one of the m ost fam ous expeditions of the Muslims in Spain. In

22 3 < 2 December 83 7 >, Abd ar-Rahm an b. al Hakam, sov ereign of Spain, sent an ar my against
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Al av a; it enca mped n ear Hisn al -Gha rat , w hich it besieg ed; i t seized the booty that was fou nd th ere,

killed the inhabitant s and withdrew, carry ing off women a nd children as captives. In 23 1 , a Muslim a rm y adva nced into Galicia on the terr itory of the infidels, wh ere it

pillaged and massacred ev ery one. In 24 6 , Muha mm ad b. Abd ar-Rahm an adv anced

with m an y troops and a la rge m ilitar y apparat us ag ainst t he region of Pam plona. He r educed, ruined

and rav aged this territory , w here he pillaged and sowed death. (Ibn al-Athir,Annals,quoted in Bat

Ye'or, The Decline of Eastern Christianity under Islam, 281 -2.)

This first wa v e of jihad engulfed much of the By zantine, V isigothic, Fra nkish, an d Persian Empires and left

the newborn Islamic Empire controlling territory from Southern France, south through Spain, east across

North A frica t o India, an d nort h to Russia. Ear ly in th e second mill ennium AD, th e Mongol inv asion fromthe east gr eatly weakened the Islamic Empire an d ended Arab predomina nce therein.

i i . T h e S ec on d Ma j or W a v e of J i h a d : t h e T u r k s, 1 0 7 1 -1 6 8 3 A D

Some t wenty -five y ears before th e first Cru sading ar my set out from centra l Europe for t he Holy Land, th e

Turkish (Ottoman) ar mies began an a ssault on the Christian By zantine Empire, wh ich had ruled wha t is

now Tur key since th e Roman Em pire's capital w as mov ed to Constant inople in 3 25 A D. At th e battle of

Manzikert, in 1071, the Christian forces suffered a disastrous defeat, which left much of Anatolia (Turkey)

open t o inv asion. Th is second wav e of jihad was temporarily held up by the inv ading Latin Arm ies during

the Crusades (see Islam 1 01 FAQs), but, by the beginning of the 1 4th century , the Tur ks were threatening

Constant inople a nd Eu rope itself.

In th e West, Rom an Ca tholic arm ies wer e bit by bit forcing Muslim forces down t he Iberian peninsula, unt il,

in 1492, they were definitively expelled (the Reconquista). In Eastern Europe, however, Islam continued in

th e ascendant. One of the most significant enga gem ents betw een the inv ading Muslims and the indigenous

peoples of the region was the Battle of Kosovo in 1389, where the Turks annihilated a multinational army

un der the Serbian King, St. Lazar , th oug h th eir progress into Europe wa s significantly slowed. After

numerous attempts dating back to the seventh century, Constantinople, the jewel of Eastern Christendom,

finally fell in 1 45 3 t o th e arm ies of Sulta n Mahomet II. Lest one ascribe th e atr ocities of the first wa v e of

jih ad to t he "Arabness" of its perpetrat ors, th e Tu rks showed they were fu lly ca pable of liv ing up to th e

principles of the Qu ran and t he Sun nah . Paul Fregosi in his book Jih ad describes the scene following t he final

assaul t on Constant inople:

Several thousand of the surv iv ors had taken r efuge in the cat hedral: nobles, serv ants, ordinary

citizens, th eir wiv es and children, pr iests and nuns. They locked the hug e doors, pray ed, and waited.

{Caliph } Mahomet {II} ha d giv en the tr oops free qua rter . They ra ped, of cour se, th e nuns being t he

first v ictim s, and slau ght ered. At least four thousand were killed before Mahomet stopped th e ma ssacr e

at noon. He ordered a m uezzin {one wh o issues the cal l to pray er} t o climb into the pu lpit of St. Sophia

and dedicate th e building to Alla h. It has rema ined a mosque ev er since. Fifty th ousand of the

inhabitants, m ore th an h alf the population, w ere rounded up and taken aw ay as slav es. For m onths

afterwar d, slav es were th e cheapest comm odity in the m arkets of Turkey . Mahomet a sked that th e

body of th e dea d em per or be br ought to h im . Some Turkish soldiers foun d it in a pile of corpses and

recognized Constant ine {XI} by th e golden eag les embroidered on his boots. Th e sultan ordered his hea d

to be cut off and placed between th e horse's legs under th e equestr ian bronze statu e of the emperor

