Introduction

All praise belongs to Allah. May blessings and peace be upon the Messenger of Allah, his family, his Companions, and all who follow his guidance. To proceed:

Today—days of hardship and multiple tribulations—we find ourselves in a conflict unlike other conflicts: a clash of civilizations, indeed a struggle for life itself. Anyone who leafs through the pages of history will discover that many civilizations which fought Islam and the Muslims waged their wars on a foundation of injustice and aggression, spilling blood, killing the innocent, and violating honor, showing no regard for any sanctity and recognizing no one’s rights.

They killed every Muslim they encountered merely because of his Islam and faith, and they shed the blood of anyone in their path, even those who declared their surrender. Nothing illustrates this more clearly than the deeds of Hulagu, who slaughtered more than a million people. The same is true of Ferdinand, Isabella, and Richard—nicknamed “the Lionheart,”