« Olmert Must Go! | Main | Letter From Israel »
August 20, 2006
The Convert
By Cal Thomas
During the Cold War, American intelligence loved getting its
hands on defectors from communism. The reasoning was that
these people had the best information about the plans of the
other side, information that would help America defeat them.
In the present war against what President Bush has properly
labeled "Islamic fascism," defectors are just as valuable.
The Israel Project, an international nonprofit organization
devoted to educating the press and the public about Israel,
recently made a former leading imam and radical Islam expert
available for media interviews and I had a chance to speak
with him. He goes by the name of Sam Soloman because of
death threats from those not happy with the information he
has about their plans to dominate the world.
Soloman was brought up in the Islamic tradition and became a
"recruiter," which he says is something like an assistant
teacher. One of his responsibilities was "brainwashing
people in the Koran." He tells me "The suicide bombers go
through stages, and the most important stage is not when
they blow themselves up. The most important stage is
conforming them to the (Muslim) ideology. Once they are
conformed to the ideology, the rest is easy. That is the
role I had."
Soloman is in double trouble. Not only did he abandon Islam
and the terrorists' objectives, he has also become a
Christian, which has marked him for death. Born in the
Middle East, he visited Washington from his adopted country,
which he declines to name to protect his family.
Soloman speaks with knowledge, credibility and conviction.
He has memorized large sections of the Koran and tells me,
"There's not a single verse in the Koran talking about peace
with a non-Muslim, with the Jews and the Christians. Islam
means submission. Islam means surrender. It means you
surrender and accept Islamic hegemony over yourselves..."
I ask him about the best strategy for fighting it: "It
cannot be combated simply by force. It needs to be combated
ideologically, spiritually (as well as) through arms."
Soloman says the outlets for Islamic ideology are religious
- seminaries, the madrassas (Koranic schools) and especially
the mosques. "From the beginning, Mohammed used the mosque
to propagate this ideology. It was in the mosque that jihad
was declared (and) that troops were sent to conquer the rest
of the world. The mosque was the seat of government and
Americans are right to be concerned about (their growth)."
He asks Americans to inform themselves about the real
teachings of Islam and not to fall for what various Islamic
groups say it teaches. Soloman says, "The simplest Islamic
book you open" teaches that all unbelievers (in Islam) are
profane people. "Because of the (Koranic) text and what it
says, it incites violence." He begins quoting verses from
memory, too quickly to write them all down. One is, "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)
"This kind of tactic of taking verses out of context can be
used against any religious faith," says Ibrahim Hooper,
spokesman for Washington, D.C.-based Council on
American-Islamic Relations, an Islamic civil rights and
advocacy group. "It can and has been used against the Bible
and has been used against the Quran."
These verses deal with the real experience of the Muslim
community at the time when they were under attack. It's not
a general injunction to go out and harm people. The only
people who take it that way are those who want to promote
hostility toward Islam and Muslims. They would object if the
same thing were done to their faith."
Yes, but virtually all Christians and Jews denounce the
infinitesimal few who claim to be Jewish or Christian and
use their "holy books" to justify violence against others as
a direct command from G-d.
Asked whether the Koran commands the killing of or violence
against all nonbelievers, Ali Khan, national director of the
Chicago-based American Muslim Council, replied: "No.
(That's) far from the truth. There's nothing in the Koran,
no verse that I'm aware of, that advocates the killing of
nonbelievers."
The terrorists and those who preach from mosques throughout
the Middle East must be reading a different version, then,
because virtually all of their sermons that I've read claim
their G-d wants them to kill all "infidels."
Soloman says Americans must demand from the leading Islamic
hierarchy, such as the Muslim World League and the Union of
Imams, a fatwa that makes it clear "that this is not what
the text means and that these texts are no longer effective.
They have passed their date. But if they remain effective
and eternally valid, then in America we have a serious
problem."
How serious? He says. "They are infiltrating and undermining
every part of this society. We are promoting Islamic
mortgages, Islamic insurance companies. There are 29 banks
in the United States promoting Islamic banking. Since 1999,
Dow Jones has launched Dow Jones Islamic Index and has
subjected itself to be governed by an international Sharia
board." (Sharia is the religious law of Islam outlined in
the Koran.)
