(FrontPageMagazine) Robert Spencer - Iraq is just one battlefield of many: Muslim militants all over the world are moved today to murder and mayhem for the sake of restoring the caliphate. The caliph, for Sunni Islam, was the successor of Muhammad as leader of the Muslim community. Islamic theology makes no distinction between the sacred and the secular, and for Sunni Muslims the caliph was something like a combined generalissimo and pope. The overwhelming majority of the successors of the Prophet were warrior caliphs. It is not an invention of the Wahhabis, but a provision of classic Islamic law (the Sharia), that the caliph has not just a right but a responsibility to wage war. There is no way to tell how many Muslims in the U.S. and Western Europe are dedicated to jihad for the reestablishment of the caliphate and the resumption of Muslim glory, but it is certain that this particular jihad isn't even close to being over.
2003-08-22 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive