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418chapter sixopen and democratic system of mutual consultation, as practisedby the Prophet (ß) who accepted collective decisions evenif they did not reflect his own views, shår§ was reduced to ameans of identifying potential critics of the regime. If peopledared to articulate views that threatened the ruler’s positionthey were eventually silenced by imprisonment and torture.2. The emergence of the concept of ‘dispatching’ / ‘sending of’ ( al-tasyÊr):This was practiced in two ways, 1) by escorting a group of criticsto the ruler’s palace where, intimidated and frightened bythe presence of fully armed guards, they had to listen to theviews of the despot without been given the chance to respond;2) by sending them (‘unescorted’) as soldiers to the front wherethey had to fight, and die, alongside the troops of professionalghazwa warriors. For their comfort and psychological assurance,they were made to believe that their fight was a form ofjih§d. This convinced the warriors, who fought bloody wars,that they were in fact muj§hidÊn. It did not take long for thisideological dilemma to lead to a confusion between ghazwa andjih§d. Historical documents show that this terminological confusionoccurred in the transition period between the era of therightly guided caliphs and the beginning of Umayyad rule. Bythe time that Islamic fiqh emerged, a clear distinction betweenghazwa and jih§d had already completely disappeared. Themuj§hidÊn were subsequently defined as ‘warriors for the causeof Allah’ and shuhad§" became the ‘martyrs of Islam’ who weregiven a guaranteed entry-ticket to Paradise.3. The practice of eviction:To force people to leave their houses and send them into exilehas become a favourite way to silence critics of the regime.4. Manipulation by bribery:If the above three methods did not yield the expected results,tactics had to change. After having being kept in abject povertyfor a humiliatingly long period of time, critics were suddenlyshowered with money, goods, and all sorts of privileges. Theaim was to corrupt their souls by asking them to join the ranksof the mercenaries who yearned after the booty gained in themost recent raids and who became rich by amassing the plunderedgoods of foreign peoples. And who would listen to thecriticisms of a corrupted soul?