Lowjack
Senior Member
Subject: Fwd: The History of Muslim Violence
Date: Sat, 13 Jun 2009 18:23:52 +0000 (UTC)
Written by a Lebanon-born Christian woman, documenting the centuries
of murderous Islamic attacks on non-Muslims
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
An open letter to President Obama from Brigitte Gabriel
(received via email)
Dear Mr. President,
You face difficult challenges in matters such as achieving peace in
the Middle East and protecting America from the threat of radical
Islam and terrorism. These are challenges that have vexed past
presidents, going as far back as our second president, John Adams. I
have no doubt you appreciate both the gravity of these challenges and
the enormous obstacles that exist to solving them.
I also have no doubt that you and your staff understood that, no
matter what you said in your speech last Thursday in Cairo, there
would be those who would take issue with you. That is always the case
when attempting to solve problems that are as deep and
emotionally-laden as these challenges are.
I am assuming it is your sincere hope that the approach you have
chosen to take, as evidenced by what I’m sure was a carefully crafted
speech, will ultimately prove successful. However, it pains me to say
this sir, but, while you said in your speech that you are a “student
of history,” it is abundantly clear that, in these matters, you do
not know history and thus, as Santayana noted, you are doomed to
repeat it. In doing so your efforts, however well-intentioned they
may be, will not produce what you profess to hope they will produce.
A wise man once said that if you start with the wrong assumptions, no
matter how logical your reasoning is, you will end up with the wrong
conclusion. With all due respect Mr. President, you are starting with
certain assumptions that are unsupported by history and an objective
study of the ideology of political Islam.
You began in your speech by asserting that “tensions” exist between
the United States and Muslims around the world, which, of course, is
correct. Unfortunately, you then proceeded, incorrectly, to lay
virtually all the blame for these tensions at the feet of America and
the West. You blamed western colonialism, the Cold War , and even
modernity and globalism.
A student of American history, who is not trying to reconstruct it to
fit a modern politically correct narrative, would state that tensions
between America and Muslims began with the unprovoked, four-decades
long assault by the Muslim Barbary pirates against American shipping
in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. I find it telling that you
mentioned the Treaty of Tripoli in your speech but ignored the
circumstances that led to it. That treaty was but one of numerous
attempts by the United States to achieve peace with the jihadists of
the Barbary Coast who were attacking our shipping and killing and
enslaving our citizens and our soldiers and who by their own
admission were doing so to fulfill the call to jihad .
These jihadists were not acting to protest American foreign policy ,
which was decidedly isolationist, and there was no state of Israel to
scapegoat. They were doing what countless Islamic jihadists have done
throughout history acting upon the hundreds of passages in the
Qur’an and the Hadith that call upon faithful Muslims to kill,
conquer or subjugate the infidel.
A student of world history would know that, for all the acknowledged
evils of Western colonialism, these evils pale in comparison to the
nearly 14 centuries of Islamic colonialism that began in Arabia under
the leadership of Mohammed. The student of history would know that
Islamic forces eradicated all Jewish and Christian presence from
Arabia after Mohammed’s death, and then succeeded in conquering all
of North Africa , most of the Middle East , much of Asia Minor, and
significant portions of Europe and India eventually creating an
empire larger than Rome’s was at its peak.
The number of dead and enslaved during these many centuries of
Islamic imperial conquest and colonialism have been estimated to
total more than 300 million. What’s more, the wealth of many of the
conquered nations and cultures was plundered by the Islamic
conquerors, and millions of millions of non-Muslims who did survive
were forced to pay onerous taxes, such as the “jizya,” a humiliation
tax to the Islamic caliphs. Indeed, in some areas Christians and Jews
were made to wear a receipt for the jizya around their neck as a mark
of their dishonor.
These facts have not been invented by Christian or Jewish historical
revisionists, but were chronicled by Muslim eyewitnesses throughout
the past 14 centuries and are available to be researched by any
person seeking an objective understanding of how Islam spread
throughout the world.
You say in your speech that we must squarely face the tensions that
exist between America and the Muslim world . That is a laudable
notion with which I agree, but by casting Islam as the historical
victim and the West (and by implication, America) as the aggressor,
you do not face these tensions squarely, but alleviate the Muslim
world from coming to grips with the jihadist ideology embedded in its
holy books and acted upon for 1,400 years.
Even worse, you empower and embolden militant Islamists who regard
your gestures as signs of weakness and capitulation.
The issue is not that all Muslims are terrorists or radicals or
extremists. We all know that the majority of Muslims are not. We also
know that many peace-loving Muslims are victims of Islamist violence.
The issue is this: what drives hundreds of millions of Muslims
worldwide to call for the death of Jews?
What drives millions of Muslims to riot, destroy property, and take
innocent lives in reaction to the Danish cartoons?
What drives tens of thousands of Muslims to demand the execution of a
British teacher whose only “crime” was allowing her students to name
their teddy bears “Mohammed”?
What drives countless Muslims worldwide to actively participate in,
or fund, or provide nurture to, terrorist organizations?
What drives Muslims in mosques in America to proclaim and distribute
materials that call for hatred of and the destruction of infidels?
