Jihad is not Always a Peaceful Exercise
Reader comment on item: Letters to the editor: Jihad and the Professors

Submitted by S.F.Gohara, M.D. (United States), Feb 7, 2003 at 07:44

As a person who was born and lived a good part of his adult life in a country with an Islamic numerical majority, I can attest to the fact that the way Jihad is understood and practiced in my old country (Egypt) certainly includes a military option.

Proslytising and converting the whole world eventually to Islam are basic duties for every faithful Moslem to pursue.

This phenomenon is pervasive in every country with a Moslem majority to the extent that one of my colleagues made the remark that during a visit to Egypt as a tourist, a bazaar merchant in Cairo tried to convert her while he was wrapping the merchendise that she bought.

Peaceful proselytizing done in a more "tasteful" way may berhaps be acceptable. But none of the nations of Spain, Norht Africa, East or Mid Asia were converted to Islam by the power of the word. The sword takes all the credit for expansion of "Dar Al Islam".

If we follow the history of early Islam we can witness the fact that what may start as an apparently peaceful call to the religion of Allah and his prophet (Mohammad), the Meccan period, ends up being coercive as soon as the faithful feel strong and confident enough to achieve the same goal through sheer force. My old country and many other victim nations are living examples of this turn of events.

I loath the day that Islam will be the dominant religion in the West. It will spell the end of this civilization.

And we should not be complacent about this possibility. The followers of a poor Jewish carpenter dominated the Roman Empire in less than 300 years.

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