Charlotte Defenders Of Islam Will Need To Do Better Than This
Charlotte Muslims have gone to the press concerning the beheading of UNCC graduate Jack Hensley. The reports had both good and bad.
First the good from The Charlotte Observer:
During a brief news conference in front the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Government Center, the Muslims expressed outrage for the "coldblooded" killings and offered sympathies for the families of the victims...
"There is no cause that justifies this cruelty," said Shaun Ahmad, president of the Charlotte chapter of the Council of American Muslim Professionals.
Muslim groups should have been loud and vocal since 9/11/01 protesting the actions of terrorists. They have not been. My concern is that they are doing so now because as the WCNC report said:
Local Muslims are concerned about possible backlash from the recent beheading of Jack Hensley, an American contractor, by terrorists in Iraq, said Khalil Akbar, leader of the Ash-Shaheed Islamic Center in Charlotte.
If local Muslims were truly appalled at all of the horrid actions taken in the name of Islam, they would not be worried about "backlash". They would simply condemn 9/11 and every beheading and every other atrocity since then.
Instead, we get what I believe to be is the true message -- the whitewashing of Islam. We get this from both the Observer and WCNC pieces:
Many are also upset that their religion is being used to justify acts of violence...
"We are appalled that these crimes are being committed in the name of Islam," Akbar said. "Our religion is being held hostage by a very small minority among over 1 billion believers. They will never succeed in their desire to use Islam to hide their true selves...
Saying they want to paint a true picture of Islam, two dozen members of Charlotte's Muslim community on Wednesday denounced the beheadings of two Americans this week by an Islamist group in Iraq.
I don't buy the view of Islam that there are just a few extremists who have hijacked this religion of peace. Just like I don't buy the view that extremists in the environmentalist movement have taken over an effort to keep the air and water clean for man.
In both the case of Islam and environmentalism, we have movements that are anti-life, anti-man, anti-human mind and thus pro-violence. The "peaceful" followers of each movement only act to legitimatize deadly philosophies.
Here are a couple of examples from the Observer article:
"And as Muslims, we categorically reject any attempt by the murderers of Jack Hensley to link their actions to our faith."
Representatives from Ash-Shaheed Islamic Center and the Muslim Women of the Carolinas also spoke, saying the killers have distorted their religion by claiming they are acting in the name of Islam.
"We have misrepresentation of our faith and most of the American public don't know us," said Khalil Akbar, leader of the Ash-Shaheed Islamic Center. "We don't take kindly to those who want to misuse and misrepresent our faith."
History and the nature of Islam unmask this whitewash. From Robert Tracinski of the Ayn Rand Institute:
Let's start with the history. From its inception, Islam was a theocratic religion that imposed its dogma by the sword. The descendants of Mohammed, religious kings called Caliphs, fought ceaseless wars against non-Muslim "infidels." Scholars may try to tell us that "jihad" only refers to a personal moral struggle--but that wasn't what it meant during centuries of Muslim conquest...
More:
Islam is the driving force behind every major conflict in the Middle East--and, by one calculation, it is behind about half of the world's armed conflicts, from Algeria to the Philippines. The latest Palestinian intifada was sparked by incendiary anti-Jewish speeches by Muslim clerics in Palestinian mosques. And when Iranian protesters chant "Death to America," they do it after similar sermons at their own mosques.
From Dr. Edwin Locke at ARI says:
"The documentary," focusing on the life of Muhammad, noted Locke "presented him as a wise, self-effacing, illiterate mystic who preached nothing but tolerance, benevolence and peace toward non-Muslims. But the simple fact is the Koran, dictated by Muhammad to his followers, is filled with exhortations to violence against non-believers, such as, 'I will cast terror into the hearts of those who disbelieve. Therefore cut off their heads and cut off every fingertip of them.' Here are others, 'Fight and kill the Pagans wherever you find them;' 'Those who reject our signs, we shall soon cast into the fire;' 'But as for those who disbelieve, garments of fire will be cut out for them; boiling fluid will be poured down on their heads;' 'As to the deviators, they are fuel of hell.'"
Daniel Pipes of Capitalism Magazine says:
The ambition to take over the United States is hardly a new one. The first Islamic missionaries from abroad arrived in the 1920s and unblushingly declared, "Our plan is, we are going to conquer America." Such hopes have become commonplace in recent years. Some examples:
Omar Abdel Rahman - the blind sheikh later convicted of planning a "day of rage" by blowing up New York buildings and architecture - in 1991 called on Muslims to "conquer the land of the infidels."
A native-born American who converted to Islam and helped fight the Soviets in Afghanistan, then proclaimed that "it is the duty of all Muslims to complete the march of jihad [holy war] until we reach America and liberate her."
Isma'il Al-Faruqi, the first academic theorist of a United States-made-fundamentalist-Muslim, argued in 1983 that "Nothing could be greater than this youthful, vigorous, and rich continent [of North America] turning away from its past evil and marching forward under the banner of Allahu Akbar [God is great]."
Siraj Wahaj, the first imam to deliver a Muslim prayer for the U.S. House of Representatives, holds that if Muslims unite, they could elect their own leader as president; "take my word, if 6-8 million Muslims unite in America, the country will come to us."
His list goes on. To deny that there is a major fundamental portion of Islam that is hell-bent upon violence requires only total evasion. Are there "peaceful" and possibly more rational aspects of Islam? No doubt. There would have to be or else there would not be this confusion or the ability to whitewash -- just as with environmentalism.
At its core, Islam is against human life and in particular the fundamentals of American life. Don't be fooled.
UPDATE: From today's Charlotte Observer:
While separation of church and state is a bedrock principle of American democracy, the international Brotherhood preaches that religion and politics cannot be separated and that governments eventually should be Islamic. The group also champions martyrdom and jihad, or holy war, as a means of self-defense and has provided the philosophical underpinnings for Muslim militants worldwide.
http://charlottecapitalist.blogspot.com/2004/09/charlotte-defenders-of-islam-will-need.html
There are links to the various quotes at the linked (source) article.
http://www.layman.org/layman/news/2004-news/church-removes-crosses.htm
TIMES OF INDIA.IndiaTimes.com: Islamabad/Washington - "PAK UNEARTHS 9/11 STYLE AL QAEDA MEMO" (ARTICLE SNIPPET: "Pakistani authorities have reportedly discovered an al Qaeda memo that warns of suicide attackers using weapons of mass destruction on Americans in the near future.") (September 19, 2004) (Read More...)
WorldNetDaily.com: "MUSLIM CLERIC WANTS 'WOMEN OF MASS DESTRUCTION' Says mothers should breed children to become suicide bombers" (October 9, 2004) (Read More...)
JPOST.com - JERUSALEM POST: "TERRORISTS RECRUITING MORE WOMEN" by Margot dudkevitch (ARTICLE SNIPPET: "However, the Jawabra family turned daughters Lina and Adilah over to soldiers at an IDF checkpoint after they were warned that their houses would be demolished if the two girls carried out bombings in Tel Aviv. Only in those instances where officials have knowledge of a pending attack and conclude that the only way to thwart it is by pressuring family members of would-be attackers are such tactics used. According to Shin Bet officials, terrorist organizations continue to believe that women are less susceptible to checks by security forces and are therefore more likely to enter Israel without raising suspicions.") (Updated September 22, 2004) (Read More...)