Islam and jihad-christiansquoting.org.uk

Genocide committed in the name of Allah: 3,000,000 Bangladeshi Hindus Killed during the Pakistan-Bangladesh war in 1971. From 1894 to 1896 Abdul Hamid, Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, killed 150,000 Armenian Christians. In India, Sikh Guru Tegh Bahadur along with his disciples was burned to death by the Moghul ruler Aurangzeb in 1675. Another Sikh, Bhai Mati Das was sawn into right and left halves while he was still alive. In July 1974, 4,000 Christians living in Cyprus were killed by Fahri Koroturk, president of Turkey and his Islamic army. From 1843 to 1846 10,000 Assyrian Christians including women and children were massacred by the Muslims. From 1915 to 1918 750,000 Assyrians were killed in the name of Islamic Jihad. In 1933 thousands of Assyrian villagers were murdered by the Iraqi soldiers in Northern Iraq. Since 1990 more than 10,000 Kashmiri Hindus have been brutally murdered by Islamic fundamentalists. Over 280,000 Ugandans killed during the reign of Idi Amin from 1971 to 1979. Over 30,000 Mauritanians have been killed by the Islamic dictators since 1960. In 1980, 20,000 Syrians were murdered under the rule of Hafez Al-Assad, President of Syria. Since 1992 120,000 Algerians have been murdered by the Islamic fundamentalist army. From: http://www.truthtree.com/islam/islam_menu.shtml

It is indeed true that the Islamic regulations for the non-Muslims who live under Islamic rule (the dhimmis) are founded upon the laws of jihad. Sura 9:29 provides the mandate for this relationship, in that the jizya tax is imposed as a result of jihad against Jews and Christians ('those who have been given the Scripture'). This verse is cited and explained by Mark A. Gabriel, former professor of Islamic history at Al-Azhar University, as follows: "Fight against such of those who (1) believe not in Allah, (2) nor in the Last Day, (3) nor forbid that which has been forbidden by Allah and His Messenger (Muhammad) (3) and those who acknowledge not the religion of truth (i.e. Islam) among the people of the Scripture (Jews and Christians), until they pay the Jizyah [tax] with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued. &endash; SURAH 9:29, THE NOBLE QURAN
At first glace, this verse is a little hard to understanding in English, but it will be very clear after I explain it.
This verse says Muslims must fight four kinds ofpeople:
1. Those who don't believe in Allah
2. Those who don't believe in the last day
3. Those who do things that Allah and Muhammad have forbidden
4. Those who don't acknowledge Islam as the truth, i.e., "people of the Scripture," who are Jews and Christians
Muhammad gave people three options:
1. They could accept the message of Islam.
2. They could remain Jews or Christians but pay a special tax (jizyah), which is traditionally levied once a year.
3. They could die. (The phrase "and feel themselves subdued" is muc stronger in Arabic than in this English translation. The Arabic word means something like "abject subjection." It carries the idea of someone cowering in fear before a greater power. If abject subjection is not achieved, then death follows.) The results of Muhammad's options were that the majority accepted the message of Islam, the wealthy unbelievers paid high taxes, and the rest were forced to go to war." (Islam and Terrorism. Doc. 144 pp.73-74).islam.org.au/articles/21/khilafa.htm

It is not lawful to make war upon any people who have never before been called to the faith, without previously requiring them to embrace it, because the Prophet so instructed his commanders, directing them to call the infidels to the faith, and also because the people will hence perceive that they are attacked for the sake of religion, and not for the sake of taking their property, or making slaves of their children, and on this consideration it is possible that they may be induced to agree to the call, in order to save themselves from the troubles of war… If the infidels, upon receiving the call, neither consent to it nor agree to pay capitation tax, it is then incumbent on the Muslims to call upon God for assistance, and to make war upon them, because God is the assistant of those who serve Him, and the destroyer of His enemies, the infidels, and it is necessary to implore His aid upon every occasion; the Prophet, moreover, commands us so to do. - From the Hanafi school, the Hidayah, vol. Ii. P. 140, in Thomas P. Hughes, "A Dictionary of Islam," "Jihad" Pp. 243-248. (London, United Kingdom.: W.H. Allem, 1895).

