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The History of Jihad: “A sweeping historical epic, comprehensive and meticulously documented, readable and vivid”

Sep 30, 2018 4:00 pm By Robert Spencer

In case you missed it, here is a review of my book The History of Jihad From Muhammad to ISIS by Steve Gruber, a conservative talk show host with 25 affiliates in Michigan. This book is the first and only comprehensive narrative history of the entire phenomenon of jihad, from Spain to India and many, many other places — with massive implications for public policy, both foreign and domestic. Order it here now.

“‘The History of Jihad’ an Epic Account the World Needs to Know,” by Steve Gruber, Newsmax, August 15, 2018:

Robert Spencer’s “The History of Jihad: From Muhammad to ISIS” contains a wealth of information that Americans (and perhaps especially those entrusted with our foreign and domestic policies) do not know, and need to know. At the same time, it is a sweeping historical epic of an astonishingly broad scope, comprehensive and meticulously documented, yet readable and vivid in its retelling of triumph and conquest, defeat and loss, cowardice and collaboration.This book not only makes clear how it came to be that the United States is faced with the internal and external challenge that threaten the world’s lone superpower today, but illustrates the human cost of ideas. “The History of Jihad” demonstrates just how important it is that we approach what has been known as the war on terror not just as a military or national security matter, but as an ideological struggle against an enemy that challenges our most basic premises as a free society and a free people.

What is “The History of Jihad’s” most astonishing lesson is that, for all the confusion and denial surrounding that ideological antagonist today, we face the same ideological adversary that has threatened non-Muslim societies around the world for fourteen centuries. One would think by now, we would know exactly whom and what we are dealing with, and how best to do so. Instead, the willful almost gleeful ignorance is more pervasive than ever, which only shows all the more why Americans today need to read and understand “The History of Jihad.”

It’s all here: the story of how the Arab armies swept out of Arabia in the 630s with amazing force, and how the Islamic jihadis were from the earliest days of the global jihad emboldened by a religious doctrine that created for them a situation in which they could not lose: if they defeated their enemies on their battlefield, they would receive the possessions and the women of the vanquished; and if they were killed, they would be greeted by the fabled virgins of Paradise.

It was as potent an impetus for military conflict as has ever been devised, and it worked magnificently. Spencer uses the words of people who were on the scene as the jihadis advanced to tell the story of how, within 100 years of the traditional date for the Prophet Muhammad’s death, Muslims controlled an empire that stretched from Spain to India. Not only had they conquered, but the straitened conditions they forced upon the conquered peoples would be removed immediately if they simply converted to Islam. This made for the rapid Islamization of the lands they overran. The Roman civilization of North Africa was entirely obliterated; the ancient and proud people of Egypt almost entirely Arabized, and generations of Iranians, an equally proud people, taught to despise and disparage their native pre-Islamic civilization.

“The History of Jihad” contains much more as well. Spencer goes into immense detail about the jihad against India, which was waged for centuries in a manner even more brutal and bloody than it was waged elsewhere. Drawing on the accounts of contemporary court historians, who enthusiastically recorded the brutality of the Muslim rulers in whose courts they resided as if it were a magnificent achievement, Spencer provides an unparalleled tale of oppression and destruction, resulting in the deaths of millions of Hindus and the razing of tens of thousands of Hindu temples. Amid this unremitting story of inhumanity and barbarism, the Hindus only find respite when Muslim rulers, for whatever reason, set aside the restrictions upon them required by Islamic law. Akbar the Great, for example, the Mughal emperor in the latter half of the sixteenth century, grew disenchanted with Islam, and accordingly set Islamic law aside and granted relative freedom to the Hindus; his son and successor Jahangir, on the other hand, a Muslim hardliner, looked upon his father’s magnanimity with contempt, had the scholar who led him away from Islam beheaded, and reinstated many of the oppressive measures upon the Hindus.

The pages of “The History of Jihad” are full of such stories, demonstrating again and again that the ideology of jihad leads human beings to think that when they are brutal and inhumane to other human beings, they are serving the creator of all. This is the harsh lesson put forth by Spencer that all policymakers should heed, and ponder.

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Filed Under: Featured, History of jihad Tagged With: The History of Jihad From Muhammad to ISIS


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Comments

  1. mortimer says

    Sep 30, 2018 at 7:24 pm

    This is the best introduction there is to the MAIN EVENT in Islam, which is world conquest. Jihad is the PRIME DIRECTIVE of Islam: to GO AND CONQUERE WHAT NO MUSLIM HAS CONQUERED BEFORE.

    Subjecting the world to Islamic rule and forcing people to live under DISCRIMINATORY SHARIA LAW is accomplished by JIHAD … which is ALL AGGRESSIVE ACTIONS which impose the Sharia law.

    WESTERN PEOPLE, WAKE UP! Read ‘The History of Jihad’ by Robert Spencer and SMELL THE COFFEE.

