Islam, Terrorism And The Mideast

Part three of four: Terrorism and the world of Islam

Editorís Note: Dr. Davis has had extensive contact with the Arab world and Islam through his participation in 10 archaeological expeditions to the Middle East. He is the author of 17 books and is professor of Old Testament and Hebrew at Grace Theological Seminary, Winona Lake. He also writes the weekly column, ìOutdoor Scene,î for the Times-Union.

Ugly scenes of terrorist slaughters in the Middle East and elsewhere in the name of Islam have stunned people worldwide.

Is there any cause that justifies blowing up a school bus carrying little children or exploding an airplane filled with innocent travelers?

Does Islam condone or encourage such ruthless behavior?

Since most Americans see only the radical elements in Muslim societies most of the time, their answer would be an unequivocal ìAye.î But such a conclusion would be both wrong and unfortunate.

I have lived and traveled extensively in the Arab Middle East since 1963 and have had hundreds of contacts with Muslims who clearly abhor such radical behavior and are, as a matter of fact, incensed that these violent acts of human slaughter are done in the name of Allah.

The Arab Muslims I have come to know are peace-loving and just want to raise their families in serene settings and, in general, enjoy life like everyone else.

But they are also first to admit that there are elements in their society that adopt a very aggressive form of Islam in order to give theological justification to their fanatical behavior.

Peaceful Passages

The Quran does, indeed, contain many admonitions to make peace and treat others with civility. For example, if your enemy offers peace, you must treat them accordingly. ìThus, if they let you be, and do not make war on you, and offer you peace, God does not allow you to harm themî (4:90). ìIf they seek peace, then seek you peace. And trust in God for He is the One that heareth and knoweth all thingsî (8:61).

Also observed in the Quran is the injunction not to initiate hostilities (2:190). Of course, if you are attacked, you may respond with force. Such hostilities must be brought to a speedy end when the enemy seeks peace (2:192-3).

Instructions to Kill?

While the Quran contains many instructions that would seem to encourage peaceful behavior, there are an equal number of verses that suggest quite the opposite.

Particularly strong are those verses that deal with non-Muslims who are regularly called kaafir ( ìinfidels,î ìrejectersî or ìunbelieversî). Take, for example, the injunction of 9:5: ìSo when the sacred months have passed away, then slay the idolaters wherever you find them, and take them captives and besiege them and lie in wait for them in every ambush, then if they repent and keep up prayer and pay the poor-rate, leave their way free to them; surely Allah is forgiving, merciful.î

In Surah An-Nissa, verse 76 of the Quran, we read, ìThose who believe fight in the cause of Allah, and those who reject Faith fight in the cause of Evil; so fight ye against the friends of Satan; feeble indeed is the cunning of Satan.î

It is no semantic accident that the United States is called the ìGreat Satanî by Muslim extremists. Once Satan is identified, he can be destroyed.

Again, the Quran demands that Believers ìSlay (enemies) wherever you find them!î (4:89). Muslims are encouraged to ìFight them, and Allah will punish them by your hands, cover them with shame, help you (to victory) over them, heal the breasts of Believers.î (Surah At-Touba, verse 14).

In places, the Quran singles out Christians and Jews for special treatment. ìO ye who believe, take not the Jews or Christians for your friends or protectors. They are but friends and protectors to each other.î (Surah Al-Maidah 5:51). The language of Sura Al-Taubah 2:29 is even stronger. ìFight against those who believe not in Allah ...î

Stirred Passions

It is verses like the above that virtually all radical leaders of Islam have utilized in stirring up the passions of those Muslims who have been convinced the pagan West in general, and the Satanic U.S. in particular, must be destroyed by Jihad. Jihad literally refers to ìstruggle,î but in popular use has the idea of ìHoly War.î

One need only read the 1998 Fatwah urging Jihad against Americans issued by Osama bin Ladin and others to see how Quranic admonitions are twisted to legitimize terrorism.

The Fatwah is signed not only by Sheikh Osama Bin-Muhammad Bin-Ladin (his full name with title), but also by four other radical political and clerical leaders in the region. This Fatwah has been widely circulated in the Arab world, and especially among West Bank Arabs.

