102Muslims recite the shahadah or make pilgrimage
to Mecca. Neither is it an accident that in the year
2015, horrifi c footage of infi dels and apostates being
decapitated has become a pop u lar form of por-
nography throughout the Muslim world. All these
practices, including this ghastly method of murder,
fi nd explicit support in scripture.Finding the Way ForwardNawaz Your words about history are not incorrect, but
I believe they are incomplete. My point was not
to deny or excuse the barbarity that occurred
throughout the medieval era. I am not interested
in playing the blame game by arguing about what
came fi rst, jihad or Christian conquest. Throughout
history most empires used a form of religion to
conquer and plunder. Islam evolved in part as an
imperialist cause. Aspects of it were bred of the
presumptions of late- antique imperialism. The
dream of a universal caliphate is a version of late
Roman fantasies of a universal Christian empire.
Frankly though, that’s less relevant here. I am cer-
tainly not trying to blame the West or Israel for the
rise of modern Islamism and jihadism— though it
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