Here in Israel, pundits and punters alike have warned for decades of the threat from Islam, or from Muslims. Some maintain Muslim terrorists are extremists who pervert Islamic teachings and law, while others believe Islam itself is not a religion of peace and Muslim terrorists are merely carrying out the dictates of the Qoran and other religious texts. This latter group maintains, therefore, that Israel will never be allowed to live in peace with its neighbors.
This morning’s 7 o’clock Israel Radio news included an item about controversial Gerry Falwell. Apparently he has apologized, on CBS television, for an attack he made on Islam, in which he described Mohammed as a “terrorist…a violent man, a man of war.”
Now it must be said that some things are better left unsaid, whether you believe them to be true or otherwise. And this was probably one of those cases.
But let us look at what may have led Rev. Falwell to that conclusion.
Another item in the same newscast was about the terror attacks overnight in Bali; two discos and the American consulate bombed, leaving at least 170 dead and more than 200 injured. All indicators point to Muslim terrorism.
Last week’s attack on a French vessel off Yemen – Muslim terrorism. If there was one country in the Western world that a Muslim extremist should avoid attacking, surely it is France, and its massive Muslim population.
The attack on Africa’s oldest synagogue on the isle of Djerba – Muslim terrorism.
The myriad attacks on Egyptian and foreign nationals in Egypt – Muslim terrorism.
The hundreds, if not thousands, of calls to arms by Muslim clerics the world over.
In discussions like these, Muslim spokespeople, or rather spokesmen, will invariably bring up the name of Timothy McVeigh, arguing that the US has as many problems with internal terrorism as it does with Muslim extremists. But for a country with 270,000,000 inhabitants, the US seems remarkably unaffected by internal threat.
Last month, some 60,000 Israeli Arabs converged on Umm El-Fahm, the scene of several foiled bomb plots of late. There they met under the auspices of the country’s Islamic Movement. There they called for the freeing of Jerusalem even if that means the shedding of blood. On the last two Fridays there have been riots on Jerusalem’s Temple Mount as Israeli Muslims clashed with police officers. Dozens of Israeli Muslims have been arrested in recent months in connection with a string of terror attacks that resulted in the deaths and maimings of scores of civilians.
Some choose to criticize Israel for jumping on the 9/11 bandwagon, they say Israel is trying to use that American disaster to bolster sympathy ratings for the Jewish state.
There is, no doubt, considerable truth in that observation. However, it is far from the complete picture.
For years Israeli intelligence has been warning the FBI and CIA of planned Muslim attacks on American and other Western interests. Israel has learned from bitter experience that Muslim intolerance is tragically not just restricted to bin-Laden, Sheikh Omar and Arafat, but that entire states thrive on seeing a West in flames. On a daily basis tens of thousands of Muslims participate in anti-Western protests in Iran, Iraq, Indonesia, Pakistan, Lybia, Lebanon, Egypt and Syria, to name but a few.
The feelings of some Muslims are not restricted to the fringe, to those who are prepared to commit suicide, while killing thousands of Americans. Sure, those are the headline-grabbers, but they are not alone in their beliefs.
Perhaps Falwell should choose his words more carefully, but he is not the first to say what he said and believe what he believes, and he most certainly will not be the last.