Published in FrontPage Magazine

During a Homeland Security committee hearing last week on the "Radicalization of Muslim-Americans," Texas Congressman Al Green (D) criticized the hearings as biased and unfair to Muslims, suggesting that the only way to justify them is if Congress would also conduct a "hearing on the radicalization of Christians."

Though his position may seem balanced, in fact, it reveals a dangerous mix of irrationality, moral relativism, and emotionalism—all disastrous traits in a U.S. Congressman. Consider some of Green's assertions:

I don't think that most people oppose hearings on radicalization. I do not, not — N-O-T — oppose hearings on radicalization. I do oppose hearings that don't focus on the entirety of radicalization…. [W]hy not have a hearing on the radicalization of Christians?... People who see the hearings and never hear about the hearing on the radicalization of Christianity have to ask themselves, "Why is this missing?"

Fair question—"Why not have a hearing on the radicalization of Christians?" Before responding, we must acknowledge that the word "radicalization" simply means "to go to the root or origin of something," in this case, religion: a Muslim radical goes to the root teachings of Islam; a Christian radical goes to the root teachings of Christianity. Accordingly, there are certainly "Christian radicals" in America. The question is, do they pose the same risks to America as Muslim radicals?

Green and all moral relativists naturally do not want to pursue such a question, opting to pretend that any form of "radicalization"—regardless of the "root teachings"—is evil. They are certainly not interested in determining the fundamentals of Christianity and Islam, and whether they are equally prone to violence, terrorism, conquest, etc. While this is not the place to contrast modern Christianity's apolitical and largely passive nature with modern Islam's political and largely aggressive nature—a theme elaborated here—suffice it to say that, while thousands of modern-day Muslim leaders are on record quoting Islamic scriptures tojustify violence and hate, one is hard pressed to find examples of modern Christian leaders preaching violence and hate—and justifying it through scripture.

The Saudi Grand Mufti, the highest religious official of Saudi Arabia, Islam's holiest nation, called on the destruction of all regional churches, quoting Islamic texts. Can Green find an example of an equally authoritative Christian leader calling for the destruction of mosques—and supporting it through the Bible?

Green went on to ask "Why don't we go to the next step and ask, how is that a blue-eyed, blonde-haired, white female in the United States of America can become radicalized to the point of wanting to do harm to this country? We don't have that type of hearing. That's the problem."

Thus, not only does the Congressman irrationally conflate the teachings of all religions together, he also conflates religion with race (and gender) implying that the only reason there are hearings on Muslim radicalization is because Muslims are not white, whereas those "equally-dangerous" blue-eyed, blond-haired female Christian "radicals" are apparently getting a free pass to terrorize America.

This logic is flawed on many levels. Islam is not a race; there are Muslims of all colors, just like there are Christians of all colors. Moreover, there are indeed "blue-eyed, blond-haired" terrorists in the world, including females—yet these, too, are overwhelmingly Muslim. It is dishonest for Green to try to take the focus off of Islamic radicalization and pin it on that all-purpose bogeyman, "racism."

Regardless, this argument of Islam as a race is popular and was, for example, used by CongresswomanJackie Speier, who also called these hearings "racist." Likewise, a former American soldier discussing the Fort Hood shootings lamented that "When a white guy shoots up a post office, they call that going postal. But when a Muslim [namely, Nidal Hasan] does it, they call it jihad."

Notice the confusion; as if a "white guy" and a "Muslim" represent different races. Of course, if a person of any color goes on a random shooting spree, it would be racist to pin it on his race. But if a person of any color goes on a shooting spree—while waving the Koran, screaming the jihadi paean "Allahu Akbar!" or otherwise rationalizing his actions in Islamic terms, as did Nidal Hasan—then we are talking about a shooting spree motivated by a learned ideology or worldview that has nothing to do with the murderer's race.

From beginning to end, Green—like his congressman colleague Keith Ellison, whose objection to these hearings culminated in a teary-eyed breakdown—relied on emotionalism to make his point: he opened his statement by offering the Islamic greeting assalama alikum to Muslims present, dreamily observing: "Isn't it wonderful that the grandson of a Christian minister can sit on the Homeland Security Committee and sayassalama alikum?"—a meaningless point that does not change the fact that in Islam, Muslims are only allowed to say "Peace upon you" to fellow Muslims, never to non-Muslim infidels, who by nature are deemed undeserving Muslim well-wishing.

Finally, Green concluded his sanctimonious attack by saying "I do know what it feels like to look like a Muslim in the minds of some people and to be demeaned in a public venue…. I look forward to the day that we'll have that hearing that deals with the radicalization of Christians in America"—again, all meaningless race-related rhetoric and moral relativism, the sole value of which is to obfuscate the issue at hand: the real threat of "radicalization of Muslim-Americans."

