Israel Viewpoint

Are Muslims the enemies of the Jews or not, since Islam is one of the three Abrahamic, monotheistic religions? Is there something radically different among Judaism, Christianity and Islam? The 2008 report by the London-based Center for Social Cohesion (CfSC), entitled "Islam on Campus: A Survey of UK Student Opinion, gives us a hint. It reports "... that 32 percent of Muslim students said killing in the name of religion could be justified, while 60 percent of active members of on-campus Islamic societies said the same. Only 2 percent of non-Muslims polled felt this way."

The survey, based on a specially commissioned YouGov poll of 1,400 students as well as on fieldwork and interviews, also reported that "Forty percent of Muslim students polled supported the introduction of Sharia [Islamic law] into British law for Muslims, and a third supported the introduction of a worldwide caliphate based on Sharia law." Granted, it was reported "that most Muslim students supported secularism and democratic values, were generally tolerant of other minorities and rejected violence in the name of their faith." [Jerusalem Post, 28 July, 2008] Nevertheless, the fact that a significant proportion of Britishraised university students (who happen to be Muslim) want to radically change the society they were raised in - and will use violent means to do so - gives me pause.

Efraim Karsh is head of Mediterranean Studies at King's College, University of London, and has written many books on Islam. The following comments are from his essay, "Islam's Imperial Dreams," taken from his latest book, "Islamic Imperialism: A History." Karsh writes that the Islamic longing for an empire in the form of a worldwide caliphate has never disappeared and has resurfaced in our own day with a vengeance. Since its birth, Islam has been closely linked with empire-building. Muhammad himself combined temporal and religious powers. Muhammad fled from his hometown of Mecca to Medina in 622 CE to become a political and military leader rather than a private preacher and he spent the last ten years of his life fighting to rule Arabia.

The revelations from the Koran during Muhammad's Medina years are full of verses extolling the virtues of jihad. The prophet's hadith (sayings and tradition) also do so. According to these teachings, those warriors who pursue holy jihad are to be generously rewarded, both in this life and in the afterworld, where they will enjoy shady green gardens and pure women. Therefore, those who are killed shouldn't be mourned.

After Muhammad's unification of the Arabian tribes and his death in 632 CE, his followers conquered a vast empire beyond Arabia, from the Iberian Peninsula to India. The leadership of Islam changed hands several times between rival Arab and Persian factions until the mid-14th century, when the Ottoman Turks became Islam's rulers and invaded Europe, conquering Constantinople in 1453 and destroying the Byzantine empire. The Ottomans would control virtually all of the Balkan peninsula and the eastern Mediterranean for more than four centuries.

Karsh writes, "Like their Arab predecessors, the Ottomans were energetic empire-builders in the name of jihad. By the early 16th century, they had conquered Syria and Egypt from the Mamluks, the formidable slave soldiers who had contained the Mongols and destroyed the Crusader kingdoms. Under Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent, they soon turned northward. By the middle of the 17th century they seemed poised to overrun Christian Europe, only to be turned back in fierce fighting at the gates of Vienna in 1683. ... The Ottoman's defeat by the victorious European powers of World War I, to say nothing of the work of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the father of modern Turkish nationalism, finally brought an end both to the Ottoman caliphate itself and to Islam's centurieslong imperial reach."

Physical force, the legacy of the Islamic caliphate that had lasted more than a thousand years, has remained the primary instrument of political discourse in the Middle East. Political institutions suffer under absolute leaders; citizenship has little value; small, oppressive minorities often dominate; religious, ethnic, and tribal conflicts abound; and the overriding ambition of the ruthless leaders is to retain power. The result is the world's most illiberal governments. Political dissent is met with repression and violence settles ethnic and religious differences. Crude force is the currency of foreign policy in the Middle East, ranging from terrorism and subversion to outright aggression.

To this day, Islam has retained its imperial ambitions. The dream of regional and world domination has remained very much alive, despite the destruction long ago of the last great Muslim empire, which has left the Islamic caliphate vacant. The 20th century doctrine of pan-Arabism (exemplified by Egypt's Gamal Abdel Nasser), though secular in appearance, has been effectively Islamic in its ethos, worldview, and imperialist vision. Karsh quotes Nuri Said, longtime prime minister of Iraq and a prominent early champion of pan-Arabism: "Although Arabs are naturally attached to their native land, their nationalism is not confined by boundaries. It is an aspiration to restore the great tolerant civilization of the early caliphate."

Karsh writes, "Like the leaders of al Qaeda, many Muslims and Arabs unabashedly pine for the reconquest of Spain and consider their 1492 expulsion from the country a grave historical injustice waiting to be undone. Indeed, as immigration and higher rates of childbirth have greatly increased the number of Muslims within Europe itself over the past several decades, countries that were never ruled by the caliphate have become targets of Muslim imperial ambition. Since the late 1980s, Islamists have looked upon the growing population of French Muslims as proof that France, too, has become a part of the House of Islam. In Britain, even the more moderate elements of the Muslim community are candid in setting out their aims."

Despite the condescension and denial on the part of many educated Westerners towards Islamic imperial ambition, the story of Islam has been the rise and fall of imperial aggressiveness and imperial dreams. These dreams have repeatedly frustrated any possibility for peaceful social and political development in the Arab- Muslim world, while they have produced grandiose fantasies of revenge and restoration, leading to murderous efforts to transform fantasy into fact. America, the preeminent world power, is reviled in the Muslim world not because of its specific policies but because it blocks the final realization of this recurring dream to regain the lost glory of the caliphate.

For many Muslims and Arabs, bin Laden is the new incarnation of Saladin, who defeated the Crusaders and conquered Jerusalem. This vision isn't confined to a tiny extremist fringe. Karsh writes, "The fuel of Islamic imperialism remains as volatile as ever, and is very far from having burned itself out. To deny its force is the height of folly, and to imagine that it can be appeased or deflected is to play into its hands. Only when it is defeated, and when the faith of Islam is no longer a tool of Islamic political ambition, will the inhabitants of Muslim lands, and the rest of the world, be able to look forward to a future less burdened by jihadists and their gory dreams."

Unfortunately, I believe Islam has more differences than similarities to its cousins, Judaism and Christianity. As Jews living in Israel, we had better acquaint ourselves with our implacable enemy. The jihadists, be they bin Laden, Ahmadinejad, or some oil sheik, must be replaced by "moderate" Muslims who have a less literal perspective on the Koran, to avert further conflict. Perhaps new leadership will come from the two-thirds of the world's Muslims who are neither Arab nor Iranian. In any event, the West needs to wake up and be prepared until - or if - reasonable leaders emerge to represent Islam on the world stage.

Stephen Kramer resided and worked in the Atlantic City area until 1991, when he moved to Israel with his wife, Michal Langweiler, and two sons. His book "Meandering Through Israel" can be purchased by calling the Jewish Times at 407-0909. He can be reached at Sjk1@jhu.edu.