Soloman adds, "The Islamic organizations have their
missionaries and there are active or sleeping cells in this
country." He mentions one, Tablighi Jamaat, "a Pakistani
organization that is hand-in-glove with the Wahaabis, strong
Muslim sects known for their strict observance of the Koran,
and a strong facilitator of al-Qaida and other factions of
terrorism. They alone have 1,000 missionaries in New York,
50,000 across the United States. This is only one
organization. In 1994, I took a map and started putting pins
in it. I found there is not a single state without a mosque.
Since then (the number) has increased."
Americans must see past their natural reluctance to paint
all members of a group with a broad brush and realize our
failure to act now against this clear and present danger in
the ways Sam Soloman recommends will lead to a disaster for
us that is far worse than our Cold War enemies had
envisaged.
Hat Tip: Seraphic Friend, Naomi Regan
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at August 20, 2006 10:25 AM
Comments
Seraphic Secret is private property, that's right, it's an extension of our home, and as such, Karen and I have instituted two Seraphic Rules and we ask commentors to act respectfully.
1. No profanity.2. No Israel bashing. We debate, we discuss, we are respectful. You know what Israel bashing is. The world is full of it. Seraphic Secret is one of the few places in the world that will not tolerate this form of anti-Semitism. That's it. Break either of these rules and you will be banned.
Robert, this is so chilling. Yet we keep hearing it from source after source and we keep sitting on our hands as we seek to be tolerant and open to all diversity. May the sleeping giant awaken soon...but woe unto the whole nation when that happens.
Posted by: Suz at August 20, 2006 12:04 PM
Suz:
We should never be tolerant of intolerance. We should exercise good old American common sense. Thanks so much for writing.
Posted by: Robert J. Avrech ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.seraphicpress.com/nav-commenters.gif)
at August 20, 2006 04:44 PM
The only use political correctness has in this instance is we should remember that this story proves there are no "racial" proclivities toward hatred of Jews, and toward terrorism. This is a cultural thing, where evil has simply taken over one Muslim society after another. Unfortunately, liberal political correctness, (I'm sorry, but there's conservative political correctness too), also labels people as being racist for daring to critique other cultures, (except Western culture, of course). I'm so sick of being called a "racist" for believing this, and I'm sure the Solomon's of the world are sick of it too. And every time we excuse murder or other crimes because the person who committed it was "poor" or "abused" haven't we just besmirched the names of the majority of poor and abused people who never become violent or criminal? There may not be more than a few "Solomon's" in the world, but each one proves no one is more gentically inclined toward evil, (or good), than the next.
Posted by: Jake at August 20, 2006 04:52 PM
Another useful reminder of what we are all up against:
Tom Schelling's key contribution was to establish on a sound mathematical basis the role of will -- expressed as commitment -- in war. Deterrence was not simply a matter of possessing advanced weapons. That was only half the equation. The other half was to establish that you were absolutely ready to use those weapons to your purpose. And given a choice between superiority in weapons and ascendance in will, weapons always came in second. Die Welt relates the experience of an Israeli officer who fought Hezbollah during the early 1980s. Israel had artillery, tanks, airplanes to Hezbollahs guns and knives. But Israel was a liberal democracy and Hezbollah a ruthless criminal organization. The overmatch in will made knives were more powerful than tanks because Hezbollah was willing to use them unhesitatingly. "Hezbollah’s barbarism is legendary. Gen. Effe Eytam, an Israeli veteran of that first Lebanon war, tells of how--after Israel had helped bring "Doctors without Borders" into a village in the 1980s to treat children--local villagers lined up 50 kids the next day to show Eytam the price they pay for cooperating with the West. Each of the children had had their pinky finger cut off."
Posted by: Kent at August 21, 2006 08:53 AM
Kent:
And all over the world now Areabs and their western supporters are crying: "We are all Hizbullah!"
As always, Kent, thanks so much for the invaluable information.
P.S. Didn't some "Army of Liberation" in Liberia or Sierra Leone do the same thing to children? Only they cut off right hands?
Posted by: Robert J. Avrech at August 21, 2006 09:54 AM