This letter was published nearly a year ago, just one month after the tragedy of 9/11/01. One would think that, even though only a fraction of a percent of the millions of Muslim-Americans probably read this letter, what the writer wrote might have occurred to the rest of them -- and that those who do not condone the 9/11/01 abominations would stand up and declare their love of this country.
It’s not happening among the Muslim community.
I know that if members of my family, or members of an organization to which I claim allegiance, perpetrated such an evil upon innocent people, I would be doing all within my power to tell the survivors that the evil ones do not represent me – that they were somehow ‘bad apples.’
It’s not happening among the Muslim community.
Sometimes silence sends the strongest of messages.
It appears that the large majority of Muslims in this country are feeding off (as in being educated by, and sharing in the prosperity of …. ) a system that they either (1) despise, or (2) feel nothing more than apathy toward.
Yet, at the same time, the author of this letter asks American Muslims:
Do you pledge allegiance to its flag? Do you pray in your many daily prayers that Allah will bless this nation that He will protect and prosper it? Are you thankful for the freedom that only this nation affords? A freedom that was paid for by the blood of hundreds of thousands of patriots? Are you willing to preserve this freedom with the spilling of your own blood? Do you love America?
I would ask the author of this letter why he believes we should expect answers in the affirmative to the above questions from Muslim-Americans, when ‘native’-Americans (as in those of us whose families have been here for generations) probably wouldn’t even answer half of them affirmatively either.
I would dare to guess that the average ‘native’-American would answer the above questions something like:
Yeah
No
When I take the time to think about it (every few years)
You’re being melodramatic
Hell no!
I pay my taxes, don’t I?
The author of this letter requests that if the true teachings of Islam proclaim tolerance and peace and love for all people, then I want chapter and verse from the Koran and statements from popular Muslim leaders to back it up.
It’s not going to happen among the Muslim community. There is no chapter, and no verse within it, from the Koran that teaches tolerance and peace and love for all people.
Instead (just a small sampling) ….
chapter 4, verse 56: [As for] those who disbelieve in our communications, we shall make them enter fire; so oft as their skins are thoroughly burned. We will change them for other skins, that they may taste the chastisement; surely Allah is mighty, wise.
chapter 4, verse 89: They desire that you should disbelieve as they have disbelieved, so that you might be (all) alike; therefore take not from among them friends until they fly (their homes) in Allah's way; but if they turn back, then seize them and kill them wherever you find them, and take not from among them a friend or a helper.
chapter 9, verses 5-6: Kill those who join other gods with God wherever you may find them.
chapter 9, verse 12: When your Lord revealed to the angels: I am with you, therefore make firm those who believe. I will cast terror into the hearts of those who disbelieve. Therefore strike off their heads and strike off every fingertip of them.
chapter 9, verses 39-42: Say to the Infidels: if they desist from their unbelief, what is now past shall be forgiven; but if they return to it, they have already before them the doom of the ancients! Fight then against them till strife be at an end, and the religion be all of it God's.
chapter 22, verse 19: These are two adversaries who dispute about their Lord; then (as to) those who disbelieve, for them are cut out garments of fire, boiling water shall be poured over their heads.
The best estimates of the Muslim population of the United States place the figure somewhere between two and three million, or roughly one percent of our population. Nineteen Muslims were responsible for the worst terrorist attack ever to occur on American soil. Where are the remaining two million-plus of them? Where is their repudiation of their ‘brothers’? It will not be forthcoming, because any true Muslim embraces the Koran as his holy book, and the Koran’s message is one of intolerance and the proselytizing of a religion through violence against those who reject its teachings.
Call me a bigot. I prefer to consider myself a realist. There’s a world of difference.
On September 12th, my wife saw him...wearing a cowboy hat and boots, and carrying an American flag. He's kept that up, too. Good for him!