How To Read The Koran (and understand Islam)

Check out this great article by Peter Burrows (which is also available as a pamphlet):

How To Read The Koran (and understand Islam)

Here's an excerpt:

Winston Churchill, in the first volume of his History of World War II, “The Gathering Storm,” wrote that when Adolph Hitler came to power, Hitler’s treatise on politics and philosophy, Mein Kampf, was of such importance that “there was no book that deserved more careful study from the rulers, political and military, of the Allied Powers. All was there — the programme of German resurrection — the concept of the National-Socialist State, the rightful position of Germany at the summit of the world. Here was the new Koran of faith and war: turgid, verbose, shapeless but pregnant with its message.”

Churchill described Mien Kampf as the NEW Koran of faith and war.  If he were around today, Churchill would tell us that there is no book more deserving of our study than the OLD Koran:  “turgid, verbose and shapeless but pregnant with its message.”

Churchill recognized the threat of Islam at an early age.  As a young officer in the British military, he fought against Muslim armies in both Pakistan and the Sudan. The latter experience led him to write “The River War,” published in 1899, in which he made this remarkable observation, in somewhat overwrought prose:

“How dreadful are the curses which Mohammedanism lays on its votaries! Besides the fanatical frenzy, which is as dangerous in a man as hydrophobia in a dog, there is this fearful fatalistic apathy.  — No stronger retrograde force exists in the world. Far from being moribund, Mohammedanism is a militant and proselytizing faith. It has already spread throughout Central Africa, raising fearless warriors at every step; and were it not that Christianity is sheltered in the strong arms of science, the science against which it had vainly struggled, the civilization of Europe might fall, as fell the civilization of ancient Rome.”

That was in written in 1899.  The only thing not true today is that Europe is no longer “sheltered in the strong arms of science.”  Muslims in Pakistan have developed nuclear weapons and Muslims in Iran will soon follow suit.  Muslim oil money buys fighter jets and AK-47s by the boatload and sponsors terrorists by the thousands, many of whom are being welcomed into Europe as immigrants.

Churchill had it figured out over a hundred years ago, yet the three most recent Prime Ministers of Britain have defended Islam, calling it “a religion of peace.”  Ditto Presidents George W. Bush and Barrack Obama.

Even Pope Francis has joined the chorus. A Papal decree in 2013 said, “Faced with disconcerting episodes of violent fundamentalism, our respect for the true followers of Islam should lead us to avoid hateful generalizations, for authentic Islam and the proper reading of the Koran are opposed to every form of violence.”

“Disconcerting acts of violent fundamentalism” is another way of saying, “I’m confused by acts of terror committed by Muslims in the name of their religion.” Saying that “a proper reading of the Koran” reveals Islam to be “opposed to every form of violence” is akin to saying “a proper reading of the Heavens shows the Sun revolves around the Earth,” something believed by previous Popes, much to Galileo’s distress.

Popes, along with Prime Ministers and Presidents, are NOT infallible.

Muslims commit acts of violence against non-Muslims every day, and yet many Western leaders refuse to connect these acts of violence to the religion of Islam, even though the perpetrators often do, sometimes shouting “Allahu Akbar” — Allah is Greater – while killing people.

Churchill identified Islam as a deadly threat to Western civilization because he studied his enemies. I have no doubt he was familiar with Sun Tzu’s ‘The Art of War,’ in which a maxim is to “know your enemy.” When fighting Hitler, Churchill read Mein Kampf. When fighting Muslims, he read the Koran.

It is time we do so, too.  I want to stress at the outset, reading the Koran is NOT difficult if you know HOW to read it, but that takes a little explaining.

Read the whole thing here: How To Read The Koran (and understand Islam).

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A Twinge That Could Stop a Catastrophe

In Gavin de Becker's book, The Gift of Fear, he points out that many times a victim of rape intuitively knows something isn't right — and sometimes knows it in time to do something about it — but the rapist often plays on her kindness, so she ignores her intuition, writes off her own twinge of fear as ridiculous because after all, he's such a nice man.

One of the examples de Becker uses is a woman who was carrying groceries up the stairs to her apartment when a friendly man offered to help her. She had an immediate twinge of fear (what de Becker calls a "survival signal") and she said, "No thank you." But he insisted and when she hesitated because she didn't want to hurt his feelings, he added a little "typecasting" to set the hook. Typecasting is one method manipulators use to influence people. It's a slight insult designed to cause the victim to prove that the insult doesn't apply to her, and in so doing, she makes herself more vulnerable. Read more about it here.

So she overrode her survival signal and accepted his help. She was raped in her apartment, and if it weren't for the fact that she listened to her second twinge of fear, she would have been murdered that night.

