Author: Nissan Ratzlav-Katz
Publication: Cable News Network
Date: January 22, 2004
How is it that only the Israelis
know that World War III started on September 11, 2001?
They're not targeting Jews, Christians,
and the West only, in case you didn't know. Centuries ago, conservative
Muslims determined that they would establish caliphate hegemony over India
as well. More than a year ago, Arutz-Sheva's op-ed editor Nissan Ratzlav-Katz
wrote an excellent executive summary of Islamic attempts to conquer non-Muslim
India over the last thirteen hundred years. The original essay was entitled
Indians, Jews and Islam. With his permission, we've reprinted it here.
The vast expansion of the Islamic
empire from the mid 600's through World War I was primarily achieved with
the persuasive power of the sword. The first victims of the Mohammedan
belief that Islam must subjugate all infidel faith communities were the
Jewish and non-Islamic tribes inhabiting the Arabian peninsula during Mohammed's
lifetime. The story of the conquest and exploitation of these tribes is
both commanded and recorded in the Quran, Islam's central text. As Islam
expanded throughout the Middle East, the local Christians and other non-Moslems
struggled to preserve their communal honor under denigrating Islamic laws,
and were often subjected to murder and collective extortion. In Europe,
the Moslems eventually brought even Spain under the crescent moon and the
scimitar. In North Africa, the native Berber tribes put up a valiant struggle
against the Arab Moslem invaders, under the leadership of a Jewish woman,
Queen Kahena. However, an Islamic commander ultimately successfully employed
a divide-and-conquer approach, and 50,000 Berbers and Jews were killed
when the conquering Arabs offered them the familiar choice of Islam or
death.
However, one nation suffered the
most brutal depravities in order to "persuade" its members to accept Islam
- the Indians. This year, November 24, according to the Sikh Nanakshahi
calendar, or December 8 in the Hindu Bikrami calendar, marks the commemoration
of the martyrdom of Sikh guru Tegh Bahadur Sahib. The traditional story
of his encounter with Islam will undoubtedly strike most Jewish readers
as reminiscent of the ancient and modern persecutions suffered by the Jews
under other empires, including the Hellenist Syrians of the just-completed
Chanukah holiday.
In 1669, after having taken the
throne of Mughal (Islamic) India by imprisoning his father and killing
his brothers, Alamgir ("world-shaker") Aurangzeb implemented policies designed
to convert all the peoples of India to Islam. He issued orders to all his
governors and officers throughout India to use all possible means to accomplish
his jihad for Allah. Non-Moslems were not given jobs, additional taxes
were imposed on them, torture and murder were used as tools of persuasion,
and even Moslems who stepped in to defend their neighbors were put to death.
Many temples were destroyed and were replaced by mosques - similar to the
policy implemented by the earlier Moslem ruler Babar in Ayodhya, which
has come to the fore with modern Hindu nationalists demanding the restoration
of the temple and the elimination of the currently existing mosque. Aurangzeb's
policy of forced conversion began in the Kashmir region of northwest India,
where Islamist terrorists today continue his traditions and slaughter Hindus
and Buddhists at prayer, on the roads and in their beds.
Eventually, the Hindus of the Kashmir
region approached the leader of the more militant Sikhs, Tegh Bahadur Sahib,
and asked for his help. Tegh Bahadur told the Kashmiri Brahmin delegation
to inform Aurangzeb that if he could convert the Sikh guru Sahib to Islam,
then all the Hindus and Sikhs would convert as well. When the guru was
eventually taken into custody and brought before the Moslem ruler in Delhi,
he was offered one of three options: 1) Accept Islam and be given part
of the empire and all the comforts of life; 2) Show a miracle proving holiness
and be released; or, 3) Be prepared to face death. The Sikh leader replied:
1) "I cherish my faith and I am not prepared to give it up. Forcing someone
to give up one's faith is not only a sin but rather a deadly sin and such
interference is against the principles of a true religion"; 2) "Showing
a miracle is against the will of Waheguru and is act of shame and cowardice.
The real miracle is to be truthful and attain union with Waheguru"; and,
3) "The threat of physical death possesses no terror for me. You make your
preparations and you shall also see the miracle."
Needless to say, Aurangzeb decided
to try more brutal methods to force Tegh Bahadur Sahib to accept Islam.
The Sikh was kept in chains and imprisoned for three days in an iron cage
designed to be shorter than the prisoner's height, with sharp spikes pointing
inwards, so that the victim could neither stand, nor sit, nor lean against
the walls of the cage. The Moslems then moved on to exploiting Tegh Bahadur's
humanity by cruelly putting three of his disciples to death in front of
him. The torturous deaths need not be described here, but, as a Jew, it
is interesting to note the statement made in traditional Sikh sources regarding
this incident: "the three disciples died with the name of God on their
lips...." Many, many Jewish martyrs died the same way - at the hands of
pagans, Moslems, Christians and atheists.
Ultimately, Aurangzeb failed to
convert Tegh Bahadur Sahib to Islam, and he ordered the execution of the
stubborn Sikh. On November 11, 1675, Bahadur Sahib was executed in the
Chandni Chowk in Delhi. At the site of the execution stands Gurdwara Sis
Ganj, commemorating the supreme martyrdom offered by a Sikh believer in
the face of 17th century Islamic jihad.
Jews, Hindus, Christians, Buddhists
and others today face a reinvigorated jihad mentality, which, as the original
version, has its roots in the Arab world. The Jews are again a focal point
of the Islamic rage, as we have established a state of our own in the midst
of what remains of the Moslem empire; however, we are far from alone as
targets, as New Yorkers, Balinese, Indians and Muscovites all know first
hand. The threat posed by al-Qaeda, Hizbullah, Hamas, Lashkar-e-Taiba,
Jamaat Islamiyya and their ilk is emphatically not a result of India's
Kashmir policy, US intervention in the Gulf, Jewish settlement in Gaza,
or any other cause to which the Islamists hook their cart. The threat must
be recognized for what it is - an imperialist war of conquest for the sake
of Islam. If we fail to look that threat in the eye, we may one day be
forced, like the Kashmiri Brahmin, to desperately search for men like Tegh
Bahadur or the hero of Chanukah, Judah Maccabee, and there is no guarantee
that they will be found.
