The Legacy of Jihad: Islamic Holy War and the Fate of Non-Muslims

Andrew Bostom's The Legacy of Jihad is a priceless foundational source for any American who is wondering why Muslims so often visit terrible violence upon non-Muslims. The answer to the question is found within the doctrines of Islam. The author has meticulously assembled and arranged for translation of a vast array of historical and eye-witness accounts of the three great waves of jihad. His presentation leaves no doubt that Islam's history and ongoing adherence to doctrinal violence against non-Muslims poses a very real, imminent threat to the survival of Western Civilization.Included in this hair-raising expose' are narratives written by witnesses to, and victims of, the Muslim holy wars, which have been responsible for the deaths of more human beings than any other ideology in the history of the world. When one takes into account the mass exterminations by Stalin, Hitler and Mao Tse Tung, that fact takes on sinister significance.The Legacy of Jihad's accounts of the horrors suffered by the conquered and the vanquished are graphic and, yes, shocking.While following Dr. Bostom's no-holds-barred journey through the centuries of terror, the reader cannot help but come to a disturbingly deeper understanding of the true meaning of the term "jihad". Jihad is an unthinkably violent and destructive institution of Islam.Andrew Bostom was thorough in his investigation, providing us a road map through centuries of war, arson, rape, repression, slavery and brutal cruelty, from Muhammad's lifetime to the present-day. The author prosecutes his case relentlessly and honestly, using the devastating evidence left to us by jihad's history.The Legacy of Jihad was a key resource for me, providing legal and historical bases for my third novel, A Summons To Perdition.Dr. Bostom has given us a most valuable gift, which we should put to good use in educating ourselves to what we are really up against in this World War. I highly recommend The Legacy of Jihad. A national understanding of the issue at hand will be necessary if we are to continue living as a free people. And should our civilization manage to survive the relentless onslaught of Islamic jihad, our descendants will owe a debt of gratitude to men such as Andrew G. Bostom.

This book is a very comprehensive treatment of the unique Islamic phenomena of Jihad (often called the 6th pillar of Islam). The book is very heavily footnoted and will be a guide for scholars for many years.It is clear that although there is a personal dimension to Jihad, the portion emphasizing violent raiding, war, and subjection of other people has been a major activity of Muslims since the 620's and continues today. Any description of Islam as the religion of peace only refers to relations between Muslims. (Even there it has seldom been peaceful). As for a Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Hindus, Zoroastrians, and any other "non-believers" it has been an unending source of forced conversion, murder, rape, genocide, and slavery.Even before an areas occupation and rule by Muslims, raids for booty and slaves might be an annual occurrence. In the area of Afghanistan-Pakistan-India these raids depopulated areas, destroyed the culture, and impoverished the survivors for a period of 500 years. The Muslins then took over and governed much of the area for another 500 years. The intense hate between Hindus and Muslims has very long roots and ample justification.The area now dominated by Islam was once over 90% Christian and Zoroastrian, now these two faiths comprise about 1% of the population in that area. How did that happen? Bostom and the other authors provide the answer and it sure wasn't preaching, convincing and converting.In addition to major sections by Bostom there are sections by 20 other major contributors and historical writings by a number of Muslim writers making up 40 separate sections. A number of items are translated into English for the first time in this book.I heartily recommend this book to anyone who has any doubts about the motivations of the Islamic Jihadists we now face.It is apparent that the usual descriptions of the Western Crusades into the Holy land as violent, cruel and bloody may be accurate, but they were of such trivial magnitude as to be described as mere pinpricks against the long tide of bloody conquest and enslavement that has been Islamic Jihad.It took me at least 4 times as long to read as the usual non-fiction, but I consider it to be one of the most essential in the long list of books one must read to become familiar with Islam.

Some people hate this book, some love it. I like it alot and here is why: it explains the Jiahd as explained by the traditions of Islam, using it's own stated rules and texts. It presents the writtings to the reader of the Qur'an and Haddith and explains why and how the Jihadists of old and new do what they do and how they justify it. Unlike the apologetics on TV this isnt a smokescreen, it uses the actual sources as refferences and it is current up to the present. Not only does the author use the source materials ranging as far back as the birth of Islam, but it sues speeches from today's exponents in the lands of Dar Al Islam. if you are interested in knowing where the Jiahd comes from then this is necessary reading. This should be on the news given todays climate as it sheds alot of lioght on a for some reason taboo subject.

This is a wonderful book. Dr. Bostom's scholarship is impeccable.This book provides a clear and honest picture of Islam and Jihad over the course of history. And in learning that history we can learn our future if we do not resist the spread of Islam. As they say, "Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it".There is a reason why the mainstream media and Islamic Supremacists are working so hard to whitewash Islam an Jihad, and to hide the recorded history of Islam... they know that if we non-Muslims do not learn the truth, then we will not resist Jihad.We non-Muslims can no longer afford to be ignorant of Islam, or of history, and this book goes a long way towards dispelling that ignorance.

