War against non-believers by Muslims

Submitted by Mahendra (Trinidad And Tobago), Apr 29, 2010 at 22:01

)]. 191. And kill them wherever you find them, and turn them out from where they have turned you out. And Al-Fitnah is worse than killing. And fight not with them at Al-Masjid-al-Harâm (the sanctuary at Makkah), unless they (first) fight you there. But if they attack you, then kill them. Such is the recompense of the disbelievers. 192. But if they cease, then Allâh is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful. 193. And fight them until there is no more Fitnah (disbelief and worshipping of others along with Allâh) and (all and every kind of) worship is for Allâh (Alone). But if they cease, let there be no transgression except against Az-Zâlimûn (the polytheists, and wrong-doers, etc.)

Fareed, I accept that you seem to be a moderate Muslim and probably mean what you say. But no so Koran, the verses from which are quoted above; nor other scholars of Islam.

The root of the word jihad appears in the above quoted verses in the Surah 2 – Al-Baqara of Quran. In subsequent Islamic understanding to both Muslim luminaries -- from the greatest jurists and scholars of classical Islam, to ordinary people -- meant and means "he fought, warred or waged war against unbelievers and the like." As described by the seminal mid-19^th century Arabic lexicographer E.W Lane, "Jihad came to be used by the Muslims to signify waging war, against unbelievers."

Columnist Andrew Bostom says that contemporary validation of the central principle of jihad terrorism has been provided in the mainstream Pakistani text on jihad warfare by Brigadier S.K. Malik, originally published in Lahore, in 1979. Malik's treatise was endorsed in a laudatory Foreword to the book by his patron, then Pakistani President Zia-ul-Haq, as well as a more extended Preface by Allah Buksh K. Brohi, a former Advocate-General of Pakistan. This text -- widely studied in Islamic countries and available in English, Urdu, and Arabic -- has been recovered from the bodies of slain jihadists in Kashmir. Brigadier Malik emphasizes how instilling terror is essential to waging successful jihad campaigns.

Sensible people like you should be waging a campaign to re-educate Muslims by telling them that verses like above are obsolete in today's world and need to be modified,

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