Over the past several decades, countless wars and terrorist attacks have been perpetrated by various groups and individuals claiming to act in the name of Islam. Yet Western leaders of virtually every stripe and party have consistently affirmed their belief that, despite the violence done in its name, Islam is a "religion of peace." The critical question is, who is right? Do Muslims who wage violent jihad against unbelievers fundamentally misunderstand their own religion? Or are Western leaders taking refuge in a comfortable fiction while shielding themselves from an exceedingly difficult truth? With the West engaged in military operations in multiple Islamic countries and with growing Muslim minorities at home, the answer is of critical importance to the future of Western Civilization.
Relying primarily on Islam's own sources, House of War: Islam's Jihad Against the World, formerly Religion of Peace? Islam's War Against the World and now available in paperback, cogently demonstrates that Islam is a violent, expansionary ideology that seeks the subjugation and destruction of other faiths, cultures, and systems of government. Islam is as much a system of government as it is a religion, and it seeks to extend its own peculiar legal code, Sharia law, over the entire world. Islamic doctrine divides the world into two conflicting realms, the House of Islam, where Islamic law holds sway, and the House of War, the rest of the world on which war must be waged until Islam is triumphant. The "peace" that Islam seeks is a world united by the Islamic faith and Sharia law in which all others faiths and political regimes have been suppressed or eliminated. "Jihad" is the violent struggle against the House of War world to bring it into "submission" (Islam) to Islamic rule.
Westerners have been indoctrinated to believe that the jihadists they see on television are extremists who have twisted their religion to serve a violent purpose. In fact, their actions are right out of orthodox Islam and are grounded in the Koran and the life of Muhammad. By delving into the Islamic writings, Davis reveals the fastest growing religion in the world for what it is, a violent, expansionary ideology that poses an existential threat to Western Civilization—a fact to which Western leaders remain determinedly blind.
G. M. Davis is an author and filmmaker. He graduated from the University of Rochester in 1997 with a BA in political science, and from Stanford in 2003 with a PhD in the same area of study. In 2005, he produced and directed the feature documentary Islam: What the West Needs to Know.