Tim Wildmon

AFA president

June 2013 – At the time of this writing, Americans are just getting over what happened in Boston with the bombings during the annual marathon. That is, we’re all getting over it except for the three families whose loved ones were murdered and the scores of people who lost limbs or were maimed in the explosions. As we know, two brothers are now presumed responsible for the death and mayhem.

When you hear these news stories and you just wonder how anyone could commit such heinous acts.

Reasons why people commit acts such as these are few. I can think of three. First, they are mentally ill, as in the case of the Newtown, Connecticut, killer. Second, for some reason, the person has no conscience. 

God gives man a conscience but it can be seared over time. Or third, the people doing the killing are motivated by a religious belief that what they are doing is gaining them favor with a divine being who will reward them. That concept is exactly what Islamic jihad is.

Although we were advised not to jump to conclusions about who was responsible for this latest murder and mayhem, many Americans suspected it was the act of Islamic jihadists. The death of one suspect and arrest of the second now suggest that may be the case.

These two suspects are brothers who came to the U.S. from the Chechnya region of Russia 10 years ago. The older described himself as a “very religious” Muslim.

Most Americans do not realize how many of these jihadist attacks have been thwarted by police and the FBI over the last several years. Any one of them could have been as bad as or worse than what happened in Boston. But they were one-day news stories because the terrorists were apprehended before they were able to carry out their acts of terror. 

• The “underwear bomber” tried to blow a plane out of the sky over Detroit. 
• A Muslim jihadist attempted to set off a bomb in Portland, Oregon, during a public Christmas tree lighting. 
• A jihadist attempted to blow up Times Square. 
• A Muslim student in west Texas was busted by the FBI for planning to blow up Dallas.

These all occurred within the last three years.

According to the Merriam-Webster online dictionary, jihad is a teaching of Islam that it is the duty of Muslims to carry out a “holy war” against the enemies of Allah.

To some Muslims, America is the enemy of Allah, and therefore Americans are the target. Thus when Muslims commit an act of jihad – even against innocent people – they think they are doing so in order to please Allah. It’s really that simple and it’s nothing new. It has been going on for centuries around the world.

Obviously the vast majority of Muslims in the world do not practice acts of jihad. But still, it is a part of the religion that does exist, and to pretend that it does not exist, as many who subscribe to political correctness do, is to deny reality. 

The problem is that we generally have no way of knowing the peaceful Muslims from the jihadist Muslims because the jihadist often blends in with society, so that they are not discovered until after they have carried out their acts of “holy war” against the infidels.

The liberal media cannot bring themselves to talk about the motivation of these jihadists. It’s very strange. It’s like trying to understand Hitler without talking about Nazism.

President Obama acts as if Islamic jihad does not even exist. His administration turned the Ft. Hood jihadist murders into “workplace violence,” even though everyone knows the killer was motivated by jihad because he said so. 

To pretend something is not a threat when you know it is, as in the case of Islamic terrorism, is not only irrational, reprehensible and unpatriotic. It is a dereliction of duty that puts American lives at risk.