Holy war (Jihad) is an Arabic virtue, and a divine obligation: the Muslim is always mindful that his religion is a Qur'an and a sword ... the Muslim then is forever a warrior.- Al-Azhar magazine, Cairo, the opening article by Ahmad Hasan az-Zayat, August 1959.

Allah's Apostle said, "I have been sent with the shortest expressions bearing the widest meanings, and I have been made victorious with terror, and while I was sleeping, the keys of the treasures of the world were brought to me and put in my hand." Abu Huraira added: Allah's Apostle has left the world and now you, people, are bringing out those treasures. - Sahih Al Bukhari Volume 4, Book 52, Number 220

Just as scholastic theology is used with thinking people concerning the truth, the sword is used with the infidels after informing them with the truth ... so just as it cannot be said that the sword was Mohammad's most eloquent argument, neither can it be said that scholastic theology is the ultimate science. - Ihy'a 'Uloum ed-Din by al-Ghazali, Dar al-Kotob al-'Elmeyah, Beirut, Vol. V, p. 35

…one must go on jihad (i.e., warlike razzias or raids) at least once a year...one may use a catapult against them [non-Muslims] when they are in a fortress, even if among them are women and children. One may set fire to them and/or drown them...If a person of the Ahl al-Kitab [People of The Book &endash; Jews and Christians, typically] is enslaved, his marriage is [automatically] revoked. A woman and her child taken into slavery should not be separated...One may cut down their trees...One must destroy their useless books. Jihadists may take as booty whatever they decide...they may steal as much food as they require, - Al-Ghazali (d. 1111). Kitab al-Wagiz fi fiqh madhab al-imam al-Safi'i, Beirut, 1979, pp. 186, 190-91. [English translation by Dr. Michael Schub]

Islam is a revolutionary doctrine and system that overturns governments. It seeks to overturn the whole social order … and establish its structure anew … Islam seeks the whole world. It is not satisfied by a piece of land but demands the whole universe … Islamic jihad is at the same time offensive and defensive… The Islamic party does not hesitate to utilize the means of war to implement its goal. (Al-Jihad fi Sabil Allah, ['Jihad in the Path of Allah'] Cairo 1977, pp. 23, 29, 51).

The mushrikun [infidels] of Dar al-Harb (the arena of battle) are of two types: First, those whom the call of Islam has reached, but they have refused it and have taken up arms. The amir of the army has the option of fighting them…in accordance with what he judges to be in the best interest of the Muslims and most harmful to the mushrikun… Second, those whom the invitation to Islam has not reached, although such persons are few nowadays since Allah has made manifest the call of his Messenger…[I]t is forbidden to…begin an attack before explaining the invitation to Islam to them, informing them of the miracles of the Prophet and making plain the proofs so as to encourage acceptance on their part; if they still refuse to accept after this, war is waged against them and they are treated as those whom the call has reached….Al- Mawardi, (d. 1058 ), Shafi'i jurist , The Laws of Islamic Governance [al-Ahkam as-Sultaniyyah, (London, United Kingdom.: Ta-Ha, 1996, p. 60).

Jihad is a precept of Divine institution. Its performance by certain individuals may dispense others from it. We Malikis [one of the four schools of Muslim jurisprudence] maintain that it is preferable not to begin hostilities with the enemy before having invited the latter to embrace the religion of Allah except where the enemy attacks first. They have the alternative of either converting to Islam or paying the poll tax (jizya), short of which war will be declared against them.- Ibn Abi Zayd al-Qayrawani, La Risala (Epitre sur les elements du dogme et de la loi de l'Islam selon le rite malikite.) Translated from Arabic by Leon Bercher. 5th ed. Algiers, 1960, p. 165. [English translation, in Bat Ye'or, The Decline of Eastern Christianity Under Islam, Cranston, NJ, 1996, p. 295]

