The Devil We Don't Know by Nonie Darwish Read Free Book Online Page A

“Prepare against them whatever arms and cavalry you can muster that you may strike terror in the enemies of Allah, and others besides them not known to you. Whatever you spend in Allah's Cause will be repaid in full, and no wrong will be done to you.” The creed of the Muslim Brotherhood states, “Allah is our objective. The Prophet is our leader. The Koran is our law. Jihad is our way. Dying in the way of Allah is our highest hope.” How can anyone claim that this is a nonviolent or secular organization?
    Like the Muslim Brotherhood, certain other Islamist groups are working hard to give the impression that they no longer espouse violence, but that should not fool U.S. government officials, because they have a lot of intelligence at their disposal telling them otherwise. Seemingly different Islamist groups often work like an orchestra, like a well-coordinated network, in which the level of violence of each group depends on its specific objectives in the location and the time period it happens to work in. Every Muslim country has an underground or openly operating, legal or illegal, Islamist group that wants to enforce sharia. A large percentage of the Muslim public regards the groups' members as doing Allah's work and sympathizes with them, giving them respect and power. Financial support regularly pours into their pockets from a good portion of the Muslim population, Islamic governments, and wealthy Arabs. They often do the dirty work that Muslim governments cannot do in the open. Iran is perhaps the only country that has no underground Islamist group, and the reason is simple: the Islamists are already in power. With such strong financial and moral support, Islamist groups now run an international network with branches operating openly under fictitious names in Western countries.
    The enforcement of sharia is the goal of all Islamist groups, and Islamists understand that sharia leaves no room for democracy. That is why Islamist protesters in London carry signs that read “Democracy and freedom go to Hell.” Not only do Islamic laws deny freedom of speech and religion, as well as equal rights under the law for both men and women, Muslims and non-Muslims, there are laws that punish sexual crimes with flogging, beheading, and stoning, and others that make the creation of a democracy virtually impossible.
    Perhaps the most dangerous law in sharia that stands in the way of democracy is the one I described in chapter 1 stating that “a calipha [Muslim head of state] can legally hold office through seizure of power, meaning through force.” 3 That law is the reason every Muslim leader must literally turn into a despotic tyrant to survive. When a Muslim leader is removed from office by force, we often see the Islamic media and masses accept it and even cheer for the new leader who has just ousted or assassinated the former leader. The deposed leader is often called a traitor to the Islamic cause.
    A second law that will hurt democracy and peace states that performing jihad is one of the basic duties of a Muslim head of state: “To undertake jihad against enemies, dividing the spoils of battle among combatants and a fifth for deserving recipients.” This is clearly stated in all sharia books. This important obligation is repeated several times: “The caliph fights all other peoples until they become Muslim.” 4 In sharia, the definition of jihad is “to war against non-Muslims, derived from the word mujahada , signifying warfare, to establish the religion.” 5 Muslim leaders who reject ruling by sharia and refuse to perform jihad are condemned as unfit apostates, and sharia commands the Muslim public to remove such leaders from office: “Muslims are obliged to rise up and remove a leader if he is no longer a Muslim, alters the sacred law, or makes reprehensible innovation [ bidaa ]. 6 Not many people know that Sadat's assassination followed many fatwas of death against him for having violated his Islamic obligations