Fighting Against a Phantom - (what happens when nominal Muslims embrace Islam)

We are being hit one blow after another and not only don’t we know how to defend ourselves we even don't know what is hitting us.

The worst terrorist attack in Iraq took place in Feb. 28 by a man who loved America. Yes you read it right! Ra’ed Mansour al-Banna was born in Jordan in 1973 to a wealthy merchant family. He was a lawyer in his country. In 2001, sometime before 9/11, al-Banna moved to the United States , where he lived in California for nearly two years, moving from one unskilled job to another – factory worker, bus driver, and pizza maker. Ra’ed did not make much money but he seemed to fit in well, traveling to such destinations as the Golden Gate Bridge and the World Trade Center , growing his hair long, and taking up American popular music. In one photograph he sent to his family, he is seen standing in front of a military helicopter while holding an American flag. He even planned to marry a Christian woman until her parents demanded that the wedding take place in a church.

Al-Banna loved America ; he told his family back in Jordan about the honesty and kindness of Americans. "They respect anybody who is sincere," he told his father. Talal, a young man engaged to one of Ra’ed’s sisters, explained how Ra’ed “loved life in America , compared to Arab countries. He wanted to stay there.” His father, Mansour, recounted that, despite the September 11 attacks, Ra’ed “faced no problems with his American workmates, who liked him.”

Al-Banna visited home in 2003 but on his return to the United States he was denied entry, accused of falsifying details on a visa application. He returned to Jordan and became withdrawn, holing up in a makeshift studio apartment, sleeping late, and displaying a new interest in religion. He began praying five times a day and listening to the Quran. In November 2004, he went on pilgrimage to Mecca , returning to Saudi Arabia in January 2005.

On Jan. 27, Banna crossed into Syria , presumably on the way to Iraq . He apparently spent February with Sunni jihadis in Iraq , during which time he called home several times, with the last call on about Feb. 28.

Feb. 28 also happens to be the date when Banna blew himself up at a health clinic in Al-Hilla, killing 132 people and injuring 120, the worst such attack of the 136 suicide bombings that have taken place since May 2003. On March 3, the family received a call informing them of Ra’ed’s fate. “Congratulations, your brother has fallen a martyr.”

What made this easygoing, modernized, educated young man go from loving America to become a terrorist? The answer in one word is Islam.

Everyone has bad moments. Everyone goes through crisis in life and may want to seek comfort in religion. But when a Muslim goes through crisis and seeks comfort in his religion, he is likely becomes a murderer, a lethal bomb.

The father noted that Ra’ed wore Western-style clothing, rarely went to mosque, and was ignorant of the names of local sheikhs. “I am shocked by all of this because my son was a very quiet man, not very religious and more interested in pursuing his law profession and building a future for himself.” He said.

The truth is that Ra’ed was not living any double life. When he was professing affection for America he was not secretly preparing to join the holy war against U.S. in Iraq . Ra’ed became a terrorist when he got involved in Islam.

A friend revealed that Banna became politically radicalized against American policies in the Muslim world while living in the United States . He was especially distraught about developments in Iraq . A neighbor, Nassib Jazzar, recalled Banna upset with the coalition occupation. “He felt that the Arabs didn’t have honor and freedom.’”

A year earlier, Muhammad Ali al-Ayed a 23 year old Saudi millionaire's son who went from a freewheeling Houston college student to an observant Muslim, pleaded guilty to nearly decapitating his longtime Jewish friend. Al-Ayed who had severed his ties with his Jewish friend Ariel Sellouk for two years, called him one evening, invited him for a drink, took him to his apartment and stabbed him to death and almost decapitated him. Al-Ayed’s roommate told police the two were not arguing before Al-Ayed killed Sellouk. The blow came suddenly and unexpectedly. The reason for this crime was "religions differences" said al-Ayed's attorney.

Al-Ayed and al-Banna were normal people, from well to do families and educated. Ayed was amicable to his Jewish friend and al-Banna loved America. They became terrorists when they sought refuge in their religion and embraced Islam fully.

Al-Ayed and al-Banna are not the exceptions. Every single Muslim, your very loving friend whom you trust with your life, who cares about you and who would risk his life to save yours, is in danger of becoming a terrorist and kill you. All it takes to make the transformation is that he faces a crisis in his life and seeks solace in his religion. Muslims are not born terrorists. They are good humans no different from the rest of us. They can be loving, caring, hospitable and genuine friends. But the moment they seek their religion for spiritual guidance they are in danger of becoming terrorists and mindless killers.

Daniel Pipes the director of the Middle East Forum and author of Miniatures wrote:

Dr. Pipes is mistaken. Al-Banna was not a terrorist when he came to America. He became a terrorist when he became interest in Islam, began praying five times a day and started listening to the Quran. As long as we fail to see the role that Islam plays in making Muslims terrorists, we won’t be able to combat terrorism. The problem with us, our experts and our governments is that we have not yet recognized the cause of terrorism and are unwilling to see the role of Islam in it. We are fighting the shadow of the enemy while sleeping with him, protecting him and trusting him. This is like saying Hitler and his Mein Kampf had nothing to do with the way the Nazi Germans behaved.

