Much Is Made Of The Claim That The Vast Majority Of Moslems Practice A “Moderate Islam” And That “Radical Islam” Has Nothing To Do With The “True Religion Of Islam”
By Col. Tom Snodgrass (Ret.), Right Side News
Examples Of People Spouting Ignorance About Islam Are On Both Sides Of The Political Aisle Are Unending
According to President Barak Obama, the U.S. has natural allies in peace-loving Muslims.
In an interview with CNN on February 1, 2015 Obama said: “I think that for us to be successful in fighting this scourge, it’s very important for us to align ourselves with the 99.9 percent of Muslims who are looking for the same thing we’re looking for — order, peace, prosperity…”
On September 10, 2015 Obama outlined his strategy to defeat Islamic State jihadists in Iraq and Syria:
Now let’s make two things clear: ISIL is not Islamic. No religion condones the killing of innocents, and the vast majority of ISIL’s victims have been Muslim. And ISIL is certainly not a state.
Author and activist Ayaan Hirsi Ali grew up in Somalia in a Muslim home where she was subjected to female genital mutilation at the age of five. Since immigrating to the West, she has spoken out forcefully and effectively about the horrors (i.e., sexual slavery) which Muslims, like those in the Islamic State (IS), commit against women and girls around the world as an integral part of Islamic culture in accordance with the Islamic religion’s Quran and Sharia.
At a dinner party in Washington, D.C. Vice President Joe Biden attempted to correct her perspective on relationship between the Islamic State and Islam, saying, “IS had nothing to do with Islam.” When Hirsi Ali took strong exception, Biden said, “Let me tell you one or two things about Islam…” Whereupon Hirsi Ali vacated herself from Biden’s fact-less rant and left Biden to marinate in his own ignorance.
On January 24, 2015 Secretary of State John Kerry gave a speech to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland that cautioned against blaming all Muslims (the “moderates”) for crimes of those who have “a distorted and ignorant interpretation of the Islamic religion”:
“Against this enemy, we are increasingly organizing and fighting back, but in doing so we have to also keep our heads. Obviously, the biggest error that we could make would be to blame Muslims collectively for crimes not committed by Muslims alone – crimes that the overwhelming majority of Muslims oppose, crimes that their faith utterly rejects, and that Muslim leaders themselves have the greatest ability to address.”
At Georgetown University on December 3, 2014 former Secretary of State and 2016 Democrat presidential contender Hillary Clinton gave a speech that counseled an empathetic approach to Muslim terrorists in the supposed belief that Muslim moderates can be separated from the Islamic radicals through empathy:
“This is what we call Smart Power, using every possible tool…leaving no one on the sidelines, showing respect even for one’s enemies, trying to understand, and insofar as is psychologically possible, empathize with their perspective and point of view, helping to define the problems [and] determine a solution, that is what we believe in the 21st century will change the prospect for peace.”
Attorney General Eric Holder was interviewed on NBC News on January 13, 2015 and exuded the standard Obama regime subterfuge that Islamic jihadists were not really practicing the religion of Islam:
CHUCK TODD, NBC NEWS HOST: The French prime minister this morning declared that France is at war with radical Islam. Would you say the United States is at war with radical Islam?
ERIC HOLDER: Well, I would say that we are at war with terrorists who commit these heinous acts and who use Islam. They use a corrupted version of Islam to justify their actions.
Turning to Republicans, the initial policy pronouncement that put U.S. national security entirely on the wrong track in crafting an effective strategy to fight Islamic jihad was made by President George W. Bush at the Islamic Center of Washington, D.C. September 17, 2001:
The face of terror is not the true faith of Islam. That’s not what Islam is all about. Islam is peace. These terrorists don’t represent peace. They represent evil and war.
When we think of Islam we think of a faith that brings comfort to a billion people around the world. Billions of people find comfort and solace and peace. And that’s made brothers and sisters out of every race — out of every race.
