What a Muslim Really Wants

Is Islam a religion of peace? Is there an Easter Bunny? Can pigs fly? These are rhetorical questions.

Ordinarily, one wouldn't expect political correctness to rear its inclusive head at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) -- the largest conservative gathering of the year.

At this year's CPAC, which concluded on February 19, I was on a panel titled, PROTECTING THE HOMELAND AGAINST ENEMIES, FOREIGN AND DOMESTIC. The other panelists were Rich Miniter (author of "Losing Bin Laden") and Phil Giraldi, an ex-spook -- excuse me, "former CIA counterterrorism specialist" -- who writes for Pat Buchanan's publication.

I hadn't intended to address the issue of Islam directly, until Giraldi off-handedly remarked that of course "a majority of Moslems (worldwide) oppose terrorism." At which point, Miniter leaned over to me and whispered, "There's no way to know that." Precisely.

In response to a question, I noted that it was impossible to measure Islamic support for terrorism. At the same time, I observed, there are no Methodist suicide bombers. Mormons don't hijack planes and fly them into office buildings. Rabbinic gangs don't roam the streets kidnapping innocents and decapitating them, after forcing them to say: "I had a BLT for lunch."

I don't for a minute doubt that there are Muslims who've redefined their religion to make it compatible with electricity, sanitation, human rights and the Geneva Convention. The precise number of said thoroughly modern Muslims is impossible to ascertain.

We do know that the most comprehensive survey of attitudes toward terrorism in the Islamic world (over 9,000 respondents in 9 Muslim countries were polled by Gallup in 2002) showed entrenched anti-Americanism, seething rage and a total disconnect from reality.

Only 19% of those surveyed believed the 9/11 hijackers were Arabs. Just 9% said the US intervention in Afghanistan was morally justified. Muslims are evenhanded here "a majority reject both the World Trade Center attack and America's decision to clean out the al Qaeda vipers" nest that spawned it.

While most condemned the airborne jihad, there was surprisingly strong support for the murder of 3,000 innocent Americans. In Kuwait, a nation liberated from invaders at the price of American blood, 36% said the 9/11 slaughter was justified.

But forget opinion surveys. On September 11, 2001, we witnessed public opinion in the Islamic world -- up close and ugly. From Gaza to Islamabad, and Djakarta to Nairobi, Muslim mobs surged through the streets exulting at the mass murder of office-workers in Manhattan. It takes a strenuous exertion of will to sweep this reality under the rug.

Still, many in the West are in serious denial. In a recent radio interview, Congressman Charles Rangel (D-NY) -- who would need a brain transplant to achieve the IQ of a bagel -- objected to calling Hezbollah an "Islamic terror group."

Said Rangel, "To call it Islamic terror is discriminating, it's bigoted, it's not the right thing to say." The Congressman explained, "We just take for granted that there is an Islamic terror movement because we do have some fanatic people who come from Islamic countries." (What drives them to fanaticism of the homicidal variety -- a deprived childhood, poverty, a bad hair day?)

So, you see, just because some -- most, nearly all of the -- terrorists come from Islamic countries, it's discriminating, bigoted and not right to connect this to Islam. Just because some Nazis came from Germany, how dare we relate Nazism to the land of Goethe and Schiller!

What this ignores is a mountain of evidence so high that it dwarfs even Rangel's stupidity.

The Koran preaches terrorism. The founder of Islam ordered the execution of unarmed captives as well as his political opponents. Iran's Islamic regime doesn't merely sanction terrorism, it trains, finances and abets terrorists. It also issues fatwas encouraging the assassination of novelists who offend its Dark Ages mindset.

The religious authorities of Saudi Arabia (fountainhead of the faith) habitually spew hatred of Jews and Christians. In Egypt, Islamic scholars debate the morality of suicide bombing. (Imagine Southern Baptists having a dialogue on whether Christianity is compatible with turning civilians into body parts.)

But forget Saudi Arabia. Forget Egypt, Kuwait and Pakistan. Instead, consider how the religion of beneficence operates in the land of the free and home of the brave (AKA: Great Satan, in Islam-ese).

Freedom House recently did a report on Arabic literature found in American mosques -- incitement urging Muslims to think of America as enemy territory. The 57 publications surveyed also state "it is a religious obligation to hate Christians and Jews, and warn against imitating, befriending or helping such 'infidels' in any way."

Freedom House, currently headed by former CIA Director R. James Woolsey, says the publications "instill contempt for America" as well as "a Nazi-like hatred for Jews."

Guess what? It's working!

On February 22, Ahmed Omar Abu Ali, age 23, made an initial appearance in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, VA. Abu Ali is charged with conspiring to assassinate the president of the United States.

An immigrant from Pakistan or the West Bank, right? Actually, Abu was born in Houston. He later moved to Falls Church, VA and studied in the Islamic Saudi Academy of Alexandria -- a school funded and operated by the Saudi government (our dear allies) -- where he learned patriotism, tolerance and We-Are-The-World.

On January 14, Hossam Armanious, his wife Amal Garas and his daughters Sylvia (15) and Monica (8), were found murdered in their Jersey City, NJ home. The victims were bound and gagged. Their throats were slit. Additionally, holes large enough to fit a finger in were bored in their necks.

Hossam (a Coptic Christian who had fled the religion of niceness in Egypt) had received death threats after making anti-Islamic comments in a chat room. Messages posted in response said he would be found and slaughtered "like a chicken." Police are treating the atrocity as a home-invasion and robbery, even though a ring Amal was wearing (valued at $3,500) was not taken.

Winston Churchill (who knew a thing or two about ideological killers) described Islam as, "that religion which above all others was founded and propagated by the sword -- the tenets and principles of which are incentives to slaughter, and which in three continents had produced fighting breeds of men...stimulates a wild and merciless fanaticism."

Winnie, you old bigot, you!

As I was leaving the CPAC, the emcee, Suhail Khan of the Islamic Free Market Institute (do they cut your taxes before cutting your throat?) professed to be shocked by my bigoted remarks and declared himself a loyal American.

Quite likely. But I've got a deal for Mr. Khan: If he'll get his co-religionists to stop acting like a bunch of storm troopers on steroids (to stop butchering Christians and Jews, detonating car bombs, engaging in slavery in the Sudan, treating women like chattel, committing ethnic cleansing in Kosovo, destroying Orthodox churches and shrines in the Balkans, etc., etc.), I'll stop saying mean things about the religion of peace.