Onward Muslim Soldiers: How Jihad Still Threatens America and the West

196 Pages·2003·1.75 MB·English

by  Robert Spencer

ONWARD

MUSLIM

SOLDIERS

How Jihad Still Threatens
America and the West

By Robert Spencer

Since 1947
REGNERY
PUBLISHING, INC.
An Eagle Publishing Company Washington, DC
ONWARD

MUSLIM

SOLDIERS

How jihad Still Threatens
America and the West

Robert Spencer

I Since 1947
REGNERY I
PUBLISHING, INC.
An Eagle Publishing Company Washington, DC
Copyright © 2003 by Robert Spencer
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information
storage and retrieval system now known or to be invented, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer who wishes to quote brief passages in connection with a review
written for inclusion in a magazine, newspaper, or broadcast.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Spencer, Robert, 1962-
Onward Muslim soldiers / Robert Spencer.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-89526-100-6
1. Jihad. 2. War-Religious aspects-Islam. 3. Terroris Religious aspects-Islam. 4. Religious tolerance-Islam. 5. Isla Controversial literature. I. Title.
BP182.S64 2003
297.7'2 dc22
2003017604
Acknowledgments
For many reasons, including the unpleasant prospect of reprisals against innocent people, there are more people who helped make this book a reality
than I can thank here. However, I am able to single out Dr. Andrew Bostom and Bat Ye'or for alerting me to important sources, Theresa Barger for
help with French, and many others for their enormously valuable advice, information, and support, including Jeffrey Rubin, Dr. Walid Phares, Fr.
Thomas Steinmetz, Paul Weyrich, and Dr. Farajollah Parvizian. I am grateful also to the indefatigable and resourceful Steve Lilienthal of the Free
Congress Foundation, and to my editor, the protean and insightful Harry Crocker. As for the others, I trust you know who you are, and to all: Shukran.
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Table of Contents

Introduction: Jihad Today ........................................................ix
PART ONE: Jihad Now .............................................................1
Chapter One: Are We Already Fighting a Jihad?
How radical Muslims use jihad as a modern-day
rallying cry..............................................................................3
Chapter Two: Europe: Jihad in the Making?.........................51
Chapter Three: The Jihad Way of War..................................85
PART TWO: Jihad Then..........................................................113
Chapter Four: Jihad in the Qur'an:
Is war the will of Allah? ..................................................115
Chapter Five: Muhammad in the Field:
The wars of the prophet....................................................147
Chapter Six: In the Prophet's Footsteps:
Jihad and dhimmitude in early and modern Islam ........165
Chapter Seven: The Modern Myth of Islamic Tolerance:
The fact of modern Islamic intolerance .........................185
Chapter Eight: Jihad in Eclipse and Resurgent..................213
PART THREE: The Great Jihad Cover-Up.............................251
Chapter Nine: Terrorism: Jihad Abused? .........................253
Chapter Ten: Everybody Must Get Stoned:
The strange alliance between radical Islam
and the post-1960s Left....................................................277
Chapter Eleven: How to Fight the War We're In .............289
Introduction
Notes......................................................................................305
Index......................................................................................337
JIHAD TODAY

