War on terror: History, scripture tells us that Islam is not a religion of peace

On September 11, 2001, 15 Muslim terrorists hijacked four commercial aircraft crashing three into occupied buildings and killing approximately 3,000 people. But Islam is a religion of peace.

On July 7, 2005, Muslim terrorists exploded backpack bombs in the London metro system killing 56 and injuring 700. But Islam is a religion of peace.

On November 5, 2009, at Fort Hood, Texas, a Muslim doctor killed 13 and wounded over 30 while shouting "Allahu Akbar." The Department of Defense termed it an act of workplace violence. But Islam is a religion of peace.

On separate occasions Muslim males attempted terrorist attacks. These included inter alia: the December 2001 “shoe bomber;” the 2006 Toronto 18; the 2007 Fort Dix Six; the Christmas 2009 “panty bomber”; the 2010 Times Square bomb; and two attempts to send timed explosives by cargo plane.

Most recently, on April 12, two Muslim brothers planted two bombs, killed three, and injured over 250 at the Boston Marathon. This terrorism was followed April 22 by an arrest in Toronto of two Muslim males reportedly planning to blow up a Toronto-NYC train, timed to plunge it into the Niagara River.

But Islam is a religion of peace.

I belabor these points to drive one home: Islam is not a religion of peace. Certainly not by its official scriptures.

Historically, Islam has been a religion of war. Its swords conquered the Middle East, North Africa, South Asia, and parts of Europe. The much-denounced European “crusades” were not directed at conquest, but rather were counterattacks — efforts to regain locations such as Jerusalem, sacred to Jews and Christians for 2,500 years.

And, words count. Consider a few verses from the Qur'an:

And there are more citations. For those believing the Qur'an is arcane and open to interpretation, consider the following from the captured Muslim Brotherhood plan for Canada and the United States accepted as evidence in a 2008 U.S. criminal court:

One can understand the PR reality that war against 1.6 billion Muslims is to be avoided if possible. But willful self-denial simply stimulates your enemy’s bemused contempt.

Doubtless there are Muslims, even a substantial majority of the world’s Muslim population, who are too young, old or physically unfit to be other than peaceful. Perhaps even the majority of Muslims are peaceful.

But when a 2011 Middle East Quarterly study found that 80 percent of U.S. mosques sampled were associated with sharia and/or jihad, it suggests that individuals such as the Tsarnaev brothers have easy opportunities for self- or instructed radicalization. Such disaffected men are like hand grenades — and the mosques pull their pins.

[ David vs. David: Hope springs eternal for negotiated Mideast peace ]

Thus, we need to:

• Curb immigration of radical imams;

• Block the most virulent Islamic web sites (a good exercise in cyber-warfare); and

• Implement sophisticated surveillance combined with adroit “gotcha” stings for the radicalized.

After all, it is not Buddhists, Hindus, Confucians, Mormons, fundamentalist Christians or militant atheists attempting to kill us. So until the terrorist profile changes, our focus must reflect reality rather than wishful ruminations about “root causes.”

David T. Jones is a retired State Department Senior Foreign Service Career Officer and a frequent contributor to American Diplomacy. During a career that spanned over 30 years, he concentrated on politico-military issues, serving for the Army Chief of Staff. He is co-author of Uneasy Neighbor(u)rs, a study of American-Canadian bilateral concerns and has published several hundred articles, columns, and reviews on U.S. - Canadian bilateral issues and general foreign policy.