Saudi Hate Publications in the United States
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James Joyner | Monday, February 7, 2005 |
Daveed Gartenstein-Ross highlights a new report by Freedom House entitled, “Saudi Publications on Hate Ideology Fill American Mosques [PDF].” The study looked at Saudi-based literature found in mosques across the United States. Some particularly outrageous quotes (collected by Jeff Jacoby):
- "Everyone who does not embrace Islam is an unbeliever and must be called an unbeliever. . . . One who does not call the Jews and the Christians unbelievers is himself an unbeliever."
- "Whoever believes that churches are houses of God . . . or that what the Jews and Christians do constitutes the worship of God . . . is an infidel."
- To offer greetings to a Christian at Christmas — even to wish "Happy holidays" — is "a practice more loathsome to God . . . than imbibing liquor, or murder, or fornication."
- Jews "are worse than donkeys." They are the corrupting force "behind materialism, bestiality, the destruction of the family, and the dissolution of society."
- Muslims who convert to another religion "should be killed because [they] have denied the Koran."
In a second post, Ross acknowledges some methodological problems with the study pointed out by “Antimedia” but explains why, on balance, it is quite illuminating.
Ross’ CTBlog cohort, Steve Emerson, has been documenting the radicalism of many American mosques for over a decade. The results of the study therefore shouldn’t be surprising. Still, it is rather amazing that such tripe would have much adherence among an audience of people with the freedom these people experience in the United States. Certainly, radical Christian groups could not get away with espousing comparable ideas in societies dominated by Islam.
Update (1748) The Chicago Sun-Times comments on the same study:
Fifteen of the 19 hijackers on 9/11 were Saudis who were indoctrinated by this vicious Wahhabi ideology. Lest you think the Center for Religious Freedom is a partisan group opposed to Islam, you should know it was founded by Eleanor Roosevelt and Wendell Willkie during World War II to fight religious persecution and promote democracy.
The U.S. government has deported some radical imams and the Saudi government claims the noxious ideology has been deleted from textbooks. But the Center found that, as of December 2004, books promoting hatred and violence remain “common reading” in some American mosques. In his State of the Union speech, President Bush exhorted the Saudis to encourage democracy in the Middle East. He should also put intense pressure on them to stop fomenting hate within our borders. It jeopardizes our security and is an insult to our tradition of freedom of religious expression. It flies in the face of everything we hold true.
About the Author: James Joyner is the publisher of Outside the Beltway and the managing editor of the Atlantic Council. He's a former Army officer, Desert Storm vet, and college professor with a PhD in political science from The University of Alabama. He lives just outside the Beltway in Alexandria, Virginia with his wife and infant daughter.
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OTOH, the 9/11 terrorists had no problem assimilating into our culture, frequenting topless bars and enjoying all the freedoms we Americans enjoy only to commit suicide while murdering hundreds of people.
I agree with you that it's difficult to believe that muslims who emigrate to America to escape the tyrannies of their homelands would be unlikely to participate in terrorism. The problem is, we don't know who's emigrated for personal reasons and who's here on a mission.
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