The September 11th terrorist attacks that claimed the lives of nearly 3,000 people were not, in fact, the start of radical Islam’s war against America and our way of life. These religious ideologues have been responsible for American death and suffering for decades. From the bombing of our Marine barracks in Lebanon in 1983, to the Fort Hood attack last year, radical Islam has claimed the lives of thousands of innocent Americans. Tragically, these acts of war don’t even scratch the surface when it comes to the mass murder committed by Islamic terrorists around the world against peaceful people of all religions, including their own. In Citizens United Productions new documentary America at Risk hosted by Newt and Callista Gingrich, the film investigates the root of radical Islam’s hatred of the west.
The main objective of radical Islam is to install worldwide Sharia law and not relent until the goal is met. Essentially, Sharia law is an ancient set of rules that commingles government and religion to the effect that government becomes the religion. Sharia is a philosophy that is the antithesis of the separation of church and state that is set forth in our sacred 1st Amendment to the Constitution. Although a foreign concept for many Americans, Sharia law is spreading at a startling rate across parts of Europe. Afghanistan, before the U.S. led invasion, was the center of Sharia law in the Muslim world. Women had no rights, and the culture of Afghanis before the Taliban was outlawed. This extremist thinking is pure evil and is what paved the way for their attacks on September 11, 2001.
Hard to imagine though it may be, in the dangerous wave of political correctness that has infected our society, the Obama Administration (Secretary of Homeland Security, Janet Napolitano in particular) does not even want to call terrorism what it is, but instead wishes to refer to it as “man-caused disasters.” How can we effectively fight this War on Terror when we are worried about offending those who have declared jihad against freedom and democracy? How can we win this war when our President’s own Deputy National Security Advisor calls jihad a legitimate tenet of Islam? It is evident that at the heart of this current struggle there is a war being waged by repressive religious extremists, and our enemies have made it clear that they wish to inject their intolerant way of life upon the world, going so far as to refer to all non-Islamic peoples as infidels.
As we pass the nine year anniversary of September 11th, the terrorist threat is growing more alarming by the day. According to Time magazine, last year “saw an unprecedented surge in terrorism events on U.S. soil.” Sadly, President Obama just doesn’t seem to get that if you give the Islamists an inch, they will inevitably take a mile. The truth is that all the terrorists understand is strength – something this President doesn’t seem able to project or provide. While he and his cabinet sit back worrying about semantics, apologizing for America, and bowing to dictators, they have painted a picture for our enemies that the American Commander-in-Chief is ashamed of his own nation and our accomplishments (see Obama’s 2009 Cairo speech).
Many believe that the opening battle with militant Islamists was the Iranian hostage crisis of 1979-1981. Today Iran remains the world’s most active state sponsor of terrorism, but the Obama Administration insists on ignoring that fact in favor of trying to negotiate with the unstable regime and their terrorist-arm, Hezbollah. This appeasement policy is doing nothing to stop Iran’s advancing nuclear program and conjures up images of Neville Chamberlain in the 1930s. President Obama desperately wants to be a friend to all nations and ideologies; he dreams of bringing everyone together. What he doesn’t understand is that you cannot bring people together when they worship a warped ideology that will not compromise. It’s that black and white.
America is at risk, Islamic terrorists are plotting to do major harm to our homeland and allies, while the Obama Administration refuses to use all of the arrows in our quiver. The truth is that the war against this brutal ideology will continue for decades to come. America must acknowledge who the enemy is, commit the necessary resources, and overwhelmingly defeat it.