Islam and the Religious Wars of Our Time:
Dar al Islam against the Dar al Harb

G. Richard Jansen
Colorado State University
Fort Collins, CO 80521
March 1, 2007

Introduction
    The United States together with what used to be called the Christian West, Christendom, is under attack from Islamic forces with a world wide reach. There is dispute as to whether this Islamic movement represents Islam per se, or a radical version of Islam.  There is no doubt that these forces get their inspiration, motivation and indeed instructions from the Koran and the life of Muhammed. This world-wide movement is known  as Militant Islam.  Other names being used are Radical Islam, Islamic Jihad, Global Jihad , Islamism  and Islamo-fascism.  Our enemy sees this struggle as a religious war and refers to the United States with the word  “Crusaders” bringing   back into our consciousness a religious war between Islam and Christianity nearly a millennia ago. The West, for understandable reasons is slow  to acknowledge that we are indeed in a religious war declared against Western Civilization by an Islamic movement based on the Koran and Islamic law .  Western Civilization is based on Judeo-Christian morality, the Renaissance, the Reformation, the Enlightenment combined with the inheritance from classical Rome and Athens.  This is a continuation of a 1400 year jihad against  the Dar al Harb, the world of the infidels, by the Dar al Islam, the world of Islam.  Unfortunately many in the West either fail to understand or refuse to understand that we are now involved in a continuation of a 1400 year jihad or holy war against the West that was for the most part in abeyance from 1683, when the Ottoman Empire’s failed to take Vienna, until the resurgence of Islamic jihad in the 20th century following the upheavals of the First World War.  
      In order to understand the religious wars that Militant Islam has declared on the West we first must go back to the time of Muhammed and his companions in the 7th century. The suras or chapters in the Koran were transcribed first in Mecca and then in Medina. In Mecca Muhammed courted the Jews but in Medina , after they failed to accept Muhammed  as their last Prophet he turned on them. Ibn Ishaq, in the first biography about Muhammed wrote as follows about the surrender of the Jews at B. Qurayza; " Then they surrendered, and the apostle confined them in Medina in the quarter of d. al-Harith, a woman of B. al -Najjar.  Then the apostle went out to the market of Medina (which is still market today) and dug trenches in it. Then he sent for them and struck off their heads in these trenches as they were brought to him in batches.  Among them was the enemy of Allah Huyayy b. Akhtab and Ka'b b Assad their chief.  There were 600 or 700 in all although some put the figure as high as 800".  This biography of Muhammed was written by a Muslim about one hundred years after Muhammed’s  death
   When Muhammed died in 632 a dispute arose as to who should be the first Caliph,  The Prophet had made no provision for his successor. One side favored keeping the leadership in Muhammed’s family by naming Ali, the husband of his daughter Fatima as Caliph.  The other side favored naming Abu Bakr, Muhammed’s loyal assistant as Caliph. In the event Abu Bakr was named Caliph.  Ali became the 4th Caliph.  He was killed in battle.  In a later power struggle Ali’s son Husayn was killed in the Battle of Karbala. The followers of Ali and his son Husayn are known today as the Shi’a, i.e.  The party of Ali.  The death of Hussyn is commemorated in Karbala as the Shia holy day of Ashura
    The Shia believe that Ali was the first legitimate Caliph.  Those that believe that Abu Bakr and the Caliphs that immediately followed him are the first Caliphs are known as the Sunni, or the Tradition of Islam.  The family line of Muhammed through Ali and Husayn became extinct in 873 when the last Shia Imam Munammed al-Mahdi disappeared. The Shia are waiting for this twelfth Shia Imam to re-appear after having been hidden for over a millennia.  Today 90% of Muslims in the World are Sunni and 10% Shia.  The Shia live mostly in Iran and Iraq.  Theological differences are not large.  They relate mostly to the legitimacy of the early Caliphs, the importance of the martyrdom of Ali and his son Husayn, and the concept of the “hidden Imam.” However, the rivalry between these two branches of Islam that had been  waxing and waning for fourteen hundred years is becoming increasingly important in these days of asymmetric warfare and nuclear weapons.
     By the time World War I had started Serbia and the rest of the Balkans had become free of Ottoman rule. when the war between Serbia and Austria started, Germany allied itself with Austria  while Britain, France and Russia allied themselves with Serbia. The Ottoman Empire made a very bad choice by siding with Germany and Austria.  When the war was over the victorious powers proceeded to carve up the Ottoman Empire which already was known as “The Sick Man of Europe.”   Britain was granted “Mandates” over a newly created Iraq and Palestine, while France was granted “Mandates” over L:ebanon and Syria.  Britain through T.E. Lawrence apparently had promised Sharif Husayn of Mecca an Arab homeland in exchange for his help in fighting against the Ottoman Empire.  However Britain with the Balfour Declaration of 1917 had also promised the Jews a National Homeland in Palestine.
    In 1919 the Emir Feisal, Sharif Husayn’s son signed an agreement with Chaim Weitzman, the head of the Zionist organization in which he agreed to recognize a Jewish state in Palestine if an Arab state under his authority as Caliph also was formed. This did not come to pass.  The fact is none of the Arab states wanted this to happen.  The British made Feisal King of Iraq and his brother Abdullah the Emir of Trans-Jordan, which was 80% of the Palestine Mandate, thus  pretty much nullifying  the 1917 Balfour promise to the Jews. Feisal and Abdullah were both eventually assassinated.
    In Iran a military coup in 1921 established a military dictatorship under Reza Khan.  In 1926 the Pahlavi dynasty was established with Reza Shah Pahlavi as a hereditary Shah.  Egypt became independent from the British in 1922 and Fuad I became King. In 1936 he was succeeded by his son King Farouk. In Arabia Ibn Saud and his forces defeated Sharif Husayn of Mecca. In 1932  the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was formed.
    The stage was now set for the religious wars of the 20th century to begin.   Two interlocking lines of Islamic thought, Salafism and Wahhabism, added fuel to the smoldering fire.

Salafism and Wahhabism 
    After World War I there was much unhappiness and frustration within the Muslim world in the Middle East.  In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Britain established hegemony over Egypt, France over Algeria and Morocco, and Italy over Libya. Arabs became aware of their own weaknesses as the Ottoman Empire was defeated in the "great war" of 1914-1918 and carved up by the Western Powers. Iraq and Palestine became British mandates, and Lebanon and Syria became French mandates.  Attaturk saved Anatolia from dissection and established the Republic of Turkey as a secular state.  He abolished the Sultanate and the Caliphate thus ending 1400 years of a Caliphate, i.e. an Islamic  ruler in a direct line from the political and spiritual rule of Muhammed himself. Jews were moving into Palestine and it is a core article of belief in Islam that any land that had once been Islamic must remain so. Western Imperialism became the scapegoat for all the problems in the Muslim world.
    There became a renewed longing for the “olden days” the time of the Prophet and his companions.  Salafism provided a theological and historical grounding for this longing. Salafism is a line of thought within Islam which hails the “righteous ancestors” as those who serve as examples of how Islam should be practiced. The term righteous ancestors refers to Muhammed, his companions and the first three generations of Muslims. The modern version of Salafism developed in Egypt in the late 19th century. Wahhabism is another closely related movement that is named after Muhammed ibn al Wahhab who liveed in the 18th century. The movement claims inspiration and theological descent from ibn Tymiyya , 1263-1328, and is the State religion of Saudi Arabia.
    Both Salafism and Wahhabism claim that Islam has gone wrong and strayed from the true path over the centuries.  Both advocate emulating the Islam of Muhammed and his companions.  This was a confident and aggressive Islam that within one hundred years after Muhammed’s death ruled all of the Arabian peninsula, Egypt, Palestine, Syria, much of Mesopotamia and Persia.  Both Salafism and Wahhabism advocate that war should be waged on all unbelievers, i.e. all non-Muslims until they have become Muslim, submitted totally and unconditionally to Islam or have been killed.   Islam  requires jihad, fighting on behalf of Islam, as a religious duty.  Salafism and Wahhabism also discouraged many religious practices that had developed over the centuries such praying over tombs, invoking anyone in prayer other than Allah and making drawings of human beings.

