The
Agenda of Islam – A War Between Civilizations
By
Professor Moshe Sharon
(TI) The war
has started a long time ago between two civilizations – between
the
civilization based on the Bible and between the civilization based
on the Koran. And this must be clear.
There
is no Fundamental Islam
Fundamentalism
is a word that came from the heart of the Christian religion. It
means faith that goes by the word of the Bible. Fundamental Christianity,
or going with the Bible, does not mean going around and killing
people. There is no fundamental Islam. There is only Islam full
stop. The question is how the Koran is interpreted.
All of a sudden
we see that the greatest interpreters of Islam are politicians
in
the western world. They know better than all the speakers in
the mosques, all those who deliver terrible sermons against anything
that is either Christian or Jewish. These western politicians
know
that there is good Islam and bad Islam. They know even how to
differentiate between the two, except that none of them know
how to read a word
of Arabic.
The Language of Islam
You see, so
much is covered by politically correct language that, in fact, the
truth has been lost. For example, when we speak about Islam in the
west, we try to use our own language and terminology. We speak about
Islam in terms of democracy and fundamentalism, in terms of parliamentarism
and all kinds of terms, which we take from our own dictionary. One
of my professors and one of the greatest orientalists in the world
says that doing this is like a cricket reporter describing a cricket
game in baseball terms. We cannot use for one culture or civilization
the language of another. For Islam, you’ve got to use the language
of Islam.
Driving
Principles of Islam
Let me explain
the principles that are driving the religion of Islam. Of course,
every Moslem has to acknowledge the fact that there is only one
God.
But it’s not
enough to say that there is only one God. A Moslem has to acknowledge
the fact that there is one God and Mohammed is his prophet. These
are the fundamentals of the religion that without them, one cannot
be a Moslem.
But
beyond that, Islam is a civilization. It is a religion that
gave first and foremost
a wide and unique legal system that engulfs the individual, society
and nations with rules of behaviour. If you are Moslem, you
have
to behave according to the rules of Islam which are set down in
the Koran and which are very different than the teachings of
the
Bible.
The
Bible
Let me explain
the difference.
The Bible is
the creation of the spirit of a nation over a very, very long period,
if we talk from the point of view of the scholar, and let me remain
scholarly. But there is one thing that is important in the Bible.
It leads to salvation. It leads to salvation in two ways.
In Judaism,
it leads to national salvation – not just a nation that wants to
have a state, but a nation that wants to serve God. That’s the idea
behind the Hebrew text of the Bible.
The New Testament
that took the Hebrew Bible moves us toward personal salvation. So
we have got these two kinds of salvation, which, from time to time,
meet each other.
But the key
word is salvation. Personal salvation means that each individual
is looked after by God, Himself, who leads a person through His
word to salvation. This is the idea in the Bible, whether we are
talking about the Old or the New Testament. All of the laws in the
Bible, even to the minutest ones, are, in fact directed toward this
fact of salvation.
Secondly, there
is another point in the Bible, which is highly important. This is
the idea that man was created in the image of God. Therefore, you
don’t just walk around and obliterate the image of God. Many people,
of course, used Biblical rules and turned them upside down. History
has seen a lot of massacres in the name of God and in the name of
Jesus. But as religions, both Judaism and Christianity in their
fundamentals speak about honouring the image of God and the hope
of salvation. These are the two basic fundamentals.
The Essence
of Islam
Now let’s move
to the essence of Islam. Islam was born with the idea that it should
rule the world.
Let’s
look, then, at the difference between these three religions.
Judaism
speaks
about national salvation – namely that at the end of the story,
when the world becomes a better place, Israel will be in its
own
land, ruled by its own king and serving God. Christianity speaks
about the idea that every single person in the world can be saved
from his sins, while Islam speaks about ruling the world. I can
quote here in Arabic, but there is no point in quoting Arabic,
so
let me quote a verse in English. “Allah sent Mohammed with the
true religion so that it should rule over all the religions.”
The idea, then,
is not that the whole world would become a Moslem world at this
time, but that the whole world would be subdued under the rule of
Islam.
When
the Islamic empire was established in 634 AD, within seven years
– 640 – the
core of the empire was created. The rules that were taken from
the Koran and from the tradition that was ascribed to the prophet
Mohammed,
were translated into a real legal system. Jews and Christians could
live under Islam provided they paid poll tax and accepted Islamic
superiority. Of course, they had to be humiliated. And Jews and
Christians living under Islam are humiliated to this very day.
