By Leigh Bravo : The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, has posted beheadings of two Americans and one British aid worker on Social Media. In the news this week, ISIS called on followers in Australia to behead innocent citizens within their cities and has called on followers in the United States to kidnap and behead military personnel, all to prove their power and reach into our lives.
What does the Quran say about beheading? Is there really something in the Holy book of Islam that suggests beheading the infidels is a path to paradise where you can have what ever you wish? Or is beheading just a gruesome act that extreme Islamists have adopted as a scare tactic? Does this group called ISIS or ISIL, truly, not represent Islam like our President has insisted?
Quran 8:12, which says,
“When your Lord revealed to the angels: I am with you, therefore make firm those who believe. I will cast terror into the hearts of those who disbelieve. Therefore strike off their heads and strike off every fingertip of them.”
Is the religion of Islam peaceful? Have the “radicals” just taken peaceful passages from the Quran and interpreted them into directives to kill all who do not worship Allah? In researching the Quran, I came across a paper by Bassam Khoury, titled, Is Islam a Peace-Loving Religion?, where he said,
“In order to understand the Quran, it is imperative that you understand the concept of “abrogation.”“
In the Quran there are many verses that contradict themselves throughout the writings, sometimes more than once. “Abrogation” says that Muslims must know which verse came first and which came later, because when there is a contradiction, the latest writing is the one that should be taken as truth. Verses early in the Quran call for a peaceful response to any who oppose Islam;
Therefore expound opening what thou art commanded, and turn away from those who join false gods with Allah.”
However, later in the Quran, there are verses which say the exact opposite;
But when the forbidden months are past, than fight and slay the pagans wherever ye find them and seize them, beleaguer them, and lie in wait for them in every stratagem.
“Speaking is a means to achieve objectives, if a praiseworthy aim is attainable through both telling the truth and lying, it is unlawful to accomplish through lying because there is no need for it. When it is possible to achieve such an aim by lying but not by telling the truth, it is permissible to lie if attaining the goal is permissible.”
So what are we to believe? Who are we to believe?
If we look at happenings around the world, we have seen untold numbers of beheadings committed by those who claim to do so in the name of Allah and Islam. ISIS has beheaded and slaughtered soldiers, men, women and children. They have driven throughout the streets shooting innocent families in their cars, they have beheaded children and forced their parents to carry their heads as an example to others. Christian populations are being tortured and killed, throughout the Muslim world, yet Islam is portrayed as a “peaceful” religion. Is this the violence that is demanded in the Quran? Is this the violence that followers of Islam are expected to deliver to any who do not believe in the Islamic faith or submit to conversion? Is it a peaceful religion that kidnaps and forces young girls to convert to Islam with a knife at their throats, and then raping them or forcing them to marry or be used as slaves? Riffat Hassan, professor of religious studies at University of Louisville, says,
“The way Islam has been practiced in most Muslim societies for centuries has left millions of Muslim women with battered bodies, minds and souls.”
I wish to believe that the majority of Muslims do not follow or believe in the violence that has become so common place committed by fellow Muslims. But, where is the outrage by the Muslim community and what will the leaders of the Middle East do to stop the trail of carnage?
The United States, Australia, Great Britain, France, Germany the Netherlands and Canada have offered up training , intelligence, financial barriers, deportations, tangible equipment and ammunition, and reconnaissance flights, but NO Troops on the ground! Turkey, Jordan and Saudi Arabia have offered their assistance by supplying locations for training, and money, but NO troops on the ground! Why, would the Middle Eastern world refuse to fight the “extremists,” if their countrymen are in the direct and deadly path of ISIS? President Obama says the majority of those murdered have been Muslims, so why does the Middle East refuse to defend its people? Do they secretly believe in the “cause” of ISIS? Do they believe the world should and will one day convert to Islam? Why will they not fight the fight? Those in Muslim countries who stand up to this violence are Christians, and they put their lives on the line to speak out against the slaughter of their own. The majority of Muslims that have been tortured, murdered, and beheaded have not just been Muslims, but Christian Muslims. Is this why Muslim leaders refuse to defend the people of the Middle East?
In Australia, counterterrorism forces detained 15 people after receiving intelligence that ISIS was planning public beheadings in Australian cities to demonstrate its reach. We have seen British and United States citizens who have taken up the fight with ISIS. A woman was recently found beheaded in her garden in North London. A Muslim suspect admitted he shot, Brendan Tevlin, a straight A student, 8 times as vengeance for US military action in the Middle East. He is also suspected in three other murders within the United States. ISIS has taken over social media and are using it as a tool to recruit new fighters. They are posting directions in online chat rooms, on how to prepare bombs in your kitchen as well as a list of tourist spots to hit; Times Square, the state of Texas, military locations and any place where there are crowds.
