Islamic Imperialism in the Real World

When the majority of the secular news media laughs at the idea of Islamic imperialism, it closes its eyes to the bully that is moving in next door. Unfortunately, too many people today have a wrong view of what is happening in the world. The evidence is in, and it should prompt any thinking person to say, “Wait a minute. This is a problem.”

U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney has warned that Islamists speak of a “seventh-century caliphate” to be “governed by Sharia law, the most rigid interpretation of the Koran.” Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld elaborated: “Iraq would serve as the base of a new Islamic caliphate to extend throughout the Middle East, and which would threaten legitimate governments in Europe, Africa, and Asia.”¹

Unfortunately, The New York Times quickly branded these views as balderdash. In an article titled “21st-Century Warnings of a Threat Rooted in the 7th,” Elisabeth Bumiller opined,

A number of scholars and former government officials take strong issue with the administration’s warning about a new caliphate….They say that although Al Qaeda’s statements do indeed describe a caliphate as a goal, the administration is exaggerating the magnitude of the threat as it seeks to gain support for its policies in Iraq.²

Oh really? Perhaps Ms. Bumiller should examine the evidence and the words of Jordanian-born head of al-Qaida in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi: “We will either achieve victory over the human race or we will pass to the eternal life.”³ Americans, he said, are “the most cowardly of God’s creatures.”⁴

In an October 2005 speech to the National Endowment for Democracy, President George W. Bush accurately described today’s most aggressive, carnivorous clan: Islamic imperialists.

They have, he said, a “murderous ideology” and pose the “great challenge of our new century.”

They intend to end Western influence in the Muslim world, overthrow all moderate Muslim governments, and establish a “radical Islamic empire that spans from Spain to Indonesia.”

They aspire to “develop weapons of mass destruction, to destroy Israel, to intimidate Europe, to assault the American people, and to blackmail our government into isolation.”

They want to “enslave whole nations and intimidate the world.”⁵

Realistic journalist Daniel Pipes believes the president was still too restrictive in describing the dimensions of the Islamic vision:

His limiting the “radical Islamic empire” (or caliphate) to just the Spain-to-Indonesia region [is inadequate], for Islamists have a global vision that requires control over non-Muslim countries too—and specifically the United States….Only when Americans realize that the Islamists intend to replace the U.S. Constitution with Shariah will they enter the fourth and final era of this war.⁶

In his book The Islamic Declaration, published in 1970, the late Alija Izetbegovic, ex-president of Bosnia and leader of its Muslim Party of Democratic Action (SDA), argued for the “incompatibility of Islam with non-Islamic systems” and, in so doing, stated the case for all Islamic radicals: “There can be neither peace nor coexistence between the Islamic religion and non-Islamic social and political institutions.”⁷

In his book The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order, Samuel P. Huntington elaborated:

When the Islamic movement is strong enough it must take power and create an Islamic republic. In this new state, it is particularly important that education and the media [quoting Izetbegovic] “should be in the hands of people whose Islamic moral and intellectual authority is indisputable.”⁸

A leading Egyptian journalist pointed out in 1994, “There are unmistakable signs of a growing clash between the Judeo-Christian Western ethic and the Islamic revival movement, which is now stretching from the Atlantic in the west to China in the east.”⁹ The fundamental problem is a clash of civilizations.

Islamists have made themselves clear: A caliphate—an Islamic global empire—is their vision. And in the words of Daniel Pipes, “It requires monumental denial not to acknowledge it, but we Westerners have risen to the challenge.”¹⁰ Indeed. And it seems that self-delusion is rapidly becoming a cottage industry in the Western world.

Tripping Over the Obvious
For starters, it is impossible to ignore radical Islam’s military, religious, or terrorist campaigns in Iraq, Afghanistan, Israel, Sudan, Algeria, Nigeria, Kenya, Iran, Pakistan, Yemen, Ethiopia, Armenia, Albania, Chechnya, Daghestan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Indonesia, Egypt, Jordan, the Philippines, United States, Great Britain, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Russia, Spain, Argentina, and the list goes on.

