I admire devotion. If you want to submit to Allah, if you want to follow the spiritual guidance of the Koran, that’s fine.

I also admire people who back up their convictions with action – but we Americans need to understand, as a nation, that when we invite Islam into our country, that comes with a risk. The risk that a Muslim will at some point choose to place their loyalty to Islam above their loyalty to America.

We are naive if we think that isn’t possible. Fort Hood was one example, the failed bomb in Times Square was another.

When I say these things, this is not hate mongering. This is not inciting violence – this is voicing a legitimate concern. Anyone who starts shouting objections or getting angry because I say these things is just making my point for me. We need to start seeing that reaction of “you’re racist, you’re a hater” as the manipulative strategy it is: if you don’t like what someone is saying, accuse them of being “hateful and bigoted”.

I don’t hate Islam, don’t hate Muslims – I love America, for all it’s flaws, and I love the freedom we have here of being able to disagree – even to mock ideas we find ridiculous – without having to worry about someone cutting off our heads or hanging our children to punish us.

The cultural diversity crowd would object noisily to this, but I think this is true, if not obvious: Muslims follow the Koran, their loyalty is to Islam first and foremost, and just because they happen to be in the United States does not change that loyalty.

People refer to Islamic extremists. Is it extremism for a Muslim to live their life by their Holy Book, by the Koran? Is that extremism, or is that simply being a devoted Muslim? Of course not all Muslims live this out by planting bombs – but how do we protect ourselves from those who do?

The Koran teaches Muslims to fight against the kuffar (unbelievers) – the ayat and ahadith exhort Muslims to NOT even make friends with the kuffar. This is one of the factors that make it more unlikely that Muslims will assimilate into our society. It’s one of the reasons we read about second generation American Muslims joining a jihad somewhere.

The Koran teaches Muslims to fight against the kuffar. Guess what? We are the kuffar. So we should not be puzzled or shocked when they attack us. And we shouldn’t be stupid enough to think that couldn’t possibly happen.

The recent guilty plea of the failed Times Square bomb illustrates the point. This man expressed no loyalty for the country that generously took him in. People say, “All Muslims are not our enemy.” Maybe that’s true, but by his own words this man certainly seems to see himself as an enemy of the US – and what do we need to do to identify individuals like him before a bomb goes off? Better yet, how do we prevent a person like this from wandering loose across our country, looking for a chance to harm our people? From the New York Times:

“The suspect in the failed Times Square bombing pleaded guilty on Monday, an abrupt and expedited end to a terrorism case that extended to Pakistan and an Islamic militant group there.”

“I want to plead guilty, and I’m going to plead guilty 100 times over,” he said, “because until the hour the U.S. pulls its forces from Iraq and Afghanistan, and stops the drone strikes in Somalia and Yemen and in Pakistan, and stops the occupation of Muslim lands, and stops killing the Muslims, and stops reporting the Muslims to its government, we will be attacking U.S., and I plead guilty to that.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/22/nyregion/22terror.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

Sure, not all Muslims living in the US feel this way or would take this kind of action. But those who buy the particular brand of Islam that Al-Qaeda is selling and that the Wahabis are teaching their children (sometimes here in our country, under the guise of being a “school”) may eventually feel obligated to take action against the US. And that means you and your children. Just because you are not a Marine, your 5 year-old daughter is not a Marine, does not make you any less of a target. In the eyes of our enemies, there are no innocent Americans. I think that was clearly demonstrated on 9/11.