VI The Islamic Roots of Violence
Andrew Bostom was doing research for a book on the Islamic treatment of
non-Muslims when he came across a quote by Sufi jurist Sirhindi (d. 1621).
"Whenever a Jew is killed, it is for the benefit of Islam." Why did a Sufi
jurist in the middle of India who never met a Jew write such a thing?
In 1621 the Ottoman empire ruled the Jews were living in what had been Biblical
Israel there was no Palestinian state or conflict between Palestinians and Jews.
In fact there were no Palestinians until hundreds of years later. So why
did Sirhindi believe that Jews should be killed?
Andrew Bostom explained that hatred of the Jews is rooted in Islamic texts. He
explained that Koran chapter 2 verse 61 says that
Jews were killers of prophets and for this they are condemned to eternal
debasement and humilation and that Koran 3 112 reiterates it. He points out that
the preamble of the Hamas charter cites Koran 3 112.
The verse is updated in the Hadith where the claim is made that after Jewish
farming oasis of Khaibar was vanquished by the Muslims the survivors conspired
to kill Muhammad and a Khaibar Jewess as part of a Jewish conspiracy poisoned
Muhammad to death. Muhammad is the hero of all Muslims. The accusation that the
Jews killed him is similar to the Christian accusation that the Jews killed
Jesus and has led to religious persecution of the Jews throughout history.
This coupled with Koranic commands that the Jews should be subjugated to Islam
and live as a humiliated people makes the existence of Israel, intolerable to
the Muslims.
Nonie Darwish in an article titled Roots of the Gaza Conflict listed some of the Islamic laws that require Muslims to fight non-Muslims such as:
"A Muslim calipha is entrusted to take his people into war and command offensive and aggressive Jihad. He must organize Jihad against any non-Muslim government, which prevents Muslim da’wah (meaning preaching and spreading Islam) from entering its land." (Shafii Law o25.0 to o25.9).
Sharia law# o25.9 states:
"(When the caliph appoints a ruler on a region, his duty includes) if the area has a border adjacent to enemy lands, (he will) undertake Jihad against enemies, dividing the spoils of battle among combatants and setting aside a fifth for deserving recipients."
Also:
"The Caliph makes war upon Jews, Christians and Zoroastrians until they become Muslim or else pay the non-Muslim poll tax provided he has first invited them to enter Islam or pay Jizya, the non-Muslim poll tax, (in accordance with the word of Allah Most High Chapter 9 verse 29)."
If you click on the movie projector icon you will see movies of sermons that were broadcast on Palestinian Television. The crux of the message that the Imams giving the sermons are telling their audience is that it is an Islamic obligation to destroy Israel. Andrew Bostom in an article titled Shi'ite Iran's Genocidal Jew Hatred wrote:
The rise of Jewish nationalism—Zionism—posed a predictable, if completely unacceptable challenge to the Islamic order—jihad-imposed chronic dhimmitude for Jews—of apocalyptic magnitude. As historian Bat Ye’or has explained,
…because divine will dooms Jews to wandering and misery, the Jewish state appears to Muslims as an unbearable affront and a sin against Allah. Therefore it must be destroyed by Jihad.
This is exactly the Islamic context in which the widespread, “resurgent” use of Jew annihilationist apocalyptic motifs—Sunni and Shi’ite alike—would be an anticipated, even commonplace occurrence.
Moshe Sharon recently provided a very lucid summary of the unique features of Shi’ite eschatology, its key point of consistency with Sunni understandings of this doctrine, and Ahmadinejad’s deep personal attachment to “mahdism”:
Since the late ninth century, the Shi’ites have been expecting the emergence of the hidden imam-mahdi, armed with divine power and followed by thousands of martyrdom-seeking warriors. He is expected to conquer the world and establish Shi'ism as its supreme religion and system of rule. His appearance would involve terrible war and unusual bloodshed.
Ahmadinejad, as mayor of Teheran, built a spectacular boulevard through which the mahdi would enter into the capital. There is no question that Ahmadinejad believes he has been chosen to be the herald of the mahdi.
The religious individuals in these pictures are trying to tell us something.
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Each of them is holding a Koran and a gun. The Koran symbolizes Islam. Their message is that they will fight for Islam and against the enemies of Islam. The enemies of Islam are the non-believers. There is a lesson in these pictures and that is that the teachings in the Koran lead to violence. Izz-el Din al-Masri posed in this way. On August 9, 2001, he detonated himself in a Jerusalem Pizzeria killing 15 people and injuring almost 100 more.
