New Book from Timothy R. Furnish: 'Sects, Lies, and the Caliphate'

I am very pleased to report that the newest book by Islam and Mahdi scholar Timothy R. Furnish, Sects, Lies, and the Caliphate: 10 Years of Observations on Islam is now available from Amazon in paperback (as well as in Kindle format).

Dr. Furnish describes his new title as follows:

Unlike the predecessor and complementary Ten Years' Captivation with the Mahdi's Camps which deals exclusively with Islamic apocalyptic thought and movements, Sects treats more mundane but nonetheless crucial topics, such as: ISIS's historical context; the Islamic doctrines behind Islamic terrorism; Islam vis-a-vis Christianity; Iranian geopolitics, and, in the longest section of the book, US policies (or lack thereof) toward Islam, both domestically and in foreign policy.

Furnish's writings are designed to provide a depth of understanding on Islamic motivations — so urgently needed in our darkening times — for both ordinary readers and policy makers in the West. 

Christians would do well to read both of these titles for the insights they offer into the alien religion of Islam, which claims to worship the Same God as we, yet whose "God" has such a radically different ontology, theology, and ultimate purpose for mankind than does the divine love of the Holy Trinity, revealed to us by Jesus Christ, His sacrifice on the Cross and His Resurrection.

From the publisher's sobering description:

It's Not ISIS We Need to Beat — It's the Caliphate

"We are not at war with ISIS. We are at war with everyone on the Caliphate curve. Not because we choose to be, but because like Hitler’s Thousand Year Reich or Communism’s vision of one world under the red flag, the Caliphate is a plan for imposing a totalitarian system on us  to deprive us of our rights."

It's Not ISIS We Need to Beat — It's the Caliphate

Understanding the Caliphate Curve.

by Daniel Greenfield, Frontpage Mag, December 29, 2015:

A recent report by, of all places, the Tony Blair Faith Foundation, found that the Syrian rebels were mostly Islamic Jihadists and that even if ISIS were defeated there were 15 other groups sharing its worldview that were ready to take its place. 

And that’s just in Syria. 

The official ISIS story, the one that we read in the newspapers, watch on television and hear on the radio, is that it’s a unique group whose brand of extremism is so extreme that there is no comparing it to anything else. ISIS has nothing to do with Islam. Or with anything else. It’s a complete aberration. 

Except for the 15 other Jihadist groups ready to step into its shoes in just one country.

Islamic Supremacist organizations like ISIS can be graded on the “Caliphate curve”. The Caliphate curve is based on how quickly an Islamic organization wants to achieve the Caliphate. What we describe as “extreme” or “moderate” is really the speed at which an Islamic group seeks to recreate the Caliphate.

ISIS is at the extreme end of the scale, not because it tortures, kills and rapes, but because it implemented the Caliphate immediately. The atrocities for which ISIS has become known are typical of a functioning Caliphate. The execution of Muslims who do not submit to the Caliph, the ethnic cleansing and sexual slavery of non-Muslims are not aberrations. They are normal behavior for a Caliphate.

William Kilpatrick: The Vast Majority Myth

"The majority of Muslims aren’t waiting to see which side is the most tolerant or which side takes in the most refugees; they are waiting to see which side is winning."

William Kilpatrick discerns why the "Tiny Minority of Extremists" may not be as tiny as we would like to think, and why the "Vast Majority of Peaceful Muslims" is neither a realistic nor comforting concept.

The Vast Majority Myth
by William Kilpatrick, Crisis Magazine, December 15, 2015:

We often hear it said that the vast majority of Muslims are peaceful and reject violence. That proposition is worth examining because if it’s not true there is cause to worry. Of course, you should be worried already. Even if only a small percentage of the world’s 1.6 billion Muslims are prepared to use violence, that still works out to a large number. However, if the vast-majority thesis doesn’t hold up, you might want to order a Kevlar vest from Amazon, or, if you’re the accommodating type, you could start practicing the Shahada—the Islamic declaration of faith.

There is a good deal of polling data to suggest that the vast majority of Muslims are not just your standard-issue vast majority. For example, Pew polls of public opinion in Pakistan and Egypt show that the vast majority (about 82 percent) favor stoning for adultery, amputation for theft, and death for apostates. So, even if a majority in these countries are not personally inclined to violence, they have no problem with the violent application of sharia law.

But rather than rely on polling data, let’s look at some other ways of assessing the “vast majority” proposition. For some perspective, here are some other “vast majority” propositions that just popped into my head:

Proposition 1. The vast majority of people are peaceful until they’re not. 

Proposition 2. The vast majority of people go with the flow. 

Proposition 3. The majority of people in any society are women and children.

