On 6 November, in the aftermath of the Fort Hood murders, FrumForum posted pictures of the headstones of decorated American soldiers killed in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, now buried under the symbol of their religious faith: the crescent of Islam.
I have served with US soldiers like these. They were immigrants to the United States. So am I. They were Muslims, and I trusted them with my life.
I have lived and served with Arab soldiers. I have eaten from the communal rice bowl; I have shared bowls of camel’s milk straight from the mare, thus becoming brothers with them. Every day in Afghanistan, thousands of members of the ANA – Afghan National Army – fight alongside U.S. and Allied forces, and too often they are doing most of the dying. They are Muslims, and they are worthy too.
The enemy seeks to drive a wedge between our Muslim allies and us, to divide us, and to inspire all the Muslims to rise up against us. If we buy into it, they win.
Terrorism is a tactic, not an enemy in and of itself. Terrorism can be used by people of all creeds and backgrounds, in service of many ideologies.
Today, the people using this tactic are most often Muslim, and the ideology is Islamic extremism. We should not under-estimate the danger posed by these people. Beyond the men of violence is a larger universe of extremists, sympathetic to violent ideologies, even if they themselves prefer not to do the fighting themselves.
Yet we have to struggle to remember: The majority of Muslims are regular folk just like you and me, who want the same things we want: to be left alone, to prosper and provide for their families, to leave their children better off than themselves.
6 responses so far
1 Churl // Nov 9, 2009 at 11:29 am
“The majority of Muslims are regular folk just like you and me….”
I agree. Now, if the regular folk would start helping to identify and isolate the irregular folk instead of bawling about reprisals that never quite seem to happen….
2 balconesfault // Nov 9, 2009 at 12:32 pm
As much a tragedy as the Ft. Hood killings are, I was actually troubled more by the killings of 5 British Soldiers last week by an Afghan who was in training to be a police officer.
Our counter-insurgency strategy in Afghanistan, if we’re to not have to expand to half-a-million US troops in the region, depends heavily on integration with newly trained Afghan forces. If Al Qaeda and/or the Taliban is successful at destroying the trust that will need to exist for this integration to be successful, we will be doomed to failure.
3 Raider1 // Nov 9, 2009 at 2:46 pm
On what basis is this statement: “The majority of Mulsims are just regular folk like you and me.” Really? Please explain this. Is this an empirical fact? Or just wishful thinking?
4 Raider1 // Nov 9, 2009 at 2:48 pm
“Muslim Allies” is an oxymoron.
5 jakester // Nov 12, 2009 at 9:41 am
Yes they all just want to be like us. Come on, if that was the case, there would be no problems.
6 WesternThinker // Dec 1, 2009 at 4:08 pm
Disagree on terror…..it is an end, not a tactic. Terror is an Islamic Biblical mandate and state of being imposed on non-Muslims by Muslims. Look at the condition under which non-Muslims live in majority Muslim areas, whether the area is Bagdad or an Islamic ghetto in France.
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