ISLAM IS THE ENEMY



A Moment For Truth
Dave Hunt

America awakened September 11 to appalling scenes on TV of passenger
planes deliberately crashing into the towers of the World Trade Center
and into the Pentagon. Stunned disbelief gave way to the question, who
could so carefully plan and efficiently execute such incredibly
inhumane destruction and slaughter?

What cause could so powerfully motivate educated and trained
individuals to sacrifice their own lives and the lives of so many total
strangers in this manner? In the minds of civilized people these men
were unbelievable fanatics. But were they? Could one call the
spiritual leader of an entire major country a "fanatic," a man
universally recognized as properly representing his religion? Who would
know his religion better than the spiritual leader himself? Such was
Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini when he declared, "The purest joy in Islam is
to kill and be killed for Allah."

Is that fanaticism? And could you call the founder of a major world
religion a fanatic? Muhammad, who with his followers slaughtered
thousands in establishing and spreading Islam, said of Muslims, "Who
relinquishes his faith, kill him...I have been ordered by Allah to
fight with people till they testify there is no god but Allah and
Mohammed is his messenger."

Was Muhammad a fanatic? Are they fanatics who obey him today in
exacting the death penalty upon Muslims (as in Afghanistan, the Arab
Emirates, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and Sudan) who for the sake of
conscience convert to another religion? Do we need a new definition of
"fanatic"?

There is a certain hypocrisy in the new outrage with which America and
the world now view terrorism. History's bloodiest, most vicious and
successful terrorist, Yasser Arafat, has been given the Nobel Peace
Prize and embraced as a world statesman. He is proof to would-be
imitators that terrorism pays big. The United Nations, European Union,
and countless world political and religious leaders have sided with him
in his terrorism against Israel.

Arafat and his PLO held the record for the largest hijacking (four
aircraft in a single operation)-which has just been equaled, the
greatest number of hostages held at one time (300), the greatest number
of people shot at an airport, the largest ransom collected ($5 million
paid by Lufthansa), the greatest variety of targets (40 civilian
passenger aircraft, five passenger ships, 30 embassies or diplomatic
ministries plus innumerable fuel depots and factories), etc.

Instead of being tried by an international tribunal as were the Nazi
and Serbian leadership, Arafat's bloody exploits gained for him
acceptance as a leader for peace!

In his brief speech to the nation the morning of the 12th, President
Bush declared that the attacks on New York and Washington, D.C. were
"acts of war." Indeed, they were-jihad ("holy war"). He said that
"freedom and democracy are under attack [but] we will not allow this
enemy to win the war by...restricting our freedoms." Is it a mere
coincidence that the freedom of speech, religion, the press, and of
vote and conscience which we hold so dear in America are suppressed in
every Muslim country? Who dares to make the obvious connection between
this declaration of war against America, and the declaration of war
against the entire world by Muhammad in the seventh century; a part of
Islam ever since? Since its inception, jihad has been waged by Islamic
warriors to spread that religion of violence and hatred. Islam does not
change. Rioting Muslim mobs invariably chant in their "fanaticism,"
"Allah is great! Allah is great!"

In the wake of this terrible act of "holy war," our President and
Congressional leaders referred to God numerous times and invoked His
blessing in tracking down the perpetrators of this infamous deed. The
God of the Bible to whom they referred is not Allah, the god of Islam,
whom the attacking terrorists served so faithfully!

We may be certain that the hijackers were not Israelis or evangelical
Christians. Never! The simple but horrible fact is that only the
religion of Islam could supply the motivation for what they did. Why
are Muslims responsible for most terrorism in the world today? There is
a definitive and foundational reason.

It would be extremely naive to imagine that terrorists who are willing
to blow themselves up in Israel or to crash a plane at the loss of
their own and many other lives do so for some commendable humanitarian
cause. The courage comes solely from a unique doctrine of Islam.