Muslim Brotherhood.
    The Muslim Brotherhood was founded in Egypt as a reform movement by Hasan al Bana in 1928. Although a Sufi himself, his views were  heavily influenced by Salafism and Wahhabism.  His movement strongly opposed the ascendancy of secular, primarily Western ideas in the Arab and Muslim  world.  Al Bana wanted to see a strong move back to the supremacy of Allah in human affairs.  The credo of the Muslim Brotherhood is : Allah is our objective, the Koran is our law, the Prophet is our leader, Jihad is our way, and dying for the sake of Allah is the highest of our hope.  The Muslim Brotherhood is world-wide with branches  in essentially all Arab countries and in the United States as well.
    Members of the Brotherhood assassinated the Egyptian Prime Minister Mahmud Fahm Nokrashi in 1948.  Shortly after Al Bana himself was murdered, presumably by a government agent. In 1954 a member of the Brotherhood attempted to assassinate President Nasser. Nasser’s successor Anwar as-Sadat released from prison members of the Brotherhood and said he would implement Shariah law in Egypt.  He failed to do so and in addition signed a peace treaty with Israel. The Brotherhood murdered Sadat in 1981.

Sayyid Qtub.
    In many  ways Sayyid Qutb is the father of the modern jihad movement against infidels and all unbelievers, in keeping with Muhammed and the Koran.   He strongly opposed Western imperialism and materialism.  The immorality and corruption of the Christian West appalled him.  He believed in the righteousness of God and the sinfulness of mankind. In his mind the only hope for mankind was the universal adoption of the shariah law in all countries .  Qtub opposed most Western ideas including both capitalism and socialism as being materialistic in nature.  In his view only Muslims who followed the Koran and Islamic law were truly Muslims. The remainder are unbelievers and should be dealt with accordingly.  The Shariah law is a universal law, applicable to all and an Islamic society is the only civilized society.  The following paragraph from his book Milestones written while he was in prison pretty well sums up his beliefs:
    “It is not the intention of Islam to force  its beliefs on people, but Islam is not merely beliefs.  As we have pointed out, Islam is a declaration of the freedom of man from servitude to other men.  Thus it strives from the beginning to abolish all those systems and governments which are based on the rule of man over men and the servitude ov one human being to another. When Islam releases people from this political pressure and presents to them its spiritual message, appealing to their reason, it gives them complete freedom to accept or not to accept its beliefs. However, this freedom does not mean that they can make their desires their gods, or that they can choose to remain in the servitude of other human beings, making some men lords over others. Whatever system is to be established in the worls ought to be on the authority of Allah, deriving its laws from him alone.  Thus every individual is free, under the protection of this universal system to adopt any belief he wishes to adopt.  This is the only way “the religion” can be purified for Allah alone. The word ‘religion’ includes more than belief; ‘religion’ actually means a way of life, and in Islam this is based on belief.  But in an Islamic system there is room for all kinds of people to follow their own beliefs, while obeying the laws of the country which are themselves based on the divine authority.”   Sayyid Qtub was executed by hanging August 29, 1966.

Al Qaeda
    Al Qaeda, meaning in Arabic the base, began as a response to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.  Osama bin Laden, a wealthy Saudi businessman  was a prime financial supporter of the fledgling organization.  He became radicalized when after the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait American forces located in in the Islamic holy ground of Saudi Arabia. The government of Saudi Arabia expelled bin Laden in 1991 and he relocated in  the Sudan.
    The following are excerpts from  a fatwa, or declaration of war, by Osama bin Laden first published in Al Quds Al Arabi, a London-based newspaper, in August, 1996. The fatwa is entitled "Declaration of War against the Americans Occupying the Land of the Two Holy Places."
    "It should not be hidden from you that the people of Islam had suffered from aggression, iniquity and injustice imposed on them by the Zionist-Crusaders alliance and their collaborators; to the extent that the Muslims blood became the cheapest and their wealth as loot in the hands of the enemies. Their blood was spilled in Palestine and Iraq. The horrifying pictures of the massacre of Qana, in Lebanon are still fresh in our memory. Massacres in Tajakestan, Burma, Cashmere, Assam, Philippine, Fatani, Ogadin, Somalia, Erithria, Chechnia and in Bosnia-Herzegovina took place, massacres that send shivers in the body and shake the conscience. All of this and the world watch and hear, and not only didn't respond to these atrocities, but also with a clear conspiracy between the USA and its' allies and under the cover of the iniquitous United Nations, the dispossessed people were even prevented from obtaining arms to defend themselves.
    The people of Islam awakened and realised that they are the main target for the aggression of the Zionist-Crusaders alliance. All false claims and propaganda about "Human Rights" were hammered down and exposed by the massacres that took place against the Muslims in every part of the world.  The latest and the greatest of these aggressions, incurred by the Muslims since the death of the Prophet (ALLAH'S BLESSING AND SALUTATIONS ON HIM) is the occupation of the land of the two Holy Places -the foundation of the house of Islam, the place of the revelation, the source of the message and the place of the noble Ka'ba, the Qiblah of all Muslims- by the armies of the American Crusaders and their allies. (We bemoan this and can only say: "No power and power acquiring except through Allah").”
    "It is out of date and no longer acceptable to claim that the presence of the crusaders is necessity and only a temporary measures to protect the land of the two Holy Places. Especially when the civil and the military infrastructures of Iraq were savagely destroyed showing the depth of the Zionist-Crusaders hatred to the Muslims and their children, and the rejection of the idea of replacing the crusaders forces by an Islamic force composed of the sons of the country and other Muslim people. moreover the foundations of the claim and the claim it self were demolished and wiped out by the sequence of speeches given by the leaders of the Kuffar in America. The latest of these speeches was the one given by William Perry, the Defense Secretary, after the explosion in Al-Khobar saying that: the presence of the American solders there is to protect the interest of the USA. The imprisoned Sheikh Safar Al-Hawali, may Allah hasten his release, wrote a book of seventy pages; in it he presented evidence and proof that the presence of the Americans in the Arab Peninsula is a pre-planed military occupation. The regime want to deceive the Muslim people in the same manner when the Palestinian fighters, Mujahideen, were deceived causing the loss of Al-Aqsa Mosque. In 1304 A.H (1936 AD) the awakened Muslims nation of Palestine started their great struggle, Jihad, against the British occupying forces. Britain was impotent to stop the Mujahideen and their Jihad, but their devil inspired that there is no way to stop the armed struggle in Palestine unless through their agent King Abdul Azeez, who managed to deceives the Mujahideen. King Abdul Azeez carried out his duty to his British masters. He sent his two sons to meet the Mujahideen leaders and to inform them that King Abdul Azeez would guarantee the promises made by the British government in leaving the area and responding positively to the demands of the Mujahideen if the latter stop their Jihad. And so King Abdul Azeez caused the loss of the first Qiblah of the Muslims people. The King joined the crusaders against the Muslims and instead of supporting the Mujahideen in the cause of Allah, to liberate the Al-Aqsa Mosque, he disappointed and humiliated them
    Today, his son, king Fahd, trying to deceive the Muslims for the second time so as to loose what is left of the sanctities. When the Islamic world resented the arrival of the crusader forces to the land of the two Holy Places, the king told lies to the Ulamah (who issued Fatwas about the arrival of the Americans) and to the gathering of the Islamic leaders at the conference of Rabitah which was held in the Holy City of Makka. The King said that: "the issue is simple, the American and the alliance forces will leave the area in few months". Today it is seven years since their arrival and the regime is not able to move them out of the country. The regime made no confession about its inability and carried on lying to the people claiming that the American will leave. But never-never again ; a believer will not be bitten twice from the same hole or snake! Happy is the one who takes note of the sad experience of the others"
"My Muslim Brothers of The World:
    Your brothers in Palestine and in the land of the two Holy Places are calling upon your help and asking you to take part in fighting against the enemy --your enemy and their enemy-- the Americans and the Israelis. they are asking you to do whatever you can, with one own means and ability, to expel the enemy, humiliated and defeated, out of the sanctities of Islam. Exalted be to Allah said in His book: { and if they ask your support, because they are oppressed in their faith, then support them!} (Anfaal; 8:72)O you horses (soldiers) of Allah ride and march on. This is the time of hardship so be tough. And know that your gathering and co-operation in order to liberate the sanctities of Islam is the right step toward unifying the word of the Ummah under the banner of "No God but Allah" ).”
    "Our Lord, the people of the cross had come with their horses (soldiers) and occupied the land of the two Holy places. And the Zionist Jews fiddling as they wish with the Al-Aqsa Mosque, the route of the ascendance of the messenger of Allah (ALLAH'S BLESSING AND SALUTATIONS ON HIM). Our Lord, shatter their gathering, divide them among themselves, shaken the earth under their feet and give us control over them; Our Lord, we take refuge in you from their deeds and take you as a shield between us and them”
   
