Charlie’s Redheaded Angel – Wait a sec… What did I REALLY say?

So I left class a bit early last week – primarily due to a migraine but part 2 because of an uproar I started.  Not me you say???!!

We had a very kind VA Beach Police Chaplain speaking with us about his role in the Department.  He went on to discuss the diversity in the Department and that they were actively looking for individuals of the Muslim and Buddhist faith to volunteer as police chaplains.  

When the search for Muslim chaplains was mentioned, my panic button went off.  I was immediately brought back in time to almost 9 years ago when my daughter was 3 weeks old, her father was working in the Pentagon, and her uncle was working at the World Financial Center in NYC on 9-11-01.  Just writing this is painful for me.

Fortunately, my husband had moved out of the infamous wedge the Friday before that fateful Tuesday in September and he is still with us.  It took his brother 7 hours to return home that day and he subsequently needed intense therapy to get over seeing bodies falling out of the World Trade Center located right across the street from his office.

If you’ve read my police blogs, you know that I am the Department’s biggest fan – one of the primary reasons being that our Citizen’s Police Academy class has always been very forthcoming in answering any questions or concerns we’ve had over the past several weeks.  

I therefore posed the following:  “How can the Department ensure that they do not enlist the help of a radical Muslim?”  If I did not use the exact word radical, my additional comments indicated same and the uproar began……….  Some folks mentioned that they were grateful that I had posed the question while others basically accused me of being a racist/bigot.

Not hardly.  I laugh and throw a shoe at anyone going down that road.

What do Ramzi Yousef, Mahmud Abouhalima, Mohammad Salameh, Nidal Ayyad, Abdul Rahman Yasin and Ahmad Ajaj, the Cole attackers, 9/11 bombers, Richard Reid, Fort Dix Six, Assem Hammoud , Nidal Malik Hasan, Faisal Shazad, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad all have in common?  Let me give you a hint, it is not that they are all men….  It is that they are all “radical” Muslims who have violently attacked, or were foiled in their attack, on innocent Americans in pursuit of furthering their faith.

So YES, I asked about what type of background checks would be conducted because among other things I also fear a potential repeat of the Fort Hood shootings perpetrated by Hasan.

Here’s a little background on me.  While I was raised in a “Christian” household, I can best be described as non-practicing or lapsed.  But don’t get me wrong, I am all for our constitutionally protected right of Freedom of Religion.  However, I apply Thomas Jefferson’s caveat on the issue: “[b]ut it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods, or no God. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.”  Unfortunately, lots of legs (and worse) have been broken in the name of one religion in the past twenty years.  

Because of the direct affect on my family the aforementioned hellish day of 9/11, I think I have the right and responsibility to be concerned, as well as question any issue that constitutes the basis for our way of life’s clear and present danger!  Regrettably, too many people, as well as Islamic organizations such as the Muslim Brotherhood and the Council for American Islamic Relations (CAIR), to name a few, use our political correctness (PC) and established laws to prevent responsible questioning of the motives behind this very active threat. 

In addition to the violent murders they perpetrate in the name of their faith, this is a form of intimidation known as Lawfare - just look at Europe to see its effect.   But, I don’t solely base my concerns on emotion. 

Here are some facts put together for you by myself and my husband Ted who teaches classes on radical Islam at the collegiate level.  We provided some additional references at the end if you’d like to undertake this quest for knowledge.

The basis for any proper (by Western style education, not Islamic instruction) understanding of Islam is an understanding of both the factual history, as well as mythos of the religion because they are not the same.  Nevertheless, this type of analysis got an active Fatwa proclaimed on Salomon Rushdie, so be aware that you may be accused by many Muslims of being unable to comprehend Islam since they claim it can only be accurately taught in Islamic scholarly institutions…. 

To start, one needs to comprehend the Qur’an, and Sunnah (including Hadith).  To the uneducated, these documents are mistakenly compared to the Bible (Old and New Testaments and Gospel).  However, since they are the direct word of God and literal examples of the Prophet (Mohammed), they are more akin to the Ten Commandments and not open to interpretation.  Once that is understood, one must comprehend the principle of Abrogation.  Often one will hear that the “Radicals” are “cherry-picking from the end of the Qur’an [better known as the Meccan Period] and the majority of the Qur’an is peaceful [mostly written during the Medinan Period].”  However, this statement disregards the Islamic scholarly principle of Abrogation.  In short, the Qur’an has a number of contradictions. 

Mohammed was asked how God can contradict himself and the revelation of the principle of Abrogation came into being.  Basically it says that all Qur’anic revelations are good but the later ones are “more good” (accurate and appropriate).  This is important to us because of Surah Nine which primarily refers to Jihad by the Sword (often referred to as the Lesser Jihad) is the last (or second to last depending on whom you ask) revelation.  Consequently, ipso facto, it is the MOST important revelation by Islamic Abrogation definition.  Now some may say that Jihad is a peaceful inner struggle to improve the individual and this is true (frequently referred to as the Greater Jihad).  However, this revelation came during the Medinan Period and is therefore a lesser and not as complete understanding of the revelation.  Moreover, the emphasis of Surah Nine and a return to the period of the Four Rightly Guided Caliphs is the underpinnings of Sayyid Qutb’s foundational writing known as Milestones and is the Campaign Plan that both Al’Queda and Associates and the Muslim Brotherhood base their actions.  All of the terrorists in my first sentence were/are disciples of this principle and writings.

