Prior to September 11, 2001 most Americans knew little of the second largest religion in the world, Islam, outside of the fact that most Muslims lived in foreign countries. In the decade since we have been acutely aware of Islam's role in the world, almost all of which has been negative in scope.
The term Jihad was not known or understood and for the most part Muslims were seen through Western eyes which provided a distorted view at best. Distorted because we tend to view the world as if it is an extension of our own perceptions. We try and imagine Muslims as "being just like us." Americans tend to give people the benefit of the doubt. When we see conflict we try to invent a cause that puts people in the best light, often excusing behaviors we would otherwise deem unacceptable.
This has caused us to see Muslims as not much different from ourselves. After all, they, like us, are human beings so how different can they be when we get right down to it?
With the rise of various terrorist organizations we have had no choice but to attempt to understand Muslims and get a grasp of just what Islam is. This in itself is a very difficult task seeing as how there appears to be as many views of Islam as there are people trying to explain it. But one thing is certain, we are more aware now than we have ever been that we share a planet with a culture vastly different from ours.
Since its founding in the 7th Century, Islam has been on a campaign of self-promotion. More recently, it has had a great deal of help in public relations as many strive fiercely to make excuses for actions made in the name of Islam, either on behalf of their Prophet Mohammed or their god Allah.
One of the first things that happened following the events of 9/11 was that government agencies began to shape our perception of Islam. Airport security, such as it was before that fateful morning, was instructed not to profile Muslims for special attention. This in itself caught many of us by surprise seeing as how the 19 hijackers that took the lives of 2,996 Americans, were all Muslims.
In the events that have occurred since then we have seen a refusal to acknowledge even the participation of Muslims even when it was the first obvious conclusion that could possibly be drawn.
Upon taking office as president of the United States, Barack Hussein Obama has made it a personal mission to erase obvious connections with Islam when terrorist attacks happen whether here or abroad. Terms like "Islamic terrorism" or "Muslim terrorist" have been removed from official documents in efforts to cover-up connections even a child could make.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation has been forced to change its training methods that singled out Muslims even though 99% of all the world's terrorist activity is Muslim-related.
The actions of Army Major Nidal Hassen on November 5, 2009, though he shot and killed 14 including an unborn child on the Fort Hood Army base and wounded over 30 others while shouting "Allahu Ackbar," was called "workplace violence" by the Obama administration in efforts to hide the Muslim connection, as obvious as it was.
This attack wasn't the first to happen on American soil. For that one would have to go back to April 14, 1972 when ten Muslims, members of a mosque in New York city phoned in a false alarm only to ambush responding police officers, killing one and injuring three.
A police officer were also killed and another wounded by Muslims on January 19, 1973 in Brooklyn, New York when he responded to a robbery at a sporting goods store where they were trying to steal weapons.
Since then we have had Muslim terrorist attacks in cities across the country, such as Bethesda, MD, three times in Washington, DC, Berkley, CA, eight times in Oakland CA, Ingleside, CA, Savou, IL, St. Louis, MO, Tuscon, AZ, New York City, NY, Langley, VA, Lompoc, CA, and in Atlanta, GA all prior to September 11, 2001. These attacks killed 45 and injured another ten. Most were never reported honestly.
Since September 11, 2001 there have been 32,580 separate deadly Islamic Jihad attacks worldwide as of February 21, 2018. Today the entire world is aware of the Islamic threat, though too often excused or downplayed by the media or government agencies.
But these attacks or campaigns, against the non-Muslim world do not include the most successful Islam has perpetrated since its inception. Here are some contenders:
Jihad today has its roots in both the actions of Islam's Prophet Mohammed and in their Holy Scripture, the Qur'an. For Mohammed's part, when he entered Medina there were three tribes of Jews. As Mohammed's political power grew he began to take the property of those Jews, killing some and exiling others. When he finally dealt with the last tribe he lay siege on them for twenty-five days. Upon their surrender, the women were sold as sex slaves to raise money for his continued Jihad, the children were placed into Muslim homes to be raised as Muslims and 8oo men and boys who had reached puberty were beheaded in the marketplace as their bodies fell into a trench dug for that purpose. This however, was not Islam's most successful campaign.
Following the Battle of Khaybar Mohammed established a new form of status, the Dhimmi. Realizing that a dead Jew brings only so much material and monetary reward, Mohammed created a class of people who were to be granted certain rights. They could, should they choose to, remain a Jew and continue to worship in their religion, although with many very restrictive regulations and if they agreed to pay the jizah, a tax equal to about half their income. They continued to work the land as farmers or operate as businessmen as they had before so they could pay the heavy tax. Of course, not accepting this arrangement meant death. This form of oppression was the last great political creation to rule the world. However, this was not Islam's most successful campaign.