Abu-Bakr, the first Caliph to succeed Muhammad (and one of the few to
whom Muhammad promised Paradise without martyrdom), declared that even
if he had one foot in Paradise he could not trust Allah to let him in.
The only sure way in Islam of achieving Paradise is to sacrifice one's
life in jihad. Yes, suicide is forbidden as self-murder. But to
sacrifice one's life in killing infidels carries the highest reward.

And what reward does Paradise bring to the jihad martyr? He is promised
a palace of pearls in which are 70 mansions; inside each mansion are 70
houses and in each house a bed on which are 70 sheets and on each sheet
a beautiful virgin. He is assured that he will have the appetite and
strength of 100 men for food and sex. This is the fantastic dream that
is fed to Muslim boys from earliest childhood. This motivation alone
gives the reckless courage and determination to train and execute
terrorist deeds in which they sacrifice their lives in bringing death
and destruction to "the enemies of Allah."

America has been called "the Great Satan" by Muslim leaders around the
world. Thus the strike at America was a strike for Allah against his
chief enemy. Palestinians danced in the streets to celebrate the
destruction in America, shouting victory to Allah. The day before the
attack CNN showed routine footage of third grade children in a West
Bank school chanting death to Israel. Only indoctrination into Islam
makes possible such incredible scenes and the terrorism they celebrate.

Though people of good will naturally recoil from attaching blame to a
major world religion itself, we can no longer afford such
sentimentality. No longer dare we allow Islam to escape its undeniable
responsibility. Yet former President Bush called Islam a peace-loving
religion. The devastating acts of war by Islamic terrorists against the
United States were greeted by naive statements from well-intentioned
government leaders to the effect that we must distinguish between
terrorism perpetrated by extremist groups and Islam itself which is
peaceful. Yet there are more than 100 verses in the Qur'an advocating
the use of violence to spread Islam.

In the Qur'an, Allah commands Muslims, "Take not the Jews and
Christians as friends...Slay the idolaters [non-Muslims] wherever ye
find them.... Fight against such...as believe not in Allah..." (Surah
5:51; 9:5,29,41, etc..). Though most Muslims would shrink from obeying
such commands, this is official Islam and it cannot change without
admitting that Muhammad was a false prophet and murderer.

Several years ago Steven Emerson produced for PBS an excellent video
titled Jihad In America. Its cameras went directly inside cell groups
associated with mosques here in America where eager young Muslims were
being recruited for jihad against the United States. Muslim leaders are
shown giving speeches about bringing America to its knees through
terrorism and making cold-blooded statements such as the following from
Fayiz Azzam in Brooklyn in1989: "Blood must flow, there must be widows,
orphans. Hands and limbs must be severed and limbs and blood must be
spread everywhere in order that Allah's religion stand on its feet!"
Yes, Allah's religion is the motivation!

In Kansas, in 1988, another leader recruiting Islamic holy warriors
against the United States exults, "O, brothers! After Afghanistan
[where Muslim "freedom fighters," aided by the CIA, drove out the
Soviets and installed the brutal Taliban regime] nothing in the world
is impossible for us any more! There are no superpowers or minipowers.
What matters is will power that springs from our religious belief!"
Yes, religious belief, the particular belief of Islam, is the only
motivation capable of inspiring such "fanaticism."

At the beginning of the video, Emerson, who had tracked international
terrorism for the prior ten years, reported on what he called "networks
of Islamic extremists" inside the US. He accurately warned that "for
these militants jihad is a holy war, an armed struggle to defeat
nonbelievers, or infidels, and their ultimate goal is to establish an
Islamic [worldwide] empire." Yet he later backpedaled into the
incredible statement that "Islam as a religion does not condone
violence; the radicals represent only themselves-an extremist and
violent fringe..." That is simply not true. It is not because men are
Arabs or extremists that they turn to terrorism, but because they are
devout Muslims. Yet who will face this obvious fact?

Hatred of Israel and the call to destroy America for supporting her are
also underlying themes of the terrorists seen in the documentary.
Another Muslim leader in the US declares that Washington's Capitol Hill
is "Zionist-occupied territory," that the Jews control Congress, and
that the United States deserves what it gets so long as it continues to
support Israel.

