So, the Canadian authorities have arrested seventeen homegrown terrorists, intent on blowing up several landmarks in Ontario Province, including Parliament and other government buildings in Ottawa, beheading the Prime Minister, random shootings of innocent people, and other acts of terror. During a sting operation, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) provided them with three tons of ammonium nitrate, a fertilizer which when mixed with diesel fuel forms a very powerful explosive. This amount was three times what was used in 1995 to blow up the federal building in Oklahoma City, killing 168 people. They had also accumulated a large cache of weapons. Those arrested, twelve mostly young adults and five minors, all militant Muslims from middle class Canadian Muslim families, had also established a terrorist training camp which was attended by at least two Americans, Muslims attending college in Georgia.
The politically correct crowd has already come out with their mantra that 99.99 percent of all Muslims in Canada and the United States are good law abiding citizens who are opposed to all forms of terrorism. What a crock! One cannot lump all Muslims into one group anymore than you can lump all Christians or all Jews into one group.
There are many Christian denominations, ranging all the way from The Assemblies of God and the Pentecostal evangelicals, who interpret the bible literally, to ultra-liberal Unitarians. In between you have what the media refers to as "mainstream Christians" and which I call "convenience Christians" (Catholics excepted), whose followers interpret the bible to suit their spiritual needs as members of a secular society. And, in each denomination there are backsliders like those who go to church every Sunday, but get drunk during the week or cheat on their spouses, and those Catholics who are "pro-choice" instead of "pro-life," or who engage in sex for pleasure instead of only for procreation, and who do not go to confession. Who then are the true believers among Christians? That dpends on who you ask, as each group would insist that they are the true believers.
Among Jews, there are three denominations - Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform. Orthodox Jews are fundamentalists who live according to the scriptures in the Talmud and the Torah, keeping strict kosher households, practicing daily prayer rituals and the required woship in synagogues, and obeying mandatory restrictions on their activities during the sabbbath and during religious holidays. All prayers and religious ceremonies are conducted strictly in Hebrew. Orthodox men cannot shave and must cover their heads at all times, while ultra-Orthodox Jews also wear a distinctive style of clothing. Orthodox women are subserviant to Orthodox men and must worship in a segregated section of the synagogue. Orthodox Jews are required to observe a total of 613 such commandments.
The Conservative movement started in Western Europe because many Jews wanted a more liberal lifestyle than the one required of Orthodox Jews. Reform Judaism was founded in the United States by Jews who wanted to assimilate into American society. Reform Jews do not keep kosher and the men do not cover their heads during worship. While some prayers are conducted in Hebrew, most worship takes place in the language of the host country. Women can become rabbis. Most Jews in the United States belong to Reform congregations. Orthodox Jews do not recognize or tolerate the Conservative and Reform movements, and they sneer at Reform Jews by calling them "Christians without Christ." I prefer to think of Reform Jews as "pick and choose Jews" because they pick and choose only enough beliefs of the jewish faith which will allow them to maintain a jewish identity. Among Reform Jews, interfaith marriages with Christians have led to a steady decline in the number of those who identify themselves as Jews. Who among Jews are the true believers? That is an easy question, and the answer is: Orthodox Jews.
Among Muslims, there are also a number of different sects. Because of the strife in Iraq, Westerners know that two of those sects are the Shiites and Sunnis. Wahhabis (Muwahhids), the most fundamental Islamists, adhere to a literal interpretation of the Quran and require strict obedience to Sharia (Islamic religious law). Women are subserviant to men and their lives are severely restricted. The puritanical Wahhabis believe that Muslims who have embraced Western culture are infidels and they have established Madrassahs (religious schools) throughout the world. The Taliban in Afghanistan are students of Madrassahs. Textbooks issued by the Saudis, who are Wahhabis, to boys enrolled in Saudi Arabia's government schools, refer to Christians and Jews as enemies of Muslims, equate Christians to swine and Jews to apes, and urge the faithful to spread the faith by waging jihad (holy war) against Christians and Jews..
Whenever there is an Islamic act of terrorism, there is always a rush to describe militant Muslims as a small number of radicals or extremists who have misinterpreted and perverted the teachings of the Quran. Nothing could be further from the truth. There are a number of passages in the Quran advocating the forced conversion of infidels throughout the world and which call for "death to the infidels," particularly those considered enemies of Islam. Those who die while engaged in a jihad are rewarded with martyrdom, which gives them a special place in paradise where each martyr will be gratified by 72 virgins.
Most Muslims in the world live in abject poverty and ignorance, obtaining what little education is available in Madrassahs. These followers of Islam are thus more likely to belong to fundamentalist militant Muslim sects, those which Westerners keep calling radical, extreme, and terrorist. In fact, what these religious zealots are doing in waging jihad is following the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad and the Quran. Most Muslims in the United States, Canada and Europe are part of the well-educated middle class, and even though they may pray five times each day on their prayer rugs while facing toward Mecca, they have embraced modern ways and do not adhere to the fundamentalism of the masses which constitute their ignorant impoverished Islamic brethren. Nevertheless, as was the case with the " Toronto Seventeen," any number of middle class youths may be drawn to militant Muslim fundamentalism through worshiping in Islamist mosques, attending Madrassahs run by Wahhabi clerics, and by visiting any of the many websites run by Imams preaching hatred of and advocating jihad against the enemies of Islam, infidels who follow the ways of Western civilization.
Muhammad commanded the faithful to spread Islam "by the sword." At this time, Islamists are waging jihads in the Caucasus, Thailand, Nepal, the Philippines, Afghanistan, the Middle East, and several African nations. How did Islam spread from Arabia throughout North and Sub-Sahara Africa, the Middle East, the Balkans, the Caucasus and other parts of the former Soviet Union, parts of China, Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Southeast Asia, Indonesia and the Philippines? Islamists did it through bloody conquests, slaughtering those infidels who resisted conversion to Islam. Now, some will say that Christians did the same thing in Latin America. That is not true. The Spanish and Portuguese explorers set out to conquer and colonize the New World, not to Christianize it. They killed Indians only when they met armed resistance. The Conquistadors were always accompanied by priests who established missions and converted the indigenous people to Catholicism by peaceful means. However, it should be noted that the eight Crusades (1096 - 1270) were Christianity's version of jihad and the Spanish Inquisition (beginning in 1478) was its version of death to the infidels (Muslims and Jews).
We are always quick to label those we don't like. We called Lybia's Muammar Gaddafi and North Korea's Kim Jong Il and his father Kim Il-sung crazy, and we call jihadists extremists. While we see jihadists as terrorists, most Muslims view them as holy warriors. We see Palestinian suicide bombers as terrorists, but Muslims view them as freedom fighters. We consider most Muslims who live in America as moderates, while Islamists view all Muslims who have adopted the lifestyle of Western culture as extremists. This begs the question - in Islam, who are the true believers? This is also an easy question, and the answeer is: Fundamentalist militant Muslims who live according to the literal interpretation of the Quran, who demand strict enforcement of Sharia, and who wage jihad against Western culture.
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