War against Islam War against Islam , " War on Islam " or " Attack on Islam " , is a coined term to describe a perceived campaign to harm , weaken or annihilate the societal system of Islam , using military , economic , social and cultural means . The campaign is alleged to be waged by non - Muslims and " false Muslims " . The phrase or similar phrases have been used by Muslims such as Ayatollah Khomeini , Sayyid Qutb , Osama bin Laden , the imam Anwar al - Awlaki , Chechen militant Doku Umarov , Muslim cleric Anjem Choudary , Army psychiatrist Major Nidal Hasan , and the organization Islamophobia Watch . The English - language political neologism of " War on Islam " was coined in the 1990s and popularized only after 2001 , with the " War on Terror " denounced as a " War on Islam " by critics . The alleged perpetrators of the war include Western powers ( especially the United States ) , pro - Western Muslim states , and non - Western , non - Muslim states such as Serbia ( Genocide in Bosnia ) , Russia ( for its actions in Chechnya and the Caucasus in general ) , and India ( for the conflict in Kashmir ) . Usage . According to scholar David Cook , what some believe is scriptural evidence for the existence of the alleged war is found in a popular hadith , one that supposedly prophesies a war against Islam " is the Tradition of Thawban " : The Messenger of God said : The nations are about to flock against you [ the Muslims ] from every horizon , just as hungry people flock to a kettle . We said : O Messenger of God , will we be few on that day ? He said : No , you will be many in number , but you will be scum , like the scum of a flash - flood , without any weight , since fear will be removed from the hearts of your enemies , and weakness ( " wahn " ) will be placed in your hearts . We said : O Messenger of God , what does the word " wahn " mean ? He said : Love of this world , and fear of death . On the authority of Thawbaan , Mohammad said : An early modern example of belief in the alleged war is the book " Qadat al - gharb yaquluman : dammiru al - Islam , ubidu ahlahu " ( " Western Leaders Are Saying : Destroy Islam , Annihilate All of Its People " ) written by Jalal ` Alam and published in 1977 . A measure of the strength of the belief that a non - Muslim power ( the United States ) is at least attempting to weaken , if not annihilate , Islam can be found in opinion polls that showed , as of late 2006 / early 2007 , strong majorities — at least 70 % — in the Muslim countries of Egypt , Morocco , Pakistan , and Indonesia , answering " yes " to the pollsters ' question : do you believe the United States seeks to “ weaken and divide the Islamic world ? ” Daniel Benjamin and Steven Simon write in their book " Age of Sacred Terror " : In the Middle East and Pakistan , religious discourse dominates societies , the airwaves , and thinking about the world . Radical mosques have proliferated throughout Egypt . Bookstores are dominated by works with religious themes … The demand for sharia , the belief that their governments are unfaithful to Islam and that Islam is the answer to all problems , and " the certainty that the West has declared war on Islam " ; these are the themes that dominate public discussion . Islamists may not control parliaments or government palaces , but they have occupied the popular imagination . And in particular , the idea of a Western war against Islam is a belief " at the heart of the radical Muslim and especially the globalist radical Muslim ; " a factor " binding globalist radical Muslims together . " The following Muslims have either written or spoken about the alleged war , or at least alleged malicious conspiracies : Ayatollah Khomeini . Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini , leader of the Iranian Revolution and founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran , preached that Western imperialists or neoimperialists sought to make Muslims suffer , to " plunder " their resources and other wealth , and had to undermine Islam first because Islam stood in the way of this stealing and immiseration . [ The Imperialist plan ] is to keep us backward , to keep us in our present miserable state so they can exploit our riches , our underground wealth , our lands and our human resources . They want us to remain afflicted and wretched , and our poor to be trapped in their misery … they and their agents wish to go on living in huge palaces and enjoying lives of abominable luxury . " Agents " refers to Westernizing Muslim rulers such as the Shah of Iran , whom Khomeini aggressively opposed . [ European - Imperialists ] have known the power of Islam themselves for it once ruled part of Europe , and they know that true Islam is opposed to their activities . They have also realized they cannot make the true religious scholars submit to their influence , nor can they affect their thinking . From the very outset , therefore , they have sought to remove this obstacle from their path by disparaging Islam and besmirching the religious leaders . They have resorted to malicious propaganda so that today , we imagine that Islam simply consists of a handful of legal topics . They have also tried to destroy the reputation of the fuqaha and the ` ulama , who stand at the head of Islamic society , by slanderous accusations and other means . The agents of imperialism are busy in every corner of the Islamic world drawing our youth away from us with their evil propaganda . Come to the aid of