One World Under Allah

One World Under Allah!

Fight [the Unbelievers] on until there is no more tumult or oppression, and there prevail justice and faith in Allah altogether and everywhere.... —Sura 8:39

Printed in 2008

Contents Why This Book?........................................................7 Why Do They Hate Us?...........................................11 Muhammad: Seal of the Prophets...........................15 Words from the Quran.............................................21 Islam through the Ages............................................32 The End of an Empire..............................................39 Islam Is the Answer..................................................43 Recipe for Genocide................................................51 Millennial Fervor, 1979...........................................57 The Third Jihad........................................................63 Allah’s Divine Law (Sharia)....................................69 Why They Hate Us..................................................77 Glossary...................................................................84 For Further Information...........................................89

The only way you can stop us is to give up your democracy. If you give up democracy and freedom of speech and start to stop us and ban us, that’s the way you can stop us, but that means we succeed. We can say to the people, you see, democracy, hypocrisy. We always said so. —Sheik Omar Bakri, England

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Foreword

ot long ago, like most of you, I knew very little about Muslims and the religion of Islam. So, following my wife’s lead, we began to read and attend lectures and dialogues held at churches and a local university. Wellknown Muslim leaders came from all over the country to teach us about Islam. What I first noticed was that the Muslims we met graciously welcomed us. They gave us nice handouts, served great treats, and produced well-organized seminars. They were smart, articulate, and successful in both business and professions. My second impression was that they were not at all afraid to present their views even when they seemed at odds with what most Americans believe. Nobody challenged them. I thought, “Are people asleep or is this what is called political correctness?” The subject of this book, I think, lies well below the radar of most Americans. Most of us are caught up in the battle of everyday life. Things like work, health, food and fuel costs, taxes, etc. keep us so busy that we forget to be thankful for what we have and there just isn’t time to worry about a few radicals that are causing trouble a long ways from our home. We want change but we’re not quite sure what kind. A concept we don’t want to think about is that there are people, those who follow radical Islam for instance, who have a different plan for our lives. Their program is long range, well thought out, and focused on the destruction of our society. My wife, with me on the sidelines, have gone through many books, DVDs and lectures. We have visited mosques and traveled to the Middle East twice. The resources we’ve explored were produced by a variety of people and organizations, and include many primary sources. 5

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Islam is a large and rapidly growing religion. Attendance at mosques by young people is soaring, both in and out of the United States. High birth rates and active proselytization have contributed to the growth. People once in find it very difficult to get out, alive. Especially those outside of the United States. It puzzles me when I keep hearing that Islam is a religion of peace. Why, then, is it necessary to kill those who leave the faith? Even more surprising is the large number of people who seem to believe the peace story, even in the highest levels of our government and amongst the various branches of Christianity. Would not a good test be to read their holy books, the Quran and the Hadith? Or their history? Or what is happening around the world at the present time? Thanks to political correctness, we make concessions to groups that we would not for individuals. Are we so anxious for change that we would agree to Sharia law and give up freedom as we have known it? What about all those who have fought and died to preserve our American freedoms? If you say Islam is compatible with present Constitutional law and democracy, then I say you haven’t read or heard what current Islamist leaders themselves say about these concepts. Especially in their own language (usually Arabic). If you want to know even more, read everything you can find written by those who have escaped Islam’s hold. Usually to do that, they have to give up everything. Do you know what I mean by everything? Few Americans can even grasp the concept! It makes me sad, no, not sad, MAD, to know that many large mosques in this country, financed by Saudi Arabia, teach the extremist Wahhabi view of Islam and sell books in their attached bookstores that advocate the overthrow of our government. We bought some of our books from those bookstores. It used to be called treason but now, I guess, that’s not politically correct. Take the time to probe deeper. I think you will find that Islamist thought and action is meanacing and something that you should definitely know more about. That, my friends, is the purpose of this book.

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Why This Book?

gnorance can be bliss. It can also be dangerous. The day my husband and I set out in our 22’ powerboat for a 5-week, 500-mile trip in the Inside Passage, we left in midafternoon. Away from the harbor, winds rose and waves began to toss us around. I’ll never forget the image of a remote island lighthouse, lit against darkening clouds, atop cliffs sheer to the sea, with waves surging and crashing in explosions of spray halfway up the cliffs. Weather wasn’t the worst of our problems. It was getting late. Our destination was a protected anchorage to the north of a large island. We could clearly see the point we had to round in the distance, but the sun sank faster as evening approached. We rounded the point in twilight and searched for the entrance to the cove as the last grey light faded to black. How, now, could we find our safe haven? As we motored cautiously along shore, straining our eyes, the most welcome sight of my life came into view. It was a big boat, well-lit, secure in the cove we were desperately seeking. It guided us in to safety. Other adventures followed in the weeks to come. We woke one morning and looked out to see our anchor securely attached to shore. The tide had gone out! My husband has an even better story about a falling tide. Once long ago he woke to find his flat-bottomed boat balanced atop a rock! Ripples lapped gently several feet below! All he could do was wait for the water. Then there was our first glacier. We were floating threequarters of a mile or so from its face when a huge wall of ice broke off and thundered into the sea, sending a big curling wave 7

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toward us. We panicked! We’d surely sink! But by the time the wave reached us, it was no more than a gentle undulation. Looking back now, after years of boating, I wonder how we survived that first year! From today’s vantage, I realize that we should have been a lot more worried about some things, and a lot less worried about others. Current events are analogous to waves and froth on the surface of the sea. They come and they go. Some are spectacular. They rivet our attention for a while but quickly fade when something new and compelling occurs. News can distract more than inform us. Unseen beneath a stormy surface are vital keys to meanings, causes, and connections. The underlying topography, the strength of the current, the direction of the tide…all are critical to a true understanding of danger. When gales rise and storm clouds darken, people must be ready and cautious, keep their wits about them, and willfully choose to make decisions rationally rather than emotionally. Stick with the ship, we were always advised. It can take more than you can. Boats have been found after hurricanes, afloat and intact but empty. The people aboard had panicked, abandoned ship, and perished. On the subject of this book, part of me wishes I were still ignorant. Bliss is a happy state of mind. But ignorance can be dangerous! In this case, more dangerous than I ever imagined. After the tragic events of September 11, 2001, I sought deeper understanding. I love research. For me it’s like solving mysteries or gathering pieces of a puzzle and putting them together. Or like being a juror. I listen to prosecution and defense arguments, consider the testimony of “witnesses” and pay very close attention to cross-examination as I evaluate witness credibility. I accept facts that are agreed upon by both sides and critically examine “facts” that are in dispute. I try to view situations from various perspectives and withhold judgment until there is enough evidence to be compelling. Islam is a topic that always seems to arouse strong feelings. People on all “sides” tend to be emotional rather than rational.

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Non-Muslims tend to assume all Muslims are the same, and Muslims tend to assume all non-Muslims are the same, neither of which is remotely true! We are all individuals. I’ve read and read, viewed documentaries, listened to lectures, engaged in interfaith dialogues and visited mosques. I’ve been privileged to meet and interact with Muslims holding a variety of opinions. I have greater respect for all of them as a result, even those with whom I disagree. Muslims are individuals. They cherish many of the values I hold dear. My goal has been to see the world through their eyes, to be respectful, circumspect and rational, to learn what is true. Muslims have repeatedly assured me that terrorism has nothing to do with Islam, that Islam is a religion of peace, that the word Islam itself means peace. My conclusion after much study? Islam is a religion of peace. “What?” you may ask. “Why, then, suicide bombings? What about the Iran-Iraq War, in which Muslims killed more than a million fellow Muslims in the 1980s? What about Algeria, where fundamentalists slaughtered more than 130,000 Muslim men, women, and children during the 1990s? And there’s Sudan! In Darfur and the south, some two million people have been butchered to date! That’s more than died in Rwanda, Liberia, the Ivory Coast, Kosovo and Bosnia combined! What about the 3,000 Christians killed in northern Nigeria by Muslims who were celebrating September 11? Why, if Islam is a religion of peace, were the streets of Sudan packed with angry Muslims brandishing swords and calling for the death of a British schoolteacher who, in her ignorance, allowed students to name a stuffed bear Muhammad? Excellent questions. Still, I maintain, Islam is a religion of peace. We just have to understand what they mean when they say the word “peace.” What is their cultural perspective? This was a difficult book to write. Although I have made every effort to be balanced, rational, and objective, to dissociate

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myself from panic or emotion, I fear readers may not do the same. I anticipate anger, accusations, even hatred from some people! From most, I expect cool indifference. So why bother? Wouldn’t it be easier to say nothing, to hide my head in the sand and think happy thoughts? I could surely persuade myself that I can’t make a difference, anyway. I’m just one tiny person in a very big world. But I can’t forget that Hitler attained his position of power in large part because individuals like me chose to studiously look the other way. People were too busy with their own lives to care, until such a tsunami of destruction washed over the world that they had no choice but to rearrange their priorities! Knowledge is power. If we are to have power to ride out the storm, we need understanding, whether we want it or not. As elections loom in America, we individually must exercise a precious right to choose who will guide our ship through the impending hurricane. I feel compelled to say something. Once I have said my piece, my conscience will be clear and I will be free to turn my attention elsewhere, content to know I have not been complicit. You can agree or disagree, or even choose not to read what I have to say at all! I simply present this information for your consideration. It summarizes countless hours of research so you don’t have to do the research yourself. I encourage you to verify what I say. Check to see if it is true. Some preliminary comments: 1. I will use the specific word “Allah” rather than the generic word “God.” “Allah” is accented on the second syllable. 2. Islam means “submission.” It is accented on the second syllable. Islam is the name of the religion. Muslim means “one who submits.” Those who submit to Allah are called Muslims. 3. This book focuses on Islamism the political ideology as distinct from Islam the religion. Any Muslim who thinks this book denounces Islam is saying he believes they are one and the same. That indicates to me that he may be an Islamist himself, or at least sympathetic. Muslims are not all Islamists. 4. “Slander” means “false accusation.” Truth is not slander.

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Why Do They Hate Us?

hy do they hate us? Anguished Americans searched their souls after 9-11. The premeditated tragedy seemed incomprehensible, insane! We must have done something to deserve it! If we could pinpoint our errors and rectify them, surely we could get the world back on track toward the peaceful future that seemed all so possible after the end of the Cold War. As a child, I assumed all families were like mine. I thought all parents would react the way mine did to provocations or misbehavior. Because of my personality and perhaps my status as the eldest child, I blamed myself for harsh words or spankings that came my way. If Dad was angry, it must be my fault. As I cried myself to sleep, I resolved to do better, to be more careful, to listen and obey, to study harder in school, to do anything, anything, to please him, so he couldn’t help but love and appreciate me. That, I thought, would surely solve my problems. If I could change myself, which was within my power, then my family would be as peaceful and loving as I dreamed it could be. What is obvious in the second example, but not necessarily in the first, is that I lacked an adequate frame of reference. I had no historical perspective. I did not take into account my father’s history or his way of perceiving things. I mistakenly thought everything was about ME. It took exposure to other families and other perspectives to eventually undermine my assumptions and convince me that the biggest part of the situation in my family had nothing to do with me. Not that I was flawless or perfectly innocent. But my childhood belief that I was the center and cause of events, 11

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that others were right and I was wrong, that I had power to unilaterally change circumstances that impacted me, was flawed. Expanding my vision to see things through my father’s eyes shed far more light on my situation than searching my own soul. I was a small part of a big picture, far less significant than I had initially assumed. This lesson, I think, has application for America today. Our assumptions need to be challenged and our frame of reference expanded. Perhaps an understanding of how the perpetrators of 9-11 view things would shed more light than self-examination. Perhaps we are a much smaller part of a very big picture than we imagine ourselves to be. Every door I’ve opened while researching history and Islam has led to five more doors. I am not an expert. I could continue to research this topic forever! But I’m compelled to share what I know. It’s elementary, in a way, but few people seem aware even of the basics! Reporters and top leaders make statements that astound me, that reveal critical misunderstandings. Bernard Goldberg, a one-time CBS insider, confirmed my suspicions about reporters in his book Bias: I learned much more about the atmosphere that breeds suicide bombers from one short article in Commentary magazine than I have from watching twenty years of network television news. In its September 2001 issue (which came out before the attack on America), there was an article by Fiamma Nirenstein, an Italian journalist based in Israel, entitled “How Suicide Bombers Are Made.” In it, she tells about a “river of hatred” that runs through not just the most radical of Arab nations but also much of what we like to think of as the “moderate” Arab world. She tells us about a series of articles that ran in the leading government-sponsored newspaper in Egypt, Al Ahram, about how Jews supposedly use the blood of Christians to make matzah for Passover. She tells us about a hit song in Cairo, Damascus, and the West Bank with the catchy title “I Hate Israel.” Why didn’t I know this?

Did you know that? No one thought to ask, “Why do they hate us?” when Japan bombed Pearl Harbor in 1941. By the time of that attack, the identity of the enemy and his goals were clear. Steeped in a warrior culture and believing itself under divine rule, Japan aimed to expand and subjugate all others. Its national slogan was Hakko Ichiu (Bringing the Eight Corners of the World Under One Roof). Japan’s invasion of Manchuria in September 1931 was the beginning of World War II. In Europe, the enemy’s identity and goals were not so clear. Had people in the West read Hitler’s Mein Kampf, written in 1925, and taken it seriously, it is possible that war in Europe could have been avoided. Perhaps Hitler could have been stopped. Perhaps millions of lives could have been saved. At the present time, most Americans, even leaders, seem unclear about the identity and goals of the enemy or whether we even have an enemy! Yet a manifesto, a “Mein Kampf” if you will, exists for the Islamist movement. It’s a book that inspired Osama bin Laden. Milestones, written in the 1950s by Sayd Qutb, clearly presents the political ideology I will refer to as Islamism. Muslims protest what they call the unfair association of Islam with terror or violence, but it seems clear that terrorists themselves seen an association. They regularly quote from the Quran to justify their actions and shout Allahu Akhbar as they do their deeds. Only a minority of Muslims are Islamists, but every Islamist is a Muslim. To clarify the distinction: Islam is a centuries-old faith. Islamism is a 20th century political ideological movement, more akin to the utopian movements of communism and fascism than to what Americans think of as “religion.” Islamism has its roots in Islam but is not equivalent to Islam. An analogy to describe the relationship might be cancer. Cancer originates in our bodies. Our bodies nourish it. But cancer is not the equivalent of the body. When found and treated quickly, cancer causes little trouble. When ignored and allowed to grow and spread, cancer causes death.

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In Afghanistan and Iraq, Muslims are not the enemy. Islamists are. Most victims of Islamist ideology to date have been Muslims, moderates and so-called “collaborators.” Unfortunately for us and for innocent Muslims, Islamists blend in and camouflage themselves! Contrary to the Geneva Convention, they don’t wear uniforms or otherwise identify themselves. They may be very pious, and piety is honored in the broader culture. They do not openly carry arms or conduct operations in accordance with accepted laws or customs of war. They answer to no authority but Allah. What differentiates Islamist fighters from Muslim civilians is something in their heads, not something we can see from the outside. Way back in 1984, Dr. Marvin Zonis, director of the Middle East Institute at the University of Chicago, raised a warning: The message from Iran—no matter how bizarre or trivial it sounds on first, second, fourth, or thirty-ninth hearing—is in my opinion the single most impressive political ideology which has been proposed in the 20th century since the Bolshevik Revolution. … If we accept that Bolshevism is a remnant of the 19th century, then I want to argue that we’ve had only one good one in the 20th—and it’s this one. … This powerful message will be with us for a very long time—no matter what happens to Khomeini.

Did you know that America and its allies could instantly end the wars and terrorist attacks? Islamists have a utopian vision for the future of all mankind. If we agree with their vision, we can cease resisting and cooperate with them to implement it! But before we panic and jump for that quick “fix”, we should be clear about what the Islamist vision is and decide whether it’s something we want. Is it compatible with our own vision and values? Do we even have a vision? What exactly do we value? What is worth living for, and even more important, what is worth dying for? The Islamists have answered those questions for themselves. We need to do so, as well. We may soon be forced to choose between one nation under God, or one world under Allah!