Remarks by National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice in Los Angeles on June 12, 2003 made the case for the naïve Bush administration belief that 1400 years of Islamic tribal culture would eventually give way to the Western cultural political concept of “democracy” because Muslims possessed the “universal craving for freedom, liberty and peace.” But inherent to the Bush grandiose democracy scheme was the fact that the democracy concept was based on values as conceived in the European Enlightenment, not in an Arab tribal council.
There is no one-size-fits-all model of democracy. New liberties can find an honored place among treasured traditions.
Everyone must reject, nonetheless, the condescending view that freedom will not grow in the soil of the Middle East, or that Muslims somehow do not share the desire to be free. The United States has made clear that we stand with all people in the Muslim world and around the globe who seek creative freedom, greater opportunity.
On September 3, 2013, Senator John McCain, frequent Obama Republican critic and national security gadfly, defended Islam and showed his total ignorance of the religion when Brian Kilmeade of Fox News observed that the Syrian rebels whom Barack Obama and McCain wanted to supply military aid were shouting “Allahu akbar! Allahu akbar!” because rockets were raining down on Syrian government offices. The exchange went as follows:
I have a problem,” Kilmeade said, “helping those people screaming that after a hit.” That incensed McCain, who shot back: “Would you have a problem with an American or Christians saying ‘thank God? Thank God?’ That’s what they’re saying. Come on! Of course they’re Muslims, but they’re moderates and I guarantee you they are moderates.”
Tom Ridge, a former Pennsylvania governor, who served as America’s first secretary of homeland security in the George W. Bush Republican administration, published an Op-Ed in the February 5, 2015 edition of The Washington Times titled “An overdue awakening of moderate Muslims.” For a former high-level national security official who should know better, two paragraphs from Ridge’s piece encapsulate the accumulated Western ignorance that renders totally ineffective U.S. Government attempts to counter the raging, worldwide Islamic jihad that is spreading death, destruction, and misery around the globe.
“We can and will take every precaution to protect our homelands and stop attacks through good intelligence and police work. To win, though, we need a grand alliance with millions of peaceful, progressive Muslims around the world, dedicated to defeating extremists by promoting the very freedoms and values they abhor. The voices of religious and political leaders must be raised in a sustained global chorus of opposition to these Islamic radicals and their medieval and barbaric ways. The extremists have killed far more Muslims than non-Muslims.
“Radical Islamic fundamentalism does not reflect a clash of civilizations, a struggle between East and West, or even a struggle between believers or non-believers. It is the product of a conflict between two competing interpretations of Islam: that which is espoused by extremists like the Islamic State, al Qaeda and the mullahs in Iran, and a progressive, tolerant form of Islam rooted in peace, understanding and coexistence, which is promoted by the main opposition to the clerics in Tehran.”
The Issues That Block A Realistic And Effective U.S. Strategy Against Islamic Jihad
The three fundamental conceptual errors that are contained in views of the nine government officials above, who are or have been at the pinnacle of U.S. national security policy making, can be enumerated as follows:
- Most Muslims are moderate and reject Allah’s mandates for violent jihad as specified in the Quran (Allah’s exact words to Mohammad), Sira (Mohammad’s biography), Hadith (teachings, deeds, and sayings of Mohammad), and Sharia (Islamic moral code and religious law derived from the Quran, Sira, and Hadith). This particular conceptual error appears above in the words of Obama, Kerry, Bush, McCain, and Ridge.
- The jihadist war to establish the Muslim religion is not really “Islamic” and those who practice jihadist warfare are “perverting and hijacking the peaceful religion of Islam.” This counter-factual conceptual error appears above in the words of Obama, Biden, Holder, Bush, and Ridge.
- Jihadist Muslims are not engaged in jihad because of the Islamic religion, but rather they are “victims” of poverty and Western imperialism and material oppression. Furthermore, they share the “universal” desire for “freedom, liberty and peace,” and they just desire “respect” for their religion and culture. Therefore, because these grievances are not religious but secular, they can be successfully resolved by negotiation and compromise. This fabulous conceptual error appears above in the words of Obama, Clinton, Bush, Rice, McCain, and Ridge.