Justinia n. Th e head was later em balm ed and sent a round the chief cities of the Ottoman em pire for th e

delectation of the citizens. Next, Mahomet ordered the Grand Duke Notaras, wh o ha d sur v iv ed, be

broug ht before him , asked him for t he nam es and addresses of all t he leading nobles, officials, an d

citizens, w hich N otara s gav e him . He had th em a ll ar rested and decapitated. He sadistically bough t

from their owners {i.e., Muslim commanders} high-ranking prisoners who had been enslaved, for the

pleasure of hav ing t hem beheaded in front of him . (Fregosi,Jihad,256-7 .)


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(http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-IAIkXiBdR8A/UnemjTvBLcI/AAAAAAAAA64/F9Z94hoc2v0/s1600/Jihad2-Turkish+Wave.jpg)

This second, Tur kish wav e of jihad reached its fart hest extent at th e failed sieges of Vienna in 1 52 9 an d

1 683 , where in the latt er instance the Muslim ar my under Kara Mustapha was thrown back by th e Roma n

Cath olics un der th e comm and of the Polish King, John Sobieski. In t he decades th at followed, the Ott omans

were dr iv en back down th roug h th e Ba lkan s, t houg h they were nev er ejec ted from the Eu ropean continent

entir ely . Still, ev en while th e imperial jiha d falter ed, Muslim lan d- and sea-born e razzias into Christian

territory continued, and Christians were being abducted into slav ery from as far a way as Ireland into the

1 9th century .

e . Dh i m m i t u d e

Islam's persecut ion of non-Muslims is in no way limit ed to jihad, ev en th oug h t hat is the basic relationship

between th e Muslim an d non-Muslim world. A fter th e jihad concludes in a giv en ar ea wit h the conquest of

infidel territ ory , th e dhimm a, or t reat y of protection, m ay be gran ted to the conquered "People of the Book" --

historically, Jews, Christians, and Zoroastrians. The dhimma provides that the life and property of the

infidel are exempted from jihad for a s long a s the Muslim rulers permit, which has generally meant for a s

long as the subject non-Muslims -- the dhim m i -- prove econom ically useful t o the Islamic stat e. The Qur an

spells out t he pay m ent of th e jizy a (poll- or h ead-tax ; Sura 9 :29 ), wh ich is the m ost conspicuous mean s by

which the Muslim ov erlords exploit th e dh im m i. But the jizy a is not m erely economic in its function; itexists also to hum iliate th e dhim mi a nd impress on him th e superiority of Islam. A l-Magh ili, a fifteenth

century Muslim theologian, explains:

On the day of paym ent {of the jizy a} t hey {the dhim mi} shall be assembled in a public place like the

suq {place of com m erce}. Th ey should be stan ding ther e waitin g in th e lowest and dirtiest place. The

acting officials representing the Law shall be placed above them and shall adopt a threatening attitude

so tha t it seems to th em, a s well as to oth ers, tha t our object is to degrade them by pretending t o take

their possessions. They will r ealize that we ar e doing th em a fav or in accepting from them the jizya

and lettin g th em g o free. (Al-Magh ili, quoted in Bat Ye'or, The Decline of Eastern Christianity under

Islam, 361. )

Islamic law codifies v arious other restrictions on th e dhim m i, all of wh ich deriv e from t he Qura n and th e

Sunnah. Sev eral hu ndred years of Islam ic thought on th e right treatm ent of dhim mi peoples is sum med up

by Al -Dam an huri, a sev enteenth cen tu ry head of Al -Azhar Univ ersity in Cair o, the m ost pr estigious center

for learning in the Muslim world:

... ju st as th e dhim m is ar e prohibited from bu ilding chu rch es, other th ings also ar e prohibited to them .