But the most telling evidence in this clash of civilizations is found where most Westerners have chosen not to go, that is, the relentless war against Christians in countries where they are most vulnerable. There, where believers have virtually no defenders, Islamists prey on Christians as carnivorous animals prey on their victims. Christians of all persuasions are fleeing Muslim countries. And the  “single greatest cause of this emigration is pressure from radical Islam,” wrote Jonathan Adelman and Agota Kuperman:

To be sure, there have been other reasons for the exodus. Educated Middle Eastern Christians sometimes emigrate for economic reasons. Some have left to avoid the endless procession of violent conflicts….But an entire group does not cavalierly abandon a homeland in which its ancestors have lived for nearly 2,000 years simply because of the allures of a more prosperous society. Such people have to be pushed out, too. And that is precisely what radical Islamists are managing to do.¹¹

Moving Out, Moving In
In the past 20 years an estimated 2 million Christians have opted to exit the Middle East. And if the trend continues, some experts believe that in the next 50 years, there will be no significant Christian presence in the region.

The area controlled by the Palestinians and slated for Palestinian statehood exemplifies the phenomenon. In 1950 Christians constituted 15 percent of the Arab population. That figure has reportedly fallen to only two percent today.

According to Adelman and Kuperman, “Today three-fourths of all Bethlehem Christians live abroad, and more Jerusalem Christians live in Sydney, Australia, than in the place of their birth. Indeed, Christians now comprise just 2.5 percent of Jerusalem.”¹²

During a live broadcast from a mosque in Gaza, Dr. Ahmad Abu Halabiya, a member of the Palestinian Authority–appointed Fatwa Council and former acting rector of the Islamic University of Gaza, stated,

From here, Allah the almighty has called upon us not to ally with the Jews or the Christians, not to like them, not to become their partners, not to support them, and not to sign agreements with them…as Allah said: ‘O you who believe, do not take the Jews and the Christians as allies, for they are allies one of another. Who from among you takes them as allies will indeed be of them (Middle East Research Institute 2000).¹³

In street-level terms, Halabiya’s message translates into discrimination and violence against, and even death for, Christian Palestinians. They live in fear. Christian girls are particular targets of public harassment and rape. A 23-year-old Christian Palestinian teacher from Beit Sahour said the discrimination began after Arafat came to power in 1993. “Before, [there were] no things like this. We could go to everyplace we wanted; we could walk in streets,” she said. But now, “I don’t walk alone on the street because of this bad thing.”¹⁴

Another woman commented, “They spit at us, try to force us to wear headscarves, and in the [Islamic] fasting month of Ramadan…the Palestinian police even arrest us for smoking or eating on the streets….The Muslims want to get rid of us, they want us to live like them.”¹⁵

Land confiscation, extortion from Christian businesses, rape of Christian women, and murder have been reported but largely ignored by Palestinian authorities and the outside world. When an 18-year-old Palestinian Muslim stabbed to death the 14-year-old nephew of a convert to Christianity as a teacher watched, police were never contacted; and members of the victim’s family were told to come and pick up the body.

And while Christians are being driven out of the Middle East, Muslims by the thousands are moving West and bringing with them their commitment to sharia Muslim law and Islamic exclusivism.

Oriana Fallaci, an outspoken adversary of Islamo-fascism, sounded an alarm in a speech while receiving an award in New York for her unwavering commitment to human rights: “I do not see Islamic terrorism as the main weapon of the war that the sons of Allah have unleashed upon us. It is the bloodiest, but not the most pernicious or catastrophic aspect of this war.” Far more dangerous, she said, is the massive, unrestricted Muslim immigration that has flooded Europe with at least 25 million Islamics, a number expected to double in 10 years and create a Muslim Europe by 2100.¹⁶

The impact of the Islamic invasion of Europe and its potential consequences have already been experienced through riots and bombings in European Union countries.

Contemplating the problems in the Netherlands after an Islamist there last year viciously stabbed to death filmmaker Theo Van Gogh because a Van Gogh film criticized Islam’s treatment of women, Arnaud de Borchgrave wrote,

Could the Netherlands be a curtain-raiser for a wider clash of civilizations in the old Continent? Hundreds of thousands of young Muslims in Europe are potential jihadis, according to European intelligence chiefs speaking not for publication. They have been warning their political masters about the tinderboxes that many Muslim communities have become.¹⁷

The global scale of the Islamic dream of a caliphate is demonstrated in the ongoing war in places like Indonesia, where militant Islamists are gaining ground at an alarming rate and saturating the earth with the blood of thousands of Christian victims. Wrote Jamie Glazov for FrontPageMagazine.com:

This development is of crisis proportions, since Indonesia plays a crucial role in guaranteeing security in Asia. This year’s second Bali terror attack was only the symbol of Islamism’s skyrocketing war on the country. Indeed, jihadists are intensely concentrating on annihilating any non-Muslim presence in Indonesia.¹⁸

Why Then the Silence?
If, as is so thoroughly documented, such egregious genocide and widespread human rights transgressions are taking place, why the silence? Why is there so little international outrage, especially in Western democracies that should oppose such atrocities and take action to halt the Islamists’ dream of a new caliphate and global empire?