The five Scheveschorder children shown above died or were wounded
as their parents also died when Izm decided to become a martyr. From left, they are
Leah, 12, wounded; Raayi, 14, killed; Hemda, 2, killed; Haya, 8, wounded; and Avraham, 4,
killed.
USA Today's Jack Kelley saw the Aug. 9 terrorist bombing. Kelley was 30 yards away when the terrorist detonated a bomb packed with nails. He wrote:
The blast . . . sent flesh flying onto second-story balconies a block away. Three men were blown 30 feet; their heads, separated from their bodies by the blast, rolled down the glass-strewn street. . . . One woman had at least six nails embedded in her neck. Another had a nail in her left eye. Two men, one with a six-inch piece of glass in his right temple . . . tried to walk away. . . . A man groaned. . . . His legs were blown off. Blood poured from his torso. . . . A 3-year old girl, her face covered with glass, walked among the bodies calling her mother's name. . . . The mother . . . was dead. . . . One rabbi found a small hand against a white Subaru parked outside the restaurant.
The fellow on the above right (Khatem Schweili) a member of Islamic Jihad, opened fire on a school bus on Nov. 4, 2001, killing two teenagers before he was shot.
Hanadi Tayseer Jaradat, a 27-year- old law-school grad, blew herself up in Maxims a Haifa Restaurant and killed at least 19 people including three children, ages 1, 5 and 6, (New York Post 10/5/03)
Aliza Ginton, who was eating with her family when the suicide bomber struck, said the scene "was hell."
"People who just a moment before were smiling, chatting and eating were lying in pools of blood," she said. "It was hell. It felt like being in hell."
The New York Daily News Reported:
The injured yesterday included Chaim Friedman, who along with his family had just ordered lunch when the bomber entered the restaurant.
"We were talking and looking at the view," Friedman told reporters. "Suddenly there was an explosion. All four people at the table next to us were still sitting in their chairs, but they were dead. Waiters were lying lifeless on the floor. ... I saw things that will haunt me for years."
Body parts were scattered across the restaurant amid broken crockery, upturned tables and plates of food.
"We saw smoke pour out of the restaurant and the windows shattered," said witness Navon Hai. "There wasn't much we could do. Families were dead around the tables. There were children without limbs."
Wires and roofing material were left dangling. Windows were shattered on all sides of the restaurant and shoes and bloody clothing littered a nearby parking lot. Dazed people wandered around in swimming trunks after leaving the beach.
The bomber's severed head, with a long mane of dark hair, lay on the floor in the center of the restaurant, surrounded by body parts.
The reaction of some of the Arab populace
and the relatives of the suicide bombers to their suicide bombings is almost more
frightening than their actions. Miss Jaradat's brother, Thaher said: "We are
receiving congratulations from people, Why should we cry? It is like her wedding
day, the happiest day for her."
Daniel Pipes in his article "A Father's
Pride and Glory" (The Jerusalem Post August 15, 2001) wrote:
Hours after Izz-el Din al-Masri killed 15 Israelis in the Sbarro Pizzeria, the brother of the 23-year-old suicide bomber delightedly announced that "this is a unique operation for its quality and success... Palestinians everywhere can now hold up their heads."
Likewise, after a 22-year-old suicide bomber two months earlier killed 21 Israelis at a Tel Aviv discotheque, his father announced: "I am very happy and proud of what my son did and, frankly, am a bit jealous... I wish I had done it myself."
And so it has been with nearly all suicide operations - family members rejoicing at the "martyrdom" of their brothers and children.
Some fathers even publicly announce a hope that their children will kill Israelis in suicide operations.
Steve Malzberg in an article called The New Nazis (Newsmax.com 6/18/02) wrote that:
The father of the Nazi who blew up the bus today in Jerusalem told Reuters that he was "very happy that my son was the bomber."
How about the words of this proud mom. Her name is Naima al Obeid. Her 23-year-old son, Mahmoud, was shot dead after killing two Israeli soldiers near the Gaza settlement of Dujit last Saturday. Before he left to go Jew hunting, his mommy made a video with him in which she told him, "G-d willing, you will succeed. May every bullet hit its target, and may G-d give you martyrdom. This is the best day of my life."
