Jihad on our faith

Tomorrow we commemorate the devastating surprise attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, a "date which will live in infamy," as President Franklin D. Roosevelt so eloquently predicted. On a peaceful Sunday morning just weeks before Christmas in 1941, the serene southern coast of Oahu was awakened to the explosion of bombs and the shrill sound of sirens as the air and naval forces of Japan began a deadly assault on the U.S. Pacific fleet, resulting in the death of over 2,300 U.S. military personnel. Few Americans of that era would forget where they were when they learned of that treacherous attack.

Nor can we forget that sunny day on Sept. 11, 2001, when we learned of the vicious attack on the World Trade Center in New York City. In a matter of minutes, nearly 3,000 people perished at the hands of a new enemy: Islamic terrorists.

The attack on Pearl Harbor signaled the entry of the United States into World War II and the beginning of the end for Japanese expansionism. Sixty years later, that fateful day in New York brought to our shores a new type of war known as "jihad" or "holy war."

Throughout our history, the American people have turned to God in times of great peril. In 1941 President Roosevelt declared:

With confidence in our armed forces – with the unbounding determination of our people – we will gain the inevitable triumph – so help us God.

And in 2001, on the evening following the attack on the Twin Towers, President George Bush publicly turned to God for strength:

Tonight, I ask for your prayers for all those who grieve. ... And I pray they will be comforted by a power greater than any of us, spoken through the ages in Psalm 23: "Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for You are with me."

While certain similarities exist between the attack on Pearl Harbor and those of 9-11, both of which became turning points in our history, they also offer a sharp contrast. In 1941, we fought an identified enemy who sought the military defeat of our nation. The conflict of the 21st century, however, is one against an enemy who is not identified by nationality, race or language, but by their Muslim beliefs. It is a religious war with an enemy who hates our prosperity, our culture and our Christian faith. A basic teaching of the Quran is that all infidels, i.e., those who do not acknowledge "Allah" as the true god, should be killed wherever they are found. Such is the nature of this new war.

A great danger to our country exists when government offices and institutions are opened to Islamic influence, often based on the false premise that Allah is the same as the God of the Bible, the Judeo-Christian God upon Whom our country began. For instance, mosques have been opened up at the U.S. Marine Corps headquarters at Quantico, Va., and at the United States Military Academy at West Point. One of al-Qaida's top fund-raisers in America, Abdurahman Alamoudi, helped provide Muslim chaplains to our military through his Pentagon-certified American Muslim Armed Forces and Veterans Affairs Council – until 2003, that is, when he was convicted of terror-related charges. That same year, one of those Muslim chaplains, West Point graduate Capt. James "Yousef" Yee, was charged with mishandling classified information at the Guantanamo Bay detention facility. Charges were dropped when Yee later resigned from the Army.

Muslim membership in our military is at 10,000 and growing despite an internal warning from the Defense Intelligence Agency that Muslim soldiers pose a possible security threat. That threat was realized in 2003 at a military camp in Kuwait with the murder of two officers and the wounding of several others by Army Sgt. Hasan Akbar, who was subsequently convicted and sentenced to death. Akbar claimed allegiance to the "umma," or global Muslim community, above his own country and fellow soldiers.

After World War II, when "under God" was placed in the Pledge of Allegiance, President Dwight D. Eisenhower observed, "[I]n this way, we shall constantly strengthen those spiritual weapons which forever will be our country's most powerful resource, in peace or in war." We were victorious in that war. The preservation of our culture and our faith in God is critical to our victory in this new war as well.

Related special offers:

"Islam Rising "

"Defeating Jihad: How the War on Terror May Yet Be Won, in Spite of Ourselves"