The inroads Muslims are making in the western world are achieved inch-by-inch so the changes become difficult for westerners to fully comprehend and to recognize the slow marginalization of all we hold dear in a free society. Muslims practice the clever use of political correctness to classify any mocking or criticism of Islam as ‘racist’ (remember the Danish cartoons), including the obvious need to critically examine people from Muslim countries entering the United States as well as those in the category of highest potential threat who enter the transportation system. (It is trite to say, but a little old lady from Winnetka is not as likely to pose a potential terrorist threat as the bearded Imam from a Mosque preaching that Islam should take over the world.)

Muslims have flexed their muscles in banking as well as the industrial world using petrodollars earned from the accident of oil beneath the camel dung in the Middle East.

Dr. Steven Watts, Senior Research Fellow at the Global Institute for the Study of Culture, Economics, and Strategic Resource Management at Pepperdine University is one of several men making the rounds in America. Kuwait, Dubai, United Arab Emirates and Qatar are using various agents to soften up the ‘kafirs’ on the subject of Sharia banking. For those unfamiliar with Muslim terminology; a ‘kafir’ “is an infidel or unbeliever” of Islam as the one “true” religion. The kafirs are getting Sharia one morsel at a time and Dr. Watts is one of those advancing it. He assures his audiences that Sharia banking is good and even Christian, since it forbids investment in alcohol and gambling.

Dr. Watts and those Islamic apologists like him think they understand the Koran and Islam's theology. They are certain that the good Islam is the right Islam and that the bad Islam of the jihadists is not the real Islam. Watts and others of similar mind 'know' that their version of the Koran is the right one because some Imams have agreed with their limited reading of the Koran; but they ignore the multitude that think and preach otherwise.

However, upon examination of the apologists’ statements about knowledge of Islam, it is clear they have neither knowledge of the ‘Sira’ (Mohammed’s biography) nor the 'Hadith’ (Mohammed's Traditions). To hear them tell it, Islam is the Koran and Islam has nothing to do with Mohammed. Even though someone like Watts may teach about Sharia finance, he doesn't know very much about ‘Sharia law’. (Sharia law includes the subjugation of 'kafirs' and women.) Dr. Watts knows a few "good" Koran verses that agree with his views but ignores the rest of the Koran that contradicts the "good" stuff. Watts is also unaware of the Islamic principle of ‘abrogation’ whereby subsequent Koranic verses that contradict earlier ones take precedent. For example, violent verses in the Koran that occur during Mohammad’s time in Medina supersede the ‘moderate’ verses of the ‘Mecca’ period of Mohammad's life.

To rationalize this incongruity, some Muslims say in Islam where there are two contradictory ideas, both are true. To them, and most Muslims, the Koran is built on the logic of the truth by contradiction. So when the jihad verses contradict the peace verses, both are correct. Why? Both came from Allah. Allah is never wrong by definition, so both sides of the contradiction are true. Western minds simply are unable to comprehend such ‘logic’.

Islam extends the olive branch with one hand and the rapier for slashing and beheading with the other hand. Apologists of Islam want us to focus on the olive branch and would have us forget the jihadist’s sword. As difficult as it may be for us kafirs to believe, Muslims think the Koran teaches peace through jihad. On one level this makes some kind of sense; if you kill all your enemies, you will have peace. Westerners are unwilling to adopt the same course of action and, hence, are at a fatal disadvantage.

The world witnesses almost daily, Arab leaders saying one thing to westerners and exactly the opposite to fellow Muslims. It is hard for most of us to understand the dualistic Islamic ethics. They can say one thing in, for example, ‘peace’ negotiations with Israelis and the opposite to the jihadists. Mohammed encouraged deception of the kafir and the Koran echoes these sentiments. But to Islam apologists, Islam is only a religion and an Islamic religious leader would never lie to us. They do not see that political Islam has no honorable meaning and they have no understanding of Islam's political/religious duality.

God help us.

Copyright by Vincent Gioia

Vincent Gioia is a retired patent attorney living in Palm Desert, California. His articles may be read at www.vincentgioia.com and he may be contacted at gioia@gte.net.