With the exception of the third proposition, there is no empirical evidence for these propositions, but they seem just as reasonable as the proposition that the vast majority of Muslims are peaceful—a supposition which also has no empirical support. However, Proposition 3 does lend credence to the “vast majority of Muslims” thesis since women and children are, for various reasons, less inclined to violence than adult males. It would therefore be reasonable to say of any society that at least a majority are peaceful.

But people who are peaceful today will not necessarily be peaceful tomorrow. It’s probably safe to say that the vast majority of Hutus were behaving peacefully before the Rwanda genocide of 1994 … and then they stopped behaving peacefully. Using clubs, machetes, and, occasionally, guns, the Hutu managed to kill about 800,000 Tutsi in the space of one hundred days. It’s likely that the vast majority did not take part in the killings, but, by all accounts, a sizeable number did, and an even greater number were complicit. According to reports, most of the Tutsi victims who lived in rural villages were murdered by their neighbors.

So, in line with Proposition 1, the majority of the Hutu were peaceful until they were not. And, in line with Proposition 2, the majority of the Hutu went with the flow—the flow, in this case, being in the direction of mayhem. It should be noted, however, that there were powerful incentives to go with the flow. Moderate Hutus who declined to join in the killing were often killed by their fellow Hutus as a warning to others.

Although women took part in the slaughter, Proposition 3 would suggest that the majority of them did not. And if you combine the women with the children, the elderly, and the moderates, it is reasonable to assume that the majority of Hutu did not participate in the carnage. That, however, would have been small comfort to the Tutsi. The more you think about it, the less comforting it is to know that the vast majority of any population won’t take up arms against you.

Islamic State video threatens Georgians with beheadings, Caliphate

The Orthodox Church of Georgia is one of the most ancient Christian communities, with apostolic roots in the first century, its founding dating from the early 4th century. The Georgians have a long memory, and are likely thinking back to when Muslim invaders conquered Tbilisi in 1227. The Islamic State video references that slaughter — infamous for the beheadings of 100,000 Georgian Christians who refused to deny Christ — in its video.

From an historical account of the time:

Icon of the Georgian Martyrs 

... A river of blood flowed through the city. The Turkmen castrated young children, raped women, and stabbed mothers to death over their children's lifeless bodies. The whole city shuddered at the sound of wailing and lamentation. The river and streets of the city were filled with death. 

The sultan ordered that the cupola of Sioni Cathedral be taken down and replaced by his vile throne. And at his command the icons of the Theotokos [the Virgin Mary] and our Savior were carried out of Sioni Cathedral and placed at the center of the bridge across the Mtkvari River. The invaders goaded the people to the bridge, ordering them to cross it and spit on the holy icons. Those who betrayed the Christian Faith and mocked the icons were spared their lives, while the Orthodox confessors were beheaded. 

One hundred thousand Georgians sacrificed their lives to venerate the holy icons. One hundred thousand severed heads and headless bodies were carried by the bloody current down the Mtkvari River. 

from Lives of the Georgian Saints, by Archpriest Zakaria Machitadze, St Herman of Alaska Press, Platina CA, 2006, pp 403-404.

'Soon there will be time of beheading you' - Video address to Georgians released on behalf of Islamic State

Georgian Journal (via Pravoslavie), November 24, 2015:

A video address to the Georgian people on behalf of the Islamic State has been released on the internet. Fighters speaking Georgian address the Muslims living in Georgia, calling on them to support the ‘Islamic Caliphate’ and threatening to establish a ‘Caliphate’ in Georgia.

“I would like to address the faithless people living in Georgia that have been fighting Islam for a long time. Everybody who has acted against Islam, no matter in Iraq or Afghanistan, will be judged by God’s law.

God is very strict; therefore we call on you to stop persecuting Muslims. Your actions against Muslims will not go unanswered. Everybody will be held accountable for it.

Soon there will come the time of your beheading... 

Egyptian Mosque Sermons Reminiscent of ISIS

"The mosque’s imam spoke in tones reminiscent of the Islamic State... hailing “the future of Islam, the glory of Muslims, the humiliation of polytheists—Islam is coming and Allah will make it victorious over all the earth.”

by Raymond Ibrahim — May 20, 2015

On Friday, May 15, the prayer leader of Safa Mosque in the city of Mersa Matruh, west of Alexandria, Egypt, repeatedly declared that “the Islamic caliphate will return and that Jerusalem, though stolen at the hands of the Jews, will return to Muslims once again.”

The mosque’s imam further spoke in tones reminiscent of the Islamic State, including by hailing “the future of Islam, the glory of Muslims, the humiliation of polytheists—Islam is coming and Allah will make it victorious over all the earth.”

Therefore, counseled the Muslim preacher, “It is incumbent on all Muslims to commit themselves to the mores of Islam, to follow the example of the Messenger of Allah, and to adhere to the Book of Allah and his Sunna”—precisely those things that the Islamic State is doing.