At its core, Islam is a religious mission to all humanity. Muslims are religiously obliged to disseminate the Islamic faith throughout the world. "We have sent you forth to all mankind" (Q. 34:28). If non-Muslims submit to conversion or subjugation, this call (da'wa) can be pursued peacefully. If they do not, Muslims are obliged to wage war against them. In Islam, peace requires that non-Muslims submit to the call of Islam, either by converting or by accepting the status of a religious minority (dhimmi) and paying the imposed poll tax, jizya. World peace, the final stage of the da'wa, is reached only with the conversion or submission of all mankind to Islam…Muslims believe that expansion through war is not aggression but a fulfillment of the Qur'anic command to spread Islam as a way to peace. The resort to force to disseminate Islam is not war (harb), a word that is used only to describe the use of force by non-Muslims. Islamic wars are not hurub (the plural of harb) but rather futuhat, acts of "opening" the world to Islam and expressing Islamic jihad. Relations between dar al-Islam, the home of peace, and dar al-harb, the world of unbelievers, nevertheless take place in a state of war, according to the Qur'an and to the authoritative commentaries of Islamic jurists. Unbelievers who stand in the way, creating obstacles for the da'wa, are blamed for this state of war, for the da'wa can be pursued peacefully if others submit to it. In other words, those who resist Islam cause wars and are responsible for them. Only when Muslim power is weak is "temporary truce" (hudna) allowed (Islamic jurists differ on the definition of "temporary").- Tibi, Bassam. "War and Peace in Islam," in The Ethics of War and Peace: Religious and Secular Perspectives, edited by Terry Nardin, 1996, Princeton, N.J., pp. 129-131.

Christianity's record is indisputably spotted. But standing in eternal reproof of that record, crying hypocrisy and betrayal, is Christianity itself, quitessentially embodied in the example of Jesus. In the case of Islam, the charge of hypocrisy hardly applies--certainly not on the matter of religious violence. To put the issue at its starkest, there is simply no equivalent in the Koran to the New Testament's admonishment to "turn the other cheek"; conversely, there is no equivalent in the New Testament to the Koranic injunction to "kill the disbelievers wherever you find them".-- William Bennett, _Why We Fight: Moral Clarity and the War on Terrorism_, 2002

Muslims and Christians are at war with each other in Nigeria--and in many other places, unfortunately. That is a normal situation, for Islam regards its relationships with others as one of permanent war. Peaceful relations with others are only a matter of temporary strategy. Genuine Muslim peace with others is realized only when they have turned Muslim, when the House of War has become the House of Islam. They fully expect others to enter the House of Islam at one time or another and they are willing to work towards that with the patience of Job. = The Anatomy of Miss World, Dr. Jan H. Boer, (January, 2003)

Al Qaeda is to terror what the Mafia is to crime. But its goal is not making money, its goal is remaking the world and imposing its radical beliefs on people everywhere. --George W. Bush

I am a Persian Turkish immigrant raised as a Sunni Muslim, and in the interest of full disclosure, I must state that I left Islam in 1982, and became an American citizen...The present conflict is not a war against Islam, and neither is it a "war for oil." In the previous six military endeavors, American troops sided with Muslims who were under attack, and there are much less extreme methods of garnering oil. This is a war of ideologies, and with Fahrenheit 911, Moore clearly shows his. [...] The central fact of the current controversy is the conflict between Islamic theocracy and American democracy. Islam has not now nor has it ever allowed religious freedom or freedom of expression. The best the Islamic republics can offer is "religious toleration." Based on the "Pact of Umar," religious toleration allows non-Muslims to enter Islamic republics, but they must pay a tax (jizyat). They can practice their faiths, but they cannot convert nyone from Islam. To do so means deportation or worse.
Further, Islamic prophecy foretells of worldwide conversion to Sharia law under Islam, and thus, those who are fighting against us are "holy warriors." In this instance, I would say our president is half-right. He says we are not at war with Islam. I agree. However, a significant portion of Islam is in fact at war with us. -- Dr. Ergun Mehmet Caner, Moore's 'hate-riotism' http://www.jewishworldreview.com/0604/hate-riotism.php3

On this morning of May 17 rabi II, two days after the victory, the Sultan sought out the Templars and Hospitallers who had been captured and said " I shall purify the land of these two impure races." He assigned fifty dinar to every man who had taken one of them prisoner, and immediately the army brought forward at least a hundred of them. He ordered that they should be beheaded, choosing to have them dead rather than in prison. With him was a whole band of scholars and surfis and a certain number of devout men and ascetics; each begged to be allowed to kill one of them, and drew his sword and rolled back his sleeve.- Imad-ad-Din, Secretary and Chancellor to Saladin 1187

