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জিহাদ: জবরদস্তিমুলক ধর্মান্তরকরণ, সাম্রাজ্যবাদ ও দাসত্বের উত্তরাধিকার
The attacks of September 11, 2001, changed the way the world looks at Islam. And rightfully so, according to M.A. Khan, a former Muslim who left the religion after realizing that it is based on forced conversion, imperialism, and slavery: the primary demands of Jihad, commanded by the Islamic God Allah.
In this groundbreaking book, Khan demonstrates that Prophet Muhammad meticulously followed these misguided principles and established the ideal template of Islamic Jihad for his future followers to pursue, and that Muslims have been perpetuating the cardinal principles of Jihad ever since.
Find out the true nature of Islam, particularly its doctrine of Jihad, and what it means to the modern world, and also learn about
The commands of Allah are perpetual in nature, so are the actions of Prophet Muhammad. Jihad has been the way to win converts to Islam since its birth fourteen centuries ago, and it won't change anytime soon. Find out why in Islamic Jihad.
462 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2009
34 people are currently reading
298 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews
July 29, 2013
This book should be required reading for everyone the world over, including, and especially, people who live in India, South East Asia, Armenia, Turkey, Syria, Tunisia, Greece, and everywhere else that Islam is present as a dominating influence, that isn't also an Arabic country. This is a comprehensive, thoroughly researched, amazing historical narrative that will explain so many things you have always heard about but never could quite figure out about the history and culture of Islam and Muslims. For example, I was always confused by how prevalent this religion is over large swaths of the planet. I just couldn't understand the attraction. How did it spread so far and wide and so completely in some areas? Well, now I know. If you want to know what Islam really is, what it espouses, how it came to be, how it spread, and what its goals are, you must read this book. It is riveting. You will be informed and can speak to the subject of Islamic jihad with intelligence instead of fear and ignorance.
December 8, 2013
Excellent book. This should be taught in all the world's schools as a mental background of how to deal with 1.4 Billion possible terrorists on planet earth.
The author cites a lot of sources, with great deal of them very trusted even to muslims themselves.
It explains how the vast Islamic state, extending from east at india, west at morocco, north at spain, and south at sudan, was built on economic exploitation of non-muslims, slavery and mass plunder from all conquered states, with no civilization whatsoever, despite ruling the world for about 1400 terrible years.
islam-watch.org is a good follow-up site.
The author cites a lot of sources, with great deal of them very trusted even to muslims themselves.
It explains how the vast Islamic state, extending from east at india, west at morocco, north at spain, and south at sudan, was built on economic exploitation of non-muslims, slavery and mass plunder from all conquered states, with no civilization whatsoever, despite ruling the world for about 1400 terrible years.
islam-watch.org is a good follow-up site.
May 14, 2020
A good book to understand Islamic Jihad.
Quite detaily. Go for it
Quite detaily. Go for it
April 11, 2014
Lays to waste the claim that Islam was spread peacefully. Excellent book. Want to know what happened to millions of Buddhists and Hindus when Islam showed up in what we now know as India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh? This book documents the slaughter and destruction of entire cultures. Islam was never a religion of peace. MA Khan left Islam after he researched the history of Islam in his homeland of India and some of the history relating to its effects on N. Africa and slavery. Out of his research came this book. It's a bit repetitious in parts, but the subject matter is important and needs reinforcing at times.
February 25, 2017
Definitely not for those who only see what they want to. If you're a socalled lowly educated liberal or secular, who supports Islam because Islam justifies and accepts all acts considered abominable in civilized society like pedophilia, forced conversion, loot, slavery and terrorism - then this book is your mirror. Look in to it vampire, you won't see your reflection. ..know for sure, it's you.
February 12, 2015
Religion of Peace? This book lays waste to claims that Islam is benign and benevolent. Khan, an apostate, shines a light on the horrors of Islam in regard to its conquests and colonization of India and east Asia. He also touches on the Arab slave trade in Africa. The book is well researched and a must read for anyone interested in a non-Armstrong treatment of Islam, its history, and it tenets.
Read
March 24, 2016One of the best on Islam and prophet. Very well researched. A must read.
September 18, 2018
A very well researched and referenced collection of facts. Although each and every statement in this book is supported by a proper reference and record, there will be some people who may call this book a collection of rants of a hater.
An excellent book which must be read by all.. with open minds.
An excellent book which must be read by all.. with open minds.
November 26, 2010
A very Insightful book on islam.
July 25, 2016
É importante conhecer antes de julgar, e por isso li este livro muito interessante e detalhado.
Este livro oferece muita informação sobre a realidade do islamismo enquanto expressão geográfica, humana e política. O islamismo apoia-se no amor próprio e ódio ao inimigo, sendo o inimigo o infiel. Este ódio é apoiado pelo Corão e materializado em práticas concretas como a escravatura, a morte e até taxas aos infiéis. É deveras assustador a mentalidade que o Islão ainda defende e que a sociedade ocidental já conseguiu deixar no passado.
Depois de ler este livro é fácil perceber que o único que mostrou o caminho da verdade é Jesus Cristo mostrando que só existe um caminho: o Amor, principalmente ao inimigo ou infiel como diriam os islâmicos.
Acredito que um dia Deus vai mostrar que muita gente estava errada começando por muitos católicos mal intencionados e passando por muitos islâmicos. Será como o sonho de John Lennon "imagine all the people living life in peace..."
Este livro oferece muita informação sobre a realidade do islamismo enquanto expressão geográfica, humana e política. O islamismo apoia-se no amor próprio e ódio ao inimigo, sendo o inimigo o infiel. Este ódio é apoiado pelo Corão e materializado em práticas concretas como a escravatura, a morte e até taxas aos infiéis. É deveras assustador a mentalidade que o Islão ainda defende e que a sociedade ocidental já conseguiu deixar no passado.
Depois de ler este livro é fácil perceber que o único que mostrou o caminho da verdade é Jesus Cristo mostrando que só existe um caminho: o Amor, principalmente ao inimigo ou infiel como diriam os islâmicos.
Acredito que um dia Deus vai mostrar que muita gente estava errada começando por muitos católicos mal intencionados e passando por muitos islâmicos. Será como o sonho de John Lennon "imagine all the people living life in peace..."
October 24, 2015
A very well researched but not a very well written book. Also, many facts presented here are not as black and white as it is presented here. But still, this book deserves a 5 star for taking about the elephant in the room!!! A must read !!!
October 17, 2021
Book: Islamic Jihad: A Legacy of Forced Conversion, Imperialism, and Slavery
Author: M.A. Khan
Publisher: iUniverse; Revised ed. edition (26 January 2009)
Language: English
Paperback: 388 pages
Item Weight: 567 g
Dimensions: 15.24 x 2.18 x 22.86 cm
Country of Origin: India
Price: 1777/-
Jihãd is one of the indispensable canons of Islam, but the average Indian’s knowledge of it is both shallow and substandard.
Hindus habitually render the term as ‘dharmayuddha’. However, this rendering is absolutely misleading. Dharmayuddha means ‘war fought in proportion to rules laid down in the Dharmashãstras’.
The basic tenets of ‘dharmayuddha’ are as follows:
1) Not attacking a person who does not have a weapon or has dropped it,
2) Not molesting an adversary who has surrendered,
3) Not pursuing a defeated enemy who has run away,
4) Not attacking the non-combatants in the enemy camp,
4) Not harming the women and holy people and places in the enemy’s territory, etc.
Hindus have never known the notion of a ‘religious’ or ‘holy war’ -- a concept which is characteristic of the monotheistic creeds.
Therefore, to the common Hindu, especially to those who are unaware of the history of the many religious wars waged by monotheistic creeds of Asia and Europe, jihãd is a supercilious conception.
