My public lecture at Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, last week on ISIS and Islamic eschatology was reviewed and summarized by Dr. Joel Okamoto, professor of Systematic Theology.
(Just for those of you who don't have the time to watch the actual lecture....)


Still not "Islamophobic" enough for CAIR!  Must try harder....

On Thursday, October 23, 2014, I lectured at Concordia Seminary (St. Louis). The title of my lecture was "Fighting for the End of the (Christian) World: Islam, Jihad and Eschatology."
The link is up at iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/itunes-u/fighting-for-end-christian/id934124074?mt=10



Nineteenth-century Persian rendering of the (Islamic) Last Judgment.

The Islamic State’s latest Dabiq magazine (#4)  was issued several weeks ago, entitled “The Failed Crusade.”  

Where to now, St. Peter? To take over your square, obviously! 

As with the previous three issues, Dabiq—which, again, refers to a major apocalyptic battle in Syria between Muslims and “Romans” predicted in hadiths—opens with the same quote from IS’s founder, the late Abu Mus`ab al-Zarqawi:  that the spark lit in Iraq will eventually “burn…the crusader armies in Dabiq.”  Overall, this magazine cites the Qur’an 2o times, adduces 36 different hadiths, and quotes historical Islamic scholars (such as the 14th century Ibn Taymiyah) as well as modern ideologues (al-Awlaki, Bin Ladin and al-Zarqawi)—thus making the claim that ISIS is “ not Islamic”  fatuous at best.  Its main topics are the alleged “Crusade” and its relationship to the looming apocalyptic struggle between “Romans/Crusaders” and Muslims, and  the rationalization for (re)imposing Muslim slavery of non-Muslims. 


If only American and other Western militaries WERE this determined....
 

The “failing crusade” and its connection to Islamic eschatological prognostication takes up over 1/3 of this 56-page document.   Modern US forays into the Middle East, particularly Iraq (and now Syria) are linked—of course!—to the Crusades of 900 years ago.  American soldiers, who are shown loading coffins containing their dead comrades into C-5s, are equated with “cross-worshipping Romans” (Byzantines, that is) and not the 11th century Crusaders.  This is almost certainly because the relevant hadiths refer to events from the 7th and 8th centuries, when the Eastern Roman, or Byzantine, Christian Empire was fighting off hordes of belligerent Muslims—and not to the actual Crusades, some four centures later.   The relevant hadiths (too long to reproduce here) are explicated thusly:  “Muslims will be at war with the Roman Christians….the Christians of Europe and their colonies….There will be a pause in this war due to a truce….During this time the Muslims and Romans will fight a common enemy [presumably the “Safawis,” or Twelver Shi`is of Iran and Iraq]….These events all lead up to the final, greatest, and bloodiest battle—al-Malhamah al-Kubra—between the Muslims and the Romans prior to the appearance of the Dajjal and the descent of al-Masih [Jesus].  This battle ends the era of the Roman Christians, as the Muslims will then advance upon Constantinople and thereafter Rome, to conquer the two cities and raise the flag of the Khilafah over them.”  But according to IS exegesis, they won’t stop there.   The new caliphate, either before the Mahdi comes or, perhaps, after his arrival, also will conquer Jerusalem and eventually “destroy the filthy house called the White House.”  Along the way the armies of jihad will “break your crosses and enslave your women.” 

Dabiq issue 4 also expends several pages asking why the US is allying in Syria with its mortal enemies Russia and Iran and their proxies, such as “the anti-Christ Nasrullat” (Hizbullah’s leader Hassan Nasrallah).   The “Jewish Crusader” Henry Kissinger, Michael Scheuer and Ralph Peters  are quoted (selectively) on the greater dangers of Iran than IS to the US.   (However, one might note that the ayatollahs, for all their geopolitical instransigence, have never threatened to march on the White House and enslave our wives and daughters.)   This section would seem to be an attempt to corroborate the hadith which mentions a short-lived truce between the “true” Muslims and the Romans while they fight their common enemy:  the Twelver Shi`is.   The “cowardly crusaders” are mocked for relying on proxies like the PKK,  Pershmerga and Free Syrian Army and for futile airstrikes which succeed only in killing Muslim women and children.   President Obama is also ridiculed for being double-minded about fighting,  “unlike Bush whose administration at least understood 'what war is and how it should be won.'”   Bush is damned with faint praise: “[a]s the liar Bush truthfully said: ‘Either you are with us or you are with the terrorists.’” Of course, the IS spin is that Bush’s and Obama’s “crusade against the Islamic State is the greatest testimony from Allah for the proper manhaj [agenda, plan] of this Khilafah.”   

While the IS, herein, purports to be brimming with confidence about winning the upcoming Armageddon-like battle, it nonetheless encourages Western Muslims to strike individually and pre-emptively against its enemies.   “At this point in the crusade…it is very important that attacks take place in every country that has entered into alliance against the Islamic State, especially the US, UK, France, Australia and Germany….the citizens of crusader nations should be targeted wherever they can be found. Let the muwahhid [believers in tawhid, “unity” of Allah especially over against Christian Trinitarian theology] not be affected by ‘analysis paralysis’” stemming from undertaking only operations that cannot fail.  “He should be pleased to meet his Lord  even if with just one dead kafir’s name written in his scroll of deeds.”  IS even doubles down on this incitement to jihad: “Every Muslim should  get out of his house, find a crusader, and kill him.  It is important that the killing becomes attributed to…the Islamic State…. Otherwise, crusader media makes such attacks appear to be random killings.”  Exhortation to jihad in the West fi sabil Allah goes on: “If you can kill a disbelieving American or European—especially the spiteful and filthy French—or an Australian or a Canadian or any other disbeliever…waging war…then rely upon Allah, and kill him in any manner or way….” [including, one might well surmise, jihad-by-automobile].  “Kill the disbeliever whether he is civilian, or military….”  

