This is the second installment of a two-part series exploring the ways in which the vocabulary of Islam exposes the true nature of Islam. For any who missed the first installment, it has been stored by RenewAmerica with my other columns.

Pillars of Islam: Five fundamental moral obligations which Muslims must fulfill, including a profession of faith, call to prayer five times per day, and acts of charity, fasting and pilgrimage. All of these acts must be performed routinely and publicly, because a significant element of their purpose is to identify and punish munafiqun and murtadd. For example, the public call to prayer readily exposes slackers and doubters. As mentioned earlier, the “sixth pillar of Islam,” is jihad, which is also the most important one, and the only one that can guarantee paradise and houris. When Muslims lack the military resources to engage infidels in open warfare, they may resort to stealth jihad.

Munafiqun: Hypocrites. That is, those (usually converted captives compelled under threat of torture and death) seeking the subversion of Islam from within by feigning allegiance. In the Quran, hypocrites are threatened with death (Surah An-Nisa 88-89).

Murtadd: Apostates. Literally, those who “turn back” from Islam. An apostate is worse than an infidel. Thus, the Islamic penalty for apostasy is death.

Houris: The virgins provided by the dozen to Islamic “martyrs” in paradise.

Stealth Jihad: Whenever Muslims lack sufficient power to engage in overt military jihad they are counselled to engage in stealth jihad. This may consist in infiltration by hijra. Also permissible are taqiyya, kitma and hudna.

Taqiyya: The principle that allows Muslims to lie to keep the peace within Islam, to avoid shame, for self-protection, and most significantly for the protection and advancement of Islam. In practice, this means that a Muslim may engage in any form of deception which offers advantage when dealing with infidels. As an example, Muhammad condoned lying to facilitate the murder of his critics, and urged his followers to feign friendship and alliances with infidels—otherwise forbidden – for the purpose of gaining advantage over them.

Kitma: Mental reservations permitted within Islam even when dealing with other Muslims. Generally, Muslims are to be truthful with one another except when lying will smooth over differences. But Muhammad allowed even the breaking of oaths for good cause. “If you ever take an oath to do something and later find that something else is better, then you should expiate your oath and do what is better.” Needless to say, when dealing with infidels Muslims are bound by a very loose moral code in this regard, and treachery and deception are regarded as admirable and virtuous. Their manipulation of hudnas is illustrative.

Hudna: When engaged in jihad, Muslims are permitted to enter hudnas (treaties or ceasefires) only in order to gain advantage, and then only for a maximum of 10 years. The current cries for a ceasefire in Gaza are exemplary of this. When Hamas launched its surprise razzia (raid to take plunder and sabaya) against Israel on October 7, there was already a ceasefire in place. But Muhammed counseled Muslims to violate treaties and ceasefires on the mere suspicion that the other side is about to do so, and many Muslim scholars teach that Muslims must violate treaties whenever they can gain advantage over infidels by doing so.

Sabaya: Sex slaves taken in battle. The rape, buying, and selling of female captives has been a standard practice under Islam throughout the centuries and is explicitly condoned in the Quran in multiple places. (See Surahs 4:23-24, 33:50, 70:27-30, just a few of more than a dozen examples.) What is specifically allowed is the unrestricted sexual exploitation of women and girls under malakat aymanukum.

Malakat Aymanukum: Translated as “what your right hand possesses,” the term’s practical meaning is those you capture in battle. Before its destruction by Donald Trump, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) widely celebrated its capture and systemic rape of Yezidi and Christian girls, just as the Hamas terrorists are presently doing with their October 7 captives. Surah 4:23 explains why this is halal (lawful or permitted) for Muslims. “Also (prohibited to you are) married women except those your right hand possesses. It is a decree from Allah for you.” In Nigeria, Boko Haram terrorists are kidnapping schoolgirls under the authority of this same doctrine.

Caliphate: The rule of the world-wide Ummah under the successor to Muhammad. Traditional Muslims regard the Caliph as the only legitimate ruler, and militant Muslims today are engaged in jihad specifically to restore the Caliphate, a feat which ISIS so recently claimed to be accomplishing. This mission will not be completed—that is, there must be perpetual warfare – until everyone on earth is converted to Islam.

Ummah: A single invisible nation composed of all the world’s Muslims regardless of where they currently abide. Ideally, the entire Islamic world will again be united under a single caliphate and ruled by Sharia law. Muslims faithful to their history believe the Ummah constitutes the only legitimate political entity on earth, and they fervently pledge their entire worldly allegiance to it. Patriotism toward any other political entity is regarded as treason against Allah. The division of Islam into separate nations was imposed by the West after the collapse of the Ottoman Caliphate at the end of the First World War, and so-called “radical Muslims” such as Egypt’s Islamic Brotherhood have been engaged in a struggle (jihad) to restore the caliphate ever since.

Sharia: A body of law which controls every aspect of life, Sharia is administered by religious leaders called mullahs. To understand the origins of Sharia one must look to the warfare and plunder engaged in by Muhammad himself. During his lifetime, the “perfect man” and model of conduct for all led scores of preemptive campaigns against the infidel. The vast majority of these were raids against merchant caravans, and to understand the laws that arose from these razzias one need only imagine the caravans as ships and the Arabian Desert as a sea.

Under such circumstances, Muhammad needed a code of conduct suitable for pirates, and Allah reliably accommodated that need. Thus, Sharia has detailed provisions for the division of spoils, the handling of slaves, the protocols necessary to prevent conflict within the ranks etc. And so, for example, the conduct of women was strictly regulated to prevent male jealousies, and we see this today in the “honor killings” of Saudi Arabia and the female genital mutilation practiced in much of the Islamic world. (A surgical procedure to render women incapable of enjoying sex, this practice is meant to remove the incentive for wives and concubines to stray.) Any female conduct seen to be the least bit seductive was liable to provoke contention among the mujahedeen and was dealt with most harshly.

