Word: muslim
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...probably leave the gulf fairly rapidly. Although Washington may leave some troops in the region temporarily, a permanent military presence would probably provoke more political trouble than it would be worth. It would be preferable if nearly all the non-Arabs were out of the area before the annual Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca begins in June, but that timetable is probably unrealistic. Once the Westerners do leave, United Nations troops, including Arab units, are likely to provide peacekeeping forces in Kuwait, though the Western powers will have Kuwait's open invitation to return if necessary...
...gulf confrontation, though by allied lights he has tilted toward Saddam. In an uncharacteristically sharp-tongued television address last week, the King appeared to abandon his balancing act and instead focused on blasting Baghdad's challengers. The war in the gulf, said Hussein, is "against all Arabs and Muslims, not only against Iraq." Its "real purpose," he went on, is to "destroy Iraq and rearrange" the Arab nation so as to put "its aspirations and resources under direct foreign hegemony." Such a speech, playing up the themes of Muslim unity and foreign designs on the region, sounded a lot like...
Believers revived the term in modern times as Muslim areas fell under Western control or influence. One of the first to do so was Muhammad Ahmad, the 19th century Mahdi who raised an Islamic insurgency against British colonialism in the Sudan in the 1880s. The Ottoman Turks declared jihad against Britain during World War I. Calls to holy war took on new urgency, and new meaning, with the creation of Israel in 1948. Since then the term has been used -- and abused -- to justify at least three regional wars plus terrorism and murder, not only against infidels but also toward...
...religious authority to declare jihad? In Islam's dominant Sunni branch, that power formerly belonged to the caliph, or political successor of Muhammad, who united religious and temporal rulership. But no caliphate has existed since 1924, and Sunni jurists today believe the power rests with any legitimate Muslim political authority. Lufti Dogan, a former Turkish Religious Affairs Minister, says all Muslims can be called to jihad, but there is greater receptivity to the call in Shi'ism, the minority branch of Islam that is dominant in Iran...
...addition to a theological framework for the use of force, Islam, like Christianity and Judaism, offers moral rules for the conduct of combat. Early Muslim authorities vigorously opposed the mistreatment of children, women, diplomats and hostages and inveighed against poisoned weapons or abuse of natural resources (in enemy territory "do not hew down a date palm nor burn it . . ."). On those matters, and many others, Saddam Hussein is not much of a Muslim, whatever his claims...