What drives entire Islamic countries to prohibit the building of a
Christian church or synagogue?
To assume, as you apparently do, that what drives these actions is
not an ideology embedded in the holy books of Islam, but rather other
“root causes,” most of which you lay at the feet of America and the
West, is at best naïve and at worst dangerous.
Lastly, I must address your statement that “Islam has a proud
tradition of tolerance.” Unfortunately, the examples you gave are the
exception rather than the rule.
Historically speaking, I seriously doubt the Egyptian Copts, the
Lebanese Maronites, the Christians in Bethlehem, the Assyrians, the
Hindus, the Jews, and many others who have been persecuted by Islamic
violence and supremacism, would agree with your assertion.
For instance, Christians and Jews became “Dhimmis,” a second class
group under Islam. Dhimmis were forced to wear distinctive clothing;
it was Baghdad’s Caliph Al-Mutawakkil , in the ninth century, who
designated a yellow badge for Jews under Islam, which Hitler copied
and duplicated in Nazi Germany nearly a thousand years later.
I witnessed first-hand the “tolerance” of Islam when Islamists
ravaged my country of birth, Lebanon , in the 1970’s, leaving
widespread death and destruction in their wake. I saw how they
re-paid the tolerance that Lebanese Christians extended toward them.
My experience is not an isolated one. When you make an unfounded
assertion about the “proud tradition” of tolerance in Islam, you do a
great disservice to the hundreds of millions of non-Muslims who have
been killed, maimed, enslaved, conquered, subjugated or displaced in
the cause of Islamic jihad.
Mr. President, those of us like me who are ringing the alarm in
America about the threat of radical Islam would like nothing better
than to peacefully co-exist with the Muslim world. Most Americans
would like nothing better than to peacefully co-exist with the Muslim
world. The obstacle to achieving this does not lie with us in America
and the West. It lies with the hundreds of millions of Muslims
worldwide, including many of their spiritual leaders, who take
seriously the repeated calls to jihad in the Qur’an and the Hadith.
Who regard “infidels” as inferior and worthy of conquering,
subjugating and forcibly converting. Who support “cultural jihad” as
a means to subvert non-Muslim societies from within. Who take
seriously the admonitions throughout the Qur’an and the Hadith to
convert the world to Islam by force if necessary and bring it under
the rule of Allah.
Unless you are willing to courageously and honestly accept this, your
aspirations for worldwide comity and peace in the Middle East are
doomed to fail.
Sincerely,
Brigitte Gabriel
Note :I recommend the 2 books Ms. Gabriel has writen
Date: Sat, 13 Jun 2009 18:23:52 +0000 (UTC)
Written by a Lebanon-born Christian woman, documenting the centuries
of murderous Islamic attacks on non-Muslims
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
An open letter to President Obama from Brigitte Gabriel
(received via email)
Dear Mr. President,
You face difficult challenges in matters such as achieving peace in
the Middle East and protecting America from the threat of radical
Islam and terrorism. These are challenges that have vexed past
presidents, going as far back as our second president, John Adams. I
have no doubt you appreciate both the gravity of these challenges and
the enormous obstacles that exist to solving them.
I also have no doubt that you and your staff understood that, no
matter what you said in your speech last Thursday in Cairo, there
would be those who would take issue with you. That is always the case
when attempting to solve problems that are as deep and
emotionally-laden as these challenges are.
I am assuming it is your sincere hope that the approach you have
chosen to take, as evidenced by what I’m sure was a carefully crafted
speech, will ultimately prove successful. However, it pains me to say
this sir, but, while you said in your speech that you are a “student
of history,” it is abundantly clear that, in these matters, you do
not know history and thus, as Santayana noted, you are doomed to
repeat it. In doing so your efforts, however well-intentioned they
may be, will not produce what you profess to hope they will produce.
A wise man once said that if you start with the wrong assumptions, no
matter how logical your reasoning is, you will end up with the wrong
conclusion. With all due respect Mr. President, you are starting with
certain assumptions that are unsupported by history and an objective
study of the ideology of political Islam.
You began in your speech by asserting that “tensions” exist between
the United States and Muslims around the world, which, of course, is
correct. Unfortunately, you then proceeded, incorrectly, to lay
virtually all the blame for these tensions at the feet of America and
the West. You blamed western colonialism, the Cold War , and even
modernity and globalism.
A student of American history, who is not trying to reconstruct it to
fit a modern politically correct narrative, would state that tensions
between America and Muslims began with the unprovoked, four-decades
long assault by the Muslim Barbary pirates against American shipping
in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. I find it telling that you
mentioned the Treaty of Tripoli in your speech but ignored the
circumstances that led to it. That treaty was but one of numerous
attempts by the United States to achieve peace with the jihadists of
the Barbary Coast who were attacking our shipping and killing and
enslaving our citizens and our soldiers and who by their own
admission were doing so to fulfill the call to jihad .
