Kufa, Basra, Misr [Egypt] do they not have to be covered with troops who
mustbe well paid?"'
Why did thes e areas have to be "cov ered with " troo ps, if the inha bi-
tants welcome d the invade rs and livedwith them in friend ship?•
PCMyth: Early jihad warriors were merely defending
Muslim lands from their non-Muslim neighbors
The Muslim armies swept quickly over huge regions that had never threat-
ened them—and probably hadn't even heard of them until theinvaders
arrived. Around the same time Egypt, the Middle East. and Armenia were
fallingto the Muslims, Europe was not exempt: Other Muslim forces car-
riedout raids on Cyprus, Rhodes, Crete, and Sicily. They carried off booty
andthousands of slaves. These were but preludes to the first great Muslim
sieges of what was then the grandest city of Eastern Christendom and
of the greatest in the world: Constantinople. Muslim armies laid siege
in 668 (and for several years thereafter)
in717. Both sieges failed, but they made
abundantly clear that the House of Islam
was continuing its policy of bloody
imperialismtoward Christendom.
Musl im warr iors did all this in
obedi enceto the commands of their god
and his Proph e t. O n e M u s l i m
l e a d e r o f t h a t e r a p u t it this
way: "The Great God says in the Koran:
' 0 t r u e b e l i e v e r s , w h e n
y o u e ncounterthe unbelievers, strike
off theirheads.'
Theabove commandof the GreatGod is a great command and must be respected
and followed.' He was referring, of course, to the Qur'an: "'When you meet the
unbelievers in thebattlefield, strike off their heads and, when you have laid them
low, bindthecaptives firmly" (47:4).
Muhammadvs.
JesusAll who take the sword will
perish by the swordJe su s (M at th ew 26 52 )
"Know that Paradise is under the shades of
swords{Jihadin Allah's cause)."