by Bruce Thornton<\/p>\n
FrontPage Magazine<\/em><\/p>\n The murder of four Americans in Benghazi on the anniversary of 9\/11, and the subsequent attempts by the Obama administration to blame the attacks on a YouTube video critical of Islam, exposed the delusional assumptions of Obama\u2019s foreign policy. This notion that Western bad behavior \u2014 whether colonialism, support for Israel, or insults to Islam and Muhammad \u2014 is responsible for jihadist violence, however, has vitiated our approach to Islamist terrorism for over a decade now. Our main mistake has been the belief that al Qaeda and other jihadist groups are outliers among Muslims, a tiny minority of fanatics who have \u201chijacked\u201d the faith that under both Republican and Democratic administrations has been called the \u201creligion of peace,\u201d and so we must reach out to that majority of moderate Muslims and convince them how much we admire and respect their religion. But this desperate search for these moderates has lead to dangerous policies, such as considering the Muslim Brotherhood \u201cmoderate Islamists,\u201d an oxymoron that blinds us to the Brotherhood\u2019s long-term goal to recover the global dominance that is Islam\u2019s divinely sanctioned birthright.<\/p>\n Andrew Bostom, a professor of medicine at Brown University, has for a decade relentlessly exposed the distortions of history and Islamic theology that have accompanied these policies. In\u00a0The Legacy of Islamic Jihad<\/em>, he exposed the lie that jihad is merely a spiritual struggle to be a good Muslim, amassing evidence from Islamic theology, scripture, and jurisprudence to show that jihad has in fact predominantly denoted the use of violence to subject unbelievers to Muslim hegemony. In\u00a0The Legacy of Islamic Anti-Semitism<\/em>, he swept away the rationalizations for widespread Jew-hatred among Muslims that blamed it on imported Western anti-Semitism, once more letting Islamic texts speak for themselves to show that since the 7th\u00a0century, Jews have been hated, despised, massacred, and subjugated in both Islamic theology and practice. Now Bostom, in the 43 essays collected in his new book,\u00a0Sharia Versus Freedom: The Legacy of Islamic Totalitarianism<\/em>,\u00a0has turned to the totalitarian foundations of Islam codified in Sharia law, the totalizing system that controls every dimension of human life \u2014 political, economic, civic, familial, and personal.<\/p>\n The great virtue of Dr. Bostom\u2019s work is the collection of primary documents and secondary commentary that taken together provide a more accurate picture of Islam than the fantasies concocted from ignorance or political expediency, or the postmodern propaganda manufactured by Edward Said and his followers. The notion of jihad, for example, has been distorted by apologists like Georgetown professor John Esposito, who wrote in the\u00a0Washington Post<\/em>\u00a0that in the Koran jihad \u201cmeans \u2018to strive or struggle\u2019 to realize God\u2019s will, to lead a virtuous life, to create a just society and to defend Islam and the Muslim community.\u201d Under the Bush administration, the National Counterterrorism Center similarly advised its employees never to use the term \u201cjihadist,\u201d since \u201cjihad means \u2018striving in the path of God\u2019 and is used in many contexts beyond warfare.\u201d But these assertions cannot stand next to the abundant evidence Bostom collects, such as Al-Tabari\u2019s 10th-century \u201cBook of Jihad,\u201d which shows that for 14 centuries jihad refers to war waged against the unbelievers, the \u201charbis<\/em>\u201d (denizens of Dar al Harb, the \u201cHouse of War\u201d) whom it is legal to kill, enslave, and plunder.<\/p>\n Even those, like the influential scholar Bernard Lewis, who accept the martial meaning of jihad sometimes assert that such wars are conducted under limitations similar to the Western laws of war, limitations so-called Islamist extremists ignore. Yet Islamic jurists such as the 8th\u00a0century founder of the Hanifi school of Islamic jurisprudence, Abu Hanifa, Bostom writes, affirm \u201cthe impunity with which non-combatant \u2018harbis<\/em>\u2019 \u2014 women, children, the elderly, the mentally and physically disabled \u2014 may be killed.\u201d According to Hanifa, there is nothing wrong with using catapults against \u201cthe polytheists\u2019 fortresses . . . even if there are among them a woman, child, elder, idiot\u201d or anyone suffering from a physical disability.<\/p>\n Illustrating the continuity of modern Islamist ideology with traditional Islamic theology and jurisprudence, Bostom quotes Yusuf Al-Qaradawi, the \u201cspiritual\u201d leader of the Muslim Brotherhood and Al-Jazeera television star whose program reaches 60 million people: \u201cIt has been determined by Islamic law that the blood and property of people of Dar Al-Harb . . . is not protected . . . in modern war, all of society, with all its classes and ethnic groups, is mobilized to participate in war.\u201d Hence even those not actually fighting are fair game, an argument similar to the one bin Laden made after 9\/11 when he justified attacking civilians. These traditions give the lie to the \u201creligion of peace\u201d claim made by apologists, and also explain why, as Bostom quotes Samuel Huntington, \u201cWherever one looks along the perimeter of Islam, Muslims have problems living peaceably with their neighbors.