I heard the apostle of Allah say, I command by Allah to fight all the people till they say there is no god but Allah and I am his apostle. And whoever says that will save himself and his money.
9
The Muslims put these revelations into practice right away. They took jihad outside Arabia, attacking many countries in Asia, Africa, and Europe. This was the whole known world at the time.
In all Muhammad personally led twenty-seven battles. In addition he sent out his army forty-seven times without him (that’s about seven times a year).
10
Muhammad’s reign ended in AD 632 with his death. Despite his military
activity, he did not have a battle-related death. History records that he actually succumbed to an extended fever.
S
UMMARY
After reviewing the culture and some of the characteristics of the Arabic people prior to Muhammad, we have a deeper understanding of the bloody history of Islam. Disagreements and misunderstandings often led to terrorist acts among the pre-Islam Arabic people due to their predisposition to act emotionally and violently as a whole.
Because Islam entitled them to the defeated enemies’ possessions, the constant struggle for power among Arab tribes grew stronger and more brutal. Not only did they attack non-Muslims, but the early Muslim tribes also attacked each other. An example of this was the constant battle between the Ammoweyeen and the Hashemite, both of the tribe of Quraysh.
This culture readily accepted the philosophy of jihad that was revealed to Muhammad. These were progressive revelations of Quranic verses over a period of about twenty-two years. The progressive steps were:
1. Fight those who persecuted you (in Medina).
2. Conquer those who reject Islam in your region (the Arabian Desert).
3. Conquer the world in the name of Islam.
No Quranic revelation contradicted this final command of jihad, so it is still the goal of Islam today.
THE ULTIMATE GOAL OF ISLAM
Worldwide Submission to Islam
J
UST AS IN
the days of Muhammad, the fundamentalist followers of Islam today are pursuing world conquest. The best way I can describe this mind-set is to let one of the leaders say it in his words.
One of the clearest writers and thinkers of modern jihad is Mawlana Abul Ala Mawdudi, the founder of Pakistan’s fundamentalist movement. He has written many books and is one of Islam’s most well-known scholars. The entire Islamic world considers him a leader who will be remembered throughout history. He explains the purpose of Islam as follows:
Islam is not a normal religion like the other religions in the world, and Muslim nations are not like normal nations. Muslim nations are very special because they have a command from Allah to rule the entire world and to be over every nation in the world.
1
He points out that the purpose of the strive is not about land, but about the religion—the goal is to subdue the world to the rule of Islam:
Islam is a revolutionary faith that comes to destroy any government made by man. Islam doesn’t look for a nation to be in better condition than another nation. Islam doesn’t care about the land or who owns the land. The goal of Islam is to rule the entire world and submit all of mankind to the faith of Islam. Any nation or power in this world that tries to get in the way of that goal, Islam will fight and destroy.
In order for Islam to fulfill that goal, Islam can use every power available every way it can be used to bring worldwide revolution. This is jihad.
2
Mawdudi also expressed the idea that Islam is a political system and way of life that must replace all other ways of life:
Islam is not just a spiritual religion; Islam is a way of life. It is a heavenly system revealed to our world through the angel Gabriel, and the responsibility of Muslims is to destroy any other system in the world and to replace it with the Islamic system.
Everyone who believes in Islam in this manner can be a member of
Jamaat-i-Islami
[the Pakistani fundamentalist movement founded by the author]. I don’t want anybody to think that Muslims who join the party of God are just normal Muslim missionaries or normal preachers in the mosque or people who write articles. The party of God is a group established by Allah himself to take the truth of Islam in one hand and to take the sword in the other hand and destroy the kingdoms of evil and the kingdoms of mankind and to replace them with the Islamic system. This group is going to destroy the false gods and make Allah the only God.
3
By saying “false gods,” the author is referring to political leaders who are not under Islamic authority, such as presidents or prime ministers of Western countries.
As you can see, Islam is the faith of struggle, revolution,
and war. Islam doesn’t want a little piece of the world—it wants it all.
C
HRISTIANS AS
T
ARGETS
Christians are a target in the goal of world conquest because they resist conversion. This perspective is not just implied. It is explicitly stated.
In 1980 there was a meeting of the Muslim International World Society in Lehore, Pakistan.
Le Vigaro
, a prominent French newspaper, reported that the conference discussed ways that the Islamic world could end the existence of the Christian minority in the Muslim world or force them to become Muslim. Their timetable for achieving this was the end of the second millennium.
The chairman of this society sued the French newspaper in 1984, claiming that the report was false. But I believe the newspaper reported the truth, because that is truly the agenda of Islam.
