Temporal “Correctness” Eternal Incorrectness

Is “political correctness” deliberate lying or voluntary insanity? How do we explain the lie (with no example to support it, and hundreds refuting it) that “Islam is peace”? Without violence, by which it began, spread, and now maintains itself, Islam would be an obscure cult, not a world religion.

Islam made "convert" with the sword from France to China. With stunning swiftness and ferocity, Islam's insatiable sword—"more rapid than the Roman, more lasting than the Mongol [in] the most amazing feat in military history"¹—compelled nations to submit to Allah. The massacres were larger in sheer numbers than Hitler's holocaust. Historian Will Durant calls Islam's conquest of India "probably the bloodiest story in history."

Yet the politically correct lie persists that Islam “is peace.” After murdering Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics, the PLO was invited to participate in the Olympics! For decades the International Federation of the Red Cross has honored Islam’s Red Crescent but refused to recognize Israel’s Magen David Adom. For speaking out against this fraud, Bernadine Healy was forced to resign as president of the American Red Cross.

One thing is certain: though “political correctness” may deceive for a time, it will inevitably betray even in this life those who employ it—and will surely bring God’s judgment in the eternity which lies ahead. Truth will finally assert itself.

In the Wall Street Journal, Eliot Cohen of Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies said, “an hour spent surfing the Web will give...the kind of insights [into Islam]...found during World War II by reading Mein Kampf or the writings of Lenin, Stalin or Mao. Nobody would like to think that a major world religion has a deeply aggressive and dangerous strain in it...but uttering uncomfortable and unpleasant truths...defines leadership.”

Israel’s Proclamation of Independence May 14, 1948 stated: “We extend our hand to all neighboring States and their peoples in an offer of peace...and appeal to them to establish bonds of cooperation and mutual help with the sovereign Jewish people settled in its own land...placing our trust in the Almighty....”

That olive branch was trampled by the regular armies of at least five Arab nations attacking Israeli settlers, while Azzam Pasha, Secretary-General of the Arab League declared, “This will be a war of extermination....” The fact that to exterminate Israel is required by Islam makes real peace in the Middle East impossible—but political correctness will not admit it. By God’s grace and promise, Israel was not and will not be exterminated.

For “peace,” however, Arab nations demanded that Israel retreat to the tiny, indefensible territory given to her by the UN, a small fraction of what the League of Nations had set aside in 1922 as the Jewish homeland. If that principle were universally adopted, aggressors could never lose by attacking their neighbors!

In the 1948-49 war, Jordan captured East Jerusalem and the West Bank, while Egypt took the Gaza Strip, ending more than 3,000 years of continuous Jewish presence. The Jordanians and Egyptians systematically destroyed all evidence of Jewish history, including villages and synagogues, drove out all Jews and made the sale of land to Jews a capital offense. “Occupied territories”? Yes, by Arabs!

These areas became nests for terrorist attacks against Israel. Egyptian Foreign Minister Muhammad Salah al-Din explained, “The Arab people...declare: We shall not be satisfied except by the final obliteration of Israel....” Egyptian President Nasser added, “...we demand vengeance, and vengeance is Israel’s death.”

Incredibly, Israel kept trying to get along with her enemies, hoping for “peace.” Like nothing else, the dream of Middle East peace breeds the self-deluding, politically correct desire not to “offend” aggressors.

Israel has doggedly pursued peace along a path strewn with the wreckage of hope betrayed. In September 1978, Egypt, Israel and the U.S. signed the Camp David accords under which Israel gave the Sinai back to Egypt. In fact, more than 90 percent of the land Israel acquired in self-defense against an enemy sworn to exterminate her has been given back. She has offered to give more, including a “Palestinian state,” on the condition that her right to exist be recognized—to which Muslims, by Islamic law, cannot agree. Yet Israel is blamed for failing to make peace!

The West was thrilled March 26, 1979 when President Carter hosted the signing of a “peace treaty” by Israel’s Menachem Begin and Egypt’s Anwar Sadat. Carter wanted to quote one verse each from the Bible and the Qur’an about peace. There are some 400 such verses in the Bible, but his speech writers could find only one in the Qur’an.

Carter declared: “In the Koran, we read: ‘But if the enemy incline towards peace, do thou also incline towards peace, and trust in God...’ [Surah 8:61]. So let us now lay aside war....We pray God...that these dreams will come true.”

