The Legacy of Jihad

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Vital If You Can Take It... - Rated
For anyone who is interested in Islam and jihad, this is a book that you absolutely MUST read. I am pretty sure that regardless of how much you know and have studied about Islam, you will learn things and find sources that you never knew about before. Andrew Bostom's opening essay, which takes up the first 80 pages of the book's 700-odd page length, contains enough information to debunk any cry of "Islam is a Religion of Peace", with a comprehensive look at Muslim views of jihad and dhimmitude and a history of Islamic conquest.

Then, as if that wasn't enough, there follows a series of translated writings from various Muslim scholars and jurists on jihad, from all sects: Sunni, Shi'ite and Sufi. Of these, some were easier to read and more interesting than others. The overview of jihad and acceptable wartime behaviour by the Muslim philosopher and jurisprudence expert Averroes is comprehensive, explaining the views of all the Sunni madhabs on various issues. The work of the great Hanbali jurist Ibn Taymiyya is also highly readable, and I can see why jihadists find his clear and concise exegesis of the Qur'an and jihad so appealing. And then, of course, there are two excerpts in the book from Sayyid Qutb, the man seen by many as the greatest Muslim of the 20th century. As a scholar and writer Qutb is unsurpassed, and his reasoning is thorough, as he passes a damning condemnation against those who have tried to recast jihad as only a struggle for "self-defense", rather than to spread Islam around the world. Again, I can understand why he is so highly regarded based upon the fluency of his arguments. Although, obviously, I oppose his entire argument, and jihad in general.

There are also several detailed historical accounts by great historians of the various jihad conquests over the centuries, as well as first-hand eyewitness accounts of several of the conquests by both Muslims and non-Muslims. These latter often make for grim and disturbing reading.

So there you have it: "The Legacy of Jihad" is a must-have for demonstrating the traditional, orthodox and universal nature of the doctrine of violent jihad and Islamic supremacism. There is so much information here - much of it collected from primary sources that have been translated for the first time into English - that it is almost unbelievable. Bostom has done an astonishing job. All those opposed to the global jihad, as well as writers looking for source material and facts to use in their work, should read it.

Now I'm REALLY worried - Rated
This is not a book for the faint-hearted. Firstly, it is a whopping tome - that alone may put some potential readers off. Secondly, Bostom's attention to detail is second to none - the huge body of references and authorities he has drawn upon is testimony to the exacting thoroughness of this work.

The further one gets into this book, the more serious are the questions it raises in respect of the present intellectual vacuum which appears to underpin the way in which the West is responding to Islam. It becomes crystal-clear that the majority of advances achieved by Islam, from modest beginnings, were on the basis of violent aggression. Why does this understanding not influence the current use of terms such as 'peaceful' or 'moderate' Islam? It is clear that the genocidal outrages perpetrated by the Ottoman empire, or the Berbers, or other arab groups owed their raison d'etre to their Islamic belief-system. To listen to woolly Western pundits one might conclude that these barbaric acts were entirely independent of the cohesive belief-system provided by Islam.

The book raises all sorts of present-day challenges, out of its review of the past. Would it interest readers to know that the enforced wearing of yellow badges to identify Jews predates the Nazi's by centuries? This fact alone might help us understand why hard-line Islamists now deny the holocaust. What was the classic mistake, identified by many earlier historians, evident in the approach adopted towards Islam by Western powers? A failure to accept the implacable nature of Mohammed's belief system in relation to the 'infidel'. What about the status of 'Dhimmis' within societies where the Muslims are in a majority - historically, and today in various parts of the world? What about the present-day Islamic claims for the superiority and significance of their culture, architecture, science? As you read the book, you realise that all previously existing cultures were simply regarded as grist to the Islamic mill, which left devastation in its wake as it conquered an unsuspecting and largely peaceful world during the first and second caliphates.

If ever there was a book where history impacts directly on our understanding of the present, this is it. Buy it, read it, ask for it in your local libraries.

Encyclopaedic, timely and eye-opening. - Rated
Having recently read Paul Fregosi's excellent book on this subject entitled "Jihad in the West; Muslim Conquests from the 7th to the 21st Centuries", I resolved to investigate this subject further and this study did not disappoint me in it's depth and encyclopaedic content.