There are orthodox Muslims who are using the same manipulative techniques with non-Muslim countries: Appealing to their kindness and typecasting them by implying that if they prevent Muslim immigration, they're racist Islamophobes. Their goal is to get more Muslims into our non-Muslim countries. And as they gain a greater percentage of the population within our countries, they push for more and more concessions — getting the host culture to yield to Islamic standards one small increment at a time. This is what Raymond Ibrahim calls Islam's rule of numbers.

As their numbers grow, their political power grows. Then politicians can no longer ignore this voting block and the push for concessions grows more insistent and demanding. The country is gradually converted to Islamic law.

Almost every non-Muslim country is on this track, yet still in a position to save itself, and some people within each country — more all the time — are listening to our survival signals.

Our twinges of intuition are correct: Islam swallows up cultures. In the end, nothing is left but Islam. That's just what it does. Our twinge is a gift. A warning. Here's the message, clarified into English: "Don't let them in."

Citizen Warrior is the author of the book, Getting Through: How to Talk to Non-Muslims About the Disturbing Nature of Islam and also writes for Inquiry Into Islam, History is Fascinating, and Foundation for Coexistence. Subscribe to Citizen Warrior updates here. You can send an email to CW here. 

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September 11th: A Day That Will Live In Infamy

The link below is a video shot on September 11th from an apartment window facing the Twin Towers. The couple who shot it lived on the 36th floor so they had an overview of the whole event. They didn't release the video to the public until 2005. It's long, but it's an intimate reliving of that day, with sounds of the couples' reaction to events, and the sound of the television news going in the background. The video is entitled simply: What We Saw

Watching the video brought the day back vividly. From my perspective today, 9/11 was a day of awakening for me. Until then, I had no interest in Islam. I didn't think it was important. I didn't understand what caused the terrorist attacks that had happened throughout my childhood (in the 1972 Olympics, the hostage crisis, the hijackings, etc.) and if you had asked me to guess at the time, I probably would have thought terrorists were simply fanatics creating random acts of violence for random reasons — to force a government to release prisoners, to get airtime for their cause, to scare people, or whatever.

But 9/11 was so much worse than previous acts of terrorism, and so much closer to home, it woke me up. The attack on the WTC was obviously a well-organized project by a fairly large group of people, using effective long-term planning, all for the purpose of inflicting a huge number of casualties. And my question was, for what?

It was so shocking, I was strongly motivated to understand where it came from, who these people were, and why they were doing this. What I've learned since then has often surprised me. I had no idea Islamists were such a large group, or so well-funded, or had such an all-compassing goal. But along with discovering the scope of the problem, I've also discovered that ordinary citizens like me could do something to help defeat it.

I feel I've personally repeated what Americans collectively went through in WWII. When the war in Europe and Japan started, most Americans didn't want to get involved. They wanted to go about their business and they hoped the problem would just go away. But when Pearl Harbor was bombed, everything changed. They realized how significant the problem was, and they fully understood their more trivial concerns would have to be put aside. The same change of mind has happened to many of us in the West in response to 9/11 and the change of mind has only deepened with subsequent events.

Since that day I have learned a great deal about Islam, and have been encouraging others to do so too. An understanding of the terrifying brilliance of Islam hasn't become as widespread as I had hoped, but more people are becoming aware of Islam's prime directive, and that is encouraging. I hope you watch the film, What We Saw, share it with your friends, and renew your commitment to finding a solution to the causes that led to 9/11 and the over thirty-nine thousand terrorist attacks since then.

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Day of the Siege

I was talking with two guys at work the other day as we were waiting around, and just to make conversation, I said, "Do you guys know who Charles the Hammer was?" Of course, neither of them did. So I said, "On this day back in 732, a significant historical event happened. For a hundred years after the death of Muhammad, Islamic warriors conquered most of North Africa, including what is now Libya, Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia, in a kind of non-stop jihad. Then they went north. They crossed the Straits of Gibraltar and began their eventual conquest of Spain. They plowed their way through Spain into what is now France, but were stopped by Charles Martel, also known as Charles the Hammer."

They thought that was interesting. Awhile later, we had another lull in the work and I said, "I've got another interesting factoid." I've noticed most people (most of the time) are interested in anything that relieves their boredom, as long as it's not too upsetting, so I had their willing attention.