Sick, you say? Try this. When she was asked about the killing of Israeli women and children, Mama Nazi replied, "The women and children are also Jews. And I want to tell Jewish mothers: Take your children and run from here because you will never be safe. We believe our sons go to heaven when they are martyred and when your sons die, they go to hell."
There are nine more little Nazis-in-waiting at home with mama.
And then there's Mariam Farhat. Her Nazi son Mohammed broke into a study hall at a nearby Jewish settlement in Gaza back in March. He used grenades and automatic rifles instead of gas, and he killed five Israeli students and wounded 23 before he could be stopped.
Here's what his Nazi mama had to say to the camera: "When I see all the Jews in Palestine killed, that will be enough for me. I wish he will kill as many of them as he can, so they will be scared."
After Raed Abdul Hamid Mask, an Islamic scholar and father of two children, blew himself up on a bus packed with parents and young kids coming home from prayers in Jerusalem (NYPost 8/20/03) his wife Areg said "Thank God, my husband is a martyr." and hundreds of cheering young men passed out sweets in the street to celebrate the massacre in a Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon.
After two busloads of Israeli civilians were blown up by suicide bombers, hundreds of Palestinians took to the streets in major cities in the West Bank and Gaza Strip to celebrate.
Khaled Abu Toameh, wrote about it as follows: (Jerusalem Post 9/1/04)
Women in Nablus ululated in joy as Arab satellite TV stations interrupted their normal programs to break the news of the bombings. Scores of gunmen opened fire into the air, shouting "Allahu Akbar!" or God is Great.
Similar expressions of joy were reported in Tulkarm and Jenin.
In Gaza City, hundreds of Palestinians marched in the streets carrying pictures of slain Hamas leaders Ahmed Yassin and Abdel Aziz Rantisi. The protesters hailed the suicide bombers as heroes and urged Hamas to launch more attacks inside Israel. Some of the demonstrators handed out sweets to the crowd as a sign of their jubilation.
After Nayil Abu Hilayel, 23, of the village of Al-Kader, near Bethlehem blew up 11 commuters including 4 children on a Jerusalem bus, his father Azmi Abu Hilayel, told Israeli TV: (New York Post 11/22/02)
I would like to have 10 children just like him. We have to tell [Israeli Prime Minister] Ariel Sharon that he will not win. Our Koran is better than his tanks and jets.
The following is an excerpt of an interview with a mother on Palestinian TV. (Palestinian Media Watch Bulletin 11/19/04)
Moderator: "They [Israelis] accuse the Palestinian mother of hating her sons and in encouraging them to die. This is what we hear from Israelis. Is this true?
Mother Um Al-Ajrami: "No, we do not encourage our sons to die. We encourage them to Shahada [martyrdom] for the homeland, for Allah."
[She then talks about a group of women, all mothers of Shahids, who go to other mothers of Shahids during the period of mourning]:
"We don't say to the mothers of the Shahids, 'We have come to comfort you’, but 'We have come to bless you on the wedding of your son, on the Shahada of your son. Congratulations to you on the Shahada . . . ' For us, the mourning is joyous. We give out drinks, we give out sweets. Praise to God -- the mourning is joyous. occasion" [PATV, Nov. 17, 2004]
Not all parents and spouses of suicide bombers feel this way. One wrote to al-Hayat (New York Post 10/9/02)
Four months ago I lost my eldest son when his friends tempted him, praising the path of death...The last straw was when I was informed that the friends of my eldest son, the martyr, were starting to wrap themselves like snakes around my other son, not yet 17, to direct him to the same path...to avenge his brother...
Why until this very moment, haven't we seen one of the sons or daughters of any of these people don an explosive belt and go out to carry out in deed, not in words, what their fathers preach day and night?
Maher Ihbeishi a 24 year old plumber from Nablus, detonated his bomb seconds after boarding an inter-city bus in Haifa on 12/2/01. The force of the explosion tore the roof off the bus, shattered windows and threw bodies and mangled body parts across the street. In a video he said that he did so to avenge the killing of Hamas leaders by Israel.
In the picture above Maher is shown standing in front of Mecca the holiest site in Islam showing us the religious connection to his suicide bombing. In a video before his bus massacre, he said, (New York Post 12/4/01)
Hundreds of martyrs are awaiting their turn.