There were many Muslim leaders over the centuries. One such ruler was Al-Hakim (996-1021) who served as Caliph in Egypt. It was under his rule that a special department was created for the sole purpose of keeping track of all the property he confiscated from his murdered victims for the ten years of his reign. Christians and Jews were directed to wear special clothing so they could not be mistaken for Muslims. Many Christians converted to Islam to escape the oppression and his destruction of holy sites and murder of Christians were a part of the reason for the Crusades years later. He built the House of Science, the first real Islamic university and he was notorious for his regulations on behavior. Chess, musical instruments, gambling, wine, beer, grapes, honey, some vegetables and some fish, singing, the wearing of jewelry by women, and even their leaving the house were all forbidden. Dogs were slaughtered and a hatred for dogs persists until this day by Muslims. He even murdered members of his family, high-ranking officials and drowned his concubines. His power was almost unequaled yet this was not Islam's most successful campaign.
Tamerlane became an Islamic ruler in 1370 and was widely known for his building of citadels, baths, gardens, and markets, much of which still exists today. His military campaigns saw the entire area of Central Asia under his control. In Afghanistan he was known to have removed the heads of his enemies and built them into his towers with the faces turned toward the roads as a warning of any with the idea of resisting his rule.
When one of his garrisons was destroyed he countered by killing one city's entire population of 70,000 including a delegation of children sent to appease him. Later he killed 50,000 Hindu captives as retaliation in a single bloody hour. Still this campaign was not the most successful of Islamic conquest.
Abdul Hamid II was quoted as saying "I will soon settle those Armenians. I will give them a box on the ears that will make them smart and relinquish their revolutionary ambitions." His perception of the Armenian reform that he feared would take place caused him to be true to his word. In 1984, at the sound of a bugle to signal the planned attack, mobs of Muslims and troops attacked Armenian headquarters. Men were murdered in the streets, women were raped, property destroyed and when it was said an done over 200,000 were dead, although the number has been given as high as one million. The world stood silent and scarcely reported the massacre. Still this was not Islamic most successful campaign.
Jihad against the non-Muslim has survived to this day, taking a total of 270 million lives in the process over the past 1400 years. Of those murdered by Islamic Jihad, 120 million were Africans, 60 million were Christian, 80 million were Hindus, and 10 million were Buddhists. But these campaigns were not the most successful for Islam.
The most successful campaign of Islamic advancement and progression began quietly in 1996 when the Runnymede Trust created the Commission on British Muslims and Islamophobia. The following year in their report entitled "Islamphobia, A Challenge for Us All", Islamophobia, which some believe has been around for decades, took on a more defined face. It was explained to be "an outlook or world-view involving an unfounded dread and dislike of Muslims, which results in practices of exclusion and discrimination."
To describe it in more detail, the report went on to say that Islamophobia is the "dread or hatred of Islam and therefore, [the] fear and dislike of all Muslims." Since that time the term has become so widely used one would think it has been with us for centuries. It has effectively stifled and muzzled any critical view of Islam. It has make it easy for anyone who questions Islam or Muslims in general, to be labeled an Islamophobe and therefore even their comments are forever deemed unworthy of even addressing or replying to. The term has incorrectly been expanded to mean "racist" and this stigma further shelters Islam from any critical review. The opinion of a Islamophobe is considered one which sees no value in Islam either culturally, socially, economically or even in the public forum. Therefore, it is to be disregarded and not worthy of note, no matter how pertinent or important it might otherwise be.
Once identified as an Islamophobe, nothing that person has to say ever reaches the mind of the listener for in fact, they cease to listen at all. Important issues are never intelligently discussed. Debate is impossible when one party refuses to acknowledge the validity of the opposing point of view.
Smearing one person or a whole group of people with the term Islamophobia, effectively silences their opinion. Curiously, personal growth only comes when one is open-minded to other possibilities other than the ones they currently hold. Using the Islamophobia brush to paint anyone or any group has dangerous consequences. It hides the truth and even when it is a matter of life and death.
Like a child holding his or her hands over their ears as they chant "La La La La La La" to drown out he speakers voice, the term Islamophobia has become a childish act to silence dissent and even the asking of important questions. Good people with their hearts in the right place, who seek to warn others of the terrible consequences of their ignorance and lack of knowledge, are not heard.
That is the true purpose of this word, to obscure the truth and protect it from being exposed. In today's world groups like ISIS work their most atrocious evil and for fear of being called Islamophobic, we are subdued into silence. Things that must be said are kept inside. For fear of being called a racist, a bigot, a hater, in other words Islamophobic, good people, with good questions or necessary observations, cower quietly in the corner. The term Islamophobia has won another victory and the evil that should have been displayed for all the world to see is hidden once again from sight, even if it is in plain view.
The creation of the term Islamophobia and its acceptance into our culture is the most successful campaign Islam has ever won. Every time you hear the term used, whether by a talking head on TV, a speaker at a university, in front of the green wall at the United Nations or from the podium of the President of the United States, be assured that Islam just won another victory and their campaign to cloud the issue and hide the truth of what Islam is and what its goals actually are, remain unseen.
That is the most successful campaign Islam has ever engaged in. It will be the most successful tool in Islam's arsenal used to spread its oppression, racism, bigotry and evil across the face of the globe, because we help wield it for them.
Glen Spicer
