Offensive Jihad and Conquest

In his essay "Moderate Islam is a Prostration to the West" in The Al Qaeda Reader, Osama Bin Laden argues that offensive jihad is both essential to Islam and ethically justified and has been since the days of Muhammad and his Rightly Guided Companions. His reasoning is based on the belief that Islam alone expresses perfectly God's Will for His creatures. Thus, there is for Bin Laden no such thing as illegitimate Muslim conquest. Such military measure are not truly considered harb or war, but, fatuha, or the “opening” of the non-believing world to Islam. Given that framework, it is possible for Muslims to regard any war against non-Muslims waged for the expansion of Islam as morally justified whereas wars waged against Muslims are by their very nature unjust. In fairness, it must be stated that non-radical Muslims reject this view in practice, often citing the verse, “'You shall not kill-for that is forbidden- except for a just cause.” (Qur’an, al-An'am 6.151) The problem arises in defining "a just cause." As we have seen, offensive jihad against anyone who resists the call to Islam (da'wa) is considered both justified and mandatory.

At the same time, you will notice in both the Letter of the Saudi Scholars and in Osama Bin Laden's Letter to America, the State of Israel is regarded as an illegitimate political entity, based on conquest and oppression, that must be destroyed. Thus, Osama Bin Laden condemns American support of Israel and Israel's ability to sustain itself:writes:

"The creation and continuation of Israel is one of the greatest crimes, and you are the leaders of its criminals. And of course there is no need to explain and prove the degree of American support for Israel. The creation of Israel is a crime which must be erased."

The question of conquest has often been a vexing one for the field of ethics and international affairs. The University of Bridgeport sits on conquered land, taken from its original inhabitants, as does all of the United States and Canada. In "Survival of the Fittest: The Arab-Israeli Conflict in Context," Raymond Ibrahim, an Arabic-speaking Christian, argues that the land of Israel has been through numerous conquests going back thousands of years and that Israel is but the latest conqueror. Ibrahim also argues that the spread of Islam was made possibled through conquest.

The difference between Ibrahim and Osama Bin Laden is that Bin Laden believes that the Muslim conquests were blessed by Allah and were a blessing to the conquered people. Because he is a Christian, Ibrahim cannot accept Bin Laden's claims concerning the legitimacy of the Muslim conquests. Neither can the Jews in Palestine.

Realistically, this means that what is taken in conquest can either be retaken or subdued by another conqueror. This has been the way of the world from time immemorial. A question arises concerning how this fact can be reconciled with the field of ethics and international affairs.