| A Declaration of War The Letter Under Glass in the Old Topkapi Palace in Istanbul In the Holy Treasury within the third courtyard of the old Topkapi Palace in Istanbul there is a letter. The more than a thousand-year-old letter, now a shrunken piece of parchment, is carefully preserved behind glass. The letter is addressed to the governor of Egypt, a fellow by the name of Muqawqis. Following the conquest of Mecca, the Prophet Muhammad issued an ultimatum to the tribes of Arabia. They had four months to convert to Islam, after which they stood outside the law, and could be robbed, killed or enslaved by any Muslim. The letter sent to Muqawqis and other rulers of kingdoms that bordered the Arabian peninsula contains the same type of ultimatum: convert or else. The Prophet reminds the recipients of his ultimatum that imposing Islam on their subjects will make them even richer. The implication of these letters, which amount to declarations of war on all unbelievers, for the West in particular, cannot be overstated. The last sentence in the letter to Muqawqis is particularly ominous (italics mine). From Muhammad the servant and Prophet of Allah, to Muqawqis, the leader of the Coptic tribe. There is safety and security for those believers who follow the correct path. Therefore I invite you to accept Islam. If you accept it, you shall find security, save your throne, and gain twice as much reward for having introduced Islam to your followers. If you refuse this invitation, let the sin of calamity which awaits your followers be upon you. You too are People of the Book; therefore let us come to a word common between us that we worship none but Allah and shall equalise anything with him. Let us not abandon Allah and take others for lords other than him. If you do not consent to this invitation, bear witness that we are Muslims. We are Muslims! We do not make idle threats. This letter makes a mockery of the claim by apologists, such as Karen Armstrong, for the war of expansion which immediately followed the conquest of the Arab peninsula by the Muslims, that it was a defensive war. Except for a temporary halt at the gates of Vienna in 1683, a small setback in Spain during the reign of Isabella and Ferdinand and a temporary reversal during the Mongol invasions, Islam has been on the march, sword in one hand, the Koran in the other, crossing borders to make believers out of unbelievers ever since the Prophet's declaration of war. Islam today is still spread by the sword in some parts of the world, suicide bombings its most visible modern manifestation; the Sabres under the Muslim Declaration of Faith (the Shahadah) on the flag of Saudi Arabia serving as a convenient, if overlooked reminder.
In other parts of the world, Islam's advance has been more circumspect (read The Saudi Solution).
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