Beware the Unrealistic Approach

Walid Shoebat is a name to remember. An ex-terrorist, he has a web site where he attempts to educate the world about Islam, his former religion. It is worth a look – you will keep returning as new developments in the Islamic world make you question what is happening. There is a good chance that www.shoebat.com will have the answer.

So it was with interest that I read, “Americans need to understand the level of deception and lies as well as the ends that Muslim clergy like Imam Rauf will go to advance their agenda of advancing Sharia law and Islamic domination in America” (I added the italics) . Imam Rauf is the one who is pushing for a mosque to be built at Ground Zero – a real slap in the face of those who died in the 9/11 attack and the safety personnel who died trying to rescue them.

I read President Obama’s greeting to the Muslim world at the start of Ramadan. I am grateful that the President has sent a greeting since it is a gesture of good will to about 1 billion people. I am not holding my breath however, to see if a Muslim leader sends out greetings to Christians on Christmas or to Jews on Yom Kippur. It will not likely happen. I was troubled by a few phrases in the President’s greeting.

“Muslims provide support to others to advance opportunity and prosperity for people everywhere.” They do? A record of assistance provided by national governments to needy areas of the world shows that Muslim donors have long contributed toward other Muslims in need, almost exclusively. And when aid from these governments has been given to non-Muslim areas of the world, there is almost always an accompanying incentive to convert to Islam. It is, “There is more where that came from if you become Muslim.”

The President applauded Islam by saying, and I am paraphrasing, “Islam has had a role in advancing justice, progress, tolerance and the dignity of all human beings.” This is almost laughable, except for the Muslim women and girls kept in bondage and non-Muslims tortured and martyred. TIME magazine recently featured a story on Islamic torture of a young woman, using her mutilated photo on its cover. President Obama would do well to speak with both Muslim women and non-Muslims who have escaped from Afghanistan, Iraq, Sudan and elsewhere. He would soon learn that persecution is active.

In an exaggeration, President Obama shared “Islam has always been part of America” and “American Muslims have made extraordinary contributions to our country.” Not until immigration laws changed in the 1960s did Muslims begin coming to America in any noticeable numbers. Not that I mind their coming, but the absence of this religion has been helpful to the building of our republic; its presence has now, quite obviously, created tension. It has also generated pandering by our President to Muslim-majority nations. Christianity has provided a strong cohesion to American society. The American Muslims who have contributed are not those like Imam Rauf, but those who have reshaped their faith to fit a democratic, pluralistic mold – and who have decided that freedom of religion, speech and press are good things, not bad. The unfortunate aspect is that these Muslims, those attempting to adapt to American culture, are frequently considered poor Muslims overseas, in Muslim-majority countries.

While I appreciate the President’s Ramadan greeting and its attempt to create good will with Muslim-majority nations, I think it also serves to dumb down the American public to the danger that an unrealistic approach will bear.

Walid Shoebat has written a book that every American should read: Why We Want to Kill You. This former terrorist will share in the pages of this book what the world is realistically facing in Islam.

Beware the unrealistic approach.