This past week Linda Sarsour used the word jihad and spoke of resisting the administration and fighting against tyrants. People who want you to remain ignorant off the truth took to the Washington Post on Sunday to obfuscate the term "jihad." What needs to be known is that her consistent usage of the term resistance and the constant reference to her feelings of angst against those who would keep Islamic terrorists from entering America fit perfectly in the last fatwa by the last Caliph in 1915.
The 1915 fatwa was discovered by Ambassador Morgenthau
in 1915 and sent to America, where it was kept as top secret until the 1960s.This
is extremely important to understand because it reveals that the federal
government feared releasing this information in the United States may cause
Muslims to rise up and commit acts of jihad at home. Linda Sasour’s comments
reveal that keeping this fatwa hidden has mis-educated Americans about what
Islam truly believes in regards to the Islamic term “jihad.”
We are told we must learn from history or we are doomed to
repeat it. This is why historical understanding of the term jihad is extremely
important. For this reason I am posting
part of a chapter from my book Civilization Jihad and the Myth of Moderate
Islam published in 2015.
In November 1915, a call for jihad
was given by the Caliph Sheik-ul-Islam after the Ottoman Empire declared
war against the Allies. Ambassador Morgenthau, described the event in his
biography.
Sheik-ul-Islam published his
proclamation, summoning the whole Moslem world to arise and massacre their
Christian oppressors. "Oh, Moslems!" concluded this document.
"Ye who are smitten with happiness and are on the verge of sacrificing
your life and your goods for the cause of right, and of braving perils, gather
now around the Imperial throne, obey the commands of the Almighty, who, in the
Koran, promises us bliss in this and in the next world; embrace ye the foot of
the Caliph's throne and know ye that the state is at war with Russia, England,
France, and their Allies, and that these are the enemies of Islam. The Chief of
the believers, the Caliph, invites you all as Moslems to join in the Holy
War!"[i]
According to the Ambassador this was
distributed and read in mosques in “India, China, Persia, Egypt, Algiers,
Tripoli, Morocco, and the like; in all these places it was read to the
assembled multitudes and the populace was exhorted to obey the mandate.”[ii] BUT,
what was also being distributed in the same areas was a pamphlet written in
Arabic heavily filled with quotes from the Koran. This pamphlet in English
contained 10,000 words that incited racial and religious hatred. “It described
a detailed plan of operations for the assassination and extermination of all Christians---except
those of German nationality.”[iii]
That pamphlet was translated into
English on March 10, 1915. When Ambassador Morgenthau wrote his story of what
happened during the Great War (World War 1) he felt that this fatwa had to be shared
with the American people so they would understand what happened. Below is one
portion he shared.
O people of the faith and O beloved
Moslems, consider, even though but for a brief moment, the present condition of
the Islamic world. For if you consider this but for a little you will weep
long. You will behold a bewildering state of affairs which will cause the tear
to fall and the fire of grief to blaze. You see the great country of India,
which contains hundreds of millions of Moslems, fallen, because of religious
divisions and weaknesses, into the grasp of the enemies of God, the infidel
English. You see forty, millions of Moslems in Java shackled by the chains of
captivity and of affliction under the rule of the Dutch, although these
infidels are much fewer in number than the faithful and do not enjoy a much
higher civilization. You see Egypt, Morocco, Tunis, Algeria, and the Sudan
suffering the extremes of pain and groaning in the grasp of the enemies of God
and his apostle. You see the vast country of Siberia and Turkestan and Khiva
and Bokhara and the Caucasus and the Crimea and Kazan and Ezferhan and
Kosahastan, whose Moslem peoples believe in the unity of God, ground under the
feet of their oppressors, who are the enemies already of our religion. You
behold Persia being prepared for partition and you see the city of the
Caliphate, which for ages has unceasingly fought breast to breast with the
enemies of our religion, now become the target for oppression and violence.