    Al Qaeda attacked and killed U.S. Rangers in Somalia in 1993, and drove the United States out of Somalia. Based on this  occurrence  Bin Laden came to the conclusion that Americans were weak and wouldn’t fight. In 1994 he was expelled from the  Sudan and he relocated in Afghanistan where he made an alliance with the Taleban and set up many terrorist training camps. In 1998 Osama bin Laden made an alliance with the Egyptian Islamic Jihad and several other Islamic terrorist organizations thus establishing the International Front for Jihad Against the Jews and Crusaders. This organization formally and in writing declared war on Israel and the United States:

Praise be to God, who revealed the Book, controls the clouds, defeats factionalism, and says in His Book: "But  when the forbidden months are past, then fight and slay the pagans wherever ye find them, seize them, beleaguer them, and lie in wait for them in every stratagem (of war)"; and peace be upon our Prophet, Muhammad Bin-'Abdallah, who said: I have been sent with the sword between my hands to ensure that no one but God is worshipped, God who put my livelihood under the shadow of my spear and who inflicts humiliation and scorn on those who disobey my orders. 
     The Arabian Peninsula has never -- since God made it flat, created its desert, and encircled it with seas -- been stormed by any forces like the crusader armies spreading in it like locusts, eating its riches and wiping out its plantations. All this is happening at a time in which nations are attacking Muslims like people fighting over a plate of food. In the light of the grave situation and the lack of support, we and you are obliged to discuss current  events, and we should all agree on how to settle the matter. 
     No one argues today about three facts that are known to everyone; we will list them, in order to remind everyone:
           First, for over seven years the United States has been occupying the lands of Islam in the holiest of  places, the Arabian Peninsula, plundering its riches, dictating to its rulers, humiliating its people, terrorizing its neighbors, and turning its bases in the Peninsula into a spearhead through which to fight  the neighboring Muslim peoples. 
          If some people have in the past argued about the fact of the occupation, all the people of the Peninsula have now acknowledged it. The best proof of this is the Americans' continuing aggression  against the Iraqi people using the Peninsula as a staging post, even though all its rulers are against  their territories being used to that end, but they are helpless. 
          Second, despite the great devastation inflicted on the Iraqi people by the crusader-Zionist alliance, and despite the huge number of those killed, which has exceeded 1 million... despite all this, the Americans are once again trying to repeat the horrific massacres, as though they are not content with the protracted blockade imposed after the ferocious war or the fragmentation and devastation. 
          So here they come to annihilate what is left of this people and to humiliate their Muslim neighbors. 

          Third, if the Americans' aims behind these wars are religious and economic, the aim is also to serve  the Jews' petty state and divert attention from its occupation of Jerusalem and murder of Muslims there. The best proof of this is their eagerness to destroy Iraq, the strongest neighboring Arab state, and their endeavor to fragment all the states of the region such as Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and  Sudan into paper statelets and through their disunion and weakness to guarantee Israel's survival and  the continuation of the brutal crusade occupation of the Peninsula. 

     All these crimes and sins committed by the Americans are a clear declaration of war on God, his messenger, and Muslims. And ulema have throughout Islamic history unanimously agreed that the jihad is an individual duty if the enemy destroys the Muslim countries. This was revealed by Imam Bin-Qadamah in "Al- Mughni," Imam al-Kisa'i in "Al-Bada'i," al-Qurtubi in his interpretation, and the shaykh of al-Islam in his books, where he said: "As for the fighting to repulse [an enemy], it is aimed at defending sanctity and religion, and it is a duty as agreed [by the
ulema]. Nothing is more sacred than belief except repulsing an enemy who is attacking religion and life." 
     On that basis, and in compliance with God's order, we issue the following fatwa to all Muslims: 

     The ruling to kill the Americans and their allies -- civilians and military -- is an individual duty for every  Muslim who can do it in any country in which it is possible to do it [EMPHASIS ADDED], in order to liberate the al-Aqsa Mosque and the holy mosque [Mecca] from their grip, and in order for their armies to move out of all the lands of Islam, defeated and unable to threaten any Muslim. This is in accordance with the words of  Almighty God, "and fight the pagans all together as they fight you all together," and "fight them until there is no more tumult or oppression, and there prevail justice and faith in God." 

     This is in addition to the words of Almighty God: "And why should ye not fight in the cause of God and of those      who, being weak, are ill-treated (and oppressed)? -- women and children, whose cry is: 'Our Lord, rescue us  from this town, whose people are oppressors; and raise for us from thee one who will help!'" 
     We -- with God's help -- call on every Muslim who believes in God and wishes to be rewarded to comply with  God's order to kill the Americans and plunder their money wherever and whenever they find it. We also call on  Muslim ulema, leaders, youths, and soldiers to launch the raid on Satan's U.S. troops and the devil's supporters allying with them, and to displace those who are behind them so that they may learn a lesson. 

    Al Qaeda follows the Salafi/Wahhabi brand of Militant Islam.  In 1998 it succeeded in bombing  United States embassies in Kenya and Tanzania and nearly sank the United States Guided Missile Destroyer USS Cole in Aden Harbor, Yemen in 2000.   The capstone of its terrorist activities at least to date was on September 11, 2001 when it completely demolished  the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York and heavily damaged the Pentagon in Washington by flying commercial airliners into them while heavily loaded with aviation fuel and passengers.  A fourth attack on the WhiteHouse or the Capitol was thwarted by brave passengers who brought the airliner down in western Pennsylvania.
    In response the United States invaded Afghanistan, routing the Taliban, breaking up the training camps and greatly disrupting the actions of Al Qaeda.  The mission is not yet fully accomplished and there is a resurgence of the Taliban.  Osama  bin Laden and his number two Azman al Zawahiri are in hiding somewhere on the Afghanistan Pakistan border..  Although these two are greatly curtailed in their activities and influence,  because al Qaeda is greatly dispersed and exists with many cells in most countries of the world     it still represents a substantial threat to the United States, Europe and the rest of the world.  The goal of al Qaeda is to establish world Islamic rule  under a Caliph, i.e. on who follows directly in the  line from the first Caliphs of the 7th century.