Maher should have said thousands. According to the Daily Times of Pakistan (6/11/04)
Some 2,000 Iranians have signed up with a shadowy Islamist group to carry out suicide bombings in Iraq and Israel, a Tehran daily reported on Saturday. “So far 2,000 people have registered,” the group’s spokesman, Mohammad Samadi, told the reformist newspaper Shargh. “Twenty-five percent are under 18 years, 55 percent are between 18 and 40, and the rest are 40 to 80,” said Samadi, spokesman for the Committee for the Commemoration of Martyrs of the World Islamic Movement. “The youngest is a seven-year old child who registered along with his family,”
Jamal Abdel Hamid Yussef, explained operations of the Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades (military wing of Hamas in Gaza) as follows:
Our suicide operations are a message...that our people love death. Our goal is to die for the sake of God, and if we live we want to humiliate Jews and trample on their necks.
Hamas and Fatah and Al-Qa'ida videotapes tell potential recruits that in his eternal life, the martyr in the glorious fight against the despised enemies of God will live among rivers of honey and be rewarded with 72 virgins (Dr. Louis Rene Beres "Understanding September 11th, Who is the "Islamic" Suicide Bomber?" Freeman Center Broadcast 11/20/01)
An excellent article about suicide bombing called Sexual fantasies of a suicide bomber appeared in Israel Insider, August 16, 2001.
Nasra Hassan wrote an article called "An Arsenal of Believers" for the New Yorker 11/19/01. He asked a suicide bomber who survived his suicide attempt:
How did you feel when you heard that you'd been selected for martyrdom?
The bomber replied:
It's as if a very high, impenetrable wall separated you from Paradise or Hell. Allah has promised one or the other to his creatures. So, by pressing the detonator, you can immediately open the door to Paradise—it is the shortest path to Heaven.
Nasra asked the bomber to describe his preparations for the suicide mission.
We were in a constant state of worship," he said. "We told each other that if the Israelis only knew how joyful we were they would whip us to death! Those were the happiest days of my life."
What is the attraction of martyrdom? Nasra asked. The bomber replied:
The power of the spirit pulls us upward, while the power of material things pulls us downward. Someone bent on martyrdom becomes immune to the material pull. Our planner asked, 'What if the operation fails?' We told him, 'In any case, we get to meet the Prophet and his companions, inshallah.' We were floating, swimming, in the feeling that we were about to enter eternity. We had no doubts. We made an oath on the Koran, in the presence of Allah—a pledge not to waver. This Jihad pledge is called bayt al ridwan, after the garden in Paradise that is reserved for the prophets and the martyrs. I know that there are other ways to do Jihad. But this one is sweet—the sweetest. All martyrdom operations, if done for Allah's sake, hurt less than a gnat's bite!
. The bomber showed Nasra a video that documented the final planning for the operation. The bomber looked in the video and said
Tomorrow, we will be martyrs, Only the believers know what this means. I love martyrdom.
The young men and the planner then knelt and placed their right hands on the Koran. The planner said,
Are you ready? Tomorrow, you will be in Paradise.
The enthusiasm engendered for death is such that a fifteen year old boy begged two Israeli men:
Kill me, kill me, I want to be a shahid (a martyr dying while attacking Jews)
The boy had just infiltrated the Yesha community of Elon Moreh and was about to enter a house and perpetrate an attack when he was chased, shot, and wounded. (Israel National News Feb. 25, 2002)
Mohammed Al-Ghoul (New York Post 6/19/02) before committing mass murder on a bus in Jerusalem filled with high school students and office workers left a farewell note in which he wrote:
How beautiful it is to make my bomb shrapnel kill the enemy. How beautiful it is to kill and to be killed - not to love death, but to struggle for life, to kill and be killed for the lives of the coming generation.
This all may seem insane to a nonreligious westerner. In an April 25, 2002 interview Prof. 'Adel Sadeq, head of the psychiatry faculty at 'Ein Shams University in Cairo, explains why Westerners have trouble understanding this . Professor Sadeq beamed with glee as he explained how Western civilization "has no concepts such as self-sacrifice and honor," which is why Americans fail to understand that the suicide bomber experiences "the height of ecstasy and happiness" just at the moment when, "ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one, and then he presses the button to blow himself up." Big smile. (David Tell, The Weekly Standard 6/12/02) . Come to think of it suicide bombers and Adel Sadeq are insane! You can see the interview online by clicking the projector icon below.
