A Review of “The History of Jihad” by Robert Spencer. By Bill Muehlenberg.

Robert Spencer is a leading authority on Islam and the challenges and risks it poses to the free West — and the rest of the world. He has written numerous important volumes on Islam, creeping sharia, and Muslim terrorism. In his newest book he offers us a panoramic view of 14 centuries of Islamic bloodshed and killing. As he says in the introduction to his book:

There is no period since the beginning of Islam that was characterized by large-scale peaceful coexistence between Muslims and non-Muslims. There was no time when mainstream and dominant Islamic authorities taught the equality of non-Muslims with Muslims, or the obsolescence of jihad warfare. There was no Era of Good Feeling, no Golden Age of Tolerance, no Paradise of Proto-Multiculturalism. There has always been, with virtually no interruption, jihad.

Strong claims. But Spencer spends 400 pages documenting this in great detail. And all this is due to the life and teachings of Muhammad as recorded in the Qur’an, the hadiths, and the sira. Indeed, both of the major schools of Islam, Sunni and Shi’ite, fully affirm the need to kill the infidel if they refuse to convert or be subjugated.

Islamic terror goes back to day one of Islam. As Muhammad said on his deathbed: “I have been made victorious with terror.”

At what point will our opinion-making class get it? Hope it’s not too late, though it’s probably getting close in some parts of Europe.

hat-tip Stephen Neil, Augusto