Is Islam a peaceful religion?

We in the modern Western world have been trying our liberal best to believe that Islam is really a peaceful religion, and that the recent actions of terrorists are really not driven by the religion of Islam. We have been trying to be multicultural and politically correct and sensitive to the religious feelings of others. But you know, it just doesn’t wash.

As the old saying goes, “actions speak louder than words”. Despite the protests from some scholars and liberals that Islam is really a peaceful religion, the world, and especially the Middle East, is awash daily in bloodletting in the name of Islam. If they aren’t killing the infidels (us), they are busy pitting Shia against Sunni and killing each other over who was the rightful successor to the prophet centuries ago.

The terrorists themselves tell us in no uncertain terms that they are acting from their beliefs in Islam. They tell us this repeatedly and unambiguously and proudly in their internet sites, manifestos, videos, public speeches and prayers, fatwas, and grisly videos of beheadings and suicide bombers making their last proud declarations before going off to kill as many unbelievers as possible. It would hard to be more explicit than that.

Then Islam’s holy scripture, the Qur'an says such things as “Kill disbelievers wherever you find them. If they attack you, then kill them. Such is the reward of disbelievers.” (2:191-2) and “Have no unbelieving friends. Kill the unbelievers wherever you find them.” (4:89). It would hard to be more explicit than that.

And then there are the local Islamic madrassas (schools) throughout places like Pakistan and Saudi Arabia where the young are drilled daily in hatred of the infidel (us), and their Islamic duty to give their lives to our extermination. And the mosques throughout the world (even, apparently, in London) where mullas weekly preach hatred of the West and advocate violence. It would hard to be more explicit than that.

Certainly many Muslims, indeed the vast majority of Muslims worldwide, don’t follow these precepts, and are content to live in peace with non-Muslims. But in fact the terrorists have sound theological support from the Qur'an itself, as well as from the Sharia law that has been built up over the centuries, for most of their actions. And although most Muslims don’t participate in terrorists actions themselves, it is clear from the street celebrations following terrorist killings, the writings of many Muslim clerics, and the generous contributions to terrorist organizations that a great many of them approve of and support such actions by others, privately if not in public. If such acts really are against the principles of Islam, one would expect much more outcry against them from Muslims worldwide. In fact one of the most disturbing aspects of all this is the resounding silence from most of the Muslim world in the face of these terrorist actions.

Try as we might to hide our heads in the sand and be politically correct and pretend that Islam as a theology is a peaceful religion, it really isn’t. It never has been, as any competent historian of the Middle East knows. For Islam, the world is divided into dar al-Islam, the house of peace (nations ruled by Islam) and dar al-Harb, the house of war (everyone else). It is the duty of any good Muslim to defend dar al-Islam and to convert to Islam, by force if necessary, dar al-Harb. Moreover, for devout Muslims it is an intolerable affront to Allah that any land that has ever in the past been part of dar al-Islam should now be in dar al-Harb, and that affront calls for the devout to win that land back, by whatever means possible.

It is true that Christianity, like most major religions, also has a bloody and intolerant past -- in some periods of history far more intolerant that Islam -- and even some unpleasant aspects in the present. But Christian scripture and religious dogma does not require the devout to kill unbelievers (you can be nasty to them, but you are not required to kill them). Islamic scripture and dogma do enjoin the devout Muslim to kill unbelievers, even if that injunction is ignored by the majority of Muslims.

We had better wake up soon to the fact that we in the Western world face, not a rag-tag little group of criminal extremists from the religious fringes, but a large and dedicated and increasingly competent group of warriors, numbering by now in the tens or hundreds of thousands if not more, profoundly driven by their Islamic creed. They are not going to be defeated by military might; this is going to be a battle of ideas, not tanks. It’s hard to know how to face this threat effectively, but we certainly won’t ever figure it out if we persist in pretending that the fundamental nature of the religion of Islam isn’t a major component.