Islam’s “dream,” however, is not what Carter and Israel envisioned. The verse says “Allah,” not God—and Allah hates Jews! Surah 8 is titled “Spoils of War.” Verse 65 says, “O Prophet! Exhort the believers to fight....” Verse 67 says, “It is not for any prophet to have captives until he hath made slaughter in the land.” The only “peace” offered is to those vanquished in jihad (holy war) who surrender to Muslim warriors. “Peace” in Arabic comes from the word salam, which means submission—unlike the Hebrew shalom which means genuine peace among friends.

Neither Arafat nor any Arab leader has the authority to abrogate Islamic law by signing an agreement allowing Jews to rule territory which Islam once possessed. In A.D. 641 Muslims conquered what the Romans had renamed “Palestine” in A.D. 135. It cannot be relinquished, nor can any other land once held by Islam, from France to China. Nor can any non-Muslims rule over Muslims anywhere—and that includes the United States! This is a central doctrine which every Muslim learns at the mosque.

Dividing all of the world into dar al-Islam (the house of peace) and dar al-Harb (the house of war), Islam requires unceasing jihad until the entire world submits to Allah. Ahmad Hasan az-Zayat, modern Islamic authority, writes in Al-Azhar, “Holy war is... a divine obligation. The Muslim’s...religion is a Qur’an and a sword....”

According to shari’a (Islamic law), there can never be peace, only a temporary ceasefire, between the Muslim and non-Muslim worlds. This fact is found in any number of texts such as War and Peace in the Law of Islam by Professor Majid Khadduri, a Muslim expert on Islamic law. As Bosnian Muslim leader Alija Izetbegovic recently said, “There can be no peace or coexistence between the Islamic faith and non-Islamic societies....” This is Islam! But political correctness will not admit the unpleasant truth.

Lying to promote Islam is considered honorable. On October 14, 1988, Arafat condemned all forms of terrorism and recognized Israel—on paper. The Madrid Peace Conference in October 1991 paved the way for secret PLO-Israeli talks in Oslo. On September 13, 1993, Prime Minister Yitzak Rabin and Arafat signed the Oslo “Declaration of Principles” and Israel recognized Arafat and the PLO.

In Cairo on May 4, 1994, Arafat and Rabin signed the “Jericho First” Peace Accord, implementing Oslo. Shimon Peres exulted on Voice of Israel Radio, “Today we have ended the Israeli-Arab conflict—Utopia is coming!” He had forgotten the frequent calls for an end to Israel by Arafat and other PLO leaders, such as this by Arafat’s deputy, Abu Iyad: “It is our right that we should have...an independent Palestinian state...as a base from which to liberate Jaffa, Akko and all of Palestine.”² Another aide had earlier said, “The struggle with the Zionist enemy is not a struggle about Israel’s borders, but about Israel’s existence.”

Apologizing for Oslo, Arafat told Muslim audiences that he was following the Prophet’s example by entering into a temporary ceasefire that would lead to Israel’s destruction. In A.D. 728, Muhammad’s treaty of Hudaybiya—a 10-year ceasefire with the Quraish of Mecca—set the legal precedent. Two years later, on a pretext, with an army of 10,000 he took over Mecca with its Ka’aba. Such a ceasefire is agreed to only when the Muslims are too weak to pursue conquest.

The “peace process” is an Islamic ploy by Arafat. Oslo required him to remove from the PLO Charter the call for Israel’s annihilation. When he announced that the clause had been revoked, Rabin’s widow proclaimed in great joy, “The Palestinian National Council has revoked the clauses in its covenant that called for the destruction of Israel!” Rabin’s successor, Prime Minister Peres, hailed this “most important historical development in our region in 100 years.” In fact, it was a “hoax,” as London’s Daily Telegraph (5/2/96) declared. The clause had not and has not been removed.

Arafat continues to call openly for Israel’s destruction. Such diatribes were put on a video by Chairman of the House Foreign Relations Committee Ben Gilman, who offered to show them in a press conference September 21, 1995. No one from the press was interested! Even more disturbing, Israel’s Ambassador to the U.S., Itamar Rabinovich, pleaded with Gilman not to air the tapes³—it might hinder the “peace process”!

Netanyahu writes, “...my party and I were virtually isolated in our warning that Arafat would not keep his word....We were widely castigated as enemies of peace....Our argument was that handing Gaza over to Arafat would immediately create a lush terrorist haven....”⁴ Of course, he was right.