Palestine
    Historically Palestine encompassed the Holy Land of Judea, Samaria and Galilee, as well as the present country of Jordan, which, as mentioned earlier was carved out of the British Palestine Mandate after World War I. In the year 70 AD  the Romans destroyed both the Jewish state in Palestine and the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem.  The Jews were dispersed from Palestine to all over the known world in what is known as the Jewish diaspora.  After another Jewish revolt in 132, most Jews were driven from Judea, although some remained, especially in Galilee.  With the conversion of Constantine to Christianity in the early 4th century the residents of Palestine were mostly Christian.  In 352 Jews in Galilee revolted as did the Samaritans in the 6th century. Both revolts were violently suppressed.  Jerusalem came under Persia control in 614 but in 628 Palestine and Jerusalem were restored to the Byzantine (Christian) Empire again.  A short ten years later, Palestine was conquered by the Arabs.
    Following widespread  pograms against the Jews in Russia, as written about by Sholem Aleichem in his stories about  Tevye  the Dairyman, and as dramatized in Fiddler on the Roof, a first wave of Jewish immigration into Palestine from Russia took place in the 1890's.  The Zionist movement began in 1896 on the  publication of Theodor Herzl’s book A Jewish State.  Especially following the widespread anti-Semitism revealed in France by the Dreyfus affair, the Zionists had come to the conclusion that the Jews would never be fully accepted and assimilated in Europe and therefore a Jewish national home or state was necessary. Zionism was a secular movement and was not supported by orthodox Jews who held to the view that a return to Palestine, i.e. Zion, would and should only occur following the long awaited arrival of the Jewish Messiah.  The British divided the Palestine Mandate in 1922 such that three-quarters of it went to form the newly established Hashemite Kingdom of Trans-Jordan with Abdullah as its Emir.  It is fair to say that Trans-Jordan was established as an authentic Palestinian State, but unfortunately with an imported Hashemite Arab from the Hijaz in Arabia as its Emir.
    Following the founding of Trans-Jordan the remaining one quarter of Palestine was set aside as a Jewish national home in at least partial honoring of the Balfour agreement of 1917.  Unfortunately, at least for the Jews, the British backed away from even this commitment by recommending the further partition of the remaining one quarter of Palestine into Palestinian and Jewish sections.  The 1920's saw the beginning of considerable Jewish immigration into Palestine, with many establishing Kibbutzim, communal farms, or settling in the towns and cities.  The Jews established their presence in Palestine by buying land and property from who we now refer to as the Palestinians. The Palestinian authorities fought violently against this Jewish presence by rioting and reprisals against the Palestinians who had sold land to the Jews.  The Palestinian authorities ordered that land should not be sold to Jews, and those that did so would be severely punished.     the British severely limited Jewish immigration, with such limitation formally sanctioned with a White Paper in 1930.
    After World War II and the Holocaust in which Nazi Germany killed six million Jews for no other reason than that they were Jewish, Zionist pressure  for a Jewish state in Palestine, which was still under British control, grew stronger. The British announced their withdrawal and the United Nations proposed to partition Palestine into Jewish and Arab states.  The Jews accepted but the Arabs did not.  In 1948 the Jews announced the establishment of the state of Israel which was immediately recognized by the United States and the Soviet Union.  Israel was  immediately invaded by five neighboring Arab countries.  The Arab states were defeated in this 1948 war of independence for Israel. After the 1948 war 800,000 Jews were expelled from Arab lands with most re-settling in Israel.  Approximately 650,000 Palestinians were displaced from Israel and ended up in refugee camps in Jordan and elsewhere where they remain today.
    Egypt, Syria, Jordan and Iraq again made war on Israel in 1967 and were again defeated in what is known as the  Six Day War, and in the 1973 war as well.  The Palestinian Authority knows where the terrorists against Israel are in the West Bank and Gaza, and could go after them in a meaningful way if they wished to So far they have not chosen to crack down on Hamas, Hizbollah or the Islamic Jihad.  Hamas, a branch of the Muslim Brotherhood in Gaza was founded in 1987.  Its charter states that its goal is to “raise the banner of Allah over every inch of Palestine” in order to establish the Islamic Republic of Palestine.  
     In 1993 Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, sensitive to demographic changes in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza not favorable to the maintenance of a continued Jewish state of Israel, signed the Oslo Accords with a Palestinian delegation from the Palestine Liberation Organization led by Yasser Arafat. These accords had many provisions and requirements too numerous to mention here. Most important was a requirement that three articles in the Palestinian National Covenant that call for the destruction of the “Zionist” state of Israel be removed. This has not yet been done although promises to do so at a future date satisfied President Bill Clinton. Unfortunately, the Accord set up a Palestinian Authority (PA) as a governing authority in the West Bank and Gaza. Most tragically the PA has used this opportunity to teach hatred of Jews and Israel in its schools and media.
    After Rabin’s assassination Israel has seen a succession of Prime Ministers until Ehud Olmert today.  The Palestinian Authority knows where the terrorists against Israel are in the West Bank and Gaza, and could go after them in a meaningful way if they wished to So far they have not chosen to crack down on Hamas, Hizbollah or the Islamic Jihad.  Hamas, a branch of the Muslim Brotherhood in Gaza was founded in 1987.  Its charter states that its goal is to “raise the banner of Allah over every inch of Palestine” in order to establish the Islamic Republic of Palestine. Israel has agreed to a two- state solution, Palestine and Israel, but in spite of considerable mediation by the United States no progress has been made. As stated  the charter of the Palestinian Authority never recognized the right of Israel to exist. Hamas, which defeated the Fatah party in the last election unambiguously states that its goal is to destroy Israel.  For political and tactical reasons Fatah pretends that it does not share that goal but in fact it does. Since 1993 Hamas has carried out many suicide bombing attacks in Israel proper including many in Jerusalem.  For this reason Israel has been constructing a wall between Israel and the West Bank to reduce these attacks.  The wall so far has met this objective.                

