AMERICA: Peaceful Muslims Are Welcome

AMERICA: Peaceful Muslims Are Welcome

After reading the letter from the board member of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, I felt compelled to respond in order to clarify some of his statements and correct some of his misrepresentations.

The letter writer stated, "According to a Gallup Poll, four out of 10 Americans are prejudiced toward Islam and Muslims." That's an astonishingly low number based on what Americans and the rest of the world have had to deal with as the result of Muslim terrorism. Did he actually think that percentage was high?

The letter writer pointed to India's 20 percent Muslim population as proof that Islam can live peacefully as a minority within a non-Muslim country. The main problem with this contention is that it is a falsehood.

In December 2001, a Muslim suicide bomber attacked the Indian parliament building in New Delhi. In September 2002, Muslims launched a machine gun attack on a Hindu temple in Ahmedabad, India, killing 31 and injuring 86.

In October 2005, Muslim terrorists attacked a crowded market in Delhi, India, killing 60 and injuring 180.

In March 2006, a Muslim bomber killed 28 and injured 100 in the Hindu holy city of Varanasi, India.

According to the Indian police, countless attacks were thwarted or abandoned altogether. So why did he point to India as an example of Muslim religious co-existence?
He pointed to Spain as "intolerant" of Islam, specifically the city of Cordova.

He failed to mention that Muslim terrorists murdered 191 Spaniards and injured 2,050 in March 2004 in the infamous Madrid train bombings. I would say that Spain has exercised amazing restraint in light of injuries at the hands of Islamic terrorists.

I don't want to convey the wrong message. Peaceful Muslims are welcome in America, as are peaceful adherents to any of the world's great religions. America has always welcomed those who want to live in peace and prosperity and become good Americans.

The letter writer claims that "the U.S. Constitution is consistent with the aims and objectives of Islamic Shariah." Shariah law is inconsistent with the founding principles of this great republican democracy.

The Taliban practiced a strict form of Shariah in Afghanistan. Adulterers (always women) were stoned to death, and little girls were kept functionally illiterate as state policy.
Americans are amazingly accepting and tolerant people. The letter writer and his flock are welcome, too, but we demand the truth.

MORGAN ORLINS