Because They Hate: A Survivor of Islamic Terror Warns America

by Brigitte Gabriel

  Women in Muslim societies are especially vulnerable to such coercion due to their subordination, which is enforced both legally and socially. The truth is, terror organizations frequently recruit women with problematic social statuses, such as suspected adulteresses and rape victims. In fact, one of the most despicable methods used by Yasser Arafat’s own terror organization, Fatah, is to seduce young women or to arrange for their rapes and subsequently to pressure them into rehabilitating their social status by becoming “martyrs.” Such a deal! Such a culture! Such lack of moral outrage!

  Wafa Idris, who on January 27, 2002, became the first female suicide bomber, was married off at a very young age and could not have children. In that society a barren wife is considered worthless. Her husband divorced Wafa, married someone else, and had children with her. Wafa stood on the street at his wedding passing out candy. Her humiliation and dim future as a barren woman ensured that she would never marry again, and would be sentenced to a life as a servant to earn a living and be mistreated and abused. She had three options: (1) live a humiliated, depressed life; (2) commit suicide; or (3) become a suicide bomber and an instant hero admired the world over by Muslim Arabs.

  Immediately after her death, Wafa Idris became a hero. Huge parties were thrown in her honor. Her funeral was like a wedding celebration. The Palestinian Authority undertook a very public campaign of indoctrination of its women to see themselves as potential suicide bombers. The PA immediately turned Idris’s murder into an act to be emulated. According to the Palestinian newspaper Al-Ayyam in its issue of February 1, 2002, the PA held a demonstration in her honor with young girls carrying posters with Idris’s picture, and the words “The Fatah Movement. .. eulogizes with great pride the heroic Martyr Wafa Idris."15

  Observing a society’s worship of heroes offers insight into its nature and values. In the West we honor people who have done great things for mankind, accomplished amazing feats of exploration, knowledge, or athletics. In the Middle East women martyrs, just like men who conduct suicide attacks, are widely revered, with their pictures hung on walls, buildings and streets named after them, and songs sung commemorating their deeds. Hundreds of Palestinians show up at their funerals to pay their respects. When they were alive, the women who committed these actions were dishonored, disrespected, and discarded. However, from the moment they killed infidels, they died as martyrs, achieving redemption. The only way to become a respected citizen is to become a shahida, to die for Allah. The only way a Muslim woman can achieve equality with a man is in death.

  These deplorable tactics to recruit women suicide bombers are not often publicized, but pose a major threat to Muslim women and Western civilization. The ones who are vulnerable are the ones targeted. Just as terror groups use sermons at mosques to incite anger and hate in Muslim men, they exploit women’s discontent with their so-called inferior status by working actively to portray suicide bombings as a way to achieve equality. Underlying all of this is the disturbing notion that in life women are only women, but they can rise to the status of “martyrs” in their death.16

  13.

  IS ISLAM

  A PEACEFUL RELIGION?

  America and the West are truly in a different world when trying to understand Islam and its influence on the devoted. This gap in understanding between East and West boils down to differing viewpoints, mentality, logic, culture, morals, and ethics. Without a point of reference on the Middle Eastern mind frame, Westerners become lost in their idealism and conceptions when trying to fathom the mentality and backwardness of the Arab and Islamic world. It’s ironic, but to our own detriment, we just happen to be a society that cannot relate to fathers and mothers butchering their daughters; educated, wealthy men as suicide bombers; and mothers willingly blowing themselves up to kill other women and children. We fall prey to our innately Western, rational thinking and so believe these are mentally disturbed individuals who represent neither Islam and its teachings nor the majority view of peace-loving Muslims. We then go into deep self-examination, beat our heads, and wonder what we did wrong to cause them to hate us so much. Not only are we deceiving ourselves by our delusions, but we are becoming more vulnerable to falling prey to them. Before that becomes our fate, let’s look at some facts.