... the terrorists who profess the name of Allah and proclaim jihad are operating squarely within the Islamic tradition. Indeed they are performing what Islam has typically held to be a religious duty. Of course it could be pointed out that there are millions of Muslims who do not agree with this view of Islam. They prefer what may be termed the "jihad of the heart" or perhaps the "jihad of the pen" to the "jihad of the sword." But traditionally Islam has embraced all these forms of jihad as legitimate, so that the only reasonable conclusion is that many Muslims today, both in the West and in the Islamic world, no longer profess Islam in its classical or traditional sense. In a word, they are liberals, not in the Michael Dukakis sense, but in the classic meaning of the term. From the point of view of the Bin Ladens of the world, these people are apostates for diluting the faith and refusing to do battle against the infidels. -- Dinesh D'Souza, _What's So Great About America_, 2002

The classical consensus was that the revelations regulating relations with non-Muslims evolved in accordance with the development of Muhammad's prophetic career. At the beginning, when Muhammad was weaker and his followers few, the revelations encouraged peaceful relations and avoidance of conflict. Then, after persecution and emigration to Medina in the first year of the Islamic calendar, authority was given to engage in warfare for defensive purposes only.As the Muslim community steadily grew stronger, and conflict with its neighbours did not abate, further revelations expanded the license for waging war. Finally, in Sura 9, regarded as the last to be revealed, it was concluded that war against non-Muslims could be waged, virtually at any time and in any place, to extend the dominance of Islam. This resulted in an aggressive theory of jihad which is well documented in medieval manuals of shari'ah law. - MARK JOHN DURIE, WITNESS STATEMENT to VICTORIAN CIVIL AND ADMINISTRATIVE TRIBUNAL http://www.jihadwatch.org/dhimmiwatch/Witness%20Statement.pdf

When accusing the West of imperialism, Muslims are obsessed with the Christian Crusades but have forgotten their own, much grander Jihad. In fact, they often denounce the Crusades as the cause and starting point of the antagonism between Christianity and Islam. They are putting the cart before the horse. The Jihad is more than four hundred years older than the Crusades. -- Paul Fregosi, _Jihad in the West: Muslim Conquests from the 7th to the 21st Centuries_

Allah is its goal, the prophet is its model, the Koran is its constitution, jihad is its path and death for the sake of Allah is its most coveted desire.- Hamas Motto

I ask this very important question: is the jihad a religious right of those who declare and wage it, or is it a violation of the human rights of the people against whom it is declared and waged? - John Garang, chairman of the Sudan Peoples' Liberation Movement, press conference in Geneva March 1999

It would be a gross mistake to imagine that the idea of universal conquest may be considered as obliterated…the canonists and the vulgar still live in the illusion of the days of Islam's greatness. The legists continue to ground their appreciation of every actual political condition on the law of the holy war, which war ought never be allowed to cease entirely until all mankind is reduced to the authority of Islam- the heathen by conversion, the adherents of acknowledged Scripture by submission. Even if they admit the improbability of this at present, they are comforted an encouraged by the recollection of the lengthy period of humiliation that the Prophet himself had to suffer before Allah bestowed victory upon his arms; and they fervently join with the Friday preacher, when he announces the prayer taken from the Qur'an: "And lay not upon us, our Lord, that for which we have not strength, but blot out our sins and forgive us and have pity upon us. Thou art our Master; grant us then to conquer the unbelievers." And the common people are willingly taught by the canonists and feed their hope of better days upon the innumerable legends of the olden time and the equally innumerable apocalyptic prophecies about the future. The political blows that fall upon Islam make less impression…than the senseless stories about the power of the Sultan of Stambul, that would instantly be revealed if he were not surrounded by treacherous servants, and the fantastic tidings of the miracles that Allah works in the Holy Cities of Arabia which are inaccessible to the unfaithful. The conception of the Khalifate still exercises a fascinating influence, regarded in the light of a central point of union against the unfaithful.,- Hurgronje, Snouck. Mohammedanism. New York, 1916, p. 59.

