This week's column by Jihad Watch director Robert Spencer expands upon CAIR's new survey that found that 25% of Americans are "anti-Muslim" because they think Islam teaches violence. From FrontPage:
Twenty-five percent of Americans hold what AP calls "anti-Muslim views," according to a story published Monday. AP added that "the poll found that people most likely to have negative attitudes were male, white, less educated, politically conservative and living in the South." And, no doubt, wear overalls and drive pickups with gun racks and Confederate flag bumper stickers.Working hard to dispel the prejudice of these benighted Bubbas is none other than the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), which actually conducted the survey. They're planning activities during the Muslim month of Ramadan to counter what AP characterized as one indication of "anti-Muslim views": "a belief that the religion teaches violence and hatred."
How's that again? Americans are "anti-Muslim" because they think Islam teaches violence and hatred? With Muslims shouting "Allahu akbar" (Allah is greatest) while beheading civilians in Iraq and murdering children in Beslan, Russia, perhaps it's a bit premature to convict this 25% of Americans of bigotry. With the leader of the Pakistani radical Muslim group Jaish-e-Mohammed, Maulana Masood Azhar, saying last year that "in Islam the only meaning of jihad was killing," maybe that twenty-five percent is on to something.
But of course, CAIR maintains that all that is a hijacking of Islam. CAIR Board Chairman Omar Ahmad insisted that those who commit violence in Islam's name "have nothing to do with Islam. People claim they are doing it for Islam, but it's really in spite of Islam," Ahmad said. And they have convinced Americans of this: "About two in three," according to AP, "said they agreed that 'the people who use Islam to justify violence are misinterpreting its teachings.'"
Maulana Masood Azhar himself was not so easily convinced. He declared that the misinterpreters were the Muslim moderates, saying that those who elaborated the ideas of the "greater jihad" and the "lesser jihad" were "against Islam." The "greater jihad," as American Muslim spokesmen never tire of reminding us, is spiritual struggle. The "lesser jihad," they say, is warfare, but only for defense. In my book Onward Muslim Soldiers I detail how radical Muslims including Abdullah Azzam, Osama bin Laden's mentor, and Hassan Al-Banna, founder of the Muslim Brotherhood (the first modern radical Muslim group), rejected the concept of the "greater jihad" as being founded upon inauthentic traditions of the Prophet Muhammad. Azhar evidently shares this view.
What's more, from the standpoint of Islamic theology and tradition, the radicals have the better of the argument. The courageous ex-Muslim Ibn Warraq writer explains: "For every text the liberal Muslims produce, the mullahs will use dozens of counter-examples [that are] exegetically, philosophically, historically far more legitimate." He adds that "it is time for moderate Muslims to question honestly the principles of their faith. To admit the role of the Qur'an in the propagation of violence."
To admit the role of the Qur'an in the propagation of violence is simply to open one's eyes and read the statements of Osama bin Laden and other radical Muslim leaders. Is to do this "anti-Muslim"? Certainly CAIR, as shown by this AP article, thinks of all such efforts as "anti-Muslim," and the media uncritically accepts the group's contention that to discuss the roots of terror in the doctrine of jihad is to hate Muslims. But in fact, to criticize the elements of Islam that give rise to terror is not to be anti-Muslim at all; individual Muslims themselves may not accept or even know about the doctrines that Osama and others use to justify themselves.
Moreover, to ignore these elements out of fear of being anti-Muslim plays into the hands of the jihadists by foreclosing on any honest examination of why they're really doing what they're doing -- which foreclosure, of course, destroys the chance that any positive and truly effective steps can be taken to stop them.
It is not hating Muslims to ask them to remove the hate from their religion, and to accept the principles of human rights that are accepted everywhere else in the world. But will Omar Ahmad and CAIR admit this? I doubt it. Ahmad, of course, was reported as saying in 1998 that "Islam isn't in America to be equal to any other faith, but to become dominant. The Koran should be the highest authority in America, and Islam the only accepted religion on earth." He has since claimed that his remarks were misrepresented, but the reporter says she remembers his statement, if not his exact words, and declines to retract her story.