  Most of the barbaric and vicious acts of terror committed against innocent civilians around the world in the last thirty years have been done by Muslims. They have even carried out more bombings than the less-publicized Hindu Tamil Tiger separatists, who have committed more than two hundred suicide attacks in Sri Lanka. It is a fact that the nineteen terrorists who highjacked airplanes and flew them into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, were Muslims who practiced the teachings of the Koran and sought mental fortitude in its verses as their planes crashed. It is a fact that it was in the name of Allah, not Jesus or Buddha, that they destroyed the lives of thousands and obliterated an American landmark and a symbol of progress and democracy at its best. They destroyed in several hours what took years and thousands of workers to build. These were killers of the worst kind. Yet they were heroes in the eyes of Jordanians, Palestinians, Lebanese, Syrians, and Iranians who danced in the streets in celebration of the mass murder of thousands of Americans in New York, at the Pentagon, and in Pennsylvania. Who could forget the images of Osama bin Laden gloating and grinning with joy as he said: “We were overjoyed when the first planes hit the building. So I said to them be patient. More is coming."1 It was sickening to watch his followers follow every phrase he uttered about the attack with the chant of “Praise Allah."

  The literal translation of the word Islam in Arabic is “submission.” The word Istislam means “to surrender after a fight.” The Koran says those who do not submit {yastaslimoun) to Islam should be killed. That means death to Christians and death to Jews, and to all other non-Muslims.

  Islam Not Only Condones Violence but

  Commands It Against Infidels

  Sura 8:59 in the Koran says, “The infidels should not think that they can get away from us. Prepare against them whatever arms and weaponry you can muster so that you may terrorize them.” Does that sound peaceful to the politically correct types, or to the moderate, Western-raised Muslim? (That is, to the ones who say, “I did not know the full implications of what I signed up for.")

  The Islamo-fascists have been quite faithful in carrying out this Koranic exhortation. Just look at Islam’s history of 1,400 years of violence and bloodshed around the world. The Muslims did expand throughout the Mediterranean basin before faster-advancing civilizations and technology pushed them back. Today they are using the petrodollars and technology these civilizations provided to give it another try on a worldwide scale. Sura 9, verse 5, of the Koran says: “Fight and slay the pagans wherever you find them, and see them, belittle them and lie and wait for them in every strategy of war.” (The pagans are you, dear readers, Christians, Jews, other non-Muslims, and moderate Muslims whom the Islamo-fascists feel are not faithful enough.) For the people who resist Islam, the Koran instructs in sura 5, verse 33: “Their punishment is execution or crucifixion or cutting off of hands and feet from the opposite sides or to be exiled from the land.” Islam commands that. Is that what tolerant, progressive, and politically correct people consider peaceful? In America we don’t even cut off body parts of serial rapists or child molesters.

  The prophet Muhammad, founder of Islam, was a warrior who preached violence and the slaughter of thousands in establishing and spreading Islam. He participated in seventy-eight battles and approved the beheading of prisoners taken in battle. He ordered the assassination of those who offended him, be it women such as the poetess Asma bint Marwan, or a ninety-year-old man. He said to his Muslim followers: “Whoever relinquishes his faith. Kill him.” He also said: “I have been ordered by Allah to fight with people till they testify that there is no God but Allah and Mohammed is his messenger."2 His behavior inspired Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini to say: “The purest joy in Islam is to kill and to be killed for Allah."3 I
s that individual fanaticism? Or is it simply being faithful to the Islamic teachings found in the Koran? With the Koran commanding the faithful to kill the infidels, the question must be asked, were the nineteen Muslims who flew their hijacked planes into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and a Pennsylvania field fanatics, or just followers of the Islamic faith? Were the people who blew up passenger trains in Spain fanatics or just followers of the Islamic faith? Were the people holding children hostage and massacring them in Beslan fanatics or just followers of the Islamic faith? Were the people blowing up busses and pizzerias in Israel fanatics or just followers of the Islamic faith? Muslims consider the Koran the word of God and Muhammad the perfect model. The prophet Mohammed, a successful military leader who led his Muslim army against non-Muslims, is an inspiration to almost a billion people around the world. Considering the rise of Islamists around the world today, this fact should be of the utmost concern to “infidels” worldwide. If you listen to Friday sermons in mosques across the Middle East you hear hate and violence being preached from the pulpit by the mullahs. Go to www.memritv.org and download a cross-section of weekly sermons translated into English. The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) explores the Middle East through the region’s media. MEMRI bridges the language gap which exists between the West and the Middle East, providing timely translations of Arabic, Farsi, and Hebrew media, as well as original analyses of political, ideological, intellectual, social, cultural, and religious trends in the Middle East.

