In the footsteps of their father

Huweida Arraf, one of the leaders of the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) called the hanging of ISF activist Vitorrio Arrigone (36) a “senseless killing.”

And it was, absolutely. But not for the reason Ms. Arraf cited.

“Vittorio was really loved in Gaza,” she told reporters. “I didn’t think there was even a 1 percent chance they would kill him. It was a complete shock.”

Yes, he was loved. Ever since his 2008 arrival in Gaza, Arrigone had identified himself with the plight of the Palestinian people. He shared our pain, wept for our children, and opposed Israel, convinced that Zionists are responsible for all of our troubles. On April 5, thousands of Palestinians turned out to a Hamas rally to honor the Italian militant.

And now he’s dead—a “barbaric murder” and a “vile and irrational gesture of violence on the part of extremists indifferent to the value of a human life,” said the Italian Foreign Ministry. Killed by an al-Qaeda-inspired Salafi group that sees Hamas as too tame and too slow.

Mr. Arrigone is dead, not in spite of the fact that he loved and was loved, but because he did not understand.

ISM activist Rachel Corrie was crushed by an Israeli army bulldozer in southern Gaza in 2003 because she did not understand. That same year, a British ISM activist was shot to death by an Israeli soldier because he did not understand.

Senseless killings all.

These compassionate Westerners, along with the pro-Palestinian activists aboard the Mavi Marmara a year ago and a thousand more in the 15-ship Freedom Flotilla that plans to test the Israeli blockade next month, rush into the Palestinian territories like bulls—backs arched, heads down, committed, determined, righteous, and ignorant.

They pour into Gaza to condemn and ease a non-existent humanitarian crisis. They come to bully Israel and shame the international community. They wrap black and white kefiyehs around their necks, drink strong coffee, march, and shout through bullhorns. And they die. Victims of the movement they don’t understand. Of the very religion they defend. Of the politics that manipulates them like pawns and shrugs when they are sacrificed.

Their hearts are too big for their heads. They stop their ears when we warn of the complexities of the Middle East conflicts. They get a little sand in their shoes and lamb in their bellies and think they understand. But they know nothing of the oceans of blood soaked into Middle Eastern sands over fourteen centuries, shed by Muslim swords.

They cannot or will not see that the Salafis follow in their father Muhammad’s footsteps, killing infidels wherever they find them. A caption on the YouTube video that showed a bruised and blindfolded Arrigoni called Italy “the infidel state.” To them, Mr. Arrigoni was an infidel, no matter how much he was loved by the Palestinian people.

They cannot or will not see that Hamas follows in its father Muhammad’s footsteps, playing politics when it suits them, building schools when they need to, blowing up school buses when they have the opportunity.

The good, bad, and indifferent are all Islam. And Islam, more than a religion or a cultural or political system, is an excuse. Anything and everything is justified in the name of Allah, reflecting the countless contradictions and errors in the Qur’an itself.

Unless Westerners open their eyes and ears (see www.thequran.com), and begin to act with their heads as well as their hearts, Islam will devour more victims like Vitorrio Arrigone.

More flotillas will challenge the Israeli blockade, some bringing food and activists from Western nations, others bringing long-range rockets, surface-to-air missiles, and sophisticated anti-tank weapons and explosives from Iran, Syria, Russia, and China.

And Islam will advance unopposed to fill the leadership vacuums in Egypt and throughout the Middle East and North Africa.

What’s the media afraid of?

People who heard me say that Islam will cease to exist before 2019 always ask me, what can we do to help make that happen?

As I’ve said again and again, truth is Islam’s worst enemy. My people have been in the Dark Ages for fourteen centuries. They desperately need an Islamic Reformation like the Protestant Reformation led by Martin Luther, William Tyndale, and other church fathers.

The key now, as then, is truth.

What the printing press was to the ignorance of the 15^th century, the Internet, smart phones, and the social network are to ignorance in the new millennium.

But by far, the most revolutionary development to take place since Muhammad is thequran.com. Yet, virtually no one has heard of it.