Is Omar Ahmad himself "anti-Muslim"?
goddam... Ramadan time again? At least now I am out of college and don't have to see those committed whiners greet each other and say kooky crap like, "God willing, I will complete my month-long fast."
They put on SUCH a looooong face, probably let out thier collars too, to make themselves look thin. What a joke. "Oh, I'm soooo hungry."
Hey, next time you pass by a Muslim preacher or dawa booth, ask them if Muslims REALLY "believe the bible", what happened to Psalm 83.4? Better yet, ask them to read it to you in front of their buddies.
Must have been part of a Zionist conspiracy.
I'm kinda busy these days and don't have much time to post.... see you all again soon.
KJ
"Anti-Muslim..." It seems that Muslims spend an inordinate amount of time trying to decide whether thoughts and acts are Muslim or not, requiring them to scurry around consulting Islamic scholars or immams for the "correct" answer. Thus we see mind control in action.
If "greater and lesser jihad" is a perversion and a hijacking of Islam, why then, has it raise it's ugly head at every opportunity throughout 1350 years of history? Why does this scourge return as Muslims emulate "the perfect man," Mohammad and wreak havoc on the non-Muslim world. No violent jihad is definitely the ultimate Muslim act and to refute and a deny that it is so is anti-Muslim.
CAIR, their arch rival ACAIR, and now: F-CAIR
Keith, now be a good, generous American and offer these poor depraved people a handful of hot and spicy pork rinds.....
I'll ask again, and if there's any muslims reading this , worth their salt , they'll answer me.
If jihad means spiritual struggle, how come throughout the ages it has been interpreted as a violent struggle??? and how come so many muslim terrorists swear that they are carrying out jihad??? how come so many have got it wrong if it is wrong??? is islam and it's teachings so easy to misinterpret??? are they so confusing that such a massive percentage of muslims take totally the wrong meaning of it (even though most arabic muslims in will agree that the true meaning of jihad is a violent war against infidels)??? and do you not think that these being such devout followers of islam, would not dare to commit acts something that their religion so strictly forbids (as the apologists try to decieve us that it is forbidden)???
Finally if it is un-islamic to kill and commit terrorism, then why is it MUSLIMS WHO ARE THE ONLY ONES IN THE WORLD DOING IT?!?!?!?
So we are being asked to ignore those ever evident propagations of Islam, that are there for all to see?
Ignorance can no longer be bliss in the face of so much overwhelming evidence. To the contrary ; it no longer takes a rocket scientist (not that it ever did )to see what has been occurring all over the world when it comes to the militant tenants of the Quran and the hadiths.
Do we need to once again cut and paste that long long list of terrorists attacks that have been committed in the name of allah again on jihadwatch?
You tell me! What is there that we do not see that tells us that we are wrong in our ever evolving images of of Islam?
If Islamic leaders insist that there are no militant tenants that call for the killing of all who are not muslims, be it infidels ,Zionists,Buddhists,Christians,Etc. Then I guess that I am the tooth fairy.
If they really care about preserving the peace throughout the world before even the most ignorant of us become aware of the truth about Islam. Then all the leaders of Islam need to come together and not only denounce all the hadiths and suras that speak to the militancy of Islam ,but they need to agree to vanish them from their Quran and the hadiths as well as all the hate filled and intolerant teachings coming from clerics,shiekes,ayatollas,mullahs,talaban,Etc.
Will this happen ? There is very little evidence of that. There are a few brave Muslims speaking out against what is wrong with Islam at the risk of having their heads handed to them.
Sadly we cannot easily even trust the words coming from these Islamic public relations groups such as CAIR, because once again the tenants of the Quran allow for them to be deceivers before us to propagate their totalitarian movement.
Who among them will come forward and call for tolerance and peace among all and call for the removal of those militant suras`,and hadiths`?
We are waiting ,and waiting and waiting-****
But, but, but, but .... when talking to some Muslims, they will tell you that at the time of commission of terrorist activities, crimes, murders, bombings, beheadings, mutilations, etc., etc., etc., those people cease to be true Muslims. They become kfar. Once they "repent" for their crimes, terrorist activities, murders, bombings, beheadings, etc. etc. etc., they become pious Muslims again. And on it goes, ad nauseum, an endless cycle of crime/repentance/mutilation/repentance/murder/repentance so the world is really populated with pure Muslims after all.
