Understanding the Threat

Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Somali-Born American Activist:

. . . If the jihadists win and the hope for a reformed Islam dies, the rest of the world will pay a terrible price. The terror attacks in New York, London, Madrid, Paris and many other places are only a preview for what is to come

. . . . it’s foolish to insist, as Western leaders habitually do, that the violent acts committed in the name of Islam can somehow be divorced from the religion itself.  For more than a decade, my message has been simple: Islam is not a religion of peace.

. . . . the call to violence and the justification for it are explicitly stated in the sacred texts of Islam.  Moreover, this theologically sanctioned violence is there to be activated by any number of offenses, including but not limited to adultery, blasphemy, homosexuality and apostasy — that is to leave Islam. In America today, we are fighting against two separate insurgencies. Each has its own and very different world view, but they share one common goal – to destroy our constitutional republic that protects and secures the Natural Law Rights and sovereignty of the individual.

As human beings, we face many threats in life. For children, most threats are physical in nature.

Children are not born with the instincts and knowledge to know or understand the threat of danger in advance . . . what can be harmful or even lethal. Children, therefore, must rely on parents and other responsible adults to teach them what to fear and avoid. But then again, we are talking about physical threats – things that can cause injury, pain, disability, and even death.

As children age and grow, their consciousness expands to consider and learn the historical, factual, moral, and philosophical aspects of life. The concept of danger and threat is no longer just immediate but consists of everything, real or imagined, from the current moment to the infinite future . . . or at least it should.