MY MOST IMPORTANT POST: THE IMMINENT DANGER OF MUSLIMS

This is my most important post on this blog. I start with an article sent to me by a Rabbi who disagrees with what the Swiss have done. I responded to the rabbi and also sent him a note sent to me by Mike Evans, founder of the Jerusalem Prayer Team.

Can we blame the Swiss?
By TAWFIK HAMID

On Sunday, Swiss voters supported a referendum proposal to ban the building of minarets in their country. Official results show more than 57 percent of voters and 22 out of 26 cantons - or provinces - voted in favor of the ban. Building more minarets - in addition to the four existing ones - was seen by many Swiss as a sign of Islamization of their free country. The government opposed the ban, saying it would harm Switzerland's image, particularly in the Muslim world.
In this part of the article was a poster showing a woman wearing a burka against a background of a Swiss flag with minarets resembling missiles.

Several points must be raised in relation to this issue:
1.Can Muslims blame the Swiss people for being afraid of Islamization in their country? No, especially while the entire world sees the inhumane applications of Islamic law (Shari'a) wherever it is implemented. It should come as no surprise that the Swiss people don't want a system that even today practices discrimination against women, gays and minorities in the name of religion. The vivid images of stoning women and hanging gays in the Muslim world should make any sane individual inclined not to allow such an intolerant system to grow in his country under the banner of freedom of religion.
2. The Swiss people who rejected building minarets may be sending a message that their tolerance did not change the Muslim world and is not reciprocated. For several decades Muslims have been allowed to build mosques in Europe, wear their traditional symbols such as the hijab, and preach Islam to non-Muslims. Despite such high levels of tolerance in the West, non-Muslims are not permitted to practice similar rights in several parts of the Islamic world. Preaching Christianity is criminalized in a number of Muslim countries. Furthermore, non-Muslims are not permitted to have their holy books or to build their religious temples in many Shari'a-controlled areas. This lack of reciprocity of Western tolerance will naturally make many Westerners feel that showing tolerance to Muslims is not effective.
3. It seems strange that Muslims would insist on building minarets for mosques in Switzerland while thousands of mosques exist inside the Muslim world without minarets. The minarets are seen by many as representing the superiority of Islam, especially when they are taller than the churches; this sheds some light on the hidden intentions of Muslims who insist on building minarets in the heart of Europe. It is important that Muslims in Switzerland explain why they insist on using such historical symbols of Muslim superiority when it is neither mentioned in the Koran nor considered vital to building a mosque.
4. It seems too hypocritical that Muslims demand minarets in Europe while many non-Muslims in the Muslim world are denied basic and fundamental religious rights.
The more important problem Muslims in Switzerland should address is the lack of basic religious rights for non-Muslim minorities, not these unnecessary minarets.
The writer is an Islamic thinker and reformer, and one-time Islamic extremist from Egypt. He was a member of a terrorist Islamic organization JI with Dr. Ayman Al-Zawaherri, who later became the second in command of al-Qaida. He is currently a senior fellow and chairman of the study of Islamic radicalism at the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies.


To Rabbi Jeff Salkin,

Thank you for sending the link to the above article. Maybe I'm confused about the content of this article on the minarets, but it doesn't translate to a different point of view for me...it is my point of view.

Jeff, as a rabbi, you may see Islam as a religion and therefore entitled to every privilege accorded other religions, but I cannot view it that way because:

1. Islam promotes and condones the worst kind of violence against "infidels" and against their own kind who fail to live up to their rigid precepts--women particularly.

2. It is more than a religion--it is a political movement aimed at taking over the world, and doing so by whatever means necessary--with nuclear weapons at worst, with overpopulation and intimidation at best.

3. Islam endangers western civilization as we know it and wants to bring us back to a 7th century world. And that isn't confined to what you refer to as radical Islam. It is all of Islam. It's part of their religious obligation to convert the world to Islam by whatever means necessary.

4. Passive reactions in Europe are proving to be its undoing. Now anti-Semitism is peaking once again while Europeans are fearfully appeasing the Muslim hatred for Jews. Why now? Because Europeans are living in fear among a vast Muslim population that is driving them out of their own cities.

5. I know how much you disdain the Nazi metaphor, but it fits. Ignoring the problem doesn't make it go away. It festers and grows until it can send innocent people to their deaths in gas chambers without objection. And even those who know its wrong no longer have power to stop it.

6. I believe we're on the verge of massive terrorist acts in our country, and this time it will come from our own home grown Muslims who will carry out their religious mandate--to kill us. Wherever large groups congregate, they will be at risk of a bomb in a bag or a suitcase. Subways, sports events, shopping malls during Christmas....how easily they can carry it out. And we can't profile because that is politically incorrect. Political correctness will be our undoing. Where do I get this notion? From Aviv Juval, the very same Israeli who warned the White House that we will be hit by planes going into high buildings, and that warning was made one month before 9-11. He recently predicted the London subway bombings. Israel plays to win, to survive. We could learn a lot from them but our intelligence gathering is so hampered by pollyannas and political correctness.

Grim, isn't it? But it's the way I see it. I wish more people had seen this scourge earlier and not allowed the massive Muslim infiltration in Europe, and now here. It's too late for Europe, but we still have time. So--I feel compelled to speak for the safety of a country I love more than political correctness.

Every religion does not deserve the same respect. The cults: David Koresh, Jim Jones, etc. were clearly driven by religious fanaticism. Islam is even worse.

Now, I made the statement that Islam is even worse. Read the letter I received from Mike Evans as follows:


JERUSALEM REPORT
From Mike Evans the founder of the Jerusalem Prayer Team


Dear Barbara,

In defiance of efforts by America and most of the civilized world, the government of Iran has announced that not only will it continue its nuclear program--it is going to expand it. The public statement that Iran will build an additional ten uranium enrichment plants is a grave threat to the future survival of Israel...and America as well.

Rather than placing this enriched uranium in traditional nuclear missiles, which can easily be traced back to their source, Iran is likely to distribute this material through the terrorist networks it sponsors--Hamas and Hezbollah--and urge them to use it as so-called "dirty bombs" against civilian populations in Israel and America.

To the radical Islamic extremists running Iran, the death of hundreds of thousands of innocents is a small price to pay for uniting the world under sharia law and Islamic rule. There is no question that they will use their nuclear program for military purposes. I have been briefed by top Israeli and American intelligence and military experts on this subject, and I can tell you today that they are very worried by this threat.

That means we must do more than ever to speak out and warn of this threat, as well as doing all that we can to help the Jewish people who are directly in the line of fire.

Think of what the world is facing. We must be vigilant and cannot allow our president who seems to favorable to the Muslims to lull us into the pollyanna mentality that can surely destroy us.

Thank you for reading this post. It is one of my most important messages to you.