Dan Wolf, VCA Board AdvisorDan Wolf
Sunday of last week in Orlando, a follower of Islam, Omar Mateen, went into a night club and began killing other human beings. A senseless and cowardly act by Western standards, but ISIS has embraced him as a heroic fighter for the Islamic State. Why?
Just like in Casablanca, our politicians have responded by rounding up the usual suspects. ‘We are still learning all the facts.’ ‘We are investigating possible ties to terrorism.’ ‘This massacre is therefore a further reminder of how easy it is for someone to get their hands on a weapon that lets them shoot people.’ The truth is it doesn’t matter whether the killer had terrorist ties or not. Having gun control laws in place also doesn’t matter. The killer adhered to an ideology regardless of if he had pledged himself to a group. The only ones hurt by stricter gun control laws are law abiding citizens who follow them. Killers do not follow the law. We must consider how many fewer might have died if only a few law abiding citizens in the night club had been armed, such as security personnel. The political statements are meant to placate rather than solve the problem. So what are some of the underlying issues?
As to ideology, in pagan Arabia before Muhammad, Ramadan was a sacred period of time when no violence was to occur. This changed when his followers attacked a caravan on the last day of Ramadan, as waiting an additional day would have allowed the caravan to reach Mecca’s sanctuary. Muhammad received a revelation that it was worse to turn men from Allah rather than kill in the sacred month, a verse that has never been abrogated. This placed expediency above morality within Islam, and this notion was reinforced by later actions (more information here). The problem is not whether there were ties to terrorism, but Islam’s tenets. Islam is a multi-faceted ideology with a religious component, and it is this ideology that matters. Within Islam, the State and Church are one, all is Islam – it is a single ideology. The sooner we accept that reality, the sooner we can identify what actions to take. Within this ideology, violence is acceptable when people do not submit to its teachings.
I recently did a presentation comparing what I term individualism to collectivism and asked, does the State exist to serve its people as in the former, or do the people exist to serve the State as in the latter? Our society was established on the former, while Islam was built on the latter. Islam is just another form of collectivism. Like communism, fascism, nationalism, progressivism, or socialism, it is a different means of attaining the same end. Some of collectivism’s tenets, and their Islamic counterparts include:
| Collectivism | Islamic Counterparts |
| All are not equal, rather some are more equal than others | Dhimmitude |
| Those most fit should rule | Superiority of Islam’s followers to other people |
| Some are marked for subjection and for those who do not submit, war is proper | Jihad |
| Citizenship is only for the elite, some are by nature free and others slaves | Umma |
| Good of the State and not the individual is the proper subject of political thought | The State’s sole purpose is to see Islam’s requirements are carried out |
| Citizens should be molded to suit the form of government under which they live | Sunna |
| Citizens do not belong to themselves, but to the State | All are Allah’s slaves |
| Persuasion and compulsion to be used to bring harmony to citizens | Shari’a |
Sunday’s actions were an act of terror and hate. The killer’s father stated, ‘We are saying we are apologizing for the whole incident.’ Further, the attack ‘has nothing to do with religion.’ But the actions were the killer’s choice alone, no one else’s, and the last statement is not true as all is Islam. Of course not all Muslims adhere to the calls for violence, as we’ve indicated in our series general attitudes within the Islamic world.
In her book Cruel and Usual Punishment, Nonie Darwish gives an insider’s view into how Islam’s tenets lead to violence, distrust, envy, and other dysfunctional behavior within families, and the impact of Shari’a on the State and society. It is eye opening from a Westerner’s perspective. Humiliation and beatings are not unusual within an Islamic family and this same attitude carries over to the treatment of non-Muslims by Muslims within an Islamic state (dhimmitude). Demeaning another is one way to encourage non-Muslims to adopt Islam. We are currently inviting this ideology into our country through the refugee resettlement program, and it is being carried out without discussion as to what the consequences will likely be from having two incompatible ideologies within the same society. History shows the results are deadly, and we will look at this issue in our next article.
Is there a solution? Yes, several. Islamic extremists have declared war upon us. There are two choices. We can ignore it and hope for the best, or we can acknowledge it and take action on our terms. Europe is following the first course and will likely lose unless it changes. We should instruct Congress to declare war on Islamic extremists. This will allow our military, police, and intelligence resources to take the actions necessary to identify and eliminate subversive elements within our society, and all those who support them. Further, we should retake control of our immigration policy from the U.N. and put immigration back into the hands of the private sector where the incentives exist to bring people into the U.S. who support our ideas and founding principles.
The final thing we can do though is the most important. During this Ramadan period, we should continually pray that all our brothers and sisters who follow Islam truly find Christ as He is the Word of God, and that they will turn toward Him in hope and acceptance. Amen.
Dan Wolf
See his extensive writings “About Islam“.
Author and speaker, Dan Wolf, is gifted at gathering facts about contemporary subjects and sharing information in a manner that is easy to read and understand. Dan will be posting both historical and current information about Islam and Sharia. You can read more articles concerning the contemporary relationship between faith and governance on his website. He serves as an Advisor on the Virginia Christian Alliance.
