THEY HATE US

Islam, as practiced by the Fundamentalist Muslims, is intrinsically an intolerant and violent religion. Fundamentalists have a deep hatred of America. They see us as the supreme obstacle to their goal of applying Islamic Law. Their goals are a penal code based on the Koran, taxation according to Islamic law, and warfare against non-Muslims and ultimately a union of all Muslims living under one ruler. The success of the United States has caused a steep fall in the power and wealth of the Muslim world. The Middle East does not have a modern society with political parties, the rule of law, a free press and a free market. It has dictators, oil money, a few very wealthy Sheiks and lots of poor people with no political rights. This is the land of suicide bombers, flag-burners, and fiery Mullahs. There is something stronger at work here than deprivation, and jealousy. According to the Fundamentalist Muslims, it is a holy war between Islam and the Western world. They want to go back to medieval times. American culture is threatening, its ideology is alien, and its power is feared. (And we are evil people who drink booze and produce pornography!) The Fundamentalist Muslims condemn American culture as loathsome and morally decadent.

The United States is not without fault. The US invaded a country that had not attacked us, dismantled the regime, and took hardly any precautions to prevent the outbreak of violence. In the last 30 years, the United States has killed a large number of Muslims (288,000). Even though we had just cause in some cases (as in the first Gulf War), our actions were indefensible and criminal in others. It is also striking to observe that virtually all of the Muslim deaths were the direct or indirect consequence of official U.S. government policy. By contrast, the small number of Americans (10,325) killed by Muslims was the victim of non-state terrorist groups such as Al Qaeda or the insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan. The figures reported above, do not include the Muslims killed by Israel in Lebanon, Gaza, and the West Bank. Because of our generous support of Israel’s policy toward Arabs, Muslims hold us responsible for those victims, too. Our problem in the Middle East is partly caused by our actions in recent years. Whitewashing our own misconduct makes it harder for Americans to figure out why their country is so hated. It makes it harder to consider different and more effective approaches. When you kill thousands of people in other countries _ and sometimes for no good reason _ you shouldn’t be surprised when people in those countries are enraged by this behavior and interested in revenge. After all, how did we react after September 11? 

I recommend that we stop killing Muslims and become neutral in the endless war between Israel and the Arab nations. Let them settle their differences without our special interest intervention. Don’t ‘mess’ with the Middle East. Eventually, the Arabs will run out of oil and have very little influence on the rest of the world. Any future terrorist acts against Americans must be met with relentless pursuit of the people who plan and help in the operation. They should be punished, their operations disrupted, their finances drained, and their hideouts destroyed. That should be our total focus. We need to let the rest of the world know that we are committed to this narrow and focused response to terrorism. No more ‘messing’ with the Middle East unless we have to go there to find the terrorists that ‘mess’ with us.

The Fundamentalist Muslims are on a dark, evil road to extinction. They are destroying Islam. My question is: Why do the Traditional and Secular Muslims allow this to happen? Why don’t the ‘good’ Muslims stop the ‘bad’ Muslims? Is it because there are really no ‘good’ Muslims? I hope that is not the case!