One, two, three four... I declare a Holy War?

When radical islamists lay down their arms and abandon Jihad, there will be no more Global War on Terror. When we lay down our arms and abandon the Global War on Terror, there will be no more "us."

There is an absolutely silly debate raging in certain circles over why Islamic terrorists target and attack westerners. The two camps are generally divided into what I call the Paulites, who believe 9/11 and other terrorist missions against the U.S. and its allies are a result of our aggressive, imperialist policies in the middle east; and the Sentients, who understand the truth.

The truth is that Islamic fundamentalists hate the west because we are infidels. We will not be forced to proclaim that there is but one God, Allah, and that Muhammed is His prophet. We reject the entire framework of Sharia and we choose to govern ourselves. We will not submit to an Islamic state and we will not be governed by a Caliphate. We completely and utterly reject the Sunnah; we will not ever follow the way of the Prophet. In fact, many among us feel that Allah is not the one true God at all; but that Allah is indeed the one true Satan, and that his followers are being led straight to Hell.

In some countries, I could be arrested, jailed, tortured, even killed just for writing this. In Saudi Arabia, my entire family could be punished. We choose to live in a society where not only am I allowed to write the above, the right to do so is defended to the death. Those freedoms are a precious gift, and very little of the rest of the world enjoys that gift.

Because we believe the way we do, Islamic clerics tell their followers that their ghod commands the faithful to kill us. That is a fact. It has nothing to do with politics, policies, imperialism, or oil. It has nothing to do with the United States' steadfast support for Israel. It has everything to do with the fact that we will not bend to the will of Allah. Because of that, muslims are called to Jihad. They are told to

"Fight them until there is no more Fitnah (disbelief and polytheism, i.e. worshipping others besides Allah) and all worship Allah Alone [in the whole of the world]. (Surah 8:39)

"O Prophet (Muhammad)! Urge the believers to fight. If there are twenty steadfast persons amongst you, they will overcome two hundred, and if there be a hundred steadfast persons they will overcome a thousand of those who disbelieve, because they (the disbelievers) are people who do not understand. (Surah 8:65)

So when the sacred months have passed away, then slay the idolaters wherever you find them, and take them captives and besiege them and lie in wait for them in every ambush. (Surah 9:5)"

If the United States and the rest of the western world stayed peacefully within our borders, yet maintained the system of beliefs I touched on above, then we would still be infidels. The verses of the Qur'an quoted above would still be in the Qur'an, and the radical clerics of Islam would still be sermonizing the faithful that ghod demands our heads. Radical islamists use the policies of the United States as a convenient, modern excuse for their violence, in part because they realize that if they used the real, religious reasons for jihad, the world would declare them all to be zealots. It is much easier, and much more productive, to invoke the "imperialist America" rhetoric. People buy that story. The religious story is a much tougher bill of goods to sell, and the Islamic freaks know it.

Anyone who applies a system of rational thought is capable of understanding and accepting this. But there are those in our society whose first reaction is always to "Blame America First." They blame America for global warming. They blame America for world poverty. They blame America for human rights violations in Sudan. And they blame America for jihad. I have a question I'd like you to ask these idiots:

If we never set foot in the middle east and never consumed a drop of foreign oil, would you still demand the right to refuse to proclaim that there is but one God, Allah, and that Muhammed is His prophet? If so, then that person is an infidel, and there is a radical cleric in a mosque calling for his head.