http://www.nobeliefs.com/terrorism.htm
The Koran and Holy War (Jihad)
According to legend, in 623 C.E., Muhammad, the founder of Islam, gathered a group of about three hundred followers and led them in a mounted attack against a caravan guarded by almost a thousand men in a place called Badr. In the battle of Badr, Muhammad lost only fourteen men in his first decisive military victory. He had no trouble from then on in recruiting future converts to join him. After two more years of fighting, Muhammad assembled an army of ten thousand strong, an army that fought for God and His prophet. They took Mecca with no trouble. Thus Mecca (also the birthplace of Muhammad) became the holiest place in all Islam. In 630 C.E., Muhammad went to Medina where he concentrated on setting down his revelations for the last remaining years of his life. His revelations came known as the Koran (Quran), a book of God’s commands as to belief, prayer, conduct and matters of law. When Muhammad died in 632 his friend and father-in-law, Abu Bekr, became the leader of Islam and the first caliph, or “successor,” but a rift in the movement began as members started to drift away after realizing that there lived no Prophet to authorize their military actions. Abu Bekr selected a younger more vigorous man for the task, a skilled fighter named Khalid ibn-al-Walid, whose string of victories for the faith earned him the tittle of “Sword of Allah.” Khalid swiftly defeated all of the enemies of Islam in Arabia in the first jihad, or War for the Faith. [Robinson] Thus Islam began, just as did orthodox Christianity, with violence and holy terror. The Koran has served as the guide and justification for violent acts against infidels and oppressors ever since.
[Note, in 1998 when the U.S. sent cruise missiles in an attempt to destroy Osama bin Laden, two of the terrorist camps went by the name of the Al Badr camp and the Khalid bin Walid camp.]The concept of Holy War or Jihad comes right from of the heart of extremist Muslims who base their beliefs on the Koran. The idea of receiving rewards in heaven for those who kill an enemy of God comes from a legend of a Shiite leader, Hassan-Ben-Sabah, of the sect at Alamut (Alamut served as a fortress in Persia less than ten years before the First crusade) who had a private garden of infinite beauty, with the sparkling fountains so precious to the desert dweller and a selection of the most beautiful and most sexually accomplished young women in the land. A young member of the sect received hashish to numb his mind to the point of unconsciousness. When he awoke, he found himself in the fabled garden, where the young women fed him morsels of the most delicious foods. They treated him to every sexual delight he had ever heard of, and to some that he had never imagined. When he awoke the next morning to his usual surroundings he recounted his adventure. Someone told him that he had received a gift from Allah by allowing him a glimpse of the highest level of heaven reserved for those martyrs who die for their faith. The delights he had experienced so briefly would happen to him through all eternity if he met the test for his faith. Now he begged for nothing more in the world than to die in the service of Allah. In answer to his plea, he received intense training to kill an enemy of God, identified by his leader, a grand master. His training included the techniques of the dagger, where and how to strike and how to circumvent armor (sound familiar?). Thus he would earn eternal bliss in paradise for his suicide mission. Based on their alleged use of hashish to trick young followers, the sect became known as the Hashshashin. This proved a difficult world for the Crusaders to pronounce so they took the closest Church Latin term, Assassini which later evolved into the English form, Assassins. [Robinson]
A long dispute over the succession after Muhammad’s death continues to split the Muslim world into Shiites, who make up about 10 percent of Muslims, and the majority of Sunnis. Shiites believe Ali, the prophet’s son-in-law, served as Muhammad’s rightful heir; Sunnis believe Abu Bakr as the successor. Most of the Arab world thinks of themselves as Sunni (as in Afghanistan), while most Iran Muslims consider themselves Shiite.
Today, extremist Islamic terrorist organizations have formed “cells” in many countries throughout the world and they come from both Sunni and Shiite factions. All these groups traditionally share a fundamentalist Islamic ideology which espouses holy war against oppressors and disbelievers who fight against Islam. The Islamic Jihad recruits young men by means of religious indoctrination, and bases its terror strategy on the willingness of these young people to lay down their lives for what they see as a divine command. They sincerely believe that their god will reward them in heaven. They perform these suicides, not out of forced coercion, but from their own will and faith in God.
The belief in the Koran with the concept of Jihad serves as just one example for the justification of terrorist attacks. Their religious beliefs point to the root cause of terrorism. Unfortunately, our political leaders either don’t understand this or refuse to acknowledge this very simple fact because to acknowledge belief as a root cause hits at their own faith
and religious justification.
In spite of the many Islamic leaders who today claim that suicide and Holy War goes against the “essence” of Islam of “true” Islam (disregarding its historical roots), there occurs many ideas expressed in the Koran that provide all the justification necessary for a believer to carry out such atrocities.Below serve as just a few sample verses from one of the more benign translated versions of the Koran:
[2.191] And kill them wherever you find them, and drive them out from whence they drove you out, and persecution is severer than slaughter, and do not fight with them at the Sacred Mosque until they fight with you in it, but if they do fight you, then slay them; such is the recompense of the unbelievers.
[4.74] Therefore let those fight in the way of Allah, who sell this world’s life for the hereafter; and whoever fights in the way of Allah, then be he slain or be he victorious, We shall grant him a mighty reward.
[6.162] Say. Surely my prayer and my sacrifice and my life and my death are (all) for Allah, the Lord of the worlds.
[7.41] They shall have a bed of hell-fire and from above them coverings (of it); and thus do We reward the unjust.
[9.14] Fight them, Allah will punish them by your hands and bring them to disgrace, and assist you against them and heal the hearts of a believing people.
[16.31] The gardens of perpetuity, they shall enter them, rivers flowing beneath them; they shall have in them what they please. Thus does Allah reward those who guard (against evil)…
[16.41] And those who fly for Allah’s sake after they are oppressed, We will most certainly give them a good abode in the world, and the reward of the hereafter is certainly much greater, did they but know;
[22.39] Permission (to fight) is given to those upon whom war is made because they are oppressed, and most surely Allah is well able to assist them;
[40.35] Those who dispute concerning the communications of Allah without any authority that He has given them; greatly hated is it by Allah and by-those who believe. Thus does Allah set a seal over the heart of every proud, haughty one.
[52.42] Or do they desire a war? But those who disbelieve shall be the vanquished ones in war
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