Isn't this wonderful! This guy is promoting Civil Jihad, which I suppose is better than Violent Jihad, but Muslims will still not assimilate into Western society, and will still attempt to drown us demographically.

The issue remains that Islam is just not compatible with a pluralistic society. Yesterday's article about the amplified call to prayer controversy is a case in point. They will use our very freedoms to enslave us (just ask Reza)

Ethylred; I read about the call to prayer issue. I suggest they use cell phones; or like Christian Churches a nice bell tone. I think political correctness is over for most Americans, how about a call to reality; Islam does not mix with democracy.

Muslims are not trying to enslave you or anybody else. Allah simply wants all of mankind to live as he has ordained and as he revealed to the last of his prophets, Muhhamed (PBUH). Islam is peace and Islam is freedom. Embrace Islam and be truly free!

Allahu akbar

Reza, "Allah simply wants all of mankind to live as he has ordained"

Sorry lady. I don't take orders from a meteorite.
It is a strange 'freedom and peace' you offer. One which is so wonderful it is and always has been spread with lies, threats, violence and slavery.

The Religion of Psychopaths(TM) strikes again. Yeah, I'm lookin' at you, Reza.

This is interesting and the additional writing on the MEMRI website is well-reasoned....

Thanks for posting the link and info.

another quote from MEMRI site by same writer....

"If the coalition forces withdraw now and leave the country, the [various] leaderships in Iraq will crush each other, as they have been doing for 13 years – because they are incapable of arriving at any agreement among themselves. And if this brawling leads to civil war and armed conflict, as happened in Somalia , Lebanon , and Central African countries, who will be called in to put out the flames? [Arab League Secretary-General] Amr Moussa? [Palestinian Authority Chairman] Yasser Arafat? The Arab League? Gentlemen, not one of you [will do it, so] keep your distance. We have [already] had experience with you, in daylight and in darkness."

Frankly I am surprised that his fellow muslims haven't publicly hacked him to death in the name of Allah.

"Islam is peace and Islam is freedom. Embrace Islam and be truly free!"

Yeah, Islam is peace and freedom... if you are Muslim. It is death and slavery otherwise. Sorry Reza, not interested. You have nothing to offer us but barbarism and totalitarian thinking. I prefer freedom to think and live for myself. Why should I give up the gold of my faith, for the cr*p that passes for yours?

Fair point Nanoo. At least half of them, the women," and enslaved in this mysogenistic culture - the sexual fantasy/paradise of every Muslim man.

Yes, Islam is a sorry excuse for a religion, isn't it?

There are many Muslims who are in favor of freedom, constitutional government, and are loyal citizens. The problem is that they are disorganized, not politically active, and are cowed to challenge the claims of the radicals, extremists, and jihadis.

Clearly the jihadis and Islamists beat the moderates organizationally. Part of the solution is that these moderate Muslims need to band together, develop an Islamic jurisprudence which reconciles their faith with their political beliefs, and become active. This is far harder than I think people realize.

Robert Spencer has said many times he does not doubt there are moderate Muslims, but does not see a moderate Islamic theology. Maybe he could make one post on what groups, websites, true reformers are out there to give us a better idea of who might possibly be up to this huge task and what their strengths and weaknesses truly are. How is it different now than say in 1979 before the Shah fell or 1968 before Arab nationalism was discredited, or before the Nasserites destroyed the "liberal period" of 20th Century Arab countries?

I think such a post would be very informative.

Chris Durnell--

Helping "moderate" Muslims organize against the fanatics is a nice thought, but I don't see how, given the nature of Islam, that can take place. The Koran and Hadith provide just too much textural support for extremism.

Permanently moderating Islam would require, at the very least, excising the bulk of the Koran and Hadith's passages, as well as demoting Muhammad from his demi-god status to, ummm, "extremely flawed" human.

'Course, then it wouldn't be Islam; they might as well become Christians or Jews.

Well the article did prove one thing correct; islam religion is,live by the sword and die by the sword; and all christians and jews should help them die by the sword. islam is nothing more then a religion of violence, hate, and killing.

post script: there is no such animal as a moderate muslim.

Reza:

"Islam is peace and Islam is freedom. Embrace Islam and be truly free!"

=

"WAR IS PEACE, FREEDOM IS SLAVERY, IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH"

Have you read Orwell?

Actually, I'm a bit confused by what you mean when you say Islam is freedom. We've already thoroughly debunked the "Islam is peace" argument, and for that matter, you seem to be contradicting yourself. Just the other day, you mentioned that our grandchildren will be Muslims, like it or not.