\u201d Moreover, jihadist raids and attacks across those borders were, Bostom writes, \u201cdesigned to sow terror\u201d in order to make future conquests easier by breaking the spirit of the enemy, as recorded by the 17th-century historian al-Maqqari when discussing such attacks: \u201cAllah thus instilled such fear among the infidels that they did not dare to go and fight the conquerors; they only approached them as suppliants, to beg for peace.\u201d Such passages suggest how the Islamists interpreted Obama\u2019s 2009 groveling Cairo speech: as the supplications of the infidel begging for peace.<\/p>\n Bostom provides a similar correction to the oft-repeated claims that anti-Semitism is not inherent in Islam. On the contrary, Bostom writes, \u201cThere is voluminous evidence from Islam\u2019s foundational texts of theological Jew hatred: virulently anti-Semitic Koranic verses whose virulence is only amplified by the greatest classical and Muslim Koranic commentaries . . . the six canonical hadiths collections, and the most respected\u00a0sira<\/em>,\u201d biographies of Muhammad. In this tradition Jews are minions of Satan, cursed because they resisted Islam, killed prophets, and transgressed the will of Allah. They are destined to be transformed into apes and swine, and to be humiliated, abased, and eternally damned for their deceit and treachery.<\/p>\n Again demonstrating the continuity of this 14-century-long tradition with the anti-Semitic calumny of modern Islamists, Bostom quotes from a sermon given by an Egyptian-government appointed cleric delivered at a mosque at Al Azhar, the most prestigious and venerable institution of Sunni learning: \u201cMuslim brothers, God has inflicted the Muslim nation with a people whom God has become angry at [Koran 1:7] and whom he cursed [Koran 5:78] so he made monkeys and pigs [Koran 5:60] out of them. They killed prophets and messengers [Koran 2:61\/3:112] and sowed corruption on Earth [Koran 5:33\/5:64]. They are the most evil on Earth [5:62\/63].\u201d And Bostom reminds us that Muhammad\u2019s jihadist career began with the conquest and massacres inflicted on the Banu Qurayza, Banu Khaybar, and Banu Nadir Jews. As Bostom summarizes, \u201cMuhammad\u2019s brutal conquest and subjugation of the Medinan and Khaybar Jews and their subsequent expulsion\u201d by the \u201cRightly Guided\u201d Caliph Umar \u201cepitomize permanent, archetypal behavior patterns Islamic Law deemed appropriate to Muslim interactions with Jews.\u201d<\/p>\n Given this theological sanction, we should not be surprised to find the grimly consistent record of Muslim pogroms and massacres of Jews that Bostom documents from the Middle Ages to the 20th\u00a0century. Nor should we be surprised that Jew-hatred continues to dominate the modern Middle East, and is foundational to the Arab hatred of Israel. Hence the quotation of the apes and swine Koranic verse in the charter of the terrorist Hamas organization, or the quotation of Koran 5:64, which calls Jews the sowers of corruption, by \u201cmoderate\u201d Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in 2007 during a speech urging Muslims to \u201caim their rifles at Israel.\u201d<\/p>\n The exposure of these \u201cIslamophilic\u201d distortions of Islam provides the necessary backdrop for the discussions of Islamic Sharia law that follows. Our misunderstanding and downplaying of the threat to liberal democracy represented by a legal code that subjects every facet of human life to its strictures have been facilitated by the same political and ideological prejudices. Meanwhile, the imposition of Sharia is the highest goal of the various Islamist organizations, whether actively violent or not, roiling the Middle East and North Africa today. Bostom\u2019s essays remind us what history also teaches: that totalitarian threats to our freedom and way of life will not be neutralized by the refusal to see clearly the illiberal ideology driving the Islamist agenda.<\/p>\n \u00a92012 Bruce S. Thornton<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Bruce Thornton FrontPage Magazine The murder of four Americans in Benghazi on the anniversary of 9\/11, and the subsequent attempts by the Obama administration to blame the attacks on a YouTube video critical of Islam, exposed the delusional assumptions of Obama\u2019s foreign policy. This notion that Western bad behavior \u2014 whether colonialism, support for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[29,22,150],"tags":[1051,12,1045,1017,1043,30,1022,162],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-5w","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":5939,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/terrorism-as-therapy\/","url_meta":{"origin":342,"position":0},"title":"Terrorism as Therapy","author":"victorhanson","date":"May 13, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"The Obama administration is intent on downplaying the Islamic roots of contemporary terrorism. by Victor Davis Hanson National Review Online One common theme emerges from the hearings over the Benghazi disaster: The Obama administration is intent on