Lebanon
    Until relatively recently Lebanon was primarily a Christian Arab country in a Islamic world.  The Muslim invaders in the 7th century were not able to conquer the Christian presence in the mountains of  Mount Lebanon. Lebanon is a parliamentary republic with a centralized, multireligious, and multiparty government. Because political power and the government bureaucracy are organized according to religious groups, a policy known as confessionalism, Lebanon’s government has been described as a confessional democracy. The 1926 constitution, amended by France in 1927, 1929, and 1943, was complemented by the National Pact of 1943, when Christians were a majority. The National Pact, an unwritten covenant, provided for a Maronite Christian president, a Sunni Muslim prime minister, and a Shia Muslim speaker of parliament. It also provided that the ratio of seats in parliament would be six Christian seats for every five Muslim seats, and other government posts would be allotted on similar sectarian criteria. When Muslims later became the majority, they sought greater power, but Christians refused to make significant changes. The first violent conflict occurred in a limited 1958 rebellion, and tensions later erupted into the Lebanese Civil War from 1975 to 1990.  Since that time the Christian  presence has continually fallen. A 1986 estimate by the United States Central Intelligence Agency of the confessional distribution of the population showed 27 percent Sunnis, 41 percent Shias, 7 percent Druzes, 16 percent Maronites, 5 percent Greek Orthodox, and 3 percent Greek Catholics. However, these data were, at best, informed estimates .   It is a fact, however, that many if not most Christians have left Lebanon. For example, most Lebanese in the United States are Christian not Muslim.
    The 1989 National Reconciliation Charter (commonly known as the Ta’if  Agreement) brought an end to most of the fighting and required amendments to the Lebanese constitution, which were passed in 1990. The constitutional amendments preserved certain confessional allotments but gave Muslims increased power, for example, by dividing parliament’’s seats equally between Christians and Muslims. The new constitution also made the Shia speaker a member of a troika (executive threesome) with the Maronite president and Sunni prime minister. The Syria Accountability and Lebanese Sovereignty Restoration Act was passed by the United States Congress, and signed by President George W. Bush in 2003. The act called “to halt Syrian support for terrorism, end its occupation of Lebanon, stop its development of weapons of mass destruction, and cease its illegal importation of Iraqi oil and illegal shipments of weapons and other military items to Iraq””. It finally restored the importance of supporting Lebanon’’s independence by stating that the full restoration of Lebanon's sovereignty, political independence, and territorial integrity is in the national security interest of the United States.
    The International community was growing convinced that the Syrian regime did not play any positive role in Lebanon, not to mention its negative role in supporting the ex-dictator regime of Saddam Hussein, and the insurgents in Iraq against the new Iraqi government. The Syrian control of Lebanon was very obvious when the Syrian government wanted to renew the expired term of the Syrian-appointed president in Lebanon Emile Lahoud. The Syrian regime worked to amend the Lebanese constitution which at that time prevented the re-election of presidents. The United States and France drafted a resolution that was adopted by the United Nations Security Council on September 2, 2004 as Resolution 1559. It supported a free and fair presidential election in Lebanon to be conducted according to Lebanese constitutional rules, devised without foreign interference or influence, and called upon all forces to withdraw from Lebanon. The resolution called also for the disbanding and disarmament of all Lebanese and non-Lebanese militias in the country.  The Syrian regime ignored the resolution and forced the puppet parliament in Lebanon to amend the constitution of Lebanon and extend the Pro-Syrian’’s president term for three more years despite the wide public opposition to Lahoud.  The Secretary General of the United Nations Kofi Annan reported to the Security Council in the end of September 2004. His report stated that the Syrian regime refuses to pull its troops and security forces from Lebanon, and that neither the Syrian government nor its proxy government in Lebanon is working to disarm the militias in the country such as Hezbollah and the radical Palestinian militias.
    The United Nations Resolution demonstrated  regional and international interest in the case of Lebanon. Arabic media sources from several Arabic countries broke the conventional taboo of criticizing other Arabic regimes. Terms such as pro-Syrian government in Lebanon, Pro-Syrian president of Lebanon and Syrian-appointed president were utilized in the Arabic media joining the international community in describing the Syrian hegemony  over Lebanon. Voices from Jordan and the Arabian Gulf countries called openly on Syria to implement Resolution 1559.  By the end of 2004, the public opposition to the Syrian occupation and its proxy regime in Lebanon grew substantially and attracted many political leaders including even some of those who were previously allied with the Syrian regime such as prominent Muslim-Sunni leader Rafik Hariri, and Druze leader Walid Jumblat. The Lebanese opposition built a wide Christian-Muslim opposition front and decided to participate in the general elections  in May 2005.  The conflict regarding resolution 1559 in Lebanon remained ongoing between those who are hoping to implement it, and those who are afraid of losing their major power in the country  their martial force. As the resolution calls for full withdrawal of Syrian forces, and the disarming of Hezbollah and radical militias, the latter three parties are striving to prevent its implementation so they can maintain an exceptional power through the use of physical control. Former premier Rafik Hariri was assassinated in Beirut on February 14, 2005 by a massive car bomb that killed sixteen other people.  The opposition met after Hariri's assassination later that night and publicly accused the pro-Syrian government and Damascus of being behind the assassination. They called for the Syrian troops to pullout of Lebanon, demanded an international protection for captured Lebanon, and called on the pro-Syrian illegal government to resign. On February 18, 2005, the opposition launched the ““Independence Peaceful Uprising”” to liberate Lebanon, motivating the Lebanese mass to support its move. The Lebanese in occupied Lebanon and in the Lebanese Diaspora held mass rallies to support the freedom of their occupied motherland. The protests continued until the pro-Syrian government in Lebanon resigned on February 28, 2005. Syrian troops finally did pull out but Syrian interest was far from ended.   Today the threat to Lebanon comes primarily from Iranian backed Hezbollah.
    Hezbollah, literally meaning The Party of Allah, was formed from an amalgam of entities opposed to the Israel occupation of southern Lebanon in 1982. It included at its beginning units of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard corps from Iran and still receives most of its financial support and takes orders from Iran. Hezbollah is one of two Shia religious parties in Lebanon, and the only one with a large well trained militia. This militia is more powerful than the Lebanon army. Hezbollah is responsible for the 1983 bombings of the U.S. Embassy and Marine barracks in Beirut.  Hezbollah was formed to drive Israel out of Lebanon.  They succeeded in this in 2000 when Israel withdrew leaving their ally the South Lebanese Army to the mercy of Hezbollah.  The current goal is the victory of the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza and the destruction of the State of Israel.
    According to UN Resolution 1559 Hezbollah was required to disband its militia.  This it refused to do and no one in Lebanon or outside Lebanon was strong enough or willing to force Hezbollah to take this step.
    On July 12, 2006 Hezbollah ground forces, without the knowledge of permission of the government of Lebanon, crossed into Israel and killed several Israeli soldiers, wounded several others and took two Israeli soldiers prisoner. The Prime Minister of Israel, Ehud Olmert, declared this to be an act of war, and attacked with small unites of grounf forces Hezbollah positions along the Israel Lebonon border. By also attacking with air power civilian targets near Beirut Israel’s response was not only weak but counter productive. The military action ended several months later with pretty much the status quo ante.   The two Israeli soldiers are still prisoners and Hezbollah is still as politically and militarily as strong as ever. The Lebanese government is currently siege.

Iraq
    Prior to the current Iraq war begun in 2003 Iraq under the dictatorship of Saddam Hussein was secular in nature not Islamic.  With a majority Shia  population and a Sunni led government Saddam kept a very tight rein on religious expression and activities.  Under the authority of the UN the United States led a coalition of Western and Arab countries in driving Iraq out of Kuwait which it had invaded in the first gulf war of 1990-1991. The unsatisfactory settlement of the war left Saddam in power and he proceeded to kill his opponents among the Shia in the south and the Kurds in the north. Therefore the state of war between the United States na d Iraq never really ended and no-fly zones were imposed and enforced by the United States in the north and south to protect the Kurds and Shia respectively.
    UN inspections after the war made it clear that Iraq was pursuing chemical and biological weapons of mass destruction, and was much closer to acquiring a nuclear bomb than had been suspected.   During the time between the two gulf wars Iraq violated many UN resolutions, failed to comply with UN sanctions, corrupted the Oil for Food Program, granted a sanctuary for Al Qaeda in the north and provided aid to the Palestinians in its war against Israel.  In 1998 the United States during the Clinton Administration declared by act of Congress that Regime change in Iraq is the policy of the United States Government.
    In 2003 the considerable threat posed by Iraq to United States national security was undeniable and was increasing as the UN sanctions against Iraq were being eroded and would soon disappear.  The Bush Administration with the support of the Congress and the UN Security council invaded Iraq and in short order accomplished the regime change advocated by the Clinton Administration and Congress in 1998.
    Miltant Islam did not take kindly to Western forces, characterized as Crusaders in its mind, invading and occupying an Islamic country.  The concept of a democratically elected government is anathema to Islamists.  In Islam any land under Islamic control must forever remain so. Soon the battle became a religious war.  Fighters from all over the Islamic world came to Iraq to help expel the Western invaders.  One of the most important of these was al Zarqawi, now dead, from Jordan. He made clear the religious nature of the struggle in his Seven Steps to an Islamic Caliphate
1  2000-2003.  The Awakening. 
    9/11 designed to awake Muslims to their power.
    2  2003-2006  Opening Eyes
    al Qaeda becomes a world-wide mass movement
    3  2007-2010  Arising and Standing Up
    A focus on Syria; attacks on Turkey and Israel
    4  2010-2013 Collapse of all the hated apostate Arab 
    governments
    5  2013-2016 Proclamation of the World Caliphate
    6 2016-2020 World-wide confrontation between the believers 
    and the non-believers
    7 Sovereignty of the Islamic Caliphate and world-wide
     implementation  of the Sharia law. 