So they won't be free to choose their religion, their lifestyle, or their career? They won't be living in peace, because of Islamic Vice and Virtue squads, ala your much-beloved Taliban?

So what you're saying is, they'll have peace and freedom, so long as they're Muslim. Well, that's swell. I'm so glad the majority can live with such wonderful privileges, and just like in every other totalitarian regime, to hell with the minorities.

Like I said, self-contradiction. Islam itself is chock full of contradictions, in fact.

http://answering-islam.org.uk/Quran/Contra/

On a final note, I'm pleased to inform you that I won't be having grandchildren, as I don't plan on reproducing. I'm not interested in spawning an army of indoctrinated "biological bombs", as Yasser Arafat once put it.

Yeah, sure, allah (puke be upon him), wants us all to be free to eke out a subsistence in medieval conditions, w/o asking if there could possibly be a better way for fear of being stoned, beheaded, set aflame, or some other such manifestation of allah's wonderful love for us all.

Furthermore, allah wants us to forego even attempting to advance scientific discovery or the like, thus bringing every beneficial discovery toward ending human suffering--antibiotics, air conditioning for crying out loud, the nicely shaped wifie in a thong--to an end. And for music, 5 times a day we get to hear a tone-deaf fellow lunatic scream the same lyrics--over & over again--w/o any musical instruments, as of course they are EEEVIILL! Geez, if I want to listen to something that non-musical I'll buy a Ludacris CD.

Sorry reza, I'll never be a muslim, never live under sharia, and will do my best to stymie your efforts at every turn.

Well, well, an honest Muslim. Maybe he will even admit Mohammed is no prophet because there is no prophecy in the Koran. He'd better hurry though, because it won't be long before some Imam or Mullah from this religion of peace issues a fatwah calling for his murder.

I say with pity: This guy Khaled Kishtainy is spitting in the wind. The most he is doing is making a target of himself for some (peaceful loving brother) assassin.
As this article illustrated, true muslims don't want to hear about "civil jihad". This religion appeals to the violent type (men), and those that enjoy being dominated (people like REZA).
This article, (and perhaps Khaled Kishtainy), failed to go one important step further...it failed to address the longstanding, ingrained hatered of muslims towards the Jews.
Khaled Kishtainy is an idealist and if he is still a muslim, he is wasting his time...

Proverbs 26:11-- As a dog returneth to his vomit, [so] a fool returneth to his folly.

Actually, I applaude this gentleman for speaking out and telling the truth. The need for more like him is boundless.

Reza, Reza, Reza......Take off your hijab so you can hear the world's voice. You're playing for the wrong team.

Kishtainy will not be killed because he is advising that his co-ideologues merely wait until they have amassed a military strength that will enable them to pursue military jihad. Thus, his call for civil jihad is not different from the teachings of Islam. The rest just don't want to hear about waiting to kill the infidels while they're in the midst of the military action. I don't see any difference between Kishtainy and the rest. He's not saying that jihad is wrong; the difference is one of degree and not kind. Unlike his co-ideologues, Kishtainy doesn't see that the jihadis can win because he views the West and Israel as militarily superior. Had the case been otherwise, Kishtainy would not be talking about peace, non-violence, and civil jihad. It's distressing to see so many misreading Kishtainy.

Helen is correct. Jihad will always put strive to defeat other ideologies, whether religious or political, using terror or "other means" as is stated in the Koran. Civil Jihad is one of the other means.

We hear in america must be forever vigilant in our war against terror,our fore fathers would have wanted to arm ourselves and pat attention to what is happening around you.
I personally am ready to promote the american whoop arse policy and run the muslims back to where they came from.

Reza's a guy.

What are muslims doing in Western Countries ????
They don`t want to integrate,they don`t want to live among us, they don`t like our way of living, they see us as dhimmies.
In Denmark 4/5 of the muslims are on wellfair. We are allready their dhimmies. And we have 7-800.000 of them.
The Danes have 2 children, the muslims 5-6.
Some Danes are talking about a comming civil war.And maybe we have to go to war against muslims in Denmark and all over Europa, if we don`t want our old countries to be khalifats.
We HAVE to stop them, and we have to send them back from where they come.

Vivi, I do hope most of your countrymen think as you do.

Oh, and please, please, please email me back with any arguments you may have. I would enjoy nothing more than correcting misinformation....

