Nature of the Threat

If I were to ask you who attacked us on 9-11, you would probably say terrorists or al-Qaeda, and you would be right. But the mainstream press and other powerful people are not encouraging you to think deeper. Al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden only scratch the surface of the true nature of the threat.

First though, before I begin I would like to remind you that this article is about radical Muslim terrorists. It does not represent mainstream Islam. Whenever I use the word “they” I am referring to the radical element and not the entire religion of Islam. There are many Muslims in the United States, and most all of them are good, law abiding people.

Many citizens of the United States believe 9-11 was only an attack on the United States and its policies. But that would not explain the bombings in Britain, Spain, France, India, Israel, and many others. President Bush defines it as “the decisive ideological struggle of the 21st century” and he is closer to the truth.

Actually, the true nature of the threat lies in the Middle East culture, a culture of hate. Young people like you and me are being taught to hate all westerners. I learned this from a special that aired on CNN a few months ago, “Exposed: The Extremist Agenda”. Host Glenn Beck aired footage that few in the U.S. have seen. Children as young as three being taught that Jewish people are decedents of apes and pigs. Children in elementary school being taught that martyrdom should be their goal in life. But the most shocking thing is that the children believe it and espouse it in public. On a day in Iran called Jerusalem Day, radical Iranians come to protest the Jewish state. But the Jews are not the only topic. On Iranian TV, a newscaster, live at the parade spoke to a boy that looked about nine years old. He asked “What is today?” The boy responded joyfully, “Jerusalem Day!” The newsman asks, “What did you come for?” The boy responded, “We came to do the ‘Death to America’ thing.” The “Death to America” thing is very common, especially in Iran. Many people gather and echo a leader chanting “Death to America”. Then that is often followed by “Death to Israel” and “Death to Great Britain”. It is hard to even describe the scene of thousands chanting their hatred for our country.

Not only are the children being indoctrinated, but the mass population is as well. On a reliable website called MEMRI, the Middle East Media Research Institute, there are over 1,300 clips from Middle East television. On nightly news programs, reporters report on the news of the day which is similar to our news. But on these programs there is a fundamental bias in the facts. Most bad news is blamed on Israel, the United States, or even democracy in general. The reports also attack western business. For example, in a story from Iran, it cited that the Pepsi and Coke soda company’s profits are going to Israel to topple the Iranian government. This is obviously false, but the reporter presents the story and its claims as true fact. Now you may be asking, “You’re just pointing out one station, this can’t be every one?” Well, in the Middle East there is only one news station in a country, and it is run by the government. So if the news tells you something, you have no reason to believe otherwise.

This indoctrination translates into hatred for western governments and culture. In some cases it also leads to violence and war. Brigitte Gabriel, a woman who grew up in Lebanon, and lived through their civil war in the 1970’s and 80’s, even wrote a book about the barbaric behavior she witnessed. She writes in her book, that once some Palestinian terrorists ran into a near by bomb shelter, found a mother, father and a little baby. They took the baby and tied one leg to the mother, and one to the father, and pulled them apart killing the baby. On another occasion a mother was found by the terrorists and forced to behead her only son, and then watch as other Palestinians raped her two daughters in front of her. This is only a sampling of the barbaric nature of these terrorists. This is a sampling of what they would do to any of us if they could.

Some may call it an overreaction to define the War on Terror as World War III, but I don’t. When you only count the major three terrorist groups, al-Qaeda, Hamas, and Hezbollah, they have murdered over 4,900 people combined, and wounded over 13,000, and these are only the documented incidents. The countries they have attacked include the United States, Kenya, Tanzania, Yemen, Pakistan, Indonesia, Turkey, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Iraq, Israel, Britain, France, Italy, Jordan, Belgium, Greece, Egypt, Kuwait, Denmark, Argentina, Spain, Lebanon, and numerous others. So it is not the U.S. vs. the terrorists, it is the world vs. the terrorists.

But I’ll take it one step further. The terrorists glorify death to make it seem better than life. They want to convince young children that their life here is horrible and heaven is more desirable. You can call this war what you want, but in my opinion, this war is life vs. death. And if you don’t believe that, just listen to the words of Osama bin Laden, “We love death. The U.S. loves life. That is the big difference between us.”


The Teen Conservative