THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume VI, Issue # 108, May 26, 2004
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
THE STAKES INVOLVED IN THE WAR ON TERRORISM:
FIGHTING FOR OUR LIVES
By Alan Caruba
FULL STORY:
I think a lot of Americans -- especially those favoring withdrawal from Iraq and efforts to negotiate with al-Qa'ida and with nation-states
supporting the worldwide Islamic terror war, or "holy war" -- have not yet figured out that the Islamic fundamentalists who beheaded
Daniel Pearl and Nicholas Evan Berg, who attacked this nation on September 11, 2001, and who represent the insurgents in Iraq are
vicious barbarians who behave much more like mad dogs than civilized and sane human beings and who are determined,
unyielding, and fanatical enemies of America and the Judeo-Christian West, enemies who want us dead, unless, of course, we convert
to Islam and submit to tyrannical rule by the Islamists.
Another thing most Americans don’t know is that we are in the midst of the Third Great Jihad. The first was the early spread of Islam
after Muhammad invented it, the second was the rise of the Ottoman Turks, and this third one began with the toppling of the Shah of
Iran in the late 1970s. We are in Iraq -- though the President fails to tell us this -- because the only way you kill a snake is to cut off its
head. The Third Great Jihad intends to replace all the secular heads of government in the Middle East to insure that Islam remains as it
was in the Seventh Century.
We are in Iraq and Afghanistan for a purpose greater than just U.S. national security. We are there because the Middle East is a region
seeking to distance itself from a world in which most nations, their economies, their security, their future and ours, is dependent on
globalization, our being connected to one another. The United States of America is the only nation that can end the domination of
some two billion people worldwide by the petty despots that prosper by not joining their future to ours. That is the overarching reason
we are fighting -- and winning -- in Iraq.
Having said this, it would be useful if the February 23, 1998, “World Islamic Front” statement issued by Osama bin Laden, along with
Ayman al-Zawahiri, Amir of the Jihad Group in Egypt, and three others, were mandatory reading for every American -- indeed, for
everyone who enjoys the benefits of a connected world, a modern world of export, import, prosperity, and freedom. Bin laden spelled
out why his movement is the greatest threat we face and why it must be defeated.
The statement issues a “fatwa,” a ruling based in Islamic faith and teachings.
“The ruling to kill the Americans and their allies — civilians and military — is an individual duty for every
Muslim who can do it in any country in which is possible to do it, in order to liberate the al-Aqsa Mosque
(Jerusalem) and the holy mosque (Mecca) from their grip, and in order for their armies to move out of all
the lands of Islam, defeated and unable to threaten any Muslim. This is in accordance with the worlds of
Almighty Allah ‘and fight the pagans all together as they fight you all together,’ and ‘fight them until there
is no more tumult or oppression, and there prevail justice and faith in Allah.’”
There is no clearer or more specific explanation of why we are involved in Afghanistan and Iraq, fighting a bloody war to protect
our lives. Bin Laden made it abundantly clear that he believes it is --
"Allah’s order to kill the Americans and plunder their money wherever and whenever they find it. We
also call on Muslim ulema (the worldwide community), leaders, youths, and soldiers to launch the raid
on Satan’s US troops and the devil’s supporters allying with them, and to displace those who are
behind them so that they may learn a lesson."
To dismiss such a statement as the insane babbling of some self-deluded religious fanatic is to ignore, at our peril, the fact that it is
widely believed among a large portion of the Middle East’s Arab population. It also ignores the enormous wealth that bin Laden
and al-Qa'ida is able to bring to this holy war.
There is a struggle going on for the soul of Islam -- a struggle between the fanatics and the moderates of a faith that is estimated to
include some 1.2 billion people stretched across the map of the world. They represent twenty percent of the world’s population.
Not all, of course, support the declared holy war, but surely enough do to require that we must expend our wealth and the lives of
our military servicemen and servicewomen to insure our victory.
The ignorance of Islam still leaves many Americans wondering why we have witnessed a long history of attack on our military and,
on 9-11, our homeland. Few have wanted to publicity cast this war as one between religions, but Islam was and is at war with all
other religions -- Judaism, Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism, and any other non-Muslim religions. Muslims divide the world
between "world of Islam" and "the world of war."
In an excellent essay on the subject, “Islam and Violence,” posted on an Internet website -- www. Answering-Islam.org.uk -- one
can find a brief history of the role of violence in both the rise of Islam and in its philosophical/theological outlook, as found in the
Qur'an and its other holy books.
"The point that we’d like to make is quite simple. Muslims who commit acts of violence and terror
in the name of God, can find ample justification for their actions, based on the teachings of the
Qur'an and the sayings and examples from prophet Muhammad himself!”
Unlike Christianity, which teaches that one should love his enemy, Islam offers no quarter for any unbeliever, unless they convert.
There are many verses of the Qur'an that invoke Muslims to fight against their enemies, the non-believers. The essay cites just
twenty out of 149 easily found in reading of the Qur'an.
Despite the constant repetition of the view that Islam is a religion of peace, only the most naďve and foolish could possibly look at
events around the world and conclude there is any truth to this. Time and again, the many biographies of Muhammad reveal that
he employed murder and war repeatedly to advance Islam. He was particularly obsessed with killing Jews.
As to the terrible instances of beheadings, such as those of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl and telecommunications
work contractor Nicholas Berg, both American Jews, this practice has its roots in Islamic history.
Muhammad clashed with many tribes in Arabia, among which was a Jewish tribe from the city of Medina. When they were conquered,
he ordered the execution of all of the adult males. Muslim sources put the number at 600, and all were beheaded.
The prophet left a trail of assassinations and other bloody acts behind him until his own death, all of which are recorded by Muslim
historians. This would become a tradition among Muslims in the early centuries of its development. As the essay notes, these are not
just isolated incidents or aberrations. “Such violence, in fact, goes to the very roots of Islam, as found in the Qur'an and in the actions
and teachings of the prophet of Islam himself.”
The holy war that has been declared against us leaves us no choice but to fight for our lives.
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
The Middle East & the Arabs
Islamism & Jihadism -- The Threat of Radical Islam
Page Three
Page Two
Page One
The Middle East & the Problem of Iraq
War & Peace in the Real World
Page Two
Page One
Islamist Terrorist Attacks on the U.S.A.
Osama bin Laden & the Islamist Declaration of War
Against the U.S.A. & Western Civilization
Islamist International Terrorism &
U.S. Intelligence Agencies
U.S. National Security Strategy
Alan Caruba is a veteran business and science writer, a Public Relations Counselor, Communications Director of the American Policy Center,
and Founder of the National Anxiety Center, a clearinghouse for information about media-driven scare campaigns. Caruba writes a weekly
column, "Warning Signs," posted on the Internet website of the National Anxiety Center
(www.anxietycenter.com). A compilation of his past col- umns, entitled Warning Signs, is published by Merril Press. In addition
to Warning Signs, Caruba is the author of A Pocket Guide to Militant Islam and The United Nations vs. the United States,
both of which are available from the National Anxiety Center, 9 Brookside Road, Maplewood, New Jersey, 07040.
Copyright 2004 Alan Caruba
Published with Permission of Alan Caruba
ACaruba@AOL.Com
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THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
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Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
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