The media appears to be terrified and won’t let me or anybody else connected with the project on the air to talk about it.

Why? Even FOX News, that followed my story—including Homeland Security’s attempt to deport me—when it was politically incorrect to do so, won’t put me on to talk about thequran.com. Policy-shaping men and women who know the truth about Islam are afraid to show the Islamic world where it can go to learn that same truth.

It breaks my heart, because everyone connected with the project has sacrificed everything, even risking their lives, to expose the countless lies and errors in the Qur’an and liberate 1.5 billion people who have been taught that Islam’s holiest book is from the mouth of God who cannot lie or be wrong.

For years, thequran.com project has been painstakingly developed by scores of former Muslims and passionate Islamic scholars representing a variety of Arabic and Middle-Eastern cultural backgrounds, as well as educational specialties in the field of Islamic studies. They include Islamic researchers, academic teachers, scholars, writers, editors, and translators and span several continents.

This project is not a bunch of Western Christians dissing Islam’s holy book. It’s former Muslims, just like me, who have the courage to challenge the system. Who said, okay, if our Qur’an is the word of God, it should easily stand up to scrutiny. If God said it, there will be no mistakes in it. So they examined it, and they discovered the truth.

No one has ever analyzed the Qur’an like this. Only 25 percent of the world’s Muslims speak, read or write Arabic, So they can’t even understand it, much less criticize it.

As for the rest, they chant the Qur’an five times a day with no idea what they are saying, what it means, or how it fits in the context of the rest of the book. Because it is chanted, it takes on a mystical aura of holiness that captures their emotions and their hearts. They are indoctrinated from birth that their religious leaders are not to be questioned, and those who dare are scolded, ridiculed, even beaten.

Can you begin to see why thequran.com is so important?

Any Muslim on the planet can click on the site in complete privacy and examine the Qur’an, word by word, line by line, sura by sura. Every scientific error is noted. Every historical error. Every grammatical error. Every geographical error. Every contradiction. The site also includes scholarly articles and analyses.

And now, The Qur’an Dilemma, Volume One (the first nine suras, or chapters) is available in a beautiful, fully-annotated hardcover book!

The research text was translated from Arabic to give English-speaking readers the opportunity to see the Qur’an through lenses that are not fogged by propaganda or missionary zeal.

The Qur’an Dilemma presents the text of the Qur’an with parallel commentary, addressing important issues that Muslim scholars have wrestled with for centuries, shedding light on their attempts to resolve them, and giving an overview of the various schools of thought.

This book is for non-Muslims who want to unravel the mysteries of Islam and for Muslims, who want to decide for themselves their intellectual and spiritual paths. And even though Volume One covers only the first nine suras,* it is more than enough to prove that the Qur’an is not God’s words, is not infallible, is not inerrant—and to cast serious doubt on the validity of Islam itself.

So, you want to know what you can do to hasten the Islamic Reformation?

Buy the book. Buy multiple copies, and give them to your friends (you would be hard pressed to find a more beautiful and informative gift).

Do you have Muslim friends, neighbors or coworkers who have talked to you about Islam? Present them with a copy of the book. In Arab culture, gifts are received with great appreciation, and they are likely to read it if only to honor you.

Please visit thequran.com, where you can purchase copies of The Quran Dilemma. Or, if you wish, you can purchase both the English-language and Arabic-language edition at on Amazon.

 

*The second volume of The Qur’an Dilemma (suras 11-114, is in production and will be available both in English and Arabic in 2012

Up the revolution!

“In a revolution, as in a novel, the most difficult part to invent is the end.”

Alexis de Tocqueville

Go to the BBC. Go to Al Jazeera. Go to Facebook, Twitter or any of thousands of blogs. What do you see?

The beginning of the end of Islam.

The violence and deaths are terrible. The Libyan massacre is criminal. The transitions are dangerous. Yet, the revolution is good news.

