THE TROUBLE WITH ISLAM

Tawfik Hamid in Opinion Journal speaks truth to power:

Indeed, there is much that is clearly wrong with the Islamic world. Women are stoned to death and undergo clitorectomies. Gays hang from the gallows under the approving eyes of the proponents of Shariah, the legal code of Islam. Sunni and Shia massacre each other daily in Iraq. Palestinian mothers teach 3-year-old boys and girls the ideal of martyrdom. One would expect the orthodox Islamic establishment to evade or dismiss these complaints, but less happily, the non-Muslim priests of enlightenment in the West have come, actively and passively, to the Islamists' defense.

It is vital to grasp that traditional and even mainstream Islamic teaching accepts and promotes violence. Shariah, for example, allows apostates to be killed, permits beating women to discipline them, seeks to subjugate non-Muslims to Islam as dhimmis and justifies declaring war to do so. It exhorts good Muslims to exterminate the Jews before the "end of days." The near deafening silence of the Muslim majority against these barbaric practices is evidence enough that there is something fundamentally wrong.

The grave predicament we face in the Islamic world is the virtual lack of approved, theologically rigorous interpretations of Islam that clearly challenge the abusive aspects of Shariah. Unlike Salafism, more liberal branches of Islam, such as Sufism, typically do not provide the essential theological base to nullify the cruel proclamations of their Salafist counterparts. And so, for more than 20 years I have been developing and working to establish a theologically-rigorous Islam that teaches peace.

Yet it is ironic and discouraging that many non-Muslim, Western intellectuals—who unceasingly claim to support human rights—have become obstacles to reforming Islam. Political correctness among Westerners obstructs unambiguous criticism of Shariah's inhumanity. They find socioeconomic or political excuses for Islamist terrorism such as poverty, colonialism, discrimination or the existence of Israel. What incentive is there for Muslims to demand reform when Western "progressives" pave the way for Islamist barbarity? Indeed, if the problem is not one of religious beliefs, it leaves one to wonder why Christians who live among Muslims under identical circumstances refrain from contributing to wide-scale, systematic campaigns of terror.

Politicians and scholars in the West have taken up the chant that Islamic extremism is caused by the Arab-Israeli conflict. This analysis cannot convince any rational person that the Islamist murder of over 150,000 innocent people in Algeria—which happened in the last few decades—or their slaying of hundreds of Buddhists in Thailand, or the brutal violence between Sunni and Shia in Iraq could have anything to do with the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Western appeasement of their Muslim communities has exacerbated the problem. During the four-month period after the publication of the Muhammad cartoons in a Danish magazine, there were comparatively few violent demonstrations by Muslims. Within a few days of the Danish magazine's formal apology, riots erupted throughout the world. The apology had been perceived by Islamists as weakness and concession.

Worst of all, perhaps, is the anti-Americanism among many Westerners. It is a resentment so strong, so deep-seated, so rooted in personal identity, that it has led many, consciously or unconsciously, to morally support America's enemies.

Progressives need to realize that radical Islam is based on an antiliberal system. They need to awaken to the inhumane policies and practices of Islamists around the world. They need to realize that Islamism spells the death of liberal values. And they must not take for granted the respect for human rights and dignity that we experience in America, and indeed, the West, today.

Well-meaning interfaith dialogues with Muslims have largely been fruitless. Participants must demand&@151;but so far haven't&@151;that Muslim organizations and scholars specifically and unambiguously denounce violent Salafi components in their mosques and in the media. Muslims who do not vocally oppose brutal Shariah decrees should not be considered "moderates."

Western feminists duly fight in their home countries for equal pay and opportunity, but seemingly ignore, under a façade of cultural relativism, that large numbers of women in the Islamic world live under threat of beating, execution and genital mutilation, or cannot vote, drive cars and dress as they please.

The tendency of many Westerners to restrict themselves to self-criticism further obstructs reformation in Islam. Americans demonstrate against the war in Iraq, yet decline to demonstrate against the terrorists who kidnap innocent people and behead them. Similarly, after the Madrid train bombings, millions of Spanish citizens demonstrated against their separatist organization, ETA. But once the demonstrators realized that Muslims were behind the terror attacks they suspended the demonstrations. This example sent a message to radical Islamists to continue their violent methods.