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Muhammad: Seal of the Prophets

o understand Islamism, we must take a look at its context and its roots in the history of Islam itself. Americans, on the whole, tend to focus on the present or the future and to disregard or debunk history. That is not the case in the Muslim world. For them, the past is alive! Heroes of the faith are esteemed and emulated by young Muslims. Without a knowledge of their history and symbols, we cannot hope to comprehend how they frame events and perceive the world. In the year A.D. 570, a child was born in the heart of the Arabian Peninsula who was destined to change history. His father, Abdullah (literally “slave of Allah”) died before he was born. His mother died when he was about six years old and relatives took him in. His family was part of the ruling Quarysh tribe and his lineage traced to Ishmael, the son of Abraham. His grandfather had an important position as custodian of the Kaaba. Allah, at the time of Muhammad’s birth, was one of 360 gods whose idols were worshipped at the Kaaba in Mecca. Allah was represented by a black stone, said to have fallen from heaven. Mecca was an important destination for pilgrims traveling to pay homage to the gods as well as a center of trade. Travelers from far-away places exposed young Muhammad to a wide variety of cultures and ideas. An idealistic young man, he was distressed by the poverty, injustice, idolatry and tribalism around him. The fierce desert tribes engaged in continual bloody wars of honor and endless rounds of revenge. Baby girls were buried alive. No one cared about the poor and the unfortunate. 15

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At the age of 25, Muhammad entered the service of a wealthy widow, Khadija, who was 15 years his senior. They later married and had four children, including a daughter Fatima. No sons survived to adulthood. Muhammad liked to retreat into peaceful desert solitude to meditate and worship Allah for days at a time. When he was about 40 years old, something strange happened. Bukhari Hadith Volume 1, Book 1, 1:3: Suddenly the Truth descended upon him while he was in the cave of Hira. … The Prophet added, “The angel caught me (forcefully) and pressed me so hard that I could not bear it any more. He then released me and again asked me to read and I replied, ‘I do not know how to read.’ Thereupon he caught me again and pressed me a second time till I could not bear it any more. He then released me again and asked me to read but again I replied, ‘I do not know how to read (or what shall I read)?’ Thereupon he caught me for the third time and pressed me, and then released me and said, ‘Read in the name of your Lord, who has created (all that exists), who created man from a clot. Read! And your Lord is the Most Generous.

Muhammad returned home profoundly disturbed. He cried to his wife Khadija, “Cover me! Cover me!” She covered him until his fear passed and then he told her what had occurred, adding, “I fear that something may happen to me.” Khadija was more excited than afraid. She believed the vision was from Allah, that Muhammad had been chosen to be a Prophet! She became his first convert. Muhammad returned to the cave and received more revelations, which he related to a growing group of followers. In time, he became popular enough to challenge the established order. When his wife and influential uncle died, those who felt threatened conspired to kill him. In A.D. 622, Muhammad and a group of followers fled north to Medina, then called Yathrib. There, his ideas and leadership were welcomed. He continued to receive revelations from Allah through the angel Gabriel, and he reorganized the government

of Medina according to the revelations he received, which would later become known as Divine Law (Sharia). It is significant that the Islamic calendar dates from the Hegira (migration), not from the first revelation. For Muslims, time itself began when Muhammad became a political leader. Islam is Islam can never be “reformed” not simply a religion. It for it is perfect in itself.  — offers a total way of life Maryam Jameelah that Islamists call “the correct and complete system of life for the entire human race.” That is why Muslims believe Islam is the last and greatest of all religions. The Quran, they believe, is the literal and uncorrupted word of Allah, the perfect revelation from the one true God. Muhammad is the ideal man whose example should be emulated. Islam, in the view of nearly all Muslims, provides a perfect system that can only be polluted by attempts at reform. According to Islam in Focus, a book I was given by a prominent Muslim leader: Muhammad was the only Prophet who fulfilled his mission and completed his work in his lifetime. … The religion of God has been completed by Muhammad in concept as well as in application, and the Kingdom of God has been established here on earth. The Kingdom of God is not an unattainable ideal or something of the Hereafter only, but it is something of this world, too, something that did exist and flourish in the age of Muhammad and can exist and flourish in any age whenever there are sincere believers and men of faith.

It is critical to understand that there is no distinction in Islam between what Americans would call “church” and state, between religious and secular. According to Islam in Focus, Islam does not recognize any kind of separation between soul and body, spirit and matter, religion and life. There are not even words in Arabic to express the concept of a separation between church and state, so foundational in America. The concept itself is based in part on Jesus’ teachings that “My Kingdom is not of this world.” (John 18:26) and

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“Render unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s and to God that which is God’s.” (Mark 12:17) (Admittedly, Christians have not always followed Jesus’ teaching on this point.) As a political leader, Muhammad moved to unite warring tribes and subdue all enemies. Had he not been militarily successful in that culture, he would never have been accepted as an esteemed leader by desert warriors. In the battle of Badr in 624, Muhammad planned to ambush a large caravan en route to Mecca. His three hundred men were challenged by 950 Meccan troops. Muhammad prevailed, miraculously. A revelation from Allah ensued: Sura 8:65: O Apostle! Rouse the Believers to the fight. If there are twenty amongst you, patient and persevering, they will vanquish two hundred: if a hundred, they will vanquish a thousand of the Unbelievers.

The battle cry Allahu Akbar (literally “Allah is greater”) was used even in those early days. The Meccans, after winning a subsequent battle, credited their god Hubal with the victory. In 627, at the Battle of the Trenches, ten thousand Arabs attacked Muslim forces at Medina, but soon withdrew. Muhammad became convinced the Jews of Medina had betrayed him. According to an authoritative history, The Life of Muhammad by Muhammad bin Ishaq (d 773): Then they (the Jews) surrendered, and the Apostle confined them in Medina. … Then the Apostle went out to the market of Medina and dug trenches in it. Then he sent for them and struck off their heads in those trenches as they were brought out to him in batches. … There were 600 or 700 in all, though some put the figure as high as 800 or 900.

In the culture of the time, this would have been an acceptable course of action. In 628, Muhammad signed a ten-year hudna (truce) with Meccan leaders, allowing Muslim pilgrims to visit the Kaaba. He then attacked the Khaybar oasis to the north, which was being cultivated by Jews.

Bukhari Hadith Volume 4, Book 52, 4.234:

The Prophet set out for Khaybar and reached it at night. .... When the day dawned, the Jews came out with their bags and spades. When they saw the Prophet; they said, “Muhammad and his army!” The Prophet said, Allahu Akbar! (Allah is Greater) and Khaibar is ruined, for whenever we approach a nation (i.e. enemy to fight) then it will be a miserable morning for those who have been warned.

After a month-long siege, the Jews surrendered. Muhammad allowed them to continue to cultivate the oasis as long as they paid him a tribute of half their produce. Bukhari Hadith Volume 3, Book 50, 3.881: Allah’s Apostle gave the land of Khaibar to the Jews on the condition that they would work on it and cultivate it and they would get half its yield.

Muhammad reserved the right to break the agreement and expel the subject Jews Muhammad stands in history whenever he wished. This as the best model for man in was a prototype for the piety and perfection. dhimma, a concessionary —Islam in Focus charter granted to unbelievers in lands conquered by Muslims. The Quarysh tribe of Mecca killed some of Muhammad’s men. In response, he marched on Mecca with 10,000 troops and captured it with little resistance. All idols except for the black stone associated with Allah were smashed and destroyed. The Kaaba became established as the center of Muslim worship. Muhammad, in his 25-year marriage to Khadija, had been monogamous, in contrast to norms at the time. After she died, married 12 other wives. Bukhari Hadith Vol 7, Bk 62, 7.64 describes one marriage: The Prophet married her (Aisha) when she was six years old and he consummated his marriage when she was nine years old, and then she remained with him for nine years (i.e., till his death).

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Muhammad also married Zaynab, a cousin and former wife of his adopted son. One of his wives, Rayhana, was Jewish. Another, Maryam, was Christian. With the exception of the Prophet, Muslims are allowed no more than four wives at a time. Because Muslims believe the Quran is valid for all time and for all people, Divine Law (Sharia) still allows men four wives at a time, as long as they are treated equitably. Sura 4:3: Marry women of your choice, Two or three or four.

The Hadith describes a case of Muhammad’s treatment of two men who had accepted and then renounced Islam: Bukhari Hadith Volume 1, Book 4, 1.234: The news reached the Prophet early in the morning and he sent (men) in their pursuit and they were captured and brought at noon. He then ordered to cut their hands and feet (and it was done), and their eyes were branded with heated pieces of iron, They were put in ‘Al-Harra’ and when they asked for water, no water was given to them. … Those people committed theft and murder, became infidels after embracing Islam and fought against Allah and His Apostle.

Another Hadith adds an additional detail to the story: Bukhari Hadith Volume 8, Book 82, 8.795: The Prophet cut off the hands and feet of the men belonging to the tribe of ‘Uraina and did not cauterize (their bleeding limbs) till they died.

Allah declared all of Muhammad’s conduct to be praiseworthy. His very name means “Highly Praised One.” Sura 33:21: Ye have indeed in the Apostle of Allah a beautiful pattern (of conduct) for any one whose hope is in Allah and the Final Day, and who engages much in the Praise of Allah.

From a Western or Judeo-Christian perspective, not all of Muhammad’s actions and teachings would be judged praiseworthy, but we are herein endeavoring to understand the perspective of Muslims, specifically Islamists.

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Words from the Quran

ew people in the West have read the Quran or the Hadith, or have accurate knowledge of what Muslims believe or why. The Quran is a collection of the revelations Muhammad said came to him from Allah through the angel Gabriel. The word “Quran” literally means “recitation.” The words were recited by Muhammad, memorized by his followers and later written down. A final authoritative version was compiled in approximately 652 during the reign of the Caliph Uthman. All rival texts were destroyed to ensure against corruption. It is Islamic doctrine that all previous written revelations from Allah had been hopelessly corrupted, especially the Jewish and Christian Bibles. The Quran, according to Islam, is Allah’s final book, perfect and applicable to all people for all time. The Quran consists of 114 suras (chapters). Except for the first sura, it is arranged in order from longest sura to shortest, without reference to chronology. The Medinan suras tended to be longer than the earlier Meccan ones. The Hadith is a collection of traditions, compiled in final form approximately 200 years after Muhammad died. It is considered authoritative but is not the word of Allah. It places many revelations of the Quran in historical context and records the words and deeds of the Prophet and his followers. In this section, I will quote directly from the Quran and Hadith, when possible without comment. The translation of the Quran I cite (Abdullah Yusif ‘Ali’s) was a gift from a Muslim leader. Muslims do not believe the Quran is translatable. Only 21

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Arabic can convey the true meaning and beauty of the text. Muslims throughout the world recite the Quran and pray in Arabic, whether or not they speak or understand Arabic. The Hadith I cite is Bukhari’s, accessed through the Islamic web site, www.searchtruth.com. This is not a complete list of doctrines and beliefs, and Muslims may well protest that this gives an unbalanced picture of Muhammad’s teaching. These verses, however, are most relevant to an understanding of Islamism, the topic of this book. They are cited by Islamists again and again. Please continually keep in mind that Islamism is a 20th century political / ideological movement with roots in Islam. It is distinct from the religion of Islam. Most Muslims are not Islamists. Because I want to keep this concise, I will cite only representative verses. I encourage you to check the context of verses for yourself. Use www.searchtruth.com to find additional teachings on these and other matters. Abrogation (naskh) As mentioned above, the Quran itself does not tell us in what order suras were revealed. That is important, even critical information, however, because of the doctrine of abrogation. The Quran contains apparent contradictions. The doctrine of abrogation holds that later suras abrogate, or render null and void, earlier ones. The Quran itself, Muslims believe, abrogates the Bible. Muslims are strongly discouraged and in some places prohibited from from reading the Bible. Suras 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 9, 22, 47 and 58 are among those revealed in Medina. There is much discussion of abrogation in the Hadith. The principle itself is based on a verse from the Quran: Sura 2:106. None of Our revelations do We abrogate or cause to be forgotten, but We substitute something better or similar; Knowest thou not that Allah Hath power over all things?

Verse of the Sword This verse from the final sura revealed to Muhammad abrogates more than 100 previous revelations: Sura 9:5:

When the forbidden months are past, then fight and slay the Pagans wherever ye find them, and seize them, beleaguer them, and lie in wait for them in every stratagem (of war); but if they repent, and establish regular prayers and practice regular charity, then open the way for them: for Allah is Oft-forgiving, Most Merciful.

According to Ibn Tamiyya (d 1328), Muhammad was prohibited from killing in Mecca. In Medina he was first permitted and later commanded to kill unbelievers. The Verse of the Sword is Allah’s final word on the subject. Success of Islam Guaranteed Sura 4:141:

Never will Allah grant to the unbelievers a way (to triumph) over the believers.

Superiority of Islam and Muslims Sura 3:110:

Ye are the best of peoples, evolved for mankind, enjoining what is right, forbidding what is wrong, and believing in Allah.

Bukhari Hadith Volume 6, Book 60, 6:80:

The Verse: “You (true Muslims) are the best of peoples ever raised up for mankind.” means, the best of peoples for the people, as you bring them with chains on their necks until they embrace Islam.

Warnings About Non-Muslims Sura 3:28:

Let not the Believers take for friends or helpers unbelievers rather than believers: if any do that, in nothing will there be help from Allah: except by way of precaution, that ye may guard yourselves from them.

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Sura 3:73:

Believe no one unless he follows your religion.

Sura 3:118:

O ye who believe! Take not into your intimacy those outside your ranks: They will not fail to corrupt you. They only desire your ruin: Rank hatred has already appeared from their mouths: What their hearts conceal is far worse.

Sura 4:144:

O ye who believe! Take not for friends unbelievers rather than believers: Do ye wish to offer Allah an open proof against yourselves?

Fate of Non-Muslims Sura 3:85:

If anyone desires a religion other than Islam (submission to Allah), never will it be accepted of him; and in the Hereafter He will be in the ranks of those who have lost (All spiritual good).

Sura 4:56:

Those who reject our Signs, We shall soon cast into the Fire: as often as their skins are roasted through, We shall change them for fresh skins, that they may taste the penalty: for Allah is Exalted in Power, Wise.

Sura 8:12

I will instill terror into the hearts of the Unbelievers: smite ye above their necks and smite all their finger-tips off them.

Sura 58:5:

Those who resist Allah and His Apostle will be humbled to dust, as were those before them: for We have already sent down Clear Signs. And the Unbelievers (will have) a humiliating Penalty.

Takfir (Declaring Muslims to be Unbelievers) In general, Muslims are prohibited from killing other Muslims.

Sura 4:93:

If a man kills a believer intentionally, his recompense is Hell, to abide therein (For ever).

Islamists have circumvented this prohibition by using the following verses to justify takfir. In some cases, any Muslim with a voting card has been declared apostate, worthy of death. Sura 5:51: O you who believe! Take not the Jews and the Christians for your friends and protectors. They are but friends and protectors to each other. And he amongst you that turns to them (for friendship) is of them.

Sura 16:106:

Any one who, after accepting faith in Allah, utters Unbelief,—except under compulsion, his heart remaining firm in Faith—but such as open their breast to Unbelief, on them is Wrath from God, and theirs will be a dreadful Penalty.

Bukhari Hadith Volume 8, Book 80, 8.747:

Whoever betrays a Muslim, in this respect will incur the curse of Allah, the angels, and all the people, and none of his Compulsory or optional good deeds will be accepted on the Day of Resurrection.

Taqiyya (Dissimulation or Deception) Muslims are given explicit permission to lie, especially to Unbelievers, if there is a greater good to be attained. Sura 2:225: Allah will not call you to account for thoughtlessness in your oaths, but for the intention in your hearts; and He is Oft-forgiving, Most Forbearing.