Thus wherever you look you see that the enemies of the true religion,
particularly the English, the Russian, and the French, have oppressed Islam and
invaded its rights in every possible way. We cannot enumerate the insults we
have received at the hands of these nations who desire totally to destroy Islam
and drive all Mohammedans off the face of the earth. This tyranny has passed
all endurable limits; the cup of our oppression is full to overflowing. . . .
In brief, the Moslems work and the infidels eat; the Moslems are hungry and suffer
and the infidels gorge themselves and live in luxury. The world of Islam sinks
down and goes backward, and the Christian world goes forward and is more and more exalted.
The Moslems are enslaved and the infidels are the great rulers. This is all
because the Moslems have abandoned the plan set forth in the Koran and ignored
the Holy War which it commands. . . . But the time has now come for the Holy
War, and by this the land of Islam shall be forever freed from the power of the
infidels who oppress it. This holy war has now become a sacred duty. Know ye
that the blood of infidels in the Islamic lands may be shed with
impunity---except those to whom the Moslem power has promised security and who
are allied with it. [Herein we find that Germans and Austrians are excepted
from massacre.] The killing of infidels who rule over Islam has become a
sacred duty, whether you do it secretly or openly, as the Koran has
decreed: 'Take them and kill them whenever you find them. Behold we have
delivered them unto your hands and given you supreme power over them.' He who
kills even one unbeliever of those who rule over us, whether he does it
secretly or openly, shall be rewarded by God. And let every Moslem, in whatever
part of the world he may be, swear a solemn oath to kill at least three or four
of the infidels who rule over him, for they are the enemies of God and of the
faith. Let every Moslem know that his reward for doing so shall be doubled by
the God who created heaven and earth. A Moslem who does this shall be saved
from the terrors of the day of Judgment, of the resurrection of the dead.
Who is the man who can refuse such a recompense for such a small deed? … Yet
the time has come that we should rise up as the rising of one man, in one hand
a sword, in the other a gun, in his pocket balls of fire and death-dealing
missiles, and in his heart the light of the faith, and that we should lift up
our voices, saying India for the Indian Moslems, Java for the Javanese Moslems,
Algeria for the Algerian Moslems, Morocco for the Moroccan Moslems, Tunis for
the Tunisan Moslems, Egypt for the Egyptian Moslems, Iran for the Iranian
Moslems, Turan for the Turanian Moslems, Bokhara for the Bokharan Moslems,
Caucasus for the Caucasian Moslems, and the Ottoman Empire for the Ottoman
Turks and Arabs.[iv]
[Emphasis added]
The
1915 fatwa piece you just read was hidden from the American people as a
classified document until 1961. The State Department kept this under lock and
key because of its incendiary nature. Interestingly under new Common Core
American education curriculum standards, it is a Primary Source Document as Ambassador
Morgenthau named it as the cause of the Armenian Genocide in his biography and
in numerous communications with Washington.
The
rest of the document revealed a call on every Muslim to one of three levels of
Jihad:
1. Heart Jihad
2. Word of Mouth Jihad
3.
Physical Jihad
The
fact that an Islamic Holy War can have warriors engaged at one of three levels
is significant as previous to this the concept of jihad on differing
levels was unknown to those who are not Muslim.
Heart
Jihad
This
concept of jihad (holy war) as stated above was unknown to exist before the
fatwa was read. It simply stated:
This
is the easiest and simplest. In this case it is to suppose that every
unbeliever is an enemy to persecute and exterminate him from the face of the
earth. There is not a Muslim in the world who is not inspired by this
idea. However in the Koran it said: “That such a war is not enough for a Muslim
whether young or old, and must also participate in the other parts of the Holy
War.[v]
This
is a war that takes places internally. It passes hatred and prejudicial
opinions from generation to generation. This level of jihad explains the
continual exclusivity of the sharia compliant Muslims in countries where they
do not have a large enough number to do more than keep the war inside of
themselves. Note that this level of jihad is a requirement of all
Muslims regardless of age. This is a requirement to desire the genocide of all
who are not Muslims.