These jihadists were not acting to protest American foreign policy ,
which was decidedly isolationist, and there was no state of Israel to
scapegoat. They were doing what countless Islamic jihadists have done
throughout history acting upon the hundreds of passages in the
Qur’an and the Hadith that call upon faithful Muslims to kill,
conquer or subjugate the infidel.
A student of world history would know that, for all the acknowledged
evils of Western colonialism, these evils pale in comparison to the
nearly 14 centuries of Islamic colonialism that began in Arabia under
the leadership of Mohammed. The student of history would know that
Islamic forces eradicated all Jewish and Christian presence from
Arabia after Mohammed’s death, and then succeeded in conquering all
of North Africa , most of the Middle East , much of Asia Minor, and
significant portions of Europe and India eventually creating an
empire larger than Rome’s was at its peak.
The number of dead and enslaved during these many centuries of
Islamic imperial conquest and colonialism have been estimated to
total more than 300 million. What’s more, the wealth of many of the
conquered nations and cultures was plundered by the Islamic
conquerors, and millions of millions of non-Muslims who did survive
were forced to pay onerous taxes, such as the “jizya,” a humiliation
tax to the Islamic caliphs. Indeed, in some areas Christians and Jews
were made to wear a receipt for the jizya around their neck as a mark
of their dishonor.
These facts have not been invented by Christian or Jewish historical
revisionists, but were chronicled by Muslim eyewitnesses throughout
the past 14 centuries and are available to be researched by any
person seeking an objective understanding of how Islam spread
throughout the world.
You say in your speech that we must squarely face the tensions that
exist between America and the Muslim world . That is a laudable
notion with which I agree, but by casting Islam as the historical
victim and the West (and by implication, America) as the aggressor,
you do not face these tensions squarely, but alleviate the Muslim
world from coming to grips with the jihadist ideology embedded in its
holy books and acted upon for 1,400 years.
Even worse, you empower and embolden militant Islamists who regard
your gestures as signs of weakness and capitulation.
The issue is not that all Muslims are terrorists or radicals or
extremists. We all know that the majority of Muslims are not. We also
know that many peace-loving Muslims are victims of Islamist violence.
The issue is this: what drives hundreds of millions of Muslims
worldwide to call for the death of Jews?
What drives millions of Muslims to riot, destroy property, and take
innocent lives in reaction to the Danish cartoons?
What drives tens of thousands of Muslims to demand the execution of a
British teacher whose only “crime” was allowing her students to name
their teddy bears “Mohammed”?
What drives countless Muslims worldwide to actively participate in,
or fund, or provide nurture to, terrorist organizations?
What drives Muslims in mosques in America to proclaim and distribute
materials that call for hatred of and the destruction of infidels?
What drives entire Islamic countries to prohibit the building of a
Christian church or synagogue?
To assume, as you apparently do, that what drives these actions is
not an ideology embedded in the holy books of Islam, but rather other
“root causes,” most of which you lay at the feet of America and the
West, is at best naïve and at worst dangerous.
Lastly, I must address your statement that “Islam has a proud
tradition of tolerance.” Unfortunately, the examples you gave are the
exception rather than the rule.
Historically speaking, I seriously doubt the Egyptian Copts, the
Lebanese Maronites, the Christians in Bethlehem, the Assyrians, the
Hindus, the Jews, and many others who have been persecuted by Islamic
violence and supremacism, would agree with your assertion.
For instance, Christians and Jews became “Dhimmis,” a second class
group under Islam. Dhimmis were forced to wear distinctive clothing;
it was Baghdad’s Caliph Al-Mutawakkil , in the ninth century, who
designated a yellow badge for Jews under Islam, which Hitler copied
and duplicated in Nazi Germany nearly a thousand years later.
I witnessed first-hand the “tolerance” of Islam when Islamists
ravaged my country of birth, Lebanon , in the 1970’s, leaving
widespread death and destruction in their wake. I saw how they
re-paid the tolerance that Lebanese Christians extended toward them.
My experience is not an isolated one. When you make an unfounded
assertion about the “proud tradition” of tolerance in Islam, you do a
great disservice to the hundreds of millions of non-Muslims who have
been killed, maimed, enslaved, conquered, subjugated or displaced in
the cause of Islamic jihad.
Mr. President, those of us like me who are ringing the alarm in
America about the threat of radical Islam would like nothing better
than to peacefully co-exist with the Muslim world. Most Americans
would like nothing better than to peacefully co-exist with the Muslim
world. The obstacle to achieving this does not lie with us in America
and the West. It lies with the hundreds of millions of Muslims
worldwide, including many of their spiritual leaders, who take
seriously the repeated calls to jihad in the Qur’an and the Hadith.
Who regard “infidels” as inferior and worthy of conquering,
subjugating and forcibly converting. Who support “cultural jihad” as
a means to subvert non-Muslim societies from within. Who take
seriously the admonitions throughout the Qur’an and the Hadith to
convert the world to Islam by force if necessary and bring it under
the rule of Allah.
Unless you are willing to courageously and honestly accept this, your
aspirations for worldwide comity and peace in the Middle East are
doomed to fail.
Sincerely,
Brigitte Gabriel
Note :I recommend the 2 books Ms. Gabriel has writen
