Many Americans are outraged, and rightfully so, by the
efforts of a group of Muslims to build a thirteen-story mosque two blocks from
the site where, in 2001, another group of Muslims—motivated by their barbaric
creed—slaughtered 3,000 Americans. (Some Americans are not outraged by this
effort, and this article is not addressed to them.) Even good people, however,
are divided about how to deal with such a situation.
Some say government should forcibly stop
the project even if doing so requires the use of extra-legal measures or
nonobjective laws (e.g., zoning laws); others say government should respect the
property owners’ rights to use their property as they see fit. Some say
property rights do not apply in this case because the mosque backers are aiding
the enemy; others say there is insufficient evidence to support such claims.
Some say this whole thing is a matter of First Amendment rights, freedom of
religion, and freedom of speech; others say the choice of location is so
insulting to Americans, especially to the families of those murdered on 9/11,
that such rights do not apply. Some say the project would be fine if it were
built elsewhere; others say America should prohibit the building of mosques
anywhere.
What is the truth of the matter? What
principles properly govern such situations? How should America deal with such
efforts by Muslims?
To begin answering these questions, let us
first establish the most relevant aspects of the context at hand.
America is in a (shamefully) undeclared
but nevertheless real military war with Islamists—those who accept Islam as
true, take their religion seriously, and thus actively seek to kill infidels
who refuse to submit to the dictates of Mohammed. In terms of enemy regimes, we
are in a de facto (though largely unacknowledged) war with Iran and Saudi
Arabia, the principal state sponsors of Islamic terrorism.1 In terms of terrorist groups, we are at war with Al Qaeda, Hamas, the
Muslim Brotherhood, Hezbollah, and others who have attacked America and/or our
allies.
This military war is part of a broader cultural war—a war of ideas, principles, and
norms—and our enemies in this broader war include more than those Muslims who
enact or call for violence against Americans. Our enemies in this broader war
include anyMuslims who seek
via any means—whether violent or peaceful—to
destroy America and establish an Islamic state in its place.
One of the explicit goals of Islamists is to pervert U.S. and Western
culture by infusing it with Islamic values and gradually preparing it for the
implementation of Islamic law (aka sharia). As the Muslim Brotherhood declares
in its “Explanatory Memorandum on the General Strategic Goal for the
Brotherhood in North America,” Muslims “must understand that their work in
America is a kind of grand jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western
Civilization from within and ‘sabotaging’ its miserable house . . . so that it
is eliminated and Allah’s religion is made victorious.”2 This strategy has aptly been labeled “stealth jihad” or “creeping
sharia.” The general goal is to saturate America with Muslims, Islamic ideas,
Islamic institutions, and Islamic norms such that America gradually and
peacefully becomes an Islamic state.
Further, Islam entails the doctrine of “taqiyya,” according to which
Muslims may lie as necessary in order to hide their Islamic identity from or to
ally with other Muslims against infidels.3 Ibn Kathir, a 12th-century Muslim and a renowned interpreter of the
Koran, explains, “Whoever at any time or place fears [the infidels’] evil may
protect himself through outward show.”4 Mervyn Hiskett, a historian of Islamic culture and traditions, explains
that taqiyya “has full Quranic authority (3:28 and 16:106) and allows the
Muslim to conform outwardly to the requirements of unislamic or non-Islamic
government, while inwardly ‘remaining faithful’ to whatever he conceives to be
proper Islam, while waiting for the tide to turn.”5
All of this poses a conundrum: Given the
nature and doctrines of Islam and its followers, how can Americans uphold
individual rights and the rule of law—the values that make America great and
worth fighting for—yet stop Islamists and Muslims from slowly infiltrating and
destroying America? For instance:
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