Chapter Three

The Theology of the Radicals

What they believe, verse by verse

On September 17, 2001, just six days after the horrific terrorist attacks that killed nearly three thousand Americans, President George W. Bush traveled in a heavily guarded motorcade to the Islamic Center of Washington, D.C. There he made a statement to reporters that would be carried across the nation and around the world.

“The face of terror is not the true faith of Islam,” said the president, surrounded by an extraordinary phalanx of well-armed and highly alert Secret Service agents. “That’s not what Islam is all about. Islam is peace. These terrorists don’t represent peace. They represent evil and war. When we think of Islam, we think of a faith that brings comfort to a billion people around the world. Billions of people find comfort and solace and peace.”

The president went on to note that “America counts millions of Muslims amongst our citizens, and Muslims make an incredibly valuable contribution to our country. Muslims are doctors, lawyers, law professors, members of the military, entrepreneurs, shopkeepers, moms and dads. And they need to be treated with respect. In our anger and emotion, our fellow Americans must treat each other with respect.”67

Three days later, the president told a joint session of Congress that “the terrorists are traitors to their own faith, trying, in effect, to hijack Islam itself.”

During a November 15, 2001, message to American Muslims in celebration of Ramadan, the president stated unequivocally that “the Islam that we know is a faith devoted to the worship of one God, as revealed through the Holy Qur’an” and “teaches the value and the importance of charity, mercy, and peace.”

The following year, during a discussion with Muslim leaders at the Embassy of Afghanistan in Washington, D.C., the president reiterated, “All Americans must recognize that the face of terror is not the true face of Islam. Islam is a faith that brings comfort to a billion people around the world. It’s a faith that has made brothers and sisters of every race. It’s a faith based upon love, not hate.”68

During a November 2003 press conference, Bush was asked, “Mr. President, when you talk about peace in the Middle East, you’ve often said that freedom is granted by the Almighty. Some people who share your beliefs don’t believe that Muslims worship the same Almighty. I wonder about your views on that.” The president replied, “I do say that freedom is the Almighty’s gift to every person. I also condition it by saying freedom is not America’s gift to the world. It’s much greater than that, of course. And I believe we worship the same God.”69

These were not anomalies. President Bush continued to describe Islam as a religion of peace throughout his tenure in office and argued consistently that the Radicals were “hijacking” true Islam.

And he was not alone. Other Western leaders have made similar arguments. British prime minister Tony Blair, for example, often discussed the “monumental struggle going on worldwide between those who believe in democracy and moderation, and forces of reaction and extremism” and insisted that the “forces of extremism” were basing their convictions regarding jihad against the West “on a warped and wrongheaded misinterpretation of Islam.”70

Likewise, French president Nicolas Sarkozy argued that “those who kill in the name of Islam and want to push the world into a global religious war smear Islam by speaking its name.”71

A Religion of Peace, or of Jihad?

Such statements have been enormously controversial in the West.

So let me be clear about my own views: The vast majority of the 1.3 billion Muslims on the planet are not Radicals. They do not believe in waging jihad against the West. They do not condone sending their sons and daughters to be suicide bombers to kill Christians, Jews, and apostate Muslims, among others. They do not want to annihilate Judeo-Christian civilization as we know it or take over the world. They are, by and large, quiet, peaceful people. They want to raise their children in decent schools to get decent jobs and live respectable, productive, God-honoring lives.

Second, Western leaders should be commended—not condemned—for affirming the peaceful nature of most Muslims. Why insult Muslims who are unengaged in jihad?

Third, critics should keep in mind that Western leaders are making these points, in part, both to build and to strengthen political and military alliances with government leaders throughout the Muslim world who are willing to side with Western governments against the Radicals.

