Roots of Terrorism

Shortly after September 11, 2001, President Bush addressed a joint session of Congress,

"The terrorists practice a fringe form of Islamic extremism that has been rejected by Muslim scholars and the vast majority of Muslim clerics; a fringe movement that perverts the peaceful teachings of Islam. The terrorists' directive commands them to kill Christians and Jews, to kill all Americans and make no distinctions among military and civilians; including women and children... I also want to speak tonight directly to Muslims throughout the world. We respect your faith. It's practiced freely by many millions of Americans and by millions more in countries that America counts as friends. Its teachings are good and peaceful, and those who commit evil in the name of Allah blaspheme the name of Allah. The terrorists are traitors to their own faith, trying, in effect, to hijack Islam itself...In all that lies before us, may God grant us wisdom, and may he watch over the United States of America... (AP, Sept. 20, 2001, emphasis added)

Ari Fleischer also spoke from the White House,

"White House spokesman Ari Fleischer addressed several aspects of the President's war on terrorism at yesterday's press briefing... When Fleischer was asked about concerns that this response could degenerate into a West-versus-Islam battle, he remarked: 'This attack had nothing to do with Islam. This attack was a perversion of Islam.'... (Agape Press, Sept. 18, 2001/Christian World News Report -9/19/01, emphasis added)

The inspiration behind their horrendous deeds, including blowing up their own bodies amidst innocent civilians, is the Koran itself.

While these statements reflect Western ‘politically correct’ opinion, unfortunately, they are not the truth. While countless Muslims are peaceful and oppose terrorism, the ugly reality is that Hezbollah, Hamas, Al Qaeda, Islamic Jihad, and many other terrorist organizations, are not perverting Islam, but are Allah’s truest followers. The inspiration behind their horrendous deeds, including blowing up their own bodies amidst innocent civilians, is the Koran itself. These loyalists within “the Armies of Allah” will stop at nothing until the world becomes Muslim. It’s time the world woke up and realized this.

The following quotes are taken from M. H. Shakir’s translation of the Qur’an (Tahrike Tarsile Qur’an, Inc., New York):

• Surah II: 98 – “Allah is the enemy of the unbelievers.”
• Surah II: 191-193 – “Kill them [unbelievers] wherever you find them….Fight with them until there is no persecution, and religion should be only for Allah.”
• Surah II: 216 – “Fighting is enjoined on you, and it is an object of dislike to you; and it may be that you dislike a thing while it is good for you, and it may be that you love a thing while it is evil for you, and Allah knows, while you do not know.”
• Surah III: 19 – “Surely the true religion with Allah is Islam…and whoever disbelieves in the communications of Allah then surely Allah is quick in reckoning.”
• Surah IV: 104 – “Be not weak in pursuit of the enemy.”
• Surah V: 51 – “O you who believe! Do not take the Jews and the Christians for friends; they are friends of each other; and whosoever among you takes them for a friend, then surely he is one of them; surely Allah does not guide the unjust people.”
• Surah VIII: 12 – “I will cast terror into the hearts of those who disbelieve. Therefore strike off their heads and strike off every fingertip of them.”
• Surah VIII: 15-17 – “O you who believe! When you meet those who disbelieve marching for war, turn not your backs to them. Whoever shall turn his back to them on that day – unless he turn aside for the sake of fighting or withdraws to a company – then he, indeed, becomes deserving of Allah’s wrath, and his abode is hell… So you did not slay them, but it was Allah who slew them…that He might confer upon the believers a good gift from Himself; surely Allah is Hearing, Knowing.”
• Surah IX: 29 – “Fight those who do not believe in Allah, nor in the latter day, nor do they prohibit what Allah and His Apostle have prohibited, nor follow the religion of truth… until they pay the tax in acknowledgement of superiority and they are in a state of subjection.”
• Surah IX:33 – “[Allah] it is who sent His Apostle with guidance and the religion of truth, that He might cause it to prevail over all religions, though polytheists may be averse.”
• Surah IX: 73 – “O Prophet! Strive hard against the unbelievers and the hypocrites and be unyielding to them; and their abode is hell, and evil is their destination.”
• Surah IX: 123 – “O you who believe! Fight those of the unbelievers who are near to you and let them find in your hardness; and know that Allah is with those who guard (against evil).”

There you have it – straight from the Koran. It is this writer’s hope and prayer not only that many Islamic terrorists might be miraculously converted (as was Saul on the road to Damascus – see Acts 9), but that millions of peace-loving Muslims will have their eyes opened, will stop denying the truth, and will finally reject the Koran as a source of evil teachings. These teachings have been inspired, not by the Creator of all life, but by an invisible terrorist whom Jesus Christ identified as “a murderer from the beginning, who abode not in the truth” (John 8:44). Jesus taught love for the entire world, including our enemies (Matthew 5:44). He sacrificed His own life to pay for our sins (1 Cor. 15:3). Salvation comes by faith in Him alone (Acts 4:12). His Book is truth, not the Koran.