The Meaning of Jihad

The following is an excerpt from a carefully-documented investigative report called Islam in American Classrooms: History or Propaganda? (PDF document):

According to the Concise Encyclopedia of Islam jihad means: "Holy war, a divine institution of warfare to extend Islam into the Dar-al-Harb (non-Islamic territories)." This is a driving doctrine of Islam that is responsible for its violent expansionist history. When Mohammad was asked what the greatest deed that a Muslim could do besides believing in Allah and His Apostle, he answered, "I have been ordered to fight with the people till they say: none has the right to be worshiped but Allah." A 2007 Pentagon-based study proved conclusively that Islamic religious law (sharia) extols violence as a primary means of spreading the ideology. It also notes that Islam‘s‘ goal to subjugate the entire world to Islam and sharia law is based on unalterable, long-standing religious and legal doctrines.

Microsoft‘s on-line encyclopedia, Encarta, unequivocally states in its article, Islam, Spread of: "The remarkable speed of this religious expansion can be attributed to the fact that it was accomplished primarily through military conquest. Mohammed drew Arabs of the Arabian Peninsula to Islam by his forceful personality, the promise of salvation to those who died fighting for Islam and the lure of fortune for those who succeeded in conquest. The caravan raids of the early years of Islam soon became full-scale wars, and empires and nations bowed to the power of this new religious, military, political, economic, and social phenomena."

According to the online encyclopedia, Wikipedia, in its List of Wars in the Muslim World, since the death of Mohammed there have been 63 major Islamic wars of conquest involving over 201 major battles. It also documents 18 current conflicts involving Muslims, which represent over 95% of the world's armed conflicts. Historians have estimated that Muslims killed over 270 million people during the last 1400 years in their wars of conquest, plunder and enslavement.