Islamic State captures Ramadi, threatens Baghdad, expands in North Africa

ISIS celebrates capture of Ramadi with orgy of bloodshed, 25,000 flee their homes.

Islamic State forces now only 60 miles from Baghdad.

Related:

• Panicking Iraqi Troops Abandon U.S. Tanks as They Flee from ISIS
• Gates: ‘We Don’t Have a Strategy At All’ In Middle East
• Kerry: Don’t worry about fall of Ramadi, “Daesh has been driven back”
• Obama admin says “file footage of ISIL convoys operating in broad daylight” is “inaccurate” days before huge ISIL convoy in Ramadi

Iraq braced for the Battle of Baghdad: Chilling images show ISIS victory parade after fanatics seize key city of Ramadi – just 60 miles from the capital – in an orgy of violence and beheadings

by Jay Akbar, Steph Cockroft, Simon Tomlinson and Julian Robinson

MailOnline — May 19, 2015 (h/t Jihad Watch)

ISIS victory parade in Ramadi

ISIS militants have held a twisted victory parade after taking the key city of Ramadi in an orgy of violence and beheadings – and the extremists could march on the Iraqi capital Baghdad within the next month.

Mutilated bodies scatter the streets of the ‘Gateway of Baghdad’, where Islamic State slaughtered around 500 and forced nearly 25,000 to flee their homes over the last few days.

Now ISIS has released images of militants celebrating, children wielding automatic weapons and a fleet of pick-up trucks carrying its jubilant fighters through the blood-stained streets of Ramadi.

Shi’ite fighters have already launched a counter-offensive to recapture the city, but these kinds of tactics play straight into Islamic State’s grand plan to spark all-out war in the region, according to the Middle East director of counter-terrorism think-tank RUSI.

Islamic State militants are already marching east towards the Habbaniya army base – around 20 miles east of Ramadi – where a column of 3,000 Shi’ite paramilitaries are amassing, witnesses and a military officer has said.

And if ISIS manage to reach Baghdad, it would be ‘utter carnage’, Professor Gareth Stansfield told MailOnline.

He said: ‘If ISIS turn up in great numbers in Baghdad, it will be an absolute slaughter between Sunni’s [sic] and Shia’s [sic] there.

‘They [ISIS] are now having so many successes, and moving so quickly, that Baghdad is under very real threat from ISIS forces outside Baghdad and also the ISIS terror cells inside Baghdad as well...

Continue reading...

ISLAMIC STATE STRONGHOLD GROWS IN NORTH AFRICA WITH ALLEGIANCE OF TUNISIAN MUJAHIDIN

by Thomas D. Williams, PhD, Breitbart News — May 19, 2015

As ISIS influence increases daily in the North African nation of Libya, it has also succeeded in penetrating the ranks of Islamists in neighboring Tunisia, securing an oath of fealty from the Mujahidin of Kairouan.

According to reports, the Mujahidin have released an audio message addressed to the ISIS Caliph Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi containing a sworn oath of allegiance.

The nine-minute audio message was disseminated primarily through social networks and was still able to be heard in the original language on the net on Tuesday.

Catholic scholar of Islam: Caliph’s saying Islam is religion of war “very shrewd”

This is a welcomed theological exploration of the Islamic State Caliphate's motivations, rooted as they are in the Quran and in the example of Muhammad. Robert Spencer's introductory remarks provide a helpful overview and context.

by Robert Spencer, Jihad Watch
May 16, 2015

“Islam was never a religion of peace. Islam is the religion of fighting,” says the Islamic State’s caliph. 

Fr. Samir Khalil Samir, the leading Catholic scholar of Islam, says this is “very shrewd,” because it “corresponds to the expectations of a part of the Islamic world,” which will exclaim, “Finally, we find the true Islam!” The caliph’s call, says Fr. Samir, is “meant to rekindle an idea that is deeply embedded in Islam, namely: let us all go through our hijrah, let us leave behind all those who want an Islam of peace, and let us move to the true Islam that conquered Arabia first, then the Middle East, then the Mediterranean.”

All that is below, and in another interview, Fr. Samir says this about the Islamic State (ISIS): 

“We hear, very often, Muslims say: ‘This has nothing to do with Islam.’ This is a spontaneous reaction of Muslims on the street. But, in fact, it’s a false reaction. This is a part of Islam, and we can find it in the Quran itself and much more in the life of Mohammed, who had a very strong and violent attitude toward unbelievers.”

The Photo that should SHOCK the World - More evidence of Islam's Corrupting of Muslim Children and the Killing of their Conscience

7-year-old son of Australian jihadist proudly displays "decapitated head of a slain Syrian soldier." IS member declares: "For us we believe that this generation of children is the generation of the caliphate."

[Here's another post from last year worthy of being revisited because of what it reveals about the children of Islam. Originally posted August 12, 2014.]

