Worldwide jihad: Persecution by Muslim Extremists

A recent column by Jeffrey Kuhner in The Washington Times reported the following: 

• “The Vatican estimates that from Egypt to Iran there are just 17 million Christians left.” Why? Persecution by Muslims.
• “Nearly two-thirds of the 500,000 Christians in Baghdad have fled or been killed.” Why? Persecution by Muslims.

Other reports that have come across my desk in recent weeks report increased Islamic terror activity in Sweden. Thousands of Hindus have fled Pakistan’s Sind province due to increased persecution by Muslims.

While the church bombing in Egypt received some worldwide press, none of these developments I refer to above have received much worldwide attention.

Meanwhile, after Pakistani’s Punjab governor Salman Taseer was assassinated because he opposed Pakistan’s anti-blasphemy laws, over 500 Muslim clerics defended the actions of the murderer. What’s more, when Pope Benedict XVI urged Pakistan to repeal these laws, the leader of the nation’s most powerful Islamic party declared “The Pope’s statement is an insult to Muslims across the world.”

Crime perpetrated by Muslims against non-Muslims throughout Europe is accelerating. Terrorist threats are on the rise. Counterterrorism forces in Great Britain are tracking some 30,000 potential Islamic terrorist suspects in that country alone. Jews are fleeing Europe in response to increased persecution.

All of this is occurring against the backdrop of decades of appeasement and accommodation extended by European governments to militant Muslims.

Lebanon’s government was recently toppled by Hezbollah. Now, for all practical purposes, Hezbollah is in control of Lebanon.

Throughout history Islamic jihad has ebbed and flowed – but it has never completely ended. Today we are witnessing an emboldened and empowered worldwide jihad the likes of which has not been seen since before the collapse of the Ottoman Empire.

In the face of this reality Rep. Bennie Thompson criticizes Rep. Peter King’s plan for hearings on Muslim radicalization, foolishly arguing that Muslim radicalization shouldn’t be singled out when we have mass shootings like the one recently in Tucson.

Organizations like CAIR, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, insist that terror and violence around the world, perpetrated by Muslims, has nothing to do with any doctrines of Islam. This in spite of the fact that since 9/11 over 17,000 incidents of Islamic terror have been documented worldwide. CAIR’s contentions would be laughable if this weren’t so tragic.

Over the past two years we saw more homegrown terrorists arrested than in the previous eight years since 9/11. Yet the Obama administration can’t even bring itself to use terms like “jihad” and “radical Islam” in its assessment of this worldwide threat.

The good news is the 2010 elections elevated Members of Congress like Peter King to chairmanships of key committees. Many of the new freshman class are more aware of the threat of radical Islam – and more willing to define it as such. More Americans than ever have heard of sharia law.

While issues like jobs, the economy, and exploding federal deficits dominate the headlines and are the top concerns of most Americans, we who understand the seriousness of the threat of rising worldwide jihad must continue to be the voices of warning to America. We must be the modern-day Paul Revere’s, who sound the alarm while most people don’t see what’s coming. We must connect the dots so that people understand why we are threatened by both cultural and violent jihad.