Ok, I'm having doubts about who I'm reaching with this comment. Originally, I took this site seriously, and simply lumped it mentally with the slew of other horribly offensive sites perpetrated against Muslims by official-seeming organizations after September 11th, 2001. I'm not, however, sure how old the people on this forum are that I'm speaking to. I don't want to offend, slander, or otherwise annoy, but these seem to be positions more suited to the context of an 8th grade classroom than a discussion by reasoning and intelligent adults. Regardless, this forum is the single greatest well of obscene misinformation I've come across online. It is so shocking that I've paused my Google search for the band "Jihad" to, hopefully, dispell some of the lies, at least in this forum. Islam is largely seen by Muslims a religion of peace, community, and devotion. The Qur'an does not mandate unjust violence, hatred, or mysogyny, although, as in virtually every faith, violent, hateful, and mysogynist individuals occassionally fly the banner of Islam to justify their individual goals. Second, Jihad: A Jihad IS NOT A WAR TO BRING NON-BELIEVERS TO THEIR KNEES. That's a pitiful definition concocted by ideologues to justify hatred of Islam; a palimpsest of the worst kind. In fact, a pre-emptory war is forbade by Islam. In my copy of the Qur'an, in a translation not mine but that of Abdullah Yusuf Ali, Muslims are called to, "Fight in the cause of Allah/Those who fight you,/But do not transgress limits;/For Allah loveth not transgressors" (2:190). That's right, people, God calls for Muslims to not transgress limits. Additionally, it goes on to prohibit attacks on those who yield in oppressing Islam, like the civilians murdered in terrorist attacks attributed to Jihad. A Jihad is not, in fact, patently a "holy war" as seen by westerners ignorant of Islam. A Jihad can be best translated as striving for the Will of God. In Muslim theology, the "greater Jihad" is the struggle within oneself to be a better Muslim, and the "lesser Jihad" is an external struggle to make Islam safe from oppression.
Hmm, what else... calling the Muslim God "Allah" is fairly ignorant in an English-speaking context. Allah is simply the Arabic word for "God." That's right, their God is the exact same God worshipped by Christians and Jews, by their own admission. Muslims simply feel that they've got the theology right. Non-Muslims might be confused because Allah is the term used in untranslated prayers and Quranic passages; however, that does not imply that Muslims surrender to a different God.
Your comments here are obscenely offensive to Islam, Muslims, and the open-minded. While not a follower of that path myself, I feel relatively (at least, relative to this garbage online) well-versed in cursory explanations of the religion. It is certainly no less violent, mysogynist, or hateful than Christian or Jewish religions, who, throughout history, have been used to justify wars of oppression and crusades against non-believers, the institutions of slavery in the Southern United States and other manifestations of overt racism, the systematic destruction of indigenous Americans to expand white, Christian culture across this continent, routine violence, discrimination and harassment of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgendered individuals in western society, and a host of other evils that have plagued the world throughout history. And one may protest, "Oh, I don't believe that; other Christians who happened to be bad people and were misled believed those things." Well, you're using the same kind of logic I dance around, directly, to condemn an entire faith. These comments are shameful.

My dear pierce,

"Regardless, this forum is the single greatest well of obscene misinformation I've come across online."

Sir, I am prepared to back up from Islamic sources each and every assertion I make here or in any of my published writings. I am not, of course, speaking for those who post here.

"A Jihad IS NOT A WAR TO BRING NON-BELIEVERS TO THEIR KNEES. That's a pitiful definition concocted by ideologues to justify hatred of Islam; a palimpsest of the worst kind. In fact, a pre-emptory war is forbade by Islam."

I have written a book about this, but in the interests of time it must suffice here to quote again an Islamic legal manual endorsed by the most revered authority in Sunni Islam, Al-Azhar University in Cairo: "The caliph makes war upon Jews, Christians, and Zoroastrians until they become Muslim or pay the non-Muslim poll tax." ('Umdat al-Salik, o9.8).

"It is offensive to conduct a military expedition against hostile non-Muslims without the caliph's permission (A: though if there is no caliph, no permission is required" (Ibid., o9.6).

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." (The Muqaddimah, Princeton University Press, 1967, p. 183.)

Is this the only understanding of jihad in Islam? No. But it is a widespread one, and it is the one that global terrorists use today to justify their actions.