To the ignorant readr, Jihad is nothing more than war aimed at establishing what Muslims consider rectitude in the world.
Very few Hindus care to remember that the boy-emperor Akbar had become a ghãzî by slaughtering his powerless and mortally wounded prisoner Himu at the bidding of Bairam Khan in 1556 AD. In fact, even those Hindus who remember the story do not know that the title ‘ghãzî’ is conferred only on victorious, kãfir - slaughtering mujãhids.
In truth, jihãd is war for the obliteration of infidels (kãfirs) and infidelity (kufr).
To preclude existing misconstruction, it is important to explain the meaning of jihãd from the Koran, the Hadis and the corpus of theological works collectively going by the name of Shariat.
As jihãd is a necessary doctrine of Islam and as its focus is on the infidel, it is not fit that Hindus should go on cherishing their deep-seated delusion regarding its meaning.
This book evidently exhibits that the doctrine of Jihad as revealed by Allah in the Quran calls for forced conversion, chiefly of idolaters, for establishing an imperial rule on a global scale with an integral purpose of economic exploitation of non-Muslim subjects and for engaging in slavery, including ‘slave-trade’ and ‘sex-slavery’.
These divine commands of Allah were carefully acted upon by the Prophet of Islam. With sword, he effectively converted the Polytheists of Arabia to Islam, created the first imperial state in Arabia by expelling and slaughtering the unbending Jews en masse and enslaved the women and children of Jewish and Polytheist tribes in large numbers.
Into eight chapters has this book been divided:-
Chapter I - Jihad: The Controversies
Chapter II - Basic Beliefs in Islam
Chapter III - Life of Prophet Muhammad and the Birth of Jihad
Chapter IV - Propagation of Islam: By Force or Peacefully
Chapter V - The Arab-Islamic Imperialism
Chapter VI - Islamic Imperialism in India
Chapter VII - Islamic Slavery
Chapter VIII - The Last Word
Prophet Muhammad and his comrades kept the adolescent attractive women as sex-slaves and concubines. He also sold some of the enslaved women. The Muslim caliphs and sultans, thereafter, embraced and expanded these ideal models of prophetic actions, creating an Islamdom of vast expanse.
All commands of the Quran, including for Jihad, must stand for all times. Therefore, the Islamic institutions of forced conversion, imperialism and slavery—if Allah’s commands are to be obeyed—must persist for eternity.
As for forced conversion, it must carry on until such times that there remain no more infidels to be converted.
However, even if all peoples of the earth are converted to Islam, some rebellious Muslims will always turn infidels through apostasy. Therefore, technically the Islamic institution of forced conversion would not cease until the end of the world. As to the institution of slavery, it cannot cease to exist either, even if the whole world converts to Islam.
Those who leave Islam through apostasy will always be legitimate targets for slaughter or enslavement. Additionally, Islamic law stipulates that, those infidels, converted to Islam after their capture in the battle-field, would remain slaves.
The offspring of slaves will be slaves. Thus, slavery, the divine institution of Allah, would remain an essential part of humanity through the ages. Regarding Islamic imperialism, the perpetuation of a global Islamic rule for eternity is the ultimate goal of Allah.
Allah’s command of Jihad—embraced by a lone person, Prophet Muhammad—has indeed achieved stunning success in the course of the last 14 centuries. Prophet Muhammad and his successors converted tens of millions of infidels to Islam at the pain of death, through enslavement as well as by coercing them to accept Islam by subjecting to harsh economic exploitation.
Muslims now constitute a staggering 1.4 billion, greater than 20 percent, of the world population. It has been made plentifully clear that Muslims have practised the institution of slavery—slave-trade and sex-slavery included—on a grand scale well into the 21st century.
And of course, Islamic imperialism, established in the Middle East, Central Asia, North Africa, Bangladesh and Pakistan amongst other places since the early times of Islam, would remain under perpetual Islamic rule.
Beginning at the time of Renaissance, the gradual ascendancy of Christian Europe over the Islamic world has played a spoiler in Allah’s stratagem of Jihad for establishing an imperial Islamic state on a global scale for blessing all humankind with His perfected final creed of Islam. Europe, indeed, played spoiler to Allah’s mission thrice: first at the Battle of Tours (732) and twice at the Gates of Vienna against the Ottomans (1527 & 1683).
Europe dealt even a bigger blow to Allah’s divine mission by recapturing most of the lands, Muslims had captured through dogged Jihad over the centuries.
In places, like Turkey and Iran, where Europeans did not capture power directly, they made the rulers of those countries their surrogates.
The Koran does not discuss a single Islamic tenet methodically and in conformity with the arrangement of its chapters.
The combined body of Revelations from Allah which constitute the Holy Book of Islam appeared to the Prophet without any logical sequence during the 23 years of his prophetic career (609 to 632 AD), and this fact accounts for its haphazard arrangement.
The Koran has 114 chapters and some six thousand verses. The verses of jihãd, like those explaining any other doctrine, remain spread over a great many chapters. This is the reason why, to a regular reader, the knowledge of any and every Islamic doctrine appears difficult, the doctrine of jihãd being no exception.
The following are the rules and instructions regarding jihãd as laid down in the Koran: -
1. The final object of jihãd is to Islamize the whole of humanity. Since the Prophet’s stay in Medina, this duty has been enduringly enjoined on Muslims over the length and breadth of the world.
2. The instant objects of jihãd are four in number: (a) spread of Islam by war; (b) the destruction of infidels; (c) jizyah; and (d) plunder.
3. For Scriptuaries the imposition of jizyah is the rule, just as for idolaters the rule is mass-slaughter. But there are lots of exclusions to this general rule. Mass-slaughter of Jews in jihãd is highly permissible. On the other hand, even idolaters can be let off on payment of the poll-tax. The Koran has not published any exact rule regarding these matters.
4. Jihãd is by no means a war for self-defence. Historically the verse ‘kill the idolaters wherever you find them’ (K 9/5) forms an item in the ‘immunity’ granted to the Prophet in 631 AD regarding his obligations to the idolaters of Arabia. But as in every verse of the Koran, the insinuation of such immunity in respect of a fastidious set of infidels embraced in due course idolaters of any and every country of the world.
Such a command is essentially informed with the spirit of extreme fierceness. For those who plead that the call of jihãd is an injunction for self-defence, the so-called immunity verses of the 9th sûrah are the best refutation; but there are many other verses which confute the plea.
What does the Hadis say on the subject of jihad?
The most important piece of information it contains is that the Prophet, in course of his ten years’ stay at Medina till his death, had engaged in as many as 82 jihãds of which 26 he commanded in person. These 26 jihãds are called ‘ghazwahs’ indicating that he became a ghãzî by slaying kafirs and coming out triumphant.
The Hadis also tells us that most of these ghazwahs were in the nature of raids or swooping down upon the enemy without previous notice. The Hadis also gives details regarding the vast wealth and the great number of men, women and children he captured in these ghazwahs.
In the subcontinent, the Jihadi zeal of its sizeable Muslim population, to an extent effectively suppressed by the British for so long, were let loose in the course of the Partition (1946–48). A few million Hindus and Sikhs were converted to Islam at the pain of death and tens of thousands of their young women were enslaved and carried away.
Even today, the practice continues in one form or another.
In Pakistan for example, hundreds of Hindus, Sikhs and Christians are forcibly converted to Islam and dozens of their young girls are enslaved through kidnapping every year. If they offer resistance, they are driven out through violent outbursts or other forms of social compulsions, causing their rapid decline in number.
These oppressive measures are in force in countries like Bangladesh, Pakistan, Egypt, Lebanon, Palestine, and in almost every Islamic country. For the last three decades countless events of forceful conversions have taken place in Bangladesh alone, only a minusculr fraction of which have been documented.
