This Sunday Americans mark the 15th anniversary of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.
It will be a day of solemn remembrance, but has the United States learned all the lessons it should have learned from the events of 9/11?
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Only six days after 9/11, then-President George W. Bush delivered an address at the Islamic Center of Washington, D.C., in which he declared "Islam is peace."
"These acts of violence against innocents violate the fundamental tenets of the Islamic faith," President Bush said that day. "And it's important for my fellow Americans to understand that. … The face of terror is not the true faith of Islam. That's not what Islam is all about. Islam is peace. These terrorists don't represent peace. They represent evil and war."
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The idea that Islam is a religion of peace is nonsense, according to former Department of Homeland Security officer Philip Haney.
"In retrospect, 15 years later, was President Bush correct?" Haney asked in an interview with WND. "Has Islam proven itself to be, with the hindsight of 15 years, a religion of peace? There have been 29,100 and counting violent jihad attacks around the world since 9/11, scattered all over the world, not to mention conflicts in probably 15 to 20 different countries, with massive atrocities across the globe."
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The answer is obvious, according to Haney. Islam is a violent religion, and its adherents receive their commands to kill from the Quran itself. Haney cited Surah 9:111 of the Quran, which reads in part: "Indeed, Allah has purchased from the believers their lives and their properties [in exchange] for that they will have Paradise. They fight in the cause of Allah, so they kill and are killed."
He also pointed to Surah 2:191, which reads in part, "And kill them wherever you overtake them and expel them from wherever they have expelled you."
"We've had 1,400 years of history to evaluate the effect of Islam, and if they were really serious about proving what George Bush said, haven't they had plenty of opportunity to do so since 9/11?" Haney reasoned.
President Obama also has not learned the lesson.
Haney noted the Obama administration has allied with the Muslim Brotherhood, an organization whose members hold dying in the service of Allah as their highest aspiration. He said the Muslim Brotherhood considers the Quran its highest law, which violates Article VI of the U.S. Constitution, putting the organization in fundamental conflict with American democracy.
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Nevertheless, last weekend Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson spoke at the annual convention of the Islamic Society of North America, a Muslim Brotherhood front group. ISNA was exposed as a front group during the 2008 Holy Land Foundation trial, as Haney documents in his revealing book "See Something, Say Nothing: A Homeland Security Officer Exposes the Government's Submission to Jihad."
"So the department that was founded in March of 2003 to protect our country from terrorism and threats from terror has now formed an open and overt alliance with the very organizations that state plainly that they intend to oppose all forms of human government, including the Constitution, and implement Shariah law," Haney said.
Haney pointed to a directive signed by HHS Secretary Johnson in February 2014 that stated individuals only marginally affiliated with known terrorist organizations may still receive a visa from the State Department. Haney said the directive severely hamstrung him and his fellow counter-terrorism officials.
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"The U.S. Southern Command notified us a week or so ago that in 2015 at least 31,000 individuals from countries of concern regarding terror crossed the southern border," Haney revealed. "That means we're abrogating our responsibilities to protect our citizens from threats, that we're not doing all that it takes to protect our border, both the actual physical border and the more abstract border of our civil liberties and our right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."
Haney stressed that national security must come first when deciding who to let into America.
"Immigration, helping refugees are noble things, but not at the expense of the freedom and safety and civil liberties of American citizens," he said.
Perhaps the most enduring legacy of 9/11 has been the so-called "War on Terror," which has included efforts to overthrow dictators in the Middle East and replace them with democratically elected governments. But this is a fool's errand, according to Haney, because devout Muslims prefer Islamic law to Western-style democracy. Therefore, if they have the chance to vote, they will vote for Shariah and all the repression it brings.
"You know a tree by its fruit," Haney said. "You look at the countries where Shariah law is practiced, whatever spectrum of intensity, from mild to Saudi Arabia-type – are any of those countries free democracies? Is there a single free democracy anywhere in the Islamic world?"
Haney noted that whenever Middle Eastern Islamic countries have the choice, they always move toward Shariah, not away from it. Yet the United States often supports these countries under the banner of supporting democracy. The former DHS officer warned Shariah could creep into America if its leaders continue to ally themselves with Islamic supremacists.
"There are many provisions of the Declaration of Independence and/or the U.S. Constitution that are in direct conflict with Shariah law, and when you have Shariah law, those freedoms go," Haney said. "They do not make provision for the freedoms discussed in the Declaration or the Constitution. They are eliminated, and if it was to happen here, the same process would happen."