Bukhari Hadith Volume 4, Book 52, 4:269: The Prophet said, “War is deceit.”

Bukhari Hadith Volume 7, Book 67, 7:427

The Prophet said, “By Allah, and Allah willing, if I take an oath and later find something else that is better than that, then I do what is better and expiate my oath.”

Abu Hamid Muhammad al-Ghazali (1058-1111):

It is permissible to lie if attaining the goal is permissible.

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Hudna (Truce) The word translated “peace treaty” in English is hudna in Arabic. Its maximum duration is 10 years. Umdat as-Salik, a medieval jurist, clarifies the concept:

Sura 58:5:

Those who resist Allah and His Apostle will be humbled to dust, as were those before them: for We have already sent down Clear Signs. And the Unbelievers (will have) a humiliating Penalty.

If Muslims are weak, a truce may be made for ten years if necessary, for the Prophet made a truce with the Quarysh for that long, as is related by Abu Dawud.

Sura 2:216:

Dawa (Spreading the Faith) Muhammad, not long before his death, exhorted Muslims to spread Allah’s religion to all the earth. Bukhari Hadith Volume 4, Book 52, 195:

Sura 2:191:

Allah’s Apostle said, “I have been ordered to fight with the people till they say, ‘None has the right to be worshipped but Allah.’”

Jihad The word jihad literally means “struggle.” It is the struggle against evil in all forms. It includes the internal struggle against temptation as well as the overt struggle against unbelievers. An entire book of the Bukhari Hadith, Book 52, is entitled “Fighting for the Cause of Allah (Jihad).” The Quran was revealed in a culture that glorified war and conquest. Islam does not teach pacifism. There are no teachings in Islam comparable to that in Matthew 5:39: “Do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.” Or Matthew 5:44: “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” Sura 47:4: When ye meet the Unbelievers (in fight), smite at their necks; At length, when ye have thoroughly subdued them, bind a bond firmly (on them): thereafter (is the time for) either generosity or ransom: Until the war lays down its burdens.

Sura 9:111:

Allah hath purchased of the believers their persons and their goods; for theirs (in return) is the garden (of Paradise): they fight in His cause, and slay and are slain.

Fighting is prescribed for you, and ye dislike it. But it is possible that ye dislike a thing which is good for you, and that ye love a thing which is bad for you. But Allah knoweth, and ye know not. Slay them wherever ye catch them, and turn them out from where they have Turned you out; for tumult and oppression are worse than slaughter.

Sura 2:193:

And fight them on until there is no more Tumult or oppression, and there prevail justice and faith in Allah; but if they cease, Let there be no hostility except to those who practice oppression.

Sura 4:95:

Not equal are those believers who sit (at home) and receive no hurt, and those who strive and fight in the cause of Allah with their goods and their persons. Allah hath granted a grade higher to those who strive and fight with their goods and persons than to those who sit (at home). Unto all (in Faith) Hath Allah promised good: But those who strive and fight Hath He distinguished above those who sit (at home) by a special reward.

Sura 9:38-39:

Oh ye who believe! What is the matter with you, that, when ye are asked to go forth in the cause of Allah, ye cling heavily to the earth? Do ye prefer the life of this world to the Hereafter? But little is the comfort of this life, as compared with the Hereafter. Unless ye go forth, He will punish you with a grievous penalty, and put others in your place.

Sura 9:52:

Say: “Can you expect for us (any fate) other than one of two glorious things—(Martyrdom or victory)?”

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Abdullah Azzam, called by a Muslim biographer “the main pillar of the jihad movement in modern times”, wrote in his book In Defense of Muslim Lands: Jihad is dawa with a force, and is obligatory to perform with all available capabilities, until there remains only Muslims or people who submit to Islam.

Azzam also said that jihad is to achieve martyrdom and is mandatory for the salvation of humanity. Death in the Way of Allah The word translated “martyr” in English is shaheed, which literally means “witness.” It refers to those who die in the way of Allah. Suicide is prohibited in Islam, but death in the way of Allah is highly praised. Sura 2:154: Say not of those who are slain in the way of Allah: “They are dead.” Nay, they are living, though ye perceive (it) not.

Martyrdom provides the only assurance of salvation. All sins, it is said, will be forgiven at the first spurt of blood. In practice, this allows those who have chosen this type of death to commit sins on earth they might otherwise shun. A shaheed proceeds directly to the highest level of Paradise and is married to 72 or more houris (virginal angelic beings). Seventy members of his family escape Judgment Day and are guaranteed entrance to Paradise. Family members of those who die in the way of Allah are highly esteemed in the culture and the family may receive $25,000. Rather than grieve, the family celebrates the martyr’s wedding to the houris. Sura 2:154: Say not of those who are slain in the way of Allah: “They are dead.” Nay, they are living, though ye perceive (it) not.

Sura 3:195:

Those who have left their homes, or been driven out therefrom, or suffered harm in My Cause, or fought or been slain—verily, I will blot out from them their

iniquities, and admit them into Gardens with rivers flowing beneath;—A reward from the presence of Allah, and from His presence is the best of rewards.”

Sura 56:35-37:

We have created (their Companions) of special creation. And made them virgin—pure (and undefiled),—Beloved (by nature), equal in age, for the Companions of the Right Hand.

Sura 55:54:

They will recline on Carpets, whose inner linings will be of rich brocade; the Fruit of the Gardens will be near (and easy of reach). … In them will be (Maidens), chaste, restraining their glances, whom no man or Jinn before them has touched.

Bukhari Hadith Volume 4, Book 52, 4.46:

Allah guarantees that He will admit the Mujahid in His Cause into Paradise if he is killed, otherwise He will return him to his home safely with rewards and war booty.

Muslim writer and teacher Suyuti (d 1505) wrote:

Each time we sleep with an houri we find her virgin. Besides, the penis of the Elected never softens. The erection is eternal. The sensation you feel each time you make love is utterly delicious and out of this world and were you to experience it in this world you would faint. Each elected will marry seventy houris, besides the women he married on earth, and all will have appetizing vaginas.

Remember, as you read this, that in a strict Muslim society, there is no dating. Young men and women are not allowed to mix, even publicly. A young man must have a job, a home and money before he can marry. In a poor economy, such as exists in most Muslim lands today, that can be practically impossible. Killing I have more than once heard Muslims refer to Sura 5:32 to support the point that Islam is opposed to the taking of life. Sura 5:32: If any one slew a person—unless it be for murder or for spreading mischief in the land—it would be as if he slew

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the whole people; and if any one saved a life, it would be as if he saved the life of the whole people.

We have never, however, heard the verse placed in context with the very next verse. Sura 5:33: The punishment of those who wage war against Allah and His Messenger, and strive with might and main for mischief through the land is: execution, or crucifixion, or the cutting off of hands and feet from opposite sides, or exile from the land: that is their disgrace in this world, and a heavy punishment is theirs in the Hereafter.

That raised a question for me. What is “mischief in the land”? I did a search for the term in the Quran. Sura 2:11-12:

When it is said to [the Unbelievers]: “Make not mischief on the earth,” they say: “Why, we only Want to make peace!” Of a surety, they are the ones who make mischief, but they realize (it) not.

Unbelievers, even those who want peace, are responsible for “mischief in the land”, though they do not realize it. No Compulsion in Religion Here is another verse that is often quoted out of context to demonstrate Muhammad’s teaching of tolerance toward unbelievers. Sura 2:256: Let there be no compulsion in religion: Truth stands out clear from Error: whoever rejects evil and believes in Allah hath grasped the most trustworthy handhold, that never breaks. And Allah heareth and knoweth all things.

The very next verse says that all who reject faith are evil. Sura 2:257: Allah is the Protector of those who have faith: from the depths of the darkness He will lead them forth into light. Of those who reject faith the patrons are the evil ones….

Although most Muslims entrust judgment to Allah, Islamists support eliminating the “evil ones” in the here and now.

Sura 4:76:

Those who believe fight in the cause of Allah, and those who reject Faith fight in the cause of Evil: So fight ye against the friends of Satan: feeble indeed is the cunning of Satan.

Dar al-Islam, Dar al-Harb Muslims divides the world into two “houses.” The house of Islam (dar al-Islam) and the house of war (dar al-harb). Anyplace not in the house of Islam (under Sharia) is in the house of war until such time as all the world is united in perfect submission to Allah. Lands that have once been in the house of Islam (such as Spain, Greece, Israel, and parts of China) remain forever the property of the house of Islam. According to Sayd Qutb, in Milestones: There is only one place on earth which can be called the home of Islam (dar al-Islam), and it is that place where the Islamic state is established and the Sharia is the authority and Allah’s limits are observed. The rest of the world is the home of hostility (dar al harb). A Muslim can have only two possible relations with dar al harb: peace with a contractual agreement or war.

The Islamist innovation was to declare all Muslim lands where Divine Law (Sharia) is not strictly enforced to be part of dar al-harb and therefore legitimate targets of jihad. That means all Muslim lands! The Islamists believe themselves above all national laws. They seek to overthrow all current governments. Again, Sayd Qutb in Milestones: Allah’s rule on earth can be established only through the Islamic system. It is the duty of Islam to annihilate all other systems, as they are obstacles in the way of universal freedom. ... This is a question of belief and a battle of belief. They are enemies only because of their belief. The enemies of the Believers may wish to change this struggle into an economic or political or racial struggle, so that the believers become confused concerning the true nature of the struggle. The Believers must not be deceived.

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“We will let you stay on thus condition, as long as we wish.” So, they (Jews) kept on living there until Umar forced them to go towards Taima’ and Ariha’.

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Islam through the Ages

uhammad died in A.D. 632. He left his followers a clear mandate: “I was ordered to fight all men until they say, ‘There is no God but Allah.’” Another of his final instructions was, “Expel the pagans from the Arabian Peninsula.” The Rightly-Guided Caliphs The first four caliphs, Abu Bakr (632-634), Umar (634-644), Uthman (644-656) and Ali (656-661) are called the Companions of the Prophet, or the Rightly-Guided Caliphs. Some Muslims count them as the only true Caliphs (successors of Muhammad). The first caliph was Abu Bakr, who had led the people in prayer during the Prophet’s illness. According to the Hadith, Bukhari Hadith Volume 2, Book 23, 2.483: When Allah’s Apostle died and Abu Bakr became the caliph some Arabs renegade (reverted to disbelief). (Abu Bakr decided to declare war against them).

The Wars of Apostasy were successful by 633 A.D. Muslims subdued all Arabian tribes and conquered Yemen. All Jews and Christians were expelled as Muhammad had directed. Bukhari Hadith Volume 3, Book 39, 3.531: Umar expelled the Jews and the Christians from Hijaz. When Allah’s Apostle had conquered Khaibar, he wanted to expel the Jews from it as its land became the property of Allah, His Apostle, and the Muslims. Allah’s Apostle intended to expel the Jews but they requested him to let them stay there on the condition that they would do the labor and get half the fruits. Allah’s Apostle told them, 32

This is significant. The primary complaint of Osama bin Laden is that infidel American troops have been allowed to defile the holy soil of the Arabian Peninsula, something clearly prohibited by the Prophet himself. After Abu Bakr subdued the apostates and unified the Muslims, they proceeded to “fight all men until they say, ‘There is no God but Allah.’” Their 100-year campaign was one of the most spectacular in history. The numbers below refer to years in the Gregorian calendar. 635 Damascus 637 Iraq and Persia 638 Jerusalem 639 Syria 642 Egypt 688 Carthage 702 Berbers in North Africa 711 Across the Strait of Gibraltar to Spain 718 Attacked France 732 Defeated and turned back at the Battle of Portiers The first jihad ended less than 200 miles south of Paris. A vastly inferior force led by Charles Martel stopped the advance. Had the Muslims prevailed in that battle, they may have gone on to conquer all of Europe. Modern-day Muslims, with their keen sense of history, remember that. Most Europeans and Americans do not. Just 100 years after the death of the Prophet, Islamic influence extended from Portugal to India. No one could withstand their zeal. A Byzantine official at the time of Egypt’s fall wrote of the invading Arabs: “We have seen a people who love death more than life, and to whom this world holds not the slightest attraction.” In ensuing centuries, Muslims went on to conquer parts of sub-Saharan Africa, India, China and Indonesia.

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Pact of Umar Under Umar, the second caliph, vast territories came under Muslim rule for the first time. After peace (i.e. Islamic rule) was established, questions arose as to how conquered Christians and Jews (“People of the Book”) were to be treated. The Pact of Umar (c. 640) allowed the Christians of Syria to become “protected persons” (dhimmis) as long as they observed the following provisions: • No churches or other religious buildings could be built. Buildings that fell into ruin could not be repaired. • Muslim travelers must be provided three days’ board and lodging. • No shelter could be given to any spy. • No teaching of the Quran to non-Muslim children. • No efforts to convert people to Christianity. • No efforts to keep people from converting to Islam. • Non-Muslims must always respect Muslims and rise from their seats when Muslims wished to sit. • Non-Muslims may not wear clothing worn by Muslims or seek to resemble them in any way. • Non-Muslims must wear distinctive clothing and cut their hair as authorized. Jews were required to wear yellow patches, Christians blue ones, and Samaritans red ones. • No riding animals or bearing arms. • No use of Arabic inscriptions or alphabet. • No selling of fermented drinks. • No display of crosses or religious symbols. • No noise of worship (singing, bells, shofars, etc.). • Voices could not be raised in mourning or when following the dead. Non-Muslims could not be buried near Muslims. • No houses to be built overtopping Muslim houses. • No redemption of anyone made prisoner by Muslims. • “Whoever strikes a Muslim with deliberate intent shall forfeit the protection of this pact.”

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The Pact of Umar became a prototype for concessionary charters granted to non-Muslims under Muslim rule throughout history. Non-Muslims had no inherent human rights, as understood in the West. They were granted protection in exchange for carefully observing provisions laid out by Muslim authorities. Different provisions were added in different areas over the centuries. In Yemen between 1846 and 1948, for example, Jews were required to clean latrines and carry away dead animals. In Morroco, Jews were forbidden to wear shoes outside the Jewish quarter. In Persia, Jews were forbidden to go outside when it rained. It was said that the rain would wash dirt off of them, which would sully the feet of the Muslims. As prescribed in the Sura 9:29, all non-Muslims were required to pay a special tax called jizya: Sura 9:29: Fight those who believe not in Allah nor the Last Day, nor hold that forbidden which hath been forbidden by Allah and His apostle, nor acknowledge the religion of Truth, (even if they are) of the People of the Book, until they pay the Jizya with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued.

In order to ensure that dhimmis would “feel themselves subdued”, the jizya, a high tax non-Muslims paid for protection, was generally collected in a humiliating public ceremony. Non-Muslims were not allowed to have authority over Muslims. They could not hold public office, own a Muslim slave or testify in a Muslim court. Provisions were not identical in all quarters of the vast Islamic empire or at all times, of course. Life for non-Muslims could be better or worse depending on the ruler in charge at a particular time. There were never guarantees against false accusations or mistreatment. According to Sayd Qutb, writing in the 1950s, Umar was the only caliph who enforced Islam in its true form, thereby providing a pattern for modern-day Islamists. Qutb wrote, “Islam made the community so rich that as happened in the days

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of Umar bin Abdul Aziz there remained not even a single man in it who was poor enough to deserve or receive alms.” Shia/Sunni Split Muhammad had no sons who survived to adulthood, and he died without designating a successor. The Shia (partisans of Ali) believed that succession should be hereditary, through Ali, the Prophet’s cousin and son-in-law. The Sunni, including Muhammad’s widow Aisha, believed that caliphs should be chosen for their piety and abilities, as stated in this Hadith: Hadith Volume 2, Book 23, 2.475: Whoever is chosen by the people after me will be the caliph, and you people must listen to him and obey him.