That said, let us now consider the central question. While it is certainly accurate to say that the vast majority of Muslims are peaceful people, is it also true that Islam itself is an intrinsically peaceful religion? In other words, are Muslim and Western leaders accurate in asserting that Islam is a religion of peace, not a religion that calls for jihad against the infidels? Are the Radicals, in fact, “hijacking” Islam and in the process “smearing” its good name? If so, how can the Radicals claim that “Islam is the answer, and jihad is the way” if there is no basis for their beliefs in the Qur’an, the guidebook for all Muslims?

In Part 2 of this book, I will explain the moderates’ case in detail. I will give the Reformers the opportunity to explain in their own words the theology that drives them and the verses in the Qur’an they use to justify their notion that Islam is a religion of peace, not violence. But for the moment, let us examine the case the Radicals make, consider the theology that drives them, and learn the verses from the Qur’an and other Islamic writings that inspire them to wage jihad.

Greater Jihad versus Lesser Jihad

Many Islamic scholars teach that there are two different forms of jihad. There are, therefore, two different definitions of jihad. One is considered the “greater” form; the other is the “lesser” form. This dual nature is attributed to Muhammad himself, who is believed to have said on his return from a battle, “We are finished with the lesser jihad; now we are starting the greater jihad,” although this saying was not recorded in the Qur’an.72

To these scholars, Greater Jihad—also known as “inner jihad”—represents the highest and most important form. It can best be defined as a spiritual and intellectual striving to do the will of Allah and abstain from sin and temptation. It is, in other words, an internal battle or “holy war” against one’s sinful nature, and it can be a fierce battle at that. It is to many Muslims the most important form of jihad because it involves a daily, ongoing, never-ending battle between the Muslim and his all-too-human desires to lie, steal, commit adultery, or commit other forms of sin.

Islamic theology teaches that a person can go to heaven only if his good deeds outweigh his sinful deeds. Waging an effective jihad against one’s sinful nature is thus a matter of eternal life and death. Sura 29:6 of the Qur’an, for example, teaches that whoever “strives hard” or wages jihad against his carnal nature “strives for the good of his own soul.” Likewise, speaking in Sura 29:69, Allah assures the reader that “those who strive hard for Our sake, We will most certainly guide them to Our ways. Most assuredly, God is with those devoted to doing good, aware that God is seeing them.”

This, then, is the peaceful version of jihad. It is the one many Muslims point to in saying that Westerners misunderstand the notion of jihad. When my first novel, The Last Jihad, was published in November 2002, I was speaking at an event at the Tattered Cover, a major independent bookstore in Denver, Colorado. During the Q&A session, a Muslim man from the Middle East stood up and chastised me for misusing the word jihad. It did not, he insisted, signify a violent man-versus-man battle between Muslims and the infidels. Rather, it spoke of a man-versus-himself conflict regarding purification and self-control. I appreciated his comments and readily conceded that this was certainly one of the definitions of jihad. But it is not the only one.

Lesser Jihad—also known as “outer jihad”—can best be defined as Muslims using violent means or “holy war” to accomplish the will of Allah in punishing infidels and expanding the kingdom of Allah on earth. To many Muslim scholars, this form of pleasing Allah, while vitally important, is not as important as the Greater Jihad or “inner jihad.” Nevertheless, as I explained to the man in Denver along with the rest of the audience that was listening in on our discussion, it is this definition—violence in Allah’s service—that Radicals such as the Ayatollah Khomeini, Osama bin Laden, and others have used to justify their actions.

The Radicals also use this definition to persuade members of the Islamic Rank-and-File—particularly young people—to join their movement and engage in the Revolution. This form of violent jihad is particularly critical, according to one form of Muslim eschatology, in the end of days as the Day of Judgment approaches, something I will explain in more detail in chapter twelve, which discusses the coming of the Islamic messiah known as the Mahdi.

