David Bukay - Islam and the Infidels: The Politics of Jihad, Da’wah, and Hijrah

Copyright 2016 by Transaction Publishers, New Brunswick, New Jersey.

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Library of Congress Catalog Number: 2015047583
ISBN: 978-1-4128-6295-0
eBook: 978-1-4128-6343-8
Printed in the United States of America

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Bukay, David, author.

Title: Islam and the infidels : the politics of jihad, dawah, and hijrah / David Bukay.

Description: Transaction Publishers, New Brunswick, New Jersey :

Transaction Publishers, [2016] | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2015047583 (print) | LCCN 2015049290 (ebook) | ISBN 9781412862950 (hardcover) | ISBN 9781412863438 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: Islam--Relations. | Jihad. | Dawah (Islam)

Classification: LCC BP171 .B85 2016 (print) | LCC BP171 (ebook) | DDC 297.7--dc23

LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/

2015047583

Islam is more than a spiritual belief system. It is an all-encompassing ideology that seeks to regulate the worlds political affairs according to Sharah. Islam is not a religion in the traditional sense of the word; it is a religion that stands beside other aspects of human institutions and practices its beliefs. Islam is much more than a religion, being a complete way of life and mainly operating in the political realm. It is a religious, educational, social, economic, philosophical, and, above all, political religion. In fact, Islam is an all-embracing sociopoliticalreligious coercive ideology that encompasses every field of human endeavor. It is different from other religions in the fact that it is not limited to the spiritual aspects of life, but engulfs all aspects of life from the cradle to the grave.

Islam is also unique by declaring itself as the one and only righteous, legitimate, and authoritative religion that claims to have a divine mandate over everyone on Earth, including the entire humanity. It deserves to control the entire world, while all other religions are deemed infidelity. Islam is a belief system that insists on its superiority over all other religions and political systems. Muslims are entitled to control, dominate, and subdue the infidels until Islam dominates the entire world. All humankind must accept the supremacy of Islam, religiously (becoming Muslims) and politically (coming under Islamic rule). Believers must strive for their best in their own life until Islam dominates the entire world and becomes the only legitimate religion on earth. Being a missionary religion with no borders or political limits, Islam intends to be the universal religion for all mankind.

As a political ideology, Islam promises utopian life, world peace, and harmony, provided the world finally submits to Allah and the rule of Sharah. The alternatives are wars and anarchy. At the same time, the Islamic objective is to have all aspects of other nations undergo gradual Islamization and to yield to the Islamic law. The aim is to establish a new human society, wholeheartedly committed to the teachings of Islam in their totality and striving to abide by those teachings. There is only one religion of Allah in the heavens and on earth and that is Islam and all humanity must submit to its rules and way of life.

Islam is defined as total submission, surrender, and devotion to Allah and his messenger. It actually derives from the Arabic letters s.l.m., which means to surrender to or submit oneself. Islam is the act of submission of oneself; and a Muslim is one who has submitted to Allah and his messenger. The true religion in the sight of Allah is only Islam. Allah has perfected the Islamic system of belief and bestowed his favors upon the Muslims in full, and has chosen submission as the creed for them.

Islam is a missionary religion, an ever-expanding faith that has no borders or political limits. From its vantage point, it is a universal religion intended for all mankind, being the only legitimate sacred religion. It aims at a salvation for humanity through submission, surrender, and total devotion to Allah alone. Being an ethnocentric religion and culture, Islam makes clear black and white differentiations:

(a)Dr al-Islm (the abode of Islam, the territories under Islamic rule) against Dr al- H arb (the abode of war, the territories that are not yet Islamic). The destination of Islam is to fight and conquer Dr al-Harb until it becomes part of Dr al-Islm. Between these two realms there is always a perpetual state of war, never peace. There can exist a ceasefire or armistice, a temporary situation, but only until Islams total world hegemony is established.

(b)The good and righteous society against the bad and unclean society. Muslim believers are always, as a rule, doing the good and lawful (al-Marf) and forbidding the wrong and unlawful, the bad and evil (al-Munkar). Being pure and striving for perfection, they follow the Islamic command, which is al-Amr bil-Marf. At the same time, infidels are plotters, aggressors, imperialistcolonialist occupiers, who plot against Islamic doctrine to eliminate it and its believers.

(c)Dr al-Wilyah (the abode of loyalty to Islam and to the Ummah) against Dr al-Kufr (the abode of infidelity). All four Islamic schools of law and Islamic classical exegetes view earth in its entirety as consisting of these two zones, in which Islam is the revisionist, motivational, victorious power, and the result is historically ordained. It is the right against wrong; the pious against the evildoers; and above all Paradise against Hell.

These conceptions legitimize, justify, and sanctify the purpose of waging wars against the infidels to occupy the entire world. Therefore, it is either the infidels conversion to Islam or the payment of Jizyah as a symbol of subjugation. It is the nature of Islam to dominate and not to be dominated; to rule and not to be ruled; to impose its belief system on all the nations and control them. This one-sided perception of Islam shared by Muslim exegetes, is of them being poor innocent victims in a world of aggressors. For them it is clear: there is no historical proof that Islam was spread by the sword, and even non-Muslim scholars admit that this is nothing more than a myth that cannot be substantiated by historical facts.

The belief of Islam being a religion of love, peace, and forgiveness, is reflected in Muslim exegetes declarations: Islam is in no way aggressive, it does not live by and has not expanded by the sword, and it does not coerce the infidels to convert to Islam or be killed in a Jihad war. Islam tolerates all non-Muslims, whoever they are, and bases its approach only on world peace, mutual security, and human cooperation. Jihad is only defensive and intends to repulse hostility and to fight back oppression and aggression. The call of Islam is only through good intentions.