The Omega Letter Intelligence Digest

Vol: 32 Issue: 17 - Monday, May 17, 2004

"Off With Their Heads"
by Jack Kinsella

Since the gruesome decapitation of Nick Berg, new attention is being paid
to this time-honored Islamic tradition for dispatching enemies.

It is admittedly a gruesome subject, but necessary to understanding the
bigger picture, so I beg your indulgence while I navigate to the central
point of today's briefing.

Islamic history is full of decapitated heads -- Sunnis and Shiites have
been lopping each other's heads off for centuries in retaliation for the
decapitation of Hussein bin Ali, favorite grandson to Mohammed.

Ali's head was ordered forfeit by the ruling Caliph.  The decapitation
took place in Karbala (which is why it is Shia's holiest site) and Ali's
head sent to Damascus on a 'silver platter' -- together with a bag
containing the heads of his 71-member entourage.

Mohammed himself was big on lopping off the heads of his enemies.
According to his official biographer, Ibn Ishaq, Mohammed ordered the
massacre of the Quriyash. The women and children were sold into slavery.

Mohammed took the men, reportedly nearly 900 of them, to the main market
in Medina. Trenches were dug and the men were beheaded, and their
decapitated corpses buried in the trenches while Muhammad watched in
attendance.

Andrew Bostom writes in Front Page Magazine,  "The classical Muslim jurist
al-Mawardi (a Shafi'ite jurist, d. 1058) from Baghdad was a seminal,
prolific scholar who lived during the so-called Islamic "Golden Age" of
the Abbasid-Baghdadian Caliphate.

He wrote the following, based on widely accepted interpretations of the
Qur'an and Sunna (i.e., the recorded words and deeds of Muhammad),
regarding infidel prisoners of jihad campaigns:

"As for the captives, the amir [ruler] has the choice of taking the most
beneficial action of four possibilities: the first to put them to death by
cutting their necks; the second, to enslave them and apply the laws of
slavery regarding their sale and manumission; the third, to ransom them in
exchange for goods or prisoners; and fourth, to show favor to them and
pardon them.

Allah, may he be exalted, says, 'When you encounter those [infidels] who
deny [the Truth=Islam] then strike [their] necks' (Qur'an sura 47, verse
4)"....Abu'l-Hasan al-Mawardi, al-Ahkam as-Sultaniyyah."

[The Laws of Islamic Governance, trans. by Dr. Asadullah Yate, (London),
Ta-Ha Publishers Ltd., 1996, p. 192."

Assessment:

There is a danger in attempting to interpret Bible prophecy in light of
current events. That danger is that events now current soon won't be, and
interpretations based on current events discredit Bible prophecy once
those events have passed.

A case in point would be World War Two.  Lots of Bible expositors
identified Adolf Hitler as the antichrist and Benito Mussolini as his
false prophet.

It was tantalizing; the European  dictator's mad plan for a Thousand-Year
Reich, his war against the Jews,  together with his ally, the dictator of
Rome, seemed to fit with the Bible's description, albeit loosely.

German troops swore a blood oath to Hitler as a god, while German children
were taught to pray to Hitler before meals and at bedtime.

But, there was no state of Israel, no Israeli possession of the Temple
Mount and Jerusalem, no Arab-Israeli conflict to mediate, and instead of
building a global government,  Hitler plunged the world into war.

On the other hand, the prophet Daniel was told his vision would be an
unfolding revelation that would grow more clear as the final generation of
human government was drawing to a close.  Twice the prophet was told that
his vision would be 'sealed until the time of the end.'

"But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to THE
TIME OF THE END: many shall run to and fro, and KNOWLEDGE SHALL BE
INCREASED." (Daniel 12:4)

"And I heard, but I understood not: then said I, O my Lord, what shall be
the end of these things? And he said, Go thy way, Daniel: for the words
ARE CLOSED UP AND SEALED TILL THE TIME OF THE END." (Daniel 12:8-9)

We've already examined one argument favoring Islam as playing a role in
the global religion of the antichrist.
(http://www.omegaletter.com/briefings.asp?BID=884)

All the attention to the Islamic tradition of beheading their enemies drew
my attention back to Revelation 13's description of the antichrist, his
false prophet and his religious system.

It will be given unto the antichrist "to make war with the saints, and to
overcome them." (Revelation 13:7), using, according to Revelation 13:10,
the "sword."

The false prophet has "two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon."
Islam's counterfeit 'Jesus' is revered as a prophet.  Any who refuse to
accept the antichrist's religion are killed.

Revelation 20:4 says of them, "And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them,
and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were
BEHEADED for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had
not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark
upon their foreheads, or in their hands. . ."

Islam is the world's fastest growing religion  -- and it's influence in
Europe is such that the European Union has earned the nickname, 'Eurabia'.

Daniel says the antichrist will come out of the revived Roman Empire, but
he describes him as an apostate, who 'in his estate, honors the god of
forces and a god his fathers knew not'. (Daniel 11:38)

As I said, it is dangerous to discard traditional interpretation of Bible
prophecy in light of current events.  But nobody believes the war with
Islam is a 'current' event, but rather, one that will be with us for a
generation, according to the Bush administration.  And Bible prophecy for
the last days was given to one generation, somewhere in time, a generation
unique from all generations that came before.

Daniel was told, "Many shall be purified, and made white, and tried; but
the wicked shall do wickedly: and none of the wicked shall understand; but
the WISE SHALL UNDERSTAND."

And Jesus told the Church that, "THIS generation shall not pass, till ALL
these things be fulfilled." (Matthew 24:34)