Modern-day Sunni Muslims claim democracy was instituted in Islam centuries before anyone in the West implemented it. Approximately 10% of today’s Muslims are Shiite. Only recently, as a result of Islamist political ideology, have Shia and Sunni begun to work cooperatively toward a common goal. 661-750, Umayyad Caliphs Umayyud rule began after Ali, the fourth caliph and Muhammad’s cousin, was assassinated. The Shia wanted Ali’s son Hussein to be caliph, but he was killed in a bitter fight in 680. That event is still commemorated by Shiites every year with tears and mourning on the Day of Ashura. The Umayyad capital was in Damascus. The empire was the third largest in history by percentage of population. The Umayyads tended to favor Arab Muslims over new converts. 750-1258 Abbasid Caliphs The Abbasid caliphs ruled from 750-1258. During that time, the Seljuk Turks invaded. They murdered and robbed Christian pilgrims and captured the city of Jerusalem. A call for help went out to Rome. In 1095, Pope Urban II enjoined Christians to Crusade in order to recapture the Holy City so that Christian pilgrims could safely travel there.

Under Islam, a criminal who converted was absolved of all sins and freed. Pope Urban II used the same incentive, leading some to suggest that he borrowed the idea from the Muslims. The First Crusade (1096-1099) ended with the capture of Jerusalem. Subsequent Crusades were less successful. Saladin recaptured Jerusalem in 1187 after making a hudna (treaty for up to ten years to allow Muslims to gain strength), and later mounting a surprise attack.* At the end of the Third Crusade in 1192, Richard the Lion-Hearted persuaded Saladin to once again allow Christian pilgrims to visit Jerusalem. Islamists believe there have been three distinct crusades. The first is what we call the Crusades. The second was colonialism, beginning with Napoleon’s capture of Egypt in 1798 and ending with independence after World War II. The third and current crusade is the perceived effort by the West to subvert Islam ideologically by “polluting” it with Western and Christian ideas concerning democracy, equality, human rights and women’s rights. Islamists take particular offense at the idea of electing human beings to legislate rather than enforcing laws already laid down by Allah Himself (Sharia). 1258 Mongol hoards under Genghis Khan invaded from the north, laid waste the capital city of Baghdad and sowed salt in the fields. It was during this time of crisis that Ibn Taymiyya wrote what would later inspire Abdul Wahhab and modern-day Islamists. Most Mongols eventually converted to Islam. 1326-1922 Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Turks began winning control of the Islamic Empire in 1326. In 1453, they conquered the old Byzantine capital of Constantinople and renamed it Istanbul. They then expanded into Europe in the second great jihad. Not much later, in 1492, Ferdinand and Isabella married and united the power of two European kingdoms. Together they * When Yasser Arafat referred to the Oslo Accords as “the peace of Saladin” he confirmed that the agreement was a hudna, valid for 10 years at most.

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drove the Muslims out of Spain, which had been under Muslim rule for some 800 years. They also commissioned Columbus to find another way to the Indies in order to circumvent overland travel through the hostile Ottoman Empire and provide an alternative to the dangerous sea voyage around Africa. The Turks conquered the Balkan Peninsula and much of Eastern Europe. They twice besieged Vienna, but were defeated after bakers heard tunneling under their shop and informed authorities, who routed the Turks and broke the siege. To commemorate the momentous victory, Vienna’s bakers created the croissant, in the shape of Islam’s crescent moon. Of that turning point in history, British historian Hillaire Beloc wrote in 1938: It has always seemed to me possible, and even probable, that there would be a resurrection of Islam and that our sons or our grandsons would see the renewal of that tremendous struggle between the Christian culture and what has been for more than a thousand years its greatest opponent. The suggestion that Islam may re-arise sounds fantastic—but this is only because men are always powerfully affected by the immediate past: one might say they are blinded by it. … But not so very long ago, less than a hundred years before the Declaration of Independence…Vienna was almost taken and only saved by the Christian army under the command of the King of Poland on a date that ought to be among the most famous in history— September 11, 1683.

September 11. Why didn’t we know that?

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The End of an Empire

fter the defeat at Vienna, the Ottoman Empire, one of the largest in history, gradually declined. Lands were ceded for the first time in 1771, to Russia. Trade relations with Europe accelerated and due to the Industrial Revolution, the Empire built up a huge trade deficit. With the invention of the steamship and the railroad, travel to Jerusalem and the Middle East became more common. European governments set up protectorates and embassies in various parts of the Ottoman Empire. Jerusalem was tied to Europe by telegraph in 1865. Nationalism Perhaps the greatest challenge to the Empire was the rise of the modern nation-state. In 1829, the Greeks won a war of independence with the Turks. The following year, an international conference in London confirmed Greece’s right to self-government. More calls for independence and selfgovernment followed, also supported by European powers. Nationalism called into question the very basis of political life in the Middle East, religion. According to Muslim Maryam Jameela in The West vs. Islam, “Perhaps no idea has done Islam more harm than the modern concept of nationalism.” Osama bin Laden himself declared the September 11 attacks to be a heroic retribution for historical injustice that targeted “the main enemy [America] who divided the umma [Muslim community] into small and little countries and pushed it, for the last few decades, into a state of confusion.” 39

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“What America is tasting now is only a copy of what we have tasted,” he declared. “Our Islamic nation has been tasting the same for more than eighty years of humiliation and disgrace.” Eighty years? 2001 – 80 = 1921. What happened around 1921? The Ottoman Empire, the Islamic caliphate, came to an end. It was carved up into “nations.” Human Rights English monarchs agreed to a Bill of Rights in 1689. The United States, with its constitutional democracy and Bill of Rights, was founded in 1776. The French Revolution occurred in 1789, with its Declaration of the Rights of Man. Napoleon conquered Egypt in 1798, beginning the era of colonialism in Muslim lands. Islam was challenged by a changing world. Western travelers were shocked at the treatment of dhimmis under Ottoman rule. As Europe’s influence increased, pressure grew for their emancipation. At Europe’s insistence, the Ottoman Empire issued the Royal Edict of 1839, granting all subjects equal rights under the law. Such a profound change, in a proud and ancient civilization with beliefs deeply rooted in the past, was perceived by many Muslims as a subversive heresy imposed by infidels in order to weaken Islam. Muslim superiority was clearly taught in the Quran. Everyone, without regard to race or background, was welcome to adopt the true faith. Those who refused were the embodiment of Evil, obstinately rejecting the clear light of truth. Caliph Umar had written to the Imperial Governors during the early Golden Age of Islam: O ye who believe! The non-Muslims are nothing but dirt. Allah has created them to be partisans of Satan, most treacherous in regard to all they do; whose whole endeavor in this life is useless, though they themselves imagine that they are doing fine work. Upon them rests the curse of Allah, of the Angels and of man collectively.

It is difficult for Westerners in a modern culture that barely comprehends the meaning of “honor” to grasp the sense of

humiliation Muslims felt at being placed on equal footing with the despised, insolent, filthy dhimmis. A theologian at Cairo’s esteemed Al-Azhar University wrote of the dhimmis at the time: These people have broken their covenant and violated their pledges: how then are we going to retain our obligation to protect them?

Tens of thousands of Christians and Jews were exterminated in Syria, Palestine and Lebanon in the wake of that edict, and thousands more throughout Muslim lands. No Royal Edict could be effectively enforced in the huge Ottoman Empire but knowledge of it unleashed fury among local Muslims and brought untold misery upon subject peoples. The Ottoman debt grew to crippling proportions. In 1875, the Empire defaulted on a debt of more than a billion dollars. Armenian Genocide In 1894, the Turks began a concerted campaign to utterly exterminate the Christian Armenians. By the end of World War I, nearly two million had perished in forced deportations, death marches, and prison camps. Young German officers quartered in Istanbul during World War I observed this first modern genocide and made no attempt to stop it. Historians say they took the idea back home to Germany and applied it in World War II with mechanical efficiency. The world generally ignored the plight of the Armenians. Few people today are even aware that this massive slaughter occurred. The Allies in World War I made every effort to keep the Ottoman Empire out of the war. They promised to guard its territorial integrity in return for its neutrality. But the Turks secretly allied with Germany while continuing to accept payments from the Allies in return for promised neutrality. The Ottomans joined the war in 1914. The British navy attacked the Dardanelles in 1915 with a view to conquering Istanbul. The battle was fierce. Unknown to the British at the time, the Turks had mounted their last desperate defense

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and were in flight when, on March 18, 1915, the British naval commander lost heart and retreated. Had the British pressed that attack and captured Istanbul so early in the war, they could perhaps have encircled Germany and won a relatively easy victory. Perhaps the years of devastating trench warfare that shook the world to its foundations could have been avoided. The Turks rallied, called in German assistance, and just 259 days later were able to defeat a modern European army. The Allies eventually prevailed in the so-called “War to End All Wars”, thanks in part to help from America. The ancient Ottoman Empire collapsed in 1922. The Sultan was deposed and fled into exile. Turkey, under Kemal Ataturk, suppressed Islam as a relic of the past and looked foward to a future of secularization and modernization. Post War One British strategy to defeat the Ottoman Empire was to encourage Arab tribes to rise up against their Turkish overlords. “Lawrence of Arabia” (T.E. Lawrence) worked to rally the support of Arab warriors. Many assumptions were made at the time based on erroneous understandings of Islam. Britain assumed, for example, that Arabs would prefer competent European rule to incompetent Turkish rule. Contradictory promises were made in the heat of war. The seeds for future conflict were plentifully sown and we are reaping the results today. Europeans with almost no knowledge of Islam or Middle Eastern culture drew lines on a map and created “nations.” Colonel House, one of President Wilson’s confidants, said of the plan to partition the Middle East: It’s all bad and I told Balfour so. They are making a breeding place for future war.

An American missionary said.

You are flying in the face of four millenniums of history if you draw a line around Iraq and call it a political entity!

The sleepy Middle East Gertrude Bell had described as “a land of make believe” began to awaken from its centuries-long slumber.

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Islam Is the Answer

he fall of the Ottoman Empire and the end of the Caliphate shocked Muslims. They had always viewed the glorious and victorious history of Islam as proof of the religion’s truth. Defeat by Christian Europe led to a farreaching moral and intellectual crisis. It brought into doubt the very truth of the Muslim worldview. If Islam is superior and Allah is greater, as millions chant several times a day in prayer, how could the kafirs (infidels) have possibly prevailed? Different Muslim philosophers answered the question differently. Some advocated learning from the West and incorporating new ideas and technologies into the service of Islamic ideals. Some advocated modernization and the separation of religion and government. Many sought refuge in Communist ideology or Nasser’s pan-Arabism. Islamists, including the Wahabbi (Salafi) sect in Saudi Arabia, the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, and Mawdudi in Pakistan, insisted that Allah had allowed the “humiliation” of the Muslims because they had neglected true religion. Muslims had compromised with unIslamic ideas, and allowed corruption to seep in. Islam, they claimed, was the answer. Ibn Taymiyyah (1263-1328) At various times in the past when Islam suffered loss of prestige, men had arisen to advocate a reversion to “pure” or “true” Islam, as practiced by Muhammad himself and the Rightly Guided Caliphs. One of these men was Ibn Taymiyyah. 43

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He lived in what is now Turkey during the disastrous Mongol invasions. Clearly, he reasoned, Allah had turned his back on the Muslims because the Muslims had turned their backs on Allah. Islam would rise again if Muslims would return wholeheartedly to pure worship, eradicate all corruptions and forbid innovation. They must once again place spiritual values at the center of their lives and enforce Divine Law (Sharia). Anyone who disagreed he denounced as apostate, deserving of death. He legitimized jihad against fellow Muslims based on the doctrine of takfir. He also asserted that possession of land by unbelievers is illegitimate. Everything rightfully belongs to Allah, the Creator of the world, and should revert by Divine Right to adherents of Allah’s religion, the Muslims. Abdul Wahhab (1703-1792) Centuries later, Muhammad ibn Abd-al-Wahhab was so convinced of the truth of Ibn Taymiyyah’s thesis that he copied all his writings by hand. Islam was again in decline. The Ottoman Turks, non-Arabs, ruled the empire. Britain was encroaching on holy soil, establishing protectorates. Wahhab gained followers after reinstituting such practices as the stoning of adulteresses, prescribed in the Quran. His goal was to purify Islam by returning to the original principles of the Salafs (righteous ancestors) and eliminating all innovations, which he regarded as corruptions. Outsiders call his interpretation of Islam Wahabbism. Adherents call it Salafism. Abdul Wahhab gained influence when he made a covenant with a powerful tribal leader, Muhammad ibn Saud, in 1744, an agreement sealed by marriage. Wahhab and his descendants would forever have religious jurisdiction over any territory Ibn Saud or his descendants conquered. Abdul Wahhab formed a warrior group, the Ikhwan (Brothers). The Wahhabi mission was threefold: (1) Cleanse Muslim society and restore it to its original purity. (2) Rebuff infidels from Muslim lands. (3) Expand until all the world submits to Allah’s Divine Law (Sharia).

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The Ikhwan attacked Iraq and massacred thousands of Shiites, sacking their shrines. They even desecrated Sunni shrines, including the Tomb of the Prophet in Medina, saying that Muslims had wrongly adopted the European custom of worshipping saints, who were mere men. An Arab witness described their fierceness as warriors: I have seen them hurl themselves on their enemies, utterly fearless of death, not caring how many fall, advancing rank upon rank with only one desire—the defeat and annihilation of the enemy. They normally give no quarter, sparing neither boys nor old men, veritable messengers of death from whose grasp no one escapes.

In their attack on Taif, a city near Mecca, they “killed every woman, man, and child they saw, even cutting babies in cradles.” Survivors who surrendered were put to the sword. Only the superior firepower of European weapons employed by Egyptian troops finally ended the Wahhabi campaign. The Ikhwan surrendered to the Egyptians on—you’ll never guess— September 11, 1818. They know their history.... The House of Saud engaged in military campaigns over the next 140 years, endeavoring to gain control over the Muslin holy cities of Mecca and Medina. During World War I, the British supported both the Sauds and their long-time rivals the Hashemites in the fight to undermine and defeat the Ottoman Turks. In 1922, after the World War, the House of Saud finally succeeded in driving the Hashemites out of Arabia and gaining control over the entire Arabian Peninsula. The covenant between Wahhabi religious authorities and the House of Saud stands to this day, in Saudi Arabia. Muslim Brotherhood and Sayd Qutb (1906-1966) In Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood rose in the 1920s to oppose the West’s nation making. It maintained that only one nation, the Muslim umma (community), governed by Divine

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Law (Sharia) was legitimate. The Brotherhood supported Nassar but when he refused to enforce Sharia, they turned against him. Hundreds were imprisoned, tortured and executed. Hassan al-Banna, leader of the Brotherhood, wrote, in a statement echoed by Islamists today, “It is the nature of Islam to dominate, not to be dominated, to impose its law on all nations, and to extend its power to the entire planet.” The credo of the Muslim Brotherhood was: “Allah is our objective; the Quran is our constitution; the Prophet is our leader; struggle (jihad) is our way; and death for the sake of Allah is the highest of our aspirations.” Muslim Brothers give allegiance only to Allah, not to any human government, certainly not to any government supported by kafirs (the West). The Muslim Brothers set up a “state within a state” in Egypt, with educational institutions, newspapers, factories, hospitals, commercial and financial enterprises, and a private army. To this day, the Brotherhood opposes and aims to eliminate all Arab and Muslim national governments. Many of its offshoots are classed as terrorist organizations by the U.S. government. Sayd Qutb, who I mentioned in the introduction as the author of the Islamist manifesto, Milestones, became the leading intellectual of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood in the 1950s and 60s. He was distressed that Egyptian culture was becoming so westernized. He refused to marry because he could not find a woman of sufficient “moral purity and discretion.” Relatives who were concerned about his growing rejection of Western values hoped that travel to America in 1948 for higher education would break down his stereotypes. Qutb attended the Colorado State College of Education in Greeley. He was horrified by American materialism and what he saw as neglect of higher, spiritual values. He was shocked by how much time Americans spent on their lawns. Their fascination with appearances and haircuts and sports repulsed him, especially boxing, where he heard people shout, “Kill him!” With his own eyes, he saw men and women mix

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freely, even dance “chest to chest” in the basement of a church. Capitalism, forbidden in Islam, allowed the rich to get richer and the poor to suffer. Qutb returned to Egypt utterly disgusted with Western culture and embraced strict Islam. According to Qutb, mankind desperately needed new leadership. “The turn of Islam and the Muslim community has arrived,” he wrote. Allah himself had said it in the Quran! Sura 3:110: You [Muslims] are the best community raised for the good of mankind. You enjoin what is good and forbid what is wrong, and you believe in Allah.