Mohammed
Held That All the Biblical Prophets Were Moslems
Mohammed did
accept the existence of all the Biblical prophets before him. However
he also said that all these prophets were Moslems. Abraham was a
Moslem. In fact, Adam himself was the first Moslem. Isaac and Jacob
and David and Solomon and Moses and Jesus were all Moslems, and
all of them had writings similar to the Koran. Therefore, world
history is Islamic history because all the heroes of history were
Moslems.
Furthermore,
Moslems accept the fact that each of these prophets brought
with
him some kind of a revelation. Moses, brought the Taurat, which
is the Torah, and Jesus brought the Ingeel, which is the Evangelion
or Gospel – namely the New Testament.
The Bible
versus the Koran
Why then is
the Bible not similar to the Koran?
Mohammed explains
that the Jews and Christians forged their books. Had they not been
changed and forged, they would have been identical to the Koran.
But because Christians and Jews do have some truth, Islam concedes
that they cannot be completely destroyed by war [for now].
Nevertheless,
the laws are very clear – Jews and Christians have no rights
whatsoever
to independent existence. They can live under Islamic rule provided
they keep to the rules that Islam promulgates for them.
Islamic
Rule and Jihad
What happens
if Jews and Christians don’t want to live under the rules of Islam?
Then Islam has to fight them and this fighting is called Jihad.
Jihad means war against those people who don’t want to accept the
Islamic superior rule. That’s jihad. They may be Jews; they may
be Christians; they may be Polytheists. But since we don’t have
too many Polytheists left, at least not in the Middle East – their
war is against the Jews and Christians.
A
few days ago, I received a pamphlet that was distributed in
the world by bin Laden.
He calls for jihad against America as the leader of the Christian
world, not because America is the supporter of Israel, but because
Americans are desecrating Arabia with their filthy feet. There
are Americans in Arabia where no Christians should be. In this
pamphlet
there is not a single word about Israel. Only that Americans are
desecrating the home of the prophet.
Two Houses
The
Koran sees the world as divided into two – one part which has
come under
Islamic
rule and one part which is supposed to come under Islamic rule
in the future. There is a division of the world which is very
clear.
Every single person who starts studying Islam knows it. The world
is described as Dar al-Islam (the house of Islam) – that’s the
place
where Islam rules – and the other part which is called Dar al-Harb
– the house of war. Not the “house of non-Muslims,” but the “house
of war.” It is this house of war which as to be, at the end of
time, conquered. The world will continue to be in the house of
war until
it comes under Islamic rule. This is the norm. Why? Because Allah
says it’s so in the Koran. God has sent Mohammed with the true
religion
in order that the truth will overcome all other religions.
Islamic
Law
Within the Islamic
vision of this world, there are rules that govern the lives of the
Moslems themselves, and these rules are very strict. In fundamentals,
there are no differences between schools of law.
However, there
are four streams of factions within Islam with differences between
them concerning the minutiae of the laws. All over the Islamic world,
countries have favored one or another of these schools of laws.
The strictest school of law is called Hanbali, mainly coming out
of Saudi Arabia. There are no games there, no playing around with
the meanings of words. If the Koran speaks about war, then it’s
war.
There are various
perspectives in Islam with different interpretations over the centuries.
There were good people that were very enlightened in Islam that
tried to understand things differently. They even brought traditions
from the mouth of the prophet that women and children should not
be killed in war.
These more liberal
streams do exist, but there is one thing that is very important
for us to remember. The Hanbali school of law is extremely strict,
and today this is the school that is behind most of the terrorist
powers. Even if we talk about the existence of other schools of
Islamic law, when we’re talking about fighting against the Jews,
or fighting against the Christian world led by America, it is the
Hanbali school of law that is being followed.
Islam and
Territory
This civilization
created one very important, fundamental rule about territory. Any
territory that comes under Islamic rule cannot be de-Islamized.
Even if at one time or another, the [non-Moslem] enemy takes over
the territory that was under Islamic rule, it is considered to be
perpetually Islamic.
This is why
whenever you hear about the Arab/Israeli conflict, you hear – territory,
territory, territory. There are other aspects to the conflict, but
territory is highly important.
The Christian
civilization has not only been seen as a religious opponent, but
as a dam stopping Islam from achieving its final goal for which
it was created.
