April 15, 1854 Karl Marx
Jihad
The Koran and the Mussulman (Muslims) legislation emanating from it reduce the geography and ethnography of the various peoples to the simple and convenient distinction of two nations and of two countries; those of the faithful and of the infidels. The infidel is “harby,” i.e., the enemy. Islamism proscribes the nation of the infidels, constituting a state of permanent hostility between the Mussulman and the unbeliever (e.g. Jihad). In that sense the corsair ships of the Berber states were the holy fleet of Islam. How, then, is the existence of Christian subjects of the Porte to be reconciled with the Koran?”
Source: Lewis, Bernard. A Middle East Mosaic Fragments of Life, Letters and History, Random House 2000, p. 294-299
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