World Wars-Part 2

So, what was the cause of this disaster which transformed Europe into an ocean of blood? Why did the leaders of powerful countries push their nations into such a meaningless pit of death?

Before the war, many people thought that such a war would be very beneficial, and even that it was necessary. Many people welcomed the war and were overjoyed when war was declared. Leaders were proud to send off their soldiers to the battlefields.

The main cause of this great mistake was their belief in a concept, namely Darwinism. American historian Thomas Knapp explains this as follows:

The war itself was not a surprise. It had been in fact anticipated in wide European circles in the decade or so before 1914. There is even a fair amount of evidence to show that the number of Europeans on all sides welcomed the war. War was to be cleansing, exciting and rejuvenating (refreshing). Educational systems in most European countries were shot through with the kind of Social Darwinist competitive mentality in which war was seen as exhilarating and ennobling.

Social Darwinism was the application of Darwin's evolutionary theory to society.

In his theory, which was later disproved, Darwin claimed that all creatures in nature were engaged in a struggle to survive. He claimed that humans were an advanced form of animal which moved ahead through conflict. This mistaken theory, which looked like a scientific fact to many people considering the technological level of that age, formed the foundation for World War I, as well as a number of other social disasters.

The diaries and personal correspondence of European leaders from that time show that they were influenced by Social Darwinism. These leaders rejected the path of love and mercy-based morality which God had revealed to the people in favor of Social Darwinism instead.

For instance, General von Hoetzendorff, the Austria-Hungarian chief of staff, wrote this in his postwar memoirs:

Philanthropic (good hearted) religions, moral teachings and philosophical doctrines (theories) may certainly sometimes serve to weaken mankind's struggle for existence in its crudest form, but they will never succeed in removing it as a driving motive of the world… It is in accordance with this great principle that the catastrophe of the world war came about as the result of the motive forces in the lives of states and peoples, like a thunderstorm which must by its nature discharge itself.

Friedrich von Bernhardi, another First World War general, also drew a link between war and the so-called evolutionary laws of nature:

War is a biological necessity. It is as necessary as the struggle of the elements of nature; it gives a biologically just decision, since its decisions rest on the very nature of things.

In sum, World War I was caused by European rulers who believed that fighting, bloodshed, suffering and making others suffer were all part of the "law of nature." It is Darwin's evolutionary theory which pushed an entire generation into these mistaken beliefs. The dark figure of Darwin lurks behind the curtain of war.

However, contrary to Darwin's claims, humans are not animals that survive in order to do battle with each other. In the Qur'an, God has this to say about those who start wars:

…Each time they kindle the fire of war, God extinguishes it. They rush about the earth corrupting it. God does not love corrupters.

God created people, gave them a spirit that is unique among all other living things, and commanded them to lead a moral existence. This way of life requires love, fraternity, mercy and peace. Only if people obey this instruction can the world become a place of peace. The divine order that will bring peace and salvation to all humanity is expressed in the Qur'an as follows:

... And do good as God has been good to you. And do not seek to cause corruption in the earth. God does not love corrupters.

World War I was the product of a thought system that assumed that fighting and bloodshed were an essential law of nature. Even after the war ended, this philosophy lived on. Because it did not die, it went on to plant the seed of an even larger, more terrifying war. Germany was at the center of this great threat.

The Treaty of Versailles that ended World War I imposed on Germany a very heavy financial burden of compensation (return). Even as the nation struggled to recover from the effects of the war, it began to fall into a serious economic crisis. Competing political groups took to fighting in the streets. In the midst of this chaotic atmosphere, a fanatical (enthusiastic) political movement began to rise. This was the Nazi Party led by Adolf Hitler. Nazism was nothing but an interpretation of Social Darwinism.

Hitler had already adopted the "racial struggle to survive" view which was the basis of Darwin's theory. According to Hitler, the Aryan race of the German people was at the top rung of the evolutionary ladder and it had the right to rule over other races. In order to make this view a reality, they needed another war, a war that would make Germany the ruler of the whole world. Brutal, ambitious leaders were leading this movement.

The situation of these leaders was explained as follows in the Qur'an:

Whenever he holds the upper hand, he goes about the earth corrupting it, destroying (people's) crops and breeding stock. God does not love corruption.

Then, is it to be expected of you, if you assumed power, that you will cause corruption in the earth and sever your ties of kinship?

Nazism started another world war in 1939. Nazi armies occupied Poland through a sudden attack. Germany brought Poland to its knees in only three weeks. Poland's capital Warsaw was bombed mercilessly and many civilians died.