The photo below represents by no means an aberrant, random incident. See my article 'Do the Muslims Love Their Children Too?' — Reapplying Sting’s 1984 Cold War anthem, Russians, to a new war,' for an in depth look at how pure Islam raises its youngest adherents, and how such ghoulish behavior is commanded in the Quran and Islam's other source texts.

See also, SHOCK VIDEO: Children Swear Allegiance to Islamic State's Caliphate. 

Ponder the future, when the children of 1.6 billion Muslims are inspired by the success of the new Islamic State Caliphate and all the YouTube videos of 7-15 year olds hacking the heads off Christians and other 'infidels' while shouting "Allahu Akbar," and holding them up as trophies.  It will be hell on earth.

"The time [has now come] that whoever kills you will think that he offers God service.  And these things they will do to you because they have not known the Father nor Me." (JN 16:2)

Not the same God.

The photo that will shock the world: jihadist Khaled Sharrouf’s son, 7, holds severed head

by Kelmeny Fraser, The Daily Telegraph, August 11, 2014 (h/t Jihad Watch)

Raising them wrong: This is what Islam teaches: 
'When you meet the unbelievers, strike the necks'

(Qur’an 47:4).

THIS is a photo that will shock the world.

Sydney jihadist Khaled Sharrouf’s son — a child, 7, raised in the suburbs of Sydney — struggles with both arms to hold up the decapitated head of a slain Syrian soldier.

According to a report in The Australian newspaper, the horrifying image was posted on Twitter by a proud father with the words “That’s my boy” and is set to reverberate around the world as a savage example of the brutality of the Islamic State.

Sharrouf, a convicted terrorist who fled to Syria last year and is now an Islamic fighter, is believed to be travelling with his family.

According to the report, Sharrouf’s son is pictured holding the severed head while wearing a pair of checked pants and a blue shirt with the insignia Polo Golf Kids.

In the photographs featuring Sharrouf and his son the heads are blackened and bloated having been dead for a week.

Raymond Ibrahim: 'The Islamic Genocide of Christians: Past and Present'

"There is no denying that religion — or in this context, the age-old specter of Muslim persecution of Christian minorities — was fundamental to the genocide of Armenians, Greeks, and Assyrians... This is daily demonstrated throughout the Islamic world today, where Muslim governments, mobs, and jihadis persecute Christian minorities — minorities who share the same ethnicity, language, and culture as Muslims, but not religion."

by Raymond Ibrahim — April 26, 2015

Last Friday, April 24, we remembered how exactly 100 years ago the last historic Muslim caliphate, the Ottoman Empire, tried to cleanse its empire of Christian minorities — Armenians, Assyrians, and Greeks — even as we stand by watching as the new caliphate, the Islamic State, resumes the genocide.

And in both cases, the atrocities were and are being committed in the name of Islam.

In November, 1914, during WWI, the Ottoman caliphate issued a fatwa, or Islamic decree, proclaiming it a “sacred duty” for all Muslims to “massacre” infidels — specifically naming the “Christian men” of the Triple Entente, “the enemies of Islam” — with promises of great rewards in the afterlife.

The same Koran verses that the Islamic State and other jihadi outfits regularly quote permeated the Ottoman fatwa, including:  “Slay the idolaters wherever you find them — seize them, besiege them, and be ready to ambush them” (9:5) and “O you who have believed! do not take the Jews and the Christians for friends; they are but friends of each other; and whoever among you takes them for a friend, then surely he is one of them” (5:51) — and several other verses that form the Islamic doctrine of Loyalty and Enmity.

Russia: Fatwa denounces Islamic State, says its members should be killed

Robert Spencer investigates the fatwa issued by the Spiritual Directorate of Muslims of Russia and finds it contains certain historical inaccuracies and misleading assertions.

by Robert Spencer, Jihad Watch, March 31, 2015

It is telling that the Spiritual Directorate of Muslims of Russia recommends that Islamic State members should be killed — apparently it takes for granted the Sharia death penalties for heresy and apostasy. Also, this is still more window dressing to lull the Infidels into complacency, as I show in my comments below.

[RT article indented, Mr. Spencer's comments full width.]

Russian Muslims denounce ISIS as ‘enemies of Islam'

RT, March 31, 2015:

A major Russian Muslim group has issued a fatwa against the so-called Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) reviling them as ‘enemies of Islam’ and calling for the punishment of all its members as criminals. 

The Spiritual Directorate of Muslims of Russia published the text of the fatwa on its website on Tuesday. 

“The members of the Ulama [Islamic scholars] council, on the basis of the Koran and Sunna and other legal sources, have shown and proved that all actions of the organization that calls itself “Islamic State” are contradicting Islam – starting from the creation of the group and calls for resettlement and finishing with their cruelty and public executions,” the document reads. 