"Nine hundred and fifty-one years after Charles the Hammer, Islamic forces had conquered Greece, Romania, Bulgaria, and Serbia and were massed at the gates of Vienna, Austria, with the intention of conquering Europe. The Austrians were vastly outnumbered, but the walls of the city were formidable. The bad news for the Austrians was that the army of the Ottoman empire knew how to besiege cities. They'd been doing it for centuries and they were good at it. So the Muslim warriors were well on their way to breaching the city walls when suddenly the king of Poland showed up at the head of an army, coming to the aid of their Christian brothers, and the Islamic forces were defeated. The Polish army saved the day! They saved Austria from becoming an Islamic country. They probably saved Europe."

My two workmates were listening intently and seemed to be enjoying themselves, so I kept on talking. "That was the high water mark of Islam's advance into the West. Get this: They were crushed at the gates of Vienna on September 11th, 1683. That's why Al Qaeda chose that date for the 9/11 attack."

Something happened and we had to get back to work, but I could tell these guys will think differently about ISIS and other recent events now that they heard that little history lesson. In fact, one of the reasons I think they were so intrigued is that recent events have awakened their curiosity about Islam. Most people know very little about it, which makes a lot of current events unnecessarily puzzling to them. People seem, more than ever, to want real information.

That was a few days ago. Tonight, I saw a movie about the attack on Vienna. It's called Day of the Siege. I recommend it (see the trailer here). It didn't have great visual effects, but the acting was good and it brought this important historical event to life. There was very little political correctness in the movie. It was honest and straightforward. Watch it with your friends, especially your Christian friends (because the story's main protagonist is a Christian monk and the movie felt like it was made by and for Christians). More people should know about basic Islamic history. It clarifies things and reduces confusion about events in the news. And it makes for a more informed voting public.

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You Are Ahead of Your Time

You try to tell your friends simple facts about Islam and they often reject it, argue with you, and judge you harshly. Is that because you are a bigot? A racist? A hater?

No. It's because you are ahead of your time.

Someday, because of what you do, those who come after you will understand what you now understand, and those who know you will realize you were one of the brave ones who helped expose Islam for what it is when it was an unpopular opinion.

I just finished watching the movie, Suffragette. It's about women in Britain, early in the 1900s, fighting for the right to vote. British women had been peacefully trying to get the vote for 50 years already. Everyone was against them and the goal seemed impossible. They got no coverage in the press. The idea that women should be able to vote was suppressed. The suffragette's voice and message was silenced, and no amount of effort seemed to make any headway.

And then some of them ran out of patience. They began to push harder for it. And their cause began to get some coverage in the newspapers, but as one woman said in the movie, "The press does nothing but scorn and mock us."

Does that sound familiar?

Women were fired for their participation in the movement — fired, blackballed, beaten, arrested, and even tortured (force fed by shoving a tube up their nose and down their throat to prevent their hunger strike from killing them).

But those few who were committed to the cause carried on, and more and more people joined them. Now it seems ridiculous that women weren't allowed to vote. It's hard to believe so many people — even including many women — were rigidly and adamantly against the idea.

If we stay strong and keep speaking up, the same will happen with us: More and more people will join us. And in the future it will seem ridiculous that anyone ever thought Islam was a religion of peace.

Citizen Warrior is the author of the book, Getting Through: How to Talk to Non-Muslims About the Disturbing Nature of Islam and also writes for Inquiry Into Islam, History is Fascinating, and Foundation for Coexistence. Subscribe to Citizen Warrior updates here. You can send an email to CW here.

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How To Disarm Good People

In the book, The Sociopath Next Door, Martha Stout says something really interesting. Her book is about normal, everyday sociopaths (also known by the somewhat outdated term, "psychopath"). In other words, the book is not about serial killers, but about the neighbor who drives you crazy, the spouse who seems dedicated to making your life miserable, the cruel, unfeeling boss, etc.

A sociopath is someone who feels no empathy for other human beings. The consequences of this lack are enormous. These people are, in many ways, not recognizably human. And there is no cure for sociopathy. It is not caused by upbringing. Therapy only makes them worse.

About two percent of the population is sociopathic, and those who are in a relationship with a sociopath need to understand what makes sociopaths tick. The more you know, the less likely you are to be fooled, used, or destroyed by a sociopath.

But Martha Stout said something interesting for us here in our conversation about Islam. She wrote about the techniques sociopaths use to exploit people around them. Sociopaths use people. And there is one thing sociopaths use more than anything else because it works so well with normal people. Their ultra-effective weapon is to evoke pity. Stout wrote:

The most reliable sign, the most universal behavior of unscrupulous people is not directed, as one might imagine, at our fearfulness. It is, perversely, an appeal to our sympathy.

