Quotable quotes from the wonderful world of free speechers ... part 27

Edward A Van Dyck was the USA's State Department "consular clerk" in Cairo.  The quotes below are from his 1880  report to the Secretary of State which was published in book form by the Washington Govt. Printing Office in 1881 as The Capitulations of the Ottoman Empire.  

"From the Moslem point of view, the whole world is divided into two parts—“the House of Islam,” and “the House of War;” out of this division has arisen the other popular dictum of the Mohammedans that “all kinds of unbelievers from but one people.”

"In all the many works on Mohammedan law no teaching is met with that even hints at those principles of political intercourse between nations, that have been so long known to the peoples of Europe, and which are so universally recognized by them."

“Fiqh,” as the science of Moslem jurisprudence is called, knows only one category of relation between those who recognize the apostleship of Mohammed and all others who do not, namely Djehad (jihad) that is to say, strife, or holy war."

 "Inasmuch as the propagation of Islam was to be the aim of all Moslems, perpetual warfare against the unbelievers, in order to convert them, or subject them to the payment of tribute, came to be held by Moslem doctors [legists] as the most sacred duty of the believer. This right to wage war is the only principle of international law which is taught by Mohammedan jurists; …with the Arabs the term harby [harbi] (warrior) expresses not only an unbeliever but also an enemy; and jehady [jihadi] (striver, warrior) means the believer-militant."

"How different are the principles of the old Moslem common law.Looking upon unbelievers as enemies, and holding a state of perpetual warfare to exist with them, Moslem jurisprudence absolutely forbids their coming into the countries of Islam."

"The intercourse of the Christian world with the Mohammedan world is not founded upon the principles of the law of nations."

"Between the peoples of Islam and those of Europe there exists no such communion of ideas and principles from which could grow a true international law between them."

"Inasmuch as the propagation of Islam was to be the chief aim of all Moslems, perpetual warfare against unbelievers, in order to convert them, or subject them to the payment of tribute, came to be held by Moslem doctors as the most sacred duty of the believer. This right to wage war is the only principle of international law which is taught by Mohammedan jurists; it seems to have been inherited from the nations of antiquity, for whom the word "hostis"  meant both a stranger and an enemy; and with the Arabs the term harby (warrior) expresses not only an unbeliever but also an enemy; and Djehddi (striver, warrior) means the believer-militant."