How Valid Are Each Of These Three Issues?
Regarding Issue #1, a 2014 survey of the Muslim world by the Pew Research Center on Global Attitudes and Trends, that is titled “Concerns about Islamic Extremism on the Rise in Middle East,” directly contradicts Obama’s absurd assertion that only .1% of Muslims are “radical extremists.” While obviously Obama just made up his claim that 99.9% of Muslims reject violence to advance Islam, the Pew Survey of most Islamic countries in the Middle East, South Asia, and Africa revealed that 25% of Muslims favored suicide bombing or other violence in the name of Allah. Although Obama’s lying to the American people is nothing new after six years of constant Obamacare, Fast & Furious, IRS, illegal immigration, and Benghazi prevarication, Obama’s lie that almost all Muslims are “moderate” is especially egregious because it deliberately misleads Americans about the deadly nature of the enemy in time of war.
One other major fact of life that totally negates the fallacious claim of “Muslim moderation” is that non-jihad practicing Muslims are an accurate measure of the Islamic scripture and intent. Gaging the doctrinal basis and aspirations of Islam by the alleged conduct of Muslims in the street would be like asking Nancy Pelosi to state her view of abortion and then reporting her reply as the Catholic Church’s abortion doctrine. Islam is a religion completely codified in the Quran, Hadith, Sira, and Sharia, not in the anecdotal group behavior of Friday Mosque attendees. Furthermore, human behavior is subject to modification and change. Islamic “radicalization” is the acknowledged, frequent path to becoming a murderous jihadist. A “moderate Muslim” one day can come under the influence of cleric like Anwar Al-Awlaki and be transformed into a suicide jihadist through guided study of violence-inducing Islamic scripture. For instance such scripture is found where Mohammad is quoted in both the Hadith and Sharia as instructing his followers: “The Messenger of Allah said: I have been commanded to fight against all people so long as they do not declare that there is no god but Allah.” In another Hadith Mohammad makes clear that Islamic “Paradise” is attained through violent jihad: “Allah’s Apostle said, ‘Know that Paradise is under the shades of swords‘.”
Regarding Issue #2 that the jihadist war to establish the Muslim religion is not really “Islamic” and those who practice jihadist warfare are “perverting and hijacking the peaceful religion of Islam” is so preposterous that any Islamic apologist that advances such buffoonery should be laughed out of the room and disregarded as a serious participant in discussions of Islam. Just a few suras (verses) from the Quran discredit officials like Obama, Biden, Holder, Bush, and Ridge as indisputably foolish. Consider Quran 2:193 – “ fight them until there is no more Fitnah [disbelief in Allah] and worship is for Allah alone. ”; Quran 5:33 – “The punishment of those who wage war against Allah and His messenger and strive to make mischief in the land is only this, that they should be murdered or crucified or their hands and their feet should be cut off on opposite sides or they should be imprisoned; this shall be as a disgrace for them in this world, and in the hereafter they shall have a grievous chastisement”; Quran 9:29 – “Fight those who believe not in Allah nor the Last Day, nor hold that forbidden which hath been forbidden by Allah and His Messenger [observe Islamic Sharia law], nor acknowledge the religion of Truth [Islam]. ” It matters not what “moderate Muslims” believe, these death-dealing orders are straight from Allah and are the organizing principles of Islam.
It is the radical Muslim’s firm basis in Islamic scriptural canon why “moderate Muslims” cannot discredit “radical Muslims” and dominate the worldwide Islamic umma. It is undeniable that “radical Muslims,” i.e., “jihadists” are murderously carrying out Islamic scripture exactly as Mohammad asserted that Allah intended, and all Muslims who are familiar with the Quran know it.
