This disparaging attitude of traditional Islam against outsiders is not at all unlike the attitude of Westerners engaged in colonization around the world. For them, Europe was the height of human civilization, containing within it all of the highest and best ideals. It was their job to bring those ideals and benefits to the rest of humanity, raising it up out of barbarism. Quite often this was closely accompanied by encouraging people to convert to Christianity.
While plenty of books have been written about the Crusades, few have ever tried to focus just on the Muslim counterpart of jihad. Paul Fregosi’s book is thus mostly a history of the immense Islamic invasions of Europe, compiling historical accounts of Muslim holy wars against Europe that have actually raged for more than 1,300 years.
This includes the occupation of Spain and Portugal for 800 years and attacks and invasions of France, Italy, and European coasts all the way up to Ireland and Iceland, as well as repeated attempts to conquer Austria and Russia. Although there have been similar wars in Africa and Asia, Fregosi focuses on Europe — and he certainly has plenty of information.
As Fregosi debunks the common idea of barbaric western knights invading culturally superior, peace-loving Arabs, it traces campaigns to “convert the infidels” from the 600s to today’s random acts of international terrorism — all in the name of religion. His sympathy for the Christian West does not, however, blind him to atrocities committed by Christians, thus he includes descriptions of massacres of Muslims and modern Western imperialism.
The circumstances surrounding the publication of Fregosi’s book are unfortunate. British publisher Little Brown had agreed to publish the book and had paid a nice advance, but fear of reprisals like those surrounding the publication of Salman Rushdie’s Satanic Verses cause them to cancel the contract. It was fortunate, then, that Prometheus Books stepped in and took over, otherwise the work might never have seen the light of day.
So is it not true that Islam is a “peace-loving” religion? No more so than Christianity, and it may be arguable that it is less so, although that is not necessary to do. The fact of the matter is, both Christianity and Islam are easily adaptable to hate and war, and have been so adapted multiple times through the centuries.
Islam and Christianity aren’t immutable objects existing in a realm of pure ideals, and they aren’t simply what is written down on paper. In addition to the ideals and dogma, they are what adherents actually do. Because of this, fundamentalists in both groups have just as much claim to the religion as do the liberals. Dismissing them as “false” members does them and the religions a grave disservice.
Both Christianity and Islam are, in the end, human creations — and humans are re-creating them every day as they try to live their lives as Christians and Muslims. As a result, neither religion is any any more “pure” than its human adherents. Both have high aspirations, as do humans, but both also suffer from the same flaws. While many Western readers may be well-acquainted with this fact about Christianity, Jihad makes it abundantly clear that it’s true for Islam as well.
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