text: Jihadists today invoke the Qur’an to justify the worst terrorist crimes. Throat slitting of infidels is mentioned in the Qur’an. Al-Mawardi (d. 1058), the prominent 11th century jurist quoted this verse, specifically,  « When you encounter those who deny (the Truth) then strike (their) necks. » (Qur’an 47 :4), in his learned discussion of jihad. This ritual execution is also mentioned in other Muslim legal texts and in narratives of Christian and prominent Muslim historians. Today it is performed against infidels and recorded on videotape for the edification of Muslim audiences. \n\nWhen the average pious Muslim reads a verse like 2:132 (“And this was the legacy that Abraham left to his sons, and so did Jacob; ‘Oh my sons! Allah hath chosen the Faith for you; then die not except in the Faith of Islam’”) or 3:67 (“Abraham was not a Jew nor yet a Christian; but he was true in Faith, and bowed his will to Allah’ (which is Islam), and he joined not gods with Allah”), he understands what so many imams tell him: that the true Jews and Christians of today are the Muslims, and the people who go by those names are renegades and rebels against God. \n\nThis is of course nonsense.\n\nThis argument does not rest on any idea that Abraham or Moses observed specifically Islamic rituals, but on the idea that they were prophets of the True Faith which was restored by Mohammed after it was corrupted by Jews and Christians.\n\nThis is of course nonsense.