Islam means total war against everybody forever

Islam, while it has features that are more biblical than “Bible Christians,” such as men with beards, women with burkas and both living in tents, is too close to Gnosticism, Masonry and Mormonism–and frankly too racially zealous–to make a genuine appeal to what is good let alone godly in us. With that being said, Islamophobia is no way to win hearts. So I’ve compiled a word list for our education, courtesy of etymonline.com:

• Allah: 1702, Arabic name for the Supreme Being, from Arabic Allahu, contraction of al-Ilahu, from al “the” + Ilah “God,” related to Hebrew Elohim.
• salaam: Muslim greeting, 1610s, from Arabic salam (also in Urdu, Persian), literally “peace” (cf. Hebrew shalom); in full, (as)salam ‘alaikum “peace be upon you,” from base of salima “he was safe” (cf. Islam, Muslim).
• Islam¹: “religious system revealed by Muhammad,” 1818, from Arabic islam, literally “submission” (to the will of God), from root of aslama “he resigned, he surrendered, he submitted,” causative conjunction of salima “he was safe,” and related to salam “peace.”
  Earlier English names for the faith include Mahometry (late 15c.), Muhammadism (1610s), Islamism (1747), and Ismaelism (c.1600), which in part is from Ishmaelite, a name formerly given (especially by Jews) to Arabs, as descendants of Ishmael (q.v.), and in part from Arabic Ismailiy, name of the Shiite sect that after 765 C.E. followed the Imamship through descendants of Ismail (Arabic for Ishmael), eldest son of Jafar, the sixth Imam. The Ismailians were not numerous, but among them were the powerful Fatimid dynasty in Egypt and the Assassins, both of whom loomed large in European imagination.
• Muslim: 1610s (n.), 1777 (adj.), from Arabic muslim “one who submits” (to the faith), from root of aslama “he resigned.” Related to Islam.
• jihad: 1869, from Arabic, usually translated as “holy war,” literally “struggle, contest, effort,” from infinitive of jahada “he waged war, he applied himself to.” Used in English since c.1880 for any sort of doctrinal crusade.
• sharia (n.): Islamic religious law, 1855, from Arabic shari’ah “the revealed law,” from shar’ “revelation.”
• burka (n.): 1836, from Hindi, from Arabic burqa’. A loose, usually black or light blue robe that is worn by Muslim women, especially in Afghanistan, and that covers the body from head to toe.
• Taliban: Sunni fundamentalist movement in Afghanistan, Pashto plural of Arabic tālib “student,” so called because it originated among students in Pakistani religious schools. Group formed c.1993. Often incorrectly treated as singular in English.
• al Qaida²: also Al-Qaeda; name of a loosely structured jihadist movement founded c.1989 by Osama bin Laden; from Arabic, literally “the base.” A common Arabic term among Muslim radicals from the wider Islamic world who came to Afghanistan in 1980s and fought alongside local rebels against the Soviets, and who regarded themselves and their struggle not merely in Afghan terms but as the “base” or foundation of a wider jihad and revival in Islam. Used by Bin Laden’s mentor, Abdallah Azzam (1941-1989), who referred to the “vanguard” which “constitutes the strong foundation [al-qaida al-sulbah] for the expected society.” In the U. S., the term first turns up in a C.I.A. report in 1996.
• Al Jazeera: In Arabic, al-ǧazīrah literally means “the island”. However, it refers here to the Arabian Peninsula, which is شبه الجزيرة العربية šibh al-ğazīrah al-ʿarabiyyah, abbreviated to الجزيرة العربية al-ğazīrah al-ʿarabiyyah.

• terrorism (n.) 1795, in specific sense of “government intimidation during the Reign of Terror in France” (March 1793-July 1794), from French terrorisme (1798), from Latin terror³.
  “If the basis of a popular government in peacetime is virtue, its basis in a time of revolution is virtue and terror — virtue, without which terror would be barbaric; and terror, without which virtue would be impotent.” (Robespierre, speech in French National Convention, 1794).
  General sense of “systematic use of terror as a policy” is first recorded in English 1798. At one time, a word for a certain kind of mass-destruction terrorism was dynamitism (1883); and during World War I frightfulness (translating German Schrecklichkeit) was used in Britain for “deliberate policy of terrorizing enemy non-combatants.”

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¹ “…Islam is the only major religion, along with Buddhism (if we consider the name of the religion to come from Budd, the Divine Intellect, and not the Buddha), whose name is not related to a person or ethnic group, but to the central idea of the religion” (“The Heart of Islam: Enduring Values for Humanity,” Seyyed Hossein Nasr, 2002).

² “Every Muslim, from the moment they realise the distinction in their hearts, hates Americans, hates Jews, and hates Christians. This is a part of our belief and our religion. For as long as I can remember, I have felt tormented and at war, and have felt hatred and animosity for Americans” (Osama bin Laden, interview aired on Al-Jazeera, December 1998).

³ terror (n.) late 14c., “great fear,” from Old French terreur (14c.), from Latin terrorem (nominative terror) “great fear, dread,” from terrere “fill with fear, frighten,” from PIE root *tre- “shake” (see terrible). Meaning “quality of causing dread” is attested from 1520s; terror bombing first recorded 1941, with reference to German air attack on Rotterdam. Sense of “a person fancied as a source of terror” (often with deliberate exaggeration, as of a naughty child) is recorded from 1883. The Reign of Terror in French history (March 1793-July 1794) so called in English from 1801. Old English words for “terror” included broga and egesa.

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