Monday, March 02, 2009

First the Call, Then the Slaughter

The Siege of Vienna

The Arabic word da’wa is variously translated as “call”, “summons”, or “invitation”. In most modern contexts it refers to Islamic outreach or proselytizing, what a Christian might call “mission work”.

But it has another meaning, one which most Muslims would rather not discuss. Da’wa also describes the call to an infidel enemy to surrender, to submit to Allah.

On July 14, 1683, Grand Vizier Kara Mustafa sent a call for surrender to the Vienna garrison and the city authorities. According to John Stoye, in The Siege of Vienna, pp 95-96:

Kara Mustafa sent a summons to surrender, framed in accordance with the customary Ottoman demand on such an occasion. A Turkish officer rode up to the counterscarp with a document, handed it to a Croat soldier, and awaited a reply. “Accept Islam, and live in peace under the Sultan! Or deliver up the fortress, and live in peace under the Sultan as Christians; and if any man prefer, let him depart peaceably, taking his goods with him! But if you resist, then death or spoliation or slavery shall be the fate of you all!” Such, embroidered in rhetorical language, was the message. But [commander Ernest Rüdiger von] Starhemberg curtly dismissed the messenger and continued to wall up the gates. Kara Mustafa, says the Master of Ceremonies, bade the guns speak.

[Stoye’s reference note for this passage indicates that his account is based on G. Jakob, “Türkische Urkunden”, from Der Islam, vii. (1917), pp. 269-87. For those who can read German, the full text is probably available there.]

When the Grand Vizier issued his da’wa and promised the citizens of Vienna that they would “live in peace”, he meant the peace of submission, al-salâm, which is the peace that is promised to all Muslims. If the burghers of the city had chosen that route, there would have been some kind of ceremony in which they would have recited the shahada, touched their foreheads to the ground while facing Mecca, and thus declared their submission to the will of Allah.

From then on they would have been Muslims of the Ummah, and would have enjoyed all the rights and prerogatives enjoyed by other Muslims under shari’a — as well as the death penalty for any apostasy from their new faith.

The second possibility for “peace” would be to submit to the rule of their Muslim overlords whilst remaining Christians.
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As dhimmis, their rights would be severely circumscribed, and they would have to pay a tax, the jizyah, simply for the privilege of remaining alive as an infidel. They would be second-class citizens, subject to abuse (and possible sudden death) at the hands of their Muslim neighbors, and forced to wear certain clothing and suffer other humiliating restrictions.

Polish Winged HussarTheir third alternative was to do battle with the hosts of Mohammed until they were killed or enslaved.

Kara Mustafa neglected to present the fourth alternative, which was the one that the Viennese actually chose: the city resisted the Turks, held out under siege for two months, and with the help of King Jan III Sobieski of Poland defeated the Ottoman forces. After thus humiliating his sultan, Kara Mustafa was garroted — not quite the outcome he expected.

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In today’s context, da’wa as a call to surrender can be seen in masked form under various circumstances. Osama bin Laden has issued his da’wa several times to the nations of the West, calling for our leaders to convert to Islam in order to avoid a terrible fate. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has done the same thing.

For those who understand Islamic scripture and traditions, the meaning of such da’wa is clear: these Muslim leaders are planning violent jihad against the infidels of the West. Before launching a holy war against non-Muslims, the Koran requires its adherents to offer the unbelievers an opportunity to submit and become Muslims.

Robert Spencer points out the relevant hadith:

Fight in the name of Allah and in the way of Allah. Fight against those who disbelieve in Allah. Make a holy war… When you meet your enemies who are polytheists, invite them to three courses of action. If they respond to any one of these, you also accept it and withhold yourself from doing them any harm. Invite them to (accept) Islam; if they respond to you, accept it from them and desist from fighting against them… If they refuse to accept Islam, demand from them the Jizya [the tax on non-Muslims specified in Qur’an 9:29]. If they agree to pay, accept it from them and hold off your hands. If they refuse to pay the tax, seek Allah’s help and fight them. (Sahih Muslim 4294)

If the infidel is invited to Islam and fails to convert or become a dhimmi, then the followers of the Prophet are justified under Islamic law to use any and all means to force his submission. His life and property become forfeit, and his wife and children may be raped and enslaved.

This, then, is what the dissipated and self-indulgent burghers of the modern post-Christian West can expect.

To anyone who pays attention, the meaning is clear and unambiguous.

But who’s paying attention?

10 comments:

Homophobic Horse said...

"Accept Islam, and live in peace under the Sultan! Or deliver up the fortress, and live in peace under the Sultan as Christians; and if any man prefer, let him depart peaceably, taking his goods with him!"

Our contemporaries would choose this one and justify it with pseudo intellectual screeds.

urbanadder22 said...

Baron Bodissey, you ask, "But who’s paying attention?"

A couple of us are.

We need no majority nor even plurality.

Only here there and all about, the likes of Geert Wilders.


So each one of us must say,

The time is out of joint; O cursed spite,

That ever I was born to set it right!

Nay, come, let’s go together.

Shakespeare,
Hamlet
Act I. Scene V.

[Note: The last line tells all]

Papa Whiskey said...