Aaron Klein interviewed a suicide bomber for worldnetdaily and that the suicide bomber himself dispelled many mistaken notions held in the West about the motivation of suicide bombers.
Islamic clergy have debated for months whether women should be used for such operations against Israelis (Jewish World Review Aug 9, 2001). The answer came just two days before mother-of-two Ghazawi set out on her mission when the High Islamic Council in Saudi Arabia issued a fatwa [religious decree] exhorting women to become suicide bombers. Since then, scores of Palestinian women are reported to have volunteered for "martyrdom" and Israeli security sources believe that many more will seek to translate their ferocious religious zealotry into what they perceive as heroic death.
The Arab press praises suicide bombers. The editorial in Al-Hayat al-Jadida, perhaps the leading Palestinian newspaper, stated that the suicide bombers in Israel were the "noble tradition" of those who bombed the U.S. Marines in Lebanon. The date of its publication: September 11, 2001.
Mark Steyn wrote how he spent a short time on the West Bank in the spring of 2003. He wrote (Palestinian Death Cult, Jerusalem Post, October 8, 2003):
On the West Bank, almost all the humdrum transactions of daily life take place in a culture that glorifies depravity: you walk down a street named after a suicide bomber to drop your child in a school that celebrates suicide-bombing and then pick up some groceries in a corner store whose walls are plastered with portraits of suicide bombers.
Arab countries support the families of suicide bombers. The New York Daily News reported on 8/30/01 that:
The Palestinians and leaders of several Arab countries are giving thousands of dollars in "blood money" to the families of young suicide bombers spreading terror through Israel...A spokesman for the Palestinian Ministry of Information confirmed that payments were being made by the Palestinian Authority, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and other countries to the families of what he described as Palestinian"martyrs."
These donations eliminate one of the concerns that might prevent some of the Islamic faithful from suicide bombings namely concern about who would support the family once the breadwinner blew himself up.
In his article "What Makes a Suicide Bomber"(New York Times magazine Oct 28, 2001) Joseph Lelyveld writes about the improvement of living conditions of the family of Ismail al-Masawabi who blew himself to bits along with two Israeli army sergeants on June 22, 01.
The family had been living in a refugee-camp hovel when Ismail became a secret candidate for martyrdom. Now the circumstances of their lives had completely changed. The apartment, spacious by Gaza standards, had plastic grapevines running along the top of tiled walls. Everything in it looked new -- the appliances, rugs and stuffed furniture...all made possible by supporters of Hamas, the organization that recruited Ismail. His father, a glazier, had a haunted look as he told how the community had turned out to congratulate him on his son's advent in paradise. His wife, completely covered except for her hands and her resolutely cheerful countenance, betrayed not a hint of sadness as she spoke of her departed son. "I was very happy when I heard," she said. "To be a martyr, that's something. Very few people can do it. I prayed to thank God. In the Koran it's said that a martyr does not die. I know my son is close to me. It is our belief.
The rewards are only part of what makes a suicide bomber. Daniel Pipes wrote: (Arafat's Suicide Factory, New York Post 12/9/01)
Convincing healthy individuals to blow themselves up is obviously not easy, but requires ideas and institutions. The process begins with the Palestinian Authority (PA) inculcating two things into its population, starting with the children: a hatred of Jews and a love of death. School curricula, camp activities, TV programming and religious indoctrination all portray Israelis in a Nazi-style way, as sub-human being worthy of killing; and then deprecate the instinct for self-preservation, telling impressionable young people that sacrificing their lives is the most noble of all goals.
The system works: Hassan reports that "hordes of young men" clamor to be sent to their own obliteration. Hamas and Islamic Jihad have established a process of selection based in the mosques, where "a notably zealous youth" ready for martyrdom gets noted by clerics who recommend him for selection.
According to a report in the Sunday Times of London 8/5/01, in response to a call made by Saudi Arabia's High Islamic Council, many Arab women have stepped forward to volunteer as suicide bombers against Israel.
Muslims list a long litany of grievances against Israel when explaining their murders of American and Israeli civilians yet a U.S. intelligence assessment, published two years before Israel's independence and any subsequent jihadi grievance, already highlighted Islamist terrorism as a long-term threat.("Assessing the Islamist Threat, Circa 1946," Middle East Quarterly, Summer 2006, pp. 76-82.) Melvin Lee wrote an excellent article in the Middle East Quarterly titled The Fallacy of Grievance based Terrorism which demonstrates that the real problem is Islam.