They mu st not assist an unbeliev er aga inst a Muslim . .. r aise th e cross in an Islam ic assemblag e ...

display banners on th eir own holiday s; bear arm s ... or keep them in th eir homes. Should they do

any thin g of the sort , th ey m ust be pun ished, and th e arm s seized. ... The Compa nions [of the Prophet]

agr eed upon th ese points in order to dem onstra te th e abasement of the infidel and to protect t he w eak

believ er 's fait h. For if he sees them humbled, he w ill n ot be inclined towa rd their belief, which is not

tru e if he sees them in power, pride, or lu xury garb, a s all this urges him to esteem th em an d incline
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towar d them, in v iew of his own distress and pov erty . Yet esteem for the un believer is unbelief. (Al-

Damanhuri, quoted in Bat Ye'or, The Decline of Eastern Christianity under Islam, 382.)

The Chr istian, Jew ish, and Zoroastrian peoples of the Middle East, North Africa , an d mu ch of Europe

suffered under t he oppressiv e strictu res of the dhim m a for centur ies. Th e stat us of these dhim m i peoples is

compar able in ma ny way s to that of form er slav es in t he post-bellum Am erican South. Forbidden to

constr uct h ouses of worship or repair extan t ones, economicall y crippled by the jizy a, socially hu m iliated,

legally discrimina ted against, and generally kept in a perm anent state of weakness and v ulnerability by the

Muslim ov erlords, it should not be surprising th at th eir num bers dwindled, in man y places to the point of

extinc tion. The genera lly misun derstood decline of Islamic civ ilization over t he past sev eral cent ur ies is

easily explain ed by t he demographic decline of the dhim m i populat ions, which h ad prov ided th e princ ipleengines of technical and administrative competence.

Should the dhimm i v iolat e the conditions of the dhimm a -- perhaps thr ough pract icing h is own religion

indiscreetly or failing to show adequate deference to a Muslim -- then t he jiha d resum es. At v ar ious tim es in

Islamic h istory , dhim m i peoples rose abov e their subjected statu s, and this wa s often th e occasion for v iolent

reprisals by Muslim populations who believed them to have violated the terms of the dhimma. Medieval

An dal usia (Moorish Spain) is often pointed out by Muslim apologists as a kin d of mult icult ural wonder la nd,

in wh ich Jews and Christians were permitted by the Islam ic gov ernm ent to rise through the ra nks of

learning a nd gov ernm ent administration. What w e are not told, howev er, is that t his relaxation of the

disabilities resulted in w idespread rioting on t he par t of the Muslim populace t ha t killed hu ndreds of

dhimm is, m ainly Jews. By r efusing to conv ert to Islam and stray ing from the tr aditional constraint s of thedhimm a (ev en at t he behest of the Islam ic gov ernm ent, wh ich wa s in need of capable ma npower), th e

dhimm i had implicitly chosen the only other option permitt ed by the Quran : death.

f . J i h a d i n t h e M od e r n E r a

Following its defeat at th e walls of Vienna in 1 68 3, Islam entered a period of str ategic decline in wh ich it w as

incr easingly dom inat ed by the r ising Eur opean colonial powers. Due to its m ater ial weak ness v is--v is th e

West, dar al -Islam was u na ble to pr osecute la rge-scale m ilit ar y ca mpaigns int o infidel territory . The Islam ic

Empire, then ruled by the Ottoman Turks, was reduced to fending off the increasingly predatory European

powers.

In 1 856, Western pressure compelled the Ottoman g ov ernm ent to suspend the dhimma under wh ich th e

Empire's non-Muslim subjects labored. Th is provided hith erto un known opport unit ies for social and personal

improvem ent by the form er dhimm is, but it also fomented resentm ent by orth odox Muslims wh o saw this as

a v iolation of the Sharia a nd their Allah -giv en superiority ov er unbelievers.

By the lat e 1 9th century , tensions among th e European subjects of the Empire broke out into the open when

the Ottoma n governm ent massacred 30,000 Bulgar ians in 1 87 6 for allegedly rebelling against Ottoma n

rule. Following Western interv ention th at resulted in Bulgar ian independence, the Ottoman governm ent

and its Muslim subjects were incr easingly nerv ous about oth er non-Muslim g roups seeking independence.

