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 Contents
and everywhere.... —Sura 8:39
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

Printed in 2008

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
Foreword
N 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. Well-
known 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.
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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 Why This Book?
faith? Even more surprising is the large number of people who

I
seem to believe the peace story, even in the highest levels of our
gnorance can be bliss. It can also be dangerous. The
government and amongst the various branches of Christianity.
day my husband and I set out in our 22’ powerboat for a
Would not a good test be to read their holy books, the Quran and
5-week, 500-mile trip in the Inside Passage, we left in mid-
the Hadith? Or their history? Or what is happening around the
afternoon. Away from the harbor, winds rose and waves
world at the present time?
began to toss us around. I’ll never forget the image of a
Thanks to political correctness, we make concessions to
remote island lighthouse, lit against darkening clouds, atop
groups that we would not for individuals. Are we so anxious for
cliffs sheer to the sea, with waves surging and crashing in
change that we would agree to Sharia law and give up freedom
explosions of spray halfway up the cliffs.
as we have known it? What about all those who have fought
Weather wasn’t the worst of our problems. It was getting
and died to preserve our American freedoms?
late. Our destination was a protected anchorage to the north of
If you say Islam is compatible with present Constitutional
a large island. We could clearly see the point we had to round in
law and democracy, then I say you haven’t read or heard what
the distance, but the sun sank faster as evening approached. We
current Islamist leaders themselves say about these concepts.
rounded the point in twilight and searched for the entrance to
Especially in their own language (usually Arabic). If you want
the cove as the last grey light faded to black. How, now, could
to know even more, read everything you can find written by
we find our safe haven? As we motored cautiously along shore,
those who have escaped Islam’s hold. Usually to do that, they
straining our eyes, the most welcome sight of my life came into
have to give up everything. Do you know what I mean by
view. It was a big boat, well-lit, secure in the cove we were
everything? Few Americans can even grasp the concept!
desperately seeking. It guided us in to safety.
It makes me sad, no, not sad, MAD, to know that many large
Other adventures followed in the weeks to come. We woke
mosques in this country, financed by Saudi Arabia, teach the
one morning and looked out to see our anchor securely attached
extremist Wahhabi view of Islam and sell books in their attached
to shore. The tide had gone out! My husband has an even better
bookstores that advocate the overthrow of our government. We
story about a falling tide. Once long ago he woke to find his
bought some of our books from those bookstores. It used to be
flat-bottomed boat balanced atop a rock! Ripples lapped gently
called treason but now, I guess, that’s not politically correct.
several feet below! All he could do was wait for the water.
Take the time to probe deeper. I think you will find that
Then there was our first glacier. We were floating three-
Islamist thought and action is meanacing and something that
quarters of a mile or so from its face when a huge wall of ice
you should definitely know more about. That, my friends, is the
broke off and thundered into the sea, sending a big curling wave
purpose of this book.
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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.
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. Why Do They Hate Us?
But I can’t forget that Hitler attained his position of power in

