Author: Don Feder
Publication: www.donfeder.com
Date: November 9, 2002
URL: http://www.donfeder.com/filecabinet/911Islam091102.txt
People keep asking me what we learned
from September 11, 2001 and the deaths of 3,000 of our fellow citizens.
I'm tempted to say: Absolutely nothing. (Who was it who remarked that the
lessons of history are the last things we ever learn?)
Among the many unlearned lessons
of Day-Which-Will-Live-In-Infamy-II-- the necessity to control our borders,
the need for a patriotic renewal and the importance of combatting multiculturalism
-- the most significant is the nature of Islam. You will note that I do
not say militant Islam, or radical Islam, or Islamic extremism or other
such weasel words - but Islam, period.
Every one of the hijackers who flew
airliners into the World Trade Center and Pentagon were professing and
practicing Moslems, as is Osama bin Laden. The Al Qaeda network is based
in Moslem countries and supported financially by pious Moslems in Saudi
Arabia.
The overwhelming majority of Moslem
religious authorities who've spoken out on the subject, including those
at the main mosque in Mecca and Egypt's prestigious Al Azar
University, either endorse or rationalize acts of terrorism. On a day when
Americans were incinerated or buried under tons of rubble, from Nigeria
to Indonesia, Moslems celebrated in the streets.
Sept. 11 was one chapter in a 1400-year
jihad. Every day, the World Trade Center massacre is reenacted on a smaller
scale somewhere in the Third World - Jewish women and children are burned
alive in a bus on the West Bank, a missionary is beheaded in the Philippines,
gunmen shoot up a church in Pakistan (deliberately firing into the prostrate
bodies of women trying to shield their children), ancient monasteries and
convents are destroyed in Kosovo, a woman is sentenced to death for adultery
in Nigeria, Hindus are murdered in the Kashmir, a nun is found beheaded
in Baghdad -- and the beat goes on.
Genocide in the Sudan, ethnic cleansing
in the Balkans, religious persecution in Saudi Arabia, calls for another
holocaust in mosques from Mecca to Gaza, the imposition of Islamic law
in Nigeria, forced conversions in Indonesia, synagogues burned in France,
Jews attacked across Europe - these are everyday events, as Third World
and much of the First slowly turns Islamic green.
And still our leaders, from President
Bush on down, insist on peddling the absurdity that Islam is a religion
of peace - a creed of kindness and benevolence tragically and inexplicably
corrupted by fanatics.
At a conference, I recently had
an exchange with Tom Ridge, the Director of Homeland Security, wherein
I questioned the governor on Islam a la Hans Christian Andersen. Ridge
replied that Islam was indeed a pacific faith corrupted by a handful of
heretics. I replied that the "handful" is in the hundreds of millions and
-- as far as I can see - it's the Moslems who aren't trying to kill us
who've misinterpreted their religion.
Why this reluctance to confront
manifest reality? The reason lies partly with our absurd foreign
policy. We've declared certain Moslem nations to be our loyal allies -
including Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan. We wouldn't want to offend these
dear friends by saying something unflattering about their bloody, butcherly,
dark ages faith.
Then too, Americans are naturally
benevolent. Most of us are taught from childhood that is religion is good
(and it doesn't matter which religion). As long as little Johnny believes
in God and goodness, it's inconsequential whether he lights candles, wears
a skull cap to services or prays in the direction of Mecca.
This works with every religion except
Islam.
Consider the following: Of the three
major monotheistic religions, one was started by a lawgiver, one by a man
of peace (try to imagine Mohammed telling his followers to turn the other
cheek) and one by a warrior. Mohammed led men into battle. The essence
of his message is holy war - slaughtering your enemies for the glory of
Allah. He even advised his followers to negotiate a phony truces to lull
their enemies.
For almost 1,400 years, that has
been the reality of Islam. Within a century after the death of Mohammed,
Islam spread throughout the Middle East and across North Africa. It overran
the Iberian peninsula and was finally stopped in southern France. It spread
eastward as far as the southern Philippines. It was not propagated by fresh-faced
young men knocking on doors and announcing: "Hello. I'm from your local
mosque. Have you considered the Koran?" It was spread by force - conversion
by the sword. To a large extent, it still is.
Some will respond that all religions
go through periods of violence, usually in their infancy. Christianity
had its crusades and Inquisition, its forced conversions and expulsions.
But the evil committed in the name of Christ happened centuries ago. The
evil committed in the name of the Prophet is going on now, as you read
these words. Of 22 conflicts in the Third World, 20 involve Moslems versus
someone else. Coincidence? In his brilliant book, "Clash of Cultures and
the Remaking of World Order," Samuel Huntington speaks of Islam's "bloody
borders."
There is no Methodist Jihad, no
Hasidic holy warriors, no Southern Baptist suicide bombers, no Mormon elders
preaching the annihilation of members of other faiths.
Islam is a warrior religion - the
perfect vessel for fanatics, the violence- prone, the envious and haters
of all stripes. This is one reason why Islam is making so many converts
among the peaceable denizens of our prison system.
Still, much of the West is addicted
to a fairy-tale version of Islam. Christian and Jewish clergy fall all
over themselves to have interfaith services with imams. Representatives
of Moslem groups are invited to the White House. The president signs a
Ramadan declaration. In California, public schools ask children to role-play
at being Moslems. Our universities take carefully selected verses from
the Koran and present them as the essence of the faith. All that's needed
is a Moslem character on "Sesame Street." Look - it's the Jihad Monster!
This perspective engenders a fatally
false sense of security. Imagine, in 1940, Winston Churchill taking to
the airwaves to announce that Nazism was an ideology of peace which, regrettably,
had been perverted by a few fanatics like Hitler and Goebbels. But most
storm troopers and SS men are fine follows - your friends and neighbors.
For the first thousand years of
its history - from the death of Mohammad to the 17th. century decline of
the Ottoman empire, Islam was an expansionist force. For the next 300 years,
as the West rose to preeminence, Islam receded. For the past four decades
- fueled by Arab oil wealth, a surplus population in the Middle East, the
waning of the West and the rise of more virulent strains of the faith (Shiism,
Wahhabism, Sunni fundamentalism) - Islam is expanding once more. Round
and round she goes and where she stops nobody knows.
Due to Moslem immigration and aggressive
proselytizing among the underclass, Islam is being exported to the West.
Moslem populations are burgeoning throughout Western Europe. (In southern
France, there are said to be more mosques than churches.) In Judeo-Christian
America, Islam is the fastest growing religion. It's also spreading down
the coast of West Africa, through the Balkans (after Serbia, Macedonia
is the next target) and up from Mindanao in the Philippines.
Wherever it comes, Islam brings
its delightful customs - child marriages, female circumcisions, rabid anti-Semitism,
terrorism and support for terrorism and a virulent intolerance of other
faiths.
Am I suggesting we declare war on
900 million Moslems? The question is irrelevant - many of them have declared
war on us. When one side knows it's at war and the other thinks peace and
brotherhood prevail, guess who wins?
Ultimately, it's not about Jews
in the West Bank, or Orthodox Serbs in Kosovo, or Hindus in Kashmir, or
Maronite Catholics in Lebanon, or Christians in Sudan and Nigeria but all
of us. As Ben Franklin would have it - Either we will hang together, or
surely we shall all hang separately.
I'll save what-is-to-be-done for
another installment. In the meantime, my compliments to Richard the Lionhearted
and Charles Martel.