downplaying the Islamic roots of terrorists who harbor an existential hatred of the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Terrorism"","block_context":{"text":"Terrorism","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/war-on-terror\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3428,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/grievance-politics-barks-kings-hearing-move-on\/","url_meta":{"origin":342,"position":1},"title":"Grievance Politics Barks, Kings Hearing Move On","author":"victorhanson","date":"March 17, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bruce S. Thornton Advancing a Free Society The hearings convened by Representative Pete King, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, to examine the recruitment of American Muslims as jihadist terrorists revealed all the pathologies of multicultural grievance politics that for decades now has compromised our response to Islamic\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Bruce S. Thornton"","block_context":{"text":"Bruce S. Thornton","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/our-contributors\/bruce-s-thornton\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8401,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-failed-tactic-of-flattering-islam-wont-go-away\/","url_meta":{"origin":342,"position":2},"title":"The Failed Tactic of Flattering Islam Won\u2019t Go Away","author":"victorhanson","date":"May 11, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Why admiring the Muslim world won\u2019t stop the bloodshed. by Bruce S. Thornton \/\/ FrontPage Magazine The recent attack in Texas against a \u201cdraw Mohammed\u201d event ended up with two dead jihadis and widespread criticism of event organizer Pamela Geller for \u201cinciting\u201d or \u201cprovoking\u201d the assault on our First Amendment\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "The Middle East"","block_context":{"text":"The Middle East","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-world\/the-middle-east\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Photo via FrontPage Magazine","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/Palestinian_militant_with_rifle-450x338.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":390,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-stakes-in-tonights-foreign-policy-debate\/","url_meta":{"origin":342,"position":3},"title":"The Stakes in Tonight’s Foreign Policy Debate","author":"victorhanson","date":"October 22, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bruce Thornton FrontPage Magazine Foreign policy, the topic of tonight\u2019s debate, was suddenly thrust into the voters\u2019 consciousness by the murder of 4 Americans, including our ambassador, in Benghazi on the anniversary of 9\/11. Intensifying the fallout of this event has been the Obama administration\u2019s incoherent, clumsy, duplicitous, and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Libya"","block_context":{"text":"Libya","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-world\/the-middle-east\/libya\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2015,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ten-years-of-lessons-unlearned\/","url_meta":{"origin":342,"position":4},"title":"Ten Years of Lessons Unlearned","author":"victorhanson","date":"September 25, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bruce S. Thornton FrontPage Magazine Ten years after 9\/11 many politicians and pundits continue to misinterpret Islamic jihadism. Typical is the following comment from Senator Joseph Lieberman\u2019s\u00a0essay\u00a0in\u00a0Foreign Affairs, in which he speaks of \u201can ideological struggle within Islam, waged between an extremist minority that seeks to enslave the world\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Bruce S. Thornton"","block_context":{"text":"Bruce S. Thornton","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/our-contributors\/bruce-s-thornton\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8775,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/waging-the-war-on-terror-vichy-style\/","url_meta":{"origin":342,"position":5},"title":"Waging The War on \u2018Terror,\u2019 Vichy-style","author":"victorhanson","date":"November 15, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ National Review Online A few hours before the catastrophic attack in Paris, President Obama had announced that ISIS was now \u201ccontained,\u201d a recalibration of his earlier assessments of \u201con the run\u201d and \u201cJayvees\u201d from a few years back. In the hours following the attack of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Europe"","block_context":{"text":"Europe","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-world\/europe\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/LeParisienPostAttack111515-final.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=342"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":343,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342\/revisions\/343"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=342"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=342"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=342"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}