Actually, it’s more of the same old story that undervalues human life in favor of “national interest.” While nuclear and large-scale military aggression occupies the international round-table, the jihad-driven murder and mutilation of individuals and destruction of religious (particularly Christian) communities attract little but lip service and promises.

For example, the U.S. Congress has repeatedly passed legislation condemning human rights violations in countries doing business with America. The International Religious Freedom Act passed by the House and Senate and signed into law by President Bill Clinton in October 1998 is specific. Violations of religious freedom include “arbitrary prohibitions on, restrictions of, or punishment for”:

(i) Assembling for peaceful religious activities such as worship, preaching, and prayer, including arbitrary registration requirements; (ii) speaking freely about one’s religious beliefs; (iii) changing one’s religious beliefs and affiliation; (iv) possession and distribution of religious literature, including Bibles; or (v) raising one’s children in the religious teachings and practices of one’s choice.¹⁹

But there’s a catch. Wrote Justus Reid Weiner:

However, the caveats written into the International Religious Freedom Act allow the President to subordinate actions taken against violating states to the national interest of the United States….Combined with the waiver clause, this clause renders the International Religious Freedom Act virtually useless, unable to accomplish its intended goals.²⁰

Clinton had opposed a prior bill on the grounds that it would make it impossible for America to put national security and trade concerns ahead of fighting religious persecution.

When Palestinian Christians persecuted by the Palestinian Authority (PA) complained to a State Department official, “the official’s recommendation was for the Christians to keep a low profile or to seek asylum in another country,” reported Weiner.²¹

The Muslim Moderate Majority
British Prime Minister Tony Blair recently said, “The best defense of the Muslim community in this country is for the mainstream Muslim community to take on the extremists within their midst.”

Mr. Blair is correct. The problem, however, is locating the Muslim “mainstream.” There are, indeed, rivulets of courageous Muslims who speak out, many under threat of death from the bin Ladens and Zarqawis who, we are repeatedly told, “hijacked a peaceful and loving religion” and are little more than a bloody aberration.

But where is the tangible evidence that there is a “peaceful and loving” Muslim mainstream? Some speculate that there is no such thing—it simply does not exist.

Figures for the Muslim population in the United States vary widely from approximately 3 million to as many as 8 million. Whatever the population, the important factor is the heavy Saudi Arabian influence.

Haviv Rettig reported in The Jerusalem Post that terrorism expert Yehudit Barsky said, “Extremist organizations continue to claim the mantle of leadership” over American Islam. Wrote Rettig:

The power of the extremist Wahhabi form of Islam in the United States was created with generous Saudi financing of American Muslim communities over the past few decades. Over 80 percent of the mosques in the United States “have been radicalized by Saudi money and influence,” Barsky said.²²

And with the Saudi-sponsored mosques come Saudi clerics who indoctrinate adherents in the Saudi brand of Wahhabi ideology that promotes sharia plus hatred of America, Jews, and Israel. Rettig continued:

This Saudi strategy was being carried out [in Barsky’s words] “all over the world, from America to Bangladesh,” with Saudis investing $70–80 billion in the endeavor over three decades.²³

Because imams who are less than friendly to their host countries wield heavy influence over their brethren, it follows that it would be difficult for Muslim moderates, who may either share the same global aspirations or are intimidated into silence, to mount a serious counterattack against Islamic terrorists.

Freedom House, an organization committed to democracy and freedom, sent Muslim volunteers into 15 prominent mosques from New York to San Diego. Daniel Pipes reported that they collected 200 books “and other publications disseminated by Saudi Arabia (some 90% in Arabic) in mosque libraries, publication racks, and bookstores. What they found can only be described as horrifying. These writings—each and every one of them sponsored by the kingdom—espouse an anti-Christian, anti-Semitic, misogynist, jihadist, and supremacist outlook.”²⁴ Pipes said they all:

“Reject Christianity as a valid faith: Any Muslim who believes ‘that churches are houses of God and that God is worshiped therein is an infidel.’

