Was terrorism really ever an end in itself? Did the imperative to institute Sharia everywhere really only originate after 9/11? Obviously this reporter is indifferent to or unaware of statements such as this one from the Muslim Brotherhood theorist Sayyid Qutb: “The foremost duty of Islam is to depose Jahiliyyah [the society of unbelievers] from the leadership of man.”
Or this one from the Pakistani jihadist Syed Abul Ala Maududi, founder of the Pakistani political party Jamaat-e-Islami. He declared that non-Muslims have “absolutely no right to seize the reins of power in any part of God’s earth nor to direct the collective affairs of human beings according to their own misconceived doctrines.” If they do, “the believers would be under an obligation to do their utmost to dislodge them from political power and to make them live in subservience to the Islamic way of life.”
This reporter is apparently unaware that Qutb and Maududi were not the originators of such ideas, but were merely reflecting the Qur’anic imperative enshrined in Sura 9:29 for Jews and Christians: conversion to Islam, subjugation as an inferior class, or death. “Fight those who believe not in Allah nor the Last Day, nor hold that forbidden which hath been forbidden by Allah and His Messenger, nor acknowledge the religion of Truth, (even if they are) of the People of the Book, until they pay the Jizya with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued.”
And this, of course, is not a single verse “taken out of context,” but the linchpin of an entire system that plays out in the Hadith, Islamic law, and Islamic history. The Prophet Muhammad amplifies these choices here:
Fight in the name of Allah and in the way of Allah. Fight against those who disbelieve in Allah. Make a holy war… When you meet your enemies who are polytheists, invite them to three courses of action. If they respond to any one of these you also accept it and withhold yourself from doing them any harm. Invite them to (accept) Islam; if they respond to you, accept it from them and desist from fighting against them….If they refuse to accept Islam, demand from them the Jizya. If they agree to pay, accept it from them and hold off your hands. If they refuse to pay the tax, seek Allah’s help and fight them. (Sahih Muslim 4294)
From the Copenhagen Post via Jyllands-Posten, with thanks to Filtrat:
Despite European efforts to stop terrorist organizations from seeking new recruits, terrorist recruitment continues in the continent, a Danish report finds.
Terrorism is not an end in itself anymore for extremist Muslims and organizations such as Al Qaida. Ever since the attacks the United States on September 11 2001, overthrowing the western world has become an independent Islamic ideology….
“Recruiting of maladjusted Muslims in Europe continues,” he said. “The bomb attacks on Madrid demonstrated that. The difference is that before September 11 recruitment took place more or less out in the open in mosques around Europe. Now the masterminds have withdrawn completely from public eye.”
Taarnby said there were no doubts in his mind that Al Qaida was capable of inflicting more terrorist attacks on the world.