Word
of Mouth Jihad
Another
level of jihad revealed that Islamic concept of war was much larger than
previously thought.
Jihad
by word of mouth. That is to
say fighting by writing and speaking. This kind of war for example should
pertain to the Muslims of the Caucasus. They should have commenced this war
three or four months ago, because their actual position does not permit them to
but the carrying on of such warfare. Every Muslim is in duty bound to write and
speak against the unbelievers when actual circumstances do not permit him to
assume more stringent measures, as for instances in the Caucasus. Therefore
every writer must use his pen in favor of such a war.[vi]
This
second level of warfare can take the appearance of deceit to obtain influence
and strength. This is the level at which Civilization Jihad takes place. The
reasoning again is that they are not strong enough in number to take part in
the third level.
In
North America this war has been waged by forcing textbook publishers to provide
textbooks that promote Islam instead of an objective review of the religion
(See Chapter 5 for more detail.). Triple I-T, the International Institute of
Islamic Thought, fights this battle in North America by giving colleges large
sums of money to install Islamic professors. Another place this battle can be
seen is through the concept of Islamization of Knowledge a teaching by Dr.
Ismail Faruqi that all knowledge is only acceptable after Islam has purified
it.
College professors of Islam are
encouraged by this reasoning to provide some incitement to rally for Hamas by
calling it a rally for the Gazan Palestinians and offering extra credit to
those who show, and not informing those who do they are likely to have their
pictures taken and an FBI file started on them. It is the level of jihad that
led Jasser Auda of the International Institute of Islamic Thought, to redefine
terrorism to mean: an act in which “innocent People (civilians or
non-civilians) are harmed in a way that goes against the principles of justice
and human dignity.”[vii]
The word “innocent” has a specific meaning to Muslims that Westerners are
unaware of. Imam Anjem Chaudry shared this one evening on BBC’s Hard Talk on
July 7, 2005. He said, “As far as Muslims are concerned your innocent if
you…you are a Muslim, then you are innocent in the eyes of God. You are non-
Muslim then you are guilty of not-believing in God.”[viii]
This also explains the push to
attain powerful places of power in the major U.S. and Canadian political
parties. It is the reasoning by the bus ad campaign My Jihad, which
promoted misinformation and a favorable outlook on Islam.
Physical Jihad
Lastly, the fatwa defines jihad,
holy war as a hot physical activity. But allows for those who fund the battle
to be included at this, the highest level of jihad
Physical
Jihad. This means actual fighting in the fullest sense of
the word… Every private individual can fight with deadly weapons, as for
example. Here is the following illustration of the late Egyptian Verdani who
shot the unbelieving Butros Gal Pacha the friend of the English with a
revolver. The murder of one of the English police Commissioner Bavaro in India
by one of our Indian brethren. The killing of one of the officials of Kansch on
his coming from Mecca by the Prophet’s friend ”Abu Bazir El Pachbi,” peace be
unto him! Abdallah ibn Aatickand four colleagues killed “Abu Raafa Ibn El
Hakiki.” The leader of the Jews so famous for his enmity to Islamism. This was
executed by our Prophet’s command, so did Avrala Ibn Ravacha and his friends
when they killed Ocher Ibn Dawas one of the Jewish dignitaries. There are many
instances of similar cases. Lord of the Universal What fails us now, and should
not some of us go forth to fight this sacred war for exalting thy glorious
name? What could not happen were some individuals among us, men of courage and
stout hearted kill the principal Christian men of the Triple Alliance, the foes
of Islam. By so doing they would wipe their names from the face of the earth.
Thou O Allah art responsible if you will not inspire every Muslim, with the
holy spirit, to in this jihad {holy
war}.[ix]
The
violent concept of jihad was taken after this reading of the 1915 fatwa that
led to the genocide of the Armenian people. This document was seen to be so
inciteful that the US government classified this document as dangerous and hid
it from the people until 1961. Note that specific references were given to
violent actions of assassination as part of jihad. Jihad is here shown clearly
by a Caliph to mean a violent act against non-Muslims.
