Resurgence of Islam threatens ancient St Catherine's Monastery on Mt Sinai

Threat of Muslim jihad terrorist attacks forced closure of the monastery in 2013, shuttering the entire local, micro-economy.

Apparently, even the spurious "Charter of Privileges" � supposedly written by Muhammad for the monks at St Catherine's and conveying his protection and favor upon them and all Christians under Muslim rule for all time � has not had sufficient influence on the Islamic State nor on any jihadist group to prevent their relentless and fierce persecution of this ancient and revered monastery and Christians throughout all Islamic lands.

You can help support St Catherine's Monastery through Friends of Mount Sinai Monastery, a special foundation collecting donations for St. Catherine and its monks. Learn more and donate via the following link: www.mountsinaimonastery.org/donate/

St. Catherine Greek Orthodox monastery needs financial help to survive

by Ioanna Zikakou, Greek Reporter via Pravmir � September 22, 2015

The monastery was also shut down by Egyptian authorities in 2013 fearing a terrorism attack, according to Al Monitor.

The Greek Orthodox monastery of St. Catherine at Sinai city, Egypt is located at the very place where according to Christianity God appeared to Moses in the Burning Bush, beneath the Mount of the Decalogue. It is the oldest continuously inhabited Christian monastery, with a history that can be traced back over seventeen centuries.

The monastery offers job positions for numerous people in the area helping the local economy flourish. St. Catherine�s Monastery employs 400 workers at its olive groves, grape farms, honey bee farms and several processing facilities. When Egyptian authorities decided the monastery�s complete shutdown in 2013 the locals were left struggling, and since then the situation remains harsh. The Bedouin residents were forced to sell their camels, since they were not able to feed them and in order to provide for their families.

�Everyone is out of business since the monastery�s temporary shut down in 2013. The lodges, the camel stables, the safari guides and even the supermarkets and restaurants,� said Sheikh Mousa al-Jebaly, the founder of Sheikh Mousa Lodge, according to Al Monitor. �If a foreigner appears in town now, it�s those living in the beach towns on the southern shore. They are not tourists, and they don�t stay or shop in town.�

St. Catherine�s Monastery has been shut down two times over the past 50 years. The first time was �in 1977 when former President Anwar Sadat made his historic visit to Jerusalem, and in 1982 when the Egyptian military entered Sinai after the withdrawal of Israeli forces,� noted Al Monitor.

The most recent shutdown was not explained by the local authorities, however, it allegedly took place when a monk traveling in South Sinai was almost kidnapped leading authorities to suspect a possible attack on St. Catherine�s monastery.

A group called Friends of Mount Sinai Monastery is collecting donations for St. Catherine and its monks via the following link: www.mountsinaimonastery.org/donate/

Sectsploitation: How to Win Hearts and Minds in the Islamic World

This 2009 article, though dated in terms of current events, is very helpful in setting forth the variegated landscape of Islam, and what that might portend for the Western response to the global jihad. Christians will acquire a more well-rounded understanding of the various sects of Islam by familiarizing themselves with this article.

by Timothy R. Furnish, PhD, History News Network, May 31, 2009

Mr. Furnish�s doctorate is in Islamic history, he works as an author and consultant, and his website is www.mahdiwatch.org

A rational discussion of Islam�s causal role in American �overseas contingency operations��the erstwhile �global war on terror�--or the multitude of �man-made disasters� besetting the modern world has become almost impossible in the current hyper-partisan American political climate. 

Many on the Left, who can�t be bothered to actually read a Qur�an, remain blindly convinced that there is nothing intrinsically violent in literalist Islam;[1] that all religions are equally peaceful (except perhaps for Christianity); and that the violent legions around the world engaged in decapitation, assassination and detonation in emulation of Muhammad are actually, unbeknownst even to themselves, motivated rather by something, anything, else: alienation, victimization, anti-Americanism, lack of education, etc. Some on the Left�such as candidate, if not President, Barack Obama�even continue clinging to the myth that �poverty causes Islamic terrorism,�[2] empirical data be damned. 

Too many on the Right, on the other hand, assume that the history of Islam is coterminous with a history of violence; that the only Muslims that matter are fundamentalist Sunnis motivated by death, domination and the pursuit of houris; and that while there may be a demographic sliver of moderate Muslims, there is no such thing as moderate Islam.[3]

Both are wrong.

President Obama, two months ago, told the New York Times that �the American military would reach out to moderate elements of the Taliban.�[4] In the same interview, the President explained further that �If you talk to General Petraeus�part of the success in Iraq involved reaching out to people that we would consider to be Islamic fundamentalists.� Leaving aside some rather crucial issues (whether the successful �surge� strategy can be translated directly to Afghanistan;[5] the questionable reduction of Sunni shaykhs in Iraq to mere Islamic fundamentalists; and the misconception that such a thing as a �moderate Taliban� actually exists), the Obama administration is nonetheless on the right track (as was that of Bush, albeit more publicly vocal) in its search for non-jihadist Muslims. In this vein, next month the President will deliver a major speech in Egypt, �seeking to strengthen U.S. relations with the Islamic world and fight extremism.�[6] One key to doing the former is to acknowledge that the Islamic world does have a long theological and historical strain of the latter--based largely on a literal reading of the Qur�an and the Hadiths (alleged practices and sayings of Muhammad)�as well as to identify, contact and support moderate branches of Islam.

Islam is not necessarily literally violent, but much if not most of the time literal Islam IS violent. How could it not be? Sura al-Nisa�[4]:34ff says �those wives from whom you fear rebellion�.beat them.� Sura Muhammad [47]:3ff and Sura al-Anfal [8]:12ff say �when you encounter the unbelievers on the battlefield, strike off their heads.� Sura al-`Imran[3]:157ff says �If you should die or be slain in the cause of God�before Him you shall be gathered.� Five different sections of the Qur�an promise �dark-eyed� huris, �bashful virgins whom neither man nor jinn will have touched,�[7] to those who die fighting on Allah�s behalf.

Of course, taken literally the Bible�at least the Old Testament�could promote violence: for example Deuteronomy 7:1ff tells the Hebrews not only to avoid intermarrying with the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, etc., but to �tear down their altars� and �utterly destroy them.� But modern Jewish rabbis and Israeli politicians do not cite such passages to justify violence, not just because these ancient peoples no longer exist but because a literal reading of such verses is no longer accepted, either in scholarship or in the popular mind.

As for the New Testament, it�s impossible to read it literally and condone violence. Matthew 26:52 says Jesus told Peter �put your sword back into its place; for all those who take up the sword shall perish by the sword.� Furthermore, Jesus told his followers to �love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.�[8] The Crusades and the Inquisition were rejections of Jesus� teachings, not fulfillment of them�which is exactly the opposite of the case with Muhammad and jihad. However, there are New Testament passages that, taken literally, are problematic: for example, in Luke 10:19 Jesus told the 70 that �I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions�and nothing will injure you.� There are some tiny Christian denominations that encourage taking these passages literally, even going so far as to handle poisonous snakes during services.[9] But the vast majority of Christians�courtesy of several centuries of Biblical criticism, not to mention application of simple common sense�can put those passages in exegetical and historical context, realizing that what was true for the 12 Apostles and the 70 Disciples two millennia ago, not to mention Jesus Himself, is NOT necessarily binding on us today. Christianity, like Judaism, long ago developed a non-literalist exegetical paradigm, which is adhered to by a majority within each religion.[10]

The same is not true of mainstream Sunni Islam, which makes up some 87% of the world�s 1.5 billion Muslim population. In that majority Muslim community, �the doctrine of taqlid, of adherence to a given legal madhhab,[11] was elaborated into the doctrine that the �gates of ijtihad�[12]�had closed in the ninth century� [C.E.].[13] This meant that"the right of ijtihad" -- independent religion-legal reasoning -- was replaced by the duty of taqlid or �imitation.� Henceforth every jurist was an �imitator� (muqallid) bound to accept and follow the doctrine established by his predecessors.�[14] Original ideas about interpretation of the Qur�an were forbidden; only slavish imitation of early Muslim commentators, literalists all, was�and still is, technically�allowed. Thus, a Sunni Muslim confronted with the clear Qur�anic mandate of beheading for infidels on the battlefield cannot advance exegetical arguments that the passage 1) applied only in Muhammad�s time or 2) today is to be read metaphorically as �apologetic decapitation� or the like. The Qur�an reports, you do not get to decide. The ancient school of Mu`tazilism, which did briefly allow for non-literalism regarding the Qur�an, was stamped out in Sunnism.