    The importance of an Islamic victory in Iraq was also made clear by Osama  bin Laden and Ayman al Zawahiri:
    Bin Laden said this “The Whole World Is Watching This War And The Two Adversaries; The Islamic Nation, On The One Hand, And The United States And Its Allies On The Other. It Is Either Victory And Glory Or Misery And Humiliation.”     Ayman al-Zawahiri said that the following goals must be accomplised:
1.Establish  An Islamic Authority Over As Much Territory in Iraq As possible.
    2. Extend The Jihad Wave To The Secular Countries Neighboring Iraq.
    3.Expel the Americans from Iraq.
    4. Establish an Islamic authority or amirate, then develop it and support it until it achieves the level of a caliphate.
    5. Extend the jihad wave to the secular countries neighboring Iraq. 

    Unfortunately when a permanent government was elected in Iraq in 2005 people voted primarily along sectarian lines.  With an 80% Shia population it is not surprising that the elected government is a Shia dominated government.  The Sunni population which formerly controlled the government is not happy nor is the Sunni oriented Al Qaeda  about this impediment to  its Islamic objectives.  Al Qaeda blew up the Golden Mosques in Samara, one of the Holiest sites in Shia Islam in order to promote a sectarian war between the Sunni and the Shia.  Al Qaeda succeeded with this strategy and sectarian warfare in now in full swing with Iraqi citizens by the hundreds the unfortunate victims.

Iran
    Persia, which in antiquity fought the Assyrians and the Babylonians for mastery of the known world, was defeated by Alexander and the Greeks over two millennia ago. The Sassanian Empire in Persia, after being weakened by wars with Byzantium, was conquered by an Islamic army of Arabs in 642 AD thus establishing Islam as the state religion in Persia.  In 1501 Shah Ismail I made Shia Islam the state religion and it has been Shia ever since. In 1935 Persia changed its name to Iran.
    The policies of Reza Shah Pahlavi who came to power shortly after the ending of the First World War were secular and anti-clerical. These policies were continued by his son Muhammed Reza Shah who in 1963 initiated the White Revolution. This called for land reform, nationalization of the forests, sale of state own entities to private interests, profit sharing in industry, an anti-illiteracy campaign and women’s suffrage.  This program of modernization and Westernization did not sit well with the clerics.
    For a variety of reasons, both political and religious the Shah was removed from power in January 1979.  A month later Imam Ruhollah Khomeini returned from exile in Paris and was welcomed by an enthusiastic crowd of three million people. . On November 4, 1979 students, mostly ardent supporters of Khomeini seized control of the American Embassy in Tehran and imprisoned most of its staff. In March by referendum the Monarchy was replaced by the Islamic Republic of Islam.  In November Khomeini was made Supreme Leader for Life and “Leader of the Revolution.  A new Constitution was established that established a fully theocratic state with Sharia law as the law of the land.  Real power resided in the hands of the Ayatollahs not the elected government. Many of the revolutionaries found out too late what they had gotten the country into but it was too late.  Khomeini on his return from exile had promised the formation of  democratically elected government that would not be interfered with by the clerics.  He also promised that no one would be homeless, and that Iranians would have free telephones, heat, electricity bus services and oil.  None of this came to pass.  Women were forced to cover their hair and  be properly attired. The Iranian Educational System was completely Islamized at all levels . Many opponents of the regime, conservatively estimated as over 30,000,  were put to death.
    Since that time Iran has been one of the major supporters of terrorist organizations in the world including Hamas and Hezbollah. Government is in the hands of the Ayatollahs not the elected government. The  newly elected President of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is cut from the same cloth as the Ayatollahs . He publically has made known his belief that the end of times is at hand with the return of the Mahdi soon to occur. He has stated publically his disbelief in the reality of the holocaust.  He is violently oposed to all Jews and the United States. Worse of all he is aggressively pursuing nuclear weapons in spite of a UN resolution.  This has the United States, Israel and most Sunni Arab states in the region highly concerned.

The Global Jihad 
    The Islamic concept of Jihad , or holy war is described as documented in and derived from the Koran by Ibn Warraq in his book Why I am not a Muslim as follows:      "The totalitarian nature of Islam is nowhere more apparent than in the concept of jihad, the holy war, whose ultimate aim is to conquer the entire world and submit it to the one true faith, to the law of Allah. To Islam alone has been granted the truth: there is no possibility of salvation outside it. It is the sacred duty-an incumbent religious duty established in the Koran and the traditions of all Muslims to bring Islam to all humanity. Jihad is a divine institution, enjoined specially for the purpose of advancing Islam. Muslims must strive, fight, and
kill in the name of God.
Sura 9.5-6: Kill those who join other gods with God wherever you may find them.
Sura 4.76: Those who believe fight in the cause of God.
Sura 8.12: I will instill terror into the hearts of the Infidels, strike off their heads then, and strike off from them every fingertip.
Sura 8.39-42: Say to the Infidels: If they desist from their unbelief, what is now past shall be forgiven them; but if they return to it, they have already before them the doom of the ancients! Fight then against them till strife be at an end, 'and the religion be all of it God's.
Sura 2.256: But they who believe, and who fly their country, and fight in the cause of God may hope for God's mercy: and God is Gracious, Merciful. It is a grave sin for a Muslim to shirk the battle against the unbelievers those who do will roast in hell.
Sura 8.15, 16: Believers, when you meet the unbelievers preparing for battle do not turn your backs to them. [Anyone who does] shall incur the wrath of God and hell shall be his home: an evil dwelling indeed.
Sura 9.39: If you do not fight, He will punish you severely, and put others in your place. Those who die fighting for the only true religion, Islam, will be amply rewarded in the life to come.
Sura 4.74: Let those fight in the cause of God who barter the life of this world for that which is to come; for whoever fights on God's path, whether he is killed or triumphs, We will give him a handsome reward.   
    Jihad, fighting to extend the Ummah, i.e. the world of Islam, is an obligation for all Muslims. The global jihad is by no means restricted to the above discussed  countries or Al Qaeda, but is truly world wide in scope. This holy war to establish the supremacy of Islam over the entire world is going on in all regions of the world. Somalia recently established an Islamic State modeled on the Taliban only to see it crumble with the onslaught or troops from Ethiopia.  Ethiopia, this once Christian country from the time of Christ, has its own problems with Islamic militancy and is now half Muslim. Muslims are destroying Christian churches in many countries  including Pakistan, Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Nigeria the Philippines and Kosovo among others. Islamic terrorist bombings are taking place all over the world in Christian, Hindu, and Buddhist countries, and in the Muslim countries Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Morocco and Algeria.  Strong Islamic insurgencies are present in the Philippines and Indonesia.  Formerly moderate Muslim countries are being radicalized by radical Islamists As President Bush has stated this is the ideological struggle of our time and it is multi-generational in scope and reach.
 