Two years ago, FOX produced a six-part documentary called “Escape from Hamas.” At the end of the first part, I told Jonathan Hunt that “I believe Islam is collapsing already. It looks from the outside like it’s growing. But from the inside, it’s completely collapsing. It’s not giving answers to the people. It’s not improving their lives. It’s not helping them at all. Within ten years, that’s it, Islam’s going to be over.”

I didn’t have inside information. I just knew the transformational influence that Al Hayat TV’s Arabic-language programming had on my life in Ramallah. Today, Al Hayat reaches 95 percent of the Arabic-speaking world. At any given time, between 20 and 50 million Arabs watch its informative and motivational satellite programs. They hear indisputable facts about Islam and the Prophet that no one in their communities would dare even to whisper, truth that is toppling the pillars of Islam.

I also knew two years ago that everybody today is plugged in. Information that has been hidden from Muslims for 1,400 years is suddenly at their fingertips with the click of a mouse. And anyone can pull a phone/mini-computer the size of a cigarette pack out of their pocket or purse and talk to one another across the street, across town, at the other end of the country, on the other side of the world.

With every news update from North Africa and the Middle East, the region emerges a little more from the Dark Ages.

After the fall of the Roman Empire, the Christian Church collapsed into a socio-political theocracy like Islam. Only priests had bibles, and few could even read them. For Christians, like Muslims, life became mindless obedience to man-made dogma and superstition. When Martin Luther nailed those ninety-five theses to the door of All Saints Church, his hammer echoed beyond Wittenberg to the remote corners of Europe. The Reformation would have dawned much sooner if he could have posted a few bullet points on Facebook.

Islamic political regimes cannot survive exposure. They cannot suppress informed people. They can’t fight social networks.

For 14 centuries, Islam crouched inside towering walls of isolation and ignorance. But the information and technology revolutions are shattering them like trumpet blasts before Jericho’s gates.

And the lies come tumbling down.

One of the biggest lies that has kept Islam alive is the belief that there is a difference between radical and moderate Islam. Islam is one, no matter where someone stands on the ladder between culture and jihad.

Another is the nature of Muhammad. Today, 1.5 billion Muslims follow a man they don’t know. Modern Muhammad is the creation of their imaginations. He bears no resemblance to the vile man who built a self-serving dynasty by oppressing his people and killing, in God’s name, everyone who opposed him.

On the other hand, today’s despots bear a striking likeness to the true Muhammad. Mubarak, Gaddafi, Ahmadinejad are Islamic leaders who get their strength from Islam and maintain their iron grip by Islam. They are the same stripe as caliphs from Muhammad and Abu Bakr to Al-Mustansir Billah and Abdul Majid.

But most Muslims do not understand this. They think, like Muslim Brotherhood founder Hassan al-Banna, that the solution to all their problems is to return to Islam. They are like my father, who wants change but does not understand that the strength of the system he hates comes from Islam itself.

So what can we do to hasten Islam’s destruction?

We need another revolution. A second revolution against Muhammad and the Qur’an itself.

Al Hayat TV is systematically undermining the foundations of Islam. At the same time, on websites like www.thequran.com, Islamic scholars—not Western theologians—disassemble the Qur’an and its variant readings, word by word, verse by verse, sura by sura and expose every historical, grammatical, social, political and scientific error and contradiction in what its followers are taught is a flawless, inerrant holy book.

Al-Hayat

The young men now in the Middle East, this confused generation, are angry and hungry and trying to bring down their political systems. They need to understand that their real fight is not against systems but against the ideology that spawned the systems. Only when Muhammad and the Qur’an are exposed will the people of North Africa and the Middle East have freedom. If we fail to reach them with the truth, they will rebuild far worse regimes than those they tore down.

When Christians understand the person and teachings of Jesus Christ, they become different people. And when Muslims understand the fraud that has oppressed them for centuries, they will look for a different way. They too will have the opportunity to become different people, free people. And the leaders that emerge from a free people will promote and protect their freedoms.

After we expose the true nature of Islam to the Muslim world, we must open the eyes of the rest of the world that tolerates and accommodates Islam.