But while this is the sitation within Sunni Islam, it is not necessarily true within non-Sunni Muslim denominations and sects. Islam is far more variegated than simply Sunnis and Shi`is. There are at least three major divisions of Shi`i Muslims, the largest of which is the Ithna`ashariyah, or �Twelvers,� of Iran, Iraq and Iraq (the others are the Ismai�ilis and the Zaydis), so called because they believe there have been only 12 Imams, or legitimate leaders of the Islamic world, since Muhammad (and that the 12th one, who disappeared in the 9th century C.E., did not die but will return as the eschatological Mahdi).

Because of the Islamic Republic of Iran�s general opposition to the U.S. on the world stage for the last quarter-century�epitomized by the Ayatollah Khomeini�s regime holding Americans hostage for 444 days, and reinforced by President Ahmadinejad�s Holocaust-denying and apocalyptic threats against Israel�many Americans (to include political analysts) lump Twelver Shi`is into the category of �Islamic fundamentalists.� However, Twelvers are anything but fundamentalist, since �Islamic Shi`ite jurisprudence [has been kept] alive and fresh throughout the ages� by �individuals who continuously follow the path of independent judgment, ijtihad�.�[15] One example of Shi`i new religion-political thinking is the concept of vilayet-i faqih, �Rule of the Jurisprudent,� which Khomeini developed to put the Twelver clerics in guardanship over the state until the coming of the Mahdi. One may say many things about this political ideology, but it is certainly something new under the sun�quite the opposite of Sunni-style taqlid. And if Twelver Shi`ism allows for new religion-political dispensations that are oppressive and inimical to non-Muslims, it also arguably holds the potential for developing other ideas that are opposed to the literalistic reading of the Qur�an regnant in Sunni circles. Last year, while at the Mahdism Conference in Tehran, I was discussing, with a researcher from the Bright Future Institute (the Iranian quasi-governmental entity which sponsored the conference), the interpretation of the violent passages of the Qur�an. When he told me the jihad passages were not to be taken literally, I replied (somewhat tongue-in-cheek), �but that�s not what the Salafists[16] say.� He replied, somewhat haughtily, �I am talking about TRUE Muslim interpretation.�

While the reformist potential of Twelver Shi`ism remains largely latent, another branch of Shi`ism long ago manifested it. The Isma�ilis, or �Seveners,�[17] started out as a violent, revolutionary brand of Shi`ism some 1100 years ago�in fact, one of their branches was the �Assassins��and evolved into a quietist, mystical form of Islam that teaches the necessity to �enable the believers to go beyond the apparent or outward form of the revelation in search of its spirituality and intellect.�[18]  Numbering perhaps 15 million worldwide, the Isma�ilis are headed by the Aga Khan and comprise substantial communities in South Asia (India and Pakistan), East Africa/Yemen, Europe and Canada. Their focus on the batini, �hidden,� meaning of the Qur�an and Islam over against the zahiri, �apparent,� one has enabled them, for example, to adopt a view of jihad in which its primary components are �microfinance, rural development, disaster reduction, the promotion of private-sector enterprise and the revitalisation of historic cities�[19] rather than IEDs, flogging of women and other violent expressions of jihad. One might think Isma�ili communities in Pakistan and Yemen could serve as legitimately Muslim intellectual and social counterweights to the al-Qa`idah types.

On the margins of Shi`i theology and practice are the Alawis of Syria and Lebanon. They make up some 10% of Syria�s population but run the country since both Presidents al-Assad�Hafiz and Bashar�have been Alawi, as is the bulk of the military and intelligence services. The Alawis began over a millennium ago as a Shi`i sect but as the centuries passed developed such heterodox beliefs and practices�divinization of Ali, the first Imam; reincarnation; non-utilization of mosques; drinking of wine�that as long as 700 years ago the famous Sunni cleric Ibn Taymiyah issued fatwas denouncing the Alawis as apostates whom it was lawful to kill.[20]

Because of the political considerations of the al-Assads, Syria under Alawi rule has allied itself with Twelver Shi`i Iran and this has reinforced Alawism�s position as a non-Sunni-fundamentalist, pseudo-Shi`i Islamic cult in which ijtihad is allowed to exist. Despite Damascus� geopolitical obstreperousness from an American (and certainly Israeli) point of view, one positive aspect of Alawi rule is its decidedly anti-jihadist position; in fact, Hafiz al-Assad crushed the Muslim Brotherhood in the early 1980s, and to this day Alawi Syria remains theologically, if not always politically, opposed to militant Sunnism. Were Syria to adopt a less confrontational stance toward its fellow Arab states like Egypt and Jordan, it might be possible for Alawi Arab Syria to serve as an ecumenical bridgehead between those states and the ijtihadistic Islamic Republic of Iran.

Alternatively, Syria�unlike the other two majority-Muslim states on the U.S. State Department�s terrorism sponsors list, Iran and Sudan�is ruled not by its majority (Syria is 75% Sunni Muslim) but by a small, heretical minority, a situation that might very well make for successful religious destabilization operations against Damascus, should the U.S. decide to go that route by, for example, building on the aformentioned Ibn Taymiyah fulminations. The Egyptians, for one, are fed up with what they see as Syrian and Iranian support for Hizbullah cells in their country.[21] How hard would it be for the Obama Administration to persuade the Egyptian government to have al-Azhar, the preeminent seat of Sunni Muslim scholarship, issue new fatwas underlining the non-Islamic nature of the Alawi regime and calling on the Sunni majority to rise up against it?

The fact that the Islamic world is divided into sects offers the West in general and the U.S. in particular a myriad of opportunities to both empower friends and punish enemies. And lest anyone wax too indignant about such imperial meddling by a Christian power in the Islamic world, know that the Muslim Ottoman Empire did exactly the same during the Reformation in Europe. No sooner were Luther�s 95 Theses fluttering in the wind on the Wittenberg church door than the Ottoman Sultan �was aware of and exploited this tear in the fabric of Christendom,� playing off the German Protestant rulers against their own overlord, Holy Roman Emperor Charles V and urging them to ally with the French.[22]

Many other Islamic sects could be proffered as moderate�that is, non-literalist regarding the Qur�an�alternatives to Sunnism, including the Druze of Lebanon, Zaydis of Yemen, Alevis of Turkey and the Ibadis of Oman. But the major para-Islamic grouping that has been put forward as a collective alternative to both militant Sunnism and Iranian Shi`ism is Sufism, Islamic mysticism, most notably by Stephen Schwartz.[23]

Sufi orders developed early in Islamic history, similar to mystical movements in Judaism and Christianity, out of a dissatisfaction with mere adherence to Islamic law as a path to Allah and a desire to experience the Divine directly, usually through intensive prayer. Dozens, if not hundreds, of Sufi orders sprang up and many still exist, most notably the: Naqshabandis of South Asia, Iraq and Syria; Qadiris and Tijanis of West Africa; Bektashis of Turkey and the Balkans; Chishtis of India; Salihis of East Africa; etc. While no exact enumeration of their adherents has been done, a conservative estimate is that they number at least 45 million.[24] Schwartz maintains that �Sufis can help Islam and the world by tenaciously maintaining their attitudes of independence, pluralism, [and] respect for other faiths�.�[25] But while he also admits that there have been �many incidents of brutality against Sufis,�[26] he glosses over�indeed, largely ignores�the examples in Islamic history of Sufi-led and �staffed violence against other Muslims (and Christians, and Hindus, and Sikhs, and�.) over 14 centuries of Islamic history, the most notable of which include: Sayyid Muhammad Jawnpuri, a Chishti Sufi, whose Mahdavis of 15th century CE fought the Gujarat ruler; Sayyid Ahmad Barelwi,[27] a Naqshbandi Sufi, leader of an anti-Sikh and anti-British jihad in 19th century India; Muhammad Ahmad, a Sammani Sufi who led a massive Mahdist jihad against the Ottomans, Egyptians and British and by 1885 took over Sudan; Imam Shamil, the leader of several 19th century North Caucasus jihads against the Russians, who was a Naqshabandi; the �Mad Mullah� of Somalia, Muhammad bin `Abd Allah, a Salihi Sufi who led revolts against the Italians and British until his death in 1920.

