9/11, Islamophobia and The Religion of Peace.

September 11, 2010


Nine years ago, a group of Muslim men planned and carried out a vicious attack, murdering thousands of innocent Americans in the name of Allah, in what they saw as a holy war.

Almost immediately, Americans were inundated with assurances that Islam is a “religion of peace,” and a flurry of cautions against “Islamophobia,” and dire predictions of anti-Muslim backlash. This has become the babble de rigueur offered up every time a Muslim murders or tries to murder Americans. We hear it from politicos and news anchors, it’s fed to us in our newspapers. That no such anti-Muslim backlash has yet appeared seems to escape the babblers’ notice.

Now we’re hearing it because so many people find the idea of a mosque built near ground zero offensive. We’re hearing it because a pastor of a small church in Florida threatened to burn some Korans.

Right along with the “religion of peace” rhetoric and reminders of all the peaceful, moderate Muslims who live among us, we are cautioned that opposing the mosque and burning Korans might “inflame” Muslims against America, boost terrorist recruitment, possibly bringing about more attacks against us or our soldiers. The inherent contradiction of these two memes seems to escape the folks parroting them.

Islam, a religion of peace?

Undoubtedly, there are millions of Muslims around the world who peacefully go about their business without any desire to murder non-Muslims. I’m sure there have always been many Muslims, since Islam came about who had no interest in invading other countries, killing and subjugating as they went, but that didn’t stop the Muslim Ottomans from expanding until the empire covered much of Southeastern Europe, Western Asia and Northern Africa.

For that matter, I’m sure there were some of Muhammad’s original followers who didn’t really care for attacking caravans for booty, subjugating tribes by killing the men and raping the women, but that didn’t stop him from filling his treasury and building his power base in this manner.

Oh, but Christians were just as bad…the Crusades, you know. Well, the Crusades were launched in response to hundreds of years of Ottoman invasion and subjugation of huge areas of Christendom, a fact that most people who make this comparison are either ignorant of or prefer to ignore. By the time of the Crusades, 2/3 of the Christian world had been conquered by Muslims and the remaining third was in real danger of following.

Another regular attempt at creating a moral equivalency is to cite a few of the more violent passages in the Old Testament. There are instances in the Old Testament when God told the Jews to make war against specific tribes, but an injunction to slay any or all unbelievers unless they convert (Jews and Christians being allowed to pay a tax to avoid being slain) such as exists in the Koran is nowhere to be found. Yes, the Old Testament lists stoning as punishment for various offenses, but this was effectively banned hundreds of years before Muhammad was even born. When you hear news stories of people being stoned to death for adultery now, it isn’t Jews or Christians doing the stoning.

I won’t list all the passages encouraging war, violence, murder and rape found in the Koran and other Muslim religious writings. Nor will I list out all the hateful, violence-instigating speech made regularly by mullahs, imams, ayatollahs and even some leaders of so-called moderate Muslim groups here in America either. A bit of easy web search will provide plenty of examples.


The difference is the Judeo-Christian Faiths have turned away from such passages and rhetoric. Oh, you might get a whacko here or there, with twisted religious motives but on the rare occasion any terroristic violence occurs, it is universally and strongly condemned. Nobody (as in organized groups…there are always a few idjits out there) tries to excuse or justify it when some whack job who calls himself a Christian bombs an abortion clinic. Church leaders speak out against such acts, and we as a society punish the perpetrators to the fullest extent of the law.

In contrast, Muslim organizations funnel vast amounts of money to terrorists, and Muslims the world over celebrated on 9/11/01, dancing in the streets and screaming with joy. Muslim governments often offer shelter to these murdering terrorists, if not outright support. All sorts of justifications for their barbarous acts are offered, tacitly or even baldly by Muslim politicians, leaders and clerics even while some pay lip service to condemning the violence.

“Moderate” (and not so “moderate) Muslims in America often blame all the violence on Israel and America’s support of Israel, completely ignoring the fact that the plight of the so-called Palestinians was actually created by the surrounding Muslim nations trying to wipe Israel off the face of the Earth. But that’s a whole other essay, and in any case doesn’t explain away all the bombings and murder committed in the name of Allah all around the world, in countries having nothing to do with Israel or American policies. Neither does it explain the rampant persecution of Christians in Muslim nations. Ancient Christian communities around the world are simply ceasing to exist as Christians flee for their lives, or are deprived of them.

We are lectured by speakers from CAIR or other “moderate” Muslim organizations here in America about “discrimination” and “Islamophobia” but what have they said about the treatment of Christians and Jews in Muslim countries today?

So while we listen to all the pundits, politicos and Muslim apologists wring their hands and bewail the supposedly growing anti-Islam sentiment and accuse us of Islamophobia because we resist what we see as attempts to Islamize America such as incursions of sharia into our legal & justice systems and the granting of special rights or facilities (sometimes at taxpayer expense) to ease Islamic religious practice, it behooves us to remember that while that while most American Muslims are peaceful, there is an awful lot of evidence out there to show that Islam, as it is practiced in many places, is not necessarily the “religion of peace” it is touted to be.
Europe is finding that out, with gangs of rioting Muslim youths burning cars and breaking things periodically, artists and writers living in fear of their lives (or losing them) for offending Islam, rising anti-Semitism and physical attacks on Jews.

Muhammad, the prophet of Islam was himself a violent and merciless war leader. There can be no argument about this, the evidence is right there in the holy writings of Islam. He himself rode into battle with his followers to conquer and subdue any who opposed him or his claim to be Allah’s chosen prophet.

It is true that there are many passages from Islamic texts that can be held up as proof of the religion’s peaceful and beneficent nature. It is also true that there are many passages that validate and encourage violence and the forced submission of all to Islam. This makes it all too easy for Islamic leaders, both governmental and clerical to justify inciting Muslims to violent acts for their own purposes.

Think it can’t happen here? John Walker Lind, the Lackawanna Six, Sgt. Hasan Akbar, John Muhammad & Lee Malvo, Hesham Mohamed Ali Hadayet, Ali Hasan Abu Kamal, Gamil al-Batouti…all Americans, all Islamic terrorists. Don’t recognize some of the names? They weren’t as successful as the 9/11 bombers, but then most terrorist acts aren’t. That fact doesn’t make it any the less true that they saw themselves engaged in the same “holy war” that brought us the horrors we remember today.

UPDATE:
Regarding authors and artists hiding out: On the advice of the FBI, Molly Norris, a Seattle cartoonist has gone underground in fear for her life after an American Born Muslim cleric has said of her in the English version of Al Qaeda magazine, "should be taken as a prime target of assassination." An American citizen, folks, exercising her American rights has had to leave her job, change her name, and move into hiding because An American born Muslim has called for her assassination.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2010/09/16/draw-muhammad-cartoonist-goes-hiding/