Jihad is the highest expression of Islam. Fighting against unbelievers is an act of worship, one of the most supreme forms of devotion to God. Nothing compares with it in merit or reward. It brings material benefit (i.e. through booty), and spiritual merit.- Anyone who takes the path of jihad is guaranteed to be successful: either victory or paradise. Muslim armies in the past spread across the world spreading knowledge of Islam, instilling faith, and crushing the power of evil, so everyone was free to enter Islam. Jihad is essential for the spread of Islam. Fighting against non-Muslims is THE way to call others to God. It was not a contextual response to the needs of the first period of Islam, but is an inseparable part of the invitation to Islam. Jihad is so deeply rooted in the Qur'an and the life and example of Muhammad, that it could not be merely a response to the times in which Muhammad lived. Any position which sets itself up against Islam will, by definition, be violently opposed to Islam, and must be fought against. Evil &emdash; defined as opposition to Islam &emdash; is inherently militant. Furthermore, the only response to militant evil is an equally militant good: 'Falsehood fortified must be met with truth ironclad.' When Muslims today define jihad in ways other than described above, this is deception. They are diluting the Qur'an and the Sunnah. They are humiliated by their cowardice. Muslims must realize the true meaning of jihad, and 'feel superior' about their faith.- - Islamic Information and Services Network of Australasia, http://iisca.org/knowledge/jihad/jihad_for_allah.htm

Although in Arabic the word jihad means 'struggle' or 'hardship', as a term of Islam, it means 'to struggle against the disbelievers'. Other implications of jihad include struggling against Satan, ignorance and doubt. The struggle against disbelievers must be conducted with all that a Muslim possesses: with body, soul, wealth, words and heart. The world is divided into the powers of Satan and the forces of God. These are in competition for dominance. The one way to dispel power of Satan is to establish the Shari'ah in its totality over all the earth. Fighting against unbelievers (jihad) became normative for Muslims after the migration to Medina. This is a sign of its importance.
.- Islamic Information and Services Network of Australasia, http://iisca.org/knowledge/jihad/jihad_for_allah.htm

Against whom should Muslims fight?
a) Anyone who stands against the message of Islam and rejects it must become the object of jihad fighting.
b) If non-Muslims do not accept the truth of Islam, Muslims are obliged to fightthem.
c) Whenever the freedom of Muslims to proselytize is inhibited, then the governingauthorities must be overthrown.
What about the Qur'anic verse: 'There is no compulsion in religion'? The application of this verse is that a Muslim ruler should not compel his subjects to accept Islam. They are only to be compelled to accept his political authority.
Non-Muslims therefore have three choices:
a) become Muslims and enjoy the rights of other Muslims,
b) keep their ancestral religion and pay the jizyah, or
c) be in a state of war (jihad) from the Muslims.
The aims of jihad are:
a) Fight non-Muslims to assure everyone's right to choose Islam freely.
b) Fight non-Muslims to assure the right of Muslims to call others to Islam.
c) Fight non-Muslims to establish the rule and authority of Islam on earth. This is the supreme liberation of humanity.
- Islamic Information and Services Network of Australasia, http://iisca.org/knowledge/jihad/jihad_for_allah.htm

If you come to understand this, you should know that the greatest step of adherence to this firmest handhold and the highest step of disbelief in this man-made deity [the democratic legislator] is the peak of Islam. By this I mean The Jihad. The Jihad against the deity, his followers, and helpers, to try to damage this man made system, and to try to get the people to turn away from worshipping it and to return to the worship of Allah alone. - (Islamic Information and Services Network of Australasia), 'Democracy is a religion' www.iisna.com/articles/democracy.htm

Arguments against false understanding of jihad, current among Muslims today Many Muslims today think that jihad means any kind of struggle for God. This is a false understanding. Jihad as an Islamic, legal term means fighting (al-qitaal). The word jihad can be used in a non-technical, everyday sense meaning 'to struggle', but this is a different sense of the word, not to be confused with the Islamic meaning. Key points of the introductory section are: Other Islamic words have two meanings. For example salaah has 'prayer' (du'a) as it basic meaning. But it has a technical religious sense meaning the obligatory daily ritual worship. Similar observations apply to terms like zakah, saum, and hajj. No-one can satisfy Shari'ah requirements by applying everyday meanings to such words. For example you cannot satisfy the requirement of zakah 'purification' by taking a bath. As a legal term zakah can only be performed by giving 2.5% of annual savings to charity. Likewise, the obligation to perform jihad can only be satisfied by fighting. This distinction is well-known to the classical scholars of the four schools (madhaahib) of Sunni Islam. In both the Qur'an and the Sunnah, jihad generally means fighting (qitaal). This article has been translated in order to Muslim youth to take up fighting ('legal jihad') because some Muslims try to divert Muslim youth away from this - The Meaning of Jihad: Both Linguistically, and from the Shari'ah http://iisca.org/knowledge/jihad/meaning_of_jihad.htm