Even a brief survey of the writings and speeches of Radicals reveals numerous citations of verses from the Qur’an, some taken out of context. Consider the following passages, which Radicals draw upon to call Muslims to violent action:

“Prescribed for you is fighting, though it is disliked by you. It may well be that you dislike a thing but it is good for you.” —Sura 2:216

“[Jews and Christians] are the ones whom God has cursed, and he whom God excludes from His mercy, you shall never find one to help and save him.” —Sura 4:52

“The recompense of those who fight against God and His Messenger . . . they shall either be executed, or crucified, or have their hands and feet cut off alternately, or be banished from the land.” —Sura 5:33

“O you who believe! Take not the Jews and Christians for guardians and confidants. . . . Surely God does not guide such wrongdoers.” —Sura 5:51

“Kill them [infidels, namely Christians and Jews] wherever you may come upon them, and seize them, and confine them, and lie in wait for them at every conceivable place.” —Sura 9:5

“Fight with the leaders of unbelief.” —Sura 9:12

“Fight against those among the People of the Book who do not believe God and the Last Day . . . until they pay the jizyah (tax of protection and exemption from military service) with a willing hand in a state of submission. And those Jews say, ‘Ezra is God’s son’; and the Christians say: ‘The Messiah is God’s son.’ . . . May God destroy them!” —Sura 9:29-30

“For those who disbelieve, garments of fire are certain to be cut out for them, with boiling water being poured down over their heads, with which all that is within their bodies, as well as their skins, is melted away.” —Sura 22:19-20

“Pay no heed to (the desires of) the unbelievers, but engage in a mighty striving against them.” —Sura 25:52

“When you meet those who disbelieve in war, smite them at their necks.” —Sura 47:4

Regarding enemies, “God only forbids you . . . to take them for friends and guardians. Whoever takes them for friends and guardians, those are the wrongdoers.” —Sura 60:9

“O Prophet! Strive hard against the unbelievers and the hypocrites, and be stern against them. Their final refuge is Hell.” —Sura 66:9

Clearly, then, according to the Radicals, the Qur’an is adamant about certain things:

• Violence is good.

• Jews and Christians are cursed and are not supposed to be helped or saved or befriended.

• Actually, Jews and Christians are to be killed—whenever and wherever Muslims find them—because they are loathsome, filled with evil, and destined for hell.

• Infidels can (and sometimes should) be crucified, beheaded, have their hands and feet cut off, or tortured in all manner of ways.

Radicals and the Hadiths

The Qur’an is not the only source of inspiration and justification for the Radicals. They also draw on the “hadiths”—the sayings of Muhammad and oral traditions of the events of his life that were collected and written down for posterity by several of his devoted followers. Douglas Streusand, a respected scholar of Islamic history, has noted that “in hadith collections, jihad means armed action; for example, the 199 references to jihad in the most standard collection of hadiths—Sahih al-Bukhari—all assume that jihad means warfare.”73

The collection Streusand was referring to is the writings of Muhammad ibn Ismail al-Bukhari, who in the ninth century recorded one of the six most trusted Sunni collections of hadiths. (Shias have separate collections.) Al-Bukhari recorded, for example, one of the Radicals’ most often quoted passages, in which Muhammad said, “The Hour [of the end of days] will not be established until you fight with the Jews, and the stone behind which a Jew will be hiding will say, ‘O Muslim! There is a Jew hiding behind me, so kill him’” (Bukhari, 52:177).

Sunan Abu Dawud recorded another of the six most trusted Sunni collections of hadiths, including a passage central to Radical theology: “Jihad will be performed continuously since the day Allah sent me as a prophet until the day the last member of my community will fight with the Dajjal (Muslim version of the Antichrist)” (Abu Dawud, 14:2526).