Sufism particularly in the 18th and 19th centuries, as well as the early 20th, provided a ready-made organization and ideology which could all too often be put at the disposal of a charismatic Sufi shaykh convinced that he was on a mission from God. Indeed, this brand of Sufism has not totally dissipated, for earlier this year Naqshabandis from Iraq met the head of Hamas and provided him both ideological finanical support.[28]

But if Schwartz downplays the latent militancy of Sufism, he is exactly right that many Sufi orders and their members are opposed to jihadist Sunnism, not least because the progenitor of the latter�Muhammad b. `Abd al-Wahhab (d. 1792), founder of the Wahhabi sect of Saudi Arabia�hated the Sufis and his followers down to today largely retain that attitude. Sufis, like the aforementioned Isma�ilis, distinguish between the literal words of the Qur�an and their intrinsic meaning. As an example of how Sufi Islam can serve as a de facto ally in the war against jihadists, look no further than Somalia, where the Sufi umbrella group Ahl al-Sunnah wa-al-Jama`ah recently came out in support of the Mogadishu government of Shaykh Sharif Ahmad over against the jihadist threat from the al-Shabab organization.[29] Sufis may not pave the road to global harmony, but they certainly present�to paraphrase Margaret Thatcher�s line about Mikhail Gorbachev��an Islam we can do business with.�

Combining the three branches of Islam explicated in this paper (Isma�ilis, Alawis and Sufis) with the ones mentioned in passing (Druze, Zaydis, Alevis, Ibadis) and neo-Sufi, modernist groups such as the increasingly influential G�len movement of Turkey, we arrive at a figure of some 90-100 million adherents. This constitutes some 7 or 8% of the world Muslim population�admittedly, a small percentage but a figure probably equal to the hardcore Sunni jihadist ranks. (Add in the Twelver Shi`is and the figure doubles.) This is certainly a large enough slice of the global Muslim demographic pie to to have an effect, were their ideas to gain more prominence and traction in the global ummah (community), in undercutting fundamentalist Sunnism�s claim to sole legitimacy and providing ammunition to those who claim that Islam has been �hijacked� by such Sunnis. Sunni Muslims, by and large, are prohibited from, or simply scared of, telling the Taliban of the world that the very real violent injunctions of the Qur�an do not have to be taken literally. Were the Aga Khan, or Shaykh Hisham Kabbani,[30] to stand up next to President Obama and tell the mullahs of Swat that their wooden Qur�anic literalism was not only dangerous but wrong, we�d know the President had found the true moderate Muslims whom he seeks. And we�d all be the better for it.

NOTES:

[1] One of the foremost purveyors of this ahistorical view is Karen Armstrong (http://www.time.com). But, hard as it is to believe, former President George W. Bush publicly agreed with such sentiments (http://www.jihadwatch.org).

2]http://frontpagemagazine.com.

[3] This view is espoused by anti-jihadists such as Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Dutch legislator Geert Wilders.

[4]http://www.nytimes.com

[5] Three major differences between Iraq and Afghanistan that might affect the translation of the surge policy are: the latter has a much greater rural/urban population, a much less educated populace, and�most importantly�a large Sunni majority, whence springs the fundamentalist Sunni Taliban (whereas Iraq is 65% Shi`i, a branch not known for its dedication to violent Islam in the same fashion as fundamentalist Sunnism).

[6]http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/

[7] The last line, specifically, is from Sura al-Rahman[55]:36ff; the other references are found in Sura al-Naba�[78]:17ff, Sura al-Dukhan [44]:41ff, Sura al-Waqi�ah[56]:8ff and Sura al-Tur[52]:2ff,

[8] Matthew 5:44

[9] In fact, the father of one of my high school friends in Kentucky in the 1970s belonged to such a denomination, and he died from just such a snake bite.

[10] According to sources such as the 2007 �Time Almanac,� and www.adherents.com, Christians number some 2.1 billion, of which a majority consists of non-literalist/fundamentalist churches such as Roman Catholicism (1.1 billion), Eastern Orthodoxy (225 million), Anglicanism (77 million), Lutheranism (66 million), and many other denominations with membership in the low millions each. Biblical literalists of the �fundamentalist� Protestant variety (Southern Baptists, Assemblies of God, etc.) are large in real numbers but, world-wide, comprise a minority of the world�s Christian population. Of course, Biblical literalism exists within most, if not all, denominations�but by-and-large it predominates within those Protestant ones that adhere strictly to the concept of sola Scriptura much more than it does where Tradition is accorded a role alongside the Bible. As for Judaism, of the three major branches of the religion�Orthodox, Conservative and Reform�only the Orthodox still adhere to a literal reading of the Hebrew Scriptures, and they make up somewhere between 1/3 and less than � of the world�s Jewish population: http://www.jcpa.org. And yes, while there are other factors that determine whether adherents of any particular religion are �moderate� or �extremist,� it is also nonetheless true that Scriptural�Biblical or Qur�anic�literalism is almost certainly the major one and the starting point for analysis.

[11] �School� or �group� of interpretation

[12] �Independent judgment in a legal or theological question�

[13] Marshall G.S. Hodgson, The Venture of Islam, Vol. II: The Expansion of Islam in the Middle Periods (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1974), p. 406

[14] N.J. Coulson, A History of Islamic Law (Edinburgh: University Press, 1964), pp. 80ff.

[15] �Allamah Sayyid Muhammad Husayn Tabataba�I, Shi`ite Islam (Albany: SUNY Press, 1975), Seyyed Hossein Nasr, trans. and ed., p. 104.

[16] �Salafists� are Sunnis who believe in emulation of the �salaf,� �ancestors� of the the Islamic community who lived in Muhammad�s time. They are, in a very real sense, fundamentalists.

[17] So named because they trace the line of legitimate Imams through fewer, and slightly different personages, than do the Twelvers.

[18]http://www.akdn.org

[19]http://www.akdn.org

[20] See Yaron Friedman, �Ibn Taymiyya�s Fatawa against the Nusayri-`Alawi Sect,� Der Islam, 87 (2005), pp. 349-363

[21]http://www.memri.org

[22] Daniel Goffman, The Ottoman Empire and Early Modern Europe (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002), p. 111

[23] See his book The Other Islam: Sufism and the Road to Global Harmony (New York: Doubleday, 2008), as well as Getting to Know the Sufis,� The Weekly Standard, February 7, 2005: http://www.weeklystandard.com

[24] This is extraplolation based on the reasoning by several Islamic scholars that in the early 20th century Sufis comprised ~3% of the entire Muslim population.

[25]The Other Islam, p. 236

[26]Ibid.

[27] This man and his movement should not be confused with Ahmad Riza Khan Barelwi (d. 1921), founder of a neo-Sufi, anti-Deobandi movement in South Asia.

[28]http://www.memri.org

[29]http://www.voanews.com

[30] Head of the Naqshbandi-Haqqani order in America: http://www.naqshbandi.org/

- See more at: http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/83742#sthash.0mQlM459.dpuf

Exploding the Myth that 'Jihad�is a perversion of Islam'

Excellent refutation of the false narrative so prevalent in the media, and among government and Christian leaders, that "Jihad�is a perversion of Islam." 

The Face of Jihad: �When you meet the unbelievers, smite their necks..." - Koran 47:4

This impressive article by Robert Spencer uses actual Islamic texts and authorities to prove the continuity linking the original doctrine of offensive jihad as found in the Koran and life & example of Muhammad, through the centuries of classical Islamic writings, advocated to the present by all four schools of Sunni jurisprudence, on down to the Muslim clerics and jihadis of our own day.

Spencer proves that offensive jihad, just as in the 7th century, continues to be recognized as a mandatory obligation upon all Muslims, and that modern Muslims themselves seem to be warming to the jihadist call, as evidenced by the tens of thousands flocking to join the Islamic State Caliphate.

"Bill O�Reilly: 'Jihad�is a perversion of Islam, we all know that',"

by Robert Spencer, Jihad Watch, August 28, 2015

�The spiritualism falls apart in the face of the jihad, okay, which is a perversion of Islam, we all know that.�

Do we, now?