Referring repeatedly to "Islamic holy warriors," the video documented
as clearly as could be done that Islam is the driving force behind
terrorism. Astonishingly, however, the narrator and counter-terrorism
experts being interviewed repeatedly declared that Islam was not to be
blamed but only the "fanaticism" of certain individuals. For example,
Paul Bremer, former Ambassador-at-Large for counter-terrorism for the
State Department, said it is "important to make a distinction...the
vast majority of Muslims and Arabs are peace loving." It is true that
the vast majority of Muslims are peace loving and would protest that
they support terrorism. Our sympathy is with them. However, should they
not ask themselves why they follow a religion founded upon violence,
which from its very inception has been spread with the sword?

Under Muhammad's leadership in the seventh century, thousands of Arabs
(and many Jews and Christians) in the Arabian Peninsula were killed by
Islam's fierce "holy warriors" to force that religion upon the Arab
world. Upon Muhammad's death, most Arabians abandoned Islam, imagining
that they were free at last. Swiftly, tens of thousands of Arabs were
slaughtered in the Wars of Apostasy, which forced Arabia back under
Allah. From that base Islam was spread everywhere with the sword.

On radio and TV, during that black Tuesday in September, which we can
never forget, we were repeatedly told by well-intentioned government
officials that we must be careful not to blame Islam for what a few
fanatics had done. In fact, terrorists act in direct obedience to
Muhammad, the Qur'an, Allah and Islam. While nominal Muslims reject the
idea, all Islamic scholars agree that it is the religious duty of every
Muslim to use violence whenever possible to spread Islam until it has
taken over the world.

We need to face some simple questions: Is not the attempt to force them
into Islam the cause of the cruel enslavement, torture and slaughter of
millions in southern Sudan? Is not Islam the driving force behind the
murderous and destructive riots against Christians in Nigeria,
Indonesia, Pakistan and elsewhere? Is it not the enforcement of Islamic
law that makes the Taliban deny all civil rights to those under its
control in Afghanistan? And what is it but Islam that unites the
otherwise divided Arab world in an implacable and unreasoning hatred
against Israel?

No Arab map in the world admits Israel's existence. It is only Islam's
claim that Ishmael, not Isaac, was the son of promise and that the Holy
Land belongs to them, which unites Arabs in the "fanatical"
determination to destroy the Jews.

There is a natural reluctance to accept any statement which seems to be
a prejudiced attack upon a world religion. It is the fear of such
prejudice which prevents the world from facing the truth. But is it
prejudice to state the plain facts? No, it is not-but it is difficult
to face the truth that Islam itself is a religion of violence and that
those who practice it are not extremists and fanatics in the ordinary
sense of those words, but sincere followers of Muhammad.

The world has sided with Islam in its false claim to the land of
Israel, which is now inaccurately called Palestine. This promised land,
given to Israel by the God of the Bible, has been occupied by Jews
continuously for the last 3,000 years, and they are the only people to
have done so. In recognition of that undeniable historic fact, all of
"Palestine" was to be given to the Jews for a national homeland by a
1917 ruling of the League of Nations. But steadily the Jews were
betrayed by Britain's administration of this mandate (and the demise of
the British Empire can be dated from that betrayal); the land was
parceled out to Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, etc. Israel is now accused of
"occupying" land, which actually has been theirs for 3,000 years. The
come-lately "Palestinians" are sustained by the world in the lie that
they are the original owners of this land. As a result, terrorism is
perpetrated not only against Israel but now in this latest act against
the United States to apply pressure to force Israel out of its rightful
land and to spread Islam around the world.

We have arrived at a defining moment when truth could triumph if the
world would recognize that terrorists are not "fanatics" but devout
fundamentalist Muslims who are earnestly following their religion. This
recognition could bring fresh sympathy for Muslims of all nationalities
who are tragically trapped in that system.

The expose of the truth could embarrass Muslim nations into opening the
Islamic Curtain and allowing freedom to enter their borders. It could
be a new day of open evangelism for the world where not force but love
and reason permit each person to determine the faith he would embrace
from his heart.

Let us pray to that end.

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