Qutb claimed that the problem was that true Islam had been lost in history, at the moment the Muslim community ceased to enforce Divine Law (Sharia). The solution was for a vanguard to return to the practice of true Islam, establish a base (“Al Qaeda” literally means “the base”) and proceed to extend their influence until all the world was united under the banner of Islam. “Islam,” he wrote, “is a universal message, ordained as the religion for the whole of mankind, the last Divine Message for Humanity. It is a guide for all the inhabitants of this planet in all their affairs until the end of time.” Qutb encouraged those who responded to his call to cut themselves off from jahiliyyah (ignorance) completely and start a new life, to renounce their families and past lives and submit themselves completely to Allah. “Our aim is to first change ourselves so that we may later change the society,” he wrote. Followers should be steadfast, and gradually work to establish Allah’s perfect system of government throughout the entire world. He wrote: Our aim is to change the jahili system at its very roots— this system which is fundamentally at variance with Islam and which, with the help of force and oppression, is keeping us from living the sort of life which is demanded by our Creator.

Western society was hopelessly corrupt! It had usurped Allah’s sovereignty by allowing mere humans to create laws. “There is no sovereignty except Allah’s, no law except from

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Allah, and no authority of one man over another, as the authority in all respects belongs to Allah.” True Muslims, he said, were accountable to Allah alone, not to any human government. The only hope for mankind, in Qutb’s view, was for the devout to oppose, destroy and replace every ruler who rebelled against Allah’s perfect will, even rulers who called themselves Muslims. He popularized takfir, the practice of declaring Muslims to be unbelievers (kafir) if they did not strictly follow the Quran and Sharia. Anwar Sadat was the first victim of this new reasoning. By declaring Sadat an unbeliever after he made peace with infidel Israel and called for separation of religion and state, assassins felt justified killing him in the name of Allah. Takfir led to bloody internecine war and the murder of “collaborators”—Muslims who supported modernization, women’s rights, or any other Western values. “Islam,” wrote Qutb, “means to bring human beings into submission to Allah, to free them from servitude to other human beings so that they may devote themselves to the One True God, to deliver them from the clutches of human lordship and manmade laws, value systems and traditions…. The purpose is to abolish the existing system and to replace it with a new system.” Sayyid Abul Ala Mawdudi (1903-1979) Qutb admired and was influenced by the writings of Pakistani Sayyid Abdul Ala Mawdudi. Mawdudi asserted that Islam and democracy are mutually exclusive because one relies on the sovereignty of God and the other on the sovereignty of man. He urged Muslims to establish an Islamic state under Divine Law (Sharia) and to reinstitute the caliphate. Islam wishes to destroy all States and Governments anywhere on the face of the earth which are opposed to the ideology and programme of Islam regardless of the country or the Nation which rules it. The purpose of Islam is to set up a State on the basis of its own ideology and programme, regardless of which Nation assumes the role of the standard bearer of Islam or the rule of which nation is undermined in the process of establishing an

ideological Islamic State. It must be evident to you from this discussion that the objective of Islamic ‘Jihad’ is to eliminate the rule of an un-Islamic system and establish in its stead an Islamic system of State rule. Islam does not intend to confine this revolution to a single State or a few countries; the aim of Islam is to bring about a universal revolution.

A true Muslim, he said, would never assume the culture and way of life of non-Muslims. If you understand the character of a true Muslim, you will be convinced that he can not live in humiliation, debasement, or subjugation. He is bound to prevail. No power on earth can overwhelm or subdue him.

The Islamic revolution, he said, was for all the world: One banner, one law, one religion, one culture, one civilization and one form of government. “Muhammad’s teachings are meant for all the children of Adam, are sent for the entire human race, and are valid until the end of time.” Allah, through the Prophet, had “revealed the law which is the correct and complete system of life for the entire human race.” The way to establish the utopian society he envisioned was jihad. The word jihad literally means “struggle.” In speeches and interfaith dialogues, Muslims insist it means “self-struggle” or the struggle against sin and temptation, not bloody warfare. Mawdudi defined jihad very specifically: The greatest sacrifice made in the way of Allah is jihad. In it man sacrifices not only his own life and belongings but destroys those of others as well. But the Islamic principle is that we should suffer a lesser loss in order to save ourselves from a greater one. What comparison would the loss of some lives—even if it were thousands or more—be to the calamity that would befall mankind as the result of the victory of evil over good?

Muhammad’s mission, he said had been “to teach the best of morals, to purify humanity of all filth and to wipe out the prejudices and superstitions of the days of ignorance.” The days of ignorance were the days before Muhammad received his revelations. Qutb stressed that all the earth, even the Muslims,

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had become jahilli (ignorant of divine guidance) because they had ignored Allah’s perfect law. Islamist ideology had been born. After the disastrous defeat by Israel in 1967, the Muslim Brotherhood’s message that Allah had abandoned the Muslims because they had abandoned his law and gone their own way provided a plausible explanation, relief from the humiliation and a clear agenda for the future. When Nassar died in 1974, the sawa (Islamic reawakening) began. Ayman al-Zawahiri, bin Laden’s accomplice, later called Qutb’s “martyrdom” (he was hanged by Nasser in 1966) “the spark that ignited the Islamic movement.” Wahhabi religious leaders welcomed exiled Muslim Brothers from Egypt as well as Mawdudi from Pakistan to Saudi Arabia in the 60s and 70s. Their similar beliefs melted into a powerful hybrid. All education in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, from preschool up, was entrusted to the Wahhabi religious leaders in 1963. The Islamist vanguard slowly began to grow. The Power of Ideology Lebanese writer Fouad Ajami, in his book The Arab Predicament (1981), wrote:

How a political doctrine seizes people’s imagination is a mysterious thing; in our age we do not quarrel with the phenomenon, for we have seen it over and over again. We may wish it to be otherwise, we may want people to be more discriminating, but we accept it as a fact of life that ideas—logical or not, justified or not—grip people and are in turn gripped by them in their struggles. Greatly as we may quarrel with the rationality or objectivity of political ideas, they defy logic and create their own realities.

The roots of Islamism are deep, stretching all the way back to the Prophet himself. Its fruits became manifest in the acts of a wealthy, idealistic and devoted student of Sayd Qutb’s brother Muhammad. A student named Osama bin Laden.

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Recipe for Genocide

omeone once wrote: “One of the lessons of the Holocaust was that people of good will are often unwilling to believe that people who threaten evil will in fact carry out their malevolent intentions.” The first modern-day genocide was the Armenian Massacre in World War I, but the word itself came into being after a far more familiar event that occurred during the next Great War. In April 1945, American forces under General Dwight D. Eisenhower captured the Ohrdruf and Buchenwald concentration camps in Nazi Germany. When Americans reached Ohrdruf, they were confronted with piles of bodies. More than a thousand bodies of prisoners who died of bullet wounds, starvation, abuse and disease were left unburied. Even combat-hardened troops were shocked. Eisenhower immediately arranged for Generals Bradley and Patton to tour the camps. He ordered every American soldier in the area who was not on the front lines to come and see for themselves the evil they were fighting to oppose. Eisenhower said the atrocities were “beyond the American mind to comprehend.” He wrote to his wife, “I never dreamed that such cruelty, bestiality, and savagery could really exist in this world.” Anticipating that people would be unable to comprehend the full scope of the horror, he arranged for ample documentation by eyewitnesses, photographers and filmmakers. He understood that human deeds so utterly evil would eventually be challenged, denied, or dismissed as “propaganda.” 51

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Within living memory, that has occurred. People who were not even alive at the time of the Holocaust are telling living survivors that what they experienced did not occur. By the way, if you or someone you know has any doubts, you can write the German embassy for verification. To their credit, they have never denied what happened. If people will not accept the testimony of eyewitnesses and the uncoerced confession of the perpetrator, they don’t care what is true.

authorities. He believes, sincerely and without malice, that he is entitled to do as he wishes and to receive what he wants or expects. Groups that perpetrate genocide believed they had a right to rule over “lesser” groups. This is often combined with resentment about the current state of affairs and a desire for revenge. According to Sayd Qutb in Milestones:

Americans have a strong tendency to believe that people are good by nature and will naturally behave well if treated well. If people are not behaving well, it would follow, they have not been treated well. The remedy is to find out who is responsible for the mistreatment and rectify it. Evil, most Americans believe, resides not in individuals but in circumstances. I spoke with a Syrian-born doctor, Wafa Sultan, who is writing a book about her experiences with evil in her country of origin. Her concern is that Americans will discount what she says, that we are so protected from the reality of evil that we cannot remotely comprehend it.

2. Underlying self-doubt. A criminal is hypersensitive to criticism or what he perceives to be “putdowns.” Criticisms others might consider minor or trivial he perceives as ego threats. To be told what to do is a putdown. To be “looked at wrong” is a putdown. For groups, events that raise doubts about their superior status are a putdown. Difficult life conditions, whether or not caused by the victim group, are a putdown. It is not necessarily actual injustice that is the source of resentment, but perceived injustice. According to Osama bin Laden:

To evaluate the destructive potential of Islamism (the political ideology as distinct from Islam the faith), it may be helpful to examine the roots of murderous behavior. Criminals and terrorists have a radically different worldview than most Americans. It is consistent and comprehensive in their minds. Attempts to “understand” them by forcing the grid of our own assumptions on them are doomed to fail. We need to listen to what they tell us. Dr. Stanton Samenow spent decades with murderers, attempting to find commonalities in how they thought and processed information. Later, Dr. Ervin Staub studied the common elements leading to genocide and mass murder. The general patterns they found were hauntingly similar. 1. Sense of inherent superiority and feelings of entitlement. The criminal considers himself above rules and

The glory of the Islamic belief shines forth as never before. And without doubt those who have grasped this knowledge are superior to all others.

Allah has imposed inferiority on you and will not remove it from you until you return to your religion.

3. Need to dominate or exert control and desire to right perceived wrongs. A criminal believes he must dominate or be dominated. He sees himself as either a victor or a victim. The idea that anything exists between the two extremes is alien. Anything short of honor is shame. In the case of groups, there is a desire to “purify” or “cleanse” the group in order to reclaim past glory and create a “better world.” Individuals who participate in mass killings generally see their actions as noble and necessary to serve a higher good, such as peace with justice. Qutb puts it this way: The eternal struggle for the freedom of man will continue until the religion is purified for God. ... The entire history of Islam is full of jihad...so that the earth may be cleansed of corruption.

4. Use of anger or violence to silence critics and restore dominance. Violence intimidates bystanders and impugns their right to criticize. Said Islamists to Iraqi (Muslim) voters:

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We vow to wash the streets of Baghdad with the voters’ blood. … To those of you who think you can vote and then run away, we will shadow you and catch you, and we will cut off your heads and the heads of your children.

5. Transfer of blame to others. A murderer believes his victim “had it coming to him” and shows righteous indignation when he is caught or challenged. He refuses to accept responsibility for his choices and actions. Participants in acts of genocide exhibit “just world thinking”, the tendency to believe that people who suffer, especially those already devalued, somehow deserve to suffer because of their deeds or character. Genocidal killers insist that their victims provoked the killings. The following sign was hung over the former American Embassy in Tehran after the Iranian Revolution: We will make America face a severe defeat… Allah willing, this century will be the period of victory for the oppressed over the oppressors.

Certain preconditions make some cultures much more likely than others to commit genocide. Groups that are monolithic and suspicious of outsiders, or militaristic with great emphasis on honor and shame, are most vulnerable. Romantic and idealized views of past glory contribute. Individuals in highly authoritarian cultures that discourage dissent and limit access to competing ideas are especially likely to believe propaganda, rumors, lies and conspiracy theories that make genocidal actions seem reasonable and even inevitable. All of these preconditions exist in the Arab/Muslim world. They provide the fuel. Islamist ideology provides the “spark”. Dr. Staub wrote, The most severe violence occurs when a group perceives that its superior position is being eroded or threatened by the rise of a rival group…. Tyrannies typically emerged when the ideology of superiority was accompanied by the perception that they did not receive the respect that was due them.

Dr. Gregory H. Stanton outlined Seven Stages of Genocide, with an eighth, post-genocidal stage. Each stage continues throughout all those that follow. Prevention, he suggests, depends on intervention at every step. Lack of protest or moral outrage confirms perpetrators’ faith in what they are doing. As the downward spiral progresses, intervention becomes more and more costly. According to Dr. Staub, “There is a point at which only inducing fear by the use of power will stop perpetrators from destruction. At times not even that will work, because fanaticism overcomes the desire for self-preservation.” 1. Classification. People are first divided into “us” and “them.” A scapegoat is selected and identified, relieving people’s sense of responsibility for their own situation. This most easily succeeds when the scapegoat is in the minority and is not, in truth, much of a threat. 2. Symbolization. Symbols are forced upon unwilling members of the pariah group. Hate speech encourages members of the majority group to fear their intended victims. 3. Dehumanization. The dominant group denies the humanity of the pariah group. Members are equated with animals, vermin, insects or diseases. Would-be perpetrators are encouraged to think of themselves as superior. People are relieved to have dangers clearly defined rather than face an unspecified threat. Dehumanization is the most essential condition for guilt-free massacre. The target group cannot prove its innocence or lack of evil intent. 4. Organization. Plans are made to exterminate the target group. Special army units or militias are trained and armed. Individual identity is weakened, sometimes by wearing masks. Aggressiveness is tested and rewarded. An authority structure becomes well-established and works to strengthen obedience. 5. Polarization. Propaganda is broadcast to polarize and radicalize the general population. Instigation gives rise to anger, rage, and a desire to retaliate. Perpetrators view their actions as self-defense, and welcome propaganda that helps justify their actions. At this stage, moderates are eliminated. Often

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the first to be killed in a genocide are moderate members of the perpetrator’s own group and their families. The center does not hold. Extremes take over and negotiation becomes impossible. 6. Preparation. Lists of victims are made. Houses are marked. Individuals may be forced to carry ID cards or wear distinctive dress. In the extreme, camps or prisons may be built to house intended victims. Small scale trial genocides may take place to assess public outcry or support and to set the stage for molding public opinion. 7. Extermination. At this stage, only rapid and overwhelming armed intervention can halt genocide. In some cases, nonaggression at this stage is suicidal. 8. Denial. Evidence may be destroyed. No one admits personal responsibility. Perpetrators blame the victims or suggest that the they invented the story. How far have Islamists proceeded along this continuum? A quick look at Arab media (www.memri.com, www.memritv. com, www.pmw.org.il) will show that they have been well into step 5 for some time. They have clearly stated their intention to eliminate Israel and humiliate/destroy the United States. September 11 was a “trial genocide.” It would be naïve to assume detailed preparations are not being made to accomplish their stated goals. Osama bin Laden was widely criticized in the Muslim press, but not for killing thousands of noncombatants. He was criticized for not first clearly inviting America to repent and submit to Allah as required in the Quran. Bin Laden has since remedied that situation. He has written to President Bush and offered to serve as his personal mentor and guide should he choose to embrace Islam. He has also written to the American people and appeared on television, inviting each of individually to submit to Allah, the One True God. We have been duly warned. Whatever happens to us in future, in the view of Islamists, is our own responsibility.

