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University of Florida Prof Hails Caliphate as ‘Historic Institution’ That ISIS Is ‘Hijacking’

Nov 20, 2019 5:00 pm By Robert Spencer

My latest in PJ Media:

University of Florida professor Ken Chitwood wrote Wednesday in the Associated Press’ commentary section, “The Conversation,” that “the Islamic State tries to boost its legitimacy by hijacking a historic institution.” He then provided a drive-by overview of the history of various Islamic caliphates, so whitewashed as to rival the Washington Post’s famous characterization of Islamic State (ISIS) caliph Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in misleading duplicity. Even worse, Chitwood tells us that “as a scholar of global Islam, every time I teach my ‘Introduction to Islam’ class,” he teaches this nonsense to his hapless University of Florida students. No surprise there, given the fact that most universities today are little more than Antifa recruitment centers.

“Under Umar,” Chitwood writes blandly, “the caliphate expanded to include many regions of the world such as the lands of the former Byzantine and Sassanian empires in Asia Minor, Persia and Central Asia.”

Yeah, uh, Professor Chitwood, how exactly did that “expansion” occur? In reality, beyond the pseudo-academic whitewash and fantasy that Chitwood purveys, the caliphates always behaved much like the Islamic State, because they were all working from the same playbook. The true, bloody history of the caliphates can be found, detailed from Islamic sources, in the only complete history of 1,400 years of jihad violence, The History of Jihad From Muhammad to ISIS.

The word khalifa means “successor”; the caliph in Sunni Islamic theology is the successor of Muhammad as the military, political, and spiritual leader of the Muslims. The History of Jihad From Muhammad to ISIS demonstrates that the great caliphates of history, from the immediate post-Muhammad period of the “Rightly Guided Caliphs” to the Umayyads, Abbasids, and Ottomans, as well as other Islamic states, all waged relentless jihad warfare against non-Muslims, subjugating them under the rule of Islamic law and denying them basic rights.

These weren’t the actions of a “tiny minority of extremists,” abhorred by the vast majority of peaceful Muslims for “hijacking” their religion, as Ken Chitwood would have you believe. This was, for fourteen centuries, mainstream, normative Islam, carried forth by the primary authorities in the Islamic world at the time. The accounts of eyewitnesses and contemporary chroniclers through the ages show that in every age and in every place where there were Muslims, some of them believed that they had a responsibility given to them by Allah to wage war against and subjugate unbelievers under the rule of Islamic law.

And so it is today: Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi enunciated that responsibility more clearly and directly than most Muslim spokesmen do these days, but he is by no means the only one who believes that it exists.

There is much more. Read the rest here.

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Filed Under: caliphate, Featured, journalistic bias, Robert Spencer Tagged With: Associated Press, Ken Chitwood, University of Florida


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Comments

  1. ntesdorf says

    Nov 20, 2019 at 5:16 pm

    University of Florida professor Ken Chitwood appears,from his comments, to know nothing at all about how Islam works and what its adherents believe.

    • FYI says

      Nov 20, 2019 at 5:30 pm

      Craig Considine appears to be worse…promoting all sorts of nonsense about muhammed being some kind of visionary and enchanted by the koran.

      muhammed was a Mass-murderer of Jews {Abu Dawud 4390}
      muhammed was the owner,buyer and seller of African slaves{Sahih muslim 3901}

      The koran has multiple errors in it which by allah’s own criterion of k4:82 means that in its imperfection it comes from “other than allah”

      Either these “scholars” are in denial of the evidence or they are knowingly promoting falsehood :see who pays them…

    • gravenimage says

      Nov 20, 2019 at 7:44 pm

      He may be ignorant–or he may be lying.

      • mortimer says

        Nov 21, 2019 at 10:16 am

        Further to GI’s ‘either/or’ … Chitwood has surely been bribed to lie. It’s a whopper of a lie. He has stated a PREPOSTEROUS falsehood.