Regarding Issue #3 that jihadist Muslims are not engaged in jihad because of the Islamic religion, but rather they are “victims” of poverty and Western imperialism and material oppression is derived from the usual leftist boilerplate agitprop of Western secularists that all human ills are the result of “unfair economic distribution.“ However, it makes zero sense that tens of thousands of individuals, who purportedly just want their “fair share” of economic distribution, would strap on suicide vests and vaporize themselves in order to gain economic improvement (?) in the temporal world! If economic improvement is truly the motivation of Muslim extremists dying by the thousands in suicide acts, how do the advocates of secular motives explain these statements that are backed up by bloody deeds?
“We are going to win, because they love life and we love death,” said Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah. He has also said: “[E]ach of us lives his days and nights hoping more than anything to be killed for the sake of Allah.” Shortly after 9/11, Osama bin Laden told a reporter: “We love death. The U.S. loves life. That is the big difference between us.”
Conclusion
It is irrefutable that the alleged insignificant numbers of Muslims favoring jihad is a deliberate lie, but since Islam is firmly established in written scriptural doctrine and not in the unscriptural beliefs of Muslim-in-the-mosque followers, the claims of “Muslim moderation” are meaningless. Furthermore, it is unarguable that “moderate Muslims” are the fodder that are “self-radicalized” or “cleric-radicalized” into murdering jihadists.
The ruling class’s ludicrous contention that “jihad” is not “Islamic” is repudiated by the canon of Islamic scripture in the Quran, Sira, Hadith, and Sharia. It is instructive that absolutely no government official denying the jihad-Islam connection has ever directly quoted any of the innumerable jihad scriptural mandates and explained why it doesn’t apply to the practice of Islam.
Furthermore, a classic example of how ignorant about Islam are U.S. politicians defending “moderate Islam” is the pathetic McCain assertion that “Allahu Akbar” means “thank God.” In fact, it does not even mean the usual (and incorrect) translation “god is great.” As Western Islamic expert, Robert Spencer, explained:
In the first place, it does not mean “thank God,” as McCain seems to have affirmed when he said, “That’s what they”re saying.” Allahu akbar means “Allah is greater” — not, as it is often translated, “God is great.” The significance of this is enormous, as it is essentially a proclamation of superiority and supremacism. Allah is greater — than any of the gods of the infidels, and Islam is superior to all other religions.
Al-Islam.org states this obliquely: “Allahu akbar implies that God is superior to all tangible and intangible, temporal and celestial beings.” This may seem to be an innocuous theological statement until one recalls that Islam has always had a political aspect, and Islamic jihadists always shout “Allahu akbar” when attacking infidels. It is a declaration of the superiority of their god and their way of life over those of their victims.
Finally, the leftists’ unsupportable argument that jihadist Muslims are not engaged in jihad because of the Islamic religion is simply the usual liberal attempt to cram everything into the Marxist economic model. This mindless assertion fails to explain how a suicide bomber enhances his economic status in the temporal world.
The conclusion: Islam is jihad, and jihad is Islam.
Col. Thomas Snodgrass, USAF (retired) served over a year in Peshawar, Pakistan, working with Pakistani military intelligence. During his year in Vietnam he daily scheduled 130 U.S. Army and Air Force intelligence collection aircraft. In his final overseas tour he was the U.S. Air Attaché behind the Iron Curtain in Warsaw, Poland. In total, Col. Snodgrass was variously an Intelligence Officer or an International Politico-Military Affairs Officer serving duty tours in seven foreign countries, as well as teaching military history and strategy at the Air War College, US Air Force Academy, and USAF Special Operations School during a thirty-year military career.
Additionally, he was awarded an Air Force scholarship to get a history master’s degree in revolutionary insurgent warfare at the University of Texas, as well as being granted a year’s educational sabbatical to teach and to write about international relations as an Air Force Research Associate in the graduate school at the Center for Advanced International Studies, University of Miami, Florida. Following the Air Force, Col. Snodgrass was an adjunct professor of military history for ten years at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Arizona.