“Allah hath granted a grade higher to those who strive and fight with their goods and persons than to those who sit (at home). Unto all (in Faith) hath Allah promised good. But those who strive and fight hath He distinguished above those who sit (at home) by a special reward,” Quran Chapter 4: The Women, verse 95.  [From MPACUK]

Most Muslims are not pacifists, and believe it is justifiable to struggle to defend Islam, for justice, or in self-defence, and to use force if necessary. If all peaceful means fail, a Muslim should be ready to fight to defend the ummah against aggression, to defend the oppressed, or to combat injustice. This is lesser jihad.

BBC Bitesize

Are ISIS members, or indeed any Muslim so-called ‘extremists’ or ‘radicals’, ‘perverting’ the true religion of Islam?

You may argue about the way they kill people, or their choice of target,  but you cannot argue that they are not following the teachings and obligations of Islam as they attack Western countries.

The ‘extremists’ say that they are defending Islam and Muslims from attack by the West….how do we know that Muslims and Islam are under attack?  Because the likes of the BBC also promote that very narrative.  We had the BBC’s very own Middle East Editor, Jeremy Bowen, deliberately saying exactly that in the last couple of weeks in a series on the Middle East.  He blamed Western interference in Muslim countries for creating the chaotic catastrophe that is so much of the Middle East today.  This is the extremists’ and the terrorists’ own narrative.  It is of course, as just a little knowledge of history would show, a completely false narrative….but the BBC continues to peddle it in a continuation of its lefty 1960’s white guilt cringe about the supposed evils of the British Empire…the Muslim empire seems to get a bye on this though…it apparently has been entirely benign and the consequences of its creation are not relevant apparently…other than of course its magnificent contribution to science and Western development!

Here is a perfect example of the narrative in action...from the extremist group MPACUK [one of those ‘goto’ voices the BBC uses to comment on Muslim affairs!]…

Muslims in Palestine are being oppressed and are unable to resist this oppression. In this case, the obligation falls upon the countries next to and around Palestine. However, non of the neighbouring countries are fulfilling their duty to protect this section of the Ummah. Therefore, this obligation becomes a Fardh Ayn and it now becomes obligatory on every man, woman and child to protect the Ummah from oppression. In this sense, Jihad is an obligation upon us all.

The Prophet (pbuh) has said, “He who dies without having fought in the way of Allah or without having felt it to be his duty, will die having a trait of hypocrisy”. [Sahih Muslim]

This powerful hadeeth leaves no question that to be a Muslim today, one should be ready to do everything it takes in the cause of Allah. Thus, we cannot actually call ourselves “practising Muslims” unless we are taking an active part in Jihad.

Then you have to ask what is meant by ‘Jihad’…..yes it can mean some sort of inner struggle to improve yourself but it does also mean Holy War…in defence of Islam and Muslims…’defence’ can be interpreted as when under actual attack…or as a pre-emptive attack on someone you think is about to attack you…and that again can be stretched to include anyone who isn’t Muslim and therefore is a threat to Islam, their mere existence being a potential threat…thus ‘defence’ can in fact be an excuse for attack…hence Muhammed’s ‘defensive wars’ managed to conquer so much territory that was in no way Muslim to start with.  It’s the same tactical excuse Hitler used and the same one Putin uses as he ‘defends’ Russians living in the Crimea or Ukraine.

The BBC generously provides us with the definition and the proof that these Jihadists are not ‘perverting’ Islam…they are following its commands as they believe, as told to them by the BBC itself, that Islam and Muslims are under attack by the West….this is what the BBC is teaching Muslim children in its GCSE Bitesize….

Most Muslims are not pacifists, and believe it is justifiable to struggle to defend Islam, for justice, or in self-defence, and to use force if necessary. If all peaceful means fail, a Muslim should be ready to fight to defend the ummah against aggression, to defend the oppressed, or to combat injustice. This is lesser jihad.

So when you have politicians grandstanding after events like London Bridge telling us how the attackers do not represent Islam, theirs is a perversion, a poisonous version, of Islam, they are mistaken, or lying.  Which is unfortunate because it means they will never come to grips with the threat if they do not , or refuse to, understand it….and blaming the internet companies for the attacks is beyond parody…Khan knows full well the origins of the Jihad ideology and that it is rampant within the Muslim community…a heady mixture of the Koran and dangerous and dishonest tales spun about Western foreign policy and Israel.  May also blames the internet companies also ignoring the truth…both ignore one of the major sources of the extremist narrative, one which gives it so much credibility to it and neuters any effective response to it… the BBC.

Sidiq Khan:

We need to work with communities, the Government and others to tackle extremism in our midst. This perverse ideology is overwhelmingly despised by every community across London — of all faiths and none. By working together we must deprive extremism of its oxygen and not exaggerate its support or alienate communities in the process. Followers of a perverse ideology who murder innocent Londoners and visitors are an utter desecration of Ramadan and a rejection of the true values of Islam. I want to send a crystal-clear message around the world: the sick and wicked ideology of these evil extremists is no form of Islam that I recognise. I unequivocally denounce them and their twisted beliefs.

We have to make it harder for extremists to radicalise young people online. It is too easy for people to access extremist propaganda on the internet — with websites and videos glorifying their evil ideology just a click away. After every terrorist attack we rightly say that the internet providers and social media companies need to act and restrict access to these poisonous materials.

Theresa May:

First, while the recent attacks are not connected by common networks, they are connected in one important sense. They are bound together by the single evil ideology of Islamist extremism that preaches hatred, sows division and promotes sectarianism.

It is an ideology that claims our Western values of freedom, democracy and human rights are incompatible with the religion of Islam. It is an ideology that is a perversion of Islam and a perversion of the truth.

Defeating this ideology is one of the great challenges of our time, but it cannot be defeated by military intervention alone. It will not be defeated by the maintenance of a permanent defensive counter-terrorism operation, however skillful its leaders and practitioners.

It will only be defeated when we turn people’s minds away from this violence and make them understand that our values – pluralistic British values – are superior to anything offered by the preachers and supporters of hate.