Jihad in the West by Paul Fregosi
Introduction: The Holy War That Isn't
Paragraph 12
The jihad originates in the Koranic teaching and was practiced by Muhammad in his lifetime against Jewish and Pagan tribes in the Arabian peninsula, and soon after his death against the Persians and against the Christian peoples of the Byzantine empire, Syria, and Palestine. Hundreds of years later it terrified Europe. "From the fury of the Mahommedan, spare us, O Lord" was a prayer heard for centuries in all the churches of central and southern Europe. Fear of the Jihad had not entirely vanished even now, particularly among peoples who have known Muslim domination. The French expert on Islam, Maxime Robinson, reminded us of it a few years ago in the June 17, 1994, issue of the Paris newspaper Le Monde: "There are some words that scare people, jihad is one of them. When Serbian leaders want to satanize the Bosnian army they declare that Alija Izet Begovic (the Bosnian Muslim leader) has proclaimed Holy war, the jihad, the feared weapon of Islam."
Showing posts with label Jihad in the West. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jihad in the West. Show all posts
Saturday, February 25, 2012
Jihad in the West - The Holy War that Isn't P11
Jihad in the West by Paul Fregosi
Introduction: The Holy War That Isn't
Paragraph 11
"The sword is the key to Heaven and Hell" Muhammad told his followers. 600 years earlier, Christ had said, "He who lives by the sword shall perish by the sword." Muslims who kill are following the commands of Muhammad, but Christians who kill - and there are many - are ignoring the words of Christ. Therein perhaps lies one of the basic philosophical differences, as well as one of the ethical differences, between Islam and Christianity.
Introduction: The Holy War That Isn't
Paragraph 11
"The sword is the key to Heaven and Hell" Muhammad told his followers. 600 years earlier, Christ had said, "He who lives by the sword shall perish by the sword." Muslims who kill are following the commands of Muhammad, but Christians who kill - and there are many - are ignoring the words of Christ. Therein perhaps lies one of the basic philosophical differences, as well as one of the ethical differences, between Islam and Christianity.
JIhad in the West - The Holy War in the West P10
Jihad in the West by Paul Fregosi
Introduction: The Holy War That Isn't
Paragraph 10
Although there have been Jihads in the three old continents, I have limited this history to Europe. The world is too vast a stage. Asia, particularly the formerly Christian Near East and Central Asia, and the subcontinent of India undoubtedly deserve the history of their own jihads also. So does Africa,with the Muslim conquest of old Christian Egypt and North Africa, as well as large parts of West and East Africa with animist and black tribal religions. But for this first general history of the jihad, Europe provides sufficiently extensive setting.
Introduction: The Holy War That Isn't
Paragraph 10
Although there have been Jihads in the three old continents, I have limited this history to Europe. The world is too vast a stage. Asia, particularly the formerly Christian Near East and Central Asia, and the subcontinent of India undoubtedly deserve the history of their own jihads also. So does Africa,with the Muslim conquest of old Christian Egypt and North Africa, as well as large parts of West and East Africa with animist and black tribal religions. But for this first general history of the jihad, Europe provides sufficiently extensive setting.
Friday, February 24, 2012
Jihad in the West - The Holy War that Isn't P9
Jihad in the West by Paul Fregosi
Introduction: The Holy War That Isn't
Paragraph 9
The jihad appears more and more as an interminable fact of life, almost a freak of nature. Like the Earth going around the Sun, the jihad seems to have power, if not perpetual motion, at least of perpetual continuity. In this domain of the stars and planets, a friend of mine once compared it to Haley's Comet. "It steaks across the sky, then vanishes again." The comparison is not quite true. Haley's Comet appears very rarely and does no damage. Jihad appears quite frequently and does a lot of damage. So does its modern terrorist version. So does its modern terrorist version.
Introduction: The Holy War That Isn't
Paragraph 9
The jihad appears more and more as an interminable fact of life, almost a freak of nature. Like the Earth going around the Sun, the jihad seems to have power, if not perpetual motion, at least of perpetual continuity. In this domain of the stars and planets, a friend of mine once compared it to Haley's Comet. "It steaks across the sky, then vanishes again." The comparison is not quite true. Haley's Comet appears very rarely and does no damage. Jihad appears quite frequently and does a lot of damage. So does its modern terrorist version. So does its modern terrorist version.
Jihad in the West - The Holy War that Isn't P8
Jihad in the West by Paul Fregosi
Introduction: The Holy War That Isn't
Paragraph 8
In the past, individual muslims fought in wars against infidels in a supposed gesture of piety and loyalty. Yet the wars themselves were - and still are - usually essentially territorial and political. No change is visible in the offing. The Encyclopedia of Islam, published in Leyden in 1913, is quite explicit: "Islam must be completely made over before the jihad is eliminated." But the elimination of the jihad seems nowhere in sight. On the contrary, it is probably more deeply imbedded in the muslim mind than at any time in the past two centuries, and its elimination seems very far off indeed.
