Posted on 04/11/2005 2:57:10 PM PDT by CHARLITE
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 He returned to Jordan and became withdrawn, holing up in a makeshift studio apartment, sleeping late, and displaying a new interest in religion.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.
Scott Macleod of Time Magazine wrote:
On the basis of accounts given by his family, friends and neighbors, Ra’ed apparently led a double life, professing affection for America while secretly preparing to join the holy war against the U.S. in Iraq . “Something went wrong with Ra’ed, and it is a deep mystery,” says his father Mansour, 56. “What happened to my son?”
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:
Ra’ed al-Banna’s biography inspires several observations:
(1) When it comes to Islamist terrorists, appearances often deceive. That Banna was said to “love life in America,” be “not very religious,” and be interested in “building a future for himself” obviously indicated nothing about his real thinking and purposes. The same pattern recurs in the biographies of many other jihadis.
Dr. Pipes is mistaken. Al-Banna was not a terrorist when he came to America. He became a terrorist when he became interested 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 though 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?
Ignorance is lethal. Truth is the antidote.
Ali Sina maintains a website at http://www.faithfreedom.org
Comments: faithfreedom3@yahoo.com
Shouldn't the title be "Why Terrorists Become Good Muslims".
Shouldn't the title be "Why Terrorists Become Good Muslims".
Good Muslims, giant shrimp, ..... The list could go on & on & on.
If a Muslim kills himself in the forest - out of range of a CBS camera crew --- is he still dead?
Would anyone care?
Semper Fi
Answer:
?What is prison?
Isn't that like asking why good skunks stink? Or why good cockroaches are creepy? Etc.
No other religion has that effecton its adherents.
"I don't buy the conclusion that "All it takes to be infected is to become acquainted with the Quran and take to heart what it says." If this were true, then all Muslims would automatically become terrorists."
You would be surprised how many Muslims have never read the Quran in their native language. Many of them only hear it read in Arabic and have no idea what it says.
Additionally, only a very small minority have ever read the Haddiths, which make up the meat of Islam. These are the "traditions" which are the transcribed oral history of Muhammad's life and actions. The Haddiths are where the true problem Ali Sina identified lies.
Ali Sina is a converted Muslim himself.
Most other religions dont preach to kill infidels.
There is a group called Apostates of Islam. From their website:
excerpt:
Who we are:
We are ex-Muslims. Some of us were born and raised in Islam and some of us had converted to Islam at some moment in our lives. We were taught never to question the truth of Islam and to believe in Allah and his messenger with blind faith. We were told that Allah would forgive all sins but the sin of disbelief (Quran 4:48 and 4:116). But we committed the ultimate sin of thinking and questioned the belief that was imposed on us and we came to realize that far from being a religion of truth, Islam is a hoax, it is hallucination of a sick mind and nothing but lies and deceits.
http://www.apostatesofislam.com/
Sure - he just HAPPENED to come to America in 2001 - and was ecstatic to become, instead of a lawyer, a pizza boy, etc.
He just happened to go the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco and the World Trade Center in NYC and have his photo in front of a MILITARY helicopter - don't we all, - (note to self: get job making pizza - it evidently pays well.)
He just happened to do all the things the terrorists were trained to do to fit in...to appear to just love us to death...oh, yeah, they did - on 9-11.
Yeah, I'm gullible, he only turned terrorist because he wasn't allowed back - the lies on his visa were caught. Yep - that's enough to turn any sweet ole boy into a mass murderer.
great analogy :D
"You take out the words Muslim and Islam and substitute any other racial/ethnic/group in its place and you have good old fashioned Hate Rhetoric."
Your point might be valid if "muslim" and "islam" were racial or ethnic categories. But they're not. One CHOOSES to be an adherent of islam.
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