Interview With a Muslim
By Pete Fisher (10/18/05)
After having written several articles on Islam, I have bantered back and forth with Muslims who have disagreed with my opinion via email. I found several similarities in their responses that if one took a look at all the responses combine, would think they came from the same individual.
The one thing that struck me most with almost all responses was the tendency to shift the conversation completely and try to place the blame elsewhere, without ever answering the questions I asked.
Anyone who has tried to debate with a staunch Liberal will find the similarities amazingly close, with questions such as “Why was Clinton so ignorant of Bin Ladens' activities, and refusal to arrest him when he was offered by the Sudanese authorities?” answered with “What about Bush?” “Why hasn't Bush gotten him yet?” Instead of actually answering the question at hand, the blame is immediately shifted and the debate becomes moot.
So this is a mock interview I am writing. The questions have been put forth by me, and the answers are real replies to those questions. Though this actual interview never took place with just one individual, it is a compilation of my questions and responses by several Muslims.
Mr. Islam: Mr. Fisher. I am shocked at your article that claims Islam is a violent religion. You obviously know nothing of our great religion or our prophet.
Pete: Mr. Islam, my article details the recent attacks on subways, the taking of hostages in a Russian school, the numerous attacks by the Palestinians, and the calls for Jihad against Western interests and citizens, wherever they may be. And those who called for the Jihad, are using quotes from the Koran. Does this not bother you?
Mr. Islam: What about America? If America did not oppress Muslims worldwide, this would not happen at all. You bomb us for no reason, you occupy our lands. Are we not allowed to defend ourselves? America imposes its views on the world and stations it’s armies where they are not wanted and occupy Muslim lands while trying to shove democracy at us.
Pete: Well Mr. Islam. America attacked the Taliban for the 9-11 incidents, one of the instances stated in my article. We went into Saudi Arabia at the request of the Saudi Government to keep Saddam from invading Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. We were invited actually. We did not invade Muslim lands at all. So back to the original question, why do you think Islam is the root cause in almost all of the worlds’ conflicts currently?
Mr. Islam: It is our right to defend our lands. We wish only to be left alone, and we should be allowed to live our lives without interference. If America would stay away from us, there would be no problems. It is America that wants to change Islam.
Pete: Hmm. So, when Abu Saef and the Chechen Rebels kidnap innocent victims and kill them, and when someone like Saddam kills hundreds of thousands of Muslims and Islam sits idly by, or when another Arafat steals his own people blind and sends their children to kill innocent people in malls, it is the fault of America? Why does Islam feel the need to be so violent, and why do Muslims as yourself who claim to be peaceful, do nothing about Muslims who murder every day? Does it not bother you that Muslims are perpetrating the worlds’ most diabolical atrocities?
Mr. Islam: If America would mind its own business we would not feel the need to Jihad. America is the real evil here. We should be able to practice Islam as we see fit, and have no interference from America.
Pete: So, Muslims do not desire Democracy or freedom? After all, Europe and North America are inundated by Muslims who fled their countries of origin because they were oppressed. And the recent elections in Iraq showed the world that even the majority of people there desire to live outside of Sharia and be free to choose their destiny. Why do you think Muslims have a right to move into Europe and America, and begin demanding to be left to their own devices and be able to practice their religion as they see fit, even when it goers against the grain of that society and even their laws? Why not just go back to their own countries and live how they want?
Mr. Islam: Muslims have the right to live wherever they want, and should be able to practice Islam without interference. We want to be left alone.
Pete: Understood on one point. However, when Muslims move into another nation, they have no right to practice Islam and complain about the relaxed laws and culture of their adopted homeland. If they do not like it, they are free to leave. Why stay in a foreign nation and try to force them to accept the laws of Islam, and change their laws and culture? Why not just begin a Caliphate in the middle East, and allow all Muslims who desire to leave Islam, to leave without fear of death or torture, and allow those who desire to stay and live under Sharia, to do so?
Mr. Islam: You know nothing of Islam. We should be free to practice Islam anywhere in the world without interference.
Pete: And other religions? Why are they not allowed the same rights in Islamic nations? Or to live without fear of having bombs thrown into their churches or to have their Hindu temples destroyed so Mosques can be built on top of the ashes? One would think that fair is fair. And if Muslims can move into England, or America, Canada, Australia, and try to change the cultures by decrying the dress codes, or by attempting to allow Muslims to live while taking rights from their wives that those nations allow them, why then, theoretically cannot the West go into Muslim cultures and share their way of life as well?
