Jihad Means One Thing Only

BAB's A List, Islam

And it isn’t an “inner struggle‿ or a soul search: “There is just one historically relevant meaning of jihad despite contemporary apologetics,‿ says the brilliant Andrew Bostom, scholar of Jihad, in a speech entitled “The Legacy of Jihad in Historical Palestine,‿ delivered at the Heritage Foundation’s Lehrman Auditorium.

Bostom’s seminal best seller, The Legacy of Jihad, “provides a comprehensive, meticulously documented compilation, which includes Muslim theological and juridical texts, eyewitness historical accounts by both Muslim and non-Muslim chroniclers, and essays by preeminent scholars analyzing jihad (‘holy war’) and the conditions imposed upon the non-Muslim peoples conquered by jihad campaigns.‿

“The Legacy of Jihad reveals how, for well over a millennium, across three continents – Asia, Africa, and Europe – non-Muslims who were vanquished by jihad wars, became forced tributaries (dhimmi in Arabic), in lieu of being slain. Under the dhimmi religious caste system, non-Muslims were subjected to legal and financial oppression as well as social isolation. Extensive primary and secondary source materials, many translated here for the first time into English, are presented, making clear that jihad conquests were brutal, imperialist advances, which spurred waves of Muslims to expropriate a vast expanse of lands and subdue millions of indigenous peoples. Also examined is how jihad war, as a permanent and uniquely Islamic institution, ultimately regulates the relations of Muslims with non-Muslims to this day.‿

Here is an excerpt from the speech, which is available in its entirety on Dr. Bostom’s website:

“The only Marxist philosopher I appreciate—Groucho—once said:

Beside a dog, a book is man’s best friend. Inside a dog, it’s too dark to read.

Groucho’s satirical wisdom explains the lack of general knowledge about the two uniquely Islamic institutions I will introduce today—jihad and dhimmitude. Both are copiously documented in chronicles and documents and books whose brilliant light remains concealed by the darkness of denial, obfuscation, and apathetic ignorance. Jihad and its corollary institution dhimmitude have shaped events in historical Palestine—modern Israel, Judea, Samaria, Gaza, and Jordan—from 634, through the present. This living legacy, including the initial jihad conquest and imposition of Muslim rule in historical Palestine, set in place archetypal patterns which are still quite evident.

There is just one historically relevant meaning of jihad despite contemporary apologetics. The noted 19th century Arabic lexicographer E.W. Lane, who studied the etymology of the term, observed, ‘Jihad came to be used by the Muslims to signify wag[ing] war against unbelievers.’ Jihad was pursued century after century because jihad embodied an ideology and a jurisdiction. Both were formally conceived by Muslim jurisconsults and theologians from the 8th to 9th centuries onward, based on their interpretation of Koranic verses and long chapters in the ‘hadith,’ or acts and sayings of the Muslim prophet Muhammad, especially those recorded by al-Bukhari [d. 869] and Muslim [d. 874].
Ibn Khaldun (d. 1406), jurist, renowned philosopher, historian, and sociologist, summarized these consensus opinions from five centuries of prior Muslim jurisprudence with regard to the uniquely Islamic institution of jihad:

‘In the Muslim community, the holy war is a religious duty, because of the universalism of the [Muslim] mission and [the obligation to] convert everybody to Islam either by persuasion or by force… The other religious groups did not have a universal mission, and the holy war was not a religious duty for them, save only for purposes of defense… Islam is under obligation to gain power over other nations.'”

Barely a Blog has also featured an exclusive–and related–essay by Dr. Bostom: “Death for Apostasy as Islamic as Apple Pie.‿ Read it here.

Exposing the Islamist Lobby

Islam

Courtesy of an administration that has anesthetized Americans to the essential Islam (and thus continued its predecessor’s multicultural mission), Muslims with ominous beliefs and agendas have managed to infiltrate every security agency, from the FBI to the Pentagon. Sperry warns that the FBI, freighted by anti-discrimination laws and pathological political correctness, now harbors Muslim translators with ties to “various foreign military and intelligence agencies in Syria, Egypt, Pakistan, and Turkey.” (Could this help explain why urgent intercepts are often left untranslated or are mistranslated? Easily the most scandalous anecdote in the book is that of FBI agent Sibel Edmonds walking into the Washington field office after 9/11, to find the Middle Eastern linguists making merry—passing around date-stuffed cookies to celebrate the occasion on which America got its just deserts. Were they fired? Stripped of their top-secret security clearances? Au contraire! More of their ilk were hired. Meanwhile, Arabic-speaking Sephardic Jews have been rejected for the job. There were “loyalty concerns,” or so the bureau said.

An excerpt from my review for The New Individualist of Infiltration: How Muslim Spies and Subversives Have Penetrated Washington by Paul Sperry. Read it in its entirety here. The review appeared in the issue that featured the Muhammad cartoon on the cover. The New Individualist was the only magazine in the country to have featured this most controversial drawing, smack-dab where it can’t be missed.

Mackinnon the Man-Eater

Feminism

I don’t expect men’s circumstances to move [feminist Catharine] Mackinnon. But is there no significance to the fact that women continue to live longer than men, that many more men commit suicide, that men are more likely to be unemployed and less likely to get another job, and that they are more likely to suffer lethal industrial accidents? Is it of no experiential importance that of the 2,350 soldiers who’ve died so far in Iraq and the 18,000 who’ve been wounded, most are men? Not in Mackinnon’s static and stony universe. Here she is up to her clavicles in self-contradiction, a condition the Greek philosophers deemed “less than human, less than coherent, less than sane.” But then, they were of the patriarchy.

The excerpt is from my latest column, “Mackinnon the Man-Eater,” now on WorldNetDaily.com. (A more extensive review of Catharine Mackinnon’s book, written for The American Conservative is here.)

Liberty Fund Conference

Argument, Britain, Classical Liberalism, Free Speech, Ilana Mercer, Liberty, Political Economy, Political Philosophy

I was fortunate to be asked to attend a Liberty Fund colloquium entitled “History, Citizenship and Patriotism in Liberal Democracy.” Liberty Fund, Inc. is a private, educational foundation established to encourage the study of the ideal of a society of free and responsible individuals. The Foundation develops, supervises, and finances its own educational activities to foster thought and encourage discourse on enduring issues pertaining to liberty.”

In the idyllic and breathtaking setting of the Ockenden Manor in Cuckfield, West Sussex, England, I got to exchange ideas with some of the finest scholars in Britain (and the U.S., considering the dynamic presence of Liberty Fund’s representative). Oxbridge at its best. The intimate format—only fifteen people partook—was not only conducive to the exploration of ideas, but to the formations of, I hope, enduring friendships. The lovely English countryside and Elizabethan Manor house (to say nothing of the gourmet food with which we were plied) provided the perfect backdrop to what was a most exhilarating event.