Soap Box

I have often wondered why, in his speech at an all-faith prayer meeting shortly after 9/11, President George W. Bush would make the statement more than one time that "Islam is a peaceful religion."

I don't know if he was already in possession of early intelligence that Islamic Radicals were responsible for murdering nearly 3,000 Americans and was trying to protect the Muslim population who are American citizens or if it was done for international diplomatic reasons, or some other purpose known only to the upper echelons of government.

There must have been some practical and ultra-important reason for his saying it though, because it was pretty clear, even to ordinary citizens, where the attack had come from, in fact Osama bin Laden himself had warned the world in a CNN interview that his future plans would be seen and heard in the media.

Because President Bush's statement, in the broad sense in which he made it, meant to be innocuous and healing was anomalous in the context of coming American justice and retribution the country was feeling at that time and I don't believe that it convinced anybody in the country that Islam truly is a peaceful religion.

Once again, we have to make the obvious statement that not all Muslims are terrorists, or even radical. But the truth is, one only has to look at the history of Mohammed and his followers to know that even in its infancy, Islam has never been a peaceful religion. It's been bloody since its inception and its followers have continued to wage war amongst themselves for centuries. The Sunni-Shia conflict goes down to the core of the faith with age old animosities and tribal vendettas and the Wahhabism practiced by the followers of radicals like Osama bin Laden takes no pity on Sunni or Shia who don't submit to their strict code of Sharia law.

The beheading, burning alive, tossing off the tops of buildings and the other cruel methods the radicals use to execute their enemies, certainly doesn't bespeak anything resembling a peaceful or even humane religion.

A note for the cherry pickers out there, yes, I know that atrocities have been committed in the name of Christianity and certainly did not represent anything even resembling what true Christianity is all about and we hear Muslims in America claiming that these few don't represent the true face of Islam.

Which I�m willing to accept at face value, but I feel that this is a big part of the battle that is going on amongst Muslims now, the struggle to identify the true Islam.

Like the President, shortly after 9/11 many Muslims in America keep telling us that their religion had been hijacked by a radical faction that misrepresented the tenants of the faith, but does Islam�s holy writings, the Quran and the Hadiths, bear this out?

Are there not suras in the Quran which the fighting and subjugation of Christians and Jews and Hadiths which specifically speak of the killing of Jews? Is not the belief among the Wahhabi sect that universal chaos will cause the return of the Mahdi - or the 12^th Imam if you�re a Shia - who will come to earth and set up the final Caliphate, which will turn the whole world to Islam and behead those who refuse to convert?

A wedding in Turkey was recently attacked by a suicide bomber who was said to be between 12 and 14 years old. What kind of "peaceful religion" straps a suicide vest on a child and sends him into a group of innocent people he doesn't even know?

If this kind of behavior does not reflect Islam, then every Muslim in the free world should be loudly condemning it, CAIR and the other glorified Islamic public relations outfits, instead of trying to force America to accept Muslim culture should be sponsoring full page adds in major newspapers decrying the actions of those they claim have hijacked their faith.

The mosques of the free world should be resounding with the denouncement of those who are said to be perverting Islam.

But what happens instead?

If Muslims truly believe their religion has been hijacked by a radical element who defile it, they're just going to have to take it back because the face of Islam the world sees on their television screens every day is anything but peaceful.

Pray for our troops, our police and the peace of Jerusalem.

What do you think?

God Bless America

� Charlie Daniels

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