Islam and the "Killing of Innocents"

by Denis MacEoin • September 17, 2014 at 5:00 am

"No religion condones the killing of innocents." — U.S. President Barack Obama, September 10, 2014.

"Islam is a religion of peace." — U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron, September 13, 2014.

"There is a place for violence in Islam. There is a place for jihad in Islam." — U.K. Imam Anjem Choudary, CBN News, April 5, 2010.

Regrettably it is impossible to re-interpret the Qur'an in a "moderate" manner. The most famous modern interpretation by Sayyid Qutb (d. 1966), the Muslim Brotherhood ideologue, leads the reader again and again into political territory, where jihad is at the root of action.

If they deviated from the true faith -- as we are seeing in the Islamic State today -- "backsliders," like pagans, were to be fought until they either accepted Islam or were killed.

In India alone, between 60 and 80 million Hindus may have been put to death by Muslim armies between the years 1000-1525.

In the Battle of Karbala, depicted in Abbas Al-Musavi's painting, Husayn, the son of 'Ali and grandson of Muhammad, was killed along with his family and all his followers by the armies of the Umayyad Caliphate. It was the most crucial moment in the split between Shi'a and Sunni Islam. (Image source: Brooklyn Museum)

Last week, before the Islamic State beheaded its third Westerner, U.S. President Barack Obama announced that, "ISIL is not Islamic. No religion condones the killing of innocents."

Well, not exactly.

How often -- despite the current spectacle of the Islamic State [IS, ISIL or ISIS] in Syria and Iraq -- do we hear politicians and church leaders say that Islam is a religion of peace; that Islamic extremism is a modern innovation, a profound deviation from some imagined "true" Islam, and even that its very name, the word "Islam," means peace?

It is not just Muslims who say that Islam is a religion of peace: some Western politicians and churchmen repeat it too.

Britain's Prime Minister, David Cameron, emphasized it last week on BBC on Sept 13, in response to the beheading by ISIS of the British aid worker, David Haines.

Former U.S. President George W. Bush said so more than once, including in a speech he delivered on September 17, 2001.

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What Does Hamas Really Want?

by Yaakov Lappin • September 17, 2014 at 4:00 am

Hamas's long-term ambitions are indistinguishable from those of Islamic State and al-Qaeda.

Hamas will now focus on its next goal -- trying to strengthen its presence in the West Bank and eventually toppling the Palestinian Authority from power there, just as it did in Gaza. If Israel were to withdraw from the West Bank, Hamas would certainly find such a goal easier to accomplish.

Nothing keeps the flames of jihad alight, and Hamas's popularity secure, like frequent wars.

Masked Hamas members (dressed in black) prepare to execute local Palestinians who they claim spied for Israel, Aug. 22, 2014, in Gaza. Sources in the Gaza Strip revealed that some of the executed men belonged to PA President Mahmoud Abbas's rival Fatah faction and had no connection with Israel. (Image source: Reuters video screenshot)

As the dust settles in Gaza and Israel after a relatively long war, the current truce forms a good opportunity to examine the reason Hamas began their conflict this summer in the first place.

Many observers have cited Hamas's goal of lifting the Israeli security blockade around Gaza as the aim of its war. The blockade was put in place to prevent weapons from being smuggled to Hamas inside the Strip, which is already saturated with rockets and arms.

Israel's blockade only exists because Hamas has turned Gaza into a heavily harmed hornet's nest of terrorism. Hence, the idea that Hamas believed that firing thousands of rockets and attempting to send death squads into Israel through underground tunnels would somehow force Israel into easing the blockade to make attacking Israel easier seems unconvincing.

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