As to slavery, it can be been noted that it is alive and well in Saudi Arabia in one form or another. Slavery is extensive in Mauritania, while there has been a revitalization of it in Sudan since the mid-1980s after the Islamists took control of the country.
Islamic imperialism is also being expanded in a variety of ways: through the creation of new Muslim states, Kosovo for instance.
Similar expansion is likely to follow in Kashmir, Mindanao and Southern Thailand amongst other places. The doctrine of Jihad, with its essential components—forced conversion, imperialism and slavery—is perpetual in nature.
Till today, it has maintained its timeless character.
In sum, Allah’s heavenly institution of Jihad with all its vital components is alive and well today. However, the future of the whole gamut of resplendent Jihad looks even brighter.
In the early days and through the period of past domination of Islam, Allah gave succor to his anointed Jihadis by flushing them with the wealth and treasures of the infidels by making them victorious in difficult, even improbable, battles with the help of numerous angels. Now that the power of angels has become ineffective against super powerful weapons invented by the infidels, Allah has come with a new succour: the black gold, preserved underground in huge quantities in many Islamic lands — Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iraq and Iran being most endowed.
The need for the black gold for driving the wheels of the world is so strong that the whole world, including the powerful West, is held hostage by the producers of this vital product, led by Islamic countries.
Sky-rocketing price of this liquid gold since the 1970s has made those Muslim countries, Saudi Arabia in particular, flush with wealth, which they could never attain through plunderous Jihad of the old days.
Saudi Arabia, the blessed custodian of the birthplace of Islam, has bigheartedly poured in the succor of Allah, billions of dollars annually, to promote the purity of Islam globally.
Mosques and madrasas have mushroomed across the world, the West included, for training the Muslim mind with the true doctrines of Islam. Based on the crucial part of Prophet Muhammad’s career in Medina, it has been emphasized that Jihad is the central doctrine, the heart, of Islam.
Jihad is on an amazing march once again. It will only gain in strength over coming decades.
Jihad in the 21st century has been launched in two forms — a) violent and b) soft — with the same end goal: establishing the laws of Allah, the Sharia, with dhimmitude, slavery, forced conversion embedded in it.
The aggressive Jihad could be controllable, but the soft form, mostly through limitless breeding to flood the population in the infidel-dominated countries, will be the hardest to beat.
Over the next few decades, India, Russia and Europe will most liable become the real playgrounds for the Jihadis, whether of violent or soft kinds.
The radical Islamic movements have been gaining fast ascendancy in the Muslim world, while the Sharia laws creeping into the legal system bit by bit even in the West.
It remains to be seen whether or not the central professions of Jihad—forced conversion, imperialism and slavery along with economic exploitations and social disabilities of non-Muslims—return to the world-stage with its medieval glories.
The threat is alive and kicking. The onus is upon us, to be on the right side of history.
An exceptional study. A must read.
Grab a copy if you choose.
Author: M.A. Khan
Publisher: iUniverse; Revised ed. edition (26 January 2009)
Language: English
Paperback: 388 pages
Item Weight: 567 g
Dimensions: 15.24 x 2.18 x 22.86 cm
Country of Origin: India
Price: 1777/-
Jihãd is one of the indispensable canons of Islam, but the average Indian’s knowledge of it is both shallow and substandard.
Hindus habitually render the term as ‘dharmayuddha’. However, this rendering is absolutely misleading. Dharmayuddha means ‘war fought in proportion to rules laid down in the Dharmashãstras’.
The basic tenets of ‘dharmayuddha’ are as follows:
1) Not attacking a person who does not have a weapon or has dropped it,
2) Not molesting an adversary who has surrendered,
3) Not pursuing a defeated enemy who has run away,
4) Not attacking the non-combatants in the enemy camp,
4) Not harming the women and holy people and places in the enemy’s territory, etc.
Hindus have never known the notion of a ‘religious’ or ‘holy war’ -- a concept which is characteristic of the monotheistic creeds.
Therefore, to the common Hindu, especially to those who are unaware of the history of the many religious wars waged by monotheistic creeds of Asia and Europe, jihãd is a supercilious conception.
To the ignorant readr, Jihad is nothing more than war aimed at establishing what Muslims consider rectitude in the world.
Very few Hindus care to remember that the boy-emperor Akbar had become a ghãzî by slaughtering his powerless and mortally wounded prisoner Himu at the bidding of Bairam Khan in 1556 AD. In fact, even those Hindus who remember the story do not know that the title ‘ghãzî’ is conferred only on victorious, kãfir - slaughtering mujãhids.
In truth, jihãd is war for the obliteration of infidels (kãfirs) and infidelity (kufr).
To preclude existing misconstruction, it is important to explain the meaning of jihãd from the Koran, the Hadis and the corpus of theological works collectively going by the name of Shariat.
As jihãd is a necessary doctrine of Islam and as its focus is on the infidel, it is not fit that Hindus should go on cherishing their deep-seated delusion regarding its meaning.
This book evidently exhibits that the doctrine of Jihad as revealed by Allah in the Quran calls for forced conversion, chiefly of idolaters, for establishing an imperial rule on a global scale with an integral purpose of economic exploitation of non-Muslim subjects and for engaging in slavery, including ‘slave-trade’ and ‘sex-slavery’.
These divine commands of Allah were carefully acted upon by the Prophet of Islam. With sword, he effectively converted the Polytheists of Arabia to Islam, created the first imperial state in Arabia by expelling and slaughtering the unbending Jews en masse and enslaved the women and children of Jewish and Polytheist tribes in large numbers.
Into eight chapters has this book been divided:-
Chapter I - Jihad: The Controversies
Chapter II - Basic Beliefs in Islam
Chapter III - Life of Prophet Muhammad and the Birth of Jihad
Chapter IV - Propagation of Islam: By Force or Peacefully
Chapter V - The Arab-Islamic Imperialism
Chapter VI - Islamic Imperialism in India
Chapter VII - Islamic Slavery
Chapter VIII - The Last Word
Prophet Muhammad and his comrades kept the adolescent attractive women as sex-slaves and concubines. He also sold some of the enslaved women. The Muslim caliphs and sultans, thereafter, embraced and expanded these ideal models of prophetic actions, creating an Islamdom of vast expanse.
All commands of the Quran, including for Jihad, must stand for all times. Therefore, the Islamic institutions of forced conversion, imperialism and slavery—if Allah’s commands are to be obeyed—must persist for eternity.
As for forced conversion, it must carry on until such times that there remain no more infidels to be converted.
However, even if all peoples of the earth are converted to Islam, some rebellious Muslims will always turn infidels through apostasy. Therefore, technically the Islamic institution of forced conversion would not cease until the end of the world. As to the institution of slavery, it cannot cease to exist either, even if the whole world converts to Islam.
Those who leave Islam through apostasy will always be legitimate targets for slaughter or enslavement. Additionally, Islamic law stipulates that, those infidels, converted to Islam after their capture in the battle-field, would remain slaves.
The offspring of slaves will be slaves. Thus, slavery, the divine institution of Allah, would remain an essential part of humanity through the ages. Regarding Islamic imperialism, the perpetuation of a global Islamic rule for eternity is the ultimate goal of Allah.
Allah’s command of Jihad—embraced by a lone person, Prophet Muhammad—has indeed achieved stunning success in the course of the last 14 centuries. Prophet Muhammad and his successors converted tens of millions of infidels to Islam at the pain of death, through enslavement as well as by coercing them to accept Islam by subjecting to harsh economic exploitation.
Muslims now constitute a staggering 1.4 billion, greater than 20 percent, of the world population. It has been made plentifully clear that Muslims have practised the institution of slavery—slave-trade and sex-slavery included—on a grand scale well into the 21st century.
