doing something about it is hard.
Islam is a religion, and Muslims are those who follow that religion. Islam isn’t a race or ethnicity; it is entirely different. All religions form some sort of congregation, a place where their followers may gather to worship, but Islam goes much further. Islam requires the formation of a state, a political entity to govern Allah’s (the god of Islam) kingdom on earth.
This kingdom is to be ever-expanding until it encompasses all of the earth and everything in it. It is this aspect of Islam that takes it from religion to theocratic political system, and the unyielding requirement to spread Islam by any means necessary renders this theocratic/political construct dangerous – even lethal – to the rest of the non-Muslim world.
Muslims are called to fight to establish that theocratic kingdom in which Muslims will be the first class citizens and all will be governed by Allah’s given law – Sharia. A Muslim must continue this fight until it is unconditionally successful. This struggle, known as Jihad, is the highest calling, and most rewarded behavior in all of Islam.
Some Muslims choose to answer that call with brutal violence in furtherance of their kingdom, fighting and dying in service to the cause, believing they are securing their salvation, while other Muslims support the cause in less lethal ways, through propaganda and political scheming.
Still other Muslims ignore the call almost entirely, leaving the task for other Muslims to perform. This doesn’t necessarily mean they are opposed, just simply unwilling to exercise that level of devotion to their religion.
Muslims who answer the call of Allah to establish Allah’s kingdom on earth are described in the west as “radical” Islamists, yet they are only pursuing the full call of their religious devotion. They aren’t radical, they are devout.
The issue is at once complex and simple…there is no guarantee that the less devout Muslim (who pose no present threat) will not grow in their devotion, becoming dangerous and violent as the American-raised attacker in San Bernardino. The establishment of Allah’s kingdom on earth is preached and taught in every Mosque in America – indeed, in the entire world – and these less devout Muslims feel the burden of constant guilt for falling short in their devotion to their god.
In Islamic doctrine, sin is cumulative. The missed prayer, the sipped beer, will all be remembered and punished in eternity unless expunged. Mosques all over the world place heavy emphasis on this concept.
In Christianity, Jesus’ blood was shed in a “once for all” sacrifice to redeem believers from sin, cleansing us in preparation of an eternity spent with God.
In Islam (where a great deal of doctrine is a mirror opposite of Christianity) the Muslim is told to shed the blood of others to be free of the soul-crushing weight of all those sins accumulated in life.
Why did the 9/11 terrorists spend their final night engaged in heavy drinking and debauchery at a strip club? They were devout Muslims and this behavior is haram (unclean, forbidden) in Islam.
Because they knew the next day they would be cleansed of those sins by flying planes full of innocent people into buildings full of innocent people. This act of jihad in service to the establishment of Allah’s earthly kingdom was their “Allah-approved” path to salvation.
This is why you see worldly Muslims suddenly turn to vicious acts of barbarism (like the young female suicide bomber in Paris). They are seeking to redeem their souls.
Imams frequently take misguided and troubled Muslim youth, adrift in permissive western societies, and convince them that only jihad can save them from the eternal fires of Hell.
This is what we fight. Redemption from sin is the prize dangled before the Muslim, and martyrdom through Jihad is the path to salvation.
We aren’t fighting radicals within the religion of Islam, we are threatened by increasing devotion within the religion of Islam.
It is an essential distinction to understand, and we can no longer afford to recoil from the sad realization that Islam, as taught and practiced today, is wholly incompatible with a free society. Before we can have a fruitful discussion of the subject, we must first accept the truth.
https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10153081615937581
This makes perfect sense. The only ways to diminish the threat, it seems, is to convert them to a different religion, preferably Christianity; somehow educate the world of its falsehood (which hasn’t stopped other religions); irradicate the Muslim population of the world (impossible); or submit.