Invitation to Ahmadiyyat — Page 61
61 those who forcibly try to turn people away from Islam, stop them from entering it, or kill people for the ‘crime’ of becoming Muslims. Jihad can only be waged against such people and none other. All other wars would be for political or national interests, and these can take place even between Muslim nations. The wars of aggression, whose purpose is to plunder and cause bloodshed, have unfortunately found their way into Islam from other religions. Islam itself has no concept of such wars. The greatest proponents of such wars are the Christians who, ironically, are loud - est in their criticism of Islam. Religious wars were so rampant in the Middle Ages that the whole of Europe was engrossed in them. On the one hand, they made surreptitious attacks on Muslim lands (just like the tribesmen of the Frontier attack India these days), and, on the other, they attacked European nations that had not yet accepted Christianity. They even thought that they pleased God by waging these wars. Just as a man’s reasoning faculties become dysfunctional when he is angry, so it seems that, in reaction to these attacks by the Christians, the Muslims started to respond in kind and com - pletely forgot their own teachings. They went so far astray that a time came when those who had been their ‘mentors’ started criti - cising them for it. Unfortunately, despite all such criticism, Muslims failed to realize their error. Today the whole world uses this same weapon against the Muslims but they do not open their eyes and continue to hand this sword to their enemy. They do not see that these aggressive wars that they call Jihad are not benefiting Islam but damaging it. Is there any nation that has become victorious merely through fighting? Numbers are of no avail in war, what matters is the skill, organization, training, equipment, morale, and the sup - port and goodwill of other nations. These factors can enable even