And of course, Islamic imperialism, established in the Middle East, Central Asia, North Africa, Bangladesh and Pakistan amongst other places since the early times of Islam, would remain under perpetual Islamic rule.
Beginning at the time of Renaissance, the gradual ascendancy of Christian Europe over the Islamic world has played a spoiler in Allah’s stratagem of Jihad for establishing an imperial Islamic state on a global scale for blessing all humankind with His perfected final creed of Islam. Europe, indeed, played spoiler to Allah’s mission thrice: first at the Battle of Tours (732) and twice at the Gates of Vienna against the Ottomans (1527 & 1683).
Europe dealt even a bigger blow to Allah’s divine mission by recapturing most of the lands, Muslims had captured through dogged Jihad over the centuries.
In places, like Turkey and Iran, where Europeans did not capture power directly, they made the rulers of those countries their surrogates.
The Koran does not discuss a single Islamic tenet methodically and in conformity with the arrangement of its chapters.
The combined body of Revelations from Allah which constitute the Holy Book of Islam appeared to the Prophet without any logical sequence during the 23 years of his prophetic career (609 to 632 AD), and this fact accounts for its haphazard arrangement.
The Koran has 114 chapters and some six thousand verses. The verses of jihãd, like those explaining any other doctrine, remain spread over a great many chapters. This is the reason why, to a regular reader, the knowledge of any and every Islamic doctrine appears difficult, the doctrine of jihãd being no exception.
The following are the rules and instructions regarding jihãd as laid down in the Koran: -
1. The final object of jihãd is to Islamize the whole of humanity. Since the Prophet’s stay in Medina, this duty has been enduringly enjoined on Muslims over the length and breadth of the world.
2. The instant objects of jihãd are four in number: (a) spread of Islam by war; (b) the destruction of infidels; (c) jizyah; and (d) plunder.
3. For Scriptuaries the imposition of jizyah is the rule, just as for idolaters the rule is mass-slaughter. But there are lots of exclusions to this general rule. Mass-slaughter of Jews in jihãd is highly permissible. On the other hand, even idolaters can be let off on payment of the poll-tax. The Koran has not published any exact rule regarding these matters.
4. Jihãd is by no means a war for self-defence. Historically the verse ‘kill the idolaters wherever you find them’ (K 9/5) forms an item in the ‘immunity’ granted to the Prophet in 631 AD regarding his obligations to the idolaters of Arabia. But as in every verse of the Koran, the insinuation of such immunity in respect of a fastidious set of infidels embraced in due course idolaters of any and every country of the world.
Such a command is essentially informed with the spirit of extreme fierceness. For those who plead that the call of jihãd is an injunction for self-defence, the so-called immunity verses of the 9th sûrah are the best refutation; but there are many other verses which confute the plea.
What does the Hadis say on the subject of jihad?
The most important piece of information it contains is that the Prophet, in course of his ten years’ stay at Medina till his death, had engaged in as many as 82 jihãds of which 26 he commanded in person. These 26 jihãds are called ‘ghazwahs’ indicating that he became a ghãzî by slaying kafirs and coming out triumphant.
The Hadis also tells us that most of these ghazwahs were in the nature of raids or swooping down upon the enemy without previous notice. The Hadis also gives details regarding the vast wealth and the great number of men, women and children he captured in these ghazwahs.
In the subcontinent, the Jihadi zeal of its sizeable Muslim population, to an extent effectively suppressed by the British for so long, were let loose in the course of the Partition (1946–48). A few million Hindus and Sikhs were converted to Islam at the pain of death and tens of thousands of their young women were enslaved and carried away.
Even today, the practice continues in one form or another.
In Pakistan for example, hundreds of Hindus, Sikhs and Christians are forcibly converted to Islam and dozens of their young girls are enslaved through kidnapping every year. If they offer resistance, they are driven out through violent outbursts or other forms of social compulsions, causing their rapid decline in number.
These oppressive measures are in force in countries like Bangladesh, Pakistan, Egypt, Lebanon, Palestine, and in almost every Islamic country. For the last three decades countless events of forceful conversions have taken place in Bangladesh alone, only a minusculr fraction of which have been documented.
As to slavery, it can be been noted that it is alive and well in Saudi Arabia in one form or another. Slavery is extensive in Mauritania, while there has been a revitalization of it in Sudan since the mid-1980s after the Islamists took control of the country.
Islamic imperialism is also being expanded in a variety of ways: through the creation of new Muslim states, Kosovo for instance.
Similar expansion is likely to follow in Kashmir, Mindanao and Southern Thailand amongst other places. The doctrine of Jihad, with its essential components—forced conversion, imperialism and slavery—is perpetual in nature.
Till today, it has maintained its timeless character.
In sum, Allah’s heavenly institution of Jihad with all its vital components is alive and well today. However, the future of the whole gamut of resplendent Jihad looks even brighter.
In the early days and through the period of past domination of Islam, Allah gave succor to his anointed Jihadis by flushing them with the wealth and treasures of the infidels by making them victorious in difficult, even improbable, battles with the help of numerous angels. Now that the power of angels has become ineffective against super powerful weapons invented by the infidels, Allah has come with a new succour: the black gold, preserved underground in huge quantities in many Islamic lands — Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iraq and Iran being most endowed.
The need for the black gold for driving the wheels of the world is so strong that the whole world, including the powerful West, is held hostage by the producers of this vital product, led by Islamic countries.
Sky-rocketing price of this liquid gold since the 1970s has made those Muslim countries, Saudi Arabia in particular, flush with wealth, which they could never attain through plunderous Jihad of the old days.
Saudi Arabia, the blessed custodian of the birthplace of Islam, has bigheartedly poured in the succor of Allah, billions of dollars annually, to promote the purity of Islam globally.
Mosques and madrasas have mushroomed across the world, the West included, for training the Muslim mind with the true doctrines of Islam. Based on the crucial part of Prophet Muhammad’s career in Medina, it has been emphasized that Jihad is the central doctrine, the heart, of Islam.
Jihad is on an amazing march once again. It will only gain in strength over coming decades.
Jihad in the 21st century has been launched in two forms — a) violent and b) soft — with the same end goal: establishing the laws of Allah, the Sharia, with dhimmitude, slavery, forced conversion embedded in it.
The aggressive Jihad could be controllable, but the soft form, mostly through limitless breeding to flood the population in the infidel-dominated countries, will be the hardest to beat.
Over the next few decades, India, Russia and Europe will most liable become the real playgrounds for the Jihadis, whether of violent or soft kinds.
The radical Islamic movements have been gaining fast ascendancy in the Muslim world, while the Sharia laws creeping into the legal system bit by bit even in the West.
It remains to be seen whether or not the central professions of Jihad—forced conversion, imperialism and slavery along with economic exploitations and social disabilities of non-Muslims—return to the world-stage with its medieval glories.
The threat is alive and kicking. The onus is upon us, to be on the right side of history.
An exceptional study. A must read.
Grab a copy if you choose.
August 3, 2022
This book is an eye opener and a must read for all. It is very well researched. It brings many new (probably hidden on purpose) facts to the front as well as connects the dots for the facts already known, which we somehow could not do on our own.
The world has suffered a lot in the hands of the followers of a cult and it will continue to do so in the future as well. We have to understand it and be prepared and counter it if we want the world to be saved and prosper.
I cannot thank the author enough for their courage. We need more people like him.
The world has suffered a lot in the hands of the followers of a cult and it will continue to do so in the future as well. We have to understand it and be prepared and counter it if we want the world to be saved and prosper.
I cannot thank the author enough for their courage. We need more people like him.
November 24, 2021
Indian liberals and seculars should stay away from this book because it won't be suitable for their health. XD
The book is nothing new about history of Islam and how Islam affected the world and specially india. Many reputed historians from the world has same view of Islam like MA Khan has written in his Book.