Islam
was created to be the army of God, the army of Allah. Every
single Moslem is
a soldier in this army. Every single Moslem that dies in fighting
for the spread of Islam is a shaheed (martyr) no matter how
he dies,
because – and this is very important – this is an eternal word
between the two civilizations. It’s not a war that stops. This
war is there
because it was created by Allah. Islam must be the ruler. This
is a war that will not end.
Islam
and Peace
Peace in Islam
can exist only within the Islamic world; peace can only be between
Moslem and Moslem.
With the non-Moslem
world or non-Moslem opponents, there can be only one solution –
a cease fire until Moslems can gain more power. It is an eternal
war until the end of days. Peace can only come if the Islamic side
wins. The two civilizations can only have periods of cease-fires.
And this idea of cease-fire is based on a very important historical
precedent, which, incidentally, Yasser Arafat referred to when he
spoke in Johannesburg after he signed the Oslo agreement with Israel.
Let me remind
you that the document speaks of peace – you wouldn’t believe that
you are reading! You would think that you were reading some science
fiction piece. I mean when you read it, you can’t believe that this
was signed by Israelis who are actually acquainted with Islamic
policies and civilization.
A
few weeks after the Oslo agreement was signed, Arafat went to
Johannesburg,
and in a mosque there he made a speech in which he apologized,
saying, “Do you think I signed something with the Jews which is contrary
to the rules of Islam?” (I have obtained a copy of Arafat’s recorded
speech so I heard it from his own mouth.) Arafat continued, “That’s
not so. I’m doing exactly what the prophet Mohammed did.”
Whatever
the prophet is supposed to have done becomes a precedent. What
Arafat was
saying was, “Remember the story of Hodaybiya.” The prophet had
made an agreement there with the tribe of Kuraish for 10 years.
But then
he trained 10,000 soldiers and within two years marched on their
city of Mecca. He, of course, found some kind of pretext.
Thus,
in Islamic jurisdiction, it became a legal precedent which states
that you
are only allowed to make peace for a maximum of 10 years. Secondly,
at the first instance that you are able, you must renew the jihad
[thus breaking the “peace” agreement].
In Israel, it
has taken over 50 years in this country for our people to understand
that they cannot speak about [permanent] peace with Moslems. It
will take another 50 years for the western world to understand that
they have got a state of war with the Islamic civilization that
is virile and strong. This should be understood: When we talk about
war and peace, we are not talking in Belgium, French, English, or
German terms. We are talking about war and peace in Islamic terms.
Cease-fire
as a Tactical Choice
What makes Islam
accept cease-fire? Only one thing – when the enemy is too strong.
It is a tactical choice.
Sometimes,
he may have to agree to a cease-fire in the most humiliating
conditions.
It’s allowed because Mohammed accepted a cease-fire under humiliating
conditions. That’s what Arafat said to them in Johannesburg.
When
western policy makers hear these things, they answer, “What are
you talking about? You are in the Middle Ages. You don’t understand
the mechanisms of politics.”
Which mechanisms
of politics? There are no mechanisms of politics where power is.
And I want to tell you one thing – we haven’t seen the end of it,
because the minute a radical Moslem power has atomic, chemical or
biological weapons, they will use it. I have no doubt about that.
Now,
since we face war and we know that we cannot get more than an
impermanent
cease-fire, one has to ask himself what is the major component
of an Israeli/Arab cease-fire. It is that the Islamic side is
weak
and your side is strong. The relations between Israel and the Arab
world in the last 50 years since the establishment of our State
has been based only on this idea, the deterrent power.
Wherever
You Have Islam, You Will Have War
The reason that
we have what we have in Yugoslavia and other places is because Islam
succeeded into entering these countries. Wherever you have Islam,
you will have war. It grows out of the attitude of Islamic civilization.
What
are the poor people in the Philippines being killed for? What’s
happening
between Pakistan and India?
Islamic
Infiltration
Furthermore,
there is another fact that must be remembered. The Islamic world
has not only the attitude of open war, but there’s also war by infiltration.
One of the things
which the western world is not paying enough attention to is the
tremendous growth of Islamic power in the western world. What happened
in America and the Twin Towers is not something that came from the
outside. And if America doesn’t wake up, one day the Americans will
find themselves in a chemical war and most likely in an atomic war
– inside the U.S.
End of
Days
It is highly
important to understand how a civilization sees the end of days.
In Christianity and in Judaism, we know exactly what is the vision
of the end of days.
