Burt Prelutsky
September 11, 2006

I no longer accept that we are only at war with Islamic fascists or Islamic fundamentalists or whatever the heck we’re calling them this week. I believe that we in the West are at war with Islam, period.

I have heard any number of politicians, up to and including President Bush, claim, contrary to all reason and evidence, that Islam is a religion of peace. If you buy that load of malarkey, I’ve got a Brooklyn mosque I’d like to sell you.

This is the religion that was founded by the violence-prone Mohammed fourteen hundred years. It was he who established the practice of converting at the point of a sword; a short while ago, two journalists kidnapped by his followers were converted at the barrel of a gun. In 14 centuries, it seems only the technology has changed.

I have read that the current crop of terrorists and butchers only represent about ten percent of the world’s 1.2 billion Muslims. I don’t know how they came by that figure, but that would still add up to 120 million cut-throats and fellow travelers. That figure is far greater than the number of Germans who were even alive when Hitler and his pagan hordes were marching across Europe, and far greater than the number of Russians who were Communist Party members during Stalin’s reign of terror.

I have heard well-meaning people claim that, however we might feel about Osama bin Laden, Saddam Hussein, and the various tyrants heading up Syria, Iran and the rest of the Middle East, our own American Muslims are a breed apart. Sorry, but I don’t buy it. We’re all aware that long after their co-religionists attacked the U.S.S. Cole, blew up our embassies and attacked a Marine base, and murdered 3,000 innocent people on 9/11, all in the name of Allah, these peace lovers were wiring contributions to our sworn enemies. Moreover, we know that young American Muslims are not lining up to join our armed services and thus prove that their loyalty to this nation takes precedence over their religion.

In 1943, the 442nd Regimental Combat Team was formed. It consisted of young Japanese-American men. In spite of the fact that the Nisei faced widespread prejudice in America, and in spite of the fact that their own families had been imprisoned by the federal government at Manzanar and various other concentration camps, these volunteers became the most decorated combat unit of its size during World War II. It was thanks to their sacrificial efforts that over 200 members of the 36th Texas Division, the so-called Lost Division, were rescued from certain slaughter at the hands of the Germans. It was during this battle in France’s Vosges mountains that Second Lt. Daniel K. Inouye, later to be elected to the U.S. Senate, lost his right arm and earned the Congressional Medal of Honor. Astonishingly, his was only one of 21 such medals won by the relatively small group. The unit became legendary, known as the “Go for Broke” guys who fought for their country and their honor, collecting nearly 10,000 Purple Hearts and a nation’s gratitude along the way.

On the other hand, what do we hear from America’s Muslims? Silence when it comes to military service, bellyaching when it comes to ridiculous claims of racial profiling.

Quite honestly, I suspect that the only way we could get the Koran crowd to go fight in the Middle East is if the United States declared war on Israel!


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