Who is Really Distorting Islam?

Daniel Greenfield

"All of us recognize that this great religion (Islam), in the hands of a few extremists, has been distorted."

Barack Hussein Obama


"Those who know nothing of Islam pretend that Islam counsels against war. Those [who say this] are witless. Islam says: Kill all the unbelievers just as they would kill you all!"

Ayatollah Khomeini


While we now know that a young Obama rebelled against his mother and attended Koran classes, he clearly didn't attend nearly enough of them. Or the Harvard genius is back to playing dumb.

According to Obama, and so much of the political establishment, the Koran is being distorted by a "few extremists" somewhere who are trying to convince the billion peaceful Muslims, that it actually promotes violence. But first a few obvious questions. How many exactly is a "few"? Are we talking about a few dozen, a few thousand, a few million? Naturally Obama and the Islam apologists never really address that question. Because it is a rather inconvenient question. Since Muslims are defined by religious streams and mosque attendance, it should be easy enough to come up with a realistic figure.

We could start with the population of Saudi Arabia, which ranks at some 25 million. That is quite a "few" extremists right there. Then there's Pakistan with a population of 166 million. That's a few more, right there. Of course officially both countries are allies of the United States and have nothing to do with terrorism. Even when it's funded by their own governments.

So let's move on to a slightly more definitive figure. In 2006, the Palestinian Arabs held an election. 440,000 of them voted for Hamas. A terrorist organization. In the 2009 Lebanon election, a coalition that included Hezbollah and the Baath Party won over 800,000 votes. So certainly we know that there are more than 1 million "misunderstanders" of Islam out there. And that's out of a tiny portion of the Muslim world.

But as to the next question, is the vast majority of Muslims and their mosques and clergy are peaceful, then how can those who "distort its vision" ever be a real threat? If there is nothing of violence in Islam, then what exactly can they do? Re-edit the Koran? Insert verses that don't exist there. But when asked about Jihad, even Barack Hussein Obama is forced to backpedal and say, that it has a lot of meanings in Islam. But if Islam is peaceful, then how could there be a non-peaceful meaning at all?

"Well, the phrase jehad has a lot of meanings within Islam. It is subject to lot of different interpretations."

Barack Hussein Obama


"Jihad means the conquest of all non-Muslim territories. Such a war may well be declared after the formation of an Islamic government worthy of that name, at the direction of the Imam or under his orders. It will then be the duty of every able-bodied adult male to volunteer for this war of conquest, the final aim of which is to put Qur'anic law in power from one end of the earth to the other."

Ayatollah Khomeini


Islamic apologists love to hide behind phrases like "Jihad has many meanings". We could also say that "Mein Kampf" has many possible meanings and interpretations in German. It could refer to a struggle getting out of bed in the morning, or the struggle to promote world conquest and genocide. While in Islam, Jihad can mean the struggle to get out of bed in time for morning prayers, it also can and does frequently mean the struggle to promote world conquest and genocide.

The Koran is fairly straightforward about these things. It uses Jihad to clearly and unambiguously mean fighting non-Muslims. To pretend otherwise, is like pretending that Mein Kampf was probably written about Hitler's struggle to get through art school.

Nazism wasn't built on Hitler's art school efforts, and Islam wasn't built on Mohammed rising early to pray to the dunes. They were both built on war and conquest. Without war and conquest, Islam would have been nothing more than another obscure cult of interest only to National Geographic photographers. With Jihad, it became a horrifying wave of terror and death that destroyed cultures, subjugated peoples and turned daily life into a horror for countless millions.

"We affirm that Hindu or Muslim or Christian or Jew or any other religion; we all need to treat each other with respect and dignity"

Barack Hussein Obama


"Believers, take not Jews and Christians for your friends. They are but friends and protectors to each other."

Koran 5:51


Here Obama is arguing with the Koran. And it is impossible to win an argument about the nature of Islam with the Koran.

Obama might like to pretend that the Koran is about how snowflakes, puppies and unicorns... but it's a xenophobic creed which actively promotes hate toward non-Muslims. Islam does not pretend that non-Muslims are the equal of Muslims, not legally or socially. It imprisons them in ghettos, treats their lives as worthless and enslaves them at will.

The best evidence of this is the status of non-Muslims in the Muslim world. While the number of Muslims in the West continues to grow, the number of Christians and Jews in the Muslim world continues to shrink. Most Jews have fled the Muslim world. They are even fleeing Western countries with large numbers of Muslim residents. The Vatican recently held a synod to discuss the vanishing Christian communities of the Middle East.

If Islam were tolerant, then it would play host to thriving Christian, Jewish, Bahai and Zoroastrian communities. Instead it has put the boot down on them. Not because a few extremists in a cave hijacked a tolerant religion, but because this is the real face of Islam. This is what Islam has always been like.

"The overwhelming majority (of Muslims) want peace, justice, fairness and tolerance."

Barack Hussein Obama


"Convert to Islam, and then you will be safe, for if you don't, you should know that I have come to you with an army of men that love death, as you love life."

Caliph Abu Bakr, Mohammed's Successor


Who is really distorting Islam? Is Barack Hussein Obama correct that Islam's vision is being distorted by a few men in caves somewhere, or is Obama the "distorter" of Islam?

Even a brief reading of Islamic history makes the answer all too obvious. It is not Al Qaeda that is distorting Islam, but Obama. And not Obama alone. Liberal elites in the West have firmly dedicated themselves to misrepresenting and distorting Islam, in order to continue Islamic immigration into the West. To filling America, Europe, Canada, Australia and all the rest up, until every little boy is named Mohammed, and every little girl has to cover her face, or have acid thrown in it.

Is the former self-proclaimed "Jakarta street kid" in the White House really ignorant about what Islam represents, or is he playing a double game. It does not take a genius to simply look at the Muslim world, and compare the average level of human rights in it, with the average level of human rights in Christian and Jewish countries, and come to some rather obvious conclusions.

But while liberals assail Judaism and Christianity, condemn America and Israel, their choirs of academics and politicians sing the praises of Islam. If you believe them, then there is nothing wrong with Islam. Just a few black sheep like Al-Awlaki and some bigoted Islamophobes in America. But if that's the case, then why is the Muslim world so ugly? Why does it mistreat women and minorities? Why does it have the state sponsored murder of gay men? Why does it send Christians to reeducation camps? Why does it adopt the Mein Kampf as a second Koran and preach the murder of Jews?

There is only one answer. There is something rotten in Islam. And for all the poison that Obama may pour into our ears, it is he who is distorting Islam.