Seeds of Jihad

The American Thinker ^ | July 29, 2004 | James Arlandsonin

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Seeds of Jihad (1)

The deepest source of Islamic terrorism lies in theology. Formed in response to events in the Prophet’s lifetime, there are problematic aspects to Islamic theology and practice not found in two other great world religions, Christianity and Buddhism.  Unless we squarely face those aspects, we outsiders will be unprepared to encourage reform or, short of that, to win our survival.

Muhammad had difficult relations with the Meccans, and this generated theological and moral ambiguities or “seeds” that were planted in the Qur’an and early traditions. Sadly, but not surprisingly, these ambiguities are exploited by terrorists, such as Osama bin Laden and the Palestinian terrorists, who take them to extremes. Three paths taken by Muhammad have created interpretation and application problems for his later followers.

(1) Muhammad followed the Arab custom of retaliation for a perceived wrong.

The two earliest passages in the Qur’an showing the development of jihad (“holy war”) are 22:39-40, which was revealed around Muhammad’s Hijrah (Emigration) from Mecca to Medina, where he arrived on September 24, 622 AD; and 2:190-191, which seems to have been received around the same time. We use the translation of a traditional Muslim apologist [1] Maulana Muhammad Ali.

22:39 Permission (to fight) is given to those on whom war is made, because they are oppressed. And surely Allah is Able to assist them …

40 Those who are driven from their homes without a just cause except that they say: Our Lord is Allah. And if Allah did not repel some people by others, cloisters, and churches, and synagogues, and mosques in which Allah’s name is much remembered, would have been pulled down. And surely Allah will help him who helps Him … .

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Seeds of Jihad (2)

Some of Muhammad’s actions and policy show areas that his later followers misinterpret and misapply, since sometimes his actions and policies — rooted so deeply in Arab custom but missing in the Founder of another religion — seem excessive to Western outsiders. These ambiguities are the seeds of future jihads, which radicals are now waging and which will make reform of Islam from within difficult for moderate Muslims.

(4) Tension between Muhammad and the Jews simmered until he became powerful enough to apply various Arab customs to their opposition.

This tension and eventual ruptures went through five stages after Muhammad emigrated from Mecca to Medina in 622.

First, while Muhammad was settling down in Medina and his position there was not secure, he tried to convince the Jews that his revelations were the continuation of Judaism (and Christianity), the religion of the People of the Book. Before he left Mecca, he faced Jerusalem in prayer. The early Muslims in Medina seem to have observed the fast for the Day of Atonement, and their special Friday worship was a response to the beginning of the Jewish Sabbath from Friday evening to Saturday evening.

The Jews, however, who were divided into three important clans (Qaynuqa‘, an-Nadir, and Qurayzah, also spelled Quraizah), saw things a little differently. Muhammad was not educated in the Torah, though he seems to have known some of the stories and laws. He describes himself as “unlettered” (Qur’an 7:158), which probably means that he was not a scholar, not that he could not read or write. So it was not hard for the educated Jews to point out some differences or contradictions between his revelations and their Hebrew Bible.

Second, these disagreements meant that Muhammad would have to strike out on a new path and reinterpret matters in light of Abraham’s religion. He claimed that Abraham was not a Jew and that the text of the Hebrew Bible was corrupt (and so was the New Testament); his religion was therefore the better and purer representation of Abraham. So if some of the claims of all three religions were contradictory, then the fault lay in the first two religions, not his.

Third, Muhammad expelled the clan of Qaynuqa‘ in April 624 (or a month or two later) after his victory at the Battle of Badr in March, a battle which made his position in Medina more secure. It is unclear what his motives were: a quarrel in the market place? Or the Jewish refusal to become Muslims? Jewish opposition to his policies and religion? In any case, he besieged the Jews’ strongholds for fifteen days, after which they surrendered. He gave them three days to collect the debts owed to them and to get out of Medina.

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(James Arlandsonin The American Thinker, July 30, 2004)
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The "idolators" of Mecca may have been Hindu. I'm surprised that the author didn't touch on this aspect or how it influenced Islam/Mohammad.

http://www.hinduism.co.za/kaabaa.htm