The Friday sermon (live on TV) at Gaza’s Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan mosque on October 14, 2000, included, “Have no mercy on the Jews...kill them...and those Americans who...established Israel here, in the beating heart of the Arab world.” That very day two Israeli reservists who made a wrong turn into Ramallah were beaten to death and torn apart by a screaming mob near Arafat’s headquarters, bringing cheers as the nauseating savagery was shown live on Palestinian TV. The next day on TV, Dr. Ahmad Abu-Halabia of the Islamic University of Gaza said, “The Jews...must be butchered and killed....Have no mercy...no matter where they are...kill them and those Americans who are like them.” Need we give more examples?

On June 8, 2001 Arafat declared another “ceasefire.” A few days later, Sheikh Ibrahim Mahdi declared on Palestinian TV, “Allah willing...Israel will be erased...the United States will be erased...Britain will be erased....Blessings to whoever waged jihad for the sake of Allah. Blessings to whoever put a belt of explosives on his body or his son’s and plunged into the midst of the Jews.” This is Islam—and the West had better awaken to that fact!

As the “peace process” continues, Palestinians murder and torch the homes of fellow Arabs suspected of cooperating with Israel. Muslim terrorists who kill Jews are honored by having streets and holidays named after them.

The self-delusion has now reached new heights in the “road map” for peace which Russia, the U.S., EU and UN intend to force upon Israel and the “Palestinians.”

This Quartet “calls upon Israel to take concrete steps to support the emergence of a viable Palestinian state...the Israeli occupation that began in 1967 must end....” President Bush has set the abandonment of the use of terror forever and the establishment of a free democratic society as a condition for a Palestinian state. Sham “Palestinian elections” have deceived the world before.

Arafat has never kept one provision of Oslo, Wye, etc.! Why would he honor an accord the Quartet gets him to sign? The afternoon of the historic handshake with Yitzak Rabin on the White House lawn, Arafat’s name appeared near the top in a list of “world terrorists released by a congressional committee.”⁵ He is one of the most evil mass murderers in history. Yet he was given the Nobel Prize for Peace, and Clinton and Gore received him as a world statesman in the White House.

Arafat comes from a long line of devout Muslims and does everything in the name of Allah. Therefore, no matter what “peace” agreements he signs, he must seek the destruction of Israel (a state which no Arab map even admits exists) as commanded by Allah through Muhammad. The same holds for all true Muslims, from Chechnya to California!

Too few Christian leaders have the courage to speak the truth as did Jerry Falwell on 60 Minutes: that Muhammad was a terrorist, and, as Franklin Graham has said, that Islam is “very evil and wicked.” (Unfortunately each backed down later.) Too many church leaders practice political correctness, though Islam is as anti-Christian as it could be. It denies Christ’s deity, His death for our sins on the cross and His resurrection—and has persecuted and killed millions of Christians throughout its history.

Yet Billy Graham insists, “Islam is misunderstood....Muhammad had a great respect for Jesus, called Jesus the greatest of the prophets except himself. I think we’re closer to Islam than we really think we are....” Yes, as close as the distance between hell and heaven! Criticizing Falwell and Franklin Graham for speaking the truth, Christianity Today declared, “Islam would not have become the second largest world religion if it were...as thoroughly evil as these comments suggest.”

Robert Schuller has called Islam “Christian.” He recently basked in praise at a Villa Park, Illinois mosque where he declared that he had come to realize that “asking people to change their faith was utterly ridiculous.” Coming to the defense of history’s most cruel and violent religion, Schuller insists:

This is a time to guard against attacking religion....It has been my honor to become acquainted with the power leaders of positive Islam. And there is and has been a strong anti-Islam propaganda loose in this world. ⁶

“Positive” Islam? Muhammad never heard of it! “Anti-Islam propaganda”? No one could give Islam a worse name than Muhammad and the Qur’an have done from the beginning. Yet Colin Powell, echoing President Bush, insisted, “We must leave Islam out of this. It is a peaceful religion.”

Prior to September 11, many warnings went unheeded, such as those from a 1998 blue-ribbon National Commission on terrorism. Today we are repeating the same mistake by refusing to take Islam seriously. And the church is neglecting the largest mission field in the world, either as “too dangerous,” or under the illusion that Allah is the God of the Bible and that Muslims are “closer to us than we realize.” May God deliver us! TBC

Endnotes

1. Will Durant, The Story of Civilization, vol. VI, The Reformation (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1950), 188.
2. Kuwaiti paper, Al-Sachrah, 1/6/87.
3. Jerusalem Post, 11/25/95, 30.
4. Benjamin Netanyahu, Fighting Terrorism: How Democracies Can Defeat the International Terrorist Network (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2001), 114.
5. "Terrorists and policemen," Jerusalem Post International Edition, 10/3/93.
6. Orange County Register, "Commentary" section, 9/14/01.