Can We Have Peace With Radical Islam?

I applaud Mr. Obama for taking initiatives to bridge the divide between the Muslim world and the West. If we don’t find a way to compromise in this matter, we will never live in a world without the fear of terrorism.

That said, I hope our president realizes that it doesn’t really matter what the majority of Muslim people say or do. The great majority of Iranian and Pakistani people could be solidly anti-terrorist. They could even be pro-west. But getting a government that joins the fight against terrorism (let alone a pro-west government) will be impossible without the blessing of their religious leaders.

The recent Iranian election is a good example of Arab politics in action. By most accounts, this was going to be a very close election. The hard-line, anti-west, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was being challenged by a far more conciliatory Mir Hossein Mousavi. Mousavi’s candidacy was gaining momentum daily, fed by a kind of grassroots movement that literally propelled him into the national spotlight. It appeared that he might just overtake the incumbent leader, who was seen by many as an impediment to peace.

It comes as no surprise that a “close” election turned into a rout by the sitting president. Sixty million hand-written votes were “counted” in about twenty minutes, with the results being a resounding mandate for Ahmadinejad. When Iranians lined the streets in peaceful protest, Iran’s “Supreme Leader,” Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, “settled” the issue with one sermon and a crackdown ensued.

As Obama decried the crackdown, Khamenei cried that Obama was “just like Bush.” So much for conciliation.

The means to eliminating terrorism is not through government, but through religion. Terrorists do not care what their government leaders say; they answer to what they perceive as a higher leader – Allah.

If Muslim Imam’s ever told their “faithful” to stop terrorism, they would stop. If Muslim governments tell them to promote peace, the “faithful” laugh.

We are not in a war against Islam. We are in a war against a relatively small percentage that makes up radical Islam. These people are not directed or motivated by politicians.

The day that Islam’s “holy leaders” point to an enemy other than the United States and the “West,” our terrorism problem will be over. Until then, no amount of rhetoric, and no amount of political “peace-making” will make that change.

Exactly what do these radical leaders preach? And how do they get their power?

Many radical Imams preach for the eradication of the “Zionists,” Israel. Until Israel no longer exists, they will fight anyone that lends support to Israel. Khomeini was one of the most outspoken members of such clergy. His successor is much the same.

Many religious leaders adhere to the more extreme sections of the Qur’an that call for the murder of all non-believers. This extreme, literalism in their “Bible” is what Mr. Obama has to address. Just as the Christian Bible’s “Old Testament” preaches an “eye for an eye,” the Qur’an does much the same.

As Iran gets closer to producing nuclear weapons, the Middle East is growing more and more unstable. Iran already has the missiles that can deliver a warhead, and it wouldn’t take much to strap a warhead on one and launch it.

We have already seen that those in charge of nuclear programs can have radical beliefs that foment hate and destruction. The leader of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons program gave (or sold) critical technology to several rogue, anti-west countries.

If I were leading Israel, I would not stand by and allow Iran to produce nuclear weapons. No matter how remote the possibility of attack, the penalty of a “miscalculation of intent” is destruction. No leader wants to commit national suicide.

Iran has just re-elected a president (with the support of Khamenei) that wants to eliminate Israel. It won’t be long before the United States is thrust into the middle of this conflict.

We have a 60-year history of backing Israel, both in public and in private. We have made many unofficial promises to this nation, and they have acted as an important buffer for our interests in the region.

Our administration pretends that peace in the Middle East can be achieved if Israel gives more land to the HAMAS-led Palestinians. HAMAS is considered by much of the western world to be a terrorist organization. Their 1988 charter calls for the replacement of Israel with an Islamic State.

What Mr. Obama refuses to acknowledge, or fails to realize, is that Israel’s land is simply the current focus of terrorist aggression. HAMAS leaders claim that there can be no peace until Israel surrenders all of the land they acquired during the Six Day War.

Should the United States surrender the land from Texas to California to Mexico because we took it in war? Should we return the nation to Great Britain because we took it in war? Why should Israel act differently than the Unites States? Israel was attacked and they fought back. History is written and controlled by the victor.

Obama seems to think that if Israel returns all of the land, peace can be achieved. The truth is, no matter how much land Israel gives up, it will not be enough. The anti-Zionists will not stop until Israel has been eliminated. As long as we are duped to believe that peace can come from a simple land exchange, we will remain the laughingstock of the Islamic world.

