Perhaps Terrorists Really
Do Speak For Islam, and For Dems As Well
Commentary by Greg Lewis / NewMediaJournal.US
April 5, 2007
The time has come to consider, not whether it is Islamo-fascists
who are waging war against the United States and Israel, but rather whether
it is Islam itself that is waging war against us. Indeed, while Islamist
terrorists are numerically a relatively small segment of Islam, there
are so few Muslim voices being raised even against the most heinous atrocities
the Islamists commit that it is not inaccurate to say that Muslims in
general desire the fall of the west at the hands of their terrorist forces.
It's not, of course, a simple or straightforward matter. Islamic terrorist
factions exert powerful influence over other Muslims, especially in the
Middle East, through tactics that range from direct intimidation through
more subtle coercion down to what amounts to outright bribery.
The city of Baghdad, with its weekly catalogue of grotesqueries
that invariably include the discovery of the bodies of citizens tortured
and beheaded for the simple reason that they had the misfortune to belong
to the "wrong" Islamic sect, has become a constant reminder
to all Muslims of the risks involved in standing up against the mass slaughter
of their co-religionists at the hands of monsters.
And although the pace of the sectarian massacres has lessened significantly,
don't expect acknowledgment of this initial success of the American troop
surge from Democrats and the mainstream media any time soon. Harry Reid's
typically blank mien seems to get even blanker, if that's possible, when
anyone mentions that progress is being made in securing Baghdad as a result
of the troop surge and changing Iraqi governmental policites.
Both the Democrats and the media, through their actions
and comments, have positioned themselves solidly on the side of any Muslim
who kills any other Muslim, as long as it makes the United States cause
look bad. The very fact that Nancy Pelosi would have the audacity, not
to mention the bad judgment, to deliver a message and an incorrect
one besides from Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to Syrian leader
Bashar Assad only confirms Democrats' acknowledgment of the legitimacy
of Islamist terrorism. The Bush policy of not negotiating with terrorist
regimes such as Iran and Syria is in place for a reason, and Pelosi's
willfully ignorant mishandling of the situation only builds the case for
Democrats as terrorist supporters more strongly.
Their common smokescreen is to say that their insisting
on our pulling American troops from Iraq and threatening to cut off funding
for the war, not to mention tying the hands of American Generals conducting
the war with their so-called benchmarks, do not mean that they're unpatriotic.
However, because of their inability to even deal with any of the positives
coming out of Iraq, and the fact that their proposed legislation and the
tone they've set in debate contribute to a lowering of American forces'
morale and put our troops in danger, I think it's high time we actually
do start questioning their patriotism.
Harry Reid and Hillary Clinton and Nancy Pelosi and Chuck
Schumer and John Murtha and the rest of this sorry group are not simply
anti-American, they're unpatriotic. By their words and deeds, they've
effectively cast their lot with one of the most broadly murderous ideologies
in religious history, Islam, and we can't allow them to continue to talk
out of both sides of their mouths.
If you're still insisting that somehow Islam is a "religion
of peace," please continue reading. On March 21, in an incident that
was not nearly as widely reported as it should have been, a car with two
men in the front seats and two children in the back pulled up to a checkpoint
near a marketplace in northern Baghdad. Guards waved them through because
two small children were seen in the back seat. Once they were in the marketplace,
the two men exited the vehicle and ran. Moments later the car, with the
two children inside, was detonated remotely, killing the children and
a number of bystanders.
In other words, they used their own children to lower
suspicion that they might be suicide bombers, then murdered them after
they themselves had fled. Most westerners can think of no more cowardly
and disgraceful act, yet Muslims, to judge by the absolute lack of any
condemnation of such acts by so-called "moderate" Muslims, find
it acceptable.
What was the saying in the 1960s? If you're not part of
the solution, you're part of the problem. Well, Democrats, the "mainstream"
media, and Muslims in general are now officially part of the problem.
Now come reports that Muslims are also training their
own children to murder themselves. Fox News reported on a video dramatization
aired on Hamas Television in which a girl who is perhaps four years old
idolizes her mother, who is strapping explosives to her body in preparation
for going on a suicide/homicide bombing mission. The video ends with the
girl expressing her desire to emulate her mother and kill herself as she
attempts to kill infidels.
Now it's been clear for a long time that such terrorist
networks as Al Jazeera and Hamas Television and many Islamist websites
are promoting wanton violence, not only against infidels but among Islamic
sects. But what is remarkable is that there has been no loud public outcry
emanating from Muslims themselves against this violence, especially as
their own friends, family, and loved ones are overwhelmingly the people
who bear the brunt of the violence.
In an article entitled "The Trouble With Islam,"
(Wall Street Journal, April 3, 2007, A15), Tawfik Hamid argues that this
situation has arisen through the lack of a rigorously grounded moderate
sect of Islam. Shariah law, as the article points out, allows, nay demands,
the most egregious violence be committed against anyone, including fellow
Muslims, who do not behave in accordance with this repressive doctrine.
From female genital mutilation to the stoning of women for crimes the
west has learned to deal with more humanely to the glory of martyrdom,
Islamic law is brutal and barbaric, and it is those people, including
a majority of Muslims as well as leftists around the world, who bear the
responsibility for not speaking out against it.
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