I’ve got some good news to report.
Many of you who read this column daily suggest I’m too much of a doom-and-gloomer. I only tell you bad news, and you’re sick of it.
You’re right. I do tend to focus on problems. Most journalists are guilty of that offense. It’s the nature of the news, I guess.
But today is different. Here’s what put a smile on my face today.
Zogby International, a polling company run by an Arab-American, John Zogby, finds that 70 percent of Arab Americans support an all-out war against countries that aid or harbor terrorists – countries from which they or their families may have emigrated.
I think that’s good news. And, furthermore, I think it’s accurate – from my own unscientific smell test.
As you know, I am an Arab American. And this is the way I feel. In fact, I believe President Bush has been too timid in pursuing the roots of Arab and Islamic terrorism.
Furthermore, 63 percent of the Arab Americans polled by Zogby identified themselves as Christians. Zogby points out that only 24 percent of Arab Americans are Muslims. Most Americans don’t understand this.
It is one of the reasons Americans have accepted bogus statistics produced by the Islamic-American community claiming a population of between 6 million and 7 million Muslims in the U.S. That’s crazy. It’s not even close to reality.
As scholar Daniel Pipes points out, the American Religious Identification Survey 2001 carried out by the Graduate Center of the City University of New York found the total American Muslim population closer to 1.8 million. Other credible reports have placed the number as high as 2.8 million.
By the way, there’s more good news in the Zogby report.
More than two-thirds of Arab Americans say they have not personally experienced discrimination because of their heritage. That, too, reflects my own personal, anecdotal experience.
America is a loving nation, one whose arms are open wide to immigrants from around the world. It is a forgiving nation. It is a nation not inclined toward prejudice and hatred. If Americans have a fault, it is that they don’t recognize real dangers others pose. They are blind to them. They assume everyone else thinks like they do.
And that, I’m afraid, is where the good news for the day ends.
I recently had the privilege of viewing a remarkable documentary, most of which was prepared and broadcast on PBS six years ago. It’s called “Terrorists Among Us: Jihad in America,” produced by Steven Emerson.
The video goes undercover to tell the story of Islamicist plotting – right here in America – to undermine our society, undercut our values and, ultimately, destroy our civilization.
As the numbers presented by Zogby show, this is not a broad-based conspiracy involving millions of Arab Americans. It is not a conspiracy involving anywhere close to a majority of American Muslims. It is not a conspiracy that relies on a mass movement to achieve its goals.
But, nevertheless, it is a serious threat – as the events of Sept. 11 made clear to every American.
Here’s the way Daniel Pipes puts it in his latest commentary: “The Muslim population in this country is not like any other group, for it includes within it a substantial body of people – many times more numerous than the agents of Osama bin Laden – who share with the suicide hijackers a hatred of the United States and the desire, ultimately, to transform it into a nation living under the strictures of militant Islam. Although not responsible for the atrocities in September, they harbor designs for this country that warrant urgent and serious attention.”
I concur wholeheartedly with that view.
But before such urgent and serious attention is forthcoming from U.S. officials, it is necessary for many more Americans to recognize the problem.
That recognition can only come when Americans are armed with information. Here are three personal recommendations for the beginning of such an education:
“Terrorists Among Us: Jihad in America”
“Jihad: The Radical Islamic threat to America” (Whistleblower magazine’s special November edition)
“Bin Laden: The Man Who Declared War on America”
