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Thursday, May 27, 2004

War Between Civilizations

Is it possible to establish peace with the Islamic world? Historian Moshe Sharon, professor of Islamic History at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, wrote an article last December which everyone concerned about the future state of the world and of the relations between the West and the Islam should read. Most of us have a very vague understanding of the Islamic worldview, but our ignorance is a luxury we can no longer afford. Our children's future depends on us knowing what, and how, muslims think. Sharon's article is entitled Agenda of Islam-A War Between Civilizations. Here are a couple of key passages:

"Any territory that comes under Islamic rule cannot be de-Islamized. Even if at one time or another, the [non-Moslem] enemy takes over the territory that was under Islamic rule, it is considered to be perpetually Islamic. This is why whenever you hear about the Arab/Israeli conflict, you hear - territory, territory, territory. There are other aspects to the conflict, but territory is highly important.

For Islam, the establishment of the state of Israel was a reverse of Islamic history. First, Islamic territory was taken away from Islam by Jews. You know by now that this can never be accepted, not even one meter. So everyone who thinks Tel Aviv is safe is making a grave mistake. Territory, which at one time was dominated by Islamic rule, now has become non-Moslem. Non-Moslems are independent of Islamic rule; Jews have created their own independent state. It is anathema."

This means, of course, that the conflict between the Israelis and the Palestinians will never be resolved unless either the Israelis leave the region or destroy the Palestinians or are destroyed by them.

"Peace in Islam can exist only within the Islamic world; peace can only be between Moslem and Moslem. With the non-Moslem world or non-Moslem opponents, there can be only one solution - a cease fire until Moslems can gain more power. It is an eternal war until the end of days. Peace can only come if the Islamic side wins. The two civilizations can only have periods of cease-fires. In Israel, it has taken over 50 years in this country for our people to understand that they cannot speak about [permanent] peace with Moslems. It will take another 50 years for the western world to understand that they have got a state of war with the Islamic civilization that is virile and strong. This should be understood: When we talk about war and peace, we are not talking in Belgium, French, English, or German terms. We are talking about war and peace in Islamic terms."

If true this pretty bleak. I remember visiting a mosque in Lancaster, PA a couple of years ago. I asked the Imam if freedom of religion, or indeed the constitution, would survive in America if muslims were to one day constitute a decisive majority. He hemmed and hawed, smiled genially,and covered his answer with a lot of verbal smoke, but it all distilled to a simple "no". The sort of freedoms and protections contained in our constitution are incompatible with the muslim worldview and Sharia law.

There's a lot more than this in the article. Read the whole thing.