  What you will see is an eye-opener. It should send chills down the spine of moderate Muslims here in America who have no clue as to what is waiting in store for them when Islamo-fascism begins to take hold in their mosque or community. Their obedience to their faith is going to be put to a test that could require them to make a decision to either kill or be killed as a martyr for Allah.

  The Palestinian Authority, according to the judgment of the media, has a secular leadership and is waging a nationalistic fight for territory. There is some basis for that assumption, but it’s also through religious rabble-rousing that the leaders sway and motivate the masses. Here is a sample of the hundreds of quotes being spewed on a weekly basis to incite and motivate a jihadist movement not only against Israel but also against all infidels:4

  Suleiman Satari, PA TV, November 18, 2005 “Destroy the Infidels and the Polytheists! Your [i.e., Allah’s] enemies are the enemies of the religion . . . ! Count them and kill them to the last one, and don’t leave even one."

  Yusuf Abu Sneina, Voice of Palestine, September 2, 2005 “The Infidel countries—first and foremost, the USA—have succeeded greatly in tearing our Islamic world apart."

  Ibrahim Mudayris, PA TV, February 28, 2003 “The United Nations, to our regret, has become Dar al-Nadwa [literally “House of Assembly,” the term for the pre-Islamic meeting place in Mecca], because that is where the Infidels meet."

  This enmity is neither time nor event dependent, but is presented as part of Allah’s plan. According to a report by Palestinian Media Watch, the call for genocide against all infidels on PA TV has become a regular occurrence. The ultimate victory of Islam over the Christian West is said to be predetermined: “The Palestinian nation is the strongest on earth. . . . We [Muslims] have ruled the world and a day will come, by Allah, and we shall rule the world [again]. The day will come and we shall rule America. The day will come and we shall rule Britain."5

  The Palestinian Authority, like many Arab political leaderships, is careful to exclude this religious hate ideology from its English-language presentations to the foreign press. But what the PA’s leaders say in Arabic to their own population feeds extreme, underlying Islamic tenets. To the utter frustration of world leaders who for years have been trying to negotiate an Israeli-Arab peace agreement, Arab and Muslim religious leaders have been preaching about and praying for the destruction of Israel and Western countries. In Egypt, Syria, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Lebanon, and the Palestinian territories, they are presenting the destruction of the Christian-Jewish West as a part of Allah’s plan, a plan that is not falling on deaf ears. Islamic terrorists the world over, whom we characterize as fanatics, are really just very devout followers of Muhammad. They are following his example and doing exactly what the Koran teaches and their mullahs exhort them to do with a daily diet of righteous jihad. American and Western leaders and their citizens are deluding themselves and endangering their very existence because of their refusal to acknowledge, read about, and become informed about the violent history behind Islam and to understand what it is today. These radical Islamists do not hide what they want to do. Just as the Muslim Arabs beat the war drums and rattled their sabers before every war with Israel and did the same against the Christians in Lebanon, so they are doing now on radio and TV, in mosques and every terrorist audio- or videotape that Al Jazeera plays. We must listen and take action to stop them from doing what they are clearly saying they will do. Listen and act accordingly if you don’t want your daughters to have to choose which type of head cover they will wear in the future.

