Book Review: Islamic Jihad - A Legacy of Forced Conversion, Imperialism and Slavery by M. A. Khan

After recounting the ongoing, often-contradictory, debates surrounding the true nature of Jihad and what Muslims fundamentally believe about their creed in the first two chapters, Islamic Jihad: A Legacy of Forced Conversion, Imperialism and Slavery establishes, in the next, an ideal paradigm of Jihad with compelling references from the Quran (God’s words), as well as from the examples of how Prophet Muhammad had himself applied those divine commands of Jihad. With great insights and analyses, this book makes it crystal clear that the paradigmatic model of Jihad is overwhelmingly violent; and that it lies at the heart of Islam, as it says, “Violent Jihad is the heart of Islam; without it, Islam would, most likely, have died a natural death in the seventh century itself” (p. 79).

It clearly identifies, in this ideal model of Jihad, three major strands of Jihadi actions, namely forced conversion, imperialism and slavery — all of which are commanded by God and practiced by Prophet Muhammad. In accordance with the Muslim belief that the command of the Quran and actions of Prophet Muhammad are eternal in nature, it goes on to demonstrate in subsequent chapters (4–7) with compelling historical documentation that, those commands of Jihad were perpetuated by later Muslim holy warriors and rulers; and that this practice continues to this day, although in severely suppressed forms in Muslim societies.

In these latter chapters, the book first gives clear outlines of the Quranic commands of forced conversion, imperialism and slavery and their ideal models set by Prophet Muhammad. Thereafter, each chapter goes on to anecdote extensive historical examples of these practices exercised by Muslim invaders and rulers over the centuries. The tales recounted in these chapters entail mindless brutality perpetrated, in the name of Jihad, by Muslim invaders, which involved mass-slaughter of the vanquished, their mass-conversion at the point of the sword, the enslavement of mainly women and children in mind-boggling numbers, and the imposition of brutal imperial rule involving crushing economic exploitations and horrible persecution of non-Muslim subjects.

The chapter on Islamic imperialism also recounts how Muslim invaders have deliberately destroyed rich cultural heritage of many great civilizations of the pre-Islamic days as their God-ordained duty that “the vestiges of the pre-Islamic jahiliyah age must be replaced by the perfect religious, political and cultural civilization of Islam” (p. 164). The practice continues today, such as the destruction of Bamyan Buddha statues by the Taliban and attacks on similar structures of pre-Islamic heritage by fundamentalist Muslims in many Islamic countries.

Article Author: Muhammad Hussain

Muhammad Hussain is a researcher of Islam and a freelance writer.

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