Islamists DO hate what we stand for
Osama bin Laden and other Islamists frequently claim that the United States is waging war against Islam. Since 9/11 there has been a certain traction to the claim since Americans are engaged in hostilities in both Afghanistan and Iraq. Throw in American support for Israel and you seemingly have the complete picture.
But the fact is that even before 9/11, before Afghanistan and Iraq, Islamists were leveling the same charge: that the United States was waging war against Islam. On what did they base their claims?
In 1996 Al-Khilafah Publications, an arm of Hizb-ut Tahrir, published “The American Campaign to Suppress Islam.” American motivations were simple: a fear of the revival of Islam as a force.
But if Israel wasn’t an issue, and we had not yet gone into Afghanistan or Iraq, by what dastardly means was the United States waging its war against Islam? The pamphlet contains a chapter each on the American efforts to undermine Islam by spreading democracy, pluralism, human rights, freedom of belief, freedom of expression, freedom of ownership, personal freedom, and free market policies. You can read for yourself the details of how each of these concepts is, in the view of the Islamists, incompatible with, and a threat to, Islam.
Keep this in mind when you consider the “real war.” Perhaps you think that the United States should withdraw from the Middle East. Perhaps you think that we ought to abandon Israel. But are you willing to give up democracy, pluralism, human rights, freedom of belief, freedom of expression, freedom of ownership, personal freedom, and free market policies?
But the fact is that even before 9/11, before Afghanistan and Iraq, Islamists were leveling the same charge: that the United States was waging war against Islam. On what did they base their claims?
In 1996 Al-Khilafah Publications, an arm of Hizb-ut Tahrir, published “The American Campaign to Suppress Islam.” American motivations were simple: a fear of the revival of Islam as a force.
So the Kaafir West still recalls how Islam transformed Arabs from fighting tribes living at the margin of history into a civilised, distinguished Ummah, with a civilisation that illuminated the world, an Ummah which was able to become the master of the world in a short span of time and continued to be so for ten centuries spreading justice, security, high values and prosperity, in every place that the standard of the Khilafah was raised. Therefore the West fears that the Islamic Ummah would make a return again and destroy its influence and interests not over its land but over the whole globe. Upon America and the West realising this fact, the American campaign is directed primarily against the Islamic Ummah despite the fact that the campaign is on a world wide scale.Note the absence of any reference to support for Israel. In fact, Israel is only mentioned once in the text in the context of United States policy toward the Soviet Union to gain Jews permission to emigrate.
But if Israel wasn’t an issue, and we had not yet gone into Afghanistan or Iraq, by what dastardly means was the United States waging its war against Islam? The pamphlet contains a chapter each on the American efforts to undermine Islam by spreading democracy, pluralism, human rights, freedom of belief, freedom of expression, freedom of ownership, personal freedom, and free market policies. You can read for yourself the details of how each of these concepts is, in the view of the Islamists, incompatible with, and a threat to, Islam.
These are the main slogans which America and the West call for in their global campaign to make the nations and peoples of the world embrace Capitalism. After explaining the corruption of the creed of this ideology, the corruption of the systems which emanate from it and after refuting its intellectual foundations (democracy, pluralism, human rights, and free market policies), and the clarification of their contradiction with Islam, it is forbidden for a Muslim even to think for a moment of accepting this ideology or to adopt anything from it. The American campaign undoubtedly targets the Muslim Ummah first and foremost because only the Muslim Ummah has an ideology capable of confronting and challenging Capitalism. The Kuffar know the history of the Muslim Ummah, which bears witness to what this Ummah can achieve when she applies its ideology and carries it as a message to mankind. . . .
[N]othing remains except for you to help by rejecting the Kufr [forbidden] of Capitalism, as well as all that it calls for of democracy, pluralism, human rights, and free market policies, and challenge all those who promote them. Your submission to Allah will not be complete unless you work with the sincere and aware Muslims to establish the Khilafah, the shield of the Muslim Ummah, from Kufr, division, mischief, and evil. . . .”It is chic to scoff at remarks such as those made by President George Bush at a March 2003 press conference: “It [9/11] came upon us because there’s an enemy which hates America. They hate what we stand for. We love freedom and we’re not changing.” Many people in the West prefer self-recrimination, talk about Ward Churchill’s “roosting chickens,” or “blowback.” But the fact is that Islamists do hate what we stand for, as Hizb-ut Tahrir made clear in this 1996 publication still available on one of its websites.
Keep this in mind when you consider the “real war.” Perhaps you think that the United States should withdraw from the Middle East. Perhaps you think that we ought to abandon Israel. But are you willing to give up democracy, pluralism, human rights, freedom of belief, freedom of expression, freedom of ownership, personal freedom, and free market policies?
