16
nec
ks and smite all their finger-tips off them.  ...And slay them
wherever ye catch them...." In the next nine years, the man of peace
ordered a minimum of 27 military campaigns.  He personally led nine
of them.33
It is not surprising that Moslem jurists would later declare that
there are two worlds: the world of Islam--Dar al-Islam--and the
non-Islamic world--Dar al-Harb.  These two territorial spheres,
explained the Moslem scholars, are in a state of perpetual war.34
According to some Koranic interpreters, any leader who fails to "make
wide slaughter" in the land of the infidel is committing a sin.  A
statesman is only allowed the temporary expedient of peace if his
forces are not yet strong enough to win.35  This may explain why Elias
Canetti, in his Nobel Prize-winning book Crowds and Power, calls Islam
a killer religion, literally "a Religion of War."36
In reality, Islam, like most other religions, has both its positive
and its negative sides.  It imposes a host of admirable responsibilities
on its adherents:  for example, zakat, the presentation of regular,
substantial contributions to the poor.  Allah also demands that his
followers "give glad tidings to those who believe and work
righteousness,"37 "cover not Truth with falsehood nor conceal the Truth
when ye know (what it is),"38 and "treat with kindness your parents
and  kindred and orphans and those in need."39      However,  Allah
issues many a darker order as well.  And the percentage of modern
Islamic adherents who have focused on Allah's calls to combat is
dismaying.
Today, the descendants of the Persians who fought the Greeks in
480 BC are devout Moslems.  In the '30s, one of them labored diligently
to become an Islamic scholar.  He pored over the Koran for years.  As
he demonstrated his superior knowledge of Allah's pronouncements,
he rose in the ranks of Iranian holy men.  Finally he achieved the
penultimate title--ayatollah (roughly equivalent to a Catholic
cardinal).40  His name was Ruhollah Khomeini, and he wrote books,
pamphlets, and even taped and distributed his speeches to inspire the
citizens of Iran with sacred virtue.  The ayatollah's words roused
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