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A short review of the book which is about Islamic militancy that has assaulted the rest of the world for almost 14 centuries. In THE SWORD OF THE PROPHET, the reader receives the unvarnished truth about the rise of Islam and the patterns set by its founder, Muhammad. The historical meaning of jihad against the (non-Muslim) “infidel” that we see today in the al-Qaeda terror network is presented in the context of a global military, political, moral, and spiritual struggle. Highly recommended by Dave Hunt. A must read! FOREWORD Our political leaders tell us that Muslims are a peace-loving and hospitable people. We are admonished not to condemn Islam because of the acts of a tiny and fanatical minority. As a people, we are conditioned to be fair-minded and tolerant. We pride ourselves on our acceptance of diversity and the reality of a multicultural society. Many of us have children or grandchildren who go to school with Muslim children. This does not intimidate us; on the contrary, many of us look upon it as the way of the future. Yet, at the same time, we are uneasy. We are uneasy because of an intuitive sense that many of the adherents of this religion seem out of step with the modern world. The beheading of apostates, the chopping-off of the hands and feet of convicted criminals, the stoning to death of women accused of adultery, including those who have been raped—such barbaric practices disturb us. When a Muslim cleric broadcasts a television message to Palestinians, exhorting them to martyr themselves for Allah’s sake and urging them to annihilate Jews, we are rightly concerned. These acts seem more indicative of a seriously dysfunctional society than the characteristics of a benevolent and merciful religion. We are also uneasy because we cannot ignore the dreadful events of September 11 in New York and Washington. We cannot understand the murder, in the name of God, of Israeli innocents by self-destructing Islamic fanatics—some of whom are teenage girls. We are disturbed and angry by the images on our television screens of screaming mobs in Cairo, Islamabad, and Tehran, celebrating the death of thousands of Americans blasted away by young Muslim men—“martyrs” in the name of Allah. We ask ourselves why is this happening, and why is it being done in the name of religion? What can be done about it? Other facts suggest something is wrong in the Muslim world. With all of their oil wealth, why are there no Muslim countries among the top 30 of the world’s richest nations? Why is it that two-thirds of the world’s poorest people live in Muslim countries? Why, in the last 20 years, have over 2 million people died in conflicts involving Muslim communities? Why are democracy and the rule of law nonexistent in most Muslim states? Why do Muslims carry out so many of the worst acts of terrorism? This book provides some of the answers to these questions. It does not do so by giving us yet another academic and “objective” treatise about Islam. It does so by asking us to look at the historical record of Islam and to examine closely some of the major tenets of a faith that on the record has contained—and continues today to contain within it—strong elements of intolerance and aggression. The book is a hard-hitting frontal assault on militant Islam. It pulls no punches in identifying the rise of Islamic fundamentalism as the greatest danger to “Western” values since the end of the Cold War. The core of the problem is that under Islam there can be no separation of church and state. Islam is a way of life, and the faithful must accept and affirm their surrender to Allah, and live as members of the total Islamic community. This calls into question if a true Muslim can give political loyalty to a non-Muslim state. With over 20 million Muslims now living in the countries of Western Europe, and from three to five million in the United States, the question of loyalty to the country of one’s citizenship becomes important. Amir Taheri, the Iranian author, has pointed out that “The current consensus among Muslim jurists is that Muslims can live in lands ruled by non-Muslims, provided they use their presence to further the cause of Islam.” Mr. Taheri quotes the medieval Egyptian theologian Muhammed Ghazzali, who said that Muslims could live under non-Muslim rule as long as they do not forget that they are Allah’s missionaries and, if needed, His soldiers. Mr. Taheri reminds us that Bin Laden is more specific and believes that Muslims should only live in non-Muslim countries to further the cause of Islam and speed up the end of the infidel’s rule. Does our tolerant and democratic way of life contain within itself the seeds of its own destruction? Should organized intolerance be tolerated? Our society is inclined to see both sides of every question, and the current trend of political correctness reinforces this tendency. But how far should tolerance extend? Tolerance of those who wish to eradicate our way of life can be self-destructive. If through migration and current demographic trends Muslims become a majority in a Western country, how quickly will Islamic law be proclaimed? Can we expect then to be treated as equals? This book leaves no doubt about the answer to this question. It is not optimistic about the possibility of a reformation that might lead to the ascendancy of a more liberal and moderate Islam that accepts the need to separate church and state. Islamist militancy will not only continue, but will intensify. This book chastises the “opinion-forming elite” for its role in pretending that Islam does not present a serious problem. The author points out that the most virulent form of Muslim extremism owes its growth to shortsighted United States foreign policy. United States military support to the Mujahedeen in the struggle to defeat the Soviet Union in Afghanistan was only the beginning. After the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan, American oil interests were courting the Taliban to secure a pipeline across Afghanistan to exploit the vast oil and gas reserves in Central Asia and the Caspian Sea. By allowing Pakistan and Saudi Arabia a free hand in Afghanistan, the United States guaranteed the military success of the Taliban forces. It is common knowledge that Saudi Arabia is the most extremist of the Muslim States. It finances the infamous Madrassas that preach a litany of hate and turn out thousands of fanatical Islamic zealots. It indirectly provides the funding and its citizens provide most of the fighters for Bin Laden’s Al-Qaeda organization. It supports, financially and by other means, the Palestinian terrorists and other Muslim anti-Western groups throughout the world. Yet the United States does not identify Saudi Arabia as an enemy. It was not even asked, as were other Muslim states, by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld to freeze the assets of people linked to Bin Laden. It is this double standard and hypocrisy that this book so deplores in pointing out the shortcomings of the United States’ war against terror as conceived at present.
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