Beheading Ourselves Over Islam - from IDB Editorials

Posted 04/04/2011 06:57 PM ET

Source: Investor's Business Daily

War On Terror: What can the U.S. do to quell the violent spasms of Islam? Promote Islam, naturally. At least that's the thinking of this administration. It's now official foreign policy.

President Obama's top Muslim envoy has been overseas encouraging devotion to Islam, including in terror hot spots like Afghanistan. In fact, Rashad Hussain, U.S. special envoy to the Organization of the Islamic Conference, just returned from Afghanistan, where he told locals the antidote to Islamic violence "is Islam itself."

"I am of the opinion that one of the strongest tools that you can use to counter radicalization and violent extremism is Islam itself, because Islam rejects violent extremism," Hussain said during a speech in Kabul.

Afghans responded to his message by slaughtering a dozen innocent United Nations workers in the name of Islam.

Stirred by mosque sermons, a mob of thousands overran a U.N. compound in northern Afghanistan following Friday prayers. They sawed off the heads of two guards before killing the others, including Norwegian and Swedish nationals, inside. It was Afghanistan's deadliest attack on U.N. personnel.

The worshippers also burned American flags and effigies of Obama — all to defend the honor of a single, paperback copy of a Quran torched by a quack U.S. preacher thousands of miles away in Florida. So far, more than 20 have died in the rioting.

Islamic law calls for vengeance against anybody who insults Islam, its prophet or its holy book. Islamic law is enshrined in the post-Taliban Afghan constitution. Yet Rashad, a devout Muslim, says the Muslim faith is "key" to the administration's strategy to turn Muslims away from violence.

"We see that as one of the key elements of a strategy to address this type of violence," he said. By "we," he means the Obama administration. So it's now official policy to try to douse the Islamic fire of jihad by pouring more fuel on it. This is breathtaking.

It's also at odds with what the co-chairmen of the 9/11 Commission — including Democrat lion Lee Hamilton — recently recommended in their follow-up report on homegrown terror, "Assessing the Terrorist Threat: A Report of the Bipartisan Policy Center's National Security Preparedness Group."

It found that Islam was catalyzing terrorists abroad and inside America's Muslim community. And it scolded U.S. leaders for pretending otherwise. Still, Hussain insists: "When it comes to the problem of violent extremism, Islam is not the problem."

Who is this top adviser on all things Islamic? A Muslim activist, Hussain helped draft Obama's conciliatory Cairo speech to Muslims. Before joining the White House, he regularly spoke to Brotherhood front groups and defended Brotherhood leaders like Sami al-Arian.

(Hussain first denied defending the convicted terrorist, claiming he was misquoted, but recanted after Politico.com produced a tape-recording of his remarks.)

The Brotherhood is a worldwide jihadist movement whose credo says, "Jihad is our way, and death for the glory of Allah is our greatest ambition." Yet this Brotherhood sympathizer believes it doesn't promote violence?

He appears more interested in promoting Islam than representing U.S. interests to the Muslim world in a war on Islamic terror. And his influence is strong. Even in the wake of the U.N. beheadings, the U.S. refuses to condemn the beheaders or the jihadi doctrine that justifies their barbarism.

Instead, the administration — through a statement by Gen. David Petraeus — condemned "any disrespect to the Muslim faith," effectively apologizing for the exercise of First Amendment rights, offensive or not. Such messages only validate the warped moral and legal code of Shariah Islam, while empowering the troglodytes who enforce it.

President Bush may have mouthed pleasant platitudes about Islam being a "religion of peace" and so on. But he wasn't naive enough to promulgate it as an anti-terror strategy. This president and his Muslim advisers, on the other hand, are doing just that. And they're bound to strengthen the hand of the enemy.