Another example of the mind-set of converting Christians to Islam occurred during the Lebanese Civil War. This war between Christians and Muslims lasted twenty years, and no one could figure out how to get them to stop—not the United Nations or even the other Arab countries.
The late leader of Libya, Muammar Qaddafi, considered himself to be a great thinker, and he announced one day that he had a solution to the problem. His solution was for the Christians to convert to Islam and then they would be brothers and sisters with the Muslims and the fighting would stop. Qaddafi said:
I hope there is a new generation of Lebanese Christians who will wake up one day and realize Arabs cannot be Christians and Christians cannot be Arabs, so then they will convert to Islam and be true Arabs.
4
M
ETHODS OF
J
IHAD
We’ve seen that jihad was established in the Quran and that it involves world domination. Jihad is now the call for every Muslim. Now let us see how jihad is practiced in three stages in modern times.
THE THREE STAGES OF JIHAD
How a Weakened Muslim Minority Takes Over
I
F YOU LOOK
at Muslim countries around the world, you will see that they are in one of the following three stages of jihad. (My source for these stages is Islamic theology based on the Quran.)
W
EAKENED
S
TAGE
This stage applies to Muslims when they are a weak, small minority living in a non-Islamic society. In this case overt jihad is not the call of the hour. Muslims submit to the law of the land, but they work to increase their numbers.
At this stage Muslims follow the word given to Muhammad in Mecca: “There is no compulsion in religion” (Surah 2:256,
The Noble Quran
). You have probably heard people in the media quoting this verse to prove that Islam does not compel, or force, anyone to convert.
Another key verse Muhammad received at this time was Surah 5:105:
O you who believe! Take care of your ownselves. If you follow the (right) guidance [and enjoin what is right (Islamic Monotheism and all that Islam orders one to do) and forbid what is wrong (polytheism, disbelief and all that Islam has forbidden)] no hurt can come to you from those who are in error. The return of you all is to Allah, then He will inform you about (all) that which you used to do.
—T
HE
N
OBLE
Q
URAN
This verse was a response to Muslims in Mecca who were wondering what to do about all the unbelievers around them. It basically told them, “Be responsible for yourself. Don’t worry about the infidels around you. You and they will all go before Allah one day and be judged by your works.”
These verses speak of living quietly and at peace with unbelievers; however, we need to remember that Muhammad received these words when Muslims were a small, weak group in Mecca. After his movement gained strength, Muhammad received new words that canceled out (
naskh
) these verses.
P
REPARATION
S
TAGE
This stage is when the Muslims are a reasonably influential minority. Because their future goal is direct confrontation with the enemy, they make preparations in every possible area—financial, physical, military, mental, and any other area.
Let not the Unbelievers think that they can get the better (of the godly): they will never frustrate (them).
Against them make ready your strength to the utmost of your power
, including steeds of war, to strike terror into (the hearts of) the enemies, of Allah and your enemies, and others besides whom you may not know, but whom Allah knows.
—S
URAH
8:59–60, A
LI TRANSLATION, EMPHASIS ADDED
The Noble Quran
includes some interesting commentary. Notice the words in parentheses:
And make ready against them all you can of power, including steeds of war
(tanks, planes, missiles, artillery)
to threaten the enemy of Allah . . .
—S
URAH
8:60,
EMPHASIS ADDED
This commentary should confirm for the reader that Muslims are practicing this verse in modern times.
J
IHAD
S
TAGE
This stage is when Muslims are a minority with strength, influence, and power. At this stage every Muslim’s duty is to actively fight the enemy, overturning the system of the non-Muslim country and establishing Islamic authority.
This stage is based on the final revelation that Allah received concerning jihad, which is Surah 9:5. Though I quoted this verse earlier, it is so significant in Islamic thinking that it bears repeating:
Fight and slay the Pagans wherever you find them, and seize them, beleaguer them, and lie in wait for them in every strategem (of war) . . .
—A
LI TRANSLATION
Muslims are commanded to kill anyone who chooses not to convert to Islam. The verse says “wherever you find them.” There are no geographical limits.
M
UHAMMAD
’
S
E
XAMPLE
These three stages are exactly what the prophet Muhammad lived out. At first he showed no animosity to his enemies (Phase 1). After he left Mecca, he spent his first year in
Medina preparing his army (Phase 2). Then he declared jihad, went back to fight his enemies, completely conquered Mecca, and brought it under his authority (Phase 3).
L
EBANON
The recent history of the modern nation of Lebanon can provide us a good example of the three stages in practice.
Stage 1: Muslims cooperate with the Christian majority.