Radical Islamic jihad is clearly a threat to the security of our country. The jihadis openly acknowledge that they intend to destroy us. They have already shown that they can kill thousands of Americans in a single operation. They most likely are planning attacks that might kill many more. They will succeed if we don’t maintain an extraordinary level of vigilance of the threat they pose, and attack them swiftly and decisively when their nefarious activitites are uncovered.
The insidious Islamization of our country is underway. Islam is not nearly as pervasive in America as in Europe, but the Islamists are making progress here. A CAIR (Council on American-Islamic Relations) spokesman* is on some television or radio show almost every day demanding an apology for some perceived offense. New mosques are being built every year. Muslims are demanding more and more concessions to accomodate their religion. They want a place to pray at school and at work. They want facilities to wash their feet. Taxi drivers don’t want to accept passengers carrying alcoholic beverages or dogs. Some brands of Islam want their women to be allowed to fully cover themselves in all public places, including banks.** All this underscores the fact that Islam is incompatible with our culture.
Many Americans would probably agree that radical Islamic jihad is a very real threat to our national security. But how many would agree with me that the insidious Islamization of our country, and the rest of the world, is a much greater threat to the survival of our free and open secular society?
The jihadis can inflict a lot of pain and suffering but they don’t have the slightest chance of bringing down our country through their overt acts of violence. Even if they succeed in killing millions by detonating a nuclear weapon in one of our major cities, it will not cause Americans to surrender to their demands. If you think our regime change actions against Afghanistan and/or Iraq after 9/11 were a bit over the top, just wait until you see what will happen if we suffer a nuclear attack. The politicians will have to retaliate in kind for one good reason: They know they will be thrown out of office if they don’t. Yes, the jihadis can hurt us but they simply don’t have the capacity to destroy this country.
The Islamization of our country, though, is a whole different story. Its approach seems to be death to our culture by a thousand paper cuts. No single act is enough to draw much attention, yet the collective effect of thousands of these single acts is enough to cause real change. This week a story broke about a school in San Diego that has set aside a period during the school day for the students to pray and worship. The students are segregated by sex and religion. It appears that this was done to accomodate the Muslims, but it would be too egregious to allow just the Muslims to pray. Until now we thought that the public schools were no place for the practice of religion.
I believe it’s possible that the insidious approach is the real plan of the Islamists and that the overt jihadi acts are a smoke screen. Islamists aren’t stupid. They know that we will stumble over one another trying to be the first to prove that we don’t blame Muslims in general for the violent acts of a few. One way to do that is to accede to the demands of the Muslims not directly affiliated with the jihadis. Another way is to call Islam a “religion of peace.”
I might be wrong about the grand plan but I’m fairly certain that Muslims believe that it is their duty to try to convert others to Islam. Of course, Christians are proselytizers too, but I haven’t heard any tales lately of Christians trying to force people to convert. Muslims have been known to restrict the behavior of non-believers. Christians also have a history of attempting to impose their standards on others — the so-called blue laws come to mind — but their influence has been waning for decades.
I’m just not ready for another religion to gain a foothold and start eroding our freedom to live our lives as we see fit. We need to be vigilant of covert attacks on our culture as well as overt attacks on our person.
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*My first thought was to use the term ’spokesperson’, but then realized that is not necessary when referring to a Muslim organization.
**How many banks have been robbed by people masquerading as Muslim women?