America’s Values can contribute to its Vulnerability
By Abdullah Al Araby
Recent news about the events surrounding Saddam Hussein’s hanging has revealed interesting insights. Hours before his execution Saddam Hussein and his legal team desperately pleaded that he remains in the hands of the Americans. The Butcher of Baghdad knew that once he fell into the hands of his fellow Muslims, his chances of being executed with dignity for his crimes against humanity were non-existent. This proved to be true.
What Saddam experienced at his execution would have never been allowed had the Americans carried out the sentence.
While the noose was being tightened around his neck and before he plummeted into eternity, he heard vindictive hecklers.
They sneered that he was hell-bound, taunted him about the superiority of another religious-political leader and took camera phone footage of his final agonies. Even a murderous dictator deserves an execution in an atmosphere of civil dignity rather than that of a barbarous carnival.
Hopefully, this article will help those who read it to wakeup from their naïve slumbers about the mindset of Islamists. Virtues such as religious tolerance, democratic equality for all, prohibitions against cruel and unusual punishments and kindness to one’s enemies are not perceived as admirable strengths.
The Muslim mindset is that such are evidences of weakness that present opportunities to invade and conquer American society with ease. The following statements by influential Muslims expose the mindset of Islamists.
Libyan dictator Moammar Gaddaafi - “Our confrontation with America used to be like confronting a fortress from outside. Today, we have found a loophole to enter the fortress and confront it from within.” The same theme is emphasized by a comment made by a Muslim to Archbishop Giuseppe Bernardini of Izmir. - “Thanks to your democratic laws we will invade you; thanks to our (Islamic) religious laws we will dominate you.”
Again, an ex-Muslim, knowledgeable of the mindset of Islamists summed up Islamists’ new strategy. “We will use American kindness, fairness, compassion, freedom of speech and non-discriminatory policy against us. We will then stab America in the back.”
In the early stages of Islam, there was no need for diplomatic subtleties to enable the Muslim hordes to make ever-advancing conquests. The surrounding weak, corrupt and divided empires could not withstand Islamic fervor.
The first Islamic wave raged through the countries of the Middle and Far East destroying Byzantine Empire and advanced northwestward into Spain and Portugal. Their invasion of France was not repelled until they got within 125 miles of Paris.
The Ottoman Empire initiated the second wave in the 17th century. It successfully invaded and occupied several Eastern Europe nations and was not stopped until they reached the gates of Vienna.
Between the 12th and 19th centuries Islam underwent reversals. The ignorant backwardness, superstitions and gender and religious prejudices of Islam are too much for any culture to bear without dire consequences. The societies that they had conquered lost the intellectual and scientific momentum that they’d enjoyed prior to Islam.
Subsequently, those nations slipped into corruption and poverty. In recent history the discovery of oil in the Arab Middle East has reenergized Islam’s ambitions to conquer the world for Allah and Mohammad.
However, since they don’t have the military might that they once did, they’re now obligated to devise cleverly subtle methods to influence powerful democracies such as the United States.
They’ve found a loophole that will work in their favor. It’s our democratic laws that ensure freedom of speech, religious tolerance and equal rights for aliens as well as American citizens. Those laws give them the liberty to advance the Islamic agenda in order to gain the political strength needed to attempt to override those laws and Islamize our entire government and culture.
We must credit the Islamists with having a strategic ability to adapt from their ancient ways of military conquest to today’s more intelligent and sophisticated methods.
They patiently studied American society and discovered that it was best to target what they perceived to be our weak points. Strangely, for them it’s the basic code of ethics that rules America. They fully understand our Judeo-Christian foundation.
They’re well aware that though America has been a symbol of freedom and a force against tyranny from its inception, it has never used its military superiority to conquer weaker nations and grab their lands. On one hand many Islamists would give a right arm for the privilege of living in America and enjoying our way of life.
On the other hand some of them harbor hate against us purely because they envy our prosperity, morals and global influence. Islam manipulates both sentiments.
It uses our democratic laws to gain entrance to our country and uses Muslim petrol-dollars to fuel misinformation campaigns about us to those who already suspect, envy and hate America.
Today, one of the primary goals of Muslim activists is to win the hearts and minds of the American public.
To do so they’ve temporarily hidden the overt Jihad edge of their Sword. But they’ve found another weapon at their disposal the instant they reached our shores. Many were trained in wielding that new weapon prior to embarking to America. It enables them to effectively lure new converts into Islam’s web. The tool that empowers Muslim activist to advance the Islamic agenda against us is our historically lenient immigration policies and liberal laws. Such could turn out to be the cause of America’s vulnerability
America’s respect for the law Americans respect the law. If the law permits a person to do a certain thing, we uphold their right to do so regardless of how damaging their ulterior motives might be to the welfare of our nation. The United States allows Islamists to operate freely within the legal system. There is no need for them to break or to contradict our laws to achieve their takeover goals. They do this, as the Islamic activist Dr Muzamil Siddiqi puts it, "without disturbing or violating the constitution of the U.S.A."