Introduction: The Holy War That Isn't
Paragraph 8
In the past, individual muslims fought in wars against infidels in a supposed gesture of piety and loyalty. Yet the wars themselves were - and still are - usually essentially territorial and political. No change is visible in the offing. The Encyclopedia of Islam, published in Leyden in 1913, is quite explicit: "Islam must be completely made over before the jihad is eliminated." But the elimination of the jihad seems nowhere in sight. On the contrary, it is probably more deeply imbedded in the muslim mind than at any time in the past two centuries, and its elimination seems very far off indeed.
Jihad in the West - The Holy War that Isn't P7
Jihad in the West by Paul Fregosi
Introduction: The Holy War That Isn't
Paragraph 7
There are still many muslims who believe that it is islam's manifest destiny to conquer the whole world. Obliged to face the realities of the modern world, many may not be too sure about this article of their faith. But, just the same, many still ardently cling to it, even among the millions of immigrants who have made their home in France and Britain. The fundamentalists and those who have faith in the message of Ayatollah Khomeini do. So do those we can call muslim revivalists, devout and sincere followers of the "prophet" but unwilling to take part in the militant postures and actions of the fundamentalists. Profoundly disturbed by the moral degradation of Western society today, they are convinced the future belongs to islam.
Introduction: The Holy War That Isn't
Paragraph 7
There are still many muslims who believe that it is islam's manifest destiny to conquer the whole world. Obliged to face the realities of the modern world, many may not be too sure about this article of their faith. But, just the same, many still ardently cling to it, even among the millions of immigrants who have made their home in France and Britain. The fundamentalists and those who have faith in the message of Ayatollah Khomeini do. So do those we can call muslim revivalists, devout and sincere followers of the "prophet" but unwilling to take part in the militant postures and actions of the fundamentalists. Profoundly disturbed by the moral degradation of Western society today, they are convinced the future belongs to islam.
Jihad in the West - The Holy War that Isn't P6
Jihad in the West by Paul Fregosi
Introduction: The Holy War That Isn't
Paragraph 6
For well over a 1,000 yrs the jihad has been first and foremost a fighting war, an imperialist form of war, like the wars of colonial or continental Rome or, more recently, of Britain, France, Spain, Germany, Russia, and the United States. The muslims make no distinction between religion and state, hence the "holy" tinge that their imperialist wars have acquired. Let us not be deceived by the religious coloring muslims gave to their territorial conquests. The jihad wars were sheer imperialism, just as ours were.
Introduction: The Holy War That Isn't
Paragraph 6
For well over a 1,000 yrs the jihad has been first and foremost a fighting war, an imperialist form of war, like the wars of colonial or continental Rome or, more recently, of Britain, France, Spain, Germany, Russia, and the United States. The muslims make no distinction between religion and state, hence the "holy" tinge that their imperialist wars have acquired. Let us not be deceived by the religious coloring muslims gave to their territorial conquests. The jihad wars were sheer imperialism, just as ours were.
Jihad in the West - The Holy War that Isn't P5
Jihad in the West by Paul Fregosi
Introduction: The Holy War That Isn't
Paragraph 5
To understand the jihad we must be clear in our minds about what it is and, first of all, what it is not. To start, it is not what most people think it is. The purpose is not to convert unbelievers to islam by force. This may have been so in its the first century of life, when the choice given to the defeated was conversion to islam or death, but this was soon changed to conversion to islam, death or tribute in the form of a special tax. It was the case of "your money or your life"! The purpose the jihad became, and basically still is, to expand and extend islam until the whole world was under muslim rule. The jihad is essentially a permanent state of hostility that islam maintains against the rest of the world, with or without fighting, for more sovereignty over more territory. We should at this point recall the words of Jacques Ellal who, on his forward to Bat Yeor's "The Decline of Eastern Christianity" reminds us of an almost forgotten basic fact concerning the jihad: "Jihad is a religious obligation. It forms part of the duties that the believer must fulfill: it is islam's normal path to expansion." The jihad is an institution in islam which in Christian language we would call a sacrament. It is part of the normal functioning of the muslim world, a religious duty which the devout muslim has to perform if called upon.
Introduction: The Holy War That Isn't
Paragraph 5
To understand the jihad we must be clear in our minds about what it is and, first of all, what it is not. To start, it is not what most people think it is. The purpose is not to convert unbelievers to islam by force. This may have been so in its the first century of life, when the choice given to the defeated was conversion to islam or death, but this was soon changed to conversion to islam, death or tribute in the form of a special tax. It was the case of "your money or your life"! The purpose the jihad became, and basically still is, to expand and extend islam until the whole world was under muslim rule. The jihad is essentially a permanent state of hostility that islam maintains against the rest of the world, with or without fighting, for more sovereignty over more territory. We should at this point recall the words of Jacques Ellal who, on his forward to Bat Yeor's "The Decline of Eastern Christianity" reminds us of an almost forgotten basic fact concerning the jihad: "Jihad is a religious obligation. It forms part of the duties that the believer must fulfill: it is islam's normal path to expansion." The jihad is an institution in islam which in Christian language we would call a sacrament. It is part of the normal functioning of the muslim world, a religious duty which the devout muslim has to perform if called upon.
