I recently had someone tell me that they had done some studying up on the Muslim religion. He said that they believed in a circle of peace and a circle of evil (or something along those lines). They believe that they are in the circle of peace and christians, jews, etc. are in the circle of evil. They believe that those in the circle of peice are supposed to exterminate those outside. He said that the media’s portrayal of muslims as peaceful people is to retain support from the muslim population in the US. Is there any truth to any of this? (Sorry if the whole “circle” thing was way off, I can’t remember exactly what he said)
I think your friend is thinking of the dar al’islam (house of submission) and the dar al’harb (house of war). These are Muslim theological and philosophical concepts that come, I believe, from the middle ages. The idea is, in the dar al’islam, which is the muslim world, there is peace and harmony because muslims recognize that they all are brothers and sisters, and they all seek to serve G-d. The dar al’harb, the non-Muslim world, on the other hand, is full of war and dissention, because people worship false gods and don’t understand how to properly serve G-d, so they fight amongst themselves and oppress each other. All muslims, according to this idea, should live in the dar al’islam, and are forbidden to make war against each other. The ultimate goal for muslims, is to make the entire world the dar al’islam. At that point, everyone will see each others as brothers and sisters, and serve G-d. Needless to say, this is an extremely idealistic belief. It’s the idea of how the world should be, and not neccesarily the way it is.
There was a similar idea in Medeval Christianity. There was an idea of “Christendom”, the Christian world as a whole, led by Christians, who were commanded to love one another and be at peace. Contrasting that was the pagan world, which all Christians had a duty to fight against.
It’s important to note, again, that both the “dar al’islam” and “Christendom” are descriptions of the way the world should be, more than those of the way the world are, and in both beliefs, the focus is on the ingroup, not the outgroup. The people who came up with these concepts didn’t do it so much to say “Fight the heathen”. They did so to say, "We [Muslims][Christians] need to stop fighting each other, because we are brothers and are supposed to serve G-d, and set up a true [Muslim][Christian] state, where no one goes hungry and everyone loves each other.