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Posted on 10/18/2001 6:21:52 AM PDT by The Right Stuff

Now, more than a month after the terrorist atrocities on American soil, we are finally getting up, dusting off and sorting out our friends and foes. It seems that we have quite an unexpected amount of the latter, some of them right here at home.

Osama bin Laden represents, we are told, the radical fringe of Islamic fanaticism, not the majority. Nevertheless, he appears to garner a lot of sympathy from millions of mainstream Muslims. We have heard that Islam is a religion of peace, that the word itself means peace - it does not. Islam means submission, a vitally different concept. And even a mere dilettante can quickly affirm that the Quran and the Sura contain many alarming passages exhorting the faithful to kill the infidel, or convert him by force, and to establish a dictatorial government of Islamic law, to be carried out with brutal efficiency.

We are told that it is only the fanatical extremists who believe this, yet, we see the common Muslims, on TV, rioting with joy at destruction in America. We read the "man on the street" commentary, from everyday Egyptians and Saudis, who express their opinion that terror attacks are just what America deserves. A puzzling, deep seated hatred of America appears to be co-mingled with a vile form of anti-Semitism previously expressed best by the Nazis.

The imam of the Islamic Cultural Center in New York City, Egyptian Sheikh Muhummad Al Gamei’a, blames the World Trade Center destruction on "the Jews". Al Gamei’a, repeating a now thoroughly debunked Internet rumor, insists that 4,000 Jews stayed home from work at the WTC on September 11th. He joins an overwhelming percent of those in the Arab world, 60%, who also accuse the Jews, and think that "Zionists" control decisions from the White House and the Pentagon.

Muslim Arab-Americans have been likewise been responding to 911 in unusual ways. Marc Rich, in a recent column to the Washington Post, describes his visit to to the "Muslim Community School in Potomac". In his interviews he talks with a 2nd generation Arab-Americans. A 7th grader, Miriam, says, "Being American is just being born in this country." 8th grader, Ibrahim, relates, "Being an American means nothing to me." And Ibrahim goes on to explain how embarrassed he is to be an American in front of his Palestinian cousins. 11th grader Zahra replies, "We are our own nation, meaning Islam." Even principal Salabudeen Kareem weighs in, jumping on the Bash Israel bandwagon, he calls Israelis "the real terrorists." Sounds like an opinion remarkably like Osama Bin Laden’s.

The Egyptian imam went on to say, that if "Americans knew what the Jews were really like, they would treat them like Hitler did." A statement absolutely breathtaking in its barbarism. Is this what they’re teaching in American mosques? In Egyptian ones?

Contrast all this with the actions of Narendra Singh Kloty, an Indian Sikh, who owns a restaurant in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Mr. Kloty had his mother send him a new turban in red, white and blue. Kloty, when asked if he intends to return to India, says, "No, I’m an American, and my wife is American." He further contends, "This is a great nation, where I’ve seen so much love."

Contrast this also with the behavior of Japanese Americans, the Nisei, 2nd generation Americans, after Pearl Harbor. Immediately after the attack, the Commanding General of the Army in Hawaii, Delos C. Emmons, ordered that all Japanese Americans be considered 4c, or enemy alien. Emmons discharged all Japanese Americans from the 298th and 299th Hawaiian National Guard. The discharged vets then did odd jobs, but did them so faithfully that Emmons rescinded his previous order and further recommended that a special Japanese American unit be formed.

On May 26th, 1942, General George C. Marshall ordered the formation of a Hawaiian Provisional Battalion, this 100th infantry unit (One Puka Puka) was subsequently assigned to the 2nd Army. They performed so well that pressure started building to reopen the draft to Japanese Americans. On February 1st, 1943, President Roosevelt announced the formation of the 442nd Combat Team, opening with the words, "Americanism is not - and never was - a matter of race or ancestry."

The 442nd called for volunteers, expecting 3,000 from the mainland and 1,500 from Hawaii. They got 10,000 from Hawaii alone. The 442nd became the most decorated soldiers in World War II. They were known as the "Purple Heart Battalion", because so many of their veterans received one. Out of 4,500 men 3,900 of them won individual decorations. The 442nd saw combat, attached to the famed 34th "Red Bull" Division, at Kasserine Pass, Tunis and Monte Malerno among other areas. They fought with such ferocity that they were called, "the little iron men". They represented the very spirit of America, fighting to liberate those yoked under oppressive, tyrannical regimes.

Militant Islamism is merely the latest incarnation of this age-old evil. The radicals seek to enslave us all under their barbaric version of Islamic tyranny, which is only fascism by another name. We have fought it and beat it, before. We will fight it and beat it, again. For the flame of liberty and freedom burns bright in every American soul. Those who don’t feel it’s righteous call should get, gratis, a one way ticket to the ‘Stan of their choice.

*** © 2001 Jennifer King

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