This caliph was very
specific as to what was considered Physical War. He broke it into two
categories.
A Lesser War and a Greater
War
The lesser war, is when a certain
section of Muslims rise to fight against their enemies in combination with
their compatriots in the war sphere only, without summoning the aid of Muslims
of other lands. For example the Sinoussians war with the Italians in Tripoli. Even
in such a case every Muslim should offer material and moral help and not
follow the course the Egyptian Government took in the Italian war when acting
under the advice of the unbelieving English Government they declared themselves
neutral. This sin shall never be forgiven them. However our Egyptian brethren
have helped us to a certain degree financially and morally in the last two wars
and in spite of their unbelieving rulers forwarded their collections on our
behalf to the Capital of the Caliphate.[x](Emphasis
added)
The concept of a lesser war is simply
one that the Caliph does not declare and one in which no aid is requested of
Muslims of other lands. Note the reference here to support. In today’s concept
of Islamic Jihad, there are many Muslims who offer material and moral help.
One only need look at the ISIS social networking to see people around the world
standing with their black flag next to landmarks of countries all around the
globe.
However, the concept of greater war,
one declared by a Caliph which called Muslims to action can be viewed in terms
of the result of this fatwa. The near entire genocide of the Armenian people.
Ambassador Morgenthau wrote many details of this horror, below is just one
event:
Let me relate a single episode which
is contained in one of the reports of our consuls and which now forms part of
the records of the American State Department. Early in July, 2,000 Armenian
"amŽlŽs"---such is the Turkish word for soldiers who have been
reduced to workmen---were sent from Harpoot to
build roads. The Armenians in that town understood what this meant and pleaded
with the Governor for mercy. But this official insisted that the men were not
to be harmed, and he even called upon the German missionary, Mr. Ehemann, to
quiet the panic, giving that gentleman his word of honour that the ex-soldiers
would be protected. Mr. Ehemann believed the Governor and assuaged the popular
fear. Yet practically every man of these 2,000 was massacred, and his body
thrown into a cave. A few escaped, and it was from these that news of the
massacre reached the world. A few days afterward another 2,000 soldiers were
sent to Diarbekir. The only purpose of sending these men out in the open
country was that they might be massacred. In order that they might have no
strength to resist or to escape by flight, these poor creatures were
systematically starved. Government agents went ahead on the road, notifying the
Kurds that the caravan was approaching and ordering them to do their congenial
duty. Not only did the Kurdish tribesmen pour down from the mountains upon this
starved and weakened regiment, but the Kurdish women came with butcher's knives
in order that they might gain that merit in Allah's eyes that comes from
killing a Christian. These massacres were not isolated happenings; I could detail
many more episodes just as horrible as the one related above; throughout the
Turkish Empire a systematic attempt was made to kill all able-bodied men, not
only for the purpose of removing all males who might propagate a new generation
of Armenians, but for the purpose of rendering the weaker part of the
population an easy prey.[xi]
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[i] Morgenthau,
H. (1918). Ambassador Morgenthau's Story. Garden City, NY: Doubleday,
Page & Company, p. 68.
[ii] Ibid,
p. 69
[iii] ibid
[iv] Ibid, pages 69 – 70.
[v] 1915 Ottoman Fatwa cited in Bostom, A. (2008). (Italics denote
corrections. Mussulman and Mohamadians replaced with Muslim. Holy War
has Jihad inserted. God is changed to Allah.)
[vii] Auda, J. (2008). Maqasid Al-Shariah: A
Beginner's Guide . MacLean, VA: International Institute of Islamic Thought,
p. 53.
[viii]
Hard Talk: Interview with Anjem Chaudry. (2006, August 8). Retrieved October 13, 2014, from BBC: http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsa/n5ctrl/progs/05/hardtalk/choudary08aug.ram.
[xi] Morgenthau,
H. (1918). Ambasador Morgenthau's Story. Garden City, NY: Doubleday,
Page & Company pgs.123-124.