His views about India is quite interesting and convincing like it's true that sati system wasn't a major practiced tradition before 6th century. Sati system only got active when Islamic invasion started by 7th century. Islamic inavders used to trade women and use them as sex slaves, this was the only reason sati system got highly active after islamic invasion started.
His views about casteism is kind of exaggeration but little bit true.
He has nicely written about Mughal rule and their so secularism specially when it comes to Akbar. Akbar doesn't deserve a tag of great, he was just less cruel than other muslims rulers.
Nehru and his education system is quite responsible for brainwashing indians by whitewashing the real history, muslim rule of india is darkest time in history of India. But Marxist historians of India always try to cover up the dark side of muslim rule like Romila Thapar.
Hope indians start reading this book or many other books about muslim rule of india.
The book is nothing new about history of Islam and how Islam affected the world and specially india. Many reputed historians from the world has same view of Islam like MA Khan has written in his Book.
His views about India is quite interesting and convincing like it's true that sati system wasn't a major practiced tradition before 6th century. Sati system only got active when Islamic invasion started by 7th century. Islamic inavders used to trade women and use them as sex slaves, this was the only reason sati system got highly active after islamic invasion started.
His views about casteism is kind of exaggeration but little bit true.
He has nicely written about Mughal rule and their so secularism specially when it comes to Akbar. Akbar doesn't deserve a tag of great, he was just less cruel than other muslims rulers.
Nehru and his education system is quite responsible for brainwashing indians by whitewashing the real history, muslim rule of india is darkest time in history of India. But Marxist historians of India always try to cover up the dark side of muslim rule like Romila Thapar.
Hope indians start reading this book or many other books about muslim rule of india.
December 6, 2020
This is book is mind-boggling, to say the least. Though, could have been written in a much better style but it wouldn't be wrong to say that this book is loaded with solid information in a concise and easily understandable fashion for any lay person to read and grasp.
November 28, 2020
its a interesting reading though author is anti islam, but still he convinces to a good degree. Especially the chapter on slavery was an eye opener
Read
July 6, 2021If you want to understand Islam and the reasons behind its relationship with the rest of the world, this book is a must-read.
The spread of Islam had very little to do with peace, love, and brotherhood but had everything to do with the opposites like treachery, violence, and slavery. This fact is narrated by the author with well-researched references.
The spread of Islam had very little to do with peace, love, and brotherhood but had everything to do with the opposites like treachery, violence, and slavery. This fact is narrated by the author with well-researched references.
April 30, 2021
The author desperately tries to throw blame on Islam for all the woes of the world which takes it too far. The book has used some reliable sources but the same have been used wrongly and a lot of information mentioned as facts are not even cited. So while reading one forgets that the fact could be a fabrication of the author and not coming from some historical record. Moreover, fragments of unreliable information are taken just for the sake of making arguments against Islam. For example, in some statements the author has cited Mr. Jawaharlal Nehru as if he was an authority on Islam and understood Islam to such an extent that some statement he made could be used to besmirch a religion.
The author has blamed Islam for sati, casteism and everything you can think of by making hollow arguments. Furthermore, the interpretation of Quran by the author is literal and therefore wrong. Literal interpretation of any text is devoid of its true teaching.
The book may be considered to be another way of looking at the religion. But when you are providing a different and violent aspect of a religion you need to be careful and serious with your arguments and facts which must be honest and convincing or you should refrain from throwing one-sided facts and stories just for the sake of proving your point.
The author has blamed Islam for sati, casteism and everything you can think of by making hollow arguments. Furthermore, the interpretation of Quran by the author is literal and therefore wrong. Literal interpretation of any text is devoid of its true teaching.
The book may be considered to be another way of looking at the religion. But when you are providing a different and violent aspect of a religion you need to be careful and serious with your arguments and facts which must be honest and convincing or you should refrain from throwing one-sided facts and stories just for the sake of proving your point.
Read
August 14, 2020If you want ture meaning of Jihad and Islam read Quran a word of God and sayings (hadith) of Prophet Mohammed PBUH.
This book is Baised and based on wrong interpretations. references are also unauthentic.
Must read history of first 4 islamic leader before this book.
Then judge yourself.
This book is Baised and based on wrong interpretations. references are also unauthentic.
Must read history of first 4 islamic leader before this book.
Then judge yourself.
June 27, 2020
Another bullshit.
September 18, 2022
This book is an introspection of the author on the aftermath of 9/11 attack. Author MA Khan who is more wine sipping, non-Namazi, liberal Muslim started justifying the ghastly act of 9/11. Realization of this, opened his own mind to the extent Islam has intruded into his life. With this the real journey of knowing about Islam starts where the author traces the source of Islamic jihad to the life of prophet and Quran and continues the journey to connect them to current day situation. This book is a result of his journey where the author has documented the tragic tails Islamic imperialism that is very less talked in academic world.
When a common man quotes the Quran and questions the Muslim they always hide behind the garb of “context of the aayat”, Author in the initial 3 chapter (Chapter II - Basic Beliefs in Islam, Chapter III - Life of Prophet, Muhammad and the Birth of Jihad, Chapter IV - Propagation of Islam: By Force or Peacefully) gives the background of the Quranic verses, which are tough to understand to a casual reader as the ‘holy Quran’ is not written either in chronological order nor based on the topics. These 3 chapters dispel the myth that Mohammad was a prophet as the author shows how verses are tailor made to the situations that comes in the life of Mohammad. Proving that Allah always remain hasten to save or fulfil the wishes of Mohammad, which is also stated by Aisha as per Bukari 4788.
This book has been divided into 8 chapters,
In Chapter 1, “Jihad: The Controversies”, author gives many quotations of people from politicians to academicians who try to say Quran talks about inner jihad and not violent jihad. Unfortunately, this is not true as per Quran 4.95 or hadith Ibn Maja 2794 where Mohammad himself tells the best jihad is the one where blood is shed, and horse is wounded. Rest of the chapters in this book are to explain or justify that Islam/Quran do not talk about inner jihad but violent jihad. In fact, “There are more than 200 divine verses of Jihad in the Quran.” ( Location 193-194 ) to disprove politicians to academicians who misguide the world.
Chapter 2 ,“Basic Beliefs in Islam”, as the title itself indicates gives the basic beliefs system of Islam, its books and thoughts related to religion. This chapter also gives the basic information on the different school of thoughts in Islam.
Chapter 3 ,“life of prophet”, author explains how "life of Prophet Muhammad, who{m}, Muslims believe, was indisputably the greatest, kindest and most merciful human being ever to walk on the earth.” ( Location 1861-1862 ) in reality, preached, “The intolerant teachings of Islam have transformed such an amazingly tolerant and civilized people of the seventh-century Arabia into such a fanatic and murderous lot. Not only the Arabs, but Muslims anywhere in the world today carry forward the legacy of Islam with similar intolerance and bigotry.” ( Location 729-731 )
Chapter 4 ,“Propagation of Islam”, explains how Mohammad could not gather more than 100 followers, when he was in Mecca preaching peaceful nature of Islam. On the other hand, Once he emigrated to Madina (hijrat) and took violent form, Islam propagated to rest of the world. Thus, the Propagation of Islam “through Allah’s doctrine of Jihad into practice at the birth of Islam, Prophet Muhammad had established three major models of Jihadi actions: Use of violence for the propagation of Islam, Islamic imperialism, Islamic slavery” ( Location 262-265 ) which resulted in worlds second largest religion of the world. This proves that the Islam spread through sword from the time of Mohammad till date which are reflected in the acts of Kalifate to acts of every ruler in every part of the world.