It w as in this atm osphere tha t th e first stage of the Arm enian genocide took place in 1 896 with the slaught erof som e 250,0 00 Ar m enians. Both civ ilians and milit ar y personnel took place in the m assacr es. Peter

Balakia n, in h is book, The Bur ning Tig ris, docum ents the wh ole horrific story . But th e massacres of the

1 890s were only the prelude to the m uch lar ger holocaust of 19 1 5, wh ich claimed some 1 .5 m illion liv es.

While v ar ious fac tor s cont ribu ted to th e sla ughter, t here is n o mistak ing that the m assacr es were noth ing

other th an a jihad waged against the Arm enians, no longer protected as they w ere by th e dhim ma . In 1 91 4,

as the Ottoma n Em pire entered World War I on th e side of the centr al powers, an official ant i-Chr istian jiha d

was procla im ed.

To prom ote the idea of jihad, th e sheikh-ul-Islam's {the m ost senior religious leader in t he Ottoma n

Empire} pu blished proclam ation summ oned th e Muslim w orld to arise and m assacr e its Chr istian

oppressors. "Oh Moslem s," the docum ent r ead, "Ye wh o are smitt en w ith happiness and are on th e v ergeof sacrificing y our life and your g ood for th e cause of right , and of brav ing perils, gath er now around


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th e Im perial th rone." In th e Ikdam, the Tu rkish newspaper tha t ha d just passed into Germa n

ownership, th e idea of jihad was un derscored: "The deeds of our enemies hav e brought down the w ra th

of God. A gleam of hope has appeared. All Moha m medans, y oung an d old, men, women, and childr en

m ust fulfill their dut y . ... If we do it, th e deliv eran ce of the subjected Moham m edan kingdoms is

assur ed." ... "He who kills even one un believer ," one pam phlet r ead, "of those wh o rule over us, wh ether

he does it secretly or openly , shall be rew arded by God." (quoted in Balak ian, The Burning Tigris, 169-

70.)

The anti-Christian jihad culminated in 19 22 at Smy rna, on the Mediterran ean coast, where 1 50,000 Greek

Christians were massacred by the Tur kish a rm y under the indifferent ey e of Allied war ships. All in, from

1 896 -1 92 3, some 2 .5 m illion Chr istians were killed, th e first m odern genocide, w hich t o this day is deniedby the Tu rkish g ov ernm ent.

Since the breaku p of the Islamic Em pire following World War I, v ar ious jihads hav e been fough t ar oun d the

globe by th e independent Muslim nat ions and sub-state jiha dist g roups. The m ost sustain ed effort has been

directed against Israel, wh ich ha s com m itted the un pardonable sin of rebuilding dar a l-harb on land

form erly a part of dar al-Islam . Other prominent jiha ds include that fought against th e Sov iets in

Afgh anista n, the Muslim Bosnia ns a gainst the Ser bs in th e form er Yu goslav ia, th e Muslim Alba nians

aga inst th e Serbs in Kosov o, an d the Chech ens against t he Russians in t he Cau casus. Jiha ds ha v e also been

waged throug hout nor th ern Africa, the Philippines, Thai la nd, Kash mir , a nd a host of oth er pla ces

thr oughout th e world. In addition, th e ov erwhelm ing m ajority of terrorist at tacks around the w orld hav e

been com mitted by Muslim s, inc lu ding, of cour se, t he spectacula r att acks of 9/1 1 /01 (USA), 3 /1 1 /04(Spain), and 7 /7 /05 (UK). (For a m ore comprehensiv e list of Muslim a tta cks, v isit

www.t hereligionofpeace. com (http://www.thereligionof peace.com/).)

The fact is, th e percentag e of conflicts in the w orld today th at do not inclu de Islam is pretty small. Islam is

ma king a comeback.

3 . Con c l u s io n

The ch ief barrier today to a better u nderstanding of Islam -- apart, perhaps, from outr ight fear -- is sloppy

langu age. Let us take, to start with, the m uch-va unted "war on terr or." Upon scrutiny , th e phrase "war on

terr or" ma kes as mu ch sense as a w ar on "blitzkrieg," "bullets," or "strat egic bombing." The "war on t error"im plies that it is perfectly fine if th e enem y seeks to destr oy us -- and, indeed, succeeds in doing so -- as long

as he does not em ploy "ter ror" in th e process.

