Robert Spencer of Jihad Watch says Ahmadinejad's letter to President Bush was not a peace overture. Instead, he says, it is a call to Islam, a kind of evangelism. Spencer points out that according to Hadith quoting Mohammed, such a call to Islam ought be issued before taking offensive action against an enemy:
In a Hadith, Muhammad tells his followers to call people to Islam before waging war against them:
Fight in the name of Allah and in the way of Allah. Fight against those who disbelieve in Allah. Make a holy war…When you meet your enemies who are polytheists, invite them to three courses of action. If they respond to any one of these, you also accept it and withhold yourself from doing them any harm. Invite them to (accept) Islam; if they respond to you, accept it from them and desist from fighting against them…. If they refuse to accept Islam, demand from them the Jizya [the tax on non-Muslims specified in Qur’an 9:29]. If they agree to pay, accept it from them and hold off your hands. If they refuse to pay the tax, seek Allah’s help and fight them. (Sahih Muslim 4294)
In light of that, this letter could be -- but is not necessarily -- a prelude to an attack.
There's no way we can know what Ahmadinejad's motive is, is there?
I must say, he does sound eerily calm in the letter. Go read it.
2 comments:
He want peace. If you dont believe, read this.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060510/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iran_nuclear
anon, hardly.
This letter reads in the 1st half like a statement from the UN, IMO, and curiously from the leader of a nation that was at war for years with the "innocent Iraqis" he speaks of.
As for the second, this is typical and has many historical precedents. It has been known througout history just how these calls to other leaders of nations comprised of "people of the book" usually lead to a lack of conciliation between the faiths and rather a push toward Islamic encroachment or attack.
As for Israel, hey, these folks got their land RECONQUERED. Tough. Sorry, I just don't have the sympathy that is being asked for, especially for a man who begins his discussion of the subject by expressing some doubt as to the Holocaust (which he has expounded on at length in the past). I only wish he had brought up The Mahdi as well.
Personally, I think he is riding high on the support he has been receiving from outside of the US. He's trying to play all parties here, and it will work with the gullible and civilizationally suicidal, who unfortunately make up so much of The West these days.
Post a Comment