This is not a book for the faint-hearted. Firstly, it is a whopping tome - that alone may put some potential readers off. Secondly, Bostom's attention to detail is second to none - the huge body of references and authorities he has drawn upon is testimony to the exacting thoroughness of this work.The further one gets into this book, the more serious are the questions it raises in respect of the present intellectual vacuum which appears to underpin the way in which the West is responding to Islam. It becomes crystal-clear that the majority of advances achieved by Islam, from modest beginnings, were on the basis of violent aggression. Why does this understanding not influence the current use of terms such as 'peaceful' or 'moderate' Islam? It is clear that the genocidal outrages perpetrated by the Ottoman empire, or the Berbers, or other arab groups owed their raison d'etre to their Islamic belief-system. To listen to woolly Western pundits one might conclude that these barbaric acts were entirely independent of the cohesive belief-system provided by Islam.The book raises all sorts of present-day challenges, out of its review of the past. Would it interest readers to know that the enforced wearing of yellow badges to identify Jews predates the Nazi's by centuries? This fact alone might help us understand why hard-line Islamists now deny the holocaust. What was the classic mistake, identified by many earlier historians, evident in the approach adopted towards Islam by Western powers? A failure to accept the implacable nature of Mohammed's belief system in relation to the 'infidel'. What about the status of 'Dhimmis' within societies where the Muslims are in a majority - historically, and today in various parts of the world? What about the present-day Islamic claims for the superiority and significance of their culture, architecture, science? As you read the book, you realise that all previously existing cultures were simply regarded as grist to the Islamic mill, which left devastation in its wake as it conquered an unsuspecting and largely peaceful world during the first and second caliphates.If ever there was a book where history impacts directly on our understanding of the present, this is it. Buy it, read it, ask for it in your local libraries.

Having recently read Paul Fregosi's excellent book on this subject entitled "Jihad in the West; Muslim Conquests from the 7th to the 21st Centuries", I resolved to investigate this subject further and this study did not disappoint me in it's depth and encyclopaedic content.Spanning over 700 pages, the amount of detail provided here is breathtaking and the references are innumerable but the text is commendably readable.As with Fregosi's work, the writer also strives to provide an objective analysis wherever possible without attacking the fundamental aspects of the Islamic religion - instead attempting to concentrate on the context of it's implications & relationship to the furtherance of Jihad itself.However, this extensive study includes essays and commentary from many learned scholars of Jihad, and it's early claim to provide comprehensive and meticulously documented research soon becomes substantiated as the reader is confronted with realms of evidence and eyewitness accounts, amid an abundance of Muslim theological and judicial texts etc..Among eight different parts, separate sections are also provided giving direct reference to Jihad in both the Koran and the Hadith, together with an appropriate exegesis by what are cited as the greatest classical and modern commentators, that dispel the argument that Jihad has only been justified by an alleged misinterpretation.The book begins by providing the reader with the context surrounding the cover illustration which depicts events surrounding the surrender of the Jewish Qurayzah tribe to Muhammad and it's alleged treatment at the hands of the Islamic Prophet.The text describes how the Jewish tribe were purported to have aided the forces of Muhammad's enemies and how they were subsequently isolated and besieged. The study proceeds to cite how all pleas for mercy, were rejected and how the Jewish tribe were henceforth delivered for judgment in Medina.The ensuing judgment described as resulting in some six to nine hundred Jewish men purportedly being beheaded in front of Muhammad and their decapitated bodies buried in already excavated trenches.Further context being provided as to how the young Jewish males, women and children were allegedly sold into slavery and their property and land confiscated. Muhammad himself is also cited as having taken a Jewish captive for his wife. Conversely the book illustrates how the Jewish tribe of the Qurayzah ceased to exist.The book then proceeds to examine the worldwide impact of a multitude of named Jihad campaigns over 1300 years against non-Muslims which the book declares were characterised by massacre, enslavement and pillage, whereby the reader is confronted with how such military conquests have subdued millions of indigenous peoples and the expropriation of vast expanses of land.One notable historical example described in the text is that of the massacre of the Armenians by the Ottoman Turks. The extent of the indiscriminate slaughter described in the text is disturbing with the perpetrators cited as allegedly respecting no surrender, bayoneting the men to death, raping the women and dashing their children against the rocks (page 667).The exhaustive study also reveals how the teaching of Jihad ultimately determines the relations of Muslims & non-Muslims in the present day.The reader is frequently confronted with a concern that many governments and religious bodies in the present day, are allegedly prepared to ignore what is cited as voluminous but inconvenient historical data in order towhitewash the realities of Jihad wars, with a view to purportedly explaining away the warlike expeditions and conquests of Islam as "defensive wars" in order to interpret Jihad as merely a "bloodless striving to spread the Islamic religion".The writer stressing the significance of how historians in free countries have a moral and professional obligation to provide the veracity underlying such issues, and pleading that these individuals should not submit to what is called any voluntary censorship in the face of those in authority who would expediently wish to falsify the record of the past and to re-write history as they would wish it to have been. (Page 22)Fears being expressed in the text that by so doing, a distorted, revisionist history may arise which could be purportedly used as a tool of propaganda by many governments and religious bodies who would readily avail themselves of to suit their own agendas by suppressing the truth .Political leaders and the media in general are described as being worried about the public's perception of Islam and subsequently are cited as usually only being prepared to invite the opinions of those who believe in what is cited as the ‘myth' of Islamic tolerance. Many such entities are described as, for various reasons, also wishing to play down the history of the dhimmi (non Muslims living under subjugation under Islamic rule).The revelations provided in this book pertaining to Jihad and militant Islam are both eye-opening and disturbing at times and undoubtedly will be seen by many readers as controversial and contentious. Having said that I personally consider that the book definitely needs to be read and will be a welcome addition and essential reference to anyone with an interest in the Middle East conflict and how Islam is perceived at this time within the world's current landscape.

Excellent unbiased historical document with authentic references

Excellent