Omar Alnatour, who identifies himself as a “Palestinian-American Muslim. Student. Humanitarian,” has published an article in the Huffington Post entitled, “Why Muslims Should Never Have To Apologize for Terrorism.” It’s one of the most deceptive apologetic pieces ever to appear on HuffPo – and that’s saying a lot.
“Picture this: You wake up in the morning to hear your wife screaming at you because it’s pouring rain outside,” Alnatour starts out. “She hates the rain and now her day is ruined because of you. You go downstairs only to hear your children yell at you because they broke the toaster. They can’t have waffles now and it’s all your fault.” And on and on. Comparing things that happen in the course of a day that are irritating with not having to apologize for terrorism is deceptive and illogical. Millions of Muslims across the world are waging a bloody holy war to impose Islam because of what is written in the Quran, Hadith, etc.
Nonetheless, Alnatour presses on with his argument: “Quite a ridiculous scenario, right? Can you imagine always being blamed for things that you have absolutely no control over? Can you imagine always being asked to apologize for these things? Can you imagine being hated whether or not you do apologize? This is what being a Muslim in America today feels like.”
In reality, the American Muslim community should be leading the world in reforming Islam and showing the way to individual freedom. Instead, many Muslims in the U.S. reap the enormous benefits of freedom while trying to silence the truth, impose Sharia blasphemy laws, and cover for their mujahid brothers by pretending that what they do has nothing to do with Islam. In that, they are just as culpable as the jihadis.
Alnatour continues: “I am a proud American, raised in Texas. I’m a college student. I’m a humanitarian. I’m an aspiring physician. I’m someone who hopes to revolutionize access to medicine and healthcare in the United States and in war-torn countries across the world. I also am a M-u-s-l-i-m, one of over 1.6 billion who are blamed whenever an act of terrorism occurs as if we are nothing more than this 6-letter word hijacked by those who wrongly use our religion to justify their heinous crimes.”
A November 2015 poll by the Pew Research Center revealed significant levels of support for ISIS within the Muslim world. Another poll released in November shows that 13% of Syrian refugees have a positive sentiment towards ISIS. The Pew poll validates everything I have been saying and blows the fiction that the media, academic, and cultural elites have been spinning clear out of the water. Even worse, you can be absolutely sure that the real extent of this support is higher than the Pew data indicates. Much higher. These Muslims just admit to it. Others do not.
Other surveys show that 58% of Muslims in the U.S. reject criticism of Islam as a right; 45% want such blasphemers punished legally. Twelve percent want them killed. Do you think such people love America in any genuine sense?
Alnatour insists that he does: “As a Muslim American who continually strives to do everything I can for the betterment of my community and this nation, I am tired of being asked to apologize and condemn terrorism that I have absolutely nothing to do with.” And he adds: “As a practicing Muslim, I know that my religion teaches peace. I am so certain of this fact that I will award anyone $10,000 if they can find me a verse in the Quran that says it’s ok to kill innocent people or to commit acts of terror. This is an open offer that will never expire.”
Where do I pick up my $10,000?
