February 20, 2006
Why Do They Hate Us? Because They Do
Westerners are asking why radical Islamists hate us and have come up with a plethora of answers, ranging from "misunderstanding" to "haves vs. have-nots."
Brigitte Gabriel is an Arab Christian who suffered at the hands of Muslims in her childhood because she is an infidel in their eyes. She shared her story and her insights at the Intelligence Summit last Saturday, February 18. Excerpts from her speech are posted on Frontpage Magazine. Here is one of the most powerful passages:
America cannot effectively defend itself in this war unless and until the American people understand the nature of the enemy that we face. Even after 9/11 there are those who say that we must “engage” our terrorist enemies, that we must “address their grievances”. Their grievance is our freedom of religion. Their grievance is our freedom of speech. Their grievance is our democratic process where the rule of law comes from the voices of many not that of just one prophet. It is the respect we instill in our children towards all religions. It is the equality we grant each other as human beings sharing a planet and striving to make the world a better place for all humanity. Their grievance is the kindness and respect a man shows a woman, the justice we practice as equals under the law, and the mercy we grant our enemy. Their grievance cannot be answered by an apology for who or what we are.
Absolutely a must-read.
Show Comments
In just a few more years the last people who actually lived through a real world war will be gone. Vietnam was just a minor fracas, and the Gulf and Iraq wars? Give me a break.
Someone blogged today about the battle of Verdun in WWI--about 400,000 men were killed on both sides in ten months or so. That's more men killed than our total troop deployment in Iraq.
My point is that we're fat, dumb and happy and spoiled; we don't have a clue what real hardship is like. We lost, on average, over 2,000 men killed a week during WWII. That's one 9/11 every ten days--for almost four years.
We better start thinking hard about the words of people like Brigitte Gabriel.