W
large part because individuals like me chose to studiously look
hy do they hate us? Anguished Americans searched
the other way. People were too busy with their own lives to
their souls after 9-11. The premeditated tragedy seemed
care, until such a tsunami of destruction washed over the world
incomprehensible, insane! We must have done something to
that they had no choice but to rearrange their priorities!
deserve it! If we could pinpoint our errors and rectify them,
Knowledge is power. If we are to have power to ride out
surely we could get the world back on track toward the peaceful
the storm, we need understanding, whether we want it or not.
future that seemed all so possible after the end of the Cold War.
As elections loom in America, we individually must exercise
As a child, I assumed all families were like mine. I thought
a precious right to choose who will guide our ship through the
all parents would react the way mine did to provocations or
impending hurricane. I feel compelled to say something. Once
misbehavior. Because of my personality and perhaps my status
I have said my piece, my conscience will be clear and I will
as the eldest child, I blamed myself for harsh words or spankings
be free to turn my attention elsewhere, content to know I have
that came my way. If Dad was angry, it must be my fault. As I
not been complicit. You can agree or disagree, or even choose
cried myself to sleep, I resolved to do better, to be more careful,
not to read what I have to say at all! I simply present this
to listen and obey, to study harder in school, to do anything,
information for your consideration. It summarizes countless
anything, to please him, so he couldn’t help but love and
hours of research so you don’t have to do the research yourself.
appreciate me. That, I thought, would surely solve my problems.
I encourage you to verify what I say. Check to see if it is true.
If I could change myself, which was within my power, then my
Some preliminary comments:
family would be as peaceful and loving as I dreamed it could be.
1. I will use the specific word “Allah” rather than the generic
What is obvious in the second example, but not necessarily
word “God.” “Allah” is accented on the second syllable.
in the first, is that I lacked an adequate frame of reference. I had
2. Islam means “submission.” It is accented on the second
no historical perspective. I did not take into account my father’s
syllable. Islam is the name of the religion. Muslim means “one
history or his way of perceiving things. I mistakenly thought
who submits.” Those who submit to Allah are called Muslims.
everything was about ME.
3. This book focuses on Islamism the political ideology as
It took exposure to other families and other perspectives to
distinct from Islam the religion. Any Muslim who thinks this
eventually undermine my assumptions and convince me that
book denounces Islam is saying he believes they are one and the
the biggest part of the situation in my family had nothing to do
same. That indicates to me that he may be an Islamist himself,
with me. Not that I was flawless or perfectly innocent. But
or at least sympathetic. Muslims are not all Islamists.
my childhood belief that I was the center and cause of events,
4. “Slander” means “false accusation.” Truth is not slander.
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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?
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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!
Muhammad: Seal of the Prophets
T
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.
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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
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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
offers a total way of life for it is perfect in itself.  —
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.
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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
dhimma, a concessionary piety and perfection.
charter granted to unbelievers —Islam in Focus
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.
Words from the Quran
F
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
22
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?
23
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.
24
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.
25
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.
26
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:
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.
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:
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.
27
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.
Sura 2:216:
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.
Sura 2:191:
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)?”
28
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
29
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
30
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.
31
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.

Islam through the Ages
M
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
33
“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’.
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.
34
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.”
35
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
36
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.
37
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.
38
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?
The End of an Empire
A
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 self-
government 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
40
“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
41
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
42

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 Islam Is the Answer
days later were able to defeat a modern European army.

T
The Allies eventually prevailed in the so-called “War to End
he fall of the Ottoman Empire and the end of the
All Wars”, thanks in part to help from America. The ancient
Caliphate shocked Muslims. They had always viewed
Ottoman Empire collapsed in 1922. The Sultan was deposed
the glorious and victorious history of Islam as proof of the
and fled into exile. Turkey, under Kemal Ataturk, suppressed
religion’s truth. Defeat by Christian Europe led to a far-
Islam as a relic of the past and looked foward to a future of
reaching moral and intellectual crisis. It brought into doubt
secularization and modernization.
the very truth of the Muslim worldview.
If Islam is superior and Allah is greater, as millions chant
Post War
several times a day in prayer, how could the kafirs (infidels)
One British strategy to defeat the Ottoman Empire was to
have possibly prevailed?
encourage Arab tribes to rise up against their Turkish overlords.
Different Muslim philosophers answered the question
“Lawrence of Arabia” (T.E. Lawrence) worked to rally the
differently. Some advocated learning from the West and
support of Arab warriors. Many assumptions were made at
incorporating new ideas and technologies into the service
the time based on erroneous understandings of Islam. Britain
of Islamic ideals. Some advocated modernization and the
assumed, for example, that Arabs would prefer competent
separation of religion and government. Many sought refuge in
European rule to incompetent Turkish rule. Contradictory
Communist ideology or Nasser’s pan-Arabism.
promises were made in the heat of war. The seeds for future
Islamists, including the Wahabbi (Salafi) sect in Saudi
conflict were plentifully sown and we are reaping the results
Arabia, the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, and Mawdudi in
today. Europeans with almost no knowledge of Islam or Middle
Pakistan, insisted that Allah had allowed the “humiliation” of
Eastern culture drew lines on a map and created “nations.”
the Muslims because they had neglected true religion. Muslims
Colonel House, one of President Wilson’s confidants, said of
had compromised with unIslamic ideas, and allowed corruption
the plan to partition the Middle East:
to seep in. Islam, they claimed, was the answer.
It’s all bad and I told Balfour so. They are making a
breeding place for future war.
An American missionary said. Ibn Taymiyyah (1263-1328)
You are flying in the face of four millenniums of history if At various times in the past when Islam suffered loss of
you draw a line around Iraq and call it a political entity! prestige, men had arisen to advocate a reversion to “pure”
The sleepy Middle East Gertrude Bell had described as “a or “true” Islam, as practiced by Muhammad himself and the
land of make believe” began to awaken from its centuries-long Rightly Guided Caliphs. One of these men was Ibn Taymiyyah.
slumber. 43
44 45