The Jews are are portrayed as evil by Islamic texts for rejecting Islam and for allegedly poisoning him. For this they are doomed to dhimmitude and disgrace. Bat Ye’or has explained,
because divine will dooms Jews to wandering and misery, the Jewish state appears to Muslims as an unbearable affront and a sin against Allah. Therefore it must be destroyed by Jihad.
Religious mobs and individuals when they cry "Allahu Akbar" (Allah is great) before they engage in violence are also telling us that their religion is at the root of their violence. An excellent article The Significance of Allahu Akbar gives many frightening examples of this.
Yosri Fouda, correspondent for the satellite station Al-Jazeera, received a six-page document from Al Qaeda on 11/13/02 that called on Americans to stop supporting Israel and other governments that ``oppress'' Muslims or face more attacks. The statement also called on Americans to convert to Islam (New York Post 11/17/02)
After Abdul Razak Kamel shot three American missionaries and wounding a fourth American in their Baptist hospittal in Yemen he told cops he shot the two men and two women to (New York Post 12/31/02):
cleanse his religion and get closer to Allah
There appear to be two reasons here but there really is only one and that is that the Americans haven't converted to Islam. The reason I write this is that the oppression believe they are victims of, is really self defense measures of victims of Islamic attacks, attacks whose root cause is the desire to reach paradise by waging Jihad against the non-believer. The way Jihad against the non-believer creates the perception that the non-believer is the oppressor, is illustrated in a diagram on the Creation of Oppressors by Religion web page of this web site.
(New York Daily News 11/26/01). On Saint Patricks Day 2002, five people were slaughtered in a grenade and gun assault on the Protestant International Church in Islamabad, including an American diplomat and her little girl. Many others were badly wounded. This was four and a half months after another church attack in Pakistan in which 16 Pakistani Christians were massacred. (New York Post 3/19/02) According to the New York Post (8/7/02), on August 5, 02 four Islamic gunmen attacked a Christian school in Murree, Pakistan in an attempt to kill the children. They succeeded in slaughtering five school employees and a bystander - but failed to reach their main target: the school's children, who took refuge behind stout doors.
In an article "Discovering Islam the hard way" Boston Herald (12/12/01?) the author writes about the State Department's annual survey of religious freedom. He writes that:
The latest report notes that in the past five years, over 1 million Christians have fled Muslim countries.
In Saudi Arabia, a dozen Christians are in jail for practicing their faith. The State Department matter-of-factly comments, "Freedom of religion does not exist in Saudi Arabia."
When Nigerian Muslims took to the streets to celebrate Sept. 11, 300 to 400 Christians died in one day alone. In May 2000, 200 were killed in the city of Kaduna, including Father Clement Ozi Bello (a Muslim convert to Catholicism), who was dragged from his car, blinded and slain. "Our people are being shot, butchered and roasted," pleads Kaduna Bishop Josiah Fearon.
In Pakistan, a number of Christians languish on death row for violating Section 295 (c) of the nation's penal code, which makes blaspheming the Prophet Mohammed a capital crime. On Oct. 28, in Bahawalpur, the Army of Omar related to Protestant churchgoers with automatic weapons, killing 16.
In Indonesia, the world's largest Muslim country, the Laskar Jihad has expanded its ethnic cleansing of Christians from Maluku (where 9,000 have died since 1999) to the neighboring province of Sulawesi. According to International Christian Concern, between Nov. 26 and Nov. 29, 600 homes and six churches were destroyed.
And in the Philippines, the Abu Sayyaf spreads terror in the pursuit of an Islamic republic on Mindanao. Among last year's victims was Father Rhoel Gallardo, a kidnapped Catholic priest who was tortured and killed for refusing to say Muslim prayers.
Christian aid reported in November 2001 that More than 50,000 Christians are in "grave jeopardy" as they are surrounded by Islamic Jihad terrorists on Indonesia's Central Sulawesi province.
Since Saturday night (local time), the Poso district of Central Sulawesi has been under attack," said Christian Aid's contact in the area. "The situation is very critical. Unless there is a miracle, many lives will be lost." The contact said people are crying out for help. "They are desperate for food, medicine and protection," he says. "They are completely surrounded and request our prayer support. If the Jihad terrorists break through local defenses there will be great massacres. We must pray that the hand of the Lord will stop these disciples of bin Laden from doing their evil deeds."
