The Danger of Islam

Ayaan Hirsi Ali is a Muslim feminist who was born in Somalia and who lived in Saudi Arabia, Ethiopia, and Kenya before moving to Holland where she was eventually elected to the Dutch Parliament. She is currently a fellow at the think tank, American Enterprise Institute. In her book, Infidel, she tells about her own genital mutilation, beatings, and the oppression as a woman in the Muslim world. One of the things she says in her book is that the 9/11 hijackers represented more than the lunatic fringe of Islam: “I knew that a vast majority of Muslims would see the attacks as justified retaliation against the infidel enemies of Islam.” Needless to say, Ayaan has been the target of many death threats.

After every savage atrocity perpetrated by Muslim suicide bombers, including the horrific bloodbath of September 11, 2001, Islamic scholars claimed that such sanguinary behavior was not in the true spirit of Islam. We were told that there was nothing in the Koran justifying such attacks. We were informed that Islam is a peaceful religion, that suicide is forbidden, and that suicide bombers were acting contrary to Islamic law. This would all be very comforting if it were true. Unfortunately, it may not be true at all.

Most Americans have noticed that there was almost no outcry by Muslim nations against the 9/11 slaughter. Virtually no denunciations of the massacre were heard from Muslim clerics around the world and in America. Polls have shown strong support for Osama bin Laden in the Arab world. An election by the Palestinians was won by Hamas, a terrorist organization which calls for the destruction of Israel and which is responsible for many suicide bombings.

It may be that our civilization is in grave danger not only from Muslim fanatics but from the whole Muslim world. Sam Harris, in his book The End of Faith, maintains that because of the basic beliefs of Islam, the world is in danger of nuclear devastation. He argues that it is not merely the fanatic Moslems that wish to destroy us. It is ordinary Muslims. Says Harris: “We are at war with precisely the vision of life that is prescribed to all Muslims in the Koran, and further elaborated in the literature of the Hadith, which recounts the sayings and actions of the Prophet.” Even moderate Muslims “consider the Koran to be the literal and inerrant word of the one true God.”

Harris demonstrates that although there is a type of jihad that is used as a means of waging war against one’s own sinfulness, “no amount of casuistry can disguise the fact that the outer (or ‘lesser’) jihad—war against infidels and apostates—is a central feature of the faith. Armed conflict in ‘defense of Islam’ is a religious obligation for every Muslim man.” Harris says that: “…The duty of jihad is an unambiguous call to world conquest.”

In his book, The Crisis of Islam: Holy War and Unholy Terror, Bernard Lewis writes: “the presumption [of Muslims] is that the duty of jihad will continue, interrupted only by truces, until all the world either adopts the Muslim faith or submits to Muslim rule.”

Sam Harris says: “We must come to terms with the possibility that men who are every bit as zealous to die as the nineteen hijackers may one day get their hands on long-range nuclear weaponry.” Their religion promises a paradise of pure delight for all those who die in jihad. Because they are enjoined to go out and kill the infidels, and because they will experience eternal pleasure in well-watered gardens with young, fair, dark-eyed, full-busted virgins, the idea of dying by H-Bomb does not frighten them. It rather excites them.

To Muslims, all non-Muslims are “infidels.” Harris cites many quotations from the Koran (or Qur’an) condemning non-Muslims, including: “God’s curse be upon the infidels” (2:89); “God is the enemy of the unbelievers” (2:98); “We shall let them live awhile, and then shall drag them to the scourge of the Fire. Evil shall be their fate” (2:126); “those that deny Our revelation We will burn in fire (4:56) (This last is particularly alarming in light of the fires of 9/11); “Slay them (infidels) wherever you find them. Drive them out of the places from which they drove you. Idolatry is worse than carnage” (2:190-93).

We have been conditioned by movies and television to believe that everything in life will turn out okay. Well, maybe. But it is also possible that everything will turn-out horribly. It is possible that because of basic Muslim beliefs, we will wind-up with a nuclear cataclysm that will make the 9/11 disaster seem like a mere pin-prick. I do not know what we can do to prevent this outcome. I’m sure that there are many Muslims who do not wish us harm. But many others do. The war in Iraq is certainly not the answer. That war has only exacerbated our struggle with terrorists. For the same reason, war with Iran would not be the answer. We are confronted with deeply angry, humiliated, fanatical people all over the world. This story may not have a happy ending.