Chapter 5 ,“Arab-Islamic Imperialism”, explains, “The primary aim of Islamic imperial expansion, initiated by the Prophet in the name of fighting in the cause of Allah, was to spread the Islamic faith over all peoples at all corners of the globe. They slaughtered a great multitude of infidels and ruthlessly destroyed their religion, culture and civilization.” ( Location 4492-4494 )
Chapter 6, “Islamic Imperialism in India”, author gives ample proofs from Islamic sources itself to show “the trail of the Hindu-Muslim relationship in India throughout the centuries of Muslim invasion and rule.” ( Location 5255-5256 ) the author traces the Islamic rule in India from the first attack to current situation. The explanation of direct action day and Noakhali riots during partition has been explained so detail that I could not read it.
Chapter 7,”Islamic Slavery”, explains how “Islam did not institute slavery, but embraced the age-old practice with open arms and gave it a divine validation to last for the eternity and promoted it to a hitherto unprecedented scale.” ( Location 8999-9001 ) he explains how Muhammad owned slave and went to bed with a slave (Rayhana bint zayd) on the very night when he not only killed the husband but also entire tribe became role model for rest of the Muslims which resulted in carrying his Sunnah by wealthy Muslim till 1980, when slavery was forcefully abolished in Arab, Under pressure from the West.
Chapter 8,”last words”, gives the conclusion.
Though author being an Indian gives more emphasis on the history of India but also touches the Islamic barbarism on rest of the world like Spain, North Africa, Indonesia, China and Malaysia making this book a must to read for every one including Muslims to understand what they believe in, what they follow and what they defend. This tragic tale is the subject of this book is "a saga of great human tragedy—all in the name of Islamic holy war or Jihad, the foundational creed of Islam." ( Location 125-126 ) Once the person reads would no doubt will know how much Islamic history has been masked/covered-up from normal people, proving the statement, “without lies, Islam dies”
When a common man quotes the Quran and questions the Muslim they always hide behind the garb of “context of the aayat”, Author in the initial 3 chapter (Chapter II - Basic Beliefs in Islam, Chapter III - Life of Prophet, Muhammad and the Birth of Jihad, Chapter IV - Propagation of Islam: By Force or Peacefully) gives the background of the Quranic verses, which are tough to understand to a casual reader as the ‘holy Quran’ is not written either in chronological order nor based on the topics. These 3 chapters dispel the myth that Mohammad was a prophet as the author shows how verses are tailor made to the situations that comes in the life of Mohammad. Proving that Allah always remain hasten to save or fulfil the wishes of Mohammad, which is also stated by Aisha as per Bukari 4788.
This book has been divided into 8 chapters,
In Chapter 1, “Jihad: The Controversies”, author gives many quotations of people from politicians to academicians who try to say Quran talks about inner jihad and not violent jihad. Unfortunately, this is not true as per Quran 4.95 or hadith Ibn Maja 2794 where Mohammad himself tells the best jihad is the one where blood is shed, and horse is wounded. Rest of the chapters in this book are to explain or justify that Islam/Quran do not talk about inner jihad but violent jihad. In fact, “There are more than 200 divine verses of Jihad in the Quran.” ( Location 193-194 ) to disprove politicians to academicians who misguide the world.
Chapter 2 ,“Basic Beliefs in Islam”, as the title itself indicates gives the basic beliefs system of Islam, its books and thoughts related to religion. This chapter also gives the basic information on the different school of thoughts in Islam.
Chapter 3 ,“life of prophet”, author explains how "life of Prophet Muhammad, who{m}, Muslims believe, was indisputably the greatest, kindest and most merciful human being ever to walk on the earth.” ( Location 1861-1862 ) in reality, preached, “The intolerant teachings of Islam have transformed such an amazingly tolerant and civilized people of the seventh-century Arabia into such a fanatic and murderous lot. Not only the Arabs, but Muslims anywhere in the world today carry forward the legacy of Islam with similar intolerance and bigotry.” ( Location 729-731 )
Chapter 4 ,“Propagation of Islam”, explains how Mohammad could not gather more than 100 followers, when he was in Mecca preaching peaceful nature of Islam. On the other hand, Once he emigrated to Madina (hijrat) and took violent form, Islam propagated to rest of the world. Thus, the Propagation of Islam “through Allah’s doctrine of Jihad into practice at the birth of Islam, Prophet Muhammad had established three major models of Jihadi actions: Use of violence for the propagation of Islam, Islamic imperialism, Islamic slavery” ( Location 262-265 ) which resulted in worlds second largest religion of the world. This proves that the Islam spread through sword from the time of Mohammad till date which are reflected in the acts of Kalifate to acts of every ruler in every part of the world.
Chapter 5 ,“Arab-Islamic Imperialism”, explains, “The primary aim of Islamic imperial expansion, initiated by the Prophet in the name of fighting in the cause of Allah, was to spread the Islamic faith over all peoples at all corners of the globe. They slaughtered a great multitude of infidels and ruthlessly destroyed their religion, culture and civilization.” ( Location 4492-4494 )
Chapter 6, “Islamic Imperialism in India”, author gives ample proofs from Islamic sources itself to show “the trail of the Hindu-Muslim relationship in India throughout the centuries of Muslim invasion and rule.” ( Location 5255-5256 ) the author traces the Islamic rule in India from the first attack to current situation. The explanation of direct action day and Noakhali riots during partition has been explained so detail that I could not read it.
Chapter 7,”Islamic Slavery”, explains how “Islam did not institute slavery, but embraced the age-old practice with open arms and gave it a divine validation to last for the eternity and promoted it to a hitherto unprecedented scale.” ( Location 8999-9001 ) he explains how Muhammad owned slave and went to bed with a slave (Rayhana bint zayd) on the very night when he not only killed the husband but also entire tribe became role model for rest of the Muslims which resulted in carrying his Sunnah by wealthy Muslim till 1980, when slavery was forcefully abolished in Arab, Under pressure from the West.
Chapter 8,”last words”, gives the conclusion.
Though author being an Indian gives more emphasis on the history of India but also touches the Islamic barbarism on rest of the world like Spain, North Africa, Indonesia, China and Malaysia making this book a must to read for every one including Muslims to understand what they believe in, what they follow and what they defend. This tragic tale is the subject of this book is "a saga of great human tragedy—all in the name of Islamic holy war or Jihad, the foundational creed of Islam." ( Location 125-126 ) Once the person reads would no doubt will know how much Islamic history has been masked/covered-up from normal people, proving the statement, “without lies, Islam dies”
June 15, 2025
The only reason I am giving this book a single star is because I cannot rate it with no stars at all.
The book is poorly edited (if it was edited at all) and full of spelling and grammatical errors, but worst of all, it is poorly researched, and apparently meant to affirm the writer’s prejudices about religion rather than say anything genuine about history.
Khan has been criticized for lacking references, misunderstanding references and even making references up. Here’s one example: according to Khan, Jesus, in the book of Matthew 18:25, advised people in debt to sell themselves along with their family members into slavery to pay up. I am sure that anyone who even has a nodding acquaintance with the New Testament can tell you Jesus never gave any such advice. Matthew 18: 25- 35 actually contains one of the Parables Jesus used for teaching the values of forgiveness, but I must thank Khan for giving us a perfect example of what can happen when you quote a single line out of context from the Bible in the same way people often do from the Quran.
It does not surprise me that Khan didn’t understand a Biblical passage. His many English language errors suggest his English comprehension skills may already be less than stellar.
This yet another “sensational book" by a disgruntled ex-Muslim, but in this case, the writer is creative enough to even concoct his own version of history. I will use his ideas about the history of the spread of Islam in Indonesia as an example.
Now let’s see what he has to say about Indonesia - a country he has apparently never even taken the trouble to look up in a world atlas.
Khan begins by stating that there were three powerful kingdoms In Southeast Asia during the 13th to 15th centuries. In fact, there were a lot more than just three in the regions he specified. Vietnam, for example, had become one of the world's first gunpowder empires, and there were around 23 independent kingdoms on the Southeast Asian mainland at that time, including two major kingdoms in Myanmar (Pegu and Ava).
