Author: Ibn Warraq
Publication: Hindu Vision
Date:
Introduction: IBN Warraq is the
pen-name of a Pakistani Muslim who was born in India and lives in France.
He has disowned Islam and written a book titled "Why I am not a Muslim".
Given the stupefying enormity of
the acts of barbarism of September 11, moral outrage is appropriate and
justified, as are demands for punishment and reprisals. But what is not
justified or permissible in a civilised society is acts of vengeance by
lynch mobs who blindly attack all those whom they perceive as "Muslims"
or Arabs. Not all Muslims are terrorists. Not all Muslims are implicated
in the horrendous events of Tuesday.
Ignorant Pretence
However, to pretend that Islam has
nothing to do with the WTC atrocity is to willfully ignore the obvious.
In fact, without Islam the long-term strategy and individual acts of violence
by Osama bin Laden and his followers make little sense.
We are, after all, confronted with
Islamic terrorists, and must take seriously the Islamic component, which
drives these God-intoxicated fanatics to blindly throw away their lives
in return for the Paradise of Seventy Two Virgins offered to Muslim martyrs
killed in the Holy War against all infidels. Jehad is "a religious war
with those who are unbelievers in the mission of Muhammad (the Prophet).
It is an incumbent religious duty, established in the Qur'an and in the
Traditions as a divine institution, and enjoined specially for the purpose
of advancing Islam and repelling evil from Muslims."
Killing for Allah
The world is divided into two spheres,
Dar-ul-Islam and Dar-ul-Harb. The latter, the Land of Warfare, is a country
belonging to infidels which has not been subdued by Islam. The Dar-ul-Harb
becomes the Dar-ul-Islam, the Land of Islam, upon the promulgation of the
edicts of Islam. Thus the totalitarian nature of Islam is nowhere more
apparent than in the concept of jehad, the Holy War, whose ultimate aim
is to conquer the entire world and submit it to the one true faith, to
the law of Allah. To Islam alone has been granted the truth: there is no
possibility of salvation outside it. Muslims must fight, and kill in the
name of Allah.
We read sura IX, verses 5-6: "Kill
those who join other gods with God wherever you may find them".
Those who die fighting for the only
true religion, Islam, will be amply rewarded in the life to come, IV, 74:
'Whoever fights on God's path, whether he is killed or triumphs, We will
give him a handsome reward".
Here are some more verses:
Kill Idolaters
(A)Torment to Non-believers-IV,
56; Only Islam Acceptable, III, 85; No friends from outsiders, III, 118;
No friends with non-believers, IV, 144, III, 28; No friends with parents/
siblings if not believers, IX, 23; Kill non-believers, IV, 89; Killing
Idolaters, IX, 5; Idolaters are unclean just because they are idolaters,
IX, 28; Forcing non-believers to pay tax, IX, 29; The Torment of Hell,
XLIV, 43-58; Smite the neck and cut fingertips of unbelievers, VIII, 12;
Smite the neck of unbelievers, XLVII, 4.
(B) Severe Punishment for non-believers,
XXII, 19-22; LXXII, 23, XCVIII, 6.
(C) Punishing non-believers of Hereafter,
XVII, 10; Punishing for rejecting faith, III, 91; Non-believers go to hell,
IV, 140, VII, 36; Sadistic punishment, LVI, 42-43.
God who Deceives
(D) God making someone more sinful
so he can be punished more. III, 178.
(E)Intentionally preventing unbelievers
from knowing the truth, VI. 25; VI, 110; Intentionally preventing unbelievers
from understanding Quran, XVII, 45-46; God could guide, if he chose to,
but did not, VI, 35; Intentionally misguiding those whom he pleases to,
XIV, 4; God causes human to err, IV, 143; VII, 178; God deceiving human,
IV, 142.
"Ah, but you are confusing Islam
with Islamic fundamentalism. The real Islam has nothing to do with violence,"
apologists of Islam argue. There are moderate Muslims, but Islam itself
is not moderate. There is no difference between Islam and Islamic fundamentalism,
at most there is a difference of degree, but not of kind. All the tenets
of Islamic fundamentalism are derived from the Quran, the Sunna, the Hadith.
"Ah, but Islamic fundamentalism
is like any other kind of fundamentalism, one must not demonise it. It
is the result of political, social grievances. It must be explained in
terms of economics and not religion," continue the apologists of Islam.
Global Islamic Agenda
There is an enormous difference
between Islamic fundamentalism and any other kind of fundamentalism. It
is indeed true that Hindu, Jewish, and Christian fundamentalists have been
responsible for acts of violence, but these have been confined to particular
countries and regions. Only Islamic fundamentalism has universal aspirations,
has a global agenda, that is the submission of the entire world to the
all-embracing Sharia, Islamic Law, which is a fascist system of dictates
designed to control every single act of all individuals. Under Islam any
means are justified to achieve the ends of establishing an Islamic world
community.
Islamic fundamentalists recruit
among Muslim populations, they appeal to Islamic religious symbols, and
they motivate their recruits with Islamic doctrine derived from the Koran.
Economic poverty alone cannot explain the phenomenon of Islamism. Poverty
in Brazil or Mexico City has not resulted in Christian fundamentalist acts
of international terror.
Islam or 'Jahiliyya'
For Islamists the choice is clear:
Islam or jahiliyya. The latter term is redefined to mean modern-style jahiliyya
of modern industrialised societies, where man is under the dominion of
man rather than Allah. So, no, it is not just a question of economics,
it is a question of an entirely different worldview, which they wish to
impose on the whole world. Sayyid Qutb, the very influential Egyptian Muslim
thinker, said: "Dominion should be reverted to Allah alone, namely to Islam,
that holistic system He conferred upon men. An all-out offensive, a jihad,
should be waged against modernity so that this moral rearmament could take
place. The ultimate objective is to re-establish the Kingdom of Allah upon
earth..."
It is a remarkable fact that at
the time of the Gulf War most Muslims living in the West supported Saddam
Hussein. In the aftermath of the WTC terror, it is now clear from many
reports from the media that most Muslims, even those living in the West,
see these acts of barbarism as acts of heroism, they give their unequivocal
support to their chosen hero, Osama bin Laden.
The fact that so many Muslims in
the West see terrorists such as Saddam Hussein and Bin Laden as heroes
means there has been a total failure of assimilation and integration. Indeed
assimilation and integration are no longer in vogue. Multiculturalism has
been the fashion since the 1960s. The notion that one could produce a good
little American out of raw immigrants is now condemned as chauvinism, racism,
cultural imperialism, or cultural genocide.
Fundamental Misconception
But Multiculturalism is based on
some fundamental misconceptions. First, there is the erroneous and sentimental
belief that all cultures, deep down, have the same values; or if these
values are different, they are all equally worthy of respect. Multiculturalism,
being the child of relativism, is incapable of criticising cultures, of
making cross-cultural judgements. The truth is that not all cultures have
the same values, and not all values are worthy of respect.
One hopes that in the days to come
the US government will not act in such a way that more innocent lives are
lost, albeit on the other side of the globe. One hopes that even now there
is a legal way out in International Courts of Law. The situation is far
more delicate and complex than a simple battle between good and evil. The
solution is not to beat the hell out of all Arabs and Muslims, but nor
is it to pretend that Islam had nothing to do with it. For that would be
to bury one's head in the Sands of Arabia.
