Fool Me Once …

It was not until 9/11/01, that most Americans had neither strong opinions nor understandings of Islam.  However, in that momentous event, this world religion became a household term … for which many people came to recognize the potential dangers in the spread of Islam.

Almost daily we get news stories about a Muslim blowing himself up, murdering innocent people or taking sex slaves.  Ironically, most of the victims of these Islamic extremists are other Muslims.  For the law-abiding Muslims that love life in America, they’ve got to be feeling under siege.

Personally, I think most American Muslims are good people; they’re anti-terrorist; they’re anti-Shariah Law; and they want to raise their families in peace and pursue the American Dream just like everybody else.  I condemn the smearing of all Muslims.  Every Muslim isn’t engaging in Taqiyya … secretly planning to kill the infidels.  

We’ve repeatedly heard - “Islam is a religion of peace,” every time radical Muslims murder someone because of their religion. We know these radicals are murdering people because of their religion since they go out of their way to tell us this.

One can certainly argue that groups like ISIS, Al-Qaeda, Hezbollah, Hamas and Boko Haram are mis-interpreting Islam or perverting the Quran, but that doesn’t change the fact that they are Muslims who believe they’re being faithful to their religion as they rape, murder, and enslave the innocent in the name of Allah.  Worse yet, a significant minority of Muslims across the world agree with what they’re doing.

It would be fair to say that ISIS is generally unpopular in the Muslim world; but it’s just as fair to note that this still means that enormous numbers of Muslims back ISIS.  In just 11-countries, there appears to be upward of 60-million Muslims (at a minimum) who approve of an Islamic organization … every bit as evil as the Nazis.

Additionally, while it’s true that a relatively small number of Muslims are in favor of suicide bombing, those numbers can really add up.  For example, 86% of American Muslims oppose suicide bombing.  That equates to roughly 460,000 American Muslims thinking it’s okay.

Then there’s Shariah Law, which is absolutely incompatible with Western democracy and civilized behavior.  Yet, it’s extremely popular across much of the Muslim world.  99% of Muslims in Afghanistan, 91% in Iraq, 84% in Pakistan, and 74% of Muslims in Egypt want Shariah to be the official law of their country.

Moreover, look at what’s now happening in Europe.  There are so many sexual assaults by Muslim migrants that they are actually putting classes in place to teach them that it’s not okay to rape women.

The truth is: These problems are specific to Islam.  If you bring 100,000 Muslims into your country, you’re going to have more people who can’t assimilate, more terrorist attacks and more rapes than you will if you bring in 100,000 Jews, Buddhists, Sikhs, Hindus or Evangelical Christians.

Again, this doesn’t mean all Muslims are bad.  In fact, most Muslims pretty clearly aren’t bad people.  Unfortunately, we have proven to be completely incapable of distinguishing “moderate” from “radical” Muslims.  If you think our government’s vetting can tell one from the other, you’re kidding yourself.  So, when someone gets worried that we’re going to let radical Muslims into our country, realize that countless moderate Muslims came to the U.S. to get away from the crazies in their own religion.

Because of our inability to screen out radicals, we’d be better off doing anything and everything possible to cut back on the number of Muslims we allow to immigrate to our country.  That doesn’t mean an out-right ban, which would be impossible to implement … and contrary to our American values.  But we should certainly try to minimize the number of refugees and immigrants we allow into our country from Muslim nations.

Bottom line: If you want to dramatically cut the risk of having another 9/11 in the next few years and want to reduce the number of American women who will be raped, then reduce the number of Muslims we allow to live long-term in our country.  It all depends on how willing we are to deal with the world as it is … as opposed to what we wish it would be. It’s time to stop pretending that the problem is people pointing out that a significant minority of Muslims worldwide are radicalized and to start realistically dealing with the fact that a significant minority of Muslims worldwide are radicalized.  With everything we know, we shouldn’t need another 9/11 to convince us to start taking reasonable precautions with our immigration policy.

Rev. Dr. Kenneth L. Beale, Jr.

Chaplain (Colonel-Ret), U.S. Army

Pastor, Ft. Snelling Memorial Chapel