Some leaders think that the elimination of Israel is the only way to achieve peace in the Middle East. They are seeking to cut our ties with Israel, and allow the Islamic world to do the dirty work. These leaders think that a world without Israel means a world at peace. These people don’t understand that Israel is merely the current target of the religious zealots. The moment Israel is replaced by an Islamic State, the radical leaders will set their sights on another target, most likely, the United States. We have plenty of pornography, corporate greed and colonialist tendencies to keep every Imam happy and pointing fingers. Make no mistake about this, radical Islamic leaders lose their power without a demon to blame for all of their problems. If Israel is gone, we are next in line.

Please understand that I am not Jewish. I am simply an observer of history and a keen student of human behavior.

If one looks at the history of Northern Africa and the Middle East, one will find that the region is dominated by tribal affiliations dating back hundreds of years. They also have a way of thinking that we (westerners) could never fully understand. Abdul Aziz ibn Saud was able to conquer Arabia (Saudi Arabia) with an “army” of less than a dozen men. All he needed to do was kill the current “king,” which he did by sneaking into the king’s mud palace at night and stabbing him. The moment this happened, the king’s former warriors, Saud’s former enemies, immediately switched their allegiance to him.

We saw a modern-day version of this when Iraqis fighting alongside American forces asked that captured Iraqi enemy soldiers be allowed to switch sides and fight alongside the U.S. led forces. Their personal ideologies are practical, not emotional. Most answer to a higher calling - Islam. Islam means to “submit” for the majority of followers. It is only the radical few that rule. These few rule with brutality and so-called “religious” fervor, claiming that they do the work of Allah. They believe that they are doing the work of their god.

Whether these religious zealots are elected or not doesn’t matter. The militant radicals in Islam do not follow their elected leaders. The follow their religious ones, and these men are usually the puppet-masters that control their politicians from behind the curtain.

As long as we continue to think that political treaties will have compliance by rogue terrorists we are doomed to failure. Thinking that political leaders will control terrorist activities in their respective nations is simply a farce. Look at Afghanistan. Their leaders have agreed to let us prosecute the war on terror within their country. We are sending more and more troops to try to stop the spread of terrorism and drug trafficking within the Afghan borders. This is taking enormous sums of money and a great toll on some of our finest individuals. We can be successful, to an extent, as long as we keep a large fighting force in Afghanistan. Unfortunately, the minute we leave the country, terrorism will sprout again like weeds.

We do not have the financial or human resources to prosecute this battle across every Islamic nation. What we are doing in Afghanistan, and what we did in Iraq, was to demonstrate that there are severe consequences to fomenting terrorism.

To any rational person or government, this might make sense. But we are dealing with religious zealots who follow Imams that promise seventy virgins in the afterlife to any man who dies for the cause. Not long ago, an advertisement was put up at the University of Tehran asking for suicide-bomber volunteers. More than a thousand students offered their services.

The more we fight terrorism, the more it fights back. So, what do we do?

The first thing we should do is support Israel. This is the right thing to do. It is also the most practical. Whether we want to believe it or not, Israel acts like a big shield for the United States against terrorism. They are also willing to do the things that our current administration will not do—that is to fight terrorism in a way that it understands.

The ultimate end to this “war” may not occur for another fifty years or more. The radical Imams and their followers will not quit, no matter how great the traditional pain and political pressure. Our prosecuting a sanitary war, as we have in Iraq, will do little, if nothing to stop the terrorists. Saddam Hussein understood this. What it took for him to consolidate power in his country, and prevent great civil unrest, was the wholesale slaughter of 1.5 MILLION of his citizens.

At this point this kind of action is inconceivable to us. Yet, don’t think that this could never happen. It was only sixty years ago that we did such a thing to end World War II with the Japanese. We warned them. We dropped a nuke. We warned them again. We dropped another nuke. Finally, they capitulated.

As heinous as this might sound, this kind of solution may be the only thing that terrorists actually understand. If Islamic terrorism becomes as rampant in this country as it is in Israel today, the American people will begin to demand it.

An equally likely “solution,” will be for us all to be controlled by Islam. This may sound ludicrous, but it is happening all over the world. Islam is now over 20% of the world’s population and growing. Since most religions do not have such a violent component, they tend to choose a path of peace, allowing the radicals to control more and more. This is what has happened in Islamic nations all around the world. It is beginning to happen in countries like France, were more than 20% of its population is now Muslim.

I pray that Mr. Obama is able to pull a rabbit out of his hat and bring about peace—just as the president does in my new book, The Presidential Pretender. Unfortunately, human nature is an awfully hard thing to fight.


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