If we join the information revolution alongside our Middle Eastern brothers and sisters, it will not take ten years to destroy Islam. Islam will not survive even two more years.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad prophesied that “the wave of the Islamic revolution will soon reach the entire world.” I believe him. But the global revolution will be against Islam, not of Islam.

Middle East up for grabs

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Reuters

The current administration may not believe in American exceptionalism, but it has been handed a golden opportunity to make America exceptional.

A good first step was putting Egypt’s $1.5 billion U.S. aid package on the table, insisting that, if Hosni Mubarak expects to cash that check, “there must be reform—political, social and economic reforms that meet the aspirations of the Egyptian people,” adding that the Egyptian president “has a responsibility to give meaning to” his recently promised reforms.

The same thing, however, holds true for the Washington ultimatum.

Actually, the government is only saying what every administration since Eisenhower should have been saying and acting upon.

Unlike any other country, America was founded on a Constitution that ensures basic human rights. Yet, for more than half a century, America and the West have turned a blind eye and deaf ear to flagrant human rights abuses in Egypt and other countries they support. Tyrants loot and torture their own people, yet we maintain an uninterrupted flow of aid dollars to ensure low gas prices and protect favorable trade agreements.

Even today, as clouds of black smoke choke much of the Middle East, Western eyes are glued to pump prices, when our hearts should be broken over decades of needless human suffering. And what did we get by compromising our principles? Next week, we will still pay $4 a gallon. And the Middle East is unraveling.

Whether Mubarak stays or follows his family to London, the Muslim Brotherhood has gained ground in Cairo. And Cairo controls the border with Israel, which determines the flow of Iranian weapons to Hamas, the daughter of the Brotherhood. Cairo controls the Suez Canal, the global passageway for oil distribution, which  affects the economy of every oil-producer in the Middle East, as well as the schizophrenic world economy.

Hezbollah has taken Lebanon. If no one intervenes, Jordan will follow Egypt. And Pakistan will not be far down the line with its prize of nuclear weapons.

The Middle East has become a jungle. Rage and revenge are the driving forces. No one can guess what will happen next. Politicians and pundits are turning themselves inside out trying to get their heads around every new, unforeseen development. Trying to connect dots, construct scenarios, predict direction and momentum, prepare for an endgame that no one can envision . . . or dares to imagine.

Oppressed people have discovered that the Tunisia Effect is exportable.

But Mubarak is not the only object of Egyptian wrath. The United States is viewed as his co-conspirator, the muscle that enabled him to hold onto his dictatorship for 30 years.

The mobs hate him. They hate us.

They Tweet anger and revenge and fan the flames on Facebook, forgetting that it was the United States that gave them the social network that overthrew Ben Ali and has Mubarak on the defensive. Forgetting that the $1.5 billion is for them, that we are the givers, not the thieves. They want change, jobs, education. They want to be able to afford food for their families—all of which we want for them. They need to remember, as they struggle to throw off their oppressors, that we are their friends, not their enemies. They enjoy the benefits of inventions and discoveries in medicine, housing, education, energy, transportation and agriculture that came from the West.

Yes, our governments have made wrong choices. But they don’t imprison and torture us. The streets of our cities are not clogged with tanks and troops. Our newspapers print whatever they want. We worship any way we want, read what we want, say what we want, come and go freely, provide for our families. And we are the first to show up with help at the scene of any disaster, anywhere in the world.

Nevertheless, Western governments need to stop compromising their values for the bottom line. We must stop supporting regimes that are guilty of systemic human rights abuses.

Diplomacy is unlikely to turn the tide in the Middle East. One of the most effective things we can do now is go to our keyboards and engage the Egyptian people. Assure them, one on one, that we are with them. If the social network can help bring down governments, it can help to rebuild them. If it can spread hatred, it can spread hope.

Radical? Absolutely!

Crazy?

Crazy is to let evil triumph while good men do nothing. Because the truth is that America is filled with good men and women. America is exceptional.

And despite the self-serving decisions and failed policies of the past five decades, it is not yet too late for the West to serve as an architect of a stable and perhaps even democratic Middle East.