Millennial Fervor: 1979

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he year A.D. 1979 brought the beginning of the 15th century on the Islamic calendar, which dates from 622 when Muhammad assumed the mantle of governmental as well as religious authority. (Muslims use a lunar calendar so their year is shorter than a solar year.) You may remember the speculation that accompanied the approach of Y2K in the Gregorian calendar. Some people saw the beautiful promise of a new beginning, a fresh start. Some people thought 2000 would bring the end of the world. The same kinds of speculations and expectations rippled throughout the Muslim world as the calendar approached 1400 A.H. (after Hegira). When, in February 1979, the Ayatollah Khomeini took power and instituted Divine Law (Sharia) in Iran, shock waves coursed through the Muslim world. Those who longed for the return of Muslim dominance, both Shia and Sunni, thought Iran heralded a new beginning. The Ayatollah mocked and disparaged the West. U.S. hostages were held for 444 days, and no one could do a thing about it. Infidel America was humiliated by a Muslim who dared. Khomeini shouted his defiance to the world: The governments of the world should know that Islam cannot be defeated. Islam will be victorious in all the countries of the world, and Islam and the teachings of the Quran will prevail over all the world.

And:

Those who study Islamic holy war will understand why Islam wants to conquer the whole world. … Those who know nothing of Islam pretend that Islam counsels against 57

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war. Those [who say this] are witless. Islam says: Kill all the unbelievers, just as they would kill you all! Does this mean that the Muslims should sit back until they are devoured by [the unbelievers]? Islam says Kill them [nonMuslims], put them to the sword and scatter [their armies]. Does this mean sitting back until [non-Muslims] overcome us? Islam says: Kill in the service of Allah those who may want to kill you! Does this mean we should surrender to the enemy? Islam says: Whatever good there is exists thanks to the sword and in the shadow of the sword! People cannot be made obedient except with the sword! The sword is the key to paradise, which can be opened only for holy warriors! There are hundreds of other [Quranic] psalms and hadiths urging Muslims to value war and to fight. Does all that mean that Islam is a religion that prevents men from waging war? I spit upon those foolish souls who make such a claim!

In March of 1982, 380 men met at the Tehran Hilton for a seminar on “the ideal Islamic government.” Their subsequent announcement to the world echoed Muhammad’s deathbed command: We shall export our revolution to the whole world. Until the cry ‘There is no god but Allah’ resounds over the whole world, there will be struggle (jihad).

As shivers of excitement ran through the Muslim “street”, shivers of fear ran through national kings and presidents in the Muslim world. Iran’s Shah had been deposed. The same thing could happen to them. Although Khomeini was Shiite, part of a minority representing only 10% of Muslims, there was widespread admiration for him throughout the Muslim world. An Algerian English teacher asked her Sunni students in 1984 to write an essay on the country they most admired. More than 70% chose Iran. Iran challenged the Saudi government’s very legitimacy as guardian of the holy cities of Mecca and Medina. Thousands of Iranians were tried and executed within months. Sharia law was harshly enforced with stoning and cutting off of hands and feet as prescribed in the Quran. Not every Muslim was happy with the change.

One Arab intellectual claims there were more political prisoners and “disappeared” individuals in the Arab world and Iran during the 1990s than there are people in the Gaza Strip, which is one of the most crowded areas on earth. I cannot emphasize too often or too strongly that Islam and Islamism are not the same thing! Muslims become the first victims of Islamist political ideology. The Sacred Mosque Every year some two million Muslims from around the world converge on Mecca during the Hajj. It is a pilgrimage required of every Muslim who is able to afford it, and is the high point of a Muslim’s life. People from every tribe and tongue and nation gather to worship Allah together. In the same way that the Olympic games symbolize unity for the community of nations, the Hajj symbolizes the unity and harmony of the Muslim umma (community) in submission to Allah. On November 20, 1979, just months after the Iranian Revolution and on the first day of the Muslim year 1400, the Hajj was suddenly interrupted. Someone seized the microphone at the Sacred Mosque in Mecca and announced the arrival of the Mahdi. The Mahdi is the Muslim equivalent of Messiah, a savior for the Muslim world who has long been expected to return during the Hajj to cleanse Islam, resurrect its past glory, and defeat all of its enemies before the end of the world. Religious authorities hesitated. Could it be true? The standoff lasted for two weeks. Revolutionaries had smuggled arms and provisions into the labyrinth of tunnels beneath the Sacred Mosque in coffins so were well prepared. Thousands of people (Muslims) were held hostage and many shot, in complete defiance of the sanctity of the place. In the end, the Saudi government called on French, (infidel) paramilitary forces, to end the standoff. Although 68 revolutionaries were arrested and publicly beheaded, the Saudi government was deeply shaken. A rift between the House of Saud and the Wahhabi religious authorities widened.

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A solution was proposed. The Saudi government had more money than it knew what to do with thanks to its oil resources. In exchange for full control over Saudi media and education and funds to carry out dawa (proselytization) programs around the world, the religious leaders agreed to support the Saudi regime and to help suppress rebellions. Sulaiman al-Hattlan, a Saudi journalist at Harvard, wrote: Though the government killed the extremists, it then essentially adopted their ideology. After the Mecca incident, Saudi authorities began imposing crushingly strict and pointless rules. Women were banned from appearing on television. Music was not allowed to be played in the Saudi media. Stores and malls closed during the five daily prayers. Members of the religious police were granted more power to intervene in people’s personal lives. The Saudi government did all this to please the Islamists, perhaps fearing further extremist threats.

A competition began between religious leaders in two oil-rich states, Iran and Saudi Arabia, over who would exert the most influence in the Muslim world. Saudi Arabia alone poured some $70 billion into schools, mosques, banks and social welfare plans. Islamist institutions filled the vacuum left by failing Muslim national governments and won the hearts of the people. Between 1982 and 2002, some 1,500 mosques, 210 Islamic centers, and 2,000 schools for Muslim children were established in non-Muslim countries alone. The race was on to open the world to the Prophet’s message. According to the Quran, unbelievers must be given an opportunity to learn the truth of Islam and to freely choose to convert before force is permissible. Armed jihad can follow, but if hostilities can be avoided, that is better. Bernard Lewis, expert on Islam and the Middle East, framed the difficulty this way: Imagine if the Ku Klux Klan or the Aryan Nation obtained total control of Texas and had at its disposal all the oil revenues, and used this money to establish a network of well-endowed schools and colleges all over Christendom

peddling their particular brand of Christianity. This is what the Saudis have done with Wahhabism. The oil money has enabled them to spread this fanatical, destructive form of Islam all over the Muslim world and among Muslims in the West. Without oil and the creation of the Saudi Kingdom, Wahhabism would have remained a lunatic fringe.

Afghanistan On Christmas Eve, the third pivotal event of 1979 occurred. The Soviet Army invaded Muslim Afghanistan. In the subsequent struggle, some two million would die and five million would flee Afghanistan. The Soviet army would be forced to withdraw in 1989, and a few years later, the Communist empire would crumble. During that war, the United States trained and supplied arms to Afghan resistance fighters, mujahideen. Secular Afghans warned the Americans from early on: “For God’s sake, you’re financing your own assassins!” After Afghanistan, the mujahideen felt invincible. The legend grew that they, with Allah’s miraculous assistance, had defeated the mighty Soviets and brought about the collapse of communism. The path to the realization of age-old Islamist dreams of world domination appeared open. After the defeat of the tough Soviets, said Islamists, it would be no problem to conquer the corrupt and decadent West. There were terrorists prior to 1979, even Muslim terrorists. But Islamism came into its own in 1979, and began to spread around the world. Said Abdullah Azzam in 1988: Oh Brothers, after Afghanistan, nothing in the world is impossible for us anymore­—there are no superpowers or mini-powers, what matters is our willpower.

A year later, in 1989, he clarified what he meant:

You have to be willing to risk Holy War wherever you can carry it out, even in America.

Even in America. Even in 1989.

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Islamist Ideologues

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The Third Jihad

he events of 1979 had changed everything. Iran defied the world. The bloody Afghan war dragged on for a decade. Afghan refugees poured into neighboring Pakistan. Billions of Saudi dollars poured into supporting the refugees, educating them in Wahabbi madrassas (Islamic schools) and spreading the faith worldwide (dawa). Afghanistan was an authentic, defensive jihad. According to Mawdudi, an Islamist:

Sayd Qutb 1906-1966 (Egypt) Mawdudi 1903-1979 (Pakistan)

Hassan al-Banna 1906-1949 (Egypt) Abdullah Azzam 1941-1989 (Palestine)

Jihad is part of the overall defense of Islam. Jihad means to strive to the utmost of one’s capacity. A man who exerts himself physically or mentally or spends his wealth in the cause of Allah is indeed engaged in jihad. But in the language of Divine Law, this word is used specifically for the war that is waged solely in the name of Allah against those who perpetrate oppression as enemies of Islam. This supreme sacrifice is the responsibility of all Muslims. If, however, a section of the Muslims offer themselves for participating in jihad, the whole community is absolved of its responsibility. But if none comes forward, everyone is held guilty. This concession vanishes for the citizens of an Islamic State when it is attacked by a non-Muslim power. In this case, everybody must come forward for jihad. If the country attacked does not have enough strength to fight back, then it is the duty of the neighboring Muslim countries to offer help. If even they fail, then the Muslims of the whole world must fight the common enemy. In all these cases, jihad is as much a primary duty as are daily prayers or fasting. One who avoids it is a sinner. His every claim to being a Muslim is doubtful. 63

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Muslims from around the world joined the Afghan defense. People sent money. Muslim countries freed violent prisoners to fight in Afghanistan, hoping perhaps they’d be killed while doing some good for the cause. America provided the fighters with training and arms. Abdullah Azzam, a Palestinian from Jenin, had studied theology in Egypt and been inspired by Sayd Qutb’s ideas. Exiled from Egypt, he went to Saudi Arabia, a country that welcomed fundamentalist dissidents. Azzam was disillusioned by the secular nature of the Palestinian Liberation Organization of Yasser Arafat. He helped found Hamas, which shared his vision of a pan-Islamic, trans-national umma that would eliminate Israel and erase the artificial borders of Middle Eastern “nations” to unite all Muslims under the banner of Islam. Azzam’s trademark slogan was, “Jihad and the rifle alone: no negotiations, no conferences, and no dialogues.” Qutb had written:

Peshawar and shared ideas. Their utopian vision and the Afghan war united them. The Al Qaeda organization was formed on August 20, 1988. Its goals? 1. To establish the truth. 2. To get rid of evil. 3. To establish an Islamic nation. Later, more specific goals were laid out: 1. To expel all infidel troops from Muslim lands. 2. To topple all infidel governments. 3. To establish the Islamic state. 4. To re-establish the caliphate by 2020.

The reasons for jihad, according to Qutb, are: 1. To establish Allah’s authority on earth. 2. To arrange human affairs according to the true guidance provided by Allah (Divine Law, Sharia). 3. To abolish all the Satanic forces and Satanic systems of life. 4. To end the lordship of one man over others. Abdullah Azzam set out to establish Qutb’s vanguard, which would form the core of a new, utopian, Islamic society:

Anybody who looks into the state of Muslims today will find that their great misfortune is their abandonment of jihad. … Those who believe that Islam can flourish and be victorious without jihad and blood are deluded and have no understanding of this religion. … Many Muslims know about the hadith in which the Prophet ordered his companions not to kill any women and children, etc. but very few know there are exceptions to this case. In summary, Muslims do not have to stop an attack on Mushrikeen (unbelievers) if non-fighting women and children are present.

There should be a vanguard which sets out with this determination and then keeps walking on the path. … I have written Milestones for this vanguard.

This vanguard constitutes the solid base for the hoped-for society. … We shall continue the jihad no matter how long the way, until the last breath and the last beat of the pulse, or until we see the Islamic state established.

Azzam, the true “father” of Al Qaeda (“Al Qaeda” literally means “the base”), invited Osama bin Laden to join him in Pakistan. Muslim Brothers and Islamists from around the world, including Egyptian Ayman al-Zawahiri, gathered in

Soviet forces withdrew from Afghanistan on February 15, 1989. It was the beginning of the end of the Soviet Union. Mujahideen were ecstatic. Allah had clearly supported them in their struggle. Miracle stories flew around the world. As in the days of the Prophet, military success proved Islam’s truth. Abdullah Azzam traveled and spoke throughout the West, spreading the utopian vision and issuing a call to arms.

To American Muslims at the First Conference on the Jihad in Brooklyn, New York in 1989, he said: The jihad, the fighting, is obligatory on you wherever you can perform it. And just as when you are in America you must fast…so, too, you must wage jihad. The word jihad means fighting only, fighting with the sword.

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For Islamists, jihad is clearly not solely an inner struggle against sin and temptation, as we were told so often in lectures and interfaith dialogues. (Remember, only some Muslims are Islamists. All Islamists are Muslims.) The challenge after the Afghan war ended was to choose the next war front. Azzam and al-Zawahiri disagreed. Azzam wanted the mujahideen to focus their efforts on eliminating Israel. Al-Zawahiri wanted to first conquer the “near enemy”, the illegitimate so-called “Muslim” nations. Azzam opposed takfir, declaring Muslims to be apostates and rightful targets of jihad. Tensions rose in the Al Qaeda ranks. The argument ended with Azzam’s assassination, perhaps by men who preferred al-Zawahiri’s vision. Al Qaeda then set out to topple any Muslim national governments that refused to enforce Divine Law (Sharia). After the assassination, Azzam’s son-in-law and successor, Abdallah Anas, broke with Al Qaeda and took the Islamist jihad to his home country of Algeria. There, mujahideen killed some 160,000 Muslims between 1992 and 2002. Proclaimed Anas, “There is no neutrality in the war we are waging. With the exception of those who are with us, all others are apostates and deserve to die!” Everyone with a voting card was slaughtered. Some 4000 mujahideen made their way to Bosnia, most of them Saudis. Saudi Arabian “charities” financed the restoration of Bosnian mosques that had been damaged in the war, but with a view to spreading Wahhabi Islam. The Gazi-Husrevbeg mosque in Sarajevo, one of the greatest Islamic structures in southeastern Europe, had its centuries-old frescoes and ceramic tiles plastered over. A Bosnian official complained: We have a big problem with the Saudis; they are spreading around huge amounts of money to help rebuild Bosnia. But they are also building mosques and spreading a version of Islam that is alien to our Bosnian Islam.

Conquering the “near enemy” (Muslim nations) didn’t proceed as well as hoped. In 1996, the focus shifted to a softer target, the decadent and demoralized “far enemy”, the “the head of the snake”, the Great Satan who supported the Little Satan (Israel) and corrupt Arab governments, the Americans who had dared to tread the holy soil of the Arabian Peninsula. In a May 1998 interview with John Miller of ABC News, Bin Laden said:

We have seen in the last decade the decline of the American government and the weakness of the American soldier who is ready to wage Cold Wars and unprepared to fight long wars. This was proven in Beirut when the Marines fled after two explosions. It also proves they can run in less than 24 hours, and this was also repeated in Somalia. We are ready for all occasions. We rely on Allah. Allah ordered us in this religion to purify Muslim land of all non-believers, and especially the Arabian Peninsula where the Kaaba is. After World War II, the Americans became more aggressive and oppressive, especially in the Muslim world. … After Allah honored us with victory in Afghanistan, and justice prevailed and the killing of those who slaughtered millions of Muslims in the Muslim republics, it cleared from the Muslim minds the myth of superpowers. The youth ceased from seeing America as a superpower. After leaving Afghanistan they headed for Somalia and prepared for a long battle, thinking the Americans were like the Russians, but they were surprised when the Americans entered. The youth were surprised at the low morale of the American soldiers and realized more than before that the American soldiers are paper tigers. After a few blows, they ran in defeat and America forgot about all the hoopla and media propaganda, … about being the world leader, and the leader of the new world order. After a few blows, they forgot about this title and left, dragging their corpses and their shameful defeat and stopped using such titles.

