ISLAM AND JIHAD 233non-Muslims. The Islamic concept of permanent war in the Dar ul-Harb
(Land of War) and the inferiority of the conqueredharbisconstituted the
three interdependent and inseparable principles underlying the expansion
and political domination of Islam.
In summary, the Islamic perspective divides the world into two
classes—Muslims and others. Only Islam is valued. In some enlightened
Muslim societies this was not the rule, but those were exceptions. The
general statement is true. The Koran established the jihad to defend and
expand Islam. Muhammad divided the world and its people into two parts,
Dar ul-Islam, the Land of Islam, where the edicts of Islam are fully pro-
mulgated and the Dar ul-Harb, the Land of War, where Islam is yet to
take power. The Koran established the jihad as the duty of every Muslim
male and identifies eternal damnation for those that fail to participate. The
jihad is targeted specifically at non-Muslims. The Koran repeatedly states
that the afterlife of nonbelievers is a horror in the flames of hell and
mandates that Muslim warriors convert nonbelievers or send them to their
horrible fate. This process has historically seen the deliberate murder of
prisoners to establish a reign of terror that will ensure the docility of the
survivors.
Islam does not exempt from this terror those who have submitted to
Muslim rule but not accepted Islam. Those people, thedhimmis,accept a
tenuous existence. The history of the Islamic world is filled withdhimmis
who suddenly found themselves subject to slaughter and reduction to slav-
ery, a fate that they absolutely would have escaped if they had been
Muslim.
In order to fully understand the concept of the jihad it is necessary to
draw together some of the cultural threads discussed in Chapter 1. In that
chapter we discussed briefly the Arab cultural predisposition toward the
vendetta or blood feud. We spoke of how, in some instances, it had become
ritualized as a regularly scheduled combat, even though the initial reason
for this feud had long since vanished.
Earlier in this chapter we also spoke about Surah IV, 93–94, which
forbade Muslims to deliberately kill other Muslims. Muhammad at-
tempted to use this Surah to control the natural tendency of the Arab
people to the vendetta.
In contrast, Muhammad sought not only to redirect the jihad away from
an internally destructive process in order to preserve Islam, but to harness
it as a tool for the expansion of Islam. By providing divine sanction for
warfare under specific circumstances, Muhammad provided an acceptable
outlet for the naturally combative nature of the Arab people. He allowed
the urge to vent in a manner nondestructive to Islam.