Mr. Islam: America is immoral. Europe is immoral. Why should we have to live under those conditions when our religion forbids it? What is wrong with trying to change the culture when it is filled with excess?
Pete: Gotcha! So in your mind, Islam is superior and all other cultures and nations need to bow down to Islam and change, because we all fall short of Muslim expectations? Do you not see the hypocrisy in what you say?
Mr. Islam: We just want to be left alone to practice our religion. We should have that right. You do not understand Islam.
Pete: Even when it transgresses the laws of the nation where Muslims abide? Honor killings, kidnappings, calling for Jihad against the host governments from the mosques that those nations allow to exist? That is treasonous at best Mr. Islam. Why should Muslims have that right, to use their holy places as launch pads for inciting violence and treason?
Mr. Islam: Like I said. You know nothing of Islam. We have the right to defend ourselves against those who want Islam changed. We are allowed by Koran to defend ourselves against oppressors.
Pete: Oppressors such as Arafat, Saddam, Khomeini, Bin Laden, the Syrian government, the Chechen rebels, Abu Saif, all who use your people and religion to commit atrocities, who keep Muslims ignorant and impoverished?
Mr. Islam: How about America, or Israel, who punish Palestinians? How about Russia who oppresses Muslims? What about them?
Pete: Please, answer my previous question before I debate your points.
Mr. Islam: I did answer them. If they would keep away from Muslims, than they would not be attacked.
Pete: And how do they do this if Muslims continue to immigrate to those nations and try to shove their religion at those cultures?
Mr. Islam: What about Christians and Jews who enforce their ways? America bombs Muslims all the time without any reason.
Pete: America never stood up and praised God for their victories over terrorist entities. We also never claim that we are fighting for our God, as do Muslims. We never pass out candy when Muslims die and we never use our churches en masse to incite slaughter. Nor do we use our holy places to store munitions and hide terrorists. Please compare apples to apples here. We never once claimed it was a Holy War against Islam.
Mr. Islam: We have a right to defend ourselves when we are attacked.
Pete: Like America had the right to defend their embassy bombings, the U.S.S. Cole, 9-11, and like Russia had the right to defend its borders against Chechen terrorists who kill children? Or the Philippines has the right to defend against a tiny fraction of Muslims who refuse to abide under non-Mohammedan laws and government, and kill to try and get a nation of their own within an established nation?
Mr. Islam: America gives Jews money to kill Palestinians and tries to shove democracy at us.
Pete: And this gives Muslims the right to kill reporters in the Netherlands, continue Honor Killings in Paris, and continue to plot terror against the West in a so called Holy War? To rape young women because they do not like the way they dress? Saudi Arabia funds terror, Syria and Iran fund terror, we do not send people in to bomb subways, and perform beheadings on tape. Or should we use the same tactics against Islam as they use against us?
Mr. Islam: There is no talking to you. Allah will deal with you. You are an infidel and an enemy of Islam. I refuse to discuss this with you any longer.
Pete: Can you at least answer any of my questions before you run off?
Silence.
The same silence we see whenever Islam commits atrocity. The same silence used by CAIR, Hamas, and worldwide mosques when Muslims kidnap and kill. Why we might ask, would a peaceful religion remain silent? Those same individuals that run rampant in the streets whenever a perceived infraction is felt against Islam seem to clam up whenever their own commit slaughter and praise Allah for it. The same people who protest by the thousands when one of their own is forced to obey a Western law in a Western nation, because it offends them. Like the perceived right to wear a Hijab while taking a drivers license picture, a law that is in place to protect us from their own religious followers who will wear those coverings to commit murder.
Never, ever, blame Islam or Muslims for Islamic wrongdoing. It cannot be, that one who follows a perfect god and a perfect prophet and reads the perfect Koran would ever be wrong.
Not even while murdering innocents in cold blood, or denying the laws of adopted nations where they fled the terror of Islam in their own nations. Not even when using Muslims for suicide attacks on children, or hiding under the dresses of their women and the diapers of their babies after committing atrocities beyond human understanding. And then blame the USA or Israel for hitting a few civilians while killing murderous cowards.
That same silence.
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