Islam ; save Islam ! They are destroying Islam ! Invoking the laws of Islam and the name of the Most Noble Messenger ( upon whom be peace and blessing ) , they are destroying Islam ! Agents – both foreigners sent by the imperialists and natives employed by them – have spread out into every village and region of Iran and are leading our children and young people astray Western plots were not recent but hundreds of years old : The British imperialists penetrated the countries of the East more than 300 years ago . Being knowledgeable about all aspects of these countries , they drew up elaborate plans for assuming control of them . Then came the new imperialist , the Americans and others . They allied themselves with the British and took part in the execution of their plans . Sayyid Qutb . Sayyid Qutb , possibly the most influential Islamist author , often described as " the man whose ideas would shape Al Qaeda " , also preached that the West was not just in conflict with Islam but plotting against it . In his book " Milestones " he wrote : The Western ways of thought … [ have ] an enmity toward all religion , and in particular with greater hostility toward Islam . This enmity toward Islam is especially pronounced and many times is the result of a well - thought - out scheme the object of which is first to shake the foundations of Islamic beliefs and then gradually to demolish the structure of Muslim society . Osama bin Laden . Osama bin Laden emphasizes the alleged war and urges Muslims to take arms against it in almost all of his written or recorded messages . In his 1998 fatwa where he declared the killing of " Americans and their allies — civilians and military — is an individual duty for every Muslim who can do it in any country in which it is possible to do it , " bin Laden listed three reasons for the fatwa : the presence of US troops in Saudi Arabia , the increase in infant mortality in Iraq following US - supported sanctions there , and US aid to Israel . All these crimes and sins committed by the Americans are a clear declaration of war on Allah , his messenger , and Muslims . Other examples of accusations of war by bin Laden : What bears no doubt in this fierce Judeo - Christian campaign against the Muslim world , the likes of which has never been seen before , is that the Muslims must prepare all possible might to repel the enemy , militarily , economically , through missionary activity , and all other areas . It is crucial for us to be patient and to cooperate in righteousness and piety and to raise awareness of the fact that the highest priority , after faith , is to repel the aggressive enemy that corrupts the religion and the world . Nothing deserves a higher priority , after faith , as the religious scholars have declared . It is crucial to overlook many of the issues of bickering to unite our ranks so that we can repel the greater Kufr . Every day , from east to west , our umma of 1200 million Muslims is being slaughtered , in Palestine , in Iraq , Somalia , Western Sudan , Kashmir , the Philippines , Bosnia and Chechnya . Regarding the invasion of Afghanistan to overthrow the Taliban regime and independence of East Timor We . . . see events not as isolated incidents , but as part of a long chain of conspiracies , a war of annihilation . . . In southern Sudan hundreds of thousand were killed . According to journalist Lawrence Wright , evidence that bin Laden ' s accusations have struck a chord among many Muslims was found in the popularity of bin laden T - shirts among Muslims including children in Kenya and Tanzania following the 1998 American embassy bombings , despite the fact that all but a handful 224 people killed were Kenyians and Tanzanians , not Americans . Bin Laden says , The West is incapable of recognising the rights of others . It will not be able to respect others ' beliefs or feelings . The West still believes in ethnic supremacy and looks down on other nations . They categorise human beings into white masters and coloured slaves . Salafi scholars . Shaikh Rabee ' , a prominent Salafi scholar mentioned the attack on the Muslims ( particularly Salafis ) and blamed the Muslim Brotherhood and their allies for increasing its magnitudeSo now you incited Russia and so it came and took over the Chechnyan people - those who ( have always ) made Jihaad and made Jihaad , until they established a state . So they came and said " destroy this state " , this house is not sound , destroy it , so they destroyed their house , and now they are masaakeen , like the strange animals that wander in the forests . If they ( the Ikhwaan , Jihadis ) had only left them ( the Chechnyan people ) ( after their independence ) , they would have bettered themselves in terms of their religion , and both spiritually and materially . But they never gave them a chance to do this , but they only hastened them , until they granted the Russians the chance ( to attack them ) , and so they destroyed them . And now they transgress upon the Muslims in the entire world , from America to Japan to Australia , to every place and to every ( Muslim ) society , and to all forms of destruction , and evils . So the Muslims in the eastern and western parts of the earth are faced with humiliation and degradation at the hands of Atheistic Kuffaar , and they made the Afghan society and its state to face destruction and ruin and to the falling of this state - and now they cry of over it with false tears of crocodiles - all at the hands of