Should we consider ISIS a direct threat to the United States? Our borders are open and we basically don’t know who is entering the United States and the ultimate purpose of everyone who enters. The counter terrorism group in Australia considered themselves lucky to have discovered this extended ISIS group before they were able to commit countless beheadings of innocent civilians. What if we are unable to catch a group planning the same events here at home? When will President Obama take this situation seriously and do what is necessary to keep the American people safe? Why has he not secured our borders? Why does he continue to be more concerned with political correctness, and the “feelings” of Muslims over the safety of the American people?
Just this week, a measure was put forth in the Senate, the “Expatriate Terrorist Act,” which would renounce the citizenship of anyone in the United States that joins the fight with terrorist groups like ISIS. However, Democratic senators objected saying this might infringe on their constitutional rights. Republican senator, Ted Cruz said,
“If we do not pass this legislation, the consequence will be that Americans fighting alongside ISIS today may come home tomorrow with a U.S. passport, may come home to New York, or Los Angeles or Houston or Chicago, and innocent Americans may be murdered if the Senate does not act today.”
Why are we concerned with protecting the rights of terrorists?
Nigel Farage, is a British politician and has been the leader of the UK Independence Party since 2010. In a recent interview, he
said,
“I tie the growing ISIS threat to multiculturalism. Children and women were systematically sexually abused by Pakistani Muslim men and it was known by child protective services and the police force and they did nothing because they feared if they said or did anything they would be considered “racist.” Whole districts are becoming “no-go” zones for the police, then it leads to Sharia law actually being implemented in parts of British cities, then it leads to British citizens going off to Syria and Iraq to fight for ISIS. If we in Britain, America and the west, who come from Christian cultures, who believe in Democracy, value them, we better stand up and start fighting for them. It does not mean that we are against other religions, far from it. We can be tolerant, we have always been tolerant. But we have to accept that our society is based on the rule of law and that every citizen must be treated equally.”
I believe the President and his followers are so concerned with being politically correct and are so determined not to “hurt” or offend Muslims in our country, that we will slowly but surely follow in the wrongful and debilitating steps of the UK. It is time for us to stand up and fight for our country which stands for freedom, liberty and the rule of law; OUR rule of law. We should not be tolerant of those who chose to participate within a group like ISIS whose only claim to fame is the purposeful, cowardly and barbaric killing of men, women and children who are not believers in Islam. We must stop being so concerned with “feelings” and get to the business of protecting our own!
Why do immigrants flock to our borders, leaving their own homeland and cultures, if they just want to change us into the very place they left? Why is it politically incorrect to want to keep our culture and our morals and ethics within our own borders? In 1907, Theodore Roosevelt said,
‘In the first place, we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin. But this is predicated upon the person’s becoming in every facet an American, and nothing but an American…There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn’t an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag… We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language.. And we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people.’
We are the United States! Millions clamor at our borders because we represent freedom, both economically and religiously
We are the United States! Millions clamor at our borders because we represent freedom, both economically and religiously. We stand for hard work and the American dream. We have remained passive for too long, under the command of the politically correct. We have watched as our country has been fundamentally transformed into something we no longer recognize. Our economy is circling the drain, unemployment has remained stagnant; friends and families have been divided through polarization by our politicians; entitlements have gone through the roof; part-time jobs are now the norm; illegals have gained unlimited access to our borders, provided with homes, education, free flights to cities around the U.S. to be reunited with their families, integrated into our communities and schools without proper health screenings, all at the expense of the American people against their wishes. Our borders have become a laughing stock and an open invitation to any and all who wish us harm. Now we are being threatened inside our country by a radical religious group whom our President chooses to defend while Christians are slaughtered around the world.
Must we see once-controlled diseases take hold again because we allow un-vaccinated children into the very schools that will not allow American kids to enter without proof of immunization? Do we need to see airplanes, again, take their own murderous path because we allow illegals to fly without identification while we strip search American citizens? Must we be stripped of our rights and our money in order to appease those who are here without our permission? Must we be denied our voice in elections because politicians corrupt the very integrity of our voting booths, demanding illegals be granted the right to vote, all in the name of politics? Do we need to see American citizens beheaded in our own communities before we recognize the very enemy in our midst and the open path through which they arrived? It is time to stop the madness! It is time to bring back the country that was once the envy of the world but which has become the very example of corruption, lies, and tyranny that WE once fought around the world!