The Jihash of the Jihad

Submitted by CyberData (Bahrain), Jan 1, 2003 at 13:49

Actually, the expansion of Islam in early Islam had very little, if anything, do to with jihad.

For centuries before the Islamic era, Arab tribes located on the fringes of the Arabian Peninsula routinely raided their northern neighbors for loot and booty. They also raided each others tents, and, since time immemorial, they attacked the caravans carrying myrrh and frankincense from the Yemen to the north (or lived off payments made to them to guarantee safe passage).

The early Islamic "conquests" were simply the continuation of an age-old tradition. The early Muslims were marauders, not evangelists. Islam simply came along for the ride, as it were. The subsequent Islamization of the territories east and west was the result, not the cause of the extended raids, at least at the beginning.

It is true that Islam was the force that united the disparate Arab tribes. But it is not true that Islam expanded in an attempt to convert the world to the new religion. In fact, the earliest raiders set up "camps" (later cities) to keep the Arab troops away from the conquered populations. Had they had conversion on their minds, it is inconceivable that they would have done this.

In addition, the Koran strictly forbids "conversion by force". In fact, once the Arabs realized that they were in the newly conquered territories to stay, they established very strict laws protecting (ok, I know this isn't the term some would use) non-muslims. This is another indication of their aversion to forced conversion.

(It is also interesting to note that the early Muslims adhered much more closely to the Koranic prohibition against forced conversion than do "modern" "muslims".)

The early famous battles of Islam were fought among the Arabs, not with the "infidels". In fact, the Arab conquests were successful simply because there was no one to resist them in any significant way. All the conquered areas were exhausted from centuries of their own battles. When the Arabs came, in fact, they were often considered "liberators" (little did they know) from oppressive local rulers.

But Jihad didn't enter into any of this until much later if at all. In fact, jihad as currently used (at least in the West) is a modern interpretation of this term…..and by modern I mean like about since the time of Sayyid Qutb and his ilk, say about 1950.

Now that I've finished that history lesson, on to the real issues.

Within 6 months, possibly much sooner, Saddam Hussein, He of The Loaded Gun, will be history and there will be no Gulf War II. I've predicted this for a year and I'm more sure of it than ever. Where he'll be, my crystal ball doesn't reveal, but it's a certainty. Most likely he'll go into exile.

The entire pre-war hysteria is simply a well thought out gigantic bluff. And it's working. Naturally, I can't go into all the details here, but mark my words, there will be no Get–Hussein-Out-War. A shooting war is simply out of the question. It's an expensive bluff, mind you, but not as expensive as a shooting war.

CyberData

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