{"id":24914,"date":"2026-04-01T10:48:20","date_gmt":"2026-04-01T10:48:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/egretnews.com\/?p=24914"},"modified":"2026-04-01T10:48:20","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T10:48:20","slug":"a-free-world-opportunity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/egretnews.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/01\/a-free-world-opportunity\/","title":{"rendered":"A Free World Opportunity"},"content":{"rendered":"

The possible destruction of the mullahs’ regime in Iran would not merely represent a geopolitical victory; it would mark the dawn of an era in which the idea that all human societies must be governed by Allah’s law and not by men could finally be escorted back to where it came from. <\/em><\/span>Of course not all Muslims are extremists. Many might even wish to leave Islam \u2013 if doing so were not regarded by their coreligionists as apostasy, punishable by death<\/span>.<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

As Qaradawi admitted on Egyptian television in 2013, “If they had gotten rid of the apostasy punishment [death], Islam would not exist today.”<\/em><\/p>\n

Although the Bible is also filled with violent passages, such as the eschatological Book of Revelations, these are mainly\u00a0descriptive\u00a0accounts of events: what took place or will take place. Islam is\u00a0proscriptive: what\u00a0you\u00a0must do<\/em><\/p>\n

Keep in mind that even if a court were to rule that “Kill the Jews” and “Kill the infidels” fall into this category, the late Arab leader Yasser Arafat would simply say, “You know what to do.”<\/em><\/p>\n

People in the Free World, including Muslims, often themselves targets of extremist pressure, deserve a society in which faith remains for everyone a private matter of personal choice, free from coercion or death threats.<\/em><\/p>\n

In the turmoil of revolutions and the fall of empires, history sometimes seems to extend a helping hand: the opportunity, in this instance, to end at least one expansionist movement that has been threatening the West. The possible destruction of the mullahs’ regime in Iran would not merely represent a geopolitical victory; it would mark the dawn of an era in which the idea that all human societies must be\u00a0governed<\/a>\u00a0by Allah’s law and not by men could finally be escorted back to where it came from.<\/em><\/p>\n

For 47 years, the mullahs’ regime has not only oppressed its own people; it has also served as a center for much of the terrorism that has bloodied the planet. From the 1983\u00a0bombing<\/a>\u00a0of the US Embassy in Beirut to\u00a0financing<\/a>\u00a0Hezbollah, Hamas and Al-Qaeda, Tehran has exported its “Revolution” to the Middle East, sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America. The fall of the ayatollahs would offer an unprecedented opportunity.<\/em><\/p>\n

The objective would be to declare and enforce an alternate set of laws in the West and the Free World that would uphold the values of individual freedom and equality before the law and that would be incompatible with a set of theocratic laws demanding supremacy.<\/em><\/p>\n

The seventh-century expansionist Islamic ideology openly calls for\u00a0jihad\u00a0(holy war), which entails the extermination of Jews, Christians and all other so-called “infidels.”<\/em><\/p>\n

“Allah has indeed purchased from the believers their lives and wealth in exchange for Paradise. They fight in the cause of Allah and kill or are killed. This is a true promise binding on Him in the Torah, the Gospel, and the Quran. And whose promise is truer than Allah’s? So rejoice in the exchange you have made with Him. That is <\/em>\u02f9<\/em>truly<\/em>\u02fa<\/em> the ultimate triumph.”
\n<\/em>\u2014\u00a0<\/em>Quran 9:111<\/a>\u00a0, Al-Baqarah.<\/em><\/p>\n

The\u00a0hadiths<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 the ascribed sayings and deeds of Mohammad, some written more than\u00a0200 years<\/a>\u00a0after his death \u2013 (from Sahih Bukhari and Sahih Muslim) describes an apocalyptic battle:<\/em><\/p>\n

“Allah’s Messenger said, ‘You (i.e. Muslims) will fight with the Jews until some of them will hide behind stones. The stones will (betray them) saying, ‘O ‘Abdullah (i.e. slave of Allah)! There is a Jew hiding behind me; so kill him.'”
\n\u2014 Sahih al-Bukhari (Book 56,\u00a0Hadith 139<\/a>).<\/em><\/p>\n

Mainstream scholars often interpret this declaration as eschatological (end-of-times), not a current command. However, Islamists (Hamas, preachers in mosques, jihadist propaganda) cite it as motivation for present-day violence or genocide. The founding charter of Hamas explicitly\u00a0quotes<\/a>\u00a0the hadith above almost verbatim at the end of Article 7, presenting it as Allah’s and Mohammad’s promise, and using it to religiously justify the murder of all Jews:<\/em><\/p>\n

