RaymondIbrahim.com
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Recent Articles
June 8, 2009
Are Judaism and Christianity as Violent as Islam?
Middle East Quarterly
"There is far more violence in the Bible than in the Qur'an; the idea that Islam imposed itself by the sword is a Western fiction, fabricated during the time of the Crusades when, in fact, it was Western Christians who were fighting brutal holy wars against Islam."[1] So announces former nun and self-professed "freelance monotheist," Karen Armstrong. This quote sums up the single most influential argument currently serving to deflect the accusation that Islam is inherently violent and intolerant: All monotheistic religions, proponents of such an argument say, and not just Islam, have their fair share of violent and intolerant scriptures, as well as bloody histories. Thus, whenever Islam's sacred scriptures—the Qur'an first, followed by the reports on the words and deeds of Muhammad (the Hadith)—are highlighted as demonstrative of the religion's innate bellicosity, the immediate rejoinder is that other scriptures, specifically those of Judeo-Christianity, are as riddled with violent passages.
June 4, 2009
Respecting the Faithful vs. Respecting the Faith
Pajamas Media
During the pope’s recent Mideast visit, the media reported that he has “deep respect for Islam.” That exact phrase appeared in the Associated Press, AFP, BBC, Jerusalem Post, Washington Times, and Al-Jazeera.
Yet he said no such thing; instead, he mentioned his “deep respect for the Muslim community.” There’s a world of difference between respecting a religious group and respecting their religion, and the pontiff knows this.
As a Christian — indeed, as pope — by evoking his “deep respect” for Muslims, Benedict probably meant that Muslims, who believe in one God, pray, fast, and follow a strict set of moral principles, are, from a religious perspective, worthy of “deep respect,” certainly in comparison to the many godless of the secular West.
June 4, 2009
Criticism and Conciliation
National Review
Though he early indicated that this would be an honest, heart-to-heart talk — "we must say openly the things we hold in our hearts, and that too often are said only behind closed doors" and "let me speak as clearly and plainly as I can about some specific issues that I believe we must finally confront together" — Obama did not follow through.
A heart-to-heart talk revealing what is "said only behind closed doors" would have included any number of issues pitting the Islamic world on a collision course with the West—from that business of jihad and enmity for infidels, to sharia law and dhimmi status of non-Muslim minorities, etc. — issues that have led to a majority of Americans having a negative view of the Muslim world.
Instead, for every mild admonishment directed at the Islamic world, Obama immediately followed by several admissions of American mistakes, including reactions to 9/11, which "in some cases, led us to act contrary to our ideals." That's to say nothing of the constant adulation he offered the Muslim world.
More Criticism and Conciliation
May 4, 2009
Words Matter in the War on Terror
Pajamas Media
Knowledge is inextricably linked to language. The less accurate words are, the less accurate the knowledge they impart; conversely, the more precise the language, the more precise the knowledge. In the war on terror, to acquire accurate knowledge — which is pivotal to victory — we need to begin with accurate language.
Would the free world have understood the Nazi threat if, instead of calling them what they called themselves, “Nazis,” it had opted to simply call them “extremists” — a word wholly overlooking the racist, expansionary, and supremacist elements that are part and parcel of the word “Nazi”?
April 17, 2009
What Piracy? This Is the Same Old Jihad
Pajamas Media
During the recent Somali pirate standoff with U.S. forces, when American sea captain Richard Phillips was being held hostage, Fox News analyst Charles Krauthammer confidently concluded that “the good news is that these [pirates] are not jihadists. If it’s a jihadist holding a hostage, there is going to be a lot of death. These guys are interested not in martyrdom but in money.”
In fact, the only good news is that Richard Phillips has been rescued. The bad news is that what appears to have been a bunch of lawless, plunder-seeking Somalis “yo-hoing” on the high seas is, in fact, a manifestation of the jihad — as attested to by both Islamic history and doctrine.
More What Piracy? This is the same Jihad
April 12, 2009
The History Channel's Distortions of the Crusades
Jihad Watch
I recently taped and am watching a documentary, "The Crusades: Crescent and the Cross," on the History Channel. While it is more or less historically accurate—names, dates, figures—it suffers from two weaknesses, weaknesses that often take center stage whenever Islam is discussed in the West: 1) biases and apologetics on behalf of Islam, coupled with outright distortions concerning Christians and Christianity; and 2) anachronisms, by projecting the motives and worldview of modern man onto the motives and worldview of pre-modern man, both Muslims and Christians.
Take the first 10 minute segment, dealing with Pope Urban II’s call to the Crusades, including the famous Council of Clermont (1095) where Urban made his case. Urban is repeatedly portrayed as a sly politician wholly indifferent to Christianity and faith, simply interested in aggrandizing his power and authority.
