Islam 1

I have decided to try in some small way to understand something about Islam as it affects the current world crises. Is Islam a religion of peace, or a religion of war? Can we live in pace with the Muslims among us? With Muslim nations? Are the troubles in the Middle East rooted in fundamentally opposing, irreconcilable world views, or in the usual struggle for power, wealth and land? Do Muslims really see us as Satan incarnate? Or is this merely the rhetoric of the fringe, the extreme radicals who happen to be in positions of influence at the moment? Is there a parallel I can understand between Muslim radicals and Christian radicals, for instance, or are we looking at two very different animals? What role does the religion of Islam play in potential solutions to Iraq, Iran, Palestine, etc. Is it the religion, or the national or ethnic identity that is at work here?

I have embarked on a series of readings which I hope will give me some insight. I plan to share whatever I discover as I go, so will post here bits and pieces as I go along. Whether I will find real answers is yet to be seen. Walk with me if you will—skip it if you don’t.

My first foray is into a book published in 2003 by Bernard Lewis titled The Crisis of Islam: Holy War and Unholy Terror.

Here’s what I’ve learned so far.

The crisis of Islam: Holy War and Unholy Terror
by Bernard Lewis
Copyright 2003


A significant difference between Islam and Christianity is this: Christianity was founded on principles of pacifism. Turn the other cheek. Love thine enemy. Render unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s, and render unto God that which is God’s. Islam, on the other hand, was founded on the conquering power of Mohamed in Medina.
He was a warrior, lived by the sword, and preached the sword. He was also a ruler, and the law of Islam is the law, period. Islam makes no distinction between God and Caesar. God is all there is. Therefore politics is an integral part of Islam "Islam is
nothing if not politics," says Ayatollah Khomeini.

"Islam is not only a matter of faith and practice; it is also an identity and a loyalty--for many, an identity and a loyalty that transcend all others."

It carries a mandate in the Kur'an to conquer and convert the
world, and once a land has been conquered and converted, it must remain Islam.

Islam ruled from the seventh century when it was founded until the 18th century when Britain and the west began their ascendancy. The Islamic empire spread from Medina across Asia and Africa and part of Europe, flourishing in power, culture, science etc. They have lost this world dominance in the past 300 years to the West.
Humiliation and frustration resulted, exacerbated by western imperialism and domination. Then they discovered the power they held in the oil reserves. In 1974 they held the world hostage and tasted sweet power as they banded together over the price and
production of oil. They began to travel, and see what they perceive as the decadence of the West, articulated in descriptions of dances, and other events. Their own rulers were supported by the west and were seen as decadent, corrupt, dissolute, and they blame it all on the west.

"Islamic terms offered several advantages: an emotionally familiar basis of group identity, solidarity, and exclusion; [like any respectable cult? But they're too big to be considered a cult, right?] an acceptable basis of legitimacy and authority; an
immediately intelligible formulation of principles for both a critique of the present and a program for the future. By means of these, Islam could provide the most effective symbols and slogans for mobilization, whether for or against a cause or a
regime."

In Islam, there is no system of priests and church officials as in Rome. In every mosque a preacher is free to preach his message to the people without oversight or control by authority. This gives the fundamentalists millions of pulpits from which to preach each his own brand of radicalism.

Lewis says that fundamentalist Muslims need an enemy, a focus for their frustration, their hatred, their disaffections and, I submit, their power base. We have all the requisite qualities, and we are it. Some want us dead and will die to make it happen.
Some just want to live in peace and benefit from western advances. Some want us dead but are willing to use the modern world and bide their time until they can achieve their ends. Lewis warns us no to confuse these last two groups.

Jihad

The concept of Jihad, the Holy War intended to conquer and convert the infidel dates back to Mohammed. It was the basis on which the Islamic empire was built. God--Allah--has mandated that Islam be spread by force if necessary to the world. Those who fight in the Jihad earn everlasting reward in heaven. The shar'ia, the code of Islamic law, expands on this concept. "The presumption is that the duty of jihad will continue, interrupted only by truces, until all the world either adopts the Muslim
faith or submits to Muslim rule. Those who fight in the jihad qualify for rewards in both worlds-- booty in this one, paradise in the next.”