The entire world was huddled (dumped) in fear, waiting to see what the next target would be. The German General Staff was making plans for new attacks. Meanwhile, another totalitarian power took the first step towards war: the Soviet Union ruled by Stalin's bloody dictatorship.

Stalin and Hitler signed a non-aggression pact in August 1939. They reached an agreement to share Poland, but this was not to satisfy Stalin (Red Army). With a sudden attack, the Red Army invaded the Baltic states of Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania. Then they moved towards the north and occupied Finland. This attack claimed over a quarter-million lives.

With a new attack launched in April 1940, Hitler's troops occupied Denmark, Norway, Belgium and the Netherlands. German armies entered France via Belgium in May 1940. Tens of thousands of civilians started fleeing their homes out of fear of Nazi violence.

On June 13, German armies marched into the streets of Paris. Hitler posed for photographers in front of the Eiffel Tower. In the months to come, Germany went on to invade Bulgaria, Yugoslavia and Greece. All of entire Europe was being crushed under Hitler's boots.

Germany's largest plan for occupation was against onetime ally Russia. This plan, codenamed Operation Barbarossa, began with a sudden attack on June 22, 1941.

The German Army moved quickly and within 12 weeks, they had invaded Kiev. One month later, they were at the outskirts of Moscow.

The next three years witnessed the unfolding of a horrific war between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. This conflict, which became the bloodiest war in all of history, claimed the lives of over 30 million people. Both of the sides fighting in this war, Nazism and Communism, committed terrible crimes against humanity.

The ideologies fighting in this war were trying to realize their own plans and expectations, although they had no moral or humanitarian cause. Towards their ends, they allowed the killings of millions of people. Supporting such cruelty which recognizes no boundaries is strictly forbidden in the Qur'an.

Do not obey the orders of the profligate (reckless), those who corrupt the earth and do not put things right.

World War II was more than just a war, it was also a concerted effort to commit massacres and genocide. This initiative was based on Hitler's racist "living space" policy.

As the allied forces liberated Nazi-occupied lands, the brutal genocide the Nazis carried out in the concentration camps came to light. 11 million people had been murdered with horrible mass extermination methods, and those few who were still alive were half-dead. This form of barbarity shows the extent of the catastrophes that Darwinist racism has led to.

Hitler claimed that Germany's current territory was not enough for the German people and that the Aryan race was being squeezed on this land. He thus argued that they had to occupy the Eastern European countries and turn these places into Lebensraum, or "living space," for Germans. The tens of millions of people already living on these lands faced cruel massacres.

The Nazi armies perpetrated enormous massacres in every region they occupied in Eastern Europe. In particular, they carried out wantonly merciless acts against Jews, Gypsies, Poles and Slavs, groups they saw as inferior to them.

Special Nazi SS units formed especially to carry out these massacres started killing all the groups they targeted, above all the Jews. All the occupied areas were thick with the bodies of the dead and survivors grieving over them. Clergymen and places of worship were favorite targets of the Nazis. They burned and destroyed all the churches and killed people of faith.

The Nazi's cruelty was on full show in their concentration camps. Jews, Gypsies, prisoners of war and Catholic clergymen were made to toil like slaves. These camps were turned into slaughterhouses for human beings. Millions of innocent men, women and children were cruelly murdered in systems designed to kill people en masse. When the camps were liberated, the Allies were greeted by tens of thousands of dead bodies side-by-side with prisoners waiting at death's door. In the Nazi concentration camps, a total of 11 million innocent people lost their lives.

By 1943, it had become clear that the Nazis were going to lose the war. In Stalingrad, Hitler's armies suffered a huge defeat at the hands of Soviet forces. After this disaster, Germans also lost another battle in the Kursk region, an event known as the greatest tank battle in history. Defeat was now inevitable. But the Nazis, even as they withdrew, continued their slaughter. Acting under Hitler's orders, they laid waste to all the areas they passed through and killed civilians. German armies left behind millions of dead bodies and survivors grieving for their relatives.

When the Allied armies reached Berlin, the downfall of Nazism was inevitable. However, the Red Army troops which entered Berlin were representatives of another ideology of violence. In the years of come, it became all-too-clear that Stalin's armies were no less cruel and violent than Hitler's. About the same number of people came to perish in Stalin's camps. In the areas they occupied, Stalin's soldiers committed massacres similar to the atrocities of Nazi soldiers.

The insanity known as World War II claimed the lives of 55 million people. The world had borne witness to another satanic rite of bloodshed. However, God told the people to follow the way of peace and security, not evil:

O You who believe! Enter absolutely into peace. Do not follow in the footsteps of Satan. He is an outright enemy to you.