“From the point of view of the Muslim canon the members of such criminal groups deserve either capital punishment or full lifelong isolation from the society,” the Russian Muslim leaders stated. However, they noted in the fatwa that every suspect must be convicted by a court verdict that would fully exclude all doubts of his or hers complicity in violence, robberies and killings. 

“The followers of ISIS are mistakenly interpreting Islam as the religion of brutality and cruelty, of violence, torture and killings of all discontent,” the Russian Muslims stated. In reality, the basic principles of Islam forbid to kill civilians, prisoners and envoys – and journalists and workers of humanitarian missions can be described as the latter, they added.

Where could the Islamic State have possibly gotten the idea that brutality and cruelty and violence had anything do with Islam?

Koran 5:33: “This is the recompense of those who fight against Allah and His Messenger, and hasten about the earth, to do corruption there: they shall be slaughtered, or crucified, or their hands and feet shall alternately be struck off; or they shall be banished from the land. That is a degradation for them in this world; and in the world to come awaits them a mighty chastisement.”

Countering Jihad, a Two-Part Discussion

Came across this recently from Faith McDonnell at Juicy Ecumenism, the Blog of The Institute on Religion and Democracy. I am only posting parts 1 and 2, as part 3 was an action list that had already expired by the time I came across it. You may wish to follow Faith's ongoing work on the topic, Genocide in Iraq.


by Faith McDonnell, Juicy Ecumenism, February 16, 2015

Part 1: Religious and Ethnic Minorities in Iraq Can’t Wait

As we know only too well, the Islamic State (IS) has spread far beyond Iraq, recruiting fighters from Europe and even America. The Islamic State’s goal is a worldwide Caliphate. Sadly, U.S. Administration policy still fails to identify accurately the threat. Instead, this week the White House is hosting a summit on “Countering Violent Extremism.” What is needed for national and global security and for the preservation of religious minorities, like those in Iraq, is to counter jihad.

From the Middle East, Sudan, and throughout Africa, and from North America, England, France, and Denmark to Australia, acts of “violent extremism” — whether by so-called lone wolves or bloodthirsty packs of wolves like Boko Haram;  whether by non-state actors, states like Sudan and Iran, or ideological states like the Islamic State — are perpetrated in aid of the end goal of a global caliphate.

But Christians and other minorities in Iraq cannot wait for the United States government to grasp adequately the ideology behind what it terms “violent extremism.” Even as the poison spreads, the Islamic State’s continued persecution and slaughter of Christians and other minority communities in Iraq is unrelenting. These beleaguered communities, and others like them, need help now.

A report by the 21st Century Wilberforce Initiative, a new Christian human rights organization, reveals the findings from a January 21-28, 2015 trip to northern Iraq . Led by 21 Wilberforce’s president, Randel Everett, and former U.S. Representative Frank R. Wolf, who is now a Distinguished Senior Fellow with 21 Wilberforce, the trip team investigated the situation of internally displaced Christians and Yezidis, Shabaks, Turkmen, and others.

You can download the trip report, Edge of Extinction: The Eradication of Religious and Ethnic Minorities in Iraq. The report warns, “Immediate action including fresh policy approaches and targeted humanitarian assistance is essential if these minority communities are to be protected within their historic homeland.” After relating in heartbreaking detail the experiences of Christians and other victimized communities, the report offers six recommendations to which the United States government should listen:

The Truth about the Crusades: Recent Scholarship reveals Noble and Self-Sacrificial Defense of Christendom against centuries of Islamic Invasion

Crusading was understood as an an act of love—in this case, the love of one’s neighbor. The Crusade was seen as an errand of mercy to right a terrible wrong. As Pope Innocent III wrote to the Knights Templar, “You carry out in deeds the words of the Gospel, 'Greater love than this hath no man, that he lay down his life for his friends'."

Raymond Ibrahim, February 12, 2015

Were the Crusades a reflection of the “terrible deeds [done] in the name of Christ” as U.S. President Obama recently warned, or were they a reflection of something else, namely, centuries of Islamic jihad?  In the following essay, one of the top historians of the Crusades definitively answers the question.

Thomas Madden — former Chair of the History Department at Saint Louis University and Director of the Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies — wrote this article in 2002 when President Bush used the word “crusade” in a positive sense, creating controversy.  Its relevancy today is that Obama invoked the Crusades in a negative sense, also creating controversy.

Madden presents the most recent scholarship on the Crusades — scholarship that completely contradicts the popular image of these wars that permeates much of Hollywood, the writings of amateurs such as Karen Armstrong and, as seen, the worldview of Barack Obama.

(Due to its length (approximately 4000 words), only the most germane portions appear in the significantly shorter version below; especially relevant sentences and paragraphs are highlighted in bold, while removed text is reflected by bracketed ellipses.)

The Real History of the Crusades

Crisis Magazine

By Thomas Madden

[...]