He lived in what is now Turkey during the disastrous Mongol The Ikhwan attacked Iraq and massacred thousands of
invasions. Clearly, he reasoned, Allah had turned his back Shiites, sacking their shrines. They even desecrated Sunni
on the Muslims because the Muslims had turned their backs shrines, including the Tomb of the Prophet in Medina, saying
on Allah. Islam would rise again if Muslims would return that Muslims had wrongly adopted the European custom of
wholeheartedly to pure worship, eradicate all corruptions and worshipping saints, who were mere men.
forbid innovation. They must once again place spiritual values An Arab witness described their fierceness as warriors:
at the center of their lives and enforce Divine Law (Sharia). I have seen them hurl themselves on their enemies, utterly
Anyone who disagreed he denounced as apostate, deserving fearless of death, not caring how many fall, advancing
of death. He legitimized jihad against fellow Muslims based on rank upon rank with only one desire—the defeat and
the doctrine of takfir. He also asserted that possession of land annihilation of the enemy. They normally give no quarter,
sparing neither boys nor old men, veritable messengers of
by unbelievers is illegitimate. Everything rightfully belongs
death from whose grasp no one escapes.
to Allah, the Creator of the world, and should revert by Divine
In their attack on Taif, a city near Mecca, they “killed
Right to adherents of Allah’s religion, the Muslims.
every woman, man, and child they saw, even cutting babies in
cradles.” Survivors who surrendered were put to the sword.
Abdul Wahhab (1703-1792)
Only the superior firepower of European weapons employed
Centuries later, Muhammad ibn Abd-al-Wahhab was so
by Egyptian troops finally ended the Wahhabi campaign. The
convinced of the truth of Ibn Taymiyyah’s thesis that he copied
Ikhwan surrendered to the Egyptians on—you’ll never guess—
all his writings by hand. Islam was again in decline. The
September 11, 1818.
Ottoman Turks, non-Arabs, ruled the empire. Britain was
They know their history....
encroaching on holy soil, establishing protectorates.
Wahhab gained followers after reinstituting such practices
The House of Saud engaged in military campaigns over the
as the stoning of adulteresses, prescribed in the Quran. His goal
next 140 years, endeavoring to gain control over the Muslin
was to purify Islam by returning to the original principles of
holy cities of Mecca and Medina. During World War I, the
the Salafs (righteous ancestors) and eliminating all innovations,
British supported both the Sauds and their long-time rivals the
which he regarded as corruptions. Outsiders call his
Hashemites in the fight to undermine and defeat the Ottoman
interpretation of Islam Wahabbism. Adherents call it Salafism.
Turks. In 1922, after the World War, the House of Saud finally
Abdul Wahhab gained influence when he made a covenant
succeeded in driving the Hashemites out of Arabia and gaining
with a powerful tribal leader, Muhammad ibn Saud, in 1744,
control over the entire Arabian Peninsula.
an agreement sealed by marriage. Wahhab and his descendants
The covenant between Wahhabi religious authorities and the
would forever have religious jurisdiction over any territory Ibn
House of Saud stands to this day, in Saudi Arabia.
Saud or his descendants conquered.
Abdul Wahhab formed a warrior group, the Ikhwan
Muslim Brotherhood and Sayd Qutb (1906-1966)
(Brothers). The Wahhabi mission was threefold: (1) Cleanse
In Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood rose in the 1920s to
Muslim society and restore it to its original purity. (2) Rebuff
oppose the West’s nation making. It maintained that only one
infidels from Muslim lands. (3) Expand until all the world
nation, the Muslim umma (community), governed by Divine
submits to Allah’s Divine Law (Sharia).
46
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
47
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
48
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 man-
made 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
49
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,
50

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, Recipe for Genocide
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.
S
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
52
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.
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.
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
53
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:
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.
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:
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:
54
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.
55
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
56

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 Millennial Fervor: 1979
place to assess public outcry or support and to set the stage for