"Terrorism," it should be obv ious, is a tact ic or strata gem used to adv ance a goal; it is the goal of Islamic

terrorism that we m ust come to understand, an d this logically requires an understanding of Islam .

As w e h av e seen , contrar y to th e w idespr ead in sistenc e that tr ue Islam is pa cific ev en if a han dful of its

adherent s ar e violent, th e Islamic sour ces m ake clear th at enga ging in v iolence again st non-Muslims is a

centr al a nd indispensable principle to Islam. Islam is less a personal fait h t han a political ideology th at ex ists

in a fundamental a nd perm anent state of war w ith n on-Islam ic civ ilizations, cult ures, and individuals. The

Islamic holy texts outl ine a social, gov ernm ental , and economic system for all ma nkind. Those cultu res andindiv iduals who do not subm it to Islamic g ov erna nce exist in an ipso facto stat e of rebellion wit h Al lah and

m ust be forcibly brought into submission. The m isbegotten ter m "Islamo-fascism " is wholly redundan t: Islam

itself is a kind of fascism tha t a chiev es its full and proper form only wh en it a ssum es th e power s of the stat e.

The spectacular acts of Islam ic terrorism in the lat e 20th and early 21 st centur ies are but t he m ost r ecent

m anifestation of a global wa r of conquest th at Islam has been wag ing since th e day s of the Prophet

Muhamm ad in the 7t h Century AD and that continues apace today . This is the simple, glaring t rut h th at is

starin g th e world today in th e face -- and wh ich ha s stared it in the face num erous tim es in th e past -- but

which it seem s few today ar e w illing to contem pla te.
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It is important to realize th at w e hav e been ta lking a bout Islam -- not Islamic "fundam entalism ,"

"extrem ism, " "fana ticism," "Islam o-fascism," or "Islam ism, " but Islam proper, Islam in it s ort hodox form as it

ha s been understood and pract iced by rig ht-believin g Muslims from th e time of Muham m ad to th e present.

The mounting episodes of Islam ic terrorism in the lat e 20th and early 21 st centuries are due largely to the

geostr ategic ch ang es following th e end of the Cold War and the gr owin g techn ical options av ailable to

terrorists.

Wit h th e colla pse of Sov iet hegem ony ov er m uch of th e Muslim world, coupled with th e bu rgeoning wealt h

of th e Muslim oil-producing count ries, th e Muslim world incr easingly possesses the freedom and m eans to

support jihad around the globe. In short, the r eason th at Muslims are once again waging war against th e

non-Muslim world is because they can.

It is param ount to note, howev er, th at, ev en if no major t errorist at tack ev er occurs on Western soil again,

Islam still poses a m ortal dang er to the West. A h alt t o terr orism w ould simply m ean a ch ang e in Islam's

tactics -- perhaps indicating a longer-term a pproach tha t w ould allow Muslim im migr ation and higher birth

ra tes to bring Islam closer t o v ictory before the next r ound of v iolence. It can not be ov erem phasized that

Muslim terr orism is a sy mpt om of Islam th at m ay increa se or decrease in intensity wh ile Islam proper

rema ins perma nently hostile.

Muhamm ad Taqi Partov i Samzeva ri, in his "Future of the Islam ic Mov ement" (1 986 ), sums up th e Islam ic

worldv iew .

Our own Prophet ... w as a general, a statesman, a n adm inistrat or, an economist, a jurist and a first-

class m ana ger al l in one. ... In the Qur'an's historic v ision Allah's support a nd the r ev olut ionar y

strug gle of the people must come together, so th at Sat anic r uler s ar e brough t down a nd put to death . A

people tha t is not prepared to kill and to die in order to create a just society cann ot expect a ny support

from A llah. The Alm ighty has promised us that t he day will come w hen the w hole of mankind will liv e

un ited under the bann er of Islam, w hen th e sign of th e Crescent, t he sym bol of Muh am m ad, will be

supreme ev ery where. ... But t hat day mu st be hastened thr ough our Jiha d, through our r eadiness to

offer our liv es and to shed the u nclean blood of those wh o do not see the ligh t brough t from t he Heav ens

by Muh am mad in his m i'ra j {"nocturna l v oy ag es to th e 'court' of Allah"}. . .. It is A llah who puts t he

gun in our han d. But we cann ot expect Him to pull the trigg er as well simply because we are faint-

hearted.