Leave aside the fact that jihad is a central tenet of Islam for all Muslims, although all don�t endorse the terrorist form of it. Obviously O�Reilly is referring to jihad terrorism, which we are constantly told that the overwhelming majority of Muslims reject.

So is jihad terrorism a perversion of Islam? Most politicians and pundits in the West take for granted that it is. But there is, unfortunately, evidence to the contrary. Certainly Islamic terrorists believe that what they are doing is jihad, and that it is justified by the Qur�an and Sunnah:

�Jihad was a way of life for the Pious Predecessors (Salaf-us-Salih), and the Prophet (SAWS) was a master of the Mujahideen and a model for fortunate inexperienced people. The total number of military excursions which he (SAWS) accompanied was 27. He himself fought in nine of these; namely Badr; Uhud, Al-Muraysi, The Trench, Qurayzah, Khaybar, The Conquest of Makkah, Hunayn and Taif . . . This means that the Messenger of Allah (SAWS) used to go out on military expeditions or send out an army at least every two months.� � Abdullah Azzam, co-founder of al-Qaeda, Join the Caravan, p. 30

�If we follow the rules of interpretation developed from the classical science of Koranic interpretation, it is not possible to condemn terrorism in religious terms. It remains completely true to the classical rules in its evolution of sanctity for its own justification. This is where the secret of its theological strength lies.� � Egyptian scholar Nasr Hamid Abu Zayd

�Many thanks to God, for his kind gesture, and choosing us to perform the act of Jihad for his cause and to defend Islam and Muslims. Therefore, killing you and fighting you, destroying you and terrorizing you, responding back to your attacks, are all considered to be great legitimate duty in our religion.� � Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and his fellow 9/11 defendants

�Allah on 480 occasions in the Holy Koran extols Muslims to wage jihad. We only fulfil God�s orders. Only jihad can bring peace to the world.� � Taliban terrorist Baitullah Mehsud

�Jihad, holy fighting in Allah�s course, with full force of numbers and weaponry, is given the utmost importance in Islam�.By jihad, Islam is established�.By abandoning jihad, may Allah protect us from that, Islam is destroyed, and Muslims go into inferior position, their honor is lost, their lands are stolen, their rule and authority vanish. Jihad is an obligation and duty in Islam on every Muslim.� � Times Square car bomb terrorist Faisal Shahzad

�So step by step I became a religiously devout Muslim, Mujahid � meaning one who participates in jihad.� � Little Rock, Arkansas terrorist murderer Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad

�And now, after mastering the English language, learning how to build explosives, and continuous planning to target the infidel Americans, it is time for Jihad.� � Texas terrorist bomber Khalid Aldawsari

All of these, of course, may be dismissed as �extremists,� although they were also all devout Muslims who were determined to follow their religion properly. One finds the same thing, however, when one turns to the authoritative sources in Sunni Islam, the schools of Sunni jurisprudence (madhahib). Compare the �extremist� statements with these:

Shafi�i school: A Shafi�i manual of Islamic law that was certified in 1991 by the clerics at Al-Azhar University, one of the leading authorities in the Islamic world, as a reliable guide to Sunni orthodoxy, stipulates about jihad that �the caliph makes war upon Jews, Christians, and Zoroastrians�until they become Muslim or pay the non-Muslim poll tax.� It adds a comment by Sheikh Nuh Ali Salman, a Jordanian expert on Islamic jurisprudence: the caliph wages this war only �provided that he has first invited [Jews, Christians, and Zoroastrians] to enter Islam in faith and practice, and if they will not, then invited them to enter the social order of Islam by paying the non-Muslim poll tax (jizya)�while remaining in their ancestral religions.� (�Umdat al-Salik, o9.8).

Hanafi school: A Hanafi manual of Islamic law repeats the same injunctions. It insists that people must be called to embrace Islam before being fought, �because the Prophet so instructed his commanders, directing them to call the infidels to the faith.� It emphasizes that jihad must not be waged for economic gain, but solely for religious reasons: from the call to Islam �the people will hence perceive that they are attacked for the sake of religion, and not for the sake of taking their property, or making slaves of their children, and on this consideration it is possible that they may be induced to agree to the call, in order to save themselves from the troubles of war.�

However, �if the infidels, upon receiving the call, neither consent to it nor agree to pay capitation tax [jizya], it is then incumbent on the Muslims to call upon God for assistance, and to make war upon them, because God is the assistant of those who serve Him, and the destroyer of His enemies, the infidels, and it is necessary to implore His aid upon every occasion; the Prophet, moreover, commands us so to do.� (Al-Hidayah, II.140)

Maliki school: Ibn Khaldun (1332-1406), a pioneering historian and philosopher, was also a Maliki legal theorist. In his renowned Muqaddimah, the first work of historical theory, he notes that �in the Muslim community, the holy war is a religious duty, because of the universalism of the Muslim mission and (the obligation to) convert everybody to Islam either by persuasion or by force.� In Islam, the person in charge of religious affairs is concerned with �power politics,� because Islam is �under obligation to gain power over other nations.�

Hanbali school: The great medieval theorist of what is commonly known today as radical or fundamentalist Islam, Ibn Taymiyya (Taqi al-Din Ahmad Ibn Taymiyya, 1263-1328), was a Hanbali jurist. He directed that �since lawful warfare is essentially jihad and since its aim is that the religion is God�s entirely and God�s word is uppermost, therefore according to all Muslims, those who stand in the way of this aim must be fought.�

This is also taught by modern-day scholars of Islam. Majid Khadduri was an Iraqi scholar of Islamic law of international renown. In his book War and Peace in the Law of Islam, which was published in 1955 and remains one of the most lucid and illuminating works on the subject, Khadduri says this about jihad:

The state which is regarded as the instrument for universalizing a certain religion must perforce be an ever expanding state. The Islamic state, whose principal function was to put God�s law into practice, sought to establish Islam as the dominant reigning ideology over the entire world�.The jihad was therefore employed as an instrument for both the universalization of religion and the establishment of an imperial world state. (P. 51)

Imran Ahsan Khan Nyazee, Assistant Professor on the Faculty of Shari�ah and Law of the International Islamic University in Islamabad. In his 1994 book The Methodology of Ijtihad, he quotes the twelfth century Maliki jurist Ibn Rushd: �Muslim jurists agreed that the purpose of fighting with the People of the Book�is one of two things: it is either their conversion to Islam or the payment of jizyah.� Nyazee concludes: �This leaves no doubt that the primary goal of the Muslim community, in the eyes of its jurists, is to spread the word of Allah through jihad, and the option of poll-tax [jizya] is to be exercised only after subjugation� of non-Muslims.

Could all these jurists, who were instrumental in the codification of Sharia, be getting jihad wrong? Well, let�s see if the Qur�an has any passages justifying violence against unbelievers:

2:191-193:  �And slay them wherever you come upon them, and expel them from where they expelled you; persecution is more grievous than slaying. But fight them not by the Holy Mosque until they should fight you there; then, if they fight you, slay them � such is the recompense of unbelievers, but if they give over, surely Allah is All-forgiving, All-compassionate. Fight them, till there is no persecution and the religion is Allah�s; then if they give over, there shall be no enmity save for evildoers.�

4:89: �They wish that you should disbelieve as they disbelieve, and then you would be equal; therefore take not to yourselves friends of them, until they emigrate in the way of Allah; then, if they turn their backs, take them, and slay them wherever you find them; take not to yourselves any one of them as friend or helper.�

8:12: �When thy Lord was revealing to the angels, �I am with you; so confirm the believers. I shall cast into the unbelievers� hearts terror; so smite above the necks, and smite every finger of them!�

8:39: �Fight them, till there is no persecution and the religion is Allah�s entirely; then if they give over, surely Allah sees the things they do.�

8:60: �Make ready for them whatever force and strings of horses you can, to terrify thereby the enemy of Allah and your enemy, and others besides them that you know not; Allah knows them. And whatsoever you expend in the way of Allah shall be repaid you in full; you will not be wronged.�

9:5: �Then, when the sacred months are drawn away, slay the idolaters wherever you find them, and take them, and confine them, and lie in wait for them at every place of ambush. But if they repent, and perform the prayer, and pay the alms, then let them go their way; Allah is All-forgiving, All-compassionate.�

