August 29, 2006

Hizballah booklet "presents the Jihad, or Holy War, as a way in which a Muslim may sacrifice his life for Allah and reach heaven"

Misunderstanders of Islam publish a guidebook to the jihad ideology, heavy on quotes from Qur'an and Sunnah. The world has yet to see a coherent case built from the Qur'an and Sunnah for the peaceful coexistence of Muslims with non-Muslims as equals on an indefinite basis. "Analysis: Hezbollah`s indoctrination," from UPI, with thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist:

TEL AVIV, Israel (UPI) -- Israeli soldiers who searched Hezbollah homes and bunkers in the south Lebanese village of Maroun el-Ras found a booklet that provided a glimpse into that movement`s religious indoctrination.

It extolled holy war and martyrdom and provided examples from the Iranian Revolutionary Guards` experience.

Soldiers found four copies of that booklet in Maroun el-Ras that has seen some heavy fighting with Hezbollah.

Israeli intelligence experts reckoned that since several copies were found in Hezbollah`s front lines, the 60-page booklet must be an authorized Islamic guidance manual.

It is written like a Muslim-Shiite ideological treatise with quotes from the Koran and Shiite traditions. It presents the Jihad, or Holy War, as a way in which a Muslim may sacrifice his life for Allah and reach heaven. The Shahada, or martyrdom on the battlefield, is a prize for a Muslim warrior, the document says.

There are several gates to Heaven and the most prestigious of all is the one for those involved in a Jihad. That is why every Muslim should strive to take part in a holy war. Victory in a Jihad, or martyrdom, are tops.

Israel`s Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center, which the intelligence community uses to release declassified materials, analyzed Hezbollah`s booklet. Its deputy director, Yoram Kahati, noted that Hezbollah considers its fighters as being not only Lebanese but, 'Mainly Muslim-Shiite Jihad fighters who fulfill a most important religious commitment.' That sense increases their motivation to fight Israel, he maintained.

No Arab state has made Jihad its strategy, Kahati noted. Only radical Sunni-Muslims, such as al-Qaida, give Jihad that much importance. However Iran, which is Muslim-Shiite, has been trying to export its ideas to the Shiites in Lebanon and set an example to the other, Muslim-Sunni world, Kahati wrote.

None has made "Jihad its strategy," but many have not hesitated to aid that jihad, and to try to exploit it for their own purposes.