It m ust be emphasized that all of th e analy sis provided here deriv es from th e Islamic sour ces th emselv es and

is not the product of critical Western scholar ship. (Indeed, m ost m odern Western scholar ship of Islam is

ha rdly "crit ical" in any m eaning ful sense.) It is Islam's self-inter pretat ion th at necessitat es and gl orifies

v iolen ce, not any foreign interpretation of it .

4 . F r e q u e n t l y A s k e d Q u e st i o n s

There are a handful of questions that inv ariably arise when th e point is ma de that Islam is violent. These

questions for the most part are misleading or irrelevant and do not contest the actual evidence or arguments

that v iolence is inherent to Islam . N onetheless, t hey hav e prov en rh etorically effectiv e in deflecting seriousscrutin y from Islam, a nd so I deal with some of them h ere.

a . W h a t a b o u t t h e Cr u s a de s?

The obvious response to this question is, "Well, wh at about th em?" Violence comm itted in the n am e of oth er

religions is logically unc onnect ed to the question of wheth er Islam is v iolent. But , by m entioning th e

Cru sades, the h ope of the Islam ic apologist is to draw att ention aw ay from Islamic v iolence and paint

religions in general a s morally equivalent.

In both the Western aca demia an d media as well as in the Islam ic world, th e Crusades ar e v iewed as wars of

agg ression fough t by bloody -minded Chr istians against peaceful Muslims. While the Cru sades were certa inly

bloody , th ey are m ore accu rately understood as a belated Western response t o centuries of jihad than as a n


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unprovoked, un ilateral at tack. Muslim r ule in th e Holy Land began in t he second half of the 7 th centu ry

durin g the Ar ab wav e of jiha d with th e conquests of Dama scus and Jeru salem by t he second "righ tly -gu ided

Caliph," Umar. After the initial bloody jihad, Christian and Jewish life there was tolerated with in th e

strictures of the dhimm a an d the Muslim Arabs generally permitted Christians abroad to continue t o make

pilgrimage to their holy sites, a practice which proved lucrativ e for th e Muslim state. In the 1 1 th centur y ,

the relativ ely benign Ar ab administration of the Holy Land was replaced with th at of Seljuk Turks, due to

civ il war in the Islam ic Empire. Throughout the latter half of the 11 th centur y , the Turks waged war

aga inst the Chr istian By zantine Em pire and pushed it back from its str ongh olds in Ant ioch an d Anatolia

(now Turkey ). In 1 07 1 , By zantine forces suffered a cru shing defeat at t he Battle of Manzikert in wh at is now

Eastern Tu rkey . The Tu rks resum ed the jihad in the Holy Land, abusing, robbing, enslav ing, a nd killing

Chr istians there and th rough out A sia Minor. They th reat ened to cut off Christendom fr om it s holiest site,the Chu rch of the Holy Sepulchr e in Jerusalem, r ebuilt under By zantine stewardship after it was destroyed

by Caliph Al -Hakim bi-Am r Al la h in 1 00 9.

It w as in th is context of a r enewed jihad in the Middle East th at th e Rom an Pope, Urban II, issued a ca ll in

1 095 for Western Ch ristians to com e to the aid of their Eastern cousins (and seems to ha v e har bored th e hope

of claiming Jerusalem for th e Papacy after the Great Schism with Eastern Chr istianity in 1 054). This

"ar med pilgrim age," in wh ich nu m erous civ ilians as well as soldiers took part, w ould ev entu ally become

known y ears later a s th e First Cru sade. The idea of a "cru sade" as we now un derstan d that t erm , i.e., a

Chr istian "holy wa r," dev eloped y ears later w ith t he rise of such org anizations as the Knigh ts Templar t ha t

made "crusading" a way of life. It worth noting that the most ardent Crusaders, the Franks, were exactly

th ose who had faced jihad and ra zzias for cent ur ies along t he Fran co-Spanish border a nd knew bett er th an

m ost the h orr ors to which Muslims subjected Christian s. At t he tim e of the First Cru sade, th e populat ions of

Asia Minor, Sy ria , a nd Palestine, thoug h ruled by Muslim s, w ere still ov erwhelm ingl y Christian. Th e

"Crusading" campaigns of the Western Christian armies were justified at the time as a war liberating the

Eastern Chr istians, whose populat ion, lan ds, and cult ur e had been dev astated by c entu ries of jihad and

dhim m itude. Conquer ing ter ritory for God in th e mode of jihad was an alien idea to Christian ity and it

should not be surprising that it ev entually died out in th e West an d nev er gained ascendancy in th e East.

