Robert Spencer

Islamic jihadists have always insisted that they’re fighting a religious war, while the entire intelligentsia of the Western world has lined up to insist that they aren’t, and are actually fighting for quite different motives: economic deprivation, racism, a quest for personal glory, a lack of opportunity, and the like. But now honest analysis of the religious motivation of jihad terrorism has gotten a boost from the unlikeliest of sources: Pope Francis.

 

On Monday, Muslims murdered 30 Christians who were riding in a bus to a monastery, and in speaking to pilgrims in St. Peter’s Square, Francis said: “The victims, amongst which were also children, were killed after having refused to renounce their Christian faith.” He called the victims “these courageous witnesses, these martyrs,” and asked God to “convert the hearts of the terrorists.”

 

The idea that Muslims must first invite non-Muslims to convert to Islam and then only kill them if they refuse is not a twisted, hijacked version of Islam; on the contrary, it is based upon Muhammad’s instructions as recorded in a canonical hadith. Muhammad is depicted as saying: “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. 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)

 

Francis did not, of course, refer to the Islamic idea that one must first invite unbelievers to accept Islam or dhimmitude and then go to war with them if they refuse. Nor did he even name the religion that the killers wanted their victims to embrace once they renounced Christianity.

 

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