Letter errs in interpreting Muslim texts

I am writing to correct the Feb. 2 letter by Hwee Boon Goh and Meera Satiani ("Ad misrepresents Muslim faith"). They state, "Nowhere in the Qur'an or other holy Islamic literature is there indication that Jihad is a 'war against Christians' or a 'war against Jews.'" This statement is quite easily demonstrated to be false. There are numerous such indications, but the clearest is verse 9:29, which, to paraphrase slightly, commands Muslims to fight those who don't believe in Allah, including Christians and Jews, until they submit to Islamic rule. The commands in the Qur'an and Sunna to conduct jihad against non-believers are so clear that even John Esposito, a leading sympathetic Islamic scholar, felt compelled to state that "Islamic law stipulates that it is a Muslim's duty to wage war [i.e., conduct jihad] against polytheists, apostates, and People of the Book (Christians and Jews) who refuse Muslim rule..." This comes from p. 31 of his book, The Islamic threat: Myth or Reality? (1992), in which he tried to argue that militant Islam posed no serious threat to world security. Hwee and Satiani, who point out that they are non-Muslims from Muslim ruled countries, evidently have been misled.

Bruce Stevens

Trinity '74