  Can We Trust Our Muslim Neighbors?

  It is a sad state of affairs when we as Americans, as people who came from all around the world to build a life in the land of the free and the home of the brave, have to look at some of our neighbors, colleagues, and business associates and wonder if we can trust them; have to wonder if they are loyal to our country or to our enemy; have to wonder how much their religion plays a role in their lives, and if someday they may want to kill us in the name of God because supposedly we are cursed by Allah for adopting polytheism. Whether or not you accept this new reality, this is where Americans are today.

  I voice what many in America are thinking but are afraid to say out loud, for fear of being labeled a racist, a bigot, Islamophobic, or intolerant. When I gave a speech at Duke University in 2004 condemning suicide bombers and the culture that nurtures them, saying, “The difference between the Arab world and Israel is a difference in values and character. It’s barbarism versus civilization. It’s dictatorship versus democracy. It’s evil versus goodness,” I was criticized and condemned. Duke’s Freeman Center for Jewish Life apologized for my comment to the same Arabs who supported the killing of innocent civilians and were unwilling to criticize and condemn terrorism.

  We have gotten to a point in this country where we have to whisper and watch what we say about protecting America because we don’t want to offend anyone. We have an enemy living among us, yet we are afraid to admit it, afraid to point it out. Nineteen Muslim men perpetrated September 11, yet we insist on taking the shoes off little old blue-haired ladies from Iowa boarding a plane with their grandchildren en route to Walt Disney World. Have we gone mad?

  We have Muslim organizations that refuse to condemn our diehard enemies by name, yet we are afraid to challenge and confront them for fear of offending them. Do you think that if George Washington were alive today he would keep his mouth shut about the obvious decay in our society by American Muslim citizens who have been granted the blessing of citizenship by our country, yet their loyalty lies somewhere else? The Muslim community in this nation has lost our trust, lost our respect, lost our understanding and our compassion for whatever problems it has. Muslims' actions, or better still, their lack of actions, speak volumes. Where is the Muslims' voice in America speaking up in defense of America to our enemy? Why have they remained relatively silent?

  The deeper we dig in trying to uncover terrorist cells, the more we find American Muslims stabbing America in the back right in the heartland, aiding our enemy while using our resources, freedoms, and laws against us. They are using the same laws and freedoms that are nonexistent in their home countries, those same countries that they left so they could come here to enjoy the blessings and richness of America. We must ask ourselves: Are the majority of Muslims living in America today who practice Islam loyal to the United States or loyal to its enemy? Here is a little politically incorrect survey taken and published by USA Today in Februa
ry of 1991.6

  The survey queried Arab Americans regarding the Gulf War. This is when America actually went into the Gulf region to protect Kuwait, a Muslim nation, from Saddam Hussein’s aggressive invasion. The survey found that two-thirds of Arab Americans supported the United States in attacking Saddam Hussein. But the degree of support hinged on whether they practiced Christianity or Islam. Of the 501 Arab Americans polled, 70 percent were Christian and 30 percent were Muslim; seven in ten Arab Americans are Christians, mainly from families who emigrated to the United States to escape the Islamic influence of the Middle East and who quickly assimilated. Seventy-seven percent of the Christians supported the war; only 36 percent of the Muslims did. Similarly, Christian approval for the way Bush was handling his job closely resembled that of the U.S. population as a whole, at 70 percent; however, Muslim approval was only 38 percent. Pollster John Zogby of the Arab American Institute said, “You have two distinct world views. . . . The Muslims . . . have a tendency to be more Arab in their world view."

  Other results are probably going to shock you. The survey asked: “Are you willing to have your son or daughter fight for the United States in this war against Saddam Hussein?” Eighty-two percent of Muslim Americans said no; they would not have their children fight for the United States of America against a dictator who had invaded another Muslim country. Only 18 percent of the Muslim Americans surveyed said they were willing to back America in a war against Iraq.