T
molding public opinion.
he year A.D. 1979 brought the beginning of the 15th
7. Extermination. At this stage, only rapid and
century on the Islamic calendar, which dates from 622
overwhelming armed intervention can halt genocide. In some
when Muhammad assumed the mantle of governmental as
cases, nonaggression at this stage is suicidal.
well as religious authority. (Muslims use a lunar calendar
8. Denial. Evidence may be destroyed. No one admits
so their year is shorter than a solar year.)
personal responsibility. Perpetrators blame the victims or
You may remember the speculation that accompanied the
suggest that the they invented the story.
approach of Y2K in the Gregorian calendar. Some people saw
the beautiful promise of a new beginning, a fresh start. Some
How far have Islamists proceeded along this continuum?
people thought 2000 would bring the end of the world.
A quick look at Arab media (www.memri.com, www.memritv.
The same kinds of speculations and expectations rippled
com, www.pmw.org.il) will show that they have been well into
throughout the Muslim world as the calendar approached
step 5 for some time. They have clearly stated their intention
1400 A.H. (after Hegira). When, in February 1979, the
to eliminate Israel and humiliate/destroy the United States.
Ayatollah Khomeini took power and instituted Divine Law
September 11 was a “trial genocide.”
(Sharia) in Iran, shock waves coursed through the Muslim
It would be naïve to assume detailed preparations are not
world. Those who longed for the return of Muslim dominance,
being made to accomplish their stated goals.
both Shia and Sunni, thought Iran heralded a new beginning.
The Ayatollah mocked and disparaged the West. U.S. hostages
Osama bin Laden was widely criticized in the Muslim
were held for 444 days, and no one could do a thing about it.
press, but not for killing thousands of noncombatants. He was
Infidel America was humiliated by a Muslim who dared.
criticized for not first clearly inviting America to repent and
Khomeini shouted his defiance to the world:
submit to Allah as required in the Quran. Bin Laden has since The governments of the world should know that Islam
remedied that situation. He has written to President Bush and cannot be defeated. Islam will be victorious in all the
offered to serve as his personal mentor and guide should he countries of the world, and Islam and the teachings of the
choose to embrace Islam. He has also written to the American Quran will prevail over all the world.
people and appeared on television, inviting each of individually And:
to submit to Allah, the One True God. Those who study Islamic holy war will understand why
We have been duly warned. Whatever happens to us in Islam wants to conquer the whole world. … Those who
future, in the view of Islamists, is our own responsibility. 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 [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 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.
59
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.
60
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
61
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.
62

Islamist Ideologues

The Third Jihad

T 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
Sayd Qutb 1906-1966
Mawdudi, an Islamist:
(Egypt)
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
Mawdudi 1903-1979
the cause of Allah is indeed engaged in jihad. But in the
(Pakistan) 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
Hassan al-Banna 1906-1949 countries to offer help. If even they fail, then the Muslims
(Egypt) 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
Abdullah Azzam 1941-1989
every claim to being a Muslim is doubtful.
(Palestine) 63
64
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:
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.
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:
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
65
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.
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.
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.
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.
66
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.
67
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.
68

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 Allah’s Divine Law (Sharia)

