ISLAM: What the West Needs to Know
What the West Needs to Know
An examination of Islam, violence, and
the fate of the non-Muslim world.
98 mins

Main Idea
Virtually every major Western leader has over the past several years expressed the view that Islam is a peaceful religion and that those who commit violence in its name are fanatics who misinterpret its tenets. This claim, while widely circulated, rarely attracts serious public examination. Relying primarily on Islam’s own sources, this documentary demonstrates that Islam is a violent, expansionary ideology that seeks the destruction or subjugation of other faiths, cultures, and systems of government.

Content
The documentary consists of original interviews, citations from Islamic texts, Islamic artwork, computer-animated maps, footage of Western leaders, and Islamic television broadcasts. Its tone is sober, methodical, and compelling.
Outline of the Documentary

Introduction
We hear from prominent Western leaders that Islam is peaceful and that those who commit violence in its name are heterodox fanatics.

Part 1: ‘There is no God but Allah and Muhammad is his Prophet’
Our interviewees affirm their belief that Islamic violence is entirely orthodox behavior for Muslims and stems directly from the teachings and example of the Prophet Muhammad and the commands of the Koran. We learn that the example of Muhammad is one of a violent warlord who killed numerous people. The Koran – the verbatim words of Allah – prescribes violence against non-Muslims and Muhammad is the perfect example of the Koran in action.

Part 2: The Struggle
We learn that jihad, while literally meaning 'struggle', in fact denotes war fought against non-Muslims in order to bring the rule of Islamic law to the world. Violent death in jihad is, according to the Koran, the only assurance of salvation. One of our interviewees tells of his personal involvement in terrorism and of his conversion to Christianity.

Part 3: Expansion
Following the death of Muhammad, his 'rightly-guided' successors carried his wars to three continents, fighting, enslaving, and massacring countless Christians, Jews, and Zoroastrians. Islam did not spread through evangelism or through its natural appeal, but through aggressive wars of conquest. The Crusades were largely a belated response on the part of Christian Europe to rescue Christians in the Holy Land suffering under Muslim oppression. The Muslim world today, while no longer the unified empire of the Caliphs, is exceptional for being responsible for the vast majority of conflicts around the world and for almost all of international terrorism.

Part 4: ‘War is Deceit’
A great problem with Western efforts to understand Islam is due to the Islamic principle of 'religious deception', which enjoins Muslims to deceive non-Muslims in order to advance the cause of Islam. Muslim groups today in the West employ deception and omission to give the impression that 'Islam is a religion of peace', an utter fiction.

Part 5: More than a Religion
The most important characteristic of Islam not understood by the West is that it is more a system of government than a personal religion. Unlike Christianity, Islam has never recognized a distinction between the religious and the secular/political. Islamic law governs every aspect of religious, political, and personal action, which amounts to a form of totalitarianism that is divinely enjoined to dominate the world, analogous in many ways to Communism.

Part 6: The House of War
Islamic theology divides the world into two spheres locked in perpetual combat, dar al-Islam (House of Islam - where Islamic law predominates), and dar al-harb (House of War - the rest of the world). It is incumbent on dar al-Islam to fight and conquer dar al-harb and permanently assimilate it. Muslims in Western nations are called to subvert the secular regimes in which they now live in accordance with Allah's command. Due to political correctness and general government and media irresponsibility, the danger posed by observant Muslims in the West remains largely unappreciated.

http://www.whatthewestneedstoknow.co...ts_playing.asp

I haven't seen the movie but the tidbits from their website coincide with everything that I have learned about Islam in the past few years from sources in the West and from Islam itself.

Islam like all other religions is one is one of peace or violence depending on who the person of faith in question is.

I think Islam and peace are at opposite ends of the spectrum. If anyone can dispute that using scripture from the koran, let me hear it.

No idea to tell you the truth...I would have to be Islamic before I could truthfully answer the question...

The Koran, as I've heard it interpreted, requires the conversion or extermination of non-believers. Fortunately, most (in my estimation) Muslims in this day and age do not seem to belive that conversion at gunpoint is necessary. I believe that it is a religion of peace as many practice it today. There will always be those who pervert religion to condone violence, though. Torquemada, Pope Urban II, the Catholic Church of past centuries in general, the KKK, Nordic Aryans, etc. are just as guilty though body counts and methods of murder vary.

Originally Posted by Missileer

I think Islam and peace are at opposite ends of the spectrum. If anyone can dispute that using scripture from the koran, let me hear it.

I'm with you Missileer, on this one.

Originally Posted by moving0target

The Koran, as I've heard it interpreted, requires the conversion or extermination of non-believers. Fortunately, most (in my estimation) Muslims in this day and age do not seem to belive that conversion at gunpoint is necessary. I believe that it is a religion of peace as many practice it today. There will always be those who pervert religion to condone violence, though. Torquemada, Pope Urban II, the Catholic Church of past centuries in general, the KKK, Nordic Aryans, etc. are just as guilty though body counts and methods of murder vary.

But extermination? The peaceful conversion is ok, but extermination of non-believers is a little harsh dontcha think?Of course, you're right, all religions can be said to be violent in some way.

Henderson, I think it is high time you read the Qu'ran for yourself. If you need a link I'll hook you up. Muhhamed designed a religion that purposefully is at complete odds with western civilisation and REPEATEDLY calls for its followers to convert or kill ALL NON-BELIEVERS aka infidels.

Originally Posted by C/1Lt Henderson

But extermination? The peaceful conversion is ok, but extermination of non-believers is a little harsh dontcha think?Of course, you're right, all religions can be said to be violent in some way.

I'm not making it up, and I do think it's "harsh." That's why I don't follow Islam.

Oh come on guys, don't be more Catholic then the Pope as we say in Holland. Whom are we trying to kid? Sure, the Islam can be a bloody religion which calls for the spreading of the religion by any means. But the Christians have done so too throughout history. In the past 2000 years entire cultures have been eradicated in nomini patri, filii et spiritu sancti. The church has killed thousands because they were witches, killed every living thing from the Hellespond to Jeruzalem..... And the list is endless!

Just as many of you sit in comtemplation and peace in mass on sunday, so do many of the Muslims. But every religion has it's zealots the will kill, maim and burn in the name of the "true and only God"....