...for the theory of the world which it enshrines is still fundamental to the thinking of great masses of Muslim people to the present day. The troubles in India which lead up to the great Patna conspiracy trials of 1864 were due to the fact that Syed Ahmad of Oudh had preached against the Sikh cities of the Panjab a Jihad which later turned to one against all non-Muslim groups. The bloody episode of the Padri rebellion in Malaysia was due to the preaching of Jihad against the pagan Battak tribes. The Fula wars in the Hausa country [Western Sudan] in the early nineteenth century, which lead to Osman Dan Fodio's setting up the ephemeral sultanate of Sokoto, began as a jihad preached against the pagan king of Gobir. The Moplah rebellion in South India in 1921, with its massacres, forcible conversions, desecration of temples, and outrages on the hapless Hindu villagers, could be heard openly proclaimed as a Jihad in the streets of Madras.- Jeffery, Arthur. "The Political Importance of Islam," Journal of Near Eastern Studies, Vol. 1, 1942, p. 388.

It is of course, easy to raise the objection that a Jihad in the old sense is impossible of realization in the modern world, for Islam is far too badly divided for anything like a general Jihad to be contemplated and far too weak in technical equipment for a Jihad to be successful even if started. This does not dispose of the fact, however, that the earlier conception of Jihad has left a deposit in Muslim thinking that is still to be reckoned with in the political relations of the Western world with Islam.- Jeffery, A. "The Political Importance of Islam," 1942, pp. 388-389.

Muhammad, unlike Christ, was a man of violence, he bore arms, was wounded in battle and preached holy war, Jihad, against those who defied the will of God as revealed to him. -- John Keegan, _A History of Warfare_

In the Muslim community, the holy war [jihad] is a religious duty, because of the universalism of the [Muslim] mission and the [obligation to] convert everybody to Islam either by persuasion or by force. Therefore caliphate and royal authority are united [in Islam], so that the person in charge can devote the available strength to both of them [religion and politics] at the same time. The other religious groups did not have a universal mission, and the holy war was not a religious duty to them, save only for purposes of defence. It has thus come about that the person in charge of religious affairs [in other religions] is not concerned with power politics at all. …[Political authority is assigned among peoples of other religions] not because they are under obligation to gain power over other nations, as is the case with Islam. (Ibn Kaldun, The Muqaddimah, I, 480. 14th century).


Islam makes it incumbent on all adult males, provided they are not disabled and incapacitated, to prepare themselves for the conquest of other [countries] so that the writ of Islam is obeyed in every country in the world. But 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 war. Those [who say this] are witless. Islam says: Kill all the unbelievers just as they would kill you all! Does this mean that Muslims should sit back until they are devoured [by the unbelievers]? Islam says: Kill them [the non-Muslims], 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 that 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 [Koranic] psalms and Hadiths [sayings of the Prophet] 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. -- The Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, quoted in Amir Taheri's _Holy Terror: Inside the World of Islamic Terrorism_, 1987

Thus the jihad may be regarded as Islam's instrument for carrying out its ultimate objective by turning all people into believers, if not in the prophethood of Muhammad (as in the case of the dhimmis), at least in the belief of God. The Prophet Muhammad is reported to have declared "some of my people will continue to fight victoriously for the sake of the truth until the last one of them will combat the anti-Christ." Until that moment is reached the jihad, in one form or another will remain as a permanent obligation upon the entire Muslim community. It follows that the existence of a dar al-harb is ultimately outlawed under the Islamic jural order; that the dar al-Islam permanently under jihad obligation until the dar al-harb is reduced to non-existence; and that any community accepting certain disabilities- must submit to Islamic rule and reside in the dar al-Islam or be bound as clients to the Muslim community. The universality of Islam, in its all embracing creed, is imposed on the believers as a continuous process of warfare, psychological and political if not strictly military.- Khadduri, Majid. War and Peace in the Law of Islam, 1955, Richmond, VA and London, England, pp. 63-64.