In Judaism,
it is going to be as in Isaiah – peace between nations, not just
one nation, but between all nations. People will not have any more
need for weapons and nature will be changed – a beautiful end of
days and the kingdom of God on earth.
Christianity
goes as far as Revelation to see a day that Satan himself is obliterated.
There are no more powers of evil. That’s the vision.
I’m speaking
now as a historian. I try to understand how Islam sees the end of
days. In the end of days, Islam sees a world that is totally Moslem,
completely Moslem under the rule of Islam. Complete and final victory.
Christians will
not exist, because according to many Islamic traditions, the Moslems
who are in hell will have to be replaced by somebody and they’ll
be replaced by the Christians.
The
Jews will no longer exist, because before the coming of the end
of days,
there
is going to be a war against the Jews where all Jews should be
killed. I’m quoting now from the heart of Islamic tradition,
from the books
that are read by every child in school. The Jews will all be killed.
They’ll be running away and they’ll be hiding behind trees and
rocks,
and on that day Allah will give mouths to the rocks and trees and
they will say, “Oh Moslem come here, there is a Jew behind me,
kill him.” Without this, the end of days cannot come. This is
a fundamental of Islam.
Is There
a Possibility to End This Dance of War?
The question
which we in Israel are asking ourselves is what will
happen to our
country? Is there a possibility to end this dance of war?
The answer
is, “No. Not in the foreseeable future.” What we can do is reach
a situation where for a few years we may have relative quiet.
But for Islam,
the establishment of the state of Israel was a reverse of Islamic
history. First, Islamic territory was taken away from Islam by Jews.
You know by now that this can never be accepted, not even one meter.
So everyone who thinks Tel Aviv is safe is making a grave mistake.
Territory, which at one time was dominated by Islamic rule, now
has become non-Moslem. Non-Moslems are independent of Islamic rule;
Jews have created their own independent state. It is anathema.
And (this is
the worse) Israel, a non-Moslem state, is ruling over Moslems. It
is unthinkable that non-Moslems should rule over Moslems.
I believe
that Western civilization should hold together and support each
other. Whether this will happen or not, I don’t know. Israel finds
itself on the front lines of this war. It needs the help of its
sister civilization. It needs the help of America and Europe. It
needs the help of the Christian world. One thing I am sure about,
this help can be given by individual Christians who see this as
the road to salvation.
APPENDIX:
Ezra HaLevi, “Islamic History Expert: Moslem Peace
with Israel? Never!” Arutz-Sheva September 15, 2006, http://www.israelnn.com/news.php3?id=1120660
Islam
History Professor Moshe Sharon of Hebrew University
told a counter-terrorism
conference, “There is no possibility of peace between
Israel and the Palestinians whatsoever – ever.”
Sharon,
speaking at the annual conference of Herzliya’s Counter Terrorism
Institute, said that Iran is dead serious about obtaining and
using nuclear weapons in order to bring about its vision of
an Islamic End of Days.
The veteran
expert on Islam says that Western officials fail to
grasp that
the Arab and Islamic world truly see Israel’s establishment
as a “reversal of history” and are therefore unable to ever
accept peaceful relations with it. From Moslems’ perspective,
“Islamic territory was taken away from Islam by Jews. You know
by now that this can never be accepted, not even one
meter. So everyone who thinks Tel Aviv is safe is making a grave
mistake.
Territory which at one time was dominated by Islamic
rule, now
has become non-Moslem. Non-Moslems are independent of
Islamic rule and Jews have created their own independent state.
It
is
anathema. Worse, Israel, a non-Moslem state, is ruling
over Moslems. It is unthinkable that non-Moslems should rule over
Moslems.”
Sharon
dismissed various peace treaties signed by Moslem and
Arab officials over
the years as “pieces of paper, parts of tactics and strategies…
with no meaning.”
Sharon’s
assessment focused on the danger posed by Iran. From
studying Iranian culture, literature, newspapers, broadcasts
and interviews
with major players in the Islamic regime, Sharon concludes
that
a deep belief in a Shiite messiah is at the root of Iran’s
nuclear project. “They truly believe that the Shiite
messiah, the 12th Imam (also known as the Mahdi), is
here, and that
he will reveal
himself. What moves the Iranian government and leadership
today is first and foremost the wish to bring about
the 12th Imam.”
Addressing
the theological doctrine of how exactly the this Messiah
will
be revealed, Sharon explained: “How will they bring him?
Through an apocalypse. He (the Mahdi) needs a war. He
cannot come into
this world without an Armageddon. He wants an Armageddon.
