THE DUTY OF JIHAD One of the important features of Islam is that of Jihad, that is the obligation to wage a holy war on 'unbelievers', mainly Jews and Christians. This is plainly stated in various place in the Koran, and is a statement of the militaristic aspect of Islam which was manifest in the years after Muhammad,. The five 'pillars' or duties of Islam, are faith, prayer, zakah (setting aside a proportion for those in need), fasting, and the Hajj (pilgrimage to Mecca), Nevertheless, these pillars of Islam are not an end in themselves but are explained to be the means to prepare and equip the Muslim for Islam's ultimate purpose which is Jihad. "The ultimate objective of Islam is to abolish the lordship of man over man and bring him under the rule of the one God (Allah). To stake everything you have - including your lives - to achieve this purpose is called Jihad. Prayer, fasting, alms giving and pilgrimage, all prepare you for Jihad." (Let us be Muslims Sayyid Abul A'la Mawdudi, The Islamic Foundation (Leicester) 1985 page 285) "If you believe Islam to be true, you have no alternative but to exert your uttermost strength to make it prevail on earth: you either establish it or give your lives in this struggle." (ibid) One hundred years after the death of Muhammad the Islamic armies had pushed as far as Poitiers in France, but were there beaten and turned back across the Pyrenees. Despite this setback, within two centuries of Muhammad's death Islam dominated the great sweep of territory from southern Spain to northern India. The Muslims remained dominant in Spain for another seven centuries. In contrast to other world religions, Islam is not only a religious system, but also a social, political and legal system, and in its original form (a form re-emerging today) demands from its followers total conformity in all these areas. For the orthodox Muslim Arab, Islam's history came to an end in 1258 with the sack of Baghdad by the Mongols; in 1492 with the fall of Grenada and the end of Moslem Spain; and in 1517 when the Turks conquered Egypt. Islam went into a dark age in which it would stagnate for more than four centuries. Certainly during this period Islam appeared to be a moderate religious force, and indeed Jews, for example, enjoyed a reasonably secure existence in Islamic countries. The slumbering giant awoke in the early 1970s as a result of the 1973?74 oil?embargo, and has since resumed its inherent militant nature. One has only to look at the behaviour of Islam, not only in the Middle-East where it is manifesting an extreme fundamentalist nature through Hamas and other factions, but also in North Africa where the Christians of Egypt (the Copts) have been suffering extreme persecution, Sudan where countless thousands have been brutally murdered, and other countries where similar difficulties exist. Even in our own country we see a militant Islam on the move with the building of mosques and an aggressive political attitude - unless it is expedient to show an accommodating face. Thus, the Muslims are seeking to build a huge mosque in the East End of London to be the largest in Europe. The Islamic authorities have said that they want every house within a one mile radius to be occupied by Muslims so that they can bring the whole area under Islamic rule, despite th e fact that it includes some thriving churches and the homes of many Christians. (Reported in PWM News Letter, July 2001) According to Islam the world is divided into two, the House of Islam and the House of War. According to this scenario the Islamic world is committed to wage war against those outside it until it submits to Islam. Such warfare may be not only military but also political and religious. To Islam the word "peace" means not our Western/Judeo-Christian idea of peace, that is cooperative coexistence, but rather subjugation to Islam, and to lie and deceive is a legitimate means to that end - despite the 'official' explanation of Islam given for western consumption which says that "Islam is the religion of peace: its meaning is peace.... If non-Muslims are peaceful with the Muslims or even indifferent to Islam, there can be no justification to interfere in their affairs or declare war on them. There is no religion or constitution that guarantees peaceful freedom of religion and forbids compulsion in religion except Islam." (Introducing Islam) At a conference in 1968 at the influential al-Azhar University in Cairo, Sheikh Abdullah Ghoshah, Supreme Judge of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, in presenting a paper on Jihad, made some significant revelations: "Jihad is legislated in order to be one of the means of propagating Islam. Consequently non-Muslims ought to embrace Islam either willingly or through wisdom and good advice, or unwillingly through fight and Jihad. Scholars lay the foundation of the foreign policy of the Islamic states on the following bases: 1. It is unlawful to give up Jihad and adopt peace and weakness, unless the purpose of giving up is for preparation, whenever there is something weak among Muslims and their opponents are strong. 2. War is the basis of the relationship between Muslims and their opponents unless there are justifiable reasons for peace such as adopting Islam or making an agreement with them to keep peaceful. 3. The abode of Islam is the homeland which is subject to the rules of Islam... The abode of war is the nation which is not subject to the rules of Islam... 