More Distortions of the Crusades
April 11, 2009
Obama’s Abominable Obeisance: Cultural Perspectives
Pajamas Media
Is Obama’s deep bow (with slightly bent knee) to the Saudi king as bad as it seems? The White House, apparently forgetful that we live in the Internet age, where everything is swiftly documented and disseminated — or else thinking it leads a nation of the blind — insists the president did not bow. He supposedly always bends in half when shaking hands with shorter people, though he certainly seemed quite erect when saluting the British queen, who is much shorter than the Saudi king.
Obama bowed; this much is certainly not open to debate. All that is left now is to place his odious obeisance in context. As such, history has much to say about the seemingly innocuous bow.
More Obama's Abominable Obeisance
April 5, 2009
Textbook Lies about Islam
Pajamas Media
In recent House hearings dedicated to examining Islamic extremism, I stressed that the fundamental stumbling block to effective policy-making is educational and epistemological. What people are taught about Islam needs a serious overhaul before we can expect to formulate strategies that make sense.
Worth heeding is former top Pentagon official William Gawthrop’s 2006 lament that “the senior service colleges of the Department of Defense had not incorporated into their curriculum a systematic study of Muhammad as a military or political leader. As a consequence, we still do not have an in-depth understanding of the war-fighting doctrine laid down by Muhammad, how it might be applied today by an increasing number of Islamic groups, or how it might be countered.”
Three years later, the situation appears worse. After the War College published something of an apologia for the terrorist organization Hamas, defense analyst Mark Perry concluded, “It’s worse than you think. They have curtailed the curriculum so that their students are not exposed to radical Islam. Akin to denying students access to Marx during the Cold War.”
More Textbook Lies about Islam
March 15, 2009
Conflating History with Theology: Judeo-Christian Violence vs. Islamic Violence
Jihad Watch
Especially after the terrorist strikes of 9/11, Islam has often been accused of being intrinsically violent. Many point to the Koran and other Islamic scriptures and texts as proof that violence and intolerance vis-à-vis non-Muslims is inherent to Islam. In response, a number of apologetics have been offered. The fundamental premise of almost all of these is that Islam’s purported violence—as found in Islamic scriptures and history—is no different than the violence committed by other religious groups throughout history and as recorded in their scriptures, such as Jews and Christians. The argument, in short, is that it is not Islam per se but rather human nature that is prone to violence.
So whenever the argument is made that the Koran as well as the historical words and deeds of Islam’s prophet Muhammad and his companions evince violence and intolerance, the counter-argument is immediately made: What about the historical atrocities committed by the Hebrews in years gone by and as recorded in their scriptures (AKA, the Old Testament)? What about the brutal cycle of violence Christians have committed in the name of their faith against both fellow Christians and non-Christians?
More Conflating History and Theology
March 14, 2009
Jihad, Martyrdom, and the Torments of the Grave
Pajamas Media
Why do some Muslims become suicide bombers or “martyrs”? In fact, these two near antithetic words — on the one hand, broken, desperate suicides, on the other, heroic martyrs — intrinsically demonstrate the radically different epistemologies the average Westerner and Muslim will articulate their answer through. In other words, that Westerners consider them suicides while Muslims consider them martyrs in and of itself speaks volumes on motivation.
To the secular Western mind, such Muslims are simply frustrated: oppressed and depressed, and with nothing to lose, these Muslims (so the logic goes) end their suffering in the name of some “noble” cause — be it the “liberation of al-Aqsa” or the razing of U.S. skyscrapers. All their talk about Islam, “obligations,” or 72 dark-eyed virgins is but a cover for their true motivation: “revenge” on the one hand, escape from an oppressive existence on the other. Most recently, “shame” has been cited as another culprit: al-Qaeda has been raping and thereby shaming women — and men — into becoming “martyrs.”
More Jihad, Martyrdom, and the Torments of the Grave
February 26, 2009
Taqiyya Revisited: A Response to the Critics (Part I and II)
Jihad Watch
Having written at length on various aspects of Islam, it is always my writings concerning doctrinal deceit that elicit (sometimes irate) responses. As such, the purpose of this article is to revisit the issue of deceit and taqiyya in Islam, and address the many ostensibly plausible rebuttals made by both Muslims and non-Muslims.
The earliest rebuttal I received appeared last year, days after I wrote an essay called "Islam's doctrines of deception" for the subscription-based Jane's Islamic Affairs Analyst. Due to the controversy it initiated among the intelligence community and abroad, the editors were quick to publish an apologetic counter-article by one Michael Ryan called "Interpreting Taqiyya."
