|
On 9/11, nineteen committed Muslims believed they had a
religious mandate to fly planes into buildings and slaughter thousands of
innocent people.
The Muslim world erupted with outrage over this
horrible act of mass murder. Massive demonstrations were held in nearly
every Muslim country and Western city. At these demonstrations, Muslim
leaders harshly denounced Islamic terror and shared the many hundreds of verses
from the Qur'an that encourage universal brotherhood, peace and tolerance.
A slew of fatwas and clerical condemnations against terror soon followed.
Tens of millions of ordinary Muslims also reacted by
rallying against violence and demanding that their leaders root out and
eliminate the Islamic terrorists and their supporters. These same Muslims
and their clerics called for introspection and atonement, accepting the role that the radical
elements of their religion played in the attacks, and committing themselves to
combating and eradicating the misinterpretation of their religion - the Religion
of Peace...
Well, not quite.
Obviously this didn't happen. If it had, then
Islamic terror would have ended, 9/11 would have been a singular event, and this
website would not exist.
Unfortunately, the optimistic and fictitious picture
that we just painted of Muslim reaction to terror and the predominance of
peaceful Qur'anic verses could not be any further from the truth. In fact,
some Muslims actually celebrated the attacks, and not just overseas, but even in
the offices of the U.S. State Department.
There were a few passionless denunciations, to be sure,
but Muslims save their real outrage for times when a Western leader makes a
public statement against veils and headscarves, or someone draws a Muhammad
cartoon. By and large, most could hardly care less about the thousands of
people who lose their lives in the name of this religion each year. It was
not for three years, in fact, that there was even a fatwa issued against these
attacks. To this day, major Muslim-American groups are very reluctant to
denounce Osama Bin Laden by name.
That's what makes it extremely odd that Islam should be
called a Religion of Peace. Not only does it inspire an enormous amount of
violence, but an astonishing level of indifference and self-centeredness as
well.
We watched in the months following 9/11, as
Muslim-American groups began to act as hindrances in the war on terror and the
efforts of Americans to defend themselves. We saw them ignore nearly every
act of daily Islamic terror and instead publicize obscure
issues and personal slights against Muslims that are absolutely trivial by
comparison.
Far from accepting responsibility for Islamic terror,
Muslims look for reasons to shirk it. Some even
grasp onto wild conspiracy theories that blame Americans for 9/11 - just as the
millions of Jihad victims over the centuries are in some way held responsible
for their own slaughter as well.
And finally, we came to realize that this extraordinary
arrogance and self-absorption on the part of the Muslim community, along with an inability
to empathize with others or engage in the sort of self-critique that
leads to moral progress is in no way incidental to the religion.
There is something deeply, deeply wrong with Islam.
Originally, we started this website in the naive hope
that perhaps Muslims just didn't realize the extent of the violence that is
committed in the name of their religion. Perhaps if they understood, then
they might be motivated to turn the critical eye inward and resolve those far
more important issues that leave so many lives in agony and force the
consumption of so many
billions of dollars in security resources.
But in our first several years of posting attacks we
never once heard from a Muslim who wrote to condemn the violence and resolve
themselves to combating it. Neither did we see any change on the part of
Muslim-American groups or other Islamic organizations across the globe,
even as the body count mounted to levels that far exceed the damage done on
9/11.
And so, our mission is to present the truth about Islam
and how it is so tragically different from other religion. We also hope to
memorialize the victims of Islamic terror, and ensure that they do not die in
obscurity as so many victims of Islam have in the last 1400 years.
For Westerners and others who ask,
"Who are Muslims and why do they want to kill me?" we hope to
provide answers. For those who swallow the falsehood that Islam is a
Religion of Peace, we hope they will find enough reason to at least challenge
their preconceptions.
At the same time, we have no patience for name-calling,
lies, or acts of violence.
No Muslim should be harassed or harmed anywhere in the world because of his or
her religion. Islam is a broad faith and every Muslim should be treated as
an individual and judged only by his or her own words and deeds.
In fact, there are exceptional Muslims whose faith gives them character,
as evidenced by their sincere denunciation of terror and tangible resolve to ending it.
They stand in sharp contrast to groups like
the American CAIR and MPAC Islamic supremacist organizations, which use their influence to complain of petty grievances and
inflame hatred against a country that tries hard to accommodate their faith
in spite of the violence and whining.
But, as the evidence from this site and
verses from
the Qur'an prove, Islam is
clearly not a religion of peace. The ridiculous level of violence
committed in
the name of this religion is staggering, despite the many billions
of dollars that are spent each year to prevent attacks.
Nor should Westerners continue to think
that the solution to the violence is greater understanding and tolerance for
Islam, as Muslim apologists often imply when offering rare commentary on
high-profile terror attacks. It is the killers and their supporters who
need lessons in tolerance and understanding, not their victims.
Some Muslims may say that Muhammad
preached love for people of other religions, but there is not a single verse in
the Qur'an that commands this, yet there are 493 verses that either tell Muslims
to kill unbelievers or that speak to
Allah's hatred for them and how they will be
tortured in Hell. Non-Muslims are referred to as the "vilest of animals."
If peace is defined as being free to live
one's life as one pleases and allowing others to do the same, then Islam is as
far from peace as it can possibly be. Where it dominates, there is
systematic discrimination and oppression of those of other faiths
(dhimmitude, which Muslims ironically refer to as 'tolerance'). Where
Muslims are in minority, there is rebellion, terror and disloyalty - a
never-ending jihad to bring about Islamic rule, as Muhammad commanded.
Islam will be a peaceful religion when
Muslims stop preaching hate, stop killing in the name of Allah, and stop
remaining indifferent to the violence. Until this happens, we will
faithfully document each of the reasons why this is anything but a "Religion
of Peace."
See also:
FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions
What to Do about the Islamic
Threat
Go back to the List of Islamic Terrorist Attacks
|