The Quran , which is Islam’s holy book divided into 114 chapters called surahs. The surahs are also divided into verses, like in the bible. If you have a copy of the Quran, you can look up passages using the surah and verse numbers. Muslims often refer to the chapters by their chapter names, but I have not included these with every reference because they are of limited significance to the Western reader.
I have used two different English translations of the Quran.One is the version translated by Abdullah Yusef Ali. The other I will refer to as The Noble Quran. This was published and oriented by the king ok Saudi Arabia in 1998. This translation is similar to The Amplified Bible in the sense that it expands and clarifies the meaning of the text through comments in parentheses and brackets.
You should be aware, however , that the English translations sometimes do not accurately reflect the original Arabic , particularly when the passage would be offensive to Westerners. Here is an example to give you an idea of what I am talking about. Surah 8.39 is a very key verse regarding those who reject the Quran , yet the following translation is quite vague :
And fight them out on until there is no more tumult or oppression , and there prevail justice and faith in Allah altogether and everywhere.
The Noble Quran is a bit more straightforward.
Fight them until there is no more Fitnah ( disbelief and polytheism, i.e. worshipping others besides Allah) and the religion ( worship) will be for Allah Alone [ in the whole of the world]
Helps for reading this book
There are times when I refer to “the prophet Muhammad ,” meaning the founder of Islam . I use the world prophet to distinguish him for the many other Muhammads in the Islamic world.
I have been told that Arabic names are often difficult for western readers. Here are a few tips that will help you as you read:
- when you see a q, it is pronounced like the k in kite.
- when you see two consonants next to each other , the world is pronounced with a very short vowel sound between those consonants . For example, ibn would be pronounced “ib-in”; Qutb would be pronounced “kutib”, in one syllable.
- the words bin, ibn and bn mean “ son of “. The word al means “the”.
To help you keep track of names and other key concepts, I have included a glossary in the back of the book.
Many of the books I have used as sources were obtained outside of the United States and are written in Arabic. Some are available only on the black market, but I have given the most complete publication information that I am .
I have included photos of the key people who developed the philosophy of terrorism that is being practiced by fundamentalists today. These pictures were collected from various Arabic books.
Also , to make it easier for western readers to visualize the geographic places mentioned , the publisher has included a map of the Islamic word. [ see page 165.]
Focus on religious terrorism
The focus of this book will be religious terrorism , also known as jihad, or holy war, in Islam. The reason I call it religious terrorism is because it is done in the name of Islam and to establish a religious agenda.
Because we are looking specifically at terrorism , there are many details about Islamic history and Islamic faith that I have not mentioned because they are not pertinent to the focus.