Misconceptions about the Crusades are all too common. The Crusades are generally portrayed as a series of holy wars against Islam led by power-mad popes and fought by religious fanatics. They are supposed to have been the epitome of self-righteousness and intolerance, a black stain on the history of the Catholic Church in particular and Western civilization in general. A breed of proto-imperialists, the Crusaders introduced Western aggression to the peaceful Middle East and then deformed the enlightened Muslim culture, leaving it in ruins. For variations on this theme, one need not look far. See, for example, Steven Runciman’s famous three-volume epic, History of the Crusades, or the BBC/A&E documentary, The Crusades, hosted by Terry Jones. Both are terrible history yet wonderfully entertaining.

So what is the truth about the Crusades? Scholars are still working some of that out. But much can already be said with certainty. For starters, the Crusades to the East were in every way defensive wars. They were a direct response to Muslim aggression—an attempt to turn back or defend against Muslim conquests of Christian lands.

Christians in the eleventh century were not paranoid fanatics. Muslims really were gunning for them. While Muslims can be peaceful, Islam was born in war and grew the same way. From the time of Mohammed, the means of Muslim expansion was always the sword. Muslim thought divides the world into two spheres, the Abode of Islam and the Abode of War. Christianity—and for that matter any other non-Muslim religion—has no abode. Christians and Jews can be tolerated within a Muslim state under Muslim rule. But, in traditional Islam, Christian and Jewish states must be destroyed and their lands conquered. When Mohammed was waging war against Mecca in the seventh century, Christianity was the dominant religion of power and wealth. As the faith of the Roman Empire, it spanned the entire Mediterranean, including the Middle East, where it was born. The Christian world, therefore, was a prime target for the earliest caliphs, and it would remain so for Muslim leaders for the next thousand years.

Is Islam Really 99.981% Terrorism-Free? Refuting Fareed Zakaria on ISIS

by Timothy R. Furnish, Mahdi Watch, February 22, 2015

Muslims the world over await the Mahdi's return.

Fareed Zakaria penned a rather inane article in “The Washington Post” last week, entitled “The limits of the Islamic label” (which he adduced at length in his “GPS” show this morning).  The point therein: to criticize Graeme Wood for his “Atlantic” article, “What ISIS Really Wants,” in which the latter dares to state that ISIS is profoundly Islamic, and even apocalyptic, in its belief system and actions. Zakaria supports President Obama’s Machiavellian “terrorism means never having to say ‘Islam’ ” strategy on the grounds that it avoids alienation of 1.6 billion Muslims, and takes Wood (and those of us like-minded) to task with the metric that ISIS’s 30,000 members only comprise .0019% of the world’s Islamic population.

But ISIS isn’t the only terrorist organization which adduces Islam as its raison d’etre—it’s only the most brutal.  I scrutinized the data on the other three dozen major terrorist groups which are Islamic, on the US State Department site as well as several others, and came up with a rough membership number for all the non-ISIS Sunni Muslim terrorist groups of some 65,000.  Adding in ISIS’s 30,000 puts the global Sunni dedicated terrorist ranks into the 100,000 range—especially when we consider that State enumerated the membership strength of a number of these entities as “unknown:” it’s certainly reasonable to estimate that these half-dozen groups (which include the likes of al-Qa`idah [AQ] central and the Abd Allah Azzam Brigades) count several thousand adherents.  

But wait, there’s more that refutes Zakaria’s specious claim.  

Supreme Mufti of Syria: 'Islamic caliphate more dangerous than World War III'

This odd message from Syria's Supreme Mufti lacks Quranic authority, and flagrantly violates the hundreds of suras and hadiths commanding jihad and the establishing of a worldwide caliphate. He is not to be trusted. My comments interspersed and at end. Read and share widely.

Moscow, October 31, Interfax via Pravmir

Supreme mufti of Syria Ahmad Badreddin Hassoun sees the danger in establishing a "caliphate," as it has happened with the "Islamic state."

“Calls to set up an Islamic state are more dangerous that calls to unleash World War III,” the mufti said at his Moscow press conference.

He stressed that “religion is relations between God and a person,” and it does not have anything in common with a political regimen.

“When they wonder what will be with the state of “Islamic caliphate,” I ask, what state it is. I ask who of prophets commanded to establish it,” the Islamic leader noted.

[Actually, the prophet and founder of Islam, Muhammad, is the one who "commanded to establish" the Islamic caliphate, as seen in these hadiths:

Allah’s Messenger said: “I have been ordered [by Allah] to fight against the people until they testify that none has the right to be worshipped but Allah and that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah... so if they perform all that, then they save their lives and property from me.” (Sahih Bukhari, 1:2:25, also Sahih Muslim, 1:10:29-35)

Allah's Messenger said, “the earth belongs to Allah and his Apostle.” (Sahih Muslim, Book of Jihad, 3:17:4363; also Bukhari, Book of al-Jizya, 4:58:3167)  

Islam is demonstrably both religion and political ideology. Its purpose is forever linked by its founder to the conquering of the entire globe for Allah. The mufti's protestations don't ring true and are not to be trusted. See my comments at bottom for more...]