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.
A
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,
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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.
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.
71
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?
72
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.
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 Justice
• No capitalism. Muhammad Qutb wrote, “The evil of • No law is valid if it contradicts the Quran.
capitalism has poisoned all life.” • No right to a defense attorney.
• No interest on money. All interest is “usury.” • Judges can ignore any evidence they don’t care to hear.
• No piggy banks. (You think I’m joking?) • No trial by jury.
• Man rightfully owns only what he works for. • No appeals.
• Land left unused for 3 years may be claimed by others. • Sentences imposed quickly.
• No cooperatives. • A woman cannot testify alone. Two women required.
• No monopolies or price fixing by the government. • Non-Muslims may not testify against Muslims. According
• No insurance. to Hanafi jurist Sarakhsi (d 1090): “The word of a dishonest
• No retirement. Islamic law is the epitome Muslim is more valuable than that of an honest dhimmi.”
• No benefits. of Islamic thought, the most • Hadd crimes (those specified in the Quran) are punishable
• No bonuses. typical manifestation of the by amputation of hands and feet, crucifixion, cutting out of
• No raises. Islamic way of life, the core the tongue, flogging, etc. For example:
and kernel of Islam itself. Adultery: stoning.
Food and Drink —Joseph Schacht Fornication: 100 stripes. If the harshness of our
• No wine. Homosexuality: Death. laws deters people from
• No liquor or spirits. Apostasy: Death. committing these crimes,
• No meat or products of swine. Drinking wine: 80 stripes.
then society is a better place.
Theft: cutting right hand.
Use of Time  —Hassan Turabi, President of Sudan
Robbery on the highway:
• No gambling. loss of hands and feet.
• No “vain sports.” (Football, golf, etc.) Robbery with murder: death by the sword or crucifixion.
• No Sabbath or weekends. Muslims will argue that there are strict rules of evidence that
• No music, especially no musical instruments. Osama bin eliminate the possibility of wrongful convictions. However,
Laden wrote, “Music is the flute of the devil.” confessions (even under torture) can be accepted as proof.
• No images of people or animals in art.
• No dancing. Religion
• No drama. • 5 calls to prayer, the first before dawn (no sleeping in).
• No TV or radio (unless for religious education). • Ritual cleansings before each prayer.
• No waste of any degree or kind. • Zakat, payment of 2.5% of yearly increase in net worth.
• Fasting from sunup to sundown during the entire month of
Politics and Government Ramadan.
• The Quran is the constitution. • Non-Muslims pay jizya and observe provisions of
• No political parties with non-Islamic platforms. concessionary charters. See p. 34 for an example.
• Three branches of government, with judicial the strongest. • Criticism of Islam or the Prophet carries a death penalty.
76
“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.
Why They Hate Us
I
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
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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.
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.
80
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.
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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.
82
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.
Theologian and historian Ibn Khaldun (d 1406):
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.
Hamas leader Khaled Mash’al after the 2006 election:
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.
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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.
Elham, a young woman of Hamas in an Israeli prison:
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.
Siraj Wahaj, first Muslim to deliver a daily prayer before the
United States House of Representatives, a year later to Muslims:
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.”
 85

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
Glossary tyrant, according to Mawdudi.

O
Abd: Slave, black person, filth. (All in one word.)
ne last thing. Remember I said Islam is a relgion of
Ablution: The practice of removing sins, diseases or defilement
peace, but that you must understand what “peace”
through ritual washing.
means to them? According to Sayd Qutb: “The peace
Al Aqsa: The mosque atop the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.
which Islam desires is that the religion be purified for
Distinct from the Dome of the Rock, which is a shrine.
Allah, that the obedience of all people be for Allah alone.”
Al Qaeda: Literally “the base.”
Peace is the final stage of dawa (spreading of Islam), when
Al Quds: Arabic for Jerusalem.
all mankind has submitted, either by conversion or payment
Ayatollah: Literally “sign of Allah.” A high ranking Shia
of jizya. Once Allah’s law (Sharia) becomes universal, the
cleric and expert in Islamic law and history. There are
world will enjoy true and lasting peace and justice.
approximately 20 ayatollahs in the world.
Cross-cultural understanding is difficult in the best of
Caliph: Vice-regent of Allah and successor to Muhammad.
situations. Words don’t translate exactly when the concepts
Adam was the first caliph. The Mahdi will be the last.
behind words are missing or different. Sometimes word
Caliphate: One-world government under Islamic law.
definitions can open doors to other understandings of the world.
Dajjal: Islam’s anti-messiah. Means “the deceiver, imposter,
We must how those we attempt to communicate with perceive
quack.” Muslims believe he will be physically misshapen
things and define the words they use.
and blind in his left eye. He will deceive the faithful, telling
The first list is of English words. Some words have been
them that heaven is hell and vice versa. He will have the
intentionally redefined by Islamists for their own purposes.
power to work miracles in order to mislead Muslims.
Dar al Harb: House of war. Any territory that is not in the
Abrogation: Rendering a prior revelation null and void by
House of Islam is in the house of war. Qutb claimed that all
replacing it with a new, better one.
the world was dar al harb because nowhere was Allah’s law
Freedom: Elimination of jahiliyya (ignorance). Freedom from
being strictly enforced.
lust and animal passions. Freedom from human authority
Dar al Islam: House of Islam. Lands ruled by Divine Law.
Injustice: According to Mawdudi, a person who disobeys Allah
Dawa: Spreading of the faith, proselytization. Proceeds
perpetrates the greatest of injustices.
without bloodsheed unless there is resistance.
Peace: The final stage of dawa (spreading of Islam) when all
Dhimmi: Non-Muslim protected under a concessionary charter.
mankind has either converted or submitted. The state of
Fatwa: A legal pronouncement made by a mufti (Islamic
having all relationships and priorities in order.
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.
88
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.
90

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.