9:29: �Fight those who believe not in Allah and the Last Day and do not forbid what Allah and His Messenger have forbidden � such men as practise not the religion of truth, being of those who have been given the Book � until they pay the tribute out of hand and have been humbled.�

9:111: �Allah has bought from the believers their selves and their possessions against the gift of Paradise; they fight in the way of Allah; they kill, and are killed; that is a promise binding upon Allah in the Torah, and the Gospel, and the Koran; and who fulfils his covenant truer than Allah? So rejoice in the bargain you have made with Him; that is the mighty triumph.�

9:123: �O believers, fight the unbelievers who are near to you; and let them find in you a harshness; and know that Allah is with the godfearing.�

47:4: �When you meet the unbelievers, smite their necks, then, when you have made wide slaughter among them, tie fast the bonds; then set them free, either by grace or ransom, till the war lays down its loads. So it shall be; and if Allah had willed, He would have avenged Himself upon them; but that He may try some of you by means of others. And those who are slain in the way of Allah, He will not send their works astray.�

To be sure, there are some tolerant verses in the Qur�an as well � see, for example, sura 109. But then in Islamic tradition there are authorities who say that violent passages take precedence over these verses. Muhammad�s earliest biographer, an eighth-century Muslim named Ibn Ishaq, explains the progression of Qur�anic revelation about warfare. First, he explains, Allah allowed Muslims to wage defensive warfare. But that was not Allah�s last word on the circumstances in which Muslims should fight. Ibn Ishaq explains offensive jihad by invoking a Qur�anic verse: �Then God sent down to him: �Fight them so that there be no more seduction,� i.e. until no believer is seduced from his religion. �And the religion is God�s�, i.e. Until God alone is worshipped.�

The Qur�an verse Ibn Ishaq quotes here (2:193) commands much more than defensive warfare: Muslims must fight until �the religion is God�s� � that is, until Allah alone is worshipped. Ibn Ishaq gives no hint that that command died with the seventh century.

The great medieval scholar Ibn Qayyim (1292-1350) also outlines the stages of the Muhammad�s prophetic career: 

�For thirteen years after the beginning of his Messengership, he called people to God through preaching, without fighting or Jizyah, and was commanded to restrain himself and to practice patience and forbearance. Then he was commanded to migrate, and later permission was given to fight. Then he was commanded to fight those who fought him, and to restrain himself from those who did not make war with him. Later he was commanded to fight the polytheists until God�s religion was fully established.�

In other words, he initially could fight only defensively � only �those who fought him� � but later he could fight the polytheists until Islam was �fully established.� He could fight them even if they didn�t fight him first, and solely because they were not Muslim.

Nor do all contemporary Islamic thinkers believe that that command is a relic of history. According to a 20th century Chief Justice of Saudi Arabia, Sheikh �Abdullah bin Muhammad bin Humaid, �at first �the fighting� was forbidden, then it was permitted and after that it was made obligatory.� He also distinguishes two groups Muslims must fight: �(1) against them who start �the fighting� against you (Muslims) . . . (2) and against all those who worship others along with Allah . . . as mentioned in Surat Al-Baqarah (II), Al-Imran (III) and At-Taubah (IX) . . . and other Surahs (Chapters of the Qur�an).� (The Roman numerals after the names of the chapters of the Qur�an are the numbers of the suras: Sheikh �Abdullah is referring to Qur�anic verses such as 2:216, 3:157-158, 9:5, and 9:29.)

All these Muslim authorities didn�t get the memo that jihad was a perversion of Islam. They have plenty of followers in the modern world, too. Imam Bill O�Reilly has a lot of work to do.

�O�Reilly Connects WDBJ Shooting to U.S. �Turning Away from Spiritualism� and Religion,� by Josh Feldman, Mediaite, August 27, 2015:

��The spiritualism falls apart in the face of the jihad, okay, which is a perversion of Islam, we all know that. But over the years and centuries, religion has been used to justify murder, even in the Christian precincts. That has happened. But individuals in this country now, I believe, are tending away from spirituality and into the secular-progressive �it�s all about me.� And when you combine that with a mental illness, you have what you had in Virginia yesterday.�

Christians Debate: Is it OK to 'Act Muslim' to Save Their Lives

The very asking of this question serves to underscore the fact that we are living in a new Age of Martyrdom. 

The Martyrdom of Bishop Teodor of Vrsac, Serbia.

Before exploring the contemporary debate, we might be wise to take a look back at a previous age of martyrdom to see how the Church survived a very similar trial.

The question of Christians committing apostasy in order to save their lives, and how to deal with those who did so, was experienced on a widespread scale in the middle of the 3rd century when, under Roman Emperor Decius (249-251), a fierce new outbreak of persecution against the Church was launched.

From Fr. Alexander Schmemann, The Historical Road of Eastern Orthodoxy:

One of the primary reasons for the decline in Christian intensity had undoubtedly been the lull in the persecutions. From the death of Marcus Aurelius (185) until the middle of the third century, the Church lived in relative security... 

The persecution that suddenly burst upon the Church in the year 249 seemed a terrible and unexpected trial and exposed in full clarity how far many, many Christians had departed from the original intensity of faith and way of life... 

[Emperor Decius] gave first priority to the restoration of state worship, and this inevitably led to conflict with Christianity. Except for Nero, Decius was the first representative of Roman power to take the initiative in these persecutions as opposed to the system of private accusation followed by test. In a special edict he ordered all his subjects to prove their loyalty to the national gods by making the sacrifice. 

The Church again responded with the blood of martyrs, including not only Origen... but Bishop Flavian of Rome, Babylas of Antioch, and Alexander of Jerusalem. But what startled the Church was the mass apostasy. 

�Fear struck them,� wrote Bishop Dionysius of Alexandria, �and many of the more influential Christians gave in immediately, some giving way to fear, others, as civil servants, to the requirements of their positions, still others drawn along with the crowd. Some were pale and trembling, as if it were not they who were making sacrifices to the idols but they themselves who were being brought to sacrifice; and therefore the crowd mocked them.� 

 The same picture appears in the letters of Cyprian of Carthage: �There were some who did not even wait to be summoned to climb onto the Capitol, or to be questioned to renounce their faith. They ran to the Forum themselves, they hastened to their [spiritual] deaths, as if they had wished it for a long time. And � O ultimate crime! � parents brought their children with them, so that they might lose in their childhood what they had received on the threshold of their lives.� 

The persecution passed liked a whirlwind and quickly abated, but it left the Church in ruins. The question arose as to how to deal with those who had lapsed, who now rushed back for forgiveness and reconciliation. While the Church had recognized a �second repentance� at the beginning of the century, now the question was posed anew and more acutely.

In the earlier time, lapsed Christians had been the exception, so that a second repentance was also an exception, but now it was a mass occurrence. When we remember what the witness of martyrs meant to the Church � that it was the witness of the Church to itself, the proof of Christ�s strength which lived in it � then it becomes clear why the problem of the lapsed caused a lengthy dissension, the last in the series of �temptations of the Church� that marked the late second and early third centuries. 

Against this background of dissension the figure of the great African bishop, St. Cyprian of Carthage, stands out clearly. Like Tertullian, he represented the �pure� Christianity that characterized the brief but magnificent history of the African Church... 

In the spring of 251 Cyprian returned to Carthage and summoned a synod, which decided the problem by relaxing the discipline of repentance. It divided the lapsed into two categories, depending on the degree of apostasy, and established two forms by which they might again be accepted into the Church. Some could be received only on their deathbeds, while others could rejoin after more or less prolonged periods of repentance.

The heart-rending spectacle of mass apostasy of Christians during the persecution of Decius nearly rent the Church herself in two, so intense was the clash of Novatian and the rigorists, who held that only the pure (cathari) could constitute the true Church, versus the Confessors, joined by Cyprian of Carthage who, appealed for unity. From Fr. Alexander Schmemann's text again:

Formally, Novatian was right when he invoked tradition in his protest against accepting the lapsed. Cyprian himself had been a typical rigorist before the persecution of Decius. But the teaching of the Church is not a logical system and is not constructed in syllogisms. 

Novatian, who was true to logic, was torn from the life of the Church, while Cyprian, outwardly self-contradictory, could still boldly state that he had introduced nothing new with the question of the lapsed Christians, for he had taken his doctrine from the life of the Church. 