        There were actually COMPETING caliphates at several times in Islamic history! So who decided which caliphate was authentic? The SWORD decided! As with most matters in Islam, violence is the deciding factor! There is NO official body in Islam to create or to recognize a caliphate. The only way to create a competing caliphate is TO HIJACK THE CALIPHATE from one’s rivals !!! The Umayyads moved to Spain and created their own new ‘hijacked’ caliphate! Who recognized that?

        History students, TAKE NOTE … HIJACKING THE CALIPHATE is normative Islamic practice! Mohammed did so himself! And many of the subsequent caliphs hijacked the caliphate! The Abbasid Dynasty not only hijacked the caliphate, but almost exterminated the Umayyads in the process! The Fatimids created their own ‘hijacked’ caliphate in Cairo!

        Real historians should make Ken Chitwood RUE THE DAY he uttered such an unscholarly statement! ISIS was as valid a caliphate as any other! ISIS was possibly BETTER than others, since the caliph al-Baghdadi was a thoroughly trained Islamic expert who made NO MISTAKES in theology or Islamic ideology!

        Ken Chitwood should be forensically audited and his faculty and his university and family members who could all be receiving the bribes.

        The last commands of Mohammed involved giving bribes to emissaries! Imagine the last command of someone … bribery! What would Mohammed care about bribery if he were dying?

        What an absurd religion! Almost everything in Islam is arbitrary and subject to manipulation and violence.

        • gravenimage says

          Nov 21, 2019 at 10:08 pm

          I doubt he has been bribed, Mortimer. There are too many apologists for Islam for them all to be paid.

          Besides, if he were paid and “political correctness” were not a factor, then not a single person would believe his claptrap–but many of them will, because many people swallow this whitewash about Islam.

      • J D S says

        Nov 21, 2019 at 10:18 am

        Ignorant or lying….Either way this professor, as well as many professors through our our schools of higher learning, are filling our young people’s ears with an untrue message about the wiles of islam.
        WHAT HAPPENED? Why have WE allowed these professors, along with, school administrators to take over college’s?
        Like many other things, Many with life changing consequences, this didn’t happen overnight. but GRADUALLY and Most were intended.

        way.
        DEAR GOD PLEASE SAVE US FROM OURSELVES!

        • mortimer says

          Nov 21, 2019 at 10:29 am

          Yes, JDS. ISIS was meticulously and self-consciously Islamic. Anyone who denies it is unscholarly.

          In 2015, Graeme Wood wrote brilliantly in The Atlantic: “The Islamic State is no mere collection of psychopaths. It is a religious group with carefully considered beliefs, among them that it is a key agent of the coming apocalypse … Nearly all the Islamic State’s decisions adhere to what it calls, on its billboards, license plates, and coins, “the Prophetic methodology … The reality is that the Islamic State is Islamic. Very Islamic.”

          The article by Wood is worth re-reading: http://www.theatlantic.com/features/archive/2015/02/what-isis-really-wants/384980/

    • Francis Weber says

      Nov 21, 2019 at 1:56 pm

      He sounds like your mainstream journalist .

  2. Lightship Chaplain says

    Nov 20, 2019 at 5:45 pm

    Yup, it appears like charlotians like to pose as legitimate history professors once did in our past, it should be an act of war to dissimulate such disinformation to any free societies youth.
    The only difference in NAZI s and Antifa are their political leanings, one leans to the left and the other right of center, and are equally destructive to the truth. The Nuremberg hearings were based on the Judaeo Christian ethics of the West, as no other doctrines were found acceptable to base law upon. The Cultural Marxist of today despise such fundamental principles, and our children are the victims of it!

  3. Westman says

    Nov 20, 2019 at 7:23 pm

    And the expansion was by:

    A. Door to door spreading of the good news of Allah speaking to man through Muhammad. News of loving your fellow humans and doing good, even to those who take advantage of you. Allah is love, and cares about each of you.

    B. The Sword. Allah promises booty, women, and dominance for fighting in his cause. If killed(martyr) the men get a place in carnal heaven, with women providing satisfaction, feasting, servants, and entertainment. Believing Women are tilth with 1/2 the value of a man. Unbelieving women are cattle. Jews are to be despised.

