CAIR, Thomas Jefferson and the Demise of Islam

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CAIR, Thomas Jefferson and the Demise of Islam

By Kevin Mangan

US Muslims such as Ibrahim Hooper, Director of CAIR (Council of American Islamic Relations), were against the Pentagon's invitation of the Rev. Franklin Graham to lead prayer services on Good Friday as this would "send the wrong message to the Muslim and Arab world". Graham previously called Islam a "very evil and wicked religion." Yes, harsh, but isn't he entitled to his opinion? What about his freedom of speech? His intention is not to incite riots and hate against Muslims, but to express, I suspect, his strong belief that Islam is more of an ideology than a religion – a very fine line to walk in a politically correct world, but please allow him do so.  

Clearly, there is now a great movement afoot to reexamine and, yes, openly criticize
Islam after 9/11, and I think this is long, long overdo. No longer is Islam known in the West from the flowery language of its high school textbooks or the apologetic writings of  such "renowned" Islamic scholars as Karen Armstrong (now studying Buddhism, by the way). Islam is for all of us to see and for each of us to reach our own conclusions. As I sincerely seek the truth, I make it a point to read both sides of an issue and check various sources, both on the left and the right, and I can clearly see the obfuscation in the statements and actions of organizations like CAIR and the like, always playing the Muslim and the Palestinian as the victim; not surprisingly, it is also notorious for labeling the Jewish intellectual on militant Islam, Dr. Daniel Pipes, as an "Islamophobe", always quoting him out of text. Enough of this nonsense! 

Let us simply stop for a moment and think: Why is it that Islam is always misrepresented, the Quran always taken out of context, the Palestinians always the victims, and the US and Israel always the villain ad museum? Isn't there a sinister and blinding pattern of denial here? This is precisely because of the existence of CAIR and other Islamic apologist organizations, not to mention the secular left, which is in deep crisis itself right there with Islam. How does it come to be that apologists like Armstrong can sympathize with the Islam and blithely say that the built up rage and resentment it holds towards the West is essentially a matter of jealousy? There simply is no justification!  

Please, Ibrahim and Karen, spare us your banalities! As the Who sang loud and clear in the 70s, we "Won't be fooled again!" Indeed, is it not a fact? Is it not utterly and irrefutably evident by now, and can we not logically conclude that, those who follow the Quran have predestined their political and economic existence to one of insecurity and unrelenting emotional turmoil? It is not that Muslims are bad people; it's just that what they are taught by the Quran is leading them to this deep abyss of hatred and despair. This is what Rev. Graham and many others are saying. I am now more and more convinced that there  are so many millions of Muslims in this world who in a minute would give up the religion and walk right away to escape this torment were it not for the fear of being called an apostate and being disowned by their families. 

Let me digress now for a moment. In my research on Islam I recently learned of the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem ("uncle" and mentor to Yassar Arafat) and how he was put into power by the British in Palestine in the late 1930s. After stirring up so much hate against the Jews there and supporting a pro-Nazi coup in Iraq, he ultimately had to flee to Berlin, where he was welcomed with open arms by none other than Eichmann and Hitler. Indeed, he had similar ideas on how to solve the "Jewish problem". Thus, while Hitler was content to send Hungarian Jews to Palestine, the mufti urged the gas chamber; he opposed an exchange of 4,000 Bulgarian Jewish children for Nazi POWs; and he recruited and organized the Bosnian Muslim troops that massacred Jews, Gypsies and Christians in the Balkans. He would have been treated as a war criminal but here; again, "the fear of the Arab street" nipped all efforts to this effect in the bud. Indeed, upon his return to Eygpt he apparently was treated as a hero! In short, a person more evil and more sinister than Hitler is welcomed back into open arms by his Islamic brethren. Even in defeat the Islamic Arab world could not understand. How pathetic!

Shockingly, and to continue the story through to today, only last October the current Mufti declared in a sermon at Al Aqsa mosques in Jerusalem that the Temple Mount belongs only to Muslims, yet ignores the fact that Jews have a 2,300 year old historical claim to it as well! How many more holy cities does Islam need? Five? Ten? Fifty? This same Mufti was also was quoted on the death of 6 million Jews in the Holocaust: "We denounce all massacres, but I don't see why a certain massacre should be used for political gain and blackmail." This is eerily similar to the language of CAIR after Sept. 11th: denounce something to appease, but then always evade the real issue raised and their profounder implications. Deny and hope this will only stupefy!  

Finally, no one in the West denies the barbarities committed by Christians in the past (the Crusades, Inquisitions, etc) so I wish we could put such references to rest as an apology. My point is that fortunately for the West, long ago there weren't any politically correct or apologist organizations to stifle criticism of religion and political debate, a prerequisite to enlightened reform and serious reflection. I quote Thomas Jefferson's version of the Declaration of Independence especially for Muslims to reflect on why these words are so beautiful, and why they have made America the power it is today.

                A Declaration of the Independence of the United States of America

When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for a people to advance from that subordination in which they have hitherto remained, & to assume among the powers of the earth the equal & independent station to which the laws of nature & of nature's god entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the change.

We hold these truths to be sacred & undeniable; that all men are created equal & independent, that from equal creation they derive rights inherent & inalienable, among which are the preservation of life, & liberty & the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these ends, governments are instituted.

Of course, the basis for such words come from Jesus himself when he said, "Give unto Caesar that which is Caesar's and unto the Lord that which is the Lord's."  The Arab/Islamic empire that was once so powerful and so glorious in the past is now in its demise, kept alive essentially only by the oil  and the fanatical teachings of  its clerics. In short, Rev. Graham may only be pointing out the fact since the Prophet Mohammad never preached anything near similar to what Jesus and Thomas Jefferson did above, this is why Islam is "evil and wicked" in his opinion.