Additional reports shared by Jubilee Campaign said that Jihad terrorists attacked Pantangolemba village, near Poso, at 2 a.m. on Saturday. They burned 68 houses and looted 1.5 tons of rice that had been gathered by the churches in Palu to feed the 7500 refugees there. Later that day they attacked Rononuncu village.
On Thursday evening, 3/11/04, four Muslim men riding on two motorcycles sped through the village of Maranatha, 18 miles south of the regional capital Palu, leaving death and bloodshed in their wake. Nuci, a 40 year old Christian mother of two, died two hours after receiving fatal injuries to her head, neck and back. A witness to the incident described how she heard the roar of the motorbikes, followed almost immediately by a baby's screams. She ran towards the cries and found Nuci, bleeding to death and crawling towards her baby. The attackes wounded five others. (Jihad Watch 3/24/04)
Daniel Pipes wrote about the Islamic war in Indonesia in the New York Post (10/22/02)
On the island of Aceh alone, more than 6,000 lives have been lost in fighting between the Islamist "Free Aceh Movement" and government forces. Asian intelligence sources believe this group may be an al Qaeda affiliate. The goal of these and other radicals, CNS News reports, is "to turn the world's most populous Muslim country into an extremist Islamic state by 2003." Muslim-Christian tensions have led to a full-blown religious war on other islands.
In Sulawesi, Islamists have deployed roadblocks, armored bulldozers and rocket launchers, thereby isolating the indigenous Christian community. They have also systematically targeted Christians, forcing them to convert, circumcising their children, burning churches and other buildings.
In all, Muslim-Christian clashes in Indonesia have killed more than 19,000 since 1999 and left over 600,000 displaced from their homes.
He also wrote about Islam in Bangladesh:
Since Sept. 11, thousands of al Qaeda supporters have taken to the streets of Dhaka after Friday prayers, touting posters that read: "Osama is our Hero," while burning effigies of President George W. Bush.
Meanwhile, members of minority religions have suffered from ghastly violence, including collective terror. The Nation reports that some Buddhists and Christians were blinded, had fingers cut off or had hands amputated, while "others had iron rods nailed through their legs or abdomen." Women and children have "been gang-raped, often in front of their fathers or husbands." In addition, hundreds of temples were desecrated and statues destroyed; thousands of homes and businesses looted or burned.
As for Hindus, the human rights organization Freedom House reports they have been subject to "rape, torture and killing and the destruction of their cultural and religious identity at the hands of Muslims." In one indicative step, Islamists sometimes force Hindu women to dress in the Islamist fashion.
Pipes writes how in Nigeria Muslim vigilantes are enforcing Islamic law. He writes:
Implementing Islamic law means forbidding such practices as the construction of churches, music performances, the wearing of pants, drinking alcohol and riding in mixed-gender taxis. Forced conversions to Islam are reported, as well as coerced divorces of Muslim women from Christian men.
Vigilantes enforce Islamic law via punishments that include stoning, flogging and the chopping off of hands. Solidarity visits from Sudanese, Pakistani, Saudi, Palestinian and Syrian Islamists tie Nigeria to the wider forces of militant Islam. Freedom House concludes that Nigeria is undergoing a process of "Talibanization."
The Wall Street Journal in an article about mining in Tanzania (11 16, 2001) tells about the Taqwa mosque there in which
Miners are taught the importance of avenging the "arrogance" of America and defending Afghanistan from "U.S. oppression. Support for Mr. bin Laden is a duty, miners are told. ..."Remember, Islam teaches us that your body is a weapon," Sheik Omari tells a group of young men in Swahili. "But if you die, you should take as many of your enemy with you as you can. This will be your ticket to paradise."
The Wall Street Journal had an article in the same issue by Yaroslav Trofimov who wrote:
Asked what he thinks about the war in Afghanistan, Abdullah Hussein unsheathes his curved dagger and shows with a grin how he would stab Americans in the heart. "If I can, I'll go fight the holy war in Afghanistan tomorrow because Osama bin Laden is defending God and Islam" he says.
An approving crowd gathers around him on Sana's ancient souk (market), devoid of tourists since the publicized kidnapping and murder of Western visitors in Yemen three years ago by a group of Islamist terrorists. Schoolteacher Muhammed Juweiber sums up popular feelings. "If they open the borders, we will all go to fight," he says. "No one will be late for Jihad."
