MOSHE SHARON: MUSLIM EUROPE IN THE MAKING….SEE NOTE PLEASE
My friend Professor Sharon is one of Israel’s most distinguished historians and one of the very few Israelis who understood that the Arab wars against Israel were a jihad. Here is a most prescient chapter from his book so apposite today to what is happening in Europe. This is Chapter 6 of Moshe Sharon’s book Jihad: Islam Against Israel and the West, kindly translated for Outpost by Mrs. Sharon.) Published in February 2014
http://www.mideastoutpost.com/archives/muslim-europe-in-the-making-by-moshe-sharon.html
In 1683 the armies of Islam besieged Vienna for the second time. The first time was a century and a half earlier. The great Islamic Empire of the period, the Ottoman Empire under the long reign of Suleiman the Magnificent, was then at its zenith. It had extended its borders on the Danube far to the west of Budapest and was poised to capture Vienna, which stood between its armies and Western Europe. Suleiman regarded himself at that time as the ruler of the world, and treated the great kings of Europe as his subjects. The actual subjugation of the rest of Europe was, as far as he was concerned, only a matter of time.
Fortunately for the world of Christianity, when the Moslem armies attempted to besiege Vienna for the second time, some 117 years after Suleiman’s death, the Ottoman Empire was already on the decline, its expansion westwards had been checked, and the bastions of European Christianity could then begin threatening the Muslim Empire rather than being threatened by it.
Yet for the Ottomans, the Christian countries of Europe remained Dar al-Harb -– “the Land of War” – the term used by the Muslims for all territories not yet under Islamic rule. The term is both legal and political, and is charged with religious belief and emotional fervor.
Legally speaking, it defines the relations between the lands of Islam and the lands of the infidels. Infidels – in Arabic Kuffar (singular: kafir) – are all those who are not Muslims, mainly Jews and Christians. They are, therefore, regarded to be, both theoretically and effectively, in a state of war with the Muslims. This war does not have to be declared, since from the Muslim viewpoint, it is the only possible state of affairs between the two parties. Moreover, it is part of the divine plan. For after Allah sent Muhammad “with the guidance and the religion of truth” there was no other way but that “he may uplift it above every religion.” (Koran, surah 9 verse 33) In other words, Allah made it incumbent on the Muslims, the Community of the Faithful, to subjugate the whole world and bring it under the rule of Allah.
The fire of jihad, Holy War, must burn in the heart of every Muslim. It is a collective and personal duty; and every Muslim leader, particularly the head of the Muslim Empire, is obliged to pursue this duty ceaselessly. Legally therefore, the appellation of “The Land of War” to Europe is understandable. Every Christian coming from the Land of War – dar al harb – has the status of harbi. This is different from being a dhimmi, the status imposed on Christians and Jews tolerated to live under Islamic rule as a third-class subjects. The harbi is simply an alien, an enemy of Islam, even when no acts of war are in progress between the two sides. This legal outlook reflects the religious obligation to keep the Holy War alive. Since no one can abolish this duty that is enshrined in the words of God in the Koran, it remains an open-ended condition. Similarly the Land of War cannot change its status until it is conquered by the Muslims and becomes part of the Land of Islam.
The emotional aspect of this religious obligation is an integral part of the way by which the relations between the Muslims and the kuffar were defined. The Koran and Islamic tradition taught the Muslims that their Community of Faithful is “the best nation ever brought forth to men,” (Koran, surah 3 verse 110) and that the truth of their religion is the only perfect truth, and that they, as believers, are always on the right side, and the infidels are always wrong.
Europe, more than any other part of the world, personified the land of war. It was the natural place against which the Jihad was to be waged. It was, after all, the major enemy of Islam from its very inception. But Europe proved to be a difficult enemy. It was an enemy that fought back successfully. In the Middle Ages the Crusades brought the Europeans into the heart of the Islamic lands, but Islam somehow recovered from this success of the infidels, which placed the Muslims for the first time in a defensive position, and tormented them with doubts about Allah’s support.
But Islam did not recover from the loss of Spain (“the Jewel in the Islamic Crown”). Once Islam conquered Spain, it became an Islamic land. Its re-conquest by the infidels seemed to be a reversal of history for it negated the rule which says that once an Islamic land, always an Islamic land. To this very day, Spain, which the Arabs insist on calling Andalus, is regarded as a lost Islamic territory, the recovery of which is a religious and political objective and duty, more than a dream.
The offensive of the Ottomans against Europe in the 16th century (after destroying the last great symbol of Christianity in the east with the conquest of Constantinople in 1453) was the natural course of the Islamic jihadi idea. However, the Ottoman Empire failed, retreated, deteriorated, and was finally destroyed in the Great War in 1918. Moreover, Christian civilization and the modern way of life of Europe were victorious in other ways. The national regime in 20th century Turkey dramatically changed the nature of the state and society by importing from Europe everything that Western civilization could offer, from script to technology and from a system of government to fashion, with the declared aim of building a modern secular Turkey, and expelling Islam from the life of the state and the society.