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When this took place, I was in Sudan, and this great defeat pleased me very much, the way it pleases all Muslims. Allah willing the next victory will be in Saudi Arabia, and it will make the Americans forget the horrors of Vietnam and Beirut.

Bin Laden felt sure the “filthy infidel crusaders” would inevitably turn tail and run in the face of determined mujahideen. America, the sole remaining “superpower”, was the main impediment to Islamic unity, to a restored caliphate that would expand to all the world and bring lasting peace. World War III was declared by an individual, not a national government, on February 23, 1998 during the presidency of Bill Clinton, with these words: The ruling to kill the Americans and their allies -- civilians and military -- is an individual duty for every Muslim who can do it in any country in which it is possible to do it, in order to liberate the al-Aqsa Mosque and the holy mosque [Mecca] from their grip, and in order for their armies to move out of all the lands of Islam, defeated and unable to threaten any Muslim. This is in accordance with the words of Almighty Allah, “and fight the pagans all together as they fight you all together,” and “fight them until there is no more tumult or oppression, and there prevail justice and faith in Allah.”

Some would put the date earlier, in 1979 during the presidency of Jimmy Carter, when Ayatollah Khomeini proudly and unilaterally declared war on “The Great Satan” (America). Islamists might say the current war was declared more than 1000 years ago, by the Prophet himself just before he died. The stakes are high. In the early 1950s, an article in an Egyptian weekly clarified them from the Islamist point of view: The battle with the West ... can only lead to one of two conclusions that allow of no compromise: our defeat or that of the West.

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Allah’s Divine Law (Sharia) ccording to Reda Sayam, an Islamist living in Germany:

We believe that the caliphate shall be restored and we believe that Rome shall be conquered. Islam was the dominant power in the world for the longest time of any empire. For more than a thousand years, Islam ruled the world, until the fall of the caliphate. Communism lasted only 70 years before it fell. Capitalism will fall soon. We offer the alternative, an Islamic program. But the West is not willing to try it.

Why are we unwilling to try Islamic government? If by doing so, we could instantly end terror and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, why not? Is this worth fighting and dying about? The utopian picture painted by Islamists is quite compelling. Otherwise it would not capture the imaginations of idealistic young Muslims who long for a better world, a just world, without oppression or tyranny. We are wrong if we think our enemies are murderous monsters. Most are committed idealists. According to Mawdudi: In politics the sole objective will be to strive for the establishment of a government where peace, brotherhood and goodness reign. He will seek to build that government in which every human being is a brother to one another, where no form of exploitation or slavery are rampant, where the rights of the individual are respectfully upheld. He will seek to build that government in which the powers of the state are considered a sacred trust from Allah and are used for the common welfare of all. In the field of law, 69

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the Muslim will seek to offer a true example of justice and to prove an authentic protector of the rights of all— particularly the weak. He will make sure that all get their due share and no injustice or oppression is inflicted on anyone. He will respect the law, make others respect it and will see that the law is administered justly and fairly.

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Sounds pretty good! According to Muhammad Qutb: Long ago Islam freed humanity from all racial prejudices. There has never been a class system in Islam. Islam was the first to initiate the emancipation movement. Islam infused a spirit of love and cooperation throughout the society. All were made equal before the law. Islamic government acts as guardian and custodian of all such people as happen to lag behind in the struggle of life. Democracy was instituted in Islam more than 1300 years ago.

Somehow, there’s a disconnect between ideals and reality. A former deputy Prime Minister of Malaysia estimates that although Muslims make up 20% of the world’s total population, they constitute more than half of those living in abject poverty. Escaped slaves from Sudan such as Francis Bok give living testimony that brutal slavery of black Africans by Muslim Arabs continues to this very day. Despite the oil wealth, the overall GDP at the end of the 20th century for all Arab countries combined was little more than that of Spain! Yet the Islamists claim their anti-capitalist economic program would eliminate poverty and provide a secure life for everyone in the world! In my conversations with Muslims I noticed they had a constant tendency to compare Islam’s ideals with America’s realities. It would be much more fair to compare their ideals with our ideals, or perhaps Islamist realities with American realities! It would certainly be unfair to compare American ideals with Islamist realities.

The ideals of Communism were also grand. The reality was horrifying. 30 million died in China, 20 million in the U.S.S.R. The theocracies in Iran and Afghanistan under the Taliban have been anything but utopian for average Muslims. From the histories I’ve read, life under Ottoman rule wasn’t so great either. Muslims argue that only under Umar did the Muslim society reach its zenith. According to Islam in Focus, Why are not the Muslims living in a utopia? To such an objection we can only say that the Muslims have lived in and enjoyed a utopia in a certain epoch of their history. No religion or social system other than Islam has ever been able to realize its ideals in reality. The utopia of Islam was realized and put into practice and production at full capacity. The utopia of Islam can be re-established once again right here on earth.

There’s really no way to disprove that assertion beyond all doubt. Umar lived a very long time ago. The utopian vision explains why people on the far Left, with such seemingly opposite values on women’s rights, gay rights, etc., seem more inclined to support Islamists than the American government! Both believe in the perfectibility of human nature and the evil of capitalism. Both Leftists and Islamists cherish a utopian vision that first requires the overthrow of the current order. “The purpose,” wrote Sayd Qutb in Milestones, “is to abolish the existing system and replace it with a new system.” And again, “It is the duty of Islam to annihilate all other systems, as they are obstacles in the way of universal freedom.” Let’s take a closer look. If we did adopt Sharia (literally “straight way”) what, specifically, would change for us on a day-to-day basis? An exhaustive list would be far too long for the purposes of this book, so I’ll just include a few examples. Human Rights The concept of human rights and equality has always been considered subversive to Islam. Remember the Royal Edict of 1839 in the Ottoman Empire, emancipating the dhimmis?

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In 1985, the Iranian delegate to the United Nations, Sa’id Raja’I-Khorassani, said the very concept of human rights was a Judeo-Christian invention and inadmissible in Islam. Khomeini said one of the shah’s “most despicable sins” was that Iran was in the original group of nations that drafted and approved the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In 1990, the Organization of the Islamic Conference did put forth a charter of human rights in the United Nations. It subsumed all rights to the controlling authority of Sharia.

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Status of Women • Women receive half the inheritance of men. • Women are exempt from all financial liabilities. • A woman’s testimony is worth half that of a man’s. • A woman’s inheritance is half that of a man’s. • No mingling of the sexes. • No dating. No public displays of affection. • No premarital or extramarital sexual relations. • No speaking in public in the presence of young men. • Restrictions on education and work. The second caliph, Umar, wrote, “Prevent the women from learning to write. Say no to their capricious ways.” According to Muhammad Qutb, “Islam permits women to go outside their houses only when there is really a genuine need for them to do so.” Ghawji, a Muslim scholar, systematically set out under what conditions a woman can leave her house: • She may leave only in case of real need. • The exit must be authorized by her husband or guardian. • She must be well covered, including her face, to avoid tempting any men who might be around; she must move with her head bowed down looking neither left nor right. (Sura 24:31) • She must not put on perfume. The Prophet has said: “Any woman who puts on perfume and passes in front of men is a fornicator.” • She must not walk in the middle of the road among men.

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She must walk in a chaste and modest manner. Sura 24:31 When talking to a stranger, her voice must remain normal. Sura 33:32 If inside a shop or an office, she must avoid being left alone behind a closed door with a man. She must never shake the hand of a man. Even at a female friend’s house, she must not discard any clothes covering her in case there is a man hiding. The wife must not go beyond a 30-kilometer limit without being accompanied by her husband or a relative. A woman must never attempt to imitate a man.

Dress and Appearance • No manner of walking, talking, looking and dressing in public that may instigate temptation, arouse desire, stir suspicion or indicate immodesty and indecency. • No gold or similar adornment. • No pure silk. • No beauty parlors. • Women must cover all but their hands and feet. Family Life • No community property of husbands and wives. • No adoption. • A wife must neither offend her husband nor hurt his feelings. • She must make herself desirable; be attractive, responsive, and cooperative at all times. • If she neglects herself, the husband has the right to interfere with her freedom to rectify the situation. • Men may beat unsubmissive wives if other measures fail. • Men may have up to four wives, as long as all are treated equitably. • Men may divorce a wife unilaterally. • Family members who convert to Islam inherit all family property. Others are disinherited. • No right to prepare your own will or to disinherit anyone.

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Economy • No capitalism. Muhammad Qutb wrote, “The evil of capitalism has poisoned all life.” • No interest on money. All interest is “usury.” • No piggy banks. (You think I’m joking?) • Man rightfully owns only what he works for. • Land left unused for 3 years may be claimed by others. • No cooperatives. • No monopolies or price fixing by the government. • No insurance. Islamic law is the epitome • No retirement. • No benefits. of Islamic thought, the most • No bonuses. typical manifestation of the • No raises. Islamic way of life, the core Food and Drink • No wine. • No liquor or spirits. • No meat or products of swine.

and kernel of Islam itself. —Joseph Schacht

Use of Time • No gambling. • No “vain sports.” (Football, golf, etc.) • No Sabbath or weekends. • No music, especially no musical instruments. Osama bin Laden wrote, “Music is the flute of the devil.” • No images of people or animals in art. • No dancing. • No drama. • No TV or radio (unless for religious education). • No waste of any degree or kind. Politics and Government • The Quran is the constitution. • No political parties with non-Islamic platforms. • Three branches of government, with judicial the strongest.

Justice • No law is valid if it contradicts the Quran. • No right to a defense attorney. • Judges can ignore any evidence they don’t care to hear. • No trial by jury. • No appeals. • Sentences imposed quickly. • A woman cannot testify alone. Two women required. • Non-Muslims may not testify against Muslims. According to Hanafi jurist Sarakhsi (d 1090): “The word of a dishonest Muslim is more valuable than that of an honest dhimmi.” • Hadd crimes (those specified in the Quran) are punishable by amputation of hands and feet, crucifixion, cutting out of the tongue, flogging, etc. For example: Adultery: stoning. Fornication: 100 stripes. If the harshness of our Homosexuality: Death. laws deters people from Apostasy: Death. committing these crimes, Drinking wine: 80 stripes. then society is a better place. Theft: cutting right hand.  —Hassan Turabi, President of Sudan Robbery on the highway: loss of hands and feet. Robbery with murder: death by the sword or crucifixion. Muslims will argue that there are strict rules of evidence that eliminate the possibility of wrongful convictions. However, confessions (even under torture) can be accepted as proof. Religion • 5 calls to prayer, the first before dawn (no sleeping in). • Ritual cleansings before each prayer. • Zakat, payment of 2.5% of yearly increase in net worth. • Fasting from sunup to sundown during the entire month of Ramadan. • Non-Muslims pay jizya and observe provisions of concessionary charters. See p. 34 for an example. • Criticism of Islam or the Prophet carries a death penalty.

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“Hmmm,” you may say. “Is agreeing to Sharia the only way to avoid additional war and bloodshed?” No. Sayd Qutb allowed for one additional alternative: It may happen that the enemies of Islam may consider it expedient not to take any action against Islam, if Islam leaves them alone in their geographical boundaries to continue the lordship of some men over others and does not extend its message and its declaration of universal freedom within their domain. But Islam cannot agree to this unless they submit to its authority by paying jizyah.

America’s government could surrender and request a dhimma (concessionary charter) for our country as a whole. The jizya would be paid from the United States treasury. An Iranian woman who rallied against the Shah and welcomed Khomeini’s Islamic theocracy soon found herself disillusioned. She thinks back to those heady days and reflects that nobody was thinking about the “good old days” when they cut hands, stoned people and cut off heads in the public square. She had demonstrated for change, for the overthrow of a corrupt Shah, but in retrospect, change per se was NOT good! She eventually fled to the United States. Like Iranians in 1979, Americans want “change.” But we’ve lost perspective if we think things can’t get worse than they are right now, that any change will be an improvement! Wrote Sayd Qutb in Milestones:

One should accept the Sharia without any question and reject all other laws in any shape or form. This is Islam. There is no other meaning of Islam. Islam—that is, submission to God—is a universal Message which the whole of mankind should accept or make peace with. No political system or material power should put hindrances in the way of preaching Islam. If someone does, then it is the duty of Islam to fight him until either he is killed or until he declares his submission.

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Why They Hate Us

struggled for hours and hours and hours to write some kind of hopeful conclusion with recommendations. Then I threw it all away. It has been my goal from the beginning to share facts and spare you my opinions. I don’t have easy answers. There may not be any. But until Americans agree there is a real problem (not a contrived one) and break free from the self-centered assumption that the problem is us, we will waste valuable time desperately needed to find answers. We cannot, of course, know the future, but we can learn from history. We are not at the mercy of the gathering storm. If we keep our heads and unite, we can successfully navigate difficult waters even if our emotions scream that it’s impossible! I’ve heard it said (by a Muslim) that it’s ridiculous to think that a bunch of guys in a cave somewhere could bring down America. That was true until the advent of nuclear, biological and chemical weapons. But it’s not just “a bunch of guys in a cave somewhere.” We’re talking about a utopian ideology that has tremendous appeal to very nice people. Even well-educated, well-to-do, native-born Americans and Europeans. I may be accused of inciting hatred by sharing this information. As much as possible, I have endeavored to relay undisputed facts. How can it be hateful to quote the Quran, the Hadith and Muslim thinkers? I’m providing them with free publicity! Muslims gave me the Quran I cited and some of the books as well! I agree there is hate, but be clear about where it originates! I can say with a very clear conscience that I feel no 77

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hatred toward Muslims or Islam. I fear Islamist ideology but I don’t hate Islamists. I think they truly and sincerely believe that what they are doing is right and best for the world, for me and for you, for the children. I disagree. I have attempted throughout to make it very clear that there is a difference between Islamism, the 20th century utopian political ideology, and Islam, the centuries-old faith. If Muslims can’t see the difference, if they won’t distinguish between the 20th century ideology and their ancient religion, we should really be concerned! That would mean mainstream Muslims agree that the Islamist interpretation of their religion is a true and correct interpretation! Nazi ideology originated in Germany, but not all Germans were Nazis. Germans themselves suffered horribly as a result of Nazi ideology and their country was ruined. If we love, respect and care about Muslims, we should want to save them from the totalitarian dreams of Islamists! Muslim parents are losing their children to what one called “the biggest gang in the world”! People are being slaughtered in their beds. The center cannot hold. The utopian dream is an illusion. The reality of an Islamist world government would be a nightmare beyond description, with Muslims its first victims.

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Back to the original question, “Why do they hate us?” Hopefully, by now, you will be able to peer through the worldview “glasses” of Islamists. We cannot understand why they hate us if we remain imprisoned within our own cultural perspective. They see things differently. They have told us why they hate us. We should listen! We should respect them and take them at their word! • Because we do not honor Allah or follow his law. We usurp his sovereignty. • Because our government allows us to do what we want, without regard to the Creator’s wishes. • Because we are arrogant and insolent. (Those words were applied to dhimmis through the ages.)

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Because we have women in our military, and even place them in authority over men! Because we allow our women to dress and behave shamelessly, and to mix freely with men. Because Muslims in America must abide by man-made American laws and abide by a man-made constitution. Because we allow and even encourage pre- and extramarital sex, even homosexuality! Because we eat pork. John Stuart Mill wrote: “Nothing in the creed or practice of Christians does more to envenom the hatred of the [Muslims] than the fact of their eating pork.” Because we humiliated them by winning World War I. Because our government carved up the Ottoman Empire. Because we have despoiled the holy land of Saudi Arabia by being there. We humiliated them by coming to their aid against Saddam Hussein’s aggression. Because of our material success, as compared to their failure in the modern age. Our success humiliates them. Because we live in luxury rather than help the poor. Because we are greedy and charge interest on loans. Because so many people in the Islamic world are drawn to our values and want what the West has to offer. This is an extremely serious threat, in their view, to Islam. Because we have extended a helping hand to the Muslim world. Our charity humiliates them. After the Indonesian tsunami, an Islamist mufti said, “The kafir can never be trusted for any possible good they do. They have their own interests at heart.” America has been accused of deliberately dropping humanitarian food aid into heavily mined areas of Afghanistan. We have been accused of stealing body parts from Muslims killed in Iraq. And much worse. Because they can’t break free of their cultural framework, which demands either total dominance or total subjection. They can’t imagine that we don’t want to dominate, humiliate and annihilate them because in our place, they would want to dominate, humiliate and annihilate us.

