Agnostic, This comes from China

Submitted by Pat (United States), Dec 16, 2006 at 16:03

"The northern part of china is also a nice place for you to see Islam for yourself, you can read about admiral Zang He(Cheng Do? He has a lot of names from many different dialects in China) who was a eunuch and Islamic serving the Chinese Emperor Qin (Chin). "

Agnostic,

I'm trying to research this. However, I think we also need to focus on the present. Whatever Islam was one thousand years ago matters less than what it is today. You spoke of northern China. What about western China? There Islamists are busy building bombs and encouraging people to wage violent jihad, citing Quranic verses as justification:

On November 8, 2006, Islamist websites posted a 32-minute video (http://switch3.castup.net/cunet/gm.asp?ai=214&ar=vcd-wmv&ak=null ) showing mujahideen training and operating in the Xinjiang (Shing Yang) District in western China, referred to in the video as "Eastern Turkestan."

[...]

Next, the film presents evidence indicating involvement of the Islamic Party in Eastern Turkestan in the production of bombs and hand grenades, and in attacks. The film then shows two masked mujahideen delivering messages urging Muslims in Eastern Turkestan to engage in jihad and to establish an Islamic state in Eastern Turkestan.

The speakers claim that since the Chinese government compels Muslim youth to know Communist ideology and is determined to corrupt Muslim youth's beliefs and morals, Muslims must wage jihad and free themselves from Chinese rule. They add that under these circumstances, jihad is not just a collective duty incumbent upon the Muslim community as a whole (fard kifaya), but is also a personal duty (fard 'ayn) incumbent upon every single Muslim, and that therefore all Muslims must participate in jihad either directly [i.e., by fighting] or indirectly [i.e., by assisting the mujahideen].

Among the Koranic verses the speakers cite are the following: "O Prophet, wage jihad with the unbelievers and hypocrites and be thou harsh with them; their refuge is Hell and evil homecoming [9:73]." "O believers, take not My enemy and your enemy for friends, offering them love, though they have disbelieved in the truth that has come to you, expelling the Messenger and you because you believe in Allah your Master. If you go forth to wage jihad for My sake and seek My good pleasure, [but you] secretly [love] them, I know very well what you conceal and what you publish…[60:1]"

In addition, at a meeting in Pakistan with representatives of some Afghan resistance parties during the 1980s, American officers saw a map on which parts of [then] Soviet Central Asia and China's Xinjiang Province were labeled "Temporarily Occupied Muslim Territory". The Americans were told "Yes, Inshallah, the region wll soon be won back for Islam one day".

You see Islam as a religion. Too many Muslims see it as a political system that they are determined to restore and expand, under any circumstances. That they were driven from areas such as Spain is a five century old wrong that must be righted. How are we to combat that, except through force?

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