There has been much recent moaning and groaning in the media about the growth of anti-Islamic sentiment in the United States. These queries have been accompanied by agonized and bewildered questions about where such sentiment comes from and what causes it. This scenario would be comical — nay, hilarious — if it was not destined to bring war into the United States. Let me say that I believe the two biggest and most obvious sources of anti-Muslim sentiment in the United States are the U.S. Congress and Muslim-American leaders.
The pro-Israel Senators and Congressman in the United States Congress. Tick off any number of names: Lieberman, Schummer, Graham, Cantor, Ackerman, McCain, Levin, Berman, Ros-Lehtinem, Bilirakis, Titus, McConnell, Cardin, Burton, Rothman, Demint — the list quite literally includes most members of both houses. These men and women have absolutely no qualms about praising, abetting, and funding any Israeli action that kills Muslims. When Netanyahu comes to the United States, they meet with him publicly and behind close doors (without State Department representatives); stand with him in defiance of sitting presidents; and then join him in calls for war with Iran, Syria, (someday) Turkey, or anyone else Israel wants the United States to fight a war against.
There is no reason for any Muslim-American to believe that even one of these pro-Israel representatives or senators have the slightest interest in their views, or any concern whatsoever for the life of any Muslim that Israel deems to be expendable. Needless to say, there is no reason for any non-Jewish-American citizen to believe these senators and congressmen care anything about their interests. If they did, why have the given a foreign brigand like Netanyahu the ability to take 300 million Americans into war with Iran that can only push the United States farther down the road toward ruin?
Why is there growing anti-Islamic sentiment in the United States, and why do many Muslim-Americans increasingly believe their government regards Muslim blood overseas as cheap? In large measure, you need look no further than Capitol Hill.
The cowardly leaders of the U.S. Muslim-American community. By behaving as victims and failing to speak the truth as they know it, U.S. Muslim leaders encourage their fellow citizens to believe that the lies of U.S. political leaders are true: Muslims hate freedom, liberty, gender equality, elections, democracy, and all the other things most Americans consider their birthright.
Muslim-America leaders know that Islam, like other major religions, is a religion of peace until its followers perceive themselves to be cornered by enemies who appear intent and able to destroy it. It is irrelevant whether this perception is correct; those holding it are confident of its veracity and will fight with determination and ferocity. The nuclear-armed Israelis, for example, perceive themselves mortally threatened by AK-47-armed Palestinians, and so since 2000 Israeli forces have killed six Palestinians for every Israeli killed by Palestinian fighters in the never-ending Israel-Muslim religious war.
U.S. Muslim leaders must stop whining and speak forthrightly, telling their fellow citizens that most American-Muslims are living proof that U.S. politicians lie about Muslims hating Americans because of how they live, vote, and think. They must publicly affirm both that most Muslim-Americans are integrating into U.S. society, and that increasing numbers of young Muslim-American males are picking up arms or explosives because they perceive U.S. foreign policy as an attack on Islam and its followers.
These Muslim-American leaders also must admit that they have a deadly serious problem within their community in the form of Islamist scholars and clerics who are sent and/or sponsored by the Muslim Brotherhood or by Arab regimes — especially Saudi Arabia — to labor to incite young, U.S.-citizen Muslim men to attack America because of its foreign policy, as well as to make sure that American-Muslims do not integrate into American society. [NB: This last-noted reality exactly mirrors the efforts by Israel and Jewish-American groups to de-integrate Jewish-American citizens from U.S. society so they put Israel’s interests above those of the United States.]
Muslim-American leaders must also speak honestly in order to replace the dastardly lies President Obama and his terrorism adviser, John Brennan, tell so often and so blithely, and which so greatly undermine America’s ability to defend itself. These Muslim-American leaders must tell their fellow U.S. citizens the irrefutable truth: The overwhelming number of references to jihad in the Koran and in the Prophet Muhammad’s traditions and sayings are martial in nature, and that very, very few references — and none that are controlling — have anything whatsoever to do with efforts to become a better person. U.S. citizens and their leaders need to hear this hard truth clearly, loudly, and repeatedly so that they can begin to understand why growing portions of the Islamic world are at war with the United States. No one can deliver it with sufficient authority save those Muslim-American leaders who both know and love their faith and honestly desire to be part of America’s society and political system.
Until Muslim-American leaders begin to educate all Americans on this issue, there is no chance of slowing the growth of anti-Muslim sentiment in the United States or defending the United States against those led and inspired by Osama bin Laden. If Muslim-American leaders continue to deliberately hide the realities of their faith and so the motivation of Islamist fighters here and abroad, they will encourage the anti-Islamic sentiment that Israel’s supporters on Capitol Hill — with their colleagues in the media, AIPAC, and major universities like Harvard — aggressively and knowingly cultivate with the aim of encouraging Islamist attacks in the United States by Muslim-Americans.
On this point, Israel, the Muslim Brotherhood, AIPAC, al-Qaeda, most of the U.S. Congress, and Saudi Arabia are brothers-in-arms. They all intend to provoke a war between America and Islam by showing that the United States and Israel are one in the same entity, one that is intent on destroying Islam. This is a difficult thing to say, but the actions and often the words of all these groups over the past 15 years lead to no other conclusion.