There was another, perhaps more important, factor driving bin Ladin. In the past, Muslims fighting the West could always turn to the enemies of the West for comfort, encouragement, and material and military help. Now, for the first time in centuries, there is no such useful enemy. Bin Ladin and his cohorts soon realized that, if they wished to fight America they would have to do it themselves. In 1991, the same year that the Soviet Union ceased to exist, bin Ladin and his cohorts created Al-Qa'ida, which included many veterans of Afghanistan. Their task may have seemed daunting to anyone else, but they did not see it that way. In their view, they had already driven the Russians out of Afghanistan, in a defeat that was so overwhelming that it led directly to the collapse of the Soviet Union. Having overcome the superpower that they had always regarded as more formidable, they felt ready to take on the other; in this they were encouraged by the opinion, often expressed by bin Ladin among others, that America was a paper tiger. Muslim terrorists had been driven by such beliefs before. One of the most surprising revelations in the memoirs of those who held the American Embassy in Tehran from 1979 to 1981 was that there original intention had been to hold the building and hostages for only a few days. They changed their minds when statements from Washington made it clear that there was no danger of serious action against them. They finally released the hostages, they explained, only because they feared that the president-elect, Ronald Reagan, might approach the problem "like a cowboy." --Bernard Lewis, _The Crisis of Islam_

In particular, the 'economic class struggle' theories so pervasive in academe should be thrown out of the window in such an exercise. For, it is clear that the jihadis are not motivated by economic cravings, to drive in BMWs, or to indulge in other Western ways of living. Their struggle is not for wealth, and many of them left wealthy Arab families. [...] It is the religion as interpreted by the bearded men on the ground, running the madrassas, that matters in assessing the aspirations of jihadis, and not the Islam as interpreted by its relatively few Westernized liberal voices. Yes, we all wish Islam were more like it is cranked up to be on American college campuses today, and should encourage any movement in that direction. But, meanwhile, we must plan based on what it is perceived to be by those who are driven to such extremes based on religious dogma.-- Rajiv Malhotra, "America's Last Chance"

The lordship of man over man is the root cause of all corrupt rule. In the light of this principle, no laws are legitimate except God's law, and no government is legitimate except those who rule as God's deputies, implementing God's laws alone, which no-one has the power to change. So I say to you: if you really want to root out corruption now so widespread on God's earth, stand up and fight against corrupt rule; take power and use it on God's behalf. It is useless to think you change things by preaching alone. - Sayyid Abul A'la Mawdudi. Let us be Muslims. Trans. & ed. Khurram Murad. The Islamic Foundation, Leicester England. (Printed by A.S. Noordeen, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. ) Third Reprint 1991. First published under the title Kutubat in 1940. (Doc. 18) (p.288)

The truth is that a Muslim who reads the Quran with devotion is determined to reach the battlefield in order to attain the reality of Jihad. It is solely for this reason that the Kuffar [infidels] conspire to keep the Muslims far away from understanding the Quran, knowing that Muslims who understand the Quran will not distance themselves from Jihad. - Sheikh Omar Bakri Muhammad, Jihad, the foreign policy of the Islamic state..

If we look closely, we see that in Christianity there is no jihad because it has nothing at all. By which I mean that there is no Christian structure of society, no Christian legal system, and no Christian rules as to how a society is to be formed, for these to contain the laws of jihad. There is no substance in Christianity; it contains no more than a few moral teachings … Islam however is a religion that sees its duty and commitment to form an Islamic state. Islam came to reform society and to form a nation and government. Its mandate is the reform of the whole world. Such a religion cannot be indifferent. It cannot be without a law of jihad. It came to organize a state, to organize a government. Once this is done, how can it remain without an army? How can it be without a law of jihad? - (Ayatullah Morteza Mutahhari, JIHAD: the Holy War of Islam and its legitimacy in the Quran.. Translated by Mohammad Slaman Tawhidi (Tehran: Islamic Propagation Organization, 1985. http:/www.al-islam. org./jihad/short (Nov 2001).

When the sacred months are past, kill the idolators wherever you find them, and seize them, and besiege them, and lie in wait for them in every place of ambush; but if they repent, pray regularly, and give the alms tax, [i.e. if they follow Islam] then let them go their way, for God is forgiving, merciful. Regarding Christians and Jews (Peoples of the Book):Sura 9:5

Fight those who do not believe in God or the Last Day, and who do not forbid what has been forbidden by God and his Messenger, nor acknowledge the religion of truth from among the People of the Book [i.e. the Christians and Jews who refuse to accept Islam], until they pay the poll tax out of hand, having been humbled. - 9:29.