Islam has increased brutality committed during war by sanctioning it if the war is against the enemies of Allah. Holy war or Jihad is part of Islam. An excellent documentary about this is called Jihad in America. An article that appeared in Business Week (October 9, 2000) called Wages of Hatred tells how an ethnic Chinese lawyer who was investigating atrocities against her community in Indonesia was threatened by Muslims. "I have Muslim fundamentalist blood in my veins," said the leader. "It would be no problem to kill you." Two weeks later Yusuf returned from an overseas trip to find her building had been burned down. The leader who threatened Yusuf is telling us something as well which is there is a connection between fundamentalist Islam and willingness to kill. Daniel Pipes wrote an article with the Islamic actions around the world to show that Islam is a global threat.
Islamic leaders create paranoia among Moslems of the West and of the Jews. A news item that appeared in Reuters on Thursday, March 16,2000 titled Hajj pilgrims urged to shun Western ways writes how:
From Mina the pilgrims went to the Grand Mosque at Mecca, where they circled seven times the cube-shaped Kaaba that Muslims around the world turn to when praying. It was there that Sheikh Abdel Rahman al-Sudais, at times choking back tears of emotion, urged the world's Muslims to unite and shun Western traditions and materialism. Warning that "globalization" could lead to "Western domination of the Islamic nation," he called on God to bless Muslims and destroy the enemies of Islam. "Oh God destroy the aggressors, the Zionists (Israelis)... Save al-Aqsa Mosque (in Jerusalem) from the claws of Zionists and Jews," he said.
If it were not for the intolerance of the non-believer which is taught by Islam it is quite possible that Jews and Arabs would live together peacefully in the Middle East. In fact if it was not for the Islamic conquest of Israel in 729 AD there would be no Arabs living in Israel to have conflict with. Israel's Existence is Forbidden by Islamic Law. The true cause of the Middle East conflict is Islamic intolerance of the non-believer! Mark Steyn wrote a superb article called The Root Cause, We're All Infidels after the bombing of a night club in Bali Indonesia. Walter James O'Brien also wrote an excellent essay on the root cause of Islamic conflict called What Do Arab's Want?.
On 5/30/04 Muslims shot their way into a Saudi Arabian housing complex took hostages and slit the throats of nine of them. An audiotape attributed to al Qaeda's chief in the Saudi region said the attack was meant to punish the kingdom because it provides:
America with oil at the cheapest prices, according to their masters' wish, so that their economy does not collapse.
Once at the housing complex, the gunmen moved from villa to villa asking residents to prove they were Muslims. When they reached Iraqi American Abu Hashem's villa, they commanded:
Prove you are a Muslim. Don't be afraid, we won't kill Muslims - even if you are American.
This is a very educational statement. Even though Abu Hashem is American they will not kill him, only if he is an infidel is he marked for death. The root of Islamic hatred of American infidels is the same as the root of Islamic hatred of Jewish infidels, and that is that they are not Moslem.
The motivations of Abu Musab Zarqawi, the head of the terrorist al Tawid who beheaded Nicolas Berg and who was responsible for the beheading of South Korean civilian Kim Sun-il as well as car bombings and other atrocities became clear in a tape (New York Post 6/24/04) where he vowed to carry out:
Our Jihad against the Western infidel and the Arab apostate until Islamic rule is back on earth.
The Arabs like to claim that it is Israeli oppression of the Palestinians that is the cause of their hatred of the West even though Israel has shown great restraint in its response to Palestinian terrorist oppression of Israelis. After the murder of 3,000 Americans in 2001, Kuwaitis, in a February 2002 Gallup poll (and while they lobbied OPEC to reduce output and jack up prices), revealed an overwhelming distaste for Americans--indeed the highest levels of anti-Americanism in the Arab world. They feel this hate even though the United States freed Kuwait from Iraq and even though the United States has given the Palestinian Arabs billions of dollars of aid. The Kuwaitis explained that this was due to America's purportedly unfair treatment of the Palestinians yet the Kuwaitis ethnically cleansed over a third of a million Palestinians after they were liberated by the United States. Palestinians are just an excuse. The root of the Palestinian problem is Islamic generated hate as is the hatred felt by Kuwait toward the United States and no amount of money or military aid has or will change that.