The other major theme in this latest IS publication is “the revival of slavery before the [Last] hour.”  In particular Dabiq takes pains to explain why the non-dhimmi Yazidis are enslavable—unlike Jews or Christians.  “Their creed is so deviant from the truth that even cross-worshipping Christians for ages considered them devil worshippers and Satanists.”   IS claims that its scholar “research[ed]  the Yazidis to determine if they should be treated as an originally mushrik [“polytheistic”] group or one that originated as Muslims and then apostasized.”   Obviously IS came down in favor of the former—deeming Yazidis modern descendants of ancient Persian Zoroastrians—and so ruling that “unlike Jews and Christians, there was no room for jizyah payment.  Also, their women could be enslaved…. After capture, the Yazidi women and children were…divided according to the Shari`ah amongst the fighters of the Islamic State…after one-fifth of the slaves were transferred to the Islamic State’s authority ….”  This literal application of 7th century Islamic law and history has been meted out quite methodically: “the enslaved Yazidi families are now sold by the Islamic State soldiers [just] as the mushrikin were sold by the Companions…”  Dabiq also justifies the resurrection of such brutality as “one of the signs of the [Last] Hour, as well as one of the causes behind al-Malhamah al-Kubra.” In fact, there are two entire pages of Qur’an citations and Hadith quotations explaining how slavery must exist in Islamic lands before the eschatological denouement can come.


Medieval Islamic slavery.   Skin color matters not at all; religion (or lack thereof, in the Muslim view) is the determining factor.

Other topics covered in this magazine, albeit in less detail, include: the permissibility of ghanimah (war booty) in terms of seized weapons; gloating about successful military operations against the “nusayris” (Alawis, or Syrian government forces) and the PKK/YPG murtaddin (“apostates,” because they are Marxists);  administrative creation of two new wilayat from conquered regions around al-Bukamal (in southeast Syria) and Fallujah (west of Baghdad)—in order to “eliminate any remaining traces of the kufri, nationalistic borders;” scenes of putative state-building in the IS (bridges rebuilt, elderly being fed, electricity lines under repair); SecDef Hagel’s testimony about IS before the Senate Armed Services Committee; and, finally, five pages about the beheading of Steven Sotloff (blaming it largely on his being a “Jew and citizen of the Jewish state”) and four on British hostage John Cantlie, whose IS apologia appears likely forced.   The last page of this fourth issue of Dabiq repeats, at length, the hadith about the Muslims vanquishing the “Roman Christians” in al-Malhamah al-Kubra.


Damnit, Gandalf! The Rohirrim have gone over to ISIS! I knew we couldn't trust Theoden!

Observations: 
1) Islamic State is honing its eschatological-apocalyptic message to a fine point, by making its jihad against the “Crusade,” as well as the reimposing of slavery over non-dhimmis, Signs of the Last Hour.   
2) The numerous Qur’anic verses and hadith citations employed in this issue of Dabiq—as well as the legions of such in its first three editions—prove once and for all that IS is profoundly and legitimately Islamic.   Quotations from the Qur’an are neither taken out of context, nor “misinterpreted;” they are simply rendered, and applied, literally.  Certain hadiths, however, are glossed as needed; for example, the prediction that the “Romans “ (Byzantines) would land a major force in Syria to fight the Muslims is reinterpreted to mean the medieval Crusaders from Western Europe, because that better fits IS’s message.  
3) A keen awareness and indeed understanding of Western commentary on IS shows in the references to the statements of Obama, Bush, Hagel, Kissinger, Scheuer and Peters—lending further support to suspicions that he is an educated American.  
4) IS’s ongoing efforts to degrade the territorial integrity of both Syria and Iraq, as well as to engage in nation-building,  proceed apace. 
5) References to "Constantinople"--the old Greek Christian name for Istanbul--being conquered by Muslims would seem to indicate that IS does not consider the Turks true Muslims, and that the city requires (re) conquest. 
6) IS clearly has now decided to no longer simply focus on its near enemies in the region but will encourage its supporters to strike citizens of its various far enemies in their own homelands.   This will very likely mean an increase in what the media calls attacks by “lone wolves”--better known as “roaming hyenas” whose ultimate pack  loyalty is to Qur’anic literalists such as those of IS.


While many governments of the world insist on regarding it as a (mere) éminence grise, the Islamic State's grey mantle increasingly covers more and more territory....

I appeared on "Midpoint" with Ed Berliner of "NewsmaxTV" today, explaining the very legitimately Islamic rationales for beheading. "Prophet" Muhammad and his deity Allah make the Queen of Hearts look positively merciful. (Look for "Show Clips," lower right-hand corner, and my name.)


The Scots should give me a retainer (notice the flag behind me?)!