    16

    nec

    ks and smite all their finger-tips off them.  ...And slay them

    wherever ye catch them...." In the next nine years, the man of peace

    ordered a minimum of 27 military campaigns.  He personally led nine

    of them.33

    It is not surprising that Moslem jurists would later declare that

    there are two worlds: the world of Islam--Dar al-Islam--and the

    non-Islamic world--Dar al-Harb.  These two territorial spheres,

    explained the Moslem scholars, are in a state of perpetual war.34

    According to some Koranic interpreters, any leader who fails to "make

    wide slaughter" in the land of the infidel is committing a sin.  A

    statesman is only allowed the temporary expedient of peace if his

    forces are not yet strong enough to win.35  This may explain why Elias

    Canetti, in his Nobel Prize-winning book Crowds and Power, calls Islam

    a killer religion, literally "a Religion of War."36

    In reality, Islam, like most other religions, has both its positive

    and its negative sides.  It imposes a host of admirable responsibilities

    on its adherents:  for example, zakat, the presentation of regular,

    substantial contributions to the poor.  Allah also demands that his

    followers "give glad tidings to those who believe and work

    righteousness,"37 "cover not Truth with falsehood nor conceal the Truth

    when ye know (what it is),"38 and "treat with kindness your parents

    and  kindred and orphans and those in need."39      However,  Allah

    issues many a darker order as well.  And the percentage of modern

    Islamic adherents who have focused on Allah's calls to combat is

    dismaying.

    Today, the descendants of the Persians who fought the Greeks in

    480 BC are devout Moslems.  In the '30s, one of them labored diligently

    to become an Islamic scholar.  He pored over the Koran for years.  As

    he demonstrated his superior knowledge of Allah's pronouncements,

    he rose in the ranks of Iranian holy men.  Finally he achieved the

    penultimate title--ayatollah (roughly equivalent to a Catholic

    cardinal).40  His name was Ruhollah Khomeini, and he wrote books,

    pamphlets, and even taped and distributed his speeches to inspire the

    citizens of Iran with sacred virtue.  The ayatollah's words roused

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