Lets listen to what Muslims say. (Part 1)

A certain Pakistani Army officer, Brigadier ( now Retired) S.K. Malik, wrote a book 'The Quranic Concept of War' in 1979; in the preface written by Allah Bukhsh K. Brohi, the former Pakistan's ambassador to India, we read the following:

"But in Islam war is waged to establish supremacy of the Lord only when every other argument has failed to convince those who reject His Will and work against the every purpose of the creation of mankind."

"Many Western Scholars have pointed their accusing fingers at some of the above verses in the Qur’an to be able to contend that world of Islam is in a state of perpetual struggle against the non-Muslims. As to them it is a sufficient answer to make  that the defiance of God's authority by one who is His slaves exposes that slave to the risk of being held guilty of treason and as such a one, in the perspective of Islamic law, is indeed to be treated as a sort of that cancerous growth on that organism of humanity.... It thus becomes necessary to remove the cancerous malformation even if it be by surgical means, in order to save the rest of humanity" (Page xix).

"In Islam a believer is admonished to invite non believers to the fold of Islam by employing the power of his persuasion and  by using beautiful methods in extending the invitation to them to accept Islam. The first duty in Islam is to extend Dawa, and the Prophet of Islam himself has been described by Quran as invitor to Islam- one sent by God to call under his command people to his ways. ..... It is only after they refute this Dawa and ..... that a situation arises in which, the invitation to accept God's law having been declined, the believrs have no option but in sheer self defense to wage a war against those who are threatening aggression-since that is the ultimate court of appeal in which the issue between right and wrong can be finally decided. the justification for waging war in defense of what is right, he who is in the right. If he goes to war with the purest of intention will be assisted by the Lord to prevail against those who having defied God's law have virtually created chaos in the land- for God doth not love the mischief makers." (Pages xix and xx)

Why did he write such a thing? Is he a lone Muslim who thinks like that? Or was he misinterpreting Islam and Koran?  With this kind of assumptions, wars by Muslims are always defensive, never offensive. Actually you will see that mere disbelief is aggression against Allah.

These days we see some terrorists and extremists talking like that and we were told they are very few and are misinterpreting Islam and their acts are a perversion of Islam. But the author of this preface and the author of this book, brigadier Malik, come from elite of Pakistan's society not some religious fanatics educated in madrassas.

Author, Brigadier Malik, says "As a complete code of life, the Holy Koran gives us a philosophy of war as well ... .. and this divine philosophy is an integral part of total Koranic ideology".

He further says that in Islam, war could only be fought for the sake of justice, truth, law and preservation of Human society. The central theme behind the causes of  war.... in the Koran was the cause of Allah.

Well here, we have to think what is truth and justice in Islam? For which we get the hint in the same line in the form of 'preservation of Human society'. Belief of only Islam can preserve Human society implies that other belief systems are corrupt and illegitimate.

I am not saying that this book provided a paradigm shift, like providing inspiration to, in the way Muslims would think and fight, but its first publication coincides with many important events like Iranian Revolution and establishment of first Islamic state and soviet invasion of Afghanistan resulting in worldwide mobilization of militants solely based on ideology of Islam and later their (Militants) determination to topple secular Governments in Islamic countries, Algeria and Egypt, and then expanding the Jihad to world wide.

But, probably author himself might not have foreseen the unfolding of events the way they happened. But the fact that Malik wrote this book before this unfolding of Islamic resurgence or Islamism testifies to idea that  Koran supports and sanctions implementing or striving for Islamic totalitarianism on the entire world. Well, we see more on this. But this author is just one Muslim, in fact I read in the comments sections in the website patrickpoole.com that Muslims (probably) suggesting author misunderstood  Koran or was not a Muslim at all. So, may be that we  need to investigate more and dig much deeper, not that it will matter and open eyes of Hindus or Non Muslims but, people with knowledge of Islamic doctrines and scriptures not doing anything to counter this institution of Jihad and efforts at Islamization is not good at all.

The best thing is readers read at least the review  of this book from here or here or  here if not the whole book. In fact this whole book is an extension of classical Islamic theology regarding Jihad and its self claim to universalism with which author of this review agrees with. I hope that this book is being studied in our colleges of defense and also by those in security establishment.

Other very relevant question is regarding the status and treatment of religious minorities in Islamic countries. In most Islamic countries they are simply disappearing. Their numbers are dropping like a rock. Take Pakistan, Egypt, Iran and Bangladesh. If this phenomenon is happening in one or two countries, we can say local or geographical reasons and politics. But this phenomenon is ubiquitous in all Islamic countries. Could what Brigadier Malik and Brohi meant 'and want' be the reason for this phenomenon? Is Islam tolerant and can co-exist with other religions and other cultures?

To make a decent judgement, we need a fair knowledge of Islam. It will be of no trouble if we can read Holy Koran and other Islamic scriptures and find out our self. I better suggest this for people who say, with out knowing any thing, Islam is a religion of peace and tolerance.