The Law is the most potent weapon used by Islamists. CAIR (Council on American-Islamic Relations) is an Islamic organization that retains a massive team of lawyers. They sue anybody who dares to say something that can be construed as objectionable about Islam.
Under threat of lawsuits, companies often yield to their demands and settle out of court for whatever amounts they demand. The result is that we’ve seen people losing their jobs because they touched Islam. Talk-show host Michael Graham was suspended-without-pay for describing Islam as a “terrorist organization” on his program. Popular syndicated radio hosts Dr. Laura Schlesinger and Paul Harvey were forced to make on-air apologies for comments against Islam.
There are other weapons in America that they are finding handy: America’s tolerance for other philosophies and religions America is a haven for followers of all beliefs. Ironically, those whom it strives to protect often attack America. In such instances our hands are tied by our high sense of moral obligations to our principles of freedom.
The kinsmen of our overseas enemies reside in the USA. Due to their stateside protests we refrain from using our military superiority to completely annihilate our opponents on the soil of their homelands.
America’s freedom of religion America values freedom of religion established as the cornerstone of the American way of life. Even those who have unusually weird and even destructive beliefs can find fellow believers among our population. Strangely, we tolerate those who despise and oppose the traditional spiritual values that most Americans embrace.
America’s freedom of expression Men who wanted to protect Americans from religious oppression established the Constitution and its Bill of Rights. Those documents give citizens the right to express themselves as they please. Our free speech policies even protect those who bash our President and criticize our nation that shelters them and gives them financial assistance.
America’s Democracy Islam never believed in democracy as we know it. Its Sharia law is based mainly on religious autocracy. An Islamic ruler is called a Khalifa (successor of Mohammed).
Such is unopposed and rule by a mandate from Allah. Post the demise of the Ottoman Empire, Muslims have not been successful in establishing a Khilafah government. Nonetheless, it remains their dream to do so.
While they are unable to rule in the full Islamic manner, they don’t mind utilizing governmental systems that will permit them a measure of success to reach their goal. The newest tool they’ve found is American democracy that the USA is pushing throughout the Middle East.
Democracy has been a convenient tool to position Islamists in prominent roles of civil authority and judicial power. In the January 2006 Palestinian Legislative Council elections, Hamas won 74 out of 132 seats. The ruling Fatah party won only 45, and the three liberal parties won a total of six seats. In Lebanon Hizballah won a significant number of seats and is holding several cabinet positions. They are demanding more with threats of protests by hundreds of thousands of Muslim zealots that could topple the government. . In Egypt, in 2005 election, the Muslim Brotherhood successfully won 88 seats.
That is 19% of Egypt’s total of 454 parliamentary seats. In contrast, the liberal opposition parties won a combined total of fewer than ten seats. The Brotherhood could have done even better if it wasn’t for a crack down on polling places by the Egyptian security forces which resulted in the death of 11 voters.
Other Middle Eastern countries such as Yemen, Kuwait, Jordan and Morocco show similar trends. In America, Muslims find our free election process a convenient tool to elect officials who favor Islam. In a democracy small but vocal voting blocks can greatly influence elections.
Muslims frequently use their voting power to elect officials who will meet their demands in spite of the desires of less vocal non-Muslim Americans. In the November 2006 election, Keith Ellison, was the first Muslim elected to the Congress of the United States America’s advanced media Muslims know that they live in the home of the World’s most advanced media.
They are using it to their full advantage. They started by running expensive advertisements in major newspapers and magazines and on TV and radio stations. Now, they are even trying to buy huge shares in those media outlets. Saudi Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal purchased 5.46% of the Fox Corporation, according to Gulf Daily News. This raised concerns that the conservative Fox News might soften its anti-terror stance due to the views of the new shareholder. Without the virtues we’ve discussed, America would cease to be America. I am not suggesting here that America abandons its virtues or even revise them. However, I do hope to draw attention to America’s pressing need.
We need to develop mechanisms that will close the loopholes that our enemies are using to gain dominance in our country. They are penetrating our defenses and damaging the foundations of our culture by deviously applying the virtues that made this country great. Our legal system protects them on one hand and, on the other, gives them the ammunition to intimidate their opponents.
They use American open mindedness and tolerance to manipulate people’s thinking and to dominate their minds. Our freedom of religion and freedom of expression are used to openly advocate the Islamization of America. They use democracy to attain political clout and positions of authority. America’s advanced media is their primary weapon to immunize the masses against the dangers of Islam.
Make no mistake about it. Most of our Judeo-Christian values are absolutely incompatible with Islamic Sharia law. If Islamists are able to attain positions that empower them to decide America’s form of government, many of the values that we treasure are history. American values are like a ladder, Islamists use it to enter and conquer the American fortress. After reaching their goal, they will kick the ladder away.