Muslim leader in Israel: “Entire earth” will be “subordinate” to caliphate

Joins numerous Muslim world leaders and clerics in predicting Islam's ultimate victory over the entire world.  

via Robert Spencer,  Jihad Watch — October 26, 2014

Iran’s former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad himself once said: “Have no doubt… Allah willing, Islam will conquer what? It will conquer all the mountain tops of the world.” 

Sheik Ali Al-Faqir, former Jordanian minister of religious endowment, said this on Al-Aqsa TV on May 2, 2008: “We proclaim that we will conquer Rome, like Constantinople was conquered once…” 

Hamas MP and Islamic cleric Yunis Al-Astal said this, also on Al-Aqsa TV, on April 11, 2008: “Very soon, Allah willing, Rome will be conquered, just like Constantinople was, as was prophesized by our Prophet Muhammad.”

Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, the most prominent and renowned imam in the world, in writing about “signs of the victory of Islam,” referred to a hadith: 

“The Prophet Muhammad was asked: ‘What city will be conquered first, Constantinople or Romiyya?’ He answered: ‘The city of Hirqil [i.e. the Byzantine emperor Heraclius] will be conquered first’ – that is, Constantinople”¦ Romiyya is the city called today ‘Rome,’ the capital of Italy. The city of Hirqil [that is, Constantinople] was conquered by the young 23-year-old Ottoman Muhammad bin Morad, known in history as Muhammad the Conqueror, in 1453. The other city, Romiyya, remains, and we hope and believe [that it too will be conquered]. This means that Islam will return to Europe as a conqueror and victor, after being expelled from it twice – once from the South, from Andalusia, and a second time from the East, when it knocked several times on the door of Athens.”

_____

Israeli Islamist Leader Kamal Khatib: Jerusalem Will Be Caliphate Capital; PA TV Cuts Interview Off 

MEMRI, October 17, 2014:

In an interview with the official PA TV channel, Sheik Kamal Khatib, deputy leader of the Islamic Movement in Israel, said: “Jerusalem will not be only the capital of the Palestinian state, but also the capital of the coming righteous Islamic caliphate.” After he repeated his views several times and said that “the entire Earth” would “become subordinate to the Islamic caliphate one day”, PA TV cut the interview short.

Following are excerpts from the interview, which aired on October 17, 2014.

Interviewer: Let us first watch what you said at the Al-Aqsa Mosque this week.

Kamal Khatib: I have said it before, and I say it again: Allah willing, Jerusalem will not be only the capital of the Palestinian state, but also the capital of the coming righteous Islamic caliphate…

Crowd member: Say: “Allah Akbar!”

Crowd: Allah Akbar!

Islamic State’s magazine shows its flag flying over the Vatican

via Jihad Watch — October 13, 2014

The Islamic State — extremists! No other Muslims think this way, right?

Sheik Ali Al-Faqir, former Jordanian minister of religious endowment, said this on Al-Aqsa TV on May 2, 2008: “We proclaim that we will conquer Rome, like Constantinople was conquered once…” 

Hamas MP and Islamic cleric Yunis Al-Astal said this, also on Al-Aqsa TV, on April 11, 2008: “Very soon, Allah willing, Rome will be conquered, just like Constantinople was, as was prophesized by our Prophet Muhammad.”

Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, the most prominent and renowned imam in the world, in writing about “signs of the victory of Islam,” referred to a hadith: “The Prophet Muhammad was asked: ‘What city will be conquered first, Constantinople or Romiyya?’ He answered: ‘The city of Hirqil [i.e. the Byzantine emperor Heraclius] will be conquered first’ – that is, Constantinople”¦ Romiyya is the city called today ‘Rome,’ the capital of Italy. The city of Hirqil [that is, Constantinople] was conquered by the young 23-year-old Ottoman Muhammad bin Morad, known in history as Muhammad the Conqueror, in 1453. The other city, Romiyya, remains, and we hope and believe [that it too will be conquered]. This means that Islam will return to Europe as a conqueror and victor, after being expelled from it twice – once from the South, from Andalusia, and a second time from the East, when it knocked several times on the door of Athens.” And last May a Kosovar Muslim in Iraq said: “We shall conquer Jerusalem from you, oh Jews! We shall conquer Rome and Andalusia, Allah willing.”

ISIS magazine shows its flag flying over Vatican 

ANSA, October 13, 2014:

(ANSA) – Vatican City, October 13 – The black flag of Islamic militant group ISIS is shown flying above St. Peter’s Square on the cover of the group’s magazine Dabiq, which called in its latest issue for a war against the Catholic Church.

