How do you ‘hijack’ a religion that already teaches killing infidels?
We always thought it a bit strange when the President said: “Islam is a vibrant faith. Millions of our fellow citizens are Muslim. We respect the faith. We honor its traditions. Our enemy does not. Our enemy doesn’t follow the great traditions of Islam. They’ve hijacked a great religion.”
Did the President know what he was saying? After all, if you hijack an airplane, you’re in charge of the airplane. Did the President mean that Osama bin Laden had hijacked Islam in that same sense, that bin Ladenism was now in charge of Islam?
Well, of course not, though the irony of the President’s phrasing is coming home to roost in the Abdul Rahman saga. The President was perhaps more correct than he knew: after all, in some important senses, bin Ladenism has long been a vibrant school of Islam. Indeed, killing the apostate infidel is considered absolutely unexceptional in many sharia societies, including shiny, new, Americanized, Afghanistan — which by the way remains the same tribal, dirt-poor, subsistence society it has been for centuries. We highly recommend the NRO piece today by Andrew McCarthy on the subject of Afghanistan’s Islamic Constitution.
What begins with words “In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate,” a formal Islamic salutation also commonly used by militants in their warnings, fatwas, and claims of responsibility regarding terrorist acts? What extols the virtues of “rightful jehad” (also known as jihad) in its very first sentence? What in its first article declares its sovereignty to be an “Islamic Republic,” and in its second installs Islam as the official “religion of the state”? What, in its third article announces to the world that, within the territory it governs, “no law can be contrary to the beliefs and provisions of the sacred religion of Islam”?…
Thus it was dizzying to hear of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s plea to Afghan President Hamid Kharzai that, as Fox News reported last week, “she hope[d] Afghanistan would uphold in its constitution in considering Rahman’s case.” The Orwellian approach was echoed by her spokesman, Sean McCormack, who insisted that “freedom of worship [and] freedom of expression … are bedrock principles of democracy … that are enshrined in the Afghan constitution[.]…”
The Koran’s sura 4:89 declares: “They would have you disbelieve as they themselves have disbelieved, so that you may all be alike. Do not befriend them until they have fled their homes for the cause of Allah. If they desert you, seize them and put them to death wherever you find them. Look for neither friends nor helpers among them.” (Emphasis added.) Koranic passages are taken by believers to be the words of God Himself. To the extent there is interpretive gloss on these scriptures, most authoritative are the Hadiths — the traditions and admonitions of Mohammed and his companions. According to Abdullah Ibn Abbas, Mohammed’s cousin and among the most influential educators in both Sunni and Shiite traditions, the prophet’s instructions in this regard were quite clear: “Kill him who changes his religion.”
By the way, we were and are all for the liberation of Afghanistan from the Taliban, and want all the best for Hamid Karzai in bringing some promise of greater hope and prosperity to that land and its people. It would be far better, however, to drop the euphemisms and acknowledge the enormity of the task confronting Islam if it is to find some way to make sharia metaphorical so it might be compatible with modernity.
August 13th, 2006 at 9:01 am
The President should have said that we need to take a hard look at a religion that spawns so many murderers who use some of the teachings of that religion to justify their actions. Political Correctness will be the death of us all.