“Insist that Islamic law be applied: On a range of issues, from women (who must be veiled) to apostates from Islam (‘should be killed’), the Saudi publications insist on full enforcement of sharia in America.

“See non-Muslims as the enemy: ‘Be dissociated from the infidels, hate them for their religion, leave them, never rely on them for support, do not admire them, and always oppose them in every way according to Islamic law.’

“See America as hostile territory: ‘It is forbidden for a Muslim to become a citizen of a country governed by infidels because this is a means of acquiescing to their infidelity and accepting all their erroneous ways.’

“Prepare for war against America: ‘To be true Muslims, we must prepare and be ready for jihad in Allah’s way. It is the duty of the citizen and the government.’”²⁵

A Bully in the Schoolyard
The grammar school I attended had its resident bully. His mission was to scare and rough up other kids, always sizably smaller than himself. When a message came down the pipeline that you were his chosen source of entertainment for the afternoon, there was never a doubt that he intended to do exactly what he promised: roll you in the dirt and do what he could to rearrange the contours of your face. Denying the reality of his threat didn’t help. You got punched out anyway.

The principle in the real world of grown-up aggressors is the same. You can ignore radical Islam’s declaration of intent, as the secular media loves to do, but it won’t keep the bully from rearranging the contours of your world.

And for those who find comfort in denial or in believing that an ocean or desert safely separates them from the bad guys, listen to someone who is living a nightmare he probably never believed possible.

Reverend Murtala Marti Dangora lives in Kano, West Africa. Christians there are afraid to send their children to public schools for fear they will be forced to convert to Islam. Students are compelled to study Arabic and Islam, and say Islamic prayers. Moreover, the government refuses to grant churches permission to establish schools in rural areas. “The strategy,” said Rev. Dangora, “is to force Christians to send their  children to public schools so they can be converted to Muslims.” Another Christian leader said Christians in Kano have lost their religious liberty and are second-class citizens. Some were forced to flee their villages because of Muslim antagonism. So it goes in the land of the caliphs.

Their lives may not be yours today. But if you close your eyes to the bully moving in next door and Islamic imperialists achieve their dream, their lives could be yours tomorrow.

ENDNOTES

1. Elisabeth Bumiller, “21st Century Warnings of a Threat Rooted in the 7th,” December 12, 2005 <www.nytimes.com/2005/12/12/politics/12letter.html?ex=1136696400&en=8217c69f9f0f4a82&ei=5070>.
2. Ibid.
3. “President Commemorates Veteran’s Day, Discusses War on Terror,” November 11, 2005 <www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2005/11/print/20051111-1.html>.
4. “President Discusses War on Terror at National Endowment for Democracy,” October 6, 2005 <www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2005/10/20051006-3.html>.
5. Ibid.
6. Daniel Pipes, “Bush Declares War on Radical Islam,” October 11, 2005 <www.danielpipes.org/pf.php?id=3026>.
7. Quoted in Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order (New York: Touchstone, 1996), 269.
8. Ibid.
9. Ibid., 213.
10. Daniel Pipes, “What Do the Terrorists Want? [A Caliphate],” July 26, 2005 <www.danielpipes.org/pf.php?id=2798>.
11. Jonathan Adelman and Agota Kuperman, “The Christian Exodus From the Middle East” <www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/arabs/christianme.html>.
12. Ibid.
13. Quoted in Justus Reid Weiner, Human Rights of Christians in Palestinian Society (Jerusalem: Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, 2005), 17.
14. Ibid., 14.
15. Ibid., 10.
16. Robert Spencer, “Fallaci Warrior in the Cause of Human Freedom,” November 30, 2005 <www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=20359>.
17. Arnaud de Borchgrave, “Mini clash of civilizations,” November 15, 2004 <www.washingtontimes.com/commentary/20041114-103944-4700r.htm>.
18. Jamie Glazov, “Symposium: Indonesian Jihad,” January 2, 2006 <www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=20728>.
19. International Religious Freedom Act of 1998, 105th Cong., 2d sess. (27 January, 1998) <http://usinfo.state.gov/usa/infousa/laws/majorlaw/intlrel.htm>.
20. Weiner, 33–34.
21. Ibid., 27.
22. Haviv Rettig, “Expert: Saudis Have Radicalized 80% of US Mosques,” December 5, 2005 <www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1132475689987&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2Fprinter>.
23. Ibid.
24. Daniel Pipes, “Saudi Venom in U.S. Mosques,” February 1, 2005 <www.danielpipes.org/article/2384>.
25. Ibid.