It's been six months . . .
Six months since the world came screeching to a halt. Six months since the unthinkable. Lisa Beamer's husband has been dead for six months. So have nearly three-thousand other Americans.
Six months later, the outer facade of the Pentagon looks almost normal again. New York is back in business with style, class and determination. Six months past that fateful September day, we've lost some of our nation's finest men in an ongoing mission with a seemingly impossible objective.
Six months later, we still don't have any answers.
Why do they hate us? Why did they fly those planes into the buildings? Why do they want us dead?
They are the questions the children have asked us -- and we, the adults, the ones who are supposed to have the answers -- have asked ourselves in secret, late at night, when there are no little eyes and ears around and we don't have to pretend the world is a friendly place.
Because just in case you hadn't noticed, the world is NOT a friendly place.
Most of the Middle East hates us. A sizable minority of them hate us openly and virulently. They are the ones protesting in the streets and burning our leaders in effigy. They are the ones penning scathing invective about the 'great satan' and posting it on internet forums for the world to see. They are the ones who danced and celebrated the 9/11 attacks with sweet treats and gunfire.
They are the safe ones.
The ones I'm frightened of are the 61%. You know, the Gallup Poll 61%. The ones whose rage burns beneath the surface, in a place so deep inside I'm not sure they know it's there. They are the ones who insist they bear no ill will toward America and her people, but when pressed further, claim Osama Bin Laden had nothing to do with the destruction of the World Trade Center and a chunk of the Pentagon. In fact, say this 61%, no Arab had anything to do with it . . . it was probably the Jews.
These 61% gladly accept American aid in the form of money, food and medical care, but when asked about 9/11, admit they believe America got what was coming to her for her support of Israel – the other "great satan."
Why do they hate us? It is easy to blame it on envy, on their oppressed and ignorant state, on their poverty and desperation. It is easy, but it is not right.
The truth is, they hate us because we are not Muslim. That's the bottom line. Even if we were Muslim, they would still hate us, because we would never be 'Muslim enough.' We women would show our ankles, wear perfume, perhaps make too much noise. Our men would shave or sing rock music or kiss their wives in public. Our children would be sure to disobey the fatwa-of-the-week just as surely as they disobey their parents now.
In the Islamic world that the jihadist fanatics so desire, how would such offenses be punished? For a glimpse of that perilous future, we need only observe the countries where Islam already has control.
We start with Sudan, where the Islamic-controlled government has implemented a punishment for those who dare to defy Islam and turn instead to Christianity. Muslim soldiers there have taken to gang-raping Christian women, then cutting off their breasts and leaving them to die in the public square as 'examples.'
And what of their husbands, brothers and sons who also believe in Christ? They are given one last chance to renounce Christ and proclaim the divinity of Allah and Mohammed. This 'last chance to convert' takes place under a three-inch nail and a hammer. Failure to submit to the authority of Allah results in a soldier driving that three-inch nail into your brain.
We can also travel to Saudi Arabia, to watch our 'allies' who follow Shari'a law. Shari'a law is derived from the sayings of the Quran, and so -- let's be honest here -- it is fairly representative of what Muslims actually believe. If you steal, you lose your hand. If you are accused of being an impure woman, you lose your life. If you are accused of being an impure man, you lose your...oh, wait a minute—that's unlikely. To accuse a man of a crime, you need three witnesses. Women only count for one-half.
All over the world, where Muslims have power, the people are in pain. The fanatics are in charge, and anyone with a more diluted sort of faith has a choice – become an extremist, quickly, or die.
Islamic culture got to this horrible point precisely because of the middle, moderate 61%. 61% of Muslims in the Middle East hate the 'infidels' just enough to not protest when 20% or 30% of Muslims start maiming and murdering them. They're not out there doing the killing themselves (indeed, they may even pay lip service to denouncing the violence). But they are unwilling to really stand up for what's right and demand a stop to the inhumanity.
Until Muslim 'moderates' take a public stand against their more intemperate brothers and sisters, it would be wise for the United States to treat them more as 'jihadists-in-training' then as potential allies. Because unless these so-called 'moderates' learn to swim against the tide, they will surely be swept up in the wave of violence and hatred that has swelled in Islam for centuries . . . the wave that crashed on our shore six months ago.
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