- “And slay them wherever you come upon them, and expel them from where they expelled you; persecution is more grievous than slaying. But fight them not by the Holy Mosque until they should fight you there; then, if they fight you, slay them — such is the recompense of unbelievers — but if they give over, surely God is All-forgiving, All-compassionate. Fight them, till there is no persecution and the religion is God’s; then if they give over, there shall be no enmity save for evildoers.” (Quran 2:191, 192, 193)
- “We will cast into the hearts of the unbelievers terror, for that they have associated with Allah that for which He sent down never authority; their lodging shall be the Fire; evil is the lodging of the evildoers.” (Quran 3:151)
- “This is the recompense of those who fight against God and His Messenger, and hasten about the earth, to do corruption there: they shall be slaughtered, or crucified, or their hands and feet shall alternately be struck off; or they shall be banished from the land. That is a degradation for them in this world; and in the world to come awaits them a mighty chastisement…” (Quran 5:33)
- “When thy Lord was revealing to the angels, ‘I am with you; so confirm the believers. I shall cast into the unbelievers’ hearts terror; so smite above the necks, and smite every finger of them!’” (Quran 8:12)
- “Make ready for them whatever force and strings of horses you can, to strike terror into the enemy of Allah and your enemy…” (Quran 8:60)
- “Then, when the sacred months are drawn away, slay the idolaters wherever you find them, and take them, and confine them, and lie in wait for them at every place of ambush. But if they repent, and perform the prayer, and pay the alms, then let them go their way; Allah is All-forgiving, All-compassionate.” (Quran 9:5)
- “Fight those who believe not in Allah and the Last Day and do not forbid what Allah and His Messenger have forbidden — such men as practise not the religion of truth, being of those who have been given the Book — until they pay the tribute out of hand and have been humbled.” (Quran 9:29)
- “And when We desire to destroy a city, We command its men who live at ease, and they commit ungodliness therein, then the Word is realized against it, and We destroy it utterly.” (Quran 17:16)
There are so many more passages that I could list – so many that Alnatour should pay me a million. We rarely hear Muslims condemn the Islamic texts and teachings that inspire jihad. On the contrary, in the wake of jihad slaughter, they make generic, weak statements against the killing of innocents, knowing full well that under Islam, non-Muslims are not considered “innocent.” What programs have been instituted in the Muslim world to teach against the jihadi view of Islam? What is the Muslim world doing to expunge the genocidal texts from the Quran?
Yet Alnatour claims that his “religion blatantly stands against” violence. Really? Where does his religion stand against jihad? He claims: “Muslims condemn terrorism, we always have. This is a fact. And just as I shouldn’t have to reassure you each morning that the sky is still blue, Muslims should not have to reassure you that we still condemn terrorism every single time a terrorist attack occurs. And frankly, if you don’t already believe that Muslims condemn terrorism by now, then no apology or repeated broken-record condemnation from any Muslim or Muslim organization will help cure your intolerant hatred.”
These are hollow and kneejerk condemnations. Where are Muslims actually doing something to stop jihad terror activities in their own communities? Muslims in Brussels sheltered Paris jihad killer Salah Abdeslam for months. The Muslim community aided and abetted and hid the mass murderers.
Alnatour claims that Muslim terrorists aren’t Muslim because they kill other Muslims. But these Muslim victims are not considered Muslims by their murderers. Sunnis don’t consider Shia to be true Muslims, and Shi’ites feel the same way about Sunnis, etc. And Islam has a death penalty for heresy and apostasy.
Alnatour whines: “Why are Muslims the only group that are required to apologize for and condemn the actions of criminals that associate with their group? To put things into perspective, ask yourself: Why aren’t all white males asked to apologize for the slavery that white males endorsed less than two centuries ago?”
Where is the concern about the mass slavery in the Islamic world? Also, the “white man” did take responsibility for slavery, and fought America’s bloodiest war to stop it, at the cost of 650,000 American lives.
No matter how airtight and compelling the evidence I present here is, one thing is certain: Alnatour will cop out of his offer and say that the Quran verses I quoted don’t mean what they obviously do mean. He will deny that I or anyone has met his challenge, knowing full well that if the media deigns to cover this, it will cover for him, and the Huffington Post will run his response advancing the preposterous idea that “when you meet the unbelievers, strike the necks” (Quran 47:4) doesn’t mean “when you meet the unbelievers, strike the necks.”
Omar Alnatour may very well be a lovely man, albeit delusional, but his reasoning is purely anedoctal; even worse, his argument is of the type that enables the Muslims who are operational in jihad to continue their activities without fear of criticism of their motivating ideology: Islam.
Pamela Geller is the President of the American Freedom Defense Initiative (AFDI), publisher of PamelaGeller.com and author of The Post-American Presidency: The Obama Administration’s War on America and Stop the Islamization of America: A Practical Guide to the Resistance. Follow her on Twitter here. Like her on Facebook here.
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