A very dear Muslim friend of mine argues that the violent terror-spondering doctrines of extremists and fundamentalists do not belong to true Islam but are a perversion of it. And indeed in various Muslim propagation centres throughout the West you will find pamphlets like

The Sword of Islam published anonymously by the Islamic Propagation Centre International (IPCI) based in Birmingham, England, all claiming that Jihad or the concept of Islamic warfare is entirely spiritual in its meaning: "It (the sword of Islam) continues to pierce the hearts of countless men and women even today", leading them to conversion. Anything else, they maintain, is a wrong interpretation of their religion.

But is this spiritualised version a true representation of what the core doctrine of Islam teaches? In view of the events of, and after, 11 September 2001 when Islamic terrorists hijacked civilian airliners and destroyed the World Trade Center in New York, killing thousands of innocent civilians (amongst them Muslims), it is important that we closely examine just what the Islamic holy writings say about Islam and then draw our own conclusions.

Finally, we must ask ourselves not only whether the statements issued by such organisations as IPCI are reliable but whether, in fact, Islam permits its adherants to lie to non-Muslims in order to subdue Western anxieties and attain its professed goals.

<>My purpose today will be to allow the Muslim scriptures and the voices of modern Islamic leaders to speak for themselves and for the reader to draw his or her own conclusions.

While everyone is entitled to their opinions,  it is nonetheless undeniable that the spiritualisation of Jihad is not something that is understood by the vast bulk of Mulsims let alone taught to them, and especially not in nations where Islam is the dominant religion.

A poll recently taken amongst Muslims in the Middle East and Central Asia revealed that over 85% supported the action of the terrorists against the United States. Only in countries where Mulsims are in a minority will you find Mullahs (Islamic religious leaders) condemning violence and terrorism and even then these Mullah's are a small minority. Everywhere else fatwas (binding religious decrees) are being issued by Muslim clerics ordering all Muslims everywhere to kill Jews and Americans on sight.

The interpretation of a religions beliefs from their scriptures and literature becomes academic in the light of what ordinary Muslims and their leaders are actually teachings. It is a fact that only a small minority of Muslim leaders - and then only in Western nations where they are obliged to keep a low profile - are openly condemning the terrorists while the rest remain ominously silent. Interview any cross-section of Muslims and there can be no doubt whatsoever where their sympathies lie.

I am utterly opposed to violence, religious conversion by force or  compulsion, or to Muslim sharia laws which, in predominantly Muslim countries, prohibit the free expression of basic human rights, allows slavery, and does not allow the freedom of practice of different religions and makes discussion and or evangelism of other religions with Muslims, a capital offence punishable by death.

The Muslim teachings and mindframe is antithetical to Judaism and Christianity . It is for this reason (and it is one of many) that I find it incredible that Islam claims to be the successor of the religion of the Bible for ethically and morally it represents to me a descent into darkness compared to the teachings of the Bible.

I do have Muslim friends who are opposed to all forms of violence and literal Jihad as commonly understood by nearly all Muslims inspite of its sanitisation for the Western media. However I serious question whether such Muslims may be considered to be "orthodox" as their own scriptures repudiate their personal beliefs.

The recent outburst of violence by Muslim extremists may well represent the end of Islam. I say this not because I believe that militant Muslims are about to capitulate because such would not only be a naïve thought but utterly to misunderstand the Muslim mind.

There is no doubt that the vast majority of Muslims are prepared to fight a suicidal war of world conquest and are not particularly concerned about the cost to their own lives, believing that to die fighting for the cause will result in a place in the Muslim heaven for them.

By committing itself to attacking the most powerful nation in the world, the United States, and its Western allies in NATO, Islam has set itself on an irreversible course much as the Japanese did in 1941 when they attacked Pearl Harbour. Like the Japanese they have, without a doubt, miscalculated Western resolve.

Inspite of the US "moral decadence" perceived by the Muslims it would be wrong of them to think that this will be their undoing.