Another political development that was viewed as a further, major setback to Islam was the establishment of the State of Israel. More than the loss in the 15th century of the Islamic land of Spain, the establishment of the State of Israel on Islamic land is regarded as a double reverse of history. Not only does it involve the loss of land but it also constitutes an unacceptable situation where Jews, who are dhimmis, rule over Muslims. This defies the divine law itself. It cannot be tolerated and must be changed.
Yet another setback is the fact that Europe ceased to be the only land of the infidels. America joined this category, and America has proved itself to be an even tougher opponent than Europe, both militarily and ideologically.
However, modern Muslim activists detected that after World War II Europe had begun to show signs of old age, frailty and weakness. The once mighty West in general proved to be surprisingly vulnerable. Islam emerged as a strong power waiting to be engaged. This notion was summed up by the Malaysian premier Dr. Mahathir Mohamad on October 16 2003, at the opening of the Islamic summit: The 1.3 billion strong Muslims possess both natural sources of wealth and human resources, and it was inconceivable that they should not be able to achieve their goals or be defeated by a few million Jews. However, the availability of resources that could be converted into weapons proved to be less effective than Mahathir and his like thought.
It bears repeating that Islam is a warring religion and a fighting civilization. The Muslims left their mark on world history first and foremost in a military capacity. They can do the same in this age, changing their strategy and tactics, but remaining on the same course. The revivalist Muslim movements – the Iranian revolutionaries, the Muslim Brotherhood, al-Qaeda, Hamas and the Islamic Jihad, to mention only a few — have discovered the weak links in the West’s defense. On the one hand they have proved that terror, similar to that practiced by the Muslim assassins in the Middle Ages, can be much more devastating than the actual physical damage and bloodshed that it brings about. In one act of terror they succeeded in changing the government in Spain.
On the other hand, like the Soviets, they soon discovered the ease with which they can exploit Europe’s democratic system, liberal ideologies, leftist intellectuals, the media, and even governments, to achieve their objectives. The Muslim jihad for the conquest of Europe began a few decades ago, and the Europeans are taking part as full collaborators on the side of Islam. The establishment of the European Union has done away with national borders, obliterated defined national entities, weakened national feelings, ancient values and the sense of national pride and national defense. On the other hand it has created a wonderful infrastructure for the infiltration of Islam into Western Europe by millions of Muslims who maintain their Muslim identity, hold on to their Muslim values and regard the whole of Europe as their own land like any other part of the world. Bin Laden, Qaradawi, the Ayatollahs of Iran, and many other teachers of Islam tell them that they are coming to Europe as masters and not as immigrants.
These Muslims, using European laws and exploiting leftist intellectuals, the “useful fools” (to use Lenin’s immortal phrase) actually behave like masters in the host countries rather than guests. Thousands of mosques have been established in every country, from Finland to France. The Muslim way of life is even imposed on economic institutions, and the Islamic version of history and thought is creeping into all the echelons of political and intellectual life, affecting the educational system on every level.
Official Europe convened the Hamburg Symposium in 1983 to meekly acknowledge the importance of Islam in the creation of European civilization and to encourage study of the Arabic language and Islamic civilization in Europe, free from the (sound and scientific) “orientalist method” of research–namely in accordance with the Muslim traditional methods. Concurrently official Europe encourages the departure from the Judeo-Christian heritage and minimizes its contribution to Western Civilization.
This pathetic attempt to drive modern Europe away from its true moral, cultural and historical sources, in which Judaism occupies a central place, also has a political aspect. This aspect is a natural by-product of the infiltration of Islam’s version of modern history into European society and institutions. Muslim propaganda has succeeded in presenting the establishment of the State of Israel as a sin committed by the Europeans against the world of Islam. In other words, the State of Israel is nothing but an easy way by which post-war Europe atoned for the crimes of the Nazis and their helpers at the expense of the poor Arabs.
This idea has taken root not only in the minds of the “useful fools” of the European Left but in the business and political community. Nowadays, more than ever, one can hear in these circles and in the media (sometimes clouded with euphemisms) that the establishment of Israel was a “moral and political mistake.” In other words, Europe would be very happy to see a major Arab pogrom, to which it would quietly contribute its part, in order to rid her of the guilt of this “moral and political” sin. Much of the European policy in the Middle East, and particularly the official enmity to Israel, is directed and formed by these sentiments. And we have not yet mentioned the ingrained anti-Semitism which was only covered up for a while, but from which Europe has never recovered.
Instead of focusing on its steady conquest by Islam and the loss of its Western character, Europe has once again found the usual, ancient solution to all its problems – the Jews, and now also, very conveniently, their state. There is a strong possibility that Europe will become Islamic in less than half a century and it will be of its own doing.
Moshe Sharon is professor emeritus of Islamic History at the Hebrew University. He served as Prime Minister Menachem Begin’s adviser on Arab affairs.
Comments are closed.