Britain is an evil regime and it is corrupt. The idea of democracy goes against everything that Muslims should believe. Democracy is a man-made construct. Instead, everyone should live their life by the teachings of Allah. You ask me to follow Tony Blair, a man, or to follow Allah, our divine teacher? There is no contest. We believe that it is the obligation of every Muslim to fight to create an Islamic state that is based on the Koran. ... Every single Muslim should have a love of Jihad. They should want to go out on a Jihad. Every single Muslim should have these feelings. It would not bother me to shoot a British soldier in the least. Why should it? -- Irfan Rasool, 18-year-old member of radical Muslim group Al-Muhajiroun, quoted http://news.scotsman.com/opinion.cfm?id=1739392001

According to Islamic law, the world is divided into three parts: dar al-harb (the house of war), dar al-islam (the house of Islam), and dar al-'ahd (the house of accord); that is, the countries with which a treaty was stipulated. [...]
As for the countries belonging to the "house of war," Islamic canon law recognizes no relations with them other than "holy war" (jihad), which signifies an "effort" in the way of Allah and has two meanings, both of which are equally essential and must not be dissociated, as if one could exist without the other. In its primary meaning, jihad indicates the "effort" that the Muslim must undertake to be faithful to the precepts of the Koran and so improve his "submission" (islam) to Allah; in the second, it indicates the "effort" that the Muslim must undertake to "fight in the way of Allah," which means fighting against the infidels and spreading Islam throughout the world. Jihad is a precept of the highest importance, so much so that it is sometimes counted among the fundamental precepts of Islam, as its sixth "pillar."
Obedience to the precept of the "holy war" explains why the history of Islam is one of unending warfare for the conquest of infidel lands. [...] In particular, all of Islamic history is dominated by the idea of the conquest of the Christian lands of Western Europe and of the Eastern Roman Empire, whose capital was Constantinople. Thus, through many centuries, Islam and Christianity faced each other in terrible battles, which led on one side to the conquest of Constantinople (1453), Bulgaria, and Greece, and on the other, to the defeat of the Ottoman empire in the naval battle of Lepanto (1571).
But the conquering spirit of Islam did not die after Lepanto. The Islamic advance into Europe was definitively halted only in 1683, when Vienna was liberated from the Ottoman siege by the Christian armies under the command of John III Sobieski, the king of Poland. [...] In reality, for almost a thousand years Europe was under constant threat from Islam, which twice put its survival in serious danger.
Thus, in all of its history, Islam has shown a warlike face and a conquering spirit for the glory of Allah. [...] against the "idolaters" who must be given a choice: convert to Islam, or be killed. [...] As for the "people of the Book" (Christians, Jews, and "Sabeans"), Muslims must "fight them until their members pay tribute, one by one, humiliated" (Koran, Sura 9:29). [...] - Giuseppe De Rosa

Unlike Christianity, which preached a peace that it never achieved, Islam unashamedly came with a sword.- Sir Stephen Runciman (1903-2000)

Jihad is a divinely ordained institution in Islam. By many authorities it is counted as one of the pillars of Islam. Theologically, it is an intolerant idea: a tribal god, Allah, trying to be universal through conquest. Historically, it was an imperialist urge masked in religious phraseology. -- Ram Swarup, _Understanding Islam through Hadis_

Since lawful warfare is essentially jihad and since its aim is that the religion is God's entirely and God's word is uppermost, therefore according to all Muslims, those who stand in the way of this aim must be fought. As for those who cannot offer resistance or cannot fight, such as women, children, monks, old people, the blind, handicapped and their likes, they shall not be killed unless they actually fight with words (e.g. by propaganda) and acts (e.g. by spying or otherwise assisting in the warfare). - Ibn Taymiyya (d. 1328), Hanbali jurist , in Rudolph Peters, Jihad in Classical and Modern Islam, (Princeton, NJ. : Markus Wiener, 1996, p. 49)

Jihad is a religious obligation. It forms part of the duties that the believer must fulfill; it is Islam's _normal_ path to expansion.-- Bat Yeor, _The Decline of Eastern Christianity_ Christianity_