Following the v ery bloody capture of Jerusalem in 1 099 by the Latin arm ies and the establishm ent of the

Cru sader Sta tes in Edessa, A ntioch, a nd Jeru salem, t he Muslim a nd Chr istian forces foug ht a see-saw series

of wars, in which both part ies were guilty of the usual gam ut of war time imm orality . Over tim e, even with

reinforcing Cr usades wa ged from Europe, the Cru sader Sta tes, str ung out on preca rious lines of

comm unication, slowly succum bed to superior Muslim power. In 1 27 1 , th e last Christian citadel, An tioch,

fell to the Muslims. No longer ha v ing t o div ert forces to subdue th e Christian beach head on the Eastern

Mediterr anean , th e Muslims regr ouped for a 4 00-y ear-long jiha d against Sout hern and Eastern Eur ope,

which twice reach ed as far as V ien na before it was ha lt ed. In geostr at egic term s, t he Cr usades can be v iew ed

as an at tempt by the West t o forestall its own destru ction at the h ands of Islam ic jihad by carr y ing th e fight

to the enemy . It worked for a w hile.

Significantly , w hile the West h as for some t ime now lam ented the Crusades as mistaken, th ere has nev er

been an y m ention fr om an y serious Islam ic au thority of regr et for t he cent uries and cen turies of jihad and

dhim m itude perpetrat ed aga inst oth er societies. But th is is har dly sur prising: while religious violence

contradicts the fundam ental s of Christianit y , religious violence is wr itten int o Islam's DNA.

b . If Isl a m is v i ol en t , w h y a r e so m a n y Mu sl i m s pea c efu l ?

This question is a bit like asking, "If Chr istianity teach es hu milit y , tolerance, and forg iv eness, wh y ar e so

ma ny Christians arrogant, intolerant, a nd v indictiv e?" The answer in both cases is obv ious: in any religion

or ideology th ere will be ma ny wh o profess, but do not pract ice, its tenets. Just a s it is often easier for a

Chr istian to hit back, play holier-th an-thou, or disdain other s, so it is often easier for a Muslim to stay at

home rather th an embark on jihad. Hy pocrites are every where.

Furt herm ore, there ar e also people who do not really un derstan d their own fait h an d so act outside of its

prescribed boun daries. In Islam, t here ar e likely m any Muslims who do not really understan d their religion

than ks to the im portan ce of reciting th e Quran in Ara bic but not hav ing to understand it. It is the w ords and


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sounds of the Quran that attr act Allah 's merciful attention rather than Quranic knowledge on th e part of

the supplicant. Especially in th e West, Muslims here are m ore likely to be attracted by Western way s (which

explains why they are here) and less likely to act violently against the society t o which t hey ma y hav e fled

from an Islam ic ty rann y abroad.

Howev er, in a ny giv en social context, as Islam t akes greater root -- increa sing num bers of followers, the

constr uct ion of more mosques and "cult ur al cent ers," etc. -- the g reat er th e likelihood tha t som e num ber of

its adherents will t ake its v iolent precepts seriously. This is the problem th at t he West faces today .

c . W h a t a b o u t t h e v i ol e n t p a s sa g e s i n t h e B i b l e ?

First, v iolent Biblical passages are irr elev ant to the question of wheth er Islam is v iolent.

Second, the v iolent passages in the Bible certa inly do not am oun t to a stan ding order to com m it v iolence

aga inst the r est of th e world. Unlike the Quran , th e Bible is a hu ge collection of docum ents writ ten by

different people at different times in different contexts, which allows for much greater interpretative

freedom. The Quran, on th e other hand, comes exclusively from one source: Muham ma d. It is thr ou

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