February 12, 2009
War and Peace — and Deceit — in Islam(Part I and II)
Pajamas Media
Today, in a time of wars and rumors of wars emanating from the Islamic world — from the current conflict in Gaza, to the saber-rattling of nuclear-armed Pakistan and soon-to-be Iran — the need for non-Muslims to better understand Islam’s doctrines and objectives concerning war and peace, and everything in between (treaties, diplomacy), has become pressing. For instance, what does one make of the fact that, after openly and vociferously making it clear time and time again that its ultimate aspiration is to see Israel annihilated, Hamas also pursues “peace treaties,” including various forms of concessions from Israel — and more puzzling, receives them?
Before being in a position to answer such questions, one must first appreciate the thoroughly legalistic nature of mainstream (Sunni) Islam. Amazingly, for all the talk that Islam is constantly being “misunderstood” or “misinterpreted” by “radicals,” the fact is, as opposed to most other religions, Islam is a clearly defined faith admitting of no ambiguity: indeed, according to Sharia (i.e., “Islam’s way of life,” more commonly translated as “Islamic law”) every conceivable human act is categorized as being either forbidden, discouraged, permissible, recommended, or obligatory. “Common sense” or “universal opinion” has little to do with Islam’s notions of right and wrong. All that matters is what Allah (via the Koran) and his prophet Muhammad (through the hadith) have to say about any given subject, and how Islam’s greatest theologians and jurists — collectively known as the ulema, literally, the “ones who know” — have articulated it.
More War and Peace -- and Deceit in Islam
February 12, 2009
Raymond Ibrahim testifies before the U.S. House of Representatives
About jihad, sharia, deception, and perpetual war -- also known as "radical Islam." On February 12, 2009, I gave a witness statement to the House Armed Service Committee entitled Strategies For Countering Radical Islamist Ideologies: Overcoming Conceptual Difficulties. The PDF can be found here. To listen to the actual hearing, click here.
January 26, 2009
Consider the Source: Jihad has Islamic, and non-Islamic, roots. A Review of The Mind of Jihad by Laurent Murawiec
The Weekly Standard
For some time now there has been a raging debate regarding what fuels Islamic terrorism--whether grievances against the West have caused frustrated Muslims to articulate their rage through an Islamist paradigm, or whether (all grievances aside) Islam itself leads to aggression toward non-Muslims, or "infidels."
Laurent Murawiec's The Mind of Jihad offers a different perspective. Discounting both the grievance and Islam-as-innately-violent models, Murawiec explores certain untapped areas of research in order to show correlations between radical Islam and any number of uniquely Western concepts and patterns, both philosophical and historical.
While this approach is admirable, it also proves to be overly ambitious, and thus problematic, specifically in its insistence that radical Islam is merely the latest manifestation of phenomena rooted in the Western experience. Murawiec is no apologist; neither, however, is he interested in examining Islam's own peculiar Weltanschauung--as outlined by the Koran and hadith, articulated by the ulema (theologian-scholars), and codified in sharia law--in order to better understand the jihad.
January 4, 2009
The ongoing exploits of Fr. Zakaria Botros: "God does not pray!"
Jihad Watch
Recently Father Zakaria Botros—also named World Magazine’s “Daniel of the Year”—briefly examined the oft-repeated phrase uttered by Muslims every single time Muhammad’s name is evoked, and which is often relayed in English as “blessings and peace upon him” (also seen as the acronym PBUH—“peace be upon him”).
The original Arabic phrase uttered after Muhammad’s name is Sala Allah ‘aliyhi we sallam, which literally translates into “Allah pray on him and peace.” This is founded on Koran 33:56, where it says that "Allah and his angels pray (yi-sal-un) on the prophet..."
At one point or another, every Arabic speaker who reflects on this phrase asks, “Why—and how—does Allah go about praying on Muhammad?”
The standard response from the ulema has been that, in this context, Sala does not mean “pray” but rather “bless.” This is why the phrase states “on him” (‘aliyhi) not “to him” (iliyhi): only the latter would clearly mean that Allah prays to Muhammad—which, of course, would be absurd.
December 2008
AN ANALYSIS OF AL-QA'IDA'S WORLDVIEW: RECIPROCAL TREATMENT OR RELIGIOUS OBLIGATION?
MERIA
By analyzing what al-Qa’ida preaches to Muslims regarding Islam’s relationship to the non-Muslim world at large, and what it states to the West are its reasons for battling it, this essay seeks to highlight the many disparities behind al-Qa’ida’s words. Juxtaposed in themes, the following excerpts are all derived from Usama bin Ladin’s and Ayman al-Zawahiri’s writings and speeches as found in The Al Qa’ida Reader.More An Analysis of al-Qa'ida's Worldview
December 27 2008
Examining an Orientalist Excerpt: Carl Brockelmann: "Islamophobe" or Scholar?