This kind of insanity dialogue exists on forums like: http://forums.gawaher.com/index.php?act=idx
You, too, can refute, discuss, discourse this paradoxal belief system until you vomit.
Only 25%? I had hoped it would be more.
I understand that the argument is "out there" that not all Muslims are "bad," because so many of them really know so little about the tenets of their vicious, murdering, raping, pillaging, decapitating, pain-and-anguish-inflicting, micromanaging "religion."
I know that some Muslims isolate and reject some of the more depraved bits and pieces of their "holy" documents, and then live by the "better" parts; unfortunately, in the eyes of "pure" Islam, this already makes them "bad Muslims."
It also makes them "bad people," in my estimate. These "partial practitioners" KNOW that Islam contains many irrational features, yet they CHOOSE TO CONTINUE to hold on to Islam. Nothing can be worse than DELIBERATELY CHOOSING to hold on to an evil system.
I have given up trying to excuse the Muslims who are ignorant of their religion, and am even less forgiving of those who know about the "bad" parts, but go no further than partitioning and sequestering the worst of them, continuing nevertheless to practice Islam.
So long as this nasty political movement is given the moral authority of a "religion" to do whatever it wants in order to force others to adopt it, Muslims, in my estimate, will all remain "bad."
Islam has only one hope for its ultimate survival, and that is to revise it from top to bottom, re-creating a religion that can co-exist with others, and expand its population base through persuasion, not terror.
If this does not happen, it will ultimately be doomed.
the reason southern rednecks see the world in this way is because, unlike sophists, they pay attention to the enemy. while professors and apologists equivocate in any fallacious manner necessary to support their intellectual house of cards, the southern boys know evil when they see it and wish not to embrace it
i'm one of ye, my southern comrades. were the jihad to take hold in america, i'm coming back south of the mason-dixon line. the south will rise again
And just try the Rocky Mountain states , you will find a lot of armed men and women who can shoot the eyes out of a flea at 100 yards.
Ted - Yee-haw, come on down!
If there's one thing Southerners know, it's this: you can put lipstick on a pig, but it's still a pig. It's the same thing with Islam. You can dress it up as the Religion of Peace, but it still remains the Religion of Sura 9:5. Omar Ahmad can bring his Travelling Taqiyya Show down here if he wants, but his Re-education Campaign is marching into Anti-CAIR Country. There's more where Andrew Whitehead came from, I can assure his Hamas loving ass of that.
Come on down, Omar. We'll show you a little Southern Hospitality - Deliverance style.
SOOOOOOOO-WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I think CAIR has been confused when selecting words from English to convey a point.
I have my own faith and it doesn't assume I'm anti-Muslim because I don't read the Quran or visit Mosques to hear teachings that are against
my tenets,I stopped drinking for medical reasons and that's not a anti-alcohol position,I eat meat
and that's not anti-Vegetarian stance.
For CAIR to use the term "Anti-Muslim" is dangerous,just because the Quran creates children that are predisposed to paranoia and denial,doesn't mean all non-Muslim are filled
with the same hate or zenophobic mindsets imbedded in some Muslims.
I find CAIR to be "Infidelophobic" and spew hateful comments about non-Muslims without any concrete proof,I have the right to live in peace and safety without fear of Islam being forced on me by proxy to show I'm not anti-Muslim.
Do I need to marry a midget to show I'm not anti-Little people.
NO CAIR - KNOW FREE SPEECH
Only 25% of us have an unfavorable view* of Islam? We must get that % up to at least 90%. Lots of work to do. Wake up the sleepwalkers.
___________________
*unfavorable view does NOT equal hate
To ted, Carolyn2, epg, Rottweiller and Sgt_Shultz, you each win a supersize serving of boiled green peanuts! The very best roadside stand is on 441, on the right as you go north between Ocala and Gainsville.
You are right; the enemy has no CLUE about the nature of the redneck, the bubba, the Mountain Man, or the Cracker. If, however, the enemy should foolishly try to return to our shores, he will, indeed, be facing his worst nightmare.