4. Muslims are free to break their covenant with enemies if they are uneasy lest the enemies should betray them ... The Sheikh quoted two traditional authorities on Islam. From Al Tabarani: "Lies are sins except when they are told for the welfare of a Moslem or for saving him from disaster." From Ibn Al Arabi: Telling lies in war is permitted so as to comfort the Muslims when they are in need of it as in the time of fighting." Sheikh Ghoshah concluded his address with an observation on arrogance: "Allah, the Almighty, loves the Muslim to be arrogant when he is fighting as it manifests that he is indifferent to his enemy and that he determines to vanquish him." (Conference proceedings published by the Egyptian Government Printing Office in 1970, in Arabic and English; quoted by John Laffin in The Dagger of Islam, Sphere Books Ltd, London 1979, pp 54-55) Thus, a peaceful moderate Islam is an historical anomaly and its true nature is a militaristic conquering religion committed to the subjugation of all other faiths, most particularly that of Jews and Christians. 'FIRST THE JEW, AND THEN THE CHRISTIAN' It has become commonplace to equate Judaism Christianity and Islam by referring to them as the three great monotheistic religions. The implication then follows that all three are equally valid ways to God so that dialogue between two of the three, or sometimes all three together, will lead to a greater understanding of God's love for and way of life for men and women. However, one of the key tenets of Islam is its denial of Jesus as the Son of God, and indeed as God himself. The holiest site on earth is arguably the Temple Mount in Jerusalem where possibly Abraham offered up Isaac, which David purchased, and which ultimately became the site of the Second Temple, and in a geographical sense the place where Jesus was crucified and buried. Nevertheless inscribed on the Dome of the Rock, standing where it is believed Abraham offered up Isaac (Ishmael according to the Koran), are inscriptions seven hundred and thirty-four feet long in all, amongst the lengthiest inscriptions in the world, including passages from the Koran which all deny the sonship of Jesus. One of these says: "Do not say 'three' and it will be better for you. Allah is only one God. Far be it from His glory that he should have a son." This can almost be called the ultimate example of blasphemy, and a focal point for Islam's opposition to the God of Israel and His Messiah. Contrary to the way the secular media generally portrays the Arab/Israeli conflict, it is essentially a religious conflict which in fact has been preached long before the current violence began. This preaching is not a reaction to present violence but rather the motivating force behind it. The Palestinian authority's religious world-view sees agreements with Israel as inherently temporary, and war against Jews as an expression of Allah's will. "Regrettably, the Christian world has not yet come to grips with the fact that Israel is on the front line against a rapidly expanding wave of radical Islamic fundamentalism which is in danger of engulfing the world. Militant radical Islam views the Jewish state as a primal challenge to their religion and vaunted manhood. It has been suggested that Israel and the Jews are being used by Moslem leaders as the emotional short fuse to build up their fighting courage and war-making capabilities. Predictably, if they achieve their current goals of destroying Israel they will continue on against the bastion of Christianity - Europe and America. For radical Islamists, this will be their final battle but, in the interim, they invite Christian nations to join them in their war against the Jews. "Muslims have a saying: 'First the Saturday People; then the Sunday People'. This two tiered war is already in motion as Arabs under the banner of Islam have hurled themselves against Israel in six wars and continual terrorism, alongside their attacking Christians in almost all Arab and/or Muslim lands. * Coptic Christians in Egypt - the largest Christian community in the Middle East - are being systematically eliminated. * Sudanese Christians and animists are being annihilated. The policy of Khartoum against the mostly Christian seven million Southern Sudanese is increasing in violence and scope. * Christian Lebanese have been massacred in previous years by Arafat's PLO. This broadening of oppression, which started in the early 1990s, has reached an apex this past year with the resuming of abduction, torture and jailing of hundreds Lebanese Christians and non-Christians, accused of being either anti-Syrians or pro-Israeli. * In Iran, the Mullah regime, despite the leadership of pragmatic President Khatemi, still maintains a religious apartheid system against the non-Muslims, particularly the Christians and the Bahais. (MECHRIC: Escalation of Oppression against Christians in Egypt, Lebanon, Iraq 3 July 2001) * Even Arab Christians in Bethlehem are being driven out or remain under siege. "Israel is the front line, defying Islam by thwarting their first goal of eliminating Jews and their religion. "The Christian world, in their own foremost interests, ought to be vigorously supportive of the Jewish State of Israel as their best outer defence barrier against an ongoing attack by the Muslims against themselves. Instead, the Western nations passively or otherwise support the Muslims against Israel by their defence of the Palestinian cause and their failure to properly convey the reality of Israel's position. "Perhaps there will be a great awakening across the entire Christian world that in fact the Jews stand as defenders at the gates of civilisation." (Radical Islam vs. Israel, Emanuel A.Winston, M.E Analyst & Commentator, Arutz 7, 16 June 2001; MECHRIC: Escalation of Oppression against Christians in Egypt, Lebanon, Iraq 3 July 2001) Derek White