The world will be glad to hear this: it turns out that it has all been a misunderstanding. That's right! Osama bin Laden, you see, has been proceeding according to a faulty view of jihad!
Of course, regular Jihad Watch readers have read this kind of thing from Muslim spokesmen dozens of times. It is, of course, an empty and useless statement unless these Muslims in Australia can begin to convince their violent brethren that really, they have gotten it all wrong, and should just calm down and wage the spiritual jihad. The problem is that some of the foremost theorists read and respected today by jihadists, including Hasan Al-Banna (founder of the Muslim Brotherhood) and Abdullah Azzam (a founder of Al-Qaeda) taught against the idea that jihad was only a spiritual struggle. They used Qur'an and Hadith to show that jihad meant primarily, if not solely, warfare. Because they provided evidence for their views, rather than simply making assertions, their position immediately appears stronger -- and more convincing to young Muslims. But of course, it is likely that these Australian Muslims are not intending to speak to Muslims at all, but only to jittery non-Muslims.
From AAP, with thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist:
THE Arabic word jihad does not solely equate with holy war and the rise of Osama bin Laden has caused widespread misuse of the term, a Muslim cultural spokesman has told a seminar.More than 500 people gathered at the Auburn Gallipoli Mosque in Sydney today to hear a series of lectures on the teachings of Islam during the mosque's annual open day.
Ahmet Keskin, director of Affinity Intercultural Foundation, a cultural group which provides seminars and education on Islam, today told a group of about 30 people the word jihad had been "misused and misunderstood".
"Jihad really means to strive or struggle – it does not equate to holy war," Mr Keskin said.
"It (the misconception) may have unfortunately made people apprehensive of the word."
The word jihad is used in a much broader context, such as a mother's struggle to bring up her child in the best way possible, he said.
But al-Qaeda terrorist leader Osama bin Laden had used the word jihad in a more global and political context, Mr Keskin said.
"Osama bin Laden is not my leader and his understanding of jihad is really outside the context of true Islam," he said.
"He may have his agenda but the overwhelming majority of Muslims including this mosque, condemns his acts in the name of Islam."
Mmmm hmmm. And what is that overwhelming majority of Muslims doing to counter his ideas among Muslims?
Islam and infidelity (kufr) contradict one another. To establish the one means eradicating the other, the coming together of these contradictories being impossible. Therefore, Allah has commanded his Prophet to wage war (jihad) against the infidels, and be harsh with them. The glory is Islam consists in the humiliation and degradation of infidels and infidelity. He who honours the infidels, insults Islam. Honouring (the infidels) does not mean that they are accorded dignity, and made to sit in high places. It means allowing them to be in our company, to sit with them, and talk to them. They should be kept away like dogs. If there is some worldly purpose or work which depends upon them, and cannot be served without their help, they may be con- tacted while keeping in mind all the time that they are not worthy of respect. The best course according to Islam is that they should not be contacted even for worldly purposes. Allah has proclaimed in his Holy Word (Quran) that they are his and his Prophet's enemies. And mixing with these enemies of Allah and his Prophet or showing affection for them, is one of the greatest crimes...
http://www.flex.com/~jai/satyamevajayate/sufi.html
"He may have his agenda but the overwhelming majority of Muslims including this mosque, condemns his acts in the name of Islam."
-- from the article above
But why then was there such glee, on the streets of Cairo and Ramallah, and those horns honking in celebration in Jeddah and Riyadh, and the joy even in Beirut, indeed all over the Arab and Muslim world, with a single exception -- a group of Iranians, clearly heartily sick of the Islamic Republic of Iran, who held a small vigil of sympathy.
And why is "Osama" suddenly the most popular name for little boys in the Muslim world? Why might that be?
And about that "overwhelming majority" (presumably akin to that "vast and overwhelming majori8ty" of law-abiding Muslims whom Tony Blair until recently referred to in every other speech) "condemns his [Bin Laden's] acts" -- no evidence at all is offered to support this.
What Ahmet Keskin means is that, as a practitioner of taqiyya, which is religiously-sanctioned dissimulation about the Faith and about Believers in order to protect the Faith and those Believers, and in particular their position and permanence here in a suddenly wary Australia, I will say whatever I have to say, so here it is, boys -- come and get it.
We "condemn his acts." Sure you do. Because you must. And you might even mean it in a narrow sense -- might mean something like "what a dope he was to start mass killings of Infidels so soon when we are still establishing ourselves in the Bilad al-kufr. What a dope not to realize that timing is everything, and if we had only waited another 10 or 20 years, and kept multiplying, and migrating, here and there and everywhere, and kept quietly conducting Da'wa, well we would have been unstopppable. Now look what you've done, Al Qaeda -- are you happy? Are you satisfied? I wouldn't have to be lying through my teeth, if you hadn't been so quick on the terrorist trigger. What's next -- an atomic bomb on some Infidels somewhere? Of course they deserve it -- but can't you just hold on a bit. Let us keep them guessing for another twenty years. Is that too much to ask, brothers?"
`There was a time, not so long ago, when the exponents of jihãd minced no words and pulled no punches. They were brutally frank in spelling out what jihãd really meant.
But times have changed, particularly after the collapse of Christianity in the West and the rise of modern rationalism and humanism. Standards of moral judgment have increasingly tended to become universal, and no statement of faith can escape scrutiny simply because it is made in a book hailed as holy by some people. Defenders of jihãd have been forced to develop an apologetics. They are now trying to protect by means of scholarship a doctrine which has so far been sustained by means of the sword.`
JIHÃD THE ISLAMIC DOCTRINE OF PERMANENT WAR
http://voiceofdharma.com/books/jihad/
Goodness me, I hope John howard isn't fooled by this psychobabble.
"He may have his agenda but the overwhelming majority of Muslims including this mosque, condemns his acts in the name of Islam."
-- from the article above
The thing that confuses me and seems to be used by the Muslim community when defending themselves is their use of "in the name of Islam".
I thought the acts were done in the name of Allah not in the name of the religion Islam?
marilyn: thanks for demonstrating the typical liberal intelligent statement.
Correct, Jihad does not mean holy war. I simply means war against all that is not Islamic. And there's not one damned thing holy about that.
Last night I watched the begining of a propaganda movie produced by Muslims in Canada that tried to counter the post-911 Islamophobia , the opening scene showed happy loving Muslims and stated that "Islam is a Arabic word that means Peace" .
At that point I switched channels because I knew the rest of the movie would be the same tripe that Hooper and CAIR try to scam Westerners with .