In fact, nothing had changed in the nature of the Church or its sanctity, but it had become more deeply conscious of the dichotomy between old and new in its earthly life. Novatian and his followers, for the sake of their principles, were left outside the Church; such is the logic behind every schism. They withdrew in proud scorn for the sullied Church of the lapsed. But in the pastoral heart of Cyprian and his truly catholic way of thinking, this Church of the lapsed remained the same holy bride of Christ, which has no room for sin but exists to save sinners.

Cyprian�s life ended in the glory of a martyr�s death... 

The Christian Church ultimately was strengthened by the horrific trial of not only the persecutions under Decius, but by the depth of Her compassion as She re-embraced those who had committed apostasy. The Church's final and greatest trial under the Roman Empire would reveal Her inner strength. Fr. Schmemann writes:

With the end of the [third] century came increasing persecutions. The empire was falling, its whole structure rocked under the terrible attacks of Germanic tribes from the north and the Goths and Persians from the east. In these troubled years, when it was natural to seek scapegoats for so many misfortunes, it was not difficult to inflame hatred against the Christians. Edict followed edict, and throughout the empire new names of martyrs were added to the martyrology of the Church. 

The persecutions probably never reached such intensity as under Diocletian (303), just on the eve of the conversion of Constantine. The largest roster of names of martyrs comes to us from this period. It was as if the Church were revealing, for the last time before its victory, all the strength, beauty, and inspiration of the courageous suffering by which it had survived the first centuries � the strength of its witness to the kingdom of Christ, by which alone it ultimately conquered.

For an excellent discussion of a variant form of Christian apostasy under the Ottoman Muslims, see Confessors or Apostates? The Crypto-Christian Dilemma, by Mother Nectaria McLees (Road to Emmaus, # 31). From Mother Nectaria's introductory paragraph:

Although many Christians under the Turkish yoke did apostasize and embrace Islam, there were also thousands of conscious martyrs, and millions of other Christian victims, killed randomly without time to reflect or the opportunity to make a choice.1  But what are we to think of those who � either lacking the courage to �resist unto death,� or being responsible for families, parishes, or communities that, after their protector�s martyrdom, might fall victim to slavery, concubinage, and forced conversion to Islam � took a third path, declaring themselves Muslim while continuing to secretly practice Christianity?

One must certainly consider the experience of the Russian Catacomb Church during the Soviet regime. During the seventy year period which saw tens of millions of Christians martyred, a hidden, secret remnant persevered, always knowing that there might one night come the dreaded "knock at the door," heralding the end of their sanctuary and their moment to shine as confessors and witnesses for Jesus Christ.

Millions of Christians today, mostly in the Islamic world, live under such a real and deadly threat, and we must look to them, and to the confessors and martyrs of every age, as our models.

Archimandrite Daniel Byantoro, a convert to Orthodox Christianity from Islam and the founder of the Indonesian Orthodox Mission, confronts the possibility of martyrdom every day in Indonesia, which has the world's largest Muslim population. Outbreaks of Muslim persecution against Christians is a constant danger there, prompting Fr Daniel to note:

If there is no possible way to escape (even if we have been trying to be good and obey the laws of society), if we become known as a believer, if they stigmatize us as unbelievers as heretics or whatever, then it is obvious there is no other way � if martyrdom comes, then we have to accept it. If you cannot escape being a martyr, do it! Go for it! I teach this in church, and I say, even to myself, that there is no other way.

� �Orthodoxy in Indonesia,� Road To Emmaus, #6, Summer 2001.

Ultimately, the new wave of persecution is coming here to North America. In fact, it is already here, as we Christians are being forced to choose between "getting along" in the world, or resisting the ever more strident efforts to force us to support evil, anti-human and depraved practices, whether it is public funding for abortion through our tax dollars, or a Christian baker compelled by law to create a wedding cake for a homosexual couple.

Hieromonk Seraphim Rose of Platina taught a radical, martyric ethos as the only way to prepare for our own approaching trials. He repeatedly stressed the witness of persecuted believers in Russia to help make it real for his listeners, as in this example:

Once Fr. Dimitri [Dudko] was asked about how much better off religion was in the free world than in Russia, and he answered: "Yes, they have freedom and many churches, but theirs is a spirituality with comfort. We in Russia have a different path, a path of suffering that can produce real fruit."   [...]

We should remember this phrase when we look at our own feeble Orthodoxy in the free world: [If] ours is a spirituality with comfort, we will not have the spiritual fruits that will be exhibited by those without all these comforts, who deeply suffer and struggle for Christ. In this sense we should take our tone from the suffering Church in Russia [...] Our eyes must be on heaven above, the goal we strive for, not on the problems and disasters of earth below. 

Orthodox Christians Facing the 1980s, Lecture given by Father Seraphim Rose at the St. Herman Summer Pilgrimage, Platina, CA, August 9, 1979.)

  

The debate between Christians over saving their lives under increasing Muslim persecution may seem distant from us in our comfortable lives. Yet we are daily confronted with the same choice, whether to honor God, take up our cross and follow Christ, or not. 

Even if the temporal stakes may not seem as extreme as those confronting our Middle Eastern, African, and Asian Christian brothers and sisters, the eternal value of each and every decision we make is just as weighty, just as eternal. God help us be true and faithful to Jesus Christ, for I fear the devil may reap a much greater harvest among us here in the comfortable West than he ever will among our persecuted brethren in the Islamic world.

Christians Debate: Is it OK to 'Act Muslim' to Save Their Lives
by Thomas D. Williams, PhD, Breitbart News � August 26, 2015

A debate is raging among African and Arab theologians regarding how far Christians can go in good conscience to hide their faith and pretend to be Muslims in order to save their lives at the hands of Islamist extremists.

It often happens that during jihadist raids, militants will try to ascertain quickly whether persons they are attacking are Christians or Muslims by asking them questions about Islam or having them recite the Muslim creed in Arabic.

For example, during the 2013 terror attack at the Westgate Mall in Nairobi, Kenya, al Shabaab gunmen paused for a moment to announce in English: �Muslims, get out of here!

An Indian man stepped forward, but when the gunmen asked him, �What is the name of Muhammad�s mother?� he couldn�t answer, and so they shot him.

Another of those trying to escape was a student named Joshua Hakim, who covered up the Christian name on his voter card as he showed it to the gunmen. Hakim was allowed to go.

Other terror attacks by radical Islamists have followed a similar pattern. Those who could show they were Muslim�by reciting a prayer in Arabic or answering questions about Islam�were allowed to go free. Those who couldn�t were killed.

As a result, some Christians have started sharing tips on how to �act Muslim� and so avoid being killed by attackers. These tips�shared by word of mouth or even on the internet�include activities such as learning to recite the shahada�Islam�s central creed�in Arabic.

Christian theologians, however, are divided on whether such a practice amounts to a denial of Christ or �apostasy.�

One Kenyan pastor, David Oginde, the head of the 45,000-member Christ is the Answer Ministries, says that such pretending to be Muslim is unworthy behavior for a Christian. �A true Christian must be ready to live and to die for the faith,� he said.

Others disagree. Two professors at St. Paul�s University, an Anglican institution in Nairobi, have said that the answer isn�t that clear-cut. Reciting the shahada doesn�t amount to denying Christ, says Samuel Githinji, a theology lecturer.

�Christians are obligated to save their lives and others� lives as much as possible,� Githinji said. �Denying the faith is more subtle than the mere voicing of certain words.�

Christian persecution from the Islamic State and other jihadist groups has provided ample opportunities for Christians to show their mettle.

One of the twenty-�one Egyptian men beheaded on a Libyan beach last February, Mathew Ayairga, was asked the question, �Do you reject Christ?� Though Ayairga was not even a Christian up until then, he chose to identify with the other Egyptians and their Christian faith. His reply to his captors was, �Their God is my God!� and he was killed with the rest.

The question of what constitutes apostasy and how Christians should act in situations of persecution is as old as Christianity itself. During the most severe Roman persecutions, notably those of Emperors Nero, Decius, Valerian. and Diocletian, apostasy was fairly common, since holding to one�s faith meant the loss of property, position, citizens� rights, and even one�s life.

Even in those early centuries, Christians debated over what compromises were licit and which could never be engaged in. When persecutions slowed, the Church had to address the question of how Christians who had apostatized should be dealt with.