Oh, but you say this only applies to a few extremists…, think again.  One must now understand the Islamic schism that occurred after assassination of the Caliph Ali and the different Fiqhs.  After the assassination, the Shi’a branch of Islam was created (as opposed to the Sunni).  Basically, the issue was who would succeed Mohammed in leading the faith.  No resolution to this issue has occurred, but both sects (including Sufi—considered an Islamic cult by the two main sects) agree on the “irrefutable” principles of the Qur’an and the Sunnah (including Surah Nine).   The sects and differing fiqhs (schools of Islamic jurisprudence and thought) are primarily different views on the observance of rituals, morals and social legislation (including Sharia Law which recognizes no separation of Church and State and is considered higher law than the Constitution).  They are not akin to differences that sprung from the Christian Enlightenment and none disavow Surah Nine.   This is a main reason why there was little Muslim American outcry when Richard Reid tried to light his shoes on fire, but why CAIR went apoplectic when President Bush used the term “Islamic Fascists” to describe the terrorists.

But again, you say, Christian and Jews, by the Prophet’s own teachings are “People of the Book” and will not be persecuted.  To that I say, learn about the Dhimmi and Dhimmitude.  Unless you are okay with the revocation of the freedom of religion, don’t believe in equal rights, and are willing to be heavily taxed for your faith, quickly disabuse yourself of this notion.  Oh, and don’t get me started on the treatment of women and their rights…!

One final bit of knowledge anyone potentially hiring a Muslim must consider is the issue of taqiyya (religious deception) that sprang from the Shi’a branch but is increasingly being utilized by Sunnis:  When doing a background check, is a Muslim being truthful if lying for the purpose of advancing their faith is sanctioned?

Moreover, the undeniable fact is that Al’Queda considers itself the Vanguard of the Islamic faith’s revival to a period resembling the time of the Four Rightly Guided Caliphs (the period of the farthest expansion of the Islamic region—Dar Al’ Islam—House of Peace/God) and they are conducting a global insurgency against the Dar al’Harb (House of War–us).   If we don’t start taking this clear and present danger seriously and are willing to discuss it honestly and intellectually, Qutb’s Milestones will continue to be achieved until we are all of the faith or Dhimmi.

I have friends that are Muslim and let me end with emphatically stating that not all Muslims are terrorists, but all (current) terrorists are Muslim.  You decide on how we need to address this…

Recommended Readings:

• Reliance of the Traveller: The Classic Manual of Islamic Sacred Law Umdat Al-Salik by Ahmad Ibn Lulu Ibn Al-Naqib , Noah Ha Mim Keller
• Milestones by Sayyid Quṭb , 2007 (reprint)
• Methodology Of Dawah in American Perspective by Shamim A. Siddiq
• Peace and the Limits of War : Transcending Classical Conception of Jihad byLouay M Safi
• Join the Caravan by Abd Allāh Azzām
• The Lawful and the Prohibited in Islam by Yusuf Al-Qardawi
• Tafseer Soorah al-Hujuraat by Abu Ameenah Bilaal Philips 3^rd Ed.
• Freedom of Expression in Islam by Mohammad Hashim Kamali 1997 Ed.
• “Cairo Declaration on Human Rights in Islam” ,Aug. 5, 1990, U.N. GAOR,

            World Conf. on Hum. Rts., 4th Sess., Agenda Item 5, U.N. Doc.             http://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/instree/cairodeclaration.html

• What Islam is All about: student textbook by Yahiya Emerick 2002 Ed.
• Abuse of Language, Abuse of Power by by Josef Pieper   
• War and Peace in the Law of Islam by Majid Khadduri
• The Quranic Concept of War  S. K. Malik 1992 Ed.
• The Islamic Law of Nations: Shaybani’s Siyar by Majīd Khaddūrī
• Without Roots: The West, Relativism, Christianity, Islam by Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger
•  The Death of the Grown-Up: How America’s Arrested Development Is Bringing Down Western Civilization  by Diana West

Tagged as: 9/11, 9/11 bombers, Abdul Rahman Yasin and Ahmad Ajaj, Assem Hammoud, Buddhist, CAIR, Citizen's Police Academy, diversity, Faisal Shazad, faith, Fatwa, Fort Dix Six, Fort Hood, Hadith, Hasan, Lawfare, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Mahmud Abouhalima, Mohammad Salameh, Muslim, Nidal Ayyad, Nidal Malik Hasan, Pentagon, Qur'an, radicals, Ramzi Yousef, religion, Richard Reid, Salomon Rushdie, Sunnah, the Cole attackers, Thomas Jefferson, VA Beach Police