Spanning over 700 pages, the amount of detail provided here is breathtaking and the references are innumerable but the text is commendably readable.

As with Fregosi's work, the writer also strives to provide an objective analysis wherever possible without attacking the fundamental aspects of the Islamic religion - instead attempting to concentrate on the context of it's implications & relationship to the furtherance of Jihad itself.

However, this extensive study includes essays and commentary from many learned scholars of Jihad, and it's early claim to provide comprehensive and meticulously documented research soon becomes substantiated as the reader is confronted with realms of evidence and eyewitness accounts, amid an abundance of Muslim theological and judicial texts etc..

Among eight different parts, separate sections are also provided giving direct reference to Jihad in both the Koran and the Hadith, together with an appropriate exegesis by what are cited as the greatest classical and modern commentators, that dispel the argument that Jihad has only been justified by an alleged misinterpretation.

The book begins by providing the reader with the context surrounding the cover illustration which depicts events surrounding the surrender of the Jewish Qurayzah tribe to Muhammad and it's alleged treatment at the hands of the Islamic Prophet.

The text describes how the Jewish tribe were purported to have aided the forces of Muhammad's enemies and how they were subsequently isolated and besieged. The study proceeds to cite how all pleas for mercy, were rejected and how the Jewish tribe were henceforth delivered for judgment in Medina.

The ensuing judgment described as resulting in some six to nine hundred Jewish men purportedly being beheaded in front of Muhammad and their decapitated bodies buried in already excavated trenches.

Further context being provided as to how the young Jewish males, women and children were allegedly sold into slavery and their property and land confiscated. Muhammad himself is also cited as having taken a Jewish captive for his wife. Conversely the book illustrates how the Jewish tribe of the Qurayzah ceased to exist.

The book then proceeds to examine the worldwide impact of a multitude of named Jihad campaigns over 1300 years against non-Muslims which the book declares were characterised by massacre, enslavement and pillage, whereby the reader is confronted with how such military conquests have subdued millions of indigenous peoples and the expropriation of vast expanses of land.

One notable historical example described in the text is that of the massacre of the Armenians by the Ottoman Turks. The extent of the indiscriminate slaughter described in the text is disturbing with the perpetrators cited as allegedly respecting no surrender, bayoneting the men to death, raping the women and dashing their children against the rocks (page 667).

The exhaustive study also reveals how the teaching of Jihad ultimately determines the relations of Muslims & non-Muslims in the present day.

The reader is frequently confronted with a concern that many governments and religious bodies in the present day, are allegedly prepared to ignore what is cited as voluminous but inconvenient historical data in order to
whitewash the realities of Jihad wars, with a view to purportedly explaining away the warlike expeditions and conquests of Islam as "defensive wars" in order to interpret Jihad as merely a "bloodless striving to spread the Islamic religion".

The writer stressing the significance of how historians in free countries have a moral and professional obligation to provide the veracity underlying such issues, and pleading that these individuals should not submit to what is called any voluntary censorship in the face of those in authority who would expediently wish to falsify the record of the past and to re-write history as they would wish it to have been. (Page 22)

Fears being expressed in the text that by so doing, a distorted, revisionist history may arise which could be purportedly used as a tool of propaganda by many governments and religious bodies who would readily avail themselves of to suit their own agendas by suppressing the truth .

Political leaders and the media in general are described as being worried about the public's perception of Islam and subsequently are cited as usually only being prepared to invite the opinions of those who believe in what is cited as the ‘myth' of Islamic tolerance. Many such entities are described as, for various reasons, also wishing to play down the history of the dhimmi (non Muslims living under subjugation under Islamic rule).

The revelations provided in this book pertaining to Jihad and militant Islam are both eye-opening and disturbing at times and undoubtedly will be seen by many readers as controversial and contentious. Having said that I personally consider that the book definitely needs to be read and will be a welcome addition and essential reference to anyone with an interest in the Middle East conflict and how Islam is perceived at this time within the world's current landscape.