The Truth About Islam and Jihad

By John Ankerberg and Emir Caner

Emir Caner, converted Sunni Muslim and coauthor of the bestselling Unveiling Islam, joins apologist John Ankerberg, host of the powerhouse John Ankerberg Show, to tackle a topic crucial to twenty-first-century Christianity.

Caner's immersion in the Islamic worldview, from growing up the son of a devout mosque leader, gives readers an authentic picture of Islam and jihad—"holy war." He and Ankerberg go beyond the hopeful but often ignorant pronouncements of politicians and religious leaders, considering...

• the Qu'ran's contradictory declarations regarding conflict and tolerance
• the facts that Muhammad was a warrior and Islam is a religion of battle
• the deceptiveness of calling Islam a "religion of peace"
• the decisive role of imams—teachers—in radicalizing adherents
• the false impressions of Islam gained by considering only North American Muslims

An invaluable tool for understanding this key issue and discussing it with Muslim and non-Muslim friends and acquaintances.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Harvest House Publishers
• Release date: Feb 1, 2009
• ISBN: 9780736933711

John Ankerberg

Host of the award-winning John Ankerberg Show, has three earned degrees: an MA in church history and the philosophy of Christian thought, an MDiv from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, and a DMin from Luther Rice Seminary. He has authored, co-authored and/or edited 92 books, including the 2-million-selling "Facts On" series of apologetic books.

Book preview

Section One

Introduction: The Question of Peace or Violence

And fight them until persecution is no more, and religion is for Allah.

—SURA 2:193

Jihad, viewed as synonymous with holy war, is a word that has brought fear and concern to millions in the West during recent years. Seen through the lenses of the 9/11 attacks of 2001, the Madrid train bombings of 2004, and the London bombings of 2005 (also known as the 7/7 bombings), jihad has become indistinguishable from militant Islam’s insatiable and merciless war against Western democracies. These societies, due to their staunch belief in political freedom, are in fact regarded by Islamists as putrid enablers of immorality who wish to export their sins to Muslims throughout the world.

However, the aggressive war waged against the West is only one front on which the Islamists fight. These purist Muslims are also waging battle against an internal foe known as infidels (Arabic, kuffar). Infidels are defined simply as those who were born Muslim and convert to some other faith.

More than any others, it is these men and women who are most likely to find themselves at the wrong end of a Muslim sword or rifle. Is it not ironic that these people—the ones closest to and embedded in Muslim culture—are themselves the most prone to have their blood shed by those who believe it is their duty to rid their societies of corruption and wickedness?

1

What has been the experience of people under Islam’s rule?

Those who persecute infidels take action based on the words of their founding prophet, Muhammad, who declared, If a Muslim changes his Islamic religion, kill him (Bukhari 9.57). Thus, when asking whether Islam is a religion of peace or violence, one approach is to view that question through the eyes of a person who was part of that system and then rejected it.

Consider the Muslim convert from Judaism who was executed by the order of Muhammad for reverting to his previous faith. The account is found within the second sacred text of Islam, known as the Hadith (traditions):

Behold: There was a fettered man beside Abu Muisa. Mu’adh asked, Who is this (man)? Abu Muisa said, He was a Jew and became a Muslim and then reverted back to Judaism. Then Abu Muisa requested Mu’adh to sit down but Mu’adh said, I will not sit down till he has been killed. This is the judgment of Allah and His Apostle[] (for such cases) and repeated it thrice. Then Abu Musa ordered that the man be killed, and he was killed. Abu Musa added, Then we discussed the night prayers and one of us said, ‘I pray and sleep, and I hope that Allah will reward me for my sleep as well as for my prayers.’¹

This story is remarkable for numerous reasons, not the least of which is the effortlessness with which Muhammad’s confidants take someone’s life. Additionally, the two Muslim lieutenants, after the bloodletting, simply sit down to dinner and discuss the religious issues of the day. They matter-of-factly share their hopes for eternal rewards, all the while indifferent to the fate of the Jewish man, who, according to their own doctrine, they have doomed to unending torture in the lowest part of hell.

Consider a young Arab boy whose story is both unique and tragic. Geronimo, born in 1534, was sold as a slave to a Spaniard when he was four years old, raised a Catholic until he was about eight, and then escaped and returned home to once again avow Islam. In 1559, at age 25, Geronimo determined to revert to Christianity. He returned to his old master, with whom he gained favor, and enlisted in a Spanish squadron. Ten years later he was captured while on an expedition and given an ultimatum: recant Christianity or die. Samuel Zwemer, the pioneer missionary to Muslims in the nineteenth century, tells the final events of Geronimo’s life:

The Pasha [lord] was then engaged in building a fort called the Burj-Seti-Takelilt…to protect the water-gate…of Algiers. On September 18th, A.D. 1569, Geronimo was sent for and given the choice of either at once renouncing Christianity, or being buried alive…But the faith of Geronimo was not to be shaken. The chains were then struck off his legs, he was bound hand and foot, and thrown into the case of concrete. A Spanish renegade called Tamango, who had become a Moslem under the name of Jaffar, leapt in upon him, and with his heavy mallet hammered him down into the concrete. The block was then built up into the north wall of the fort.²

Nearly 300 years later, in 1853, the bones of Geronimo were uncovered and placed in a chapel. The martyr’s hands were still bound, but in the awful struggles of suffocation his legs had broken loose.³

We can also view the question of Islam’s peacefulness through the eyes of non-Muslims who are forced to live under its control. Consider the Syrian Christians who were conquered by the Muslim hordes in the seventh century and forced to sign a surrender treaty, known as the Pact of Umar. This accord, named after the second leader of Islam after Muhammad’s death, illustrates well the oppression that came with Islam as it began its conquest of the civilized world. It denotes in part the laws Christians would be required to keep:

We shall not build, in our cities or in their neighborhood, new monasteries, Churches, convents, or monks’ cells, nor shall we repair, by day or by night, such of them as fall in ruins or are situated in the quarters of the Muslims.

We shall not manifest our religion publicly nor convert anyone to it. We shall not prevent any of our kin from entering Islam if they wish it.

We shall show respect toward the Muslims, and we shall rise from our seats when they wish to sit.

We shall not display our crosses or our books in the roads or markets of the Muslims. We shall use only clappers [bells] in our churches very softly. We shall not raise our voices when following our dead. We shall not show lights on any of the roads of the Muslims or in their markets. We shall not bury our dead near the Muslims.

If we in any way violate these undertakings for which we ourselves stand surety, we forfeit our covenant [dhimma], and we become liable to the penalties for contumacy [rebelliousness toward authority] and sedition.⁴