“The Day of Judgement will not come about until Moslems fight the Jews (killing the Jews), when the Jew will hide behind stones and trees.”<\/em><\/p>\n

This hadith has been invoked in sermons by imams in\u00a0Copenhagen<\/a>, U.S.\u00a0mosques<\/a>\u00a0and by groups such as Hamas, Muslim Brotherhood and ISIS to justify attacks. Yusuf Al-Qaradawi (1926-2022), a “long time Muslim Brotherhood leader<\/a>,”\u00a0discussed<\/a>\u00a0this hadith in his book\u00a0Fatwa on Palestine. Qaradawi describes the hadith as “one of the miracles of our Prophet” and\u00a0frames<\/a>\u00a0the battle as an inevitable religious confrontation between all Muslims and all Jews — not merely a political or territorial dispute — a precondition for Judgment Day. ISIS spokesman Abu Hudhayfah al-Ansari\u00a0called<\/a>\u00a0for all-out war against Jews until the “battle of stones and trees,” portraying it as inevitable:<\/em><\/p>\n

“Diversify the attacks: detonate explosives, burn them with grenades and fiery agents, shoot them with bullets, cut their throats with sharp knives, and run them over with vehicles. A sincere person will not lack the means to draw blood from the hearts of the Jews, the Christians, and their allies, and thus ease the suffering in the hearts of the believers.”<\/em><\/p>\n

Political Islam is profoundly trapped in a fantasized Middle Ages in which\u00a0reason<\/a>\u00a0bows to dogma and\u00a0women<\/a>\u00a0bow to the whip.<\/em><\/p>\n

From Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini’s\u00a0fatwas<\/a>\u00a0(religious opinions) in 1979, which “labels Kurds as infidels,” to\u00a0public executions<\/a>\u00a0in 2025 for “enmity against God” or “corruption on Earth,” Iran embodies this extremism. After Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution, Khomeini issued several fatwas and directives that legitimized violent, often fatal, actions against opponents, consolidating the Islamic Republic’s power through systematic bloodshed. These decrees targeted specific political groups, ethnic minorities, and individuals deemed to be “spreading corruption on earth” or “enemies of Allah”:<\/em><\/p>\n

“Indeed, the penalty for those who wage war against Allah and His Messenger and spread mischief in the land is death, crucifixion, cutting off their hands and feet on opposite sides, or exile from the land.”
\n\u2014 Quran,\u00a0Al Maidah<\/a>\u00a05:33<\/em><\/p>\n

The disappearance of Iran’s regime would create a void that could be filled by a less violent set of values \u2013 instead of the same or worse.<\/em><\/p>\n

My criticism is directed only at individuals who do not aspire to living harmoniously with others who may not share their lifestyles or beliefs. Of course not all Muslims are extremists. Many might even wish to leave Islam \u2013 if doing so were not regarded by their coreligionists as apostasy, punishable by death. As Qaradawi\u00a0admitted<\/a>\u00a0on Egyptian television in 2013, “If they had gotten rid of the apostasy punishment [death], Islam would not exist today.”<\/em><\/p>\n

Although the Bible is also filled with violent\u00a0passage<\/a>s, such as the eschatological Book of Revelations, these are mainly\u00a0descriptive\u00a0accounts of events: what took place or will take place. Islam is\u00a0proscriptive: what\u00a0you\u00a0must do:<\/em><\/p>\n

“And when the sacred months have passed, then kill the polytheists wherever you find them and capture them and besiege them and sit in wait for them at every place of ambush.”
\n\u2014 Qur’an, Al-Tawbah, 9:5 (Sahih International translation).<\/em><\/p>\n

“Kill them wherever you come upon them1<\/sup>\u00a0and drive them out of the places from which they have driven you out. For persecution2<\/sup>\u00a0is far worse than killing. And do not fight them at the Sacred Mosque unless they attack you there. If they do so, then fight them\u2014that is the reward of the disbelievers.”
\n\u2014 Qur’an, Al-Baqarah, 2:191 (Dr. Mustaf Khattab translation)<\/em><\/p>\n

“I will cast terror into the hearts of those who disbelieved, so strike [them] upon the necks and strike from them every fingertip.”
\n\u2014 Qur’an, Al-Anfal, 8:12 (Sahih International translation)<\/em><\/p>\n