The shar’ia expands on this concept:

“Jihad is your duty under any ruler, be they godly or wicked. A day and a night of fighting on the frontier
is better than a month of fasting and prayer. The nip of an ant hurts a martyr more than the thrust of a weapon, for these are more welcome to him than sweet, cold water on a hot summer day. He who dies without having taken part in a campaign dies in a kind of unbelief. God marvels at people [those to whom Islam is
brought by conquest] who are dragged to Paradise in chains. Learn to shoot, for the space between the mark and the archer is one of the gardens of Paradise. Paradise is in the shadow of swords."

The shar'ia also goes into great detail about the rules of war, fair treatment of the conquered and prisoners, etc. The jurists warn that the benefits of Jihad are lost if booty and power become the primary goal of the conflict--bringing Islam to the
infidel must remain the primary goal. Throughout history this has been a basic tenet of Islam.

imperialism by the west

The Islamic empire maintained its hegemony until 1683 when its armies were defeated at Vienna. This began the push by western powers to push them back out of Europe. The resounding questions it raised were how could this have happened, and how can we
regain this territory?

In 1798 Napoleon invaded Egypt and was routed by the British. This inaugurated the era of imperialism, primarily by the British and French. Imperialism is bad when it's the west doing it. It's good and beneficial to everyone when the Muslims did it and
wasn't called imperialism when they conquered half of Europe and
Asia. They were simply carrying out their mandate from God to conquer and convert the world. The Christian west was creating apostates among the saved, and thus was evil. Apostates and those who influence their behavior must by shar'ia law be killed.

Bin Laden believed that by defeating the Soviets in Afghanistan, his forces destroyed the Soviet Union and brought the cold war to an end. He saw the Soviets as imperialists, atheists etc. and thought America would be a much softer target now that the
Soviets were out of the way.

Discovering America

The United States was not really recognized or paid attention to by the Islamic countries until after WW2. At first, through cinema, television, and travel people started seeing glimpses of America and wanting our post-war products. But U.S. policies
began to interfere with Islamic countries. Setting up the Shah in Iran for instance, controlling oil wealth, etc. But outspoken critics of our way of life began to have serious impact on the way Muslims viewed America. Set against Muslim culture and law
regarding contact between the sexes, for instance, is a vivid depiction of a dance in a church hall where young men and women mixed, danced, touched, all to music and dimmed lights. What
could be more scandalous, more appalling, more sinful than that to a people with such strict sexual codes? Add this to what you see on TV and what apparently they see on TV as well, to diatribes against us by first German and the Soviet propaganda, our failure and thus weakness in not supporting our puppet Shah after he was overthrown, and the fear by the fundamentalists that our culture is polluting the morals of the high-minded Muslims, and you have plenty of ammunition for fear, contempt and loathing.

"By now there is an almost standardized litany of American offenses recited in the lands of Islam, in the media, in pamphlets, in sermons, and in public speeches. A notable example was in an address by an Egyptian professor at the joint meeting
of the European Union and the Organization of the Islamic Conference held in Istanbul in February 2002. The crime sheet goes back to the original settlement in North America, and what is described as the expropriation and extermination of the previous inhabitants and the sustained ill treatment of the survivors among them. It continues with the enslavement, importation, and exploitation of the blacks (an odd accusation
coming from that particular source) and of immigrants in the United States. It includes war crimes against Japan at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, as well as in Korea, Vietnam, Somalia, and elsewhere. Noteworthy among these crimes of imperialist aggression are American actions in Lebanon, Khartoum, Libya, Iraq, and of course helping Israel against the Palestinians. More broadly, the charge sheet includes support for Middle Eastern and other tyrants, such as the shah of Iran and Haile Selassie of Ethiopia, as well as a variable list of Arab tyrants, adjusted to circumstances, against their own peoples.

Yet the most powerful accusation of all is the degeneracy and
debauchery of the American way of life, and the threat that it offers to Islam. This threat, classically formulated by Sayyid Qutb, became a regular part of
the vocabulary and ideology of Islamic fundamentalists, and most notably, in the language of the Iranian Revolution. This is what is meant by the term the Great Satan, applied to the United States by the late Ayatollah Khomeini. Satan as depicted in the
Qur'an is neither an imperialist nor an exploiter. He is a seducer, "the insidious tempter who whispers in the hearts of men" (Qur'an CXIV, 4, 5)."