Another relevant hadith is that of Bukhari (Vol. 4, Book 52, No. 191), which records a letter Muhammad sent to Heraclius, then emperor of Byzantium:

"In the name of Allah, the most Beneficent, the most Merciful (This letter is) from Muhammad, the slave of Allah, and His Apostle, to Heraculius, the Ruler of the Byzantine. Peace be upon the followers of guidance. Now then, I invite you to Islam (i.e. surrender to Allah), embrace Islam and you will be safe; embrace Islam and Allah will bestow on you a double reward. But if you reject this invitation of Islam, you shall be responsible for misguiding the peasants (i.e. your nation). O people of the Scriptures! Come to a word common to you and us and you, that we worship. None but Allah, and that we associate nothing in worship with Him; and that none of us shall take others as Lords besides Allah. Then if they turn away, say: Bear witness that we are (they who have surrendered (unto Him)." (Qur'an 3:64)

In short, "Nice little empire ya got here ... wouldn't want to see anything happen to it."

Heraclius was unresponsive, and Muhammad soon died. But the second caliph Umar invaded the Byzantine Empire, and the historian John Julius Norwich tells the tale: "After three years they had taken Damascus; after five, Jerusalem; after six, all Syria; within a decade, Egypt and Armenia; within twenty years, the Persian Empire; within thirty, Afghanistan and most of the Punjab." (A Short History of Byzantium. New York: Vintage, 1999.)

Vladtepesblog.com said...

Urbanadder Hamlet pretty much never got around to actually doing anything about it. He basically waited till it was way too late to have any effect then got himself killed and barely even made a point doing it.
For the love of Pan PLEASE pick another example.

thll said...

You ask who's paying attention - a growing number are every day. Some see things earlier than others but I think the others are catching up now.

Czechmade said...

I found this:

دعویٰ daʻwá

A دعویٰ daʻwá, in P. also daʻwī (v.n. of دعو), Invoking, praying (God); pretension, claim, demand; plaint, action at law, law- suit; charge, accusation; contention, assertion

ɱØяñιηg$ʇðя ©™ said...

My personal belief is that many western leaders has already secretly converted to islam. The only reason they're not open about it yet is because of taqyyia. Their powerbase is not yet rooted. They fear public uprisings and rebellions which could easily get out of control, even for them. Of course I cannot prove this - yet. But I wouldn't for a sec trust traitors like Blair, Brown, Sarkozy, Merkel or my own PM Dhimmifeldt. Keep your eyes and ears open. Look for an sign that these traitors are using taqyyia, kitman or any other sign that could possibly reveal them as closet muslims and wolves in sheeps clothing.

Zenster said...

For those who understand Islamic scripture and traditions, the meaning of such da’wa is clear: these Muslim leaders are planning violent jihad against the infidels of the West.

Not just planning but already engaging in a sub rosa war against the entire world. That Western leaders adamantly refuse to recognize this obvious fact is nothing short of criminal.

This treasonous inaction against Islam is a capital crime. A butcher's bill of tremendous proportions continues to mount on both sides. Left unaddressed for even another decade, this conflict will go on to consume untold millions of human lives which could otherwise be spared by a swift and decisive dismantling of the MME (Muslim Middle East).

There is no compelling reason to show the slightest respect for MME sovereignty. The region's rampant tyranny and pervasive corruption make it the epicenter of global terrorism, crimes against humanity and overwhelming abuse of human rights.

It is this absence of all redeeming qualities that makes it so imperative to begin the neutralization of such an entirely retrograde force. The MME is a drag on all civilized cultures and its inhabitants pose a constant and direct threat to this world's free people. There is no sane reason for tolerating this sort of flagrant misanthropy.

Czechmade said...

The key persons for our strategy are the ex-muslims. Until recently they did not exist in our media.

The ex-muslims show clearly some patterns, we should be able to discuss in detail.

We should ask steadily for more security measures for such people or simply pay attention, which an sich will create space for more apostasies.

Expect also some paradoxes, the muslims in the West being polarized (against us) must be more conservative than those living in their homelands.

Captain USpace said...

.
It makes life under communism seem like a picnic. For people who don't care that much about the world of their great-grandchildren's great-grandchildren (except when it comes to global-warming of course), they should cover their ass anyway. To help imagine a future life under Sharia, just expect or assume reincarnation, Then you'll want to resist Sharia. FIGHT JIHAD!

We must keep telling all our friends and families, in the doses that they can take, as we work to wake them up to the frightening reality. Eventually they will start telling their friends and families too. Word spreads.
Explore:
HaltTerrorism.com

No matter how many beheadings, stonings, or terrorist attacks there are, we must never fear, resist or mock the precious and ever peaceful Islam. Who are we to say that raping 9 year-olds is immoral? Who are we to say that stoning gays and rape victims to death is evil?

Who are we to say that killing hundreds of people every month in the name of Allah is the height of evil? That is just their culture and ideology and it MUST be respected. Morality is all relative, we must remember that.

TheReligionofPeace.com
.
absurd thought -
God of the Universe wants
all planets Islamic

Earth is one of many
in process of conversion

.
absurd thought -
God of the Universe wants
many Taliban planets

stonings and beheadings
billions served daily

.
absurd thought -
God of the Universe says
allow Islamic conquest

enjoy the dhimmi life
of second class citizens

.
absurd thought –
God of the Universe says
convert the infidels

or make them pay a tax
if they don’t want to die
.
USpace
.
All real freedom starts with freedom of speech. Without freedom of speech there can be no real freedom.
.
Film 'Fitna' Spreads Across World
.
'Fitna' Film Post in Arabic
.
Philosophy of Liberty Cartoon
.
Help Halt Terrorism Today!

:)
.