    C. None of the above.

    Choose one.

    • Keith says

      Nov 21, 2019 at 8:52 am

      Can I choose B please.

    • Celtic says

      Nov 22, 2019 at 2:57 am

      How dare you speaking the truth, you biggot, islamophobe, racist and (insert random smear)??

      Jokes aside. Funny how this beta wants to defend the historical Caliphates which brought about mass slaverey and genocide over millions as something that is “hijacked” by a Group following the same ideology, having the same Goal and using the same, yet modernized methods….

  4. gravenimage says

    Nov 20, 2019 at 7:39 pm

    University of Florida Prof Hails Caliphate as ‘Historic Institution’ That ISIS Is ‘Hijacking’
    …………………..

    Let’s see–the last Caliphate engaged in threatening their neighbors, persecuting nonbelievers, kidnapping Infidel girls to use as sex slaves, and out and out genocide. This actually sounds a *lot* like the Islamic State…

  5. Wellington says

    Nov 20, 2019 at 8:43 pm

    Uh-huh. Islam engaged in wonderful expansion; it spread. The West, by comparison, was ruthlessly imperialistic; it conquered.

    Wow. Glad we cleared this up.

    • Mark Swan says

      Nov 20, 2019 at 10:25 pm

      Professor Ken Chitwood, is wrong.

      ISIS is just Islam out in the open, being practiced by the book, no honest Imam disputes it.

      Sure he can try all this slick talk he wants, it will not affect Islam‘s followers.

      It can only cloud the reasoning of those who should fear Islam’s intent.

      • mortimer says

        Nov 21, 2019 at 10:49 am

        Chitwood has been paid to promote fantasy Islam.

        • melek-ric says

          Nov 21, 2019 at 3:40 pm

          Yes, it’s incredible how many Shitwoods there are in academia willing to undermine their own civilization, and how cheap their price appears to be.

          Oops – the ‘C’ and the ‘S’ are diagonally proximal to each other on the keyboard. My bad.

  6. TKF says

    Nov 21, 2019 at 12:07 am

    What’s the difference between fantasy Islam and real Islam?…..Fantasy Islam only exists in your head…..Real Islam wants to kill you.

  7. jca reid says

    Nov 21, 2019 at 7:49 am

    What a Dingbat!! Probably just saying this BS so he can have his 15minutes in the Sun. Caliphates were nothing but Tyrannies. would this guy actively Turkish Premier, ERDOGAN & his plans for the Balkans & any other territories he can grab. He ought to read a few history books on the topic or, he may find it easier to watch a couple of documentaries on the Regions where this wonderful “Caliphate” existed.

  8. Dr. Doom says

    Nov 21, 2019 at 8:47 am

    One fool among many. Do they actually believe the nonsense they spew forth?

  9. WPM says

    Nov 21, 2019 at 9:22 am

    Ken Chitwood should hop a flight to Turkey to open debate with Erdogan ,or the leaders of Iran ,or Saudi Arabia Imams , or even Islamic “Holy men” from speakers corner in England ,the Islamic gathering there rioting and the mob wanting to rip him limb from limb it should be entertaining to us “less inform ” people. The west seems to have no shortage of useful idiots teaching in colleges .

  10. Spiro says

    Nov 21, 2019 at 10:46 am

    Another intellectual who is mired in his own ignorance of what he is talking about
    It’s always amazing to me how these people think they are so educated and make such foolish statements
    You all don’t take off for spelling do ya

  11. Steve says

    Nov 21, 2019 at 11:23 am

    Ignoreducted or practicing proselytism of Islam

  12. Angemon says

    Nov 21, 2019 at 3:46 pm

    University of Florida professor Ken Chitwood wrote Wednesday in the Associated Press’ commentary section, “The Conversation,” that “the Islamic State tries to boost its legitimacy by hijacking a historic institution.”

    Right, “hijacking” by repeating what previous caliphates did…

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