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America Is Not Invincible! I personally love America. I am extremely grateful for the life this country has allowed me to live. In America, we are allowed and encouraged to be individuals. We can express our opinions without fear of being tortured or killed. We can agree to disagree and bring about change within the system. America welcomes immigrants from all over the world and gives them refuge, allowing and encouraging them to worship however they choose. One of those immigrants, former Egyptian Nonie Darwish, urges Americans to value what we have, to resist Islamization. This country [America] allows me to practice any religion or no religion, and gives me human rights I could only dream of in my culture of origin. Americans often take these rights for granted. But if you have lived under tyranny as I have, you know how precious those rights are. ... For those of us who fled tyranny, if not for America, where else could we run?

She believes America is far more vulnerable than we are willing to acknowledge, in large part because we refuse to face reality. Don’t Believe Me! Believe Them! Please believe them! Evil exists, often in the guise of utopian visions that will certainly, in the minds of adherents, become real once all dissenters are exterminated. Those who do evil may not be evil. They may have the very best of intentions. They may sincerely, in their heart of hearts, believe they are doing good. I will close with a short selection of direct quotes. I could include hundreds more. Muhammad Qutb in Islam: The Misunderstood Religion:

The wars of Islam sprang out of its wish to direct mankind to the right path if all peaceful means towards that end should prove ineffective. ... If people accept this message of Islam and agree to follow the truth, the hostilities between them and the Muslims cease forthwith.

Omar Ahmad, cofounder of the Council for American Islamic Relations (CAIR), speaking to Muslims: Islam isn’t in America to be equal to any other faiths, but to become dominant. The Quran, the Muslim book of scripture, should be the highest authority in America, and Islam the only accepted religion on earth.

Sulayman S. Nyang in Islam in the United States of America: Islam hopes to pay more than just lip service to the goal of a single world religion.

Imam Samudra, one of the Bali bombers:

It’s a religious war, like the crusades. Islam will shine again on the earth. It’s all a matter of faith in the Quran. The war will never stop until the end of the world with the one exception, that the Muslims will win.

Muhammad Asad, former Austrian journalist who converted to Islam and authored Islam at a Crossroads: We cannot and must not imitate Western civilization if we wish to preserve and to revive the values of Islam We must guard against the intellectual atmosphere of Western civilization which is about to conquer our society and our inclinations. ... We must learn—once more—to regard Islam as the norm by which the world is to be judged.

Abu Bakar Bashir, leader of Jamat Islamiya: Islam and democracy can never coexist.

Contemporary Muslim author Fathi Yakun:

Until the nations of the world have functionally Islamic governments, every individual who is careless or lazy in working for Islam is sinful.

Ahmed Sattar on PBS, Frontline:

It’s not a secret that the American government has one enemy. That is the Islamic movement all over the world.

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Mauri’ Saalakhan in Islam & Terrorism: Myth vs. Reality: Sincere Muslims in every corner of the globe are threaded together by an ideology which is consciously or unconsciously imbedded within the very fiber of their being.

Saad al-Fagih, director of The Movement for Islamic Reform in Arabia: Those who believe that we will live in peace and dialogue forever are wrong. There is way you can avoid this sort of clash.

Theologian and historian Ibn Khaldun (d 1406):

Elham, a young woman of Hamas in an Israeli prison:

Hamas leader Khaled Mash’al after the 2006 election:

Siraj Wahaj, first Muslim to deliver a daily prayer before the United States House of Representatives, a year later to Muslims:

In the Muslim community, the jihad is a religious duty because of the universalism of the Islamic mission and the obligation [to convert] everybody to Islam either by persuasion or by force. By Allah, you will be defeated. … Tomorrow, our nation will sit on the throne of the world. This is not a figment of the imagination but a fact. Tomorrow we will lead the world, Allah willing. Apologize today, before remorse will do you no good.

Raed Said Hussein Saad, Hamas leader in Gaza:

We succeeded, with Allah’s grace, to raise an ideological generation that loves death like our enemies love life.

Hassan al-Banna, founder of the Muslim Brotherhood: Death is an art, and the most exquisite of arts when practiced by the skillful artist.

Ayatollah Khomeini:

The purest joy in Islam is to kill and be killed for Allah.

American Muslim leader Fayaz Azzam:

Blood must flow. There must be widows, orphans, hands and limbs must be severed and limbs and blood must be spread everywhere in order that Allah’s religion can stand on its feet.

Our final goal is to kill the enemies of Islam, all the enemies of Islam. I must add that we don’t only fight against the [Israeli] occupation. Our goal is to spread Islam to all, everywhere.

If only Muslims were more clever politically they could take over the United States and replace its constitutional government with a caliphate. If we were united and strong, we’d elect our own emir and give allegiance to him. …Take my word, if 6-8 million Muslims unite in America, the country will come to us.

How can we tell which Muslims are Islamists? It isn’t easy. They endeavor to blend in. Individuals are innocent until proven guilty. Jordan’s King Hussein told an American reporter: The terrorists are trying to break down the fabric of the United States. They want to break down what America stands for. The terrorists actually want to provoke attacks on Arabs or Muslims in the United States, because if the American communities start going after each other, if we see America fragment, then you destroy that special thing America stands for. That’s what the terrorists want—they want to be able to turn to your friends here and say, “Look, this is all a myth.”

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Glossary

ne last thing. Remember I said Islam is a relgion of peace, but that you must understand what “peace” means to them? According to Sayd Qutb: “The peace which Islam desires is that the religion be purified for Allah, that the obedience of all people be for Allah alone.” Peace is the final stage of dawa (spreading of Islam), when all mankind has submitted, either by conversion or payment of jizya. Once Allah’s law (Sharia) becomes universal, the world will enjoy true and lasting peace and justice. Cross-cultural understanding is difficult in the best of situations. Words don’t translate exactly when the concepts behind words are missing or different. Sometimes word definitions can open doors to other understandings of the world. We must how those we attempt to communicate with perceive things and define the words they use. The first list is of English words. Some words have been intentionally redefined by Islamists for their own purposes. Abrogation: Rendering a prior revelation null and void by replacing it with a new, better one. Freedom: Elimination of jahiliyya (ignorance). Freedom from lust and animal passions. Freedom from human authority Injustice: According to Mawdudi, a person who disobeys Allah perpetrates the greatest of injustices. Peace: The final stage of dawa (spreading of Islam) when all mankind has either converted or submitted. The state of having all relationships and priorities in order. 84

Slavery: Life outside Islam. Sayd Qutb: “The real servitude is following laws devised by someone.” Terrorism: Anything that hinders or suppresses Islam. Tyranny: According to Mawdudi, disbelief is tyranny, the worst of tyrannies. Tyrant: One who turns away from the Prophet of Allah is a tyrant, according to Mawdudi. Abd: Slave, black person, filth. (All in one word.) Ablution: The practice of removing sins, diseases or defilement through ritual washing. Al Aqsa: The mosque atop the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. Distinct from the Dome of the Rock, which is a shrine. Al Qaeda: Literally “the base.” Al Quds: Arabic for Jerusalem. Ayatollah: Literally “sign of Allah.” A high ranking Shia cleric and expert in Islamic law and history. There are approximately 20 ayatollahs in the world. Caliph: Vice-regent of Allah and successor to Muhammad. Adam was the first caliph. The Mahdi will be the last. Caliphate: One-world government under Islamic law. Dajjal: Islam’s anti-messiah. Means “the deceiver, imposter, quack.” Muslims believe he will be physically misshapen and blind in his left eye. He will deceive the faithful, telling them that heaven is hell and vice versa. He will have the power to work miracles in order to mislead Muslims. Dar al Harb: House of war. Any territory that is not in the House of Islam is in the house of war. Qutb claimed that all the world was dar al harb because nowhere was Allah’s law being strictly enforced. Dar al Islam: House of Islam. Lands ruled by Divine Law. Dawa: Spreading of the faith, proselytization. Proceeds without bloodsheed unless there is resistance. Dhimmi: Non-Muslim protected under a concessionary charter. Fatwa: A legal pronouncement made by a mufti (Islamic scholar) based on Sharia.

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Fellaheen: Peasant, ignorant, low class, lacking good taste. Fiqh: Understanding of details. Refers to schools of Islamic law, of which there are four. Hadith: The traditions of the Prophet, collected and compiled approximately 200 years after Muhammad’s death. Hajj: Pilgrimage to Mecca. Required at least once a lifetime for every Muslim who is physically and financially able. Harim: Woman, literally means “prohibited, forbidden, untouchable.” Hegira: Migration of Muhammad and his followers from Mecca to Medina in 622. The Muslim calendar begins with this year. Hijab: Head covering and dress worn by Muslim women. Literally means “hide from sight or view, conceal.” Houris: Virginal angelic beings, promised to those who die in the way of Allah. Hudna: Literally “calm” or “quiet.” A truce made for tactical purposes, often to gain strength. According to medieval jurist Umdat as-Salik, “If Muslims are weak, a truce can be made for ten years if necessary, for the Prophet made a truce with the Quraysh for that long.” Imam: Arabic for “leader.” May lead prayers or give sermons. For Shiites, it is capitalized to mean a person who is a perfect example in everything. Iman: Faith. Intifada: Arabic for “shaking off.” Used specifically for uprising of Palestinians against Israel in 1987 and 2000. Islam: Literally “submission.” Name of the religion. Jahili, Jahiliyyah: Ignorance of Divine guidance. The state of man before the Prophet Muhammad. Qutb declared that all the world was jahili because it had neglected Allah’s law. Jihad: Literally “strive, struggle.” A struggle which a Muslim must launch against evil in whatever form or shape it appears. Mawdudi says it is “exerting oneself to the utmost to disseminate the word of Allah and to make it supreme, and to remove all the impediments to Islam—through

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tongue or pen or sword. ... In jihad, a person sacrifices money, material, and all that he has, down to his very life.” Jinn: Translated “genie” in English. A race of supernatural beings lower than angels, made of smokeless fire. They can transform into humans or animals such as the snake. Jizya: Protection tax that non-Muslims paid to Muslims to show their submission to Muslim rule. Kaaba: Literally “cube.” Holiest place in Islam, located in Mecca. Large granite structure, 49’ high, with sides 34’ x 39’ covered with a black silk curtain. Kafir: Unbeliever, infidel, non-Muslim. Mahdi: “Guided One.” Prophesied redeemer of Islam, who will restore the world to a perfect Muslim society. He will be a descendent of Muhammad and will rule for seven years, filling the world with justice and fairness. He will appear at the age of 40, before which he will be a common person. He will receive knowledge directly from Allah. Minaret: Tall graceful tower attached to an Islamic mosque. Originally served as a watchtower. Must be the tallest structure in a town or village. Muezzin: The person who chants the call to prayer from the minaret five times a day. Mufti: Islamic scholar who interprets Sharia and issues fatwas. Mujahidin: Jihad warrior. Mullah: Junior Islamic religious scholar. Mushrikeen: One who commits shirk by attributing partners to Allah. Used of Christians. Naskh: Abrogation. Later revelations abrogate, or render null and void, previous ones. Qibla: Direction of prayer. Originally Jerusalem but changed to Mecca. Quran: Literally “recitation.” A collection of revelations from Allah to Muhammad through the angel Gabriel. Ramadan: The month Muhammad received the first Sura of the Quran. A month of mandatory fasting between sunrise and sunset for all Muslims.

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Salam: Peace. According to Islam in Focus, “Only through submission to the Will of Allah and by obedience to His Law can one achieve true peace and enjoy lasting purity.” Salat: Prayers. Muslims must pray five times a day facing Mecca. Failure to pray without a reasonable excuse is a heinous sin. Sawa: The Islamic reawakening, which began in 1974. Sawn: Fasting. Shahada: The testimony that there is no god but Allah and Muhammad is his messenger. Anyone who utters this sincerely is a Muslim. Shaheed: Literally “witness.” Refers to one who dies in the way of Allah. Sharia: Literally “straight way.” Body of Islamic law, derived from the Quran, the Hadith and decisions by jurists through history. There are several different schools of Islamic law. Shia: Party of Ali. Shiites make up about 10% of Muslims. Shirk: Attributing partners to Allah. It is an unforgivable sin. The oneness of Allah is the central doctrine of Islam. Sheikh: Arabic word meaning elder of a tribe, lord, revered old man or Islamic scholar. Sunna: Literally “trodden path.” Means the “way” of the Prophet Muhammad. Sunni: Those who follow the way or “trodden path” of the Prophet. Sura: Chapter of the Quran. Takfir: The practice of declaring a Muslim to be kafir, or apostate. The penalty for apostasy is death. Taqiyya: Concealing or disguising one’s beliefs, convictions, ideas, feelings, opinions and/or strategies. This practice was sanctioned by Muhammad, especially in times of war. Twelfth Imam: The Shiite Mahdi. Umma: Worldwide Islamic community. Zakat: Alms. A Muslim is required to give 2.5% of his income after expenses or of the increase in his net worth to support the poor and needy.

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Recommended for Further Information Books by Islamists (these are banned in some countries): • Milestones, by Sayd Qutb. This is the Islamist manifesto. • Toward Understanding Islam, by Abul A’la Mawdudi. • Islam: The Misunderstood Religion, by Muhammad Qutb. Books against Islamism by Arabs and Muslims: • Because They Hate, by Brigitte Gabriel. Brigitte grew up as a Christian Arab in South Lebanon during the war. • Now They Call Me Infidel, by Nonie Darwish. Nonie grew up in Gaza and Egypt. Her father was a shaheed (martyr) in the 1950s, when he headed fedayeen operations for Nasser. • Why We Want to Kill You, by Walid Shoebat. Walid was an aspiring suicide “martyr” in Palestine in the 1980s. • Islam and Terrorism, by Mark Gabriel. Mark graduated from Al Azhar University second in a class of 6000. He has a doctorate in Islamic studies and was an imam in Giza. • Unveiling Islam, by Ergun Caner. Ergun was a devout Turkish Muslim raised in the United States. Other books: • Terrorist Hunter, by Anonymous. A former Iraqi comes to America and infiltrates Islamist meetings. Great read! • The Roots of Evil, by Erwin Staub. Subject: genocide. • A Peace to End All Peace, by David Fromkin. Excellent history of the end of the Ottoman Empire. • Honor: A History, by James Bowman. • Hatred’s Kingdom, by Dore Gold. Saudi Arabia’s history. • Three Cups of Tea. Meet Muslims who aren’t Islamists. DVDs: • Jihad in America, aired on PBS in 1994. • Islam v. Islamists, made for PBS Frontline. • Obsession. Download it at obsessionthemovie.com. • Suicide Killers, by Pierre Rehov.

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If you comprehend the message of this book, you will not be comforted. I hate being the bearer of bad news. Difficult days may lie ahead. Because of that, I must add one final note. Religion is part of the fabric of life for Muslims. Most are born into the faith and know few if any Americans or Europeans personally. From their perspective, America is a Christian nation. No matter what you call yourself, if you are not Jewish, they think you are Christian! American popular culture, to them, is Christian culture. They face the same challenge we do. It is very difficult to break away from their own cultural perspective in order to see the world through our eyes. No matter what you think of Christianity or the Bible, I strongly encourage you to read the Bible for yourself. If it is true, and I believe it is, it has great potential to comfort the afflicted. It will also afflict the comfortable. Muslims consider it a very great threat. Find out why, for yourself.