Any religion...

Any religion, if it is a complete religion, must have thought about what it will do on that day when it is faced with aggression, or, let us suppose, it is not itself faced with aggression but another people are. It is for such a day that religion must have a law of war, a law of jihad. The Christians say that peace is good, and we agree; peace is good. But what about submission, humiliation and misery? Are submission, humiliation and misery also good?

If one power is faced with another power and both advocate peace, both of them desire, in today's terms, to live in peaceful coexistence -- this is peace. When both powers can live together without one power wishing to oppress the other, both of them willing to live in peace with reciprocal rights and mutual respect, then this is peace. This peace is good and essential.

There is a time, however, when one group is the aggressor and, on the pretext of war being bad, the other group accepts surrender, and the humiliation of tolerating the other’s aggression becomes imposed on it. This cannot be called peace. Rather, this is the willing acceptance of humiliation and misery. Such a submission in the face of force can never be called peace.

For example, while you are passing a desert, an armed bandit attacks you suddenly and orders you to “get off your car quickly, raise your hand and give me anything you have.” Here you submit yourself and say to him: “I am an advocate of peace and opposed to war completely. I'll accept anything you order. I give you my money, my luggage and baggage, my car and I'll obey anything you say.

Say anything you want and I will give it to you, because I advocate peace.” This is not advocating peace; this is accepting humiliation. In this case a man must defend his property and his prestige unless he knows for certain that in this defense his property will be abolished, his blood will be shed, and in short, there is no purpose in defense whatsoever. Of course, it must be also known that often blood is very effective, and fighting is very worthwhile.

But sometimes resistance here is not wise and one must sacrifice one's money and wealth in order to save one's life. There is a difference between advocating peace and accepting humiliation. Islam never permits humiliation; at the same time, it strongly advocates peace. I wish to stress the importance of this issue, which Christians and others have used as a pretext to protest Islam, claiming it to be Islam’s weak point.