Mike Scruggs
The concept of Jihad, or Holy War against unbelievers looms large in Islam’s violent and coercive history. Defining Jihad as merely spiritual struggle is not a doctrine that has ever held widespread support in mainstream Islam. It is primarily limited to slavishly politically correct Western academics and some adherents to the syncretic, and marginally orthodox Sufi sect of Islam. There are many forms of Jihad, but the ultimate objective of them all is the religious and political dominance of Islam in every aspect of life in every nation. The Jihad of the sword has always held penultimate status in Islam.
The tragedy of September 11, 2001 can be seen as a refusal to recognize the widespread influence of Jihad in the Muslim world both in the United States and abroad. It can also be seen as an extreme laxity of immigration control. For over four decades, special commercial and political interests have succeeded in imposing essentially de facto open border immigration policies contrary to the broad national interests on the American people. Cheap labor, multiculturalist ideology, and expansion of social-welfare voting blocs have been allowed to trump national security, the interests of American workers and taxpayers, and the preservation of our own culture. The Center for Immigration Studies and the Federation for American Immigration Reform estimate the number of illegal immigrants in the United States to be about 12 million. That is a huge and candalous number, which is out of control and accelerates with even talk of amnesty.
Amnesties encourage tidal waves of additional illegal immigration. Unless our political leaders can muster the courage to limit legal immigration and punish illegal immigration, we are heading toward an enormous demographic disaster that will eventually determine the outcome of every political, social, religious, and cultural issue in favor of despotic left-liberal ideology. According to the Center for Immigration Studies, there are at least l50,000 illegal immigrants from the Near East in the United States. That is a number almost as large as the U. S. Marine Corp. Total immigration has increased more than 300 percent since 1990, but immigration from the predominantly Muslim Near East has increased over 700 percent. Before 1970 about three quarters of immigrants from Arab countries were Christians fleeing Muslim rule. Now Arab immigrants are more than three quarters Muslim.
The Muslim connection makes immigration reform an especially critical national security issue. Mainstream Islam is the sworn enemy of all who do not accept Islam as the only true religion. Its ideology does not confine itself to dominating Arab nations but seeks to bring the whole world under the subjugation of Islamic Law. The American people must insist on immigration policies that halt illegal immigration and restrict legal immigration to reasonable and thoroughly screened numbers capable of assimilating into the American culture and economy. We must reject as poison the multiculturalist and Muslim Brotherhood propaganda that blinds us to our mortal danger. We must recognize that we are involved in a clash of civilizations and must have the courage to name our enemies and their political-religious ideology
Americans have a natural inclination to tolerance, which is a good thing in most cases. But tolerance is not an unqualified virtue. There are evils we should not tolerate. The American tradition of religious freedom is also good. But that should not lead us into the intellectual sloppiness of thinking that all religions are benign or that all religious practices are harmless. The survival of the West depends upon our lionhearted and unwavering resolve to recognize and reject intolerable risks in immigration, public safety, and national security policies.
Making intelligent and well-informed decisions about our present dilemma is going to be difficult in the politically correct environment that now pervades the American news, entertainment, and educational media. Multiculturalist propaganda has penetrated deeply into our thinking in this so-called post Christian era. Even Christian churches need to firm up their doctrinal understanding and backbone. But we cannot continue to allow political correctitude to shout down and impede the truth. We must insist that our political leaders follow informed principle in their talk, their actions, and their leadership direction. .
Jihad and terrorism do not spring from a small and radical group that is distorting the true nature of Islam. The roots of violent war against all unbelievers, including especially Christians and Jews, are in the Koran and the teachings and example of Muhammad himself. What we are seeing today is a resurgence of mainstream Islam following a dormant period of relative secularism in the Muslim world.
Most Muslims undoubtedly prefer personal peace and prosperity to theology. At the same time the overwhelming majority of Muslims revere and respect their culture, the Koran, and Muhammad. Yet therein are the roots of violent Jihad. This is a dilemma for the West. But truth is a far more preferable guide to our national security and strategic diplomacy than wrapping ourselves in a politically correct straight jacket and repeating false platitudes and cool-aid bromides about a fantasy version of Islam. Mainstream Islam is not a religion of peace and tolerance, and we had best adjust to that fact in our diplomatic, economic, national security, and immigration policies.
All this is not just an armchair intellectual exercise. Western civilization is at stake. The lives and prosperity of hundreds of millions of people in many nations are at stake. Freedom and liberty are at stake. Our deepest religious convictions and the freedom to express and live by them are at stake. We dare not shun the truth for the sake of comfortable political correctness. We cannot afford to deceive ourselves that we are in no danger. We must be guided by truth and a firm determination to defend the human, religious, and cultural values we hold dear.
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