Free Islam and Terrorism by Mark A Gabriel Page B

example of this in the Islamic mind-set is the use of deceit. Islam justifies lying under certain circumstances. In the next chapter you will learn what those circumstances are and how they apply to jihad.

Chapter 12
MUHAMMAD’S USE OF MOSQUES
    House of Worship/House of War
    D URING THE US bombing campaign in Afghanistan, the US military bombed a mosque on October 23, 2001. The Lebanese News Center complained, “People who were praying inside were killed and injured.” 1 On the other hand, the Washington Post said that, according to recent refugees, the Taliban had begun moving military equipment and personnel to mosques, schools, and other civilian sites to avoid attack. 2
    This incident illustrates two things: the use of deceit during war and the use of a mosque for war efforts.
A M OSQUE I SN ’ T A C HURCH
    Most of the Muslims who are interviewed by Western media present Islam as a religion only. They emphasize the heart as the center of the Islamic teaching and the mosque as the worship place of the Muslims, just like a church or a synagogue.
    However, the mosque during the prophet Muhammad’s time was not just the place of worship. It was also a place to store weapons and make military plans. When Muhammad was in Medina, he used the mosque as headquarters for all his wars. Even after his death his successors used the mosques for the same purposes.
    A mosque in Islam is the center for worship, justice, warstrategy, and government. This is because Islam is both a religion and government. Islam is a pen and a sword.
    Prophet Muhammad made it clear to Muslims that the mosque isn’t like a synagogue or a church. At his mosque in Medina (the second holiest site in Islam today), he planned his war strategy, held court, and received visiting tribal leaders. It was like the Pentagon, the White House, and the Supreme Court all in one place. The Islamic world was ruled from the mosque.
    When there was an order to fight, the announcement was made at the mosque. The rulers after Muhammad continued this practice. Throughout Islamic history you can see that all movements of jihad came out of the mosque.
E GYPTIAN M ILITANTS ’ U SE OF M OSQUES
    In modern times mosques are still used as centers of war. The Egyptian Islamic groups are a good example. In 1986 the Egyptian police received orders from Zaki Bedr, prime minister of national security, to attack different mosques in southern Egypt because militant Islamic groups were using them.
    The attack against the mosques caused much anger among moderate Muslims. The following dialogue occurred in the Egyptian Parliament between Bedr, who ordered the strikes, and the opposing party representative, Mohammed Mahfoz Helmy. Helmy explained why he was questioning Bedr’s actions:
The motive of my questions is not to accuse you of doing wrong, but as a representative of the people, we demand an explanation of the action of the administration of security in southern Egypt. The way that your administration surprised Muslim worshipers inside of the mosque and arrested them was an insult to Islam.
    Bedr answered by saying:
We had accurate information that these radical Islamic groups used the mosque to plan and operate an attack on the citizens and the police. To be more specific, on Friday, October 31, 1986, we monitored the members of these groups taking weapons and people to the mosque to prepare for a major attack on the citizens of Assout and the police force. As a result of these attacks, six high-ranking officers and seventeen soldiers were wounded. However, we confiscated from the mosque many illegal handguns, and we found dead bodies of the citizens. We arrested fifty-seven members of these groups. After a short investigation we released two of these fifty-seven and jailed the other fifty-five.
    The prime minister of national security told the Egyptian parliament that this wasn’t the only time a mosque had been used as a military base. Five days before this invasion, another