Discussion
    The religious wars of the 16th and 17th centuries derived from the religious, political, social and economic effects of the Protestant Reformation. They were, for the most part, over at the end of the English Civil War. The religious wars of our time are dated from and the granting of  British and French Mandates over formerly Ottoman lands in 1922  to the present time.  However, in fact  a religious or holy war was declared by Islam against Christians, Jews and unbelievers in Muhammed’s time and has been waged against Christian Europe since the invasion of Spain in 711 until the Ottoman unsuccessful siege of Vienna in 1683.  Since 1683, because of Western strength and Islamic weakness, it has until our times been somewhat in abeyance.  There is an one interesting commonality between the earlier religious wars and those of our time. At the time of the Reformation Islamic armies had just conquered Hungary and were threatening Germany. In his book On War Against the Turk written in 1529 Luther demonstrated that he had a good understanding of Islam and the threat it posed for all Christians and Christian lands. He understood that in Islamic lands Christians were not allowed to  preach or confess Christ. Luther wrote this about the Koran and Islam:
“I have some pieces of Mohammed’’s Koran which might be called in German a book of sermons or doctrines of the kind that we call pope’’s decretals. When I have time, I must put it into German so that every man may see what a foul and shameful book it is. In the first place, he praises Christ and Mary very much as those who alone were without sin, and yet he believes nothing more of Christ than that he is a holy prophet, like Jeremiah or Jonah, and denies that he is God’’s Son and true God. Besides, he does not believe that Christ is the Savior of the world, Who died for our sins, but that He preached to His own time, and completed His work before His death, just like any other prophet.  On the other hand, he praises and exalts himself highly and boasts that he has talked with God and the angels, and that since Christ’’s office of prophet is now complete, it has been commanded to him to bring the world to his faith and if the world is not willing, to compel it or punish it with the sword; and there is much glorification of the sword in it. Therefore, the Turks think their Mohammed much higher and greater than Christ, for the office of Christ has ended and Mohammed’’s office is still in force. 
    From this anyone can easily observe that Mohammed is a destroyer of our Lord Christ and His kingdom, and if anyone denies concerning Christ, that He is God’’s Son and has died for us, and still lives and reigns at the right hand of God, what has he left of Christ? Father, Son, Holy Ghost, Baptism, the Sacrament, Gospel, Faith and all Christian doctrine and life are gone, and there is left, instead of Christ, nothing more than Mohammed with his doctrine of works and especially of the sword. That is the chief doctrine of the Turkish faith in which all abominations, all errors, all devils are piled up in one heap.” 
    “In the second place, the Turk’’s Koran, or creed, teaches him to destroy not only the Christian faith, but also the whole temporal government. His Mohammed, as has been said, commands that ruling is to be done by the sword, and in his Koran the sword is the commonest and noblest work.” 
    Luther    stated  that the response to these Islamic assaults on Christian lands was inadequate.  Further he believed that it was the responsibility of the Temporal authorities, i.e. the State,  to defend Christians and Christian lands and not the responsibility of the Church.  But he also made it clear that Christians should fight to defend Christian lands against the Turkish invasions but that they should fight under the banner of the temporal authority, the Emperor, not the Church. In the Battle of Vienna in 1683 in which the Ottoman armies were turned back it was the Polish King Jan Sobieski who led the defense.
    Luther had written: " My advice, therefore, is not to set the armed preparation so low and not to offer our poor Germans to slaughter. If we are not going to make an adequate, honest resistance that will have some staying power, it were far better not to begin a war, but to give up lands and people to the Turk in time, without useless bloodshed, rather than have him win anyhow in an easy battle and with shameful bloodshed, as happened in Hungary with King Lewis. Fighting against the Turk is not like fighting against the King of France, or the Venetians, or the pope; he is a different kind of warrior; he has people and money in abundance; he beat the Sultan twice in succession, and that took people. Why, dear sir, his people are under arms all the time, so that he can quickly bring together three or four hundred thousand men; if we were to cut off a hundred thousand, he would soon be back again with as many men as before. He has staying  power. 
There is, therefore, nothing at all in trying to meet him with fifty or sixty thousand men unless we have an equal or a greater number in reserve. Only count up his lands, dear sir. He has Greece, Asia, Syria, Egypt, Arabia, etc., that is, he has so many lands that if Spain, France, England, Germany, Italy, Bohemia, Hungary, Poland, and Denmark were all counted together, they would not equal the land he has. Besides, he is master of all of them and commands effective and ready obedience. And, as has been said, they are constantly under arms and are exercised in warfare, so that he has staying power, and can deliver two, three, four battles, one after another, as he showed against the Sultan. This Gog and Magog is a different kind of majesty than our kings and princes." 
      In other words, Islamic forces  must be confronted with greater force or not at all. These comments of Luther nearly 500 years ago are as timely for our time as they were for his.
    The religious wars of out time, for the most part, can be dated from the time of the awarding of the  British mandates of Palestine and Iraq, and the French mandates of Lebanon and Syria following the end of world War I , the breakup of the Ottoman empire and the ending by Attaturk of the last Caliphate in Istanbul. This led to the Muslim Brotherhood, the writings of Sayyid Qtub, and  ultimately to Hamas, Hezbollah, Al Qaeda and the Islamic Republic of Iran.  It is far from a coincidence that the very focus of Islamic militancy and the religious wars of today is the very land occupied  by these four Mandates.   Militant Islam  cannot abide Jewish or Christian political entities in lands once Islamic. Neither is it willing to accept an Iraq that is not a sanctuary for and a supporter of Islamic terrorism. Islamic forces have succeeded in eliminating most of the Christians from formerly Christian Lebanon. The stated goals now are to destroy the Jewish State of Israel and re-establish the Islamic Caliphate in Baghdad.
    The religious wars in the 16th and 17th centuries were brutal but compared to the present rather narrow in scope. There never was any question of establishing theocracies. Since the time of Constantine  the State and the Church in Europe had been separate. It is true that political, social  and economic issues also were involved.  But the religious issues involved concerned primarily the exclusive supremacy of the Catholic Church in matters of faith and morals, as had also been the case since the time of Constantine.
    In the religious wars of today we have a religion, Islam, that claims exclusive temporal and religious authority over all subjects in its domain. In addition it has stated goals, goals that have been in existence for 1400 years that is the obligation of all Muslims to make the whole world Islamic. In addition to that there are two versions of Islam, Shia and Sunni that have fought with each other off and on for 1400 years since the first Shia Caliph Ali, husband of Muhammed’s daughter Fatima , was murdered as was his son and Muhammed’s grandson Hussain.  This split is at the heart of the current sectarian violence in Iraq.  Since the bombing of the Golden Mosque in Samara Sunni and Shia death squads have been killing civilians of the opposing version of Islam with brutality and abandon. What is desperately needed is reconciliation but that appears to be slow to come by.  The American public is impatient for this to happen and wants to give up the fight which would be disastrous for our national interests.  Perhaps we should recall that it took Catholics and Protestants a hundred years to realize that such actions were futile and had to end.  And end they did.
    Militant Islam is opposed to democratically elected governments , all man-made laws and free people, because, in Islam no one is free from Allah’s law.  In Islamic countries where it Sharia law could it implemented it was  and where it can be implemented,  Sharia law will be implemented. Islam states that there is only one source of authority in the world and that is Allah, as interpreted by Muhammed his last prophet and messenger. All information necessary for human society is to be found in the Koran,  the hadiths, or sayings of Muhammed, the traditions of Islam and the Sharia law.