The earlier we understand this the better. Ahmadinejad
wants nuclear
weapons for this!”
Sharon
has in the past insisted that the Western world was
engaging in
great folly by differentiating between radical and peaceful
Islam. “All of a sudden we see that the greatest interpreters
of Islam are politicians in the Western world,” he wrote sarcastically.
“They know better than all the speakers in the mosques, all
those who deliver terrible sermons against anything that
is either Christian or Jewish. These Western politicians know
that
there is good Islam and bad Islam. They know even how
to differentiate between the two – except that none of them know
how to read
a word of Arabic.”
“The difference
between Judaism, Christianity and Islam is as follows:
Judaism speaks about national salvation – namely, that at the
end
of
the story, when the world becomes a better place, Israel
will be in its own land, ruled by its own king and serving
G-d.
Christianity
speaks about the idea that every single person in the
world can be saved from his sins, while Islam speaks about
ruling
the world. I can quote here in Arabic, but there is
no point in quoting Arabic, so let me quote a verse in English:
‘Allah
sent Mohammed with the true religion so that it should
rule over all the religions.’
“The idea,
then, is not that the whole world would necessarily
become Moslem
at this time, but that the whole world would be subdued
under the rule of Islam.”
That, Sharon
insists, is the plan, in black-and-white, of the Iranian regime.
“This is
why [Iranian President Mahmoud] Ahmadinejad seeks nuclear weapons,”
he emphasized. “The faster we realize this, the better.”
*** *** *** ***
***
(Genesis
1-2:3)
"In
the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. Now the earth
was unformed and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep;
and the spirit of God hovered over the face of the waters. And
God said: ‘Let there be light.’ And there was light. And God saw
the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the
darkness. And God called the light Day, and the darkness He called
Night. And there was evening and there was morning, one day.
And
God said: ‘Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters,
and let it divide the waters from the waters.’ And God made the
firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament
from the waters which were above the firmament; and it was so.
And
God called the firmament Heaven. And there was evening and there
was morning, a second day.
And
God said: ‘Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together
unto one place, and let the dry land appear.’ And it was so. And
God called the dry land Earth, and the gathering together of the
waters called He Seas; and God saw that it was good. And God said:
‘Let the earth put forth grass, herb yielding seed, and fruit-tree
bearing fruit after its kind, wherein is the seed thereof, upon
the earth.’ And it was so. And the earth brought forth grass,
herb yielding seed after its kind, and tree bearing fruit, wherein
is the seed thereof, after its kind; and God saw that it was good.
And
there was evening and there was morning, a third day.
And
God said: ‘Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven
to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and
for seasons, and for days and years; and let them be for lights
in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth.’
And it was so. And God made the two great lights: the greater
light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night;
and the stars. And God set them in the firmament of the heaven
to give light upon the earth, and to rule over the day and over
the night, and to divide the light from the darkness; and God
saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning,
a fourth day.
And
God said: ‘Let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures,
and let fowl fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.’
And God created the great sea-monsters, and every living creature
that creepeth, wherewith the waters swarmed, after its kind, and
every winged fowl after its kind; and God saw that it was good.
And God blessed them, saying: ‘Be fruitful, and multiply, and
fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth.’
And there was evening and there was morning, a fifth day.
And
God said: ‘Let the earth bring forth the living creature after
its kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after
its kind.’ And it was so. And God made the beast of the earth
after its kind, and the cattle after their kind, and every thing
that creepeth upon the ground after its kind; and God saw that
it was good.
And
God said: ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and
let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the
fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth,
and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.’ And
God created man in His own image, in the image of God created
He him; male and female created He them. And
God blessed them; and God said unto them: ‘Be fruitful, and multiply,
and replenish the earth, and subdue it; and have dominion over
the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every
living thing that creepeth upon the earth.’
And
God said: ‘Behold, I have given you every herb yielding seed,
which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in which
is the fruit of a tree yielding seed – to you it shall be for
food; and to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the
air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein
there is a living soul, I have given every green herb for food.’
And it was so. And
God saw every thing that He had made, and, behold, it was very
good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.
And
the heaven and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.
And on the seventh day God finished His work which He had made;
and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had
made. And
God blessed the seventh day, and hallowed it; because that in
it He rested from all His work which God in creating had made."
***
*** *** *** ***
Professor
Moshe Sharon teaches Islamic History at the Hebrew University,
Jerusalem.
|