1. The face of terror is not the true faith of Islam. Islam is peace. The word sharia, usually translated as "law," refers to the "path" or "way" governing the modes of behavior by which moslems are enjoined to seek salvation, reasoning is therefore "an open practice." In Islam's classical era, up until the tenth century, scholars exercised ijtihad—independent reasoning—in order to reach an understanding of the divine law. Full-blown democracy, where the moslem voice might simply be one among many, implying a degree of moral equivalence between Islam and other perspectives, would be dangerous, not only for the standing of the moslem community, but for the moral life of humankind.
2. The truth of Islam was vindicated on the field of battle. As Hans Küng acknowledges in Islam: Past, Present and Future—his 767-page overview of the Islamic faith and history, seen from the perspective of a liberal Christian theologian—Islam is above all a "religion of victory." Islam "restores" the true religion of Abraham while superseding Judeo-Christianity as the "final" revelation. The past and the future belong to Islam even if the present makes for difficulties. "In the history of religions," asks Küng, did any religion pursue a victorious course as rapid, far-reaching, tenacious and permanent as that of Islam? This formative experience of victory is what interests Michael Bonner in his scholarly essay Jihad in Islamic History. God grants the moslems permission to fight "those against whom war has been made, because they have been wronged."
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