The opening paragraph reads as follows: ìPraise be to God, who revealed the Book, controls the clouds, defeats factionalism, and says in His Book, ëBut when the forbidden months are past, then fight and slay the pagans wherever you find them, seize them, beleaguer them, and lie in wait for them in every stratagem (of war).í ... The Arabian Peninsula has never ... been stormed by any forces like the crusader armies now spreading in it like locusts, consuming its riches and destroying its plantations. All this is happening at a time when nations are attacking Muslims like people fighting over a plate of food.î

It is important for Osama Bin Ladin to label Americaís war against terrorism a war against Islam. By doing that, he can invoke the admonitions of the Quran and call for armed conflict against the United States.

Later in this Fatwah he says, ìWe ñ with Godís help ñ call on every Muslim who believes in God and wishes to be rewarded to comply with Godís order to kill the Americans and plunder their money wherever and whenever they find it.î

Common Language

The language of this declaration is common to all radical clerics and terrorist leaders within Islam who are not just committed to the purity of Islamic truth, but to its supremacy in all cultures.

It is true, of course, that most Muslim leaders, both clerical and governmental, would not ascribe to the language of this Fatwah.

But such declarations (and there have been many of them during the past 10 years) put moderate Arab/Muslim leaders in an awkward position.

While they would like to condemn such proposals publicly, they rarely do for the simple reason they do not want to be perceived as opposing Islamic causes.

What most Americans do not understand is that Islam is not just a mere religion that one celebrates one day a week then forgets it the rest of the week (as many church people do). It is a culture, a life, a philosophy, a government and a world view. The dream of every Muslim is to live under Islamic rule that perpetuates all the principles of the Quran.

A Common Interpretation

Now, to be fair, I should point out that most clerics here in America and Mullahs I have met in the Middle East do not interpret these admonitions to violence and war in a universal way. They insist that they were written for a time when Muslims were being persecuted by the pagans in the region of Mecca. It was the Muslim state in Medina that was to take up arms, not individual citizens.

Moiz Amjad writes in Understanding Islam that, ìThe ëpagansí against whom fighting is ordained by the referred verses are not general in nature, but are actually only the polytheists of Banu Ishmael.î

In other words, while the peace admonitions of the Quran are universal, the militaristic ones are specific and local. That might fly among moderate Muslims, but ones I know in the West Bank in Ramalla debunk that interpretation.

As Helmi Musa put it, ìIf the laws of the Quran relating to peace are universal, so are the commands for war and Jihad. The issue in the Quran is not just against local tribes or sects in Arabia, but against Believers (Muslims) and infidels (everyone else). Those categories are universal.î (The parentheses are mine).

Radical Muslim terrorists have made the word Jihad to mean ìkilling your enemy using any means, whatsoever.î This clearly takes the term out of the context of the Quran. First, Jihad can only be declared by a Muslim state, not by individuals, and second, the purpose for which Jihad can be called is only to fight against persecution.

No Legal Force

Thus, the many Jihads called by terrorists leaders do not have true Islamic legal force. Unfortunately, however, most impoverished and beleaguered Arabs do not know that.

They are told a thousand times over that they are being oppressed by western infidels who want to crush Islam. Their enemies are ìcolonial powersî that are polluting Islamís sacred lands just as the colonial powers did after World War I.

While Americans should recognize that most Moslems are not violent terrorists, it would be foolhardy to ignore the rapidly growing minority that are prone to a distorted interpretation of the Quran.

Americans should be alert to this small minority just as we would be alert to the radical and often violent activities of the Aryan Nation or Ku Klux Klan who like to display crosses and quote verses from the Bible.

One other observation would be appropriate here. It must be acknowledged that the Quran, unlike any other religious literature, is more easily twisted to encourage the violent overthrow of existing ìinfidel governments.î

How else can one explain Muslim violent behavior in the Philippines, the Baltic States, North Africa, Indonesia, the Middle East and Central Asia? With rare exceptions, terrorists and insurrectionists are connected with some form of Islam.

Also, most Muslim governments are not democracies and often establish oppressive and non-tolerant policies (Iran, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, Sudan, Yemen, the United Arab Emirates and Iraq, for example).

This, of course, does not make all Muslims insurrectionists or terrorists, nor does it justify criminal behavior against people of Middle Eastern descent. But it does acknowledge there is a worldwide movement of Muslim extremists who will use any means to overthrow governments to establish Islamic rule.

In the long run, it will not be the bombs of the United States or England that will stem this tide of terrorism in the name of Islam, but strong rejection of such terror by the millions of peace-loving Muslims around the world.

They must stand against the radicalization of their faith just as Christians have been required to denounce racial terrorists who burn black churches then claim to be fighting for the interests of Christ.

Tomorrow: Islam and the Control of Palestine.