Whether they like it or not, the United States is a superpower and they are not. Even though Muslim extremists will likely, if they put their mind to it, wreck great destruction in the use of their arsenal of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons, and possibly even bring Western Civilisation as we know it to an end (though this is not certain), they nevertheless cannot win. They have opened a Pandora's Box that will mark their destruction.

Islam has only three courses open to it now:

1. To reform, by removing those parts of the Koran
     and Haddith which support violence and Jihad;

2. To compromise, by becoming absorbed into a
     Christian Religion; or

3. Be wiped out, and/or become illegal.

Even if its economic foundations are shaken as the current terrorist war unfolds leading to a considerably reduced standard of living (a strong chance, I believe), the USA still controls the weapons of mass destruction and the means to deliver them.

The West rightly perceives this latest attack as a threat against its very existence and will defend itself for its own survival. If it feels threatened to such an extent that it will be overwhelmed by Islam, it will not, if pushed to the brink, hesitate to use its weapons of mass destruction. In such circumstances, a nuclear attack against Mecca and against all centres of Islamic terrorism, is not at all beyond reason.

This is something Muslims ought to seriously consider by reflecting on the fate of Japan between 1941 and 1945. What if the Ka'abah was destroyed and Medina made into a nuclear wasteland? How could a Muslim make the once-in-a-lifetime annual pilgrimage?

Though this is as far away from their goals and plans imaginable, my own view is that militant Islam will be crushed violently and the majority of Muslims will be absorbed into a Christian Religion. And though pockets of fundamentalist resistance may exist for a while after the accomplishment of this occultic goal, the powers that be will not hesitate to ruthlessly exploit other weapons to wipe them out.

We are witnessing, therefore, the pause before the violent judgment of Islam, and though it appears strong and immovable in those parts of the world which it presently controlls, that position of dominance is now to be irreversibly shaken.

The comparisons many observers are making between the World Trade Center and Pearl Harbour are precise and the outcome is not what either Japan or the Muslim world expected or is expecting.

The attack on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center was an act of suicide not for the men who hijacked those civilan airliners but for the whole Islamic faith because it will never be permitted to exist again in its present form.

Without realising it, the terrorists of 11 September have set in motion a process far bigger than they ever dreamed or imagined which will lead to the ultimate destruction of Islam. They have done everything but initiate the final conflict between Islam and the rest of the world by their acting towards Muslim domination of the planet. Ignorant and blind, they have initiated judgment against themselves and their own religion.

It's hard to say how long it will be before the usually tolerant and moderate Western governments will clamp down hard against their Muslim minorities, but it will surely come as terrorist actions escalate, since these minorities are the recruiting grounds of the extremists.

As ever, there will always be innocent victims. We are about to witness a succession of deliberately staged political and religious polarisations followed by bitter warfare and much bloodshed. Though there may be respites, cease-fires, and brief periods of calm, what has been unleashed cannot without extreme difficulty, be turned back.

For Islam, 11 September will be remembered as a Day of Catastrophe, not for the West, but for the Muslim religion, for it signalled its death-knoll. Now a violent and relentless struggle has been unleashed which can never be stopped that will claim the lives of millions.

Traditional Islam will become an underground guerilla movement, reduced in numbers to a small handfull of men and women increasingly unable to hide from Big Brother. If not completely destroyed, the remnents of Mecca will be transformed into one of many New Age shrines which all believers will be compelled to respect and honour. Islam will be absorbed back into its source.

You may not care to believe this scenario, and indeed the end-times may not precisely unfold as I have told it here, but I believe the general gist is correct.

As to whether Islam is a religion of peace or violence, I think it best to ask those who espouse the religion. As for myself, there has never been any doubt in my mind, as is born out by recent events, that the latter picture is the right one.

And those honourable Muslims who espouse peace must accept that they are not the true representatives of their religion and its holy books and that they should reform their faith and start a new movement that repudiates violence and Jihad.

For they may find it is the only thing that will save them.