George Sabra, president of Near East School of Theology in Lebanon, says Christians should rely on the guidance of the Holy Spirit in such situations. Sabra says that Christians should not say the shahada, but if they do, they should be treated with compassion.

�To be a Christian is not about learning tactics for survival,� he said. �But denying Christ is not an unforgivable sin. We may not despair of God�s love and mercy. Even Peter, the head of the disciples, was a denier of Christ.�

Must Read Book: HOUSE OF WAR: ISLAM�S JIHAD AGAINST THE WORLD, by Gregory Davis

This is a timely publication which provides a penetrating examination of Islam, its religious and political dimensions, and the "clear and present danger" to Christians and Western Civilization which arises from its ideology. It is a relatively slim volume (208 pages), yet is densely packed and rock-ribbed, and makes for a great introduction or handy reference on the threat of Islam.

What is perhaps most amazing is that, although this work was first published several years ago in hardcover, and therefore lacks any specific reference to ISIS (the Islamic State Caliphate) or certain other jihad terrorist groups which formed more recently, it is shockingly contemporary, as jihad ideology itself is essentially unchanged from the days of its founder, Muhammad. As one reads 'House of War', one experiences a steady flash of light bulbs turning on, of "Aha! moments", as the true goals and motivations of Muslim extremists are detailed from the supremacist sacred texts of Islam.

The author, Gregory Davis, is an Orthodox Christian, and a dear friend and encourager to me. The original edition of this book, and his documentary film, Islam: What the West Needs to Know, were two of my early sources which spurred me on to write Facing Islam and launch this blog. I cannot commend Greg's work highly enough.

Order two copies and share one with that interested soul looking to understand Islam. Publisher's description and link to order below.



HOUSE OF WAR: ISLAM�S JIHAD AGAINST THE WORLD
by G.M. Davis, PhD
Paperback, 208 pages; also available in autographed edition.
WND Books, July 2015

Over the past several decades, countless wars and terrorist attacks have been perpetrated by various groups and individuals claiming to act in the name of Islam. Yet Western leaders of virtually every stripe and party have consistently affirmed their belief that, despite the violence done in its name, Islam is a "religion of peace." 

The critical question is, who is right? Do Muslims who wage violent jihad against unbelievers fundamentally misunderstand their own religion? Or are Western leaders taking refuge in a comfortable fiction while shielding themselves from an exceedingly difficult truth? 

With the West engaged in military operations in multiple Islamic countries and with growing Muslim minorities at home, the answer is of critical importance to the future of Western Civilization.

Relying primarily on Islam's own sources, "House of War: Islam's Jihad Against the World," formerly "Religion of Peace? Islam's War Against the World" and now available in paperback, cogently demonstrates that Islam is a violent, expansionary ideology that seeks the subjugation and destruction of other faiths, cultures and systems of government. 

Islam is as much a system of government as it is a religion, and it seeks to extend its own peculiar legal code, Sharia law, over the entire world. Islamic doctrine divides the world into two conflicting realms: the House of Islam, where Islamic law holds sway, and the House of War, the rest of the world on which war must be waged until Islam is triumphant. The "peace" that Islam seeks is a world united by the Islamic faith and Sharia law in which all other faiths and political regimes have been suppressed or eliminated. "Jihad" is the violent struggle against the House of War world to bring it into "submission" (the Arabic meaning of the word "Islam") to Islamic rule.

Westerners have been indoctrinated to believe that the jihadists they see on television are extremists who have twisted their religion to serve a violent purpose. In fact, their actions are right out of orthodox Islam and are grounded in the Koran and the life of Muhammad. 

By delving into the Islamic writings, Davis reveals the fastest-growing religion in the world for what it is: a violent, expansionary ideology that poses an existential threat to Western Civilization � a fact to which Western leaders remain determinedly blind.

Order now from WND Superstore...

Editorial Reviews

�A very important work at a very important time. Anyone interested in understanding the growing violence on the world scene today must read this book. Its message for America and the West is, �Wake up before it's too late.�" � Gary Bauer, president, American Values

�A valuable, well-argued contribution to the public understanding of Islam . . . [House of War] conveys in a short space what the West needs to know about Islam: that its violent aspects are not the result of deviance but of orthodoxy.� � Robert Spencer, director, www.JihadWatch.com

�This book provides a timely reality check. . . . The refusal of the elite class to open its eyes to reality and protect Western nations from the threat is the biggest betrayal in history.� � Serge Trifkovic, author of "The Sword of the Prophet" and "Defeating Jihad"

About the Author

G.M. Davis is an author and filmmaker. He graduated from the University of Rochester in 1997 with a B.A. in political science, and from Stanford in 2003 with a Ph.D. in the same area of study. In 2005, he produced and directed the feature documentary "Islam: What the West Needs to Know."

WND Exclusive Autographed Edition

Also available in a special "Autographed Edition." Signed books are precious treasures. An autographed book from your favorite author can turn an item of personal value into a cherished keepsake and a wonderful addition to any book collection.

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Iraqi priest: �There�s no such thing as moderate Islam�ISIS represents Islam one hundred percent�

�Wake up! The cancer is at your door. They will destroy you. We, the Christians of the Middle East are the only group that has seen the face of evil: Islam... 

�Please, if there�s anyone who still thinks ISIS doesn�t represent Islam, know that they are wrong. ISIS represents Islam one hundred percent.�

� Fr. Douglas al-Bazi, Iraqi Catholic Priest and Confessor for Christ,

captured and tortured by Muslim jihadists in 2006.

Let us all try to do something � whatever we can � in the face of the tsunami of evil wiping away our Christian brothers and sisters in the Middle East, Egypt and North Africa, Pakistan, Indonesia, throughout the entire Islamic world. Let us pray for them, even as we start to heed the warnings and cries of the new confessors and martyrs like Fr Douglas al-Bazi, who daily follow Christ to their Golgotha, bearing their unimaginable cross!

Speaking in 1980, Blessed Hieromonk Seraphim (Rose) of Platina had this to say about Golgotha:

It is a law of the spiritual life that where there is Golgotha�if it is genuine suffering for Christ�there will be resurrection. This resurrection first of all occurs in human hearts, and we do not need to be too concerned what outward form it might take by God�s will... 

Our inward, spiritual resurrection is what we should be striving for, and the events in Russia give us hope that there will yet be a resurrection of true, suffering Christianity, not only in Russia, but wherever hearts have not become entirely frozen. But we must be ready for the suffering that must precede this...

Are we in the West ready for this? Golgotha does not mean the incidental sufferings we all go through in this life. It is something immense and deep, which cannot be relieved by taking an aspirin or going to a movie. It is what Russia has gone through and is now trying to communicate to us. Let us not be deaf to this message. By the prayers of all the New Martyrs, may God give us the strength to endure the trials coming upon us and to find in them the resurrection of our souls.

� Fr. Seraphim Rose, The Orthodox Revival in Russia as an Inspiration for American Orthodoxy, The Orthodox Word #138, 1988, p. 51. (From a talk given in 1980.)

  

Obviously, what Fr Seraphim was speaking of regarding the New Martyrs of Russia in the 20th century under Communism is equally true about the New Martyrs of the 21st century under Islam. Let us heed his prophetic voice and rouse ourselves to zeal and perseverance in following our Lord, God and Savior Jesus Christ!

��There�s No Such Thing as Moderate Islam�: An Iraqi Priest Describes the Christian Genocide,� by Matteo Matzuzzi, Il Foglio, August 26, 2015 (translated by Francesca Romana, Rorate Caeli), courtesy of Jihad Watch:

Rome. �Please, if there�s anyone who still thinks ISIS doesn�t represent Islam, know that they are wrong. ISIS represents Islam one hundred percent.� Father Douglas al Bazi, an Iraqi Catholic parish priest in Erbil, raised his voice during an intervention at the Meeting in Rimini, with a choice of words � in a provocative way and in hard tones � that few had ventured use so far.