Jihad Watch
Recently reading through Professor Carl Brockelmann’s History of the Islamic Peoples (1948), I was struck by a particular passage that, inasmuch as it is objective and thoroughly grounded in Islamic law and Muslim practice, if asserted now by any scholar of whatever caliber would surely only earn the label “Islamophobe.” Brockelmann, of course, was one of the most premiere scholars of Islam in his day (1868-1956) and a prolific writer; so too was he one of those explicitly named and denounced by Edward Said for being an Orientalist—or, according to Said, for being a “tool” of colonialism and imperialism, not a “true” scholar.
More Examining an Orientalist Excerpt
December 14, 2008
Are slave-girls in Islam equivalent to animals?
Jihad Watch
Many are now aware that the Koran—that is, Allah’s word—permits, not just polygamy, but forced concubinage (sex with captive women), according to Koran 4:3: “Marry such women as seem good to you, two and three and four; but if you fear that you will not do justice, then only one, or what your right hands possess [captive women taken in war].” There is, however, an interesting, and very telling, linguistic aspect to this verse that is often overlooked—or intentionally obscured. The Arabic states: “Ankahu [marry]…ma [what] malakat [possess] aymankum [your right hands].”
Oddly enough, the Arabic relative pronoun used to indicate these captive women is "ma": ma malakat aymankum, literally, “what your right hands possess” (see Shakir’s acclaimed English translation which most literally translates this). In Arabic, when one refers to a rational being (i.e., a human), the word used is min, which means “who(ever)”; ma, on the other hand, refers only to things or animals—trees, rocks, dogs and cats—very much similar to the English “it.” Thus, in proper Arabic the phrase might have been min malakat aymankum: “who(ever) your rights hands possess.”
More Are slave-girls in Islam equivalent to animals?
December 14, 2008
On Vikings and Victims: White Guilt in Context
American Thinker
All-permeating "white-guilt" did not appear out of thin air. It has taken a sustained propaganda effort, a wide-ranging mobilization of education and culture, to inculcate and sustain self-loathing among American Caucasians. Like the Coca-Cola TM brand, white-guilt needs endless repetition to remain struck in the thought and behavioral processes of the masses.
December 1, 2008
Raymond Ibrahim Appointed Associate Director of The Middle East Forum
Philadelphia – The Middle East Forum announces the appointment of Raymond Ibrahim as associate director.
Mr. Ibrahim will help to oversee the Forum's programs and projects and serve as associate publisher for the Middle East Quarterly. He will do original research and write about radical Islam and jihad, particularly from the doctrinal and historical viewpoints.
Mr. Ibrahim has worked for six years at the Library of Congress as a technician/reference assistant, working closely with Middle East language materials. He discovered there al-Qaeda tracts that he went on to translate and annotate for The Al Qaeda Reader (Doubleday, 2007). His book, he explains, shows that "radical Islam's war with the West is not finite and limited to political grievances … but is existential, transcending time and space and deeply rooted in faith."
Born in the United States to immigrant Coptic parents, Mr. Ibrahim was raised in a bilingual environment and is fluent in Arabic. He received his B.A. and M.A. (both in history) from California State University, Fresno, where he studied with Victor Davis Hanson; his M.A. thesis examined the early Islamic conquests. He has done graduate work at the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies of Georgetown University, and is currently working on his doctorate in medieval Islamic history at Catholic University.
Mr. Ibrahim has authored many articles, essays, and translations on Middle-East-related topics in such publications as the Chronicle of Higher Education, Jane's Islamic Affairs Analyst, Middle East Review of International Affairs, Los Angeles Times, Washington Times, New York Times Syndicate, National Review, and Weekly Standard. He writes daily for JihadWatch.com.
Mr. Ibrahim has been interviewed on many television and radio shows, including Fox News, C-SPAN, NPR, and PBS. He has lectured and debated at universities, and has briefed several governmental agencies, including the Department of State and the Defense Intelligence Agency.
"I look forward to contributing to the Forum's tradition of defining and promoting American interests in the Middle East, especially at this moment when the Middle East is undergoing socio-political upheavals and Washington is in transition," Mr. Ibrahim said on taking the position.
"We are delighted that a young scholar of such achievement and so much potential has joined the Middle East Forum in a key capacity," observed Daniel Pipes, the Middle East Forum's director.
Immediate release
For more information, contact Amy Shargel at
215-546-5406
, ex. 22
Shargel@MEForum.org