All of this makes the efforts of Muslim reformers more difficult. When Westerners make politically-correct excuses for Islamism, it actually endangers the lives of reformers and in many cases has the effect of suppressing their voices. Tolerance does not mean toleration of atrocities under the umbrella of relativism. It is time for all of us in the free world to face the reality of Salafi Islam or the reality of radical Islam will continue to face us.

Dr. Hamid, a onetime member of Jemaah Islamiya, an Islamist terrorist group, is a medical doctor and Muslim reformer living in the West.

FINGERS IN THE WIND

It has become plain to see that many Americans simply fail to understand the few platitudes sprinkled through the Qu'ranic Surahs which call for mutual reciprocity, charity, tolerance and respect apply to "brother muslims" alone. None apply to disbelievers.

In general, Americans don't understand that the Ten Commandments, of which the Nazarene condensed to a mere two, as well as the so-called Golden Rule are missing in the third "Abrahamic Religion" and are only spoofed in a believer versus unbeliever parallelism predicated to the totalitarian thrust of its sole commandment. This commandent is an aggressive call to convert the entire world—by the bloody sword if need be—in total and absolute submission to Islam (and its death cult leadership). These naive 21st century Americans "of the book" seem content to believe that Allah means "God" in a generic benevolent way, and thus is compatible to their own simple notions of a loving god.

Frankly, that's certainly not too far off the mark these days in the hallowed halls of Islamophilia where politically correct shamans and deceivers are dutifully busy setting up the chessboard for future contests; however al-Lah is somewhat of a franchised brand name from one of many pre-existing desert cults competing for supremacy in the 7th century until Mohammed's armies won the battle, and consolidated, played forward to contemporary times. Since the al-Lah cult came to monopolize thought in large swaths of the world for enough time, al-Lah became Allah by the same mechanism we refer generically to soft drinks as 'Coke' or facial tissues as 'Kleenex' or photocopies as 'Xeroxes'. It is a matter of brand dominance leading to simple name substitution. Al-Lah is not the same as Yahweh and never was.

If those Americans who still hold dear their own religious identity but are still fuzzily projecting these same ideals upon the Mohammedan smokescreen wake up and begin to recognize these distinctions, perhaps some progress can be made in separating truth from taqiyyah before militant jihad and sharia law can take root in our own soil.

How long do we tolerate the notion of "religious superiority" now popping up everywhere across the nation? Not Christianity. Not Judaism. But by all means, let's roll out the red carpets for Mohammedism. This disasterous sentiment is prelude to a much worse outcome if Americans do not begin to realize what it is up against.

Peaceful and integrated Muslims need to prove themselves worthy of the affiliation. The fallout from the incident of the Flying Imams is just another example of something quite different at work.

Tell me. Why on earth does the ACLU support every trumped up CAIR posture that flutters across the worldstage but initiates war against groups like the Boy Scouts of America? After all, they both refuse to endorse homosexuality within its ranks. Within the former group, the ACLU doesn't seem to care. With the latter group, however, that is precisely WHY the ACLU wars against them.

Meanwhile, Muslim leaders across the globe continue to blame any resistance these radicalized or belligerent Muslims face for services rendered as mired in ignorance. Might I suggest, the ignorance is all THEIRS.

Scenario 1
American goes to Malaysia, flies Malaysian Airlines, stands up before the flight begins, and loudly prays the rosary, and asks for submission of all Muslims to Catholicism. Oh yes, and he demands in his everyday life in Kuala Lumpur that he be considered a Malaysian citizen. He would branded an “ugly American.”

Scenario 2
Muslims migrate to America to pretend to be American citizens but in reality aim to make America a nation under sharia law in the next few decades. Six imams, knowing American sensitivity towards terrorism, in order to mock it and celebrate how they sympathize with terrorists, stand on an airplane and pray. They don’t assimilate; we must assimilate to them. Are they “ugly Muslims?” No, they are victims of capitalist, imperialist oppression.

This, dear readers, unfortunately, is the logic of the Left, the naive, the US government, and spiritual slackers everywhere...

I applaud freedom and liberty for truly empathetic Muslims, and I say with full force of personality, "Welcome to America!" But to those who persist in this duality of deception and betrayal of core American values, for those who are laying in wait for the seige of America to begin, I condemn as I likewise condemn and predict a rude awakening to those who claim citizenship from generations past, as this nation is judged by Yahweh the Almighty Creator and Judge of Humanity, as it is written in terrible detail for these who comprehend the harsh end times of our bold nation's earliest birth pangs.