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Is this why George Bush says Islam is a Religion of
Peace?
Is
it possible that millions of Muslim faithful around the
world will abandon the specific commands of Koran and
convert Islam into a truly peaceful religion?
Daniel
Pipes - a popular TV talking head on Islam - thinks so, and
Mr. Pipes' dream may be the reason President Bush does not
tell Americans the truth about Islam.
Pipes
reviewed the book Understanding Jihad recently and claims it
implies "the Muslim world is going through a phase" and "the
excessive form of jihad currently practiced by Al Qaeda and
others...could lead to its decisive rejection by a majority
of Muslims." Pipes claims "jihad then could turn into a
non-violent concept."
Only
two things stand in the way of Mr. Pipes' rosy speculation:
the actual words of Koran and 1500 years of Muslim
history.
The
author of Understanding Jihad, David Cook of Rice
University, admits that throughout history jihad has always
meant "warfare with spiritual significance." This is a bit
of an understatement. Koran itself says the purpose of jihad
is to contain, subjugate, or eliminate other religions.
Dozens of verses in Koran express this purpose but to use
just one to illustrate, chapter 2 verse 193 of Koran says,
"Fight against them until idolatry is no more and Allah's
religion reigns supreme. But if they desist, fight none but
the evildoers."
Cook
also notes that Muslim history has not been one long and
continuous jihad. Not surprisingly, the degree of jihad
fever has varied with the military strength, external
provocations, territorial ambition, and religious fervor of
the Umma - the Muslim community.
Cook
uses the fluctuations in jihad to claim that the concept of
jihad is actually evolving - changing over time. Cook claims
that the most extreme form of jihad has only appeared in the
last 80 years. According to Cook, what makes the present
form of jihad the most extreme is that it is used as a
litmus test to determine who is a "true" Muslim. True
Muslims fight and support jihad, bad Muslims do
not.
This
is a fatal error, and suggests that Cook might never have
actually read Koran. The Koran is explicit that jihad IS the
litmus test of a true Muslim. It is because jihad is the
true test of Islamic faith that Koran promises paradise to
those who give up home, money, family, and career to wage
jihad or support those who do. It is Koran itself that
labels those who do not support jihad as phony
Muslims.
Islamic
history also shows that the present is not the first time
jihad has been used to distiniguish between "true" and false
Muslims. For example, about the time the U.S. was ratifying
its constitution, an obscure Muslim cleric named Wahhab
persuaded an equally obscure Arab named Saud that the
Islamic Ottoman Empire had become apostate because it had
dealings with non-Muslims. Saud led a jihad against his
brother Muslims of the Ottoman Empire that led to the
founding of the modern day state of Saudi Arabia.
Wahhab's
message was simple - it was that Muslims needed to read and
believe what Koran says. Not surprisingly, it is this return
to reading and believing Koran that is fueling the jihad
being waged against the U.S. and Israel - NOT some crazy
idea that the doctrine of jihad has changed.
Daniel
Pipes has the benefit of TV to spread his dreams. Maybe you
will get a copy of Koran and read it to see for yourself
that he is mixed up. Then tell somebody else, preferably
President Bush.
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