Held Prisoner in Hampton Roads

I happened to start reading "The Afghan" by Frederick Forsyth today, and a couple of early passages caught my attention:

Fundamentalist' is a misnomer. The very word implies 'back to basics.' But the planters of bombs in trains, buses and malls are not going back to the basics of Islam. They are writing their own new script, then arguing retroactively, seeking to find Koranic passages that justify their war.

There are fundamentalists in all religions. Christian monks in a closed order, sworn to poverty, self-denial, chastity, obedience - these are fundamentalists. Ascetics exist in all religions, but they do not advocate indiscriminate mass murder of men, women and children. That is the key phrase. Judge all religions and all sects within those religions by that phrase and you will see that to wish to return to the basic teachings is not terrorism, for in no religion, including Islam, do the basic teachings advocate mass murder.'

Jihad' is the wrong word. Of course jihad exists, but it has rules. Either it is a personal struggle within oneself to become a better Muslim, but in that case it is completely nonaggressive. Or it means true holy war, armed struggle in defense of Islam. That's what the terrorists claim they are about. But they choose to airbrush the rules out of text.

For one thing, true jihad can only be declared by a legitimate Koranic authority of proven and accepted repute. Bin Laden and his acolytes are notorious for their lack of scholarship. Even if the West had indeed attached, hurt, damaged, humiliated and demeaned Islam, and thus all Muslims, there are still rules, and the Koran is absolutely specific on these.

"It is forbidden to attack and kill those who have offered no offense and have done nothing to hurt you. It is forbidden to kill women and children. It is forbidden to take hostages, and it is forbidden to mistreat, torture and kill prisoners. The AQ terrorists and their followers do all four on a daily basis."

I would call them 'the New Jihadis,' because they have invented an unholy war outside the laws of the holy Koran, and thus of true Islam. True jihad is not savage, but what they practice is.

All the bombers claim to be martyrs. How do they justify this? Badly. Because they have been duped, well educated though some of them are. It is perfectly feasible to die a shahid, or martyr. But again, there are rules and these are quite specific in the Koran. The warrior must not die by his own hand even though he has volunteered for a no-return mission. He must not know the time and place of his own death.

Suicides do exactly that. Yet suicide is specifically forbidden. In his lifetime, Muhammad absolutely refused to bless the body of a suicide even though the man had ended his own life to avoid the crippling agony of disease. Those who commit mass murder of innocents and commit suicide are destined for hell, not paradise. The false preachers and imams who trick them down this road will join them there.

I would like to see a major, respected imam - even one in the U.S.A. make a statement like this. However, most I see on television dodge like a ball player in a run-down between second and third.

Gentlemen, Imams and learned scholars. If you prefer not to have all Muslims branded by the same iron, grow a pair and get on the boat. It's leaving the pier.