In 1968, shortly after Egypt’s crushing defeat to Israel in the Six-Day War, Sheikh Muhammad Abu-Zahra—a Radical theologian based at al-Azhar University, the Harvard of the Sunni world, located in a suburb of Cairo—used this verse to urge Muslims around the world to follow the path of jihad, not the path of Arab nationalism, to realize their dreams and ambitions, and to never surrender. “Jihad will never end,” he declared, drawing inspiration from the hadiths. “It will last to the Day of Judgment.”74

To what extent do these teachings influence the way young Muslims view the world in general and the Jews in particular? Consider what Walid Shoebat, a one-time Palestinian Radical and author of Why I Left Jihad, told the producer of the Epicenter documentary film:

We learned many things about the Jewish people in the [Islamic] school and the religious curriculum. [We were taught that] the Jews first of all were prophet killers, the Jews spread disease, the Jews put infertility drugs [in the water supply] for the Palestinians so they’ll not have children, the Jews caused tsunamis, the Jews run the Congress, the Jews own the media, the Jews created the protocols of the elders of Zion. Everything under the sun was always accused towards what is called international Zionism, which has its tentacles all over the whole globe in which they influence the West and they run America, and they run Europe and they run everything. So basically, that the Jew was a conspirator that needs to be destroyed and eliminated. And then the eschatological teaching in the Islamic studies department focused [on] the Jews gathering in Israel and the surrounding nations [so that] the Muslims [could] attack them [more easily]. And then the trees will cry out and the stars will come out—there is a Jew hiding behind me; come, O Muslim, come and kill him. That’s a well-known thing in all our schools that we learn. So the elimination of the Jew finally will happen in Israel, and it will be carried out by the Muslims. And this is what we see—[Iranian president] Ahmadinejad calling for the destruction of Israel, [Hezbollah leader Hassan] Nasrallah calling for the destruction of Israel. All of a sudden the fantasy has become reality. All of a sudden they are carrying out this eschatological dogma that is being taught all over the Middle East to fruition, when you see Nasrallah and his military war machine marching with goose steps on the streets of Beirut and all over Lebanon, exactly as the Nazis were doing, you know, the same gestures of Nazis. . . . What has been a dream to us and what we’ve learned in the schools have all of a sudden become real. And what that does, it builds the confidence for the Muslims, that this is not a dream anymore; this is real. So the confidence level builds up in Iran, the confidence level builds up in Lebanon, the confidence level builds up among the Palestinians [that we will] force the Jews to leave Israel.

It should be noted that some prominent Radicals completely reject the notion of the two different forms and definitions of jihad. They insist there is only one definition: violent action to advance Allah’s kingdom. For example, Abdullah Azzam, a Palestinian cleric who was an early intellectual mentor to Osama bin Laden, once wrote, “The saying, ‘We have returned from the lesser jihad (battle) to the greater jihad (jihad of the soul)’ which people quote on the basis that it is a hadith, is in fact a false, fabricated hadith which has no basis. It is only a saying of Ibrahim Ibn Abi ’Abalah, one of the Successors [of Muhammad], and it contradicts textual evidence and reality. . . . The word jihad, when mentioned on its own, only means combat with weapons. . . . Jihad is the zenith of Islam. . . . Jihad today is individually obligatory by self and wealth, on every Muslim, and the Islamic community remains sinful until the last piece of Islamic land is freed from the hands of the Disbelievers, nor are any absolved from the sin other than the Mujahideen [wagers of jihad].” Azzam went on to write that violent jihad “is a collective act of worship.”75

The Ayatollah Khomeini, however, was one who both believed in the concepts of inner jihad and outer jihad and taught them to his disciples. Indeed, during one nationally televised sermon he delivered after returning to Iran in February 1979, Khomeini told the millions of Iranians watching him, “Those who engaged in jihad in the first age of Islam advanced and pushed forward without any regard for themselves or their personal desires, for they had earlier waged a jihad against their selves. Without the inner jihad, the outer jihad is impossible. Jihad is inconceivable unless a person turns his back on his own desires and the world.”76

Radicals and Assurance of Salvation

Religiously driven Radicals believe their violent actions will bless their families and neighbors. They believe that the only way of economic, political, and social salvation for the Muslim Ummah, or Islamic nation at large, is to return to the purest form of obedience to the teachings of Muhammad as expressed through the Qur’an and the hadiths. If Muhammad tells them to kill infidels, then they want to obey faithfully because they believe only then will Allah once again show mercy on the Muslim people and once and for all establish a global Islamic government to complete all of human history.

