Muslims, Islam, and The Koran Are Not The Problem

By Jacob Hornberger

One of the most fascinating aspects to the post-9/11 “war on terrorism” is the fixation of American statists on Muslims, Islam, and the Koran. “The Muslims are coming to get us,” they cry. “The Muslims have been trying to conquer the world for centuries. They’re determined to establish a worldwide caliphate, one in which everyone will be forced to convert to Islam. They want to replace America’s common-law legal system with Sharia law. The Koran mandates that Muslims kill Christians, Jews, and other infidels and, therefore, we have no choice but to kill them before they kill us.”

Yet, deep down American statists have to realize that all this just a crock. The war on terrorism is not about protecting America from the threat of a worldwide caliphate. The war on terrorism is all about imperialism and interventionism. It’s about control. It’s about whether the U.S. Empire is going to be able to impose its will on people and governments throughout the world.

Was any American statist expressing concern about Muslims, Islam, the Koran, or Sharia law during the 45 years of the Cold War?

Nope! Back then, the big bugaboo was communism, especially Soviet communism but also Chinese, North Korean, Cuban, Chilean, and Vietnamese communism, not to mention the U.S. Communist Party. At no time did any American statist exclaim against the Muslims or decry that they were coming to get us as part of their supposed centuries-old plan to establish a worldwide caliphate.

Even more revealing, American statists overwhelmingly supported the U.S. government’s support of radical Muslims in Afghanistan during the Cold War, when it was the Soviet Union, rather than the United States, that was doing the invading and occupying.

When people who were suffering the ravages of U.S. imperialism and interventionism in the post-Cold War period, most of whom happened to be Muslims, began retaliating with strikes against U.S. troops in their homelands or with terrorist strikes against civilians, that’s when American statists began exclaiming, “Oh, they just hate us because we’re free and because we’re Christians rather than Muslims. It has nothing to do with the fact that our government has invaded their homelands and killed, tortured, maimed, humiliated, or incarcerated countless numbers of them or bombed or otherwise destroyed their homes and businesses.”

When the U.S. government invaded Iraq and Afghanistan to effect regime change in those two countries, Americans cheered and ardently supported the troops notwithstanding the fact that the U.S. government installed into power official Islamic regimes in both countries.

Did you ever hear any American statist express even mild criticism or concern for the U.S. government’s having brought two official Islamic governments into existence?

Nope, not a peep!

In fact, it’s even worse than that. During the U.S. occupations of both countries, which lasted for more than 10 years, U.S. troops were killing anyone who resisted their imperialism and interventionism or resisted the brutal and corrupt Islamic regimes that U.S. officials had installed in their countries. They called resisters to their imperialism and interventionism “terrorists.”

Throughout the time that U.S. troops were protecting these two official Islamic regimes, Americans were supporting the troops, enthusiastically. “Thank you for your service in Iraq and Afghanistan” was a popular refrain during the entire period of the occupations.

Now, wouldn’t you think that people who are concerned about an Islamic conquest of the entire world would be a bit concerned about two official Islamic governments being established in Iraq and Afghanistan and being defended and protected by U.S. troops?
Yet, not only no criticism but effusive praise instead.

Here’s another hint that the caliphate fears of American statists are nothing but a bunch of hooey: Notice that none of them are going out and killing American Muslims. Why not? If we’re at war against Muslims and Islam — if the Koran commands Muslims to kill us, as American statists maintain — then why aren’t these Americans out there defending our country by killing the people in our midst who are secretly conspiring to kill us?

There is a very simple reason why they’re not killing Muslim-Americans as part of what they say is a religious war: They know that as soon as they killed even one of the “enemy,” they would be arrested by state law-enforcement officers and charged with the state crime of murder. And they also know that if they were to try to use their ludicrous religious-war rationale as a defense in their murder trial, the judge would instruct the jury to disregard it. They know that they’d end up on a death-penalty gurney or with life in prison for killing an innocent American Muslim.

So, why do American statists remain fixated on the caliphate-Koran-Muslim-Islam-Sharia law rationale for supporting the “war on terrorism”?

The reason is a religious one, but not in the way that statists view the situation. The problem is that American statists are emotionally, psychologically, and intellectually unable to confront the fact that their very own federal government, especially the national-security component of the government (i.e., the military and the CIA) — is at the root of America’s foreign-policy woes.

That’s because American statists, including Christians, Jews, and atheists, have elevated the federal government to the status of a god, one who watches over his people, takes care of them with sustenance, educates their children, provides their healthcare, gives them welfare, and keeps them safe. For American statists, the federal government is their friend, their daddy, their Big Brother, and their protector. It is also a god who commands unswerving allegiance and loyalty, unconditionally.

Consider the Christian churches of America, where since 9/11 church ministers have exhorted their members to “support the troops, especially those in harm’s way.”

Has any minister ever asked his congregation to support the victims of the troops — the people who are being killed or maimed or having their homes or businesses bombed or otherwise destroyed?

Are you kidding? That would be heresy! When Christian ministers here in the United States exhort people to pray for the troops, the thought of questioning or challenging what the troops are doing or why they are doing it doesn’t even enter their minds. God is not supposed to be challenged. The troops could be killing the unborn with abortions or the born with bombs and bullets, and the assumption is that it’s all good, it’s all moral, it’s all okay. After all, “National security is at stake! Support the troops!”

Or consider this prayer that is heard in Christian churches: “Let us pray for peace and an end to terrorism around the world.” Translation: “Let us pray that people in foreign lands that are invaded by our troops will not resist what our god wills for them and that they instead peacefully submit to the will of our god.”

Consider the reaction among statists to what Edward Snowden did. He revealed dark secrets of the Empire to the world, disclosing acts of illegality. Where was the statist ire directed? No, not at the Empire for illegally spying on the American people. It was directed at Snowden for daring to reveal the secrets of the great statist god, who is just trying to keep its children safe.
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Wouldn’t it be nice if at this time of year — Christmastime — the American people were to revisit the First Commandment: “Thou shalt have no other gods before me.” That would be a good first step to restoring a free, harmonious, moral, and prosperous society to our land.

This article was originally published at The Future of Freedom Foundation.

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