Meanwhile, Khan holds forth about a king named Parameswara, whom he colourfully described as a Hindu emperor who was tricked into becoming a Muslim emperor of the Srivijaya empire, for the love of a beautiful slave girl.
This is an entertaining story, but it has a few problems. The Srivijaya empire had been in slow decline since the 10th century. By the 13th century, the time of Khan’s narrative, it was pretty much gone, having been commercially superseded by the Javanese and under constant attack from Siam, in the north, and the Javanese Singosari and Mahapahit empires to the south. There is also some doubt among historians that Parameswara ever converted to Islam, sexy slave or not. Certainly he wasn’t a Srivijaya king, as Khan stated, since the Srivijaya period ended in 1300 and Parameswara was born in 1344. Also contrary to Khan's assertion, the “Hindu Empire” of Srivijaya was probably as much Buddhist as Hindu, and included a number of indigenous religions as well. The same thing was true of many areas in the archipelago at that time.
Khan said that Parameswara, converted and transformed the “Hindu Empire” of Srivijaya into the Sultanate of Malacca in 1410, but by 1410, the Srivijaya empire was long gone. Parameswara was the king of Singapura (location of present day Singapore) and founded Malacca (Melaka) in the early 15th century.
Khan’s geographical and historical bongers include his statement that the island of Borneo was turned into a Sultanate. He really seems to have no idea of land masses involved in the places he is talking about. At an area of 743,330 sq km, Borneo is more like a small continent than just an island, and it has never been a single, united anything - ever. Nor has Borneo ever been part of the Sultanate of Melaka. Melaka's influence did not extend beyond Sumatra and the Malay Peninsula. Am I going insane or did Khan really describe the Malay peninsula as the principal island of Malaysia? Where does one even begin? The name, “Malaysia” did not exist until the 20th century and even on its best day, a peninsula cannot be an island.
And by the way, the Srivijaya empire was not centered in Malaysia but in the areas now known as Jambi and Palembang on the island of Sumatra in what is now Indonesia - just another of Khan’s errors, but who cares about facts when you've got a point to make, right?
The Mahapahit empire: was, indeed, brought down by Muslims, but not invading Muslims from Malacca, as per Khan. The Muslims who brought down the Majapahit empire were from Java, specifically the Demak Sultanate in Java, where the Majapahit empire was also centered, and not by some marauding, fanatical outside force, Hell-bent on forcibly converting the Islanders.
The Demak empire, founded by a regional Majapahit governor, who had married a Majapahit princess, was as Javanese as the Majapahit culture itself. The situation was more like a civil war than the foreign invasion Khan seems to have imagined.
This isn't the only time a war involving Muslims in Southeast Asia has been erroneously referred to as a kind of religious invasion or “holy war” by Khan. Islam spread in a number of ways in Indonesia, but rarely by direct military action. Contrary to the kind of popular opinion Khan seems to embrace, when military action was involved, the goals included land, power and control of resources, but it was hardly ever about religious conversion.
Khan also works the cliché about Muslims having more progeny because Muslim men can have more than one wife, while ignoring the fact that polygamy was also being practiced in other countries, like Vietnam, and the Javanese themselves were already polygamous before converting to Islam.
Khan assumes a lot of things - for example, that extreme coercion was used in Southeast Asia because the people of Southeast Asia and the Philippines converted to Islam more completely and in a shorter time than in India. But he never seems to have entertained the notion that the Muslim religion might have actually had a few attractions for the locals. Don't even ask about the Chinese Muslim explorer, Zheng He, and the Chinese Muslims who built what is possibly the oldest mosque in Java. Our boy, Khan briefly mentions them in passing, but there is no evidence they staged a military conquest or mass forced conversion of the Javanese - so, they’re not very interesting - apparently.
Khan also says the animist hill people of Southeast Asia were completely wiped out (by “Islam”, presumably) but a quick visit to an Encyclopedia will inform you that the number of indigenous peoples in Sumatra, Sulawesi and Borneo is in the millions today, and many of them still practice their traditional faiths. These animist societies also exist in other parts of Indonesia, but the people of the three big islands mentioned are probably the most well known.
To call Khan a biased writer would be an understatement. He reminds me of a disappointed lover with an axe to grind. Lately, I have noticed the frequent appearance of a type of writer who seems to be peculiar to the Indian subcontinent. One member of this genre once told me to my face, that he didn’t need to study history or rely on researching facts to write about history. According to this amateur historian, one can simply use one’s intelligence to “logically” figure out history - except that one can't! No matter how clever you are, you still need a range of sources for factual information, an open mind and an ability to fact check; moreover, the actual course of documented history has often done a terrible job of following any “logical” train of reason.
There’s a lot more entertainment where the error-fest I described came from, but if you want to know about Islam in Southeast Asia and the islands of the Pacific, I recommend that you try a good encyclopedia.
The book is poorly edited (if it was edited at all) and full of spelling and grammatical errors, but worst of all, it is poorly researched, and apparently meant to affirm the writer’s prejudices about religion rather than say anything genuine about history.
Khan has been criticized for lacking references, misunderstanding references and even making references up. Here’s one example: according to Khan, Jesus, in the book of Matthew 18:25, advised people in debt to sell themselves along with their family members into slavery to pay up. I am sure that anyone who even has a nodding acquaintance with the New Testament can tell you Jesus never gave any such advice. Matthew 18: 25- 35 actually contains one of the Parables Jesus used for teaching the values of forgiveness, but I must thank Khan for giving us a perfect example of what can happen when you quote a single line out of context from the Bible in the same way people often do from the Quran.
It does not surprise me that Khan didn’t understand a Biblical passage. His many English language errors suggest his English comprehension skills may already be less than stellar.
This yet another “sensational book" by a disgruntled ex-Muslim, but in this case, the writer is creative enough to even concoct his own version of history. I will use his ideas about the history of the spread of Islam in Indonesia as an example.
Now let’s see what he has to say about Indonesia - a country he has apparently never even taken the trouble to look up in a world atlas.
Khan begins by stating that there were three powerful kingdoms In Southeast Asia during the 13th to 15th centuries. In fact, there were a lot more than just three in the regions he specified. Vietnam, for example, had become one of the world's first gunpowder empires, and there were around 23 independent kingdoms on the Southeast Asian mainland at that time, including two major kingdoms in Myanmar (Pegu and Ava).
Meanwhile, Khan holds forth about a king named Parameswara, whom he colourfully described as a Hindu emperor who was tricked into becoming a Muslim emperor of the Srivijaya empire, for the love of a beautiful slave girl.
This is an entertaining story, but it has a few problems. The Srivijaya empire had been in slow decline since the 10th century. By the 13th century, the time of Khan’s narrative, it was pretty much gone, having been commercially superseded by the Javanese and under constant attack from Siam, in the north, and the Javanese Singosari and Mahapahit empires to the south. There is also some doubt among historians that Parameswara ever converted to Islam, sexy slave or not. Certainly he wasn’t a Srivijaya king, as Khan stated, since the Srivijaya period ended in 1300 and Parameswara was born in 1344. Also contrary to Khan's assertion, the “Hindu Empire” of Srivijaya was probably as much Buddhist as Hindu, and included a number of indigenous religions as well. The same thing was true of many areas in the archipelago at that time.
Khan said that Parameswara, converted and transformed the “Hindu Empire” of Srivijaya into the Sultanate of Malacca in 1410, but by 1410, the Srivijaya empire was long gone. Parameswara was the king of Singapura (location of present day Singapore) and founded Malacca (Melaka) in the early 15th century.