    For demographic and political reasons Europe is slowly becoming Islamizised.  Western Civilization is based on Judeo-Christian morality, the inheritance from classical Rome and Greece, the renaissance, the reformation, the enlightenment and the rule of law. This inheritance  must be protected from the forces of Militant Islam  by all means including military force if necessary.  As Luther said nearly 500 years ago, when Europe was also under attack from Islam,  the military force needed, in our case,  to defend Western Civilization from Islamic jihad  must be a force more than adequate to accomplish the mission. Our defense must not be allowed to fail, not in Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran and anywhere else in the world  where the Islamic global jihad is on the move. Islam must be saved from the literal interpretation of texts in the Koran.  This will have to be done by Muslims just as the religious wars in the 16th and 17th centuries were ended by Christians.  However, for non-jihad oriented Muslims to come to understand the jihad is the road to destruction not success, and for the juhadists to come to this realization as well, Militant Islam in both Sunni and Shia versions must be militarily defeated. There is no other military force in the world that can do this other than the United States.  This is the calling of our generation.  We should not fail. Indeed we must not fail.
    In considering where we are in this war we fighting  that was declared on us and the other  Western democracies by the forces of Islamic jihadism, two things stand out. On the one hand failure is not an option because the consequences of our being defeated in Iraq and elsewhere by the forces of Islamic jihadism would be catastrophic. On the other hand, it must be said that victory is by no means assured. There has developed a "perfect storm" of forces and interests allied against us that seek our defeat.
    In this essay we have discussed the forces of the Islamic jihad that include Al Qaeda, the Muslim Brotherhood, salafism, wahhabism. and Khomeinism  that seek the demise of Western democracy and seek the installation of a world Islamic order with a Caliphates and universal sharia law. These forces are active all over the world and not just in Iran and Afghanistan.  Their collective weapon is the indiscriminate uses of suicide bombers, car bombs and roadside improvised explosive devices. Undelievable as it may seem to some these fundamentalist Islamic forces are making common cause  with the secular political left in order to bring down the Bush Administration and  defeat the United States in Iraq.  Each side believes it will win out in the end because, clearly one side of this holy yet  unholy alliance must ultimately lose.  An analogy would be the political left joining forces with the Islamic revolution in Iran to bring down the Shah. In this event the political left lost out badly and many of its members were killed.
    In the United States the impeachment of President Clinton and the subsequent election of President Bush gave rise to such undying hatred and hostility to Presdent Bush that it is referred to as the BDS, i.e. the Bush Derangement Syndrome. Secondly the forces of the anti-globalist movement against free markets and capitalism sees the Islamic world as victims of the West and want to see the United States defeated in Iraq for its own reasons. Much of the mainstream media wants to see Bush destroyed and if this means a loss of the war in Iraq so be it.  In addition Saudi Arabia and other gulf states put large amounts of money into Madrassas in the United States to teach the Wahhabi version of Islam to Americans, and into university Middle East Centers  in order to prevent Americans from gaining  an understanding of the true nature of jihadism.
    Defeating the insurgency in Iraq and Afghanistan is not easy.  Defending against suicide bombers, car bombs and improvised explosive devices in difficult.  We never have been faced before with an  enemy that is willing to kill Iraqi civilian men, women and childen indiscriminately by the hundreds. The insurgency understands full well that its only chance og winning is to destoy the willingness of the people in the United States to support the war effort until victory is obtained.  They are well aware of why the United States lost in Vietnam and pulled out of Beirut and Mogadishu. Many in the United States do not yet understand the nature of this world struggleof Islamic jihadism against the Western democracies and the catastrophic consequences of defeat.
    Our time  is not the first time that the United States has been faced with an enemy within. On May 16, 1940, in an address to Congress President Roosevelt said this: "We have seen the treacherous use of the "fifth column" by which persons supposed to be peaceful visitors were actually part of an enemy unit of occupation".  However, after the Japanese attrack on Pearl Harbor December 7, 1941 the strong America First anti-war movement disappeared almost over night. Unfortunately President Roosevelt, acting on his not totally irrational fears, unjustly imprisoned  thousands of loyal Japanese-American citizens  for the duration of the war thus denying them their constitutional rights.
    A stronger and more relevant parallel to the problem President Bush currently faces is what Abraham Lincoln faced during most of the Civil War.  He has been  quoted as saying he feared "the fire in the rear" more than the Confederate Army as a threat to theUnion, i.e. the  survival of the country as one nation indivisible. He was referring to the Copperheads, the anti-war movement in the Democratic party. The Democratic party was a “peace party” in favor of going back to the status pro ante.  That is they were willing to let the South back into the Union without eliminating slavery.  It is fair to say that Lincoln initiated  the war by provisioning Fort Sumner and unilaterally denying the South the right to secede.  There was no congressional vote and the legitimate constitutional issue involved was ultimately settled on the battlefield and not by the Supreme Court.
     Lincoln was ridiculed for being an uneducated “baboon”, and was routinely called far worse names by the newspapers and by his opponents than is Bush. His own Cabinet was deeply divided, much more so than is the case with Bush, and not only did members of his own party oppose him but many  influential Republicans wanted to deny him the nomination. Horace Greeley said in the summer of 1864 “Mr. Lincoln is already beaten. He cannot be elected.And we must have another  ticket to save us from overthrow.”To put it mildly, the Union Army had suffered exceedingly high  casualties and the country was very war weary.  In 1864 Grant and his Army of the Potomac pushed South along a line east of Richmond in a series of bloody battles in which  the Union Army typically suffered three times as many casualties as did Lee’s defending Army.Grant knew that although the casualties were numerically greater in his Army they were proportionally much higher for Lee.  From 1861-1865 a Congressiomal Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War attempted to micro-manage the war, fortunately with little success. Just before the Democratic Convention in Chicago Lincoln presciently told one of his close associates “ They must nominate a Peace Democrat on a war platform or a War Democrat on a peace platform, and I personally can’t say I care much what they do" The platform of the Democratic party in 1864 was indeed a peace platform and the Democrats did indeed nominate a War Democrat in the person of Union General George McClellan, who had been and still was highly regarded by his troops in the field.
     Of course, in contrast to these strong parallels there also were vast differences the situation in 1864 and that which we find ourselves in 2007.  During the Civil War the casualties in the Union Army, as well as on the Confederate side were horrendous, The Union Armies suffered 400,000 war dead during the Civil War out of a total population in the North and West of approximately 24 million.As Grant moved south in 1864 to what amounted to essentially a stalemate in the siege of Petersburg south of Richmond his armies sufferd 61,000 casualties in May and June alone. There was scarcely a family in either North or South who hadn’t been
touched personally by the war. To make matters worse a Confederate Army swiftly moved up the Shenendoah Valley virtually unopposed and attacked a weakly defended Washington, actually from the north via Silver Spring before being turned back.At great risk to his own safety Lincoln witnessed this battle in person.  One cannot legitimately compare casualties and war weariness from a four  year old war with 3000 dead with the unspeakably carnage of the Civil war.On the other hand Lincoln was not confronted with 24/7 cable news, multiple polls and daily second guessing of military decisions in the field. In September Sherman took Atlanta. In November, Abraham Lincoln won the election with 212 electoral votes to McClellan’s 21. Lincoln  won 54% 0f the popular vote and 78% of the soldier vote which was counted separately.Fortunately because of the stalwart leadership of President Lincoln among other factors the Union was preserved.
  In our time, as it was in Lincoln's time defeat must not be an option. Because of the perfect storm of opponents of our war against the global Islamic jihad  from outside but also from within the United States, especially strong opposition within the Congress and the mainstream media, victory is by no means yet assured.
 

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