I first learned this when I was still a graduate student in psychology and had the opportunity to interview a court-referred patient the system had already identified as a "psychopath." He was not violent, preferring instead to swindle people out of their money with elaborate investment scams. Intrigued by this individual and what could possibly motivate him...I asked, "What is important to you in your life? What do you want more than anything else?" I thought he might say "getting money," or "staying out of jail," which were the activities to which he devoted most of his time. Instead, without a moment's hesitation, he replied, "Oh, that's easy. What I like better than anything else is when people feel sorry for me. The thing I really want more than anything else out of life is people's pity."

I was astonished, and more than a little put off. I think I would have liked him better if he had said "staying out of jail," or even "getting money." Also, I was mystified. Why would this man — why would anyone — wish to be pitied, let alone wish to be pitied above all other ambitions? I could not imagine. But now, after twenty-five years of listening to victims, I realize there is an excellent reason for the sociopathic fondness for pity. As obvious as the nose on one's face, and just as difficult to see without the help of a mirror, the explanation is that good people will let pathetic individuals get by with murder, so to speak, and therefore any sociopath wishing to continue with his game, whatever it happens to be, should play repeatedly for none other than pity.

More than admiration — more even than fear — pity from good people is carte blanche. When we pity, we are, at least for the moment, defenseless, and like so many of the other positive human characteristics that bind us together in groups...our emotional vulnerability when we pity is used against us...

The reason I thought that was interesting and relevant is that pity is one of the most common techniques orthodox Muslims use, and it is the main reason they've been able to get away with as much as they have so far. They exploit the egalitarian, multiculturalist, good-hearted nature of non-Muslims. They evoke pity and then use our own kindness and our desire to "get along with others" against us.

I was just reading the book, Tripoli: The United States' First War on Terror. The ruler of Tripoli had been seizing U.S. merchant ships, adding the ship to his own fleet, keeping the contents of the ship, and selling the captured sailors into slavery. It was a very lucrative pirating business. The U.S. wanted Tripoli to stop it, of course. The ruler of Tripoli said, "Sure, we'll stop attacking your ships if you pay us tribute every year."

So for awhile the U.S. paid the tribute because they were a new country and had no navy to speak of, and they wanted to continue with their overseas trade. But the ruler of Tripoli decided the tribute they had agreed to wasn't enough, so he demanded more and when he didn't get it, he started seizing U.S. ships again.

Meanwhile, the U.S. was frantically building a navy, and by this time had enough warships to put up a fight, so they did. Suddenly Tripoli's ruler wanted to talk peace. But in the negotiations, the man negotiating on behalf of the ruler asked for a gift of money. The U.S. said no, absolutely not. The U.S. said basically, "You have not been fair in any way and have only acted as our enemy, and no, we will not pay you to stop the fighting."

Then Tripoli's negotiator tried to appeal to pity: "But Tripoli is very poor," he pleaded. "she cannot subsist without the generosity of her friends; give something then on the score of charity." In this case, Tripoli had already established a poor reputation with the Americans, so the pity plea did not work. But even after the U.S. negotiator said no, Tripoli's negotiator tried to make the U.S. negotiator feel guilty for not feeling pity. He asked, basically, "You say you want peace but you won't give this gift of charity to obtain the peace?"

Islam uses the pity plea anywhere it can. Mohammad used it, Muslims in Tripoli were using it, and Muslims today are still at it. In their dealings with powerful non-Muslims, the basic stance of Islam is: "We are an oppressed, persecuted people. We're a minority. We're under siege. We are wrongly accused. We're the victims of bigotry, hatred, and Islamophobia." And if they can't find anything to point to that proves their oppression, they literally create something.

It's like a game they are playing, except this is a game with very serious consequences. A single sociopath using the appeal to pity can completely ruin the lives of many people. And this is, of course, nothing compared with what orthodox Muslims have done. They've killed over 270 million people since they started. They've ruined even more lives, and they are affecting the lives and livelihoods of billions of us today.

I would like to spend my time working on productive, positive, life-affirming activities. Instead, I am spending many hours of my short time here on earth trying to stop the insidious Islamic encroachment, reading and writing about things I wish didn't exist. It's an upsetting topic. It's disturbing. But the consequences of ignoring it are even worse, so I devote a portion of my life to it.

And, of course, I'm not alone. Each of us has been influenced in hundreds of ways we don't even know about by the third jihad (and the first two jihads).

It's important to understand how they do it. One of the most successful techniques they use is the appeal to pity. The good news is that as soon as you see the appeal for what it is, the game is over, the magic disappears, the trance is lifted.

Citizen Warrior is the author of the book, Getting Through: How to Talk to Non-Muslims About the Disturbing Nature of Islam and also writes for Inquiry Into Islam, History is Fascinating, and Foundation for Coexistence. Subscribe to Citizen Warrior updates here. You can send an email to CW here.  

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