Jihad in the West - The Holy War that Isn't P4
Jihad in the West by Paul Fregosi
Introduction: The Holy War That Isn't
Paragraph 4
Should we take the ayatollah's word's as the vaporing of an angry old man or as a recall of the past, a reminder of the present, and a warning of things to come? The choice is ours. But the past calls for our special attention, as well as the present. The jihad "war of conquest" is a historical reality that has lasted more than 1,300 yrs. The terrorist jihad that exists today is a topical political reality. The advent of the Ayatollah Khomeini on the international scene has strikingly heralded the return to the world of an aggressive islam after more than a century of quiet: Western imperialism and colonialism and colonial domination shackled islam to the west for a century and stifled the jihad until the mid-20th century.
Introduction: The Holy War That Isn't
Paragraph 4
Should we take the ayatollah's word's as the vaporing of an angry old man or as a recall of the past, a reminder of the present, and a warning of things to come? The choice is ours. But the past calls for our special attention, as well as the present. The jihad "war of conquest" is a historical reality that has lasted more than 1,300 yrs. The terrorist jihad that exists today is a topical political reality. The advent of the Ayatollah Khomeini on the international scene has strikingly heralded the return to the world of an aggressive islam after more than a century of quiet: Western imperialism and colonialism and colonial domination shackled islam to the west for a century and stifled the jihad until the mid-20th century.
Jihad in the West - The Holy War that Isn't P3
Jihad in the West by Paul Fregosi
Introduction: The Holy War That Isn't
Paragraph 3
Forgetting that the jihad was nearly 500 years old when the Crusades set out on their 1st campaign to recover the Holy Land, muslims see the Crusades as the starting point of the long military confrontation between islam and the Western World. The Ayatollah Khomeini, modern hero and saint to hundreds of millions muslims, said the jihad "means the conquest of non-muslim territory. The domination of koranic law from the end of the earth to the other is...the final goal...of this war of conquest." So it was for hundreds of years before the Crusades, so it has been since.
Introduction: The Holy War That Isn't
Paragraph 3
Forgetting that the jihad was nearly 500 years old when the Crusades set out on their 1st campaign to recover the Holy Land, muslims see the Crusades as the starting point of the long military confrontation between islam and the Western World. The Ayatollah Khomeini, modern hero and saint to hundreds of millions muslims, said the jihad "means the conquest of non-muslim territory. The domination of koranic law from the end of the earth to the other is...the final goal...of this war of conquest." So it was for hundreds of years before the Crusades, so it has been since.
Jihad in the West - The Holy War that isn't P2
Jihad in the West by Paul Fregosi
Introduction: The Holy War That Isn't
Paragraph 2
The jihad has been the most unrecorded and disregarded major event of history. It has, in fact, been largely ignored. For instance, the Encyclopedia Britannica gives the Crusades eighty times more space than the jihad. In the New South Wales State Library there were 108 entries listed in the catalog cards for Crusades, but only two for jihad! The jihad has been largely bypassed by Western historians. The jihad has affected the lives - and continues to do so - of far, far more people and regions in the world than the long extinct Crusades ever did.
Introduction: The Holy War That Isn't
Paragraph 2
The jihad has been the most unrecorded and disregarded major event of history. It has, in fact, been largely ignored. For instance, the Encyclopedia Britannica gives the Crusades eighty times more space than the jihad. In the New South Wales State Library there were 108 entries listed in the catalog cards for Crusades, but only two for jihad! The jihad has been largely bypassed by Western historians. The jihad has affected the lives - and continues to do so - of far, far more people and regions in the world than the long extinct Crusades ever did.
Jihad in the West - The Holy War that isn't P1
Jihad in the West by Paul Fregosi
Introduction: The Holy War That Isn't
Paragraph 1
The jihad, the islamic so-called holy war, has been a fact of life in Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Near and Middle East for more than 1,300 years. Hundreds of books have appeared on the Christian counterpart , the Crusades, to which jihad is often compared, although they lasted less than 200 years and unlike jihad, which is universal, were largely confined to the Holy land. Moreover, the Crusades have been over for more than 700 years, while jihad is still going on in the world.
Introduction: The Holy War That Isn't
Paragraph 1
The jihad, the islamic so-called holy war, has been a fact of life in Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Near and Middle East for more than 1,300 years. Hundreds of books have appeared on the Christian counterpart , the Crusades, to which jihad is often compared, although they lasted less than 200 years and unlike jihad, which is universal, were largely confined to the Holy land. Moreover, the Crusades have been over for more than 700 years, while jihad is still going on in the world.
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