Of course she knows what every school of Sunni jurisprudence says about jihad. My latest in
The hijabbed feminist heroine Linda Sarsour is in the
center of another controversy, and the Leftist establishment media is
again rushing to defend her. This time, she called for “jihad” against
President Trump.
The whole controversy, says
Sarsour and her defenders, is just another indication of conservatives’
ignorance and “Islamophobia.”
But it isn’t: she really did incite violence.
Sarsour’s call for jihad came
in the midst of her denunciation of the Trump administration at the
annual convention of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) over
the July 4 weekend.
Sarsour said:
Why, sisters and brothers, why are we so unprepared? Why
are we so afraid of this administration and the potential chaos that
they will ensue on our community?
Invoking Muhammad, she said:
A word of truth in front of a tyrant ruler or leader, that is the best form of jihad.
She added:
I hope that when we stand up to those who oppress our
communities, that Allah accepts from us that as a form of jihad, that we
are struggling against tyrants and rulers not only abroad in the Middle
East or the other side of the world, but here in these United States of
America, where you have fascists and white supremacists and
Islamophobes reigning in the White House.
She not only denounced Trump, but the idea that Muslims in America should assimilate:
Our number one and top priority is to protect and defend
our communities. It is not to assimilate and to please any other people
in authority … Our top priority, even higher than all those priorities,
is to please Allah, and only Allah.
The establishment media rushed to defend her.
Time
explained: “Women’s March Organizer Linda Sarsour Spoke of ‘Jihad.’ But
She Wasn’t Talking About Violence.” The Wrap published a piece titled:
“3 Things Conservatives Got Very Wrong About Linda Sarsour’s Speech.”
The Huffington Post gloated: “Linda Sarsour Said ‘Jihad’ In A Speech And Conservatives Freaked Out.”
ThinkProgress
mocked those ignorant, racist conservatives: “A Muslim activist
referenced jihad and the right freaked out because they don’t know what
it means.” CNN commentator Marc Lamont Hill
tweeted: “The people disagreeing with @lsarsour clearly don’t understand what Jihad means.”
Sarsour herself
took to the Washington Post to explain:
[I] sent not a call to violence, but a call to speak
truth to power and to commit to the struggle for racial and economic
justice.
…
I was speaking to an all-Muslim
audience; as an American, I should be free to share and discuss
scripture and teachings of my beloved Prophet.
Worst of all to her was the sullying of the reputation of “jihad”:
Most disturbing about this recent defamation campaign is
how it is focused on demonizing the legitimate yet widely misunderstood
Islamic term I used, “jihad,” which to majority of Muslims and according
to religious scholars means “struggle” or “to strive for.” This term
has been hijacked by Muslim extremists and right-wing extremists alike,
leaving ordinary Muslims to defend our faith and in some cases silenced.
Linda Sarsour is not stupid,
and likely knows what Islamic tradition actually has her “beloved
Prophet” saying: “I have been made victorious through terror” (Bukhari
4:52.220). Muhammad told his followers to offer non-Muslims three
choices: conversion to Islam; subjugation to Islamic hegemony, as
signified by the payment of a poll tax (jizya); or death:
Fight against those who disbelieve in Allah. Make a holy
war … When you meet your enemies who are polytheists, invite them to
three courses of action. If they respond to any one of these you also
accept it and withhold yourself from doing them any harm. Invite them to
(accept) Islam; if they respond to you, accept it from them and desist
from fighting against them. … If they refuse to accept Islam, demand
from them the Jizya. If they agree to pay, accept it from them and hold
off your hands. If they refuse to pay the tax, seek Allah’s help and
fight them. (Muslim 4294)
Islamic tradition also depicts Muhammad saying:
I have been commanded to fight against people so long as
they do not declare that there is no god but Allah, and he who professed
it was guaranteed the protection of his property and life on my behalf
except for the right affairs rest with Allah. (Muslim 30)
If one does not profess belief in Allah, his property and life are not protected.
Sarsour also must know that
there is an entire chapter of the Qur’an entitled “Booty,” or “The
Spoils of War” (al-Anfal). What spoils ensue from “a word of truth
spoken in front of a tyrant ruler or leader”? If jihad is simply a word
of truth spoken in front of a tyrant, how is a Muslim supposed to make
Jews and Christians “pay the jizya with willing submission and feel
themselves subdued” (Qur’an 9:29)? If jihad means only to “struggle” or
“strive,” why have millions of Muslims worldwide joined violent jihad
groups?
Why are there any violent jihad groups at all? Why is this misunderstanding of jihad so widespread?
A professedly devout and
knowledgeable Muslim, Linda Sarsour must know about all the many
exhortations to violent in the Qur’an and Sunnah, and the doctrines of
jihad warfare taught by all the schools of Sunni
jurisprudence. When Sarsour says that “this term has been hijacked by
Muslim extremists and right-wing extremists alike,” she is attempting
not just to intimidate people into dismissing the idea that jihad
involves violence for fear of allying with hated “right-wing
extremists,” but also to liken foes of jihad terror to its proponents,
thereby stigmatizing resistance to jihad terror as “far-right
extremism.”
Of course, the centrality in
Islamic law of jihad as warfare against unbelievers does not in itself
mean that Sarsour was inciting violence against Trump. But Sarsour
certainly knows what Muslims are doing in the name of jihad around the
world today. When she says, “I hope that when we stand up to those who
oppress our communities, that Allah accepts from us that as a form of
jihad,” she may mean a non-violent standing up, but she has to know that when other Muslims who know the real meaning of jihad in Islam hear that, they will hear it as a call to violence….
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