"The new lands were owed scant loyalty, if any, and political religious radicals savored the space afforded them by Western civil society....You would have thought that the pluralism and tumult of this open European world would spawn a version of the faith to match it. But precisely the opposite happened. In bilad al kufr, the faith became sharpened for battle....
"'A Muslim has no nationality except his belief,' wrote an intellectual godfather of radical Islamism, the Egyptian Sayyid Qutb (who studied in Davenport, IA, BTW), who was executed by Nasser in 1966. While on a visit to Saudi Arabia, I listened to a caller from Stockholm [!] as he bared his concerns to an immensely popular preacher. He made Qutb's point: We may carry their nationality, he saidbut we belong to our own religion...." --Fouad Ajami
How do you feel about that observation?
What troubles me, personally, the most is the phenomenon of young Muslims, particularly in England, but in America, and Europe as well, who, exposed to Western "tolerance," decide they want no part of it and become willing foot soldiers of the radical cause. Curiously, it seems radical Islam has much greater freedom of expression in the West, than it does in many Arab Islamic countries (Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, etc.). It's almost as if the leaders of those countries know something we in the West don't.
From Mohammed Bouyeri to Mohammed Atta to Ramzi Youssef, the list is quite long of Muslims who, far from assimilating Western, Christian ideas of tolerance, endeavor to destroy it. What do you think is behind this phenomena?
Yet for some reason, Westerners are deaf to it.
" What do you think is behind this phenomena?"
That's easy. Jihad, the most important pillar of Islam.
Bukhari:V4B52N311 "Allah's Apostle said, ‘There is no migration after the Conquest of Mecca, but only Jihad. When you are called by the Muslim ruler for Jihad fighting, you should go forth immediately, responding to the call.'"
Yet, westerners are to dumb to understand what Jihad means, and would rather believe an islamic appologists explanation, unsupported by scripture and the meaning explained by Islams top Imams.
Qur'an:9:111 "Allah has purchased the believers, their lives and their goods. For them (in return) is the Garden (of Paradise). They fight in Allah's Cause, and they slay and are slain; they kill and are killed."
It's clearly NOT an "inner struggle".
Qur'an:47:4 "So, when you clash with the unbelieving Infidels in battle (fighting Jihad in Allah's Cause), smite their necks until you overpower them, killing and wounding many of them. At length, when you have thoroughly subdued them, bind them firmly, making (them) captives. Thereafter either generosity or ransom (them based upon what benefits Islam) until the war lays down its burdens. Thus are you commanded by Allah to continue carrying out Jihad against the unbelieving infidels until they submit to Islam."
Noble Qur'an:2:190 Footnote: "Jihad is holy fighting in Allah's Cause with full force of numbers and weaponry. It is given the utmost importance in Islam and is one of its pillars. By Jihad Islam is established, Allah's Word is made superior (which means only Allah has the right to be worshiped), and Islam is propagated. By abandoning Jihad Islam is destroyed and Muslims fall into an inferior position; their honor is lost, their lands are stolen, their rule and authority vanish. Jihad is an obligatory duty in Islam on every Muslim. He who tries to escape from this duty, or does not fulfill this duty, dies as a hypocrite."
It's non- negotiable.
Qur'an 47:33 "Believers, obey Allah, and obey the Messenger. Do not falter; become faint-hearted, or weak-kneed, crying for peace."
(unless of course you are loosing and need to regroup and reload)
Qur'an 9:3 "Allah is not bound by any contract or treaty with non-Muslims, nor is His Apostle."
Qur'an 9:8 "How (can there be such a treaty), seeing that they get an advantage, the upper hand over you? They do not pay you respect, or honor you or the ties of kinship or covenant. With (good words from) their mouths they entice you [out negotiate you], but their hearts are averse to you."
Qur'an 9:3 "Allah and His Messenger dissolve obligations."
Qur'an 66:1 "Allah has already sanctioned for you the dissolution of your vows."
Qur'an 33:11 "In that situation the Believers were sorely tried and shaken as by a tremendous shaking. And behold! The Hypocrites and those in whose hearts is a disease said: ‘Allah and His Messenger promised us nothing but delusion; they have promised only to deceive us."
Qur'an 33:21 "You have in (Muhammad) the Messenger of Allah a beautiful pattern of conduct for any one to follow."
Murder, rape, pedophilia, A fine man.