Khan’s geographical and historical bongers include his statement that the island of Borneo was turned into a Sultanate. He really seems to have no idea of land masses involved in the places he is talking about. At an area of 743,330 sq km, Borneo is more like a small continent than just an island, and it has never been a single, united anything - ever. Nor has Borneo ever been part of the Sultanate of Melaka. Melaka's influence did not extend beyond Sumatra and the Malay Peninsula. Am I going insane or did Khan really describe the Malay peninsula as the principal island of Malaysia? Where does one even begin? The name, “Malaysia” did not exist until the 20th century and even on its best day, a peninsula cannot be an island.
And by the way, the Srivijaya empire was not centered in Malaysia but in the areas now known as Jambi and Palembang on the island of Sumatra in what is now Indonesia - just another of Khan’s errors, but who cares about facts when you've got a point to make, right?
The Mahapahit empire: was, indeed, brought down by Muslims, but not invading Muslims from Malacca, as per Khan. The Muslims who brought down the Majapahit empire were from Java, specifically the Demak Sultanate in Java, where the Majapahit empire was also centered, and not by some marauding, fanatical outside force, Hell-bent on forcibly converting the Islanders.
The Demak empire, founded by a regional Majapahit governor, who had married a Majapahit princess, was as Javanese as the Majapahit culture itself. The situation was more like a civil war than the foreign invasion Khan seems to have imagined.
This isn't the only time a war involving Muslims in Southeast Asia has been erroneously referred to as a kind of religious invasion or “holy war” by Khan. Islam spread in a number of ways in Indonesia, but rarely by direct military action. Contrary to the kind of popular opinion Khan seems to embrace, when military action was involved, the goals included land, power and control of resources, but it was hardly ever about religious conversion.
Khan also works the cliché about Muslims having more progeny because Muslim men can have more than one wife, while ignoring the fact that polygamy was also being practiced in other countries, like Vietnam, and the Javanese themselves were already polygamous before converting to Islam.
Khan assumes a lot of things - for example, that extreme coercion was used in Southeast Asia because the people of Southeast Asia and the Philippines converted to Islam more completely and in a shorter time than in India. But he never seems to have entertained the notion that the Muslim religion might have actually had a few attractions for the locals. Don't even ask about the Chinese Muslim explorer, Zheng He, and the Chinese Muslims who built what is possibly the oldest mosque in Java. Our boy, Khan briefly mentions them in passing, but there is no evidence they staged a military conquest or mass forced conversion of the Javanese - so, they’re not very interesting - apparently.
Khan also says the animist hill people of Southeast Asia were completely wiped out (by “Islam”, presumably) but a quick visit to an Encyclopedia will inform you that the number of indigenous peoples in Sumatra, Sulawesi and Borneo is in the millions today, and many of them still practice their traditional faiths. These animist societies also exist in other parts of Indonesia, but the people of the three big islands mentioned are probably the most well known.
To call Khan a biased writer would be an understatement. He reminds me of a disappointed lover with an axe to grind. Lately, I have noticed the frequent appearance of a type of writer who seems to be peculiar to the Indian subcontinent. One member of this genre once told me to my face, that he didn’t need to study history or rely on researching facts to write about history. According to this amateur historian, one can simply use one’s intelligence to “logically” figure out history - except that one can't! No matter how clever you are, you still need a range of sources for factual information, an open mind and an ability to fact check; moreover, the actual course of documented history has often done a terrible job of following any “logical” train of reason.
There’s a lot more entertainment where the error-fest I described came from, but if you want to know about Islam in Southeast Asia and the islands of the Pacific, I recommend that you try a good encyclopedia.
March 22, 2025
A bible of falsehood.
November 15, 2021
Even if there is some element of truth in
Islamic Jihad: A Legacy of Forced Conversion, Imperialism, and Slavery
, its authority is questionable because its author, M.A. Khan, is already biased because he left Islam (not religion). He believes that Islam is based on forced conversion, imperialism, and slavery: the primary demands of Jihad, commanded by the Islamic God Allah.
In this book, Khan demonstrates that Prophet Muhammad meticulously followed these misguided principles and established the ideal template of Islamic Jihad for his future followers to pursue, and that Muslims have been perpetuating the cardinal principles of Jihad ever since. On this one, I agree.
For years, Jihad has been the way to win converts to Islam since its birth fourteen centuries ago, and it won't change anytime soon. This is because, in Islamic belief, Muslims who live their life as perfectly as that of Prophet Muhammad will enter Paradise without ever serving any time in hell. But it is almost impossible for a Muslim to emulate Muhammad’s sinless life. Therefore, most Muslims will first serve some period of time, being roasted in the horrifying fire of Islamic hell. The length of their residence in hell will be determined by the quantum of sins they commit in this life. They will, thereafter, enter Paradise to live there for eternity.
The only other group of Muslims who will enter Paradise, bypassing the roasting in hellfire, are those who would die as martyrs while fighting in the cause of Allah, e.g, while engaging in Jihad or holy war [Quran 9:111]. Therefore, those hundreds of Muslims, who died while fighting in the wars
commanded and/or directed by Prophet Muhammad in his lifetime as well as those hundreds of thousands, who died in Islamic holy wars over the subsequent centuries and those dying at present and will die in future, will directly land in the Islamic Paradise. Other Muslims, who die a normal death, will have to wait until the Judgement Day after the end of the world for Allah to judge how much time they will have to spend in hell before they can enter Paradise.
This is quite a theological approach to conversion, and this has given rise to the dastard mujaheddin who have killed, and will continue to kill, in the misguided hope that they are preparing for their time in paradise.
On a greater scale, even if the author has beef to pick with his former religionists, the book is largely true. There are elements of extremism that Islam propagates, but we have to be cognisant of the fact that not all Muslims are extremists, as it is with any religion.
Well, it it mostly twisted to fit psychopath's whims, you will need to stand by yourself and make your own decisions and choices regarding religiosity in general.
In this book, Khan demonstrates that Prophet Muhammad meticulously followed these misguided principles and established the ideal template of Islamic Jihad for his future followers to pursue, and that Muslims have been perpetuating the cardinal principles of Jihad ever since. On this one, I agree.
For years, Jihad has been the way to win converts to Islam since its birth fourteen centuries ago, and it won't change anytime soon. This is because, in Islamic belief, Muslims who live their life as perfectly as that of Prophet Muhammad will enter Paradise without ever serving any time in hell. But it is almost impossible for a Muslim to emulate Muhammad’s sinless life. Therefore, most Muslims will first serve some period of time, being roasted in the horrifying fire of Islamic hell. The length of their residence in hell will be determined by the quantum of sins they commit in this life. They will, thereafter, enter Paradise to live there for eternity.
The only other group of Muslims who will enter Paradise, bypassing the roasting in hellfire, are those who would die as martyrs while fighting in the cause of Allah, e.g, while engaging in Jihad or holy war [Quran 9:111]. Therefore, those hundreds of Muslims, who died while fighting in the wars
commanded and/or directed by Prophet Muhammad in his lifetime as well as those hundreds of thousands, who died in Islamic holy wars over the subsequent centuries and those dying at present and will die in future, will directly land in the Islamic Paradise. Other Muslims, who die a normal death, will have to wait until the Judgement Day after the end of the world for Allah to judge how much time they will have to spend in hell before they can enter Paradise.
This is quite a theological approach to conversion, and this has given rise to the dastard mujaheddin who have killed, and will continue to kill, in the misguided hope that they are preparing for their time in paradise.
On a greater scale, even if the author has beef to pick with his former religionists, the book is largely true. There are elements of extremism that Islam propagates, but we have to be cognisant of the fact that not all Muslims are extremists, as it is with any religion.
Well, it it mostly twisted to fit psychopath's whims, you will need to stand by yourself and make your own decisions and choices regarding religiosity in general.
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