N. S. Rajaram reviews Bostom's superb Legacy of Jihad at The American Thinker:
Jihad is now one of the most widely discussed words in the world’s lexicon. Once regarded as an arcane and academic subject, the 9/11 attacks and the more recent London bombings have brought the chilling reality of it to every home. Most think it is a form of religious war, something like the Crusades. This comparison is altogether inadequate, for the war is only the beginning. Jihad should be seen as a complete political and economic system that often includes selective genocide and slavery. All this is presented in exhaustive detail in The Legacy of Jihad compiled by Dr. Andrew Bostom. It is the one indispensable source book needed to understand the threat that the world faces today.There is no shortage of experts who tell us that Jihad really is an inner struggle against one’s own baser instincts— like yoga and meditation in Hindu and Buddhist traditions. This ‘Islamically correct’ explanation—never followed by the Jihadis—is belied both by Muslim literature and by historical experience. Ibn Khaldun (1332 – 1406), one of the greatest thinkers of Islam, if not the greatest, saw Jihad as an aggressive war of expansion with the religious obligation to convert everyone. He calls it Islam’s ‘universal mission’:
“The other religious groups did not have a universal mission, and the holy war was not a religious duty for them, save only for purposes of defense… Islam is under obligation to gain power over other nations.” [emphasis added]
According to Sayyid Qutb (d. 1966):
“…wherever an Islamic community exists… it has a God-given right to step forward and take control of the political authority… When God restrained Muslims from Jihad for a certain period, it was a question of strategy rather than of principle…”
We need look no further to understand the so-called ‘root causes’ of Jihad.
Read it all.
the holy war was not a religious duty for them, save only for purposes of defense
There you are. From the horses mouth, and barely 150 years after the final crusade. The Christian Crusades were DEFENSIVE. As explained in Mr Spencer's excellent book. See above. Or is it below? Adjancent.
"There is no shortage of experts who tell us that Jihad really is an inner struggle against one’s own baser instincts..."
"baser instincts," like wanting to live? in other words, jihad teaches muslims to long for death.
"Islam is under obligation to gain power over other nations..."
under obligation from whom? i submit that it is satan, and certainly not god.
"it (islam) has a God-given right to step forward and take control of the political authority..."
therefore, the last thing the west should do is give islam any political authority whatsoever in any country. in fact, all islamic governments should be immediately replaced with constitutional forms of government. because islam is political as well as religious, islam by definition denies freedom of religion and enforces conformity with islam. the whole world should unite against islam.
“The other religious groups did not have a universal mission, and the holy war was not a religious duty for them, save only for purposes of defense…"
it seems likely to me that islam was invented by satan to specifically counter and oppose christianity. there are just too many copycat similarities between islam and christianity, including the practice of world evangelism. islam has parroted everything about christianity in one way or another. however, christianity is a voluntary decision to receive jesus christ while islam is a forced conversion to islam upon penalty of death or dhimminitude.
the apostle paul says that the children of hagar (the old covenant law) will always persecute the children of the promise (the promise of eternal life in jesus christ with god's grace, approval and favor). therefore, islam represents nothing but persecution and oppression for the children of promise.
the thing is, will free nations react quickly enough in opposing islam to save their freedom? instead of assuming that islam will eventually become more reasonable and amenable like we are, we should be viewing islam with extreme suspicion and as the oppressive bully that islam is.
Excellent though Bostom's work is, works such as these are just the beginning of what we need to defeat Islam's global conquest....
Clearly, the thorough and proper study of all aspects of jihad is essential for all non-Muslims everywhere--if only as a survival tool. It is good to see that strides are being made in informing the masses about the true nature of jihad or holy war being waged against them. Most of us would agree that studies such as Bostom's are a good beginning on this critical topic.
HOWEVER--
As we have all by now seen, jihad operates in synch with islamic deceptions aimed at the non-Muslims. Some non-Muslims refer to this as al-Taqqiya, some liken it to the Qayrash hudaibiya incident of Muhammad's. Whatever you want to call it--I call it plain deceit--there is a critical need to be study it as thoroughly as Islam's jihadist warfare against the 'infidels'.
The western world will not succeed in suviving Islam's jihad until we know all of its deception techniques (in their context of warfare) equally thoroughly--and have developed strategies to defeat them and their "Holy War."
When will we see more such informative works published that attack the issue of Islamic deceptions strategies aimed at obliterating the infidels?
Until works dealing with Islamic deception do arrive, the jihadists will still have the upper hand in their war to destroy western civilization.
Date: Sat Sep 10, 2005 07:38:54 PM PDT
Subject: Legacy of Jihad - Call a Shovel a Shovel!
Victor Davis Hanson is also running a book review by Bruce Thorton on, "A Review of The Legacy of Jihad . . .," by Andrew G. Bostom. HT Little Green Footballs.
Anyone still having any doubts as to the ulitmate goal of Islamic Holy War should read this review.
Ron
*****
September 9, 2005
The Forbidden History
A Review of The Legacy of Jihad. Islamic Holy War and the Fate of Non-Muslims edited by Andrew G. Bostom.
Bruce Thornton
Private Papers
Four years after 9/11 the postmortem of that disaster continues to focus on the institutional failures of our intelligence agencies and government bureaucracies. Yet the larger intellectual and cultural corruption that in part made possible many of those misjudgments and mistakes does not receive the public attention it deserves. The politicizing of the academy, for example, that accelerated in the sixties had compromised the study of Islam and the Middle East long before Islamic terrorism appeared on our cultural radar. Because of this ideological distortion, centuries of consensus about the aggressive, intolerant, and expansionist nature of Islam - an agreement reflecting both the facts of the historical record and the words themselves of the Koran and Muslim theologians and jurists - were discarded in the service of an anti-Western political and ideological agenda.
[...]
VDH Link
“…wherever an Islamic community exists… it has a God-given right to step forward and take control of the political authority… When God restrained Muslims from Jihad for a certain period, it was a question of strategy rather than of principle…”
Would someone explain why Allah needs a strategy?
Allah is supposed to know everything already. He even predestined everything that has happened, is happening, or will happen. The last thing Allah should need is a strategy. How can he know best if he needs a strategy? Qutb thought he could get that one past us, but the BS detector/pooperscooper caught it before it hit anything. Allah has a lot of strategys but no principles, according to Qutb. So this is what we can expect from those sons of Allah who would rule the world in his name, strategy, no principals. It is a mistake to give these people any power at all, and they must be prevented from taking it...