When the Arab nations justify the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center as simply retaliation for America’s support of Israel; when the Arab people celebrate this heinous act of terrorism for the television cameras; when they proclaim their hatred for America around the world; it shouldn’t come as a surprise to them that America will strike back.
And the Arab insistence that this is a religious war brought on by Christian determination to destroy Islam is almost criminal stupidity, fostered, I suppose, by their remembrance of the ‘Christian Crusades’ of the 17th Century.
We in America are told ad nauseum that Islam is a religion of peace, that Muslems (or Moslims, take your pick) wish only to coexist peacefully with their neighbors. Every day, we are told that. And every day, we see on television Muslems celebrating the death of innocent Christians and Jews. We see Muslem priests exhorting the faithful to become martyrs to Allah by blowing themselves up and taking as many Christian and Jewish men, women and children with them as possible. This is not my Christian understanding of peaceful coexistence.
America is a land of immigrants; a land where multi-ethnicity is the norm rather than the exception; a land of tolerance and acceptance for all peoples. America is not without fault, of course, but it’s the only country in the history of the world that not only publicly acknowledges those faults but strives to overcome them. America is the greatest nation in the world not because of our prosperity and power but because we are a melting pot of people who, if we are to survive, must coexist in all our diversity.
Of course, America supports Israel. Israel is our friend and ally and has proven it many times. Israel is surrounded by Arab States whose stated aim is the total destruction of a Jewish State and has maintained a policy of terrorism for more than fifty years to achieve that aim. Whatever Israel may have done, right, wrong, or otherwise, was only done in retaliation. All that ever needed to be done to stop the conflict in the middle East was for Arabs to halt their campaign to destroy Israel.
And all that is needed now to stop the conflict in the middle East is for the Arab world to forswear their Jihad against Jews and Christians. America has never been a colonial power and doesn’t seek to become one now. Our population comes from all over the world, from every corner of every nation in the world, and someone in this country has relatives in the ‘old country’ wherever and whatever that old country may be and if our government seeks to overtly exploit any nation, then the American citizen who has relatives in that nation will most certainly complain, and in complaining, find sympathetic ears.
I keep hearing that Islam is a peaceful religion that does not advocate violence but the images on television belie that. When I see Muslims celebrating terrorist acts of violence, the bombing of the Cole and the World Trade Center; when they consider suicide bombers to be martyrs and reward their families for the ‘sacrifice’ of their children, then I think there is indeed a basic difference between Christians and Muslims, indeed between almost every religion in the world and Islam. All the other religions of the world celebrate life and Islam alone is the only one that seems to celebrate death.
Certainly, I can’t imagine any Americans taking to the streets to publicly celebrate the death of Saddam Hussein or bin Laden. They might think it would be a good thing but they wouldn’t celebrate it any more than they would celebrate the execution of any other murderer. But in Muslim countries, the people publicly celebrate the death of an American and they go into an orgiastic frenzy at the death of a Jew.
And we are told that the Muslim world despises us, that if we crush Saddam Hussein, the Muslims will unite against us and Islam will once again sweep the world and destroy all who stand against it.
Wow! The sword and crescent sweeping out of the desert. Or, wait a minute. That was a movie.
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