OPINION:
It’s Ramadan, and for followers of Islam the world over, the monthlong celebration of their prophet’s unveiling of the Koran means fasting, spiritual introspection — and apparently, murder, mayhem and bloody attacks against infidels.
That’s not polite to say, of course. But it can’t help but be noticed.
Heck, the website The Religion of Peace even keeps a handy-dandy chart to keep a running count of terror attacks tied to Ramadan. It’s called the “Ramadan Bombathon 2017,” and as of Day 3 of the Islam holy month — which runs this year from May 26 through June 24, at least in America — adherents of the so-called religion of peace were already racking up the kills.
The pertinent lines read this way, at least so far: “Terror in the Name of ISLAM: Attacks, 12; Kills, 118. ALL Other Religions Combined: Attacks, 0; Kills, 0.”
That’s quite a record — quite a contrast in religion. After all, how many other faiths get their own real-time kill list count?
But then Islam is a faith that doesn’t mess around with the whole “convert or die” type theology. In fact, right at the kick-off of Ramadan, Islamic terrorists forced a busload of Coptic Christians off the road in Egypt, pulled several out of their seats and asked them, one by one: Will you convert to Islam?
Those who didn’t were immediately shot.
“Bishop Makarios, the top Coptic Orthodox cleric in Minya, the province where the attack took place, said the assailants told Christian men they ordered off the bus they would spare their lives if they converted to Islam. ’They chose death,’ said Makarios,” CBC News reported.
Other media counts say even the women and children were ordered off the bus and told to convert or die.
“Survivors of the attack said that the ten masked Islamic State militants did not merely open fire on the bus full of Christian pilgrims on their way to the Monastery of Saint Samuel the Confessor, but that the victims were made to descend from the bus and asked one by one whether they were Christians,” Breitbart reported. “According to one of the chaplains of the group, Father Rashed … all of them — even the children — refused. Each was killed in cold blood with a gunshot to the head or the threat.”
In all, 29 were killed, including two little girls, ages 2 and 4. Another 23 or so were reportedly injured.
The attack was just one in a long line of ISIS terror hits against Christians in Egypt in recent months — and so calling it a twisted celebration of Ramadan might not be completely accurate. But here’s a Ramadan call-to-arms that’s pretty clear: ISIS, in recognition of the Muslim holy month, called on believers to wage an “all out war” on “infidels” in the West.
“Muslim brothers in Europe who can’t reach the Islamic State lands, attack them in their homes, their markets, their roads and their forums,” the group said in a YouTube message, the Telegraph reported. “Do not despise the work. Your targeting of the so-called innocents and civilians is beloved by us and the most effective — so go forth and may you get a great reward or martyrdom in Ramadan.”
Right. It’s Ramadan; let’s get killing.
Defenders of the Islam faith call such calls-to-arms a perversion of the religion. But is it?
Even by that line of thought — even suspending the reality that Islam doctrine calls for the eradication of the infidel, which is defined as those of other faiths — the fact is: Islam sure is a religion that’s easy to turn into violence.
If Islam truly is a religion of peace, why is it so darn easy to use it as a justification to kill?
That ought to be a red flag in itself — a real “wait a minute” moment to reflect and ponder why, oh why, is it so easy to supposedly skew Islamic teachings to turn violent.
Know what else is a red flag?
The reaction of supposedly pro-peace Muslim leaders and advocacy groups to horrific religious persecution attacks — like the ones against Coptic Christian kids in Egypt, or against children in Manchester at the Ariana Grande concert.
Iran’s Hassan Rouhani, billed by Islamic appeasers as a moderate, turned tables on the bloody ISIS-claimed terror attack in Manchester to say what’s needed is a solid public relations pitch to counter Islamophobia — not a crackdown on terrorists.
“Create a world without violence and extremism through portraying Islam’s moderate image and pinning hope of merciful God,” Rouhani said, in a Ramadan message to heads of Islamic countries, Tehran Times reported.
Talk about creating a fantasy life. Meanwhile, the Council on American-Islamic Relations’ reaction to the Muslim attack on Coptic Christians?
In a teeny-tiny post on @CAIRNational’s Twitter feed, the group wrote: “#CAIR Director Nihad Awad: ’Another sickening attack on innocent Egyptian Copts. Let’s honor the lives of the …” and then, a link to the rest of the statement, which read: ’victims, not the false claims of their killers.”
That’s it — no specific denunciation of the Islamic beliefs touted by these killers, no specific use of the word “Christian” to describe the victims.
You know where CAIR gets real specific, though? While describing the crazed anti-Muslim killer who just verbally assaulted two teenage girls he thought were Muslims aboard an Oregon train, reportedly telling them to go back to Saudi Arabia. Three adults riding this same train stepped in to defend the girls. The man, in response, pulled out a knife and killed two of the girls’ defenders.
CAIR managed to post dozens of links to stories that attack, along with accompanying photographs. The message? Muslims aren’t the only ones doing the terrorizing.
That’s largely a lie. And even the simple discrepancy in the number of CAIR’s posts on the Egypt terror attack versus the infrequent anti-Muslim assault points to the ingrained deceit that dots Islam: Deny its violence. Promote its peace. And attack, attack attack when that image is threatened.
Well, rhetoric only goes so far. Body counts, on the other hand, speak loudly. And what’s speaking pretty loudly right now is the real-time countdown of Ramadan-tied kills that’s posted online for all to see — the real-time countdown, combined with the curious responses of Islam apologists to real-time Islamic terror attacks on innocence and youth.
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