The Nature of Jihad

I am reading a new book Messages to the World, The statements of Osama bin Laden, edited and introduced by Bruce Lawrence, 2005, Verso ISBN 1-84467-045-7.

First of all, Bruce Lawrence is an old friend of mine and classmate in seminary. Even when I first knew him back in the late 60's I was impressed by the fact that he was fluent in Arabic. Since then his knowledge has increased and there is probably no person who can better interpret to the Western mind what is going on in the Islamic mind today. The book bears this out. The Introduction is excellent, and clarified for me many things that I thought might be true about Islamic terrorism, but I was not sure. Most of the words in this book are bin Laden's own, but the footnotes are very helpful. For example when a verse is cited from the Qur'an, the footnotes often give the parts of the verse that have been conveniently left out.

When the attack of 9/11 occurred, most Americans were struck with incredulity. Why would anyone want to die attacking us in the name of religion? This quote from Osama bin Laden may help us understand:

A believer must rest assured that life is only in the hands of God, and sustenance is also in the hands of God, the Almighty. As for fearing for one's life, it is difficult to explain to you how we think of ourselves, unless you have full belief. We believe that no one could take out one breath of our written life as ordained by God. We see that getting killed in the cause of God is a great honor wished for by our Prophet. He said in his hadith: "I swear to God, I wish to fight for God's cause and be killed, I'll do it again and be killed, and I'll do it again and be killed." Being killed for God's cause is a great honor achieved by only those who are the elite of the nation. We love this kind of death for God's cause as much as you like to live. We have nothing to fear for. It is something we wish for. (p. 56)

It is easy to dismiss this simply as fanaticism, but my opinion is that it is truly reflective of the religion that is Islam. Bin Laden's quarrel with the Saudi regime is that it has allowed non-Muslims to live in the Arabian Peninsula, and he sees this as an invasion. Bin Laden speaks frequently of a "crusade" against Islam, and he views the Israeli occupation of Palestine and the U.S. led war against Iraq as part of this effort to undermine Islam. What he wants in Islamic countries is complete adherence to the Qur'an in all aspects of life, something like what the Taliban attempted to impose in Afghanistan.

Osama bin Laden has successfully rallied support for a jihad against the United States as expressed in the following fatwa:

To kill the American and their alies—civilians and military—is an individual duty incumbent upon every Muslim in all countries, in order to liberate the al-Aqsa Mosque and the Holy Mosque from their grip, so that their armies leave all the territory of Islam, defeated, broken, and unable to threaten any Muslim. This is in accordance with the words of God Almighty: "Fight the idolators at any time, if they first fight you;" "Fight them until there is no more persecution and until worship is devoted to God;" "Why should you not fight in God's cause and for those oppressed men, women, and children who cry out: 'Lord, rescue us from this town whose people are oppressors! By Your grace, give us a protector and a helper!'?"

With God's permission we call on everyone who believes in God and wants reward to comply with His will to kill the Americans and seize their money wherever and whenever they find them. We also call on the religious scholars, their leaders, their youth, and their soldiers, to launch the raid on the soldiers of Satan, the Americans, and whichever devil's supporters are allied with them, to rout those behind them so that they will not forget it. (p. 61)

These are chilling words, and they leave no doubt that bin Laden has declared war on the United States. Perhaps our military response is understandable, especially since part of the Muslim rhetoric is to destroy the state of Israel. Unfortunately for us, this kind of talk has won a very solid following among young Muslims who are willing to sacrifice their lives in a jihad to punish America.

As I said above, Osama bin Laden is acting out of the teaching of his religion. If it were not he, it would be some other Islamic fundamentalist who would rally people to this cause, because, you see, it is all in the Qur'an and in other Islamic texts. The problem is not with Osama bin Laden; the problem is with the Qur'an, perhaps the most hideous religious hoax, in my opinion, ever visited upon mankind.

They view this conflict as a Crusade. If only it were! If only we were over there to convert Muslims to Christianity, then perhaps we might be doing some good. But as it is, we are only reinforcing their opinions that we are a violently aggressiveve enemy intent upon subjugating them for the sake of oil and for the sake of the Holy Land. Our military efforts to get the terrorists have truly backfired. We have caused a huge amount of destruction which we will have to pay for one way or another, we have killed thousands of civilians (collateral damage), and this week we have violated the territory of Pakistan in a drone bombing attempt to get al-Zawahiri. Osama bin Laden appeals to the heroism in young people and they respond by being willing to die for their cause, yet we use drones! The fact is that Americans are not willing to die for this conflict, and they shouldn't be, because the whole thing is mis-directed, but the Muslims see us as cowards.

Islam is the problem, but you can't say that. That is a statement that shows disrespect for another religion. If we say it while at the same time we are bombing, it may lead to the great battle of civilizations. And so in the propaganda war that accompanies every war, we are losing because we are silenced. Islam is the problem because it is not really just a religion. It is a whole social system which presumably orders society in accordance with God's will.

The problem is that their source of knowledge about this is the Qur'an which purports to have been revealed to Mohammed by an angel and he, in turn, dictated verbatim to some of his friends. The voice of God speaks through the Qur'an in a way that it does not speak in any other holy book. The Qur'an takes it upon itself even to correct the Bible. For example, it was not Isaac whom Abraham took up the mountain, but Ishmael. More serious is the claim that Jesus in fact did not die on the cross but that a surrogate died in his place. If you read the Qur'an with an open mind, you find yourself asking, "What kind of god is saying these things?" My belief is that the Qur'an falls on its face by the fact that there is really no free will. The doctrine of predestination in the Qur'an is stronger even than that of Calvin.

Christians do not understand Islam, and they underestimate its danger. Most Christians have no clue about the fact that this cult is coercively imposed and stifles intellectual and religious freedom. I won't go into it now, but I would challenge all who are reading this to inform themselves about Islam.

Guns and bombs will not solve the problem; they will only make matters worse. What is needed is Christian evangelism to convert Muslims to the Christian religion. Muslims need to be freed from the tyrany of their religion. I have a Yahoo Group, the purpose of which is to encourage this very thing, but I am astonished by the very low activity on the group. Please visit if you are interested. I would suggest that it would be wise to sign anonymously.

So thank you, Bruce Lawrence for this very fine book. Bruce is a professor of Religion at Duke University. Read his book.

C. David Burt