Denying that Islam has anything to do with Islamic terrorism is like denying germs have anything to do with contagious diseases and claiming the patients who up until yesterday were healthy, were sick from the start and were feigning health.

In the 1300s, the most deadly plague, dubbed as Black Death swept through Europe killing more than 25 million people – one-forth of the continent’s population. No one knew how to fight it because no one knew what causes it. People started suspecting that cats were responsible for carrying the disease and exterminated the cats . This was a mistake because the bubonic disease is carried by rats and once cats were gone rats proliferated and made the plague the worst calamity of mankind up to that day. So many people died because they could not identify the source of the problem.

Today we are facing a not very different situation. Islam is like bubonic plague. We have to fight the plague, not the people who carry it. If these people pass the stage of recovery and become terrorists and a hazard to our lives they must be destroyed. But the enemy is Islam not those who are infected by it. All Muslims are in peril, but all Muslims are not infected yet. All it takes to be infected is to become acquainted with the Quran and take to heart what it says.

Until we are unwilling to recognize the source of the problem we won’t be able to confront it. Until we keep our collective heads in the sand we won’t be able to see the truth.

Religious fanaticism is not respecter of people. It is not just the Saudis, the Jordanians or the Palestinians who are at risk. John Walker Lyndh, nicknamed "The American Taliban" was an all American kid who embraced Islam and became a terrorist. Everyone who has a brush with Islam is at risk. Any Muslim can become a terrorist overnight. As long as people believe Muhammad was a messenger of God, they are at risk of contracting Islamic terrorist fever.

The Chinese Strategist Sun Zi who wrote the "Art of War" said: "Know thyself and know thy enemy. One hundred battles, one hundred victories." Our enemy knows us. He knows our weaknesses. He knows about his "rights" among us. He takes full advantage of democracy and operating within our laws he plots our death and the destruction and our way of life. He is smaller but smarter than us. He is winning because he is cunning and because he knows us.

We don’t know our enemy; we are not even willing to listen. We are too good, too trusting, too gullible. We cover our ears and sing lala lala as soon as we are told the truth. This truth is not politically correct. Lies are more pleasing to our ears. We come to the defense of our enemy. We give him especial status and demand reverence and respect for him.

We are losing battle after battle with each terrorist act and eventually we will lose this war, broke, because we are fighting a phantom and not the enemy. We fight his shadow with all of our resources, but not the enemy itself. It is only a matter of time that we exhaust our resources, run out of gas and surrender completely defeated.

The enemy is Islam. It is not people, it is an ideology. It is this plague that we have to fight and eradicate, not its potential victims. Many people are infected by HIV but only a few get AIDS. Many people are Muslims, but only a few become terrorists. But all those who are infected by Islam are in danger of becoming terrorists. All it takes, is to be hit by a crisis and seek their religion for solace.

Once we recognize the enemy, defeating it would be easy. A few of us are fighting this disease. If we all joined hands – all the governments and all the people of all religions – we would be able to eradicate this plague in one generation. Yes, in one generation. No bloodshed is needed. This is a promise, not a prophecy.

Why it is not a prophecy? Because it won't happen unless we make it happen. Why it is a promise? Because if we do our due diligence it will happen. We will succeed.

We must fight and eradicate this disease before it bring us the biggest disaster mankind has ever faced.... Anyone home?

Note this encouraging NY Times article by Thomas Friedman.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1379217/posts

Excerpt:

"ntil the recent elections in Iraq and among the Palestinians, the modern Arab world was largely immune to the winds of democracy that have blown everywhere else in the world. Why? That's a pretty important question. For years, though, it was avoided in both the East and the West.

In the West it was avoided because a toxic political correctness infected the academic field of Middle Eastern studies - to such a degree that anyone focusing on the absence of freedom in the Arab world ran the risk of being labeled an "Orientalist" or an "essentialist." It was also avoided because Western governments basically told Arab leaders that all they needed to do was keep their oil pumps open and their prices low and be nice to Israel. If they did all that, they could deny their own people the freedom America advocated everywhere else."

But the important thing about this report is that political reform is now being put on the Arab agenda by Arabs. Yes, it's scathing about the Western and Israeli roles in retarding Arab democratization, but it's equally scathing about what Arabs have done to themselves and how they must change - people don't change when you tell them they should, but when they tell themselves they must. Read this report and you'll also understand why part of every Arab hates the U.S. invasion of Iraq - and why another part is praying that it succeeds.

Thomas L. Friedman's documentary "Does Europe Hate Us?" will be shown on the Discovery Channel tonight at 8 and on the Discovery Times Channel on Monday at 9 p.m.

"Someone who is Muslim in name only. This would be someone who states that they are a Muslim, but they rarely, if ever, visit a mosque and follow few of the tenets of the faith. This is akin to nominal Jews who eat pork, never go to temple, etc.

Precisely.also there are nominal Catholics or nominal any denomination of Protestant......people who likely are born into a family religious tradition, so call themselves "Catholic," or "Methodist"...etc, but don't truly practice that faith - just maintain the affiliation - loosely.

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