Evidence Keeps Mounting

Publishing in Investigative Project on Terrorism

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Egypt's longtime banned Muslim Brotherhood—the parent organization of nearly every subsequent Islamist movement, including al-Qaeda—has just won the nation's presidency, in the name of its candidate, Muhammad Morsi. That apathy reigns in the international community, when once such news would have been deemed devastating, is due to the successful efforts of Muslim apologists and subversive agents in the West who portray the Brotherhood as "moderate Islamists"—irrespective that such a formulation is oxymoronic, since to be "Islamist," to be a supporter of draconian Sharia, is by definition to be immoderate. Obama administration officials naturally took it a step further, portraying the Brotherhood as "largely secular" and "pluralistic." Back in the real world, evidence that the Brotherhood is just another hostile Islamist group bent on achieving world dominationthrough any means possible is overwhelming. Here are just three examples that recently surfaced, all missed by the Western media, and all exposing the Brotherhood as hostile to "infidels" (non-Muslims) in general, hostile to the Christians in their midst (the Copts) in particular, and on record calling on Muslims to lie and cheat during elections to empower Sharia: Anti-Infidel: At a major conference supporting Muhammad Morsi—standing on a platform with a big picture of Morsi smiling behind him and with any number of leading Brotherhood figures, including Khairat el-Shater, sitting alongside—a sheikh went on a harangue, quoting Koran 9:12, a jihadi favorite, to portray all those Egyptians who do not vote for Morsi—the other half of Egypt, the secularists and Copts who voted for Shafiq—as "resisters of the Sharia of Allah," and "infidel leaders" whom true Muslims must "fight" and subjugate. The video of this sheikh was shown on the talk show of Egyptian commentator Hala Sarhan, who proceeded to exclaim "This is unbelievable! How is this talk related to the campaign of Morsi?!" A guest on her show correctly elaborated: "Note his [the sheikh's] use of the word 'fight'—'fight the infidel leaders' [Koran 9:12]; this is open incitement to commit violence against anyone who disagrees with them…. How can such a radical sheikh speak such words, even as [Brotherhood leaders like] Khairat el-Shater just sit there?" Nor did the Brotherhood denounce or distance itself from this sheikh's calls to jihad and takfir. Anti-Christian: It is precisely because of these sporadic outbursts of anti-infidel rhetoric that it is not farfetched to believe that Morsi himself, as some maintain, earlier boasted that he would "achieve the Islamic conquest (fath) of Egypt for the second time, and make all Christians convert to Islam, or else pay the jizya." Speaking of the minority Christian Copts of Egypt, in an article titled "The Muslim Brotherhood Asks Why Christians Fear Them?!" secularist writer Khaled Montasser, examining the Brotherhood's own official documents and fatwas, shows exactly why. According to Montasser, in issue #56 of the Brotherhood journal The Call (al-da'wa), published in December 1980, prominent Brotherhood figure Sheikh Muhammad Abdullah al-Khatib decreed several anti-Christian measures, including the destruction of churches and the prevention of burying unclean Christian "infidels" anywhere near Muslim graves. Once again, this view was never retracted by the Brotherhood. As Montasser concludes, "After such fatwas, Dr. Morsi and his Brotherhood colleagues can ask and wonder—"Why are the Copts afraid?!" Lying, Stealing, and Cheating to Victory: In a recent article titled "The Islamist Group's Hidden Intentions," appearing in Watani, author Youssef Sidhom exposes a document "which carries the logos of both the Muslim Brotherhood and its political arm, the Freedom and Justice Party." Written by Khairat el-Shater, the Deputy to the Supreme Guide, and addressed "to all the Brotherhood branches in the governorates," the memo calls on Muslims to cheat, block votes, and "resort to any method that can change the vote" to ensure that Morsi wins, which, of course, he just did—amidst many accusations of electoral fraud. El-Shater concluded his memo by saying, "You must understand, brothers, that our interest lies wherever there is the Sharia of Allah, and this can only be by preserving the [MB] group and preserving Islam." In short, the Muslim Brotherhood has not changed; only Western opinion of it has. As it was since its founding in 1928, the group is committed to empowering and spreading Sharia law—a law that preaches hate for non-Muslim "infidels," especially Islam's historic nemesis, Christianity, and allows anything, from lying to cheating, to make Islam supreme. Now that the Brotherhood has finally achieved power, the world can prepare to see such aspects on a grand scale.

by Raymond Ibrahim • June 25, 2012
Cross-posted from Jihad Watch

Sheikh Mubarak al-Bathali of Kuwait recently objected to the name of the late Egyptian singer, Umm Kalthum (1904-1975), widely regarded as the greatest female singer in Arab music history. He insisted that "Umm Kalthum is the [name of the] daughter of the Messenger of Allah and lord of humanity [Muhammad], and so she [the singer] should be called "Umm al-Thum" ["mother of garlic"], since garlic comes from a sly tree that harms others," in reference to the fact that many Muslims who listen to her non-Islamic music are deluded.

Because trees play a role in Islam, especially eschatology, al-Bathali ultimately infused his attack on the dead singer with cosmic significance. For instance, this fatwa, after quoting Muhammad banning Muslims from mosque prayers after eating garlic, "for the angels will be offended," explains:

The trees (all except the Gharqad) will show the Jews to the Muslims so that they may kill them during the great battle at the end of time. The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: "The Hour will not come until the Muslims fight the Jews and kill them. The Jews will hide behind rocks and trees, and the rocks and trees will say: 'O Muslim, O slave of Allah! There is a Jew behind me, come and kill him!' All the trees will say this except for the Gharqad (box-thorn), for it is one of the trees of the Jews."

Such are the matters that concern the rich sheikhs of Kuwait, like al-Bathali—dead Egyptian singers, garlic offensive to angels, and evil trees.