"In my copy of the Qur'an, in a translation not mine but that of Abdullah Yusuf Ali, Muslims are called to, 'Fight in the cause of Allah/Those who fight you,/But do not transgress limits;/For Allah loveth not transgressors' (2:190). That's right, people, God calls for Muslims to not transgress limits. Additionally, it goes on to prohibit attacks on those who yield in oppressing Islam, like the civilians murdered in terrorist attacks attributed to Jihad."

Actually civilians are fair game if they are seen as aiding in the war effort. Cf. Al-Mawardi's "al-Ahkam as-Sultaniyyah."

"A Jihad is not, in fact, patently a 'holy war' as seen by westerners ignorant of Islam. A Jihad can be best translated as striving for the Will of God. In Muslim theology, the 'greater Jihad' is the struggle within oneself to be a better Muslim, and the 'lesser Jihad' is an external struggle to make Islam safe from oppression."

Of course this idea does exist in Islam, but you may be interested to know that leading radical Muslim theorists such as Qutb, Al-Banna, and Azzam reject the idea of the "greater jihad" as being based on a weak hadith. And indeed, that tradition does not appear in the hadith collections that Muslims accept as most reliable.

"Hmm, what else... calling the Muslim God 'Allah' is fairly ignorant in an English-speaking context. Allah is simply the Arabic word for 'God.' That's right, their God is the exact same God worshipped by Christians and Jews, by their own admission. Muslims simply feel that they've got the theology right. Non-Muslims might be confused because Allah is the term used in untranslated prayers and Quranic passages; however, that does not imply that Muslims surrender to a different God."

Actually "ilah" is the Arabic word for God. "Allah" is more like "the God." But you're right: when I go to church, our Arabic prayers often contain the word "Allah." Nevertheless, they refer to the Christian God, which is a very different understanding of God from the Muslim one. Thus I tend to use the word "Allah" in speaking of the God of Islam in order to note this distinction.

"Your comments here are obscenely offensive to Islam, Muslims, and the open-minded."

Any obscenely offensive comments I try to delete, but I try to allow for a wide latitude of opinion, and of course I miss some, because I can't monitor the comments all day. But in any case, you will note the presence of several pro-Osama Muslims who post here rather frequently. I don't approve of their posts any more than I do of those from the "nuke Mecca" crowd, and their posts here do not constitute an endorsement from me.

"While not a follower of that path myself, I feel relatively (at least, relative to this garbage online) well-versed in cursory explanations of the religion."

I would ask you, then, to grant that the evidence I have marshalled above is accurate. Again: it is not all of Islam, but it is what must be reformed in Islam so that this violence may cease.

"It is certainly no less violent, mysogynist, or hateful than Christian or Jewish religions ... discrimination and harassment of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgendered individuals in western society, and a host of other evils that have plagued the world throughout history."

I have explained many times that people of all creeds have done evil things. The difference is that there is a developed doctrine, theology, and law mandating violence against unbelievers in Islam; there is no such thing in any other faith.
I have left your remarks about gays above because that illuminates a key difference: while Christians have denounced gay marriage, etc., none have called for the killing of gays. But I have posted several articles here about imams in Europe and Australia doing just that. This difference stems from fundamental principles of both religions.

In any case, you are welcome to post here with any opinions you want, but I warn you that if you slander me or Jihad Watch as "Islamophobic" or some other empty phrase, you will be banned. I have been quite clear about my intentions here, and on my FAQ page I invite Muslims who are willing to renounce violent jihad to join our efforts. The defense against jihad terrorism is a defense of the equality of rights and dignity of all people, and I'm not going to let you or anyone smear it on my own board.

Cordially,
Robert Spencer

Whilst we should not sink to the level of the Muslims in propagating hate against these sons of Ishmael, who have become an utter offense to the whole world, as well as to themselves, we should neither deceive ourselves of the agenda of Islam.

There is a case taken up by the Islamic Council of Victoria of Australia under the Victorian Religious Vilification Act, against a couple of Christian pastors over a seminar on Islam. This ICV is funded by Saudi money, but for all who are interested in an objective review of the expert witness of the defense, please follow this link in this website:

http://www.jihadwatch.org/dhimmiwatch/Witness%20Statement.pdf

and one will know that the real agenda of Islam is akin to that of much of the communist doctrines prescribing violence for the overthrow of governments and the establishment of communism. It is indeed consistent with what has been described by most of the participants of this forum.

We all know that the game of deception is up for the radical Muslims, and for the moderates who believe that Islam is a great religion of peace, chances are these have either not gone past the "5 tenets of Islam" or will have to rethink and reconcile some very confusing and challenging conflicts in Islam.