The War on Islam

Almost six years have passed since the purposely vague War on Terror began in this country, and we're no closer to defining the slogan than we were on September 12, 2001. Terrorism is, above all, a tactic that can be easily applied to more than just the Islamic community. Our nation's sad attempt at stereotyping the entire Muslim community as the enemy has terrible implications, the first involving ethnic and social racism.

Since 2001 the word "terrorist" has been constantly and forcefully associated with fundamental Islam; most Americans, having little knowledge of the Muslim religion, have done nothing but accept that Islam is a dangerous and hate-filled faith. But let us remember that the Ku Klux Klan, also an illegal terrorist organization in this country, is at its base a Christian organization. I haven't met a Christian that accepts this rationale--to these individuals, members of the KKK are no more Christian than Adolph Hitler claimed to be. To the average Muslim, they feel the same about fundamental Islam.

The War on Terror is dangerous at face value, and deadly when implemented. If our president is so hell-bent on ridding the globe of terrorism, why have we concentrated our foreign policy efforts almost exclusively in the Middle East? Which nations dominate nightly news in the United States? Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran.

What of the IRA in Ireland? Or FARC, a Colombian terrorist organization that murdered three Americans in March 1999?

Or what about the genocide in Darfur, where hundreds of thousands have been murdered? Is it not terrorism when wives are raped beside the murdered bodies of their husbands?

Fundamentalist Islam is not the greatest threat to the United States: National ignorance promoted by our government is. Until our president, along with Congress, says otherwise, I refuse call our Middle Eastern occupation anything but a War on Islam.

God save Darfur. It doesn't seem like the United States wants to.




Rob Verhein
DI Editorial Writer