He carries on his own body the scars of the torture he underwent nine years ago, when a band of Jihadists kidnapped him for nine days, keeping him in chains and blindfolds along with a broken nose from being kneed: �For the first four days they didn�t even give me anything to drink. They would walk past me saying �Father, do you want some water?� All day long they would listen to the reading of the Koran to let the neighbours hear what good believers they were.��

Father Douglas Al Bazi is in charge of two refugee shelters for Christians who survived the advance of the black horde � not far from Ankawa. After the marking of houses with the �n� of the Nazarene plus the Christians displaced on the Nineveh plain, a year ago, �from morning to night we receive thousands of refugees� and the exodus continues. �I�m proud to be an Iraqi, I love my country. But my country is not proud that I�m part of it. What is happening to my people is nothing other than genocide. I beg you: do not call it a conflict. It�s genocide�, said the priest, who doesn�t want to hear anything about �moderate Islam�: 

�When Islam lives amidst you, the situation might appear acceptable. But when one lives amidst Muslims, everything becomes impossible. I�m not here to instigate you to hate Islam. I was born amid Muslims and I have more friends among them than I have with Christians. But people change and if we go to my country, no-one will be able to distinguish the light from the darkness. There are those who say: 'but I have lots of Muslim friends who are very nice'. Yes, certainly! They are nice over here! Over there the situation is very different!�

A situation in which regard the vice-President of the French Conference for Imams also had some tough words to say. Hocine Drouiche, also the Imam of Nimes, intervened last July at the European Parliament: �In the world, Christians are being persecuted, hunted down, deprived of work, imprisoned, tortured and murdered. All means are being used to force them to deny their faith, including the ritual of collective rape, considered in some states a form of penal sanction. Owning a Bible has become a crime, religious worship is prohibited and there has been a return to the times of Masses in the caves and the first martyrs�. And the fault, Drouiche had added in a discourse which had not been highlighted very much by the European media�, is contemporary Islam�, which is much closer �to sectarianism rather than a universal, open religion�.

�I believe in the end they will destroy us�

Father al Bazi�s account is of one who runs the risk of being murdered on the street every day: We never know if coming out of the church we�ll be able to go into it again alive. In Baghdad they had the church explode right in front of me. They shot me on the legs with a AK-47, a type of Kalashnikov, and probably sooner or later they�ll kill me�. Yet his faith is solid: �When they put me in chains, during my kidnapping, they tightened a big padlock on my wrists. On the chain there were ten extra rings, which I used to recite the Rosary. I have never prayed it so earnestly as I did in that situation�. �I � added Father Douglas � don�t implore your help. I�m not frightened just as my people aren�t frightened either. I believe they�ll destroy us in the end. But I also believe that we will have the last word. Jesus told us that we need to carry our own crosses, and that is what we in the Middle East are doing. Yet the most important thing is not the carrying of the cross, but following it. And following it means accepting, challenging and committing oneself right to the very end�.

�We need to have patience and carry the cross each day, but we also must react�, said Father Ibrahim Alsabagh, parish priest in Aleppo, echoing him, and reported how the city is now �divided in tens of parts, each one of them in the hands of a different group of Jihadists. Our Church of St. Francis is sixty metres from the firing line. They have already hit many churches, we don�t know when it will be our turn�. Here is why Father Douglas, at the end of his intervention, launched a warning to the feeble West:

�Wake up! The cancer is at your door. They will destroy you. We, the Christians of the Middle East are the only group that has seen the face of evil: Islam��.

Mosques and Massacres

Orthodox Christians may wish to study and share this fine summary of the linkage between mosques and outbursts of Muslim jihad terror attacks. We must face and admit the undeniable fact that there is murderous evil at the core of Islam. It is commanded in the Quran, was lived by Muhammad, is preached in the mosques, and is the cause behind the new age of martyrdom we have entered into.

Related: Challenging Mosque Expansions - The Time is Now (Includes direct links to four recent studies showing 80% of mosques in the U.S. teach offensive jihad and Islamic supremacism) 

Mosques and Massacres
by William Kilpatrick, Crisis Magazine � July 28, 2015

On June 26, Saif Rezgui walked on to a beach in Tunisia and opened fire on German, British, and Irish sunbathers in front of the Imperial Marhaba resort hotel, killing 39 and wounding dozens more. If various world leaders are to be believed, the massacre had nothing to do with Islam. In response to the attack which left thirty British citizens dead, Prime Minister David Cameron said the terrorism �is not in the name of Islam. Islam is a religion of peace.� A day later, Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott assured the world that �what�s being done by Daesh [the Islamic State] has nothing to do with God, it has nothing to do with religion.�

There was one notable exception to the usual nothing-to-do-with-Islam mantra. Immediately after the attack, Tunisia�s prime minister, Habib Essid, ordered the closing of 80 mosques.

Of course, the leader of a 98 percent Muslim country can�t be expected to understand Islam nearly as well as the leaders of Britain and Australia. Nevertheless, Essid�s action provides food for thought. Mosques, after all, do have something to do with Islam. �Some mosques continue to spread their propaganda and their venom to promote terrorism,� Essid reportedly said. �No mosque that does not conform to the law will be tolerated.�

According to a Reuters report, Rezgui was �a dedicated student from a stable family who enjoyed partying and practiced break dancing.� Until, that is, �he appeared to have come into contact with extremist preachers about six months ago.�

Where do you meet extremist preachers? In extremist mosques, of course�the same sort of places attended by the two terrorists who two months previously had killed 21 foreign tourists at the Bardo Museum in Tunis. According to Reuters, �the two Bardo gunmen were also radicalized in their local mosques by hardliners.�

Another indication that the beach massacre might have had something to do with Islam is that Rezgui only targeted foreigners. As he pursued the tourists, he shouted to Tunisians to �get out of the way.� Might that have had something to do with the fact that the Tunisians were likely to be Muslims and the tourists were likely not? One other confirmation of the religious motivation for the attack came from the Islamic State. A spokesman for IS praised the attack as an operation against a �bordello��a reference to the immodest dress of the beachgoers. Apparently, cartoons of Muhammad are not the only thing that hardline Muslims consider as provocation sufficient to warrant murder.

Not all mosques are centers of extremist radicalization. On the other hand, it�s likely that the average Westerner grossly underestimates the percentage of radical mosques. Fr. Samir Khalil Samir, an Egyptian Jesuit who is also an expert on Islam, writes:

In many Muslim countries � the mosques are monitored by the police on Friday. There is a simple reason for this: many political decisions start from the mosque during the Friday khutba [sermon]. Historians of Islam know that many riots and revolutions were launched from the mosques and that jihad is often proclaimed during the khutba.

Not coincidentally, many of the Arab Spring demonstrations in 2011 were set in motion from mosques following Friday prayers. And again, it�s probably no coincidence that Rezgui scheduled his massacre for a Friday during the holy month of Ramadan.

It�s tempting to think that the mosque-mayhem connection is something that�s peculiar to Arab societies, but four separate studies of American mosques revealed that about eighty percent of them provide extremist literature and occasionally feature extremist preachers. While this doesn�t mean that every American mosque is a hotbed of terrorism, it does suggest cause for concern. For example, two very prominent American mosques which have long been thought to be of the moderate mainstream kind are now known to be connected with numerous terrorists, some of them of the high-profile variety. Major Nidal Hasan, the Fort Hood jihadist, was mentored at the Dar Al-Hijra Mosque in Falls Church, Virginia. So were three of the 9/11 hijackers. And the person who was mentoring them was Anwar Al-Awlaki, who later became one of the chiefs of operations for Al-Qaeda in Yemen. Meanwhile, the Islamic Society of Boston has two mosques (one in Boston and one in Cambridge) which were attended by the Tsarnaev brothers and nearly a dozen other known terrorists, including the founder of Boston�s Islamic society, Abduraham Alamoudi, who is currently serving a twenty-three-year prison term for terror-related activities.

Christians assume that mosques, like churches, are simply places of prayer. Many of them are, but many mosques are also places of recruitment and radicalization�staging areas for jihad. Subsequent to the beach massacre, weapons caches were found in forty Tunisian mosques. As a popular Muslim poem puts it, �The mosques are our barracks, the domes our helmets, the minarets our bayonets, and the faithful our soldiers.�

Not all Muslims think of mosques in this way, but as Prime Minister Essid understands, a not insignificant number do. He is not alone in this assessment. As Fr. Samir notes, Muslim governments have historically kept a close eye on mosque activities. Muslim leaders may give lip service to the notion that violence has nothing to do with Islam, but their actions tell a different story. Western leaders need to start paying attention.