As an adjunct to hijra and a mechanism of jihad, Muslims strive to expand Sharia into infidel zones and thereby establish political and legal control in host nations. These Sharia zones are springing up all over Europe right now. Needless to say, an infidel cannot bring any action in a Sharia court or even testify as a witness.

Mullah: A Muslim male trained in religious law and doctrine and recognized as an authority. Mullahs oversee the enforcement of Islamic law and in special cases issue fatwas for its enforcement.

Mujahadeen: The plural form of mujahid, the Islamic term for males engaged in Jihad. In contemporary usage it refers to the guerrilla type warriors seen in various Islamic conflicts now taking place around the world. But historically, it included all who took up arms in the name of Allah, and most often that meant the formal military forces which conquered vast regions of the world for Islam.

Fatwa: A legal ruling under Sharia Law binding upon those to whom it is directed. Death Fatwas are based on Muhammed’s call for the murder of his own critics, as documented in the Hadith. Film maker Theo van Gogh was famously murdered—shot and stabbed on the street—for a film criticizing the treatment of women under Islam. The offending documentary was written by Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a Somali woman who underwent female genital mutilation at the age of five. Ali herself is also under fatwa. Novelist Salman Rushdie and Dutch cartoonist Kurt Westergaard are the best-known targets of death fatwas, but assorted writers, artists, and critics of Islamic practices have been marked for death as well. Rushdie created an ostensibly irreverent depiction of Muhammed in “The Satanic Verses.” Westergaard drew a cartoon portraying Muhammed with a bomb in his turban. Numerous attempts have been made on both of their lives. Every Muslim within the jurisdiction of a given mullah has a duty to act on such a fatwa if possible.

Honor Killing: The duty of a father or brother to execute any female who has shamed the family by engaging in forbidden conduct which might invite sexual interest. For example, females in much of the Islamic world are forbidden to go into the street without the accompaniment of a male relative and without first covering themselves with the hijab. So extreme is this requirement that in many places a woman who is raped will be presumed guilty of instigation and therefore of adultery. In Iran sixteen-year-old Atefhh Sahaaleh was recently hung for having been raped over a period of three years by a former Revolutionary Guard. While serving her sentence she was raped so brutally by the guards that she could not walk. Prison rape in that country is commonly used as a means of torture to gain confessions.

Hijab: A traditional covering for the head and neck required to be worn by Islamic women. Ostensibly, this is to protect them from prying eyes. But its real purpose is to secure women as the exclusive property of the men who own them. This ownership, while not absolute under the Quran, is de facto under Sharia based upon certain Surahs. For example, Surah 4:34. “Men stand superior to women in that God hath preferred (them). (So) those whose perverseness you fear, admonish them and remove them into bed chambers and beat them.” The punishment prescribed for women convicted of fornication in Iran is 80 lashes.

Dhimmi: This is you if you allow Islamic “refugees” to invade your country under hijra or ever permit the establishment of Sharia law in any part of it. Some refer to the dhimmi as a second-class citizen. But this is a euphemistic dodge, because in fact the dhimmi is a form of slave. Literally, the term dhimmi means “protection,” but only in the sense that one might pay “protection” to an organized crime syndicate. A dhimmi is a captive infidel who will not convert to Islam, and as such his life under Sharia is already forfeit. However, he may be afforded “protection” if he conforms to certain strict conditions. He must formally humble himself, reliably pay the jizya, and obey a very precise body of Sharia rules.

Dhimmitude is reserved for People of the Book (Jews and Christians). In the cases of those who refused to accept dhimmi status, Muhammad (Allah) calls for crucifixion, or amputation of an opposing hand and foot along with blinding. “The punishment of those who wage war against Allah and His Messenger and strive with might and main for mischief through the land is: execution, or crucifixion, or the cutting off of hands and feet from opposite sides, or exile from the land: that is their disgrace in this world, and a heavy punishment is theirs in the Hereafter.” – Quran 5:33

As just a few examples, Dhimmis are allowed no weapons, and are required to travel only on foot. They are forbidden to preach or ring their church bells, and to build or repair churches. At times they have been required to wear a special identifying patch—a practice which Hitler later adopted in his solution to the Jewish Problem. They are forbidden to insult Islam, Allah, his prophet, and for that matter any Muslim. The Turkish murder of one and one half million Christian Armenians between 1915 and 1917, many of whom were crucified, was in retaliation for their pleas for international relief from their despotic oppression, a violation of the terms of their dhimmitude.

As a practical matter, any Muslim can force the death of any dhimmi merely by claiming that the infidel struck him, threw garbage against the wall of the mosque, desecrated a Quran etc. Recall that infidels, including dhimmis, are not permitted to testify in Sharia courts. As a result, few infidels have been able to hold out against the pressure to convert except in times when the authorities value the jizya (taxes) more highly than their duty to uphold the dignity of Sharia. It goes without saying that there are few Jews or Christians living under Islam today, even in those regions which were entirely Christian before being overrun by jihad.

Open dhimmitude was ended in the last century by the colonial powers. But tell that to the mujahedeen of ISIS or Al Qaeda or Boko Haram! For most of the past century, as a result of the vast technological supremacy of the West, militant Islam was temporarily dormant. But that was an anomaly entirely out of character with the preceding thirteen hundred years of Islamic conduct. There are those today who urge that peaceful Islam is the norm, and that militant Muslims are at odds with their own religion. Trust these people at your peril! Or better still, study the history of Islam for yourself!