ISLAM IS AT WAR WITH CHRISTENDOM AND THE WORLD
We in the west want to fight Islamic extremists like it is any other war that confronts us. There is no nation called Islam that is using its military to attack. What we fail to understand in the west is that fundamentalist Muslims, the ones we call extremists or radicals, are the ones who follow the Quran by the numbers and are practicing true Islam. We foolishly think that Muslims envy our democratic governed way of life, a way of life that is structured around man-made laws and social order.
In the extremist/true world of Islam there is no nation unless it is completely controlled by Islamic law. People's rights, human rights, and even the rights of a nation cannot be allowed to trump the control of Islam. This is what the current Islamic government of Iran is trying to enforce on its people and this is what scares the hell out of the rest of the Muslim countries.
Yes, Egypt and Saudi Arabia want to be Muslim countries but they want the good things that come from the west; but in extremist/true Islam all the outside non-Muslim ideas have to go. Not only do they have to be removed for the true believers, these ultra faithful are directed to fan out to the rest of the world and bring Islam to the non-believers. And in true Islamic fashion, the word of Allah is brought to and forced on the rest of world by the sword. You will submit to Islam or be destroyed.
I just finished the book "Islam and Terrorism". It was written by Mark A. Gabriel, PHD. The only thing is, Dr. Gabriel is not his given birth name. This is the name he took when he left the Islamic faith and became a Christian. Dr. Gabriel was a college professor of Islamic studies at the Al-Azhar University in Cairo, Egypt. Islam was his entire life. He was also an Imam of a mosque in the city of Giza, Egypt. An Imam is similar to a minister or pastor in the Christian religion. He came to reject the violence of Islam and question his own faith as a Muslim. He was denounced by his University, arrested and tortured by secret police and his own father pulled a gun on him and tired to kill Dr. Gabriel. He fled to South Africa and the eventually came to the US. Leaving Islam is grounds for any Muslim to kill you. There have been numerous threats and actually attempts on Dr. Gabriel's life.
After the 911 attacks on the US the media went to great lengths to remind us that Islam is a religion of peace. They trotted out people like Mohammad Ali, the peace loving x-boxer, to reinforce this myth. The media would refer to earlier passages in the Quran that suggested Muslims should get along with non-followers of Islam. The problem is those references are from the early days of the prophet Muhammad when he was in Mecca and had no military power. After he goes to Medina and builds an army, the peace toward other religions is lost to the sword of Islam. The true Islamic goal is to spread the word of Allah as interpreted and filtered by Muhammad – those who refuse to believe and accept this, are to be crushed. Can you imagine a Baptist pulling a sword on a Methodist and forcing that Methodist to convert to the one true religion or die? No, we might make jokes about it but we would never take that scenario serious.
A warning to the non-Muslim world, you had better take the violence of Islam seriously. As written in the Quran, the only way to guarantee a place in heaven in the Islamic religion is to die in jihad (holy war.) We joke about the suicide bomber who gets to go to heaven and have 72 virgins waiting for him. We in the west miss the point. It is not the virgins that are Allah's reward it is the assurance of entry into heaven.
What would you do as a Christian if after all your good works on earth and belief in God, you still may not go to heaven? However if you fill your mini-van full of explosives and drive it into a Wal-Mart on Sunday, your God gives you a get-out-of-earthly-jail pass and a direct ride to heaven.
It is not just Christians and Jews they want to dominate, it is the world. Be afraid.