the Americans and Northern Alliance which was led by the Ikhwaan al - Muslimoon . The Shaikhs of Jordan on Recent World Events , in a publication mentioned : Hence it is obligatory upon all Muslims to beware of the plots and plans of the non - Muslims and their machinations and intrigues , and that they should adopt the matters which cause assistance from Allaah such as holding fast to the rope of Allaah , upon the word of Tawheed , and the Manhaj of the Sunnah , and the absence of division into sects and parties , just as Allaah , the Most High said , " And be not of Al - Mushrikun ( the disbelievers in the Oneness of Allah , polytheists , idolators , etc . ) . Of those who split up their religion ( i . e . those who left the true Islamic Monotheism ) , and became sects , [ i . e . they invented new things in the religion ( Bid ' ah ) , and followed their vain desires ] , each sect rejoicing in which is with it " ( Rum 30 : 31 - 32 ) And amongst the causes of weakness and the enemies overpowering us , is differing and dissenting , and being far from the legislation of Allaah and referring to it and implementing it , and from ordering the good and forbidding the evil , and the absence of striving against the enemies of Allah , the occupiers of the lands of the Muslims and their sanctities - as well as being attached to the world , and hating death - all of which makes to inherit weakness and leads to becoming scum . As has been said by our Prophet ( sallallaahu alaihi wasallam ) , " The nations are about to invite each other upon you , just as a group of people invite each other for food " . It was said , " O messenger of Allaah ! Will we be few in number on that day ? " He said , " No , however you will be like the scum on the river . Weakness will be placed into your hearts and the fear of you in the hearts of your enemies will be removed , due to your loving this world and hating of death " . And Allaah , the free from all imperfections , says , " Say : It ( the calamity ) is from your ownselves " . And it is also known that the evil does not bring about except evil and forced control does not bring about except which is more bitter and more calamitous , hence whatever the United States of America exercises of continues , unrestricted propping up of the Brethren of Apes and Pigs , the occupiers of our land of Palestine and the precious Aqsaa , the place of the ascent of our Trustworthy Messenger ( sallallaahu alaihi wasallam ) , and what follows on from that of the total disregard of the affairs of the Muslims , and a great prejudice against their rights , then all of this makes the US reap the fruits of its own actions , and whoever sows bitter seed , will reap bitter fruit . Claims of proof . Historical basis . According to historian R . M . Savory , " The existence of Islam has always made the West profoundly uneasy . Islam was the only major world religion to be revealed " after " the rise of Christianity , and consequently it was , from the moment of the revelation of Islam in the seventh century A . D . , viewed by Christendom as a direct threat and challenge to itself . On the theological and religious level , the reaction of the West was strong , sustained and , almost without exception , hostile . Hostility was based on fear , and fear had its roots in ignorance . Christendom feared Islam , and therefore misrepresented it . Christians were ignorant of Islam , at least in part , because Christendom , prompted by " odium theologicum " had no desire to understand or tolerate Islam . Islam on the other hand , was ignorant of the West because it was indifferent to it . This fascinating experiment in co - existence was not permitted to endure . Christendom had not reconciled itself to a permanent Muslim presence in Europe , especially as this presence could not be ignored , for Islam , far from whithering [ sic ? ] away , had produced great philosophers and scientists . " Crusades . Muslims who use this term often point to the Crusades and European colonization of the lands that Muslims themselves had taken by force a few centuries earlier , believing it to be an example of an attempt to destroy the Muslim way of life . In addition to believing the West had " a well - thought - out scheme the object of which is first to shake the foundations of Islamic beliefs " , Sayyid Qutb for example maintained that the medieval Christian Crusades were not " a form of imperialism , " but rather Western imperialism was a new form of the Crusades , " latter - day " imperialism in Muslim lands being " but a mask for the crusading spirit . " This claim appears to have at least some factual historical basis . Savory says : It is not surprising , therefore , to find a great similarity between the medieval view that it was safe to speak ill of Muhammad because his malignity exceeded whatever ill could be spoken of him , and the tone of nineteenth - century missionary tracts which exhorted the Muslims in India to abandon the false religion which they had been taught . There were even echos of the old crusading spirit . When the French occupied Algeria in 1830 , they declared that they had in mind ' the greatest benefit to Christendom ' . Similarly , Canning ' s solution to the ' problem ' of the Ottoman empire was to bring it into modern Europe under Christian tutelage . When the French invaded Tunis in 1881 , they considered their action a sacred duty ' which a superior civilisation owes to the populations which are less advanced . Modern day . More recently , Western support for the continued existence of the State of Israel has been declared part of a " war against Islam . " Osama bin Laden has declared that " the West ' s rejection of the fairly elected Hamas government is a reaffirmation of the ' injustice , aggression , and rancor ' against Palestinians . " Enver Masud , an Indian Muslim and author of the book " The War on Islam " complains that while there are no Muslims in high - level policy making and media jobs in the United States , " Jewish Americans occupy nearly every single position relating to US Arab - Israeli policy . " In modern day , events alleged to be attacks on Islam include media portrayal of the religion and the War on Terrorism . Statements portraying Islam as a destructive ideology have been made by Jerry Falwell , Pat Robertson , Benny Hinn , V . S . Naipaul and Ann Coulter following the 9 / 11 attack . Franklin Graham , the son of famed American Christian evangelist Billy Graham , declared in November 2001 that " the God of Islam is not the same God . He ' s not the son of God of the Christian or Judeo - Christian faith . It ' s a different God and I believe it is a very evil and wicked religion . " On September 16 , 2001 , George W . Bush referred to the war in Afghanistan as a Crusade : " " This crusade , this war on terrorism is going to take a while . And the American people must be patient . I ' m going to be patient . " " According to Boston - based novelist and author James Carroll , the conflict between Muslims and Westerners " has its origins more in ` the West ` than in the House of Islam . " And can be traced to " the poison flower of the Crusades , with their denigrations of distant cultures , " and other Western injustices . Proponents of this view often consider the War on Terrorism with the accompanying 2001 military activity in Afghanistan , 2003 invasion of Iraq to be part of the war against Islam . The Western colonial domination of the Middle East for a good part of the 20th Century is also regarded as such an attack by some . Alleged conspiracies against Islam sometimes involve other Muslims who are accused of being apostates . The Ayatollah Khomeini believed that " agents of imperialism , " the term he gave to secular pro - Western Muslims , were " busy in every corner of the Islamic world drawing our youth away from us with their evil propaganda . " Muslims at TheMajlis . net find evidence of " the primary conspiracy against Islam . . . not [ in ] Mr . Bush and Mr . Blair , " but in " the enemy which lurks within the Ummah . The most poisonous and lethal enemy for Islam in this century consists of the " munaafiqeen " ( hypocrites ) and " murtaddeen " ( apostates ) who are concealing within the folds of the Ummah , " but " products of kuffaar universities " and have cast doubt on traditional interpretations of the Sharia ( Islamic law ) . Danish cartoon controversy . The 2005 Danish cartoon controversy were cartoons depicting Muhammad in a Danish newspaper that led to riots and the burning of the Norwegian and Danish Embassies in Syria , and are seen by Osama bin Laden as part of the " Zionist - crusaders war on Islam " . In an audio message , bin Laden described the cartoons as taking place in the framework of a " new Crusade " against Islam , in which he said the pope has played a " large and lengthy role . " " You went overboard in your unbelief and freed yourselves of the etiquettes of dispute and fighting and went to the extent of publishing these insulting drawings , " he said , " This is the greater and more serious tragedy ( than bombing Muslim villagers ) , and reckoning for it will be more severe . " Among others , Iran ' s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei blamed a " Zionist conspiracy " for the row over the cartoons . The Palestinian envoy to Washington alleged the Likud party concocted distribution of Muhammad caricatures worldwide in a bid to create a clash between the West and the Muslim world . Fitna film controversy . In 2008 , Geert Wilders , a Dutch politician , published a film called " Fitna " , exploring Qur ' anic motivation for terrorism , Islamic universalism , and Islam in the Netherlands . Wilders has said the 15 - minute film will show how verses from the Qur ' an are being used today to incite modern Muslims to behave violently and anti - democratically based on those verses . He later described the film as “ a call to shake off the creeping tyranny of Islamization , ” and a push for a " Leitkultur " , a culture that “ draws on Christian , Jewish , humanistic traditions and that poses a challenge to the Islamic problem . ” The Organisation of the Islamic Conference ( OIC ) protested the film saying " The film is solely intended to incite and provoke unrest and intolerance among people of different religious beliefs and to jeopardize world peace and stability , " U . N . Secretary - General Ban Ki - moon condemned the film as " offensively anti - Islamic " and U . N . High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour said it was " hateful " . Iran called the film heinous , blasphemous and anti - Islamic , and Indonesia , the world ' s most populous Muslim nation and a former Dutch colony , said it was an " insult to Islam , hidden under the cover of freedom of expression " . The Saudi Arabian embassy in The Hague said the film was provocative and full of errors and incorrect allegations that could lead to hate towards Muslims .