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July 31, 2006

Book Review: The Legacy of Jihad

Let's be honest, reading Andrew G. Bostom's The Legacy of Jihad is a chore. Nearly 700 pages of primary sources and scholarly research is not easy reading regardless of the subject matter, but what turns serious reading into a struggle is the content of those pages: there are only so many orgies of rape and murder one can stomach before every page feels like a punch in the gut.

This ought to make the book more important, not less so. Because if reading about such acts can make one feel this way, what can be said about the acts themselves?

The acts are worship of Allah, Islamic scholars say. That's right; those acts are not reprehensible crimes, they are not even the regrettable behavior of undisciplined armies through history, no--they are acts of worship, most pleasing to Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful.

Thus, when you read al-Ghazali's religious decree that Muslims ought to send at least yearly raids into infidel lands (p. 199), when you read about the conquest, sacking, and subjugation of Constantinople (pp. 616-618), when you admire Absalom Feinberg's righteous anger upon observing the murder and enslavement of the Armenians (pp.671-673); remember: acts of worship, acts of worship them all. And when you read about Muhammad's extermination of the Banu Qurayzah (pp. 17-19), don't forget--that too, was an act of worship, piously performed by the messenger of God.

So, after reading Dr. Bostom's anthology, what can be said is the legacy of Jihad? The legacy of Jihad is fourteen centuries of oppression, countless campaigns of the cruelest warfare, and the brainwashing of a fifth of humanity. The legacy of Jihad is felt today in Sudan, where the descendants of those murdered and enslaved yesterday (pp. 640-643), are murderers and slave masters today.

The legacy of Jihad lives in Europe and America, where the name of Muhammad--one of the worst moral monsters in history--is publicly praised, lest his peaceful followers resort to murderous violence. We too are becoming, the legacy of Jihad.

And now, dear reader, please allow me a personal note.

The first draft of this review ended in the word 'Jihad' above, but I don't want to end in a note of despair: it is not the way I feel, as I believe it is in our power to defeat Jihad warfare, and the ideology that motivates it, Islam. Dr. Bostom dedicates his book to his mother Rifka, and children, Esther and Yonah. He goes on to say in his dedication:

May Esther and Yonah and their children thrive in a world where the devastating institution of jihad has been acknowledged, renounced, dismantled, and relegated forever to the dustbin of history by Muslim themselves.

I sternly disagree: it falls not to Muslims, but to us, to dismantle the institution of Jihad. We are not slaves to Muslims's whims, and the liberty and happiness of our children ought not depend on their good graces. Dr. Bostom's book is testament to the futility of such strategy. I wrote we are becoming part of the legacy of Jihad. This, alas, is true. May we rise from the slumber of moral confusion and find the strength to defeat the Islamic onslaught.

Posted by Ruy Diaz at July 31, 2006 1:00 PM

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Posted by: Christian at August 10, 2006 1:38 PM

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