Islamic teachings, history suggest it’s not quite so peaceful
Every day, I feel bombarded by someone telling me Islam is not the violent, hate-filled religion it seems to be but, instead, the religion of peace.
I don’t see how anyone logically could say Islam is a religion of peace. The terrorists who attacked this nation on Sept. 11, 2001, were Islamic fundamentalists, terrorists following the teachings of the Quran and doing Allah’s bidding in bringing down the great Satan.
Islamic leaders have pushed forth the notion that every good Muslim must fight and destroy the non-believers.
The Quran makes it very clear Muslims “must” present non-Muslims with only three choices: conversion, submission to second-class status under Islamic rule or death.
The problem is not strictly the directive to convert or kill non-believers, but instead the degree to which it is carried out. Islam is not the religion of peace it claims to be. It instead appears - through the actions of its followers - to be a religion of intolerance and violence toward non-believers.
We only need to go back to recent history to understand Islam’s widely reported “peaceful teachings” are most often “misunderstood” by its most fundamental followers.
In the early 1990s, the United States sent peacekeeping troops to Somalia on a mercy mission to stop starvation in the region. Instead, local Muslims fought the non-believers for their offense of being non-Muslim.
Why do you think that every time we pressured Saddam Hussein, he appealed to his Islamic brothers to come to his aid in the name of Jihad? Because strictly implying that any action against any Muslim is an attack on their religion is a simple, easy way to get support.
Like clockwork, protest in the Muslim world would erupt. Soon on CNN, you would see President Clinton - back when he was president and believed Saddam was bad - or Bush burning in effigy next to a flaming, American flag and 10,000 Muslims dancing and chanting “Death to America” in the name of Allah.
How peaceful.
It would seem the religion of “peace” and “tolerance” would be for co-existence and getting along with your neighbors. Instead, the Palestinians have made it clear they can’t live side-by-side in peace with non-believers. And the only answer for that region is going to be the extermination of Israel - the death of every man, woman and child in Israel is the only road to peace.
In the name of Allah, suicide bombers are martyrs to be rewarded with paradise and virgins. This is not the exception to the rule in Islam. It is the doctrine of extermination of non-Muslims.
When people speak of Islam as a religion of radicalism and intolerance, they are told the religion is misrepresented and misunderstood. The problem is not a public relations issue. It is an indoctrination issue.
Everywhere but in the modernized world, where its teaching are much more moderate, young Muslims are taught in school that all non-Muslims should be killed in the same way we are taught that we need to be compassionate to those different from us.
The solution is not to deny the problem as the Muslims of the world have done, but to accept, educate and change it.