Despite the New Testament possibly having tempered violence somewhat, violence has nevertheless had a way of overriding the message of love — in the name of preserving Christianity. There have historically been some unfortunate\u00a0rough patches<\/a>, such as the Crusades, the Inquisition or the Salem Witch Trials. Racial and religious violence finally seems to have slowed down only with the Reformation, the Enlightenment and, one hopes, the Age of Reason, thereby gradually allowing the West to harmonize with modernity.<\/em><\/p>\n

Our criticism must be directed only at individuals who do not aspire to harmonious and productive lives.<\/em><\/p>\n

As Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan\u00a0noted<\/a>\u00a0on Kanal D TV’s Arena\u00a0television<\/a>, on August 21, 2007, as reported by\u00a0Milliyet,\u00a0“There is no moderate Islam. Islam is Islam.”<\/em><\/p>\n

What has been said is that a large part of Islam seems to be a\u00a0political movement<\/a>\u00a0using religion as a force multiplier.<\/em><\/p>\n

The problem in the West and the Free World is that many of Islam’s tenets stand in direct opposition to the very idea of democracy. When laws are combined with words that are said to be divine — the direct word from God — there is not much room for compromise or debate. The same is true of the Ten Commandments. One cannot say, “Surely God did not really mean that nonsense about Thou shalt not murder — or adultery.” The Bible, however, consists mostly of stories.<\/em><\/p>\n

The entire Qur’an, on the other hand,\u00a0is\u00a0by many taken to be the word of God — like the Ten Commandments on steroids. There remains, therefore, only submission: the literal translation of the Arabic word “Islam.” From the founding writings of the Muslim Brotherhood, such as those of Sayyid Qutb in the 1960s, which justify jihad against “unbelieving” regimes, to the\u00a01988 Hamas charter<\/a>\u00a0calling, in Article 7, for the genocide of Jews, the political agenda of Islam unfortunately appears incompatible with any open society.<\/em><\/p>\n

Modern Muslim societies, Qutb\u00a0argued<\/a>, had reverted to a state of\u00a0jahiliyyah\u00a0(pre-Islamic ignorance) because they did not follow Sharia law and had replaced divine sovereignty with human sovereignty.<\/em><\/p>\n

It is therefore time for a debate on how to prevent these values — imported by many new arrivals and gaining political traction as the number of voters subscribing to these views increases demographically — from overwhelming the values of the West. Inciting terrorism or murder has never been a matter of freedom of expression. Should there be a ban in Europe \u2014 comparable to\u00a0that<\/a>\u00a0of Nazism in German democracy? Would that constitute intolerance, or, rather, refusing to tolerate intolerance?<\/em><\/p>\n

In\u00a0Brandenburg v. Ohio\u00a0(1969), the US Supreme Court\u00a0ruled<\/a>\u00a0that speech which intentionally incites immediate or imminent illegal action, and which has a high probability of actually provoking imminent illegal action, does not fall within the scope of “free speech.” Keep in mind that even if a court were to rule that “Kill the Jews” and “Kill the infidels” fall into this category, the late Arab leader Yasser Arafat would simply\u00a0say<\/a>, “You know what to do.”<\/em><\/p>\n

The debate on the criminalization of political Islam in the West is systematically undermined by the idea of\u00a0complexity<\/a>. Mixing religion with politics in some quarters might supposedly be considered “too complex” even to be discussed. This excuse seems a smokescreen. A doctrine that calls for the massacre of non-Muslims and the eventual eradication of any voice that disagrees with anything Islamic should by definition be considered unwelcome.<\/em><\/p>\n

To paraphrase how author and journalist Douglas Murray framed the situation in one of his many British interviews: Supposing a group from Wales went to Somalia and said, “We want Somalia to be just like Wales,” how do you think the Somalis would react?<\/em><\/p>\n

People in the Free World, including Muslims, often themselves targets of extremist pressure, deserve a society in which faith remains for everyone a private matter of personal choice, free from coercion or death threats.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0egretnewseditor@gmail.com\u00a0<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The possible destruction of the mullahs’ regime in Iran would not merely represent a geopolitical victory; it would mark the dawn of an era in which the idea that all human societies must be governed by Allah’s law and not by men could finally be escorted back to where it came from. Of course not<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":47471,"featured_media":24915,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[198,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24914","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-slider","category-top-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/egretnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24914","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/egretnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/egretnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/egretnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/47471"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/egretnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24914"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/egretnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24914\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24916,"href":"https:\/\/egretnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24914\/revisions\/24916"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/egretnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24915"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/egretnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24914"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/egretnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24914"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/egretnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24914"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}