• Why Jihad Watch?
  • About Robert Spencer and Staff Writers
  • FAQ
  • Books
  • Muhammad
  • Islam 101
  • Privacy

Jihad Watch

Exposing the role that Islamic jihad theology and ideology play in the modern global conflicts

Robert Spencer: Algerian Jihadists Wanted to “Teach the Americans What Islam Is”

Jan 23, 2013 9:39 am By Robert Spencer

PJMediaBannerSpencer.jpg

In PJ Media this morning, I discuss the overlooked lessons of the recent Algeria jihad mass murders:

At the height of the hostage crisis in Algeria, one of the kidnappers explained:
“We”ve come in the name of Islam, to teach the Americans what Islam
is.” As of Sunday evening, this exercise in religious education had
claimed eighty-one lives and left BP”s natural gas plant in Algeria in a state of ruin, booby-trapped with mines and explosives.

Further indication of the hostage-taker’s mindset came from one Algerian who escaped and later recounted:
“The terrorists told us at the very start that they would not hurt
Muslims but were only interested in the Christians and infidels. We will
kill them, they said.” According to the Telegraph,
“They allowed locals to go free, saying they did not want to hurt
Muslims. Some locals were forced to recite parts of the Koran to prove
they were Muslims.”

Clearly the hostage-takers” religion was important — indeed central —
to their motives and goals for undertaking this savage attack; yet
mainstream media coverage has followed the usual patterns, downplaying
or ignoring outright what the attackers said about what they were hoping
to accomplish, since these statements lead to questions about Islam
that they would prefer not be asked.

Yet they must be asked: we have now in the last few months seen
bloody massacres carried out in the name of Islam in at this natural gas
plant and at the U.S. consulate in Benghazi; a brutal Sharia regime
come to power in northern Mali; and escalating persecution of Christians
in Egypt, Pakistan, and Nigeria. Muslim spokesmen and groups in the
U.S. routinely dismiss concerns about such things by asserting that their view
of Islam, and that of Muslims in the U.S. and the vast majority of
Muslims worldwide, is completely different from that of the Muslims who
perpetrate these attacks, and that therefore anyone who wonders if such
violence in the name of Islam will ever become commonplace in the U.S.
is simply “Islamophobic” and hateful.

Maybe so. Certainly this line has so thoroughly convinced government,
law enforcement, and media elites that no discussion or dissent is
permitted anymore from these claims, as if they were hallowed religious
dogma. Nonetheless, it is ill-advised not to take the trouble to
understand one who is determined to destroy you. The hostage-takers in
Algeria said they wanted to teach Americans what Islam is. It would be
foolish, and ultimately fatal, not to consider exactly what message they
wanted us to get about Islam.

The core of the message may be found in a statement attributed in Islamic tradition to Muhammad, the prophet of Islam:

I have been ordered (by Allah) to fight against the
people until they testify that none has the right to be worshipped but
Allah and that Muhammad is Allah’s Apostle, and offer the prayers
perfectly and give the obligatory charity, so if they perform that, then
they save their lives and property from me except for Islamic laws and
then their reckoning (accounts) will be done by Allah. (Bukhari 1.2.24)

Muhammad must fight against people until they confess that Allah is
the only god and Muhammad is his messenger, and if they do, their lives
and property are safe from him — in other words, if one does not confess that there is no god but Allah and Muhammad is prophet, one’s life and property are not
safe from the Muslims. In taking hostages in the first place, moreover,
the jihadis were on firm Islamic ground: kidnapping infidels and later
deciding to kill them is fully sanctioned in Islamic law. “As for the
captives,” says the Islamic jurist al-Mawardi’s Laws of Islamic Governance,

the amir [ruler] has the choice of taking the most
beneficial action of four possibilities: the first to put them to death
by cutting their necks; the second, to enslave them and apply the laws
of slavery regarding their sale and manumission; the third, to ransom
them in exchange for goods or prisoners; and fourth, to show favor to
them and pardon them.

There is more.

Share this:

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window)
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • More
  • Click to share on Skype (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Telegram (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)

Follow me on Facebook

Filed Under: Algeria, Jihad doctrine


Learn more about RevenueStripe...

FacebookYoutubeTwitterLog in

Subscribe to the Jihad Watch Daily Digest

You will receive a daily mailing containing links to the stories posted at Jihad Watch in the last 24 hours.
Enter your email address to subscribe.

Please wait...

Thank you for signing up!
If you are forwarding to a friend, please remove the unsubscribe buttons first, as they my accidentally click it.

Subscribe to all Jihad Watch posts

You will receive immediate notification.
Enter your email address to subscribe.
Note: This may be up to 15 emails a day.

Donate to JihadWatch
FrontPage Mag

Search Site

Translate

The Team

Robert Spencer in FrontPageMag
Robert Spencer in PJ Media

Articles at Jihad Watch by
Robert Spencer
Hugh Fitzgerald
Christine Douglass-Williams
Andrew Harrod
Jamie Glazov
Daniel Greenfield

Contact Us

Terror Attacks Since 9/11

Archives

  • 2020
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2019
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2018
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2017
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2016
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2015
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2014
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2013
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2012
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2011
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2010
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2009
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2008
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2007
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2006
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2005
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2004
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2003
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • March

All Categories

You Might Like

Learn more about RevenueStripe...

Recent Comments

  • OLD GUY on Why so many Muslims can’t wait for Biden to get inaugurated
  • gravenimage on Iranian top dogs approve bill to end UN nuclear inspections, increase enrichment
  • OLD GUY on Biden vows to surrender to Iran, then negotiate
  • Peter Clemerson on New study reveals that Muslim religiosity strongly linked to hatred towards the West
  • Meena on India: Police make first arrest for ‘love jihad’ under new law

Popular Categories

dhimmitude Sharia Jihad in the U.S ISIS / Islamic State / ISIL Iran Free Speech

Robert Spencer FaceBook Page

Robert Spencer Twitter

Robert Spencer twitter

Robert Spencer YouTube Channel

Books by Robert Spencer

Jihad Watch® is a registered trademark of Robert Spencer in the United States and/or other countries - Site Developed and Managed by Free Speech Defense

Content copyright Jihad Watch, Jihad Watch claims no credit for any images posted on this site unless otherwise noted. Images on this blog are copyright to their respective owners. If there is an image appearing on this blog that belongs to you and you do not wish for it appear on this site, please E-mail with a link to said image and it will be promptly removed.

Our mailing address is: David Horowitz Freedom Center, P.O. Box 55089, Sherman Oaks, CA 91499-1964

loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.