But Radicals are not driven simply by a desire to bless all Muslims. They are also driven by the belief that obedience to the way of jihad is the only path to personal salvation.

As you study the Qur’an, you will find that Islam is a works-based religion. Therefore, Radicals—and all religious Muslims who take the Qur’an seriously—constantly have to be thinking about a “51 percent solution.” They must constantly strive to do more good works than bad, lest they be damned for eternity.

The problem is that the Qur’an does not provide a way for Muslims to assess how they are doing throughout their lives. There are no quarterly report cards. There are no annual performance reviews. How, then, can a Muslim—Radical or otherwise—know for certain whether he will go to heaven? How can he find the assurance of salvation that every thoughtful soul seeks before death? This lack of clarity about the quality of their earthly performance—and thus the lack of assurance of their eternal salvation—is a source of great angst, fear, and insecurity for many Muslims, Sunnis and Shias alike.

To better understand this works-based salvation system, consider the following verses from the Qur’an:

“Every soul is bound to taste death. So you will be repaid in full on the Day of Resurrection (for whatever you have done in the world). Whoever is spared the Fire and admitted to Paradise has indeed prospered and triumphed . . . if you are patient, steadfast, and keep within the limits of piety.” —Sura 3:185-186

“God has promised those who believe and do good, righteous deeds that for them is forgiveness and a tremendous reward.” —Sura 5:9

“O you who believe! If you keep from disobedience to God in reverence for Him and piety to deserve His protection, He will . . . blot out from you your evil deeds, and forgive you.” —Sura 8:29

“He responds with acceptance to those who believe and do good, righteous deeds. . . . However, as to the unbelievers, for them is a severe punishment.” —Sura 42:26

“We will set up balances of absolute justice on the Day of Resurrection, and no person will be wronged in the least. Even though it be a deed so much as the weight of a grain of mustard seed, We will bring it forth to be weighed. We suffice as reckoners.” —Sura 21:47

“Those whose scales (of good deeds) are heavy, they are prosperous, while those whose scales (of good deeds) are light, they will be those who have ruined their own selves, in Hell abiding. The Fire will scorch their faces, their lips being displaced and their jaws protruding.” —Sura 23:102-104

These last two verses give us a clear image of the divine scales of justice. On the Day of Judgment, Islamic theology teaches, Allah weighs a Muslim’s good deeds and bad deeds and determines who will spend eternity in paradise and who will be cast into the fires of hell to be punished and tortured for all of eternity. It should not be surprising, therefore, that Radicals—who at their core are purists—take the verses about waging jihad and killing infidels very seriously. Why shouldn’t they? To disregard the command to jihad would be to disobey, and such disobedience could tip the scales of justice against them in the final reckoning.

But continue with this theological logic for a moment. Even if a Muslim is fully obedient to the command to wage jihad, this alone is not a guarantee of eternal salvation. According to the Qur’an, it adds more deeds to the “good” side of the scales. But what if a Muslim’s life before becoming a jihadist was filled with sin? What if he commits sins during his time waging jihad? What if he commits sins that he does not even fully realize he is committing? Or what if certain sins weigh more heavily than certain good deeds? The truth is, even a fully devoted follower of jihad knows in his heart of hearts—if he is truly honest with himself—that he will not know for sure if his good works will tip the scales in his favor until the Day of Judgment itself. But who wants to wait until then? That really is gambling with one’s eternal security.

Which brings us to the only way in the theology of the Radicals that a Muslim can be sure of his eternal destiny.

The Supremacy of Martyrdom

Radicals believe the only true assurance or secure promise of eternal salvation for a Muslim is to be a martyr—and ideally a suicide bomber—in the cause of jihad.