    • John Appleby says

      Oct 1, 2018 at 8:24 am

      I have just googled Passages of Hate first 20 pages go straight to passages of hate in the Bible… real hard to find Quran and hate these days. When did we last see Christians killing for Jesus? its disgusting. Who pays google to remove the truth about Islam and Terror and Hate the Quran teaches?

      • mortimer says

        Oct 1, 2018 at 8:30 am

        Try googling 164 jihad verses:

        The Koran’s 164 Jihad Verses: K 002:178-179, 190-191, 193-194, 216-218, 244; 003:121-126, 140-143, 146, 152-158, 165-167,169, 172-173, 195; 004:071-072, 074-077, 084, 089-091, 094-095,100-104; 005:033, 035, 082; 008:001, 005, 007, 009-010, 012, 015-017, 039-048,057-060, 065-075; 009:005, 012-014, 016, 019-020, 024-026, 029,036, 038-039, 041, 044, 052, 073, 081, 083,086, 088, 092, 111, 120, 122-123; 016:110; 022:039, 058, 078; 024:053, 055; 025:052; 029:006, 069; 033:015, 018, 020, 023, 025-027, 050; 042:039; 047:004, 020, 035; 048:015-024; 049:015; 059:002, 005-008, 014; 060:009; 061:004, 011, 013; 063:004; 064:014; 066:009; 073:020; 076:008.

  2. Flavius Claudius Iulianus says

    Sep 30, 2018 at 10:57 pm

    “Italian University Leftists Put Up Posters Calling for Assassination of Salvini”

    https://www.breitbart.com/london/2018/09/30/italian-university-leftists-put-up-posters-calling-for-assassination-of-salvini/

    • gravenimage says

      Sep 30, 2018 at 11:03 pm

      Appalling–this is not freedom of speech.

      • Flavius Claudius Iulianus says

        Oct 1, 2018 at 3:48 pm

        You are correct. Incitement to murder is not protected in any jurisdiction.

        The Left practices ‘a double standard’ in big, bold letters.

        • gravenimage says

          Oct 3, 2018 at 10:48 pm

          True, Flavius.

  3. Flavius Claudius Iulianus says

    Sep 30, 2018 at 10:57 pm

    “Salvini Defies EU: ‘If Brussels Says I Cannot Do It, I Do Not Care, I Will Do It Anyway’”

    https://www.breitbart.com/london/2018/09/30/salvini-defies-eu-if-brussels-says-i-cannot-do-it-i-do-not-care-i-will-do-it-anyway/

  4. Flavius Claudius Iulianus says

    Sep 30, 2018 at 10:58 pm

    “Merkel Fights for Globalism, Warns Trump Against ‘Destroying’ the United Nations”

    https://www.breitbart.com/london/2018/09/30/merkel-globalism-warns-trump-against-destroying-united-nations/

    • StellaSaidSo says

      Sep 30, 2018 at 11:06 pm

      Yep. The globalists are getting desperate now. Trump knows that the real purpose of the UN is to destroy freedom and democracy. And he isn’t afraid to spill their beans. We live in dangerous times.

  5. gravenimage says

    Sep 30, 2018 at 11:04 pm

    The History of Jihad: “A sweeping historical epic, comprehensive and meticulously documented, readable and vivid”
    …………….

    Fine review.

  6. Sons of Liberty says

    Sep 30, 2018 at 11:26 pm

    What is unusual is the coalition between the Muslims and the Marxists ( Democrats, Progressives , Antifa what ever they call themselves ) but when you realize they are both totalitarians it makes perfect sense. However what is puzzling is the pure ignorance of Marxist Democrat women to march around proclaiming their loyalty to the most abusive ideology on the planet to women . That is what is inconceivable !

  7. David Miller says

    Oct 1, 2018 at 9:11 am

    If this book contained comprehensive analysis interspersed with history, it could have ended up as several volumes. I for one am glad that it is concise and readable.

  8. Rajaram says

    Oct 1, 2018 at 9:48 am

    In their blind,unrelenting desire to establish communism the Marxists have found a perfect way in supporting the Jihadi Islam!

  9. Walter Sieruk says

    Oct 1, 2018 at 11:38 am

    On the date of 9/25/ 18 President Trump during a speech declared “ISIS has been driven out of Iraq and Syria.” This is both a truth and a triumph .so far so good. This is actually very good.
    Likewise, the scholar and author, Robert Spencer, in his latest book which has the title of THE HISTORY OF JIHAD FROM MUHAMMAD TO ISIS . For on page it reads “When Donald Trump replaced Barack as president of the United States, Iraqi forces and other began rolling up the Islamic State strongholds, such that within a year of the beginning of the Trump presidency , the Islamic State had lost nine-eight of its territory .”
    As good as the collapse of that Islamic “state” is we must not remember that the source and inspiration for and of that vicious and murderous jihad entity, ISIS, has not collapsed .Therefore we should not let our guard down regarding such heinous dangers. The source and inspiration is Islam.

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