Oklahoma beheader’s mosque taught caliphate, destruction of US and Israel

Apparently the Oklahoma mosque which catechized and nurtured Oklahoma beheader Jah’Keem Yisrael was one of the 80% of mosques in the United States which support jihad and call for the institution of sharia law and the overthrow of the US Constitution, as documented in four separate studies over the last 10-15 years. 

Related: 

• Oklahoma beheader’s mosque once led by imam of Boston jihadis’ mosque
• Islamic State (ISIL) propagandist was regular worshiper at Islamic Society of Boston
• Islamic State tie to Boston mosque: massive FBI failure

Time for Muslims who sincerely wish to know the truth and be pleasing to God to repent and turn to Jesus Christ in the Orthodox Church.  Mosques are "synagogues of satan" (Rev. 3:9).

Oklahoma beheader’s mosque taught caliphate, destruction of US and Israel

by Robert Spencer, Jihad Watch — September 27, 2014

The Islamic Society of Greater Oklahoma City is in full damage-control and victimhood mode, saying they hardly knew Oklahoma beheader Jah’Keem Yisrael, and asking for protection against “backlash.” But here is a look inside that mosque, courtesy an ex-Muslim who attended there and still lives nearby, and who sent me this information directly:

I went to the same mosque the Oklahoma Muslim who beheaded his co-worker today.  I live ten minutes away! 

Islam Analyst: ISIS in America - Estimated 1.5 million practicing Muslims present real internal threat to U.S.

"ISIS and their supporters are operating in America and we will soon be provided proof in the way of isolated terrorist attacks simultaneously all across our great country."

by Dave Gaubatz, Family Security Matters — September 2, 2014

More Americans are beginning to catch on that there are very evil people who in the name of Islam commit atrocities unimaginable to the human mind.  ISIS represents Islam in its purest form.  Mohammed would be smiling from ear to ear if he were able to see ISIS carrying out his planned agenda for world domination.  For years I have been conducting first-hand research at mosques around the world.  For years I have been warning innocent people that Islam in its purest form is being taught in the mosques.  Most people have ignored the warnings and blamed the violence on just a few ‘radical Muslims'.  Many people continued to believe there are moderate Muslims and Islam is being hijacked.

[See my post on mosque studies, indicating upwards of 80% of mosques in the U.S. teach jihad and the overthrow of the U.S. and institution of sharia as the law of the land.]

In plain terms a moderate Muslim is a non-practicing Muslim.  They do not exist and these people who claim to be Muslims are actually Apostates of Islam.  Indeed they are good people who do not desire physical Jihad and world domination.  Nevertheless they are ignoring the true teachings and basic beliefs of the Islamic ideology.  These people are subject to death in accordance with Shariah law and groups such as ISIS are fulfilling the deeds of Mohammed.  Around the world practicing Muslims are killing men, women and children who have departed from Islamic teachings.

ISIS: Apocalypse...How?

ISIS "is an organization that has an apocalyptic, end-of-days strategic vision which will eventually have to be defeated."  — Chuck Hagel, US Secretary of Defense

by Timothy R. Furnish, Mahdi Watch — August 27, 2014

And we thought Scuds were bad when Saddam had them! 

Last week the senior leadership of the US Defense Department publicly acknowledged that Islamic apocalyptic thought is playing a prominent role in modern Middle Eastern conflicts. The Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Martin Dempsey, in a press conference with his boss, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, said the following:

"This is an organization that has an apocalyptic, end-of-days strategic vision which will eventually have to be defeated."

How extraordinary! The top-ranking American military commander adduced Islamic eschatology as an important issue.  Perhaps my eight years of warning about Mahdism on this site has finally been heeded by certain folks.

Sec Def Hagel and General Dempsey also said several other things worthy of note and examination:

ISLAMIC STATE JIHADISTS PREP FOR TAKEOVER OF SPAIN

New ISIS poster campaign follows video from Islamic State jihadists in which they vow to “liberate” what they call Al-Andalus from non-Muslims... and  "conquer Israel, Rome and Spain.”

by Bob Unruh, WND — August 18, 2014

ISIS message in front of Aljafería Palace in Zaragoza

Jihadists inside Spain have begun prepping for a takeover of the nation by ISIS, also known as Islamic State, the terror army that has been marching across Iraq, destroying Christians and evidence of their faith and imposing the extreme control of Islam’s Shariah law.

According to a new report from Soeren Kern, a senior fellow at the New York-based Gatestone Institute, there have developed more frequent and more strident statements regarding Spain being ruled once again by the violence of Islam.

Muslims, known then as Moors, occupied that region of the world from 711 until 1492.

“Clearly Spain forms part of the strategic objectives of global jihad,” Spanish Interior Minister Jorge Fernandez Diaz is quoted in the report. “We are not the only ones but we are in their sights.”