“The call to Jihad in God’s name,” wrote Osama bin Laden and his colleagues in 1984 in the first issue of their recruiting magazine, Jihad, “leads to eternal life in the end, and is relief from your earthly chains.”77

“A martyr will not feel the pain of death except like how you feel when you are pinched,” bin Laden told his followers in 1996 in his formal declaration of war against the United States. “A martyr’s privileges are guaranteed by God; forgiveness with the first gush of his blood, he will be shown his seat in Paradise, he will be decorated with the jewels of [belief], married off to the beautiful ones . . . assured security in the Day of Judgment . . . [and] wedded to seventy-two of the pure [virgin women of Paradise].”78

Bin Laden went on to assert that “without shedding of blood, no degradation and branding can be removed from the forehead.”79

Put another way, bin Laden both believes and preaches that if a Muslim sheds his blood and loses his life in the cause of jihad, then he will have all his bad deeds removed from the scales. What’s more, he uses the concept of the assurance of salvation through martyrdom as a recruiting tool, offering hope to Muslims who fear hell more than death.

Bin Laden is not the only one preaching this. Many Radicals do.

“Blessings to those who wage [jihad] with their body,” proclaims Sheikh Ibrahim Mudeiris, a leading Radical preacher in Gaza. “Blessings to our Shahids [martyrs] who sacrifice their souls easily for the sake of Allah. . . . Blessings to the happy Shahids within the entrails of the green bird in Paradise. Blessings to the Shahids whose sins are forgiven with the first drop of their blood.”80

Some clerics go even further and argue that a martyr not only attains his own forgiveness and eternal salvation but can save the souls of as many as seventy of his family members. “The martyr, if he meets Allah, is forgiven with the first drop of blood,” proclaims Sheikh Isma’il Aal Radhwan, another leading Radical preacher in Gaza. “He is saved from the torments of the grave; he sees his place in Paradise; he is saved from the Great Horror [of the Day of Judgment]; he is given seventy-two black-eyed women; he vouches for seventy of his family to be accepted to Paradise; he is crowned with the Crown of glory, whose precious stone is better than all of this world and what is in it.”81

To be clear, the Qur’an does not actually promise seventy-two virgins to suicide bombers and other martyrs. The number seventy-two comes from various sayings ascribed to Muhammad that were recorded by ancient Islamic scholars. Still, there are verses in the Qur’an that bin Laden and other Radicals cite to make their point. Among them:

“As for those who are killed in God’s cause, He [Allah] will never render their deeds vain. He will guide them. . . . He will admit them into Paradise that He has made known to them.” —Sura 47:4-6

“For him who lives in awe of his Lord and of standing before his Lord [in the Hereafter], there will be two Gardens. . . . Reclining on beds lined with silk . . . are pure, chaste-eyed spouses whom no man or Jinn [devil] has touched before . . . maidens good in character and beautiful . . . pure maidens assigned for them in secluded pavilions.” —Sura 55:46, 54, 56, 70, 72

“For the God-revering pious there will surely be triumph: Gardens and vineyards, and youthful, full-breasted maidens of equal age, and a cup [of wine] full to the brim. . . . A reward from your Lord, a gift according to [His] reckoning in full satisfaction.” —Sura 78:31-36

“WWMD?”

What would Muhammad do?

That is the question the Radicals are asking. A casual examination of the Qur’an and the hadiths reveals that Muhammad commanded his followers to wage violent holy war in the name of Allah against infidels, be they Jews, Christians, idol worshipers, apostate Muslims, agnostics, atheists, or others who refused to confess that “Islam is the answer, and jihad is the way.” Muhammad conducted such wars during his lifetime. His disciples after him did so as well. It should not be surprising, therefore, that Radicals are waging the very jihad to which they are commanded in their sacred writings.

“Allah wanted Muhammad’s life to be a model,” noted Sheik Yussef Al-Qaradhawi, head of the Islamic law faculty at Qatar University and a spiritual leader of the Muslim Brotherhood movement, just a few months before the 9/11 attacks in the United States. “Allah has made the prophet Muhammad into an epitome for religious warriors since he ordered Muhammad to fight for religion.” By contrast, the scholar noted, “the Christian is incapable of imitating Jesus regarding war . . . since Jesus never fought.”82