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It’s Crusade Vs Jihad by Jahangir Mohammed Now that the Crusade against Islam has been extended to the Muslims of Iraq, Muslims need to undergo a sobering reality check. Unfolding events since 911 seem to be revealing a number of messages, almost as an answer from Allah (swt) to confused Muslims. The first message is to all secular Muslims. You may consider yourself a secular Muslim or a moderate one. You may even be opposed to Muslim “extremists”, but the enemies of Islam consider you Muslim and a legitimate target. Saddam Hussein, his regime, and his army (just like most of the Bosnian Muslims) are secular, but that did not spare them from attack. The second message is to all those who like to “sleep with Satan”, and believe that by being an ally of a world power like the US it will spare them, and their nation. Saddam was a favoured dictator for a while and did the West’s bidding, killing innocent Muslims. Now, the very nation he used against other Muslims is being totally destroyed. In particular, this is a very potent message to all the rulers in that region, and especially America’s current favourite dictator Musharraf. This pathetic little man has dismantled his country’s first line of defence and strength, the Mujahideen in Afghanistan and Kashmir, thus weakening his country, just like Saddam. And his time will surely come too. The third message is to all those who consider Muslim regimes and leaders, who side secretly and openly with non-believers, as Muslim. They are not. From a Quranic and practical point of view we are not to consider them as one of us, but one “of them”.
The failure of the Mujahideen in Afghanistan to treat the Pakistani army and the ISI as one of the other after 911, as instructed by the Quran, has caused untold damage. We witness the consequences with the handing over of Muslims to the US by the Pakistani military and intelligence services. Muslims unfortunately have always been willing to accept the rule of those who are illegitimate “Muslims”. This is in direct contradiction to a fundamental principle of Islam, of never recognising illegitimate rulers or rule. As Karbala in Iraq comes under attack we should reflect on the essential message of that land, the refusal of Imam Hussein to give recognition and legitimacy to the rule of Yazid even though most Muslims accepted the rule of Yazid. The fourth message is to all those that believe in democracy, voting and joining the British and American political systems. Your theory of democratic influence has just been demolished. If 219 British MP’s and the majority of the population of this country are not enough to stop this war, then how will a handful of Muslim parliamentarians (maybe as many as 20 in 50 years time) be of use? Neither did the 600 billion dollars of Saudi investments in the United States have any influence. To those Muslims in the Labour and Conservative party whose leaders say this war is a matter of principle, conviction and belief; we ask you where are your principles and belief? Your leader and Party to whom you give allegiance are murderers of Muslim civilians. How do you reconcile your conscience with this? What will you say to Muslims when next you canvass for their votes - “vote Labour - kill more Muslims”. The Liberal democrats are no better; they supported the war against Afghanistan. The fifth message, is to all those who believed that the good old democratic tradition of demonstrating in the streets could stop the war. When the socialists stop singing, and the demonstrators see no more political mileage in protesting, or have simply lost interest, you will find that the Muslims are alone on the battlefield, dependent only on Allah (swt), the method of the Prophet (S) and the committed members of his Ummah.
The sixth message is for all those that believe in the rule of man-made international law and the United Nations. Since when did international law ever protect or assist Muslims? Not now, not ever. So why do you sit at this body giving it legitimacy and funding? Which international law is protecting Muslims in concentration camps in Cuba? The United States has dumped international law and conventions, so thankfully you are no longer obliged to bother yourself with it too. From now on the only laws and rules you need follow are those defined by Allah (swt) instead, including the rules of Jihad. The seventh message is to all those moderate Muslims that said violence and the militarisation of the Ummah represents a perverted and distorted version of the teachings of Islam and is “extremism”. Please explain to us: how you will repulse these European Crusaders who use the most awesome military violence against our people? The eighth message is to all those moderates who lectured Muslims since 911 about the rules of Jihad. These rules we know say: don’t kill civilians, the old, the young, the sick, don’t cut trees and pollute rivers or destroy crops and destroy the means of civilian life. But can they now please, please, explain to us what the rules of Jihad say about dealing with an enemy that itself does not follow such rules and terrorizes a civilian population with “shock and awe”, a military concept first developed by Hitler’s Third Reich. This enemy bombs from the skies and destroys bridges, cuts electricity and hits the economic and other means of civilian life, and imposes sanctions to stop the young, sick and old from getting medicines. Please also give your British and American friends a lecture or two, since both Blair and Bush say their Christian conscience is at ease over this war and presumably they feel their religion allows this. The ninth message is to all those confused Muslims that say the United States is too powerful to take on. One prominent Imam recently said you couldn’t expect to beat a top of the range car like a Rolls Royce with a second-hand motor vehicle. Those that preach this message have failed to understand the very essence of divine revelation. Which Prophet had the equivalent military strength of the superpowers of their time ? Did Imam Hussein have the military equivalent of Yazid’s army ? These Muslims must be terrified by the threat of “Shock and Awe”. But the committed Muslims have seen it all before. The mighty Soviet Union whose feared Red Army held Europe and the US armies back for decades, rolled in like a military giant with thousands of vehicles, only to be driven back out again to a Russia without communism, ten years later. We saw it with Israel, rolling in with their military might in Lebanon, and using shock and awe against innocent civilians on a daily basis, they were driven back out 10 years later in humiliating defeat and the Islamic resistance in Palestine has now brought the Zionist State’s economy to it knees. In a last ditch effort to save itself, supporters of Israel have now lured the US and Britain to fight a battle with the Muslim world that they know they can’t win on their own. In doing so, they have merely sealed not only their own fate, but that of the US and its world order. We saw it in Chechnya too, where 3000 Mujahideen took on an army of 140,000 Russians. Their “shock and “awe tactics destroyed all civilian life in Grozny, but the Mujahideen destroyed them once, and will do so again Insha’allah. We saw it in Bosnia where Muslims took on the Serbs without arms and survived. We see it in Kashmir where a small force of Mujahideen have been taking on a modern Indian army of 600,000 for a decade now. Two years down the road the Mujahdieen are also still taking on the US in Afghanistan. Today, we see the same pictures of the mighty US army rolling into Iraq. They will meet the same fate as the others insha’allah. The Iraqi army may well be driven from power, but in its place will emerge a more powerful Jihad resistance movement consisting of both Shias and Sunnis. The tenth message is for all those that deny Jihad as the prescribed method of the creator to defeat Zulm or oppression, and choose secular methods instead. The more you deny Jihad, the more Allah (swt) brings the enemy around you neck, leaving you with Jihad as the only option. When Allah (swt) has declared the only way to fight oppression is Jihad why do you seek solutions elsewhere.
The US and Britain have taken steps that will lead to the inevitable clash between Islam and the West. What they have started is in fact the beginning of the end of Western domination of the world and the inevitable liberation of the Muslim world. Bush and Blair’s blind devotion to Israel will ultimately be their own undoing. We can only conclude from now on that it will be a case of what it has always been between the Judeo-Christian West and the Islamic world – Crusade versus Jihad – and Allah (swt) is the best of planners. Jahangir Mohammed is Director of the centre for Muslim Affairs in
the UK.
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