"Get out u,our weapons," commanded Jaffar UmarThalib, a foraj-
Ljear-old Muslim cleric, over Indonesian radio in Mat) 2002. "Fight
against [Christians in Indonesia] to the last drop of blood."1
T WAS JIHAD.
Christians, Jaffar explained, were "belligerent infidels" {kafir
harbi) and entitled to no mercy. This designation was not merely a
stylistic flourish on Jaffar's part. On the contrary, kafir harbi is a
category of infidel that is clearly delineated in Islamic theology; by
using it, Jaffar not only incited his followers to violence, but gave
that violence the legitimacy of Islamic doctrine.
His usage and reasoning resonated with his followers in the
now-disbanded Laskar Jihad. Thousands heeded his call with
ferocious single-mindedness. Some estimate the death toll
among
IX
x Introduction xi
Indonesian Christians to have been as high as ten thousand, with Enrollees in the Ultimate Jihad Challenge at Camp Ground
thousands more left homeless. Zero would no doubt have agreed with the Saudi sheikh Nasser
Hamas, the Palestinian terrorist group that has set itself up as Muhammad Al-Ahmad, who preached a sermon on jihad in 2000 at
the chief roadblock on the latest road map to peace in the Middle the Al-Nour mosque in Al-Khobar, Saudi Arabia. Speaking of
East, also sees itself as fighting a jihad. The Hamas charter of Jerusalem, sheikh Nasser declared, "There is no solution to this
August 1988 declares: "Nothing is loftier or deeper in Nationalism problem, and to any problem to which the infidel enemy is party,
than waging Jihad against the enemy and confronting him when he except by waving the banner of Jihad....The sites holy to Muslims
sets foot on the land of the Muslims." When will it end? "It is a will be regained only by Jihad for the sake of Allah....When true
Jihad until either victory or martyrdom," declares the Hamas Islamic Jihad is declared, the balance of power will shift."
Qas-sam Brigade at the end of each of its communiques. The sheikh rejoiced that the West perceived jihad as a threat.
Meanwhile, across the Atlantic Ocean, aspiring warriors of jihad "What frightens the West more than anything else is the word
were invited to enroll in Ultimate Jihad Challenge: "a two-week 'Jihad,' because they understand what it means."8 A sweatshirt
course in our thousand-acre state-of-the-art shooting range in the spotted among Muslim radicals at pro-Iraq rallies in the Middle
United States." This was not a course for effete intellectuals. "The East in spring 2003 bore a similar legend: "JIHAD is the language
course emphasis is on practical live fire training. You will fire they understand!"
between two to three thousand rounds of mixed caliber Sheikh Nasser and the sweatshirt manufacturers could be
ammunition. Class theory is kept to a minimum." The certain that the West understood what they meant by jihad,
British-based website advertising the course explained that, "due to because their view of the term has ample support in Islamic
the firearms law of the UK all serious firearms training must be theology, tradition, and history. Theirs isn't the only Muslim
done overseas."5 That is, in the United States. understanding of jihad, but it's well enough established in Islam to
The website's owner, an English convert to Islam named enable radicals to recruit and mobilize Muslims in Egypt, Palestine,
Sulay-man Zain-ul-Abidin, denied operating anything less Pakistan, Turkey, Nigeria, the Philippines, Indonesia, and around the
innocuous than a training center for security guards. However, world including Western Europe and the United States. Jihadist
police charged that he had received and erased e-mails containing movements are able to gain followers around the world not by calls
evidence to the contrary, including one that read, "Let me sacrifice for political or economic justice or by twisting and abusing Islamic
myself for jihad send details." Investigators probed links between theology, but by preaching the old-time religion of jihad as holy
Zain-ul-abidin and "Camp Ground Zero" in Alabama, where they war, which has always been attractive to a significant sector of
found mannequins, buses, and even police cars that had been used Islamic populations. Samuel Huntington puts it bluntly in The
for target practice. Marion, Alabama, police chief Tony Buford said Clash of Civilizations: "Some Westerners, including President
that "it was rumored that the camp here was used as a training site Clinton, have argued that the West does not have problems with
for possible people [sic] that were sent here to do bodily harm to Islam but only with violent Islamic extremists. Fourteen hundred
Americans." years of history demonstrate otherwise." Jihad constitutes an
ongoing and global threat to the
xii Introduction xiii
West a threat that, as Huntington points out, key Western analysts the text. So except where I noted otherwise, the parenthetical
and policymakers persistently refuse to face on its own terms. material in quotations is in the original.
That is what I report about in this book. In doing so, I give not In using this material, I do not present my own findings or
my own conclusions but draw on Islamic sources themselves, opinions about what Islam teaches or what jihad means. I am
beginning with the Qur'an and ranging through Islamic tradition certainly not saying that one version of the religion is correct and
and law from the earliest centuries to the present day. Whenever another isn't. Islam has no central authority; consequently not even a
possible I have quoted these sources verbatim, in order to Muslim can credibly claim that his understanding of the Qur'an
emphasize that these are not my words or mere reconstructions of and Islamic law is definitive. But I am pointing out that radical Islam
what they have said, but their actual statements. is not as eccentric and circumscribed as many have claimed. It exists,
Muslim controversialists often try to silence critics who quote and it is widespread. Obviously not all Muslims in the United
uncomfortable passages from Islamic sources by maintaining that States or around the world indeed, not even a majority subscribe
they can be truly understood only in Arabic. This claim, however, is to the Islam of modern-day terrorists. Most Muslims, like
palpably absurd. Muslims around the world preach Islam and everyone else, want to live their lives in peace. But that fact doesn't
attempt to make converts in languages other than Arabic. If the change or mitigate another fact: that terrorists and militants around
Qur'an's message can be understood only in Arabic, why do they the world today are using the Qur'an and the teachings of Islam to
do this? Also, most Muslims in the world today are not native recruit and motivate terrorists, making principal use of the
speakers of Arabic; the most populous Muslim country is Indonesia, doctrines surrounding the concept of jihad.
hardly an Arab land. With ancient and populous Muslim The issues here are too important to be relegated to politically
communities existing outside the Arab world, from Bosnia to Iran correct silence, wishful thinking, or lies of intimidation or
and Pakistan to Indonesia, Muslims have always translated the politeness. It is incumbent on us to look squarely at the truth.
Qur'an, if only for private spiritual edification. I have relied in this
book on Qur'anic translations written by Muslims for Muslims
chiefly The Meaning of the Holy Qur'an by Abdullah Yusuf Ali and
The Meaning of the Glorious Koran by Mohammed Marmaduke
Pickthall. I shall also quote copiously from the writings of
influential Muslim radicals.
There are many variants in the way Arabic names are rendered
in English; I favor one system, but those I quote favor others, so I
might refer to the "Qur'an" while someone I quote refers to the
"Koran." I ask the reader's patience in this. Please note also that
English translators of the Qur'an and other Arabic texts like to
insert parenthetical words and phrases to bring out the meaning of
o

o
1

Chapter One
ARE WE ALREADY
FIGHTING A JIHAD?

How Radical Muslims Use Jihad as a
Modern-day Rallying Cry

"Ljou guus are coming into our countries, and you're going to rape our
women and kill our children."'
T
HIS STATEMENT WAS MADE early in the Iraq war of 2003
but not by Saddam Hussein, Tariq Aziz, or any other Iraqi.
Rather, these are the words of Sergeant Hasan Akbar, an
American engineer from the 101st Airborne Division. Akbar
was accused of killing Captain Christopher Scott Seifert, Major
Gregory Stone, and wounding fifteen others in a grenade and
small-arms attack in northern Kuwait on March 22, 2003.
Analysts routinely dismiss religion, particularly the Muslim
religion, as a possible motivation for violence. This incident was no
different. Doug McLeroy, a chaplain at Akbar's stateside base in
Fort Campbell, Kentucky, assured the world, "This is an isolated,
indi-